The Philippian Jailer’s Conversion

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.