Songs: Psalm 95 verse 1; Psalm 75 verse 1 and 4: Psalm 143 verse 2 and 10, Psalm 96 verse 1, 2 and 6; Psalm 107 verses 6 and 7; Psalm 42 verse 6 and 7.
Scripture reading: Isaiah 45 verses 19 – 25; Acts 16 verses 16 – 34.
Sermon: Acts 16 verse 30 ‘What must I do to be saved?’
Two very different stories of conversion
It is a remarkable story. What happened there exactly in that prison in Philippi? There was an earthquake, but not that strong that everything was destroyed. All the doors were opened, but – also remarkable- all prisoners were frozen in their cells. They didn’t flee! The jailors first confrontation with the living God brings him to an act of despair. He all of a sudden is in crisis and wants to commit suicide. And he comes to faith after the Gospel has been preached unto him.
In Acts 16 we come across the first two conversions in a new area that is called Europe later. These are two very different stories (of Lydia, verse 14 and of the jailor, verse 31-33). The Lord opened Lydia’s heart and He had prepared her for that. She already had gained an interest in the Jewish faith. She served or worshipped God as the text says.
Many people think that the jailer’s conversion is more convincing compared to Lydia’s one. My grandmother for example was very sure that you need to go through a deep valley of despair before you can see and accept the beauty of Christ. Her grandfather experienced that and she took this as a model for herself and everybody.
About conversion: knowing ourselves and knowing Christ
Should the conversion of the jailer be considered as a model of Gods work in conversion? Is it necessary that we learn to know ourselves and our situation (in our utter impotence, weakness and sinfulness) first, before we are able to learn to know Christ? Is it a condition on the way of salvation? That’s our main question.
No and Yes!
1. No.Because the Lord has many ways to bring people to Himself. Only look in the book of Acts how many different circumstances and occasions the Lord used to bring people to himself! Compare only the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts 8, with Saul of Tarsus, Acts 9, and is this passage, see how different His work is in Lydia’s life comparing to the jailer’s life. So we cannot bring one model. In all cases God brings people to the real understanding of the reality of Himself, the necessity of change and the confidence in the Lord Jesus to bring reconciliation and a new life in Him.
What is the meaning of the earthquake in bringing the jailer to despair? It is not Gods hand in the earthquake that brings him on his knees, but it is the Gods mouth in the Word of the Gospel. It is clear that he belongs to the kind of people who have been humiliated themselves often and later seek opportunities to exercise power and violence on others. The despair is not based on remorse or repentance, but rather based on the insight how much he had been addicted to violence and he fears the consequences. The spiral of evil power provokes fear, despair, not necessarily fear for God. For him the only way seems: suicide.
2. Yes. Still God uses the shock of the earthquake to prepare the jailor for the Gospel. Together with the initial words of the apostles this brings him to the question: ‘ What must I do be saved?’ He might not have understood the full meaning of ‘being saved’ at that moment. What he longs for all of a sudden is: real peace, real safety, real identity.
Relevant for the (Western) world of today.
This story is relevant in our (West-European) context. Because guilt and guilt feelings are going to play a minor role in our society. My grandfather and –mother lived in a society where –in general- you felt ashamed in the case of trespasses and lack of responsibility toward others. They also knew more than we know what it meant ‘to be guilty for God, to be a sinner’. Our society is keen on freedom and the power to maintain our freedom. The great question of Martin Luther: ‘ How do I find a gracious God’ (How can I be saved?) is not so relevant for most people today, but rather the question ‘How can I be free ‘(How can I be safe). Many people fear the powers of bondage, or losing safety of certainty, or identity by powers, that they cannot handle any longer in their life: possessions, reputation, assurance, happiness, money, sex. All goods that become gods, idols that seem much stronger that they thought. As soon as a crisis starts they begin to understand that they are slaves (addicted, enslaved).Maybe it is God’s grace that He sends us crises!
People, we all, need to be alerted, more or less in the same way the jailer was alerted. There is a struggle of powers around us and in us. The power of God needs to be revealed to open our eyes for the evil powers around us, and our utter powerlessness to change or combat these powers.
à 1. Remember from what you have been saved!
How Jesus can be precious if we don’t know from which great need and evil we have been saved? It is important to know why you believe. Knowing God is connected with knowing ourselves. The Gospel is not about good feelings, not about good deeds, the Gospel is about a new reality. The old (our situation originally in sin and lostness) has gone and the new has come (a new life in Christ). Some learn this more in the beginning of their walk with Christ, others in a later stage.
à2. Be prepared and attentive on God’s work today
Like the apostles and the early church, the church today is confronted with many modern idols that exercise power. Our so called ‘Christian society’ disappears. Is the church prepared for that? See how prepared the apostles were! 1. Even in the circumstances of the darkest cell they knew that they were in God’s hand. They sing in the night. 2. And as soon as the occasion was there they proclaimed Jesus as Lord, as the One who breaks and destroys the powers of evil. They exercised not only a ministry of reconciliation, but also of liberation, as Jesus has done: to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, heal the sick, to release the bounded…
This is not what we can do, this is what Jesus can do – through the members of His church. He is the same today, sitting at the right hand of His Father.
Conclusion:
- God has many ways to convert. Let us not prescribe or be fixed at a certain model
- In conversion God shows His power to liberate us from the power of idols. He can use supernatural acts, but not without the loving preaching/explanation of the Gospel.
- God gives what He requires: true knowledge about Himself and true knowledge about ourselves. It is a renewal of our heart, our thinking (Rom. 12, 2)
- Let us remember the slavery from which we have been saved and be prepared to seek the ones around us whom God have made seekers.
- This chapter is the opening of a Europe-wide work of the Spirit. God not only longs to see persons converted, but also communities, societies. Europe has become again the battlefield of the powers of darkness and of Light. Let us pray to Him who has al power in heaven and earth, and work for the transformation of lifes and societies in our continent again.
Rev. Niek M Tramper
Gouda
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