Paul's Macedonian Moment, Paul's response in the Macedonian Jail a great lesson for crises

 

Paul’s second missionary journey was unique in many ways. Paul began his journey from Antioch along with Silas. He went through Derbe and Timothy joined him at Lystra. They together journeyed through Phrygia and Galatia. The Holy Spirit forbid them to speak a word in Asia. They came to Mysia and attempted to go to Bithynia but the Spirit would not let them be. So they reached Troas and camped there.

In the night Paul had a vision. A man of Macedonia was standing there urging him to come to Macedonia and help.  Vision was a confirmation for Paul. From Troas, Paul and team set sail to Samothrace, Neapolis and finally to Philippi, a Macedonian city named after the father of Alexander the great. How an arduous journey from Antioch to Macedonia it would have been? Why did the Holy Spirit insist them to go to Macedonia?

A great agenda did not greet them in Macedonia. On the Sabbath day they went to the riverside to a place of prayer where they met Lydia who was a seller of purple goods. Lord opened her hearts and she paid full attention to what Paul said and accepted the Lord. Eventually her whole household accepted the Lord.

The next day while they were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl who was possessed by a spirit of divination started following them. Her owners had a habit of making money out of her through her fortune telling. She called out after them saying, these men are of the Most High God, who proclaim the way of salvation. She kept doing this for days. Greatly annoyed, Paul turned to her ugly spirit and said, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out of her that very hour.

When her owners saw that they cannot make money out of her anymore, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the rulers. They appealed to the magistrate that they are Jews who is disrupting the city by advocating customs unlawful for Roman citizens. A real commotion followed thereon

• ·     The crowd joined them in the attack
• ·         The magistrates tore the garments and gave orders for them to be beaten with rods
• ·         Many blows were inflicted on them
• ·         They were thrown into the inner prison
• ·         Hand and feet were bound in chains

What was the purpose behind the vision at Troas? Where is the Macedonian who wanted help? Did the Holy Spirit forbid them to speak in Asia and brought them to Philippi to be beaten and being thrown into the darkest dungeon fully chained up? We could call this a Macedonian Moment in the life of Paul and Silas, a moment where one becomes completely intimidated by the circumstances. 

How did did Paul and Silas respond to the situation?

·         At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God (Acts 16:25). They worshipped the Lord Jesus and confessed with their mouth though they could not move their hand and feet.

What they did not do?

• ·         They did not focus on the circumstances, chains, prison, darkness, stench, pain
• ·         They did not curse God

The simple worship of Paul and Silas amid a “Macedonian Moment” shook the heavens. What happened thereon changed the course of history.

• ·         A great earthquake shook the prison which threw open the doors and unbound the chains (Noticeable is that the earthquake did no damage to the building and lives)
• ·         Jailer woke up to an open prison
• ·         Jailer attempted suicide which Paul prevented
• ·         Paul announces loud in the darkness that they are all in prison
• ·         Jailer calls for lights, rush in trembling
• ·         Jailer brings them out of jail and ask Paul what must I do to be saved (He was definitely influenced by their worship)
• ·         Paul says, believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved
• ·         Jailer takes them home and washes their wounds in the middle of the night
• ·         Paul preaches to the whole family
• ·         The whole household takes baptism
• ·         Jailer serves them food
• ·         They together rejoice with the family

Did the events stop here?

• ·         Magistrate sent police to let them free in the morning
• ·         Jailer informs  Paul about their freedom
• ·         Paul claims that they were beaten in public and they cannot be set free in private
• ·         Paul reveals his Roman Citizenship and  claims a public release
• ·         Magistrate is afraid to learn about their Roman citizenship
• ·         They come, apologize and escort them out of the prison

Was the jailer the man of Macedonia? 

This event is more than a story of Paul’s escape from a prison. Philippi is the first European city where Paul preached the gospel. So it became “the gateway for gospel of Jesus to the western world”. So God rushed Paul through Asia Minor to the west to lay the seeds of gospel for Europe from where it even spread beyond the Atlantic. So that was God’s master plan. Later Paul wrote a letter to Philippian church which became ‘Epistle of Joy’ in the New Testament.

A simple worship session of Paul and Silas the midst of a ‘Macedonian moment’ threw open the doors of the prison to enable the release of gospel to the western world. Paul and Silas’s real battle was not against the magistrate and the mob but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:13). By taking up the shield of faith they defeated satan naked in an open battle to register victory for the Kingdom of God.

A simple act of worship in a ‘Macedonian Moment’ can change the course of ones life.

 

Author – Prakash T John