It teaches many valuable lessons to those of us who are Christians.
In every jail, you will find two kinds of people.
• THE NOT GUILTY.
Illus: We occasionally see on the news, that someone has spent years of his life behind bars for a crime he never committed.
Even this very day, there are people who are as innocent as we are, but false witnesses lied about them and they are behind bars. THIS IS SAD!
When you go to a jail, almost all the prisoners claim to be innocent. The fact is, there are some who are innocent! Every jailer has to wonder, as they talk with these prisoners, if they are really guilty of the crimes they have been put in prison for.
In the prisons, you have the NOT GUILTY!
Also, you have-
• THE GUILTY.
Today, jails are full of people who have committed every kind of evil that man can imagine. There are people in these jails who would kill you if they got a chance, and not think a thing about it.
The Philippian jailer had seen all kinds. He had seen those that he thought a great injustice had been done to.
But also, he had seen the most evil people that walked the streets. Anyone, who works in such a place, knows the potential danger that surrounds him each day.
We do not know how many prisoners were in the Philippian jail.
There must have been more than just Paul and Silas, because when the earthquake came and rocked the jail house and the doors opened, Paul said, “We are ALL here”.
If there had been only Paul and Silas in jail, more than likely he would have said, “We are here”. The word “ALL” seems to imply there were others there.
How many deserved to be behind those bars, we do not know. But we do know this, there were two who DID NOT DESERVE TO BE THERE, they were Paul and Silas.
But while Paul and Silas were there, singing praises to the Lord during the midnight hour, an earthquake came, and woke everyone up. Especially-
I. A SCARED JAILER
Look at verses 27-28. We read, “And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.”
I personally do not know too many good ways to wake up. You may use an alarm clock, or a clock radio, but they both will scare days off your life.
But can you imagine what it would be like, to be awakened by an earthquake. And this must have been a good size earthquake, because it rocked the prison so hard, the doors became unfastened.
Let me show you a few things that took place during this earthquake.
Let’s first look at the jailer-
A. HE WAS ASLEEP.
Look at verse 27. We read, "And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep,"
We have no way of knowing how severe the earthquake was. This earthquake occurred before they had the technology to measure it. But we do know this, it caused quite a commotion.
We can assume that all the prisoners woke up, and that they were hollering and screaming.
We do not know if it was the noise of the prisoners, or the shaking of the earthquake, that woke the guard up, but when he woke up he was horrified.
He saw the effect of the earthquake and-
B. HE WAS AFRAID.
He had been FAST ASLEEP, but now he was WIDE AWAKE.
Look at verse 27. We read these words, “... and seeing the prison doors open…"
His first thoughts when he woke up, were of the prisoners. And the first thing he saw, was that the doors to the prison were open.
This was his main concern, because, his purpose for being there was to guard the prisoners. His task was to make sure they did not escape, and cause society any further harm.
When the prison doors were open, he could only assume that they had escaped. Rather than give account for this tragic incident, he would prefer to die.
Illus: It has been documented on numerous occasions, that people have taken their lives, rather than face the consequences of something they have messed up!
THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT CAN HAPPEN TO US THAT ARE WORSE THAN DEATH.
This guard knew, as bad as death was, he had rather die, than to face the punishment he would endure at the hands of his superiors.
This explains his behavior. Look at the jailer-
C. HE WAS ASSUMING.
Look at verse 27c, “…he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.”
The Bible says he, “…would have killed himself…”
He was not playing around with suicide to get attention. He would have killed himself if the prisoners had escaped.
Paul saw him reach for that sword, and Paul saw that he was getting ready to fall on that sword.
Look at verse 28, we read, “But PAUL CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, saying, DO THYSELF NO HARM: FOR WE ARE ALL HERE.”
This jailer went through some major emotional changes in a short time.
The Bible indicates he was in shock that the earthquake had rocked the jail.
• He was in shock that the doors were open.
• He was in shock that all the prisoners were there.
All this happened in small amount of time.
But when he was convinced they were all there, it changed him from being a SCARED JAILER, to-
II. A SEEKING JAILER.
Look at verses 29-31. We read, “Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
• HE CALLED FOR LIGHT.
He had to see for himself. Did you know that the way to the Lord always starts off with LIGHT?
That is, so often a person, walking in darkness, will come to church and hear the gospel preached. All of a sudden, he see some light. That light shows him he can get out of the darkness he is in.
Notice that once the jailer received light, he responded-
• HE CAME IN SWIFTLY.
Look at verse 29b. We read, “Then he called for a light, and sprang in.”
• HE CAME IN SHAKING.
Look at verse 29c. We read, “And came trembling…”
• HE CAME IN SEEKING.
Look at verse 29d. We read, “... and fell down before Paul and Silas,"
Notice, he did not say, “I was asleep, and the jail started rocking and woke me up, what happened?”
He had only one question, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
He asked the question, and Paul answered the question by showing him these things. Paul’s answer -
1. Shows Us The Simplicity Of Salvation (31a) "And they said, believe..."
2. Shows Us The Source Of Salvation (31lb) “... on the Lord Jesus Christ .…”
3. Shows Us The Surety Of Salvation (31c) “... and thou shalt be saved,..."
4. Shows Us The Scope Of Salvation (31d) "...and thy house."
We looked at A SCARED JAILER, A SEEKING JAILER, but look at something else, we also see-
III. A SAVED JAILER.
Look at verses 32-34, we read, “And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.”
Notice, “they spake unto him THE WORD OF THE LORD, AND TO ALL THAT WERE IN HIS HOUSE.”
One of the big mistakes the church today is making, is that we speak to lost people about everything, but the Word of God.
• We actually have churches today, that go to the lost people of this world, and tell them all about the social activities they have, but they never tell them what God’s Word says.
• We actually have men in the pulpit, that can read a text of scripture, and then start to drift into personal experiences and humor, and never deal with the text they read.
• We actually have people today, who will get up and sing a song that has fantastic rhythm, but does not tell a lost man how to be saved, from the Word of God.
If we are going to have genuine conversions, we are going to have to get back to SPEAKING THE WORD OF THE LORD UNTO THE LOST!
Verse 32 says, "And they spake unto him the WORD OF THE LORD, and to all that were in his house."
When the Word of God is preached, God can use His Word to CONVICT LOST PEOPLE OF THEIR SINS.
When you have CONVICTION, you will soon have CONVERSION.
And when you have CONVERSION, you will have EVIDENCE OF THE CONVERSION.
Look at verse 33-34a. We read, "And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them… “
What a transformation in this man’s life. This same guard, that perhaps put them behind bars, is now:
• Washing their stripes.
• Being baptized.
• Placing food before them.
Notice when the Bible says all this took place. In verse 33, we
read, “And he took them the same hour of the night….”
When a person has truly come to know the Lord Jesus, they should not waste any time showing that God has changed them.
Conclusion:
I. THE SCARED JAILER.
II. THE SEEKING JAILER.
III. THE SAVED JAILER.
