Acts 16:25-40

January 26, 2003  

How Do You Respond to Christ?

Al Braca struggled with his job; he found the environment trying, a world completely out of sync with his Christian values. But he wouldn't quit. He was convinced that God wanted him to stay there, to be a light in the darkness. To that end, Al freely shared his faith with his co-workers, many of whom sarcastically nicknamed him "The Rev." They mocked him, but when horrible things happened in their lives, they always asked Al for prayer. So it came as no surprise to Al’s wife, Jeannie that her husband, the corporate bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald, responded as he did when his office, on the 105th floor of Tower One in the World Trade Center, suffered the fatal blow from the terrorist hijacked flight. A week after the tower was hit and collapsed, Al's body was found in the rubble.

It was after his death that Jeannie and others learned how he responded during the attack, how he responded as light in a very dark time. Reports trickled in from friends and acquaintances. Some people on the 105th floor had made a last call or sent e-mails to a loved one saying that "a man" was leading people in prayer. A few referred to Al by name. When Al realized that they were trapped in the building and would not escape, he shared the gospel with a group of 50 co-workers and led them in prayer.  (Christin Ditchfield, Focus on the Family, 2002).

How we respond to situations in life tells us much about ourselves. For Al, knowing Christ enabled him to respond to the daily pressures of his job with grace. Even more when faced with the last moments of his life, he once again responded in faith, pointing others to Christ.

Our passage this morning helps us to see how faith in Christ must drive our responses. Looking to Christ makes a difference in critical areas, so that, we should evaluate where we stand in our relationship to Him, be willing to ask the hard questions about how we respond. READ Acts 16:25-40.

Paul and Silas are bound in chains in the Philippi prison. They have spent the last months in search of what God would have them do. Appealing opportunities turn out to be frustrations, as doors close in their faces. Finally, in the northwest corner of Asia Minor, Paul has a vision. God directs them in the form of a Macedonian man calling them to come over to help them. Paul, Silas, Luke and Timothy sail across the Aegean Sea in response to God’s guidance. The reception is far from satisfactory. There is no Macedonian man waiting to be helped, but a business woman from Asia Minor. While she does respond to the gospel, others are vehemently opposed to it. The healing of a slave girl causes her owners to stir up the crowds against Paul and Silas. They soon find themselves being beaten and thrown in jail.

Faith in Christ responds to suffering                                                16:25-29

There are two responses to suffering in this passage. First we see how faith in Christ responds to suffering and then, in contrast, how a life without Christ responds to potential suffering.

Paul and Silas, beaten and bloodied, facing an uncertain future, sing hymns while fettered to the darkened cell walls. They respond to jail with joy, to being beaten with blessing. Tertullian says of this passage that the legs feel nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven.

Later when Paul wrote to the church which would be established in Philippi, his theme would be that of joy. In Philippians 4:4-7 Paul commands us to rejoice and pray with the result being God’s peace guarding us. The church in Philippi no doubt knew of his suffering and of his joy. They had seen first hand that although the gospel may be locked up, it cannot be locked out, while they were beaten up, they were not beaten down.

How could they pray and sing? Faith in Christ provided the needed perspective. While the whip’s sting remained, they knew the suffering they faced was not outside the sovereign power of God.

Their response, flowing from faith in Christ, allowed them to recognize that suffering is not antithetical to what it means to be a Christian; rather it lies at the very heart of our faith. In Philippians 1:29 he would remind them that “it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake…”

We may falsely assume that faith is a shield which should protect us from suffering, that it will nullify the heat of the fiery furnace, the tooth and claw of the lion’s den, the stench of the well, the mocking crowds who hurl the stones … and the cross. But if there is a constant theme throughout God’s Word which we must never ignore, it is that suffering is an integral part of what it means to be a Christian. So to praise in the midst of suffering is a response which may come, but only as we know of God’s power.

The jailer imagined that suffering should be foreign to his life.

He was not a prisoner, he didn’t deserve to suffer. Suffering is for the unrighteous, the wicked, those who deserve to pay… not him. So instead of embracing suffering as a means to see God’s grace, he sought to escape.  He feared suffering. When the earthquake came and it was all too apparent that the prisoners were no longer safely confined, the jailer’s hopelessness is seen in his assumption that escape through suicide was the only option.

His response was not out of accord with the culture. In order to assure the safe keeping of prisoners, jailers were given a simple choice. If their prisoners escaped, they would be punished, paying with their own lives. Roman honor dictated that to die by one’s own hands was preferable to the humiliation of a public execution.  Now the roles are reversed. The apostles are now free, but they remain while the jailer is imprisoned by his own fears. To a man floundering in a flood of fear, death seems to be the only way of escape. (Keddie, Acts 191-2)

To endure suffering, one must know how to respond from faith in Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor imprisoned for his opposition to Hitler, wrote his sister Sabine from prison. While waiting execution, he responded to suffering out of faith, when he said:

It is good to learn early enough that suffering and God are not a contradiction but rather a unity, for the idea that God himself is suffering is one that has always been one of the most convincing teachings of Christianity. I think God is nearer to suffering than to happiness, and to find God in this way gives peace and rest and a strong and courageous heart.

We do not find joy in pain as though pain, suffering, are inherently good. Rather, in the midst of suffering, we know we are guided by God’s hand, a hand pierced by the nails. We are lead by him whose feet bear the same mark. The face we look upon bore the crown of thorns.

When we suffer, we must never forget that we are not alone. Through the suffering of God’s own Son our eternal redemption is now secured. We never know how to respond to suffering if we forget that it was by Christ’s suffering that we are secured as God’s own children.

Faith in Christ responds to sin                                                             16:30-32

As Paul and Silas remained in the prison cell, along with the other prisoners, able to escape, but refusing to take advantage of the situation and thereby be complicit in the jailer’s own death, the jailer is shaken to the core. As the earth shook beneath his feet moments before, now his soul is disturbed as he encounters people unlike others he has known. The jailer recognized the difference with these men.

When our world is shaken we re-evaluate who we are and what we believe. When faced with a life-threatening disease, a divorce, a vocational or financial reversal, then we may consider the crucial questions in life. But how we respond points to the condition of our heart.

Hours before he looked down on these prisoners, despising them as the dregs of society. But now he is faced with his own wretchedness and hasn’t a clue as to how he can ever feel better about himself again. He asks the universal question: What must I do to be saved?

This may seem an odd question, but remember that the day before Paul and Silas were beaten when they confronted and cured the slave girl who repeated for all to hear, day after day, that these missionaries were servants of the Most High God, who proclaim the way of salvation.

Her words ring in his ears. Were the magistrates mistaken, the police unjust? Was he in collusion with this travesty of justice? So he asks a question whose answer is far from what he would ever expect. He wanted to know what to do. Paul’s answer directs him from duty to faith, from personal action to a person in whom he must place his trust.

The desire to be whole, balanced, accepted, secure, at peace with God is behind his question. Paul propels him to from personal reformation to a personal relationship.

His remorse, brought on by fear, caused him to want to know what he should do. He was desperate, willing to change his ways, try harder in the future. He could clean up his life, leave the jail for the rescue mission, read more, think more, and contribute more, if that is what it took.

The answer is 180° from the question. Rather than a work to do, he had to trust in one who worked for him. The answer to sin is a Savior who can make us what we can never be by our own efforts.

This is the very response which Jesus gave the crowds who followed him in John 6:28 when they wanted to know what they had to do to do the works of God. They wanted five steps, a clear direction, a solution that resided in their own will and power to accomplish. Jesus response is simple. The work which God requires is simple: believe in him whom he has sent. The response is counter-intuitive. The work the Father desires is to believe.

What results from this faith? When we respond in faith in Christ, what happens? Salvation.

This all inclusive word encompasses all that we need to be in a right relationship with God and therefore able to respond to all which life throws our way. To be saved is to be secure. It is the past, present and future of all we need. It is to be freed from the curses of the law, the power of Satan, evil of this world, the wrath of God.

• Salvation is a past, accomplished act. In 2 Timothy 1:9 we are told that God has: “saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”
• The present benefit must never be ignored, for the good news that Christ died for us, that he took on our sin and gives us his righteousness, we can then know that today, even now, this gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom 1:16)
• There is also a future reality, that we were saved in eternity past when the Father chose us, we were saved 2000 years ago when Christ died on the cross, we are saved today when the work of the Holy Spirit applies to our lives God’s grace, but also we will be saved, when at the end of time, we are taken for all eternity to be with Christ. In Acts 15:11, this confidence was expressed by the early church when it was said: “But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will."

The jailer’s world is turned topsy-turvy, as he is told that it is not what he must do, but in whom he must believe. But Paul’s answer throws him another curve. The promises of salvation are not just for him alone, but benefits are for his whole household. 

What is very specific, his faith has broader ramifications as his entire home is now included in God’s promises. The command is singular. He must believe. The promises though go further. To our individualistic American mindset, this hard to fathom, but the promises of God’s grace incorporated the home time and time again. A quick survey reminds us of this fact.

• When Jesus healed the paralyzed man in Luke 5, he was commanded to return home, for the simple reason that the benefits of this man’s faith were to be shared by his family.
• When Jairus, the synagogue ruler, sought Jesus’ help for his dying daughter, she was healed, saved, for the father’s faith as was the centurion’s servant in Luke 7
• In Luke 19 Zacchaeus trusted Christ, responded to God’s grace with gratitude, yet Jesus pronounces that salvation came to his house.
• Throughout Acts, where there is a household, there we see the positive benefits of faith. Cornelius and his household believed, even though the focus of the story is on the head of that home, the Roman centurion, so that the promise in 11:14 is given to all. In our chapter, it is Lydia who believes, yet it is her household who joins her in baptism. See 18:8

What does this mean for us? Before we even consider the issue of baptism, let me speak directly to those of you who are heads of households. When you see problems in your home, what is your response?

You may dictate the right course, so if all follow your commands home will run like a well ordered machine. The trouble is no matter how good your rules are, they will not change the troubled hearts. You may worry and fret, plead and use guilt. But that will not change people either. Your leadership in the home must first and foremost be one looking in faith in Christ.

The promise of salvation, the promise which involves not only the declaration of God that your are his child, but also the daily transformation of your life to reflect the demands of God will take effect only in your life as you look in faith to Christ. 1 Corinthians 7:14 reminds us that your faith in Christ positively affects those living in your home.

God works in and through the family so that, and here let me speak most specifically to the men, but I mean to include too those single moms as well, when you see problems arise in your homes, when troubles in raising kids keeps you up at night, when your marriage is rocky, are you believing in Jesus for your salvation? Do you recognize that your faith is a family faith?

Faith in Christ responds to salvation                                                16:33-40

While the only response we have to our sin is to acknowledge, turn from it and trust Christ, that is, our only response is faith alone, that faith will never be alone. There is a response to God’s grace poured our in your life that is tangible.

As with Lydia, the evidences of true conversion to Christ were a transparent joy, a desire for baptism and an open hearted love for and hospitality towards the Lord’s servants. Our response is not merely verbal assent to a series of truths. A decision for Christ is often accorded an unchallenged validity, long after the so called convert has given little or no practical evidence of living the Christian life. A saving change evidences itself, not in instant doctrinal knowledge or a comprehensively perfect translation of behavior, but in the practical following of Jesus. The test of living faith is faithful living. (Keddie, Acts 194)

The same two-fold response is seen once again, a pattern repeated throughout Acts, from Pentecost, to Cornelius, to Lydia and now the jailer… where a person trusts Christ there is identification with and incorporation into the body of believers.

The household identifies with the church through baptism and incorporates into the life of the church through hospitality. We looked last week at the later issue with Lydia, so also here, the jailer and his family opens their home as their hearts are now open as well.

But what about the identification with the church in baptism? As we are about to celebrate two baptisms this morning of Megan and Joel, two young children? 

First, some will ask: “Where in this passage do we see the command that infants be baptized?

The answer is simple. The text is silent, but be careful, for it also neither forbids the practice, and the silence of the New Testament is a strong argument for its practice. Remember, the early church grew out of Judaism which was commanded of God to mark their children with the sign of God’s covenant in circumcision. That sign, particularly placed as a sign celebrated in the context of marriage, pointing to the importance of the covenant family, was continued on in the New Testament. Peter reminded his audience at Pentecost that the promise is for you and your children. As God’s covenantal promises are ever expanding, to include Jews and Gentiles, the children of believers are not left behind.

But mustn’t a person believe in order to be baptized? Faith must be personal.

Yes, faith is personal, but it most often becomes personal in the context of the family, as the parents pass on not only the knowledge of the Scriptures, but are used by God to pass on the promise benefits of the covenant of grace.

Faith was necessary for circumcision. God commanded the people that while they were circumcised in the flesh, they should likewise be circumcised in the heart. Yet, the father’s acceptance of the covenant was sufficient for the child to be a part of that promise that God would be their God.

Baptism is a sign, the pointer to what God alone does. What does it point to? That you and I are made children of God not by what we do, but by God’s grace alone.

As Megan and Joel are brought forward, there is an active faith. The same active faith that Abraham exercised in circumcising Isaac, the same faith that Jairus had for his daughter, that was present whenever in the gospels a member of a household is healed, their parent’s faith is the key.

Jesus himself called the children to come to him. He blessed them, saying that the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. If they belong to the Kingdom, should we not give them the sign of the Kingdom as well?

We don’t say that because we’ve baptized anyone they are therefore elect. Baptism does not wash away sin, only God does that. What baptism does do is serve as a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace.

As Megan and Joel grow up, they will be reminded that just as their father and mother looked in faith to Christ for their home, that God graciously provided for them in that home. From this youngest of age, they will hear, know and believe the wonderful truths of God’s grace. Because of God’s grace, then, may they too respond to their sin and see their Savior, respond to their salvation with gratitude.