Warmest greetings to you, friend. I’m Mack Lyon. The program’s In Search of the Lord's Way to become and to be a Christian. Oh say! We’re glad you have joined us today.
What a pleasure it is to welcome you to the Bible study program In Search of the Lord's Way. We’re sponsored here by members of some churches of Christ in the area served by this station; so, you won’t hear any appeals for money in our program. However, I do want to invite you to worship with these neighbors and friends of yours in one of these churches near you here in this viewing area. They would love to have you visit them. We would like that, too. If you need assistance in locating one of them, get your pen and paper ready because I’m going to be announcing our address and telephone number in a moment now.
We’re curious creatures, aren’t we? Do you have small children in your home? If so, you are familiar with the question “Why” aren’t you? “Why, daddy?” “Why, mommy?” You answer and you get another “Why?” You reply to that one and you get another “Why?” don’t you? Well, those are great days for you. You’ll cherish the memories of them all your life. The title of today’s program is “The Most Important Question You Will Ever Ask.”
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Our Scripture reading today is from Acts chapter 16. We are going to have about ten verses, beginning with verse 25. So listen carefully now while I read all ten verses. “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 out of his 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 that 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.” Now let’s go to God in prayer. Holy Father, God in heaven, we are so thankful to You for the revelation of Your will and Your way for being saved. We are thankful for this passage that so completely and so fully tells us how we must be saved through Jesus Christ; and it is in His name that we always pray. Amen!
Questions! Oh yes, all of us have questions about many things, don’t we? We just read in the Scriptures the most important question you or anyone else will ever ask. It was asked, not by a philosopher, a physician or a professor, but by quite an ordinary man-- a jailor. It’s very, very personal, too. So much so that no one can ever ask it for you. “What must I do to be saved?” I say it is the most important question you will ever ask, because the answer you receive just may be the one that brings you the greatest measure of genuine peace and joy and happiness the rest of your life in this world; and, it may even determine where you will spend your eternity. Wouldn’t you agree, then, that it’s the most important question you will ever ask? It’s even more important than those about your investments, or your retirement, or your health or-- well, anything else. Important questions demand of us that we seek answers in the right place; and be prepared to accept that right answer, whether it’s what Joe Blow said always or not.
Of course you know it’s a standing joke among women that we men are stubborn about-- when driving in a strange area-- stopping and asking directions for the shortest, or the best way to our destination. I solved that problem in our family, though. I bought one of those gismos-- well, whatever you call it-- it’s a, GPS, yes, that is what it is. Lois and I drive to so many places that we had never been; we needed something to help us find the way. Well, I bought a GPS. My only problem with it is when I know the way better than the lady who is giving the directions on the GPS. I don’t know who she is or where she is or how she knows so much about any town in the U.S. But after more than a year now, she’s about convinced me that she had been there before and she knows the streets and the roads better than I do. For about a year my wife, Lois, would say, “If you’re not going to follow the directions it gives you, why did you buy it?” Well now, that sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? So I listen to it and follow its directions now, even though sometimes it really feels like I should turn left when it says approaching the right turn. Well, I’ve told you about that to say, “If we’re not going to accept what the Bible says, why did we even buy one?” Why have one? Why read one? Why profess to believe and to trust the Scriptures, but not do what they tell us to do? Why? Why? Again I ask, “Why?”
Let’s examine our text, what do you say? In Acts 16 we have God’s inspired story of the work of the apostle Paul and Silas-- and early on in Lystra they added the young man and new convert, Timothy, to the company of what we call Paul’s second missionary journey. Of course, Luke the historian was with them, too; and he is writing about it. I wish we had time to examine their travels in detail from Antioch, the starting point, to Philippi where we are in this study. There are many important points of interest along the way; but we must hurry now to their arrival in Philippi. After “some days” there they met a business woman named Lydia. She was a Jewess, a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira. She was a worshiper of God, and they met her at the gathering of the women by the riverside for prayer on the Sabbath day. They taught her and baptized her and her family into Christ. Yes, she was already a believer in God but they baptized her. Well, baptism is pretty important then, wouldn’t you say? Then they stayed in her home while they went about the city “teaching and preaching the word of the Lord” (Acts 15:35). Well, there was a demon, well, that is 16:35, and there was a demon-possessed slave girl who “brought her masters much profit by fortune telling” (chapter 16, verse 16). This young woman followed Paul and Silas and Luke and Timothy around and appeared to be associated with them. Well, Paul couldn’t allow that, so he cast the evil spirit out of her. Well, when her masters saw that their financial gain was gone, they stirred up the whole city and Paul and Silas were thrown in prison in the inner prison and their feet were fastened in the stocks.
“But at midnight Paul and Silas were singing and praying to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the (very) foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were flung ajar and everyone’s chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awakening from his sleep and seeing the prison doors open; well, he supposed the prisoners had fled; he 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 the jailor called for a light, and ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas; and brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” There’s our question. Without doubt, that was the most important question that man ever asked anybody. Do you suppose he was willing to receive and obey whatever they said? What ever made the man think he was unsaved in the first place? Why? Why would he think he had to do something to be saved?
My friend, what do you suppose ever possessed that man to ask his two prisoners that kind of a question? Well, we can’t answer that with Scripture. It might have been that it was their praying and singing hymns to God-- under those extremely adverse conditions-- that prompted him to say that. And it being at midnight added the significance to it, too. Well, that might have been it. Most preachers I have heard preach about it, say that was it. But then, the Scripture says he was asleep until the earthquake awakened him; so he might not have heard them singing and praying like the other prisoners did. Well, it must have been that he heard them preaching salvation in the city prior to the time of their arrest. And although he hadn’t heard enough to know the answer to his question, he must have realized his lost condition before God. And I say that because he asked, “What must I do to be saved?” He would have had to realize that he was lost. The realization of one that is lost is a necessary prerequisite to being saved, don’t you think? Of course it is! Many today are not asking about how to be saved, because they don’t know they need to be saved. And, I’m sorry, but unlike Paul and Silas, many preachers nowadays won’t tell them what to do to be saved. Our society has labeled that “judgmentalism;” and so the preachers won’t go where such a thing is taught so the people won’t come back and hear them preach. But Paul and Silas answered him, and the Holy Spirit of God recorded it so we could know what we must do in order to be saved.
“So they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, and your household.” That’s verse 31. You see, friend, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That is John 3:16; but you knew that, didn’t you? It is in your New Testament. I suspect you already knew that. However, the story doesn’t stop there. How many times have you heard this passage taught and the teacher or the preacher stopped right there? Oh, I can’t remember the times I’ve heard it that way. Then the congregation would stand and sing “only trust Him; only trust Him-- now.”
But, look at verse 32. The story continues. It says, “Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house (his whole family).” You see the Bible doesn’t say that “faith is a gift of God.” It doesn’t say that you ask God for faith and here it comes and swoops down over you like a magic blanket of some kind. The Bible says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). While this jailor might have heard some things about Jesus Christ from Paul’s and Silas’s preaching on the streets in Philippi, he had not heard what to do to be saved. It isn’t that they hadn’t said it, but he hadn’t heard them say it. So, they taught him what to do to be saved by the blood of Christ.
Well, the next verse (verse 33)) says, “And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes.” Paul and Silas had been severely beaten that day. By this time (it’s past midnight) the stripes laid on their backs had swollen; the blood in them had crusted, and fever had risen in every muscle. But this jailor did not mercilessly continue to keep them in that cold, dark prison cell. He very humbly and penitently took them out to some water and cooled their fevered bodies. He washed their stripes. You see a definite change of mind in this man, don’t you? What’s happened to him, anyway? Well, the Bible calls it “repentance.” Yes! That’s what it is! It is a change of mind that has resulted in a change of his behavior. Read Jesus’ parable of those two sons in Matthew 21:28 to 32; see how He defines repentance. Yes, the jailor had come to believe in Christ and he had repented.
And, the verse continues, “He and all his family were baptized.” It seems to me that under those circumstances it simply must have been important that they would be baptized, else the baptisms could have waited-- at least ‘till morning-- if not a day or two or maybe three so that Paul and Silas could have partially at least recovered from their beating. Doesn’t it seem that way to you? Well, it was a part of being saved, the process of being saved; therefore, it had to be done then, immediately. You see, Bible baptism is “for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). It is to “wash away” the sinner’s sins (Acts 22:16) in the blood of Christ (Revelation 1 and 5). In 1 Peter 3:21 says in the New American Standard Version, “...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.”
My friend, are you saved? Not everyone who thinks he’s saved really is. I believe God put this passage in the Bible so any of us could easily and clearly see how a person is saved-- in His sight. Faith in Jesus Christ removes the love of sin. Surely no one who truly believes in Jesus Christ and the great love He demonstrated for humankind can possibly go on loving the sinful lifestyle. Repentance removes the practice of sin in a person’s life. And like that jailor who took Paul and Silas from the “inner cell” and washed their fevered backs in some cool water, the sinner determines to live differently, treat people differently, well, just be a different kind of a person. A confession of Jesus Christ before others removes the allegiance of sin. And, as we have seen in our study today of Acts 16:25-34 baptism removes the guilt of sin and leaves us standing pure and clean and holy in the sight of God. Friend, are you saved? If not, I beg you, be saved today and live for Jesus. Holy Father, we are so thankful for this example of how to be saved; so clearly demonstrates the way of salvation. Bless this message to the hearts of people. We pray You in Jesus’ name, Amen!
A gentleman called me once-- as a matter of fact, he was a preacher; and he said that he believed the story of the example of the conversion of the jailor at Philippi was also an example of Biblical confirmation of the validity of his church’s practice of infant baptism. “Because,” he said, “the passage says in verse 33, ‘Immediately the jailor and all his family were baptized.’” Well, his church’s mistake is in the assumption that there were infants in the jailor’s family. But, you see the Scripture says, “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, believing in God with all his household (or family).” You see, all of the jailor’s family believed. Also, he and all his family rejoiced together in their salvation. Therefore, if there were any children in his family they had outgrown infancy.
Well, you might have thought my time would have been better spent examining other pertinent and interesting details of this historical event, instead of spending time telling about my GPS. But, not so! The thrust of that illustration was my wife’s question, “Why did you buy it, if you weren’t going to do what it says?” That question goes for our study today, too. Why do you say you believe the Bible is the word of God, if you do not do what it says? Personally, I can’t think of a clearer or more perfect reply to the sinner’s question, “What must I do to be saved?” than this one in this passage. Now, if you don’t follow it, it’s totally useless to you, friend. But, I trust it isn’t that you may be saved.
And if you would like a free copy, printed copy, or CD or audio cassette tape of this message, “The Most Important Question You Will Ever Ask,” you may have it by mailing your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or by e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org. You may do as I probably would, simply pick up the telephone and dial the Search office at 1-800-321-8633. It is “streamed” also on our website at www.searchtv.org. If you would like to access it there audio, video or in text form you may do so. Say! Why don’t you attend one of the churches of Christ in the area served by this station, or this cable system or network? They would like that, and we would, too. We’ll be back next week, God willing. Hope you will, too. God bless you now. We love you.
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