He Sets Prisoners Free

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me;” Jesus said, “because the LORD hath anointed me… to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound”¹

Paul and Silas had been travelling through Asia, preaching about Jesus.  When they got to Philippi, they carried on with their missionary work there, staying for a while. Then one day, after a successful outreach they were trailed by a fortune teller. She became their announcer, calling out who they were and what they had come to do. What she was saying was correct, but she wasn’t trying to help. It appeared like she was in collaboration with Paul and Silas, and the city dwellers knew who she was. Also, she needed to be freed.

So Paul turned to her and cast out the demon that had possessed her, setting her free. This of course, was bad business for her masters, so they got Paul and Silas thrown in jail. That’s how they lost their own freedom, if only for a while.

Paul and Silas sat bound in the inner part of the prison, under guard. Recall, they had been beaten severely, and many stripes were laid on them². They were in a really sorry state that night when they began to sing.

I don’t know what songs they sang, but I’m sure they didn’t sing “Oh no, had I known” because they prayed and sang praises unto God³. They didn’t glorify their circumstances; they glorified God who had control over those circumstances; God who had set that girl free. And they weren’t quiet about it.

Their songs weren’t hushed and low-toned; they sang with spirit, and the prisoners heard them. Heaven too heard them because suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed⁴.

That midnight Paul and Silas were set free, but God wasn’t done. The prison warden would have taken his own life and been lost, but God set him free too. Free from suicide and from sin.

When he would have killed himself for having failed at his job, Paul called out to him, reassuring him that they were still there.  Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house⁵.

The man and his house!

God didn’t stop then. He hasn’t stopped now. The tomb is still empty⁶, and yours can be too.

His abilities are unlimited; He breaks open the darkest prisons the devil puts people into, and sets them free!

Name the circumstance, name the habit! He has done it before, He will set you free.

¹ Luk 4:18

² Act 16:23

³ Act 16:25

⁴ Act 16:26

⁵ Act 16:28-31

⁶ Mat 28:6