Sermon for Sunday Evening, May 7th, 2023 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Sermon Text
[Act 16:25-40 ESV] 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to 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 everyone’s bonds were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And 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 and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. 35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” 36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” 38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. 39 So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
Introduction
How many times have the Apostles been in prison?
In Acts chapter 5, Peter and some of the other apostles are imprisoned.
In Acts chapter 12, Peter is again imprisoned.
And now in Acts 16, Paul and Silas are imprisoned.
And this won’t be the end of it. In Acts 24 Paul is again imprisoned, now in Jerusalem. And later, when Paul was in Rome, he was allowed to stay by himself but had a soldier who guarded him.
In every case the Apostles are imprisoned for the Gospel. They never commit any crimes against the legitimate laws of the land. They never steal, nor kill, nor seek in any way to be imprisoned.
And in every case in Acts (except probably in Rome where Paul is killed), in every case the Lord frees the apostles from prison through miraculous means. Peter had an angel let him out, now we have an earthquake.
And while in the other prison-break episodes the focus is in some way on that break and miraculous escape, here such is only the setting. The real story is about the jailer and his faith.
27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
I. What Must I Do to be Saved?
And then, trembling with fear and falling down before Paula and Silas the Philippian Jailer asks that great question: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
This is the question I hope you’ve all asked yourselves, and have really pondered on. It was the question that struck me at an early age. And I assumed the answer – I need to do good; probably I need to do MORE good deeds than bad deeds. Or maybe I need to be perfectly good. If so, I’m in trouble!
A similar question is brought to Jesus in John’s Gospel. A Rabbi asks him “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus had spoken of working not for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life. So when the Rabbi asks what kind of work this is, he is asking how to be saved, how to have eternal life. And there Jesus says “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” And this answer is the same as in our passage in that the emphasis is on faith, on believe in Christ. But what it so great also about Jesus’ answer is that he says this is the work OF GOD. Not man’s work, but God’s. The Holy Spirit of God himself works in you to believe the Gospel, so it is truly the work of God, not just aligned with God, but His very work.
Well now the question comes to Paul and Silas. (And Luke seems to have avoided capture. He was with them just before this as evidenced by the “we” passages but is not now with them). The Jailer now, in the must desperate situation asks them “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
And it is indeed a desperate situation. The magistrate will certainly put upon him the punishment due to the captives. And if he was going to have Paul and Silas put to death, then the jailer would get the same fate. So the jailers reaction was just to do it himself, to kill himself with his sword rather than suffer the punishment and disgrace publicly.
But then comes Paul and Silas’s answer. And from this comes the Jailers spiritual and physical salvation.
They say: “believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
II. The Gospel – Belief Alone
Now, I want to pause here to emphasize this answer. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
This is the very Gospel. There is no number of good works that can possible save man. Salvation comes by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
I already quoted from John. Let us also see Romans.
“if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
This Paul calls “the righteousness based on faith.”
Faith alone. Sola Fide.
This is the Gospel, the good news, because it relieves us of ANY AND ALL requirement of the law.
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
And I so wish that theologians were hear this verse and stop here. Sadly many then err at this point.
The Federal Visionists – a heretical movement with Protestantism – say that not only must you have faith, you must continue in faithfulness to be saved. Faith, they say is “initial salvation” and faithfulness is “final salvation.” This is just a new tricky way of saying “faith plus works.” And what did we find the Reformation over?!
Salvation is by faith alone. Works are indeed important, but not for salvation. Works come FROM salvation. Knowing we are saved of God, we then seek to do good works. Not to appease Him but to praise him.
But there is another error. Aside from the Federal Visionists, there are may who say faith is more than belief. They do not know their Greek. Faith, pistis, pisteuo, IS belief. These are the same. The word we translate faith is the word we translate belief.
Many though want to add something to this. They say our faith is not only belief but action. Again, they sneak in works. They want salvation to be faith plus works. But the Bible is clear “believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
Now certainly this must be TRUE BELIEF and not HYPOCRITICAL BELIEF. Hypocritical belief is not belief at all.
But what is true belief? What is SAVING faith? It is assent (agreement, submission) to the Biblical Word of God, especially to the proposition that Jesus is Lord.
“if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
And what a great relief that is, to know YOU WILL BE SAVED.
III. Family Baptism
Now throughout the book of Acts I’ve made some mention of the family baptisms whenever they occur. We recently saw Lydia come to the faith, and “she was baptized, and her household as well.”
These household baptisms make one of 2 or 3 major lines of argument for why we baptize infants.
The other arguments briefly are these:
1. God never tell us NOT to baptize infants.
2. Baptism replaces circumcision. Circumcision was for infants, and so baptism is as well. Otherwise, the infants would be kicked out of the church. And in fact, in consistent baptist churches, the children are not members in any way. Which I find to be sad. How is a pastor to shepherd the flock if the sheep are not of his pasture?
3. Baptism is God’s work, His seal upon us, and so applies to infants as much as adults.
But we come to the argument for household baptisms.
The Philippian Jailer is promised: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
And the passage specifies that he believes. And he and the entire household rejoice that he had believe in God.
For our Baptist friends, we can at least admit that Paul and Silas did “speak the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” So it is possible that all believed. But it doesn’t specify that they all believed. And, furthermore, in this case (and in all of the cases of family baptisms) there is never a caveat for the infants or youth. It is always the whole family that is baptized. Where one goes (the leader) the others follow.
There is more than enough Scriptural support for infant baptism.
IV. Physical Salvation for the Philippian Jailer
Well, we’ve seen the jailer come to believe in Jesus Christ and therefore to have salvation, eternal life.
But there is also the problem he is dealing with in the “here and now.”
How is this solved?
Well, the Lord must have worked upon the heart and mind of the magistrate. The magistrate perhaps comes to the conclusion that the charges against Paul and Silas (charges of disturbing the city) are trumped up charges.
And so he says “Let those men go.” Let Paul and Silas go. Of course he didn’t know that they were already freed by the earthquake. But his statement now saves the life (and the job) of the jailer. He won’t be penalized for their escape. So he lives.
Finally, there is this:
36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” 38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. 39 So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
Paul will use his appeal as a Roman citizen next time he is in jail. And that will send him to Rome that he will in that place proclaim the Gospel: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.