Case Studies in Christian Conversion - Acts 16
A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick
It's one of the truly inspiring stories from the life of history's most famous Christian. Paul was on his second tour as a Christian missionary when these events took place. This journey actually got its start Jerusalem at the close of the now famous first "Church Council". An important decision had been rendered by James, the brother of Jesus, and leader of the church, a decision which made official the opening of the door of the church to Gentile Christians. Soon after Paul and Barnabas had reported this historic decision back to their home church in Andioch, they decided to make a return visit to the churches they formerly had established, to inform them of this Jerusalem Council decision. But more importanly, they wanted to see how the Christians were doing, and give them some encouragement. However, before the trip began, there was a serious disagreement between Paul; and Barnabas, so instead of them going together, they took different routes, with Paul taking Silas as his new preaching companion. Soon after they were joined by Timothy, when they preached in his home town of Lystra, the preaching party was miraculously guided west toward Greece instead of going east as they had intended. It all happened due to a vision Paul had while he slept at night. A man, obviously from the northern part of Greece, called Macedonia, appeared in this vision and urged Paul to come to his area to preach. Paul and his party responded to this invivation, and the history of the world was forever impacted - the primary spread of the Gospel would be into Greece, and from there into the western world. Paul's strategy was always to find cities to preach in, obviously with the intent of starting churches in the population centers. The first Greecian city was the principal city of Philippi - perhaps like our county seat . When the first Sabbath day came, Paul and his companions, Silas, Timothy and Luke, found a group of women meeting by the river for prayer. These evidently were the only Jewish people around, and when Paul spoke with them about Jesus being the Christ, he found them to be open to the Gospel - especially a woman by the name of Lydia, perhaps the leader of the group. But for several days, as Paul was on his way to the river-side prayer meeting, a young woman followed him calling out to any who would listen, "These are God's servants with the message of salvation." Finally, Paul turned to cast out the evil spirit through whose power this slave girl had been able to practice fortune telling. Her managers, who had been getting rich off her predictions, became upset because of their loss of revenue, and accused Paul and Silas before the town council, claiming they were promoting illegal practices. By nightfall, Paul and Silas had been beaten, and found themselves shackled in a maximum security jail. This brings us to the highlight of the story, when these two travelling preachers began singing songs of praise to God in the midst of the most unwanted and unliely circumstance - chained to the wall of a dark, damp cellar-like jail. While they sang, with an audience of fellow prisoners, an earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, and everyone was suddenly free. The prison warden woke up to the realization that with the escape of his prisoners, he would no doubt be executed, so he prepared to kill himself right then and there. Paul's assurance that no one had escaped kept the jailer from following through, and then he asked the all important question, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Now perhaps this jailer was only thinking of being saved from his all but certain execution. However, Paul's answer went far beyond that. He spoke the words which provide the simple directions needed by anyone who is concerned about their future safety, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." Amazingly, this man took Paul at his word, and that very night he received further instruction and was baptized along with other members of his house. In the morning, after the town council had learned that Paul and Silas were actually Roman citizens, they came to personally escort them back to Lydia's house where they were staying. After giving an encouraging word to the Christian believers there, the preaching party left town. Now the story of Paul in Philippi reveals to us three case studies in Christian conversion:
2. A young woman, probably a teenager, who was being used by demons and men alike. She was obviously at the other end of the socio-economic scale, a slave, owned and abused by greedy handlers, and in need of a powerful deliverance from the powers of evil. 3. A Roman jailer, government employee who was not only fearful of losing his job but his life as well. He probably had little by way of spiritual understanding, but was confronted by a powerful event and a powerful message. Three different people from three different walks of life came to a saving knowledge of Jesus by three different means. But the answer given by Paul to the jailer's question is an answer suitable for all of them and all of us, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." This week, just after I began thinking about this story, Lauri dropped by to pick up a couple of Bibles. A client of hers had been asking a lot of questions about Christianity, the church and the Bible. One of the things that stood out was that this dear woman didn't know that all she had to do was "believe". She was almost certain she would never be able to go to heaven because she couldn't possibly live up to all the expectations put on her by the church. Perhaps that's the way you feel. But in reality, all that is needed is to, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."  - - Return to Top of this Page  - Email a Link to this Page
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