Contextual questions to set the Acts 16 scene :
Who is the author of Acts? No clear author is stated in Acts 1; however, seeing Luke 1:1-4 and Acts 1:1-3, the same author wrote Acts and the gospel of Luke. So, the author is believed to be Luke. This is an understanding the early church held as well.
Who is present on the 2nd missionary journey team at this point? It looks like Paul, Luke, Timothy, Silas are present. (1:1-3; 16:1, 19)
Where did the mission team want to go and did not? Asia. (16:6)
Where is the mission team when Paul commands the demon to leave? Philippi. (16:12)
What miracle did we study last Lord’s day? Paul commanded a demon in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to come out of a young girl. (16:18)
Today we will consider the reactions of this powerful, life changing miracle.
1. Lies, Anger, & Hurt (16:20-24)
Those who owned the demon possessed slave girl had significantly profited financially from her demon possession. Now that the demon was cast out, these men were not happy campers! The KJV translates Acts 16:19 with the understanding that they “caught” Paul and Silas and “drew” them into the marketplace. However, the ESV and NKJV give us a more visual understanding of those Greek words when those translations relate that the owners of the slave girl “seized” Paul and Silas and “dragged” them into the marketplace before the rulers. This is an alarming scene unfolding before the mission team’s eyes!
Here are 4 observations from 4 different phrases found in Acts 16:21-24.
o v. 21 – “not lawful” – LIES. No one had a problem with them teaching until the demon was cast out of the girl from which these men were profiting!
o v. 22 – “multitude rose up against them” – ANGER. People are very impressionable and easily swayed to follow a leader. May we lead those around us to Christ!
o v. 23 – “many stripes upon them” –HURT. They are beaten and thrown into prison without a trial (Roman law would require a trial). This is the first of only 3 official arrests throughout Paul’s 35 years of ministry. This all happens because some men could no longer take advantage of a slave girl’s demonic soothsaying. This is maddening! Right is wrong and wrong is right.
o v. 24 – “inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks” – HURT. Paul and Silas are treated like harden, dangerous criminals! They suffer significant pain through unjust treatment.
What was their reaction? Yelling for their lawyer? Perhaps they were weeping in their cells (after all, they were beaten…they would be in pain!)? No. They actually had a hymn sing.
2. Songs, Shakings, & Salvation (16: 25-34)
Consider 3 more observations from the events of Acts 16:25-30
o v. 25 – “prayed, sang, the prisoners heard them” – SONGS & PRAYER. Everyone is watching and listening to how these, who were treated unjustly, responded!
o v. 26 – “there was a great earthquake” – SHAKINGS. The Lord shakes this prison until all the prison doors are opened, but no one escapes. Paul assures the keeper of the prison that no one has left their cell. This keeps the prison guard from killing himself, because if he had lost a prisoner he would have be executed.
This earthquake demonstrates the amazing power of God. No prison can hold back God! The earthquake also reveals how Paul and Silas are resting in God (they are calm and do not run to escape) and how these men are more concerned about souls than they are their own freedom.
So, let’s bring these details together before we read the next verse. Paul and Silas are arrested, they were convicted of teaching customs that were not illegal for Romans, they were beaten, they were thrown into the inner prison, and their feet were fastened into stocks. They followed all of that with praying and singing hymns at a volume that the prisoners could hear what they were saying and singing – and it was midnight (16:25)! After all of that, a sudden earthquake opens every prison cell, but these who had been listening to Paul and Silas’ praise prayer meeting stayed in their cells! What makes a man praise God amid the loss of freedom? What makes a man praise God after a painful beating? What makes a hardened guilty criminal (the prisoners who heard Paul and Silas) want to stay in his prison cell when an escape is possible? The answer is one word: Jesus.
o v. 30 – “what must I do to be saved?” – SALVATION. Paul and Silas’ trial wasn’t over yet…they were still in pain from a whipping, no doubt their feet hurt from the chains, and it most likely smelled horribly. The conditions would have been most undesirable! However, the keeper of the prison had heard enough from these two men that after the earthquake, he grabs a hold of them and asks how to be saved!
What do people ask you when you are unjustly treated, handled with brutality, and discarded like yesterday’s trash?
Our life before trials will manifest itself during trials!
7 Things to learn from Paul’s First Arrest:
1. No matter what lies people tell about you or that you tell about yourself, God knows the truth.
2. Choose to embrace truth. It is always the best (although sometimes dangerous) position to hold.
3. Some people will get angry at the goodness of God. Mankind has historically responded with anger when their sinful choices are removed as an option. But it is the goodness of God to save us from our own destruction!
4. Getting hurt does not mean God has forsaken you. Sometimes getting hurt means God is at work in you and through you. Yet, the believer can always know that God is for you and loves you! Don’t forget about hurt that Job (lost family, possessions, and health), Noah (the hurt of everyone but his family rejecting God), Jonah (hurt that came from his own rebellion), Daniel (hurt that came from 70 years of captivity), Ruth (hurt that came from the loss of her first husband), Esther (hurt that came from targeting her people for execution), Joseph (hurt that came from the betrayal of his brothers and loss of family), and Jesus Himself went through the excruciating hurt of a crucifixion and taking on the sins of the world .
5. Concentrate on who God is when trials surround you. This is what their hymn sing was all about!
6. God will deliver you in His perfect timing – even if it takes an earthquake!
7. My response to unjust behavior impacts others.
Never forget you follow Jesus. Never forget why you follow your Savior!