Sermon: Sunday, 17th August, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Acts 16:11-40
This is a thrilling part of the Bible. It describes the first three people who were converted in Europe. We find them all in a place called Philippi, which today is in the north east of Greece. You could not find three people with less in common: a wealthy business woman from Asia called Lydia; a slave girl who is a double-slave, both to her owners and an evil spirit; and a tough, cruel jailer. However, by the end of the chapter, none of those differences matter because they all become followers of Jesus, and end up in the same church together. In verse 40, we find them all gathering in Lydia’s house for a house church. And they are now called ‘brothers and sisters’. Jesus transforms the lives of all these characters. He forgives their sins and gives them the certain hope of eternal life. He brings them into the same family. So, you have men and women, slaves and free, Asians and Europeans, lower class, middle class and upper class. None of these differences matter any more. The good news of Jesus is for everyone. It doesn’t matter what country you were born in, who your people are, what gender you are, how much education or money you have, we all need Jesus to save us. And when he does, we become a church family and the differences no longer matter.
This morning, I’d like us to focus on the jailer. I hope you are all prayerfully thinking about who you can invite along to our next ‘Meal with a message’. If you had known this jailer, you probably would not have invited him. We don’t know too much of his background, but it’s likely that he is a retired Roman soldier, as many Roman soldiers retired to Philippi where they received money, land and Roman citizenship. If so, he would have been a hard man, used to bloodshed and death. We can see that he is cruel as, even though Paul and Silas had been severely flogged, he does nothing to relieve their pain. In fact, he makes their situation worse by putting them in the inner cell, the worst and darkest place to be, and then putting them in stocks, which in Roman times were also designed to inflict pain and misery. Then the jailer went off to bed to sleep. But God is going to work a miracle in his life and bring him to a place where he sees his need of Jesus.
This should be a reminder to all of us that we have no idea who God is going to save next. He saves the slave girl. Today, he might next save an addict or a religious person or someone who seems so materialistic and more interested in cars and holidays and houses than God. What does this mean for us? It means we should invite all kinds of people along to church and to church events and to our homes. It means we should get to know all kinds of different people, whoever the Lord places in our paths. And it means that God specialises in converting the most unlikely people at the most unlikely times. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. If you are here this morning and are not yet a follower of Jesus, God is able to save you too, just as he saves the jailer here.
1. God alone saves, but he uses the witness of Christians
The witness of Paul and Silas is remarkable here. They have been unlawfully arrested on false charges and severely flogged even though this was illegal as Paul is a Roman citizen. You might have expected them to be cursing and swearing at the jailer, or that they would suffer in silence, wondering why God had abandoned them in such an awful place. What we actually hear is a sound probably never heard in this inner cell before – it’s the sound of men singing praises to God. Now let’s be clear – these men do not know what is round the corner. Perhaps they will be executed. They don’t know deliverance is coming. And yet, even in these dark circumstances, they continue to trust that God is in control and that God knows what he is doing even if they do not know. These are Christian men who rejoice in knowing Jesus no matter what kind of circumstances they are in, good or bad.
Keddie: ‘To the outward view their situation was grim – flogged and imprisoned, they perhaps faced even death on the morrow. But God was in all their thoughts and as they poured out their deepest petitions before the Lord, their sense of being in his everlasting arms evoked lively singing of his praises. They had been beaten up, but they were not beaten down.’
We read in verse 25 that the other prisoners were listening to them. I think it more than likely the jailer was also listening. This is a picture of what we saw last Sunday morning, that those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength and mount up with wings like eagles. This is supernatural strength in a time of great vulnerability.
Next, the jailer is about to commit suicide, probably because he will be put to death for allowing his prisoners to escape. We see this earlier in Acts after Peter’s miraculous escape from prison: ‘After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.’ (Acts 12:19) How do Paul and Silas respond to the jailer in this extreme situation? Paul shouts: ‘Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!’ (Acts 16:28) Sometimes we come across people who are suicidal or engaging in self-harm, and we ought to lovingly say to them ‘Don’t harm yourself’. There is hope in Jesus Christ. Who knows what situations we will come across in the coming months.
What Paul is doing for this man is a powerful witness. Paul is saying kind and loving words to the very man who had hurt him and had hurt Silas and had showed no compassion to them whatsoever. Here is a picture of loving your enemies. The prisoners make no attempt to escape. And please notice this – who does the jailer turn to when he wants to know how to be saved? Paul and Silas.
Here’s a challenge for all of us today – we are always being watched by those who know us. They notice how we react to circumstances, especially when things go wrong for us. But if we make an effort to get to know people and to show kindness to all people, even those who wrong us, then when God is at work they might well just come to us and ask us why we can be calm in the face of sickness and tragedy and even death. How we treat one another in our church and how we treat those at work and in our communities matters a great deal. God uses our witness. We are called to let our lights shine before others. Paul and Silas are not aloof from others but are among the people. They are not bitter and angry in their reactions but full of hope and love. May God help us to be the same. What a powerful witness it is when we live like that.
2. God alone saves, but he uses the words of Christians
Don’t listen to people who say: Preach the gospel at all times ad, if necessary, use words’. Christians are called to witness both with their actions and their words. You need both. You could be an amazingly kind neighbour or colleague but if you never point people to Jesus then your witness will be truncated. We need actions and words. How can someone be saved unless we tell them how?
In verse 30, we see that the jailer is beginning to think about God and his great need to get right with him. He genuinely does not know how to do this and so earnestly asks Paul and Silas the most important question in all the world: ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ The jailer might have seemed an unlikely candidate for conversion, but God is pursuing him. God sends Paul and Silas to the jail in order to witness to him and to explain the way of salvation. And God even sends an earthquake in order to bring this man to his senses. God moves heaven and earth as he goes after his lost sheep. What an encouraging fact this is. God is orchestrating events in order save the jailer from his sins.
He asks such a great question. He knows for the first time that he needs to be saved as he is lost, without God and without hope in the world. If you are not yet a Christian, do you appreciate that? Does it trouble you that you are lost and without eternal hope? Suicide was not the answer for this man. He might have escaped the judgement of his bosses but he would not and could not escape the appointment which we all have with almighty God. When we die, each one of us must stand before God and give an account for our lives. And because each one of us has broken God’s good and holy rules so many times, we urgently need to be saved.
I think Paul and Silas’ answer to his question would have greatly surprised the jailer. Notice that he asks, ‘What must I do’ to be saved. Perhaps he expected to have to make a huge financial or animal sacrifice to Jesus. Or perhaps he thought he might have to go on a long journey to a holy place or turn his life around by trying much harder to be a kind man. But none of this can save us. The answer given is much simpler: ‘They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.’ (Acts 16:31) It’s crucial that we understand this- this man could not save himself. However, there is something God wants him to do. There is a step he needs to take. And it’s the same thing he wants from each one of us in this room today. He wants us to believe in Jesus. He wants our faith. There is no other way to Heaven. God wants us to receive salvation as a free gift – we cannot earn it. Faith is that receiving of the gift – accepting that Jesus died in our place on the cross.
Becoming a Christian is marked by simplicity. All that is needed is believing in Jesus. However, we must understand what it means to believe in Jesus. It is much more than just believing that he was a historical figure – that he existed. Even the Devil believes in Jesus in that sense. Faith in Jesus means accepting that there is nothing you can do to make up for breaking God’s rules. There is no programme of doing good deeds that can undo our sin. However, although we cannot make up for our wrongdoing, Jesus can. That’s why he died. And that is what we come to believe in – that Jesus, the Son of God, lived the perfect life we could never live and then died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Salvation is not about what we can do for God to make up for things, but the other way round, what God in Christ has done on the cross so that we can be forgiven. Through his death on the cross, Jesus accomplished salvation for all who would trust in him.
So, as we speak to people about Jesus, we must explain to them that salvation comes through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, we need to unpack that by explaining who Jesus is and why he needed to die on the cross. We cannot just give people one sentence sound-bites. And that’s exactly what Paul and Silas do – they unpack the gospel: ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.’ (Acts 16:31-32)
3. When God saves, we always see the good fruit of a changed life
What evidence is there that the jailor was truly a changed man. ‘At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds…’ (Acts 16:33) Isn’t that such a clear and practical evidence of change? It’s not that the jailer suddenly had an amazing grasp of deep theology. Nor would all of his wrong living and wrong thinking have disappeared in an instant. That would take a lifetime of work. But he had love for other followers of Jesus. The test of a living faith is faithful living, and we see that here. We also see the reality of his change in his hospitality and in the newly found joy which fills his heart.
4. When God saves, it has an impact on a whole family
‘At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptised.’ (Acts 16:33-34) Why baptise all the members of his family? The covenant sign being placed on our households goes back to the book of Genesis: ‘I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.’ (Genesis 17 v 7) God tells Abraham to place the sign of the covenant on all the males in the household. Because in conversion God embraces households. This is no guarantee that everyone will be saved all of the time in the family, but it does mean the household is now a special one. This principle is repeated on the Day of Pentecost: ‘The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.’ (Acts 2:39)
Let’s consider these verses again and listen out for the way in which the jailer’s conversion impact his whole house: ‘They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptised. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God – he and his whole household.’ (Acts 16:31-34) Today, as we say goodbye to a number in our church family (the Youngs and Daniel), I doubt that God has finished working in their families. What an encouragement it is to know our God cares for the spiritual well-being of our families.