You're listening to the teaching ministry of Harvest Fellowship Church in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about us on the web at www.harvestfellowshipchurch.org. We pray that through our teaching, we may present everyone mature in Christ. Father in heaven, we bow before you on this Wednesday night. And we do thank you, oh Lord, that we are not sitting directly under the sun right now. And we pray, Lord, that as we take a refreshment from the world in your word, that you will impart wonderful truth to our hearts. For the hearts tonight, O Lord, that are weary, that are struggling, that are heavy laden. We pray, Lord, that you will be a balm to their soul through your word and through the agency of your spirit. Help us in this way, we pray. We also pray for the children tonight as they study your word, as they continue to study the wonderful names of God, that you will increase their knowledge, increase their faith, and the hearts that they have for you. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, two weeks ago, we were in Acts chapter 16, verses 11 through 24. If you remember, if you still have your map, how many people still have their map? It's great. You don't really need it tonight. I mean, you can look at it, but we're still going to be in Philippi, so we're not really moving along the map. But in Verse 11, remember this was the beginning of the Macedonian mission, and they went from Troas to Neapolis. They stayed overnight in Semothrace. And from Neapolis then they traveled westward to Philippi. We talked about Philippi being a dominantly Roman city in Macedonia. There they first ministered to a group of women, some God-worshipping women who were gathered outside the city. Yeah, who was the notable woman there? Lydia. And she, as she hears the message proclaimed by the four men, remember it's Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, the Lord opened her heart. great evidence of the effectual call of the Gospel. What's the effectual call? Well, as the Gospel goes forth it's falling upon all sorts of ears and hearts. We see that, I actually studied that with the kids in Sunday School on Sunday, the parable of the sower. So, it's hitting all different types of soil and But what makes it to take root in the good soil of the person who responds to the Gospel? It is the effectual call. So, the Gospel goes out, we can say it is the general call to all, but the effectual call is what irresistibly draws that heart in to understand and believe in Jesus Christ. And this is what happens to Lydia and she believes and she and her household are baptized and then she becomes a hostess to these missionaries. Well then things turn we could say dark because then Paul and his team they encounter this demon possessed girl. This girl who is used and abused and she has these powers of divination. And it's making the people who physically own her, she's owned by other people, it's making them lots of money. And I don't think that I really drew it out when I taught last time, but we could talk a little bit about who can be demon-possessed and the reality of who can be demon-possessed is anybody who does not possess the spirit of Christ. So, anyone who is unsaved, anyone who is unregenerated can be demon possessed, but the believer cannot be demon possessed. You can be oppressed. You know Paul talks a lot about the spiritual warfare. He says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the forces of spiritual darkness. But we can respond to those forces the same way Jesus did. And how was that? Word of God. So we can give them the Word of God and let the Word of God rebuke Satan and his forces. But this girl isn't oppressed, she is possessed. She has demon possession within her. And so she follows Paul around, she disrupts everything by shouting out about what these men are doing and who they are. And after some days of this Paul was very grieved for a lot of reasons, but he turns around and he cast out that demon from her in the name of Jesus. You say that we serve the Most High God, well this is the Most High God, it's Jesus. And so the demon comes out of her through the power of Jesus. How did the owners feel about that? Pretty happy? Yeah, they were enraged. foaming at the mouth, and they drag Paul and Silas down to the magistrates because they want revenge. And so then they mention to the magistrates about how their slave has had a demon cast out of her, right? Right, they avoid that. They bring up all sorts of other allegations. They said these Jews, we see there's racial overtones. These are Romans talking about these Jews. They're disrupting our peace, they're causing problems, they're forcing customs on us that are antithetical to the Roman way. And so then a mob forms. There's this frenzied crowd. And so Paul and Silas are beaten with rods. It's a terrible experience. Many blows rain down upon them. They're thrown into prison. The jailer is charged with keeping them. And so he puts them into the inner prison in the darkness with no ventilation. And they're put into the stocks. And that's where we left them. So he left these two men there, we could say, in the dungeon. So let's read then tonight. I want to read, I want to go back to verse 22, Acts chapter 16, verse 22, and we'll read through the end of the chapter. Here now, the word of the Lord. The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. And 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 bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, Do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And the jailer called for lights, and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. And 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 wounds. And he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. But when it was day, the magistrate sent the police saying, let those men go. And the jailer reported those words to Paul saying, the magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace. Paul said to them, they have beaten us publicly, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into prison. And do they now throw us out secretly? No, let them come themselves and take us out. reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So, they came and apologized to them, and they took them out and asked them to leave the city. So, they went out of the prison and visited Lydia, and when they had seen the brothers they encouraged them and departed." And may the Lord write the eternal truths of His Word to our hearts tonight. And So we go from the chaos that we saw two weeks ago to now we see this midnight miracle in Macedonia. If you like the Ms, midnight miracle in Macedonia, or maybe something a little bit different, songs in the night. But this will bring us to the end, Bob, of chapter 16. Any guesses as to what percentage that puts us at? Yeah, 59.58. Very good. Now, two weeks ago, if you remember, I encouraged you that as you read the Word of God, especially as you're reading a passage and a narrative, that there should be questions in your mind that would arise as you've thought about what you just read. Instead of me giving you the 12 or so that I've written down, does anybody want to offer any questions that may have popped into your mind as I just read those verses? So in the question for him, why do they go back into the prison? Okay. Okay. So did the jailer bring them out and then take them back? What else? Oh, OK. Very good. And by they, are you referring to Paul and Silas or the other prisoners or everyone? Well, everybody. OK. Why do they stay? Dina? I was just wondering, like when he said, what must I do to be saved, where he just says believe, but in the past it was repent and believe. Oh. Great question. Matt? Why was the family saved? I have that question here. It's the second part I wrote. What did Paul and Silas' response mean? Could he believe on behalf of his household? Is that what they're saying? Any other questions that popped into the mind? Okay. Who got baptized? Janet, did you have a question? Oh, very good. Yeah, why is Paul demanding a public apology? Yes. Oh, good question. That was the second part of what I just asked. Why did he demand a public apology? The first part of my question here is why does Paul just now reveal that he's a Roman citizen? Any other questions? Okay. Why would the jailer kill himself? I didn't write that down. I wrote, how did Paul know that the jailer was going to kill himself? Some directly, some inferentially. Let the reader understand. Or, as I often say, I'm right here. Afterwards, please come up and ask questions. Let me quick give you a couple more that I wrote down, things that we kind of know the answer to, but we should still ask these things. How could Paul and Silas respond the way that they do after going through such a violent ordeal? Is there any significance to this earthquake? How did Paul know that everybody else was still there? Ever thought about that? How did he know? Is there a significance to the jailer's question? And this is something that just kind of came into my mind today through study, but can we find any, this helps us sink in Sunday school, can we find any law gospel distinctions in this passage? Is there any symbolism in the jailer washing their wounds? Why do the magistrates let them go? Everybody ask that? How did Paul and Silas prove their citizenship? And is the request to leave the city, do we find that in any other similarities to other biblical narratives? Hey, could you please leave? And then the last question is, what does Luke's final comment about the brothers reveal to us, the readers? Hopefully, most of those questions will be answered tonight. But if not, as I said, please come up afterward, or as Matt suggested, do further study. Go do the homework. But let's pick up then in verse 25. As we are in this condition here of Paul and Silas being in excruciating pain, they have open wounds, they are in an uncomfortable fixed position where they can't move, and they are in utter darkness. Do you think they would have been able to sleep? I don't think so. And so instead of sleeping we see at about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them and 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 bonds were unfastened. So Luke gives this approximation. Remember Luke is not in the room with them but he's in Philippi and so he says around midnight something happens. we see? We see these two men, these men who have been beaten with rods, thrown into the inner prison, and they're not lamenting the condition that they're in. They're not lamenting this deplorable condition. They're in pain. They've lost blood. Surely they're very hungry. When you're thrown into prison the jailer doesn't ordinarily feed you. It's up to your family and friends to come give you food. They're thirsty and so what do they do? They turn to God. In their worst difficulty they turn to God. And how do they turn to God? They're praying and singing hymns. They're praying and singing hymns. So they're petitioning God and they're singing these praises. imagine being imprisoned in the stocks and singing praises to God? So, they are singing songs of praises, that's what hymns were, songs of praises. We talked about that in Ephesians a little bit in the sense of it being a song to a hero. That's how the Greeks and the Gentiles understood it, to their heroes, to their gods. But this is a song of praise to the hero, capital H hero, proclaiming God's goodness in His singing, His virtues, His deeds. And perhaps this is even a combination of prayer and singing. So, a prayer that is sung to a tune. one commentator wrote, what they are doing here is just as much of a demonstration of the Holy Spirit working in them as the exorcism where that demon was cast out of that girl. This is just as amazing of an experience here. Remember what James says in James 5.13, he says, is anyone among you suffering? Let him, let him what? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. But is anyone among you suffering? Is anyone suffering here tonight? James gives you the admonition, let him, let her pray. But the singing as well, so what does the singing do as you're sitting there in the darkness, perhaps the darkness of your soul as you're going through a difficult time? The singing helps your mind to focus on realities, eternal realities, glorious eternal realities that seem to be away from your eyes because you are going through very difficult, gloomy, temporal experiences. And so this singing then helps drive that away as the truths come back down into your soul. A great example of that is Psalm 73 written by Asaph. How does he start out? He talks about the wicked prospering, and all these things that seem terrible, but at the end he says, but then I consider their end. So you could say Psalm 73, him singing this helped ground his soul back in eternal realities, eternal realities. Or Psalm 42, 8, the psalmist wrote, At night the Lord's song is with me. And that was certainly true of these two men, the Lord's song is with them and so they're singing and obviously they're not whispering because the other prisoners can hear this. And it is possible, I had not thought of this before, that at nighttime they may have been all confined together in the same space. That would have been the easiest thing for the jailer to do. Hey, I'm going to bed. I want to make sure none of you escape. So, you're all going into the same room together. So, that's a very likely possibility. But what would these men have expected? They would have expected cursing from Paul and Silas, griping, complaining about their unjust treatment. instead they hear men who are praising and extolling God. What a marvelous thing. But all throughout Acts what have we seen? We've seen prayer. At the end of Acts chapter 2 the Church is committed to prayer. The Apostles are beaten, they respond through prayer. Or when the Apostolic Replacement to Judas Iscariot they resort to prayer. Prayer, prayer, prayer. But the focus all throughout Acts is not on your individual prayer life, even though that's very important. It's on praying together, gathered prayer. These are two men gathered together here in the name of Jesus praying. And if we can learn from what Luke has recorded in this book, it's that we need to gather and pray more often. And it doesn't have to be an official church gathering. You can invite someone over to your house to pray. It's OK. You're allowed to do that. So these men are praying, they're singing, and suddenly, or behold, just like that sudden moment all the way back on the day of Pentecost in chapter 2, this surprising event occurs. There's a mighty earthquake, a violent shaking of the earth, and it's so violent that the foundations of the prison itself are shaken. And of course, Luke is intending for the reader to understand that this is an act of God, a divine intervention. And despite the foundation shaking of the prison, the prison itself is not thrown down completely. The structure is not destroyed. And so you think of the way that Scripture talks about God being the one who establishes the foundations of the earth. So, he is the one who has established the foundations of the earth. He is now demonstrating, hey, I have authority over this tiny little prison here in Philippi. And so, he is not limited. Remember we talked about that in the Sermon of Stephen that God's presence is not confined to the Holy Land so to speak. His presence is everywhere and so too is His power. His power is everywhere. And so, His power shakes Here, the foundations of this prison and what happens, this result that all the doors are opened, everyone's chains are unfastened or loosed. And of course, this is a divine action here. Earthquakes themselves were not uncommon to this area, but the results happening in this exact way at this exact time are not common. back to Mount Sinai. Israel, that's where they encounter God. And what's going on? There's an earthquake there, right? So, Israel encounters God at Mount Sinai in an earthquake. And the jailer here has been divinely prepared by God to encounter Him through an earthquake here at the prison with the doors swung open. Verse 27, when the jailer awoke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And so we see here that the jailer was sleeping. He wasn't awake the whole time. He was sleeping. We don't know if he was supposed to be awake or not, but we do know that now he's awake. And as he's awake, he can see his worst nightmare. This is the worst possible thing that he could experience called worst case scenario. Now there's probably a flood of emotions that are hitting him. And I don't know if you've ever had experiences in your life where it felt like your heart sank all the way down through your body. one of those uh-oh moments. That's what he's experiencing here. And so he feels despair. He feels shame, dishonor. None of these things are supposed to happen on his watch. And for failing in his duties, and acts of providence don't matter. That's not an escape clause for him. He is going to expect severe penalties, perhaps up to death. Remember what happened to the soldiers who guarded Peter? Did Herod say, oh, well, this appears to have been a divine experience? No, he did not. He said, one of you guys was involved. You're all going to die. And they did die. And this man had received, remember, a very strict charge. And that was why he put them into the inner prison. And it's possible that he may even have been given over to crucifixion as his punishment. And so he says, that's not going to happen. Here he pulls out his short sword and he's about to put it through either his heart or his neck. He's going to commit suicide here. And in a certain sense this was an act considered honorable for someone who had failed in their duty, dereliction of duty. But just pause for a second here, take a step back from the passage, and I just want to say to you, isn't this what he's experienced here a picture of the Law? So, we talked about the Law and the Gospel. So, if you think about it from what the Law did. So, the Law told him, keep the prisoners, don't ever let the prisoners escape from jail. And who knows, maybe he had been a good warden of the jail for years. But what's the reality? The second that he fails, the second that he doesn't keep the law, it will become a ministry of death to him. It is going to punish him and that's the same way that the law is to the unbeliever. Remember that when we studied that? The law is looming over, Paul calls it a ministry of death because it says, do this perfectly or die. And so the system here doesn't care if he had 20 years of keeping the prison well, it's going to punish him without mercy. And so we can see in a sense then that's the law, it's a picture of the law. But he pulls out his sword, he's about to kill himself. Why? Because he has supposed, and this is a reasonable assumption, that all the prisoners have run away. But Paul cries out with a loud voice, and this is a pretty depleted man, but somehow he summons the energy to yell, and maybe he even heard the jailer cry out in despair. But he cries out to him, do not harm, do not injure yourself, or just really yelling out, stop, stop. And this is speculation. This is the Ron Casper principle here, the speculative principle. But so I'm just speculating here. But remember, Paul is in the dark. And so whatever he's going to look out to now with the doors open, sprung open, is going to be lighter than whatever it is inside. So he probably can see out. But the jailer has the opposite. He can't see in. So he can see out, but the jailer can't see in. So Paul yells out to him, we're all here. And again, that's why it's probable that they're all in the same room. Paul can look around and see. He's not saying, oh, there was a first floor, a second floor. He has knowledge that the men are all there in the prison. Now, why do they stay? We don't know exactly, but it's very possible that they see the circumstances and the events and they think, man, these guys really are divine messengers. They seem to have supernatural strength. I don't see them running away. I think I'm just going to stay right here. And some of them, depending on what they were in for, could have made their situation a lot worse by running away. But nevertheless, they're there, and Paul stays there, and Paul's staying there, and Silas is staying there. That's a clear indication that the charges that have been levied against them are false. But this cry that Paul gives out we can call it a saving cry. This is the same thing as a proclamation of the Gospel in a sense because it is a saving cry to someone who is about to end their life. And he calls out to him, and remember this Roman soldier to them is the embodiment of death. He represents death to them. Paul instead turns it around and he follows the words of Jesus. Remember what Jesus said? He said, But I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. That's in Luke chapter 6. And so as the jailer hears, Paul shouts, Stop! Says in verse 29, that he called for lights, he rushed in, trembling with fear. He fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? So he asks for some type of light, torches, lanterns, whatever it was. Surely other people of his household, and remember we talked about household would include servants, are probably awake. And so he has them help him, and he rushes into the prison. He bursts into there. Very similar to the language used by Amos in Amos 5, 18 and 19 where he's talking about the day of the Lord is as if a man fleeing from a lion. How fast do you think you'd run from a lion? Pretty fast until he caught you, but pretty fast. So this is the same intensity that he bursts in with. And so now he comes in, what do the lights reveal? That everything that Paul said was true. They're all there. They're all accounted for. And so in dread and perhaps even tremoring, he throws himself down at their feet. Now, it clearly could not have been worship. Paul doesn't say anything about, don't worship me. And remember, we saw that before with Cornelius. But this man here is just drinking in all of these events, and he's realizing that the divine visiting presence of God has occurred here, and these men are in fact His messengers. And so seeing the power of their God he throws himself their feet." And this is of course a turn of events because remember what happened to their feet? He put their feet in the stocks and now this same man throws himself down at their feet and he gives them this great title of respect as he leads them out. It seems like maybe to just an outer part of the prison that's a little bit more open, but he calls them sirs. This is a title of great respect to them. And And he says, what must I do in order to be saved? He clearly cannot be talking about his being saved from being penalized by the Roman government. He can see already that the prisoners haven't left. This is clearly an eternal type of question. What can I do, or what must I do to attain eternal salvation? knows what type of information he already had. Perhaps he had heard what that demon possessed girl was crying out, that these are men who serve the Most High God. And remember she had screamed out that these men proclaim to you the way of salvation. So what's going on here? This man is in a moment of crisis and he's facing, in a certain sense, the ultimate question of life. What happens when I die? What happens when I die? And when you consider that question, what happens when I die, suddenly the concept and the idea of salvation becomes a lot more important. So I'd ask you tonight, have you faced that same question head on? It's all too often in our lives that it takes these types of things. So maybe it's some sort of life threatening disease. Maybe it's going through a really difficult family situation or even a divorce. Maybe you lose your job. or maybe your vocation suddenly changes, or a dramatic financial reversal. Remember the people who lost their life savings in the Great Depression? A lot of them didn't answer this question well because they did what this jailer tried to do. They killed themselves. They didn't see any hope. They didn't say, how can I be saved? They said, life isn't worth living. But here we see that the chains the prison are loosed, but that's not the only thing that's loosed. The chains of this jailer's heart we could say are also loosed. He believes that these men, these servants of the Most High God, that they can show him the way unto salvation. And so in verse 31, they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. So what's really interesting here is, I think the way that Luke presents this is they give him... almost like the cliff notes. Here's the short version. We're going to explain the whole gospel to you, but let's give you the bare bones first. And this is a command. They're not saying you should or you could. This is a command. Believe in the Lord Jesus, the only way to salvation. Remember how antithetical that was to the Gentile ways. They believed in many gods. And they're saying there aren't many gods. There's one God. one Lord ruling over the earth and His name is Jesus." And of course it may make you think of Philippians. Of course as we are studying through this Philippians is a great book to go read. Philippi. He writes a letter later to Philippi. So, read Philippians. But remember chapter 2, the tail end of the condescension of Christ. It says in verse 9, "...therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." So if you confess Jesus as Lord, that means that you believe that God raised him from the dead. An unraised Jesus from the dead cannot be Lord over the earth. So to believe in the Lord Jesus, the Messiah Jesus, King Jesus, means that that's what you believe inherently about him. that he died on the cross, yes, but that he was raised from the dead. He was exalted on high and now reigns over the earth as Lord. And they said, if you do that, you will be, this is a promise, you will be saved. Notice that that's a passive part. This is what happens to you. He will save you. You don't save yourself. He will save you. So the message is the jailer, look to Jesus alone for life and salvation. Look to Him alone for life and salvation. You'll be saved from sin. You'll be saved from the consequences of sin, from the curse of the law, the power of Satan, the evil of the world, and of course the wrath of God, hellfire, and damnation. Romans 10, 9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, what's the last part? You will be saved. Was that the King James version there? Thou shalt be saved. And so notice now we see the contrast then with the law. So now we've gone from the law to the gospel, but you have to be crushed by the law. That's why Jesus says, come unto me all those who are heavy laden. What are they heavy laden with? The burden of the law. They're crushed low by the law. And so that is what makes the gospel offer so sweet. I'm about to die. My face is on the ground being crushed down by the demands of the law that I simply cannot meet. Here's the good news of the gospel. You can't do what the law demands, but Jesus has done what the law demands. And so he gives them the same type of promise that Peter gave to the people. Remember what Peter said in Acts 2? He said, for this promise is for you. and for your children, and for those who are far off. Well, here he gives the same type of promise. I'm not just saying that this is your lucky day, Philippian jailer, and you can believe, but everybody else is out. No, the same principle applies to everyone here in your household, that they can also receive salvation if also believe." So he's not saying you believe on behalf of other people. So if you're a young person here tonight, your father and your mother, they can't believe for you. A husband can't believe for his wife. A wife can't believe for her husband. But each one can believe individually and rejoice together, as we're going to see. And so in verse 32, they speak the word of the Lord to him. So here comes the more thorough exposition of the gospel. We just gave you a basic statement, but now we're going to explain it in detail. And they don't just explain it to him, but to all who are in his house. What does that mean? That means they're preaching the gospel to people who can understand. You have to be able to understand. So even if they happened to have a baby in the house and woke it up, I don't think I would wake up a baby unless I absolutely had to. But even if they woke up a baby, the baby still isn't able to understand the message. So clearly, as we see the actions going on here, the people who respond are the people who can hear and understand. But as you consider what's going on in the life of the Philippian jailer here, I would say to you tonight, maybe God has shaken the foundation of your soul to make you ready to answer that same question of what must I do to be saved? Maybe the Lord has prepared your heart just as He did with the jailer to hear this same Gospel proclamation, but actually come into your ears and your heart with meaning. You can hear the Gospel as we saw with the parable of the soils, and it can just hit this hard ground of the heart and just bounce right off. And the evil one comes and he snatches it away. But when the Lord prepares the heart, it doesn't get snatched away. And then the words, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, will have tremendous meaning in your life. Verse 33, he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Remember he was startled awake but right now going back to bed doesn't really seem to be too important to the jailer. And so he washes these men's wounds. Remember what happened at their so-called trial? All this racial prejudice came out and now we see here a Roman man and he's bathing the backs of these Jews. What a thing. John Chrysostom, he says, he washed their stripes, himself being washed from his sins. So what a neat picture we see here of this transformation. Notice these words that Luke uses here in 33 and 34, that he took, he washed, he brought, and he set. We see a great transformation in his life. Does that remind you of anybody? same chapter, Lydia. Remember the great transformation of Lydia? Immediately she becomes this hospitable woman. Her heart is changed and so is this man's. He's not worried about the orders of the government anymore, about what he needs to do with them. And his willingness to care for these men, to feed them, to dine with prisoners clearly show that this man is transformed. These men are no longer prisoners in His eyes, they are brothers in Christ. And so as you think of His transformation, it's good to go back and reflect on our lives, and sometimes it's good to look at a longer stretch of time, but how has God transformed you since your conversion to Christ? And the further transformation that comes along here with this man and his family is that he's baptized at once. We're not even waiting for the sun to come up. We're doing a baptism right now. Now, we don't know exactly how they did this, but maybe this was in a well in the prison courtyard. That's got to be really palatable water there. But we're not worried about that. We are going to be baptized. And so it says, he and all his family. So everybody who's there, this is his household. servants, those who hear, they understand, they believe the Gospel message. And then through baptism the missionaries confirm them in their faith. Remember baptism is something that is done to you, you are baptized. And so here Paul and Silas baptized these people into the waters and And this is here the first clear case of an individual story of a Gentile conversion out of paganism for somebody who seems to have no Jewish influence at all. Remember Lydia, she was around Jewish people in her worship. But this person here, no Jewish influence at all. And so just then, as you think back to as he burst into the prison cell, as the torchlight dispelled the darkness from that cell, the light of the world dispelled the spiritual darkness of this jailer's heart and his family's. Verse 34, then he brought them up into his house and set food before them and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. the way that this is worded is that there's this sense of his house being above the prison. So maybe it's like, come around the house and come up, or maybe it's come upstairs, I don't know what it is, but they go up, out of the prison, into his house, more demonstration of the graciousness of his heart. Remember this guy is a hardened Roman veteran, and here he is being the wonderful consummate host. And so then they rejoice together. They're together. This is a unified celebration. Remember this is what the Ethiopian eunuch does back in chapter 8. He rejoices. This is an external expression of inward joy. Maybe a little bit of dancing goes on here. But even though Luke doesn't record it here, and then we should think about what Luke records, and I think this gets a little bit to what you had asked, Dina, is that Luke's efforts are not to always include every little detail. So notice some of the stories that we've talked about are such clear details of the Holy Spirit coming upon people. We don't see that here. Does that mean they didn't receive the Holy Spirit? No, we see through their actions that they have received the Holy Spirit. But when we see, sometimes we see repent and believe, sometimes we see repent, sometimes we see believe, sometimes we see repent and be baptized. But the sense is that whether they're all there or not is that those things are so inextricably tied together that you can just assume that they're part of what the Christian conversion experience includes. But here we see joy at the good news, good news of peace and pardon. And joy is absolutely something that characterizes our entrance into the kingdom. The angels rejoice, we rejoice as well. 35, but when it was day, the magistrate sent the police saying, let those men go. The jailer reported these words to Paul saying, the magistrates have sent to let you go, therefore come out now and go in peace. And so now we see it becomes daylight. In a sense, we could say that the night has fled away. day gets here and now the police, or the constables show up. They've been sent by the magistrates. We've had this amazing spiritual experience happen overnight. And as far as these men know they don't even know that any of it has happened. And so these constables show up, and these could very well be the very men who had beaten Paul and Silas with the rods. But they're here and they have a message. And the message is, hey, we're relaying the message that the magistrates gave a command to release or to set free Paul and Silas. Now we don't know exactly why they did that. Did they know about the earthquake? Did they connect the earthquake with Paul and Silas? Did they say, oh, this is a bad omen from the gods, we better get these guys out of here? Maybe. Maybe they thought, hey, everything that we already did, that public flogging, the night in jail, that's been a sufficient punishment that will get these guys to behave properly and now they can just get out of Philippi. But at any rate, Somewhere here in the narrative, within these verses, it seems as if Paul and Silas said, hey, we're going to go back to our cell now. Luke doesn't describe that, but we can see from Paul's response that they have not left the prison. But anyway, the jailer, he tells the message to Paul and Silas, and I think that his perspective here is that he sees this as a great thing. Hey guys, this is great news. The magistrates said you can leave. But notice that last little phrase there, he says, go in peace. I think there's just a little bit of an indication there from Luke that go in peace, that this is showing that this man is now a Christ follower. Go in peace. Remember what the angels declared back in Luke of the message of peace? Glory to God on the highest, peace and goodwill among those with whom He is pleased. And here's a man with whom He is now pleased. But at this point, it's clear from the message and from what he says to them that they're not physically freed yet. So they're not freed. And so Paul responds and Paul says to them, he's not just speaking to the jailer here, he's speaking to these police, these messenger police as well. He says, they have beaten us publicly, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into prison. And do they now throw us out secretly? No, let them come themselves and take us out. He says, this isn't a private matter. Everything that before happened was publicly, we were publicly humiliated. And he says, where was our due process? Where was our fair trial? Where was the verdict that was officially pronounced? And then he drops this knowledge that was very surprising. He says, we who are Roman citizens, and as Roman citizens, Silas could not be beaten. They were legally entitled to a standard trial procedure prior to any punishment, prior to any imprisonment, and none of that happened. And so he says, and then travesty upon travesty, you just threw us into prison. None of those things happened. We did not receive justice. So do you think now you're just going to come in here real quietly and say, hey, now guys you can just quietly leave? And so you see this word, no, with the exclamation point. This is an emphatic refusal. No, but on the contrary, we expect these magistrates to come here to the prison and lead us out. We'll wait right here in the prison. wait here for our public exoneration." Now, you might ask yourself the question, why would Paul insist on such a thing? Is Paul just here to stick it to them? Like, I was right and you were wrong, and I want everyone to know it? I don't think so. Now, remember we have not held Paul up as a perfect paragon of holiness. Remember that huge divisive argument between him and Barnabas? So, he's not perfect. But we can think about some reasons why did he insist upon this. Well, one, I think it's good when we are doing what is right according to God's law that we should insist that God's magistrates, remember all magistrates are appointed by God, we should insist on them acting lawfully. Did these men act lawfully? No. So it's right for us to insist that God's magistrates act lawfully. But there's more than that. He wanted this public understanding to come out that he, Paul, a Roman citizen, had not done what they were accused of. He had not subverted the empire. He's arguing here for the honor and reputation of the gospel. also has other things in his mind. And that is, hey, other missionaries might come here. This will set a precedent for them to be treated in the same way. What about the believers who are going to remain here? Lydia, the jailer, the demon possessed girl, how are they going to be protected? So, I think it's for all of those reasons that they insist on such a response from the magistrates. And so the police then they report the words back to the magistrates and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So they came and apologized to them and they took them out and asked them to leave the city. So they take the message back and this is our second heart sinking moment of the story except these guys are probably terrified here. They're terrified because they have become what they thought these men Paul and Silas were. They're the actual lawbreakers. The magistrates were the lawbreakers. Now we don't see here that they're concerned of the injury that they caused to Paul and Silas. We don't see that they're ashamed that they've been unjust or cruel. We don't see that they're afraid of the wrath of God. But they are worried about, hey, what if Paul and Silas go complain to the Roman Senate? What if they complain to Caesar? And they could very well lose their own lives. They could certainly lose their positions, but they could lose their own lives. And so when Paul said, you better get over here, they got over there. So they go over very quickly, and they appeal to them in person. Now, we don't know exactly how Paul and Silas were able to prove their citizenship. We don't know if they had to prove their citizenship. That's an interesting thing if you want to do some research on how did people back then prove their citizenship. But what happens here is they lead them out of the jail. This is sort of a procession. This is an exoneration procession. It's a demonstration of their innocence. But here's what's really interesting. A Roman citizen who had been convicted of no crime could not be expelled from a Roman city. So they can't demand for them to leave. And so this turns into, then, would you please leave? I beg of you to leave. We would really be glad if you left. We can't make you go, but please leave. Now, why did they want them to leave? A host of reasons. their presence is going to be a continual reminder to them of their unjust, unlawful behavior. But there is still the possibility of how much sway that the slave girl's owners had, and that they would still be trying to placate them here. We're going to get these guys out of the city. Now, what's interesting, though, is this is very similar to, if you remember back in Matthew chapter 8, Jesus casts out the demon, the pigs die, and what do they say? Please leave, we don't want you here. Same thing here, in that case they were asking the way of salvation, Jesus Himself to leave their city. Here they are asking men who are able to teach them the way of salvation, please leave our city. deplorable things, but this is what the unregenerate, darkened heart wants. They don't want any fellowship with light. And so they ask them over and over, please leave. Final verse, so they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers they encouraged them and departed. So this is the conclusion, they go out. They don't leave immediately. They say, yes, we'll leave. But we have a few things to do first. And so, they go back to the first Macedonian convert, to Lydia's house, the gracious hostess. And so, this sort of brings their time there in Philippi, you could say, to a full circle. consider also the physical condition that these men are in. They're not ready to travel right away, they've been beaten. And who's there with them? Luke, Luke the physician, so he can minister to them. And even Timothy, and Lydia, and the others can minister to their material needs, to their spiritual needs. Paul needed people to minister to his spiritual needs. And then Luke records, and when they had seen the brothers, what does that tell us? Well, it tells us that there weren't just three converts there, that their ministry had brought others, maybe many, to be converted into the kingdom. And so they probably told them about everything that happened, how God used them as instruments that were beaten upon, but He used them for the conversion of the jailer and his family. And that had been God's means of bringing birth, we could say, to a new group of believers here in this Roman colony of Philippi. And in Philippians 1.1 how does Paul greet them? He says, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons. Which means the Church was large enough to have deacons and elders. wonderful spiritual fruit. So, they spend time with them, they encourage them, and then they leave. So, they give them this departing blessing, sort of like we have a benediction at the end of our gathered worship before we leave. They give this departing blessing before they go. They may have said to them something like, cleave to the Lord, continue in the faith, abide by the truths of the gospel. Because the reality is that those people that they're leaving behind, they're going to face opposition too. They're going to face persecution as well. They're going to face affliction because they have the same relationship to Jesus Christ. But it certainly seems here that someone stays behind. And who is that? Timothy. We only have one other choice. And the reason that I say that it seems as if Luke stays behind is because you get all the way up till chapter 20 before we find the we statements resume again. And so it certainly seems very plausible that Luke stays behind. And maybe Luke is the special friend that Paul appeals to to resolve some of the conflict that had come up between the women. But as we close then, think of these efforts by these missionaries, Paul and Silas. They were ready to lay down their lives. They were prepared to die. They didn't know they were getting out of the prison. So, they were ready to lay down their lives for these new Philippian Christians. Their lives were divinely preserved, but their bodies were battered. And so the Philippian church, they would express their thankfulness to Paul and to Silas time and time again. He noted that they were a giving church, they gave back. because these men to them were beloved. Paul and Silas, beloved missionaries. And we see from Paul's writings that a remarkable, unbreakable bond was forged between them. Paul writes in Philippians 1.7, he says, I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me. grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel." And so, we see here in this lengthy narrative of Walter and Philippi that it's God bringing together the diverse as He lays down the foundation of the Philippian Church. So, it's God would be otherwise worlds apart. You have this wealthy businesswoman, this demon-possessed slave girl, and this hardened Roman jailer who's committed to the Roman way. And those are now brought together as one. And that's remarkable, but it's also in a sense unremarkable because it's what God does with all of His people. As we look through our own body here, is it not a diverse group of people? that God has divinely brought together. He's delivered them from the power of sin. And what has He done? He's made us one in Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thing. And that is something that we ought to rejoice in. We ought to rejoice that no matter what type of oppression comes along, time and time again what do we see in Acts? Oppression Satan responding, I'm going to stamp out this Christian movement, and all he does is seemingly fan the flames of this kingdom that Christ began, and nothing he can do can thwart the gospel power of Christ. The same gospel that we preach today. And so we see Paul and Silas and Timothy, they're leaving Philippi and they're going to head on to Thessalonica. But Luke remains behind and he'll rejoin the group in a few chapters, but it's really years later that he's going to rejoin them. Father, our hearts have been warmed tonight by your word. And we really do not get tired of reading of your wondrous grace imparted into the souls of those that you bring from darkness unto light. For when we read these narratives, Lord, it reminds us of what you have done in our hearts as well. And the miracle that you did in this Philippian jailer and his household's hearts is the same miracle that you have done in our hearts as well. And also, Lord, we believe that you possess that same power to bring many others into your kingdom. And so we do lift up all of those that have been written down tonight, or perhaps even those that have not been mentioned, Lord, We live lives that are around, we are around many unsaved people, many beloved family members, neighbors, close friends, co-workers that we spend a lot of time with. Lord, we pray for their salvation. We pray, Lord, that you will open their eyes, that you will bring them into your kingdom, that we might rejoice mightily that they have trusted in God. Lord, we also pray for those in our body who are going through affliction right now. Some recovering from surgery, others dealing with challenging physical complications. We do pray for Susan and for Kirsten, Lord, and for Patty recovering from her surgery, for Sally as well. And for many others, O Lord, you know the needs, you know the names and the exact needs, just as you know all the names of those that we are so desirous to see saved. And we pray, Lord, that as we go our way tonight, that you will remind us time and time again of the transformation that you have wrought in our hearts Change our behavior, O Lord, that we might go forth and demonstrably serve you and your kingdom. And we ask that you'll grant us safety in our travels. Bring us again on the Lord's day to gather and assemble in worship. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.