Praise in Your Pain

Acts 16:22–34 NLT

22 A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. 23 They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. 24 So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks. 25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. 26 Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! 27 The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself. 28 But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!” 29 The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he 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, along with everyone in your household.” 32 And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household. 33 Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized. 34 He brought them into his house and set a meal before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.

Suffering Can Be Overwhelming

To provide some background in today’s text, Paul and Silas are in Philippi to share the Gospel and grow the early church. This was not an easy task because they faced much opposition.

One day when they were going to a place of prayer which was most likely a home synagogue our what we would call a house church. Then a slave girl with a spirit of divination began following them. This girl made her owners a lot of money by telling the future. She followed Paul and Silas for many days crying out that they were servants of the most high God and they were proclaiming the way to salvation.

If you read this passage quickly it seem like the girl was doing a good thing but she was not for two very important reasons.

The first is that the people of Philippi did not yet know the gospel so her yelling about the most high God without an explanation could easily have made people think she was speaking about the false god Zeus and therefore made it even harder for Paul and Silas to make a significant impact to the people they were trying to reach by confusing their message.

The other main reason that this girl was wrong to follow them around proclaiming what they were there for is that the Bible says she had a spirit of divination and the Bible is very clear that as the people of God we are to have nothing to do with fortune tellers, astrologers, or spirits of any kind but rather we are to only communicate with the Lord by the Holy Spirit.

Leviticus 19:31 NLT

31 “Do not defile yourselves by turning to mediums or to those who consult the spirits of the dead. I am the Lord your God.

She continued to follow them day after day until Paul so exasperated turned to the girl and cast the demon out of her.

Well that infuriated the people who were making money off of her fortune telling and that is why Paul and Silas were dragged to the magistrate and beaten as we read in today’s text.

Verses 22-24 teach us that Paul and Silas were not only dragged to the authorities at the marketplace and falsely accused of an uproar but that they were brutally attacked by the mob. They were beaten by the mob, then they were stripped by the magistrate, then they were severely beaten again this time with wooden rods. And as if they were not enough they were then thrown into prison, clamped their feet in stocks and watched by an armed guard.

Paul and Silas were locked up in a cold dark cell naked, bloody, chained and beaten severely. There was nothing they could do but lie there whimpering and crying in complete pain and suffering with no chance of escape.

They Praised Through Their Pain

But then in verse 25 something powerful happens. The Bible said it was around midnight. The darkest hour of the night. The time when everything else was silent. They lifted themselves up from the cold muddy floor of the cell and they said though the devil try to slay me I will bless the Lord!

The Bible tells us that around midnight Paul and Silas started praying! You see brothers and sisters when they were broken and bloodied and beaten they prayed. Sure the devil had them down for a period of time but now about midnight they prayed. They declared with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and He will never leave or forsake us. They thanked Him for His goodness and His mercy and that heaven would be their home. As they prayed no doubt they felt the presence of the Holy Spirit begin to strengthen them and they continued there worship by singing hymns with such passion that the other prisoners could hear them.

The Lord Hears and The Lord Heals

In verse 26 we can see the mighty hand of the Lord moving to heal His people.

There is a sudden massive earthquake which shook the prison to its foundation. All the doors flew open and the chains of every prisoner fell off.

Don’t you know when God says chains break they break! Amen!

Listen to me today you may have been dragged down, you may have been stripped of your dignity, you may have beaten down physically, emotionally or socially. You may be facing a battle that you do not have the power to defeat.

But I have some good news for you which is that greater is He that is living in you than he than is in the world.

That you are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus.

That you have the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead living inside of you.

And by the power of God’s word and the power of God’s Spirit there is nothing in the natural or the supernatural that can defeat you.

So when the devil is attacking you pray to the Lord, bless His holy name not only privately but everywhere you go so that people can see what the faith of a godly person looks like and have hope! Hallelujah!

The Lord Heals and The Lord Helps

We can see in verse 27 that the jailer seeing all the prison doors open drew his sword and was going to kill himself and was required by Roman guards if prisoners escaped. However, Paul shouts out telling the guard not to do it and that all the prisoners are still there.

This action demonstrates tremendous grace as most people would have allowed the guard to kill himself and escaped to freedom. But instead of thinking about himself Paul thought of the very person whose job it was to kill him if he tried to escape.

This is significant brothers and sisters because what we do after we receive the Lord’s blessing is more important than what we did before we received it. All too often people will seek the Lord or start attending church in their time of need which is the right thing to do but then as soon as their situation improves they allow other activities, people or self take top priority in their lives once again.

And for those of us who are seasoned in our walks we too have to be careful not to praise the Lord for our blessing and then once we get it not pay attention to others in need. This is one of the reasons the vision for the church is to be both inwardly and outwardly focused because yes we want to be saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost but once our feet are on solid ground our hearts should be to help others get there while still encouraging one another and praising God the entire time.

Verse 29 demonstrates the purpose for the pain that Paul and Silas endured when the jailer calls for lights, runs to the dungeon and falls down trembling before them before bringing them out and asking what he must do to be saved.

And verses 31-34 demonstrate the power of the gospel that each of us have been entrusted to share as not only the jailer and his family but his entire household are saved and baptized.

And we can see that beautiful moment when a persons heart of stone becomes a heart of flesh as their put their faith in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit. Here is a man in the jailer that imprisoned Paul and Silas and now with his entire household is saved, provides medical care for the wounds of Paul and Silas and prepares a fellowship meal for them and his family to rejoice and praise the Lord.

You see at first Paul and Silas could not see the greater purpose of their pain and situation. But they did not loose faith. Through it all even when times were painful and seemingly hopeless they continued to pray and worship Jesus. The Lord heard their praise, restored their freedom and used them to lead several people to salvation and a new life in Jesus Christ.

Closing

In closing, whatever it is that you are dealing with this morning give it to God.

As a Christian everything we are going through is Father filtered and part of His greater plan and purpose.

In our humanity we may not understand why or why us.

However when we trust Jesus no matter what comes our way we can still pray and worship Him knowing that our victory is secured and that somehow in someway the Lord can us our situations to lead others to Him.

Prayer

Thank you so much for joining me today and remember our joy is in Jesus!