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Acts 16:11-40 “Jailhouse Rock”

They had been driven west by cross winds of failure and rejection, and they

interpreted this correctly as God’s loving direction. God was leading them to

Europe. So perfect were the winds that they sailed the 156 miles in just two days,

whereas returning the other way at a later time (20:6) it took five days.

Join me dear church in Acts 16 verse 11 Therefore, sailing from Troas,

we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to

Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that

part of Macedonia, a colony.

00

was an ancient town, having been renamed in 356 B. C. by Philip II of

Macedon after himself. With the expansion of the Roman empire, it became a

Roman possession in 167 B. C. But its greatest fame came with the battle that ended the Roman republic, in 42 b.c. Brutus and Cassius, murderers of Julius Caesar, were defeated by the combined forces of Mark Antony and Octavian, who later became Emperor Augustus.

And we were staying in that city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath

day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was

customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met

there. Upon entering the city of Philippi, Paul and his company must have

looked for a synagogue, as was their custom. Finding none, they instead found

women gathered on the bank of a river for their own Sabbath meeting. Where

were the men?

Bruce notes, "Had there been ten Jewish men, they would have sufficed to constitute a synagogue. No number of women would compensate for the absence of even one man necessary to make up

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the quorum of ten."

It was through a women’s prayer group that the Gospel entered Europe!

Rome did not know it, but the flag of Christianity was unfurled in the Empire that day, and the reigning Christ

was about to win many to himself.

G. Campbell Morgan wrote:

“How little the world knows of the Divine movements. Rome had small

idea that day, that the van of the army of its ultimate Conqueror had taken

possession of one of its frontal defences. On the day when Paul hurried

from Neapolis, over the 8 miles up to Philippi – and came into the city and

made arrangements for his own lodging … the flag that was planted in a

frontier colony of Rome, which eventually was to make necessary the

lowering of her flag, and the change of the world’s history.”

Philippi was destined to become one of Paul’s most beloved congregations.

Philippians 1:3 I thank my God every time I remember you.

Philippians 4:15 Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the

gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning

giving and receiving but you only.

14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of

purple from the city of Thyatira, (One of the 7 churches Revelation 2:18-29).

Anyone who was a seller of purple dealt in a valued luxurious product. Like a seller of BMW’s not Kia’s (Celebrated purple dye was made from the murex, a shellfish.)

more importantly she was one “who worshiped God.”

Continuing verse 14… The Lord opened her heart to heed the things

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spoken by Paul. Pray for your oikos… pray their hearts would be

opened by God… John 6:44 no one can come to Me unless the Father

who sent Me draws him.

Hughes points out… “Lydia had been divinely prepared for an encounter with the gospel, and as she

listened, “the Lord opened her heart.” The man of the Macedonian vision turned out to be a woman!

Paul’s pharisaical prejudices, which in pre-Christian years had taught him to pray, “God, I thank you

that I am not a Gentile, or a slave, or a woman,” had been sharply altered by Christ and his growth in

faith. Later he would write:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

(Galatians 3:28)

15 And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us,

saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my

house and stay.” Lydia took a “How to close a sale” class… not just

selling purple but selling her faithfulness to God.

So she persuaded us. 16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a

certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who

brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.

supernatural insight into the lives of others. They cannot read minds, nor actually foretell the future. But they can read and predict human behavior, and can attempt to steer events towards a previously

predicted conclusion. They are very smart! But stupid at the same

time! Nothing “NEW” about the “NEW AGE”! Hughes: “The original Greek behind the phrase “had a spirit” reveals the

horror with which she was involved, literally reading “had a Pythian spirit”

or “had a spirit of Python.” According to myth, Python was a snake that

guarded the Temple of Apollo and was eventually killed by Apollo. Later

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the word python came to mean a demon possessed person through whom

Python spoke.

The poor girl was “demonized,” filled with a demon or demons who

revealed the future to her clients. She was a clairvoyant owned by spiritual

pimps who sold her metaphysical powers.”

17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are

the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of

salvation.” 18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed,

turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus

Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour. What a great moment in the life of the Pythoness. She was restored to her right mind and we presume received Christ.

I agree with Pastor Jon Courson… “Why did Paul want this girl to stop?

Because, although her message was true, the medium was all wrong. I have

been asked hypothetically, if I had the chance to give my testimony in Playboy

magazine, would I do it? My answer is no, because I don’t need nor want this

ministry to be advertised by that which is contrary to the message of Jesus

Christ. The Christian community is becoming increasingly weakened, I

believe, because we have too often said, “We’ll use this worldly source to

communicate the gospel.” Paul didn’t need a demonic "letter of reference."

In this, Paul is like Jesus, who often told demons to be silent, even when they were telling the truth about Him.

19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone,

But when her masters saw

that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and

dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. 20 And they

brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews,

exceedingly trouble our city; 21 and they teach customs which are not

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lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” 22 Then the multitude

rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes

and commanded them to be beaten with rods.

Richard Collier, the historian of the Salvation Army says,

“Persecution was great from the beginning … gangs frequently hurled mud and

stones through the windows at the preaching and the crowd. The liquor dealer

worked hard to have Booth kicked out of East London. The police were no help;

in fact, they often broke up outdoor meetings and accused Booth’s followers of

being the cause of all the trouble … beating were not uncommon: in 1889, at

least 669 Salvation Army members were assaulted – some were killed and many

were maimed. Even children were not immune; ruffians threw lime in the eyes of

a Salvation Army member. The newspapers ridiculed Booth.”

In the Roman Empire, there were two very different laws: one for citizens of the Roman Empire, and one for those who were not citizens. Roman citizens had specific civil rights which were zealously guarded. Non-citizens had no civil rights, and were subject to the whims of both the multitude and the magistrates.

23 And when they had laid many stripes on them,

they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.

In Jewish legal tradition, there was a maximum number of blows

that could be delivered when beating a person, but the Romans

had no such limit. We can rest assured Paul and Silas were

severely beaten. Paul would later write of his ministry: In labors

more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more

frequently, in deaths often. (2 Corinthians 11:23)

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24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and

fastened their feet in the stocks. R Kent rightly says, “If that had been us,

we might have wallowed in self-pity or plotted revenge or cursed our

enemies. But victorious gospel power resounded in that inner cell!”

They shackled them is such a way that they were Very uncomfortable… cramping would ensue… Tertullian said "The legs feel nothing in the

stocks when the heart is in heaven." So verse 25 at midnight Paul and

Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, Not praising God for the trial but Praising

God through it… Notice they are not praying for deliverance… but praising God in the fire!

Charles Spurgeon said, “Any fool can sing in the day… Songs in the night come only from God…”

Imperials song… When you're up against a struggle that shatters all

your dreams… And your hopes have been cruelly crushed by Satan's

manifested schemes… And you feel the urge within you to submit to

earthly fears… Don't let the faith you're standing in, seem to disappear

Praise the Lord, He can work through those who praise Him

Praise the Lord, for our God inhabits praise

Praise the Lord, for the chains that seems to bind you

Serve only to remind you that they drop powerless behind you

When you praise Him

Now Satan is a liar and he wants to make us think, that we are paupers

When he knows himself we're children of the King So lift up the mighty

shield of faith for the battle must be won We know that Jesus Christ has

risen so the work's already done

and the prisoners were listening to them. The world is always watching and listening to how we handle adversity! As one man noted "Instead of cursing men, they blessed God."

26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the

prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and

everyone’s chains were loosed.

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27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the

prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and

was about to kill himself. The jailer assumes the jailbirds had flown the coup.

Prison guards were responsible for the sentences of their prisoners, if one escaped, they would have to pay their debt. When prisoners were done with their time, the court would sign their Certificate of Debt as “Paid in Full” (Tetelestai). Thus, this jailer was going to kill himself as he thought all the prisoners were gone, and thus, he himself would have to fulfill all their sentences! (Jesus fulfilled ours!)

Karma… you get what you deserve

Christianity… Jesus got what you deserve!

28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we

are all here.” What kind of love cares about a jailer over their

immediate escape? Their love was given by the “KING OF LOVE”.

29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul

and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to

be saved?” This may have been the same guard that beat them

just a few hours earlier. Either way this guard was their enemy.

“what must I do to be saved?”

by Corrie ten Boom As appeared in

In this story from November 1972, the author of The Hiding Place recalls forgiving a guard at the concentration camp where her sister died. It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door at the rear.

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It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. It was the truth they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is never far from a Hollander’s mind, I liked to think that that’s where forgiven sins were thrown. “When we confess our sins,” I said, “God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever.” The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. There were never questions after a talk in Germany in 1947. People stood up in silence, in silence collected their wraps, in silence left the room. And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visor cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were! Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp where we were sent.

Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message, fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!” And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course–how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?

But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since my release that I had been face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze. “You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me. “But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein”–again the hand came out–“will you forgive me?”

And I stood there–I whose sins had every day to be forgiven–and could not. Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow terrible death

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simply for the asking? It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do. For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that. And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion–I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. “Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.” And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. “I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!” For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then. And having thus learned to forgive in this hardest of situations, I never again had difficulty in forgiving: I wish I could say it! I wish I could say that merciful and charitable thoughts just naturally flowed from me from then on. But they didn’t. If there’s one thing I’ve learned at 80 years of age, it’s that I can’t store up good feelings and behavior–but only draw them fresh from God each day.

31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,

you and your household.” This is salvation by grace alone

received by faith alone. 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord

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to him and to all who were in his house. ” The jailer is the first male

convert in Philippi, first in Europe.

His household is saved when they believed. 33 And he took them

the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. Demonstration of

repentance and love. Luke 7:47 Jesus speaking, “Therefore I say to you,

her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom

little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Awesome… it’s

after midnight! 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he

set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all

his household. Paul and Silas did leave the prison to minister to the jailer's

household. But Paul and Silas returned to the prison willingly to spare the

jailer certain death.

35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, “Let

those men go.” 36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to

Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore

depart, and go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us

openly, uncondemned Romans, Thinking Paul and Silas were merely Jews,

the magistrates felt completely justified in beating them without a trial. But to

have done so to a Roman citizen was a great and grave offense.

and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? A

public escort from jail by the ruling magistrates would publish their innocence, and that would bring

protection to Lydia and her house church as well. No indeed! Let them come

themselves and get us out.” 38 And the officers told these words to the

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magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were

Romans. Roman citizens were entitled to trial, and should never have

been beaten or imprisoned without due process. Imprisoning Romans

without due process exposed them all to jail or worse!

39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and

asked them to depart from the city. 40 So they went out of the prison

and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren,

they encouraged them and departed.

“Some church! Lydia the merchant princess, the ex-Pythoness, the

Philippian jailer, and probably a few ex-inmates made up the first European church.

The rich and the poor, the slave and the free, male and female were all one in

Christ. The flag of the Gospel was unfurled on a continent that needed it

desperately!”

David Livingstone summarized the spirit of Paul when he said, "I am

prepared to go anywhere, so long as it is forward." The devil knows

your name but calls you by your sin, God knows your sin but calls you

by your name. - Ricardo Sanchez