Earthquaking the Way Into the Evangelisation of a Continent — Ian Paisley

We'll find an authorized version in the English language of the Holy Scriptures before you in the pew. Pick it up and turn with me to the New Testament, to the sixteenth chapter of the book of Acts. Acts chapter sixteen.

The Conversion of the Philippian Jailer in Acts 16

We want to read some verses from this chapter of God's holy and precious word. We'll find it on page one hundred and fifty-five in the New Testament part of the Bible, the second part. The book of the Acts of the Holy Ghost through the apostles at the chapter sixteen.

Verse thirteen. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made. And we sat down and spake unto the woman which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken by God.

And when she was baptized and her heart cooled, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us. And it came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying.

The seer followed Paul and us and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers and brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.

And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates went off their clothes and commanded to flee. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely.

Who, having received such a charge, rushed them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stock. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.

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 bonds were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing the prisoners had been fled.

But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do Thyself, O God! He called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, Yes, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

And they said, Unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and was baptized he and all his street-wings.

And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. It was day. The magistrates sent the sergeant, saying, Let those men go. And the keeper of the prison told this, saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go.

Therefore depart and go in peace. Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly, uncondemned being Romans, and have cast us into prison. And now do they thrust us out frivolously. Nay, verily, but let them come themselves and bring us.

And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates. And they feared when they heard that they were Romans. And they came and besought them and brought them out and desired them to depart out of the city.

And they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed. God shall stamp with his own divine seal of approval and blessing upon this reading of his very own infallible book.

The Bible of the 16th chapter of the book of the Acts. My subject tonight is earthquakeing the way into the evangelization of Europe. No greater evangelization of any part of the world started in the quietest of ways as this great invasion by the gospel preachers into Europe.

Lydia and the Quiet Beginning of European Evangelization

It started with a very quiet woman's prayer meeting. It's well they weren't Plymouth brethren or they would have no meeting at all. But at that meeting there was a business woman called Lydia who very quietly opened her heart to the Lord.

And she was so soundly converted she opened her home to the Lord's servants. And it was from there that they started their evangelistic drive. The second incident provoked a storm. A devil possessed young woman filled with an evil spirit of divination bantered Paul and Silas and their friends as they made their way to the morning woman's prayer meeting each day.

Paul was greatly grieved with the language of this devil possessed girl. And eventually the devil out of her. This brought the furies down upon the heads of Paul and Silas and his fellow workers. Pastors who had made a lot of money with the spirit of divination apostles before the magistrates of the city.

And they hurled fierce and lying accusations against them. They made political charges against them linking them with rebellion against Caesar's rule. And branded them as part of the disturbers coming from the Jewish nation.

The result was the stripping of the preachers of their clothes. And when they were naked they were severely beaten with many strikes. They were taken to the prison. They were forced into the prison. He was instructed to deal hardly.

And he thrust them into the inner prison. And he made their feet fast in the stone. Nothing done to them. The apostles prayed and sang praises to God. The lid was the whole situation. There was a great...

The Earthquake That Opened the Prison

It wasn't a small rumble of the earth. It was a great earthquake. Every part of the prison rocked under the grasp of that earthquake. The very foundations of the prison were shaken. And all the binding chains and stops that were on the prisoners were all made the extraordinary way for the evangelization and conversion of the whole of Europe to the Christian faith.

The quietness of the prayer meetings. The queerness of that devil-possessed woman. The quaking of the earth. All welded together brought about a series of happenings which led to the fire of revival being kindled in Philippi.

What a kindling! And what a fire! We are here tonight in part of Europe. And we're having the gospel preached because this incident took place. I want to take seven looks tonight at the jailer. I want you to look with me at this jailer before the prisoners were committed to his charge.

The Jailer Before His Conversion

For his conversion is a remarkable instance of divine grace. Prison jailers under Caesar's rule were hard men. They were bitter men. They were drunken men. And they were wicked men. They were mostly the scum of mankind who took great delight in the torture and suffering of the prisoners that they were in charge of.

The world of the Caesars was a wicked world. It was a tough world. It was a hard world. It was a vengeful world. It was a sinful world. It was an unloving world. And it was an unkind world. No doubt the character of his day and the character of the office he held had taken account of the character that had been reproduced in the jailer.

The Jailer’s Cruel Treatment of Paul and Silas

But secondly, let us look at the jailer when the prisoners were committed to his charge. The character of this jailer is seen in the brief description of his activity when these special prisoners were committed to his custody.

Paul was in a dreadful condition when they were handed over to the jailer. Their clothes had been torn off them by the magistrates. They had been very severely and cruelly beaten. Their backs were covered with stripes that ran red with their blood.

And then they were cast into prison. The meaning of the word was they were thrown into prison with no respect for their pain. That word portrays the brute force that was used to cast them into the prison.

The jailer was sternly ordered to keep them safely. How did he respond? With more cruel handling. He thrust them. And that word thrust suggests he manhandled them into the inner cell. He pushed them down on the ground.

And he took the chains from the stocks and fastened them in the stocks. Let us look thirdly at the jailer when the prisoners were thus secured. He did not think of their bleeding bodies. He did not think of their tattered garments.

The Jailer’s Indifference to the Gospel

He did not worry about the bitterness of their plight. He did not care that they were hungry. And he did not take time to listen to their prayers and their singing. There is no mention that he even heard at any time their prayers or singing.

The other prisoners heard them, but he closed his ears to all such things. Instead, he had a supper. He went to his bed. He had not even one thought for the badly abused prisoners in the inner cell. He was in no way disturbed.

How do I know? Because when he put his head on the pillow, he went to sleep. He heard nothing. He was asleep. But let us take a fourth look at the jailer. The jailer was awakened. His peaceful sleep was disturbed.

The Jailer’s Awakening at the Edge of Eternity

And when he opened his eyes, the whole prison was rocking from side to side. The door was off its hinges. The jailer was loose. He decided that he better take his own life. Because the law was under Caesar that if a jailer lost a prisoner, then he immediately forfeited his own life.

You know that those famous characters in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Brutus and Cassius both committed suicide in this very city, the city of Philippi. And here is this man standing within an inch of hell.

He is at the sword at his breast, ready to plunge it into his heart. Paul recognized what was going to happen. And with all the thunder that his voice could muster, he cried out to the jailer, Do thyself no harm.

To the jailer, eternity. And he was about, by his own hand, to enter. Let's take a fifth look at the jailer. Notice the jailer, he is on the record, and only three times that he spoke. First of all, he called for a light.

Secondly, he called for spiritual light. Become a Christian and to be saved. And last of all, he told Paul of the light of his own deliverance. He said, the magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart and go in peace.

The Jailer’s Cry for Salvation

Let's take a sixth look at the jailer. He cries for salvation. What must I do? The jailer was not an ignorant man. The scenes at Philippi every day were known to him. It was his business to know what was happening in the city.

And if there was unrest, what his duties would be if that unrest broke out. He had no doubt heard of the testimony of the devil possessed girl, who said about Paul and Silas, these are the servants of the Most High God.

He must have been very impressed by the majesty and the grace of Paul and Silas. Other prisoners cursed their persecutors and damned the magistrates. But these two men showed patience and love and respect.

Their testimony was the testimony of 1 Corinthians 4 verses 12 and 13. Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we suffer. Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as a filth of all things unto this day.

Almighty God was at work in the jailer's mind, in the jailer's conscience and in the jailers. It was Charles Wesley who wrote the lines. What but the power which wakes the dead could reach a stubborn jailer's heart?

In cruelty and rabtine bread, who took the ancient murderer's part? Could make a hardened, roughened field and shake him o 'er the mouth of hell? Standing on the mouth of hell with a sword to commit suicide, but the Holy Spirit conquered him.

The Jailer’s Conversion Through Faith

The jailer was within an inch of hell, but amazing grace intervened. He had retired. He had gone to sleep. It seemed that all would be the same on the morrow, the old routine. But no, he was awakened.

What an awakening he had. Every timber of the prison shook. All the doors by tremendous force were torn open. The chains of the prisoners were all smashed. The whole earth moved. It was a great earthquake.

No wonder he cried in terror, What must I do to be saved? But let us take another look at the jailer. Let us look at the jailer as his prayer was answered. Believe these. Thy house was the condensed gospel.

There followed hereafter a full and blessed exposition of that gospel. And Paul spoke the word to him. Have you noticed it? And to all in his house, prisoners included. Not only his family, but to all in his house.

What happened? This man was suddenly, miraculously, he became a believing Christian. Verse 34, it says, he believed in God. Faith is the first fundamental of conversion. Notice, he was immediately a humble, a man that is proud.

A woman that is proud cannot be a Christian. Christianity brings with it humiliation. What did he do? He did the work of a servant. He did not call one of his underlings to wash the stripes on the back of the prisoner.

He washed them himself. He was a ready. He heard. He believed. He was baptized. He served. And he rejoiced. He believed. He was baptized. He was a practical Christian. These men were hungry. And he set meat before them.

But most of all, he was a rejoicing Christian with all his family and all his prisoners. Think of it. The whole prison population and the jailer's family and himself, all gloriously rejoicing. What a feast!

What praises! What prayers! He believed to the saving of his own soul. And the others believed to the saving of their soul. What must I do to be saved? The answer was simple. Simple. That fools think it's out of date.

But it's not. That was the answer then. And it's the answer this night. How can I be saved? Believe. That is still the answer. That will always be fresh, new and sweet. And it will always work. Who believes will be saved.

No wit or art of man will ever find a crack or a flaw in that definition. That definition is God's definition. It doesn't say, join the church. It doesn't even say, be baptized. It says, believe. What is believing?

Believing is receiving. But as many as received him, to them give he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. It's life. You are a Christian. He that has. With eternal peace as you pass.

Seven Signs of Saving Faith

Notice seven things. There was a sudden shaking. There was an alarmed awakening. There was unwanted quaggering. There was earnest seeking. There was faithful speaking. There was decision making. And there was believing and a joyous partaking.

At dawn to meet they rejoiced. What must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Unsaved woman. Unsaved boy. Unsaved girl. Believe. Dear Christian man. Dear Christian woman.

Dear Christian boy. Dear Christian girl. Keep on believing. And if you keep on believing, you will have joy. Wonderful joy. For Jesus has come into your heart to stay forever. May God bless his holy word.

Father, we pray that thou wouldst write thy word upon everyone here. And may no soul step out into the darkness of the shadow of death. But may every one of them step into the light of believing in Jesus Christ.

Take our thanks for thy holy word. The simplicity of the gospel. The actuality of being saved. And to know we are saved and partakers of everlasting life. May men and women partake this night for Jesus' sake.

And everybody say, Amen.