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In Prison at Philippi
Acts 16:16-34
Good News Translation (GNT)
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16 One day as we were going to the place of
prayer, we were met by a young servant
woman who had an evil spirit that enabled her
to predict the future. She earned a lot of
money for her owners by telling fortunes.
17 She followed Paul and us, shouting,
"These men are servants of the Most High
God! They announce to you how you can be
saved!"
18 She did this for many days, until Paul became
so upset that he turned around and said to the
spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I order you
to come out of her!"
The spirit went out of her that very moment.
19 When her owners realized that their chance of
making money was gone, they seized Paul
and Silas and dragged them to the authorities
in the public square.
20 They brought them before the Roman officials
and said, "These men are Jews, and they are
causing trouble in our city.
21 They are teaching customs that are against
our law; we are Roman citizens, and we
cannot accept these customs or practice
them."
22 And the crowd joined in the attack against
Paul and Silas. Then the officials tore the
clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered them
to be whipped.
23 After a severe beating, they were thrown into
jail, and the jailer was ordered to lock them
up tight.
24 Upon receiving this order, the jailer threw them
into the inner cell and fastened their feet
between heavy blocks of wood.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God, and the other
prisoners were listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was a violent earthquake,
which shook the prison to its foundations.
At once all the doors opened, and the chains
fell off all the prisoners.
27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the
prison doors open, he thought that
the prisoners had escaped; so he pulled out
his sword and was about to kill himself.
28 But Paul shouted at the top of his voice,
"Don't harm yourself We are all here!"
29 The jailer called for a light, rushed in, and fell
trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas.
30 Then he led them out and asked,
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 They answered, "Believe in the Lord Jesus,
and you will be saved - you and your family."
32 Then they preached the word of the Lord to
him and to all the others in the house.
33 At that very hour of the night the jailer took
them and washed their wounds; and he and
all his family were baptized at once.
34 Then he took Paul and Silas up into his house
and gave them some food to eat.
He and his family were filled with joy, because
they now believed in God.
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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)
In Prison at Philippi
Acts Chapter 16:16-34
The second resident of Philippi mentioned in this chapter
is a poor demon-possessed slave girl.
Many people believed that she could predict the future,
and they paid money to her masters to have their fortunes told.
In this way the slave girl's masters made much money from her fortune-telling.
But it was not the slave girl who was doing the fortune-telling;
it was an evil spirit within her that did the talking.
This evil spirit recognized that Paul had been sent by God
to show men the way of salvation.
Evil spirits can always recognize Jesus and His servants.
For many days the slave girl followed Paul around raising a clamour.
Finally Paul ordered the evil spirit to leave her,
and the spirit immediately left her and she was free.
But the girl's ability to predict the future also left her,
and she could no longer tell people's fortunes.
Thus, when her masters realised that they had lost their income
from her fortune-telling, they were furious.
The girl's masters accused Paul and Silas of "advocating customs unlawful
for us Romans to obey", and to a large extent their accusation was true.
By preaching the Gospel of Christ in a Roman colony like Philippi,
Paul and his companions were, in fact, breaking the law of the Roman Empire.
Because, according to Roman law, it was illegal for anyone
to preach a strange or foreign religion among Roman citizens.
In New Testament times, the Jews used to punish criminals
by whipping them.
The Romans used to punish criminals by beating them
with rods.
Without even examining Paul and Silas, the magistrates
of Philippi concluded on the basis of the crowd's uproar
that they must be guilty of the accusation against them,
and so they gave the order that they be beaten.
After their beating, Paul and Silas were thrown into prison.
The jailer fastened Paul and Silas' feet in stocks.
In Roman prisons such stocks were placed so that the prisoner's feet
were spread widely apart;
this resulted in intense discomfort for the prisoner.
In 2 Corinthians 11:25, Paul writes that three times he was beaten
with rods. This beating in Philippi was one of those times.
Then what did these two apostles do?
There they were - sitting in jail, just beaten with rods,
their feet stretched apart in stocks.
So what did they do?
They began to sing hymns and praise God!
The other prisoners in the jail surely must have been dumbfounded!
Then God, by means of an earthquake, caused the prison doors
to open and the chains of the prisoners to come loose -
not only the chains of Paul and Silas, but the chains of all
the other prisoners as well.
Such chains would have been securely attached to the walls
and floor of the prison; nevertheless, God caused them to come apart.
The jailer awoke from the earthquake and ran to the jail.
Seeing the doors of the jail wide open, he immediately assumed
that all the prisoners had escaped.
For a Roman jailer, there could be no greater disgrace.
Fearing that he would receive the death penalty for allowing
his prisoners to escape, the jailer at once decided that the
best thing to do would be to kill himself
Because of the darkness, the jailer could not see inside the prison.
But Paul, from inside, could see the jailer drawing his sword to kill himself.
"We are all here!" Paul shouted.
The other prisoners hadn't even tried to escape.
Perhaps Paul had ordered them to stay, and because they recognized
that he was in some way sent from God, they had obeyed him.
God had loosened their feet, but He had bound their hearts.
The jailer fell at Paul and Silas' feet trembling with fear.
Perhaps earlier the jailor had heard that slave girl crying out:
"These men are servants of the Most High God,
who are telling you the way to be saved".
These men possessed God's power.
No jail was strong enough to hold them.
"Such men can show me how to escape from God's wrath,"
thought the jailer.
Having just barely been saved from killing himself,
the jailer had now begun to think about his soul.
After they had spoken the word of the Lord to the jailer and his family,
Paul and Silas baptised them. There was no reason to wait.
Furthermore, Paul and Silas might be gone by tomorrow.
Because they had believed, the jailer and his family were filled with joy.
From this, we can assume that they were also filled with the Holy Spirit;
one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is joy.
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