The Second Secret to Effective Evangelism- Acts 16:23-30

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Last week I wrote about the secret to effective evangelism. And the secret is that it's up to God! We do our part and we trust God to do His! He is the One who opens a heart to respond to the gospel. He is the One that convicts someone of sin. Those things are outside my control. My responsibility is to simply confess my faith before others. To be prepared to give an answer for the hope that lies in me. To look for opportunities every day to bring praise to the name of God so that others might come to praise Him as well. But anything beyond what I can personally control about the interactions I have every day with anyone I come into contact with is strictly and completely up to God and that person.

Having said that...

I do think that God has used a certain aspect about His followers to break through the thick skin of unbelievers' hearts over and over again. And I'll tell you right now...it has nothing to do with their preaching or teaching ability. It has nothing to do with their incredible personalities. It has nothing to do with their connections or their abilities.

It has EVERYTHING to do with their commitment and integrity.

Consider the story in Acts 16. Paul and Silas are thrown in jail on false charges given by selfish, greedy slave owners who were upset that their chances for profit were gone because Paul and Silas had freed a young girl from demon possession. They were beaten with rods. They were flogged. And they were thrown in the stocks. I've never been in stocks. But I'm pretty sure they are not very conducive to sleep. So what did they do while they were cold, in pain from the beating, exhausted, and angry about their mistreatment?

They did exactly what they did in every aspect of every day and in every other circumstance whether good or bad. They praised God. In this case, their praises took the form of song and Luke points out that the other prisoners were listening. I have to wonder what was going through their minds as they listened to these two radical Christians who were so deluded by their faith that they were willing to praise a God who had let them be beaten and thrown into prison for their service to Him. I have to wonder if the guard was not also listening to them at some point.

You remember the rest of the story. There is a supernatural earthquake that throws the chains off the prisoners and the doors off the walls. All of the prisoners were free if they wanted to be. If it were me, I would have assumed that this was God's answer to prayer. I would have left as quickly as I could thanking God for His miraculous intervention. But they didn't. They knew what their mission was and they knew that the power of God combined with the faithfulness of Christians is an unstoppable force.

The guard came in and saw the open doors and loose chains and pulled his sword to kill himself before before his higher-ups killed him for his lack of ability to keep the prisoners in prison. But thanks be to God that Paul and Silas had stayed where they were! In fact, so had the rest of the prisoners too! You might miss that in focusing on the conversion of the jailer and his family when he immediately asks what he must do to be saved. But don't read past it too quickly. We aren't told how many people were in prison with Paul and Silas. We don't know exactly why they didn't run when the doors were open. I have a hunch that the jailer wasn't the only person in the jail that was converted to the true freedom in Christ that night.

And it happened because two men sang praises to God and stayed true to their mission even when they were mistreated. Even when they could have taken an easier road and technically still be in the will of God. Even when their lives were potentially on the line. They praised...and they stayed.

What about you? Does your temper at the office or in your home betray your allegiance to the God of peace? Does your insistence on the easy life of sitcoms and football games sell your talk of "he who would keep his life will lose it, but he who would lose his life for my sake will find it" short? Does your self preservation and refusal to let someone "walk over you" belittle your stated faith in a God who says to walk the extra mile and pray for your enemies?

Can you honestly and sincerely praise God when the chips are down and you are stuck in the stocks of worry and anger and hurt to the point that you can't sleep at midnight?

May we be a people who can sing through the blackest midnight so that when God's miracles happen, others will be paying attention.