Acts 16:25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.
27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.
29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
For those who follow me daily with my devotionals or those who have checked out our website or attended our services, you know that most of my preaching and teaching is expositional. We are currently looking at Bible doctrines in our Sunday School hour and that is topical. Our last couple of devotionals have also been topical. My preference is expositional, verse by verse teaching and preaching.
I believe there is a safeguard in expositional preaching. God gave the Scripture by book form. The first book is the book of Genesis. As we follow God’s giving of the Scriptures we see that He guided the writers to give reference to other writers in their writing. They sometimes mentioned the other writer, and sometimes they did not. To reference a Biblical writer without mentioning his name is not plagiarism. The Bible has one Author and that is God. God chose forty different men to write the Scriptures, but they did not write their opinions. They wrote exactly what He wanted them to write. Sometimes they wrote things down that they did not understand. They did not need to understand it to write it down. They simply needed to trust the God Who gave them His Word.
When it comes to Bible doctrine, it is important that we not pick and choose the passages we like and skip over other ones that we do not like. When it comes to the doctrine of salvation, there has been much “dumbing down” of the doctrine. The devil loves deception. He is a liar. If he can keep you believing a lie, then he has you where he wants you. The Bible makes it very clear that after death there is a judgment. Hindus teach reincarnation. There is no such a thing. Catholics teach purgatory. There is no such thing.
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
In the few years a person has on this earth, God gives that person all the opportunity needed to turn to Him in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. People might argue that point, but the Bible is clear:
II Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
We could waste much time arguing from our finite positions, but that is not profitable for anyone. It might make the “debater” proud to think he won a debate, but for what benefit?
In our opening verses we have the account of the Philippian jailor. This man was a hardened sinner. He loved his Roman pay check and after all, “he was just doing his job”. That is a common argument among people with a seared conscience.
Paul and Silas had been cast into prison for the “heinous crime” of preaching the Gospel of Christ. The jailor had them put into stocks to keep them from escaping. Paul and Silas were no threat to the prison population at all, yet they were the ones that were locked up the tightest.
God proved that He is still in charge. Stocks and prison gates do not mean anything to Him. He simply sent an earthquake to that area and that did all that was needed to set Paul and Silas free. The jailor, being the lost man he was, assumed that all the prisoners escaped when the prison gates were opened. He did not go in and check. He was going to commit suicide and get it over with. He did not want to face the Roman wrath.
Paul and Silas, being true saints functioning under the love of God, called out to him and told him not to harm himself. No prisoner had escaped.
God used this highly unusual fact to get the attention of this hardened jailor. There were many prisoners in that jail, but the one who needed attention at this point was the jailor. God loved him as much as anyone else. He had not been broken by any other Gospel witness he had seen or heard. However, that earthquake and the fact that no prisoner had escaped, and the fact that he had heard Paul and Silas singing praises to God while they were hurting and bleeding from the cruelty of the Roman system, broke him.
He did not hesitate to enter that prison, and fall down before Paul and Silas and ask them right there what he needed to do to be saved. He did not need to be told he needed a Saviour. He already knew that. He was ignoring that fact because he had a “good job” and a “good pay check”. He discovered, in a moment of time, that he had nothing. He also knew exactly where to go for help.
Paul and Silas were not defeated men. They were rejoicing in God’s mercy and goodness and their clear testimony was part of what God would use to draw this hardened jailor to Himself.
The Bible declares there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repents. This jailor was the one sinner needing special attention at this time.
His question at that time was straight forward. “What must I do to be saved?” He did not have time for theological debate. No doubt there were things he did not understand, but he understood that he was a man headed for hell.
God uses many different ways to get people’s attention. Too often they refuse to budge, regardless of what happens in their lives. There are far too many false teachers who are smooth talkers and they convince lost people that life is good and it will all work out for good in the end. The imaginary heaven of the majority of professing Christians is not any better than this earth. You can keep your liquor and your cigarettes and your drugs and your pornography, etc. and all is good.
Paul and Silas’ answer to this jailor was simple, but it was also profound. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” You notice that after those words we have verse 32. That verse tells us that they said other things to him and his household as well. We are not told what those things were.
We do know that the message of believing was not the simplistic, shallow message given by most today. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:21-
Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
If you take the time to read the verses that follow that one, God helps us to understand what the problem is. God’s salvation is not complicated. It is not a long drawn out process. God’s salvation happens in a moment of time. The process leading up to that moment can take longer, depending on the stubbornness of the individual. Salvation is a gift of God.
Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is essential. That belief, if true, is life changing. You notice that Jesus Christ is acknowledged as the Lord Jesus Christ. The person who is truly broken by the Lord, is not setting the terms of salvation. He is surrendering to God’s terms of salvation. The person who is Biblically saved, is learning how to live the Christian life from the moment of salvation. He or she will be growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ from that moment on. The jailor was fundamentally changed when he turned to God in repentance and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour and Lord.
He took Paul and Silas home and washed their wounds and dressed them. He took care of their physical needs the best he could. His desire was also to be baptized to demonstrate he had truly been saved. Not only that, but his household was saved. They were so struck by what had happened, that they wanted what Paul and Silas were offering. They were not offering some smooth, no obligation, fluffy story. They spoke the truth and the salvation message is a life changing message for those who receive it. It is not a restrictive, law keeping bondage. It is a liberating message that allows the soul of the redeemed to exercise the joy of the Lord. It is a bondage breaker.
Be sure you are not being crippled by a lie. Be sure you know the Lord’s salvation. You can persist in your own ideas if you like, but in the end you will meet the Lord Jesus Christ. His message of salvation is clear and it is still life changing. He provides blessings the world cannot give. It is a great privilege to be saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor Bartel