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Reading Acts 16:33-40 where Paul and Silas witness to the Philippian jailer and his household, and they believe in Christ and are baptized, before Paul and Silas are released. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Paul and Silas shared the gospel with the Philippian jailer and his whole household and everybody who came to faith was baptized and they rejoiced together in knowing that through Christ their sins are forgiven when we understand the text.
This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Find all our videos online at www .wutt .com. Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to Acts chapter 16, where we are finishing up the story of Paul and Silas in Philippi, sharing the gospel, getting thrown in prison, sharing the gospel with the prisoners and now even the jailer and his household that they would be saved.
I'll read once again verses 25 to 40. Hear the word of the Lord. But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God and the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there came a great earthquake so that the foundations of the jail house were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened.
And when the jailer awoke and saw 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 not harm yourself for we are all here.
And he called for lights and rushed in and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. And after he brought them out, he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your house.
And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his household. And he took them that very hour of the night and wash their wounds. And immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.
And he brought them into his house and set food before them and rejoice greatly with his whole household because he had believed in God. Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen saying, release those men.
And the jailer reported these words to Paul saying, the chief magistrates have sent to release you, therefore come out now and go in peace. But Paul said to them, having beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, they have thrown us into prison and now are they sending us away secretly?
No indeed, but let them come themselves and bring us out. And the policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans and they came and appealed to them.
And when they had brought them out, they kept requesting them to leave the city. And they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia. And when they saw the brothers, they encouraged them and left.
So we're looking to finish this account up today. We had ended yesterday with Paul and Silas sharing the gospel with the jailer saying to him, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your house.
And we've been talking a lot about the sovereignty of God in salvation. We have talked about grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. We are saved not by our works, but by faith. That message is all over the book of Acts.
There are some who will ask me, how do I know if I am elect? How do I know if God has chosen me for salvation? And the answer to that question is exactly what Paul said here to the jailer. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
That's how you know you're elect. By the way, that's the exact answer that John Calvin gave when he was asked this question. How do I know if I've been chosen by God? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
If you believe and have faith in Jesus, that's how you know that you have been chosen. Furthermore, the apostle Paul knew the brethren that had been chosen. He talks to the Romans in Romans chapter one as having been chosen by God.
His letter to the Thessalonians, we're going to read shortly about Paul and Silas going to Thessalonica. That's in the next chapter, chapter 17. But when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in chapter one, verse four, he said, for we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
So what is Paul saying to them? How do we know that you've been chosen as well as us? We have been chosen by God. You have been chosen by God. We know because you believed the gospel and the gospel was demonstrated among you.
It was received in power. The Holy Spirit being among you with full conviction in your hearts. So we can know our salvation. We can know that we have been chosen by God if we believe in Jesus. The assurance of your salvation is Christ.
And this is the message that Paul and Silas gave to the jailer. He asks, what must I do to be saved? He doesn't ask them. Is there something that I can try to do to be saved? Is there a little more assurance I can have than the assurance that I have now?
Is there something that's always going to keep me guessing, but at least it's a safer bet than anything else? That's not what the jailer asked. He said, what must I do to be saved? And he wanted to know.
He didn't just want a good theory. He wanted to know how to be saved. How can I have my sins forgiven? How can I be made right with God? How can I be sure that when I die, I know what's going to happen to me?
And Paul and Silas say to him, believe in the Lord Jesus. Believe in Jesus and you will be saved. Now the next part of this, verse 31, you and your house, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your house.
So what they are saying to the jailer is not as long as you have faith, then your whole household will be saved too. That's not what they're saying, but rather this is a message that you need to hear and your household needs to hear it.
If you care for those that you love, then you will also want them to know this message too. And this is really the same thing that the apostles preached the first time the gospel was proclaimed in Acts chapter two.
Remember what Peter said, repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord, our God will call to himself.
So in other words, we're preaching this. You need to hear it. You need to believe and you will be saved. Your children need to hear it also. This is not just for this generation. It's also for the next generation and the generation after that.
And it's not just for you. It's also for the nations, all who are far off and as many as the Lord, our God will call to himself. Everybody needs to hear this message and believe in Christ. And by faith, you will know these are those whom God has called to himself.
The promise is for you and your children, this generation and the next one. And for all who are far off, even people that are outside these walls and outside this place. So it's talking about all time and space.
This is where the gospel needs to go. It needs to go to everybody. So it's the same sort of thing that Paul and Silas are saying here to the jailer. Believe and you will be saved. You and your house. They need to hear this as well.
And so going on into verse 32, it says, Paul and Silas spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his household. So that's in keeping with exactly what they just said to the jailer.
Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. You and your house. Then the very next verse shows that playing out. They spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his household.
That they would all believe in Jesus and be saved. Now Paul and Silas did not leave the sharing of the gospel simply to that one line in verse 31. That's kind of like a theological statement, a declarative statement.
Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. But you still have to know the Jesus that you need to believe in, right? It's not just some ambiguous thought of believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
It's not some generic tract that's being handed out where you have just simply one sentence on the track. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. What Jesus are we talking about? If you leave it undescribed, you don't give any sort of explanation as to who Jesus is and what you need to believe about him.
Well then the Mormons are going to think that they're saved too. We believe in a Jesus. The Jehovah's Witnesses, they've got a Jesus of their own. Even the Muslims have a Jesus that they believe in. They deny that he is the son of God.
But they believe in him. He's talked about all throughout the Quran. So there are many who believe in Jesus, but believe what about Jesus? Who is this Jesus? What did he tell us? What did he do? And this was all in the message that Paul and Silas share with the jailer and then with the house.
They spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his household. So it goes beyond verse 31 into a much larger lesson, a much larger presentation of the gospel. We don't get word for word here, but of course we've seen the gospel shared throughout the book of Acts before we get to this point.
Everything that has been shared anywhere else, perhaps the gospel, the way that Peter shared it in the household of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 is the same way that Paul would have shared the gospel in the household of this jailer.
So in verse 33, it says that the jailer took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds. Paul and Silas's wounds. Now it's not said to us what happens to the rest of the prisoners. I would expect that they would go back to their cells and their doors would be sealed again.
That would be what I guess would happen, even though the narrative doesn't tell us that. There's nothing there that says, well, all those people were jailed unjustly anyway. So Paul and Silas says, there you go, you're free.
We don't get any further description about that, but I would just assume that they probably went back to their cells. But believing in the Lord Jesus that they heard about whom they heard about from Paul and Silas when they were in prison and singing praise hymns to God and converting all of the prisoners.
So they go back to their cells, but now knowing the Lord and rejoicing in him, Paul and Silas. In the meantime, the jailer has brought them into his home and he has washed their wounds. Remember, they were beaten severely before they were even thrown in prison.
And immediately the jailer was baptized, he and all his household. Now it doesn't tell us how this happened. There is, there's of course the riverside. The river was where that prayer group was meeting and that's where Paul and Silas would go.
Remember back up to verse 16, they were going to the place of prayer and we had read previously that that was down by the river, which was outside of the city, but this is in the middle of the night. So it's unlikely that Paul and Silas are taking the man down to the river and baptizing him.
Let's look at the text a little bit more broadly. So he took them that very hour of the night, washed their wounds and immediately he was baptized. He and his all household. And he brought them into his house and set food before them and rejoice greatly with his whole household because he had believed in God.
Now when day came, verse 35, okay, so this is all still in the middle of the night and it's probably not the river where they go and get baptized, but he must have had some sort of place that had a lot of water where he would have been baptized in that water.
There's no argument here for sprinkling. There were those that had large tubs of water in their homes. That was not unusual. So the jailer probably had that if he had a large household, especially, and that's where he was baptized.
So you can't read from this or extrapolate from it an argument for sprinkling since baptism means to immerse. That's what the word means. So if he was baptized, then we have to conclude that it was immersion just as every other instance of baptism as has been talked about in the new Testament up to this point.
You can't make an argument here for sprinkling because you're reading something into the text that isn't there. But then secondly, there is not an argument here for infant baptism. And this is one of those texts.
It's the text that I hear the most, probably outside of acts to 3039. I'm not sure which one I hear more often. Is it acts 1633 or is it acts to 39? These two verses are the ones that the baby baptizers use the most for infant baptism.
But there's not an argument here for infant baptism just because it says everyone who was in his household, we don't automatically assume, oh, all of the infants were baptized. Everything is implied here that it was those who believed were baptized because of what is said in verse 31, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
You in your house. So they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his household and everyone who believes is taken and baptized. He and his household. If you want to read into that sprinkling or you want to read into that infants being baptized and you're reading something into the text that the text doesn't say.
Those who want to argue for infant baptism have far more work to do to show the texts that support that than those who hold to credo baptism, as obviously I do. So then going on to verse 34, he brought them into his house and set food before them and rejoice greatly with his whole household because he had believed in God.
The whole household, everybody in the house who can rejoice, who does believe is rejoicing along with the jailer because they now know of the forgiveness of sins. They know of being reconciled with God.
They know of the promise of eternal life that we have because of Jesus Christ. He who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead and whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.
They're all rejoicing together now because they, they know they have assurance of salvation. Again, none of this is second guessing here. It's not they're giving him the best option or we're going to tell you this and you're going to have to labor for the rest of your life to ensure that you stay in it, but you're never really going to know until you die and then get to the other side.
But this is the best chance you got. That's not the way that Paul and Silas present this. I just do not understand those who present the gospel in a way as though to say that you can't ever really know if you are truly saved.
Usually it's from some sort of religious system that is trying to keep you in a place of guessing so that you will keep coming back to their denomination or sect or belief or something like that. Usually that's the reason why.
But we don't need to be in mystery about this truth. You don't need to be guessing about whether or not you are in good, in God's good graces. There are occasions in which it is good for us to examine ourselves.
As Paul said to the Corinthians in second Corinthians chapter 13, but he says to them to examine themselves, not because they can't have assurance of salvation, but because they should. And if you are fearing the judgment of God that would come upon you because of your sin, then you must examine yourselves in light of that sin that you may repent and lay it before God and be cleansed of all unrighteousness.
As said in first John one, nine, the way that the gospel is presented to people is assurance. You can know that you will be forgiven and have everlasting life with God. If you believe in Jesus who has accomplished all of this on our behalf with his death and his resurrection, and we will be brought to him in glory because we believe.
And so that's the way this concludes in verse 34 with the jailer and his household rejoicing greatly because he had believed in God. Now let's finish this out with the, uh, what would you, what would you call this?
Like the postlude, the end of this saga here in verses 35 to 40, how do Paul and Silas get set free and they're able to go on their way sharing the gospel in other towns. Verse 35. Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen saying, release those men.
And the jailer reported these words to Paul saying, the chief magistrates have sent to release you, therefore come out now and go in peace. And I imagine the jailer is probably pretty excited about that.
You guys are, you're free men. So they're going to let you go. Let, let's go. Let's go out in peace. But Paul said to them, nah, he's got a, he's got a, a, a different ultimatum here. Having beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans were Roman citizens.
We are entitled to certain rights and we did not get those rights. They threw us into prison unjustly and now they are sending us away secretly. No, but let them come themselves and bring us out. We want to see their faces.
We want them to know what it was that they did, not just try to sweep this under the rug and pretend that it never happened. And so the policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans and they came and appealed to them when they had brought them out, continuing to request of them to leave the city.
Well, Paul and Silas, then at that point they went out of the prison. They entered the house of Lydia. Once again, as I said in the beginning, that's, this was where the church was gathering was in Lydia's home.
And when they saw the brothers, they saw all those now who have come to faith through the preaching of Paul and Silas there in Philippi. They encouraged the church at Philippi and then they left. And at least for now, that's the end of Paul and Silas's time in Philippi.
From here they go on to Thessalonica and Berea and Athens. And we're going to read about that next week when we come back to our new Testament study jumping into Acts chapter 17. But we are reminded once again, as we have been reminded going through this chapter and Acts thus far, that we are saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is a message that is not just for us. It's for your children, that they may grow up knowing the gospel and put faith in Jesus and they too would be saved. It's for your neighbor. It's for those next door and across the street.
It's for members of your extended family. It's for people in your community, coworkers. It's for those in your state, your nation, and even around the world. That we would desire more people should hear the gospel of Jesus Christ so they would believe in he who died and rose again and by faith be saved.
And there is no greater joy or assurance in life than knowing our sins are forgiven and we have everlasting life with God. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the study we've done this week in Acts chapter 16, reading about Paul and Silas sharing the gospel in Philippi and those who have come to faith.
And I pray that it is a reminder to us of just how good the gospel is that we continue to rejoice in it and live in it and share it with others. Help us to live lives of holiness today. Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.
On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.