As we continue in Acts 16, the difficulties (if that’s the right word) Paul will endure on his 2nd and 3rd journeys are about to begin. This would be a good time to remind you of Acts 9:15-16 where the Lord told Ananias that Paul was “a chosen vessel, to carry My name before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. And I will show him how he must suffer for My name.” The word translated “show” above is from hupodeiknumi, and means, to forewarn.
I mention this again to show the determination, courage and zeal Paul possessed, that he would be willing to serve the Lord in this way, fully knowing what he must suffer to be obedient. When he lists the things he suffered throughout his journeys in 2 Corinthians 11:23-29 (imprisonments, beatings, shipwrecks, plots on his life, etc.), these were not unexpected. He knew they would happen; yet he pressed on to do what he had been called to do. And, even as long a list as we see in the reference above, when he wrote that second letter to the church at Corinth, the list is not complete – he still had several years of travels ahead.
So, we ended the last lesson with Paul commanding the demon to come out of the slave girl in Acts 16:18. There are still some things to consider here before we move on to Paul’s predicament. When Paul commanded the demon to come out, the last part of verse 18 says, “And he came out that same hour.” Here, “hour” is hora; a word used generally to describe time, but is describing something eminent without being specific. Some translations say, “At that moment he came out.” This would lead us to think it was immediate, upon Paul’s command.
However, the next verse makes me think this may have been an event that took place over some short span of time (“in the same hour”). Verse 19 tells us the slave girl’s owners “saw” their hope of profit was gone. What did they see that convinced them of that? Luke doesn’t tell us. As in other instances, the details are missing. But, we can compare this to other similar accounts.
In Mark 9:17-27 Jesus commanded a demon to come out of a boy, it gave out a loud shriek, caused the boy to have severe, violent convulsions and he lay on the ground, motionless. Those who saw it thought he was dead. The boy most likely was injured in some way, as he had been in the past (see verses 18, 20 and 22), but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up. Luke has his own account of this same incident in Luke 9:37-42. In verse 42 he says, “And when he was coming, the demon threw him down and severely convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy and restored him to his father.”
The point is that the slave girl’s owners probably witnessed Paul commanding the demon to come out of the girl, saw the graphic consequences of his command (the sights, sounds and possible injuries to the girl) and then came to the realization that the girl no longer possessed her fortunetelling abilities and their hope of making money from her was ruined. So, in their anger, they dragged Paul and Silas to the marketplace where the Roman authorities held court. Remember Philippi was a Roman colony, ruled by Roman law.
In verses 20-21 we see the charges brought against Paul and Silas. First of all, they were Jews (verse 20). This, alone, would seem innocent enough. There were Jews residing in the city. Lydia was a converted Jew. There was a place of prayer nearby, where the Jews worshipped. This was obviously tolerated and those following the Jewish religion were not considered law-breakers. However, this was an effective charge as can be seen from verse 21, when they were accused of teaching customs that were unlawful for Roman citizens.
Now, what was the problem? It was the fact that throughout the Roman Empire there was one set of laws for Romans, giving them specific rights and privileges, and another set of laws for everyone else. The Romans were very protective of their national “religion” that required them to worship Caesar and the Roman state. For this very reason all Jews had been banished from Rome. Other religions would not be tolerated. For Paul to encourage Romans to worship his God was repugnant to them. And even though Paul had evidently been preaching Christ only to the Jews in their meeting place, this was a charge that would stick.
So, when these charges were brought against them, an angry crowd soon convinced the Roman court that they had to be dealt with, quickly and severely. The magistrates ordered that they be stripped and “beaten” (this is from rabdizo, to beat with a wooden rod or staff). Verse 23 says they received “many” stripes. Jewish law limited such public beatings to 39 stripes (2 Corinthians 11:24), but Roman law had no such limitation. This is why Paul describes this incident in 2 Corinthians 11:23 with “stripes beyond measure” or, in some translations, “countless stripes”. When Roman authorities punished non-Roman citizens, they alone determined the severity of the punishment. We don’t know how harsh the beating was here, but are confident from the information it surpassed what was allowed under Jewish law.
Then, they were put in prison. The jailor was ordered to hold them in the inner part of the prison and put them in stocks (verses 23-24). Roman stocks served several purposes. They were made of wood and fashioned in a way that would stretch the legs and bruise the feet. So, in addition to keeping a prisoner from any chance of escape, they were a form of torture and source of constant pain. Then in spite of the beating and torture, Paul and Silas are praying and singing praises to God and the other prisoners are listening, suddenly there’s a violent earthquake and all the doors of the prison open and everyone’s stocks were loosed (verses 25-26).
Of course this woke the jailor and when he saw the doors were opened, he drew his sword to kill himself, assuming the prisoners had all escaped (verse 27). But Paul told him not to and that all the prisoners were still there (no doubt amazed at what had taken place and curious as to what might happen next). He called for a light; to see if what Paul said was true, then (as the other prisoners had already figured out) realized that Paul, Silas and their God were responsible for all that had happened. His response then, under these circumstances, is perfectly understandable. In fear, he fell to his knees and asked, “Men, what must I do to be saved?” (Verses 28-30) And, here I have to get a little specific with the language. Their reply was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.” “Believe” is pistueo, to place confidence in, to be persuaded. To “believe” in Jesus, then, implies both the knowledge of and agreement with Who He is and what He did, and the acceptance of the same. One cannot “believe” in the Lord Jesus until such knowledge is gained and a resulting conviction leads to the decision being made to trust in Him.
This is illustrated by the grammatical structure of the verbs used in this account. In verse 31 the jailor is told he must “believe” on the Lord Jesus to be saved. Here, the verb is in the aorist imperative, signifying a simple action that is to take place at some point in the future. Exactly right! He didn’t know what to believe at this point; that’s why he asked the question. The next verse (32) tells us, “they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house.” Now he’s getting the knowledge he needs.
Then the jailor took them to a place where he could wash their wounds and Paul baptized him and those of his house (remember, Paul is still water baptizing converts). Then he took them to his house and set food before them, and rejoiced, “believing” in God with his entire house. Now “believing” is a perfect participle, showing the action has been completed in the past with continuing results.
The last part of Acts 16 (35-40) is the account of Paul and Silas being released from prison. The magistrates sent word to the jailor to release them (no doubt because of the earthquake and what they may have heard about the events at the prison). But Paul refused to go quietly, saying they would have to come and escort them out publicly. He wanted to teach them a lesson. Paul and Silas were Roman citizens and had been condemned and beaten contrary to Roman law. And, in this case, the magistrates had every reason to fear; if the case were taken to Rome, history shows Roman magistrates could be executed for mistreating other Roman citizens.
So the magistrates came and conducted them out and pleaded with them to leave the city. Then they went to Lydia’s house and after they had encouraged the brethren there, they departed. Now they’re on their way to Thessalonica.