Acts 16:16-34
“Freedom in a Prison Cell”
There is a lot to be learned from the example of Christians who live in third-world countries, and don’t have the freedom we might often take for granted.
Will Willimon tells the story of a Bishop from Angola who came to visit America a few years back.
The Bishop was speaking to a group of Christians.
“Is the new Marxist government supportive of the church?” the Americans asked.
“No,” said the Bishop, “but we don’t ask it to be supportive.”
He then went on to tell how his country’s government had banned many church meetings, but how the Christians stubbornly went on meeting, all the same.
“What will you do,” the Americans asked, “when the government becomes stronger?”
“We shall keep on meeting,” the Bishop replied.
“The government does what it needs to do. The Church does what it needs to do. If we go to jail for being the Church, we shall go to jail. Jail is a wonderful place for Christian evangelism.
Our church made some of its most dramatic gains during the revolution when so many of us were in jail.
In jail, you have everyone there, in one place.
You have time to preach and teach.
Sure, twenty of our pastors were killed during the revolution, but we came out of jail a much larger and stronger church.”
The Bishop continued, “Don’t worry about the church in Angola; God is doing fine by us.
Frankly, I would find it much more difficult to be a pastor in your country.
Here there is so much.
So many things.
It must be hard to be the Church here.”
This lesson from Acts is a story about freedom.
But it takes place in one of the most horrible places on this earth, a place where freedom seems so distant: a prison cell.
But, behold!
Paul, Silas and most likely the author of Acts—Luke--are in jail…
… “praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”
Perhaps jail is a wonderful place for evangelism after-all!!!
It sure is interesting how God works.
One thing you can never take away from a Christian is God and the presence of Jesus Christ.
And with God there is freedom even in a prison, and at midnight there is light!
In our Scripture Lesson, Paul, Silas and Luke are in the city of Philippi where they’ve been doing some preaching and teaching.
One day, though, as they are headed to a place of prayer, things go terribly wrong.
There is a slave girl who through the clouded confusion of her mind manages to string together words that sound, to some, like fortune telling.
And, she had fallen into the hands of some men who were using her to turn a profit.
She had become their bread and butter.
Feeling compassion for the girl, Paul turns to her, heals her, and she is suddenly in her right mind.
What a fantastic miracle!!!
But the owners don’t like this so much; their “product” is no longer viable.
So, playing on the natural anti-semitism of the crowd they haul the apostles to court.
The magistrates have them “stripped and beaten,” and thrown into jail where their feet are put in stocks and the jailor is ordered to “guard them carefully.”
But, as I mentioned, the apostles don’t act like your typical prisoners.
They just keep on evangelizing!
They are able to remain happy, and at peace even in such a difficult situation.
And this is a most amazing witness to the rest of the prisoners, who perhaps, have not experienced freedom in a long time.
And certainly, they have never seen nor heard the kind of freedom that Paul and his friends are experiencing.
This is the freedom that comes only from the abiding presence of Christ!
This is the freedom which is much bigger than any prison walls, and much stronger than any stocks or jail cells.
Do we possess this kind of freedom?
Are we able to rejoice, even when the times get rough?
Or does our faith depend on everything “going our way?”
There is a cotton-candy like view of Christianity that promises all health and wealth, but it melts away when reality strikes.
Evil and pain can sometimes confuse and distort a person’s views of Christianity.
Sometimes folks begin to blame their suffering on a lack of faith.
Many may give up on Jesus all-together.
And as a result, they become spiritually bankrupt and are left with little inner resources with which to battle the trials of life.
Paul and his friends were beaten and thrown into jail for doing what was right, good and lovely.
Sounds awful, doesn’t it?
Well, it is…
…but when we read the New Testament we notice that this kind of treatment was routine for the early followers of Christ.
In 2 Corinthians Paul gives a litany of trials and tribulations that he and other Christians had to endure: “afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonment, riots, labors, sleepless nights and hunger.”
As one writer puts it: “If Paul were here today, he’d be nauseated by those who tout a prosperity gospel.”
For Paul, it wasn’t so important how badly Christians were treated; he had been freed by a towering faith in Christ that enabled him to endure and rise victoriously over any opposition!!!
Through Christ, and Christ alone, we too can overcome the tragedies of life, and turn trouble into triumph!
For a number of years the license plates of New Hampshire had the slogan, “Live Free or Die.”
Ironically, those words were stamped onto the license plates by inmates in the state prison.
They were kept in their prison by high walls and barred windows.
But many people today agree to stay in other sorts of prisons, when they have the opportunity to leave all along.
Something inside us wants to live free, but often we are unwilling to do what the Gospel of Jesus Christ says we must do to be truly free!
We cling to material possessions as if they could stay with us forever.
We allow pride and vanity to distort our view of what is truly beautiful in life.
We let fear control us; fear of what other people think and thus we run with fear from the Only One Who can truly set us free—Christ Jesus the Lord!!!
Paul was free.
It’s true that he spent many of his years as a Christian disciple in Roman prisons, but he was free!!!
His freedom was rooted, not in this world’s definition of the term, but in his spiritual awareness that he was a beloved child of God.
He knew he was called by God to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that he would be with God for ever after his mission on earth was fulfilled.
This freedom gave him the courage to speak and act without having to please the world and the power to respond to people’s pains with the healing love of God.
How great is that?
In Acts, all the other inmates were listening with awe and wonder as the apostles praised God in prison, stocks and with bleeding backs to boot!
Then, “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and everybody’s chains came loose.”
But none of the prisoners took off for the hills.
That night they had seen what real freedom was, and they wanted it for themselves.
They had learned that true freedom did not come from anything outside the prison doors.
And when the jailer woke up thinking that all his prisoners had escaped, he was about to commit suicide until Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
Talk about prison ministry.
This was like nothing the jailer had ever seen or dreamed of.
“Why had they not escaped?
And why do they care about me, the man in charge of keeping them locked up?
Surely, there is a great power at work in this place.
Certainly they possess something I lack!”
So, the jailer actually brought them out of the jail and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
In other words, “Sirs, what must I do to be free like you are free?”
Think about it, what causes other persons to have a desire to be converted?
Is it the things we say, or the cars we drive?
Is it the size of our church, or the color of our carpet?
Or is it about the way we live…
…and I’m not talking about being able to follow the Ten commandments to a T…
…I’m talking about an abiding relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
I’m talking about this relationship altering our lives in such a way that we are given a faith that can move mountains, a peace which transcends all understanding, a joy that doesn’t make any sense, perseverance in the face of tremendous obstacles, a deep and unconditional love for all people—including our enemies, hospitality to strangers, a smile on our face and a skip in our step…
…and I could go on and on and on…
When people see Christians living like Christians---they too want to be a Christian!!!
As I said, this is a story about freedom!
And quite simply, everyone in this story is imprisoned, in one way or another, except for three of the people who are in prison—the apostles themselves!!!
How free are we, really?
That night after the earthquake, the jailer and “all the others in his house” were saved!
The world was turning right way up at last, and what better way of showing it than a Roman jailer, who had been imprisoned by his own fear…
…at terror so great that he would rather impale himself on his own sword than face the wrath of his superior officers…
…throwing a midnight party for three battered but rejoicing heralds of King Jesus?
Yes, in Jesus Christ, we are offered freedom such as the world can never know.
In Him is healing and wholeness and strength.
There is no prison on this earth strong enough to keep Him out—or keep us in!!!
Praise God.
Amen.
