Transcript

What does a wealthy, widowed businesswoman, a suicidal jail keeper, a fortune teller and a prisoner all have in common? Well, these were the tools God used in establishing the first church in Europe, which was the church at Philippi. I want you to turn with me this morning to the book of Philippians. As we begin a new study on Sunday mornings, straight through this wonderful New Testament book, the book of Philippians, and I’ve entitled The Message this morning. The introduction to the book of Philippians. Philippians 1:1. Now you stay with us as we go all the way through this wonderful book, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. That’s the way God inspired me to write the Bible. If you’re going to interpret and understand the Bible, that’s the way to study it. All right. First half of verse one will be my text.

Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi. Now let’s begin by looking at some background information on this city. The city of Philippi in 357 B.C., Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, needed some resources to finance his war machine. So he annexed a great region of land in Macedonia. And in that great region he started a city, and he named that city after himself, calling it Philippi.

Then some 327 years later, in 30 B.C., Octavian of the Roman Empire was avenging the murder of Julius Caesar, and he was fighting another segment of the Roman Empire headed by Antony. Now, Antony had developed a romantic relationship with the former mistress of Julius Caesar, and her name was Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra were held up in the region now known as the city or then known as the city of Philippi. And once Octavian had defeated them, Antony and Cleopatra, realizing it was all over, both committing suicide in this area. That’s a little of the background of where the city came from, and that’s the setting. So Octavian becomes the sole head of the Roman Empire, and he makes Philippi a Roman colony. And he begins putting all sorts of Roman settlements in Philippi and started making it Roman.

And all the Romans who lived there loved the fact and highly esteemed the fact that they were Romans. They had all the rights of Roman citizens. A Roman citizen could never be scourged. The Roman citizen could not be arrested except in extreme cases. A Roman citizen could appeal to Caesar if he felt he was being treated unjustly. They made Philippi even to look like a miniature Rome. And it is in that kind of city that the Apostle Paul comes preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now we’ve got the book of Philippians in our Bibles. And what this is, it is an epistle. And the word epistle simply means a letter. It is Paul, God’s apostle, writing a letter to the church at Philippi, the church in the city of Philippi. Now the letter was written about 61 A.D. by the Apostle Paul. And it’s one of what theologians call the prison epistles. Our prison letters. Paul also wrote Colossians from prison. Philemon and Ephesians. Paul spent time in four different prisons. The old preacher said, When Paul went to a city to conduct an evangelistic meeting, he didn’t ask which hotel he had. He said, where’s the prison? Because that’s where I’ll be staying while I’m here. And that was very true.

The purpose of Paul’s writing was to express his love and joy over this church. He says in the letter, you are my joy and my crown. And obviously, the church at Philippi was very concerned about Paul’s condition there and the Roman prison. Very concerned about how he responds spiritually to being enslaved simply for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there’s no real clear theme to this book of Philippians. Paul just jumps from one subject to another subject, just as you would if you are writing a letter to a friend. That’s what it is. A letter to friends in the Lord. But we do see here Paul has a supernatural joy and peace despite his circumstance. And you and I, I believe I’m going to learn some marvelous truths and insights on how we can have joy and peace, regardless of the circumstances that we find in our lives. We’re going to learn how to have peace in all circumstances.

But to get the groundwork thoroughly laid for our study of this book. I want you to turn to Acts 16. Would you do that? Turn back to Acts 16 and in Acts 16, we have the record of when this church, the church at Philippi, was started. Now it first of all, in Acts 16, we see God’s sent-out leader. When God’s going to start a work like he is, as recorded in Acts 16, the act of starting the first church in Europe, the church at Philippi. When God starts a work, God always has a leader. God always has a man. Someone said that God so loved the world that he did not send a committee. I believe there’s a lot of truth to that. When God wanted to start a nation, he could call his very own people. He called a man Abraham. When God wanted to lead his people out of Egyptian bondage, God called a man Moses. When God wanted to lead his people through the Promised Land, and in the victory, he had a man, Joshua. When God began his New Testament dispensation and the early church began in Jerusalem, he raised up Peter and then succeeding Peter. He raised up James. And when God wanted to do a work in the Gentile regions, as we’re studying about today, God had a man, Paul, every time.

God does a work, God has a man. God’s always done it through the leadership of a man of God. Now there’s room for accountability and there’s room for committees. But, my friend, you show me a work of God that’s dependent upon getting together in committees and discussing it for weeks and months. I’ll show you a work that’s bogged down in the Kingdom when God does a work. He’s always had a man. But I’m thankful here that Paul, as he’s doing his work, had a good ministerial staff. He had Timothy with him, Silas with him, and Luke with him. Now, we’re not saying that these men held an office. They were not apostles, but they were full time ministerial workers under the leadership of the Apostle Paul.

But notice the first support under God’s sent-out leader, and that is he is a directed leader. Notice how God directs his leader as he’s using Paul to establish this church in the city of Philip by the pagan city of Philippi. Verse 5:16 though so the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number daily. Now these are the churches of Asia that Paul’s circling around. Strength in them, encouraging them further, training them. And then it continues on verse six. And they passed through the Phrygian and Galatian regions, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. Now here we have twice, once in verse six and once in verse seven, that Paul is tried to minister in in Asia, but the Holy Spirit of God keeps saying no. The Holy Spirit of God keeps saying, stop. Paul says, I tried to minister here. The Spirit of Jesus wouldn’t let me. I tried to minister there. The Spirit of God stopped me.

Psalm 37, verse 23 tells us that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. We see here that both the steps and the stops of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Some would say, now that’s if Paul set out to do the work of God, and He and God stopped him. He must have been out of God’s will. No, my friend, this is simply the way God directs his servant. God uses these things. You take the Word of God. You draw out the biblical principles pertinent to the work you feel God’s called you to do. You obey those principles and go in that direction. Totally yielded, totally flexible to God to stop you and redirect you as he sees fit. That’s not missing God. That’s the way God leads. God’s pattern is to lead you to closed doors. Then you turn from those doors and head another direction. And that’s what Paul is doing here. This is God directing his servants. And very often God will step in and stop us, even when we’re heading in what seems to be a profitable, our prosperous ministry and put us in a different direction. The key is, are you walking close enough to the Holy Spirit to know when he closes the door? Very often we’re guilty of tampering with the hinges on the door and trying to get through a door. God has closed. We don’t see that in Paul’s life. We don’t see frustration. We do not see discouragement. He just knows, hey, this is God’s work. God’s building his church. And as he closes the door, that means he wants me to go somewhere else. And hallelujah, this is his work.

So God’s closing the door, just like he did to Philip in Acts 8:29. Philip was having a powerful ministry revival in Samaria. If you and I were having the revival Philip was having, we’d extended the services. But all of a sudden, God moves Philip out of there and puts him in a remote desert so he can witness to one man, an Ethiopian eunuch, in a chariot. Friend, it’s better to be in the will of God, out in the wilderness, witnessing to one soul than witnessing the 10,000 out of the will of God. God stops and he starts the work of his men. God’s both selects and directs his servants.

Well, let’s look at this directing of God in Paul’s life as we continue on in verses eight and nine and passing by Messiah, we came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night a certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. Now I can imagine that the excitement of Paul very afraid when God’s called you to do something and he’s put roadblocks in front of you, that gets exciting because, you know, he’s fixing to open something else up. You know, as as we have have worked here at First Baptist, especially as we have begun an aggressive missions ministry a few years ago, man, we took off obeying the word the best we knew how and the best directions we knew. But God constantly was closing doors and opening different ones. We’d go one way, he’d close it. We’d shift off and go this way. Friend, when he closes the door, you don’t just sit down and say, well, I don’t know what to do. No, you keep going. And finally, God opened one. And, I mean, it’s amazing to see how God’s focused us and direct us and shaped us and given us the track to be on as he’s guided us and directed us.

Now, here’s how Paul got close to the door in Asia twice. And all of a sudden from Europe, Macedonia is in Europe. He sees a vision that says, come over and help us. And Paul says, well, hallelujah, I knew there’d be another open door because God closed the last two. So I can imagine the excitement is growing. And we see this in verse ten. And when he, Paul, had seen the vision that says, come over to Macedonia. And remember, Macedonia is the region the city of Philip has seen. And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

You know, it’s been absolutely exciting and amazing. For example, our work that we have in Romania. We had a real burden for Romania. God was working, and that’s part of our strategy. We don’t try to just go start something. We find out what God’s doing and try to get in on it. Now, folks, is a real key. There you don’t go try to start something for God. God don’t need your help, but you try to sense where God’s Holy Spirit’s working and leading and you go for it. So we went to Romania and we got to know some people, and we did some ministry over there. And I never would have dreamed that God wanted us to establish a Sunday school ministry in Love Baptist Church of a rod, Romania. But as we went, it just God just patterned it down and got it there. And I want to tell you, it is so exciting that I’m so excited about going over there and having this dynamic, spirit filled, committed congregation get a vision of small group ministering, small group soul winning, and discipling like God’s allowed us to have because they don’t have any of that in Eastern Europe. And if we can get the lay people in these good churches in Eastern Europe winning souls and discipling each of those through small groups, folks, it’s going to have a mighty impact. So I feel just like the apostle Paul, when he got that Macedonia invasion we had, we looked we kept with the commitment. Finally, God showed us what he want us to do. And now we go. And that’s the way all Paul’s doing now. He’s he’s getting excited.

Now, folks, listen, there’s nothing more exciting than to know you are God’s man in God’s place, in God’s timing. God’s man and God’s place in God’s timing. And I confess to you, I have that comfort here. I have an incredible security about pastoring this church. Not on my gifts, not on my abilities, not on my talents. Just convinced I’m God’s man in God’s place, in God’s timing. That’s a great securing thing, and I would hope all pastors could have that kind of peace.

Look at verses 11 and 12 as we see God directing his servant, therefore putting out to sea from Troas we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis, and from there to Philip II, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony. And we were staying in this city for some days. Now here they are. They’ve got to Philippi, and they don’t have a game plan. Really? I mean, today if we go to a modern evangelist, go to do a crusade in a major city, they send advance me in two years ahead of time to get it already. But I didn’t have any advance, man. He just had the Holy Spirit directing him. I mean, they didn’t rent a big coliseum to do a big crusade. He didn’t have any money to rent a coliseum. He’s just following the directing of the Holy Spirit of God. But I want to ask you, are you walking in communion with the Holy Spirit of God, therefore thereby knowing and you’re a walk in your business, in your family, whatever it is God is directing? Or have you long since pried the hinges off one of the doors he closed, walked through that door. And you’re selling for God. Second, third and fourth best and you’re not walking on the directing of God out.

You know, God sent out later was directed. But not only that, and listen to me every time God is directing one of his men are his church or whoever to do a great work. The second thing will always be there. He was diverted. He was diverted. Look at it there in verses 16 through 23, the ministry has already started. They’ve already had some conversions. And then we get to verse 16, and it happened as they were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave girl, having a spirit of divination, met us, who was bringing her master’s much profit by her fortune telling following after Paul and us, she kept crying out saying these men are bunch servants of the Most High God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. Now here’s a demon possessed fortuneteller walking along behind Paul, just hollering out these men are servants of the Most High God, proclaiming the way of salvation that get on my nerves when get on yours. Look at verse 18. And she continued doing this for many days. Well, that drive you crazy. But Paul was greatly annoyed. Aren’t you glad he’s human? He was greatly annoyed. I was under the great word there probably means I’d like to slap her right in the face. But Paul was greatly annoyed and turned and said to the spirit, that’s the spirit in this demon possessed, fortune telling girl, I commend you in the name of Jesus Christ. Come out of her. And it came out of her at that very moment.

Now listen, the demon possessed girl was crying truth. These are servants of the Most High God. They are proclaiming the plan of salvation about folks. We do not need the help of the world. And Paul here shows us that he refused the patronage of hell, and we do not need to hold hands with and warm up to the things of the world to do the work of God. We don’t need that stuff. I remember when Abraham in the Old Testament captured the king of Sodom and all of his goods, and the king of Sodom, Sodom said, listen, I’ll give you all of the wealth of the city of Sodom, but you just give me the people back. And Abraham said, no, you can have the people, and you can have all the wealth, because if I take the wealth of Sodom, then all the people of the world can say, Sodom made me great. I want it to be said that the God of heaven made me great. There’s a lot of works going on today, a lot of ministries, and a lot of churches that have become great, at least in the eyes of man. By the riches of Sodom, bargaining with the world, shaking hands with the world, being friends with the world. Paul says, no, I refuse to hold hands even when the world speaks truth.

Folks, you’ve got to be careful. There’s a lot of folks out there that are filled with error and their purpose is evil, but occasionally they’ll speak truth. This Jocelyn Elder’s who’s our new surgeon general. Every time there’s a new appointee, I just almost get sick. I told earlier, church every time there’s a new appointee, I want to move my letter and go to a different country. She’s this one that says, we gotta. We’ve taught our children what to do in the front seats. We’ve now got to teach them what to do in the back seats of the car, she believes, well, to hand out contraception. It’s in all of our schools, starting in kindergarten, teaching children about sexuality. But then she was on a television show just the other day and says, now I believe, like we all do, I believe in abstinence. A little bit of truth out there, see, to go with all the package of error and you’ve got to be aware of the way they work in our world today.

So here Paul has a real diversion in his work, this, this girl. And notice what else happens. It gets worse. Verse 19. But when her master saw that their hope of profit was gone, they got a lot of money off this girl telling fortunes. They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. And when they brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, these men are throwing our city into confusion. Being Jews, there was strong antisemitism in this day, and they are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe being Romans. And the crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them, and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely. Now his life depended upon it. If they’re if they get loose, the jailer’s life would be required under Roman law. Verse 24. And he, having received such a command through them, Paul and Silas into the inner prison, and fastened their feet in the stocks.

What warfare? What a diversion! And church, I can guarantee you, if God’s called you to do something as an individual, and if God has commissioned this church to do something special for the glory of his name and the building of the kingdom, there will always be diversions. That’s part of the process. That’s part of God’s plan. But listen, a satanic diversion from God’s perspective is nothing but a spiritual excursion. It’s just a chance for God to do something special, for God to do something unique. God loves to bring his church marching forward, reaching souls, going on. In truth, God loves to bring the church to these roadblocks, these diversions, these places where all the spiritual people in the church say, we can’t do that. He loves to get you there. I love it when you say that. We can’t do that. Preacher. That won’t happen. Preacher. Good. Because then God can take over. Amen. Then God goes to work. What do we get where we can’t do it now. God loves to do that. So this isn’t a problem. This isn’t no, this isn’t a problem. But from the humans perspective, it is a diversion. You can bank on it. If you’re following God’s direction, you will come to seeming roadblocks and diversions, but it’s a part of the process. Don’t think it’s strange. Don’t take it unusual. Don’t get down in the mouth. Don’t get discouraged. There’s a God in heaven that specializes in diversions. Just look to him.

Remember how Joseph, God revealed to Joseph that Joseph would be a ruler over his older brothers. So he told his older, older brothers that first mistake. Well, maybe not, but anyway, he told his brothers and boy they hated him for it. They hated him anyway because he was the ball of the bunch. Then he loved him more than the rest. Well, they said, we’ll take care of this. They sold out Joseph into slavery and went back and told daddy that he got killed by a wild beast. Later on, Joseph ends up in an Egyptian dungeon and I say, Joseph, that’s a diversion from being a great leader. I’m supposed to be a leader of my brothers, and here I am rotting in Egyptian dungeon. Nobody knows my family or knows my name. But then God went to work, and through a series of events, Joseph is released from prison and even becomes the most powerful man in all of Egypt, the nation that literally ruled the world in that day. Listen, don’t worry about the diversions. They’re part of the process. Don’t worry about the roadblocks. Now you can quit following God and do it in your own strength, and do it in your own wisdom, and do it according to human understanding. And you’ll never run into a roadblock. You know why Satan makes sure it’s clear for you? Because you’re misleading people and he wants you to keep misleading them. Are you listening? But if you’re following God, you’ll run into him one after the other, roadblock after roadblock, roadblocks that require God to get through because that’s where he wants to keep us.

Well, God sent out later it is directed. Secondly, we see him diverted and we always will. Thirdly, we see him delivered, delivered. Look at verse 25. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God. Now that’s what you do. If they lock you in the inner prison, put chains on you, put you in stocks and bonds, you just start singing praises to God. That’s what you do in troubled times. Now listen to me. Religion doesn’t work when trouble comes, but a relationship with Jesus does. These men had more than religion. They knew the living Christ and their joy and their happiness and their peace did not depend on their circumstances. They were already liberated in Christ. Listen, my friend, are you listening? Sometimes I don’t think you’re listening. And I want to preach louder, and I lose my voice.

Listen, the Bible says when we’re saved, we’re crucified with Christ. So what? My flesh is crucified with Christ. Let him lock my flesh in a prison. Let him put me in chains and bonds. But the Bible says, If Christ set you free, you’re free. And it doesn’t matter what they do to me externally, I’m free, I’m liberated, doesn’t matter about my circumstances. The greatest contradiction on planet Earth is a Christian whose happiness is dependent upon this world and external circumstances are joy and peace. It’s Jesus and they had that, so their real deliverance is already there. Doesn’t matter if they get out of the change or not, they’re delivered. They’re free in Jesus.

And both. Oh, some of you today you came in here chained up to the flesh, and you dragged the flesh in here free. And Jesus dragged the flesh in here, plopped own flesh down on the pew with you and son. You’re in bondage. And it is a drag. I’d sit there and look like I’ve been sucking grain persimmons, too. If I dragging the flesh around like that, it ain’t no fun. And if God were to say to it that you run into a roadblock, you know what you’re going to do. You’re not going to be singing praises. You’re going to be getting ugly and bitter and resentful and hateful. And I’m not treated right, folks, when you get into trouble and you know Jesus and you’ve crucified your flesh, you just sing praise to God that listen, I don’t think, oh, Paul and Silas, we’re in here singing We Shall Overcome someday. But they weren’t waiting some day to overcome. They already overcame. They weren’t waiting some day for the victory. They had victory, but they’re chained up. Amen.

That’s why I go to these hospital beds. These precious brothers and sisters dying of cancer, some terrible disease, and watch them raise their hand with tears of joy and say, it’s all right, Brother Jeff. I’m going home. I’ve seen them do it. How can they do it? They’re not waiting to overcome. They overcame already. Through the blood of the lamb. They’re free. They’re free. Do you have that freedom, fam? You can. And when you get in trouble, like, oh, Paul and Silas. Or even if you can’t pray your way through, you just praise your way through it. I just started singing. Oh. Paul looked over at Silas and Silas, the pastor. What you want to partial? Let’s just sing. Here they go. They weren’t singing We Shall Overcome someday. They are singing Victory and Jesus because they had it already. It was already already theirs. Now look what happened while they’re singing. Says all the prisoners were listening to him. Verse 26. And suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

Now listen to me. I don’t know for sure, but understanding what little bit of Bible truth that I understand, had Paul and Silas not had the victory in Jesus while they were in the chains, I believe God would allow the chains to stay on them until they did get the victory and. We’re not supposed to live under the circumstances. We live over the circumstances. Some of you are waiting for your circumstances to change, and God’s not going to change them because he wants you to claim the victory where you are. Amen. The Christ shall set you free. You’re free indeed. The Bible. Well, I’ll be free when my finances, when my kids. When I get this. When I get that. When this stops. When that start. That never ends. To get to heaven. If that’s the way it is. We all just kill you and get you on to heaven. Now, not being ugly, you understand what I’m saying? You don’t get the perfect environment to get to heaven. So if joy and freedom and peace is available to the Christian, you can have it regardless of your circumstances. Now, I’m not talking about what these happy jacks are preaching on TV either. Name it, claim it, stop it wrong. But whatever. And you got it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about you. Say some kind of phrase and magical. It’s there, folks, is just loving Jesus. It just surrendered to Jesus. And then God saw that, hey, these guys are free. Regardless, I can really use them. I’m gonna get them out of prison so God delivers them.

About 8 or 9 years later, Paul would write in Romans 8:28. All things work together for the good to those who love God and those who are called according to his purposes. So he could write that good. And he knows all things work together for the good. Well, we sing God’s set apart later are sent out later. He’s set apart two. But God sent out leader. He’s directed in every time he’ll find the next one, he’s diverted. But every time God also will deliver him.

Now notice. Secondly, you can’t start a church with just a leader. You got to have people in the church. So we’re looking at the church of Philippi being started. Let’s notice next God’s set apart laity. Now laity just means the membership of the church. Notice the lay people God had ready. This is awesome. Ready to be a part of the church at Philippi. Notice is there, first of all, that God had prepared them for salvation. God set apart laity. Number one. He prepared them for salvation. Look at verse 13 about 16, verse 13, and all on the Sabbath day. Now we’re back up to Paul has just gotten to Philippi, been there a few days. Now he’s walking around on the Sabbath day. All right, verse 13, and on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, and we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer. And we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled there. They just happened to go down by Riverside. There just happens to be a group of women assembled there on the riverside on the Sabbath day in at verse 14, and a certain woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics. Now the color purple was very rare in this day. They got the purple dye from a shellfish, and they had to crush the shellfish. And one shellfish only gave one drop of dye. So it was very precious, very expensive. And to be a seller of purple, our purple dye means you are very wealthy. So here’s the wealthy widow woman business woman that I told you about in our introduction. And it goes on a worshiper of God. This does not mean she was saved, but it means she was seeking the things of God. She studied the Word of God. She wanted to know the God of the Jews says I worship. God was listening. Notice. And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.

Now here the apostle Paul is, and he just goes out and finds some people that are hungry that listen to the word, and he shares God’s word with them. Folks, that’s the way you build a church. That’s it. You know, we’re looking for all kinds of sophisticated, fancy new formulas, new ideas. Let’s do let’s bring in a talking horse and bold out a pack them out. Let’s bring in this. Let’s bring in that. Let’s do this. Let’s listen folks, we’re supposed to be real. Be loving, be genuine, and get out the Word of God and those that God is setting apart, those that God is already working on. Like Lydia, they will hear gladly the Word of God. If we get converts that we’ve won, we’re in trouble. We better get the converts. God’s won. How do we know Brother Jeff? If they’re the ones God wins? Just keep preaching God’s Word and the Holy Spirit will set apart. One said, I want to hear the word gladly, and they will come. They will come. I want you to know God had them prepared for it, didn’t he? Paul didn’t know anything about no. Lydia from Thyatira. He just ran into her. And God had already well notice also over in verse 27, and the jailer, I mean, the earthquakes come, the chains are falling off the prisoners.

Notice verse 27, and when the jailer had been roused out of his sleep, what a parallel truth here. Before a person can get saved, they’re going to be roused out of the sleep of sin, and had seen the prison doors opened. He drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, do yourself no harm. We’re all here. I can imagine old Paul thinking, you know, I bet this about might get saved. I bet this boy might be ready. Verse 29. And he called for lights, and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. You know, that’s amazing to me. Just a few moments earlier, he was ordering Paul and Silas around like a bunch of a couple of worthless convicts. Now he’s bowing at their feet. That’s the difference. The Holy Spirit can make in the heart of a person. He’ll humble you to where you are. Listen to the man of God. Verse 30. And after he brought them out, he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? This is the only time in the Bible that question is given. What must I do to be saved? You know, since it’s the only time in the Bible, the clear, specific question is I ask. I would expect God to get it right, wouldn’t you? And give you exactly what was needed to be saved. Well, look at verse 31 and they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and take the Lord’s Supper, and you shall be saved. Then say that doesn’t believe in the Lord Jesus, and be baptized and be saved. Doesn’t say that, doesn’t believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved.

Oh jailer, God got him ready. But whether it was a Lydia down at the riverbank. The jailer who had witnessed the the earthquake and the miracle of the chains falling off. God has to get people ready. We don’t want anybody. We just share the word and let God do it. Folks, you just go out and share the word. If they don’t get saved, that’s fine. God didn’t have them ready. That’s fine. We got to just keep preaching the word. And we can’t believe this lie that’s going around in churches that says, we got to do this, this, this, this and this, all this worldly stuff to get people in the church, my friend, we’re not going to do that here. We’re just going to preach the word and let the Holy Spirit get the ones here that he wants here.

And God prepared them for salvation. Secondly, and God set apart laity. They were public about their salvation. They were public about it. No secret disciples here. Look at verse 15, acts 16 and when she and her household had been baptized. Folks, baptism does not save you, but it is the first step of obedience. It is your public profession that you are a child of God. I cannot believe anybody has truly been saved who will not come for baptism in the scriptures. Immediately after people were saved, they were baptized. Well, but wait a minute, Brother Jeff. They might not understand how much you think Lydia understood how much you think that jailer understood. But it made it. They were baptized. It’s not what you’ve understood, it’s what you got. The understanding comes later as you grow as a Christian. They were public, and some of these folks were putting their lives on the line by being baptized. Folks, baptism is important. They were public. It’s a public statement. I belong to God. I’m one of his. Some of you today need to come for baptism because it’s God’s will and it’s a priority for you if you’ve been saved. Well, the verse about the jailer is over in verse 33, and he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds. And immediately he was baptized. They were public about their salvation. They were prepared for salvation.

And then thirdly, we say they were productive in their soul, winning, productive. What I mean by that, I mean, after they got saved, they let God use them to win others. Now how can you do that? Well, in this church, you just get active in any of our ministries and you’ll be a part of it. That’s it. We’ve designed our organization, our ministries, particularly Sunday School, to reach people for Jesus. I don’t know how you can be saved and just float along. I just don’t understand that the folks that got saved in the Bible were used to help reach others. Notice this. Look at verse 15 about Lydia and when she and her household now that word households, word oikos, it means relatives, it means work associates, it means friends, it means neighbors. It means that Lydia used her influence to help others get say. Now, this doesn’t mean everybody’s got to go. Knocking door to door doesn’t mean everybody’s going to be a John the Baptist with fire and brimstone. But everybody can love other people. Encourage other people, invite other people, enroll. Ask people in Sunday school to be a part of visitation. Be a group care leader in your Sunday school. Everybody can be a part. Everybody can.

But not only Lydia. Notice also the jailer here. Look at verse 34. And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole there it is household again. That’s the word oikos. It means friends, relatives, neighbors, associates, everybody in your circle of influence. They could influence folks. When God really saves a person and puts them in his church, they are people he prepared for salvation. The preacher didn’t win them, the deacons didn’t win. Then the program of the church didn’t win them. The Holy Spirit prepared them in the Word of God, got them to trust Christ. Secondly, they were public. They came for baptism. And thirdly, they join up and say, I’ll go to work and help reach others for Christ. And I want to challenge you to get on the bandwagon. Go for God, let God use you and he can use you. Brother Jeff, I’m insecure about it. I don’t know what to say. Get to your Sunday school teacher and say I’ll do something in the class. What job do you have unfilled and just go to work? That’s a part of it. That’s a part of reaching others. Everybody can do something and everybody can start somewhere.

And then an amazing that when God began the first church in Europe, the church at Philippi, he used a wealthy, widowed businesswoman, a jailbird, the Apostle Paul, a suicidal jail keeper and a fortune teller as his key instruments and ingredients. You know what that tells me? That tells me God can use you and God can use me. If we’re just lay. Let’s pray together. All of our heads bowed and our eyes closed.