Acts 16:25-40
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and 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 unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” 36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” 38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. 39 So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
Reflection
This is one of the most moving episodes in Acts. Paul and Silas have been savagely beaten and imprisoned for rescuing a girl from a dishonorable and probably oppressive occupation. We then see the terrifying job of the Philippian jailer, who faces death if he fails in any way (see Acts 12:19). Believing that the prisoners have escaped, the jailer assumes he has failed and decides to take his own life. He has given up.
But, through Paul, God rescues this man. “What must I do to be saved?” he asks (16:30). The response is stunning. Paul and Silas do not tell the jailer to clean up his life. They do not command him to forsake any particular sin. They do not tell him to do anything. Rather: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (v. 31). Genuine trust in Christ, apart from anything we bring to the table, is all that is required to be saved from what we rightly deserve: condemnation and hell. This is the promise of grace offered in the gospel.
Revelation 7:1-8
7: After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, 3 saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” 4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
5 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad, 6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh, 7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar, 8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
Reflection
In Revelation 7:3, God “seals” his servants; that is, he marks them with a sign that they are his. This seal preserves them from his coming wrath (cf. 9:4). In 13:16–18 Satan also “seals” his servants with the mark of “the beast”— a cheap imitation of what God does for his people. The mark of the beast protects Satan’s servants from his wrath but not from God’s wrath. Satan persecutes those who are faithful to God, but Revelation later tells us that God raises them from the dead (20:4–6). When John shows the sealing of God’s servants and the mark of the beast, he is again preparing his readers for the persecution they will face. John assures them that it is not God’s wrath that results in their death. Indeed, though Satan conquers them by killing them, they will conquer him by the blood of the Lamb (12:11) and will finally be raised from the dead.
John saw that God sealed 144,000 people (7:4–8), a round number that symbolizes the truly innumerable multitude of God’s people mentioned in verse 9. The point is that a vast number of souls will be brought into God’s eternal kingdom —not one will be lost. His purposes of grace will prevail. The ancient promises to his people cannot fail. Christ, the Lamb, has secured their fulfillment.
Psalm 65:5-8
5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; 6 the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; 7 who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, 8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
Remember that God will save all of those who are called to be his. Since nothing can prevent God’s powerful saving hand, we can share Christ with confidence that the final result is always in his hand. Pray that this truth would strengthen your ability to share the gospel with great confidence in the saving power of God.