Acts 16:16-34
(sermon note: 04-26 sermon note)
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace 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 practice.”
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 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. 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 baptized. 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.
This morning’s reading reminds me of the one about an old man who was on his death bed and called all his family and the priest. He said to his first son, “I want you to have all the property in the north of the town, I have 16 houses there.” He called in his second son and said, “I want you to have all my commercial property, 8 businesses.” Finally, he called in his third son and said, “I want you to have the houses in the southern district. There are only 4, but they are expensive and lucrative.” The old man passed away, and the priest turned to his wife and said, “That is quite unbelievable! He must have been incredibly wealthy!” The old man’s widow laughed and said, “Nah, just a mere window cleaner!”
Sometimes the unbelievable can become quite believable with a little explanation. Ole boy wasn’t bequeathing 28 properties he owned to his three sons but rather tasking them with a hefty workload! Good thing that priest had enough sense to comment on it to his wife. Not everything is as it seems sometimes. It never hurts to seek clarification when things seem a little extraordinary.
Just take the incidence in our reading for example. There’s a lot of unbelievable things going on it beginning with the fortunetelling woman at the start. Now I don’t know what your all’s impression of fortunetelling is, but I tend to be skeptical of it. I do believe there are people who are highly sensitive to indicators and have keen deductive reasoning. What comes across as fortunetelling is actually a highly trained skill. Very few people have the focus necessary to accomplish such a feat, making it all the more extraordinary. Well, along came Paul and Silas who managed to break that focus of that woman and her moneymaking ability was lost. Nonetheless, her “unbelievable” skill was nothing more than a highly trained skill and a little sound reasoning would have revealed this.
Now then, fortunetelling can easily be explained and thus be made believable. What occurred in that jailcell, however, is less easily explained. Indeed, what went down was nothing short of a miracle. Paul and Silas and presumably several of their fellow inmates were chained up and held behind locked doors. They were singing and praying in the wee hours of the morning and suddenly God sent an earthquake. Ok, so far so good, reasonably possible and perfectly believable. But what happened because of that earthquake definitely challenges belief. The chains come off the prisoners and the doors become unlocked! Now that’s a pretty amazing earthquake, not to mention a complete nightmare for any jailer! Who knew earthquakes had such an ability to free prisoners?! Well, evidently God did or at least He gave that earthquake such an ability. Either way, a rather miraculous, unbelievable event took place that day. And the unbelievability didn’t end with that earthquake! No, the reaction of Paul and Silas and the other inmates to being so unbelievably set free was also quite unbelievable. What did they do once they were set free? THEY STAYED PUT! Again, not the typical reaction of prisoners miraculously set free. We pondered on why Paul and Silas and the prisoners chose to stay in the jailcell at our Bible study earlier this week. Perhaps they were paralyzed by shock. Perhaps they were utterly resolved in being prisoners. Perhaps they felt that fleeing from the prison would further condemn them in their guilt. Scripture doesn’t reveal why they chose to stay but when we add up all the unbelievable aspects of this reading, it’s hard not to be just overwhelmed.
Or have a similar reaction as the jailer. When added all up, the incident revealed our pretty amazing God. Unbelievable? Not necessarily. We can believe in God despite his awesomeness. Better yet, we can believe in God because of his awesomeness! Our God IS a pretty awesome God who can do some pretty unbelievable things! Our God can somehow set us free from some impossibly binding situations. What went down in the jailcell was enough to convince the jailer to trust and believe in the power of our God. Which begs the question: what would it take for us to trust and believe in his awesome power? Each of us is bound up in one thing or another. Whether it’s doubt or fear or mistrust or jealousy or greed or any number of things that keep us from trusting and believing in the power of God. And we’re silly for holding on to them! Our God is an awesome God who wants to free us, who can free us from whatever imprisons us! Nothing can imprison us with God by our side! We can believe this and trust this!
The lives of the jailer and his family were completely transformed once they believed and trusted in our God. Last week we heard how Saul’s life was completely transformed once he believed and trusted in our God. OUR lives can be completely transformed once we believe and trust in God! Friends, that’s all that God asks of us, to trust and believe and obey, and there is great reward for doing so. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians, “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” (4:19) And in his letter to the Romans, he boldly proclaims, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (8:28) God had called Paul and Silas to share about Christ and share his love with the world. Their calling created a lot of undue suffering, i.e. being unjustly imprisoned for breaking the focus of a trained fortuneteller. God worked their imprisonment for good by bringing the jailer and his family into belief. Paul writes in second letter to Timothy, “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done by because of his own purpose and grace.” (1:9) God’s grace abounds! God’s grace was bestowed on Paul and Silas and their fellow prisoners. God’s grace was bestowed on the jailer and his family. God’s grace is bestowed on US each and every day! We have much to be thankful for, friends! We, like Paul and Silas, have been called into holy lives through faith in our risen Lord. Let us walk fearlessly into these holy lives. Let us walk graciously with Jesus by our side. Most importantly, let us give thanks for his mighty power over our lives. Thanks be to God!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
