Chapter 17: Blessing and battering: prison, floggings and converts
Acts 16:16–40

Act two – listen and read | Chapter 16 | Chapter 18

16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, ‘These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.’ 18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And he came out that very hour.

19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. 20 And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, ‘These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; 21 and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.’ 22 Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.

24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.’ 29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ 31 So they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’

32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, ‘Let those men go.’ 36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, ‘The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.’ 37 But Paul said to them, ‘They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.’ 38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. 39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.

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Acts 16:16–18
The slave girl saga

Lydia’s conversion shows that God is at work in building His church at Philippi. The next convert will be ‘a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination’ from whom the evil spirit is cast out by Paul. Like today’s astrology, dabbling in séances, and ‘playing with’ ouija boards, fortune telling is always wrong, foolish and potentially very harmful. Here it has brought much money to the slave girl’s owners. They cruelly and callously profit financially from using her sad and demented state. However, Satan ‘shoots himself in the foot’ when for many days the girl follows the four men of God and cries out that they are the ‘servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation’. Paul is annoyed. This is probably caused by righteous indignation at the evil exploitation of the girl by her owners. No doubt his anger is increased by his sadness at witnessing the power of the evil one over her. ‘In the name of Jesus Christ’ he expels the evil spirit possessing her. Such is the powerful authority of the Lord Jesus Christ that the girl is delivered as the spirit leaves her that very hour. Jesus said, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth’.¹ We now see again how true that is.

Acts 16:19–23
Beaten up and imprisoned

Often there is a price to pay for knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and for proclaiming him to others. Here Paul and Silas pay that price. We are not told where Timothy and Luke are at this time. The girl’s masters see that God’s gracious intervention in her life has taken away any further income through her. They drag the two men into the marketplace, where no doubt all will see them. The authorities then lie to the magistrates that Paul and Silas are trouble-makers and teach customs unlawful for Romans to accept or keep. Stirred on by the now aroused crowd from the marketplace the magistrates strip them and have them beaten with rods many times. With many stripes on them they are thrown into prison, where the jailer is charged with their security. This unjust and cruel treatment of Paul and Silas is further evidence at how justice and truth are often ignored or suspended when Christians are persecuted for their faith. The same is true today.

Acts 16:24–31
Drama and miracles in prison

What can be more secure than being in prison, in the inner prison within that prison, and then being locked into stocks, all under the direct supervision of the jailer who has been specifically charged to keep the prisoners safe? Once in the stocks and as the other prisoners listen, presumably in amazement, Paul and Silas pray and sing hymns to God! Then suddenly a great earthquake shakes the foundations, opens all prison doors and loosens all prisoners’ chains. The sleeping jailer wakes, sees open doors, and mistakenly assumes a mass escape has happened. He knows he will receive the death sentence if he loses prisoners so he decides to commit suicide, sword in hand. But wait! A loud shout stops him. Paul, who is more concerned about his captor than about his own soreness and the gross injustice against him, says ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here’. The fact that no prisoners escape is further evidence that God is orchestrating all these events for His own purpose, and especially to establish a church in Philippi. The jailer—soon to become another convert to Jesus Christ in the new church at Philippi—gets a light, runs in, falls down and trembles before his two wounded but blessed captives. When he brings Paul and Silas out of prison he asks them, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ He has already been saved from suicide by Paul, so he must now refer only to being saved from sin, death and Hell. No doubt he has heard Paul and Silas talk about how Jesus Christ has saved them. It would not be surprising if the hymns which the two evangelists have just sung in the stocks remind their hearers—including the jailer—of the good news that Jesus saves those who trust Him. Such hymns were sung by Christians. Part of one such hymn is quoted by Paul in 1 Timothy 3:16. Perhaps the jailer even heard the actual word ‘saved’ being explained. We are not told. Whatever helps him to put the question, he earnestly asks, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ Have you ever asked that question? Do you need to be saved from your sins? Do you need to escape Hell’s judgment? Do you need to receive eternal life? Well then, listen to the simple reply from Paul and Silas!

‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.’ They add further words: ‘you and your household’. God’s offer of being saved by trusting in Jesus is open to the members of the jailer’s household. It is open to you too.

Acts 16:32–34
A whole family comes to Christ

The two men go to the house of this earnestly seeking jailer. He wants to learn how he can ‘believe on the Lord Jesus Christ’ so he can ‘be saved’. Knowing that you need to believe on Christ is not enough. You must act on that knowledge. As the Nike advert used to say, ‘Just do it!’ You believe on Christ personally by asking Him to forgive you and save you. He will come into your life as your Saviour and Lord. This jailer wants his family and household to hear the same good news and to turn from sin and trust in Jesus too. Paul and Silas share that good news of Christ with the jailer and with all ‘in his house’. Does he respond by receiving Christ? Does his household? They certainly do!

His conversion is shown to be real by his care for the wounded Christians. He washes the stripes on their flogged and blood-stained bodies. He is baptised ‘immediately’. So are ‘all his family’. His home is open to the two servants of Jesus Christ and he feeds them. He rejoices because of his new-found belief in God through Jesus. He rejoices that his household are now believers too. They also rejoice!

All those aspects of his new life show evidence of real conversion: care for other Christians, help to those who are sick or wounded, obedience to God’s commands, obedience to God’s command to be baptised, giving warm hospitality in an open home, rejoicing over knowing God through Christ, and rejoicing when your family are also saved.

Acts 16:35–40
Paul stands on his rights and the magistrates back down

The next morning, the magistrates who have behaved so unjustly are in for a shock. They do not yet know that they have openly beaten uncondemned Roman citizens. The penalty for beating a Roman citizen without a trial and conviction is death under Roman law. Unaware of the illegality and gravity of what they have done they want to move Paul and Silas out of prison quickly, and so send an order to ‘Let those men go’. When this message is passed on to the two prisoners, Paul insists on standing on his rights. He will not ‘depart, and go in peace’ yet. He insists that they will not leave ‘secretly’, but that the magistrates must ‘come themselves and get us out’. The magistrates now realise that their lives are in the hands of Paul and Silas! They come to them in the prison and plead with them. Then they bring them out of the prison and ask them ‘to depart from the city’. Paul and Silas still take their time to make an important point. They leave prison but they do not immediately ‘depart from the city’. They go to Lydia’s house to see and have fellowship with the Christians. They encourage them. Then they depart.

Why do Paul and Silas behave like this? Not to ‘get their own back.’ Not to be awkward. They have a good reason. By so closely and openly identifying with the infant church at Philippi, meeting in Lydia’s house, the authorities know of their concern for the welfare of their fellow Christians. They were treated badly and illegally by the slave girl’s owners, authorities, and marketplace mob, but especially by the magistrates’ illegal conduct. The magistrates are tremblingly well aware that if Paul and Silas report them they are in deep trouble. They are unlikely to cause or allow problems of a similar nature to harass the young Christian church there. They do not want Paul and Silas to ever be involved with them again! Silence is golden for them. So the stand of Paul and Silas on their legal rights will guarantee that the church will not be troubled as it worships the Lord together, and as it works and witnesses for Him.

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Questions on Chapter 17
Acts 16:16–40 Blessing and battering: Prison, floggings and converts

A. What do you learn about the character of Paul and Silas and their devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ from the incidents surrounding the spirit possessed slave girl’s liberation and how the two men behave in prison?

Acts 16:16–31

B. What about the Philippian jailer and his household convince you that they really have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and so are truly saved?

Acts 16:32–34, 2 Corinthians 5:17

C. Why do Paul and Silas stand on their rights as Roman citizens? Who may benefit from their taking that position and why?

Acts 16:35–40, Acts 22:25–29

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