How the Gospel Changs Lives 2

Acts-The Gospel in the City: PART XXI
28 April 2013
Dr. Timothy Keller

Acts 16: 20-40
20They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice."

22The crowd joined in the attactk against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.  23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.  24When he recieved these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisorners were listening to them.  26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.  At once all the prison doors flew open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.  28But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself!  We are all here!"

29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.  30He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

31They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household."  32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.  33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.  34The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God--he and his whole household.

35When it was daylight, the magisrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: "Release those men."  36The jailer told Paul, "The magistrates have ordered taht you and Silas be released.  Now you can leave.  Go in peace."

37But Paul said to the officers: "They beat us publicly without a trail, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison.  And now do they want to get rid of us quietly?  No!  Let them come themsleves and escort us out."

38The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed.  39They came to appease tham and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city.  40After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and ecnouraged them.  Then they left.

JAILER
--Tortured Paul and Silas by locking them in stocks.
--v.25 Saw Peace and Joy in the face of suffering (singing and praising)
--v.27 Saw Kindness and Forgiveness in the face of cruelty.
--Instead of fleeing when the prison broke open, Paul stayed in jail and made everyone else stay too
--Jailer was about to kill himself because he thought he had let them escape.
--By staying, they essentially forgave the jailer for his brutality.

FORGIVENESS
--Evil was repaid with good.
--Forgiveness is a self renunciation of your right to deserve pay back, revenge.
--Their ability to forgive showed the jailer that they had something he didn't.
--v.29; jailer's response, as a man of action, was what must I do? 
--The answer isn't a list of things to do, but to believe in what Jesus has done for you.
--Just look to Jesus.

THREE MARKS OF GOSPEL FAITH
--Makes you compassionate
--Makes you committed to ministry and community--baptism is public acknowledgement.
--Joy

ACTS 16 IN SUMMATION
Lives changed by the gospels:
1)Lydia--Affluent, Asian, Upper Class, Spirtually open, Rational, Gentle.
2)Slave Girl--Deranged, Greek, Lower Class, Demonically hostile, Intuitive, Mental.
3)Jailer--Blue collar, Roman, Middle Class,  Indifferent, Concrete Relational, Brutal

--Gospels are for everyone as illustrated by the differences between Lydia, slave girl, and jailer.
--There's not just the type of people that need Christianity.
--Unifying power on the face of the Earth.
--Church developed through women, slaves, and Gentiles as evidenced by Lydia, slave girl, and jailer.
--True Freedom--if your greatest hope in life is God's love, then no suffering can hurt you
--By being in chains, Paul showed what true freedom is.
--He also walked in the footsteps of Jesus