Scripture reading: John 17:20-26.

Sermon text: Acts 16:16-34.

My family loves Broadway musicals. A song from one of our favorite musicals begins with the line, “No good deed goes unpunished” (from Wicked). I believe we can safely say that St. Paul never expected a beating when he cast a demon from a girl in Philippi. Fortunately for St.’s Paul and Silas, his partner in the ministry, God can work in injustice as much as He can work in miraculous deliverances.

Today’s sermon passage ranks as one of the greatest evangelistic stories you’ll find in the book of Acts. The story of the Philippian jailer tells us both about believers’ reaction to trials and the grace of God toward unbelievers.

Phliippi had a long and storied history. The town was founded by Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great. However, the town was later abandoned in the second century B.C. The Philippi of Paul’s time was a Roman colony founded by former soldiers from Octavian and Marc Antony’s legions in 42 B.C. Therefore, the people of Philippi were fiercely loyal to Rome and its state religion.

Few Jews lived in Philippi, too few for the community to have its own synagogue. Instead, the few Jewish believers there met by a nearby river for weekly worship. Paul and Silas had recently arrived in Macedonia to spread the gospel of Jesus into Europe. Their first convert, Lydia, came from the group that met on the riverbank.

As they went to the place of worship one day, St.’s Paul and Silas attracted the notice of a slave girl possessed with a demon of divination. The demon possessing this girl somehow gave her the ability to foretell the future, a talent that the girl’s owners exploited to their profit.

The girl, for some reason, began to follow Paul and Silas and cry, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” While it sounds as if the girl was advertising the way of salvation, we must remember that demon-possessed people often followed Jesus crying out, “You are the Son of God.” In the ancient world, and in some pagan cultures today, people believe you can gain power over someone by knowing his real name.

Here we have a difference between the situations. Jesus always cast out the demons to free the possessed person. In the incident in Philippi, St. Paul apparently became annoyed at the attention and cast the demon out of the girl. This incident may have brought freedom to the girl, but it caused major trouble for the missionaries.

The girl’s owners quickly realized their business disappeared with the demon. Although it would do them no good, the owners dragged St.’s Paul and Silas to the city’s magistrates on a trumped-up charge. The magistrates may have heard something about St. Paul’s preaching before he appeared before them. Regardless, between the anti-Semitism of the city and the charges against them, the magistrates ordered both men beaten and cast into prison.

Few people would have reacted to the situation in the way St.’s Paul and Silas did. Instead of reacting with outrage at the injustice they suffered, St.’s Paul and Silas responded with a praise service!

Imagine the scene: You’re sitting in prison for some reason, and you see 2 men dragged to the inner rooms, bleeding and barely able to stand. Then, you hear the 2 new prisoners singing to some god you don’t know. Then, just when you think they’ll finally shut up so you can sleep, a massive earthquake strikes, throwing everyone into panic. Just as you realize you won’t die in the earthquake, you notice the door of your cell is standing open! What do you do?

Unbelievably no one left his cell. The jailer didn’t know this; when he saw the open doors, he believed someone must had fled the jail. The jailer also knew he faced the death penalty if anyone escaped on his watch. Rather than face the humiliation of a public execution, the jailer decided to commit suicide.

St. Paul quickly reacted: “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” These words alone kept the jailer from killing himself. Once he confirmed St. Paul’s words, the jailer cried out to St.’s Paul and Silas: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Perhaps the words of the songs rang in his mind; perhaps the jailer had heard of the gospel even before he received St. Paul and St. Silas as charges in his jail. In some way, this jailer knew he needed something besides simple physical deliverance from death. One way or another, the jailer realized he needed something the Roman religion could never provide. Only Jesus could deliver the jailer from his worst imprisonment: The imprisonment of sin and death.

St. Paul’s words told the gospel simply and clearly: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” The jailer quickly gathered his household, who all responded in faith to the gospel message. Then, the jailer took the missionaries home — breaking a few rules in the process — and bandaged their wounds.

I see several lessons in this account of the Philippian jailer’s salvation.

First, we must never expect a trouble-free life when we follow Jesus’ command to carry the gospel. While few of us will ever face physical persecution here in Romulus, we may encounter scorn, ostracism, or embarrassment from our families or people at work or at school. This shouldn’t surprise us any more than persecution surprised St. Paul or the other Apostles. Jesus had promised persecution in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12). When they first endured persecution in Jerusalem, the Apostles left “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” of Jesus (Acts 5:41).

We must also realize the importance of the jailer’s question: “What must I do to be saved?” No question you’ll ever ask will determine your eternal fate as will the answer to this question. St. Paul’s answer still applies: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Like the jailer, all humanity rebels against God; like the jailer, we need to reestablish a relationship with our Creator. Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, died for our sins and rose from the dead to give us victory over sin and death. St. Paul later wrote to the Romans believers, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). When you confess Jesus as Lord, you’ll receive forgiveness of your sins and peace with God.

You’ll also receive another benefit of salvation. God the Holy Spirit — whose coming into the world we’ll celebrate next week — comes into the hears of all believers and begins guiding us and leading us to follow Jesus’ command to carry the gospel, with our lives and our words. The Holy Spirit will direct you to a congregation of believers for love, support, and encouragement. The Holy Spirit will also remain with you and guide you into spiritual maturity through worship, prayer, and Bible study.

I see another lesson here, one directed primarily at believers in Jesus Christ. When the jailer confessed Jesus as Lord, he risked his life to take St.’s Paul and Silas to his home to care for them. We, too, must follow Jesus’ commandments to love God and one another in spite of the costs. Even if it costs us our lives, we must obey the command of Christ, the Lord who died for us and rose again for our victory over sin and death.

The jailer’s name never appears in history, but his story still speaks to us after over 19 centuries. The same Jesus who saved the jailer still lives; He still saves everyone who confesses Him as Lord, believing in His resurrection.