Acts 16:25 NIVUK
[25] About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
In 2014, a law suit against the manufacturer of a very popular energy drink was ended and $13 million was paid out to the plaintiff. The reason might seem absurd: the makers of this drink had promised that it would ‘give you wings’, but the plaintiff argued it was no stronger than a strong cup of coffee, so the marketing was false.
Now, none of us would expect that any energy drink would cause us to grow wings. If they did, the airline industry would go bankrupt. But the reality is that an absurd legal accusation resulted in an incredible victory.
In these verses, Paul and Silas find themselves accused of undermining Philippian culture by casting a demon from a young girl. On the surface, the charge is utterly absurd: they have simply healed a girl with a serious problem.
However, as we have seen in my last post, the reality is that the Gospel does undermine our culture, it is rebellious, it is counter-cultural, it is always subversive. And that has to be the case. Always. Because human beings sin. Culture, no matter how beautiful, will always reflect that. Biblical Christianity will always challenge it. That is the reality.
So as Christians, a degree of opposition, or disrespect, or even contempt, should be expected, because sooner or later, without seeking to provoke it, someone from our culture will fall out with us.
It’s what we do and how we deal with that situation that shows where our focus lies.
Right at the centre of this passage lies a verse so incongruous, so utterly bizarre, that it should make us read it several times to ensure we have read it correctly:
Acts 16:25 NIVUK
[25] About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Ancient prisons were nothing like ours are nowadays. Forget flat screen TVs, stereos, PlayStations – even forget flushing toilets or showers. Ancient prisons were bare-bricked dungeons with cold stone floors and not even a hole in the floor to act as a toilet. They would have been dark, deeply terrifying places, where those with serious mental health issues or seriously violent men were locked in with the rational and sane who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
To imagine that anyone could remain sane in those conditions is hard to believe.
To imagine that two men, their feet in stocks, cramped and unable to move, could possibly thrive seems far-fetched.
And yet that is what happened.
How?
Because, in the midst of a dreadfully unjust situation, these men found joy: reasons to remain strong and positive and even happy.
Their situation was far worse than many of us could ever expect to face in our lifetime. Yet their reaction is much, much better.
They sing praises to God. In the middle of great suffering, these men sing.
And what do they sing?
The Greek word for ‘hymn’ can also refer to the Jewish Hallel – Psalms 113-118 and 136.
These psalms were frequently sung at Jewish high holidays and festivals, but mostly at Passover.
But what are they about? Look at Psalm 113:
Psalms 113:1-9 NIVUK
[1] Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, you his servants; praise the name of the Lord. [2] Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and for evermore. [3] From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised. [4] The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. [5] Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, [6] who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? [7] He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; [8] he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people. [9] He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord.
And all the psalms in the Hallel have a similar theme: how God is great and comes in love to the aid of His people.
Do you see why this had such an effect on them? Do you see why it boosted their morale, how it made them more resilient, how it gave them joy?
And you can imagine how the other prisoners would have reacted. These men were Jews. They were in a Macedonian, Greek-speaking prison, singing Jewish songs likely in Hebrew. The other prisoners might not have understood a word they were singing, but the fact they were singing at all would have been strange and fascinating.
This singing, this joy in the context of suffering, breaks the hold of three things the Philippian authorities were hoping would break Paul and Silas.
The first of these is incrimination:
Acts 21-16:19 NIVUK
[19] When her owners realised that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place to face the authorities. [20] They brought them before the magistrates and said, ‘These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar [21] by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practise.’ https://bible.com/bible/113/act.16.20.NIVUK
The motivation behind this charge was not to see justice done. Not one bit. It was bitter revenge. Revenge, as you can see, with a little xenophobia thrown in. Not only that, but by highlighting their Jewishness, that were also saying, ‘These guys aren’t Roman citizens like us; we can do what we like to them.’
They are using this legal charge to incite both the magistrate and the mob against Paul and Silas. It is a deviously genius charge. And given the circumstances – where these men are looking for a legal reason to incite and instigate violence against Paul and Silas – they would be fully justified in being afraid.
Yet how do they react?
They sing!
They sing praises to God!
And then we move from incrimination to Intimidation – the use of force and violence against Paul and Silas:
Acts 16:22 NIVUK
[22] The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.
So the magistrate decides, without a single second of legal trial, to have Paul and Silas beaten with wooden rods – rather like the canes that used to be used in schools when I was in my first year of Primary school, and in some Asian countries are still used to punish minor offenders. This is the essence of corporal punishment. It would at least have left bruises or welts or callouses, and perhaps have drawn blood.
It was painful. Because it was designed to be painful.
This greatly dehumanising punishment was designed purely to make the criminal afraid: for them to understand that the magistrate and his cronies were well and truly in charge.
Treatment like this – punishment without a trial – was meted out to non-Roman citizens only.
This is the absolute ultimate in ‘othering’.
So you have two men, bearing painful wounds, in unsanitary conditions, their liberty and dignity stolen from them unjustly. And what do they do?
They sing!
They sing praises to God!
The violent act was designed to intimidate them, to bully them, to break them.
It failed. It failed miserably.
But not only do we see incrimination and intimidation, we also see Incarceration:
Acts 16:24 NIVUK
[24] When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Now, this is truly a remarkable development. These men, who have not robbed, wronged or murdered anyone, are treated as if they are the utmost danger to society, as if the city would crumble to the ground if they ever walked its streets. They are in the inner cell, in the depths of the prison and away from outward-facing walls and windows, and their feet are locked in uncomfortable wooden stocks.
Why do such a thing?
Because, and it is with great irony that I write this: they were terrified that Paul and Silas would escape. In fact, they appear to be more terrified than they were for any of the other prisoners.
That is how much these two men were seen as a danger to their society.
All the more bemusing is the fact that we have no incident recorded where they actually preached the Gospel inside the city, because the only place they did so was outside (Acts 16:13).
That is the degree to which these people rejected these men and their Gospel of freedom and deliverance.
Isn’t that extraordinary?
We worry about censorship on social media, or not having our beliefs respected in the workplace or not being able to preach the Gospel in shopping malls – these men were actually beaten and then shoved into the ancient equivalent of solitary confinement.
But do did they do? How do they react?
They sing!
They sing praises to God!
They sing praises about God and how He comes to the aid of those who trust in Him.
And what happens?
There is a shakedown. Literally.
We see three things start to shake.
Firstly, the jail:
Acts 16:26 NIVUK
[26] Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. https://bible.com/bible/113/act.16.26.NIVUK
Not even Elvis himself could make a jailhouse rock like this! Philippi was in a seismic area. In fact, it was an earthquake in 619 that practically finished this city off. But this was a special type of tremor. The prison stood firm, but its foundations were shaken and both the doors and the bonds holding every prisoner were broken.
They were free.
This was God.
Shaking the foundations they were built on. Bringing freedom.
This is the Gospel. This is what it does.
But not only the jail was shaken. So was the jailer – shaken to the core:
Acts 34-16:27 NIVUK
[27] 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. [28] But Paul shouted, ‘Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!’ [29] The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. [30] He then brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ [31] They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.’ [32] Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. [33] At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptised. [34] The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God – he and his whole household.
Now we have to understand this: a jailer who let a prisoner escape faced only one sentence – death. And how much more for prisoners as ‘dangerous’ as Paul and Silas! This is why this jailer wanted to end his life.
But by some miracle, not one of the prisoners were missing. The jailer’s life was saved.
And then it saved again, as he bowed on his knees and prayed that classic prayer: ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’
Paul’s response echoes down through history: ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved – you and your household.’
That is what happened. They were baptised – possibly in the same river next to which Paul had preached his first sermon in Mainland Europe – and the Philippian church was founded.
But what triggered this? What caused this jailer to recognise the power and greatness of God and be saved?
I believe it was the gentle, unobtrusive faith of Paul and Silas, expressed in their singing of worship songs while everything around them was so utterly bleak.
We read these words in 1 Peter:
1 Peter 7-1:6 NIVUK
[6] In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. [7] These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.
The way Paul and Silas dealt with their suffering – their deep joy in the Lord, which became their strength (Nehemiah 8:10) – shook the jailer before the earthquake, so when the earthquake came, he knew to whom he should turn.
If people see how we deal with hard times, what does it say about us?
What does it say about our faith in God’s goodness, His character, His love?
But more than the jail and the jailer were shaken – so were the city authorities:
Acts 40-16:35 NIVUK
[35] When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: ‘Release those men.’ [36] The jailer told Paul, ‘The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.’ [37] But Paul said to the officers: ‘They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.’ [38] The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. [39] They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. [40] After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left. https://bible.com/bible/113/act.16.35.NIVUK
They had committed a serious offence. They had beaten and imprisoned men whom they thought were rogue foreigners. However, their looks – and likely their accent – were deceptive: these men were Roman citizens. More than that, as Paul explains later to a Roman army commander, Paul’s citizenship was by birthright: he was born into it.
Acts 28-22:27 NIVUK
[27] The commander went to Paul and asked, ‘Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?’ ‘Yes, I am,’ he answered. [28] Then the commander said, ‘I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.’ ‘But I was born a citizen,’ Paul replied.
This is a rebuke to every one of us who is tempted to judge people by appearances.
So what are the Philippian authorities going to do about this? They have committed a grave offence against the rights of a Roman citizen – one who, unlike many of them, did not receive it as an honorary status, but instead by birth.
What happens next shows both the courage and the wisdom of this man Paul:
He demands an escort.
That took real courage because only a few hours earlier he had been a lowly prisoner. It was a wise thing to do because the previous day a mob had demanded his punishment. Paul is taking a very clever step to protect both him and Silas.
Here we see two contrasting words. The word used when the jailer asked how he could be saved just means ‘to say’. However, the word used of the city authorities asking Paul to leave can also mean ‘to beg’. They are so embarrassed by their error that now the Jewish preacher, the one they thought to terrorise with violence, now has the upper hand.
So they give him his escort. And Paul, as if to show how in control he is, doesn’t leave the city right away as they requested, but strengthens the little church now meeting in Lydia’s house first, and then he leaves.
The dignity, the courage, the sheer faith of the man is absolutely striking.
But in this encounter, it all depends on one thing: on how, in the midst of a dreadful situation, Paul and Silas were not focused on the agony of their wounds or the tragedy of their incarceration, but instead were focused on finding joy, and finding it in God.
There are many wonderful songs about this:
When all around my soul gives way
He only is my strength and stay
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
Or how about:
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll
Fastened to the rock which cannot move
Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love
Or a more modern song:
Every blessing you pour out I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say
‘Blessed be the Name of the Lord’
Friends, we sing these songs so often: it's time to believe them. It’s time to realise the power we unleash when we simply put our trust in Jesus when life is hard.
Our senior pastor, Craig Dyer, once quoted the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon, who said, ‘When we cannot trace His hand, we learn to trust His heart’. That is what Paul and Silas did.
They trusted God through incrimination – even though it was thoroughly unjust.
They trusted God through intimidation – even though it was designed to break them.
They trusted God through incarceration, even though it was unfair.
And because of that, when the earthquake came, they were the first people the jailer came to when he needed salvation.
We all would long for that moment: for someone to come to us and ask for the way to be saved.
But how many of us would want to be incriminated, intimidated and incarcerated first?
Because sometimes, that is how God does it.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I know that when You put me through the refining fires of suffering, other people might be watching. Help me to trust You and to follow You no matter what, so that they will also follow You. Amen.
Questions
1. Did Paul and Silas deserve the treatment they received? Was it just? Why/why not?
2. What was it that led to them finding joy in their suffering?
3. What was it that caused the jailer to seek them out after the earthquake? What can we learn from this?
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