Singing Jailbirds

As Paul, Luke, Silas, and Timothy were traveling through Thyatira, they were being followed around by a demon-possessed slave woman. The woman kept yelling at the crowd that these people were God’s servants and they will tell them how to be saved. Annoyed beyond the point of tolerance, Paul commanded the evil spirit to come out of the woman. The slave woman’s owners were not pleased. They beat Paul and took him and Silas to court where they were beaten yet again and thrown deep into prison. Around midnight as Paul and Silas were singing psalms to God, an earthquake shook the prison, opening the gates of all the prisoners. The Jailer, thinking that the prisoners had escaped, was about to fall on his sword when Paul and Silas spoke up.

In our last episode, we heard Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia and his beautiful explanation of salvation by grace alone, through faith in Christ alone. He urged the Galatians to not let themselves be enslaved to the burden of the law now that they had received the gospel. He then encouraged them to use their freedom in Christ to walk by the Spirit and not the flesh. Today we’ll find Paul and his missionary partner Silas confronting an evil spirit and facing a Roman prison. Yet even in the darkness of their cell, they are full of hope and praise as they glorify God with singing.