Paul’s Prison Story

Introduction

I’ll give my usual disclosure that I’m not the normal preacher. So if you want to hear some good preaching sometime, you’ll have to come back. But it’s good to see you. It’s good to be with you this morning. And it’s a big responsibility to break the bread of life and to help people focus on various thoughts in the Bible and to help people walk in a manner worthy of the gospel to which we’ve been called. Hearing stories from the past, especially stories from long ago, can be riveting. If you’ve ever had the chance to hear stories from old times or times past, it can be an incredible experience. I remember when I was a kid, I’ve got three brothers, including Jacob. when I was a kid, my mom would take us to different people’s houses, older folks from church who maybe couldn’t get out or who were sick, and we would go and we would visit them.

And I remember one time we went and visited this older gentleman older than Ernie. This older gentleman, and he told us stories about World War II. He was a pilot in World War II, and he flew a B-29 bomber. And he told us a story of one flight that he was piloting during World War II, where he flew all night and aboard his plane was either the real or a decoy atomic bomb. And as me and my three brothers sat there, you couldn’t have torn us away from this story. It was incredible to hear firsthand experiences of someone who went through something that you hear about in documentaries, you read in books, you see depicted in dramatic movies.

And as I think about stories that are riveting, stories that grab you, stories that will pull you in and not let you go, I can’t help but think of the life of Paul. And as I think about some of the things that he went through, I think about what if we could sit at Paul’s feet and listen to him tell us stories about his life. How incredible would that be. Just to sit at his feet and listen to him tell us about the things that he went through. Think about him telling us about what it was like to see Jesus on the road to Damascus before he was Paul. What about in Acts chapter 27 where Paul talks about the dramatic experience of being shipwrecked and almost dying and being washed ashore.

In Acts 17, where he went to Thessalonica to preach the truth, and then he ended up being run out of the city, fearful for his life. Going to all kinds of places during his missionary journey, doing all kinds of things, encountering all types of scenarios, circumstances, and people.

And while you’re turning there, a little bit of a backstory, a little bit of context. There was a girl in Macedonia where Paul and Silas were teaching and preaching. There was a girl who was a slave, and she was demon possessed, and one of the things that she was able to do because of the demon that possessed her was tell people’s fortunes. And so the people who owned her would use her to make money and telling people’s fortunes. And she got to where she would follow Paul and his folks around. And it became a distraction, it became annoying, it became frustrating. It became a detractor from Paul trying to preach the truth for this girl who was demon-possessed to follow them around. And so one day Paul was able to cast the demon out of this girl.

And because she could no longer make any money for those that owned her masters got angry. They falsely accused Paul and Silas in order to get them thrown into prison. As they get into prison, they’re beaten and they’re thrown into the inner cell. They’re thrown into the inner cell at the prison in Philippi. So we’re going to pick up in Acts chapter 16, beginning in verse 24. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in stocks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were open and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.

When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, Do not harm yourself. We are all here. And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. And then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. And he was baptized at once, he and all his family.

Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he believed in God. That’s a story that sends chills down my spine. Just reading it from a third-person experience, I can’t imagine hearing Paul give me the detail and seeing the emotion in his face and hearing the emotion in his voice.

And then I asked Clayton, but he’s out of town, so Clayton asked Jacob, but Jacob is sick. So Jacob asked Daniel. And Daniel did a great job picking out songs this morning. And in fact, I hadn’t mentioned this to Daniel. The song I Will Wait for you is perfect for this lesson. Because one of the things that I was hoping to get out of the song service this morning is the idea of if Paul was alive today and he was in prison today, what songs might he sing? I will wait for you through the storm and through the night. What a perfect song to consider the thoughts this morning of Paul’s prison story. And as we think about this story, obviously there are lessons that we can learn.

1. We Need to Impact People Where We Are

And this morning I want to look at three things. Lessons that we can take with us, things that we can apply to our lives, hopefully things that will stick in your mind, like this story sticks in mind. The first lesson, the first point I want to make this morning, is that we need to impact people where we are. This account begins with Paul and Silas in prison, which is not an ideal scenario for Paul, not really an ideal scenario for anyone, much less someone whose life has been dedicated to traveling and going place to place and preaching and teaching and baptizing and declaring the truth that sets people free. Who would think that if you are going to save souls, if you were going to help Paul go and make a difference in the world, you should send him to prison.

That’s probably not our first inclination. It’s certainly not mine. Is it reasonable to think that people in prison are good enough candidates to hear the truth? Aren’t there a lot of better people out there who really deserve the truth, who deserve to hear the saving gospel? Sometimes we can find ourselves thinking in those terms. It sounds terrible to say or to even think do people in prison deserve to hear the truth? But sometimes we might actually think in those terms. Sometimes we decide who we’re going to share the gospel with based on whether or not we think they’ll be receptive. Maybe you invite people to church, but only if you think they’ll be interested. I’ll talk to someone about spirituality, about the Bible, about salvation if they bring it up first.

We’ll have Bible studies with people, but well, not that person. Look at the way he dresses, or have you heard the kind of music that she listens to? What about the clothes that person wears? I can just tell that they’re not going to be interested. They’re not going to be receptive. They’re not going to care about the truth. But Paul didn’t care about where he was or who he was talking to. If you look in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, here’s Paul again in prison in Philippi in Philippians chapter one in verse 12. What does Paul say when he’s thinking about the brethren in Philippi and he wants to encourage them and build them up? He says in verse 12 Now, I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have brought a halt to my preaching the gospel.

That me being in prison has really hampered my ability to bring souls to Christ. That’s not what he says. I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole Praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. He says, Two incredible things have happened because of me being in prison. One, people here have heard the truth who might never have otherwise had the opportunity to be told the truth. And two, those who have heard about Paul’s imprisonment and the blessings and the conversions that he’s been able to experience are able to outside of prison more boldly proclaim the truth of God.

Do you hear Paul complaining about his circumstances? Do you hear Paul saying, well, you know, things could be better? It’d be nice to not be in prison. I’d really love to be back out on the street, back out on the road, teaching and preaching to crowds. Where does he say that he can’t stand being in prison? Because there’s just no one to teach here. You ever found yourself in a scenario where there’s people all around you and you say, well, there’s really nobody to teach here. Where does Paul say, I can’t wait to get out of here so I can go back to what I was doing? Or how frustrating it is of the injustice. All I want to do is go and preach and teach, and yet here I am, stuck in prison.

And yet he doesn’t say those things. He doesn’t think those thoughts. What does he say? That being in prison has been a blessing. He’s been able to do things that he otherwise would never have been able to do. He says it’s good because there are lost souls in prison who need the truth of the gospel. He says that it was a good thing to be in prison. As I referenced earlier, Paul and Thessalonica in Acts chapter 17. If you’ll turn there, this was not what you might consider a good place to live, the city of Thessalonica. It was full of blatant immorality, idolatry, every kind of wickedness. If you can think a kind of wickedness, it existed in the city of Thessalonica, and yet Paul went there to preach and to teach salvation.

He’s not there because he just happened to be passing through, and well, I might as well stand on a street corner this morning. I’m already passing through.

Becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. And attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some of the brethren before the city authorities, shouting, These men who have upset the world have come here also. What a terrible predicament. These people got the whole city involved, effectively started a riot in order to get Paul out of their city.

They wanted him out of their city. And here’s Paul in the midst of a mob of people who despise him. Let me tell you, they weren’t coming to drag Paul out of Jason’s house to have a nice chat with him. How would we handle that kind of scenario? If you had known that’s what waited for you in such an evil place, would you have even gone in the first place? We won’t turn there, but my mind immediately goes to Jonah, and God’s saying, Go to Nineveh, and Jonah saying, Okay, I’ll go later.

Oh, I mean, I could, but if I did, they’re probably gonna get angry. They’re probably gonna get, they’re probably gonna hate me. It may not be very safe to speak the truth. But the point here is really that we need to go to those who are spiritually sick. Oftentimes we have this mentality that we want to convert the CEOs and the doctors and the lawyers. We want to convert the people who dress nicely and who have money and the people who are going to treat us with respect, the people who are perhaps dignified among our society. We want to go to those, but what about the prisoners, the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the folks who are in the dregs of society? Don’t those people need the gospel too.

You might think that maybe it’s easy for me to stand up here and say these things. But one of the advantages I have of not being the regular preacher is that tomorrow morning I go to work. And I go to work in a place where many things in society are celebrated and encouraged that do not jive with the truth of the gospel. There are many times where I have those scenarios where I think, should I say something? If I do, I could get in trouble.

Maybe my boss pulls me aside and says, that’s not appropriate to talk about at work. Is that something I’m willing to risk? Think about your typical week. Think about all the people who surround you, all the opportunities you have in an average week to tell someone about the truth. Many times it’s tough for me to get the guts to tell people about the Bible when I’m not even threatened. But I think it’s going to be awkward and it’s going to be uncomfortable and well, shouldn’t I have a good relationship with this person first? Are they going to be receptive if I just come out of the gate? I’ve never really talked to them before. They’re effectively a stranger, and I say, You go to church?

Are you a Christian? Do you know about the Bible? Do you know about what Jesus did for you? Certainly that would be a turn off. And how am I ever going to get through to them if I cause them to put up a wall right at the beginning of getting to know them? So it’s really better if I don’t bring these things up. You ever had that kind of internal dialogue with yourself? What about your family? How many times a year do we have holidays where you spend time around family, extended family that you don’t normally or regularly spend time with? How many opportunities do we have to shine light to them? Those of you who go to work five, six, seven days a week. What about your coworkers?

How many of them have you invited to come to worship with you? How many have studied the Bible with you? How many of your coworkers even know you’re a Christian? I know we’re getting into the summer months, but if you go to school for those who are younger, how many of your classmates have you invited to church? How many of your fellow students can tell that you’re a Christian just by how you act? That there’s something different about them.

We could say the same thing about going to the grocery store, going to the bank, going to wherever we do on a daily basis, on a regular basis. And yet we can find ourselves picking and choosing who we teach the truth to for whatever justification we can come up with in our own mind. But I want you to know that the streets of heaven will be filled with people of every race, every career, every income level, political preference, education level. The streets of heaven are not just going to be filled with people who you have decided are good enough to hear the truth. Because there are people who are willing to teach those dregs of society. And so we need to impact people wherever we are in the same way that Paul impacted people where he was in prison.

But we need to get out of our comfort zone and realize the people around us have souls. Souls that are lost and dying in sin, souls that need the blood of Christ for salvation. Why don’t we teach them? Either we’ve decided they’re the wrong candidates, or maybe it’s just inconvenient at the time. But what we need to do is change people where they are. One of the interesting things in my mind about this account in Acts 16 is that Paul and Silas didn’t tell the jailer, well, hey, we worship with the Christians in Philippi. Why don’t you come with us on Sunday? They didn’t invite him to church. That wasn’t their initial response. They didn’t give them a card and say, Well, here’s our address, or here, I’ll send you the address.

2. We Need to Be Looking for Opportunities

You can look it up on Google Maps. They didn’t invite him to church. They studied with him right there where he was. And the reality is that the truth of God’s word shakes people up. It impacts their lives. If you look in verse 25 of Acts 16, where we first read, it says about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. They were doing their own thing. They were being faithful Christians. They were praising God in the midst of terrible, restrictive, frustrating circumstances, and people were listening to them. And suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken. God’s response to the prayers and praise from Paul and Silas was to literally shake the earth.

What an incredible experience that must have been. I can’t imagine Paul telling us what it felt like to feel the earth shaking as they’re singing songs of praise. And somehow, they can’t explain it, but somehow the shaking of the earth opened all the prison doors, and everyone’s chains were loosened. Can’t imagine Paul saying, like, I can’t explain it. And you might not believe me, but this is exactly what happened. And then the jailer comes too, and he has no idea what’s going on. Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed. Can you imagine waking up because of an earthquake? And with all the chaos, you have to assume that everyone’s gone. Why would anyone who is stuck in the prison stay in the prison?

You wake up, you see all the doors open. He has no idea what’s going on, and he’s ready to kill himself. Is that an overreaction? Not really. Part of the culture of being a prison guard in the first century was that your life was on the line. If a prisoner escaped, guess what the punishment was? You traded your life for that prisoner escaping. You were responsible for that prisoner getting out. What if the whole prison had emptied out? Well, you might as well just go take go ahead and take care of things on your own terms that somebody else is going to take care of. You might as well just get that out of the way. But God shook more than just the prison that day.

God shook the jailer spiritually. God shook him to where he couldn’t help but respond. And his question was not, Paul, why in the world are you still here? Are you crazy? Do you know what’s going to happen to you because you’ve chosen to stay? He says, What must I do to be saved? He asked Paul and Silas a question based on how they were living their lives. There must be something else causing them to stay. God, his truth, the Bible that you have in your hand on your iPad, on your tablet, on your phone, that you’re reading right now, that truth shakes people up. We’re not going to turn to these, I just want to reference them. But in Acts chapter 2, Peter preaches about the sacrifice of Jesus to thousands of people.

And when he has finished telling the story about Jesus and his sacrifice to people are, it says, cut to the heart. And they don’t say, well, Peter, we feel really bad about that. They say, What must we do to be saved? The next chapter in Acts chapter 3, Peter heals a man who’s been crippled his entire life. And that healing shakes this man to his core, and he leaves leaping and praising God, not just happy because he can walk again. Even more critical than his ability to walk again was the fact that he had known and found salvation. Was there anything more important Peter had been able to give to that man? In Acts chapter 8, Philip is walking to Gaza and he comes across a eunuch who’s reading Isaiah, and the eunuch is confused, and he says, Who is Isaiah talking about here?

Himself or someone else. And once Philip helps him understand what he’s reading, Isaiah 53, the passage that talks about how Jesus bore our iniquities. He carried our sorrows. He was beaten for our sins. Helps him understand what he’s reading. He is shaken to his core, and he can’t help but respond. And at the first sign of water, he says, Here’s water. What should stop me from being baptized? Nothing. Nothing should stop you. We may never be freed from a Philippian prison because of an earthquake. We may never hear Peter’s first sermon. We may never hear heal or see healed a crippled man. We may never teach a confused eunuch, but we see people’s lives shaken up every single day.

Having a baby, Johnson and Johnson used to say on TV and commercials, changes everything. And I remember thinking, well, I’m sure it changes some stuff, but let me tell you, I was not ready for how much it does change you. And every aspect of your life. What about when people move? What about when people relocate? They move from one side of the state to the other, or one side of the city to another, or one side of the country to another. You ever move somewhere new and you gotta figure out where Walmart is? Do you feel at home in that brand new place? Does it feel immediately familiar? Or do you feel a little bit out of sorts? Do you feel like something is wrong and I’ve got to acclimate?

Those people’s lives are shaken up. Have you or someone you known lost a job? That can shake you up. And I don’t have any money saved. I don’t know where I’m gonna find another job. I don’t know how we’re gonna pay bills. That can shake people up. And there are many other scenarios. Difficult health diagnoses. Family and loved ones who have passed away. You see, there are opportunities all around us. Because we live in an imperfect world where at some point in your life and the lives of everyone you know, something is going to go wrong. We don’t control our lives. We don’t have any say in what happens tomorrow, if there will be a tomorrow. So many aspects of our life can change at a moment’s notice.

You may not make it home today. And I don’t say that to make you afraid to get in the car. I say that because you have to understand it is a reality.

You may lay your head down on your pillow tonight and dread going to work tomorrow, and tomorrow may never show up. Sometimes in our prayers to God, whether public prayers or private prayers, you’ll hear someone ask for God to send us opportunities to bring lost souls to him. You might pray for God to send people your way who will be receptive to his word. And yet maybe too often you’re not out there looking for those opportunities. You want God not to just bring the opportunity to you, but smack your head with the opportunity. To make it obvious as if a great voice was coming from heaven and saying, Justin, teach this person. Well, if God would do that, then sure I would.

3. We Need to Truly Be Who We Are

How did Paul know that the jailer had been shaken up? He saw the jailer about to kill himself. He knew that man was in a bad place. He knew that the events that had just transpired had shaken him up. And because Paul was looking for opportunities, he saw it. We need to be looking for opportunities. And we need to be taking advantage of them when we see them. Lastly, we need to truly be who we are. And this one grammatically might not make a lot of sense, but I had to make it match the other two points. Be who you are. If you are a child of God, you cannot just be a child of God when you’re here. You do not check off a box by showing up to church on Sunday and say, Well, I’ve done my spiritual duty for the week.

I’m a great Christian because I showed up. Think of all the people who claim to be children of God who don’t go to church, and I do. Occasionally I even participate in the service. Occasionally I teach a class. Occasionally I make a comment in class. I show up on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. I’m a faithful child of God. Your attendance at a geographic location does not make you a faithful child of God. Living the life of a Christian, being the light to the world outside of this building is an example of a faithful child of God. In Mark chapter 12 and in verse 30, Jesus says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

And in Jesus saying this, he’s not saying, look at these four compartments of life and make sure that you’re loving God with those. No, what Jesus is saying here is these four areas encompass the whole of your existence. Your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength. That is every part of who you are. Jesus says you should love the Lord your God with all of it. Love him with everything you have, with everything you are. Love him with your entire being. Why is that so important? Well, you will give yourself up for him because you love him. You will be whoever he asks you to be. You will do whatever you have to do to be his and to be faithful to him, regardless of how much work it takes, regardless of how much it hurts, regardless of what you want in any given scenario.

Finally, we’re going to look in Matthew chapter 5. Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by man.

It’s not salty enough. You ever put salt on food and it makes no difference? And you put more salt on the food and it makes no difference. At some point, you’re going to conclude that salt isn’t even salty. Salt that is not salty is good for nothing. You might as well throw it away. A child of God who does not live a life of a faithful child of God, I would submit to you is probably not really a child of God. It’s not a title. It’s not something you earn by being dunked in water, and then it’s yours to keep. Being a faithful child of God is something that we do every day, no matter where we are. And part of that is teaching people where they are.

Conclusion

Teaching people wherever we are, and being that light, being that salt, being who we are called to be. Paul had some incredible stories to tell, and there are some critically important lessons from those stories. But it starts with being who God expects you to be. And my question for you this morning are you who you ought to be? When you consider your life in relation to the New Testament and who God asks you to be outside of this building in difficult circumstances and easy circumstances, are you who God says you ought to be? If you’re not, you have an opportunity to figure that out and fix that and make that right. If you understand what it means to become a child of God and you understand what you need to do and you’re prepared and ready to do that this morning, we’ve got water.

You can be like the eunuch who said, Here’s water. What should stop me from being baptized? I will tell you this morning, nothing should stop you. Not being in front of people, not stage fright. Nothing should stop you. But just as important, if you have been baptized and you’ve dedicated your life to God, but you are not who you ought to be, you need to make that right. Whether that’s publicly or privately, if we can help you by encouraging you, praying for you, if you find that you need to be baptized this morning, whatever we can do to help, we invite you to come to the front as we stand and as we speak.