Legacy Baptist Church

As you may recall, Paul and Silas have been unjustly beaten and thrown into a Macedonian prison for their testimony of the gospel.  While imprisoned, they have sought solace by committing themselves to prayer and singing hymns of praise to God.  Luke records that in the midst of their signing and praying, “At midnight there suddenly came a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison hose were shaken” (v26).  Luke goes on to record that this God-ordained earthquake has served to open all the prison doors, and unfasten every prisoner’s chains.  It also roused the jailer-on-duty out of his sleep, who, upon wakening, goes in panicked haste to check on the status of his prisoners.  Seeing that all the doors have been jarred open by the quake, and assuming that all the prisoners had escaped, he resolves to kill himself knowing that Roman protocol will demand his execution anyway for failing his assignment.  But…just before thrusting his sword into his belly, he hears one of the prisoners cry out with a loud voice “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here!” (v28).   This compassionate plea has come from none other than the apostle Paul who knows of the Roman protocol set against this jailer.  Paul’s selfless petition, as we stated, must have moved this jailer very deeply, and upon hearing Paul’s voice, Luke records that our jailer “…called for lights and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas” (v29). 

That brings us to our text for this morning beginning in verse 30 where Luke records that our jailer, “brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’”.  Now that kind of rhetoric is just not something you hear every day from a Gentile jailer! How did this marvelous inquiry emerge from this man?  Just considering his speech, we can surmise that he must have come within ear-shot of the gospel’s language at some point.  Perhaps Paul had spoken a word to him previously from his cell. Maybe earlier that day the jailer had overheard the loud cries coming from the demon-possessed slave girl: “These are bond-servants of the Most-High God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” Whatever is was, that word “saved”, and all of its ramifications, had become planted deep into his consciousness; into his heart.  You see, the Lord God was invisibly, irresistibly drawing him; calling him unto Himself.  From a human perspective this man was nothing more than a brutal jailer, but from the divine perspective he is one of the elect…and by the grace of regeneration he cannot help but fall at the feet of his prisoners – “trembling with fear”, no less – to acknowledge his need of divine healing.  Paul and Silas are at the right the place at the right time…and no aspect of it is coincidental.

Now all of this is a fitting example of divine preparatory grace.  By preparatory grace, I’m referring to the grace in which God goes about positioning His elect to come into effectual reception of the gospel at their proper time.  It is so important when we see these wonderful conversions that we always tie the conversion back to God’s sovereign electing purpose.  You see, this jailer has come into the temporal experience of that which God had predetermined in eternity past…and the Lord God, in preparatory grace, has ordained every detail leading up to this marvelous inquiry, “What must I do to be saved?”

In fact, let’s just extrapolate backwards the events that we have expounded upon these last few weeks, shall we?  First, we have this wonderful plea from the jailer (v30); Before that, Paul’s compassionate cry (v28); Before that, the opportune earthquake (v26); Before that, Paul and Silas’ imprisonment (v24); Before that, their beating and arrest (v22,23); Before that, their indictment before the Macedonian magistrates (v20); Before that, their confrontation with the slave girl’s masters (v19); Before that, their exoneration of the slave girl (v18); Before that, her incessant following of them (v17); Before that, the allowance of the demon to possess the girl (v16); Before that, their unexpected juncture with her on the way “to the place of prayer” (v16).

Now that’s just the text before us.  If possible, we could see this onion peel itself all the way back to the eternity past and the councils of the Trinity.  All of these events, beloved…ALL of it, is God’s preparatory grace!  Want to go a bit further? Notice v9: “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: A certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  One more?  Sure…might as well. Galatians 1:16 – The Apostle Paul states “God set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace…so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.”

Now, why would I take the white space to catalogue all of this?  Because that same preparatory grace has fallen upon you if indeed you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. It amazes me that pulpits so often preach the gospel in a way that renders the Lord God as being “gleefully surprised” every time the community of the saints increases by 1…as though the Sovereign God of the universe was hoping to learn how circumstances might evolve for men in favor of the gospel. How foolish.  My God — as Scripture presents Him — is not like that at all.  He is the God of generation, not observation. He is the God of sovereign design.  He is all wise, all powerful; the Lord God Most High who knows the end from the beginning.  I was created so that I might come into the experience of His pre-determined electing purpose, on the basis of what His Son has obtained on Calvary’s cross. The same is true for you if you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Your very existence…and every circumstance indigenous to your existence…has been appointed so that you might come into the reception of His saving grace. That’s so important for us to always apprehend.

Acts 13:48 says that when certain Gentiles heard the gospel, “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”  Doesn’t get much clearer than that!  Repentance and faith is the pre-ordained product of God’s election.  And when God carries out His eternal purposes, He sovereignly ordains and synthesizes circumstances that bring His elect into proximity of the gospel, through which He irresistibly calls us by His supreme, unlimited, all-conquering power.  Furthermore, He always, ALWAYS achieves His intended outcome.  Sovereign grace then is the irresistible covenant love of a God who secures His elect for himself according to the kind intention of His will. By it, He melts the hardest heart in order to buckle the knees of even a Gentile jailer who cannot, under grace, resist issuing the sober, trembling petition…”what must I do to be saved?” Marvelous.

Well, what was the great apostle’s response to the jailer?  He preached the word of God! Verse 31: And they said “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.”  Paul didn’t try to meet an emotional need; he didn’t preach some creative psychology.  He didn’t preach social welfare, or the virtues of moral advance by way of political action.  He preached the gospel of Christ – period.  And notice how simple the response is.  “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved.”  Notice we don’t hear the apostle saying, “Now, I want you to repeat after me” in some attempt to walk him through a “salvation prayer formula”.  Verse 32 goes on to state that they went on to expound the gospel to him a little further.

Now, what’s happening in this exchange is far more magnificent than the earthquake, I can assure you. I’m so thankful for the simplicity of the gospel.  Its message so beautifully addresses the fundamental need of the human heart for divine redemption. Here we see the apostle and this Gentile, who just moments before were relegated to a very different relationship.  But now we see the jailer at the feet of Paul, God’s herald.  And we see Paul boldly, compassionately teaching his former assailant the way of salvation. It’s just an amazing picture for me.  Verse 32 says, “And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.” So Paul and Silas raise this man up from his knees, he then escorts them into his adjacent home where they expound the gospel to each person under that roof so that all in his household believed.

Finally, verse 33 manifests God’s regenerative grace already at work in the converted jailer, as Luke records: “And he took them that very  hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.” Once a hardened Gentile jailer…now a tender, compassionate child of God.

Let me ask you – Who is like our God?  May the Lord bring a sense of despair today to His elect “jailers” to cause them to flee to Christ.  May He also cause you and I to come into proximity to those same hardened jailers in order to issue the simple gospel, and to call them to rest upon Jesus Christ as He who has offered an all-sufficient atoning sacrifice.  Lastly, may the church, with broad hearts, always be found singing praises as a testimony to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Grace to you,

Jeremy