A Vessel Unto Honour

And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.

And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: 

Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.

And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.

But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.

Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,

And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.

And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced believing in God with all his house.

Acts 16:22-34

This remarkable story is true. These events truly happened this way.

God really is who He says He is.

Paul originally persecuted the followers of Christ until his eyes were opened, and then, once he saw the Truth, his life was changed forever.

Paul’s life was so completely changed that he stopped living for himself and surrendered his life completely to the Lord, to the extent that he trusted God and rejoiced to God even while he sat in the deepest part of the prison, shackled to the walls. Even in that dark and dismal place he rejoiced, sang and praised God out loud so that others could hear him. He was not afraid of other people’s sneers or their jeers because he knew the Truth.. and he knew that the Truth was a living, hearing, caring person.

Paul’s belief and his faith was so sincere that the jailer went to the lengths he did to take care of this evident man of God.

That is how God glorifies Himself… Through His followers unwavering, sincere, unapologetic, unashamed, active faith.

God is alive, and real, and He hears those who cry out to Him in faith. The jailer saw the evidence that this God whom Paul was singing to was Almighty, and real, and alive and so powerful that the whole earth quaked around the foundation of the prison opening all the doors in the prison.

That jailer felt fear.

The jailer almost killed himself because he knew he wouldn’t be able to explain what happened and that he was going to be held responsible for the prisoners escaping.

That fear changed the jailer’s heart, and Paul’s unselfish service towards his Master kept Paul right where he was. Paul did not run away and his deep conviction moved a prison full of criminals to follow suit, once the doors were opened which created the opportunity for the jailer to experience realizing that he had a need to repent.

“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Those are the words of a person convinced that God is real and that he needs salvation.

If Paul didn’t have the attitude he had about his life, then this story could not have gone this way.

If Paul didn’t have his deep down sincere faith, he would not have sung praises of rejoicing to God from prison, and if it weren’t for his faith, when the prison doors suddenly opened on their own, Paul would have fled from his cell. Paul would never have used his time of imprisonment to save a lost person by giving them the message of Jesus Christ, so the jailer and his household would never have been saved by God’s grace.

Paul did not count his life dear to himself.

Paul gives us an example of what it looks like to serve the Master with the whole heart, the whole mind, the whole soul and the whole body. Paul gave all of himself to God.

Paul served the Master with all of the life he had in him once he realized just who Jesus is.

Paul said, “And behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saving that bonds and afflictions abide in me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Acts 20:24