A Jailers very freedom
Witness to the world: Book of Acts • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 54:46
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A night to remember
A night to remember
There are days, there are nights that you will always remember. Without a doubt this is a great day in the life of a jailer and his household.
(insert previously picture here)
Previously - things leading to our story (Act16:20-24)
Paul, Silas and Luke got in some hot water because of the gospel and the commands given to unclean spirit of divinity.
They were dragged as a public spectacle to the magistrates, stripped naked, beaten with rods, thrown in inner prison and feet locked in stocks
Prison experience (Act16:25-34)
25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.
27 When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!”
29 And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.
33 And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. 34 And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.
What did you see, what did you notice, what sticks out to you?
Gleaning from the scripture. Like is our habit in a bible class is to pull from the scripture first then discuss more, so lets pose some questions of the scripture to start off with.
Question: What were Paul and Silas doing about midnight (v.25)?
Praying and singing hymns to God
Like we mentioned last week, there are always people watching or people listening, and that is the case here according to (v.25)
Question: who was listening to them (v.25)?
The prisoners were listening
Question: What was the jailer doing when the earthquake came (v.26-27)?
He was sleeping and he awoke, ready to kill himself supposing all the prisoners had escaped.
Hey the jailer was charged to secure the prisoners in the inner prison and he was comfortable/secure that had been done that and was asleep on his watch. If someone escapes on their watch they are responsible, hence why he was ready to kill himself.
Question: Paul sees and comes into action by doing what (v.28)?
Paul cried out with a loud voice.
The jailer hears him and gets light to be able to see what is going on (v.29)
Question: So things are lite up, then what happens with the jailer in (v.29)?
Overcome with trembling and fear and fell down before Paul and Silas
Question: What was the question from the jailer in (v.30)?
What must I do to be saved?
That is a great question, and it is an important question we should always be ready to answer. But look at the words used in (v.31) is that enough?
31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Salvation is our greatest need and also our greatest thing to share with others on how to have it because (Rom6:23)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Statement/Question not on the screen: Salvation needed, salvation provided, but again shall we limit the words we use to (v.31)?
31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
(use that as a talking point, discussion point for a few minutes)
I want to come back and talk on this, what is said, what is not said in a few minutes but still need to finish gleaning from the scripture before doing such.
Question, look at the wording in (v.32); where is the jailer now and what is happening?
They are at the jailers house with everyone who was there, and the word of the Lord was being spoken.
Question: What was the results of the word of the Lord being spoken (v.33)? and since we are at it, what are the further results seen in (v.34)?
That very hour, immediately he and all the household were baptized, they ate, they rejoiced having everyone believing in God.
(Transition) now may we get to the next part I want to look at tonight:
Things unsaid
Things said
Things seen (Act16:35-40)
Things unsaid
Things unsaid
Sometimes we need to draw some assumptions to things said and things left unsaid. This is a case of things unsaid at this point.
Things not mentioned in this conversion story:
The need to repent of sins (Mt3:2; Lk24:46-47 Act2:37-39; Act17:30-31)
Jesus wanted men to repent calls for them to repent.
2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
and further in his earthly ministry instructs about what needed to be preached.
46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
In similar fashion to our story tonight look at the action in Act2
37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
and look at Paul’s word when preaching in Athens
30 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
So, consider this, in our passage it only mentions believe, so that does mean that repentance does not need to happen? (being left unsaid in the records does not mean it was not recorded for it is elsewhere).
The need to confess Christ (Mt10:32-33; Rom10:9-10; 1Jn4:15)
Jesus spoke on, rather point blank about confessing
32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
Confess or be denied. There there is Paul’s words on confessing.
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
and how about what John records
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
So, public confession (before men)(Mt10:32-33) that leads to salvation (Rom10:9-10) that results in God abiding in hi (1Jn4:15)
So, just because it is not recorded in this confession story does it discount confession as something not needed?
(Transition) -We would be poor bible students if we conclude and mishandled the scripture that just because it does not mention these things in Act16:31 that they re not necessary to salvation. Now in looking at the passage may we look at what is mentioned?
Things said
Things said
From the things being said you can draw conclusions of things being implied too.
Believe in the Lord (Act16:31; Jn3:36, 8:24; Jn20:30-31 and Rom10:9-10)
31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
We have covered that verse in our passage a couple of times tonight so may I bring in a few more now regarding the necessity of belief, specific belief, belief in the Lord.
36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Believe or live in the wrath of God.
24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
Suffering and dying in your sins if you do not believe in the Son of God.
John spoke why he recorded everything he did so people would believe.
30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
and we know that from Rom10:9-10 which we looked at already that belief leads to righteousness which leads to salvation.
(Transition) Faith, belief, in Christ is imperative to salvation because of what the Word says about it and that we have just looked at some of that word concerning faith, belief, and specific belief at that.
Baptism was immediately done (Act16:33, 2:41, 9:35-38, 22:16)
33 And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.
That very hour, immediately after hearing the words of God spoken then put into action.
This is similar in expediency as see in
41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
When were they baptized? When they received the Word.
You can see the immediate reaction from the Eunuch too if you were to look at (Act8:35-38).
Luke records on behalf
Side note the purpose of baptism (Act2:38, 22:16, Col2:11-13; 1Pt3:21)
Baptized for forgiveness of sins (Act2:38)
Baptized calling on His name having your sins washed away (Act22:16) - oh yeah, done immediately too.
Look at this other beautiful passage with me.
11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
Baptized for forgiveness of sins because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ!
21 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
(Transition) Baptism; when we look at the scriptures about the reason and the necessity of baptism as revealed in the N.T. then we can see the urgency, immediacy of it by those who have heard the gospel and believed it. It not only impacts you, but may impact others too.
Believing, baptizing included his household (Act16:32-34)
Paul spoke the word of the Lord to all the household, the jailer rejoiced as all believed in God. Why did they believe, because they heard the Word and they may have even seen the proof in the jailer’s freedom!
32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. 33 And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.
34 And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.
They greatly rejoiced! Do we greatly rejoice in our salvation? Even 20-30 years later. Do we greatly rejoice when the Lord adds to the numbers daily those being saved?
So there is underlying faith implied (Act16:34) that included repentance (Act2:38); repentance that led to action (Act16:33); due to whole-hearted faith (Act8:37)
Another quick side note: Faith comes by hearing, faith comes with understanding; understanding sin and the consequences of personal sin, infants, children do not comprehend and are incapable of having whole-hearted faith in Jesus Christ so infant baptism is not the the plan of God. Baptism for the remission of sins in the name of Jesus is! - the household here in our passage, like with the story of Lydia, there is no mention of children and we should not assume there were children there who were baptized.
(Transition) We still have one more passage to finish this off tonight so let’s take the last few minutes to look at “things seen.”
Things seen
Things seen
Faith is not always seen, in fact we can see in (Heb11:1) the substance of faith. The results of faith we can see, as we saw in our passage tonight and in our last section.
1 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.
Paul’s faith, in our passage is made evident to the magistrates and those in Lydia’s household too.
35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, “Let those men go.” 36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.”
36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.”
38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. 39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city.
40 So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
May we glean from the scripture before we all it a night, we are seeing faith in action, as well as faith’s results that are seen.
Our story started at night (Act16:25) and now it is day, so let’s see what the passage has to say.
Question: What was the intentions of the magistrates that day (v.35)?
Told officers to let those men go.
Question: after telling Paul the ruling of the magistrates, what was his reaction (v.37)?
No Indeed, tell the magistrates to come themselves and get us out!
Paul was a Roman citizen and was treated in a manner that would not be acceptable as a Roman citizen who have not been condemned. And they want him to leave and leave quietly, yeah right!
Question: Word gets back to the magistrates and it brought them fear because they were Roman citizens (v.38) what else did it do (v.39)?
magistrates pleaded with them to depart.
Question: The end result of faith that was in action, that that was seen was what in (v.40)?
It was encouragement to the brethren!
(encouragement slide- what must I do to be saved)
(summary/encouragement/close) Faith, it is vital, it when it was coupled with hearing, believing, brought about the life changing question, what must I do. (expand and close)
(prayer) (Exit)