Scripture: Acts 16:16-34
Theme: Family
Proposition: Household Salvation - 1. The Whole Household HEARD the Word of God. 2. The Whole Household BELIEVED the Word of God 3. The Whole Household LIVED OUT the Word of God
INTRO:
Good morning. What a joy it is to be with all of you.
This morning, our passage of scripture takes us to the heart of the Apostle Paul's journeys in Macedonia. Paul and Silas (along with Luke and at times Timothy) were going from town to town sharing the message of Jesus to everyone who would listen. Our particular passage has them evangelizing in the area of the city of Philippi. Philippi was considered one of the most important city in the district of Macedonia. At the time of Paul, there were over 12,000 people living in the area of Philippi. Philippi served as the retirement center for Roman soldiers after their active duty was served or who had suffered a career ending injury. Nearly 90 % of its citizens were either Roman or Greek and the common everyday language used in speaking and commerce was Greek instead of Latin.
The Apostle and his missionary team stepped into this bi- cultural area with the Gospel of Jesus and almost immediately found themselves in hot water. After beginning a new church through the help of Lydia, Paul finds his missionary team being harassed by a certain slave girl. She was known to possess the spirit of fortune-telling. That is to say, she appeared to have the gift of being able to tell people what was going to happen to them in the future. It also seems that she was highly accurate in her abilities. She had made her owners quite a bit of money being able to mesmerize people with her skills. In short, this little slave girl was a carnival act that was golden.
Luke shares with us that this young lady followed Paul's team around crying out as loud as she could:
“These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”
Day after day after day, she would go around following Paul, Silas and the rest of the team. Finally, the whole act got on Paul's nerves. He was tired of her antics and of her constant yelling. He wheeled around and in the name of Jesus Christ commanded the demon to go away. He commanded the demon to leave the young girl and never return. Suddenly, she was overwhelmed with the power of the Holy Spirit and was immediately free. No longer was she in bondage to this demonic spirit.
However, without the demon, our writer tells us that she could no longer tell people their fortune. Or at least she could no longer deceive them into thinking that she could. Her owners became furious. Their golden goose was now gone. Their meal ticket had been punched so to speak. In revenge for what Paul had done, they started a riot. They had Paul and Silas arrested on some trumped up charges of causing civil unrest and committing blasphemy against the worship of Caesar and the Roman State. On those last charges these men were right - Paul and Silas would not worship Caesar or any of the other false gods.
The slave owners made their case and Paul and Silas were arrested and subsequently beaten with a set of wooden rods. What this involved was quite simple. Paul and Silas were tied up, hoisted into the air from a beam and then beaten with a set of rods all over their bodies with special attention given to their feet. The goal was to inflict as much damage over the entire body. Done correctly, the person or person's beaten would suffer massive damage to their backs, their kidneys and to their rib cages. Usually, a person was left with a few broken ribs, perhaps a concussion and could not properly walk for a few days or weeks. Done incorrectly and the damage done to the feet would result in broken bones and the person being crippled for life.
But this was not the end of Paul and Silas' troubles. After the beating, they were thrown into the inner part of the local dungeon. This is where all the raw sewage would be collected. It was a place where there would be little or no light and were prisoners would face even more punishment by being put into the stocks. These stocks were designed to pull your feet as far apart as possible making it difficult to get comfortable. Your only recourse was to lie down and usually that was in mud that had been laced with feces, urine and blood.
Got the picture. Our miracle story starts about midnight. For around midnight amazing things start to happen.
Out of the inner darkness of that prison there comes some Early Church Gospel singing . Paul and Silas start singing and praising God. In the midst of all their pain, in the midst of the smell of urine, blood and sewer they lift up their voices and give praise to Jesus.
Suddenly, the ground starts shaking. God sends an earthquake. This was a very special earthquake. For it is an earthquake that opened every chain and door of the prison but did not destroy the prison. Now, think about that. An earthquake that while it did shake the ground, its major purpose was only to open the doors of the jail and remove all the shackles and stocks.
It was an earth quake that got the attention of the jailer and his entire family. It was an earth quake that sent this retired Roman soldier into an immediate panic. He knew that his life would be forfeited if any of the prisoners had escaped.
As soon as possible he ran into the dungeon only to face his greatest fear. All the doors are open and the ground is littered with open shackles and stocks. Looking around he can't find any of the prisoners. Quickly, he formulates a decision, He would rather commit suicide than suffer imprisonment, beheading or torture. If he had to die it would be by his own hand and not by another.
Unexpectedly Paul calls out from the inner part of that dungeon and tells the jailer that everyone is okay, everyone is present and no one has escaped. Paul tells the jailer that he does not have to take his own life. All is well. Everyone is right there with him and Silas. What a story God has given us this morning!
However, that is not the apex of our story. For as we read on there is here an even greater revelation - and it takes place in the midst of a family and it involves a family this morning.
I. For we see here that a whole family had the ability to Hear the Word of God.
We don't know if the jailer or his family had ever heard about Jesus before this earthquake. We have no mention in Scripture that they had heard Paul or Silas or anyone from the missionary team. It could have been that they had heard Paul preaching on the street and had heard the news of the slave girl being freed from her demon. Most likely however, they had only heard Paul and Silas praying and singing in the inner part of the dungeon.
However, as we see the jailer made sure that all of his family heard the words of Paul and Silas after the earthquake. And that is one of the major keys to this story. For this man made sure that his whole household was where they could hear about Jesus. This man wanted everyone in his household to hear the message of the One who could change their lives.
Today, we need people just like this jailer. He had the sense to know that there was something different about these two men. And this man knew men. He had been around all kinds of men his whole live by being in the Roman army. He had seen men laugh, he had seen men cry, he had seen men fight hand to hand and he had seen men die. He had watched them be beaten and had watched them curse their gods and die.
But Paul and Silas showed him a new kind of man. These were men who could suffer and yet not be bitter or curse. These were men who possessed an unbelievable inner peace. Men who had the ability in the midst of horrible pain to lift up their voices and sing and shout praises to God. These were men who had been changed and this jailer wanted to know what changed them. What could cause men to praise their God sitting in a pool of blood, breathing in all the foul smells of a sewer? What could cause men to sing praises after having their bodies beaten?
This morning, we all know what changes men like that. It is the power and presence of having Jesus in your life. It is being radically saved by the blood of Jesus. It is being transformed by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
We need men like that today. We need men who see that their #1 job in life is getting their families to hear God's Word, to hear the message of Jesus. We need people like that - moms and dads, grandparents and great-grandparents.
So many people fail to do this because they are too busy being lazy on Sunday and Wednesdays or else they are chasing the lure of money instead of the Kingdom of God. They believe that somehow they or their children are going to make it to heaven without Sunday School, Church or Prayer Meetings. My friend, I fear that they are sadly wrong.
This morning, not only do they pay an terrible spiritual price for their apathy, their families pay an even greater price. Their families have been raised not to go to Jesus than to go to Jesus for their heart needs. They have been raised to depend on themselves or other humans rather than to fall at the feet of Jesus for salvation.
Today, more than ever we need men and women who make sure that their children, their friends, their other family members and the people they work with hear the message of Jesus. We need people who realize that while they may not be able to teach or preach they can do all they can to make sure that their families and friends can hear the message of Jesus Christ by taking them to church, to Sunday School or to prayer meeting.
We need people who will make sure that their loved ones and others are able to hear the message of Jesus that will lead them away from a devil's hell to an everlasting life in heaven.
II. Secondly, we see a whole household who experienced salvation. They repented of their sins and believed on the name of Jesus. Jesus became their Savior and LORD.
If there was ever a household that should not have believed it was this household. After all they were Romans, they worshipped the Emperor or some of the other gods and yet, once they witnessed:
+The earthquake
+The miracle of Paul and Silas praising God in the midst of pain
+The miracle of Paul and Silas having none of the other men escape
They opened their hearts to the message of Jesus Christ.
What that tells me this morning is that no household is outside the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What that tells me is the power of Repentance and Salvation.
What it also tells me is the power of the witness of men baptized in the Holy Spirit.
None of this would have happened without Paul and Silas. This man's household was saved because two other households - Paul's and Silas' households had men of faith leading them.
Paul and Silas were both rugged men. They were men who worked hard, men who prayed hard and men who studied God's Word with a passion. They were men who could face adversity and stay true to the LORD. The writer of Acts, Luke has already shared earlier in his story that they had already been beaten, Paul had even been stoned because of his preaching. Paul and Silas were no some mammas boys - these were real men, leaders in their faith, leaders in their church and leaders in their homes,
We need people today that are true leaders. Leaders who not only make sure that their families hear the Gospel - but leaders who believe so much that they change the way they live their lives. They change the way they do things for the Kingdom of God. They put God first above everything else. They put the Kingdom of God before all else. They not only believe they live out their faith in Jesus.
Throughout my life I have been privileged to work with a great many men who were these kind of leaders not only at work but in their homes and in their churches. Over the years the LORD has allowed me to work in quite a number of places
+One summer I worked in a garage, changing dump truck tires and helping the mechanics work on them. I found true men of faith in that garage.
+Another summer I worked with an asphalt crew as they put down miles and miles of highway. I found true men of faith.
+Another summer I worked in a gas station.
+I have worked in a factory, been a dish washer, worked in landscaping, worked in a wood shop refinishing oak furniture, worked for a rental car company, worked in a restaurant, worked at an auto auction, cleaned houses and worked in a bank. When you go to college, grad school and get married you find yourself doing a great many things to make a living and pay all of your bills.
In all those places I have had the privilege to be around a great many different people with a wide range of backgrounds and cultures. But in each one I have found leaders who were not only leaders in their business but were true believers and lived out their faith. They had repented of their sins, they had believed in Jesus and Jesus was both their Savior and their LORD. They were men and women who believed so much in Jesus that it poured out of their skins. They were prayer warriors, Bible readers and believers and people who knew how to share their faith.
And that is the way it is to be - Jesus must not only be our Savior. Jesus must be the LORD of our lives. For this morning, if Jesus is not Your Lord, then my friend I am afraid you have been mistaken about your experience. For when a person get geniunely saved there is a change in their lives and lifestyle.
By salvation, I don't mean simply saying a few words somewhere and not experiencing a real heart change. I am referring to what happens when you have been saved by the blood of Jesus. When you have repented of your sins and now your heart and mind have been radically transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. When that happens, you life has been changed and Jesus is the Lord of your Life and you will never, ever be the same.
We have some here this morning that know exactly what I mean. You know what it means for Jesus to be Savior and LORD of your life. You know what it means to have Jesus save you from all your sins and come in and live in your life. You know what it means to be sanctified wholly and Jesus be Savior and LORD. We need men and women who have and are died out to Jesus. We need men, women, boys and girls who don't just attend Church - but they come ready to worship the LORD and fight the forces of evil.
If you listen to all the commercials on TV you would think that we Americans are some kind of perverted, sexed crazed society. And perhaps we are - but this I do know - we don't have as much an ED problem or a testosterone problem in our nation as we have a
PD problem - we have a Prayer Deficiency Problem.
BD - we have a Bible Deficiency Problem
AW - we have an Attendance at Worship Problem
Paul and Silas did not have these deficiencies. And because they didn't, this jailer's family is in heaven this morning.
This morning - we need men and women who see it that they must have a house that believes = and for that to happen
+Salvation must come to the home - Sin must be repented and Jesus must be Savior and LORD
+The Bible must be read/studied/memorized and lived out
+Prayer must be a central core issue.
Far too long, we men have allowed the women around us to fight our spiritual battles for us. We seem to think that the fairer sex is the one who needs to be battling with the princes of the air, with the powers of darkness. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 to strap on our armors of God and to get ready to wrestle with spiritual forces.
Strap on your armor and get ready to do battle. In Paul's age that would have never been stated to be a woman's position. It would have been seen as the job and responsibility of men. Paul was encouraging the men of his churches to step up and be the warriors of God for their families and churches.
Does that mean that they believed the women could not do spiritual battle? Of course not. The Early Church completely believed in the power and presence of women. All you have to do is to read the New Testament and you see the vital roles that women played in the Early Church. But when it come to who should be on the front lines in times of prayer battles, Paul and others believed that it was a man's ultimate responsibility to be on his knees fighting with the Devil. It was to be the men who were praying for covers of protection over their families. Yes, women were to be there as well. But no Christian man would allow his wife to take his place. They would battle together, but he would lead the way. Today we need men to lead in prayer and evangelism. We need men to fight the spiritual battles of the home and we need men who will see that the #1 job is not
+Just to provide for the family - clothes, shelter, food
But to be the prayer warriors for their families and church. To be right there on the front line - making sure that the gates of hell does not prevail against their families. We need men and women to see that they can change the history of the world, they can change the destiny of their families - by being on their knees praying for the LORD to protect, defend and lead their families to heaven.
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these other things will be added. If this morning we want the best for our families it will not come from working harder and smarter - it will come from us first putting the Kingdom of Heaven first in our lives.
III. Finally, this morning this Household began immediately Living Out Their Faith (Living out the Word of God)
They did not experience some kind of half baked salvation. They got saved through and through.
They immediately starting living out their faith. First, they made sure everyone was converted, then they made sure everyone was baptized and finally they went immediately to work for the LORD.
We don't know how long after midnight that Paul and Silas shared with them all about Jesus. We don't know how long it was before they were baptized. But it did not matter. Sleep and schedules were no longer important.
What was important is that as a family they got in there doing some work for the LORD.
They took those two men and
+Washed them up - they took them out of the inner part of that dungeon and starting washing them and putting medicine on their wounds.
+They no doubt either washed their clothes or found them new clothes
+They went about making them a meal
The first thing that this family wanted to do - was to do something for Jesus. Jesus had saved them, they had been filled with the Holy Spirit and now it was time to live out that life.
They did all they could for Paul and Silas. They made the best provisions that they could - they shared their water, their medicine, their clothes and their food. Nothing was too good for these men.
They became the model family for a household saved by grace. They were all saved, they were all baptized and they all went to work for Jesus.
You all know that my dad was not a Christian until very late in his life. But my mom was and she was the real thing. From the time I can remember we were a three service family. If the lights were on we were at church. Back in those days there was no children's church, no Youth Pastors - everyone went to church. But instead of drawing - mom had us at an early age start taking notes. She had us reading the passage that our pastor preached on. And at times she would ask us about the sermon. We were to pick up a song book and not flip through it - we were to begin to learn how to sing and sing the songs with everyone else.
No one taught my mom that children or teens could not listen - she just believed if the Holy Spirit was there - and she had spent time on her knees asking Him to be there - then her children would be able to listen, to take notes, to sing, to pray and to grow in Christ.
Now, I appreciate children's church and youth pastors. I have been both in my early years in ministry. But I also know the power of the Holy Spirit. My mom was right - she prayed that we would be able to receive God in those services and we did - all four of us as her children and the other children and teens as well.
And she also believed that we should work in the church - and we did that as well. We would go to the church on our assigned week and would clean the church - from the bathrooms to the altar. We would take time and pray at the altar. And once we got old enough to help her -
+We would start helping her cut out things for her Sunday School Class
+We would make candy crosses with her for Easter Service
+We would be greeters and when we proved we could obey we could join the choir.
+If we acted out - then we got a special blessing that I don't have to tell you about this morning.
I really can't think of a time when I was not working in the church - cleaning, mowing the yard, fixing the sign, dusting, spending time at the altar, visiting with the pastor when I got old enough or working in VBS or Sunday School. It was just second nature in our family. We were believers - we went to church when the doors were open and we volunteered for every job imaginable.
When the windows needed to new putty and paint - it did not matter if you were six or sixty - we all worked together. The older men were our mentors - showing us how to do it and then allowing us to have a part.
When the church needed a new organ - four of us young boys under the guidance of our parents and the church would go and pick up pop bottles on the sides of the road to take back to the store so we could get 2 - 3 cents that we would give on the organ. Adults helped us and over time we raised over 200 dollars - that is a lot of pop bottles.
This morning, how is it with you and your family?
+As parents, as grandparents, as even great-grandparents - are we making sure that they hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
+Are we living like a committed believer - or one that has lost their first love or that has become a little luke warm. If we are lukewarm this morning, we need to repent and get right with our LORD.
+Do our children know more about sex and drugs, more about Marvel Comic heroes, more about sports and hunting or shopping than they do the Bible?
+Is it more important for us that they know how to make money than how be an intercessor in prayer?
+Have we done more to get them ready to live in this world than to live in the world to come?
+Are we a family involved - a family that is working in the church and around the church or are we just a drive by family?
This morning - this jailer had an opportunity to just close his ears and run away or commit suicide. Instead, he obey the wooing of the Holy Spirit and his family was transformed.
This morning as we close - how is it with your soul this morning? How is it with your family?
Have you been washed in the blood of Jesus - have you repented of your sins and asked Jesus in your heart and life?
Are you a man or woman of faith - have you committed like Joshua - as for me and my house we are going to serve the LORD.
Is He LORD of Your Life this morning?
Or have you been playing church?
As we sing this morning - allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you. If you need God to forgive you - if this morning you are unsure of your salvation - then come down to this altar and ask Jesus in your heart and life.
As we sing this morning - if you know in your heart you are not on fire for God - then by all means get on fire - come down and get it all right with God. Be a man of faith - be a woman of faith - God desires that for you and your family needs you to be an all out committed sanctified wholly man or woman for God. They need you to be the prayer warrior for your family.
As we sing this morning, if you want to come and pray for your family - for someone that is in trouble, that is unsaved, that today is in danger of dying and going to hell - then as we sing come down and intercede for them. Your prayers are vital.
