It all starts with breaking chains. Jesus has gone back into heaven a few years ago. The disciples who are taking him seriously are keeping his final command: go out and make disciples of all people. Spread the word.
Break chains. Break chains now!
Paul and Silas are two such disciples, and this time they’re in Philippi. And in Philippi is a woman who has an evil spirit in her. She’s been kept enchained by this spirit. And she has - did you spot it? - “owners.” She is owned by people who are exploiting her terrible situation. She has no peace of mind, she’s constrained by this bad spirit to wander round, and when Paul and Silas arrive, she finds herself stalking them, day after day after day. Such is the power of God that the evil spirit is testifying on Paul’s behalf, telling everybody that Paul is showing them the way to be saved. That’s all very well, but Paul and Silas can see the human cost under this. They can see a woman kept down, kept chained, and so it’s no surprise when Paul, indignant at her predicament, turns round and commands the evil spirit to be gone. And gone it is.
Everybody is overjoyed to see someone free…
oh hang on, these are her "owners" in the background.
Well, they can jog on.
But the loosing of those chains leads to more chains. The girl’s owners, thwarted in their greed to make money out of her misfortune, trump up some charges against Paul and Silas, whip up a mob and have them arrested. And Paul and Silas are severely flogged and thrown into prison. In chains.
But you can’t put Paul and Silas down. They may be in stocks but they’ve not lost faith. They may have raw backs, but they’ve not forgotten the God who’s got their backs. So they stay up all night singing songs to God, having the very first Prison Fellowship Meeting. They may be in Hard Times, but Paul and Silas still have Great Expectations.
Prison Christian Fellowship meeting 1
And about midnight God chooses his moment. God produces a violent earthquake. The jailhouse rocks. The doors fly open and everyone’s chains are suddenly slack. That’s what it says. Everybody’s chains became loose. They are all free to go.
Why does all this happen? This is God’s response to Paul and Silas praying and singing and praising. This is God’s response to their Great Expectations. It’s not just that Paul and Silas wanted to see the poor girl free, they still expect great things from God when they’re in dire straits.
And they could walk free. But do they? They don’t. And they don’t because Paul and Silas are still thinking of other people, even when they’re aching and bloody and have been unjustly imprisoned and punished, even when the thanks they got for freeing a poor girl was pain and indignity. They’re thinking this time of the Jailer. Because in those days, the Jailer was personally responsible for the prisoners... so if any of them went for a walk, having been miraculously freed at midnight, then it was the Jailer’s head on the block. Literally. On the block. That’s why he’s about ready to take his own life. He’s got his sword out, he’s about to fall on it...
“No!” shouts Paul, “we’re all still here!” And saves another life. The Jailer lives. And not just lives. The Jailer is convicted on the spot and falls on his knees and asks, “What must I do to be saved?” He realises he’s in the presence of a greater power than he’s ever known. He knows God is there. He probably knows that the charges against Paul and Silas have been trumped up. And in the darkest hour of the night, he is saved. In the darkest night of his life, he sees the light.
And between midnight and six, the world gets busy. The prisoners don’t run away - not one of them. The Jailer takes Paul and Silas home, where he wakes up his family. Water is drawn, wounded backs are washed and dressed. More water is drawn, because this Jailer and his family have been touched by God, and how can they not now become followers of Jesus? By anyone’s standards, this is a night to remember. Prison, earthquake, conversion. Nobody will forget this in a hurry. The Jailer will never forget Silas or Paul. His household will never forget the night he came home, hyper and happy, and told them the story that brought them to faith.
Picture courtesy of Henry Martin!
All because of God’s amazing power? Ye-es. But also because of Paul and Silas having Great Expectations.
And you? Do you have Great Expectations? Do you arrive in church on a Sunday thinking, “I wonder what God has for me today!” Do you pause to prepare to receive what God has? There’s always a chance to have five minutes’ quiet before the service starts. My church suggests it on the pew-sheet. That’s not to browbeat anyone. That’s because those five minutes are where you get ready, where you remember that you have Great Expectations, and you ask God what the - erm - Dickens he’s going to say or do or show you this morning. Please use your five minutes wisely. Not weighed down like the fear of a strict teacher, but lifted up, excited because the next hour (and a bit) will set your world on fire again.
And do you have Great Expectations when you go out of church for the other 166 hours of the week? Paul and Silas were in a world a lot like ours. People ignoring God, injustice going on, people oppressing each other, wage-slaves and people in chains. Do you have the faith that the words you say - when you talk about Jesus - might change lives?
Look at the lives that God changes when Paul and Silas have Great Expectations. A girl is freed from an evil spirit. A man is saved from his own suicide. A family are baptised in the wee small hours of the morning.
We can imagine that introducing people to Jesus might make them nicer, add a little hobby called church to their week, maybe swear a little less. Small potatoes! Jesus turns people round. Jesus opens huge new doors. Being a Christian isn’t a side salad to life. It’s all of life. John Newton didn’t just become nicer, he campaigned for the freedom of slaves. Saul didn’t just become nicer, he took the gospel across Asia! If your faith hasn’t turned your world around, you might want to check. If you’re here thinking about faith in Jesus, don’t be fooled into thinking it’s a polite add-on. It’s revolutionary. It’s demanding. It’s brilliant.
You'll've heard of the lovely librarian Barbara who first invited me to church (repeatedly, until I caved!). When she persuaded me to listen to the Gospel, it turned me right round from being a shy, gloomy teenager who couldn’t imagine a future, chained up to lack of confidence and a Thatcherite agenda of getting out and getting rich. Look at me now. I’m talking in public! I’m pretty well happy. I’m not scared.
Barbara had Great Expectations too. Barbara saw what could be and she went for it.
And I think what Paul and Silas and Barbara had in common was this: Great Expectations. And I think why they had such Great Expectations is this: they knew they had help. They had the same help that you and I have.
Do you remember the Gospel reading this morning? Jesus, praying. Praying for whom? Praying for the disciples, yes. But praying too for all those who would believe through their message. Jesus was praying even then for that Jailer. Jesus was praying even then for that whole family. Jesus was praying even then for... me.
So that when Paul and Silas and Barbara started their Greatly Expectant work, they were not alone.
Jesus was praying. Jesus was praying. Jesus was standing at God’s right hand, telling his dad what was going down, and asking his dad to help. That’s how Jesus spends his days now. Busting a gut on your behalf. You are not alone. That’s how the Jailer and his family and me... that’s how we came to faith. Yes, it was Paul and Silas and Barbara. But it was Jesus right behind them, it was Jesus who had their backs, so that when they went out on a limb to share, not knowing whether I would mock or laugh or give them a wide berth, they had help. Jesus told his dad, “They’re with me!”
I have in my hand a chain of 191 links. That is actually about the number of links and connections there are from Jesus to me. Jesus... someone Jesus told... someone they told... someone they told... dot dot dot for 1900 years... Barbara Guest... me.
Not possible without all these other links, speaking Greek or Latin or Saxon or Chinese or broad Black Country. And Jesus has been there every. single. link. of. the. way.
Who’s in your chain?
Who told you? Who taught you? It may be multiple people. It may be Billy Graham. It may be a Black Country librarian. Jesus prayed for them when they did.
And Jesus prays for you and the person you’re talking to now, whenever you go out on that dizzying limb to talk about faith.
So imagine you have three links. Hold them up.
The middle one is you. You, full of faith!
One end one is the person or people who brought you to faith. Think of them now. Thank God for them now, living or gone to glory.
The other end is the person you most want to see come to faith. Do you pray for them? So does Jesus. Do you talk to them? Jesus has sent his Spirit to work on their hearts. God gives them sunsets and Louis Armstrong and creme caramel and faithful dogs and the smell of petrichor to tell them there is a God.
The heavens declare… and so does Satchmo
You can afford to have Great Expectations, because Great is the Lord, Great is his faithfulness, and he is with you. Jesus said, “I pray for those who will believe in me through you.” It’s not you vs apathy. It’s you and God awakening faith in hearts, and you have a lot more going for you than you know.
Make three paper chains right now. Write on them. Keep them on your fridge to remember that God breaks the chains of evil, breaks the chains of bondage when we expect him to. And remember that this chain of disciples keeps getting longer, and you’re part of it. There is no privilege on earth to match working with Jesus in this ministry of bringing everyone in this mad world back to their senses, back to the father who loves them, back to a brilliant way of living, away from the money-grubbing and advantage-seeking and self-protection and self-preservation that suits this world so badly but fills this world so much.
Right. Off you go. You're in good company...
