A Surprising Conversion
Summer 2022
The details of the apostles recorded for us in Acts 16 leave us in no doubt that Paul was being guided very definitely by God on his missionary journey to a specific place to reach specific people with the message of the gospel that they might be saved by the grace of God. Acts 16:6 reveals that, as Paul and those travelling with him had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia. It is true that the great commission is to go into all the world, and to preach the gospel to every creature, but at that time it was not God's purpose for Paul and his companions to preach in Asia. The Holy Ghost closed that door to them at that time.
Then we learn that they “assayed” (v. 7), or attempted to go into Bithynia, but “the Spirit suffered them not.” Another door was being closed to them, but these closed doors were part of God’s guidance to bring Paul and his companions to the place where God would have them preach the gospel. When they came to Troas, through a vision appearing to Paul in the night, God gave clear direction to Paul and his companions as to the place they were to be and the people they were to preach to. In the vision, “There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.” Luke records that after Paul had seen the vision, “immediately they endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called [them] for to preach the gospel unto them.”
When they arrived in Philippi, a major city of Macedonia, it was not long until God began to work in hearts. The Lord was pleased to open the heart of a woman called Lydia bringing her to faith, and a certain damsel possessed by an evil spirit was also delivered in the name of the Lord Jesus. When opposition arose, Paul and Silas were brought before the city magistrates and were accused of “troubling the city.” Their punishment included being beaten and imprisonment.
Was this really part of God’s plan in bringing them to Philippi? Yes, for there was a man in that prison— the jailor—who was going to be converted to Christ. Though Paul and Silas were suffering in prison for the cause of the gospel, they were heard praying and singing praises to God at midnight in their prison cell. Suddenly there was a great earthquake causing the foundations of the prison to be shaken and the doors to be opened; the bands of the prisoners were loosed. These circumstances were ordained by God to bring about the conversion of the jailor in the prison in Philippi. Let us ponder how this man was converted to Christ.
1. THERE WAS CONVICTION EXPERIENCED.
The jailor was awakened out of his sleep by the earthquake, and when he saw the prison doors opened he concluded that the prisoners had all escaped. He drew his sword with the intention of taking his own life. He knew that if the prisoners under his charge had escaped, he would be held responsible and be put to death, so he intended to end his own life, but Paul stopped him by crying out with a loud voice, “Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas” with this question, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Here was a man under conviction of sin. He knew that Paul and Silas had not deserved to be beaten or cast into prison. He realized that he could have died without salvation for his soul. It was not enough that his life had been saved from the earthquake or from his own sword, his soul needed to be saved from sin. He needed to be right with God. Such dramatic events are not always necessary to bring conviction of sin to the heart of an individual, nor do such events bring conviction of sin to all, but unless you are convicted of your sin, you will never sense a need to be saved from sin and its consequences. On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:37 we read of those who were pricked in their heart when they heard of their guilt concerning the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. Have you ever been pricked in your heart concerning your sin?
2. THERE WAS COUNSEL GIVEN.
Paul and Silas had the answer to the question the jailor needed to hear. The counsel they gave him was this, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. They spake unto him the word of the Lord” (v.31). Paul and Silas counselled the jailor to place his faith and reliance upon the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved from his sin. They would have shared the reality and seriousness of his sin which condemned him before God. They would have shown him that the perfect life, sacrificial death, and resurrection of the Lord were sufficient to save him and provide for him a perfect righteousness and atonement for his sin. It was not enough for the jailor to believe the truth about the Lord Jesus, but to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for his salvation. The Lord is the only Savior from sin. He is the Lord with authority to save; He is Jesus who is able to save; and He is Christ, the Messiah, the One anointed to save. The same counsel is for seeking souls today. It is not our good works or church attendance that will bring salvation to our souls, but faith in the Lord Jesus and His finished work.
3. THERE WAS CONFESSION MADE.
After this, we read that the jailor believed and was baptized with his household who also believed (v.33). His baptism was a public confession of his faith in the Lord Jesus. He would have confessed to others that he had been converted to Christ. Romans 10:9 proclaims, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Have you confessed Christ to others?
4. THERE WAS CHANGE EVIDENT.
The Philippian jailor took Paul and Silas “the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes...and when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house” (vs. 33-34). The jailor had a care and concern for those who were now his brethren in Christ, those who had showed him the way of salvation. He had joy in his heart. What a change from what he was when wakened up by the earthquake. He had now been awakened to his spiritual need and was now born again possessing spiritual and eternal life.
At a later date Paul would write to the saints in Christ Jesus which were at Philippi with the bishops and deacons and he would express his thanks to God for them as he remembered their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until the time he was writing to them. He would write of his confidence that the good work which God had begun in them would be performed until the day of Jesus Christ. God would finish and bring to completion the work begun at conversion in their glorification. As Paul remembered these believers, among them would have been this jailor and his household who had believed and been saved. Are you among the number of those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Can you say you are saved from your sin?
It was not long until Paul and Silas were released from prison, because the purpose for which God permitted wicked men to wrongly imprison them had been accomplished. God had used them as His instruments to point the jailor to Christ. Writing to Timothy, Paul declared, “Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Timothy 2:10). In a higher sense and with much more severe suffering the Lord Jesus endured the cross for the salvation of His people. He who was taken by wicked hands and crucified was at the same time delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). Like the jailor at Philippi, make sure you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul.
Rev. John Woods | Minister, John Knox Memorial FPC, Belfast, N. Ireland
Distributer of Current in the United Kingdom