What Must I Do To Be Saved Acts 16:27-34
Turn if you will to Acts 16
With all the religions from Buddhism to Islam to Christianity our world is seemingly covered in a cloud of confusion.
When one finds the truth of Christianity... knowing that it is Christ... and Christ alone in which salvation can be found there still exists a collage of denominations among those who call themselves Christians.
With all the denominations, Baptist Catholic, Lutheran Methodist, Pentecostal and more.
It is little wonder that people scratch their head and ask the question that the Philipian Jailer asked Paul many years ago. What must I do... to be saved?
Though the question was asked all those years ago...It must continue to be asked... and continue to be answered here today in 2003... and in all the years to come.
The answer varies depending who you ask but clearly God’s Word gives us a precise and true understanding of the answer we seek...to that question What must I do to be saved.
Acts 16
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!"
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?"
31 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 family 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 family.
Jesus...is that name... above all names. He is our beautiful Savior and Glorious Lord.
But how does that transition take place from where we say He is the Savior of the World to saying He is MY SAVIOR... What must... I... do to be saved.
Turn if you will in the Bible over to John chapter 2
Jesus...His very first miracle... happened surrounding a very joyous event. A wedding was taking place. Most people agree weddings are a very happy time, even though some are known to cry at weddings. Usually moms but sometimes Dad’s will cry at a wedding.
I once preformed a wedding and just before it was about to begin the father began sobbing heavily and the tears rolled down the fathers face. For in minutes the man who had raised 3 daughters would witness his very last daughter saying I DO.
I wanted to comfort the father of the bride. I went up and put an arm around him and patted him on the back and I asked him..."Those are tears of joy right?" He nodded and said in a soft voice ya... ya.
I said " your thinking about how your little girl is all grown up now huh?" He said "well actually I was thinking ...
"I’m finally going to be able to get into the bathroom."
Perhaps if you are a father with several daughters like myself you can relate to that sort of joy but we know this....
Jesus’ first miracle was a happy occasion. He was at a wedding celebration and wine was being shared but then the wine ran out.
Look at it with me in the Bible...
1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,
2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
4"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come."
5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet."
9 They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside
10 and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."
11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
What a wonderful thing that Jesus could save the celebration and by the miraculous power of God...Jesus turned water into wine.
What a astounding act...That Jesus could save the celebration.
But there is something more amazing that Jesus wants to save.
He came to this earth to live and die on a cross and WHY... because He wanted to save sinners of which we ALL ARE.
The Bible says specifically of Jesus in LK 19:10 that he came to seek and save the lost.
How can you be saved...
You might ask "Do I have to turn water into wine?"
Oh no...
But here is the drink you must discover it is that Jesus is living water and that when you experience Him as your Lord and Savior it will quench your life in such a refreshing way.
Move ahead with me in the Bible to John Chapter 4
In John chapter 4 Jesus met a woman at the well. She was a Samaritan woman and Jesus was a Jew. Now in those days the Samaritans and the Jews got along about as well as cats and dogs.
Jesus meets that woman at the well at what was probably the hottest hour of the day. She had come to draw water at a time when no one else would be around. This seems to indicate that her reputation was one that was not well accepted in the community.
I can almost picture Jesus there at the well with one hand outstretched pointing toward the well and the other hand open and outstretched toward the woman as He said in v 13
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Our world is so dry and like a desert barren without Jesus
And people are looking for something to quench the thirst of their life and Jesus alone is the answer.
No... you don’t have to turn water into wine just receive Jesus.
He is the water of life...and if you will
Admit your need for him
Believe in what He did on the cross for you
Confess your identification with Him by a life that seeks to live for Him.
Then your life will be filled with a fountain rather than a sense of thirsting for something still un-found.
Because in Christ... you will find Eternal Life.
I said earlier that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.
I also said he wanted to save more than that marriage celebration but that He came to save sinners of which we all are.
TURN TO LUKE 4
We all wrestle with the temptation of sin.
The temptation to do what is pleasing to the flesh....satisfying our own will and our own bodies.
That which might seemingly satisfy self.
Be it sexual temptation.
Be it materialistic temptation
Be it a temptation that is full of pride.
Or even the temptation to seek revenge...to lie...to steal...or simply to do anything we know that would be against God.
Jesus endured temptation. He withstood temptation...
And with the help of Jesus you and I can overcome temptation.
Jesus was there in the wilderness shortly after his baptism by John the Baptist ....
And look at LK 4 with me in verse 1
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness
2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.
3 And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
4 And Jesus answered him, "It is written, MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’"
Jesus is 40 days in the wilderness and the Bible says He had nothing to eat. Most people in American society today would be quite the minority if they went a simple 40 hours without eating but Jesus...He fasted for forty days and then came temptation.
That scoundrel called Satan probably sneered at Jesus and said
"Hey Hungry Man... the Son of God,
If you really are the Son of God why don’t you turn those rocks over there into rolls."
Now you and I realize that’s not what the devil really said but he might as well have...because the temptation was there and it WAS REAL
But what does Jesus do in the face of great temptation...?
Did he fall into the devils trap...
OF COURSE NOT...HE’S JESUS.
He knew the power of God, and that power comes from following the plan of God and the will of God... and you and I know that the Bible... tells us... God’s way for power in our lives.
But do you and I totally...
completely...
without fail...
always avoid Satan’s trap?
Are we certain that we never give into temptation and sin?
Friends I am here to tell you that I can’t walk on water.
I don’t even float very good....
Though I try my best to live for Jesus each and everyday and I should....there are still moments WE ALL miss the mark.
There are points in the place of our lives where we sin.
That’s why we need Jesus.
Remember the question we are pondering this morning...
What must I do to be saved?
Jesus could have turned those stones into bread.
But He knew that was not God’s plan.
God’s plan is not that you and I MUST live a perfect life 100% sin free.
That’s what we should strive for but God’s plan is that He sent His son into the world to die on the cross......He did it....
SO that all of us who could never be perfect could trust in the one who was and is and always will be perfect...His name is ........Jesus.
What must I do to be saved?
Turn stones into bread .....No....
Live a perfect life......No
Put all your hope and faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
It is that simple.
I want to close today with a beautiful verse from the Old Testament...Jeremiah chapter 31
Some might say with God.. who is so powerful...
How is it possible me?
With God.... who is so creative ...
How is it possible for me
With God who has done miracles
How can the answer to my question be so simple?
Jeremiah 31 and verse 35
35 This is what the LORD says
, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar- the LORD Almighty is his name:
Guess what friends.... the Sun shines why?
Because God has made it to shine.
The stars at night...and the moon too...
Do you know why they shine?
God has made them to shine...
And those waves that roll in from the sea
Do you know why they roll in ...the way they do?
God made them to do it... just the way they do.
You know God made all of those things and if the Lord wants to He can take the sun which sets somewhere around
93,000,000 miles from the earth and if it suited God’s plan the Lord could put the sun right into the sea.
Now the Lord doesn’t do that ...BUT HE COULD.
And you know what else ....the Lord does not ask you or I to do some magnificent act.
Lord....What must I do to be saved?
He says you don’t have to put the sun into the sea just...
love me....just need me....just believe in me.....just trust me....
Some people are not test takers.
Some people can be great students and study hard and learn much and then still botch up the test.
William Phelps was an English literature professor at Yale for forty-one years until his retirement in 1933.
The professor was grading exams shortly before Christmas one year.
The professor noticed near a difficult question on an exam, that a student had written in the margin of the exam.
The student wrote......
"God only knows... the answer to this question.
Merry Christmas.
" The professor returned the paper with this note: written under the students comment....
"God gets an A. .....You get an F..... Happy New Year."
Let me speak very seriously for a moment....
So many are worried about passing the test.... of will God let me into heaven.
The question is What must I do to be saved.
The answer is as simple as A B C
Admit that your a sinner
Believe that Christ died for you and rose agin conquering death
C Confess this with your life by giving you life to His plan and purpose....One thing is needed .....Your response.
Test Illustration
Today in the Word, October, 1990, p. 10. *MODIFIED*
