PAUL THE APOSTLE ( PART 26 ) | THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY | LESSON FROM PHILIPPI ( PART 4 )

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3126

PAUL THE APOSTLE ( PART 26 )

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY
LESSON FROM PHILIPPI ( PART 4 )

THE JAILOR WITH THE HUNGRY SOUL

In yesterday's devotion, we saw Paul and Silas preaching and being arrested for casting out a territorial demon from a soothsayer with a Pythia spirit of divination. 

Today we watch Paul's behavior as he and Silas sing loud praises to God in prison at the midnight hour within the hearing of fellow inmates despite their pain and suffering after being unjustly flogged with metal rods for disturbing the peace of Pax Romana and put in uncomfortable stocks at the deepest and darkest recesses of prison.

By the divine intervention of an earthquake, they are miraculously freed from prison, then share the gospel with the jailer and his family who believe and are baptized as believers in Jesus! 

Incredibly, they tapped into God's joy even in the direst of circumstances, ( Acts 16:1).

The jailor who was prevented by Paul from committing suicide for what he perceived to be his failure of duty in keeping watch on his prisoners asked: "What must I do to be saved?".

Paul's much-quoted answer is still relevant: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household."

Luke who recorded such events shows us how three lives were transformed by the power of the gospel at the Roman colony of Philippi. The first was the soothsayer who was delivered of her bondage as a " cash cow" to her masters and the grip of an evil spirit. Today it is the Philippian Jailor's testimony we are concerned with.

This jailor ( probably a retired Roman military man ) could have thought if they can cast out a soothsaying spirit, what will prevent them from using their magical powers to escape incarceration?

So when Paul and Silas were put into his care and keeping, he placed them in the innermost part of the prison with their feet fastened in wooden stocks and left for the night without any treatment for their wounds. As Christians have found throughout history, the state is often an instrument of persecution.

Abba Father, despite all their pain and suffering, Paul ministered to the jailor and his family, shared the gospel with them, got them all born-again and water-baptized before their own physical needs were met by a hospitable dinner and proper treatment of their bleeding wounds. Indeed the needs of others are always paramount in the lives of committed believers - to serve others first before one is served lastly.