Filled with Joy

Introduction

A. How is it that two people can go through the same experience and one person praises and another person grumbles? We know that attitude plays a significant role in how a person deals with the trials of life. Viktor Frankl was a survivor of a World War II German concentration camp. After surviving that experience he began to reflect on why some men survived and others did not. He wrote about his experiences in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning.” What Frankl noted was that those who survived were filled with hope. They believed that the day of freedom was ahead and believing that to be true, the men would often share their meager portion of bread and watered down soup with those who were perceived to be in worse shape. Frankl wrote: Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: To choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.

B. What is true for human beings is exceptionally true for God’s children. This is not to suggest that when trying times come that we only have positive emotions. However, the situation must not take away our joy. We hurt; we cry; we ask “why?”; but we know that we are in relationship with the God who provides strength and may deliver in such situations. Today we are going to look at a text that is challenging and encouraging. Paul and Silas in Acts 16 experience a trial but their joy remains intact. Let’s be encouraged.

God Leads

A. Paul and Silas have been in Philippi preaching. According to 16:10, they are here because God led them here. Lydia and others have been saved. Other than a pesky teenager they have been having good success in Philippi. But that pesky teenager isn’t right. She is enslaved by a spirit of divination and she is enslaved by men who use her for their own gain. Luke uses a word which NIV translates as “predicted the future” which means that she is connected to the god, Apollo. It was believed that Apollo was the god who protected the future. Supposedly, this teenage girl could “speak the truth of the future from Apollo.” She is following Paul and Silas proclaiming that they are servants of the Most High God. To the pagan ear this phrase would have been associated with Zeus not Jesus. This is the reason why Paul is troubled and he heals her. Setting her free from the spirit of divination means that she is worthless to her owners. Start messing with a person’s pocketbook and you find out real quick what it important.

B. Now Paul and Silas are awaiting sentencing. There is no trial. There is no attempt to learn the truth. They are at the mercy of their captors. They are beaten with a cane. This was an illegal punishment for Roman citizens but it was considered a minor punishment. Done publicly it was intended to bring shame to Paul and Silas and to any who would give thought to their teaching. They are handed over to a hardened uncaring jailer whose main responsibility was to make sure no prisoners escaped.

C. Ancient Roman prisons would not have been anything like what we are familiar with. Most prisons were underground. One was let down or climbed down into the prison. Paul and Silas are chained and placed in stocks. They would be seated on the ground probably with some straw under them. Their feet would have been placed in wooden stocks so that they could not move easily and their hands would have been secured with chains secured to the wall.

D. We have already heard the story read. We know that Paul and Silas are getting ready to sing, but just for a moment put yourself in their stocks. What would you do? We have been there. We have had things go bad when we thought we were doing God’s will. We want to follow God’s direction and then something catastrophic happens. What do you do? Pray for deliverance? Sure. Complain? Probably. Sing? “I don’t sing well.” I want to challenge you this morning. Have we forgotten how to sing? Have we forgotten the song that Jesus put into our hearts so long ago? It is much easier to voice our complaints against what is happening. As a human being, we do not like to suffer. We do not like for things to go wrong. But where is the song? Where is the song that says thank you? Where is the song that praises God? Where is the song of faith? We have lost our song. We sing when we feel good. We sing when things are going well. But when we are deflated does our song leave us? Why does it leave us?

E. If anyone had a right not to sing, it was Paul and Silas. This reminds me of the early apostles who after having been beaten by religious leaders in Acts 5 return to the people rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering for God. Where is our song? Wouldn’t you like to know what they sang? What song would you sing? Tempted and Tried. Thank You, Lord. I Love You, Lord. Blessed Be Your Name. Maybe Paul and Silas sang Psalm 107, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.”

F. Maybe that is what they were singing when the earthquake came and their shackles fell off and the doors to the prison opened up and they were free to go. Whatever they were singing, they had an audience. 16:25 says the other prisoners were listening. But not the hardened jailer. He was asleep and the earthquake shook him awake. Assuming the worst, he knows that his life will be taken for letting his prisoners escape, so he plans on killing himself. But the prisoners remain.

Joy

A. Verse 29 tells us that the jailer is pretty shaken by this turn of events. He isn’t used to being out of control. Doesn’t his question strike you as interesting? He doesn’t ask “what happened?” “How come all you guys are still here?” Nor does he order them back to their cells. “What must I do to be saved?” Some want to suggest that the jailer is now convicted of his sin and that he is ready to turn his life over to God. That doesn’t fit. He is convicted that Paul and Silas have something which no previous prisoner had. He is convicted that they have something which he needs. Paul’s answer in verse 31 should not be understood as being a test of faith but the beginning of a process of further convincing this jailer that God loves him. Because it is after their baptism that joy is found in his house.

B. When we have a song to sing, we look at life differently. Paul had something the jailer didn’t—joy. An attitude of confidence and assurance when hell is breaking out all around. Paul is under the control of God and is free. The jailer controls the lives of others and is enslaved. Paul sings when things are bad; the jailer sleeps to avoid truth. Which one do you identify with? Let me tell you a point in this story that is convicting. Paul and Silas go where God leads them. They preach God’s message. They help others to hear the good news. They do God’s will and end up in jail. But when bad things happen in our lives, God is not through using us. We assume the earthquake was to release Paul and Silas. But the magistrates in verse 35 were going to release Paul and Silas the next morning. The damage had already been done. Do you think God didn’t know that the magistrates were going to release Paul and Silas? Was God sitting in his throne room looking down and saying to the angels around him, “Man, I didn’t see that coming!! I didn’t need to send an earthquake. The officials were going to let them go anyway.” Of course not. What’s the point?

C. We assume the earthquake was for Paul and Silas. I would submit that the earthquake was for the jailer. God takes the bad that happens in our lives and uses it to bring about his will and purpose. Because Paul and Silas had a song to sing, they were already safe. Prison didn’t break their spirit or bury their faith. But the jailer—the jailer needed to wake up. And God shook him awake. Maybe you are here today and you have been here so many times. You know the songs by heart and the order before we even start. Your eyes are open but your mind is closed. This is just routine. Listen to me. God loves you so much that he is even now giving you one more opportunity to hear him.

D. God loves you. He is interested in your eternal future. He wants to be in relationship with you. To the Christian, what is your song to sing during the tough times? If you don’t have a song, let God give you one. Invitation.

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