An Unwanted Endorsement
“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” (Acts 16:16-18).
When Paul came to Philippi, he met Lydia and other women who had gathered for prayer on the Sabbath by a river outside the city (Acts 16:13-14). Paul shared the gospel of grace with them, and Lydia heard the message and believed, along with all her household.
In verse 16, we see that Paul again went to the riverside place of prayer. As he and his companions went, they were met by a girl who was “possessed with a spirit of divination,” or a demon. With the gospel of grace now being proclaimed, souls being saved, and a new work for Christ taking root in Philippi, the forces of evil quickly moved to oppose and hinder the work.
Translated literally from the original Greek, “a spirit of divination” is “a spirit of Python.” Python was the serpent of Greek mythology associated with Delphi, the site of the famous oracle where a priestess supposedly delivered prophetic messages while in a trance. According to Greek mythology, the god Apollo slew Python at Delphi, after which the name Python became closely associated with Apollo and the oracle there. Because of this connection, the name Python came to be associated with divination and those who claimed they could foretell the future.
This girl who met Paul was demon-possessed and practiced fortune-telling. Psychics and fortune-telling have long been profitable businesses. As such, this fortune-telling girl brought her masters “much gain,” as people came to her seeking answers about the future and guidance concerning the uncertainties and troubles of life.
As the damsel met and followed Paul and his co-workers, she cried out, identifying who they were—“servants of the most high God”—and what they were doing—“which shew unto us the way of salvation” (v. 17).
The girl followed Paul and his companions for “many days” (v. 18), repeatedly crying out after them with the same words. Paul endured her interruptions for a time, but it reached a point where Paul was “grieved,” or deeply troubled and displeased by what was taking place.
Paul then turned and faced the situation head-on. With one authoritative sentence directed to the demon, he ordered, “I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And the demon obeyed, as Luke tells us: “And he came out the same hour” (v. 18).
The persistent declaration of this demon-possessed girl posed at least four problems for Paul and the ministry of the gospel.
First, her declaration could have given the impression that Paul and his companions were associated with the pagan religion and false gods of Greek culture.
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 more likely listening to her than to Paul, and they were distracted from hearing the truth of the gospel.
Fourth, because her masters were exploiting her for financial gain, her constant promotion of Paul’s ministry could have created the impression that Paul was using her for gain as well, perhaps even working in cahoots with her masters.
For these reasons, Paul could not allow a demon-possessed girl to continue to follow him day after day while he preached the gospel in Philippi. Thus, he commanded the demon to depart and released her from its dreadful bondage.
The Price of Doing Right
“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” (Acts 16:19-24).
When the demon left the young woman, it took with it her ability to tell fortunes and make money for her masters. The girl’s masters cared nothing for her well-being; they cared only about the profit she brought them, so when they realized that their source of income was gone, they were enraged.
Out of their rage, these masters seized Paul and Silas and “drew” them into the marketplace. The sense of the Greek word translated as “drew” is that they forcibly dragged Paul and Silas through the streets to stand before the civil magistrates.
The masters of the woman who had been delivered from the demon were just as much under Satan’s influence as the demon-possessed girl had been. They were pawns in his hand. Satan’s subtle attempt to hinder the gospel had failed, so now he turned from deception to open hostility and violent persecution.
The marketplace to which the masters dragged Paul and Silas was a large, open-air public square in the heart of the city. Vendors sold their goods there, and it was also a center of civic life where public affairs and legal matters were transacted.
The accusations that the masters brought before the magistrates were calculated to stir up the magistrates and the crowd against Paul and Silas. In their anger against them, they falsely charged them, “being Jews,” with troubling the city exceedingly and teaching unlawful religious customs (vv. 20-21).
These accusations quickly stirred up the crowd that had gathered. As verse 22 tells us, “And the multitude rose up together against them.” The charges had their intended effect, inciting the people against Paul and Silas.
Moved by religious and racial prejudice, and influenced by the angry crowd that had risen against Paul and Silas, the magistrates acted rashly without properly investigating the charges. Paul and Silas were not even given an opportunity to defend themselves against the accusations.
Instead, “the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them” (v. 22) with rods (2 Cor. 11:25). The lictors, officers who attended the Roman magistrates, would have been summoned to carry out the punishment. Paul and Silas were stripped, restrained, and publicly beaten with rods, their backs brutally battered before the watching crowd in the marketplace.
Flogging among the Jews was limited to forty stripes per the Law of Moses (Deut. 25:2-3). But these were Gentiles, and they had no such law; thus, they “laid many stripes” (Acts 16:23) on Paul and Silas.
After this brutal beating, the lictors “cast them into prison.” The word “cast” conveys the rough treatment Paul and Silas received. They were forcefully thrown and thrust into prison.
Then the jailer was charged “to keep them safely,” that is, to guard Paul and Silas securely and make certain there was no possibility of their escape. Taking this command seriously, the jailer took Paul and Silas to the most secure part of the prison, “the inner prison,” where they were again treated roughly, being “thrust”—same Greek word as “cast” in verse 23—or forcefully thrown into its dark confines.
The jailer then took an additional step to make Paul and Silas doubly secure, as he “made their feet fast in the stocks.” Not only were they confined in the most secure part of the prison, but their feet were also firmly fastened so that they could not move around or attempt to escape.
The stocks worked in this way: “Two heavy pieces of timber would be opened, the legs of the prisoners stretched widely apart till their muscles began to hurt, and the timbers clamped shut. Clamped in such a spread-legged position they would be unable to talk,
and they would be forced to lie with their backs or faces on the ground.”1
A Midnight Miracle
“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” (Acts 16:25-28).
Evening came, and then at midnight, unexpected sounds could be heard coming from their prison cell. They were not angry and bitter cries of pain or self-pity. Instead, Paul and Silas were praying and singing praises to God (v. 25 cf. Psa. 28:7; 42:8). In the middle of the night, battered and bound in the stocks, Paul and Silas were having a worship service!
This was the first Christian concert in Europe, and it brought down the house! Paul lived what he later taught the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4).
As one commentator 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 Spirit that rises superior to all the things of difficulty and limitation.”2
God heard Paul’s and Silas’s prayers and praises, “and the prisoners heard them” too (Acts 16:25). The prisoners listened as these two beaten and suffering men prayed and sang praises to God. They heard a powerful testimony of faith, as Paul and Silas still trusted and praised God after all they had suffered.
As the other prisoners listened to Paul and Silas praying and singing praises, “suddenly” the ground began to quake, and the prison itself began to shake. Then the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains were loosed (v. 26).
It was a miraculous and precise earthquake. It did not demolish the prison or harm those inside. Instead, it shook the foundations, opened the prison doors, and released the prisoners’ restraints, setting Paul, Silas, and the other prisoners free.
The jailer was sound asleep, but that does not mean he was neglecting his duty. We know other guards were on duty, because he called for a light from one of them (v. 29). When the earthquake awakened him and he saw “the prison doors open,” he immediately assumed that the prisoners had escaped (v. 27). And under ordinary circumstances, that was a perfectly reasonable conclusion. When prison doors suddenly stand open, prisoners do not normally remain inside!
The jailer had been charged to “keep them safely” (v. 23), and death was the punishment for jailers if any of their prisoners escaped. For example, earlier in Acts, when Peter miraculously escaped prison, Herod had the keepers put to death (Acts 12:18-19). For this reason, believing that all the prisoners had fled, the Philippian jailer decided to take matters into his own hands. “He drew out his sword” (Acts 16:27) and was about to take his own life, choosing immediate death rather than facing the punishment and disgrace that awaited him.
We do not know for certain how Paul knew what the jailer was about to do. Perhaps he heard the sword being drawn, or maybe he caught a glimpse or shadow of the jailer in the darkness. Whatever the case, Paul realized what was happening and “cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here” (v. 28).
Notice that “all” the prisoners were still there. Every one of them was present and accounted for. Why they remained, Scripture does not tell us. Perhaps they stayed out of fear, but I believe the testimony of Paul and Silas made a powerful impression on them. They had listened to these two beaten men pray and sing praises to God. Then, when their own bonds were loosed, and the doors were opened, they followed the example of Paul and Silas and stayed right where they were.
One Question, One Answer
“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” (Acts 16:29-31).
The jailer called for a light, or torch, to be given to him. Holding the torch, he rushed into the prison. Moments earlier, the prison had been trembling from the earthquake; now the jailer was “trembling.” Finding all the prisoners still there, just as Paul had said, he “fell down before Paul and Silas.” Overcome with emotion, the jailer said nothing. Then he brought Paul and Silas out of the prison.
The jailer’s thoughts were on life, death, and eternity at that moment. His brush with death and near suicide, the earthquake, the astonishing fact that none of the prisoners had escaped, and Paul’s words that had spared his life—all of it came together to move him to ask an urgent question.
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
The jailer knew Paul and Silas possessed something he did not, and he was convinced they knew the answer that he desperately needed. “What must I do to be saved?” is the most important question anyone could ever ask. It is a question that each person needs to ask before they die.
The Philippian jailer asked, “What must I DO?” Paul and Silas answered that there was no work for him to do; he simply needed to believe: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Salvation is by grace through faith alone in Christ, not of works (Eph. 2:8-9 cf. Rom. 4:5; Titus 3:5). The gospel of the grace of God committed to Paul by Christ for this age tells us that we are saved from our sins and their eternal consequences in hell by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
The words “and thy house” simply mean that the same promise of salvation applied to his household as well. They would not all be saved because the jailer believed; each of them, like him, would be saved by personally believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and trusting in Him alone for salvation.
And the Philippian jailer and his entire household believed in Christ and were saved. Verse 34 says that he “rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.” Paul had first saved the jailer from physical death by calling out and stopping him from taking his own life. Then Paul showed him how to be saved from spiritual and eternal death by pointing him to the Lord Jesus Christ and sharing the way of salvation.
Sometimes, when I read Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians, I like to think of the Philippian jailer. He was one of the believers at Philippi of whom Paul said, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you” (Phil. 1:3). Paul and the jailer definitely shared an unforgettable memory. We can imagine how special Paul’s letter of joy would have been to this man who rejoiced in the grace of God that had saved him and his family simply by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. The next time you read Philippians, remember the Philippian jailer, and consider that one day, in glory, you will meet the man who asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
1. Gareth L. Reese, New Testament History: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Acts (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1976), p. 586.
2. G. Campbell Morgan, The Acts of the Apostles, quoted on Precept Austin, “Acts 16 Commentary,” https://www.preceptaustin.org/acts-16-commentary.