The Joy of Paul and Silas

This week, my rambling thoughts have led me to Acts 16, talking about Paul and Silas

16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.

17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”

18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.

20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar

21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.

23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.

24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

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 such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.

27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.

I started looking at the first generation of Christians a few weeks back, but got sidetracked by a couple of special Sundays. I want to continue looking at some of the amazing works of the early Christians, because I believe that there is a lot to learn from their faith.

In the passage, we see Paul and Silas as they are out on a missionary journey. While they are preaching the Word, a slave girl, who was possessed by a demon began to follow them. The demon is almost being compelled to accuse them, by calling them servants of the Lord. Growing weary of this, Paul casts out the demon. Without the demon, the girl could no longer predict the future and thereby became useless to her owners. The owners rallies the people against Paul and Silas until they are arrested, flogged (severely), and cast into prison.

The amazing part of the passage is in verse 25. Despite all that they had just endured, at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. The KJV translates the word 'hymns' as 'praises.' And that's huge.

I mentioned this passage as part of a larger sermon that I preached on Joy earlier this year, at my church in Texas. And I find myself going back to it often for one simple reason: I struggle with that level of surrender in my life. I struggle to find joy when things are dark. So, when I read passages like this, I am humbled by Paul and Silas' reaction to far worse circumstances than I have ever IMAGINED of dealing with.

They have been out doing what God has commanded them to do. They have given up everything that they have known in life to become missionaries. They are out doing their best to just preach the love of Jesus, and they are arrested for it. And not just an arrest...more like a full assault. They are beaten, the Bible says, 'severely.' With the open wounds on their backs, they are thrown into the inner prison. This was typically a cave. No light. No ventilation. No toilets. Then, their feet were placed in stocks, meaning that they were laid on their backs...that had just been beaten bloody. On their backs. On the dirt. In the filth.

And of all of the things that they could have been doing at this point: complaining, crying, questioning God...? They were doing none of those things. Rather, they were praying and singing hymns...singing praises. Praying, I get. Singing praises? That's a tough one.

So, the question is, why are they able to respond this way to being tortured? The answer is actually easy...but not one that we like to hear...especially in America in 2025. See, the fact is that their joy was coming from within them. Their joy was dependent on their relationship with God. But today, our joy is generally determined by outside stimuli. We've become addicted to external happiness. The world tells us that "things" will make us happy. We need that new car. We need those new shoes. We need to look like this and we need to smell like that. Happiness is found in more and better things...or in relationships. We need romance to be happy. We need a perfect marriage to be happy. And if we're not happy? We get angry, we get divorced, we step on co-workers to fight our way up the salary ladder, until we get what we want.

And despite all of this...we're still not happy because we haven't figured out that true happiness is never going to come from outside of us. It's already there, placed by God, if we will just rest in Him.

The next thing that I see in this passage is this: What is it that you think that they were praying for? I mean seriously think about it. If it were me, I would have been praying for release. But I don't believe they were. And here's why: When the earthquake comes and releases them...they didn't leave. Why? I can't get over that thought. Why didn't they immediately leave? They absolutely had to be praying for deliverance, right??

So, I have two thoughts about this:

First: Peter. Just a few chapters earlier, Peter is imprisoned and miraculously released by and Angel. His jailors? Put to death.

Second: Just because something seemingly good is set in front of us does not make it God's will. Paul understood this from a different perspective than Peter. I'm not saying that Peter was wrong. I'm saying that Paul's purpose was different. Paul was there to be a missionary...to share the gospel with the lost and dying. Paul, rather than taking the opportunity to be free, chose to turn that opportunity into a chance to share the gospel with the jailor.

The jailor, who would have been killed if Paul had escaped, recognized God's reality and sought God's grace.

I wonder how often we jump at an opportunity before us without really praying it through. I know that I'm guilty. I pray for something, a similar opportunity arises and I just assume that God has answered my prayer without really seeking His face.

I truly believe that "good" is the most powerful enemy of the "best" and sometimes the Devil dangles something that looks good in front of us, just because he knows that God is about to offer us the best.