INTRODUCTION: When cold air comes across the warmer water of Lake Erie, it creates a snow machine and deposits it all over us. Arctic cold air across warmish Lake Erie water equals white stuff. There is no other thing that can happen – it’s going to cause an effect!
God moves in people’s lives and that work is as undeniable as Lake Effect snow. When God is moving, things are happening.
READ: Act 16
CHALLENGE: Demonstrate Faith Through Change
- GOD IS MOVING
Acts 16:22-34 – The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Two men came to the prison to be guarded that night. They were stripped, beaten, bloodied, and in physical pain. What was the difference between them and any number of criminals that had come across their path? They must have done something. They deserved it, right? They weren’t to be pitied. It was just a normal night. Let’s meet Paul and Silas, flogged for rescuing a woman from some fortune telling demon. What did that matter to the jailer? He puts their feet in stocks!
What the jailer doesn’t realize at this moment is that his life is about to change. These two men are sent there but they are not alone. God is reaching out and touching lives.
The jailer was strictly commanded to guard them closely so he put their feet in stocks. He doesn’t attend to wounds or give any comfort. He’s just doing his job not knowing that God is doing His job as well.
V25 – About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
The jailer drifts off to sleep as they sing hymns because they’re thankful. It’s great to know that God is working even in our hardest moments. And he’s worthy to be praised in all circumstances. Paul didn’t just write about it, he lived it.
- TAKE YOUR WAKE-UP CALL
Vv26-28 – Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
About midnight. You never know when something will come up that alters your direction. Or the exact moment when God may work. In this case it was around midnight. God is about to rock their world! Sometimes God has got to rock our world to really get us to awaken to the truth.
- Physical Awakening
This dude is a guard and he’s sleeping. I don’t know that sleeping was in the job description for the main guard and especially when you’re explicitly told to guard them closely.
He’s so out of it that he doesn’t know what happened. He woke up and the prison doors were open and he assumed the prisoners escaped. He draws his sword to kill himself. Paul calls out and stops him! Don’t harm yourself. We are all here! Paul gave up his ability to run and save his own hide in order to reach out to a man who was lost. He was about the mission.
God does things in the physical side of life to awaken the spiritual side.
- Spiritual Awakening
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
The jailor bolts into the room trembling and he asked, “What must I do to be saved”? This is a great question. What must I do? God uses this to awaken him to his own spiritual condition which is lost.
Biblical salvation means to have your sins forgiven and a home in heaven through faith in Jesus who died on the cross for your sins. Apparently he wasn’t ready to hear it in the form of a gentle hymn but the earthquake was exactly what the doctor ordered.
Sometimes God has to rock our world! He has to get us to a place where we can see the truth. God can use pain or any number of things to open our eyes and to awaken us to spiritual reality. It’s a wonderful thing when he does.
- BELIEVE AND COMMIT
Vv31-34 – They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
- We Need a Strong Faith
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It’s simple as that. Believe in Jesus Christ. The invitation is open to all. Believe and be forgiven. Believe and have hope!
Belief is trust. What do you believe in? It’s not the weather man per se. My grandson loves to swing. He gets buckled in and pushed and he loves it. It’s high off the ground because the branch is high off the ground. He’s about chest height! When I released him the other day and took safety bar up he was arms up, sliding out, and trusting me to catch him. Faith.
We trust Jesus to catch us. To be there. As the Bible says, all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved!
- We Need a Commitment to Change
The jailor believers and attended wounds, he was filled with joy, he fed them. That’s a total change from how he had treated them prior! He was already showing God’s work in his life. He believed and he was baptized and he changed.
Today we baptize those who profess belief and a commitment to change. When Jesus was baptized, it didn’t erase sin because he had none. He was committing himself to following God and that’s what it was about. It was to “fulfill all righteousness”. He was determined to follow God’s will for his life.
As we lay them back, it symbolizes death to sin. As they are brought back up, that symbolizes a new life in Christ. We live a new life.
Romans 6:3-4 – Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.