Breaking Free
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4th Sunday of Easter April 26, 2026
Last week we saw Saul of Tarsus acting out of fear. He was afraid of this new Jesus movement and tried to snuff it out, until he was blinded by God…knocked off his horse and freed from the fear, hatred and violence that drove him. Last week we saw Saul of Tarsus go through a dramatic conversion and put his faith and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Last week he was breathing threats and anger and pursuing all Christians, so he could throw them in jail. This week, he’s preaching about hope in Jesus…and he gets thrown in jail!
Hope in Christ so completely transformed Paul, that he preached the good news in everything he did. Something I’m fascinated by, as a preacher myself, is the number of ways we see Paul preaching today.
Proclamation
He certainly preached with – speaking the Truth about Jesus having risen from the dead and forgiving all sins to those who believe in him. But he preached with more than words.
Exorcism
He preached Jesus’ power over traditional spirits as he and Silas cast the spirit out of the slave girl who was following them. Not did Paul demonstrate Jesus’ power over the spirits, he used Jesus’ name to free this slave from being exploited by her owners.
Nonviolence and Singing
Of course, the owners of that slave girl were furious. And this led to Paul and Silas being beaten with rods and flogged brutally, and even locked into stocks with their feet bound. How did they preach the Good News of Jesus? They used what Martin Luther King Jr. called, “the ultimate form of persuasion”, non-violence.
There they sat in jail, bleeding and bruised, unjustly. Yet their goal was not for their personal protection… their goal was to convert their oppressors. So, Paul and Silas started singing…singing praises to God!
I love to tell the story
of unseen things above,
of Jesus and His glory,
of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story
because I know it's true.
it satisfies my longings
as nothing else can do.
All the other prisoners could hear them singing. Then God brought about a miracle. An earthquake shook the very foundations of the jail and walls came tumbling down! Praise God! But Paul and Silas didn’t run for their freedom. No, their goal was to preach the Gospel and persuade people who were caught in their own prisons of violence, or hate, or oppression, or any number of things that steals their hope. Paul and Silas were preaching in words, nonviolence, and songs of praise…focused on introducing people to faith in Jesus and his power to free us from all those prisons.
What threatens your hope?
You and I may be faced with things that threaten to take away our hope. What is it that worries you today? Is it your own health, or a relationship with someone you love. Perhaps it’s headlines in the news: the lingering surge in Minnesota, the war in Iran or the war in Gaza. What is it that threatens to imprison you and take away your hope?
Jesus Christ stands with you today. Whether it’s headlines you’re afraid of…whether it’s neighbors, or whether it’s your own sense of failure…or whether it’s you not feeling empowered to do what you believe you should do.
You can be as powerful… as Paul and Silas singing their faith in prison. Not because you alone are so powerful, but because Jesus Christ is at work through you!
What we need to resist…is to resist responding to our fears with hate, anger, self-defense, or other powers. The call is to respond to our fears with prayer AND an unstoppable hope in an unstoppable loving God… who cares about every one of us here and FAR MORE!
God is unstoppable in God’s pursuit of you, and everyone you will ever know…with love. Be a part of that movement of people freed to hope and live in the power of God! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Doug Cox