Message preached a Baptismal Sunday, August 16, 2015 from Acts 16:25-34
Theme: The story of the Philippian jailer shows us how baptism is the natural and grateful response of a heart set free by Jesus.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
Today, we get to do one of the things that we—as a church family—love to do most of all. We get to celebrate two people who are stepping forward to publicly declare their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through baptism. In fact, we will be celebrating something very special—the baptism of a husband and a wife together.
Baptism is something that the Lord Jesus commands His church to observe. It’s a key part of His ‘Great Commission’. Just before He ascended to the Father, He told His followers:
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
Everyone who has sincerely placed their faith in Jesus Christ should—in obedience to the Lord—declare that faith publicly by being baptized. We, of course, don’t believe someone needs to be baptized in order to be saved. But we do believe that a saved man or woman needs to be baptized in order to be obedient to their Savior and Lord. And it shouldn’t be seen as a mere ‘duty’ to perform. It should be the normal, natural, joyful, grateful response of a heart that has been saved and truly set free by Jesus.
And so; to help us get our thinking toward our celebration this morning, I ask you to turn with me to Acts 16. Let’s look together at one of the greatest stories of salvation in the New Testament.
It also just happens to be a great story about baptism.
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Now; this is a story of what happened during a great missionary effort. It’s the story of what happened when two of the church’s greatest early missionaries—the apostle Paul, and his ministry colleague Silas—went to the ancient city of Philippi to bring the gospel.
Philippi was a very important city in the region Thrace—north of Greece. And it had a very great distinction. It was a Roman colony—meaning that, at some time in the past, the Roman government had awarded the city the privilege of being considered a part of the Roman empire. Its citizens walked the streets with their head held high, because even though they lived in Philippi, they had their citizenship in Rome. No wonder Paul and Silas wanted to go to this important and influential city and reach its people with the gospel of Jesus!
But it was also a very pagan city—one that was influenced by superstitions and demonic activity. The Bible tells us that as Paul and Silas were ministering in the city, they captured the attention of a slave girl. She was a fortune-teller who was under the control of an unclean spirit; and she made her masters a lot of money through her divining arts. She began to follow Paul and Silas around pointing everyone’s attention to them. She kept crying out,
“These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17).
Now, you might have thought of that as a good thing. After all, a lot of people would have known who this girl was; and soon, they were all looking at Paul and Silas and wondering what remarkable message it was she said that they were proclaiming. You might have thought that this was good publicity.
But it wasn’t. In fact, it became a very distressing thing to Paul. Do you remember in the Gospels how Jesus would cast demons out of people? The demons would cry out that Jesus was the Son of God; and Jesus would always command them to be silent. He did not allow unclean spirits to speak about Him; and I think Paul was responding just as the Lord did. It was because it is not proper for demons to proclaim the message of the Savior to people. It would have been their crafty way of fooling people into thinking that the gospel of Jesus Christ is just another ‘fortune-telling’ trick. And so—after several days—Paul got tired of it. He turned to this slave girl and commanded the unclean spirit, in the name of Jesus, to come out of her. And it did!
I wish we knew more of what happened to her after that. I like to believe that she went on to be a follower of Jesus. We don’t know, of course; because we’re not told any more about her. Perhaps we will see her in heaven, and we can ask her about her story then. But we are told about her masters. They were furious; because now, she was no longer a money-maker for them. The missionaries had set her free—and had ruined their business prospects!
We’re told that her masters dragged the missionaries to the authorities and said,
“These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe” (vv. 20-21).
But that wasn’t really what was happening at all, was it? It seems that they left something out of their complaint. They didn’t say—“What’s really bugging us is that this message of theirs is making us lose a lot of money!” You find that a lot of times in history. Whenever the gospel of Jesus comes in and changes lives in a community, the various ‘sin businesses’ start losing money. But even though they didn’t tell the truth about the matter, the people and the city leaders where in a great uproar over it. They tore off the missionaries clothes and had them beaten. And we’re told that after they laid “many stripes” on them, they had them thrown into prison. They commanded the jailer to keep them under strict custody; and he put them into the inner prison—the most secure place in the prison—locked their feet into stocks, and kept them there. It seems rather extreme; but perhaps the devil was motivating the anger of the people.
But these two men turned out to be the most unusual prisoners that the jailer had ever locked up! And that’s when we come to this great baptism story. Let’s read it. Acts 16:25-34 says;
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household (Acts 16:25-34).
What a great story—a story about a wonderful salvation! Personally, I think verse 30 contains some of the most important words for people to hear from the Bible: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved . . .” It’s not, “Do good works and you will be saved . . .”; or “Become more religious and you will be saved . . .” If I may say it, it’s not even, “Just believe in God and you will be saved . . .” It’s very specific; but it’s also very simple: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” that is, place your confidence and your full trust in who Jesus, the Son of God, is and in what He has done for us in His death on the cross and resurrection from the tomb—“and you will be saved . . .” That’s it! That’s the good news that it’s our privilege to proclaim.
But it’s also a story about the response to that salvation. It’s a story of how the gospel transformed this jailer’s life; and how that transformation of life was publicly demonstrated to all by—among other things—baptism.
So; let’s walk through this story in a little more detail, from the standpoint of the jailer; and let’s see how this was so.
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Now, quite frankly, I think this jailer must have had a miserable job. I doubt very much that any little boy in those days ever said, “When I grow up, I want to be a jailer!” A jailer was responsible for keeping some of the worst people imaginable in his custody—some people who, themselves, were miserable, and angry, and fearful, and dangerous, and probably in a great deal of despair—some people who were even sentenced to die. The place would not have been a five-star hotel. It would have been dark and damp and dingy and dangerous. What a rotten place to have to be! How this man ended up being a jailer is probably a tragic story in itself.
And I suspect that this jailer would have been used to hearing people weeping, or crying, or moaning, or cursing, or raging. But that’s when we see a first step in his story; that . . .
1. THE WITNESS WAS WAS GIVEN.
He would have been utterly surprised to hear what was coming from those two missionaries that he had locked up earlier that day. We’re told, “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God . . .” And what’s more, we’re told, “and the prisoners were listening to them.” The Greek word that is used for “listening” here refers to an intense and investigative type of listening. It was the kind of “listening” a doctor would do when examining a patient. The other prisoners weren’t just hearing the sound of the singing—but they were thinking about it and evaluating it, and were interpreting what they were hearing. And you can be sure that the jailer was listening too. It may even have been that others in his household could hear it as well.
I wonder if this had begun to bring to mind all that the jailer already knew about these prisoners—that they were preachers of a man named Jesus; that they had cast a demon out of a slave girl in Jesus’ name; and that they were thrown into prison for having set her free from her oppression. And to hear them—not crying, or complaining, or raging like the other prisoners often did; but instead singing hymns and praising God—would have had a powerful impact on him. It would have born a witness to his soul of the reality in their lives of the Jesus that they preached; and would have set him to thinking!
May I pause here and just point out, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that people are watching you and me too? They know about our testimony as followers of Jesus. But do they see us present a consistent witness to them of the power of Jesus in our lives? Do they see hear us complaining, or crying, or carrying on as if Jesus was not the glorious Savior of our lives that we say He is?
I would never suggest that we ever ‘pour it on’, and ‘sing hymns’ and ‘praise God’ in an insincere way in order to impress people with the gospel. People aren’t impressed with phony praise. But if Jesus is really at work in our lives, we wouldn’t ever have to put anything on anyway People would see that we truly do turn to Jesus in our troubles, and that we sincerely do trust Him, and that we do find real peace in Him as a result. They would know—just by looking at us and listening to us—that it’s the real deal.
Let’s never forget that people are watching us in our times of trial and trouble! And may they truly see Jesus in us!
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Now; the witness of Jesus in the lives of the missionaries was being given to this jailer. But something had to happen to awaken him to the severity of his need. Something had to connect his heart to what it was that he was hearing. God calls us to be a witness; but it is always ultimately God Himself who sovereignly brings about conviction. And this is where we see how . . .
2. THE HEART WAS AWAKENED.
And what a remarkable way it happened! We’re told that, “Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed” (v. 26). I like to call this ‘the original jail-house rock’. And it must be that the jailer was right there in the prison; because we’re told, “And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself” (v. 27).
Why would he wish to take his own life? It’s because as the jail-keeper, if any of the prisoners were to escape from his custody, it would have been his life for theirs. And to see all the prison doors open, and all the shackles laying on the ground loose, would have meant to him that they were all gone—and that he was doomed multiple times over. He must have felt that it would be far better to have taken his own life in hand than to fall into the hands of the authorities. What a dreadful state of being he must have been in! In strictly earthly terms, all was lost to him!
And I think that he would have considered that his own soul was lost to him too. After all, the job of a jailer would have probably made a very hard and cruel and cynical man out of him. There are indications in this story that he was harsh and neglectful to the prisoners under his care. The hope and joy and holiness that was displayed in these two missionaries was not something that he himself personally experienced. The end for him had come; and he must now give an ultimate account of his life. I don’t know if you know what that’s like; but I think I do. I know what it’s like to stand on the precipice of hell, look down the pit, see the destiny I justly deserved because of my sins, and feel absolute despair of soul.
“But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here’” (v. 28). And you know; a lesser man that the apostle Paul might not have done that. If he had not been a great man of God, he just might have remembered the pain of the beatings that he and Silas had received, and of the shackles they had worn, and of the cold floor that they had spent the night sitting on, and the hunger in their bellies from not having been fed—and maybe had been tempted not to cry out so loud. But Paul and Silas had been sitting their all night singing about the Savior. He wanted that jailer to live, so he could know Jesus. Paul truly did as Jesus commanded—and had loved his enemy.
And the conscience of the jailer had been convicted. We’re told, “Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’” (vv. 29-30). The prison doors had been opened; but the jailer discovered that he had been the real prisoner all along. And that was God at work—awakening the heart of that jailer to the witness he had been receiving; and making him hungry for salvation.
You know, brothers and sisters in Christ; it may not be a literal earthquake that makes it happen. But when the time is right, God—as the Bible tells us—convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He is the one who awakens people to their need. It’s our job, as good evangelists under a Great Commission’s call, to go out and draw near to needy sinners. But let’s always remember—with great confidence—that when God the Holy Spirit works to awaken their hearts, its the sinners who go running to find the evangelists!
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And Paul and Silas were faithful. The man asked what he must do to be saved; and we’re told, “So they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household’” (v. 31).
And this introduces us to the next stage in this man’s story, that . . .
3. THE GOSPEL WAS HEARD.
Now; have you ever wondered about what the missionaries said?—that this man would be saved . . . and his household? Some have taken this to mean that when the head of a household is saved, he brings his family into salvation with him. But I don’t believe that’s what they meant. What they meant was that what was true for the jailer—that if he believed on Jesus he would be saved—was also just as true for every other individual in his family. If any of them believed on Jesus, they too would be saved.
I even wonder if the man’s family had come to him because of the earthquake and the commotion; and they were hearing the gospel from the missionaries too. This must be so to some degree, because we’re told next, “Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house” (v. 32). It seems that God had not only granted an awakening to the soul of this jailer, but also to his whole family.
Let me make another observation here. Isn’t it interesting to see the care that the missionaries were giving to this man and his family? They preached the simple message—“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved”; but they didn’t leave it at that. They taught further. They took the time to proclaim God’s word to the whole family, and to make sure that those who heard the gospel truly understood it. I believe that’s something that we need to do too. A superficial understanding of the gospel leads to a superficial response to it. When God awakens someone’s heart to the gospel, let’s take the time with them to open God’s word to them and help them understand—and to enable them to believe solidly in the truth of the gospel.
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Well; it’s apparent that this man and his family did believe solidly! And this leads us to a final stage in his story . . .
4. THE LIFE WAS TRANSFORMED.
You could see clear manifestations of a truly changed life. First, it was shown in repentance. I see this in that we’re told, “And he [that is, the jailer] took them [that is, the missionaries] the same hour of the night and washed their stripes” (v.. 33a). That would mean that he had not cared for the wounds they had received from their beatings before that time. He hadn’t shown these prisoners the mercy of tending to their injuries. But now, his heart had convicted him; and he repented. Even though it was past midnight, he showed love to the prisoners. That kind of repentance shows the reality of a changed life.
Second, it was shown in the fact that we’re told, “And immediately he and all his family were baptized” (v. 33b). Everyone in the family had believed clearly and confidently upon the Lord Jesus Christ that Paul and Silas had preached to them; and they all publicly and willingly declared that faith by being baptized. And do you notice that, after they had been sufficiently taught, there was no delay? They were baptized immediately! Maybe all of the other prisoners got to watch!
Third, it was shown in the fact that the jailer began to engage in generous acts of service. We’re told, “Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them . . .” (v. 34a). Given the fact that the jailer hadn’t washed the wounds of his prisoners before this time, it may be that he had also neglected to feed them. But now, all that has changed; and he even welcomed them into his own home for a home-cooked meal! When would a jailer ever bring his prisoners home for a hot dinner? Maybe that would possibly happen on The Andy Griffith Show; but hardly ever in real life! But this kind of loving service shows a heart truly changed by Christ.
And finally, that changed life was shown in joy. We’re told, “and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household” (v. 34b). It was a full-family revival—and it was characterized by celebration.
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Now; I believe that the main point of this story has been to show us the wonderful, life-transforming power of the gospel of Jesus. It shows us what happens when someone hears the wonderful offer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved”; and when the Spirit of God awakens their heart to their need, and they accept the offer. What a life-changing force the gospel is! How greatly God blesses it to the transformation of the soul! How excited we should be to proclaim it!
But I also believe that an important subsidiary point of this story is to show how a proper response to salvation includes—among other things—baptism. As this story shows us, baptism is the natural and grateful response of a heart set free by Jesus.
And now; it’s time for two of our dear fellow believers to be baptized! Let’s celebrate!