Good Morning Friends,
“The crowd joined in the attack against Paul
and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After
they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer
was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them
in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul
and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were
listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the
foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open,
and everybody's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison
doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought
the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, ‘Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!’ The jailer called for
lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought
them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’” (Acts 16:22-30)
It took a miracle for God to get Paul and
Silas to come to Macedonia and preach the Gospel. God used a vision in the
middle of the night to call Paul to Macedonia. Paul must have been so excited
by that divine invitation to preach. Paul must have been expecting such
positive results from a situation that God would work miracles to set up.
And there were many positive things that came
out of Paul’s preaching in Philippi, Thessalonica and the other cities of
Macedonia. A church was started in Philippi, the first city to which Paul came.
There were miraculous conversions there, too. But not everything was positive
about Paul’s experience there. In fact, the miraculous conversion was of a
jailor and his family that were only reached because Paul and Silas spent time
in the jailor’s dungeon!
The thing that strikes me about Paul’s time
in the jail is not that he was thrown into jail – there would be a number of
times when Paul and other preachers of the Gospel would be put in jail. The
thing that strikes me most is Paul’s response to his unfortunate circumstance. The
prison must have been a very depressing place to spend time – dirty, smelly,
filled with criminals of all types. But when Paul and Silas spent the night in
the Philippian jail, they spent the night singing hymns – praising God.
I often have expectations about the way things
will work out in my life. I sometimes sense a clear direction from God about
some step He wants me to take. When I take the step, my expectation is that God
is going to do something good through my obedience. Jail is never part of my
expectation! And I’m not sure that singing hymns of praise to God would be the
response I’d make if jail did turn out to be the result of my obedience to God.
Paul’s response says something about the
extent to which Paul was willing to go to accomplish what God wanted – even to
jail. It also says something about how much Paul trusted God, no matter how
dark the situation around him became.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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