The Appeal and Power of the Gospel
The Appeal and Power of the Gospel
Acts 16:12-40
Bumble - Sun. 2/25/07 - vacMidway
First Draft: (Unfortunately I have not finished the intro or conclusion for this)
In his "Expository Notes on the Bible" Dr. Tom Constable said, "Luke probably recorded the conversion of three very different individuals in Philippi to illustrate the appeal and power of the gospel."
Lydia: {The Gospel and Religious Attainment}
14One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
She was wealthy, had her own business in high-end fabrics. Today we would compare her with one of the successful fashion designers like Donna Karan and Prada.
Note her independent and strong character. There was no mention of any other men at this prayer gathering by the riverside. She was obviously the head of other members of her household there.
She owned a big mansion there in Philippi (not only enough for her “members of the household”, she even welcomed Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke). She had probably at least another house in Thyatira. In today equivalence, she would have residences in New York, Paris and Tokyo.
Yet, her wealth did not satisfy her. We see her description as “a worshiper of God”, which denoted a Gentile who follows Judaism. Thyatira had plenty of its own gods, yet they still left her searching and she started worshiping the God of the Israelites, the one true God.
According to many “successful” people today, success won’t fulfill you.
According to one young working professional I know, she confessed this: “Once I get there I desire more and so the cycle goes. And then I see all the people around me get caught up on this wheel too. I wonder if it's just that we're getting older and our preference changes and paying the price for "de-stressing" is no longer an issue. All sources of media will tell you "it's all about you; about what makes you happy. You need to take care of #1 first - YOU". And so some of us will set out to make more money so we can invest more in us, to give us the all the best things in life. These are what I've observed:
- a weekend at the golf course or a ski trip is no longer a once-a-year thing like when we were kids
- a weekend in Las Vegas is now shopping trip
- buying $400 or $500 dollars bag or shoes is very normal and encouraged
- our clothes have to be from the finest materials
- our car has to be up-to-date and house should have a designer's touch to it
- a trip to the spa should be often like cutting our nails”[i]
To this young professional, the god of consumerism left her wanting more. But to others, they will try to find fulfillment in relationship & love lives, in actions and adventures, but all would leave them wanting more.
Some, like Lydia and many of you here, would look for that fulfillment through religious attainment.
How is the Gospel differing from religious attainment (even in Lydia’s Judaism back then and our Church-tianity today)?
Most religions support the idea of a holy deity, and we should be more holy as we worship this deity. This idea is also support in Christianity, especially in conservative Christianity. But this is not the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus. Do you know why?
If I think of God as all or mainly holy and think of myself as saved because I am living morally according to his standards, then I am not moved to the depths when I think of my salvation. I earned it. There is no joy, amazement, tears. I am not galvanized and transformed from the inside.[ii]
And so, when Paul proclaimed the message of the Gospel to Lydia, namely Jesus died for her sin, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message”. She sees a few things: (1) that her attainment in goodness and religion is not good enough before God. (2) If they were good enough, why would Jesus need to die for her or for us? (3) Therefore, the truth is this, (especially for those of us who had lived a pretty good moral life): that we are utterly more sinful than we ever dare to think.
Why is it that we don’t see that we are sinful? It is because (1) We didn’t even look or reflect upon our lives according to God’s standard (cf. Sermon on the Mount), or (2) that is because we often compare our morality with other people.
If so, then perhaps you should practice reflection and confession daily…
But many of you are in the other extreme of religion, and you are not of the Gospel either
The Slave Girl: {The Gospel and Religious Entitlement}
16Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
Contrasted to Lydia, this girl was just a young girl. She was dirt poor, a slave. She was just not a normal slave, but one who abnormal – the original language described her as having a spirit of Python. She must be pretty weird. The text described her as weird enough, keep following Paul and Silas and scream around them “These men are servants of the Most High God”.
Not only is she young, poor, and weird. She was being exploited for money, not by one, but by many “owners” (v.19). They took advantage of her condition and billed her as a fortune-teller to make money.
In the modern equivalence, this is one of the under-aged, drug-addicted, poor prostitutes, exploited by her pimps.
She is at the opposite spectrum of Lydia, however surprisingly she is also very spiritual. What she said was right-on about Paul and Silas, “These men are telling you the way to be saved [by the Most High God]”.
It is easier for the poor and the oppressed to be sensitive to religion. They know what being “saved” means. When you are dying of hunger, being saved mean getting food. When you are dying of diseases, being saved mean healing. When you are dying in slavery, being saved mean going free. Because their familiarity with these situations, they can relate well to the ultimate salvation for all humankind: being saved from dying ultimately: eternally separate from God in hell. Notice the girl shouted to everyone else around: she knows that this ultimate salvation is universal for everyone.
But there is a problem with this, which Paul finally confronted: the problem of religious entitlement.
Notice how she tags along with Paul and his team. She feels comfortable around these guys. She also proclaims the salvation of God to everyone too. Just like they did. But deep down inside, nothing changed inside of her. She’s still being control by the spirit within her, and not the Gospel. Outwardly, she hung with the apostle, supporting them, talking like them, and perhaps thinking she’s just like one of them. But there’s no transformation of the gospel within her.
Many of us are at this end of the spectrum. Instead of religious attainment, we are falling for religious entitlement. It happened especially among liberal Christianity, among the poor and the oppressed. We think that since God is love and rich, and we are so pitiful and suffer much, we should automatically get his salvation regardless of what we do. But that’s not the Gospel either!
If I think of God as all or mainly love and think of myself as saved because God just forgives and accepts everyone no matter how we live, then I am not moved to the depths when I think of my salvation. There is no joy, amazement, tears because God forgives—that’s his job. I am not galvanized and transformed from the inside.[iii]
Did you notice how long it took for God – through Paul – to do anything for this slave girl? “18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled…” People have been musing at this for a long time: “Why didn’t Paul just intervene right away?”
I believe the reason is that salvation is not automatic. It’s not an entitlement that you were supposed to have because you were a victim of society, because you are being oppressed by Satan. Just because you know and hang out with Godly people, it doesn’t put the responsibility on them to fix up your problems. Just because you help out with the ministry it doesn’t mean that God owed it to you to get you to heaven!
The Gospel presented to the slave girl would be the same as to Lydia: namely Jesus died for her sin. But in this case the implication is a bit different: (1) That she is a sinner, with her own responsibility for it, not because of the society, her pimp, or her addiction. She is not entitled to salvation any more than any other people. (2) But Jesus pay the very high cost of salvation with His life – now she is accepted before God more than she can even dare hope.
Why is that we often think that we are so cavalier about our sin and think that we are entitled to eternal life? It is because (1) We don’t think much about the high cost that Jesus pays for our salvation. We think heaven is free and therefore it’s cheap. God built heaven and He can just swing the door open for everyone to come in and enjoy. No! God’s grace is free and it doesn’t cost us anything but it cost Him everything. Because of us, Jesus suffered death – not just of his physical body, but separation with God the Father. Jesus is stuck with our humanity now; He now had a body, even a glorified body after the resurrection!
Another reason for our attitude of religious entitlement is because (2) We blame God for all the reason why we are sinful. It’s like the Prodigal Son came back expecting His dad to take care of him: “Well, I end up this way is because of you dad. If you raised me up better; if you didn’t give me the inheritance to squander in the first place…”
If so, then the practice of reflection and confession daily would also help you to own up to your own sinfulness, and to reflect on the high cost God had paid for your salvation.
At the end, no matter which end you are leaning toward, Religious Attainment or Religious Entitlement, both is missing the depth of the Gospel. The Gospel is humbly knowing that you are worse than you ever dare think, and at the same time realize that you are accepted by God more than you dare hope.
But then there are people who are not even religious or spiritual at all, and the Gospel is still good news for them:
The Jailer: {The Gospel and Irreligious Apathy}
23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. 27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” 29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34The 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 family.
Paul and Silas was beaten and thrown in prison because the owners of the slave girls rioted against them, now that the slave girl is no longer profitable to them. Interestingly only Paul and Silas were charged, and not his non-Jewish companion Timothy and Luke. So this could even be racial hate crime here.
From historical background, jailers like this guy are often retired Roman soldiers, but who did not do well enough in their career to get lands and perks for easy retirement. In today equivalence, this is an Ex-Marine who has a second career as the Bailiff for the County Jail.
His tough years in services made his heart calloused. Note that “After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.” Now, stocks at that time are not just wooden beams with holes which you stick your feet in so you cannot run, but it’s also a torture device because the arrangement of the holes could be used to stretch your legs out so you would be in pain over time.[iv] The jailer really didn’t care much for Paul or Silas condition after a severe flogging, but instead inflict more pain and suffering on them as he normally went on “doing his job”. So, at the heart of the jailer is Apathy – a “who cares” attitude.
Contrary to Lydia and the slave girl earlier, the jailer had no religious or spiritual sensitivity whatsoever. He didn’t even go looking for God - “who cares” about God. But God went looking for him. He reached the jailer by two factors:
(1) Critical Circumstances: God used an earthquake to wake him up from his Apathy: “The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself”. To the Roman jailer, failing his job means everything is over, so he would rather die.[v] God turned the jailer’s world up side down in order to shake him loose of his “who cares” attitude. He is still using the same mean today: unemployment, break-ups, divorces, deaths of loved one, etc.
CS Lewis said that “Pain is the megaphone God used to rouse a deaf world.” “Pain shatters the illusion that all is well, [it] shatters the illusion that what we have is our own and enough for us.” You have to tend to your pain, and as a result it will force you to either rebel against God for good or cling on closer to God[vi]. Either way, you cannot be apathetic about God.
But the circumstance factor can only force you to one way or the other. Here is the more influential factor:
(2) Radical Grace from His people: As the jailer hesitating and about to kill himself[vii], “Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”” This is the most bizarre action. Wouldn’t it be good for the jailer to kill himself, and then the Apostles could be free? Wouldn’t the miraculous earthquakes with “all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose” a sign that God was rescuing them?[viii]
But what Paul did was so radical that it defiled our understanding: He sacrificed his own life for the life of the jailer. By choosing to stay, he was willing to take on suffering to relieve the suffering of the jailer. How could he do that? He had already endured much injustice, and now sacrificing himself for his enemy, who just hours ago stretching his legs in the torturous stock without even a bit of care?
Obviously he learned it well from his Lord: Jesus, and his martyr: Stephan, who love their persecutors and executioners. He carried out the Lord’s command of “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” {Lk.6:27-28}. But my question is “How could he had the power to do such a thing?”
May I suggest that the full power of the Gospel is at work here?
If Paul was leaning to Religious Attainment and not the Gospel, he would have seen the whole thing as Justice from the Holy God: The jailer was evil and God repays him by this miracle.
On the other hand, if Paul was leaning to Religious Entitlement and not the Gospel, he would have seen the whole thing as Mercy from the Loving God: God saw his plight and rescues him out of pain and suffering by this miracle.
But the Gospel is more that just Justice from the Holy God; and it is more than just Mercy from the Loving God. It is full of Justice and also full of Mercy. And what is the result of full blown Justice meets full blown Mercy? Sacrifice! On the cross, Jesus satisfied the ultimate demand for Justice before the Holy God and at the same time expressed fully the ultimate Mercy from a Loving God.
That’s the Gospel: “Christ died for our sin, according to Scripture.” {1Cor.15:3}
Such radical grace lived out by Christians in the midst of Critical Circumstances will move people from Irreligious Apathy to the Gospel:
{Story of big boss took hit for subordinate in the corporate world}
Like that story, the jailer was confronted with a radical grace and it compelled him to ask “What must I do to be saved?”
The starting point is simple, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”
That’s the Gospel.
___END NOTES_________________________________________
[i] http://www.xanga.com/Faith604/572273663/item.html?nextdate=last
[ii] Tim Keller, http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2006/spring/ministry_in_globalculture_IV.html
[iii] Tim Keller, ibid.
[iv] In New Testament times, stocks used by the Romans had a number of holes so the prisoner’s legs could be spread widely, causing great discomfort. Paul and Silas were thrown into prison and put in stocks at Philippi. Instead of moaning in pain, they sang hymns and praised God until they were freed by an earthquake
Ronald F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison and Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Rev. Ed. of: Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary.; Includes Index. (Nashville: T. Nelson, 1995).
[v] When confronted with execution (in this case, for letting prisoners escape), Romans considered suicide a noble alternative
Craig S. Keener and InterVarsity Press, The IVP Bible Background Commentary : New Testament (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 16:27.
[vi] CS Lewis, “Problem of Pain” p. 91 (and I also used many of his ideas in the pages followed).
[vii] The Greek verb here indicate a moment of hesitation
[viii] But if Paul saw that they might have had a chance to escape if the jailer had killed himself, why did he stop him? It seems as though he was refusing the deliverance that God was offering. It even seems quite absurd for God to want the jailer to be awakened, so that the miracle would be of no use. But we must consider God’s purpose in this passage.
Jean Calvin, Acts, The Crossway classic commentaries (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1995), Ac 16:27.
Acts 16:12-40
Bumble - Sun. 2/25/07 - vacMidway
First Draft: (Unfortunately I have not finished the intro or conclusion for this)
In his "Expository Notes on the Bible" Dr. Tom Constable said, "Luke probably recorded the conversion of three very different individuals in Philippi to illustrate the appeal and power of the gospel."
Lydia: {The Gospel and Religious Attainment}
14One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
She was wealthy, had her own business in high-end fabrics. Today we would compare her with one of the successful fashion designers like Donna Karan and Prada.
Note her independent and strong character. There was no mention of any other men at this prayer gathering by the riverside. She was obviously the head of other members of her household there.
She owned a big mansion there in Philippi (not only enough for her “members of the household”, she even welcomed Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke). She had probably at least another house in Thyatira. In today equivalence, she would have residences in New York, Paris and Tokyo.
Yet, her wealth did not satisfy her. We see her description as “a worshiper of God”, which denoted a Gentile who follows Judaism. Thyatira had plenty of its own gods, yet they still left her searching and she started worshiping the God of the Israelites, the one true God.
According to many “successful” people today, success won’t fulfill you.
According to one young working professional I know, she confessed this: “Once I get there I desire more and so the cycle goes. And then I see all the people around me get caught up on this wheel too. I wonder if it's just that we're getting older and our preference changes and paying the price for "de-stressing" is no longer an issue. All sources of media will tell you "it's all about you; about what makes you happy. You need to take care of #1 first - YOU". And so some of us will set out to make more money so we can invest more in us, to give us the all the best things in life. These are what I've observed:
- a weekend at the golf course or a ski trip is no longer a once-a-year thing like when we were kids
- a weekend in Las Vegas is now shopping trip
- buying $400 or $500 dollars bag or shoes is very normal and encouraged
- our clothes have to be from the finest materials
- our car has to be up-to-date and house should have a designer's touch to it
- a trip to the spa should be often like cutting our nails”[i]
To this young professional, the god of consumerism left her wanting more. But to others, they will try to find fulfillment in relationship & love lives, in actions and adventures, but all would leave them wanting more.
Some, like Lydia and many of you here, would look for that fulfillment through religious attainment.
How is the Gospel differing from religious attainment (even in Lydia’s Judaism back then and our Church-tianity today)?
Most religions support the idea of a holy deity, and we should be more holy as we worship this deity. This idea is also support in Christianity, especially in conservative Christianity. But this is not the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus. Do you know why?
If I think of God as all or mainly holy and think of myself as saved because I am living morally according to his standards, then I am not moved to the depths when I think of my salvation. I earned it. There is no joy, amazement, tears. I am not galvanized and transformed from the inside.[ii]
And so, when Paul proclaimed the message of the Gospel to Lydia, namely Jesus died for her sin, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message”. She sees a few things: (1) that her attainment in goodness and religion is not good enough before God. (2) If they were good enough, why would Jesus need to die for her or for us? (3) Therefore, the truth is this, (especially for those of us who had lived a pretty good moral life): that we are utterly more sinful than we ever dare to think.
Why is it that we don’t see that we are sinful? It is because (1) We didn’t even look or reflect upon our lives according to God’s standard (cf. Sermon on the Mount), or (2) that is because we often compare our morality with other people.
If so, then perhaps you should practice reflection and confession daily…
But many of you are in the other extreme of religion, and you are not of the Gospel either
The Slave Girl: {The Gospel and Religious Entitlement}
16Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
Contrasted to Lydia, this girl was just a young girl. She was dirt poor, a slave. She was just not a normal slave, but one who abnormal – the original language described her as having a spirit of Python. She must be pretty weird. The text described her as weird enough, keep following Paul and Silas and scream around them “These men are servants of the Most High God”.
Not only is she young, poor, and weird. She was being exploited for money, not by one, but by many “owners” (v.19). They took advantage of her condition and billed her as a fortune-teller to make money.
In the modern equivalence, this is one of the under-aged, drug-addicted, poor prostitutes, exploited by her pimps.
She is at the opposite spectrum of Lydia, however surprisingly she is also very spiritual. What she said was right-on about Paul and Silas, “These men are telling you the way to be saved [by the Most High God]”.
It is easier for the poor and the oppressed to be sensitive to religion. They know what being “saved” means. When you are dying of hunger, being saved mean getting food. When you are dying of diseases, being saved mean healing. When you are dying in slavery, being saved mean going free. Because their familiarity with these situations, they can relate well to the ultimate salvation for all humankind: being saved from dying ultimately: eternally separate from God in hell. Notice the girl shouted to everyone else around: she knows that this ultimate salvation is universal for everyone.
But there is a problem with this, which Paul finally confronted: the problem of religious entitlement.
Notice how she tags along with Paul and his team. She feels comfortable around these guys. She also proclaims the salvation of God to everyone too. Just like they did. But deep down inside, nothing changed inside of her. She’s still being control by the spirit within her, and not the Gospel. Outwardly, she hung with the apostle, supporting them, talking like them, and perhaps thinking she’s just like one of them. But there’s no transformation of the gospel within her.
Many of us are at this end of the spectrum. Instead of religious attainment, we are falling for religious entitlement. It happened especially among liberal Christianity, among the poor and the oppressed. We think that since God is love and rich, and we are so pitiful and suffer much, we should automatically get his salvation regardless of what we do. But that’s not the Gospel either!
If I think of God as all or mainly love and think of myself as saved because God just forgives and accepts everyone no matter how we live, then I am not moved to the depths when I think of my salvation. There is no joy, amazement, tears because God forgives—that’s his job. I am not galvanized and transformed from the inside.[iii]
Did you notice how long it took for God – through Paul – to do anything for this slave girl? “18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled…” People have been musing at this for a long time: “Why didn’t Paul just intervene right away?”
I believe the reason is that salvation is not automatic. It’s not an entitlement that you were supposed to have because you were a victim of society, because you are being oppressed by Satan. Just because you know and hang out with Godly people, it doesn’t put the responsibility on them to fix up your problems. Just because you help out with the ministry it doesn’t mean that God owed it to you to get you to heaven!
The Gospel presented to the slave girl would be the same as to Lydia: namely Jesus died for her sin. But in this case the implication is a bit different: (1) That she is a sinner, with her own responsibility for it, not because of the society, her pimp, or her addiction. She is not entitled to salvation any more than any other people. (2) But Jesus pay the very high cost of salvation with His life – now she is accepted before God more than she can even dare hope.
Why is that we often think that we are so cavalier about our sin and think that we are entitled to eternal life? It is because (1) We don’t think much about the high cost that Jesus pays for our salvation. We think heaven is free and therefore it’s cheap. God built heaven and He can just swing the door open for everyone to come in and enjoy. No! God’s grace is free and it doesn’t cost us anything but it cost Him everything. Because of us, Jesus suffered death – not just of his physical body, but separation with God the Father. Jesus is stuck with our humanity now; He now had a body, even a glorified body after the resurrection!
Another reason for our attitude of religious entitlement is because (2) We blame God for all the reason why we are sinful. It’s like the Prodigal Son came back expecting His dad to take care of him: “Well, I end up this way is because of you dad. If you raised me up better; if you didn’t give me the inheritance to squander in the first place…”
If so, then the practice of reflection and confession daily would also help you to own up to your own sinfulness, and to reflect on the high cost God had paid for your salvation.
At the end, no matter which end you are leaning toward, Religious Attainment or Religious Entitlement, both is missing the depth of the Gospel. The Gospel is humbly knowing that you are worse than you ever dare think, and at the same time realize that you are accepted by God more than you dare hope.
But then there are people who are not even religious or spiritual at all, and the Gospel is still good news for them:
The Jailer: {The Gospel and Irreligious Apathy}
23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. 27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” 29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34The 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 family.
Paul and Silas was beaten and thrown in prison because the owners of the slave girls rioted against them, now that the slave girl is no longer profitable to them. Interestingly only Paul and Silas were charged, and not his non-Jewish companion Timothy and Luke. So this could even be racial hate crime here.
From historical background, jailers like this guy are often retired Roman soldiers, but who did not do well enough in their career to get lands and perks for easy retirement. In today equivalence, this is an Ex-Marine who has a second career as the Bailiff for the County Jail.
His tough years in services made his heart calloused. Note that “After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.” Now, stocks at that time are not just wooden beams with holes which you stick your feet in so you cannot run, but it’s also a torture device because the arrangement of the holes could be used to stretch your legs out so you would be in pain over time.[iv] The jailer really didn’t care much for Paul or Silas condition after a severe flogging, but instead inflict more pain and suffering on them as he normally went on “doing his job”. So, at the heart of the jailer is Apathy – a “who cares” attitude.
Contrary to Lydia and the slave girl earlier, the jailer had no religious or spiritual sensitivity whatsoever. He didn’t even go looking for God - “who cares” about God. But God went looking for him. He reached the jailer by two factors:
(1) Critical Circumstances: God used an earthquake to wake him up from his Apathy: “The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself”. To the Roman jailer, failing his job means everything is over, so he would rather die.[v] God turned the jailer’s world up side down in order to shake him loose of his “who cares” attitude. He is still using the same mean today: unemployment, break-ups, divorces, deaths of loved one, etc.
CS Lewis said that “Pain is the megaphone God used to rouse a deaf world.” “Pain shatters the illusion that all is well, [it] shatters the illusion that what we have is our own and enough for us.” You have to tend to your pain, and as a result it will force you to either rebel against God for good or cling on closer to God[vi]. Either way, you cannot be apathetic about God.
But the circumstance factor can only force you to one way or the other. Here is the more influential factor:
(2) Radical Grace from His people: As the jailer hesitating and about to kill himself[vii], “Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”” This is the most bizarre action. Wouldn’t it be good for the jailer to kill himself, and then the Apostles could be free? Wouldn’t the miraculous earthquakes with “all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose” a sign that God was rescuing them?[viii]
But what Paul did was so radical that it defiled our understanding: He sacrificed his own life for the life of the jailer. By choosing to stay, he was willing to take on suffering to relieve the suffering of the jailer. How could he do that? He had already endured much injustice, and now sacrificing himself for his enemy, who just hours ago stretching his legs in the torturous stock without even a bit of care?
Obviously he learned it well from his Lord: Jesus, and his martyr: Stephan, who love their persecutors and executioners. He carried out the Lord’s command of “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” {Lk.6:27-28}. But my question is “How could he had the power to do such a thing?”
May I suggest that the full power of the Gospel is at work here?
If Paul was leaning to Religious Attainment and not the Gospel, he would have seen the whole thing as Justice from the Holy God: The jailer was evil and God repays him by this miracle.
On the other hand, if Paul was leaning to Religious Entitlement and not the Gospel, he would have seen the whole thing as Mercy from the Loving God: God saw his plight and rescues him out of pain and suffering by this miracle.
But the Gospel is more that just Justice from the Holy God; and it is more than just Mercy from the Loving God. It is full of Justice and also full of Mercy. And what is the result of full blown Justice meets full blown Mercy? Sacrifice! On the cross, Jesus satisfied the ultimate demand for Justice before the Holy God and at the same time expressed fully the ultimate Mercy from a Loving God.
That’s the Gospel: “Christ died for our sin, according to Scripture.” {1Cor.15:3}
Such radical grace lived out by Christians in the midst of Critical Circumstances will move people from Irreligious Apathy to the Gospel:
{Story of big boss took hit for subordinate in the corporate world}
Like that story, the jailer was confronted with a radical grace and it compelled him to ask “What must I do to be saved?”
The starting point is simple, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”
That’s the Gospel.
___END NOTES_________________________________________
[i] http://www.xanga.com/Faith604/572273663/item.html?nextdate=last
[ii] Tim Keller, http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2006/spring/ministry_in_globalculture_IV.html
[iii] Tim Keller, ibid.
[iv] In New Testament times, stocks used by the Romans had a number of holes so the prisoner’s legs could be spread widely, causing great discomfort. Paul and Silas were thrown into prison and put in stocks at Philippi. Instead of moaning in pain, they sang hymns and praised God until they were freed by an earthquake
Ronald F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison and Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Rev. Ed. of: Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary.; Includes Index. (Nashville: T. Nelson, 1995).
[v] When confronted with execution (in this case, for letting prisoners escape), Romans considered suicide a noble alternative
Craig S. Keener and InterVarsity Press, The IVP Bible Background Commentary : New Testament (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 16:27.
[vi] CS Lewis, “Problem of Pain” p. 91 (and I also used many of his ideas in the pages followed).
[vii] The Greek verb here indicate a moment of hesitation
[viii] But if Paul saw that they might have had a chance to escape if the jailer had killed himself, why did he stop him? It seems as though he was refusing the deliverance that God was offering. It even seems quite absurd for God to want the jailer to be awakened, so that the miracle would be of no use. But we must consider God’s purpose in this passage.
Jean Calvin, Acts, The Crossway classic commentaries (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1995), Ac 16:27.
posted by mar13 at
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