FREEDOM Larry W Peebles October 22, 2021 21.39
When I was a boy, my Dad taught me to tie several basic rope knots. I learned the square knot, the slip knot, half-hitch, and others. Knowing how to tie these knots served me well, as I use them still today. But boys will be boys, so my older brother and I would play cowboys in the back yard, and of course practiced tying each other up with rope. This was essential in the days of the Old West in order to bring the bad guy back for justice. The object was to see how well we could tie knots to keep the other from escaping. A variation of the game might be to tie someone up, then walk off and go do something else. If you were the one tied up, there was no option but to free yourself, as no one else was around to help. Panic might set in, but clear thinking was required to find something to assist, even if it meant cutting the rope. It did absolutely no good to plead that the ropes were too tight. If the hands turned blue, it only meant one needed to work faster to gain freedom. I eventually learned to stop playing that game with my older brother. There was no point in purposely losing freedom just to see if I could get it back.
Freedom is defined as the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint; the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. Freedom, generally, is having the ability to act or change without constraint. Something is “free” if it can change easily and is not constrained in its present state.
The story of Paul and Silas in prison gave me a new and deeper appreciation of freedom, which goes beyond the dictionary definition. In Acts Chapter 16, Paul and Silas were in the City of Philippi, in the country of Macedonia (present day Greece). They attempted to preach the Gospel in the days of the early church, but were followed and harassed by a certain slave girl who was possessed by a spirit of divination. After many days, Paul was greatly annoyed and commanded the spirit to come out of her in the name of Jesus Christ. Verse 18 says “he
[the spirit]came out that very hour”. The woman was free of the spirit by the power of the Holy Ghost. However, not everyone appreciated her new freedom.
It seems her masters profited greatly by her ability to tell fortunes. That revenue was now lost. They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the magistrates, who were the authorities over the marketplace. A multitude (mob) rose up against them, stripped them of their clothes, and began to beat them with rods. After many stripes were laid on them, they were thrown into the inner prison, and their feet were fastened in the stocks. Their reward for freeing the slave girl from a spirit was a beating and the loss of their freedom.
Continue with Acts 16: 25-28- “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.’”
One minute Paul and Silas were in stocks in the inner prison, but they were free to praise God. The next minute, God sent an earthquake in response, chains were loosed, and prison doors were opened. The entire prison was freed. John 8:36 says- “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” But this is the part I had previously missed. They were so free and unconstrained, they chose NOT to run. Let that sink in for a moment.
My wife and I served in the Juvenile Justice System in Hillsborough County (Tampa) Florida for 17 years. We met young people who had been rightfully arrested, and we met some who claimed to have been wrongfully arrested. We met some who had been arrested for the first time, and we met some who had been arrested many times. Some knew they had broken the law, and some simply did not care. The thing they all had in common was that they were afraid and they wanted out. They wanted the constraint lifted; they wanted their freedom. If the doors had suddenly come open while we were in the facility, I have no doubt we would have been trampled underfoot by the youths trying to get out.
Paul and Silas were so free they put the will of the Father above their freedom. They were set free, but they chose to defer their freedom for God’s purpose. They had already witnessed to the slave girl by setting her free from demonic possession, even though it cost them a beating and imprisonment. They had also witnessed to the other prisoners by freely praying and singing at midnight while in chains in the inner prison. These prisoners then saw the chains come off and the doors swing open, including their own. Their jaws must have dropped. Just as their instincts to run kicked in, Paul says “Not so fast.” There was more witnessing to be done. The freedom that dominated their thoughts while in prison would have to wait. If they ran off, the guard would kill himself. He may as well, because the punishment for allowing prisoners to escape was his own death.
By not running, Paul freed the guard from his death sentence. The guard fell down trembling before Paul and Silas and asked “What must I do to be saved?” Paul witnessed by saying “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” The guard took them to his house, washed their wounds, and fed them. The whole household believed, and was baptized. They were all freed from sin and its eternal consequences.
The next morning, the magistrates sent word that they should be released (verse 35). However, Paul knew there was still the matter of the wrongful arrest. He and Silas had done nothing to break their laws. To be truly free, that matter would need to be dealt with. Paul said “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.” (Verse 37) Paul turned down a second opportunity to be free. A confrontation was coming.
The magistrates were afraid when they heard they were Romans, because their rights as Roman citizens had been violated. Paul and Silas had been punished without due process. “The magistrates came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city.” (Verse 39) I can only imagine the pleading came with apologies and assurances there would be no record of the arrest. Neither party wanted any written record of what had happened. I’m sure the request to depart the city was more a plea than a command. The words and assurances from the magistrates freed Paul and Silas from the stigma of the false arrest. In addition, the magistrates were freed from the embarrassment and penalty of mistreating a citizen of Rome.
One does not have to be behind bars to be in a prison. Sin wants to hold us all captive, to the point our thoughts and actions may be addictive, seemingly beyond our control. The Lord wants us to be free. When Jesus sets us free, it often means those around us will also experience their freedom. Twice Paul and Silas deferred their freedom for the sake of others. When Jesus sets us free, we are beyond the definition of freedom. We are so free we can hang around until all the entanglements of our previous captivity are demolished. When that is achieved, we do not have to run for our lives. We can then help secure the freedom of those around us. That’s the whole Gospel. The Lord sets us free so that we can help others find their freedom in Christ Jesus.
