AMC Sermon What is Salvation? 

6th May, 2012 

Written by Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted by Teresa Han

Acts 16:25-40 Main Idea: Meanings of salvation Objectives:

a. To explain the meanings of salvation 

b. The change in life that salvation brings. 

c. To teach to use life circumstances to preach the gospel. 

 A. Introduction - Today we are dealing with a central doctrine of Christianity. A doctrine we cannot miss in our lives. It is one of the very fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Some of us can be very familiar with it and yet we may not fully appreciate the importance of it in our daily living. - To a non-Christian, the term or the concept may be a totally new idea to them. So, you need to explain to them its meaning and relevance for their lives. For the non-Christians, we are actually offering them a totally different worldview. When you talk to them about salvation, their response may be why do they need to be saved. To many of them, if they first hear about the word salvation, and you talk about Jesus saving them from their sins and gives them eternal life, they may be wondering what you are talking about because they are doing well in life; happy and satisfied with life. - They may ask what salvation is. - How do I arrive at the topic today? What is salvation? - It all starts with the jailer’s question of, “What must I do to be saved?” Have you ever asked the question? It was a most genuine question in the jailer context.

B. What must I do to be saved? - Let us take a close look at how the jailer arrives at the question. See the process involved. - Paul and Silas were jailed in the dark prison at Philippi for delivering a slave girl from spirit possession. It caused her owners to lose a lucrative income for she was no more capable of fortune telling. (If you are imprisoned in jail because of preaching to the Muslims, what do you do in jail?) - Before the great encounter of the jailer, we were told (verse 24) the jailer exercised his full authority to put them in the darkest inner jail (you can imagine without light; smelly, warm, stuffy and horrible atmosphere) and fasten Paul and Silas’ feet to the stocks. - Though the jailer was just following the order, he was harsh and cruel to them. Paul and Silas might have been badly injured by the attack of the crowd; and ordered to be beaten and flogged severely; and let us imagine they must be bleeding and experiencing exhaustion, feeling great pain, the jailer was so merciless, he still treated them like that! May be he was very proud to carry out the order also. And it was at night, he felt so secured that he went to sleep. In his mind it was possible for them to struggle and let loose the stocks and chains. - On the other hand, the spirit of Paul and Silas were not dampened (depressed) at all. Only the presence of the Spirit of Jesus and empowerment by Jesus could explain this behaviour of joy. (Can your faith in Jesus/ relationship with Jesus produce such calmness, peace and hope? We need to work towards this kind of faith. Especially when you are sick, so disappointed with people and your failures, can you still persevere with great trust in Jesus to bring you out of the bad circumstance. Or, you give out on Jesus totally) They must have caught the rest of the prisoners by a great surprise! In great injury and physically weak, they still had the spirit and mood, and the energy to pray and sing and the other prisoners listened to them in verse 25. - Either it was coincidence of an earthquake or it was a powerful genuine act of God that caused huge shake. All prison doors flew open and everybody’s chains came loose (verses 26). If you were Paul and Silas, what would you do? - The proud jailer was so depressed that he wanted to suicide ( verse 27). He had better killed himself, rather than been put to shame and executed for the escape of prisoners. In the case of Peter’s escape from the prison in Acts 12:19, Herod killed all the security guards who allowed Peter to escape. So, you can imagine the great stress, hopelessness and shame the jailer faced that caused him to be so depressed to suicide. - At that crucial moment, I believe the divine moment, where Paul and Silas, with all the opportunity to escape they could grasp, they decided to stay back to do evangelism. They ceased the divine moment to save the jailer and direct him to Jesus. (This is a great learning point for us in evangelism. Do you sense the divine moment that Jesus has provided for you in your life circumstances?) - They shouted to the jailer at the top of their voice so that in the midst of chaos, jailer could hear clearly and saved himself, “Don’t harm yourself, we are all here!” (verse 28) - I strongly believe that this daring move of Paul and Silas to stay behind was a step of faith; and it caused a paradigm shift/ a change in worldview for the jailer, and coming to know Jesus and be saved. - The jailer was so surprised to see Paul and Silas and other prisoners who were still around and not escape. He must have sensed that it was an act of God they stayed back. He must felt these 2 persons were truly sent by God. This explained why he fell trembling before them. May be by now, in his mind, he flushed back about what he heard in verse 17, when the girl who was spirit possessed who shouted crazily, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” - It was because of the deliverance of the girl that caused the duo to be imprisoned. Right at that moment, he must have linked all these events together, and he out of reverence towards the duo for saving his but also he truly believed in the message of the girl and also the gospel message spread by the duo, he asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (verse 20) - The duo gave what is the most needed by the world today, and it was recorded in verse 21, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” Their preaching did not end there, this jailer must have ignored all the prison rules and brought the duo into his house and allowed them to explain further the word of the Lord (verse 32) and eventually it led to the baptism of the whole household (verse 33). Methodists use one of the many verses like this to support our argument that there were children in the family who were baptised by the duo. - It was the message of salvation that Paul and Silas preached that caused them to end up in jail. What is this salvation that is so precious that caused life transformation and change of worldview? - Take note of the change in attitude after the conversion of the jailer. The jailer was so daring to break prison rules to bring the duo home; the jailer treated their wound (verse 33); he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God (whole family); asked them to leave in peace. - But Paul, for the sake of well being of the fellow converts and believers in Philippi, he ‘jual mahal’, he brought the magistrates’ officer to the attention of their identity as Roman citizen which they were not supposed to beat without a trial. They wanted the authority to treat the future Christians according to law. They did not want to leave secretly but wanted an escort to show that things were done legally. Then, they proceeded to Lydia’s house.

C. Applications on the salvation 

(1) What is the salvation? Saved from what?

  - Most of us will give a standard answer of we are saved with eternal life. That means our soul will be saved in heaven with Jesus. This is evangelical right answer but it is a very simplistic answer that will not help us to commit to grow as disciple of Christ. Basically, the answer only tells us to wait on earth and live until we see Jesus and to be with Him. - That is why a lot Christians stop to grow into Christian maturity. We have no problem in accepting Jesus as saviour. We also believe that Jesus has forgiven our past, present and future sins. Some Christians as result can take the liberty to sin. May be he or she can end up even worse after accepting Christ. Some have this idea that since Jesus is always forgiving me and he has guaranteed me an eternal life, I have all the freedom to sin and ask for forgiveness. I am a married person, at my convenience, I can see prostitutes, practice one night stay, after all Jesus forgives my sin. I am a pastor and I know Jesus forgives my sin, I can take my liberty to tell lies to gain personal interests. I want to seriously ask myself has Christ saved me from the sin or the power of sin? Is Christ my saviour? - Brothers and sisters, we are saved from what? We are saved from sins that lead to the eternal destruction in hell. If we say that Jesus is my saviour or my salvation, it means also mean that Jesus has empowered us to overcome sins of all kind. That was what happened to the jailer, his life changed after he was saved. His attitude changed; his worldview changed. There must be some changes from sinfulness to holiness all the time, between now on earth and the day we Jesus. - An important point I want to preach to you today is you are saved from your sin. Yes, you may sin but Jesus who is your saviour will empower you to overcome your sin. You will love to repent and admit you are wrong; you feel sorrowful about your sin; you will hate sin; you are sensitive to sin; you want to distance yourself from any temptation to sin. - A rich man interviewed 3 prospective drivers. Which one you think he will employ. The first one says, “I have the best skill in the world, I can drive you to the cliff and I make sure the car is one meter away from the cliff and we will be in a safe position.” The second one wants to beat the first one, “I will drive you so near the cliff until the tyre is only one centimetre away from the cliff.” The third is most humble, he says, “I will make sure the car is as far away from the cliff as possible. I expose you to no danger.” At the end of the day, which driver will be employed? Of course, the third one. - If you claim you are saved from sin, this should be your attitude towards sin. You want to be as far away from it as possible.

(2) If one claims that he or she is saved, you must expect that that person is all the time desiring changes in his or her life towards Christ-likeness.

  - Every now and then, he or she may fall; he may be imperfect, but he or she will always become like Christ. - Following Christ is the goal and top priority in his or her life. Apostle Paul in 1Corinthians 11:1 exalted the Corinthians to follow his example, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” - Brothers and sisters, you have the whole life to do it. To help yourself on that journey, you need the word of God or teachings of Jesus to lead you.

 (3) As Paul and Silas grasped the divine moment in the jail to preach the gospel to the jailer and resulting his whole turning to Jesus and be saved, we need to sense the divine moment that Jesus provides for us in our daily circumstances for us to help people to come to know Jesus and be saved. - I just want suggest some divine moments for you to consider: when people experience emptiness in life (a good sign to watch is when they ask you what the meaning of life is); when someone is seriously sick; when people experience failures of all kinds; depressed people; people experience crisis in life (marriage, finance, etc)…  

D. Conclusion - Christianity is most powerful because of the saving power of Jesus over sin. However, if we as disciples of Him do not want to turn on that power; exercise that Jesus power within us, we need to ask ourselves, are we saved or not?

E. Small Group Discussion Questions 1. Discuss the meanings of salvation. 2. Discuss the some divine moments that Jesus may be calling you to share your testimonies (or preach the gospel or render help in any way you can) with others. 3. Share with one another what Jesus is doing in your life so much that you feel others can be encouraged by your sharing.