Today governing officials are going to apologize for mistakes that they have made; today an evil spirit will be cast out of a fortune telling woman; and today a man will believe in the Lord Jesus and his whole household will be saved. That's all waiting for us in Acts chapter 16, everybody. So, open your Bible and turn with me to Acts 16:16. Who's ready to study the Bible here this morning? I want to welcome everybody out there on the front lawn, I want to welcome all of you watching online. Please open your Bible with us to Acts 16:16. And we are with Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke, and they are in Philippi. God opened this lady Lydia's heart and she believed and her household was baptized. And they've been staying with her here in Philippi. And now they are going to continue their ministry in this city that is a Roman colony in Macedonia. And they're going back to that place of prayer outside the city gates down by the river, where they met up with Lydia. That's where we pick it up, Acts 16:16-18.
“As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.’ And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.”
So, what an interesting thing is they're walking through town to the place of prayer. There is a fortune teller lady, she's a slave girl. We’ve got to remember that slavery was happening at this time. And it was clearly happening in the city of Philippi. And this fortune telling lady has a spirit. It says multiple times here, a spirit of divination. And Paul has to command this spirit to come out of her in the name of Jesus. This lady has a demon inside of her, we would think of this as demon possession. And yet, she is saying that these are servants of the Most High God, and they're proclaiming to you the way of salvation. You want to talk about the right words coming out of the wrong mouth, that's what's going on here. The fortune teller lady has given free advertising to Paul's ministry, and he does not appreciate it; he doesn't feel right about it.
So, for Acts 16-18, on the handout, if you want to take notes with us here today: The demons are real. Let's get that down for the first blank there: The demons are real. There are real demons out there trying to deceive people away from Jesus Christ. And apparently one of the tactics that they'll use is they'll have the fortune teller or someone who's not really following Jesus Christ, start talking about him, or in this case, talking about Paul and his ministry that he's got here in Philippi. So, demons, that when they saw Jesus, if you go back to the Gospel of Luke, like if you go back to Luke 4:34, 8:28, you will see demons, when they see Jesus, we know who you are, we know you're the Most High, you're the Son of God. I mean, the demons, they'll start telling everybody I know who you are. Well, in this case, the demon knows who Jesus’ people are, who Paul is, hey, these men are of the Most High God, and very interesting, they're going to tell you the way of salvation. So, the demons, I don't know what you believe about demons, but there are spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, and the demons are actively trying to deceive men to not believe in Jesus. And here a demon is coming out of a fortune teller lady, he's saying that these men are going to tell you the way of salvation. Paul does not like this free advertising and he cast the demon out in the name of Jesus.
So, if that disturbs you, that the demons are real, let me just tell you that Jesus has power over the demons. That's something we want to affirm. And he has been exalted to the right hand of God, and he has been given the name that is above every name, and if you ever feel like what's going on, is this demonic? Well refer to the name of Jesus Christ, because he has victory and power over them. And so, we have an exorcism. Here we have someone casting out a demon in the name of Jesus. To me, that sounds like a reason to rejoice. That sounds like a good thing, not to the owners of the slave girl who were making money off of her fortune telling. And just remember, fortune telling is said to be an abomination. God thinks of fortune telling as an abomination in Deuteronomy 18. If you're looking for a passage on fortune telling, Deuteronomy makes it very clear that God thinks that fortune telling is an abomination. And when the law says that God thinks something's an abomination, God's not changing his mind about that thing over time. If God called an abomination in the Law of Moses, it's still an abomination to God to this very day. This is something that God is against that he hates. And he hates fortune telling. And so, praise the Lord that this lady has this demon cast out of her, you would think that's awesome, that Jesus name should be lifted high. But that's not what happens.
Acts 16:19-24, “when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.’ The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.” So, this gets really brutal very quickly here where these guys, who are the owners of this slave girl, they seize Paul and Silas and then it's like a mob develops to attack them. And even the magistrates, the government officials in charge here, they're like, yeah, we should beat these guys with rods. And so, this goes very badly, very quickly.
And so, let's get this down for Acts 16:19-24: The persecution is real. The persecution is real. I mean, these guys are doing the right thing to help this slave girl out with this evil spirit. And they are immediately mistreated for doing the right thing here in Philippi. And they are beaten. And it's just brutal. In fact, they're thrown in, it feels like, you're into the deepest part of the dungeon, like the jailer, he's putting them in the inner prison. He's putting their feet in the stalks, like the jailers, treating them, like serious criminals with a… they're going to escape. And so, we really got to make sure they don't get away. I mean, can you imagine you've really done an amazing thing to cast out a demon and now you are being treated like the worst criminal in Philippi. And maybe you would think well, yeah, but things like this don't happen these days, right? Things like this, people getting beat up, people get mistreated by government officials, that this kind of thing could be happening. And you might think, well, that sounds like it happened in ancient times. This could be happening in Afghanistan right now. This could be happening in many parts of the world right now where people are mistreated by the government, beaten up for doing the right thing, in the name of Jesus. So, I mean, we're seeing here, demon possession, we're seeing here, intense persecution, these are real things. If you haven't personally encountered them, well praise the Lord. But these things are out there. There are people possessed by demons, and there are evil authorities, mobs who would love to hurt people who are doing the right thing in the name of Jesus Christ. And so, if the demons are real, and the persecutions are real, then our faith must be real. And that's what you see in Acts 16:25. Look at verse 25. “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” Is that awesome to anybody else? Like you get beaten up. You get thrown in the deepest dungeon in they're in the prison and yeah, what are you doing? Hey, Silas, you want to have hymn sing at midnight? Let's pray to the Lord brother.
So, let's get that down for the rest of the passage: We're going to see some real faith. If the demons are real and the persecution is real, so our faith must be real. And as Paul and Silas are going through this trial together, they clearly have faith. They are considering it joy, they are singing songs, they are trusting in God through prayer. And whenever this comes up at church, whenever I hear this story about the midnight hymn sing at the prison with Paul and Silas, I always think that's so cool. I would love to be a part of something like that, singing with those guys. And then I often think about how we complain about things so much smaller than getting beaten by rods and thrown in jail. Like we're not having midnight hymn sings, we're not having anything that bad happened to us. And we're not, we're not looking to the Lord. We're not singing songs and hymns. I mean, these guys are an example to us of real faith. Their response to this completely wrong way that they have been treated, to continue to pray and sing hymns to God, that should inspire us here today and convict us if we've been grumbling and complaining about things going wrong in our lives. Hey, if you're having a terrible day, maybe one of the worst days you've ever had to get beaten up and thrown into jail, how about a midnight him saying, right? That's inspiring to see the faith.
And then you can see what God is really doing here. Look at Acts 16:26, “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 bonds were unfastened.” So, as they're praying and singing, there's a great earthquake, and the whole prison is shaken up. But when the prison is shaken up, the doors open, and all the bonds are loose. This is the most skilled earthquake I've ever heard of in my life. I mean, I've been here in California, we know earthquakes, right? We live by the San Andreas fault, right? And I, hey, did you feel that earthquake last night? No, I didn't feel it. But when I woke up my dishes were all done. That was a great earthquake, right? I mean, I've done an earthquake that's opening doors and loosening bonds. I don't know. I mean, earthquakes are just knocking things over these days. I mean, this is clearly from the Lord. I mean, these guys, they're showing faith. They're praying, they're singing, and the Lord shows up, shakes the place up, the doors are open, you would think jailbreak time, right? Hey, these guys are going to go free. But that's not what happens here.
Acts 16:27, No, God's got something that he wants to do. “When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.” I mean, you can see how serious the jailer was taking guarding these prisoners and thinking he would be punished, if they got away, by death. So, he's considering killing himself here, getting ready to do it. But Paul cried with the loud voice, do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And the jailer called for lights and rushed in and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be? What's the word that he says there, everybody? Saved. Wow. So that's what this is all about. The jailer who has authority over them in the prison, is responsible for making sure they don't escape, is running into ask them, what must I do to be saved. Now remember, as far as we can tell about Philippi, there's very little Jewish presence here. And we're talking about a pagan city. We're talking about a city where people don't know about the things of God and this jailers asking them, what do I do to get saved? And so how did the jailer even know that that was the question to ask Paul and Silas? Is it possible that the jailer got this idea from the free advertising of the demon possessed fortune teller? Is it possible that he heard them praying and singing hymns and he heard it straight from them when they were in the prison? That's why he's asking? That's amazing that this guy runs up. I mean, think about what's going on in the jailer’s mind, he thinks they've escaped, and he should kill himself. Then he finds out they're still there. And he runs up to them. And now he's asking for eternal life. This is exciting. I mean, this is God's plan. And God wants to seek and save souls. And he's got his guys in prison because God wants to save the jailer. And he's drawing the jailer to himself. He's got the question on the jailer’s heart and mind.
And then here's our key verse of our passage today, Acts 16:31, maybe you've heard it before, it's often quoted. Acts 16:31-34. “And they said,” Paul, and Silas to the jailer, “’Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.” Wow, this guy, he was ready to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. And now he's jailbreaking the prisoners and bringing them over to his house for dinner. I mean, this is a remarkable thing that happens here, between this jailer and Paul and Silas. This is a mighty work of God, stretching out his hand and saving, and not just the jailer, but it seems his family, his household is rejoicing. And so, what a great turn to go from getting beaten up and thrown into prison to the jailer being saved.
And then even more Acts 16:35, “when it was day, the magistrates,” who had Paul and Silas beaten the day before, they “sent the police, saying, ‘Let those men go.’” Hey, remember the guys we beat up yesterday? Yeah. We're done with them. Let them go. And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying the magistrates have sent to let you go, therefore, come out now and go in peace. Acts 16:37, “But Paul said to them, ‘They have beaten us publicly uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison. And do they now throw us out secretly? No, let them come themselves and take us out.” Wow, Paul. “The police reported these words to the magistrate.” Look at this. Acts 16:38-39, “they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city.” So, they went out of the prison and visited Lydia, they went back to her household. And then they had seen the brothers, they must have got together those who had believed in Philippi. They encourage them and departed. As we go along with the adventures of Paul, we are going to see some amazing things where people in authority, people in high positions, end up listening to what Paul says. And Paul is outraged that they are going to send him away secretly when they have beaten him publicly. They've made them look like criminals, and now they're just going to let them go. No, you're going to let everybody know that we are innocent of doing anything wrong. In fact, you did something wrong, because we're Roman citizens and you beat us up without any kind of a trial. So, we're going to see Paul and a lot of legal situations. But can you imagine this all from the jailers perspective? Like last night, when the jailer thought these guys were going to get away he was ready to kill himself because he didn't want to face these magistrates. Then he realizes Paul and Silas are still there. He asked them how to be saved. He believes, his family believes, they're baptized. And then the next day he watches those magistrates come and apologize to Paul. Wow. What a radical change of perspective this must be for the jailer, and what a bold leap of faith for the jailer to decide that he's going to follow the prisoners. This guy, he works for these magistrates. He works in a city where clearly there's some corruption going on. And clearly, people don't like Paul and Silas, and now he's going to take a leap of faith, him in his household, and they're going to trust that Jesus has authority over these magistrates, over this city, and they're going to believe in the Lord Jesus by listening to some prisoners. See, this is a story of real faith, real faith of Paul and Silas in the midst of a trial to sing and to pray and real salvation coming to a man who genuinely believes in the Lord Jesus.
So, on your handout, we've got Acts 16:31 there, and I want everybody to really think about this verse. Because I'm concerned when we read this verse in English, I'm not sure we really even understand what they're saying. If this is the question, what must I do to be saved? Here's the answer, verse 31. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Oh, you want to be saved? Maybe there's somebody here this morning. You want to be saved? Many of us, we are saved. How did we get saved? Well, you believe in the Lord Jesus. Now the word there is pisteuo in the Greek. Okay? And this is a very important word because it's used. You could write next to pisteuo there, in fact, we'll put it up here on the screen, so you can write it out in English. And you can write down the definition there. This word is used two hundred and forty-eight times. And that's just the verb form of it two hundred and forty-eight times in the Greek New Testament. So, if you ever sought to learn the Koine Greek language that the New Testament of the Scripture is written in, you would have these vocabulary words that you would learn and pisteuo, when you start learning verbs, pisteuo would be one of the first verbs that you would learn because it's a major word used throughout the Greek New Testament. Now, here's the issue we have when we go from the Greek language that Luke wrote the book of Acts in, and then we go all the way over to English, we use three different English words to translate this one Greek word. So, in English, when there's pisteuo in the Greek, we might say, believe in the Lord Jesus, or you could translate it have faith in the Lord Jesus, or you could translate it trust in the Lord Jesus. So, when you read, believe, faith, or trust, they're all going back to the same Greek word. pistou Oh, now over time, that's been really confusing, because in English to believe something might sound really different than to trust something. Do you believe that that's a safe thing to go do. Oh, yeah, sure. I believe that could be safe. Okay? Are you ready to go and do that risky thing? See, do you really trust it? See, believing is like knowing about something. It's agreeing with the information. It's easy to say you believe, but trust, really faith and an active trust, well, that sounds like you're really doing something about it. So, we’ve got to make sure that we understand when it says, believe in the Lord Jesus, these guys Paul and Silas, they're not just telling a story to the jailer about this God-man, Jesus who died on the cross outside of Jerusalem, and on the third day was raised, and the jailers not just like, oh, yeah, I think that could be true. I, I believe that. Yeah, that sounds like a good story to me. I think that happened. That's not what's happening in this conversation. This jailer is taking a huge leap of faith to believe that Jesus is the Lord at the right hand of God, the name above all names, and he has more authority than even these magistrates or these others in the city of Philippi. I mean, he's putting his life on the line. He's actively trusting in Jesus. This is not a conversation about do you know about Jesus? Do you think it's true about Jesus? This is a question, are you going to trust in Jesus with your life?
And maybe we've lost it in translation a little bit. Maybe in our mind, believing it is just like I agree with the information. I know it to be true. I think that's what actually happened. But really piatuo includes this idea of an active trust. Let's get that down. For number one: Make sure your faith is an active trust. Make sure you're not just using the word believe but your faith means yes, you know, it's true, but you have trusted in it. We all need to understand that there is a large difference between knowing about something and trusting in something. And you can think about it, but what are you ready to actually do about it?
In fact, turn with me to James chapter 2, because James, the brother of Jesus, who became an elder in the church of Jerusalem that we've read about in the book of Acts, he addresses this issue head on in James chapter 2, the second half of that chapter, because maybe he was seeing some people who were, oh, yeah, they would say that they believe it, in their head they would agree with it, but there was no trust, showing up by what they did by their works. They weren't actively looking to Jesus every day and showing that he's Lord by obeying his commands and doing the good works that Jesus has prepared for them. No, they're just agreeing with it and saying they have faith. But what are they actually doing about it? And here and, and James 2, he says. Look at James 2:17. “So also faith by itself,” if you just say you have faith, and it's “by itself, if it does not have works,” faith by itself, if it does not have works, is… what does it say? “Dead”. That's not real faith. You've changed the meaning of what faith is. If you're actively trusting in the good news of Jesus, Jesus is the one all the prophecy is about, Jesus is the one the whole planet has been waiting for. He is the one sent by God to come and save us. And he died on the cross to pay for our sins so we could be forgiven. And he rose on the third day so we could have a new life and know God, and he ascended into heaven. He's right there next to God. He's been exalted to the name above all names. And I'll tell you, Jesus is Lord. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and he is coming back at any moment. And he's going to be the King above all kings, and he will show the nations of the world what is up. That's Jesus. That's Jesus Christ. And see, there's a big difference between saying, yeah, I think that could be true. I believe that. Oh, I'm trusting Jesus, he promised he's coming to get me. And when he comes, he's going to take me to our Father's house. And in that house, there are many rooms for all of us. And we're going to be there. We're going to see Jesus, wait till you see him in his glory. Wait till you see him unveiled. Wait till you see him revealed to the world. Wait till you see what Jesus is about to do.
See, that's different. People looking at the past. Oh, I believe that that happened in the past. And people are trusting in Jesus right now today, because breaking news, everybody, Jesus is alive right now. Okay? This isn't some history we're talking about here today. This isn't some story in the past that you believed in the past, and now you think you're saved because of all that happened in the past, no. People who have faith, they have works. They're actively living for Jesus right now. And trusting that he is the Lord with all authority. So, we do what he says in his commands, and we wait every day for him to come from heaven and get us every day. We're one day closer to seeing our Lord. That's an act of trust, versus this passive in the past kind of believing, and James is saying, hey, if you tell me you’ve got this faith, but there's no works, that's not faith. James 2:18-19. “But someone will say,” well, “’You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith.” He's answering an objection to this. “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.” The demons are out there. When they see Jesus, when they see Paul in Philippi, the demons know who they're representing. They know who the Most High God is. They know they're telling people the way of salvation. The demons believe they know the truth. They know all about God and Jesus Christ. That's not an active trust in Jesus. See, James is doing something really interesting here. If you look at verse 19, he's saying “You believe that God is one, you do well.” Remember, James, he's writing a book of wisdom to the Jewish people. He's there in Jerusalem. And to the Jews, the most famous passage of Scripture, we actually read it last week in the sermon, if you were here, it's the Shema, it's Deuteronomy 6, “For the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” And so, he's referring to that here. Oh, you can tell me the Shema. Oh, you know who our God is, you know Yahweh, you know that we don't have a God like all these other nations who have many gods, our God is one. God, you know who he is. Oh, that's great. So do the demons, is James’ point.
So, he's going after this issue that has really happened all over churches in Southern California, where we have made the word pisteuo in the Greek, we have made it mean believe. And as long as you agree with the information, you walk around saying, I believe, and James is saying, oh, you know that Jesus died and rose again. Great, so to the demons, and they think it's true, too. That's not what it means to have faith. So here's James challenging these people who claim to believe but they don't actually trust and the trust would lead to action, it would lead to obedience, it would lead to living today like I'm looking to Jesus Christ by faith, not just something that happened in the past, but something that's active, moving forward. Go over to Hebrews chapter 11, just a few pages to the left, and let's get a definition of faith for us. Let's get to what is this idea of believing, faith, trust? How could we define it? And Hebrews 11:1 gives us a definition of faith. Faith is it says two things here, you might want to write this down under pisteuo here. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” So that definition of faith, I'm sure of things that I'm hoping for things that are still in the future that I'm looking to, but I'm sure of them. I'm one hundred percent confident. And the reason I'm confident about them is because faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of Christ. And I know that my redeemer lives, and he's still keeping every one of his promises. And if Jesus promised, he's coming to get me, then you’d better believe Jesus is coming to get me. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that said? See, I know one hundred percent that I will be with Jesus Christ, because he promised it to me. I have assurance of something that I hope for, even though I've never seen it. I've never seen Jesus Christ. I've never seen his glory. I've never seen the heavenly splendor, the kingdom that is to come. I haven't seen it with my eyes. But see, that's why it is faith because I have this conviction. Like there is no way you could not convince me that Jesus is at the right hand of the father right now, interceding for our prayers, and he's ready to come and get us; he's preparing a place for us. See, I haven't seen it. I haven't experienced it. It's not in the past. It's all still out there. But I trust in the promises of Jesus. And I trust that my faith will become sight. This is what faith is.
We need to make sure we have the real biblical definition of faith, not this dumbed down definition that a lot of people are doing today. Because even Hebrews 11, what do we call this at church, if you've grown up going to church, you've heard this referred to as the Hall of Faith, which when we think about it, the Hall of Fame, which is kind of what you're going with, they're like, if you're a baseball player, did they just let any baseball player get into the Hall of Fame? Not unless it's little league, right? Then everybody gets a trophy, right? But I mean, to be in the Hall of Fame in baseball, like there's votes, like people argue about it every year, like you have to be an exceptional baseball player to get into the Hall of Fame. But we call this the Hall of Faith. And I think what's happened over time is, when it talks about Noah and Abraham and all these guys with faith, we think, oh, they have this like amazing faith that I could never have. But the truth is the reason all these people are listed in Hebrews 11 is because they are examples to us of what faith really is. See, like multiple times, the Scripture says to you, as someone who believes in Jesus, it says, do you know all of the Law and the Prophets, all of the stories of Israel, Abraham, David, all of these guys that are back in Israel? Do you know that all of them were written down for as examples for us for our instruction, that these are people who have gone before, that we can learn from their faith and follow in their steps? See, I think people think, well, these guys had a kind of faith I could never have. But this is actually saying, look at the example of their faith and go and trust God in the same exact way. You see what's happened is faith today has been dumbed down like these people have this exceptional faith and we just kind of believe it's true. No. Real faith is trusting in God to do amazing things and following him with your life. And we have so many examples of that. Is that the kind of faith that you have? Do you have this easy believism, this modern American Christianity where you know the story, you hear it, you think it's true, you believe it? And there it is? Or is this you actively trusting in the promises of Jesus, every day waiting for him to come from heaven and thinking you're going to see him and be with him? Where are you at? Make sure you understand when they say believe in the Lord Jesus, this is an active trust right now, that he's at the right hand of the Father, ready to return. He has all authority. And I'm trusting in Jesus Christ right now today with my life. That's faith. That's what pisteuo means. And that's what the jailer understood. The jailer was not thinking, oh, yeah, that could be credible. I believe it. No. He was making a leap of faith, to trust that Jesus had authority over everything else going on around him. That's what faith really is. It's an act of looking forward trust.
Go back to Acts 16 and look what happens. I mean, what happens here, not just with this jailer, who goes from thinking about killing himself, to asking about being saved, and believing in the Lord Jesus, but then, if they speak the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were is in his house, and it says here that he and all his family ended up getting baptized, and he's there in the house, setting food before them. And by the end of the evening, here, there is this joy, there is this rejoicing, the whole household is rejoicing that that jailer had believed in God. So, it's not just that he, like you would hear today, people say, oh, he believed or he accepted Jesus into his heart, like it's this personal, private thing for the jailer. No, this is a powerful experience, where the jailer goes from fear that they're getting away to bringing them over to his house, taking care of how they've been beaten up, giving them something to eat, and the word spreads to everybody there in the house. Look at Acts 16:32. So, this is something that is so important when you're interpreting the book of Acts. When you're studying this book. Remember, we're getting summaries of stories, we're not getting the full story. So, a lot of times with these famous verses, like verse 31, are a very short quote like, hey, believe in the Lord Jesus, you will be saved you and your household. And a lot of times it's followed by a verse like this, verse 32, “they spoke the word of the Lord,” we'll talk about that next time and acts 17, what is the word of the Lord? Well, that's the full gospel of Jesus Christ, “they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” So, it's not like he says, what do I do to be saved, and they say, believe in the Lord Jesus. And that's the end of the story.
It's not this quick exchange. They go over to the house, and it feels like they preach something that's probably a full-length sermon, a full teaching of the whole story of Jesus Christ, but they're taking them through who Jesus is, how he died, how he rose, who he is now, with the name above all names, exalted as Lord. Like, they're given them the full thing, hey, and here's what you should do. Repent and believe. And then you go and obey his commands. Here are some of his commands. You should get baptized. There all these things. I mean, they give the full word of the Lord to him and to his house. We also need to remember as we're thinking this through that when it says household, we think of household equaling family and it clearly the jailer has a family and his family all get baptized here with him on this very night, which is very exciting. But just remember household, we think of household, all we think of is family, usually living in a household together. At this time, household, it might include servants, it might include many different kinds of people. Households were a little different at this ancient time than they are today. So, remember, Lydia, we thought she might be the head of her household. We don't know if she has a family or not. But she's got a household. With a jailer, he's clearly got a family. And it seems like there's even more people in the house, who are also listening. So, we don't know who all these people are in the jailer’s family. We don't know who all these people are in the household, but they are all sitting there listening to these men explain to them the word of the Lord. And so, what started with the jailer in the prison is now extending to everybody in the house. And they're all hearing, not just like a brief version, they're hearing like the full word of the Lord Jesus. And so, not just the jailer is believing, but the family and the household are believing and they're responding in baptism. And then you can see here, this idea that there's this joy, that everybody in the house is so glad that this jailer believed in God. So, salvation does come to this house, the salvation that the slave girl was talking about, the salvation that the jailer asked for. People are saved here in Acts 16.
And that's the word sozo. You've got that Greek word there too, that’s the verb that means to save, and that that verb is used one hundred and ten times in the Greek New Testament. So, this is another word the Greek New Testament is always addressing this issue of people being saved. That's why his name is Jesus because he came to save his people from their sins. And there's also the noun form soteria. Soteria is the word for salvation. That's the noun that's used forty-five times in the Greek New Testament. Maybe you've heard of soteriology. In the study of theology, soteriology is the study of salvation. So, it's amazing that this kind of church term of salvation, it's like the slave girl is talking about it, the jailers is asking about it. And this is a work, yes, we are called to believe and have an act of trust. But God is the only one who can save anybody's soul. And there's only one way that anyone gets saved and his name is Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God, he is the Son of man, and he came to seek and to save the lost. And he is still saving to this very day. And these people, they rejoice in the salvation of Jesus Christ. I mean, when the jailer believes it doesn't just change the jailer’s life. We don't know how many people are in his family. We don't know who all are in his household, but they all hear the word of Christ. And they all respond, it seems with faith. I mean, one man's salvation can bring joy to an entire family, to a whole household because the work of salvation that God does is a mighty work. Okay? You can't say, well, I got saved, and ever since then life's just kind of gone along. It's no big deal. That's not how the Bible speaks about salvation. No. When Jesus saves you, he makes you a new creation and the old you is gone. And there is a whole new life now for you to live. Okay? So, when it says, they rejoiced that he had believed in God, but the way it says “believed” here, okay, that's our key word here for this idea of pisteuo, to not just believe, but we're understanding whatever we think believe means it includes like this active trust, this looking forward faith. Well, when they rejoiced that he believed it's really interesting in the Greek because that's in the perfect tense. This is something we don't have in in English, but in the Greek there is a perfect tense. And the perfect tense means something that has been completed. But you can still feel its effect in the present. So, it's usually something Yes, this thing happened in the past. But there are ongoing continuing effects that I'm feeling right now. That's the present tense in the Greek. And so even though the jailer believed earlier, everyone's rejoicing, because the rejoicing of the whole household is one of the ongoing effects of what is happening, because he had believed in the past. And if you have believed in Jesus in the past, and you have been saved, there will be ongoing effects in your present-day life. It will be a very big deal every single day that Jesus has saved you, and you will have the joy of the Lord in your salvation.
Let's get that down for number two: We should expect salvation to have ongoing effects. We should expect that if God saves one person, it's going to affect the household. People are going to get baptized and declare that faith publicly, and the whole household is rejoicing because he had believed. He believed earlier in the evening, but now we're celebrating with great joy. And that's how salvation works. When Jesus saves you this is a work of God in your life. It's more than you just having faith. No. Believe in the Lord Jesus, and here's the promise you will be saved. And if Jesus saves you, you are brand new from the inside out, and it will continue to affect you all the way until he comes to get you and you are home with him beholding his glory forevermore. And so, people today who are like, yeah, I got saved in the past, but I'm not really experiencing any effects from salvation in the past in the present. That's not how it works in the Scripture.
Go with me to Romans 13 Verse 11. This is a really interesting verse that I want to encourage you to write down and consider if you're thinking about your salvation in Jesus Christ. Romans 13:11, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.” Hey, you know, it's time, you need to wake up. And then it says this, here's the part I want you to think about, underline, this is a phrase we need to hear today “For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” Hmm. Interesting. So, I receive salvation when I believe. But here's Paul saying that salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Like, even the idea of salvation looks forward to the future because yes, at the moment, I believe I am saved by Jesus, I am justified, I'm declared righteous by God in heaven, but I still have this battle with sin in this world around me, and the demons and all they're doing and my own flesh, there's still this fight with sin. And he's saying, hey, your ultimate salvation, not just being justified by faith, but you actually being in the presence of Jesus, where you're going to get a new body that doesn't want to and cannot sin. And you're going to be in a place where there is no sin, and you're not just going to believe in Jesus, you're going to see Jesus and all of his glory, and you're going to be with him forever. Now that salvation. When all of the hope is realized, and all of the reward is received, and all of the glory is beheld, hey, you're nearer to that now than you were when you first believed. So, wake up. Salvation is getting closer, not just like, oh, yeah, that happened in the past. I don't hear a lot of people today talking about like, salvation is getting nearer. I hear a lot of people talking about it, like, yeah, it's in the past. And, and you don't really feel a lot of ongoing effects. But this is saying, from when you first believe to where you are today, you're getting nearer to really experiencing the glory of God. And when you see Jesus, you will be made like him, you will be perfect as he is perfect.
I could use some of that. Anybody else wants some of that? See that's nearer to us now. Because I'm actively looking forward to that. And I'm counting down the days I don't know how many I've got left, but I can't wait to be with Jesus Christ. And look at this, then, look at how this changes that that statement there, salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. Look at how that's a call to action. Romans 13:12-14, “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Now, there's somebody who's really living like they believe in the Lord Jesus, they're putting him on, and they're going out into the day, and they're living by faith, actively trusting Jesus Christ, to obey his commands as a better way to live than the way of sin all around us. I mean, we're seeing the people who are out there partying, the people engaging in sexual immorality, there is so much quarreling and jealousy going on. How's that working out for everybody in the night in the world? See, we're saying, no, we're putting that away, and we're putting on the Lord Jesus, and we're living by faith in him. Because I think my salvation is closer to me now than when I first believed.
You see how this is different than a lot of people talk. Today people are talking like, yeah, faith, salvation, I hear a lot of things that sound like we're looking backwards. But as we're studying pisteuo, and sozo, and how these things are talked about in Scripture, it seems like they're all actively trusting in Jesus right now because the expectation for the future is awesome. That's what we need to be. We need to be people who, yeah, I got saved, and it's affecting me now. And the fullness of my salvation is yet to come when my hope is realized, and my faith becomes sight. And I'm looking forward to that. That's a powerful motivation to keep you live in the Christian life and obeying the commands of Jesus. And if you don't feel very motivated to live for Jesus, is it because you have this backwards looking faith, when you should be looking at the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen? So, this this story is meant to inspire us that God saves souls and that we want to be people of faith. And I want to say that there are men who are heads of households here at this church, and we you need to take notice that when this jailer really has faith, when he believes in the Lord Jesus, everybody in the household rejoices, and the entire family gets baptized. So that should really be to some of the heads of households here. When have you believed in the Lord Jesus? And how has that affected your family? Has that affected your house? I mean, we've been talking about households and families.
That's kind of been a theme for us here in Acts 16. We've been doing this series, Go Home and Make Disciples. And we started by meeting a disciple named Timothy. And one of the ways he became a disciple was his grandma, and his mom. And I hope that encourages the grandmas and the moms, that your faith can be passed down to your kids, we saw Lydia and as far as we could tell about Lydia, there was no man mentioned in the household, Lydia seemed to be the head of household was she, a single woman, was she a widow? And now she didn't have a husband, we don't know. But here was a woman inspiring a household to get baptized. Well, now we have clearly with this jailer, a man, and clearly the whole household is celebrating with great joy, because this man has believed in Jesus as his Lord. And I bet there are some men here today that need to respond to Jesus with faith, and it would be great benefit to everyone in their family. I mean, I just want to speak to the men for a minute. And I want to say, if you really love that lady in your life, if you really care about those precious kids that God has given you, the best thing you could do is be a man who believes in the Lord Jesus and bring that joy to your household. There are a lot of men, they're very concerned about what's going to happen with their family, very concerned about what's going to happen in their marriage, because they could see their marriage not making it and they could see their kids going bad places. And the best thing you could do about it is be a man of faith and show an example. We need more men like that. We need more men. Men have the opportunity to have a strong influence on their family, and one man's faith can change an entire household. That's the story here today of this jailer. That's the mighty work of God and his family. And so, I just want to encourage the men, some of the men here that need to hear this word and respond. There are men here that need to get saved today by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I promise you, if God saves you, it won't just affect you, it'll affect the other people around you.
And you can see, look at how it says it there, go back to Acts 16, and just look at the effects of this one man's faith where there is joy in the entire household, it said in verse 34, and in verse 33, and notice that they're baptized at once, he and all his family. We don't know who all are in his family. We don't know what the ages are, what how many people there are, but it seems like they all were there listening together to hear the Word of the Lord. And then they all respond by getting baptized at once. So that's a point that we need to make clear, because sometimes I hear people saying things like, well, hey, I believe; I don't know if I'm ready to get baptized. Well, let's think about that. Okay? Because sometimes when people are saying that, I think they think, well, I need to mature in my faith or something before I get baptized. No. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, and he saved you, you can publicly declare you're a follower of Jesus Christ. So, people, I hear people that are saying, no, I'm not ready to get baptized yet. And sometimes I wonder, does that mean they don't really have confidence in their faith? Are they putting baptism off because they're not really assured of things hoped for, or convicted of things not seen? So, I just, I just want to say, if you're like, yeah, I'll say I believe but I don't know if I want to get baptized. That's not the biblical way to think about it right there. The biblical way to think about it is I have faith in Jesus Christ, he saved me, I'm ready to let everybody know about that. So, if there's a hesitation, if you have doubts about your own faith, hey, I would love to talk to you about that after the service. The Compass Connect team would love to talk to you any of our elders here that you can find on the back of your bulletin. We would all be happy to meet with you and talk to you about any doubts you have. about your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if you have believed in Jesus, you've been saved by Jesus. And you can put the world on notice that you're one of his disciples, and we will see the ongoing effects of Jesus in your life. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? Okay,
So, we have a baptism class, if you have questions about baptism, we have a baptism class today at one o'clock, with Pastor Bill right here in this room, and you can come and bring those questions to him. So, there's this inspiring account should lead some of us, maybe leaders of households, to think about how our faith would impact our family should probably lead some here to consider, I should be getting baptized, and it should leave everybody here who has believed in Jesus, to rejoice in our salvation is what we should be ready to do. I mean, we should rejoice that we believed and that God was so good to save us. And so, we are going to take communion together here today, everybody. We're going to remember that Jesus died, he sacrificed his body, he shed his blood as a sacrifice to pay for our sin, and it says that when you take communion, when you take that little bread, and that little cup, and you take these elements that are symbols of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we proclaim the Lord's death on till he comes, is what it says, because the Lord is getting ready to return, and our faith is actively looking to him. And so today is a day for all of those who have believed in the Lord Jesus, and you have been saved. Today is the day for us to remember our Lord, and to proclaim his death until he comes.
So, what we're going to do is we're going to sing a song right now, because I want to give you a moment to pray, and to really consider Jesus, to worship along with the song. But let's really think about how you can rejoice in your salvation because of Jesus Christ. And then I'll come back, and we'll take communion all together. Let's pray about it right here.
Father, we come to you. And we just want to say this story seemed like it went a bad direction, when Paul and Silas were getting beaten up. But we thank you for their faith in the trial that they're praying and singing hymns to you. And that this jailer, that you drew that jailer to run in there and asked, what must I do to be saved? God, please make sure we have the right answer to that question. God, I pray that everybody here would have a clear, biblical definition of what faith really is, that I am actively trusting Jesus Christ. And I pray that that would be true in our lives, that we're looking to our salvation is nearer than when we first believed, and we're putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. So, God make us a church, where people really have faith, and we have this assurance of all the promises. We can't wait for Jesus to come back and get us; we have the conviction of the things not seen. And we're confident in what Jesus is about to do. And God I just pray for the men, the men who come to this church, and they need to have faith, that would affect their households, faith that would affect their wives, their kids, maybe people they work with, but they're not really putting their trust into Jesus Christ. Let today be a day of salvation for those men. Let there be jailers among us who are freed from the prison of their sin and find a new life in Jesus Christ this very day. And God led all of us rejoice in what Jesus has done. We pray this in his name. Amen.