TEXT: ACTS 16:16-26
READ TEXT ACTS 16:16-24
INTRODUCTION
Carole and I have a friend that seems to have the Midas touch. You know what I am talking about, everything that he touches seems like it turns into gold. Our friend can go into any situation and come out of it with more money in his pocket than when he went in. He is a hard worker but he has never worked hard at the blessings that life seems to throw him from time to time. Let me give you an example, when my friend and I were in college he rented an apartment on a six month lease. The end of the lease came and he moved out and cleaned up the apartment after he left. He was told the security deposit of $300 would be mailed to him with in a couple weeks. Well the couple weeks came and went and no deposit check. He called and they assured him he would receive it soon. A couple more months past and no security deposit check arrived. So he called once again. Of course they were very sorry for the mistake and he should expect the check any day now. About a month later he did receive a check in the mail from the rental company. I was there the day he opened the envelope. Almost $2,800! Now we are not even going to get into the sermon about whether or not he should have kept the check or not. But the point is… nothing like that ever happens to me! I would like to think I work just as hard but no money just falls into my hands. Sometimes life seems unfair.
Mark Buchanan, wrote about life being unfair in his book, Your God is Too Safe. Listen to what he has to say.
“In the town where I live, a little girl is dying. Her name is Kaitlyn. My daughter Sarah attended preschool with Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn’s mother, Bonnie, came to pick her up one day, and something was terribly awry. Bonnie wrote this to me:
Have you ever had a day that you know has changed your life forever, a day that you would do anything to black out, just fast-forward past?
February 28, 1997. I arrived at the preschool. Kaitlyn was standing in the playground, looking down at the grass. One of her playmates said several times, "Kaitlyn, your mommy is here." I spoke to her, and there was no reaction, so I approached her and lifted her chin up with my finger. When I did this, I realized something was wrong. Her eyes were vacant, and she had no recognition of me. I immediately called for the preschool teacher. Kaitlyn began to waver. I knelt down beside her and laid her across my lap. The teacher called her name and did other things to get her to respond. Her eyes were open but not focused; they rolled to the right. She remained limp. The ambulance was called. I carried her inside and started to lay her on her side. When I did this, she began to cry and call for mommy. When the paramedics arrived, I was holding her and kissing her and weeping. We were taken to the hospital by ambulance. … I was told she had a seizure but she would be fine. Tests were ordered.
The tests agreed with the initial diagnosis: Kaitlyn would be fine.
But Kaitlyn wasn’t fine. She grew increasingly pale. Her speech started to slur, and she began to fumble things, stumble often. She got more and more clumsy. She couldn’t hold things. She walked into walls and doorjambs, and she fell down a lot. Her speech worsened—words started coming out in guttural chunks, in sharp jagged howls, in throaty grunts, in mournful groans. The other 4-year-olds grew afraid of her. Some made fun of her.
The doctor kept ordering tests.
Then one day, Kaitlyn’s mother and father got the news that they dreaded and expected: Kaitlyn is dying. She has Batten’s disease, a rare and incurable congenital degenerative neural disorder. Her muscles are petrifying. They are now hard like wood; they will soon be hard like stone. They will harden until one day she can no longer swallow or breathe. Kaitlyn’s parents, her brother, her grandparents, her aunts and uncles and cousins, her friends, her church family—all watch beautiful little Kaitlyn die a slow death, and they can do nothing.
Kaitlyn’s mother is a Christian and has drenched her bed with tears. She has beaten her fists bloody on heaven’s door, trying to get the owner to open it and give her bread. She attends a church full of godly, caring people. They pray. Other people at other churches pray. They pray for many things—strength for the parents, wisdom for the doctors, comfort for Kaitlyn. But mostly they pray that God will heal Kaitlyn.
God hasn’t answered that prayer yet. In truth, few now think he will.
The people who live beside Kaitlyn won the lottery. More than $600,000. I know almost nothing about these people, except that they have a lovely house. The house, I am told, is already paid for. It has been for a long time. These people, I understand, had a good, abundant life even before their jackpot win. I’m not sure why they buy lottery tickets or, if they don’t, why others buy lottery tickets for them. I’m not sure if they ever prayed to win the lottery or if they ever pray at all.
But they won the lottery. More than $600,000.
And, in the house next door, Kaitlyn is dying.” (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/006/5.92.html)
WHAT?
The fact is life is not fair. We have all come to that conclusion ourselves. If we wanted to take the time today we all, every one of us, could come forward and tell story after story about how we felt that we got the short end of the stick, or were cheated out of something great. We could tell stories about how we felt on top of the world only to come crashing down once again. Life just doesn’t seem fair.
I don’t know what your definition of life being unfair is. Just like we all have different stories of how life seems to be unfair we all have a different definition of what that means. However, I think we can all see that what happened to Paul and Silas was unfair. Let’s look at what happened to them a little more closely.
Paul and Silas were minding their own business. Don’t you love how whenever something bad happens to someone they were always minding their own business. But Paul and Silas actually were. We find them there on the road walking to a place of prayer when they meet the fortune telling slave girl. She would follow them around shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept doing this for many days.
Now, if Mary Jo or Kathryn would like to introduce me by saying this right before I come to deliver the sermon every once in a while that would be OK. But imagine having this “spirit” filled girl behind you announcing this every where you go. It would get old very fast I am sure. I don’t think the kind people at Wal-Mart would appreciate it too much if every time I shopped there my entourage announced my presence by saying, “Here comes the Pastor from Cuba, and he needs a gallon of milk”. And so eventually it got under Paul’s skin. Who could blame him? So when Paul was at the point where I am sure he could not take it anymore, he turned around and said to the demon living inside of her “In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her!”
Paul did nothing wrong of course. But none the less this ticked off the owners of the slave girl just a “little” bit. They seized Paul and Silas and took them to the authorities. Paul and Silas were then, look what it says here in verse 22, they were stripped, they were beaten, they were thrown into jail, and their feet were placed in stocks.
Now, I am not sure what your definition of unfair is but I think you would all agree that this day was not one of Paul and Silas’ better days. However as we are going to see later, Paul and Silas’ bad day turns out to be the best day in the jailer and his family’s life.
So What?
Lets rejoin Paul and Silas inside the prison now and see what happens. Please turn with me to our scripture Acts 16:25-34.
Now place yourselves in the shoes for a moment of Paul or Silas. You had done nothing wrong, you were stripped naked, beaten, taken to jail, and placed under guard. You even overhear the authorities tell the jailer to watch you very closely. So he puts you in the innermost cell in the prison. I have not been to prison before, I haven’t even toured one, so I can’t tell you much about prison structures, but I know they are not the most friendly places on the earth. Today’s prisons are depressing inside at best but imagine one 2000 years ago. Now imagine the most inner cell. This had to be a special place to keep the worst kind prisoners, one where it would be hardest for them to escape, one where everyone in the prison could watch and keep an eye on them. Most likely it was the darkest and most depressing place inside those prison walls.
But look at the two again. What do we find them doing? The Bible says they were praying and singing hymns to God! Praying sure, but singing? Yes, singing!!!
Paul and Silas were so Spirit filled they probably could do nothing else. You have heard preachers preach about being thankful for your hardships, endure through the tough times, because God will surely bless you because of the experience. But have any of them ever told you to sing?
The Nazarene church has a very interesting evangelist named Rev. Robert Pickle. Now if you were to meet Robert on the street you would have no idea he is a Christian, much less an evangelist. He doesn’t seem to fit the stereotype. Rev. Pickle is a Harley Davidson rider, tattooed from head to foot, blue jeans and t-shirt wearin’, ex-con. And he is also a fully commissioned evangelist for the Church of the Nazarene. If you ever get the chance to hear Rev. Pickle jump at the opportunity.
Now he tells a story of singing and praising God in the worst of situations. Rev. Pickle was not long out of prison. He had met his wife and they were living a meager existence in a very modest little house. Robert had just started his ministry and had next to nothing to his name except for his old motorcycle and rental house. He says he was coming home one day and saw the fire trucks on his block. He didn’t recognize his house till he got up and saw his family standing on the sidewalk watching everything they owned burn and go up in smoke.
Robert didn’t know what to do until he remembered that in everything we are supposed to rejoice. The Spirit took Robert and he started running up and down the sidewalk screaming, “Well Glory! Glory to God! Glory!” and started yelling and singing at the top of his lungs.
You see Robert didn’t know why his house was burning down he just knew God had a plan and he was part of it! He did not know why he had lost everything he owned, just that God was about to send a blessing and he was going to receive it! Just when life had seemed to throw the final blow on Robert’s life, instead of being beat down he rose up and was shouting praise to God. God did bless Robert Pickle, his ministry today reaches into the public school system where he tells young kids about the dangers of drugs and gangs. And when he is done he tells the kids about the life saving grace of Jesus Christ no matter what the authorities tell him before hand.
One thing was for certain that day of the fire. Other people were watching. Robert was not by himself that day praising God, many people witnessed it. We also know from our scripture that people were watching Paul and Silas as well, at least they were listening to them.
Let’s look at the next verse, “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all of the prison doors flew open and everybody’s chains came loose.”
Paul and Silas were there in the dark prison cell on the bad day beyond all bad days and what do we find them doing? Praying and singing hymns. What did God do? Because they came to Him in their midnight hour, turned to him in prayer and singing when things looked at their worse, trusted God and God alone to help them, God set them free and their chains fell loose!
Are you ready in your midnight hour to trust God enough to start singing? Do you trust God and God alone to deliver you out of the bondage that may be holding you down? My friends, are you ready for a blessing? And in doing so are you ready to give others a blessing as well?
If you are then I want to show you some more from our story this morning. It says that the jailer woke up and seeing that the prison doors were all open thought the worse. He was about to kill himself.
You see the punishment for a jailer was great if his prisoners escaped, he would be put to death instead. So he decided to do it himself. But Paul was still there, perhaps he was waiting to see what else God would do that day. He said, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
The jailer heard the voice of Paul from the center of the prison. Calling for lights he rushed in to see who and possibly why the two were still in their cell, even with the door open. The same two men that were only moments before praying and singing to God were still there and he ask them,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved? I saw what you two had and I want it too. I listened to your joy even though you should be in despair. I know that I need saved but please tell me how.”
Friends, I don’t want to second guess God by questioning why God allowed Paul and Silas to be placed in that jail cell that night. It may have been for a number of reasons. I can tell you this, the jailer knew exactly why Paul and Silas were there.
Now What?
You see, sometimes God may place us in situations for other people’s benefit, not just our own. God used Paul and Silas that night to lead a jailer and his family to Him. How is God using you?
My friends, I want to challenge you to never let an opportunity to praise God slip away. I want to let you know that every time we give God the glory we are witnessing to our neighbors in a way that otherwise would have been lost.
I also want to remind you to never forget God even when the day is at its worst, even when things have gone so badly that you are in the dark and alone. Sing out to God and He will free you. Sing out to God and let the chains fall. Sing out to God and let others hear you do it!
You may be the trigger, you may be the catalyst.
