If you are not at all familiar with the Bible, but, something happened that suddenly you decided you wanted to be a Christian. So, where would you most likely begin reading the Bible? Well, as with any other book, you would probably begin at the beginning, wouldn't you? That would be interesting reading, too-- until you got over to-- well maybe to Leviticus. And that is where many people give up. And they have never gotten to Christianity yet at all. The New Testament is the book for Christianity. Say, friend, we are glad you've joined us today-- In Search of the Lord's Way.
The fifth book of the New Testament, the book of Acts, is very exciting reading, friend. For one reason it is just what its name implies-- a book of action. Some Bible publishers give it the title "The Acts of The Apostles." Well, it isn't really all that; it really isn't all the acts of the apostles or the acts of all the apostles. Other publishers simply title it "Acts." But, we can be a little more specific than that. It is the story-- in fact the only divine inspired story that we have of the activities of the apostles under the leadership of the Holy Spirit to carry out the commission which Jesus gave them just before His ascension to the Father's right hand in heaven.
Acts is a fantastic story! I believe God knew people-- believers and unbelievers, too, would be talking about it and writing about it as long as the world stands. So, He wanted us to know the true story of the dynamic beginning and the phenomenal spread of the most powerful and interesting and fastest growing and enduring movement in the history of men-- the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, the Holy Spirit used Luke, a beloved physician among the early disciples, to write what we call the book of Acts of Apostles. And it is an "action" story!
It not only tells about the persistent unrelenting preaching and teaching of the disciples, it also tells about how men and women-- first from among the Jews, then the Samaritans, then the Gentiles, hastened to become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, it has often been called "the book of conversions." From among all the conversions Luke records for us in the book of Acts, we have chosen the one of a jailor in the historic city of Philippi for our study today. We'll read it after Ken Helterbrand leads us in a hymn.
We are reading from the 16th chapter of the book of Acts of Apostles, and we will begin at verse 25. “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, which 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.” And I read through verse 34. Now let us go to God in prayer. Holy and Reverend Father in heaven, we are so thankful to You that we can be together right now by the means that You have provided for us to study Your word and search for Your presence and for Your will for us in our lives. We pray You in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, to bless our study today; to helping someone who is desperately needing help in finding the way of salvation. Amen!
The apostle Paul was the Lord's great missionary to the Gentile world. Much of the book of Acts is consumed with the activities of his missionary tours in Asia and Europe. The event we are studying today occurred on his second missionary journey; the story begins in the last verses of the fifteenth chapter. And there we are told that he chose Silas as his companion and set out to visit churches that he and Barnabas had established on his first journey. Having done that, they looked southward to what Luke calls Asia, but they were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to go there. And they turned toward the north to go to Bythinia, the province bordering the southern shore of the Black Sea. And again, Luke doesn't tell us how, but in some way the Holy Spirit forbad them again. So, they pressed toward the west arriving at Troas on the eastern coast of the Agean Sea. There, Paul had a vision of going over into Europe where the gospel had never been preached before.
The next morning they boarded a ship and with a favorable wind they crossed the sea very quickly. They landed at Neapolis, where they probably spent the night, and the next day they made the ten-mile trek inland to the city of Philippi, which was the principle city of that section of Macedonia. (Now it's worthy of notice by the modern church that this greatest of all missionaries went not to the small towns and rural villages first, but to the principle cities-- the populated areas-- where he established strong congregations that could radiate the gospel, the light of the gospel into the countryside around them.)
It was Paul's practice, too, that when he entered a city, first to search out believers in God who didn't know about Christ. Here in Philippi on the Sabbath day, he found some Jewish women worshiping by the riverside. He and Silas (and by now Luke had joined them) spoke to them about Jesus Christ. There was a business woman among them whose name was Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened so that she attended to what they were teaching. And Luke says, "When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay" (verse 15). Now the use of the word "when" (when she was baptized), indicates that baptism was an anticipated thing when she became attentive to the gospel message. It is that way, friend; it's just that way; it’s what any person does when he or she is attentive to the gospel story. It is expected that they will be baptized.
Well, they accepted Lydia's invitation to stay with her while they continued to evangelize the city. And a certain young woman in the city who was possessed by an evil spirit by which she foretold the future, followed them around crying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation." She was right in what she was saying, but Paul and his company couldn't have her, being demon possessed as she was, associated with their ministry. So, he cast out the evil spirit. Those who profited monetarily from her evil practice stirred up the people in the market place against Paul and Silas and even had them brought before the magistrates. They were severely beaten, with many stripes and thrown in jail.
At midnight they were weeping, they were not weeping as I started to say and lamenting their misfortune as we might think they would be; but they were praying and singing hymns to God; and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly the prison was shaken severely by what the Scriptures call a "great" earthquake. Even the foundations of the prison structure were shaken and the doors were flung ajar so that all the prisoners could have escaped had they willed. The jailor had been asleep, but he was awakened, and seeing all the prison doors open, he feared his prisoners had escaped and was about to kill himself. You see, the law was clear; he would have to pay with his life for the escape of the prisoners. But Paul, seeing what he was about to do, "cried with a loud voice, saying, do yourself no harm: for we are all here." Then the jailer "called for a light, and 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?"
Why would he ask them, "What must I do to be saved?" Well, we are not sure. Perhaps he had heard about the young slave girl that we mentioned earlier. Remember? She was saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show to us the way of salvation." Well, perhaps he had heard maybe some of the other teaching, and if not he had surely heard of it and he knew it related to salvation. Well, whatever, however he might have heard about it, he knew that these men were associated with God, and before God he had a smitten conscience, and he cried out, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" That is verse 30. There is no doubt about it; this has to be one of the most important questions a person will ever ask himself or anybody else. Perhaps if you haven't asked it yourself, you have mulled it over in your mind when some night, maybe you are smitten with a guilty conscience about something, you weren't able, and you just weren’t able to sleep.
Well, verse 31 says, "And they (meaning Paul and Silas) said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." But the story doesn’t end there. As we read earlier Christ had not been preached in that part of the world, so the next verse is an absolute necessity. It says, "Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house." You see, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." That is Romans. 10:17. Therefore, to enable him to carry out the command to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," they had to teach him the gospel. The gospel of Christ-- not an exhilarating experience now, not someone's personal testimony, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is "the power of God to salvation, to every one who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16).
Well, verse 33 says, "And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized." Remember now, earlier that day these two men of God had been severely beaten with many stripes. By now the bruised bodies had swollen; fever had risen in them, no doubt about it; every muscle was sore; the blood had crusted in the stripes and to say they were "miserably uncomfortable," well, that just has to be an understatement, doesn’t it? This jailor, whose attitude toward these prisoners had turned 180 degrees, took them that very hour and washed those fevered stripes. Oh, you can imagine how good that felt, can’t you? What is the significance of it in Luke's story? Well, it spelled "repentance" in any language!
And "immediately he and all his family were baptized” (verse 33). It's past midnight by now. Paul and Silas were suffering from the beating-- yet this man was baptized the same hour of the night. And so was his family. What does that say about the important role of baptism in salvation? The man's question was, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" He was taught about Christ. Obviously, he came to believe in Christ. He repented, as we have seen. And, he was baptized in the wee hours of the morning. He couldn't even wait till the next day to be baptized! Why? What about all these other prisoners that he was responsible for? What about his other duties as a jailor? Why didn't Paul and Silas just explain to him, as many would do today, that baptism has nothing to do with your salvation anyway; you are saved the moment you believed and so we baptize you at a more convenient time. Oh me!
Well, the reason must be clear. At the beginning, this man was in total ignorance of the gospel. Paul and Silas “spoke the word of the Lord to him." In doing so, they had taught him about baptism. He had no opportunity to get any teaching about it from anyone else. That simply says that in teaching the New Testament way of salvation, the true evangelist teaches baptism. The gospel message of salvation in Jesus is just not complete without it, friend. And obviously, baptism occupies an essential place in the process of being saved. Jesus had said, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved." My friend, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you repented? Have you been baptized? Oh, I hope so, but if not, you make no mistake in being as prompt as the jailor was in responding to God's amazing grace.
In my studies for this message I was researching anything I could find on the city, the evangelists, the prisoners-- well, everything I could find that related to the event. And, I was amazed when I read from the pen of one scholar whom I regard very highly who said, "He not only believed, but repented also. And as a token of his penitence, there and then he washed their wounds, and immediately afterwards, he and all his family were baptized, perhaps in a fountain in the prison, maybe in the courtyard, or perhaps using the same bowl from which he had cleansed their wounds."
No, no they were not baptized in a bowl-- or sprinkled. The Scripture says "he was baptized." "Baptized" is an anglicized form of the word in the language of the New Testament which means "to dip, to plunge, to immerse." If you are thinking there wouldn't have been a pool of water inside the prison large enough to have immersed an adult, you need to read the passage again more closely. They were not in the jail at the time of the baptisms. Verse 29 says the jailor sprang into the prison. Verse 30 says he brought them out. Verse 32 says, "Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house." So they must have gone to his house. The next verse (33) says, "And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. (Now we don’t know where he took them, but to some water because the rest of the verse says he washed their stripes) and was baptized, he and all of his family..." Verse 34 says, "And when he had brought them into his house..." So, inspiration made it clear that they were somewhere outside the prison, outside the jailer’s house when the jailor was baptized-- meaning they were immersed.
Does the fact that the jailor "was baptized, he and all his family," teach infant baptism? No, no, friend; not at all. Despite the fact that it's often used for that purpose, from a careful reading, we have to say, "No." To say "yes," we must assume first that the jailor had children; secondly that some of the children were infants; and number three that the infants were baptized, too. Aw, that is too much assuming, don’t you think? But, what firmly secures our answer is the Scripture itself. Verse 33 says they were baptized. Then verse 34 says, "And when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them, and rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household." Therefore, all that were in his household (his family) were baptized. And all that were in his house (his family) also believed. Infants can't believe. Oh say! I hope the jailor will not only be an example to you of what you must do to be saved, but will also be an example to you of promptness about doing it. Will you? Let’s pray. Father, we thank You now for the blessings on the teachings that You have given us in this passage. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
It is of importance that one of the jailor's teachers was the apostle Paul. And it's the same Paul who wrote and preached so extensively that salvation is by the grace of God. "By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast." Those were his words in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. Yet it is obvious, friend, that he taught this man and his family to be baptized, and they were. Is Paul being inconsistent? Oh I don't think so; of course not. So then, teaching people to be baptized as Paul did doesn't deny or dispute the teaching that salvation is by grace, does it now? The very question, "What must I do to be saved?" necessarily infers some needed active human obedient response to Divine grace in order to be saved. Don't you agree?
Well, we are so pleased to have had you with us today. CDs, printed transcripts and audio cassette tapes are available to you absolutely free for the asking. If you can use any of these in further study of this message, simply send your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK; or by e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org. Our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. We are presented here on this station by some of your friends in this area who are members of churches of Christ. They would like so much to have you worship with them soon. Why not you just do that-- and please tell them that we invited you, will you? If we can help you with the address of the congregation nearest you, or the time of their worship-- or if we can assist you in being baptized, as the jailor was, please call us at once. We plan to be back next week at this time, and we hope you will, too. Maybe you will have time and opportunity to invite someone else to see the program, too. Remember, we love you.
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