The Philippian Jailer Saved

Praise the Lord, I want to thank the Pastor for allowing me the opportunity to minister the word to you all this afternoon

I also want to give thanks to my wife for allowing me the time to pursue the things of God to spend the time I do with God comes at a sacrifice to her and my family and I wanted to make sure to share that.

Lastly but first and foremost, I want to give thanks to God for blessing me throughout the construction of this message. Putting this message together was a very enjoyable blessing and I pray that you all are blessed in receiving it this evening. Let us go into prayer:

WE THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING US TO BE IN THIS PLACE IN ONE ACCORD SEEKING YOU PRAISING YOU AND BLESSING YOU. I ASK THAT YOU BLESS US WITH YOUR WORD AND REVELATION THIS DAY.

The New King James Version Chapter 16

25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

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 chains were loosed.

27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself.

28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”

29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.

34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

Our bible passage brings us to a scene about 950 miles from Jerusalem, in the city of Philippi, An important Roman colony in the province of Macedonia

This is where we find our Brothers Paul and Silas in prison.

The story is all to familiar to us as to why our bothers find themselves in prison… to sum up the reasoning,

Why, For doing the work of Christ!

Doing the work of God is the reason we find them in prison.

to be specific, for casting a spirit out of a possessed women who practiced as a fortune teller or what some would call a medium.

In a similar instance, we see Jesus casting out the legion of spirits from the possessed Gadarene man. Likewise, once the spirits were cast out,

the village became very distressed.

Jesus had casted the legion of spirts out of the gaderene into a hurd of 2000 pigs or so.

Disregarding the man Jesus freed, they placed a higher regard for their lively hood. After the 2000 or so pigs perished the town likewise begged the Spirit of the Lord to Leave! They begged Jesus to depart!

I want to comfort someone here today, I want to let them know that once God begins to work in your life.

Once God begins to convict you to cut things out of your life.

Once you begin to surrender to those convictions!

Friends, Family, Aquantinances, may not be fond of those convictions. They may disagree with you, they may shame you and in some cases they may disown you.

This is what we call being persecuted for righteousness sake Church,

Matthew 5:10-12 SAYS

The New King James Version Chapter 5

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.

12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Rest assured Brothers and Sisters,

Jesus felt this rejection, Paul felt this rejection, and many other brothers and sisters before us felt this rejection.

As humans, we long to feel wanted, we long to be apart of something greater than ourselves.

Brothers and Sisters, We need to be connected with one another, we need to be a friend to one another. We need to learn to serve one another. Most importantly above all we need to be connected to our source of love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. We need to be connected to Jesus!

Amen,

What we find so beautiful in this instance of Paul and Silas in prison,

is that despite being prisoners,

despite being in the midst of their rejection,

despite being in the midst of the storm!

We find our brothers lifting up Praises and Prayer to our God!

They sang because they knew they had a calling from God,

They sang because they knew they were chosen,

Acts—The Church Afire The Gospel’s Power in Persecution (Vv. 19–34)

They sang because they believed rightly that they were prisoners of Christ and not of Rome!

There was nothing this world could do to them to keep them from praising God!

Acts—The Church Afire The Gospel’s Power in Persecution (Vv. 19–34)

They passionately believed God could deliver them anytime and from any place if he so desired.

I wonder if we had a faith like this today how much more peace would be upon the situations we face. If we just lifted up a praise in the midst of our storm, I wonder what might happen in that situation.

The New King James Version Psalm 63

3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,

My lips shall praise You.

let me paraphrase if I may: Because your better then anything this world has to offer, because your better then life itself, I’m going to praise you!

4 Thus I will bless You while I live;

I will lift up my hands in Your name.

(While there is breath in my lungs I’m going to bless you, While there is still breath in my lungs I’m going to surrender to you, in Jesus Name!)

Praise God!

The Word of God goes on to Say:

The New King James Version Chapter 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 chains were loosed.

The Word says:

The foundations were shaking!

Doors were opening!

Chains were loosening!

The God of our Breakthrough was working in the Midst!

Amen!

When we feel like giving up,

when we feel like throwing in the towel

We need to keep praying, we need to keep pressing, we need to keep seeking!

God wants to open the doors, God wants to break the Chains,

God is looking for a People who are willing to praise Him through their storm!

______

Upon waking up from the earthquake, what seemed to be a miracle for Paul and Silas, seemed like a terrible dream to the Jailer!

Awakened by the noise, the roman sees all the cell doors open.

Immediate fear, doubt and condemnation fill the jailers head.

Thoughts of failure, shame, and suicide.

The enemy creeps in,

The enemy began to work in the mind of the jailer.

Lie upon lie.

Satan was in the midst and was not far from this mighty act of God. Satan never rests no matter the circumstances.

We need to stay vigilant and conscious of the workings of the enemy. Satan will work even in the midst of a miracle.

One would not expect this but the Word of God is true, preceeding the miracle Satan was indeed working in the midst.

Being in constant prayer, consistent in fasting and reading the Word helps us in these moments to be sensitive to what may be going on spiritually. Good and bad.

In this moment the jailer was consumed with condemnation. The Jailer had failed, He thought What would my fellow constituents think knowing I am a failure, knowing that I couldn’t live up to their standards? Rather than incur the disgrace of failure in his charge, this way out would be typical for roman soldiers to rather kill themselves. It was typical for this soldier in his world to just take his life. This is what he knew, this is what he probalbly heard and witnessed with other constituents.

But Paul cried out! Paul being full of the Holy Spirit Called out to the jailer!

Being spiritually sensitive to the situation he cried out; “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”

Do yourself no harm my friend, your not a failure!

I find this moment so profound due to the jailer not aware of Paul and Silas still in their cell, and Paul not having the jailer in sight, how did he know that the jailer was going to inflect suicide on himself. He did not see him.

Instead of running out the doors or completely being oblivious to their surroundings due to just witnessing an amazing work of God, Paul right away had the jailer in mind, this spiritual sensitivity would go onto saving the Jailer’s life.

I know sometimes situations in the this world can seem so dire, I know that in some instances it can feel like the world is coming in almost as though there is no light at the end of the tunnel. This is what the jailer felt. He had lost all hope and Satan in that moment was shouting in the mans ear to end everything!

It’s not worth going on anymore, You have nothing to live for. You have failed!

Satan was ministering to the man condemnation due to failure. In this specific instance the Jailer not knowing everything was actually fine and that no one actually left was convinced that ending it there and then was better then facing the condemnation, shame, and guilt of failure.

Sometimes in situations we can find oursleves wanting to throw the towel in without really knowing the entirety of the situation. We need to in these moments find ourselves trusting in God and knowing He’s working in the midst. Just as He was working for Paul and Silas, little did the jailer know God was going to use this time to change his life. God was working in the midst to save his life too!

What seemed like a night mare, turned into a blessing! called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

The Jailer then “called for a light ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.”

In fear of the miracle just witnessed, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

The New King James Version Chapter 16

And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”