In a 1957 movie, Elvis Presley made prison look like a rip roarin’ time when he sang “Jailhouse Rock.” The truth is Jesus made a jailhouse rock long before Elvis did and it was no staged production. It was a real-life event punctuated by an earthquake, a jail break, and a midnight confession of faith. If you’re feeling imprisoned by life’s problems and challenges, listen carefully to how Jesus put a song in the Apostle Paul’s heart and a spring in a jailer’s step. With his powerful love, Jesus wants to do the same for you no matter what your life’s circumstances.
Jesus’ jailhouse rock took place in the Greek city of Philippi some 2,000 years ago. It was there that the Apostle Paul was imprisoned for casting a demon out of a slave girl. Now you would think that her owners would be thankful for this divine intervention, but they weren’t. Instead they were furious because they had made a lot of money from that girl’s demon-induced fortune telling. So they dragged Paul and his companion Silas to court where they accused them of advocating customs that were unlawful for Romans to practice. This charge was neither true nor did it have anything to do with why the slave owners were upset. Still, the magistrates ordered Paul and Silas beaten with rods and thrown into prison with their hands bound and their feet in stocks (Acts 16:24). Can you imagine how uncomfortable that must have been? With their hands and feet bound, Paul and Silas would not have been able to lie down nor would they have been able to tend to their sore and bleeding backs.
How would you have reacted to this treatment? I would have demanded a lawyer, for it was against the law to flog a Roman citizen and throw him in prison without a trial. But instead of demanding justice, Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns – and not just silently to themselves, mind you, they sang so that the other prisoners could hear what they were singing (Acts 16:25)!
Friends, we may be good at singing hymns of praise to our God here in church, but how good are we at singing God’s praises outside of these walls where others can hear us? And do we sing God’s praises on bad days when our computer crashes, or when we’ve been waiting for hours at the doctor’s office? Or does the tune we carry sound more like the world’s wailing and complaining? It’s only natural to sing the blues when things aren’t going our way, but we need to remember that it’s also sinful. God hates our temper tantrums. He hates our grump-induced stony silences and he’s told us to get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger.
But how can we sing God’s praises when our world is falling apart? Well how did Paul and Silas do it? They didn’t just ignore their pain. They didn’t pretend like that jail cell was a five-star hotel. No, they took their concerns and pains to God in prayer. But they didn’t stop there. They also listened to the encouragement that God offered them through the very hymns they sang. Since the Old Testament book of Psalms was the standard hymnal in those days, I can imagine them singing Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength, and ever-present help in trouble.” Or Psalm 27, “The Lord is my light and my salvation of whom shall I be afraid?” Or Psalm 23, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
Brothers and sisters, if Jesus can make a jailhouse rock with hymns of praise, think of the hope and comfort he can bring you in the midst of your despair. He will do that when you pour out your heart to him, and then turn to his Word to be reminded that he has not abandoned you, and that he will use your current challenge to bless, not to curse. What happened next in Philippi proves this truth.
While Paul and Silas rocked the jailhouse with their hymns of praise, God rocked the jailhouse right off of its foundations when he sent a huge earthquake. This earthquake flung open the cell doors and shook loose the chains that bound the prisoners to the walls. Was God providing a means of escape for Paul and Silas? God did have a rescue in mind, but his target was someone other than Paul and Silas. God meant to rescue the jailer and his family by making known to them the way to eternal life. This is how it all unfolded.
When the Jailer awoke because of the earthquake and saw the open cell doors he cried out in despair. Losing prisoners meant more than being fired from his job, it meant facing the firing squad. Since the Jailer thought that he was as good as dead anyway, he took out his sword to plunge it into his heart and end his life.
Notice the marked difference in the way Paul and the Jailer handled adversity. Paul had a song in his heart, while the Jailer was ready to plunge a sword through his! The reason for the difference was of course Jesus. Without Jesus in his life the Jailer had no one to turn to for help. His ancestor worship and family idols were of no comfort in time of crisis. The award he may have previously won for prison warden of the year wasn’t going to save him now. Still, God hadn’t forsaken the Jailer. In fact he had orchestrated that night’s events so that Paul could share the truth of salvation with him and give him eternal hope and a reason to live.
When Paul saw that the Jailer was about to kill himself he cried out in a loud voice for the Jailer to stop. Would you have yelled, “Stop!” to the guy who had been partly responsible for your grief and pain – the guy who now stood between you and your freedom? But yell, “Stop!” Paul did for he cared about this jailer. Paul saw him as a fellow sinner whom God had rescued. Lord, forgive us for the times when we don’t see our fellow sinners this way. Forgive us for being quick to call for revenge instead of sharing your forgiveness. Forgive us for thinking that certain kinds of people are beyond the reach of salvation because we don’t think that they will believe the message about Jesus that we have to share with them.
Overwhelmed by all that had happened, the Jailer sank to the ground like a limp dust rag. When he had regained his composure he didn’t start barking orders to get the prisoners back in their cells. Instead he asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30) The jailer wanted the confident peace his prisoners had demonstrated. But the question he asked was really rather silly. What could he do to be saved? He might as well of asked, “How can I prevent earthquakes?” Just as there is nothing we can do to prevent earthquakes there is nothing we can do to earn an eternal life of happiness in heaven. What God demands of us – constant selfless love by always putting others first, even our enemies – is impossible to deliver.
So what solution did Paul offer the Jailer? He said: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). There is nothing we have to do to earn salvation, but Jesus has done it all. He paid for our sins when he lived a perfect life in our place, died on the cross, and rose from the dead. There was nothing for the Jailer to do to be saved any more than there is something an infant has to do to get from the hospital where he is born to his home where he will live with his family. The baby doesn’t have to learn how to drive first. He doesn’t have to pay his father for the ride home. No, he just goes along for the ride. That’s what faith is: sitting in the lap of Jesus and trusting that he has made and paid for all the arrangements to get us into heaven.
That truth which Paul and Silas shared with the Jailer created faith in his heart. And look at the change that came over the Jailer because of this God-given faith. Instead of viewing Paul and Silas as convicts to be beaten, he welcomed them into his home as guests. Even though it was the middle of the night, he attended to their wounds and gave them food to eat. Only Jesus can make a jailhouse rock with such joyful service. That’s also true for our lives too. Only Jesus can make serving others a rockin’ good time.
But God wasn’t done serving the Jailer that night. Shortly after the Jailer washed Paul and Silas’s wounds, he himself received a washing that had a deeper and longer-lasting cleansing effect. The Jailer was baptized along with his whole household. Although your baptism this morning Ashleigh may not have seemed as dramatic because there was no earthquake that preceded it, all hell did break loose when God put his name on you with the invisible ink of baptismal water. For through baptism God claimed you as his own, forgave all of your sins, and gave you the Holy Spirit. Eternal life in heaven, not an eternal life of despair in hell is what God has promised you this morning. That doesn’t mean, of course, that your life on earth will be easy from now on. No, look at Paul and Silas. Those baptized men ended up in prison for their faith! But just as Jesus put a song in their heart and a spring in their step in spite of the suffering, he promises to do the same for you.
Is there anyone else here who hasn’t been baptized? Are you perhaps waiting for a sign before you do this? Would it help if God was to shake this building right now with an earthquake? Would you put your faith in him then? No you wouldn’t because whenever God displays his power it just makes sinners like us afraid, as it did the Jailer. What we need is his grace and love which comes to us as a whisper through his Word like the words shared with you through this sermon.
Don’t wait to put your faith in this God because a day is coming when he will shake this church, this city, and the whole world with such a violent earthquake that it will fling open every mausoleum door and jar loose every coffin lid in the ground so that all the dead will come out to stand before God’s judgment throne. You’ll be there too. Put your faith in Jesus now and you won’t be filled with despair and fear then. Instead you will have a song in your heart and a spring in your step because the same Jesus who once made a jailhouse rock is the one who will make Judgement Day a rockin’ good time. For on that day he will remove from believers all pain, sorrow, and sin. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
Why should Paul and Silas have been angry about being beaten and imprisoned in Philippi?
Paul had song in his heart, while the jailer had been ready to plunge a sword through his. Why did the men handle adversity so differently?
When Paul saw that the jailer was about to kill himself, he yelled “Stop!” How does Paul’s love for this jailer put to shame our attitudes and actions towards others?
The jailer asked: “What must I do to be saved.” In what way was it the most important question he could ask? In what way was it a silly question?
Agree or disagree? When Paul told the jailer: “Believe in the Lord Jesus,” he was pointing out the one thing the jailer needed to do to be saved.
Explain: Although there was probably no earthquake, all hell did break loose at your baptism.
How can you use the sermon text to respond to someone who says, “If only God would give me a sign like an earthquake or fire from heaven, then I would believe in him.”
