Let's look in the book of Acts
again, chapter 16 again. I've kind of decided for a while,
rather than beginning a new book of the Bible, I want to preach
through Luke. You know, we've been through John first and then
Matthew and Mark. And I want to preach through
Luke, but I don't want to have to feel like I've, you know, preached
the same message four times. A lot of the gospels have the
same stories in them, different accounts, of course, and some
different things. But a lot of times when we look
in John, we'll look at what Mark said about that, and it'll be
included in the same message. So anyway, I wanted to take a little time before we
get into the book of Mark, of Luke, And so what I've kind of
decided to do is just preach on all the things I hadn't preached
on. You know, they're just screaming to be preached in the scriptures,
in any book of the Bible. But the book of Acts has really
been a blessing to me lately. So I saw this, and we'll start
in verse 16. Came to pass as we went to prayer,
a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us. which brought her masters much
gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us,
and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most
High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this
did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned
and said to the Spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ
to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
And when her master saw that the hope of their gains was gone,
they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace
unto the rulers and brought them to the magistrates, saying, these
men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs
which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe,
being Romans. And the multitude rose up together
against them, and the magistrates ran off their clothes and commanded
to beat them. And when they had laid many straps
upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to
keep them safely, who having received such a charge, thrust
them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks."
We'll stop there for a minute. This woman was making a bunch
of money by soothsaying. The word is prophesy or act as
a seer. It's interesting to note that
the root word for that word, soothsaying, means to be mad, to rave like
a madman. And that root word came to mean
soothsaying, because of the manner in which that kind of thing was
delivered. It was fortune telling, to be a seer, to say, I see this
in the future, things like that. But the way it was done, Sounded
like a bunch of raving lunacy. So if you ever hear somebody
that sounds like a raving lunatic, and I've heard a few of those,
it's because they're a raving lunatic. That's why. God's Word's
not preached like that. You know the difference between
being passionate about something and raving, don't you? But notice
that what she said about the disciples was the truth, wasn't
it? These are the servants of the
Most High God. I would agree with that. They're showing us
the way of salvation. Well, that's kind of a strange
way of putting it, but I would agree with that pretty much. But what this reminds us is that
even Satan and his preachers say a lot of things that are
true. It's important to remember that. They say a lot of things that
are true. In fact, most of what they say is true. But always
remember That rat poison is 90% healthy stuff. Always remember
that. Otherwise the rats wouldn't eat
it. People are gullible, but it's
going to have to at least sound kind of true, isn't it? And that's how they deceive.
I think that's an important lesson here. And you know what she would have
said if you had questioned her further? What do you mean showing
us the way of salvation? What do you mean by that? Well,
boy, we can't know what she meant by that, can we? Well, we kind
of can because I've heard it before, hadn't you? I know what
they mean by that. She likely would have said, well,
they're showing us the way of salvation. They're saying that
all you have to do is believe. God has provided salvation and
now it's up to you. Just believe. She was exalting man, wasn't
she? She was bragging on them. They're the servants of the Most
High God. She never said anything about the Lord Jesus Christ that
we have recorded here. She was bragging on man. She was bragging on these preachers,
and she would have bragged on you, too, if you'd have listened
to what she was saying. If you'd have come and asked
her, what do you mean by the way of salvation? She'd have
bragged on you. You know how I know that? Because I've heard
them before. I've heard those satanic, those who preach true things, but they're possessed
by devils. They brag on man. The mark of
the beast is the number of a man, isn't it? Number of a man. So
different from what Paul said to the jailer later, you know
what he said? He didn't exalt himself or any other preacher,
did he? He said, you need to believe on Christ. And let me ask you this, who
gets mad? Think about that. Think about
what they did to these preachers once they cast this demon out
of this woman. That's all they did. that triggered
this, at least. They were going, of course, around
preaching the gospel. That's what they did everywhere
they went. But what triggered this was they just cast a demon
out of somebody. Who gets mad when a demon is
cast out of somebody? Have you ever thought about that? Who gets mad about that? And I'm not talking about the
magic shows that they put on, that they put on themselves nowadays,
you know, saying, oh, you know, demon be gone. Somebody falls
on the ground kicking or something. I'm talking about when a real
demon is cast out of a real sinner. Who gets mad about that? I'll
tell you who. Religious profiteers. And there are a whole lot of
them, aren't there? Religious profiteers. People who are involved
in religion for what they can get out of it. The one thing
that they don't want anything to do with is a real believer.
Somebody that's had a demon cast out of them. They don't want anything to do
with a real believer. They're dead to. Just like Paul said,
this world's dead to me and I'm dead to this world. Nothing to
do with them. And they had some influence,
apparently, didn't they? They were able to get Paul and Silas
beaten and thrown into prison for casting a demon out of somebody
now. Of course, they didn't tell it
exactly that way, did they? They didn't say they cast a demon
out of somebody and we need to throw him in prison. They didn't
say it that way. Think about this, though. This
is probably most important than this first part. Think about
the fact that our Lord Their Lord, who loved them very
dearly, is orchestrating this whole affair. Every step, every word, they
were beaten, it says, with many stripes. They about beat them
half to death, don't you reckon? The crowd was, you know, riled
up and Just about beat him half to death,
cast him into prison. And here's the question that
came to my mind. Would God put his little sheep, his dear children
through something like that in order to save one of his own? No doubt other purposes were
served in this. But yes. That's exactly what he did. the
way God saved this jailer was for that jailer to understand
that these men knew something about salvation. He wouldn't
have asked them if he didn't think they knew something about
it. And he came to the place where in just a short time of
knowing those prisoners, he respected them enough to ask them this
question. We saw in our lesson in this
same chapter concerning Lydia, how that God forbade Paul and
others that were with him to go into Asia. They were going
to Asia next, and he said, no, Holy Spirit forbade it. And then
they said, well, we'll go to Bithynia then, and he said no,
and he sent them instead where his sheep was. Sent them where Lydia was. And
here we see this terrible experience that they had to go through for
the same reason. Because he's in the business of saving his
sheep. Now we learn some very valuable truth here about how
God deals with us. What is God doing? What's he
in the business of? And how does he make it happen?
You want to know how God works? You want to understand when you
go through trials? Why? What's it all about? Why
me? Why this? Why now? Then see what's clearly
revealed in God's book. It is always, whatever He orchestrates,
whatever He puts us through, it's always for the glory of
His Son. The end of this whole thing is
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll be saved. And I guarantee
you that's pretty much the end of everything. Why did God make
a world to begin with? Here are just a few suggestions.
If you're going through a trial, I know that it's for the honor
and glory of Christ, don't you? Well, here's just a few suggestions.
God's son is honored by the salvation of his bride. We see that in
both of these situations, don't we? Why in the world? Why not
go to Asia? Why not go to Bithynia, Lydia? Why in the world? This crowd
and all, how they were stirred up and how angry and how foolish
it is to punish somebody for casting a demon out of somebody.
How in the world did it come to that? The Philippian jailer? Maybe. Well, maybe too it is
there. God's son is honored by the salvation
of his bride, like here in our text. I'll tell you this, God's
son is honored when we bow to his sovereign providence too,
don't, isn't he? Maybe you're going through that
trial so that you'll be forced, because a lot of times we have
to be forced, don't we, to bow to him and say, Lord, your will
be done. Even when we hurt, I know this,
I know that God did it, and I know why he did it. He did it for
the honor and glory of his son, and I know this, I know his son
is honored when we bow. Let's look at what happened in
the jail and I think you'll help us to see how What's God doing? What's he doing? What's he doing
in your life? Look at verse 25 and at midnight Paul and Silas
prayed and sang Praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. I Could have made ten messages
out of this whole passage now you understand that there's a
lot to see here. I 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 bands were
loosed. And the keeper of the prison,
awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice
saying, do thyself no harm for we're all here. And then he called
for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down
before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what
must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. And they
spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in
his house. And he took them the same hour
of the night and washed their stripes, and was baptized he
and all his straightway. And when he had brought them
into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all of his house. Why did he baptize the whole
family? Because they all believed on
God. That's why. Let me say that. So much in this. Could you sing
and pray to God in a situation like that? Could we? You know, we're taught to examine
ourselves, aren't we? Well, there's two us's, aren't
there? There was two Apostle Peter's.
There was the denying of the Lord Apostle Peter, and there
was the one that said, men and brethren, don't look at us like
we did this. This is the Son of God who you
crucified. And there's two us, it's two.
There's us in our flesh and there's us in the power and love of Christ. So it depends on which one of
me you're talking about or whether I could have done this or not.
Oh my, could you have prayed to God and sang his praises? It says they sing his praises
now. Just a minute ago we were talking
about spiritual and scriptural reasons why God would put his
sheep through something like this. And we know that the salvation
of this jailer and his family was certainly, it's just conspicuous,
isn't it? But look at this scene. Why would
God do that? That's a song right there that
couldn't be sung anywhere but in prison, isn't it? That's a
song. You couldn't sing it like that
anywhere else. A song of praise unto God, even when this flesh
is hurting and troubled. Try to picture these bloody men.
They beat them and beat them and beat them with many stripes. They'd have probably put a number
on it if they could have, but just everybody seems to just
have lost count. Many stripes, bloody bruised
and horrible, chained to a wall, singing songs of praise to God
in a prison cell. That's what God's grace looks
like right there. Because that's not us by nature. When Barnabas came to Antioch
and saw the grace of God, it was things like that that he
saw. When you can honestly go through
the most painful of trials and count it all joy for Christ's
sake, then you are a walking miracle of God. That's what you
are. It's to the praise of the glory
of His grace. You are a monument of His grace
and power. You remember in Acts chapter
5, it says that in verse 40, They had beaten the apostles
and threatened them not to preach anymore. And they called them,
they called the apostles and beat them and commanded that
they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
And those disciples, they departed from the presence of the council,
rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his
name. That's grace now, that's not
man, that's not the flesh, that's grace. All the prisoners heard
them. Did you notice that in the text?
Isn't that interesting? You know, if they had gone in
there complaining and saying, why us? You know, we're servants
of God. We're out there preaching the
gospel. Why would this happen to us? The prisoners would have
heard that too, wouldn't they? People hear us, don't they? People
hear us. Our children hear us. Our neighbors
hear us. People hear us. Our Lord Jesus Christ is honored
when this is what they hear. And that's why God does what
he does, for the honor and glory of his Son. Now our Lord had taught us already,
and they knew this, they said, don't pray to be heard of men.
Now our Lord said that, didn't he? Don't pray to be heard of
men, like the Pharisees do, so you look spiritual. That's not
what they're doing. You know what they were doing? They were
just being who they were. Isn't that right? That's just what believers do. They weren't doing that to be
seen of men, but they were seen of men. Just being who they were. And you're going to be seen. And let's learn something here.
We don't go around, we don't go around in this world trying
to win everybody to the Lord, do we? That's nonsense. I can't
win anybody to anything, much less to the Lord. I'm not going
around trying to look or sound or act religious. But I'll tell
you this, I'm not going to be what this world wants me to be
either. I'm not ever going to be what this world wants me to
be. By God's grace, I'm not. I'm just going to be who I am.
And God's sheep, all of them, are going to honor Him in this
world. He's going to see to that. Those are the good works that
he's ordained us to now. And we're just gonna be who we
are. And if that makes everybody hate us, so be it. So be it. The Lord said, though, if we
honor him, he'll make even our enemies to be at peace with us.
I pray we can do that. Then as they were praying and
singing, there came a great earthquake and the whole prison was shaking
and all the doors, it says immediately, the doors flew open. We see the prison doors open
in more ways than one in this text, don't we? Our Lord does
that so much. These things, these miracles.
This earthquake was sent by God, of course, and this is a miracle.
This is a display of His power. And every time He did that in
the Word of God, you know what He's showing? He's showing what
you can't see with these eyes. He's showing what He did with
Lydia's heart. What did it say about her heart?
Opened! Opened! What did it say about
these prison doors? Opened! I can't see Lydia's heart
open. I can picture, they saw these
prison doors fly open. And I can picture that, can't
you? And I know what that is. In both cases, it's freedom. It's salvation. My own wicked
heart is a prison to me by nature. And God threw the doors open
and set me free. He sent an earthquake that shook
me to my very soul and turned everything I knew upside down.
And the doors immediately flew open and I was free. Was free
And so the Lord didn't do this only to let Paul and Silas out
of prison He's the one that put him in prison if it was just
about getting them out of prison He never would have put him in
there to begin with The Lord is the one who put them there
But when the Lord did this he's showing us how he set sinners
free by the power of his name The earthquake is the gospel.
It's preaching in the name of the Son of God. I Do you know what they were singing about?
And you know, they were praying.
How do we pray? Our brother did just a minute
ago. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. We come to God in the
name of his son, Jesus Christ. And what do we sing about? I
imagine they sang the same thing they preached. Christ and Him
crucified. They sang the praises of God.
How are you going to praise God outside of Christ? And so, they
sang of His redeeming love, just like we do now. You see the songs?
What are they about? The songs and hymns and spiritual
songs that they sang in the church in the New Testament? What do
you reckon the subject of them was? They prayed in Christ's
name and they sang the song of redeeming love and grace and
power in Christ and BOOM! The doors flew open. That's what
happened in that Philippian jailer's heart. God sets the captive free. How does he do that? Do you remember
that there was also an earthquake when our Lord Jesus Christ was
crucified? Coincidence? I don't think so. That's showing how the power
of God Since prisoners free Look at Luke chapter 4. Let's
read this Luke chapter 4. This is what's being pictured
by this earthquake. And the result of it, what did
it accomplish? Well, what was the earthquake?
That's the power of God, isn't it? On display. What was accomplished
by it? Prisoners were set free. That's
what. That's the gospel. Look at it in Luke 4, 16. And
our Lord Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up,
and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord. He closed the book and he gave
it again to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all
of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he
began to say to them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in
your ears. God sent me to set those who
were in prison free. And you're sitting here looking
at me doing it. And they saw him do it, didn't they? They
felt the earthquake and they said, one of them said, surely
this, was the Son of God. This is God's Son. And He was,
He is. This is a picture of what the
Lord did to Lydia's heart. You see the words opened in verse
14 and in verse 26. God is the one who opens and sets sinners free by His
power. And Christ is the power of God
and the wisdom of God. God has to destroy all your foundations
now, doesn't he? You see that in verse 26 of our
text? All the foundations, plural, of the prison were broken up.
That's what happens when he does a work of grace, when he displays
his power in your heart and opens your heart. All your foundations,
everything that you know to be true about God, about yourself,
and about how sinners are saved, have got to be destroyed And he has to set you free. Think
about that. He has to personally set you
free. You remember what the Jews said
in John 8 31. Jesus said to those Jews, which believed on him,
if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed?
And you shall know the truth and the truth should make you
free. Well, there were some Pharisees
there apparently or scribes or both or Some Jews there, some
religious Jews that didn't like the sound of that. They answered
him, we be Abraham's seed. We were never in bondage to any
man. What do you mean we'll be made free? And he said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is a prisoner. Every sinner is a prisoner. You're
the servant of sin. You're enslaved. And if the Lord shall make you
free, he's the only one that can set you free. If you don't
know the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, you are a prisoner and
you have no idea. Those Jews, they said we've never
been in bondage to anybody. But the Lord says you're a prisoner. And only Christ can set you free,
but if he does, then you're free in every sense of the word. except
one, and that's coming soon. It's already done, even that's
already done, isn't it? We just haven't experienced it yet. The
jailer was about to kill himself, and I can imagine, can you imagine
Paul thinking that maybe that was God's will? Can you imagine
that? This is God's way for me to get
out of this mess. That man's going to kill himself
and we're going to run like thieves. And God will have delivered us.
But you know, he could have well thought that.
Didn't the Lord say, I'll give men for thee and people for thy
lot? Wouldn't be the first time God's killed somebody in order
to save his sheep, would it? And I don't know, I don't pretend
to know what was going on in Paul's mind at that time, but
I know this. I know that Paul had been consenting
unto the death of many people before this, believers. And I
know that it affected him greatly. He grieved over that. He mentioned
it more than once in his letters. And I know that Paul had a heart
for sinners. I know that. He said to Agrippa, oh, I'm with
the God. Went to God that you were all
together such as I am, except these parts. He said that he could wish himself
accursed from Christ for the sake of his countrymen, I know
that. And this was a Roman jailer. But Paul's heart went out to
him, didn't it? Paul's heart went out to him.
They could very well have just ran when the doors opened. They
could have seen that as God's way out for them. You can imagine
the desire to run was probably pretty strong, because I'm sure
they expected to be killed. But Paul knew that God had brought
them to that prison for some reason. Paul had had some experience
with that, hadn't he? He knew who orchestrated things
like this. Do we know that? when we go through something
like this. And Paul's about to find out what it was. He's about
to find out the reason for it. And here's the lesson I think
here, if somehow we could be comfortable enough in our trials, I'm not quite so anxious to run
from them. And I know, I'm like you, I don't
like I don't like to suffer. I don't like pain. I don't like
anguish of spirit. I don't like worry and fear.
I don't like those things. But do we know who brought us
to that place? And do we want, is all we want
just relief from that? Or do we want to know how God
can be exalted in it? That's what I ask myself. Do
I just want relief? You remember Paul said, and I
don't blame him. Lord, take this thorn away. Take
this spear out of my side. And he prayed for it three times.
And God said, my grace is sufficient for thee. And Paul said, well,
all glory then in my infirmities, that Christ may be exalted. Do
we just want relief when we're suffering? Or do we want to find
out how can God be glorified in this? Maybe that's how we grow in grace. I pray for that. This jailer's about to kill himself.
And we know why. He'd been charged with keeping
the prisoners if he He's responsible for them if they're gone. And
he even said, that's why he was killing himself, because he supposed
that they had fled. And he knew he's a goner anyway,
at least I can die on my own terms, you know. I'm sure that's
what he was thinking. Now Paul cried out, don't do
yourself any harm. Don't harm yourself. This is
one of the most beautiful and inspiring stories I have ever
heard. No way anybody can make up something like this. Have
you ever heard anything more beautiful? and dramatic and just
powerful. Just even on the surface of it.
You could never make such a story up. Have you ever heard anything
like this at all? He said, we're all still here.
We're still here. We haven't gone anywhere. I think,
why didn't the other ones flee? Maybe God saved them all. I don't
know. Maybe the jailer's the only one
that's mentioned here. But I'm pretty sure, and I hate
to even say that, But it seems like everybody there knew that
God was doing something. Don't you imagine this earthquake
and they had heard them singing praises to God. And then this
earthquake comes in the prison doors fly open. And why didn't
they run? I think it's because they're
waiting to see what God's going to do next. Don't you? God's
doing something here. And would to God we had a little
bit of that in our generation. Some awe, some reverence, what's
God doing? God's doing something and we're
interested, at least. Let's find out what God's doing
and maybe get in on it. Oh, how I wish there was more
of that. In me. And do you see the language of
verse 29? Then he called for a light and sprang in. He jumped
up in there to see, could it possibly be true? And came trembling. I'm gonna hazard another guess
here and say that this prison keeper probably hadn't done a
lot of that in his life. You can just take that for what
it is, me speculating. He just doesn't seem the type
to me. Came trembling. and fell down before Paul and
Silas and brought them out and said, sirs. You think he had
ever addressed a prisoner that way before? Sirs. God brought this man to his knees. God knows how to do that. He brought Saul of Tarsus to
his knees, to his face. And notice it was good news that
brought him down. You see that? It was good news
that brought him down. Not the terror of the law. The
Roman law said that he, that jailer, must die because he was
responsible for those prisoners and he would have been executed
for that. That wasn't what made him tremble. That was why he
was about to go ahead and end it on his own terms. He's about
to kill himself because of the law. But the thing he feared
the most was not going to happen. By the grace of God, his worst
fears had not come true. And that made him tremble. The
good news made him tremble. The prisoners were not escaped.
This was the reason Paul gave for him to not kill. He said,
don't kill yourself. We haven't gone anywhere. And that made him tremble and made
him hit his knees. The good news. Broken by the
good news of God's grace. Fearing God because there's forgiveness
with him. You remember what David said,
Psalm 130 verse three, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities
on the Lord, who shall stand? If we're in the hands of the
law, we might as well kill ourselves now. But there's forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. Does the gospel make you tremble
before God? It's the goodness of God that
leads sinners to repentance. Listen to it, Romans 2, 4. Despises
thou the riches of God's goodness in forbearance and longsuffering?
goodness, his grace, his love, not knowing that the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance. Don't you know that? He said,
sirs, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And we know from God's
word that God was already saving him, wasn't he? Salvation is
an eternal work. We know that. God has saved me. God saved me this morning. And
he's going to save me. Promised he would. If he's begun
a good work in me, he'll perform it. What must I do to be saved? He
was already being saved and didn't know it yet. It's natural for us to just assume
that there's something that we must do in order to be saved.
What must I do to be saved? That's just natural because it's
something that we did that got us into the horrible shape that
we're in. It's our own fault and we know that. And so we think,
surely we must do something to get out. But no, the good news
is that though there is nothing we can do to atone for our sins,
there is one who did fully atone for the sins of his people. That's
the good news that makes sinners tremble before God right there.
Believe on him. That's what Paul told him. There's
somebody that did something. Let me show you that briefly.
I know I'm going long this morning. But the Lord Jesus Christ, he
pointed him to Christ. They didn't give this man something
to do. They pointed him to the one who did all that needed to
be done for sinners like him to be saved. And no doubt this
man didn't know much about Christ. You reckon? I'm sure he'd heard
of him. And so they began to tell him about Christ. They began
to tell him, didn't they? Faith is not just some idea or
some vague hope. Religions always say, believe,
believe, believe, and they never tell anybody. What to believe
or on whom? But it wasn't that way here.
You see that in verse 22, 32. They preached unto him the word
of the Lord. How is he going to believe on somebody he hadn't
heard about? That you must hear of Christ
in order to believe on him. And how are you going to hear
of us? God sends a preacher. And it wasn't a very pleasant
path for the preacher to be there. preaching the word of God to
that fellow. But God sent him a preacher by way of pain and
blood and trouble. And so he was able by God's grace
to do the preaching of the gospel, please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That's the way he gives
faith. The man asked, what must I do? And Paul preached to him
what Christ did. You see that here? in this very same context of
this chapter in chapter 17 the very next chapter verse 2 the
next story in this book says Paul as his manner was this is
the way Paul preached this was his custom he went in unto them
and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures
we have one basis to say anything for God what did he say opening
and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered you see the
word must in there We just saw that word didn't we what must
I do? But then Paul went home with
him and preached to him it's not about what you must do It's
about what Christ must do Christ must needs have suffered if you're
going to be saved It's about what he must do you see that
I? In this same chapter, the Lord
saved a lady who was a worshiper of God and also a Roman jailer. He did it by the same gospel
of the same person. And again, we see how the grace
of God makes a sinner gracious. Lydia insisted on them staying
in her home. And she fed them, and she took
care of them. She said, no, no, she insisted.
She constrained them, didn't she? And here this jailer, this
prison guard, washed the stripes of these prisoners. You reckon
that had ever happened before? Verses 33 and 34, he took them
the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and was
baptized he in all his straight way. And when he had brought
them into his house, he set meat before them. And rejoiced. Believing in God, he was baptized,
he confessed Christ. In baptism, and then they sat
down and they had a meal together. Isn't that a glorious thing?
They sat down and ate a meal together, and while they ate,
they rejoiced in the sovereign mercy and grace of God in Christ
alone. What a story. What a story. In case you're worried about
the jailer, I'll let you read the rest of the chapter. But
I was thinking myself, what's going to happen to this jailer
now? He set them loose and took them home and washed their stripes
and fed them. He'll be in big trouble. No,
he received word to set them free anyway. He'd already done
it. He'd already done it. He'd already
let them go. Of course, it was God that set him free, wasn't
it? But he didn't try to put the chains back on. And so they had a meal together,
rejoicing in God and his son, Jesus Christ, and the grace of
God in him. What a wonderful story. Let's
pray together.