Salvation is God’s work – Acts 16

Sermon delivered by Christopher Hobbs on 19^th October 08

Some piece of paper – A4,white with lots of words on it and lines for filling in - came through the post from some company or other. It didn’t look as though it concerned me. I put it in the bin. Oh. That was a pity. I was meant to do something with that. Circumcision and Christians in the early church. Nothing to do with me. Let’s get on with something more relevant. Last week we were looking at the great controversy in the early church last week. It may have looked not very important for us today, but it relates to the whole of who were are and how we are Christians. Did people who weren’t Jews have to become like Jews in order to be Christians? In particular, did Christian men have to be circumcised? The answer came from the leader of the church in Jerusalem, that it was not necessary. People were not saved by keeping the law, but by believing the good news.

That was settled, but more had to be done. There were preachers going around telling the Gentile new believers that they had to be circumcised and keep the law. The decision couldn’t stay in Jerusalem. It had to be sent around the churches in the far away districts. And they had to get on with the mission to the Gentiles, so that they could be saved.

So we saw last week that the message was sent to Antioch in Syria, where the Gentile mission had really begun. They rejoiced to get the message. Paul, the person Acts is really interested in, stays in Antioch for some time teaching and proclaiming the word. On the little map on the order of service, you can see the line going up from Jerusalem to a little star in Syrian Antioch.

The Acts of the Apostles is a bad name. It’s only some of the apostles, a few of them. And it’s only some of the acts, a few of them. It leaves out far, far more than it tells us. Just from this section we don’t know what Peter did after the meeting in Jerusalem; we don’t know what Judas and Silas did when they left Antioch. We don’t have records of what Barnabas and John Mark did in Cyprus. And though we know that Paul and Silas went through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches, we don’t know where or for how long. So even the lines on the maps are just approximations

Luke only chooses to tell us some things. In the chapter today the story changes from talking about what ‘they’ did, to what we did; so ‘we’ can suppose that Luke himself joined them at Troas. And in this chapter that starts in Derbe and ends in Philippi, what is it that Luke wanted us to know from this period? He doesn’t tell us everything. He just tells us these few things. It seems to me he wants us to see how the decision about circumcision and the Law worked out. He wants to show us that salvation by faith is continuing. Gentiles are coming to faith, and not adopting the Jewish law.

That jailor in the middle of the night. All was sorted. His prisoners were locked up. The two new ones, who were apparently so troublesome, they had been severely flogged: he even had their feet in the stocks. There would be no trouble from them. He locked them up in the inner room, and went off to bed. The jailor was sleeping soundly. He didn’t hear their singing and praying. He wasn’t part of the jail-bird audience that listened so closely. They were locked up, and he was free. They were confined and he was not. He had a job, a livelihood for his family. It all went wrong in a moment. It was like having a secure job, and a mortgage, and suddenly no job, and no money. There was an earthquake. He looked out and saw all the cell doors open. His life was all of a sudden in a terrible mess. If you lost a prisoner you would be tortured and killed. Suicide looked the best option.

Somehow Paul knew what was happening, even in the dark, and from the inmost cell. Don’t harm yourself he called out. No one has escaped.

It must have seemed like a dream. What sort of prisoners don’t escape? What sort of people were these? He was so grateful to them for not escaping. Somehow he knew they were responsible, and he fell at their feet. It was relief, joy, hope, wonder, rolled into one. What could that jailor have meant when he called out ‘what must I do to be saved’? - How can I thank you? - Sort out my life please! What’s going on? Let me know the score? What’s happening? I want to be like you.

And he went from darkness to light almost in an instant. Very occasionally we have known people like that here. Very occasionally there have been people who don’t really know what they want, but they know they need God and his power. God sometimes saves people in an instant. Some one among us prayed the prayer to become a Christian on just the second session of Christianity Explored. The person couldn’t wait any longer. There are some people who know they need help. They don’t understand everything. They realise God is the answer to the mess that they are in. They call out and they believe.

This jailer. The night before not a believer, nowhere with God, now a believer.

Verse 31 gives us the clue: “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household”.

And the jailor did believe. It doesn’t tell us everything here. Just a few lines. Just the heading. We know that they spoke the work of the Lord to the people. The jailor washed Paul and Silas, and then they washed him in baptism. It doesn’t tell us in words but he clearly realised he was a sinner, and symbolically washed his sins away through Christ. God has brought someone, even more his whole household, to salvation. They have a long way to go. They are complete baby Christians but they are saved.

Another person whom God saved in this chapter was a bit different. She was a wealthy business woman. She was some sort of seeker after God. She was not a local, but someone who had moved there for business. Verse 14 tells us, “a certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was aid by Paul.”

Lydia was already there at the place of prayer on the Sabbath day. Whether she was born a Jew we do not know, but she associated herself with Jews. She worshipped their God. Lydia was someone who knew God was there, and wanted to worship him. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said. It’s as though Lydia was someone who came to the Lord through listening. It wasn’t instant like the jailor. She had a background from her knowledge of the Old Testament. It was more like someone who did the Christianity Explored course, or came along to church over a period of time, listened intently, and came to believe. The Lord did it. At some point a line was crossed, from unbelief to belief, and she was baptised as a sign of the washing away of her sins, but it is harder to give the exact moment than it was for the jailor.

And there are a few people like Lydia here at St Thomas’s also. People who came to faith over a period of thinking and seeking. We wish there were more. We wish there were more people who would do Christianity Explored or some other thinking about the faith. More people whom the Lord would open their hearts. If that could be you, I’ll find someone to do the course with you.

The third conversion, the third salvation, in this chapter is different again. I’m not talking about the slave girl with the spirit of knowing the future. She may have become a Christian, but we aren’t told, so we can’t be sure. It would have been strange for Paul to cast out the demon, and not pray for Christ to enter, but we don’t know. But there is another conversion mentioned in the chapter. It’s harder to spot, and you maybe need to know a bit of background information, but can you see it here?

Have a look at verses 1 and 2. “Paul went on also to Derbe and to Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer; but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium.”

Timothy’s mother was a believer, and so was his grandmother. 2 Timothy 1 verse 5 is Paul writing to Timothy and he says, “ I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” And later, “but as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you leaned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 3:14,15)

We don’t know when Timothy became a believer – maybe he didn’t even know. He had grown up in the faith, he was a disciple of the Lord Jesus. Maybe he was baptised as a baby? At any rate God had been bringing about his salvation. He was well spoken of by the believers. They could see that the Holy Spirit was at work in his life.

Praise God we have a number in this church who came to faith in childhood, over a longer period. They can’t remember when they became Christians, but there is the evidence in their lives that are believers. We can see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their love and concern for others, and in the good that they do.

In this chapter we see three instances of conversion, three people who are saved. One was very quick, one was more gradual but still the subject of a mature mind, and one was from childhood. However it happens, salvation is God’s work. God brought it about that Paul and Silas were in that jail in that town, and that the prisoners had not escaped at the earthquake. God brought the jailor to believe in the Lord Jesus. God brought it about that Lydia was at that place of prayer by the riverside. God opened her heart to listen eagerly. God brought it about that Timothy was the son of Eunice and grandson of Lois. God opened Timothy’s heart as he was growing up. In all three cases human agents spoke the word of God, and God was the one who brought salvation.

We have to do something about this information.

It is right to ask when it was that we believed the gospel. Was it in childhood, in a process, or all of a sudden? However it happened it was God’s work. Maybe there are some here today for whom the question should be, Have you yet believed on the Lord Jesus and been saved?

We see too, how normal it is for a new believer to want the rest of his or her family to come to Christ. If you have been saved you want your family and friends to be saved as well. Whether it’s Lois and Eunice teaching Timothy, or Lydia’s employees or the jailor’s family. It’s normal for a Christian to be concerned for others to become Christians too. It’s normal to want your children to have every opportunity to have a mature faith, sacrificing for them to go on Holiday Clubs, Christian holidays and conferences, and praying with them at home. It’s normal for Christians to want to send money and pray for missions. If we have stopped being concerned about those who are not Christians, or if we have never been concerned, then there is something strange. We should ask ourselves why we should be any different from these believers. We should ask God to give us the desires we should have.

And we see too how normal it is for a Christian to want to offer hospitality to other Christians, to treat them as family – like Lydia did, and the jailor. We can think of the work, and of the cost. We can think our house would never be tidy enough, or our food not up to standard. Or we could open our homes and have fellowship in the Lord. How long I wonder since you invited someone from church home for lunch on a Sunday, or out during the week?

There is one thing before we leave Timothy. We are not told when his baptism took place. Strangely we are told about his circumcision. The very chapter after the big battle where it was laid down that Gentiles don’t need to be circumcised, then Paul goes and has Timothy circumcised. What’s going on?

It was established that circumcision was not necessary for Gentiles to be saved. But circumcision was still the marker for Jewish men. Nobody would have listened to Timothy, and maybe not even to Paul, when they went around the synagogues if Paul was with a Jew who had not been circumcised. Paul couldn’t have gone everywhere on his ministry with Timothy uncircumcised. The New Testament doesn’t do away with the Jewish race. It completes Jews. It gives them the Messiah, the fulfilment of the prophecies. Jesus- believing Jews are still the children of Abraham, heirs of the promise. In conscience they may want to circumcise their children. We are not to judge the Jewish believers in Christ for their conscience: we are blessed that the promise of God has been opened out to the Gentiles, through faith. If the early church could tolerate two streams, both Biblical, thinking about it more widely, maybe for the sake of peace in the church there are things that we can be flexible about? Some traditions perhaps, or styles of music? What matters is faith in Christ.

Salvation is God’s work however it happens, and because it is God’s work, God’s enemy is always going to oppose it.

One way the enemy opposed the message would have been through dissension and disagreement in the church. Paul stopped that by circumcising Timothy. The next way the enemy opposed the work was through the girl with the spirit. She was calling out and distracting people from the message. The enemy was stopped by exorcism in the name of Jesus. Then the enemy attacked the work through the greed and nationalistic pride and anti-Semitism of the owners of the slave girl, who lost their golden goose when Paul cast out the demon. Then the enemy attacked using the courts, as Paul and Silas were thrown into the prison and whipped. Over and over we see that the gospel message is attacked, but because it is God’s message it is not silenced. Despite the opposition of God’s enemy, the gospel advanced, and the gospel advanced into Europe.

Since salvation is God’s work we shouldn’t at all be surprised when people oppose it. The Bible says that by nature we do not want to listen to him. I remember hearing – where was it, was it on the Christianity Explored course? – of a man who thought it was such a waste when his son went to become a preacher. That jailor in Philippi would have lost friends when he became a believer. Lydia may have lost customers. It comes with the territory. Salvation will always be opposed.

Maybe you have told your wife about Jesus, and she wants none of it. Maybe your children never really grew in the Christian faith, in fact they withered away. Maybe you once tried to invite a neighbour or a friend to something Christian, and now they avoid you and think you are odd. Opposition comes, but God gets the gospel out as his people speak it.

It is a mystery to all of us why God should have revealed the gospel to us. There was nothing special about us. Why did it come to us, and not to someone else? Why did he open our hearts to listen eagerly, and not someone else’s? Why did the gospel go to Macedonia, and not the province of Asia? Why did the Spirit of Jesus stop them going into Bithynia? We don’t know. But if we know the gospel, then we are charged with passing it on.

Because it is God’s salvation, we need to stand up for it. Most of you support the United Kingdom in sporting events. You stand up for your country. You honour its teams. There is a sense that we need to stand up for the honour of God’s salvation.

We could personally turn the other cheek when we are attacked. In many cases that may be the right think to do. We should forgive seventy times seven times. We are at liberty to allow ourselves to be spat upon, and scornfully treated, but for the sake of our brothers and sisters we may decide not to be walked over. We may stand up for the rights of Christians. It’s the difference between taking pain yourself, and standing in to stop others being mistreated. Consider Paul and Silas. They were ordered to be released. But they had been treated wrongfully. Verse 36, And the jailer reported the message to Paul, saying, ‘The magistrates sent word to let you go: therefore come out now and go in peace.’. But Paul replied, ‘They have beaten us in public, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they going to discharge us in secret? Certainly not! Let them come and take out themselves.’

If Paul had let himself be treated that, what would it have meant for the little church that he was leaving behind. People needed to know that the Christian faith was something to be respected, something entirely proper for a Roman Citizen to believe. And why? Because it was salvation from God.

God’s salvation comes in many ways in this chapter – but how will God bring salvation if believers are silent? Because it is God’s salvation the enemy will oppose it.

Because it is God’s salvation we should stand up for it. We mustn’t put it aside and think it’s nothing to do with us.