Suffering for Righteousness Sake
Tom Shrader walks through Acts 16:19-40, tracing Paul and Silas's arrest, beating, and imprisonment in Philippi and the remarkable chain of events that follows. At midnight, instead of complaining, the two men worship God in adoration, and a supernatural earthquake opens every door and loosens every chain in the prison. The jailer, confronted with his own mortality and the witness of these men, asks what he must do to be saved, and the entire household believes and is baptized that night.
“A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology, but to practical Christian living.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Acts
Recorded: 2000 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 1 hr 14 min
Themes: suffering, worship, persecution, prayer, faith under pressure, evangelism, miracles, salvation, going through trials, feeling imprisoned, questioning god's plan, new believer, missionary, struggling with fear, facing injustice, spiritual seeker
Scripture: Acts 16:16-40, 1 Timothy 6:9, John 6:44, Acts 8, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 11:25, Acts 4, John 20:31, Romans 10:9, John 9, James 2
Theological Themes: soteriology, plan of salvation, pneumatology, spirit's guidance, suffering for righteousness, missiology, household salvation, sanctification
Full Transcript
Setting the Scene in Philippi
Let me remind you of the setting as you turn to Acts chapter 16. Paul has set out on a second missionary journey, and with him he took a new team — Silas and Timothy. Paul's original intent was to head into Asia Minor, but as he headed there, the Spirit of God stopped him. The Spirit said, that's it, no more. So then he headed north to Bithynia, and again the Spirit of God stopped him. We don't know how this took place; we simply know that it did.
So Paul moved to Troas. When he arrived there, he had a vision of a man in Macedonia calling him to come. Away the apostle went. He arrived on shore and proceeded inland about ten miles to the city of Philippi. When he arrived, he found no synagogue, which tells us there were fewer than ten Jewish men there — that is the number required to establish a synagogue.
With no synagogue, Paul went to the river, the logical place to look. There he found a group of women gathered in prayer. He shared the gospel with them, and that day Lydia came to Christ in repentance and faith. That was the beginning of the church at Philippi.
Opposition Arrives
As God works, opposition always comes, and it came here as well. The opposition took the form of a slave girl who, as verse 16 tells us, had a spirit of divination. She was demon-possessed — a medium, in essence. That was a valuable trait in that day and age. A military commander would not enter battle without consulting an oracle to learn the outcome. The emperor himself would not issue a decree until he understood the ramifications through someone with a spirit of divination. Because she was a slave, she was a source of great income to her masters.
She followed Paul, as verse 17 describes, crying out, "These men are bondservants of the Most High God, and they are proclaiming to you the way of salvation." She did this day after day. Finally Paul was greatly distressed and angered over it, and he said, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her." And that spirit came out that very moment.
The Love of Money
That is the backdrop to the story we look at today, beginning in verse 19. When her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6 that the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. In verse 9 of that same passage he says, "Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction."
The word translated "plunge" in the Greek appears only one other time in the New Testament — in Luke chapter 5, verse 7 — where it describes a ship sinking to the bottom of the sea. Those who want to get rich are in real trouble. If the love of money, the desire for material things, holds a great lure for you, you are in dangerous shape. Money obscures spiritual discernment and spiritual perception. Paul is not speaking here about the possession of wealth; he is speaking about those who desire to get rich, those who love money above everything else.
These masters saw that their source of profit was gone, so they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the marketplace before the authorities. One scholar writes of the marketplace — in a sense, the town square — that here the unemployed waited for suitable work, the sick were healed, and the magistrates judged court cases. In those days, a plaintiff could drag a defendant into court and ask the judge to pass a verdict. The owners of the slave girl were acting according to Roman law when they laid hands on Paul and Silas and brought their grievance before the city authorities.
Dragged — and Drawn
They dragged Paul and Silas into the marketplace, and we will find out what case was brought against them in a moment. But there is another point to make first. That word "dragged" is also used in John 6:44: "No one can come to the Father unless the Father who sent Me draws him." The word translated "draw" in John 6:44 and the word translated "drag" in Acts 16 are the same Greek word.
Here is what that means for you and me: our salvation was not based on an act of our will, but on the will of God and the action of God. My salvation is not me choosing to follow God. My salvation is based on God choosing me. Some come from a background that teaches the Holy Spirit woos and coaxes — that He stands at the door and gently knocks, pleading for a response.
But consider how Paul and Silas were brought to court. Did their captors say, "Please, would you come with us?" No — they seized them and dragged them into the city square. In the same way, God laid hold of you and brought you into the kingdom, not by an act of your will but by an act of His. You are saved by grace. Saving grace produces saving faith. It is all a work of God.
God — the noun, the actor — saves — the verb — sinners — you, the direct object. God does it all. If you are a Christian this morning, it is because God moved in your life and God brought you to Himself.
A Role Reversal
God has opened your eyes and allowed you to see and understand this. There is an interesting role reversal here. Remember back in Acts chapter 8, Paul was going into Christian homes and — using the same word — dragging them to prison. Now he is on the receiving end of this.
Maybe you are here this morning and you do not know why. Maybe you came because you are married to somebody who likes to come to this place, and if it were up to you, you would not come — but to please him or satisfy her, you just came. We are glad you are here. It may be that you were just driving by, thought the campus looked clean, and decided to try it out. Maybe you are here and God is beginning to work in your life.
Make no mistake about it — it is not an act of your will, it is an act of His work in your life. Paul is on the road to Damascus. He is not seeking God. He is on the road to Damascus to persecute the church. He thinks he is on God's team. He is a zealot. He is not seeking God, but God intervenes, and figuratively speaking, He rips out that hard heart and replaces it with a heart of love — love for the things of God.
"No one can come to Jesus unless" — that phrase signals a necessary condition. Something has to happen. Whatever comes next is necessary for salvation: "unless the Father who sent me draws him." Is God drawing you this morning? Maybe He is.
Causing a Disturbance
The authorities take Paul and Silas to the city square, and when they do, they bring them before the magistrates. There were usually at least two judges assigned to each of these Roman colonies. The charge brought against them was this: "These men are throwing our city into confusion." Some translations will say, "These men are causing a great disturbance."
G. Campbell Morgan said this: organized Christianity which fails to make a disturbance is dead. Here is what he is saying — there ought to be in your life as a Christian, as you live it, a sense of disturbance to some people. Your very presence, your living the Christian life, becomes offensive to the people around you.
We have done this exercise many times — asking those who came to Christ after age 21 to raise their hand — and in a room like this, at least half the hands go up. Almost universally, people talk about how their friends changed. All of a sudden their friends did not want to be around them anymore. But here is the truth: those friends loved them. They loved going to movies, hanging out, going to dinner and ballgames together. What they were rejecting was not the person — they were rejecting the Christ they saw in that person.
There is a great story that one of the Christian golfers on the tour tells. A friend of his, also a player on the tour, won a tournament out east and the following year returned as the defending champion. He played in a foursome with Billy Graham. The Christian golfer was very interested to see how it would go, since this friend was not particularly open to the things of God. Afterward, he found his friend in the locker room, and when he asked how it was playing with Billy Graham, the man snapped, "I don't need Billy Graham or anybody else shoving Christianity down my throat." He slammed the door and stormed out to the practice tee, where he was not just hitting balls — he was grinding them, hammering them. When there was an appropriate break, the Christian golfer asked, "What did Graham say to you? What did he say to get you so mad?" The answer was striking: "He didn't say anything." Billy Graham's very presence and what he stood for produced in that man a sense of guilt and shame.
Sometimes your very presence produces a sense of confusion and disturbance in those around you. I was talking last night at dinner with a woman from the church who works in a daycare center in a large corporate setting. She was talking about a man whose children are there two days a week, and the other daycare workers had been saying, "He's so different. He seems to care about us — not just to be courteous, but to really want to know how we're doing." Daycare workers in a corporation are not exactly at the top of the corporate ladder. This man never said anything about Jesus, never passed out a tract. He made the invisible God visible. That is our call.
A Fabricated Charge
Here is the charge brought against Paul and Silas: "These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews." This is anti-Semitism, plain and simple. The accusers are essentially saying, "You know how these Jews are — everywhere they go they are stirring things up, and now they have come here and stirred things up again." As noted before, there was virtually no Jewish population in this city. They fabricated this. They added: "They are proclaiming customs which are not lawful for us to accept or observe, being Romans."
That charge was not true either. The Romans did not care if someone converted to Judaism. The Romans welcomed a wide variety of religious beliefs. They were playing the Jewish ethnic card.
Beaten With Rods
Look at the response in verse 22. The crowd rose up together against Paul and Silas, the magistrates tore their robes off, and they proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 25, Paul says, "Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked." One of those beatings with rods is right here in Philippi.
Secured in the Dungeon
Acts chapter 16, verse 22 reads: "And when they had inflicted many blows on them, they threw them into the prison, commanding the jailer to secure them. And having received such a command, he threw them into the inner prison and he fashioned their feet in stocks."
This is important. They hand Paul and Silas over to the jailer, and the jailer understands that they are now his responsibility. If anything happens — if there is a disturbance, if these men escape, anything at all — this jailer will pay with his life. To make absolutely sure they are secure, he does not simply put them in the prison. He puts them in the inner prison. They are in a dungeon.
Scholars believe they have actually uncovered this very dungeon where Paul and Silas were held. There are no windows, no way for light to get in. It is damp, with no ventilation and no provision for human waste. It was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. It was not just a prison — it was a dungeon.
Beyond the dungeon itself, their feet were fashioned in stocks. They would literally chain these men and spread them out. It was a humiliating and painful way to be incarcerated, and their legs would begin to cramp. That is the condition Paul and Silas are in at Acts chapter 16, verse 24.
How Would You Respond?
Consider how they might have responded — or how we would respond. It is not hard to imagine the complaint: "God, let's run down the list. I wanted to go to Asia Minor, but that wasn't it. I came to Philippi. What did I do when I got here? I did exactly what You asked me to do. I went exactly where You told me to go. In fact, the word was immediately — immediately when You made it clear I was supposed to go to Macedonia, I went. I proclaimed the gospel as You called me to do. And God, obviously we're in Your will because You saved this woman and her household. What kind of God are You? I suffer for You, I'm obedient to You, and this is what I get? I'm in a jail, chained in a dungeon?"
Is that not how we think in our own lives when we suffer for the Lord? Consider what passes for suffering on a Sunday morning. You are all ready, you get that last cup of coffee, you get in the car, and you spill two drops on your pants. "I'm suffering for Jesus." Or the parking lot is crowded, the children's rooms are full, the line is long, and once inside it is either too hot or too cold.
There are response cards that come in unsigned, and those come directly to Tom because he does not want to circulate hurtful ones to the staff. One arrived a couple of weeks ago that read: "I've been to every service. I've sat in every section of the church, and it doesn't matter where I sit — it is always so hot." On the other hand, there is a stack of cards saying the church is too cold to concentrate. This is not exactly suffering. This is not what Paul had in mind.
Yet if we feel entitled to complain about temperature and parking lots, consider the position of Paul and Silas. If anyone had grounds to cry out in grievance, it was them.
Praying and Singing at Midnight
Verse 25 tells us: "About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God."
Note that these men have been up all day. It is now midnight, and they are not sleeping. One scholar examining the Greek words behind this verse makes an important observation: the translation may mislead us. There is no suggestion of petition in the word translated as "praying." They are not saying, "God, get me out of here." They are not pleading. Instead, the word indicates an attitude of adoration or worship. We are not warranted in believing these men were asking for anything at that moment. The word "praying" is immediately qualified by the word "hymning," rendered here as "singing hymns." They were exercising spiritual joy.
They are in the middle of a dungeon at midnight. Their backs are bloodied — some scholars suggest salt was packed into those wounds. They are spread out and chained in a painful, humiliating position, and their legs are beginning to cramp. And instead of complaint, instead of petition, they are singing. They are praising God. They are adoring Him.
An Accurate Understanding of God
They are praying — not asking to be let out, not crying for escape. In the middle of circumstances where you and I would be saying, "God, what kind of a God are you?" they are praying in adoration and worship. How can they do that? Let me tell you how. They have an accurate understanding of God.
A.W. Tozer offers us this insight: "Were we able to extract from any man the complete answer to the question, 'What comes to mind when you think about God?' we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man." What Tozer is saying is that if we can get someone to tell us what God is to them, we will be able to predict their future with reasonable accuracy. He continues: "A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology, but to practical Christian living."
We study doctrine — we study theology, the study of God — not just so we can win some biblical Jeopardy game, not just so we can say "I'll take Bible for five hundred." We study theology so it translates into our understanding of how we live. That is why we come back to the doctrines of grace in salvation so often. If you think you chose God, your view of God is too small, and that will inevitably affect the way you live practically.
I believe that while I hated God, while I didn't care a thing about God — I may have been religious, but I was not pursuing the true God. He came and He saved me. He chose me. I didn't choose Him, and that is what the Word teaches. Your experience may be different; you may be in churches that taught you something different prior to this. But that is what the Word teaches: no one can come to Me unless the Father draws him, unless the Holy Spirit moves.
What difference does it make? The difference is that in that case, my God is the true God. He is this big. John the Baptist had it right: He must increase, we must decrease. My understanding of God translates directly into practical application.
Paul's Response and Romans 8:28
That is why Paul is not sitting there saying, "I am so angry at God." I was listening to someone this week who was angry with God. Who do you think you are to be angry with God? He is the potter. You are the clay. He did not make a mistake. Paul did not sit there and wonder whether God had missed something or gotten it wrong. Paul knew in his heart what he would later write with his pen — Romans 8:28: "And we know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose." You do not have to wonder if God missed it.
I need to have an accurate view of God, so that when difficult things come into my life, I am not in denial. Those who have been with us at this church may remember a period three or four years ago when, within six months, we had three mothers who carried their babies essentially to full term and the baby was stillborn. Three of them. And for one of the funeral services, the song they sang — the song we all sang together — was "Such Joy, Such Unspeakable Joy." Those who knew the family from work, or those who were not Christians, were going, "What is wrong here? They must be in denial."
They were not in denial. There was a dead baby. You cannot avoid that — there it is. They were not in denial. They were more in touch with reality than anyone questioning them. They understood that the Creator God of the universe is in control. God was not sitting there wondering. Paul was not sitting there asking, "Where are you, God?"
Bad Doctrine Flows from a Wrong View of God
Tozer ends his quote this way: "I believe there is scarcely an errant doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to an imperfect and ignoble thought about God." What he is saying is that a great deal of bad doctrine flows from a misunderstanding of who God is. This temptation comes especially in the midst of suffering — the temptation to somehow adjust the picture of God to make Him look okay, to say, "Well, God must have missed this one." No. Everything in your life and mine, God either caused or allowed. That is what Scripture teaches.
God Is Good Even If She Dies
Several years ago our oldest daughter, Sarah, was in a traffic accident. It was a serious accident. I was in Prescott, and Susan was out of town as well. We received a call on the mobile phone that Sarah had just had a brain seizure, that she was in intensive care, and that it was very serious. That was Friday. Then Saturday. Then Sunday — it was time to teach. We had been spending a great deal of time in the Gospel of John, and I had my lesson all prepared. As I was coming in, people seemed surprised both that I was there and that I would teach. And person after person after person said to me, "Isn't God good? Sarah's going to be okay. Isn't God good?"
So I took my notes and put them away. The message I delivered that night was this: God is good even if she dies. Those are teachable moments. Everybody is watching, and I know that. Susan knows that. Haley knows that. Sarah knew that. The short, fat guy can get up and lay it out pretty well when everything is going smoothly — but let's see how he handles this one. Well, I didn't handle it at all. God is the One who handles that.
I was reflecting on this all week. There was never a moment — not for Susan, not for Haley, not for Sarah, not for me — that any of us said, "Where were you, God?"
Midnight in the Prison
It is midnight. They are singing prayers and praises. The prisoners are listening. They are not saying, "God, get us out of this," but suddenly there is an earthquake, so the foundations of the prison house were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains were unfastened.
Here is what I want you to see. God intervenes in a supernatural timing, in a supernatural way, and He kicks open all of the doors and drops all of the chains. This is really important — and not just for Paul and Silas. Is that what it says? It says everyone. Every prisoner in the dungeon, every prisoner in the jail — their doors are open and their chains have become unfastened.
The Jailer's Crisis
Now the jailer enters. When the jailer had been roused from sleep and he saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. He knew that if the prisoners had escaped, he would be executed, and rather than go through the humiliation and the pain and the anguish of that execution, he was simply going to kill himself.
He looks around and sees that those doors are open. If there was anything this man understood, it was the criminal mind, because he dealt with criminals all day, every day. He knew he could not keep them contained with the chains gone and the doors open — he assumed they were long gone.
As he prepares to kill himself, he hears a voice. It is Paul's voice, crying out loudly: "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here." Every prisoner. Not one had fled.
Why Did the Prisoners Stay?
Go back to verse 25 for a moment. Paul and Silas were singing and praying, and the prisoners were listening. The word in the Greek there is the strongest word available for listening. It means to attentively listen with great attention, to scrutinize. They were truly listening.
The doors are open, the chains are off, and yet they stay. Why? We do not know for certain. It could be that they were simply shaken up by the earthquake. It could be that some of them thought, "My sentence is up in a month — if I run and they bring me back, it only gets worse."
Here is what I think, and I offer this as something worth considering. They had been listening intently to Paul and Silas, and even though there is no record that they believed what they heard, they were affected by these men. Almost certainly these prisoners had come to know something of the message and the way of salvation, and they stayed. They did not leave. That is the effect you can have on the people in your world by living the Christian life right out in front of them.
A Display Case for God's Works
In John 9, as Jesus comes into town, there is a blind man. The disciples ask, "Who sinned, this man or his parents?" And Jesus says, "Neither one. He is blind that he might become a display case for the works of God." That is you. You are a display case for the works of God.
When you begin to live for the Lord Jesus Christ, when you make the invisible God visible, when you begin to speak the truth boldly — you will have that effect on the people in your world. These prisoners heard Paul and Silas, and they stayed. How about that?
"What Must I Do to Be Saved?"
Paul calls out, "Do yourself no harm — everybody is here." The jailer calls for a light, wanting to make sure this is true. He comes in trembling with fear and falls down before Paul and Silas. He brings them out, and I am guessing this is a whole new attitude from this man. He says, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
You know human nature. You know that is not what it was like when Paul and Silas were brought in. This jailer had been in there saying, "Get in there." He was kicking them and putting them in stocks. Who did he think he was dealing with? But now: "Sirs — what must I do to be saved?"
Some suggest he is talking about merely saving his physical life. That obviously does not make any sense, because everything is accounted for. He is not going to be blamed for an earthquake. The prisoners are all fully present. I believe what has happened is this: Philippi is a small town, and he has heard. He has heard what happened. He has heard the message. He likely even heard the cry of the slave girl who said, "These are bond servants of the Most High God, proclaiming to you the way of salvation." And now he asks: "Sir, what must I do to be saved?"
The Simple Answer
Paul gives him this simple answer: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." It is the same message Peter preached in Acts 4: "There is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven that has been granted among men by which you may be saved."
When John wrote the gospel that bears his name, he tells us in chapter 20, verse 31, why he wrote it. He said, "These things I have written that you may believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you will have eternal life." Paul, in Romans —
What It Means to Be Saved
Romans 10:9 says this: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved." Let's talk about what it means to be saved. Saved implies that somehow I'm in danger. Saved from what? Saved from the penalty of sin — my sin. I stand condemned before a holy, righteous God who must judge my sin.
But if I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord — that word "confess" means to agree — and believe God raised Him from the dead, I will be saved. What do I have to do to go to heaven? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that belief is not just a factual belief. It's not simply believing the facts that are laid out there. James tells us the demons believe the facts, and we don't believe for a second the demons are in heaven.
It's a participatory belief. In other words, I believe Jesus is who He said He was and that Jesus will do what He said He would do. Because I believe that and put my trust in that, I will be saved.
The Resurrection Is Not Optional
As we approach Easter, I want to spend a moment on this. You're coming up on the time of year when you'll see lots of articles — they'll be in the newspaper, KTAR always spends at least a day on this — asking whether Christ really rose from the dead. And these liberal theologians pop up like flowers fresh in the spring to proclaim the drivel that Jesus Christ never rose from the dead.
Grab this, please: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved." Here is what this says: if you don't believe in the resurrection, you aren't saved. When somebody stands up and says the resurrection is not important — in fact, I don't believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead — that person, according to Romans 10:9, is not saved.
Christianity is not about a Christ who stayed in the tomb. It's about a Christ who blew out of that tomb. And by demonstrating victory over death, He demonstrates victory over sin.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
James Montgomery Boice writes this: notice Paul did not suggest counseling. He did not say to the jailer, "I realize you're asking a very important question, but before I can answer it, first of all, you need to understand yourself." Boice continues: he didn't give a lecture on theology, didn't talk about sacraments, didn't talk about church. We can deal with all those things later. The man said, "What about salvation?" And Paul said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, and so will your household."
Are you here this morning believing? Do you believe Jesus is who He said He was? Are you planning your life and death accordingly? I spoke with a man this week who represents probably some in this room, and he represents millions — billions — around the earth. He said, "I believe there are many ways to God. I believe it's arrogant for you, Tom, to tell me there's only one way."
Here is what I said to him: you're a smart man, so study it. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me." Jesus did not say there are a whole bunch of ways to get to God. He did not say, "You just do the best you can." He did not say, "Bring a little Buddhism and a little Hinduism and a little mysticism, add some common sense, put it all together, and that'll get you to God."
Every person comes into this world lost, separated from God, and in need of a Savior. And Jesus said, "I am that Savior. You come to Me and you have eternal life. You believe in Me, you have eternal life. You don't believe in Me, you're not going to heaven." And that faith isn't just to get you to heaven — it transforms your life.
A Life Transformed
Look at verse 32: "They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his household. And he took them that very night, that very hour, and he washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized along with his household. And he brought them into his house and he set food before them and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God, his whole household."
Paul listens to this testimony and, although he has been up for hours and hours, he has an opportunity not just to reach this man but to reach his whole household. They respond. They believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and they are baptized. That baptism doesn't save them. When we place someone in the baptismal water here, we're not saving anybody. Nobody is more saved when they come out of the water than when they went in. Baptism doesn't save — it is a public declaration of obedience, a statement that I am now identified with Christ.
They are baptized, and then he takes them into his house and feeds them. In that culture, that meant so much. It was a sign of friendship and identity. This is the man who had been locking them in chains and throwing them into the dungeon, and the next day he is saying, "We are brothers." Look at what happened in this man's life. He is ready to kill himself one minute and praising God the next. That is what God does in a life. That is what the Lord Jesus Christ does in a life.
I met with a man this week who is just coming out of an affair. His life is empty. "What must I do to be saved?" I had a man in one of our studies come up and say, "I'm here for the first time and I'm really enjoying this." I said, "How did you end up here?" He said, "I don't really know, because my life is doing so well and yet there's something missing. I'm at the top of my profession, and there's something —"
The Appearance of Having It Together
I called a buddy and said, "Do you think I could go with you?" Here is what is so deceiving: you come in and you look like you have it all together. I even hear that from other people — "Boy, everybody at that church has it together."
I just wish somehow we could put something at the door for those of you who didn't have it together when you walked in — "Don't have it together, don't have it together, don't have it together." The problem is we'd run out of batteries by the end of the eight o'clock hour. But you know why it's good that we don't know? It's not about us and me looking at you. It's about you and God.
It is a personal relationship with the living God through His Son, Jesus Christ. And I say this with all the love that I can bring to you: if you don't know Christ as your Lord and Savior, your life on earth will never be what you want it to be. And much more important than that, you will spend eternity separated from God in a place called hell.
This man who was prepared to commit suicide is now ready to live. Isn't that amazing? The same thing will happen to you. That is what God does — He will do it in your life as you come in repentance and faith.
Paul Refuses a Quiet Release
When the day came, the chief magistrate sent the police and they said, "Release those men." The jailer reported these words to Paul: "The chief magistrate has sent to release you. Now, therefore, come out and go in peace."
But Paul said, "They have beaten us publicly without a trial, men who are Romans. They have thrown us into prison, and now they are sending us away secretly? No. Let them come themselves and bring us out." The police reported these words to the chief magistrate, and this is key — they were very afraid when they heard that Paul and Silas were Romans.
If Paul took this case to Rome, these officials could lose their lives. Rome took great pride in its judicial system and in due process. These men had given Paul and Silas no opportunity to defend themselves — no fair trial, no fact-finding. They had no idea Paul was a Roman citizen, and now they were very afraid.
Verse 39 tells us they came and appealed to them, brought them out, and said, "Please leave the city." Paul had every right to say, "No — I want to appeal this to Rome, and you are in serious trouble." But for whatever reason, he does not press the matter. I think it was a way of demonstrating confidence to the other Christians, and a way of sending a warning — but they did decide to leave the city on their own terms.
Encouragement Before Departure
Verse 40: "They went out from the prison and they entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and then left."
Let me point out a subtle change for those of you who have been with us. We spent a good deal of time earlier on the pronoun shift — Luke said "we," meaning Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke had joined them. Now Luke stays behind. He separates from the group.
Paul is on his way out of town, and before he goes he says, in effect, "I need to stop and find out how the church is doing. Lydia, how are things here? Be encouraged — even if they throw us in prison, they cannot stop what God is doing. If God is behind this thing, there is no way to stop it." What love he had. That is exactly where we will pick up next week.
Closing Prayer
Father, please help us see this. I pray especially for those who are here this morning who are hurting — would You give them the strength to understand that You know exactly where they are, and that You are not testing them beyond what they can endure.
And God, for those who are here this morning who do not know Your Son Jesus — they are doing the very best they can to figure out a way to heaven, but whatever they come up with is their own invention, a smorgasbord of religion, a little of this and a little of that and a pinch of this and a lot of being good. God, help them see how futile that is. Move them, draw them. We pray that today may be a day of salvation, that even now they would cry out to You, acknowledging their sin and coming before You.
God, we ask You to do these works — not us. We come before You in fear and trembling. Father, thank You for Your Son Jesus. Thank You for His death and His resurrection. Thank You that unless You work in our lives, we will never be saved. O Lord, thank You for who You are and for what You have done. We praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.