Transcript of the segment on a Gospel for All People:
The jailer wakes up to the earthquake. He sees the prison doors are open. He assumes the worst—the prisoners have all escaped. He knows that it is his neck on the block. He will be executed and so he prepares to kill himself. But in v. 28, the Apostle Paul cries out, “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all still here.” The jailer can hardly believe it. He fetches the lights and when he rushes in to check, he sees they’re still there. He falls down before Paul and Silas, trembling with fear. And he asks that wonderful question in v. 30, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” I guess God must have been at work in his life for a while. He may have heard that slave girl wandering around Philippi, crying out, “These are the men who can tell you how to get saved.” And when he heard her say that, he may have even asked himself, “I wonder what it would mean for me to be saved.” As he had imprisoned Paul, he no doubt had been struck at how Paul was at peace and, I am absolutely certain, that Paul and Silas had spoken to him of Christ, of how God came to earth in the Lord Jesus, of how in love Jesus went to the cross so that we might all be free. And when he sees that Paul and Silas don’t do a run-away, when he sees the integrity of their life backing up their gospel message, he knows the gospel must be true. And so he wants to become a Christian. And Luke focuses on these three different people to show that the gospel of grace, which is right at the heart of Christianity, is for all kinds of people. |
