We are all familiar with the concept of “jailhouse transformations,” that phenomenon associated with a prisoner whose life is “miraculously” transformed, but only after they get to prison. We recall the “jailhouse” transformation of the likes of Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, and we’re skeptical, and perhaps, rightly so. But, we also hear the story of Charles Colson, who was special counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 – 1973. The former Nixon aide was sentenced to prison in 1974 for his involvement in Watergate. Many observers, including those at Newsweek and Time, dismissed his conversion as nothing more than an attempt at an early release from prison. But soon after his release from prison, Colson founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, a faith-based organization dedicated to serving prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families. We just never know what God will do when a person is in a crisis. Such is the scene we read in today’s scripture, except it’s not a prisoner who is transformed, but rather the jailer. It is an unlikely turn of events when we think about “jailhouse transformations.”
We need the backstory to today’s scripture before we begin. As Luke records the events of Paul’s second missionary journey in the Book of Acts, we find Paul and Silas in the city of Philippi, and they are in prison. That’s interesting when you consider that Philippi was Paul’s favorite church. It was to the church at Philippi that Paul would write, “every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God” (Philippians 1:3), and “it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart” (1:7). Yet, Paul, in Philippi, is in prison. What landed Paul and Silas in prison? It’s communion Sunday, so you get the Reader’s Digest version.
Paul and Silas were in Philippi preaching. They had met Lydia and some others along a riverbank, and they had converted to Christ. Paul continued preaching, and one day they encountered a servant girl who had a spirit that allowed her to tell the future. Some local men had exploited that young lady for their own monetary gain. This young lady started following Paul and Silas around shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved” (16: 17). Paul didn’t respond for the longest, but day after day that begins to wear on a fellow. After several days of this young lady following and shouting, Paul became exasperated and cast the spirit out of the girl.
Well, that got into the pocketbook of the girl’s handlers. Apparently, these men weren’t too concerned with Paul and Silas until their preaching impacted their bottom line. Just goes to show that the first transformation any of us need is in our pocketbook. These men brought Paul and Silas up on charges before the city’s authorities saying, “They’re teaching things that are illegal for Romans to practice.” The city authorities had them beaten and thrown into prison. To make sure they didn’t escape, they were placed in the inner dungeon and placed in stocks, which were basically a torture device designed to limit a person’s capacity to move. I would say Paul and Silas were in a crisis.
The passage today begins, “Around midnight…” The crisis gets worse. Around midnight, an earthquake hits the city (not really unusual for the city of Philippi) that shakes the prison to its foundations. Luke records (he remembers because he was there with them) the doors of the prison were opened and the stocks broke loose. Enter the jailer, who now has his own crisis to deal with. He’s awakened by the earthquake to find the prison in shambles, and he knows without a doubt that his prisoners have all escaped. His immediate reaction is to contemplate suicide. After all, custom dictated that if a guard allowed a prisoner to escape, the punishment that was due the prisoner was given to the guard instead. The guard thought it better to die with dignity than to bear the indignity of the authorities parading him before the whole town to be put to death. But Paul intervened, and said, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself. We’re all here.” The jailer called for a light, went into the dungeon, fell at Paul and Silas’s feet and proclaimed, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and all your household.” Luke says that “even at that hour,” the guard’s life was transformed, and he cared for the prisoner’s wounds, showed them hospitality and the home was filled with joy. This double crisis became the vehicle whereby God would transform a Philippian jailer and his entire family. Quite a stunning jailhouse transformation!
There are three implications I want to draw from this episode that I hope will be meaningful for us. First, adversity is a fact of life. There is enough adversity to go around for everyone in this event. Paul and Silas are in prison. If that wasn’t enough adversity, consider they were in the center of God’s will. They were doing exactly what God desired them to be doing. Don’t ever think for one moment that being in the center of God’s will is always a pleasant place to be. Oh, there is abundant blessing there, but it’s not always pleasant—regardless of what proclaimers of the prosperity gospel would have us believe. The center of God’s will can often be the most challenging, frightening and difficult place to be.
And, this poor guard…really, this poor guy is just doing his job. He’s a mid-level government bureaucrat simply trying to raise a family and do the right thing. In an earthquake at midnight, in one fell swoop, he’s about to lose his job and his life. Not a great place to be. I would call that a crisis moment. It just goes to prove how much of life really is beyond our control. How helpless this poor guy must have felt. He didn’t do anything…well, maybe he was sleeping on the job, but who hasn’t let his/her guard down on occasion? In the grand scheme of things he did nothing to put himself in this situation. Life just happened. Yet, it is in the deepest, darkest crises of life that God does his greatest work.
Are you in a crisis? Take heart, you may just be right where God is about to do his greatest work in you. None of us will escape adversity. Jesus even warned his disciples, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Jesus instruction to “take heart” leads me to the next two implications. Secondly, midnight always precedes morning. We can’t get to the morning without first going through midnight. Midnight may seem like the darkest hour of the night, but midnight doesn’t last forever. I like what Mark Kay Ash said, “You don’t have to do this forever, but you do have to do it right now.” And Charles Swindoll offers, “Midnight might seem like the darkest hour, but one minute after midnight is officially morning.” The Psalmist, too, had his take on the subject: “Weeping may last through the night, buy joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5b).
God didn’t take Paul and Silas out of the prison. Here’s the thing—they weren’t looking for deliverance. They could have easily made their way out of the prison. Instead, they were looking for a purpose. They discovered their purpose when they encountered the Philippian jailer. My friends, don’t look for deliverance from the midnight, look for purpose in it.
The final implication I draw this morning is this: attitude determines altitude. There are two attitudes we can choose when we face the midnight. We can be happy, or we can be hopeless. Paul and Silas chose happy…they chose to sing praise to God in the adversity. The jailer chose hopeless. He was ready to kill himself. Catch this, though…Paul and Silas’s attitude…their faith opened the door for God’s transformation in the life of this jailer. Their reaction made all the difference. Faith leads to praise and praise leads to peace. Praise married to peace opens the door to proclamation. Paul and Silas shared the word of the Lord with this jailer and it changed him and his entire family. Men, let me say a word to you here. How important it is for us to demonstrate faith and faithfulness to our families. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again—the family is the greatest incubator of faith. Parents, our families get their faith from us. It is the greatest gift we can give them. And, yes, faith is a gift. Where do we get the gift of faith? We receive the gift of faith from watching the lives of other faithful folks. Faith is revealed in faithfulness.
Don’t ever doubt the transformations that come at midnight…in the crisis. Remember the story of Karla Faye Tucker? She received the death penalty for the brutal murder of her friend Jerry Dean in 1983. After fourteen years on death row, Tucker was executed in 1998, in Huntsville,Texas. She had become an evangelical Christian in prison and would become a model inmate. Her acts of service became well known not only within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, but around the country. During her incarceration Tucker met her victim’s brother, Richard Thornton, and Thornton would become a Christian as a result of her interaction with him. When asked if she had any last words before the lethal injection was administered, here is part of her statement:
Yes sir, I would like to say to all of you —the Thornton family and Jerry Dean’s family—that I am so sorry. I hope God will give you peace with this. . . . Everybody has been so good to me. I love all of you very much. I am going to be face to face with Jesus now. Warden Baggett, thank all of you so much. You have been so good to me. I love all of you very much. I will see you all when you get there. I will wait for you.
God does great work in the dark. He did it for a Philippian jailer. He did it for the likes of Karla Fay Tucker. He’ll do it for the likes of you and me.
