Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] In Acts, chapter 16, there's a beautiful story about a conversion where a man comes to understand his great need for salvation. A man who is without hope.
[00:00:19] A man who is, in the end, without everything.
[00:00:26] Today we call that man the Philippian Jailer.
[00:00:32] We're not given his name, but we are given this beautiful story about him.
[00:00:41] And as this man, the Philippian jailer, comes to understand his great need, It's in his mind, it's in his plan. He is about to commit suicide. He's about to kill himself.
[00:01:02] And it's at that point where he knows the depth of his need, but he sees no hope.
[00:01:12] That suddenly hope is introduced not just to the story, though it is quite the story for us. No hope is introduced to him.
[00:01:28] Life.
[00:01:30] And not just life, but eternal life. Salvation for him.
[00:01:40] And so he repents and is baptized together with his household.
[00:01:50] Have you ever had somebody ask you what they need to do to be saved?
[00:02:00] I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that if I asked for a show of hands, there would probably be no hands that would go up for yes. Somebody asked me that question, what must I do to be saved? Even if I expanded the vocabulary a little bit, probably most of you would say no.
[00:02:17] I've never really had anybody ask me that question.
[00:02:24] As a pastor, I get asked that question occasionally, and it's a beautiful thing when it happens. Maybe some of you have been asked that question, if you have. Praise God, what a gift. What a perfect opportunity to share the hope that is within you, which we are commanded to always be prepared to give an answer for that hope.
[00:02:51] But let me expand that question a little bit more and help you to think about the ways that you might have been asked a similar question.
[00:03:00] Really the same question at its root.
[00:03:09] Have you ever had somebody tell you that they want what you have, I want what you have. And they're not talking about your awesome mug or your car, your house. Although there are elements of God's blessing that have been poured out on all of us that do attract people to see the way that God's hand has been kind to us.
[00:03:44] And some of those things are indeed his physical provision for us. And we ought to testify to those things, that he has protected us when we are in danger, that he has provided for us when we didn't know where we were going to get our next meal, that we weren't sure how to provide for our families, but God was sure and he did it. All of these things are things that could draw somebody's attention to your life and cause you to have the opportunity to say, yes, this was God's provision and I am thankful for it and I rely on him day by day. And so there are opportunities related to these kinds of physical blessings and provisions that God gives to us. And yet when somebody says, I want what you have, normally they're not talking about those physical things.
[00:04:49] They're talking about the peace that you have at the loss of those physical things. Just as one example, your health is not generally notable.
[00:05:06] Your peace, when you lack health, that's notable.
[00:05:17] I want what you have. They look at the peace, different kind of peace. The peace between your children, the love that you share with your wife, with your fellow Christians.
[00:05:38] They see the fellowship that exists between the saints.
[00:05:45] I want you to think about your life. What is it that is attractive about your life?
[00:05:52] That when a non Christian sees it, they can say, I want what you have.
[00:06:05] That thing, that part of your life that is God's gift and that is your witness.
[00:06:19] Or maybe somebody has told you, man, you're different.
[00:06:29] What makes you so different?
[00:06:32] Ever been asked that?
[00:06:34] Not so much a I want what you have, but just, wow, you stand out.
[00:06:40] You're unique. You don't act the same way that other people do.
[00:06:45] I've watched people in your situation over and over and over. And your reaction, the way you behave is completely different.
[00:06:57] You don't complain.
[00:07:00] Everybody here complains. Why don't you complain?
[00:07:07] And you work hard.
[00:07:10] You don't get ahead by working hard here. Why do you bother working hard?
[00:07:23] Some of those are simply making note of the fact that you don't sin in the ways that a normal person in your shoes would.
[00:07:32] Huh?
[00:07:34] You know, I've known you for 15 years and I don't think I've ever heard you cuss.
[00:07:42] I just realized that that's weird.
[00:07:48] You never take, you never say God or Christ.
[00:07:55] You don't take the Lord's name in vain.
[00:07:58] They don't even know to call it that. Right?
[00:08:06] Maybe you've had somebody turn to you in the time of their own trouble and ask you what to do, and you're thinking, how am I supposed to know?
[00:08:18] But why are they turning to you?
[00:08:23] Because of all these. It's the same thing.
[00:08:26] They are seeing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in you, and therefore they are seeing Christ Jesus in you. Therefore they are seeing God, the image of Christ Jesus our Lord.
[00:08:46] You are made in the image of God, but that's not what I'm talking about. They're seeing that you have something that they need, and that is hope. Now, I hope that most of you have had these sorts of things happen to you.
[00:09:08] I hope they've happened multiple times if they have never happened to you.
[00:09:15] And feel free to think down the line. There's many ways of expanding this into the kinds of conversations that I've described, into many other things that people can say and ask that are the same route.
[00:09:37] If these things have never been asked of you, you ought to ask yourself, why.
[00:09:49] Because the fruit of the spirit is evident to the world, and people begin to comment on it eventually.
[00:10:02] But when these kinds of conversations have come up, that. And that's my general assumption, that most of you have had people ask you these kinds of things. Now, some of you kids are thinking, I've never had anybody ask me that. I don't know who would bother asking me that. The only people I know are Christians.
[00:10:25] Okay, fair enough.
[00:10:28] But I hope you remember this, because there will come a day when you get your first job and you'll begin to face temptations to live in the world and of the world, rather than to live in the world but not be of the world.
[00:10:51] And you'll realize that you don't want to stand out, that you don't want people to ask you these questions, that you want to be normal. And in that moment, I want you to remember this sermon. I want you to think, I hope that I can live my life in such a way that it glorifies my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, so that the whole world will notice, not me, but they will notice God and his work, and they'll want to know about it.
[00:11:34] Because if you start out that way, then when they ask the question, you won't do what your parents have done, which is try to end the conversation as quickly and with as little awkwardness as possible.
[00:11:50] I threw your parents under the bus there. I know.
[00:11:55] Now I understand the temptation not to live that way, and I also understand the temptation to ignore the opportunity that it presents.
[00:12:13] And so the sermon this morning is intended to help each of us to grow in our ability to have these kinds of conversations.
[00:12:26] So we get to look at a conversation that Paul and Silas have with the Philippian jailer. Would you please stand for the reading of God's Word from Acts, chapter 16, Verses 27 through 34.
[00:12:50] When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.
[00:13:02] But Paul cried out with a loud voice saying, do not harm yourself, for we are all here and he called for lights and rushed in. And trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. And after he brought them out, he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved?
[00:13:27] They said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.
[00:13:37] And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.
[00:13:43] And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds. And immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.
[00:13:52] And he brought them into his house and set food before them and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.
[00:14:03] This is the word of the Lord.
[00:14:06] Please be seated.
[00:14:16] When I talk about evangelism, if you've ever heard me talk about evangelism, you might have heard me bring up the distinction between those who are ordained, set apart by the laying on of hands, and through the selection of the church seeking the will of the Holy Spirit to gospel ministry. Those who are ordained and those who are not.
[00:14:52] The reason that I will sometimes bring that up is an attempt to prevent those who are not ordained from feeling a false burden.
[00:15:11] There is a distinction between men ordained to the work of ministry and normal church members with regards to evangelism.
[00:15:22] And yet there is no ability for us to simply ignore the work of evangelism entirely if we are not ordained and set apart to gospel ministry.
[00:15:44] And so I hope this morning to lay out more particularly the work that we all do have as Christians in this area.
[00:15:57] So if the goal of this sermon is to help us have fruitful conversations with non Christians about what they must do to be saved, about what it means to be a Christian, then the first question we need to ask is, how can we get into these kinds of conversations in the first place?
[00:16:29] The first answer is we must live blatantly Christian lives, blatantly Christian out there for everybody to see without any shame.
[00:16:51] In other words, we do not hide our obedience to his commands. We do not try to disguise them.
[00:17:01] We do not try to pretend like we don't have joy at our salvation.
[00:17:18] Blatantly Christian.
[00:17:20] There are many ways to live a blatantly Christian life.
[00:17:27] One of the ways that that is described as taking up our cross daily.
[00:17:35] Now, taking up your cross daily means taking up an instrument of suffering and death daily. Okay, so let's be very clear that that's not a pleasant sounding thing to say. Take up your cross daily.
[00:17:52] It's a miserable sounding thing.
[00:17:59] And yet we are to take up our cross daily with joy, not with complaining.
[00:18:12] When we take up our cross daily, that Means that every day as we go about our business, while we live, while we breathe, while we eat, as the apostle Paul says, whatever we do, we do it all to the glory of God.
[00:18:39] In fact, We ought to be giving God glory publicly for the blessings that he pours out on us.
[00:18:54] How do we live blatantly Christian lives?
[00:18:59] We flee youthful lusts.
[00:19:03] We store up treasure in heaven, not on earth.
[00:19:10] If we live an out loud Christian life, like Daniel, who prayed without shame knowing that it would lead to his arrest, Like the apostle Paul, like Jesus, What will happen is people will know from our words and our actions that we're Christians.
[00:19:55] I've often had conversations with people with a fellow brother or sister and they'll be talking about somebody they just met and they say, I knew they were a Christian, I thought they were a Christian. I could tell they were a Christian. I was pretty sure they were a Christian.
[00:20:17] 5, 10 minutes time you meet them and you think, you know, I think they might be a Christian. You're not always right, of course, but isn't it interesting how quickly we can pick up on this difference?
[00:20:40] Living for Christ, our light shines into this darkened world.
[00:20:51] They will know from your words, from your actions, from your attitudes, from the way you live your life in whatever you are doing. They will know that you are different.
[00:21:03] Another way of saying it is they will know that you have been saved.
[00:21:10] That's why we are exhorted and commanded in fact, to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us. Because it is that hope that is within us that they will see.
[00:21:34] They will know we are people with knowledge of the way of salvation.
[00:21:43] Think about that.
[00:21:46] It's not I've got the power, it's I've got the knowledge. And it's not some secret knowledge. This isn't Gnosticism, right? It is the public knowledge. It is the glorious news of salvation in Christ Jesus.
[00:22:04] That is the knowledge that you have and that is the knowledge that they need.
[00:22:11] That is the hope that they desire to have for themselves.
[00:22:20] If you are the people with the knowledge of the way of salvation, you cannot be ashamed of the good news that you've received.
[00:22:30] It can't be something that they ask you about and you're embarrassed.
[00:22:36] You try to get the conversation over with. You try to move past it as quickly as you can.
[00:22:47] It's got to be, yes, I do.
[00:22:54] And here it is.
[00:23:00] Christ jesus.
[00:23:08] He came, he died, he rose again so that I could live.
[00:23:21] We can see that Paul and Silas were known as Christians. Can't we?
[00:23:27] The question that comes to them, what must I do to be saved? Isn't that interesting? Here is a man who's about to kill himself, and they say, stop.
[00:23:38] Don't harm yourself.
[00:23:42] And his immediate question is not, How can I.
[00:23:56] How can I?
[00:23:58] Think about all the questions that would be on your mind. You're.
[00:24:02] It's a question of life and death.
[00:24:04] And he says, what must I do to be saved? But isn't his question so much deeper than, how can I save my life?
[00:24:15] His life has already been saved.
[00:24:18] Do you see that?
[00:24:20] The prisoners are all still there.
[00:24:23] His life has been saved. And what does he say? What must I do to be saved?
[00:24:34] You're saved, man. Don't worry about it. We're all good. We're all here. Isn't that what you might be tempted to say?
[00:24:44] It's just the trauma making him ask a question that doesn't make any sense anymore.
[00:24:48] No, this is your opportunity.
[00:24:53] Why were they known as Christians? Why were they clearly men who had knowledge of the way of salvation that they could be asked, what can I do to be saved?
[00:25:08] Well, they weren't preaching or teaching.
[00:25:12] We didn't see it because they started a little too late in the passage. But do any of you kids know what they were doing?
[00:25:25] They're in jail. You know what they were doing?
[00:25:27] Thought I saw a hand there. Gaziel singing.
[00:25:32] They were singing.
[00:25:38] They were singing and praying.
[00:25:41] This is what they were doing in jail.
[00:25:44] And this is what made it clear that they were Christians. They were living out loud as Christians in jail.
[00:25:53] And when they were out of jail, they lived out loud as Christians, too.
[00:25:59] They did preach, they did teach.
[00:26:06] Now, if you must always be ready to give an account of the hope that is within you, that means you must be able to explain the basics, the gospel. You must.
[00:26:17] You can't have any hope unless you can say what your hope is. Right?
[00:26:27] Hope is seen in us constantly as we live our lives.
[00:26:33] And so you must be able to tell people how to find and walk the same road you are on. In other words, you must have that knowledge that I'm saying. People will see it in you.
[00:26:46] If you can't say it, how is it that your life can be different?
[00:26:55] Because you have to be able to say it to yourself.
[00:26:59] Yeah, I know.
[00:27:02] I know when I look at the news, especially Fox News, that what they're trying to tell me is the world is going to hell in a handbasket and there is no hope.
[00:27:16] And I see people everywhere believing it, getting more and more Angry, getting more and more faithless, more and more hopeless.
[00:27:28] But.
[00:27:33] If I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, I will be saved.
[00:27:43] I don't have to live the way that everyone thinks. I have to live.
[00:27:53] I don't have to be in fear what's coming next.
[00:27:58] I don't have to live in constant chasing after what I think needs to be next.
[00:28:11] This is what it looks like to live a blatantly Christian life.
[00:28:17] The second thing you must do is you must call out to people not to harm themselves.
[00:28:27] We often see people making bad choices, being self destructive in their behavior.
[00:28:36] This is to say sinning, right? Sinning sometimes in terrible ways that harm not only themselves, but in others harm others as well.
[00:28:51] Yesterday I took my family to the funeral.
[00:28:55] Tragic suicide.
[00:28:59] Number of people that were hurt and harmed by that act was unbelievable.
[00:29:12] And here's what the Philippian jailer was about to do.
[00:29:15] Think about the emphasis in the passage on his household.
[00:29:21] Have you ever thought about what would have happened if he had committed suicide to his household?
[00:29:35] Do not harm yourself.
[00:29:40] Do not harm yourself.
[00:29:42] It's a command, it's an appeal, right?
[00:29:56] As Christians, we recognize the truth that those who are making bad choices, who are being self destructive, it's actually sin, not lack of proper education.
[00:30:15] We know the end game. It's clear as day the wages of sin is death, yes, but we also know that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so we call them away from the sin that they are about to embrace as we cry out, do not harm yourself.
[00:30:45] Do not harm yourself. Now sometimes the harming yourself is this tragic, terrible sin of self, murder, suicide.
[00:30:56] Other times, the sins that people are reaching out to are any number of different things.
[00:31:09] Think about whether you fall into the category of this Philippian jailer that somebody needs to cry out to you, stop harming yourself.
[00:31:21] Don't do it.
[00:31:26] Stop giving yourself into sin. It leads ultimately to death.
[00:31:33] This was a shock to me. I might have told you guys the story before, but it was a shock to me.
[00:31:38] When I was in fifth grade, maybe sixth, when I was telling my dad about one of the kids in my class and the kid was just poorly behaved. He was a bully, he was a jerk, he was bit cruel, he was disobedient.
[00:32:07] And my dad said, in a few years he will be in jail or dead.
[00:32:15] What?
[00:32:17] I'm in fifth grade, dad. That's right over my head. But it wasn't. It was right between my eyes.
[00:32:28] It made me think, is my dad crazy?
[00:32:35] Why would he say that? I'VE never seen any 6th grader go to jail.
[00:32:42] Never seen any 6th grader die.
[00:32:45] I never kept track of that kid. But I've watched over the years since then, and I've seen the kids that are rebellious and I've seen the way that they die or end up in jail or end up in jail and then die.
[00:33:03] It happens over and over and over. Because the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Now I'm crying out to you, don't harm yourself.
[00:33:28] Life.
[00:33:31] How can you be saved?
[00:33:40] Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
[00:33:47] Our love.
[00:33:49] Our love causes us to plead with others, don't harm yourself.
[00:33:55] We call them away from the sin they're about to embrace. We call them away from the sin they've been embracing.
[00:34:04] There's nothing special in Paul and Silas that gave them the responsibility to call out to the jailer.
[00:34:11] See, this is every Christian's duty.
[00:34:15] Each of us ought to do it as we see people destroying themselves by living as enemies of God.
[00:34:21] And this is laying down the law.
[00:34:27] Do not harm yourself. It's a command.
[00:34:31] Don't sin in this way, brothers. Do not sin in this way.
[00:34:39] It's also an appeal.
[00:34:41] Don't sin in this way.
[00:34:50] And now might come the question in your mind. Okay, I see it. I understand.
[00:34:54] I have to live blatantly as a Christian and I have to call out to people not to harm themselves.
[00:35:02] So far you've convinced me, but you haven't helped me.
[00:35:09] What am I supposed to say if this conversation comes up? What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed. How am I supposed to have this conversation?
[00:35:19] If people are willing to turn to us in these sorts of difficult times or listen to us as we speak into their lives and call out to them, don't harm yourself, then we need to get straight to the heart of the matter, right to the meat.
[00:35:45] You don't be like, oh, you know, let's chat about the weather first and whether the Bengals are going to win or lose.
[00:35:57] Let's put off this awkward conversation as long. And by the way, you might think that I'm being needlessly cruel to you, but I'm not.
[00:36:09] I'm only telling you what I have done.
[00:36:16] You understand what I'm saying?
[00:36:21] I one time invited a family over, seeking to witness to them and invited other Christians to be with me to help me with that work.
[00:36:41] And I spent the entire time talking about Bidfta.
[00:36:48] There was no hope.
[00:36:50] There was no faith.
[00:36:58] And I don't think that I am unique in sinning in that way.
[00:37:06] So am I being brutal. Yes. Brutal against my sin.
[00:37:13] Brutal against your sin. Seeking to put it to death to help you to hate it.
[00:37:23] Here is a man who has knowledge of his need, asking what to do.
[00:37:30] Tell him already.
[00:37:34] Give him the gift of the Gospel. This good news that we have.
[00:37:40] Answer his question straightforwardly. You will have heard me say that the best practice that you can do for evangelism is to look in a mirror and practice saying the word yes.
[00:37:55] And then do that for like five minutes. And then the next day look in the mirror and practice saying no.
[00:38:04] Simple questions, simple answers.
[00:38:11] You can't be ashamed to say yes, to say no, to answer honestly and straightforwardly. This is where hope is offered.
[00:38:25] It's the simplest possible answer. It's filled, though, with depth.
[00:38:30] Meaning, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
[00:38:40] That's it?
[00:38:42] Yes, that's it.
[00:38:49] Well, surely there's more though, right? Yes, there is more, but that's it.
[00:39:00] Well, but I've been living with my girlfriend. Do I have to stop?
[00:39:05] I mean, we're about to get married.
[00:39:07] I'm afraid she'll leave me. If I.
[00:39:14] Can say it with me.
[00:39:15] Yes.
[00:39:21] Not.
[00:39:23] Well, there are a lot of complicating factors that we ought to consider.
[00:39:27] Extenuating circumstances that. Can you tell me a little bit about?
[00:39:33] It's just. Yes.
[00:39:35] We stop. We turn away from sin.
[00:39:42] Simplest possible answer, filled with depth of meaning. Suddenly the genie lead is popping into my mind. My illustrations are going berserk.
[00:39:55] Sorry, I tried to turn it off.
[00:39:57] Itty bitty leaving space.
[00:40:00] Infinite vast power.
[00:40:05] I couldn't turn it.
[00:40:12] One word answer, two letters. No, three letters. Yes.
[00:40:20] Great, huge faith to say it.
[00:40:26] Gigantic meaning for their salvation.
[00:40:31] If we are bold enough to simply give them the basic truths of the gospel, it will be life changing for them.
[00:40:41] And they will be added to our number.
[00:40:44] They will be baptized.
[00:40:46] They will be saved.
[00:40:48] That's the key.
[00:40:54] Go to the true answer to all of these questions. We saw all the questions. We saw all the things that you might be asked. We saw all the ways that you might be able to call out.
[00:41:04] Well, we saw little bits, maybe not all of them.
[00:41:10] Now do it.
