SPEAKER_00: Paul and Silas are preaching the gospel on Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: What do they get for it?
SPEAKER_00: Beaten, humiliated, stripped, thrown into prison, chained in the innermost cell.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a part that should stop us in our tracks.
SPEAKER_00: At midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, they weren't complaining, not bitter, not accusing God, praying, singing.
SPEAKER_00: This is supernatural.
SPEAKER_00: Because most of us praise God when doors open.
SPEAKER_00: Paul and Silas praise God while chained behind closed doors.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of those great spiritual lessons of Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Your external circumstances do not have to determine your interior freedom.
SPEAKER_00: The world says freedom means I can do whatever I want.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity says true freedom is deeper than circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: It is the ability to remain anchored in God even when life is difficult.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the saints could suffer and still have peace.
SPEAKER_00: Their joy was not dependent on comfort, their identity was not dependent on success.
SPEAKER_00: And then something incredible happens.
SPEAKER_00: An earthquake shakes the prison, the chains fall off, the doors swing open.
SPEAKER_00: Now imagine the jailer, the Roman culture, if prison prisoners escape, the jailer would often receive the punishment meant for them.
SPEAKER_00: He assumes his life is over.
SPEAKER_00: So what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He draws his sword to kill himself.
SPEAKER_00: And then comes one of the most powerful lines in the Acts of the Apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Do not harm yourself.
SPEAKER_00: We are all here.
SPEAKER_00: Paul saves the very man who had imprisoned him.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is not revenge.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is transformation.
SPEAKER_00: The jailer expected hatred.
SPEAKER_00: Instead he encountered mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy changed him.
SPEAKER_00: He falls before Paul and Silas and asks the most important question a human being can ask.
SPEAKER_00: What must I do to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: Not how do I become successful, not how do I become rich, not how do I become comfortable?
SPEAKER_00: What must I do to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: The question almost disappears from modern society.
SPEAKER_00: We spend enormous energy worrying about careers, appearance, finances, politics, retirement, influence, vacation, followers, status.
SPEAKER_00: But very few people stop and seriously ask, well, what is happening to my soul?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says in the gospel today that the Holy Spirit will come to convict the world in regard to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Not that the world, not that word convict sounds harsh to modern ears, but it actually is an act of mercy because you cannot heal what you refuse to acknowledge.
SPEAKER_00: A doctor who lies about a diagnosis is dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: A friend who never tells you the truth is not loving you.
SPEAKER_00: And a spirituality that never speaks about sin cannot save anyone.
SPEAKER_00: To show us where pride has taken root, where selfishness has hardened us, where compromise has slowly become normal, where we have built a version of Christianity that demands very little.
SPEAKER_00: Because one of the greatest dangers today is that people want inspiration without conversion.
SPEAKER_00: They want Jesus as encouragement, but not as the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But the gospel is not merely self-improvement, it is surrender, it is transformation.
SPEAKER_00: It is dying to the old self so that a new life can emerge.
SPEAKER_00: And notice the beauty of today's readings.
SPEAKER_00: The jailer's conversion immediately changes his behavior.
SPEAKER_00: He washes the wounds of Paul and Silas, he welcomes them into his home, his household is baptized.
SPEAKER_00: Real encounter with Christ always changes how we live.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's the question for us today.
SPEAKER_00: How has my faith actually changed me?
SPEAKER_00: Or have I simply become religious without becoming transformed?
SPEAKER_00: Because the goal of Christianity is not merely to attend church, it's to become a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: So, my brothers and sisters, a person so filled with Christ that even in the darkness of a prison, that soul remains free.
SPEAKER_00: That's the goal.
SPEAKER_00: To be completely free even in adversity.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I know my Savior and His name is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.