Acts 16:22-28 “ The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these 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 everyone’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!” This episode talks about how, as Christians, we are called to act differently, just as Paul and Silas did in this verse. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
We Act Differently
Acts 16:22-28 “ The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these 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 everyone’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!”
Paul and Silas were stripped and beaten for calling a demon out of a woman. You see, this demon used her to tell the future. Her owners made a great deal of money from her fortune telling and they weren’t happy when Paul cast out this demon. Because of this they were stripped and beaten with rods. After that they were thrown in prison and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. He took this assignment very seriously so he took them into the inner cell and fastened their fee in the stocks. The next part of the verse is where it gets strange. It was not strange to get stripped or beaten back in those days. It was also not strange to get thrown in jail. If you did not follow the laws you got thrown in jail. But what came next was strange. The verse says, about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
I wasn’t alive when this took place but I gotta think that was different. I don’t know a single person who would decide to sing after being stripped and beaten with rods and then thrown into prison with my feet in the stocks. I can see the praying part. I might be praying for relief of my pain, maybe for some food, I might be praying for my freedom, and I might even being praying for revenge. I am thinking if I was just beaten I might not be feeling very good about the ones who sentenced me to this punishment. I may be asking God to hurt them, or to pay them back for all they did to me. I know this isn’t the Christian thing to do, I am just trying to be honest about what I may or may not do if I were in this circumstance. What would you do? What would you do if you were just beaten and thrown into jail? Would you start singing? Would you be praying? What would you be praying for?
The verse doesn’t say what Paul and Silas were praying for and it doesn’t say which hymns they were singing. When I picture this scene I picture them praising God with their hymns. The reason I think this is what they were doing is because while they were singing there was a violent earthquake that shook the foundations of the prison, and at once the door opened and the chains came loose. This is what happens when we are able to praise God in the difficult times. Praising God when things are good does not make us different. Even people who are not Christians can celebrate when times are good. It’s easy to be happy and to be grateful when all is going our way. That doesn’t set us apart. I believe that God loves it any time we praise Him. When we take the time to praise Him I think that makes him very happy. It shows Him that we appreciate Him and everything He does for us. It shows God we are grateful.
I believe when we can find to courage and the trust to praise God in the bad times, praise God when most people would look at the situation and not see anything to praise, that is when our biggest break throughs can happen. Paul and Silas had every right to sit in that cell and have a pity party. They could have thought about how unfair their situation was. They could have been mad at God. They were there spreading the Good News of the Gospel. They cast out a demon in Jesus’ name, and what did they get for their faithfulness? They were bruised and beaten and thrown into jail. By all accounts, according to the ways o this world, they had every right to be mad and to through a pity party. But they didn’t. They prayed and sang hymns. They acted differently and people noticed. In the verse it says the other prisoners were listening to them. The other prisoners noticed they were doing something different. I am sure they were confused as to why these men seemed to be happy about being in jail. I don’t think Paul and Silas were happy they were in jail. I do think they were filled with a joy of the Lord that can’t be explained. I think they were happy because they knew God would be there for them. They were content to follow what God told them to do and accept the consequences that came along with that. They knew God would take care of them because he always had in the past.
When the earthquake happened in this verse and the doors opened most people probably would have run out. I feel as though I would have seen that as a work of God and I may have left. It seems like God answered their prayers by breaking them out of jail, and yet they didn’t leave. This is another way in which they acted differently. Not only did they not run away, but even when they were released, the refused to go without an escort. This is an example of how different life can be when you trust God with everything and when you learn to listen to the Holy Spirit. If you look at their actions the whole time they were in jail they never seemed to doubt that God was going to take care of them. They never seem to act like they are scared for their future. They seemed very confident there was a plan and they were happy to wait and see what it was. Because they did not leave, because they were singing when others would have been complaining because of their actions, the jailor fell at Paul’s & Silas’ feet and ask what he needed to do to be saved and he and is whole house were baptized that night.
I feel the Holy Spirit really wants me to get across to you that Christians should act differently. People are watching us, just as the other prisoners were watching Paul and Silas. How are we reacting to disappointments? How are we dealing with the troubles in our lives? Are we reaching out and asking God for help? Are we praising God, even in the difficult times because we know He will take care of us? Are we complaining a lot and getting upset with God because He is not answering our prayers the way we think He should, or in the timing we think is right? People are always watching others and for Christians there is an extra layer or scrutiny. God wants us to share His love and His peace with the rest of the world. We want others to look at us and want to do whatever they can do to have what we have. And I don’t mean wealth and material things, I mean the peace and love of Jesus in our hearts. There is a song written by Peter Scholtes called “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love.” This line is also part of the chorus. We want to strive to the lives that are talked about in this song. The lyrics are:
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity will one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Would you react differently to situations if you knew other’s were watching? Did you know you are Christ’s representative in this world? God is counting on us to show other’s how amazing it is to be a believer. How amazing it is to live in God’s love and peace. God is counting on us to show others Christians act differently. We rely on Him and we trust that He has a plan. We praise Him all the time, not just when we feel like it and not just in the good times. We don’t have to rush out of the jail when the doors open we can demand what is just and right because God is taking care of all the details. We don’t have to be afraid and defeated because we know the ending to the story. We know God has already won our salvation for us. We know, no matter what happens we are on the winning side and that means we can act differently.
Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing. We are sorry we don’t praise you more for all the things you do for us. Lord, help us to learn to praise you when we are going through tough times, before we see the way out, before we see the miracle. We want to trust you enough to be able to know the miracle is coming and therefore praise before we see it. We don’t want to have to see to believe. We believe Lord, help our unbelief. Help us also to act differently. Help us to not conform to the ways of the world but be transformed by your ways. Help us be a worthy example to all those who are watching. Help us to reflect your love and peace back to all who look upon us. Thank you Lord, we are so grateful. You are the resurrection and the Life. You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Tomorrow’s guest is Crystal. She is a friend of Andrea, who was on here a few months ago talking about her experience with anxiety. Crystal is giving her witness about the incredible journey she has been on. She has had a lot of struggles over the years and has overcome some pretty big obstacles to get to where she is today. God is using all Crystal has been through for good, as he does will all of us. God is so great! He takes the bad things that happen to us and uses them for good and for the building of His Kingdom. I know you are all going to love hearing her witness. I look forward to sharing it with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!