Worship that Brings Freedom
Have you ever been driving down the road and seen someone alone in their car singing their heart out? It can be quite a sight! You cannot hear them singing but you can see it on their face and can tell they are really letting loose.
Have you ever accidentally made eye contact with this person as you drive by? They will (usually) get embarrassed and you can see their face change as they reach for the volume knob on the stereo.
I know this, because I have been that singing driver.
People are uncomfortable with the idea that someone else may overhear them sing. Most of us are not trained musicians, and even if we sang in our high school choir there is something vulnerable about someone else overhearing us sing. Yet, every Sunday when you come into church one of our song leaders will ask you to stand and then hopes you will sing along to the songs. So, if we sing at all, we may quietly whisper the words to ourselves, or we may close our eyes in hopes of tuning out those around us and having a worshipful encounter with the Lord.
Having a meaningful and personal experience in worship is very appropriate, but your time of worship on a Sunday morning may not just be for you. Paul and Silas in Acts 16 give us an example of how God’s people being overheard singing can draw others toward salvation.
Paul and Silas are in Philippi, and they cast a demon out of a fortune-telling slave girl which really upsets her owners, because now they cannot make money from her. So, Paul and Silas get beaten up and thrown into stocks inside the local jail. Which is where the text picks up with this amazing account:
Acts 16:25-32
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
So, as a worshiper and worship pastor, here is what I think is significant about this account:
As you sing and praise the Lord, God may use your worship of Him
to bring freedom and salvation to someone else.
Other prisoners were listening -
Paul and Silas were not sheepish about the fact that others may hear them. And I would guess that some of the other prisoners were simply annoyed that someone was singing in the middle of the night. They probably wanted them to shut-up so they could get some sleep!
But I think the point of having this in the text is the reality that people pay attention when they see someone walking similar struggles with a different attitude. They were paying attention to Paul and Silas who were in the same miserable prison cell but were there with a prayerful song. The prisoners were drawn in and were paying attention. And because they were paying attention, they were not going to miss what God was about to do.
God broke everyone’s chains loose -
If this text was written with an “agenda” or to manipulate the narrative of God, I think that only Paul and Silas’ chains would have come loose. That God would have blessed the “spiritual” people and continuing to confine the “heathen”. But that is now how the mercy and grace of God plays out here. Not just the “good Christians” were delivered. Even the rightfully imprisoned had their chains come loose. Genuine praise from God’s people can be a conduit for freedom even before full salvation from sin is experienced.
Have you ever considered that? That our singing as a church might be how God starts to loosen chains of sin, trauma, or addictions binding up others? Paul even says it this way to the Corinthian church:
As they [inquiring unbelievers] listen, their secret thoughts will be exposed, and they will fall to their knees and worship God, declaring, “God is truly here among you.” - 1 Corinthians 14:25
It is the Lord’s job to bring people to salvation, but it may be our role in singing that draws someone to fall to their knees and declare their need of a savior.
They did not use their freedom for their own benefit -
This whole group of prisoners had just received a “get out of jail free” card from God. They had every opportunity to take off and get away. But they did not. Like the breaking of the chains, it’s not just Paul and Silas as the “good missionaries” who stuck around. All the prisoners stayed. I think they knew something miraculous had happened and everyone was looking to the two singers for what to do next.
They did not use their freedom to benefit their own situation, rather they used this newfound freedom to preach the gospel. The jailer, thinking he had just failed miserably at his job, was about to kill himself in shame! But because Paul and Silas did not take personal advantage of their freedom, this jailer not only remained alive, but salvation came to him and his entire household. Generational change came about because freedom was not used selfishly.
So next Sunday, when one of our song leaders invites you to stand and sing, you are being invited into a personal encounter with God that may be what brings about salvation for someone else. People will listen, chains will come loose, and the Gospel will be made known as we lift our voices in song.