SCRIPTURE READING:

Acts 16

THE RESULTS ARE UNBELIEVABLE

As they pursued obedience to God, He already started using them in wonderful ways. The moment we elect to obey and follow the Lord, He immediately begins to use us. Lydia was the first result and the first convert and some commentators say that she was probably the first convert to the faith from the European part of the world. So there is the very real possibility that through this encounter the Gospel got into Europe and the rest is history. Then they find themselves in prison and God sends an earthquake to release them and all the other prisoners. This sets them up for a meeting with the jailer – the purpose of the whole trip. It’s hard to believe that all the challenges up until this point had brought them to the destiny moment that God had ordained. The jailer is armed and filled with fear and suicidal. We would hardly imagine this was a good time to tell him the Good News. But often, when people are at their lowest, it is the very thing they need.

v29-30 The jailer then called for lights and the jailer brought them out of the dungeon and then the jailer asked the following: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Paul and Silas had the privilege of leading this man and his family to faith in Christ. Then an amazing thing happens, the jailer himself comes and washes their wounds. You never know who God will send across your path to wash your wounds and bring healing to your life. It did not stop there. At this hour of night the jailer makes them a meal and feeds them. As a family involved in ministry, I remember my father telling me that if we would care for and look after the people He entrusts to us, we would never lack and never go hungry. The grief and the trauma was replaced with rejoicing. v34 ‘How he (the jailer) and his household rejoiced because all were now believers!’

ULTIMATELY, GOD HAS THE FINAL SAY IN ALL MATTERS

In the end the judges, who had placed them in the prison, had to come down to the prison in person and beg Paul and Silas to leave the prison and the city. How sovereign God is in all things.

v39 ‘So they (the judges) came to the jail and begged them to go, and brought them out and pled with them to leave the city!’

God resolved the issues and they were able to leave. Basically Paul and Silas got off on a technicality. They happened to be Roman Citizens and should not have been treated in the way they had been. God, in His sovereignty, has a way of working things out. Perhaps you have been treated unfairly – God has a way of working things out. Perhaps you have faced injustice – God has a way of working things out. Paul and Silas had successfully fulfilled the plan and the purpose of God and God had taken care of all the details. As you endeavor to fulfill the plans and purposes of God for your life, He will take care of all the details.

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