Several years ago, my father and I went on a fishing trip to South Carolina. As was our custom, we went to our favorite fishing pier at Myrtle Beach. Usually, we had pretty good luck, but this particular time, we just were not catching anything. I even blessed the fishing poles and Dad even spat on his bait, which I never believed was very helpful anyway but it was just one of those nasty things old fishermen do. And we still didn’t catch anything.
So there I was, standing there on the fishing pier, and not catching anything! So I did something that I’ve always wanted to do...I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but when it became evident that there were no fish to catch, I pulled out my pocket knife and began to inscribe my name on the soft wood railing on the pier.
It took a long time
I mean I do have a rather long name. But finally, after one hour and 25 minutes, there it was --- W. MAYNARD PITTENDREIGH , JR.
It was the longest name on the pier, and there must be over a hundred names carved into that pier.
But as I surveyed my finished work, I noticed that the first letter was a nice tall deep letter "W". But the final letter in Jr. was a short letter "R" barely scratched into the surface.
And looking at the work as a whole, I noticed that the name got smaller and smaller....less and less deep.
But my hand was tired and I just couldn’t do a better job that that at carving my name.
I am a bit embarrassed about admitting that. After all, I don’t usually go around
writing grafitti on fishing piers.
But a lot of people do write their names in public places.
A while back I went hiking in the mountains and along the trail there were rocks that had been inscribed with graffiti. Some of it was very interesting!
There were phrases like – “Betty Lou was here, 1955.”
Or “Bob loves Ann, 1909”
And “Alice loves Robert.”
But along that trail there was one particular bit of graffiti that stood out among the rest. On a rock higher than the others, so high that you know whoever carved it went to a great deal of trouble to make then visible to anyone on the trail, words carved so deep that you can put your fingers into the letters...all the way up to your knuckles. Words that, unlike my feeble attempt on the fishing pier at Garden City, had letters that began and ended with the same size.
They are the words... “Jesus Saves.”
This bit of graffiti captured my imagination, and of many others who have hiked that trail. It is easy to imagine someone bundled up and making his way up the trail at night, taking out a hammer and chisel and beating out the letters, night after flight for weeks, until the work was finished.
And it is also easy to wonder ... Why?
Why would someone go to all that trouble to carve the words JESUS SAVES into the side of a mountain.
Let your imagination run wild and it is possible to conceive of a sinner who had
led such an immoral life who thought that a carving out the words JESUS SAVES on the
face of a granite rock was the only way on their knees in repentance.
In my imagination, I have often wondered who this man was trying to convince.
And I finally decided that it possible that he was simply trying to convince himself.
Perhaps it was not with the commitment of Faith that this man carved the words
JESUS SAVES.
Perhaps instead it was with the HOPE that Jesus Saves. And maybe he carved those words to convince himself, as well as others, that those words were true.
Subconsciously, there is within many of us, a stirring of doubt, a twinge of fear – “Jesus Saves, doesn’t he? Or does He? What if he doesn’t? What if?”
A recent article in a Presbyterian magazine some findings about a church growth program in a metropolitan area church. Part of the program was to interview and survey those who were already members.
Only half of those interviewed were sure of their salvation. The rest were trying to convince themselves that there was truth in the words...JESUS SAVES.
At the conclusion of our worship service today, we will sing a stanza from the familiar hymn, BLESSED ASSURANCE, JESUS IS MINE. But for far too many of us; that statement becomes a haunting question....BLESSED ASSURANCE??? IS JESUS MINE?
Behind those doubts and fears is a question....what must I do to be saved?
The jailer in our New Testament lesson faced that question when he found himself in a bind.
Like so many of us, this all important question had taken a place on the back burner of his mind until circumstances forced him to face the question.
As Luke tells the event, he and Timothy and Silas and Paul were going to the place of prayer one day, when this demented slave girl began following the group, shouting over and over, THESE MEN ARE SERVANTS OF THE MOST HIGH GOD. THEY ANNOUNCE TO YOU HOW TO BE SAVED.”
This went on for days and days. Finally Paul, fed up with the problem, suddenly turned and miraculously healed her in the name of Jesus.
In that miracle, the slave girl lost her ability to tell fortunes, and having lost that -- lost the ability to be a financial asset to her owners.
The owners, angered by this, had Paul and Silas jailed. The scene was similar
to the lynchings of blacks in the post civil war south, or of the imprisonments of
the Jews in the Europe of World War II.
Timothy and Luke, being GENTILES were not arrested, but the mob, the crowd,
arrested the two Jews, Paul and Silas, and charged them with the honest offense...
THESE MEN ARE JEWS AND WE ARE ROMANS.
That night, Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns, while the other prisoners listened. Then, there was an earthquake. Doors were thrown open, and chains fell from the hands and feet of those in the prison.
It was then that the jailer woke up and for a moment thought that the prisoners had escaped. Realizing that his superiors would have him put to death for sleeping on duty and allowing the WHOLE prison to escape, the jailer drew his sword and decided to kill himself.
It was at this point that Paul stepped in and stopped the jailer by up pointing out: WE ARE STILL HERE.
Then and only then does the jailer ask the question---what must I to be saved?
It was not when the slave girl proclaimed day after day that these men are
servants of the most High God, They have come to announce to you how you can be saved.
It was not when Paul was able to pull off a controversial miracle by casting a demon from a slave.
Nor was it when Paul and Silas were right there in the jail---available for the asking.
No -- it was only after the jailer had come within inches, within seconds of thrusting his own sword into his body. It was only after the jailer experienced a near close encounter with death that he asked, WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?
We know what is meant by the jailer question. When he asked, “What must I do to be saved,” we do not have to then asked “saved from what?”
We know.
He meant the same thing that every radio and television evangelist mean when they ask their listeners the question.
He meant the same thing philosophers and theologians mean when they ask that question.
He meant the same thing that you and I meant when we have asked that same
question.
What must I do to be saved from the results of my own sinful nature, how am I saved from eternal death?
It is a haunting question. And once asked it may haunt even those who think that they are saved. Because it resurrects those ancient doubts and fears -- Am I really saved?
How can I be certain?
People have differing opinions about the answer to that question of certainty about salvation.
For many people, the secret is to live the good life.
After all, everyone knows that good people go to heaven and the bad people go to
hell----or do they???
In George Bernard Shaw’s play, MAN AND SUPERMAN, an old woman dies. Much to her despair, she is not quite sure where she is. So she approaches another soul and asks.
To her greater despair, the answer is that she is in hell.
"Hell" She exclaims. "How can I possibly be in hell? I was a faithful member of the church. I was a solid pillar of the community. How dare they send me to hell....I was a GOOD person"
To that the other condemned soul replies..."There are a lot of good people in Hell.
The truth illustrated by this imaginative play is that if we try to life the good life as a means of salvation, then we will find that we can never be quite good enough.
Paul in one of his New Testament letters --- the one to the Roman Church, said that All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
John in one of his letters, wrote "if we say we have no sin....then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
Well, that takes as back to our question. And the question of the Philippian jailer....what must I do to be saved?
If we are all sinners, maybe the way to be saved is by confessing each and EVERY sin. Martin Luther, the great 16th century reformer believed this -- at least in the EARLY PART of his life, that this was the way of salvation...by confessing. Roland H. Bainton, in his biography of Luther, wrote that Luther confessed "Frequently, often daily, and for as long as six hours at a time. Every sin, in order to be absolved, was to be confessed. Therefore, the soul had to be searched and the memory ransacked, and the motives probed. Luther would repeat a confession and to be sure of including EVERYTHING, would then review his entire life, until the priest who had to listen to the confession grew quite tired of all this (page 41).
I’m sure that none of us confess like Luther did, searching and examining every action and motive and spending hours confessing.
And even if we did, it would not save us. Luther himself came to realize that he could never be absolutely sure and certain that EVERY sin had indeed been confessed.
So---as important as confession is...that is not the way of our salvation. We are thus brought back to that question that the Philippian Jailer addressed to Paul and Silas.
WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?
The reply of the evangelists was simple- BELIEVE IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND YOU WILL BE SAVED, You AND YOUR HOUSEHOLD.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is as simple as that.
The act of baptism did not save the Jailer. He was baptized later, as a sign that he HAD BEEN saved....as an outward expression that a he did indeed believe.
The achievements of good in it deeds did not save him. The kindness and concer he expressed to Paul and Silas were the RESULTS of his salvation and were done AFTER he came to believe in Christ.
And so it is with us.
It is not our feeble attempts to accomplish good feats, nor our weak struggles against the temptations of sin, nor is it it the constant confession of every act and every motive.
The way of our salvation is the same as that of the Philippian Jailer. BELIEVE IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND YOU WILL BE SAVED.
And you know, it should not surprise us that it it is as simple as this. After all. wrapped up in these words is a simple reaffirmation of the Gospel.
Time and time again, we are told in the Scripture that salvation IS as simple as this.
Sometime after his visit to Philippi, Paul wrote a letter to the church of Ephesus. In this letter (2:8-9) Paul said, "It is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s GIFT, so that no one can boast about it.
Jesus himself reminded us in what has become the most familiar of all Scripture verses, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, so that whoever believes on Him should not perish but have eternal life."
It is as simple as that: To believe.
To believe that God did indeed love the world so much that He gave His Son to die on a cross.
To believe that we are saved, not by our own efforts, but by the gift of God’s free grace.
To believe -- in Jesus Christ.
....
Written by Maynard Pittendreigh
This material is copyrighted, but Dr. Pittendreigh encourages the free use of this material for the glory of God.
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