June 6 / Acts 16:16-40

Acts 16:16-40

Dear RTB’ers,

June 6, D-Day, 80 years since the Allied landing in Normandy and the beginning of the end of World War II. Less than a year later the European war was over. D-Day. A real Memorial Day memory.

Paul’s second missionary journey continued. In Acts 16:16-17 we have more “us” pronouns. We won’t see them again until Acts 20:5, during Paul’s third missionary journey. So where is Luke for this intermediate time?

I’ve always wondered at Paul and Silas allowing themselves to be beaten, when they were Roman citizens and should have been tried before a judge and jury before being punished. I feel like I would have claimed my Roman citizenship immediately! Paul had already been stoned in Lystra and left for dead. (Acts 14:19) Maybe he was remembering the Lord’s words to Ananias after his Damascus road experience: For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My name. (Acts 9:16) Paul knew that he would be suffering as he spoke about Jesus; maybe he was just accepting that beating in stride, knowing the Lord had told him it would be so.

… [the jailer] put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. (v. 24) The jailer put them in the inner prison, a much more secure location than the “entry-way” cells, and he put their feet in the stocks. All that seems excessive for two men who hadn’t even been formally tried! But then again, it makes their release that much more powerful!

Two sets of conversions here in Philippi – Lydia and her household (Acts 16:15) and the jailer and his family (Act 16:33) – the first through a peaceful prayer meeting and the second born out of substantial conflict. God works in peoples’ hearts, wherever and whenever He chooses. But He asks us to be His “boots on the ground”.

Lydia… It was on the way to their prayer meeting that Paul and Silas were apprehended, beaten and put in jail. So Lydia and her household and any other converts would have known about these events and very likely would have been praying for Paul and Silas – for their comfort and maybe even for their deliverance. So yes, Paul and Silas …were praying and singing hymns to God… (v. 25), but prayer on their behalf was probably being offered by the Lydia crowd. I can imagine the Lydia crowd rejoicing when Paul and Silas arrived at her house; I can hear them reporting about their own prayer time. And now as Paul and Silas have …encouraged them and departed (v. 40), the Lydia crowd can hold on to and regularly recall their prayer time and the Lord’s deliverance. Yes, I’m reading into the text thoughts that are not explicitly there, but there’s a point worth making: our prayers matter! Pray without ceasing! (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

So Acts 16, the Philippi story. When we get to Paul’s epistle to the Philippians, we’ll need to recall this Acts 16 incident. Paul’s letter to the Philippians is full of joy, surprising when Paul would have been remembering his and Silas’s suffering there. But my guess is that he is remembering those two sets of conversions! So what do we remember? Our past difficulties or the Lord’s saving grace? Or both!

Blessings!