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My Bible study this morning was from Acts 16:16-40. It's the well known event where Paul and Silas are in prison for the Gospel, singing songs with all the other prisoners listening in. At midnight there is an earthquake that renders the prison open and provides the simplest escape for all the captives.
However, much to the jailer's amazement (for he was about to top himself), all the prisoners are still there, sitting in the darkness denying their apparent opportunity for freedom.
Now, the main point of this passage centres around the jailer's question in v30, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” and the answer of Paul and Silas, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Here in Acts 16 we see Gospel living providing an opportunity for Gospel preaching that led to the jailer putting his faith in the Lord Jesus.
Thinking about the passage further, though, I found myself asking this question: what about the brief role of the prisoners in v25-28?
Reflecting on this question, several things struck me about their involvement in the passage:
- Paul and Silas would have been in prison for a number of hours, during which most of the time was spent singing hymns to God, praising him for his grace in the Lord Jesus. It was these songs that captured the interest of the other prisoners in the jail (v25b).
- After the earthquake, the prisoner's do not run even though they're presented with an opportunity for a certain escape (v28).
- The jailer's subsequent amazement centres around the fact that every prisoner had remained where they were. Nobody had moved.
Because of these things, the jailer's question in v30 is a bit strange. If I were a Roman jailer and I had just discovered all my prisoners still in their cells when they should have fled, I'm pretty sure my most pressing question would be, "why are you lot still sitting here?" Yet, the key question that Luke records the jailer asking is not about why no one had fled, but a request for how he, too, can be saved.
Having seen the joy of Paul and Silas despite fierce opposition and persecution - as well as hearing the Gospel as the two sang in the darkness of the prison - could it be that the prisoners had also come to salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus?
Of course, Luke doesn't tell us for sure that they did. However, going on the jailer's question and the resistance of the prisoners to make good their escape, I would say it seems highly likely that the Gospel indeed had an profound impact on them. The evidence for this is shown in their act of not fleeing incarceration.
The impact the Gospel has on those who recieve it is a powerful thing. For the jailer, it meant giving up the freedom of an official in the Roman Empire to enjoy servitude to the Lord Jesus. For the prisoners it meant continuing their imprisonment under the Roman empire to consider true freedom in the Lord Jesus.
The Gospel indeed causes blind eyes to see, deaf ears to hear and, from Acts 16, criminal feet to obey.
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