{"id":6294,"date":"2009-11-25T11:42:44","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T16:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/25\/acts-and-mission-67\/"},"modified":"2009-11-25T11:42:44","modified_gmt":"2009-11-25T16:42:44","slug":"acts-and-mission-67","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/25\/acts-and-mission-67\/","title":{"rendered":"Acts and Mission 67"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Philippi.jpg\"<\/span>Missional work leads at times to prison work, but not by choice.<\/p>\n

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Instead of Paul feeling sorry for himself or fearing for his life, Paul and Silas praise God. I don\u2019t think this is about the power of positive thinking as much about knowing that God\u2019s mission is God\u2019s work and they are but God\u2019s missional servants.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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God responds to their prayers and praise with a mighty work that astounds everyone and leads to the jailor\u2019s conversion. The jailor, astounded by the mighty work of God, asks how he can be rescued\/saved, and Paul says it cleanly and clearly: \u201cBelieve in the Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d Or, believe Jesus is Messiah and Lord of all. Paul promises if he believes he and his house will be saved.<\/div>\n


\nThere\u2019s lots of discussion about this, and we could get derailed. I don\u2019t think the evidence is clear enough to say for sure that the children were baptized, that group salvation is merely through the representative head \u2026 what we do know is that Paul saw the jailor\u2019s conversion as connected to his entire household. \u00a0The jailor is hospitable to Paul.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m not sure how to think about Paul\u2019s next requests. The magistrates, for whatever reason, decide Paul and Silas should be released and Paul won\u2019t let them do that without some justice being done and some apologies been given. It is perhaps easiest to think Paul and Silas were beaten so severely they never had the chance to inform the magistrates they were Roman citizens. The magistrates, to their credit, apologize for what they have done. They pleaded with Paul to leave; he does.\n
\n

16:25<\/span>\u00a0About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the rest of the prisoners were listening to them.\u00a016:26<\/span>\u00a0Suddenly a great earthquake occurred, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors flew open, and the bonds of all the prisoners came loose.\u00a016:27<\/span>\u00a0When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, because he assumed the prisoners had escaped.\u00a016:28<\/span>\u00a0But Paul called out loudly, \u201cDo not harm yourself, for we are all here!\u201d\u00a016:29<\/span>\u00a0Calling for lights, the jailer rushed in and fell down trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas.\u00a016:30<\/span>\u00a0Then he brought them outside and asked, \u201cSirs, what must I do to be saved?\u201d\u00a016:31<\/span>\u00a0They replied, \u201cBelieve in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.\u201d\u00a016:32<\/span>\u00a0Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him, along with all those who were in his house.\u00a016:33<\/span>\u00a0At that hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized right away.\u00a016:34<\/span>\u00a0The jailer brought them into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced greatly that he had come to believe in God, together with his entire household.\u00a016:35<\/span>\u00a0At daybreak the magistrates sent their police officers, saying, \u201cRelease those men.\u201d\u00a016:36<\/span>\u00a0The jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, \u201cThe magistrates have sent orders to release you. So come out now and go in peace.\u201d\u00a016:37<\/span>\u00a0But Paul said to the police officers, \u201cThey had us beaten in public without a proper trial \u2013 even though we are Roman citizens \u2013 and they threw us in prison. And now they want to send us away secretly? Absolutely not! They themselves must come and escort us out!\u201d\u00a016:38<\/span>\u00a0The police officers reported these words to the magistrates. They were frightened when they heard Paul and Silas were Roman citizens\u00a016:39<\/span>\u00a0and came and apologized to them. After they brought them out, they asked them repeatedly to leave the city.\u00a016:40<\/span>\u00a0When they came out of the prison, they entered Lydia\u2019s house, and when they saw the brothers, they encouraged them and then departed.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Missional work leads at times to prison work, but not by choice. Instead of Paul feeling sorry for himself or fearing for his life, Paul and Silas praise God. I don\u2019t think this is about the power of positive thinking as much about knowing that God\u2019s mission is God\u2019s work and they are but God\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1780],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acts-of-the-apostles"],"yoast_head":"\nActs and Mission 67<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Missional work leads at times to prison work, but not by choice.Instead of Paul feeling sorry for himself or fearing for his life, Paul and Silas praise\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/25\/acts-and-mission-67\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Acts and Mission 67\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Missional work leads at times to prison work, but not by choice.Instead of Paul feeling sorry for himself or fearing for his life, Paul and Silas praise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/25\/acts-and-mission-67\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-25T16:42:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/imgs\/Philippi.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/25\/acts-and-mission-67\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/25\/acts-and-mission-67\/\",\"name\":\"Acts and Mission 67\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-25T16:42:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-11-25T16:42:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Missional work leads at times to prison work, but not by choice.Instead of Paul feeling sorry for himself or fearing for his life, Paul and Silas praise\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/25\/acts-and-mission-67\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/25\/acts-and-mission-67\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/25\/acts-and-mission-67\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Acts and Mission 67\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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