Transcript
Murphy’s Law says, “If anything can go wrong, it will.” Most of us have probably experienced this law. Such as: if you wash your car on Saturday morning, it will rain on Saturday afternoon.
If you drop a piece of bread you have just spread with peanut butter and jelly, it will always fall peanut-butter-and-jelly-side down. If you take your troubled car to the mechanic, it will run perfectly once you are at the shop.
If you change lanes in a grocery store, the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now.
At work, as soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold. As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.
After you’ve driven around the parking lot 5 times and you give in and park a long way from the store, the perfect parking spot opens up as you’re walking in.
When you read about the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul it seems like he experienced Murphy’s Law: If anything can go wrong, it will. During Paul’s time at Philippi, something went wrong, but something of eternal good came out of it.
In this portrait of grace, we’ll take a look at the Philippian Jailer.
Acts 16:16-18: “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
“The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.”
Verse 16 says “as we went to prayer.” When Paul came to Philippi, he met Lydia and other women who were gathered together for prayer on the sabbath by a river outside of Philippi. He preached the gospel of grace to these women.
A woman by the name of Lydia heard the gospel and believed, along with all her household. She then invited Paul and his co-workers to stay in her home in Philippi.
Verse 16 is speaking of how they were again going to the place of prayer, down to the riverside. And as they went, they were met by a girl, who was possessed by a demon.
With the gospel of grace being proclaimed, souls being saved, and the new work begun here in Philippi, Satan immediately takes action in attempting to hinder the work.
And Satan here uses a young woman who was under the control of one of his demons to fight against Paul’s ministry.
The phrase “spirit of divination” refers to “a spirit of Python.” In Greek mythology, the Python was the mythical serpent that guarded the oracle of Delphi, the renowned temple of priestesses who supposedly uttered prophecy and was able to predict the future while under a trance. The Greek god Apollo supposedly slew this serpent at some point.
In Paul’s day, and in that Greek culture of Philippi, one who would foretell coming events was said to have the spirit of Python, because of the priestess at Delphi.
Essentially, this girl was a medium in contact with demons that could supposedly predict the future. People don’t change; people back then were as curious about the future as people are today. The businesses of psychics and fortune-telling are profitable.
Likewise, this fortune-telling girl gave her masters “much gain” as people flocked to her for advice on politics, business, marriage, or whatever was troubling them.
This young woman was under the control of a demon, and she was also under the control of a company of men who used her for financial gain. Apparently she was too valuable a slave for one owner to afford as she had “masters” plural.
This slave girl followed Paul and his companions as they made their way to the river outside of Philippi, and she said, “These men are the servants of the most high God which show unto us the way of salvation” (v. 17).
She attached herself to Paul and his co-workers and shouted out who they were: “servants of the most High God,” and what they were doing: “which show unto us the way of salvation.”
Well, she was right; but why she said it is another question. Seeing that she was demon-possessed there’s no doubt Satan was trying to compromise Paul’s work.
Demons are actively involved in hindering God’s work and God’s people. They work to hinder the truth and keep people blind to the gospel.
When the demonic spirits spoke to the Lord during His earthly ministry, they testified to Him of who He is. They would say things like, “Thou art the Son of God.” “You are the Holy One of God.” That was the gospel at that time that people needed to believe. They needed to trust in the name of Christ and Who He is in order to be saved.
Those demons were making known the truth. But the Lord silenced them, told them to “Hold your peace” and to be quiet. He didn’t want or need their testimony.
Mark 3:11-12 says, “And unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell down before Him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. And he straitly charged them that they should not make Him known.”
Likewise, with Paul, he silenced this demon. The girl followed and taunted them for many days. Paul patiently endured her persistent ranting for a time. But finally one day he had his fill of it. He was “grieved,” or troubled and annoyed as she followed him.
Paul turned around and faced her head-on and with one swift sentence which he directed to the demon, he said: “I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her,” and the demon did. He spoke, and it left the girl.
The implications of her constant declaration were bad for Paul for five reasons. First, it made it look like he was associated with heathen, false gods of Greek mythology, and that they were allies with a demon.
Second, with the truth being promoted by a demon-possessed girl, she might speak the truth one minute, but a lie the next, with the unbelieving not knowing the difference.
Third, people were most likely listening to her and not Paul and were being distracted from hearing the truth of the gospel.
Fourth, with the fact that her masters were using her for gain, her advertisement of Paul’s work might have been looked at that he was using her for gain too, and thus would cause people to question Paul’s motives and sincerity.
Fifth, out of pity for the girl herself, he commanded the demon to depart, to release her from this dreadful bondage.
Acts 16:19-24: “And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,
“And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
“And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
“Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.”
When the demon left the young woman, it took with it the ability to tell fortunes and make money for her masters. The masters of the girl had no concern for the girl; they were only interested in the money she provided them.
And now that their source of income was gone, needless to say, her masters were enraged.
These greedy masters then seized Paul and Silas and “drew” them. “Drew” is too kind of a word in the way we understand it. It literally means they dragged them to the market place before the civil magistrates.
The masters of the woman who was delivered from the demon were just as much in Satan’s power as the demon-possessed girl. They were pawns in his hand. Satan failed in his wily attempt to hinder the gospel, but now he shows his true character.
The marketplace that the masters drug them to was a large, open air, public square in the middle of the city. There were vendors who sold their wares there, and public affairs were conducted in the marketplace.
Since Philippi was a Roman colony, the magistrates that Paul and Silas stood before were most likely military officers in the Roman army.
When the masters made their accusation against Paul and Silas, they didn’t tell them the truth, which would have been something like: “These men cast out a spirit from our slave girl and now we have to work for a living!”
Instead these masters falsely charge them with exceedingly troubling and disturbing our city and propagating an unlawful religion. They also make clear mention of the fact that these men were “Jews.” Claudius Caesar had recently expelled the Jews from Rome (18:2), causing anti-semitism to run high throughout the empire at that time.
Basically, they accused them of being troublemaking Jews who were trying to upset the Roman way of life.
Hearing these accusations caused the spectators in the marketplace to get stirred up. A crowed had formed and they were behind and in support of the accusers.
Moved by religious and racial prejudices and also by the crowd violently rising up against Paul and Silas, the magistrates act rashly and do not investigate the matter fully. The accused are not even given an opportunity to dispute the charges.
The magistrates then tear off the clothes of Paul and Silas and command them to be beaten with rods.
The lictors, who were officers in the Roman army and trained in the duty of scourging, would have been summoned and would have bound Paul and Silas and then viciously beat their back raw with rods publicly in that marketplace for all to see.
Flogging among the Jews was limited to 40 stripes, save one, or 39 stripes. But these were Gentiles, and they had no such law, and they laid “many stripes” on Paul and Silas.
The pain from this beating had to have been almost unbearable. But now we visibly see what the devil’s reaction is to the gospel and souls being saved: to persecute the messengers of the truth by beating and imprisoning them. This is how the devil feels about it and the kind of lengths he’ll work toward to try to silence the church.
It’s been said well about Satan’s methods in fighting the truth, that it is by “Alliance or persecution—these are the alternatives: false friendship or open war.” We see both of these methods here through the demon-possessed girl and the beating of Paul and Silas.
But it’s not only the devil’s response that we see here in this account, it’s also the world’s response of hatred and anger toward the gospel and the church.
That continues to this moment. Thus because of the devil’s and the world’s opposition as Paul later wrote the Philippian church, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”
After a thorough beating, Paul and Silas were cast into prison by the lictors. The word “cast” shows that they were not led by the hand down the steps into the prison, they were thrown and thrust into the prison.
The jailor is given a charge by the lictors “to keep them safely” or securely, as though they were dangerous criminals.
With these strict orders, coupled with the fact that his life depended on it, the jailer took no chances and he moved them from where they were initially put, to the inner prison, reserved for the worst of criminals, where again they are “thrust” or thrown in.
The inner prison would have been the most secure and the most miserable of places. They were usually below ground, and damp, with no light, reeking with filth, and alive with rats and bugs.
Then the jailer takes another additional step to make them doubly secure and he fastened their feet in stocks.
Garreth Reese said this about the stocks, “The two heavy pieces of timber would be opened, the legs of the prisoners were then stretched widely apart till their muscles began to hurt, and then the timbers would be clamped shut.
“Clamped in such a spread-legged position they would be unable to walk or sit up and they’d be forced to either lie with their backs or faces on the ground.”
Stripped of their clothes, faint and sick from the pain, with lacerated, bleeding backs, their feet encased in the cruel stocks in that damp, rank, dark inner prison, and it makes me stop and think, could I do what Paul and Silas do next?
Acts 16:25-28: “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
“And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.
“And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.”
Some equate suffering and hardship as indications of being out of God’s will, but contrary to this, we find here that there are times when these things mean you are, in fact, in the center of His will.
Here Paul and Silas were unjustly arrested, indicted, convicted, beaten and imprisoned, but they refuse to let their circumstances determine their attitude or affect their faith.
Evening comes on, and then at midnight, strange sounds are heard coming from their prison cell. It was not the sound of angry and bitter cries of pain and self-pity, but praying and singing. Paul and Silas were having a worship service!
They didn’t question God for the injustice of it all or worry that He had forsaken them; they prayed to Him and praised Him.
As Psalm 42:8 says, “…the LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.”
In Psalm 28:7, David wrote “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth and with my song will I praise Him.”
Andrew Murray stated this about God’s purpose in our trials: “First, He allowed this, it is by His will I am in this strait place: in that fact I will rest. Next, He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace to endure enabling me to behave as His child.
“Then, He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow. Last, in His good time He can bring me out again, how and when, He knows.
“So let me say, I am here, (1) By God’s appointment, (2) In His keeping, (3) Under His training, (4) For His time.” Paul and Silas saw this by faith as well. And in faith, they prayed and they sang to the Lord with all their heart.
This was the first Christian concert in Europe and it brought down the house! Paul lived what he later taught the Philippians about rejoicing in the Lord always. That church had his example in their prison to know it can be done.
The Lord heard Paul and Silas’ praying and praising, and the prisoners around them heard it too. They were ministering to them. That word “heard” means that they listened to what they were hearing. They took note of what they were saying and singing.
And I am sure that they were baffled that they could have that type of a response of faith toward God after enduring such brutal treatment.
G. Campbell Morgan writes, “Any man can sing when the prison doors are open, and he is set free. The Christian soul sings in prison. I think that Paul would probably have sung a solo had I been Silas: but I nevertheless see the glory and grandeur of the Holy Spirit that rises superior to all the things of difficulty and limitation.”
As the other prisoners were listening to their prayers and songs of praise to God, the ground started quaking, and the prison started shaking, then the doors flew open, and everyone’s chains loosened and fell off, but it did not demolish the building.
It was a supernatural, strategic earthquake by the Lord to just open the doors and loosen the chains. It freed Paul and Silas and the other prisoners.
The jailer was sound asleep. The earthquake woke him. He wasn’t neglecting his duty by being asleep. We know there were other guards on duty, by him later calling for a light from one of them. But when the jailer awoke and saw the prison wide open, he assumed that the prisoners had escaped.
Earlier in Acts, we find that after Peter had been set free from prison by an angel, it states in 12:19, “when Herod had sought for [Peter], and found him not, he examined the keepers [of the prison] and commanded that they be put to death.”
In Roman law a guard who allowed his prisoner to escape was liable to the same penalty the prisoner would have suffered. Death was the certain fate of jailers if any of his prisoners escaped. He knew it, so he decided to take matters into his own hand and he drew his sword to commit suicide and avoid the shame of a public execution.
It’s hard to tell for certain but maybe Paul heard him unsheathe his sword or caught a glimpse or a shadow of what he was about to do, and he cried out “No! We’re all here!”
ALL the prisoners were there. ALL were present and accounted for! Now how rare would it be today if in a prison all the cell doors suddenly swung open, and nobody ran. That’s not likely to happen. But that’s what happened here.
They might have remained out of fear. But I believe they remained out of respect for Paul and Silas. Their response to their trial so moved them, that after they were loosed, they did what Paul and Silas did, and they stayed put.
Acts 16:29-31: “Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
“And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
The jailor calls to one of the guards for a torch to be lit and then he sprang in and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas. He doesn’t speak until he brings them out of the prison, and then says “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Out of love and concern for the jailer, Paul and Silas remained in prison when they could have escaped and they prevented his suicide.
The jailer called for a light, for a torch, to be given to him by one of the guards. Holding the torch, he jumped into the prison.
The prison had been trembling. Now the jailer was trembling. Finding them still there, he fell down before Paul and Silas as emotion swept over the jailer. Then he brought them out of the prison.
He was thinking about life, death, and eternity at this moment. His brush with death and near suicide, the earthquake, the fact that the prisoners had not escaped, and Paul’s reassuring words that saved his life, all came together to move him to ask for the way of salvation. He knew that they knew the answer, and that they had something he needed.
“What must I do to be saved” is the most important question anyone could ever ask, and it is the one that all need to ask before they die.
And the answer is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Just believe. It’s by faith alone. It’s by faith in Christ alone. And you will be saved.
The Philippian jailor asked “What must I DO.” Paul’s answer was that he didn’t need to “do” anything to be saved. He just needed to “believe.”
It’s just by believing on Christ, trusting Him as you personal Savior, is how we are saved from our sins and from hell. We only need to believe because God has done everything necessary for our salvation in His Son by His death and resurrection.
The words “and thy house” mean simply “This goes for your household too. They, as well as you, are saved just by believing on Christ and trusting Him alone to save you.”
And the Philippian jailer believed on Christ. And he was gloriously saved. Paul saved the Philippian jailer from physical death, by calling out to him before he killed himself, and then he saved him from eternal death by showing him the way of salvation.
But notice that the Philippian jailer asked PAUL, “What must I do to be saved?” That’s where each person needs to ask that question in God’s Word. It is by asking Paul. The answer is found in his letters.
Christ revealed the saving gospel to him for this age of grace. Salvation by grace through faith alone is only found in the epistles of Paul.
And Paul’s gospel has power. It is the power of God unto salvation. It does the things we see in this account: it shakes the foundations of a life, it sets the prisoner free, it gives light, the light of life and truth in Christ, and it saves from eternal death.
Paul’s gospel is all about Christ and His Cross and His resurrection. It is Trusting that Christ died for our sins and rose again, we are saved by grace through faith alone, not of works.
The Philippian jailer is a portrait of grace because he was saved by grace and grace alone, by faith in Christ. We are saved the exact same way as he: by grace, just believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him as our personal Savior.
Have you believed?