When Things Go Awry — Kevin Johnson

Has there ever been any event in your life that didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to? Sometimes we make plans thinking we know the future, but we soon find out otherwise. Things go awry. We tend to think that things go well for those who are following God. It's easy to fall into the mindset that if things are not going as planned, God is upset with us.

There is a story in Acts 16 where some of God’s faithful followers go through something they were probably not expecting.

At this point in the story of God, the Gospel was spreading, and the Apostle Paul was on a mission to take the it everywhere. But as he did this, there were a lot of people who disagreed with the spread of Christianity. What happens is pretty crazy.

There was a girl who was possessed by a demon, enslaved, and her captors used her as a fortune-teller to make money. When Paul saw this, he cast the demon out of the girl and freed her from slavery. That didn’t go so well for Paul. The slaveowners threw Paul and his friend Silas in prison.

Acts 16:19-24:

“But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.’ The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.”

Think about that for a second. Sometimes when we read these stories we read the details just as another plot point. But think about what’s really going on here – Paul and Silas have been doing the work of God, but now they find themselves in prison! This doesn’t make a lot of sense – they’re freeing people from demons, and now God puts them in prison? Why?

Sometimes we think that if we follow God, we will be comfortable. We think that something bad happening to us means that God is not happy with us. The truth is that following God will not always be a comfortable place. How would you respond?

Let’s look at how they did in Acts 16:25-26:

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and 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 bonds were unfastened.”

In the middle of their suffering, instead of complaining, instead of searching for a way out, they start to SING! If it were me, I would be looking for a way out of there! That’s what makes the rest of this story so confusing. Look at what happens next. Acts 16:27-34:

“When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’ And the jailer called for the lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs what must I do to be saved?’ And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.”

What’s amazing about this passage is not that an earthquake opened the doors to this prison, but that all the prisoners stayed where they were! These guys knew that God had placed them where they were to be used by Him. They weren’t looking for a way out.

Paul chose to share the Gospel in the midst of his circumstances instead of trying to escape them.

You may find yourself in the middle of something that you wish would end quickly. Maybe it’s something that is happening in your family, school, or in your group of friends. Maybe you’re struggling so much that you don’t know what to do next.

If I found myself in Paul and Silas' position, I know I would have been looking for a way out. If an earthquake happened and my chains fell off, I would have been out of there like lightning. And in my haste to exit my circumstances, I would have completely missed an opportunity to share the Gospel with someone who desperately needed it.