Word of Salvation – Vol.34 No.31 – August 1989

 

Conversion: It’s Nature, Essence and Results

 

Sermon by Rev. Michael Flinn on Acts 16:19-34

 

This passage in Acts 16 records the circumstances surrounding the conversion of a man to Jesus Christ.  In terms of the history of the church it is one of the very first conversions and it is inscribed in Scripture to teach us for all time.  There are elements pertaining to this particular conversion that are true and must be true of every genuine conversion that has and ever will take place in the history of the human race.  There are elements in this man’s life and experience which must also be true for you and me.  So let’s look into what took place here with a view to highlighting some principles relating to conversion.

The events narrated in the text form part of the second missionary journey of the apostle Paul and when these events begin, he and Silas are in the city of Philippi.  We read in verse 12 that Philippi is a leading city of Macedonia, a Roman colony – that is an important detail for what takes place later on.  Immediately prior to the events of the text, Paul casts out a spirit of divination from a slave-girl.  And since she can no longer divine events by means of this spirit, her masters recognize that the profit which they obtained from her is now gone and they are moved with a spirit of private vengeance against Paul and Silas.  So they drag them before the authorities and accuse them of being troublemakers.  They are throwing the city into confusion.  What’s more, they say, in verse 21, that they proclaim customs which are not lawful for us to accept, being Romans.  In other words, these men present a political threat to the authorities.

Now Paul and Silas are in fact Roman citizens and they could have shouted that out right away but they chose not to, perhaps because they simply had no time to make any defence.  The text says that the crowd rose up against them and the magistrates, probably, acting quickly in order to re-establish the peace, have their clothes stripped off them and ordered that they be beaten with rods.  This was a particularly painful form of punishment, often leaving serious wounds on the back of the one punished.  What’s more, the men who carried out the punishment were professionals.  They were Roman lictors who carried, as symbols of their office, a bundle of rods and an axe.  They used to carry out the death sentence as well, on behalf of the magistrates.  Whatever sentence was passed, these were the men who had the job of carrying it out.

So Paul and Silas were in quite a predicament.  This was no light matter at all.  We read further that the magistrates ordered them to be thrown into prison and the jailer was commanded to guard them securely.  This means that the magistrates had not yet finished with these men.  They were probably going to carry out further investigation and they may well have passed the death sentence later on.

So the missionaries were thrown into the inner prison, the most secure place of all and as if this were not sufficient, their feet were placed in the stocks.  Now this was not just a holding instrument.  It was also an instrument of torture because in the Roman stocks, the legs were stretched wide apart in an extremely painful position.  So this Roman jailer is a man who does his job well.  He shows not the slightest bit of compassion and he does more than what is actually required. He inflicts more pain on these men who have already been beaten severely.

What happens then?  Well, about midnight, there are sounds emanating from the inner prison, but they are not groans or curses, they are prayers and hymns of praise to God – uttered and sung loud enough so that all the other prisoners listen and are captivated by them.  It is a tremendous testimony to the courage of these men as they are able to praise and glorify God in the midst of pain and torture and personal suffering.  Then there is a great earthquake and all the doors of the prison fly open and the bonds of the prisoners came loose.  But instead of fleeing, the prisoners remain where they are.  They are obviously intensely captivated by what has taken place.  The jailer rushes in and the first thing he sees is all the prison doors open and he immediately thinks that the prisoners have gone.  So he takes out his sword and is about to commit suicide.  Why?  Well, here is a man who fears the Roman authorities.  He knows that if a prisoner escapes, the jailer very often received the punishment intended for the prisoner and he reasons that private suicide is better than public exposure and the sentence of ignominious execution.

But Paul recognizes what he is about to do and why, and shouts out: Don’t do yourself any harm because we are all here.

Here is the man who inflicted extra pain and torture on these men; here is the man who showed them not the slightest bit of compassion – about to end his own life and Paul stops him.  He says: don’t do yourself any harm.

Then something takes place in the heart of this man.  He rushes in and trembling with fear, he falls down in awe before Paul and Silas.  He is not fearing the Roman authorities any more.  He knows that all the prisoners are still there.  Now he is struck with awe at the God whom these men worship.  And he asks the question: What must I do to be saved?  He now fears for his own soul, he knows that these men have the answer to his own need so he says, tell me what I must do.

The man is converted; he trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The man and his whole household are blessed by the ministry of these two missionaries, Paul and Silas.

What do we learn from this?  Well, firstly we learn that conversion is a miraculous work of God’s grace.  I can’t think of a man who would be less likely to be converted than this jailer.  I can’t think of circumstances less conducive to a man’s conversion than these.  Here are Paul and Silas, the representatives of Jesus Christ, beaten and then thrown into a prison by a jailer who is bent on doing his job beyond what is required of him.  Here is a man who is able to inflict pain and torture and then goes to sleep without a care in the world.  Here is a man whose first thought is suicide, an action that would have sent his soul screaming into hell, if he had carried it out.  Humanly speaking, such a hardened individual as this man would surely be far down on our list of candidates for conversion.

Yet it is this man whose heart is smitten and he falls down and asks: What must I do to be saved?  He knows what he deserves from God.  He knows that he is guilty in the sight of God.  His heart is changed and he receives the free gift of salvation and entrance into heaven in the space of a moment.  Conversion involves a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.

And even if the circumstances surrounding our conversion are not as gripping as those of this jailer in Philippi, our conversion too involves a miraculous work of God’s grace.  In precisely the same way God changed our hearts and gave to us that which we did not deserve.  All of us were unlikely candidates for conversion in this sense.

What we deserve is judgement from God and yet God has saved us; he has exercised his miraculous power and changed our heart, laying his hand of love upon us.  All of us, just like this Philippian jailer, are unlikely candidates for entrance into heaven.  Our conversion, just like his, involves a miraculous work of God’s grace.

There is a second element of conversion that can be adduced from this text and it is this: Conversion involves total, unreserved trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is here that I want to highlight the response of the apostle to the question asked: What must I do to be saved?  The jailer wants to know, how can I make up for all the sins I have committed?  What can I do that will save my soul from hell?  And Paul says: Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved, you and your household.

Here is what you must do: you must simply believe and trust unreservedly in the Lord Jesus Christ.  You don’t have to live out any penance.  You don’t have to earn your salvation by living a moral life from now on until the time you die.  You don’t have to say “Hail, Mary” five times a day; you don’t have to memorize every question in the catechism.  No, to receive the gift of salvation, you must cast yourself on Christ.  Believe in Christ.  Do that and it is yours.  Accept the gift, and it’s yours.

Notice that Paul also says that it is the Lord Jesus Christ in whom the man is to believe.  In other words, he is to worship and honour and serve him as Lord as well as Saviour.

Here was a man who lived in fear and trembling of the Roman authorities.  They were his lord and god.  Now, Paul says, you must change your allegiance.  You have got to believe and trust and serve the one and only Lord – Jesus Christ.  And when you believe in Christ, that trust must be total and unreserved, no holding back, no strings attached.  Jesus Christ is to be everything for you and you must live for him.

That’s what everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ must do.  He testifies that His hope for salvation is not in himself, it is in Jesus Christ and in him alone.

Before we pass from this aspect of conversion, notice Paul’s authoritative declaration: Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved.  No maybe, no vague possibility, but an authoritative proclamation: You shall be saved!  Here is an assurance that Paul imparts – this is the way of salvation, take it and you shall be saved.  And if the terms of salvation are the same for all men for all time, then I can say with just as much certainty: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ now and you shall be saved.  No maybe, no possibility.  I can give you the same assurance on the same authority because this statement is inscribed in Scripture for all time.  It is the gospel in a nutshell.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

There is another aspect to conversion that we can mention from this text and it is this: True Conversion manifests itself in the living of a Christian life.

What does this man do after he has received the message of salvation?  Well, we read in verse 33 that he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds.  He washed away the blood and the dirt.  He himself tended the very wounds which he had helped to produce.  What’s more, he brings Paul and Silas into his house and sets food before them.  He ministers to their physical needs.

This man’s heart is truly changed.  How do we know?  We know it because it affects his life.  This is what the gospel does.  It changes a person’s life and shows itself in a life of godliness.  From a cruel, hardened jailer, this man becomes a minister and servant to the ones whom he has hurt.

Imagine if the man had said: Well, thanks very much, I’ve got my ticket into heaven.  Now back into the stocks and here’s another whipping for good measure.  You would say: that man’s heart isn’t changed!  His faith is worthless.  It is a mockery.  It is an insult to God.  If there are degrees of punishment in hell, this man surely deserves more that he did before.  He has added to his transgressions by insulting God in the worst possible way.

But you see, the jailer’s conversion is genuine and it shows itself in a changed life.

My friends, if your faith in Christ does not affect the way you live, it is not genuine.  If you merely go through the forms or religion and Christianity does not touch you every day of the week, it is not the real thing.  The gospel takes a person and transforms him.

It is the believer’s heartfelt desire to love the Lord and to serve him, to forsake the world and the old nature and to live a godly life.  He desires that the gospel would transform his life and make him more like the Lord Jesus Christ in the same way as it transformed that of the Philippian jailer.  So it must be with all of us if our conversion is genuine.

There is yet another aspect to conversion mentioned in the text and it is this:

Conversion carries with it a sign and seal of the gracious work of God.  We read in verse 33 that at that very hour of the night, after the wounds had been washed, that immediately the man was baptized, he and all his household.  Paul would have used some of the water that had been brought for the cleansing of the wounds and he baptized this man and his household.  It is quite possible that when Paul spoke the word of the Lord to him along with all who were in his house, that he mentioned the need for baptism and its significance.  It is also possible that they taught these folk about baptism using as an illustration the very event that was then taking place.  As they themselves had the blood and dirt washed from their bodies, they could have used that instance to teach how baptism signifies the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.

Paul himself had been baptized by Ananias and he had been taught that it signified the washing away of all his sins.

We are not told all the details of the instruction given.  But what we can be sure of is the fact that instruction was given and what’s more, we know that the apostle Paul was not acting autonomously here.  Rather, he was following the command of Jesus Christ.  It was Christ who commanded that the apostles were to go into every nation and make disciples.  It was Christ who said, you must baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It was Christ who instituted and commanded the use of the sacrament of baptism in the church.

And so too, in response to the command of Christ, we have had the privilege of experiencing the same event.  Paul and Silas, following Peter in Acts 2 said that the promise of salvation is for you and for your household.  And after instruction had been given, this man, together with all his household, received the sacrament of baptism and were incorporated into the church.  And we are told that the whole household rejoiced together with him.

We deal with a God who promises to be a God to us and to our children.  And to show us and assure us of this, he has given us a tangible sign – the sign of baptism.  True conversion is to be followed by baptism and for this reason baptism is an essential element of the gospel.  We need to understand that baptism is not something to be grudgingly endured.  It is to be received from his hand as the gracious gift it is.

That leads me to the final point that I want to raise and we can deal with it briefly.  Conversion is something that results in great joy for the converted.

Notice how the text says that the man rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.  Now that is not quite the order of the original.  If we follow the Greek we get this: The man rejoiced greatly, together with his whole household, having believed in God.  You see, the order of the Greek stresses that the whole household responds to what has taken place.  And the response is one of joy.  The whole household rejoices greatly.  They are merry!

Why?  Well, who can receive the gift of salvation and not rejoice in his heart?  Who can have it signified to him that his sins have been washed away in baptism and not rejoice in his soul?  Who can know that he has a new relationship with God and that God loves him, and not rejoice in his soul?  Who can know that Jesus Christ died for his sins upon the cross and fully paid the penalty for them and not rejoice in his soul?

Even if the emotional reaction is one of tears of joy, is it not still joy?  Is it not joy that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work in the heart of a person who is converted?

Just in the course of this last week, someone was pointing out to me that sometimes we can lose sight of the joy that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work.  Sometimes we can be so sombre and serious that the joy of being saved, and knowing it, is something that can pass from the scene, or worse still, we never experience it in the first place.  Now I am not talking about a flippant, light-hearted attitude to life and Christianity in general.  I’m not talking about a casual attitude to God.  I’m talking about something very serious.  This man and his household were serious about the faith.  They were seriously thanking God with joy for the free gift of salvation that he had given them.  And isn’t that legitimate?  Isn’t that a work of the Holy Spirit?

If there are any here today who are seeking for God and know not how to find him, the word of God for you is: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, you and your whole household, and you shall find peace and joy in him.

AMEN