What must I do to be saved?

Text Acts 16:30, 31 Date 01/09/13 Place Childs Hill Baptist (Baptism)

Have you ever been in an earthquake? No? Nor me. Well, not a proper one. They tell us every now and again that there has been an earthquake in this country but we hardly notice it. No, I mean a real earthquake. I've talked to people who've experienced such a thing and I've been in a simulated one down at the Science Museum as you may have. Everything shakes. They don't last long but perhaps the worst thing is that you don't know how long it will last or exactly what it will do. They are fairly common in certain parts of the world.

I mention the subject as in Acts 16 we read how the Apostle Paul, along with his fellow worker Silas, was caught up in an earthquake, a really violent one. It happened at dead of night while they were in prison in the city of Philippi, in the most secure part of the jail. The earthquake was pretty strong and shook the prison's foundations. Somehow the earthquake threw all the prison doors open and, we read, everybody's chains came loose. In the midst of this earthquake the jailer and others come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. through the witness of Paul and Silas.

Let's backtrack a moment to Paul's arrival in the Roman Colonial City of Philippi in Macedonia. He was on his second missionary journey, you recall, and had been directed through a vision for the first time into Europe. Philippi had no synagogue but there were a group of women who met to pray by the river and so Paul preached to them and first a Gentile God fearer and business woman called Lydia was converted. In Chapter 16, Luke, who was with Paul and the others at this time, tells us how one day, on the way to the place of prayer, a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future came up to them. This woman earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, Luke says shouting, These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved. This went on for several days until 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. Once the people who owned the girl realised that they couldn't make money out of her any more they seized two of the group Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They say to the magistrates These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice. The crowd join in the attack and so the magistrates order Paul and Silas to be stripped and beaten. After a severe flogging they are thrown into prison. The jailer is commanded to guard them carefully so he puts them in the inner cell and fastens their feet in the stocks.

So come midnight Paul and Silas are stuck in a dark and smelly dungeon far from home. Their backs are bleeding, they are chained hand and foot. And what are they doing? Praying and singing hymns to God, of course. All the other prisoners are listening to them. Who are these people? They have never come across prisoners like this!

Now it is at just this point that the earthquake suddenly comes. Because all the doors swung open and chains fell off, the jailer, who had fallen asleep but has been woken by the earthquake, fears that the prisoners are going to escape and so he draws his sword ready to kill himself. Paul sees what's about to happen so shouts Don't harm yourself! We are all here! The jailer then calls for lights, rushes trembling into the inner cell, where Paul and Silas are, falls before them, and asks the question we will look at in a moment. We only have a brief account of the conversation. The jailer's question Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Their answer Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and your household. We're told (32) that they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. Clearly the jailer and others were convinced by this message. The jailer then took Paul and Silas and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family (or household – may be the other prisoners) were baptised. Obviously they'd become believers. The jailer then brought them to his own 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/household.

On release Paul makes a point of complaining at their unjust flogging then leaves Philippi. He does this so that the authorities will think twice before they attack the infant church Paul left behind.

So what I want to consider is verses 30, 31 He then brought them out and asked, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and your household. I want us to look then at this great question – and the great answer that Paul and Silas gave.

1. A great question - Consider this vital question and ask it

So first we have the question. It's a great question and one that we all need to ask it and know the answer to it. He (the jailer) then brought them out (Paul and Silas) and asked, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? Let's ask three further questions about that vital question.

1. What prompted it and what may prompt it in us?

Now, what did the jailer mean by his question? We do not know if he had been awake when Paul and Silas were praying and singing. Certainly he had heard and felt the earthquake and had at that very moment contemplated ending his earthly life with his sword. We are told that when he fell before Paul and Silas he was trembling and that is no surprise. In such a situation it would be more of a surprise if he had not been shaking. The earthquake that God had sent at that particular moment had served not only to shake up the jail and the surrounding area but this man too. Any complacency or self-satisfaction was gone. He was afraid.

It is worth noting that without this experience the jailer would never have asked his question. Questions are often prompted by specific situations. A man who gets all his clothes washed by his wife may never ask the question 'How does the washing machine work?' until she is not there one day. If you never want to shoot anything you will probably never ask the question 'How do you use a gun?' If you don't like ratatouille or spaghetti Bolognese you will probably never ask how to cook them.

And so if you are never afraid or fearful then you may well never ask the question what must I do to be saved?

And yet every one of us has reason to be afraid. There is death, which lies ahead for us all. Doesn't that make you afraid? It should do. There is the Devil. He is a snake, a wily serpent. He is like a prowling lion. He is a fiery dragon. Do you know what he can do to people like us? There is such a place as hell. Aren't you afraid of ending up there? What about your propensity to sin? Doesn't it frighten you sometimes, how easily you sin? There is a God, a God with whom we have to do, to whom we will have to give an account one day and with so many sins in our lives, why are we not fearful?

2. What the question is

Whenever you become afraid at any time, when you are brought to your knees, ask this question then What must I do to be saved? How can I escape from this? How can I be healed or made whole? How can I face death? How can I escape the Devil's clutches? How can I be delivered from hell? How can I turn from sin? How can I stand before Almighty God to be judged? Oh how we need to be saved from sin and from Satan and from death and from ourselves! How can we be saved?

3. Who was asked and who should we ask?

We should also notice this. The jailer had never asked this question of anyone before I guess. But now he is desperate. So who does he turn to – not to himself or to his family or to any of the other prisoners but to these two men who have been praying and singing to God in the heart of his jail. Now there's a lesson for us all. When people today get frightened and they want help they turn to all sorts of people. They turn to their friends or to the rescue services or to the National Health or they turn to various non-directive counsellors or to alternative medicine and may be they get some help from these. They turn to astrologers and to religion and to education and to entertainment. But the truth is that the only place we'll find help is in those who pray to God and sing his praise. It is only people like Paul and Silas and their successors that can properly answer the question, what must I do to be saved? If it's a fire you rightly call 999 and ask for the Fire Brigade; if someone has a heart attack you phone 999 and ask for an ambulance; if you're fed up or lonely call a friend, if your hair's in your eyes go to the barber.

However, if you're fearful and your question is What must I do to be saved? Then turn to those like Paul and Silas who know God and who can properly answer your question. Ask me. Don't just listen to the sermons. If you don't understand, be bold and ask to know more. Ask other believers here. They can tell you.

2. A great answer

So this is the great question - what must I do to be saved? What would you have said in that situation? Great questions are easier than great answers, I suppose. What is the great answer that Paul and Silas give to this great question? Perhaps we're best to begin by noticing what they did not say

1. What is not the answer – ignore the wrong answers that abound

They didn't say to him 'It's just an earthquake and it's okay now. You don't need to be saved.' They knew this one local shaking was pointing to the final great shaking that will come at the end.

They didn't urge him to believe in himself either. They didn't say, you just need to know yourself and be at one with yourself.

Nor was it – think positive. Get your attitude right and all will be well.

They didn't urge him to be religious either. They didn't suggest that what he needed was a trip to the prayer meeting or some ritual act.

Nor did they simply tell him to try and be a better person.

Some of you perhaps think in these terms. You feel things are wrong. You are fearful. You think may be what you need is a fresh start, a new religion, etc. I want to urge you not to think in those terms but to listen to what Paul and Silas say here.

2. What is the answer – Hear this important command and obey it

So what did they say? Paul and Silas had no hesitation in giving the answer they did. Verse 31 They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus. The man had asked what must I do to be saved? There is a sense in which their answer was 'Do? Do nothing. You don't need to do something. You don't need to do anything. What you need is to believe in someone.' Or we could take it in the sense that the thing he had to do concerned a person - the Lord Jesus, and what the jailer needed to do in relation to that person. What they said to him, of course, is the same for us all. Many things have changed since then but not this. So two things.

Focus on the Lord Jesus

He is the only one who can save you. He is called Lord here because he is God. There is no point in thinking we can be saved by any human agency. We need to look to God. He is the only one who can save us. No other can. He alone is our hope. Jesus, of course, means 'he saves'. He is the only Mediator between God and man. There is no way to be saved except through him. He is the one who has come and lived the perfect life that none of us can live. He is the one who has died on the cross in the place of sinners. He is the Saviour of the World.

If you were in need of rescue – say stuck on a desert island, in a dinghy on the ocean or fallen on a mountain – then you know that you would be looking for rescue. You'd be looking for a ship or a helicopter. You wouldn't be thinking of ways to save yourself. You would look carefully every moment. You would be ready. I'm saying to you only Jesus can rescue you. Look out for him.

Are you looking to Jesus then? Do you see him as your one hope, your only hope? Are you eager to know about him so that you may be saved? I urge you to get to know him. Find out all about him that you can. He is the key. Without him you are sunk. We are all sunk.

Believe in him.

Of course, simply reading about the Lord Jesus or knowing about him will not save anyone. The Lord Jesus is the one who the Father loves and delights in. He is the one who has all power and might. What needs to happen then is that we need to be attached to him. We need to be joined to him. That is done by putting our faith in him. It is as you trust in the Lord Jesus that you are saved. Put your confidence there and nowhere else. Lean on him. He is the one you must come to and rest upon.

Are you doing that? Are you putting your trust in Jesus Christ? Many of you are I know. Go on trusting in him. If you have begun to trust, don't stop now. May be you have never realised that you simply need to look to Jesus. You keep thinking it's all sorts of other things but no, trust in Jesus. That's what is needed. Trust in him now. Believe. Just like this Philippian jailer did – just where he was and when he heard that was what he needed to do. Oh what joy was his when he did that. He became a different man. He was still big and gruff, I guess, not the most genteel of men. But God had changed him. No more rough treatment for followers of Jesus or thoughts of killing himself. No, all was changed now.

3. Hear this wonderful promise for all who obey

Let's get the whole sentence then to close Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved - you and your household. Simply by believing a person is saved – saved from hell, from death, from sin, from the devil. This does not mean they will never have any troubles ever again but it does mean that their biggest troubles are over. They are safe. They are going to heaven. They no longer have to sin,. The devil cannot demand anything with regard to them. What applied to the jailer applied to all his family (or perhaps all the other prisoners) - you and your household

Think of our previous illustrations. Once the boat reaches the desert island, once the big yellow helicopter looms in sight, you know you are safe. Once you see Jesus as portrayed in Scripture and put your trust in him, you know all is well.

This is for everyone then. If you truly believe then you will truly be saved. What you do now will have an effect way into eternity.