March 17.
Free Prisoners

Acts 16:22

And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them… they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely.

Now the multitude didn’t have the faintest idea what was going on, but have you ever noticed how crowds like to follow crowds. Sometime crowds have no idea what’s happening, but if it is a crowd they want to be a part of what the crowd is saying. It was the crowd that crucified Jesus. Many times people get in trouble following crowds. Some of you have broken The Ten Commandments because you tried to keep up with the crowd. Paul and Silas were convicted without a trial; there was no evidence to find them guilty, but Satan doesn’t need any evidence. You see you’re in trouble when you stand for God in the first place. If you take a stand for the Master you’re going to run into Satan. Stocks were put on their ankles and hands and they were put in the inner jail; they had them so bound up that they were uncomfortable while being in prison.

Preaching the Gospel can often get you in trouble. Sometimes your own brothers will plot for your downfall. Just because a person is your color or identity doesn’t mean they are with you. Joseph told his brothers his dream and they put him in a pit and left him for dead. You work up enemies when you preach the Gospel.

So Paul and Silas may have been in prison, but they were free because they knew the God they served. I get letters week after week from brothers and sisters behind bars and they say, “Reverend, when I was loose I was running the streets, but now since I been in here I met Jesus. And there’s a freedom that I can not explain.” And sometimes when you’re loose you’re really not loose. And when you’re bound you’re really not bound because being with Jesus is the best freedom a person could have.