The Prison Experience – Paul and Silas’ Experience Last week we started a series called “The Prison Experience.” Although most of us have never experienced being a prisoner of a real true prison with bars many of us have had what we call a prisoner experience because we have had a period of time in our life that we have felt trapped, like there was no way out. You can feel like you’re a prisoner of your finances. You can feel like you are a prisoner to your health situation or your relationships or your addictions. There are many prisoner-like experiences. But there are many literal prison experiences in the scriptures that godly men faced. Even though their prison experiences were literal they have much to teach us about our prison experiences. Last week we talked about Joseph and his prison experience. After Joseph was sold off to slavery and ended up in Egypt. He became the slave of a high official named Potiphar. Potiphar developed such a trust for Joseph that he put him in charge of his whole house. Potiphar’s wife had other designs for Joseph and when he didn’t go along she made up a story that Joseph had tried to have his way with her. Potiphar had Joseph put in prison. Is all Joseph did was the right thing. He refused to sleep with his master’s wife and now he ended up in prison. The same thing is true in our lives that our prison experiences aren’t always deserved. But even while Joseph was in prison God never left him and He still had the favor of God. God made Joseph have the favor of the warden and Joseph became like a prisoner in charge of the other prisoners. Sometimes when we are in our prison experiences we think God has left us. But if we take the time to truly look at everything we will see that even through our prison experiences God has given us signs that He is still with us. Just because we are in prison doesn’t mean we have lost the favor of God. While Joseph was in prison Pharaoh threw two prisoners in prison that Joseph was put in charge of. Joseph could have wallowed in his own situation. But instead he took his eyes of himself and we saw him ministering to these two men. There are ministry opportunities in your prison experience. If we would take our eyes off ourselves and stop feeling sorry for ourselves in the midst of our prison experience we will find that there are opportunities for us to minister. Paul spent almost all of his time in prison ministering to other people. For those of you who were there Wednesday night this prison experience will be very familiar because as we have been going through the book of Acts we came upon this experience just last week. But it’s a prison experience that needs to be shared because it’s too powerful not to be. To set up the situation Paul and Silas were on a missionary journey and they were in the city of Philippi when a

slave girl who could predict the future thanks to a spirit of a different kind started following them and shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” After several days of this Paul turned around and demanded that the spirit come out of her. Her slave owner who made quite a bit of money out of her ability to predict the future was enraged with Paul and them. Their cash cow was no longer. So they dragged them to the authorities. Let’s pick it up starting in Acts 16:22.

Acts 16:22-34 Let’s look at just that first part of verse 25 one more time. “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God…” Keep in mind Paul and Silas had just been beaten and flogged. Many people never even survive a flogging. Yet Paul and Silas are singing hymns to God and praying. They were not going to let their prison experience stop them from praising God. They weren’t blaming Him; they were praising Him in spite of it. Don’t let your prison steal your praise. Most of you have heard of Corrie Ten Boom. She spent 11 years in a concentration camp prison for hiding Jews during the Holocaust, one of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind. She spent her time in Ravensbruck with her sister Betsie. “Ravensbruck was one of the worst concentration camps in Germany. Fleas and lice were so thick that upon entering the bunkroom, one became swarmed in them. The stench of burning flesh from those that were murdered without warning was a constant stare into the face of death. The food was one half pound of bread and one half liter of soup per day. The work was so hard that the women had swollen legs and were losing circulation in no time. To make matters worse, the women fought one another for everything. They cursed, pushed, and shoved each other. Even if someone was simply stepped on or bumped. Rarely donated clothes and blankets caused horrible uproars. The few nurses who had access to items such as soap, vitamins, and underwear charged prices such as a week's bread ration for undergarments, 25 gilders for soap, and two days' bread for any pills.” (Corrie Ten Boom-Light in the Holocaust, www.squidoo.com) It was a terrible miserable existence. But Corrie Ten Boom and her sister had managed to sneak a Bible into the prison. The bunk room of the prison had become infested with fleas. For some reason the guards had just stopped coming into the bunkroom anymore. They later found out that the reason the guards were no longer coming into the bunkroom was because of how bad the fleas had become. Cory and her sister in their prayers gave God praise for the fleas because it enabled them to praise God freely and read his Word without as

much worry about being caught. If they were caught they would have been executed, reading the Bible was absolutely prohibited. In the midst of their prison experience they are praising God for fleas so they can freely praise God. Fleas jump on you and bite you. If you have ever made the mistake of going into a flea infested room you will not forget it. Yet they were thankful and giving praise. Some of you have gone through some difficult times. You have allowed yourself to be weighted down by your prison experience. You feel trapped and the joy and praise has left your heart a long time ago. I’m telling you that even in the midst of your prison experience God can restore your joy and give you a heart that won’t stop singing praises to Him just like Paul and Silas, just like Corrie Ten Boom and her sister. I think if we are honest with ourselves probably all of us have let a difficult experience maybe silence our song. When I look at Paul and Silas and others have gone through in their lives and yet their songs never stopped I feel bad that mine has been before for much less. Maybe this morning some of you just want to ask God to restore the songs of praise to your heart. Maybe you just want to ask Him to help you to never lose your praise and thankfulness to Him no matter what prison you may find yourself in. Now the first part of verse 25 told us how about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God the rest of it reads, “and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Paul and Silas were not alone and other people were watching and listening to them while they were in this prison together. What they saw were men who were full of courage and praise for their God. They didn’t see bitter and angry men. They saw men who praised God through their songs. They saw men praying to their God. You need to realize the same dynamic goes for you in your prison experience. Other people are watching you in the midst of your prison experience. When people know you are going through a difficult time in your life, when people know that things are stacked against you, whether they know it is a prison-like experience or not, they are watching you to see how you handle it. What do they see from you during those times in your life? Do they see someone who is in panic mode? Do they see someone who is consumed with worry or maybe filled with anger? Or do they see someone who is full of prayer and praise? I can always remember my grandma Rosy with a song on her lips. She was either singing or humming almost all the times. I know she went through some difficult times because we all do. But I don’t ever remember her losing her song! There was something soothing about the song on her lips whether I knew what it was or not. Last week we talked about the fact that when you are in the midst of prison experiences that you will often times have ministry

opportunities if you take your eyes off of yourselves. One of the reasons why that is true is when you handle your prison experiences with prayer and praise people are intrigued by what you have. It gives them a hunger for what you have. By the way when Corrie Ten Boom and her sister shared the scriptures and the hope from God’s Word in that flea infested bunk room things began to change. When they saw that Corrie and her sister had source of hope and strength it changed the women in that concentration camp. “The difficult prices for basic things, commodities that few consider of value, remained the same. But the ray of hope was changing something else. Instead of shoving, clawing, pushing, kicking, or cursing each other, the women were responding with ‘Sorry! That's okay! No harm done! Excuse me please!’ What a change this ray of hope brought in by two women had made.” (Corrie Ten Boom-Light in the Holocaust, www.squidoo.com) Lives were changed by the light they witnessed from these two women in the midst of their prison experience. You are going to have prison experiences in this life. The question is what are people going to see in you when you have them? Keep praying and praising and the people watching you just might be changed as well. Sometimes you can’t change the fact that you’re in prison, but you can change what you do with the time! Now let’s go back to our text and look what happens after we are told that Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns and the other prisoners were listening to them. Verses 26-30 says, “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundation of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. The jailor 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. But Paul shouted, ‘Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!’ The jailor called for the lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ There was an unbelievably powerful earthquake that shook the very foundation of the prison, everything came undone. The doors flew open. The prison chains came loose! It was a miracle. The amazing thing Paul and Silas, nor for that matter any of the other prisoners, didn’t run out the door. I think Paul and Silas knew that if they did the jailor would have been automatically executed for letting prisoners escape. The jailor almost killed his self before Paul let him know that no one had left. The jailor was so grateful that he brought Paul and Silas out of the prison and asked them what he must do to be saved. They would tell him to believe on the Lord Jesus. We of course know that he took Paul and Silas home and bandaged their wounds. Not only did the jailor get saved but his

whole family did and then they all got baptized. I find it even more powerful that they were more interested in this jailor than walking out the doors that the Lord just blew open with an earthquake. Once again when you take your eyes off yourselves during a prison experience it is amazing the ministry that God can do through you in those situations. They went back into prison the next morning so the jailor wouldn’t get in any trouble then they were officially released although there is another story behind that. But this release from prison and everything that happened started with a miraculous earthquake that blew the prison doors open and undid the shackles. This is the thing we learn with God: With God you can never rule out a miraculous delivery from your prison. There are times in the scriptures where we see God bring the great prison escapes. Earlier in Acts God sends an angel to walk Peter right out of a prison and it takes a little while before Peter realized that he wasn’t dreaming or seeing a vision; that it was really happening. But that wasn’t always the case. There were other very godly people who never were given a miraculous escape. Some people served a significant time in prison. Some people’s life ended with a prison experience. Right before Peter was arrested and went to prison James the brother of John never experienced a miraculous escape. He was put to death with a sword instead. No one knows why God chose a miraculous delivery from prison for Peter but didn’t for James. We just have to have faith and know that God had a reason that we may not understand. The one thing that we know with both James and Peter, and Paul and Silas is that God was with all of them in their prison experience even though they have experienced delivery differently or if they didn’t experience a physical delivery. He never abandoned them no matter what. No matter what prison experience you may find yourself in this morning or maybe you might have one coming down the road, with God you can never rule out a miraculous delivery from your prison. When you least expect it He just might blow the prison doors off their hinges. He may break the shackles off that have kept you bound! God is capable of doing such a thing and in His perfect wisdom and knowledge chooses to do that every so often. But just remember, if He chooses not to give you some miraculous escape from your prison it doesn’t mean that He loves you any less and it doesn’t mean that He has abandoned you! He will never leave you nor forsake you. He will give you the strength you need and He can still use you in the midst of your prison experience. This morning maybe you just want your song back. You have allowed the devil to steal the song on your lips and you have stopped singing praises to God in the midst of your prison experience. Prison experiences will come in this life and

people will watch to see how you respond, especially those who don’t know your Lord. What are they going to see? Don’t give up because you serve a God who knows how to do the miraculous! But even if He chooses not to, He will be with you and giving you the strength you need one day at a time. Let’s pray.