From Imprisonment to Forever Freedom

Acts 16:16-40

Paul and Silas Imprisoned

16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation." 18 And this she did for many days.

But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour. 19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

20 And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, "These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; 21 and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe." 22 Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. 24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

The Philippian Jailer Saved

25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here."

29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

Paul Refuses to Depart Secretly

35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, "Let those men go."

36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, "The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace."

37 But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out."

38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. 

39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.

Paul and Silas were preaching the gospel as a possessed fortune-teller mocked them for many days until they grew annoyed at the negative attention brought by the slave girl which seemed to say the truth about them and their mission, yet in reality drove people away from the gospel message by focusing on her pronouncements.  She said truly that Paul and Silas were servants of the Most High God and that they did proclaim the way of salvation to the hearers.  However, the intent of the demon-driven soothsayer was to mock them and their God and to distract the listeners from God’s Spirit bringing the message of deliverance and an undue focus on the messengers.  This unclean spirit tried to stand between the men and women being convicted by God’s Holy Spirit and the Spirit in Paul and Silas.  Therefore, Paul eventually commanded the unclean spirit to clear out of the woman and leave them to the work of the gospel.  This of course happened as God commanded and the demon had to leave her, but her owners realized their cash cow had left the pasture and left them penniless without the source of the sorcery available for them to pawn on the gullible masses.  Her masters falsely accused them of teaching unlawful customs instead of admitting they were bringing hope in the word of Jesus Christ, and so had the court imprison them just as godless regimes continue to do in this day where false religions offering no more hope than sorecerers and fortune-tellers ever can.  Having locked them up in shackles, they left the men of God with the message of hope and release of bondage bound behind bars as an attempt to stop their witness to the truth because it was bad for their business of enslaving souls.  Ah, but God had other plans and the very gates of hell (Matthew 16:18) could not stop the truth from being told!  God therefore used them in the prison at Philippi to continue to reach others there to set them doubly free from their bonds and bondage with the truth and God’s sovereign omnipotent work to break their bonds.  He broke their physical shackles with a great earthquake and then their spiritual bonds of sin’s consequences of eternal death with the hope of forgiveness and eternal life in their place!  The prison keeper who would answer by death to his Roman masters for losing the prisoners, even if by a force majeur, was ready to take his own life to avoid torture and death until he was told that none had left after being set free and he and they believed the gospel which set them free indeed (John 8:36).  The man fell down before these messengers of hope and of life with a heart sincerely and desperately crying out, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  They told them all the words of life of the suffering servant Jesus Christ who paid the price for their judgment that held them in bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15) and set them free from repentance by faith in God’s work on the cross of death to life as promised and foreshadowed in the resurrection of Jesus and ours to come in Him.  The keeper of the prison and everyone in his household heard and believed to repent and receive Jesus Christ to the salvation of their souls.  They now all were free from eternal bondage as much as the prisoners were free from their shackles of the rubble around them which once imprisoned them all.  Jesus sets us free from the darkness of sin’s imprisonment and brings us into His marvelous light of eternal hope in the same dramatic manner through faith in Him still.  In the end, Paul and Silas were released for custody in the leveled prison but would not go quietly until the judges personally came to let them go as Roman citizens with rights.  Sometimes we may find the law on our side and be let go from unjust punishment as they were, but often the corrupt government leaders of godless nations will not do so.  We can rest in the comfort with joy in jail as Paul wrote in Philippians later because we have been set eternally free from the real bonds of sin which imprison us all from birth as inherited sin enslaves us until we are set free indeed.  This is  our hope in all circumstances and situations.  This is how we are led out of imprisonment to eternal freedom in Christ alone by His work for us and not earned or deserved in any way.  He alone has the key to deliver us and set us free from sin, death, and eternal suffering.