Title: We can!
Text: Acts 16:22-34
Thesis: We can overcome life’s trials and be powerful witnesses of the grace of God to others.
Introduction
In Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne is wrongfully convicted of a crime and sent to prison. He is a model prisoner and was recruited by the Warden to do some creative banking so he had access to the Warden’s office. On one occasion, Andy came upon a recording of Mozart’s music so he locked himself in the warden’s office and played one of Mozart’s pieces over the prison public address system. For a moment in that ugly place, every prisoner was transformed by the music. As a consequence for his indiscretion, Andy was locked up in solitary confinement for a month. When he was released back into the general prison population, his friend asked him how he survived. Andy said, “I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company.” The music playing in his mind could not be confined by even the darkness and dankness of solitary confinement.
The story today reminds us that praising God, i.e., worship, enables us to overcome our trials.
I. We can sing when we shouldn’t feel like singing.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Acts 16:22-25
A grandmother told of an experience she had with her 4 – year – old granddaughter. She was playing Christmas carols on the piano for little Natalie and as she began to play “Away in a Manger,” she began to sing. She thought her granddaughter would like to sing along with her as she played and sang. After just a few words she felt a hand on her arm and as she looked down at her little granddaughter, she said, “Just let the piano sing, grandma.” (Aurlette Driver, Christian Reader, Nov/Dec 2003, p. 11)
Not all of us are good singers and few of us are good singers in the worst of life’s circumstances.
Paul and Silas were in jail. They were branded as agitators and blacklisted as Jews. The local magistrates had them stripped, beaten and locked in stocks in the inner most and securest cell of the local jail. Never mind the charges were false and never mind the fact that they were Roman citizens who had been imprisoned without the benefit of a trial… which would ultimately put the magistrates in something of a bind. But meanwhile, they had been publically humiliated, physically abused and unjustly jailed.
“Different people take disaster in different ways, and certainly this was a new way to take a jail sentence. Most people would have spent the night protesting the injustice of their punishment. Paul and Silas spent it praising God, for Paul and Silas had something inside themselves which gave them that extraordinary human capacity to rise above any and every situation and to mold the raw material of their lives in such a way as to master it.” (The Interpreter’s Bible, # 9, Acts/Romans, p. 220)
“The one thing you can never take away from a Christian is God and the presence of Christ.” (Wm. Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 136) In Psalm 139 the Psalmist declares that there is absolutely no corner in the farthest reaches of the universe where we can escape the presence of God. And Paul in Romans 8 asserts that there is absolutely no one or nothing in the entire universe can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
On a balmy afternoon in 1982, Badger Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin was packed. More than 60,000 die-hard University of Wisconsin fans were watching their home team gets routed by the Michigan State Spartans.
What was odd was that as the score became increasingly lopsided, there were increasingly more applause and shouts of triumph from the Wisconsin fans. How could they be cheering like that when their team was being so soundly defeated?
The reason… many of the fans were listening on portable radios to a game taking place seventy-miles away where the Milwaukee Brewers were beating the St. Louis Cardinals in game three of the 1982 World Series. (Greg Asimakopuoulos, Naperville, IL, Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 4)
The reason the Wisconsin fans were cheering in Madison was because their minds and hearts were in Milwaukee.
One of my favorite texts is from II Corinthians 4:18 where Paul encourages us to fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is not seen, for what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.
Paul and Silas were not fixing their eyes on their present circumstances… they were fixing their eyes on the God of all hope. They were not singing songs of deliverance from their trials, they were singing songs of faith and hope and contentment in the midst of their trials.
Second, our story teaches us that we can not only rise above our trials, we can also care for others in the midst of our trials.
II. We can care for others when they do not care for us.
The jailor woke up and when he saw the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because the thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” Acts 16:26-28
Occasionally I go into a maudlin funk where I think about how, if I am going to die, how I want to die and of course, how I do not want to die!
USA Today Poll question: What natural disaster do you fear most? 18,424 responses.
• Volcano – 10% (Colorado – 16%)
• Earthquake – 34% (Colorado – 28%)
• Tornado – 41% (Colorado – 44%)
• Flood – 15% (Colorado – 12%) (USA Today e-Edition, Snapshots Quick Question, Which natural disaster do you fear most? Poll)
The Huffington Post reported on April 12, 2010 that 4,000 prisoners had escaped from the largest prison in Haiti following the devastating earthquake there. Apparently there is some question as to whether it was the earthquake that set them free or if they were freed by the employees of the Ministry of Justice but at any rate… the guards and U.N. Peacekeepers as well as the prison warden went missing. (Rowan Moore Gerety, Haiti’s Prison Break, The Huffington Post, April 12, 2010)
Our story today is also an earthquake story and one in which prisoners could likely have escaped. The likely scenario is that, given the opportunity, most prisoners will fly the coop.
The warden of the prison where Paul and Silas were imprisoned and who was held responsible for keeping the prisoners secure in their cells, fearing that he would be charged with letting his prisoners escape, was about to takes his own life, when Paul stopped him… assuring him that no one had escaped.
“Paul was quite willing to open the door of salvation to the jailer who had shut the door of the prison on him.” (Wm. Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, P. 137) There is generally no love lost between the captor and the captured. Prison guards and prisoners are not generally on the best speaking terms. But Paul quickly spoke to reassure his captor that no one had escaped.
Paul not only cared for someone he had no real reason to care for, but he also paved the way for that man’s salvation and transformation.
III. We can be a part of the transformation of another person’s life.
He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved… you and your household.” And the jailor took them and washed their wounds… he brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God, he and his whole family. Acts 16:29-34
People are most receptive to spiritual things during a crisis or transition period in their lives… the jailer was no exception. Was the jailer especially open to a change of life because he was scared stiff? Was he open to a change because he was relieved? Was he open because he was grateful? Was he open because he knew that he had received an unbelievable mercy and grace?
We have all heard stories about the exploits of daredevil Evel Knievel. During the 1960s and 1970s he regularly tempted fate by jumping over anything that could be jumped over, including an aborted attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho. Though he earned thirty million dollars for his exploits his body took a brutal beating. In January of 2007 he was a broken man held together by pins and fasteners, He was hooked up to oxygen, synthetic heron was injected into his spine to ease the pain. His lungs were scared with pulmonary fibrosis and he was living on a liver transplant. He was sixty-eight years old and nearing the end of his life when he said, “I think about God more than ever. If there is a heaven, I don’t know anything else I can do to get there.” (Jim Saranceno, “Long-Retired Knievel Frail, Feisty, Still Cheating Death,” USAtoday.com, 1.3/07)
When the jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul’s answer was quick and forthcoming. He said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved… you and your household.” The jailer did not have to pine away during his last days on earth wondering if there was anything else he needed to do to make sure he was ready to meet God and be welcomed into heaven.
The wonderful thing about this story is that we get to see the immediate difference knowing Christ made in the jailer’s life. The story says that he took Paul and Silas into his home, washed their wounds and set a meal before them…
On Mother’s Day Bonnie and I had brunch at The Briar Wood. When we were taken to our table there was already in place a three-layered rack filled with pastries and a huge fruit-cup at each place setting. Later the server took our orders for our choice of entrees and soon a steaming hot plate was set before us. The server was so pleasant and attentive.
Imagine what it must have been like for a seasoned military jailer who was accustomed to incarcerating criminals and treating them with something less than dignity. His staff was at his beckon call and he ruled the prison with an iron fist. Imagine that prison warden, so to speak, inviting prisoners into his home, washing their wounds and serving them brunch… and doing it with joy because he and his family had become followers of Jesus Christ.
This is a transformation of major proportions.
Conclusion
It is apparent that none among us is incarcerated at the moment. But the fact that we are not locked up somewhere does not mean that we do not have our own dark places. Our trials are more likely to take the shape of circumstances related to our relationships with our spouse or our children. Our trials are more likely to arise from a challenging workplace or the desperate need for a workplace. Our trials are more likely to be related to health concerns or financial crises or grief over the loss of a loved one. Our trials may likely center around depression or addiction or an emotional or physical abuse.
But if there is anything to be learned today it is this… whatever the circumstance, we may celebrate the presence of God and the reality of grace sufficient for every trial.
Our bodies may be in Madison but our hearts and minds can be in Milwaukee. We can sing. We can bear witness to the deep, down inner joy in our souls. We can be transforming witnesses to the grace of God.
