You know, sometimes when we use the word gospel, you know, we've gotten used to that. But it's nice sometimes when you live in another country and you open your Bible and you see things there in another language that you've never seen before. You learn things from your brothers and sisters in Christ in another land and how they live out their faith and the challenges of their own culture that you would not learn in your own culture. And my wife has had the privilege of actually working with not just a Japanese, but a Chinese woman who lives in Japan. And they've been studying the Bible together, and she's lived there many years, and she knows Japanese extremely well. And she made a very wise observation in one of the times that Yoko and her were studying the Bible together. He says, you know, I've been looking, and we've been looking at this Gospel of John, and it's amazing that the first disciples, what happened in their lives? I mean, it was like they heard about the news of this Messiah, and then they just ran and told someone else, and then that person told someone else, and someone else got told that message, and it just kept going and going and going. It was like incredible news that was spreading. It's just like, you know, I've been paying attention to these Chinese characters. It's actually Chinese characters that the Japanese borrow and use. And those two characters that you use for the word gospel, the first one is blessed or happy, and the second one is sound. Actually, our city, Fukuoka, is blessed hill, Fukuoka, and gospel, Fukuin. Blessed sound. And she says, that's exactly what this is. This news, it's like sound, blessed, happy sound spreading like crazy. What insight the Spirit was giving her as she was opening up the gospel of John with my wife. How true this is, but brothers and sisters, how often we forget how good this news actually is, how blessed this news is. And that's why we today need to hear from the Lord how good again, how good this news is, because then it spreads rapidly because we're overwhelmed by all that God has done for us in Christ. This morning, let's ask God's spirit to renew our hearts and empower us to tell others the good news as we examine the gospel lifestyle of Paul and Silas. Father, we ask this day that you would honor the Lord Jesus, that you would lift him up, that you would teach us again as King David prayed in great repentance. He prayed that you would renew unto him the joy of his salvation. Oh God, do a work in us today because Jesus is worthy. This good news that you have, we want to live worthy of it. So be our teacher today in the power of the Holy Spirit we ask. In your son's powerful name, amen. So open your Bibles to Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. And we'll be looking at verses 25 through 34 today. Today we will look at three blessed sounds in the gospel. Let me say to you those three blessed sounds that are part of the gospel. The words are freedom, hope, and joy. Freedom, hope, and joy is what we will see in this passage today. When we turn to God and place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, his salvation gives us freedom, true freedom, hope, and joy in a way that this world cannot give us. Every one of us in this room longs, truthfully longs, for real freedom, for true hope, and for great joy in our lives. And this is what we find here that Paul and Silas did and experienced because of their faith in Jesus Christ, and it spread to others. Here's what actually happens in Acts 16. There you go. Paul and Silas have revisited cities in the modern day Turkey, and I can't quite pronounce the new name, but they've been, they were proclaiming the good news again, seeking to encourage the new churches. from the first missionary journey. Now, I know you can't probably read most of those Chinese characters up there, but up there where the pink is, that's Philippi. And to the right of Philippi, you see another pink dot there, and that's Troas. That is where Paul was when God gave to him a vision. a vision calling them to go to Macedonia, to go to Greece, and to share the gospel with the people there. And Paul responded, and his teammates responded to that message and took the gospel to them. They arrived there in Philippi. Thank you. They arrived there in Philippi. And it was a very organized Roman colony, and there was no Jewish synagogue. Of course, that was their pattern. They would always try, when they went into an area, to a town, to a city, to try to find the Jewish synagogue and to share the gospel there. But instead, they did find a group of committed believers in the true God, a prayer group of ladies, primarily down by a river, probably like the one you see pictured there on the left, there, which is near in Philippi, the actual place. They were worshiping the true God. At our church, Fukuoka Megumi Church, by the way, can everyone say the word Megumi? Megumi. Megumi. You've just said a very sweet word in Japanese. That's the word for grace. And actually, some Japanese ladies are called by that name, Megumi. And at Fukuoka Megumi Church, our church there, We have a big blue sign that actually says we are a riverside church because we actually have a river that runs right by our church. So just like there at Philippi, there was a church that was started at the river, and we have a church there that's by the riverside. And as Paul would preach the gospel there about Christ and Him crucified, A woman named Lydia and her family believed the gospel, and she invited these gospel preachers to her home. I shared with you about what happened in my wife's house. And so in the same way, she opened up her home. Lydia opened up her home like a gospel house. The church started meeting there and meeting down by the river, and more and more people were being reached. So Paul and Silas kept going to the Riverside Church, and on the way, a fortune-telling girl with a demon kept shouting and causing trouble. So they cast out the demon. Now, actually the message she was shouting was actually pretty good. These men, it says in verse 17, these men are the servants of the most high God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation. But as you can imagine, Paul and Silas did not really like this idea of having a demon evangelist on their missionary team. So they were very quick to deal with that. And the people that were receiving money from the fortune teller went to the authorities and they reported on Paul and Silas. And they grabbed them and called them Jewish troublemakers who were convincing the people of the city to stop practicing their city's customs. So they literally beat them severely with rods and gave them to the jailer. So let's look at the passage here. We see this in verse 25. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly, there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately, all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, Do yourself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? So they said. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who 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, and strayed away. And when he had brought them into his house, he set before him food and rejoiced. They rejoiced, believing in God with all of his house. Here we have this Paul and Silas, and they have been beaten. They have their feet in stocks. And if, think about this, if we had a news report that was reporting on their situation right now, what it's like to be a Christian, what do you think they would have said? They would say, if we were to use today's sermon title, believe on the Lord Jesus and you get beaten, you get thrown into jail, you get slandered, and there's no future for you. That would be the evaluation they would make. But Paul's way of encouraging the churches when he shared the gospel and he went around was to say this to them, that they would have to go through many trials to enter the kingdom of God. So how did Paul and Silas apply this message to their lives? Well, look at verses 25 and 26. It says that at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. What's going on here? These missionaries, their backs are aching in pain. They're bleeding. They can't move. They're in the inner cell. They have been slandered. There were a lot of reasons for them to be discouraged. Very discouraged. A church supposedly was starting, but they're in the inner cell locked up. But they, in their circumstances, remembered Jesus. They were meditating on that gospel that they were so happy to share. They probably even fought on the life of Jesus, particularly, let's say, on his last week, his Passion Week, and what happened to Christ himself. Maybe they remembered what happened to him on Palm Sunday when there was the Passover feast and the people laid palm branches in the street going to Jerusalem and shouted, Hosanna, expressing that they saw Jesus as the promised Messiah and the King that would set them free. But then unbelievably, just a few laters, that same crowd would be shouting, crucify him. And Jesus would be brutally beaten and nailed to the cross to die in the place of sinners. Out of love for God's justice and out of love for us helpless sinners, Jesus suffered in our place. But while he suffered on that cross, what did Jesus do? Well, we know from some of the words of Jesus, it seemed he was meditating on Psalms 22. My God, my God, why have you? He was actually living that out. He was lamenting even as he was suffering the wrath of God. So following Christ's example, Paul and Silas were responding rightly to their suffering. Because truly, Christians also suffer. But because our Savior died and rose again, our suffering, our circumstances does not have to imprison us. Let me say that again. Our suffering does not have to imprison us. I don't know what each of you, some of us today is the first time to meet. I don't know what you're going through right now, but I can tell you based on the word of God and with the gospel that Paul preached, there are many trials and suffering to go through. But the gospel will not allow us to be imprisoned by our suffering. Yes, we lament. Yes, we grieve, just like Paul and Silas. But just like them, our prayers and lament can turn into songs of praise, into prayer. The jailer had put them in stocks in the inmost cell, but they knew true freedom in Jesus. and the surrounding prisoners did not. These two believers knew freedom from their sins, their guilt, their shame, and a life of trying to measure up. They were dead to sin and alive to God. Furthermore, Paul and Silas considered it an honor to suffer like Jesus. So what did they do in their suffering? They sang songs of celebration I've never been beaten because I'm a follower of Jesus. I've never been beaten for telling others about Jesus. Pastor Lance was just sharing with me this morning that when the church in Czechoslovakia was thriving, was not during easy times, but during the times of persecution. God uses that. And even my life, though I had not been beaten, I had to report to a principal at a U.S. high school, and later, also at a Japanese high school, because I had told some students about Jesus. And I was warned not to tell my students about Jesus, or I would lose my job. But guys, that was an easy trial. I've had other trials. There have been days of spiritual attack and depression when I felt like I was in a prison of darkness and shame. And I can praise God, and Yoko and I know this, when we drove up to this church today, we feel deeply because there were many of this church that ministered to us when we came back from Japan and the challenges there, really discouraged, wondering about what our next steps are gonna be. And you guys loved on us and prayed for us and encouraged us with the gospel. And I've been in those times. But like, instead of staying in my prison of darkness and shame, and under that spiritual attack, like the writer of Psalm 42, I chose to put my hope in God and to remember what God had done for me. I decided to pray and sing praises, songs in the darkness of my night. And eventually the light of the gospel broke through into my heart. So brother or sister in Christ, declare your freedom in Christ in the middle of your night. Pray about your suffering and sing the gospel. It's for you in your suffering. This is what Paul and Silas did. These bleeding chain men sang the good news of freedom in Jesus Christ. Who knows, maybe they were singing Hosanna. The pray song, the cry of freedom, deliver us. Our situation may not change, but because of Christ, we are always free. And one day, hallelujah, because Christ rose from the dead, truly all suffering will be gone. He has won the victory. He is the suffering servant. He knows your pain. He knows your suffering. And he is victorious. And he gives that to us. And we can sing in the middle of the night. And we can know his power and the power of the good news of Jesus Christ. The prisoners heard those prayers and songs that night in Philippi. And the word of God tells us very clearly that suddenly an earthquake struck. Now, as you know, Japan gets a lot of earthquakes. It's a little trouble sometimes for us as missionaries in Japan because that Japan is like shaking all the time and it ends up in the US news. And so my mom is like, you know, writing me, she's like, are you guys okay? Yeah, I was a little tremor, you know, we're still okay. But it's serious stuff. And natural disasters are a horrible thing. But it's interesting. We just had one on New Year's Day in Ishikawa. And we know of a church right now that's become the base. We actually did biblical counseling training there. It's become a base of reaching out to people in that community with the gospel. Can you think of other times in the New Testament where there was an earthquake? I'm sure you can, but I'll give you two. One was at Jesus' resurrection. God's on the move. Christ rose from the dead. The ground shook. The other time is the Christians in Acts 4 when they prayed for more boldness to share the gospel and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And here in Acts chapter 16, with this earthquake, the gospel message of hope comes to this jailer. Imagine this jailer's desperate plight. It was common Roman law that if prisoners escaped, the jailer or soldier would have to accept responsibility for his failure and be executed. Look at verses 27 through 30. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice saying, do yourself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Christ had given Paul and Silas true freedom, so they did not run away. I mean, if my chains came off and my stocks and the doors flew open, if it was me, I would be bolting, okay? I'm out of here. But they didn't bolt. Neither did the other prisoners. It seems that Paul and Silas were compassionately thinking about this jailer. And this jailer comes trembling and falls at their feet. Now, brothers and sisters, let's be honest about the brokenness of our world and about our neighbors. Just like this jailer, there are people all around us who are without hope. They're looking at their situations. They don't feel free. They feel chained. They don't have hope for the future. Some just endure every day with no true joy. Others withdraw away from society. In Japan, we have a huge number of people who lock themselves in their rooms and never come out. Some actually commit suicide. In Japan, suicide is the leading cause of death in men between the ages of 20 and 44. and the leading cause of death in women between the ages of 15 and 34. But Christ has given us a message of hope. So like Paul in these verses, we can tell people, do yourselves no harm. There is deliverance. This man, this jailer, This keeper of the prison had come to the end of himself. He comes trembling, pleading with Paul and Silas for answers. He says, what must I do to be saved? But what did he mean by that? The prisoners are there. He's not afraid of execution. However, in those moments of the earthquake, the possibility of the escaped prisoners, and thinking about taking his own life, he surely considered something about the coming judgment of God, his future beyond the grave. Surely this jailer had heard what the fortune-telling girl had said. These are servants of God telling you the way to be saved. Maybe the jailer had fallen asleep hearing the prayers and the worship. And at that moment, he was concerned about his eternal fate. How about you? Have you ever come to the point of trembling that you have fallen before your creator and cried out for salvation? This jailer wasn't asking for good news to make his life easier. He saw that Christianity doesn't make life easier in the lives of Paul and Silas. He saw God's power, and he knew he needed to be right with God. If natural disaster or tragedy were to hit Danville, Virginia, hit this church in some way, your company or your neighborhood, If one of your friends was thinking of harming themselves or simply if they didn't have hope to face tomorrow, would he or she be coming to you asking how to be saved? What does your life show of the good news, this blessed sound? Peter said that we should always be ready to give a reason for the hope we have in us to those who ask us. What was Paul's and Silas' answer to this desperate man, to his desperate question? Was it complicated? No. It is just as it is in verses 31 and 32. So they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all were in his house. Yoko and I shared earlier about Edea Sensei, the pastor that planted the church, Fukuoka Megumi Church, who is now planting another church in Saga. This pastor we have great respect for. And Pastor Edea told me one day when I was distributing flyer invitations for the church event, he told my coworker as well, he said, when you give a person a flyer and they're rushing by, This is what you need to say. Say the name, Jesus Christ. You may not get any other word in there, but if you get anything out there, say, this is about Jesus Christ, or Jes Cristo, Jes Cristo, Jes Cristo, Jes Cristo, Jes Cristo, Jes Cristo, because just as your pastor prayed for us and has prayed for Japan, they've never heard his name. And this man needed to hear his name. People need to hear his name so they can come later, come to him. That's what he told us. And I'm thankful for what he said. Friends, hear the sweet words of these two preachers in Philippi. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. These are six words. Count them with me. Believe. Count them. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But what must I do to be saved, you might say. What he says, believe. Believe what? Jesus Christ. not just any Jesus, not the Jesus of your imagination, not the Jesus that's gonna make your life easy. No, the Lord, the Master, the God of all the earth, not Caesar, not anyone else. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Take your eyes off of yourself and look only to Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the hope of your salvation. This includes not only you, but your whole family as well. There is no other hope anywhere else. You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. Now you may be wondering if this jailer actually knew enough about Jesus to place his entire trust and hope in the Lord Jesus. Well, that's why verse 32 tells us, verse 32 tells us that they actually spoke the word of the Lord to him and the whole household. So just like Paul and Silas, we may just have a short moment with them. Someone may pass you in the hall at work. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Let's talk later, okay? And then you can open up the scriptures. And just like you see there on that slide, there's a whole lot more. And in VBS, it sounds like there's even a whole lot more than's written up there. You've got seven Cs you'll be learning this summer, all right? You've got this incredible creation. I mean, from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible. The gospel is all there. Jesus is all there. We have much to share. That's good news. And we know that Paul and Silas love to share the word of the Lord. On the right there, you see a picture of an image that a Japanese pastor actually encouraged our missionary team to try. There are many methods, many different ways that a person can share the gospel. But know this, there's only one message of hope, only one savior that never changes. Paul and Silas share the word of the Lord with everyone in the jailer's house. And what happened? Verses 33 through 34 say that the jailer and his family believed this good news. Notice the immediate change their faith in Jesus made. Salvation always leads to transformation. First, what do we say of the jailer? The jailer washed the wounds for the preachers. Christ's salvation creates within us a compassion for others. Hope in Christ frees us to become instruments of healing and hope. Notice that this family, like Lydia, also opened their house to the gospel and shared a meal with Paul and Silas. I believe that God is calling each of us here Think about it. This is good news, such great news for you that you would widely open the doors of your house as much as possible to invite people to come in to hear about what Christ has done for you. Hospitality is a great show of what God has done in your life. Is your house, your own home, a gospel house? And just like we have pictured here, for Japanese it might be ramen, it might be just some curry, it might be some green tea that becomes the meal that we share together. I actually heard John Piper one time, there was a friend that visited him, a very famous speaker and preacher, and John Piper had him stay in his house and he came over and he served him some cornflakes. It doesn't take a whole lot. But to share a meal together and to celebrate Jesus Christ, to rejoice in him, that fellowship is sweet and it declares who Jesus is to a dying world. But the washing didn't stop there. Paul and Silas' wounds are all taken care of. The jailer's whole family had believed the message and they too, the scripture passage tells us, they too were washed. Because of Christ, their baptism declared the washing away of all their sins and the healing of their souls. They were not imprisoned by their past or afraid of their future. They had a new certain hope. They had true freedom, true hope, and now joy. Notice that their faith in Christ revealed that they had come, it says, to believe in the true God, and they overflowed with joy. Actually, the Greek word here doesn't contain the power that's in this word of joy. It actually expresses leaping, dancing joy. That was the joy. This was quite a night in Philippi. Christ had changed everything. God had shook up Philippi and this entire family had come to Christ. Christ gives us something to sing about. And he makes whole families dance as well. How about you? How about you? How about me today? Believe on the Lord Jesus. and be saved. And your house, everyone in your house, everyone around you, if they believe on the Lord Jesus, they too will be saved. I would ask you to close your eyes right now and let's pray. I'm gonna give you a few moments to respond to what God has spoken into your heart. You've heard much today and what God has called us to. He has given us this incredible salvation, this salvation that gives us freedom, gives us hope, that gives us joy. This is good news. This is a blessed sound that must be shared among the nations. Maybe God is even calling you to take that good news. But have you first already put your trust in Christ? Let's pray. Father, we cry out to you. We give praise to you for this incredible salvation that you've given us in your precious son, the Lord Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, Lord Jesus Christ, that you give us true freedom, true, certain, unchangeable hope, and dancing joy that we could never know apart from you. Lord, I pray that you would save, if there's anyone here today that has not truly put their trust in Christ, Lord, let them know that the cost, there will be trials, but oh, what freedom, oh, what hope, oh, what joy they can have in Christ, what it would mean to follow him, to truly serve the living God as this jailer and family discovered. Make us all true worshipers of him. Call people out to see more worshipers in Japan, we pray. In his powerful name, amen.