Believe In Jesus

The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas, and the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely. When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake. 

About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened, there was suddenly such a severe earthquake that the foundations of the jail shook; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted out in a loud voice, “Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.” He asked for a light and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. 

Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved.” So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house. He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized at once. He brought them up into his house and provided a meal and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God. (Acts 16:22-34)

Quite the jail break.  Then again, no one fled once the doors flew open and chains pulled loose.  How many of us would head for the woods and at top speed?  Of course, this story about Paul and Silas is fanciful although the part about being stripped, beaten with rods, and imprisoned likely happened.  

The message is “believe in the Lord Jesus.”  When we do, the prison doors shutting our hearts and minds behind iron bars and having strong locks, can be breached.  Jesus has the key.  We turn to him; believe in him; use his key; and then put our shoulders to the door.  Then again, all we have to do is knock, and he opens that door from within. He takes us in at any hour of the night, or day, and bathes our wounds

Deacon David Pierce