H. Stephen Shoemaker
Myers Park Baptist Church
Charlotte, North Carolina
THE KIND OF SAVING JESUS DOES
Text: Acts 16:6-34
The Apostle Paul wrote to those in Rome: "I am not ashamed of the
gospel" -- which means somewhere out there people were suggesting he should,
people scoffing, rolling their eyes, expressing their opposition. "For it is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes . . . ."
The words "power unto salvation" can remain abstract, trapped
in theological dictionaries, but they must not. For the gospel of God in Christ is a
focusing of the power of God so that it can make a life-saving, city-saving, world-saving
difference -- the way a dam gathers and utilizes the potential hydroelectric power of a
river, the way a magnifying glass can focus the rays of the sun so they can cause grass to
burst into flame.
I
Acts 16 depicts this power unto salvation in three vignettes. I said a
couple of weeks ago that the Acts of the Apostles could be subtitled "Practicing
Resurrection." In this chapter you see the power of the resurrection at work in three
different ways with three different people: a wealthy businesswoman, a slave girl, and a
middle-class government worker.
It happened as Paul made his first trip to the Roman colony of Philippi.
How he got there is quite interesting.
Paul wanted to preach the word in Asia Minor but was "prevented by
the Holy Spirit." Then he sought to go to Bithynia, but "the Spirit of Jesus did
not let him go."
Paul and Silas had their plans, Asia Minor, Bithynia, but the Spirit
said "no." Was this "no" in the form of some message internally
perceived, as in a dream? Was it in the form of external events that made their travel
impossible? Washed-out roads; visas denied? We do not know. God can speak into our lives
in a variety of ways. Sometimes the Spirit says STOP, other times STEP; and it is up to us
to discern the difference in the vowels.
Plan A for Paul and Silas was disrupted. But Plan B was revealed in a
dream. In the dream a man from Macedonia cried out, "Come over to Macedonia and help
us!" Paul believed the vision, and they crossed the channel from Asia Minor into
Macedonia and made their way to Philippi.
So the Spirit leads, sometimes honoring our best plans, other times
disrupting them, all for the sake of the gospel, which is the focused power of God for
salvation to all who believe.
If you take a look at this chapter you see the kind of saving Jesus
does, or the kind God does through Jesus, not God in general but God as the prophet of
Nazareth, the crucified Messiah and risen Lord.
II
When Paul got to Philippi he began looking for a synagogue. It was his
preferred strategy for launching a mission in a city. But in Philippi Jews were a despised
minority and Paul couldn’t find any Jews, much less the ten male Jews it took to get a
synagogue started. So he waited ‘til the sabbath and went to a river near town. It was a
common practice for Jews to gather near a body of water for worship if there were not a
synagogue available.
There were only a few women there down by the riverside. Not an
auspicious start. But Paul, undeterred by the small crowd, spoke to them the gospel.
One was a woman named Lydia, a wealthy, competent businesswoman who
dealt in purple cloth. She was a "God-fearer" or "God-seeker," a
phrase used for Gentiles who were searchers after God.
When Paul spoke God opened her heart and the gospel took root in her.
Jesus was the answer to her deepest spiritual hunger. There by the river she was baptized,
and then she offered her house to Paul and Silas to be the meeting place for their new
mission in Philippi.
Note who she was: a sophisticated, accomplished businesswoman with a
hunger for God. Note the manner of evangelism: I call it the evangelism of thoughtful
persuasion.
Her story might be yours: a person with a spiritual hunger not sure who
God is or whether this God is worthy of your trust. But Jesus comes and reveals to you a
God you can trust utterly with your life. Things click inside and you take the first step
of faith in Christ -- which is this, to give as much of yourself as you can to
as much of Christ as you know. Both sides of that equation will change and grow in the
adventure of faith: There will be more and more of yourself you can give, and there will
be more and more of Christ and his mission to give yourself to.
Lydia took this step, was baptized, and her home became the house church
for the Philippi mission.
III
The next scene could not be more different: first a wealthy woman, now a
slave girl. She was possessed of a demonic spirit which gave her fortunetelling powers.
Her owners used these powers to make money for themselves.
As Paul and Silas went through town the slave girl began to follow them
everywhere shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim the
way of salvation."
After a few days of this Paul grew "annoyed" and cast out the
evil spirit: "I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And
out it came.
Was Paul annoyed at her condition? A demon-possessed girl taken
advantage of by her predator-owners? Was it just annoyance at her disturbing behavior,
making that constant fuss? We do not know, but maybe God gives us a holy annoyance at
things not right so we can be part of his saving work.
Here is deliverance-evangelism, God driving out the evil spirits
which possess people. It is not pretty, but it saves lives. Here is economic-evangelism,
God bringing to an end economic arrangements which exploit people -- from a two-person
economic arrangement, say between pimp and prostitute, to those as large as a corporation
practicing discrimination or exploiting the environment for immediate profit or a nation
with unconscionably low minimum wage standards.
The power of God in Christ upsets the equilibrium of every economy,
great and small, based upon the humiliation and exploitation of human persons.
I don’t know what threatens us more about this scene -- talk about
demonic possession or talk about economic-evangelism.
As the slave girl was delivered of her spirit, she was rendered useless
to her owners. It is like a pimp discovering one of his prostitutes has gotten clean and
sober and gotten religion. Free from drugs and alcohol, empowered by God’s Spirit, she
now can be free of him. It’s like a high school student deciding he will no longer use
drugs or sell drugs because God has given him the power and wisdom to do so. This is a
road, they discern, that leads them to death.
The girl’s owners became enraged at Paul and Silas for upsetting their
business arrangement, and they got Paul and Silas thrown into prison on trumped- up
charges.
Their tactics tell you why Paul and Silas couldn’t find a synagogue.
The owners go to the Roman magistrates and say, "These men are Jews; they are
disturbing our city. They advocate customs which it is not lawful for us Romans to
accept." The town is pervasively anti-Jewish. It sounds chillingly like Germany
during the Third Reich.
They used patriotism and racism to incite the crowd. The magistrates
went along and had the men stripped and beaten and thrown into prison.
Which leads us to the third scene.
IV
The first scene was of a wealthy woman saved by the evangelism of
thoughtful persuasion. The second was of a slave girl saved by deliverance-evangelism, not
gentle persuasion but the fierce and painful deliverance from possession.
Now the third scene. Paul and Silas in prison. They began praying and
singing hymns. Imagine that, singing hymns in jail?!
A great earthquake came and shook the foundation of the prison, the
chains were broken and the doors sprung open.
When the jailer awoke and saw what had happened, he supposed all the
prisoners had escaped. He knew that he was responsible for them and that if they had
escaped he would pay with his own life. So in despair he drew his sword to kill himself.
Paul cried out, "Do not harm yourself." Sometimes this is the
best gospel word we can bring. "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here."
The jailer called for the lights and went into the jail. He saw them all
there, and trembling with fear he fell down before them and cried out the question:
"What must I do to be saved?" It was a cry, not a seminar question.
Paul and Silas answered, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you
will be saved."
Here is a form of evangelism I would call life-crisis evangelism.
A person reaches the end of their rope; then comes the crisis-cry, O God, save me!
Every life-crisis is a moment when we stand before sickness and health,
bondage and freedom, life and death. We have reached our real limits. All confidence in
self-salvation is shattered. We know without God’s help we will die.
And we hear the words of the gospel: "Do not harm yourself. You are
my beloved. Do not harm yourself. We are here."
Every life-crisis is a spiritual opportunity: The collapse of a
business, the destruction of a vocation, the end of a relationship more cherished than any
other, a moral failure, a series of life-diminishing choices ‘til there’s almost
nothing left.
You do not care to go on. And the gospel comes, "Do not harm
yourself. You can turn around and find new life." And we open our arms as the
church to them and say, We are here. Here’s a place to be when you’ve got nothing left
to give; here’s a place to get well.
If the church is to be such a place for people it will be a costly
mission, a costly giving. Redemption is never cheap. Paul and Silas gave up their escape
from prison for this man’s life. Had they only been thinking of themselves, they would
have fled, but by staying they preserved this man’s life and gave his soul a chance to
be reborn. We are not a country club, just paying our dues to keep the place pretty and
keep the place open. We are a church with a mission to the world.
What must I do to be saved? he cried. They told him the gospel. He
believed and was baptized.
I love this next scene. The jailer led them upstairs to his dwelling
place above the jail. He took water and washed their wounds. They
took water and baptized him.
The power of God unto salvation to all who believe,
a wealthy businesswoman
a poor slave girl
a middle-class government worker
V
The end of the story has a comic turn. The next day the magistrates sent
word to the jailer to release Paul and Silas. "Come out and go in peace" was the
official announcement.
Paul refused. He would have nothing of a secret, disgraceful exit from
Philippi.
"They’ve beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman
citizens, and thrown us into prison. And now they want to sneak us out of town in secret?
No! Let them lead us out of town themselves, publicly."
When the word got back that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens,
the officials were scared. They had broken Roman law. So they came and apologized and gave
the men a VIP parade out of town.
Paul and Silas had their new community to think about. Had they left
secretly, it could have cast a shadow on the new Christian mission. People might have
considered them fugitives from justice.
"Let them lead us out of town themselves and give us an honorable
good-bye!" they said.
So the Roman leaders did. And on the way out of town Paul and Silas
stopped by Lydia’s house and gave encouragement to the new community.
VI
How many ways does Jesus save? As many ways as we and our world need
saving.
God comes to give a new mind, a new understanding, a new heart; God
comes to deliver from bondage, from anger, from meaninglessness, from fear, from
compulsive patterns that are killing you. Wendell Berry writes in a poem To The Holy
Spirit, "By Thy wide grace show me thy narrow gate."
Sometimes the road to salvation is narrow.
Other times God comes to provide a road wide enough to travel.
You’ve been given the narrow road of fundamentalism where the world is always divided
into good and evil, and you have to keep assigning evil to people so as to keep yourself
in the right. There is fear and self-despising at every turn. You can change from
conservative to liberal and still have a fundamentalist mind, and see through
fundamentalist eyes.
And God comes to offer the wide road of salvation, the generous road, so
you can travel it, and so you can let others travel it with you. As Kathleen Norris
offers, the Hebrew word for salvation means, "to make wide."
The Abbé de Tourville was driven to a breakdown by the severity of his
conscience, by the health-breaking narrowness of the way of salvation he had been taught.
He was given new life in the Spirit beyond the breakdown and wrote:
Never follow any narrow way; but on the contrary choose the
broadest the most generous way. That is the only way for you, the only one which
will lead you into the Truth.1
The gospel, the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.
People get ready
there’s a train a comin’;
Don’t need no baggage,
you just get on board.
All you need is faith
to hear the diesel hummin’;
Don’t need no ticket
you just thank the Lord.
Church, get ready
there’s a gospel train a comin’
It’s the power of God for salvation2
To all who believe.
1 Abbé de Tourville,
Letters of Direction, pp. 15-16
2 Black spiritual, adapted.
