Coffeeville First Baptist Church By Craig Baker, Pastor 10/16/25
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Between the Mountains of Macedonia and the hills country to the north lies a vast plain of open ground. It is there that the Strymon and Nestos rivers converge. Between the rivers is a city. A city known for its riches and wealth. The nearby gold mines see to that. It is also a city rich in history for it is here that some hundred years earlier the great Roman generals Mark Anthony and Octavian exacted revenge on betrayers and conspirators Brutus and Cassius for their role in the murder of Julius Caesar. Some believe this event led to Octavian rising to power and eventually becoming known as Augustus Caesar the first true emperor of Rome.
That city is Philippi and in the time of the Apostle Paul most nights would find the city quiet and sleeping but Acts 16 tells us of a night that was different. In the jail men were not sleeping. How could they sleep when two of the prisoners would not hush their praying and singing? It all began with a girl who would not leave them alone.
Acts 16 tells us the Apostle Paul, Silas, and their companions are in Phillipi, and day after day a possessed girl would not stop following them around crying out that these men are servants of God who proclaim the way of salvation. Finally, it became too much. Paul had enough, so turning to the girl he cast the evil spirit out of her. We are not told how the girl felt about being free of the spirit which had tormented her for so long, but her masters are enraged. The girls fortune telling and soothsaying was making them quite wealthy, and with a word from the great apostle it has all been taken away. Something had to be done. Someone had to pay. Something had to be done to these Jews, so Paul and his companion Silas were brought before the magistrates. Causing trouble and teaching unlawful customs were their charge. Guilty was their verdict. A beating and imprisonment were their punishment.
Paul and Silas are beaten and led into the innermost part of the prison. Though the night grows long, I imagine the other prisoners lay awake waiting to enjoy the cries of agony they are sure will come from these new inmates as the severity of their situation finally begins to set in. The misery of newcomers is often the only entertainment the prisoners are afforded, and they savor the misery that is sure to come. As the minutes pass in silence the inmates grow restless. Perhaps they begin to shout unpleasantries, or perhaps they murmur among themselves about who these two prisoners may be. Finally, one of them shouts scornfully at the others, “Listen! I hear something.” There is a sound coming from these new prisoners, but it is not moaning or wailing in agony as expected. It is praying and singing.
Certainly, men have sung in prison before, but they were likely songs of obscenities, cursing, and drunkenness, but the songs of Paul and Silas are different. These men are singing praises to God. It certainly would have been special to hear the great Apostle Paul preach, but how much more special would it have been to hear Paul and Silas singing praises to the Lord in their time of despair? You see, when a person sings in times like those there is an expression of their soul that is rarely heard at any other time.
I can imagine them singing the familiar Psalms of David. “The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want,” or how appropriate would it have been for them to sing these words from Psalm 34. No doubt the old, old songs of faith such as these rang out through the prison on that midnight hour. Close your eyes and listen. Can you hear them singing?
The other prisoners hear, and their hardened hearts begin to soften as their souls swell with a happiness and hope they had long forgotten. You can almost feel the hush of silence and wonder that falls over the prison as Paul and Silas sing on. Suddenly, the silence is broken as a great earthquake shakes the foundation of the prison causing all the prison doors to open and the prisoners’ shackles to come loose from the walls. Seeing the damage the earthquake did to the prison, the jailer just knew the prisoners had escaped. Rather than face the sentence of death that he knew he would receive from his superiors, the jailer is about to fall on his own sword when Paul shouts to him to stop, to not harm himself because no one had escaped. All the prisoners were still there. The jailer calls for a light, no doubt to verify that Paul was telling the truth. Seeing all the prisoners still there, the jailer falls down trembling before Paul and Silas. He brings them out and asks the greatest question that any of us can ever ask. The jailer asks, “What must I do to be saved,” but save from what?
It wasn’t the earthquake. It was over. It wasn’t from the judgment and punishment of Rome. All the prisoners were present and accounted for. No. The events of that night, how these two men who he had beaten and thrown into prison prayed and sang praise to God through the night, how the prisoners had not fled into the darkness when they had the chance, how the spirit of the Lord was working in that place had stirred the jailer’s soul and convicted him that all was not right in his relationship with the Lord.
What must I do to be saved? Perhaps the events of your life have caused you to realize that your relationship with the Lord is not right, that you are lost in your sin, and you are asking, “What must I do to be saved?”
The answer to that question is and always will be believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
