Acts 16:25-34: The Philippian Jailor

The book of Acts give us some wonderful stories of individuals who encounter Christ and get saved. The story of the Philippian jailor is unique because we have for the first time someone who has no acquaintance with the synagogue or the Jews coming to faith in Christ. The Ethiopian Eunuch was visiting Jerusalem and reading the Jewish scriptures; Cornelius was a Godfearer and worshipped the God of the Bible; even Lydia who is saved earlier in this chapter attends a Jewish prayer meeting. But here we have a true unassociated convert. Jailors were typically retired and returning soldiers. Here is man who has faithfully served Rome in its various wars. As a reward for service he is granted land to settle down, and he has settled in Philippi, or ‘Little Rome’, a place wildly loyal to Rome and Caesar. Imagine a man who has had to fight Rome’s wars at a time before the Geneva convention where soldiers would commit various atrocities and have a lot of PTSD from the things they had done, seen and experienced. You have to imagine that a man who is able to run an ancient jail with its harsh punishments, hard conditions, who has to be able to endure the begging of the prisoners. This is not likely a job that any old person could do. This is the man we meet in our portion.