Acts 16:30

THE PHILIPPIAN JAILER

‘What must I do to be saved?’

Acts 16:30

The work at Philippi went on successfully. It commenced at a prayer-meeting. It went on quietly. It seemed as if nothing could be better. The first convert was Lydia, a woman of wealth and position; the possessed slave-girl was the medium of proclaiming the power of God. Now came a check. The masters of the girl charged the Apostles with troubling the city, teaching customs which were not lawful for them to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. The Apostles were cruelly treated, thrust into prison, and the jailer was charged to keep them safely. But God intervened, and caused the wickedness of men to praise Him. Let us consider the jailer’s question.

I. The circumstances under which it was asked.

(a) Not in response to any direct verbal teaching or exhortation, St. Paul and St. Silas had not been preaching to him, so far as we know. The pulpit is a great instrument for good, but not God’s only means of awakening souls. Where the prophet has preached in vain, He may reserve many to Himself. There is a still, small voice that does a work which the pulpit may fail to do. Let us thank God, and take courage.

(b) But after a time of trouble. Now it is quite common to see religious interest awakened in a time of trouble. The Christian pastor has learnt that times of sickness and bereavement in his congregation furnish him with his golden opportunities. But it is not, alas! so common, that the interest continues after the trouble is past. The jailer had been assured of the safety of his prisoners before he asked this question.

(c) After observation of the power of Christianity on others’ lives. He had doubtless seen St. Paul and St. Silas scourged the evening before. He had, notwithstanding, heard them singing praises to God in their cell. He had seen that, when they had opportunity to escape, they made no attempt to escape. Their preaching he might have scoffed at, but their lives carried with them a power beyond that of words. And doubtless his question was due more to his observation of their conduct than to anything else.

II. The question itself.—We have no data from which we can expound the spiritual state of this jailer. We cannot tell whether his conviction of guilt preponderated, or his desire to be freed sin’s bondage; or whether his question was called forth by a vague sense of general need—of needs which he could not specify. But what should the question mean? What is it to be saved?

(a) To be delivered from sin’s punishment. To obtain pardon through the atonement of Christ This, indeed, is the only salvation many people care for; but salvation means also, and more emphatically,

(b) To be delivered from sin’s power. To be saved from sin, forsaking it and conquering it through the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. It was ‘from their sins’ that Christ came to save His people.

Illustration

‘Dreadful pictures have been drawn of the darkness and foulness of the Roman prisons, into one of which St. Paul and St. Silas were thrust—a dark, underground cell, with damp and reeking walls, and the companionship of the vilest outcasts. The jailer’s first thought was that of suicide. That was the highest point to which heathen culture could rise. The advice of Seneca was: “If life is pleasant, live; if not, you have a right to return whence you came.” St. Paul was moved with compassion for the jailer, just as he had been for the poor girl, and called out with a loud voice, saying, “Do thyself no harm, we are all here.” The jailer realised, partly from the earthquake, partly from St. Paul’s words, that he was in the presence of a mysterious and Divine power, and, falling down before St. Paul and St. Silas, entreated the aid of that power. Then as the members of the household gathered quickly together, trembling, from the different parts of the prison, St. Paul, with the marks of his suffering and degradation still upon him, spoke to them and taught them the first truths about God and Christ. The jailer, whose heart had been touched alike by the character of the prisoners, by their words of love, and by the terror of what he had just passed through, cried out, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” words which have arisen not only to the lips of the jailer, but to every human heart which has been brought face to face with death and judgment and with the Almighty power of God.’

ST.