Thursday, March 19th

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Thursday, March 19

Acts 16: 25-34

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 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. 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. But Paul cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."

Our daily conversations are sprinkled with phrases like “at the end of the day...,” or, “the bottom line,” or, “when it’s all said and done...”

We typically use those phrases as a way of summarizing whatever it is we are trying to say, or emphasizing something that is important to us.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about family.”

“The bottom line is you have to produce.”

“When it’s all said and done, you have to be able to live with yourself.”

The jailer in this story suddenly realizes that he has come to the summation of his life, and he doesn’t like what he sees. An earthquake has set all his prisoners free and knows that one way or another his life is over.

He decides he would rather end it himself than submit to whatever gruesome fate my lie at the hands of his superiors, so he prepares to fall on his own sword when he hears a voice in the darkness.

But Paul cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here."

He can’t believe his ears, or his good fortune. He quickly calls for torches to bring light into the dungeon and realizes the voice was from one of the two foreigners who were singing songs to their God from their cell.

When he first heard them singing he probably dismissed them as hopelessly deranged or maybe even insane. Now he realizes with a kind of terror that this God of theirs may have sent the earthquake that loosened their chains in response to their prayers.

He doesn’t know anything about this God but he does know that without this God he is a dead man.

Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

As I said earlier in the week I think the man’s question was born of desperation. He had no hope; he knew his life would be required of him one way or another. These men seemed to have something that he didn’t have; faith in and access to a God who was able to set them free. Their God could give life and he wanted what they had.

It’s possible that behind his question was an assumption that there were some specific religious rituals that they could tell him about or show him how to do properly, so that he could win the favor of their God.

But Paul and Silas don’t tell him to do anything; they tell him to believe in someone.

And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."

There’s a whole sermon, of course, in this one sentence. We are told that Paul and Silas later explained the gospel in more depth when they were at the man’s home. But everything he needed to know about salvation is in this one sentence.

First: You can’t save yourself. This was a truth the man already knew.

Second: Salvation isn’t doing, it’s believing. Salvation doesn’t come through religious activity, it comes as the gift of faith.

Third: Salvation is found not in religion but in relationship with Jesus, who by his death and resurrection has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He atoned for all our sin and guaranteed our right to eternal life.

Fourth: Salvation is intended not just for us, but for all.

We are told that this man not only put his faith in Jesus but  that his whole family followed him in faith and baptism on that very night.

Sooner or later we all come to “the end of the day,” or to “the bottom line.”

And the bottom line is, only Jesus saves.

Pastor Brian Coffey