"Preaching" (Acts 16:30-32)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2018 12:03 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  “Preaching”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:30-32

            Message of the verses:  “30 and after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31 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 together with all who were in his house.”

            I want to begin with that the question that this jailer asked and this is the most important question that anyone can ever ask, and the answer that Paul gives along with other things that he writes is the answer that is correct and can not only change your life, but also change you eternal destination.  John MacArthur says “The jailer’s question expressed the deep longing of his heart to be right with God.  Having undoubtedly heard the testimony of the demon-possessed girl (v. 17), either in person or from others, he believed Paul and Silas had the answer.”

            The answer to his question was given by Paul who said simply “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”  As we compare this question and answer and the hearts of two people, one being the jailer, and one being the “rich young ruler” from Luke 18:18-23 we see a difference in their hearts as the rich young ruler did not have a heart that was ready to receive the truth, while the jailer did have a heart that was ready to hear the truth.

            Allow me to give a series of verses to show that the truth of salvation is wholly by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that this truth permeates the Scriptures:  “"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).”  I will not quote all of the following verses, but just give the references (Acts 2:38-39; 5:14; 8:12; 10:43; 11:17, 21; 13:12, 38-39, 48; 14:1; 15:11; 17:12; 18:8).  John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  Now we will look at references from other epistles (Rom. 3:20-25; 5:1; 1 Cor. 6:11; Gal. 2:16; 3:24; Eph. 2:8-9; 2 Tim. 3:15; Titus 3:7).

            Now the following quote from John MacArthur is a very important one:  “To ‘believe in the Lord Jesus’ means first to believe He is who He claimed to be.  The apostle John wrote, ‘These have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name’ (John 20:31).  Second, it means to believe in what He did.  Paul succinctly summarized the work of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:

‘3  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4  and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.’

To the Romans he wrote:

‘If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.’”

            Now we see in the later part of our section that not only did the jailer believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior, but his entire family did also.  There has been some misuse of this section of verses as some think that because the jailer became a believer that so did his household, but we must read on as according to the two missionaries they “spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.”  This shows us that they not only spoke to him, but to his entire household, who also believed.  Remember God has no grand-children, only children.  Just because a father is saved does not mean his son or daughter is saved, as salvation is an individual thing, each one has to believe in order to be saved.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I read and study this passage I cannot help but remember when I became a believer way back in 1974, and as I have stated before this changed my life and it will never be the same.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will use my spiritual diaries to show others the need of salvation, and that the Lord will use them to bring many souls to Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Judas Iscariot” (Matthew 26:15).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where were two men going when Jesus joined them after His resurrection?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/28/2018 12:36 PM