Scriptural Reference: Acts 16:25-34
Sermon by: REV. DR. ROY KENNEDY FARLEY JR.
Date Published: MAY 2010
Sermon Text: Acts 16:25-34
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God,
and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an
earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken;
and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were
unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide
open, he drew him sword and saw was about to kill himself, since he
supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud
voice, “DO NOT HARM YOURSELF, FOR WE ARE ALL HERE.” The jailer
called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and
Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to
be saved?” They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be
saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to
him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he
took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were
baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set
food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had
become a believer in God.
Prayer:
Motherly Father, I dare not approach this sacred task without calling upon
your Spirit to take hold of my being, and employ it as you will. Take now
these feeble words, and lift them up so that your people might be
encouraged and motivated as we are ushered into a new season of living.
Hide me now, oh God, behind the old rugged cross so that this waiting
congregation see none me and all of thee. Let now the words of my mouth
and the mediations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord my Rock
and my Redeemer.
With found memories, I recall the Watchnights of my yester-years: I grew up in
a small Baptist church in central Virginia, up the road from the Appomattox
rive—in Bermuda Hundred, where Pocahontas and John Rolfe met and married.
And in similar tradition to the African Ancestors who kept watch in 1862 on
At Midnight
Freedom’s Eve, at midnight, our small congregation gathered to sing hymns
and praise God….
At midnight
On bended knee the small band of believers would give thanks
God for he had done!
At midnight
My folk would say, “thank you Jesus for being so too me!”
At midnight
Tears of gratitude would roll down our faces!
At midnight
Silences would be broken by ecstatic shouts of joy!
At midnight
Sickness gave way to divine healing!
At midnight
Sorrows were turned into festive joy!
At midnight
Fear was transformed into victorious valor!
At midnight
Fret would turn into blessed assurance!
At midnight
Hate was overcome by the power of love!
At midnight
Hungry souls were feed the Bread of Life!
At midnight those who bound the by chains of the past, were set free to
experience liberation and joy in Jesus!!
Brothers and Sisters I tell you, it was at midnight.
Midnight marks the beginning and ending of each day in civil time throughout
the world. It is the dividing point between one day and another. Midnight is
important because it is at this point of time that we are able to turn the day
from present to past.
At midnight, we are able to embrace the newness of the day.
At Midnight
At midnight, we are able to put the past behind us and press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling in Jesus Christ.
At midnight, we are able to securely rest in the promise of a new day.
Yet for some, there is a dark shadow side to midnight. Midnight represents for
them deep dark places of pain and anguish. Midnight for some is the enlivening
of menace and mayhem in the world. It is for some it a wrestling with the
demonic; forces which eat away at all of the good that lies within humanity.
And for others still, midnight stirs ferocious fear within.
Yet Brothers and Sisters, I believe that:
With God there is something divine about midnight!
With God there is something powerful about midnights!
With God, there is something mystical about midnights!
With God, there is something liberating about midnights!
With God, there is a divine mystery about midnight!
With God, there is something joyous in the mercy that follows midnights!
When we enter into our midnight hour with God, an air of expectation can be
found....
An air of hope!
An air of liberation!
An air of gratitude!
At midnight we grab hold of our hope in the future, and seal the struggles and
strides of the past in the divine grace of God Almighty.
At Midnight
In my sanctified imagination I can see Paul and Silas as they are journeying
toward the place of prayer. On the way they encounter a woman of spiritual
insight, who was gifted with a spirit of divination and used that gift to amass
her owners large sums of money. Day after day this woman’s gift was being
abused and misused. And the Bible tells us that when she fixated her eyes
upon Paul and Silas she began to cry out in the streets, “THESE MEN ARE
SLAVES OF THE MOST HIGH GOD, WHO PROCLAIM TO YOU A WAY OF
SALVATION.” For many days and nights Paul and Silas walked the streets of
the city with this woman crying out behind them everywhere they went:
“THESE MEN ARE SLAVES OF THE MOST HIGH GOD, WHO PROCLAIM TO YOU
A WAY OF SALVATION.” When Paul and Silas could stand it no longer, the
Bible says that Paul, at that instance commanded the spirit, in the name of
Jesus, to come from within her and it did, which greatly distressed her money
hungry owners. When it was learned by them what Paul and Silas had done,
they sentenced with:
At Midnight
“DISTRUBING THE CITY---ADVOCATING A NEW WAY OF LIVING, ADVOCATING
A NEW WAY OF BEING IN THE WORLD, BUT NOT OF THE WORLD---TALKING
ABOUT JUSTICE, and TALKING ABOUT PEACE!.”
And Paul and Silas, because of their fervent faith, were thrown into JAIL …..a
placed designed to produce disintegration, disorientation, discomfort,
degradation and deprivation.
JAIL, the absence of self-determination
JAIL, the systematic separation from society
JAIL, the dispiriting of individuals
JAIL, the disorienting of a people
JAIL, the sudden disruption to normal affairs
JAIL, the loss of physical freedom and mobility
JAIL, a placed designed to produce alienation, meaninglessness, isolation, selfestrangement
and human powerlessness.
Brothers and Sisters, Paul and Silas, the very ones proclaimed as “SLAVES OF
THE MOST HIGH GOD”—were bound and thrown into Caesar’s JAIL at Philippi; a
dark tight place hammer out of strong rock. Because of their faith in Jesus
Christ, Paul and Silas were thrown in to JAIL. Standing with and for Jesus,
might at times land you in JAIL, but not just jails of strong rock, but it might
land you JAIL:
Jails of wood
Jails of cement
Jails on land
And even Jails on sea…
• JAIL, in the middle passage for enslaved Africans, was the bottom of
stinking slave ship—some named Jesus, others named Angel, and others
still The Grace of God. Where innocent families were separated, bound,
chained and broken.
• JAIL, the place where Dorothy Day was thrown when in the1950’s she
deepened the world’s faith in Jesus and uplifted the sacredness of life in
Japan. In divine defiance to the state’s annual civil defense drill, on the
steps of City Hall, Day said, “In the name of Jesus, who is God, who is
Love, we will not obey this order to pretend, to evacuate, and to hide.
We will not be drilled into fear.”
• JAIL, the place where Rosa Parks, in 1955, was thrown when she refused
to move her seat—setting ablaze righteous storms of just anger
throughout this country.
• JAIL, the place where Martin King, in 1963, on the margins of newsprint
and tiny pieces of toilet paper responded to white clergy and the entire
world, saying “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
• JAIL, the place where William Sloan Coffin belted out Halleluiah
choruses, when his faith and conscious stood in stark misalignment with
the southern oppressive laws of the day.
• JAIL, the place where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years—almost my entire
lifetime, fighting against the demonic forces of apartheid. On a prison
island, right off the coast of Cape Town South Africa much in the
likeness of Rikkers Island Nelson Mandela stirred his people toward
liberation.
JAIL: a placed designed to produce disintegration, disorientation and
degradation. Yet through the lives of the faithful, God has a miraculous way of
shaking and troubling the unjust foundations of bondage and setting ALL people
free!
In verse 25 of our text, Bible tells us that is was At Midnight, as Paul and Silas
were praying and singing hymns to God, in spite of their situation,—that God
began to shake and trouble the foundations which kept them imprisoned.
Brothers and Sisters, the Good News of our faith is that, like Paul and Silas, we
are each so important to God, that God is willing to cause the earth to shake
and tremble in order to bring about divine liberation from that which binds us
most! The midnight, earth-shaking liberation of God is the Good New of our
faith.
AT MIDNIGHT, when you are backed up are against the walls of injustice, God
will come on down, and begin to shake the foundations which have held you
bound for so long!
AT MIDNIGHT, when you are facing the iron bars of hatred, God will come on
down, and begin to shake the foundations which have held you bound for so
long!
At Midnight
AT MIDNIGHT, when you are chained to abusive and toxic relationships, God
will come on down and begin to shake the foundations which have held you
bound for so long!
AT MIDNIGHT, if you can muster a little song in our heart,
God will begin to move!
AT MIDNIGHT, if you can whisper a little love song to Jesus,
God will begin to move!
AT MIDNIGHT, if you can grab ahold of your faith,
God will begin to move!
AT MIDNIGHT, if you can speak a WORD of encourage,
God will begin to move!
AT MIDNIGHT, if you can sing out “I LOVE YOU LORD,
God will begin to move!
AT MIDNIGHT, if you can offer a little praise,
God will begin to move!
Brothers and Sister, when God intervenes AT MIDNIGHT, God’s longing is for all
to be set free. God does not seek segregated liberation, God seeks liberation
for all.
In verse 27 the bible tells us that when the jailer awoke and saw that the
prison doors were flung wide open the he reached for his sword to end his life,
because he assumed that the prisoners had escaped. But before the jailer
could do any harm to himself, in my sanctified imagination I can hear Paul
shouting out in a loud voice, “BROTHER, BROTHER—DO YOURSELF NO HARM.
WE ARE ALL ACCOUNTED FOR, NO ONE HAS ESCAPED-WE ARE ALL HERE!”
Calling for the lights the jailer rushed in and fell down before Paul and Silas.
Trembling and shaking, realizing that he was in the presence of God Almighty,
the jailer asked a lifesaving question: “Sirs, What must I do be saved?” And
they responded to him, “BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS, AND YOU WILL BE
SAVED, YOU AND YOUR HOUSEHOLD.”
Paul and Silas were deep believers in Jesus. They were Christians living, just
like you and me, on this side of the cross. They were people
—seeking justice, AT MIDNIGHT.
—seeking peace, AT MIDNIGHT.
—seeking love and striving toward the kingdom of God, AT MIDNIGHT.
And it was around about midnight, that liberation dressed in the garb of
salvation carrying with it the earth shaking power of God came upon the jailer
and his entire household. “Believe in the Lord Jesus,” Paul and Silas said and
freedom followed.
Brothers and Sister, midnight is not simply designed to bring freedom to those
who are already invested in the kingdom of God, but it too is designed to offer
freedom and liberation to all who call upon the name of the Lord. We must
understand that liberation is not only designed for the self, but it is designed
for world-wide community. If Paul and Silas had kept their freedom for
themselves, it would have brought eternal bondage to the jailer and weeping
to his household. God’s intervention at midnight became humanity liberating
salvation about midnight.
Brothers and Sisters,
When God intervenes at midnight, mayhem turns into majesty
When God intervenes at midnight, menace turns into divine mystery
When God intervenes at midnight, demonic overtures turn into divine
symphonies
When God intervenes at midnight, death turns into life.
When God intervenes at midnight, God’s power is revealed and God’s Glory is
made manifest in the world.
On Watchnight, we teeter upon the edge of our collective future!
We know not, what the year may bring.
We know not, what the future holds in store.
But we rest in knowing—that with God on our side—We can make it!
At Midnight.
Halleluiah, At Midnight!
W.E.B. Dubois’ Prayer:
We pray tonight, O God, for confidence in ourselves, our powers and our
purposes in this beginning of a New Year. Ward us from all lack of faith and
hesitancy and inspire in us not only the determination to do a year’s work well,
but also the unfaltering belief that what we wish to do, we will do.
Such faith, O Lord, is born of Works. Every deed accomplished finishes not only
itself, but is also fallow ground for future deeds. Abundantly endow us, Our
Father, with this deed-born Faith. Amen.
At Midnight
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