“I Can Do All Things Through Christ”

Rev. Mark C. Alvis, Union Congregational Church — Epiphany VII, February 18, 2007

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About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. 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. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved— you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 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 family.

When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left (Acts 16:25-40 NIV).

This past Tuesday I decided to go to Woodman’s and get some milk in the midst of our semi-blizzard. When I got out of my car I could hardly see because the gusting wind was blowing snow into my face and eyes. As I finally made it to the automatic door I noticed the sign which read, “No shoes, no shirt, no service.” I had to laugh to myself about how irrelevant that sign was under those conditions.

Our text for the morning deals with Paul and Silas in prison with their legs in stocks because of the gospel. For most of us this passage may seem irrelevant to our circumstances here in North Aurora. After all, not many of us are losing sleep because we are worried about going to prison for our faith in Christ. But if we stop and think about it, we all go through experiences in life that can seem like prison. Cindy has put me in the jailhouse countless times during our 29 years of marriage. Some of you are enduring prison experiences right now because of your health or financial burdens or concern for a loved one in difficult circumstances. And so this morning let’s learn from Paul and Silas about how to handle our prison experiences of life.

Just to refresh your memories, Paul and Silas had endured a mockery of a trial and then were stripped and severely flogged. These kind of beatings were bloody, messy ordeals. Immediately after their flogging Paul and Silas were taken into the darkest part of a prison and placed into wooden stocks. Their wounds had not been attended. Because they were in stocks, they did not have freedom of movement in order to find a comfortable position to sit. The Romans had made pain into a science. How did Paul and Silas handle their painful situation? Let’s read Acts 16:25-28:

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them [probably in utter amazement]. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. The jailor 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 [if he didn’t kill himself, Rome would have done it for him]. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here.”

Let’s first direct our attention on the jailer. Clearly God’s grace was zeroing in on this warden at Philippi. The earthquake alone could have killed him. When you have heavy prison doors flying open and chains coming out of the walls, then you know you have been in an earthquake.

Some of the things we call earthquakes today would have never been recorded in biblical times. I want you to remember that the next time you hear of the so called dramatic increase in earthquakes today. When I was in Israel, our guide was constantly pointing out diggings which had uncovered buildings and amphitheaters destroyed and covered over by earthquakes and wars.

The Philippian jailor’s life was spared from that earthquake and from escaped prisoners. Instead of death, God got this man’s undivided attention and then allowed him to hear and respond to the gospel.

Question: What if Paul and Silas had been having a big pity party in their jail cell? What if their experience of being severely flogged and imprisoned for doing good, had caused them to become bitter and angry at God? If that had happened then that jailer and his prisoners would not have heard the gospel. Angry, bitter people do not share good news — even if they do, they are not very convincing. The way that Paul and Silas conducted themselves caused them to be living epistles for what Christ can do in peoples’ lives.

Another question we must ask ourselves is: How could Paul and Silas sing hymns and praise God while in the midst of such terrible circumstances? Is it a matter of being born with the right genes? No. They experienced the peace of God because they had come to believe that God is the Sovereign Ruler over the entire universe and therefore He was absolutely in charge of their circumstances. That knowledge alone, however, would not have given them peace if they did not believe that God also deeply cared about them. How did they know that God loved them? This is where the good news of the gospel is particularly helpful. I John 3:16 states, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” God doesn’t just talk about love, He demonstrated His love for us in Christ.

But we still have a problem here: If God cares about us and He is the all-powerful sovereign of the universe, then why did Paul and Silas get beaten and thrown into jail? Does God fall asleep sometimes? Psalm 121 says, “He who watches over you will not slumber.” Was God getting some kind of morbid pleasure from the pain of Paul and Silas? No. God never laughs when His people cry. The fact that this kind of suffering was allowed into their lives meant that extremely important advances were being made in God’s plans to bless the nations of the earth. God never allows His children to suffer needlessly.

How did the jailer respond to the news that none of the prisoners had escaped? Did he say, “Thank you for saving my life”? No. Look with me at verses 29-30,: “The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’”

Wait a minute — the jailer’s life had just been saved. What is he talking about? It would seem that this jailer saw something in the lives of Paul and Silas that made him realize how poverty-stricken he was. He wanted to know how he could get from where he was into the kind of life that Paul and Silas enjoyed. And so he asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Look at verse 31: “They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household.’”

If people believe that Jesus was a good man, even a great prophet, will that save them? No. If Jesus was merely a man, then he was not good; he was an egomaniac. No prophet of God ever made the claims Jesus made. In John 5:46 Jesus told the religious leaders of Israel, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for Moses wrote about me.” In Luke 24:44 Jesus told his disciples, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then “he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” The whole Old Testament is designed to point to the person and work of Christ. In John 6:35 Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry.” John 7:38, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” John 8:58, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.” John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:9, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

If you believe that Jesus was merely a man and no more, then you don’t believe in Jesus. Paul and Silas told the jailer that he must believe in the Lord Jesus. In other words, he had to believe Jesus is Lord and worthy of our worship and service.

I shake my head in unbelief when I hear Christians who want to be politically correct say that Jesus might not be the only way to heaven. Friends, do you really think that God the Son, creator of heaven and earth, left His eternal throne in heaven to become fully man — without ceasing to be fully God — and lived a perfect life of obedience to God the Father, died an excruciating death on the cross because all of the guilt of our sins was laid on him and he bore the full brunt of God’s wrath in our place, and then rose victoriously from the dead — so he could be one of many ways to heaven? What a ridiculous notion! If there was any other way for us to get to heaven, then the Son of God would not have left heaven.

Some of these truths that Christ boldly taught about himself are probably what Paul and Silas went on to teach the Philippian jailer and his family. Look with me at verses 32-34:

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 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 family.

Friends, to believe in Jesus is to believe in God. There is only one God and He is the Triune God of the Bible. This jailer had put many people in prison, but had come to realize that he himself had been a prisoner in Satan’s domain of darkness. What a thrill for this man and his family to be delivered out of darkness and to enter into Christ’s kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13).

In verse 25 we read that Paul and Silas were praying. I believe one of the issues they were praying about surfaces in verses 35-40:

When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” [the magistrates had probably taken bets among themselves on how many minutes it would take these two Jews to head for the hills]. The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens [this is when the officers began to sweat profusely], and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed [Luke had a gift for understatement]. They came to appease them [another way of saying grovel] and escorted them from the prison, requesting [not ordering] them to leave the city. After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left.

Why did Paul and Silas take time to deal with these magistrates?

Because they had done a shoddy job in upholding the law. They had sunk to doing what was expedient rather than what was right. They had not done their homework. Proverbs 25:2 states, “To search out a matter is the glory of kings.” The job of civil leaders is to diligently get to the bottom of disputes and then uphold justice. These magistrates had done none of this.

What many Christians today are forgetting is that one of the works of Jesus the Messiah, foretold in Psalm 72:12-14 is: “He will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and . . . He will rescue them from oppression and violence.”

Good civil leaders and just laws are one of the ways Christ carries out these kind of blessings today. Civil leaders who take bribes or bow to expediency will find themselves opposed to Christ. That is a bad place to be. One of the great gifts the church of Jesus Christ can give to our nation and the nations of the world is to help persuade people that we need civil leaders who fear God and deeply respect His Law. The primary focus of Paul and Silas was to share Christ and see people saved. But because Christ is Lord of all, even civil leaders need to listen when he speaks. Let’s pray.

Sermon text ©2007 Mark C. Alvis
Bible text © as applicable