What does Acts 16:24 mean?
After expelling a fortune-telling demon from a slave girl, Paul and Silas are charged by her owners with promoting unlawful customs. They are doing exactly that: spreading Christianity, a religion not authorized by the Roman Empire. A crowd attacks them, and the magistrates order the police to beat them with rods and throw them in prison (Acts 16:16–23).Paul must see the irony in this. He, too, abused and imprisoned Jesus-followers (Acts 22:19; 26:10–11). Now Paul is in a Roman city, surrounded by family, regional, and national gods, none of which exist, and he is imprisoned for preaching about the one true God. Paul knows God could free him and Silas in an instant, but he also knows that he and Silas have the capability to arrange for their own rescue. They are Roman citizens. Everything that has happened to them—the beatings, the chains, and the prison—is strictly illegal. At most, they should be under house arrest until given a chance at a fair trial.
Despite the pain Paul and Silas must feel, they're not really worried about where they are. They start singing hymns and praying out loud. The other prisoners listen. In the middle of the night, a great earthquake opens all the cell doors and releases all the chains. The jailer assumes the prisoners have escaped. He knows his life is forfeit so he draws his sword to kill himself. Paul reassures him: no one has left; they are all accounted for. The jailer brings Paul and Silas to his home, washes their wounds, and accepts their God (Acts 16:25–34).
All that's left is to tell the magistrates what a horrible mistake they've made.
Acts 16:16–24 shows that religiously confused Gentiles can hinder Paul's ministry as much as Jews. Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke are in Philippi on the border of Macedonia and Greece. When Paul expels a demonic spirit from a slave girl, her owners accuse Paul and Silas of illegally promoting a foreign god. The crowd and the city magistrates beat and imprison the pair. Only later do they realize their mistake: Paul and Silas are both Roman citizens (Acts 16:37), and you can't punish Roman citizens without a trial.
Acts 16 follows Paul and Silas as they take the letter of Acts 15 into modern-day Asia Minor and Macedonia. They collect Timothy in Lystra and Luke in Troas. In Philippi, they meet Lydia and baptize her family. After expelling a demon from a fortune-telling girl, city officials illegally beat and imprison Paul and Silas. An earthquake frees them of their chains, but they stay and bring the jailer and his family to Christ. The next morning, Paul and Silas refuse to leave quietly, politely insisting that their civil rights have been violated. The officials apologize, and Paul, Silas, and Timothy go to Thessalonica.
