Salvation Happens

      It happened in a Buffalo , New York hospital.  A mother carried her ten year old son into the emergency room.  He had been accidentally struck in the chest with a baseball bat.  His heart had stopped. E.R. nurse Penny Brown didn’t hesitate. She didn’t wait for a doctor.  She performed immediate CPR and saved the boy’s life.

      Seven years later nurse Penny Brown was eating in a restaurant.  A piece of meat became lodged across her wind pipe.  She couldn’t breathe.  As she was about to pass out, she felt a pair of strong arms circle her.  A seventeen year old dishwasher at the restaurant named Kevin Brown had seen her distress.  He performed the Heimlich maneuver.

      Kevin Brown, the seventeen old dishwasher, was the young man whose life Penny Brown had saved in the E.R. seven years before. 

       True story. 

       Sometimes you just don’t know when or how salvation will show up. 

       Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke are in Philippi .  Last Sunday we saw the start of their ministry in Macedonia .  Now Luke tells us that there is a slave girl who follows Paul and his companions around town.  He says that she is possessed by a python spirit. – a spirit that gives her the ability to foretell the future.

       The python was the symbol of the famous Delphic Oracle.  It represented the god Apollo who was believed to provide predictions of upcoming events.  So anyone who was seen to possess the ability to foretell the future was described as being led by the python.  Greeks and Romans put a lot of stock in divination and signs.  So the slave girl’s clairvoyance is a gold mine for her owners.  

       She follows the missionaries all over town shouting that they are “servants of the Most High God and proclaimers of the way of salvation.”  What’s wrong with that?  That’s great advertising.

       The problem is that while what the girl says is true, it is also not true.  To the Romans and Greeks, “God Most High” was not a title for the God of Israel.  It was a title for Zeus.  The “way of salvation” is equally confusing.  Savior, deliverer and salvation were all favorite terms of the various mystery cults like the cult of Isis and the cult of Dionysus.  Even the emperor dubbed himself the “savior of the people.” 

       Paul rejects the girl’s witness because it associates the gospel with the magic of the day.  He words are an attempt by the demonic power to turn to gospel into just another weird and wonderful phenomenon of the day.  So Jesus will be seen as just another savior in the already bulging pantheon of Greek gods.

       Paul becomes annoyed by the demonic voice.  He turns and commands the python spirit to leave the girl.  Immediately she is set free.

       Why doesn’t Paul act as soon as he first becomes aware of the presence of the spirit?   I think he knows that healing the girl will lead to trouble for the infant church.  It does.

       Luke uses an interesting turn of phrase in verse 19.   He writes that the owners of the girl realized that once the python spirit had gone out, exelthen in Greek, that their hope of making money had also gone out.  Luke uses the same word.  A spiritual exorcism has led to a financial exorcism. 

      Paul has touched the hearts of the girl’s owners – but their hearts are located in their wallets.  They drag Paul and Silas into the marketplace – the agora.  This agora in Philippi has been excavated by archeologists.  On the northwest side stood a raised podium with stairs on two sides.  That’s where cases were heard.

      The girl’s owners say to the judge, “We’re not against a little religion—as long as it’s kept in its place.  But these men are Jews (we all know what they’re like) and they are disturbing the city.  They are advocating things that are not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice.  Now they don’t come right out and say, “Our financial self-interest is threatened.” They cloak it in race, tradition and the old-time religion.  

       The magistrates don’t bother to learn the facts.  They order punishment. 

       They symbol of Roman authority was the fascine -- an ax bundled around with rods.  If you go to the old U.S. Senate chambers, you will see this same ancient symbol carved in plaster.  The ax and the rods represent two levels of punishment.  The ax is the power of capital punishment.  The rods were used for lesser punishment like beatings.  They were wielded by officers of the court called lictors in Latin ,  This is were we get the phrase “getting your licks.” 

        Paul and Barnabas are handed over to the lictors.  They are severely flogged.  Then they are thrown into prison.  The jailer is commanded to guard them carefully.  He puts them in the inner dungeon and, for good measure, fastens their feet in the stocks.

       Now if I was beaten bloody, thrown into prison and had my feet placed in the stocks I think I’d have some second thoughts about my mission.  If Paul and Silas had been like many people they would have said, “God wants us to be happy, and were not happy.  So let’s go somewhere we can be happy. We should never have started out.  It’s just too hard to bring the gospel to Europe .”  And if they were feeling more theological they might have added, “I suppose these people just aren’t among the elect.  We need to go somewhere God is going to bless.”  

       But that’s not what they say. Instead, they sing.

       That’s okay too.  I mean, a somber chorus of a tedious old hymn like “Rescue the Perishing, Care for the Dying” might be therapeutic.  If one of the other prisoners has a harmonica, they might manage “Philippi Prison Blues.”   But that’s not what they sing.   They sing praise songs. 

       Why are they singing?  They don’t know how this is going to turn out.  They don’t know there’s going to be an earthquake. 

       But they do know that God is in charge.  They do know that they are engaged in a spiritual struggle.  They know that, by resorting to violence, the enemy has shown his fear.   They know that the resurrection power of Jesus can’t be stopped.  Paul will later write to these same Philippians from another prison, “What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.”  Paul also writes to the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always.”  He not only says it. He’s already modeled it. 

       As Paul and Silas sing, the other prisoners quiet down.  They start to listen.  They begin to learn about the God who sent Paul and Silas to their city.           

       Suddenly, at midnight, their concert brings down the house – literally.  There is an earthquake.  That’s not a rare occurrence in that area but this earthquake opens the inner and outer doors of the prison and releases the prisoners – all without harming anyone.  Paul and Silas and the others have every opportunity to escape.  But they stay.  Paul has an enemy to reach.

        The jailer has not been kind to Paul.  He has not just done his duty but more than his duty.  He’s the one who chose the inner dungeon.  He’s the one who chose the stocks.  He’s the one who leaves Paul and Silas hungry with the wounds unwashed.  Paul has no reason to wish this man well.  But he takes this man who has wronged him and turns him into a brother.

         Most of you remember the terrible genocide that took place in the African country of Rwanda .  Pastor Mark Buchanan from British Columbia had lunch with a woman named Regina King who lived through the genocide.  She had spent several months living by her wits in the jungle -- running for her life in Rwanda .

       Mrs. King told Buchanan many amazing stories. But the most amazing was about a woman whose son was killed in the genocide. She nursed bitterness, and she nursed grievance, and she nursed thoughts of vengeance.  She wanted to find out who her son’s killer was, so she could bring punishment.  But one night she had a dream.  In the dream she was going down the street and she saw a house and she knew it was the house of her enemy.

      She heard God say, “Go into the house.”  She says, “I don’t wanna.”  Go into the house!”   So she goes into the house, and God leads her through the many rooms and then up to the stairs and He says, “I want you to go up the stairs.”

       She says, “I don’t want to go any further in this house.”  “I want you to go up the stairs.”  And she goes up the stairs. As she opens the door at the top, it leads to heaven.  And she has this revelation that the path to heaven goes through the house of her enemy.

       Two days later there is a knock at her door and a young man is standing there. He’s shaking.  He says to her, “I am the man who killed your son.  Now I place my life in your hands. Whatever you want to do with me I accept.  I have no peace since I did what I did and I will accept whatever.  If you want to kill me, you can kill me.  If you want to turn me into the authorities, turn me into the authorities. Whatever you want, my life is in your hands.” 

       And because she has this revelation from God, she says, “I will not do any of this.  But I do have one request; you now must become my son.”

       And she takes him in and she feeds him at the table where she fed her son.  And he’s the same size and he actually wears his clothes. He actually moves in and becomes a son to her.  Because heaven passes through the house of her enemy, this boy is still living with her.  And God has given her such favor, that she now has a national ministry in Rwanda , and she travels all around and she’s helping the whole nation deal with the issue of reconciliation. 

       The path to heaven passes through the house of your enemy.  That’s what Paul knows about the jailer.  He needs to make his enemy his brother.

       Someone once defined an atheist as a person who hopes that the Lord will not do anything to disturb his disbelief.  The jailer is that person.  In Paul’s ministry in Philippi, we have saw last week how the Lord deals with an open soul like Lydia ’s. Today we have seen how the Lord deals with a tormented soul like the slave girl’s. Now we see how the Lord deals with a tough soul.

       The jailer rushes into the cells.  He sees the doors open. He draws his sword to kill himself.  He knows that the penalty for the escape of a prisoner.  As a Roman, he prefers it to be by his own hand.  But there is more than that.  This earthquake is something different.  He realizes that he may have offended Paul’s powerful God and that his eternal future and that of his family is at risk.  He pulls out his sword in hope that he might appease the wrath of the God he has offended. 

       But Paul cries out, “Don’t hurt yourself.  We are all here.”

       Paul and Silas are not only men who will stay in prison when they have the chance at escape.  They are also men who can also influence others to stay who could have run away.   They are men who can warn their jailer and preserve his life.  And they can do more than preserve his life.  They can bring him to eternal life.

       The jailer asks, “What must I do to be saved?” 

       He’s not just asking how his life can be spared because it has already been spared.  Perhaps he has heard the slave girl’s proclamation.  Perhaps he has listened in on the singing in the prison cell and realizes there is something he doesn’t have.  Now he is ready for understanding.  The earthquake, and the prisoners who won’t flee, arrest his attention. 

        When people are about to die – as the jailer had been – they start thinking about what lies beyond.  That’s what’s behind the jailers’ question. “What must I do to be saved?”

        Paul says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.”  In that brief sentence Paul expresses the gospel.  It’s not all he tells him.  Luke writes that later Paul spoke the word of the Lord to him and his household.  But it’s where Paul starts – with the core.

        You have to be able to do that.  Sometimes that’s all you can do.

        Bishop John Taylor Smith of the Church of England was in charge of all the chaplains for the British Army in World War I.  He used to ask candidates for the chaplaincy one question:  “We will suppose I am a soldier who has been wounded on the field of battle.  I have three minutes to live and I am afraid to die because I do not know Christ.  Tell me how I may be saved and die with the assurance that all is well.”  If the applicant began to beat about the bush, to talk about the church or how to enter into a course of study and so on the Bishop would say, “That will not do.  I only have three minutes to live.  Tell me what I must do.”  As long as Bishop Smith was Chaplain General, no candidate could become a chaplain in the army if  he couldn’t answer that question

       Pastors don’t usually end up on battlefields.  But they do end up in hospital rooms with frightened people who are afraid to die and meet God.  “You have three minutes before the morphine kicks in.”  What would you say? 

      We sometimes have candidates for ordination who come before the Presbytery.  Some seem incapable of giving a short answer.   Presented with a dying person,  all they can talk about is entering a time of exploration and study.  At times that is valid.  But a gospel that can’t save a dying person is not a gospel.  You would like to be subtle.  You would like to be nuanced.  But there is no time.

       Paul doesn’t suggest counseling.  He doesn’t say to the jailer, “You’ve just had a big shock.  Let’s talk about it tomorrow when you’ve calmed down and can make a considered decision.   Paul sees that God is moving in this man’s life and it’s time for him to choose.  The man is asking about salvation and Paul knows what to say, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.” 

      Does the jailer understand what that meant?  He must understand some of it through the inward witness of the Holy Spirit who is calling him.  He understands enough to believe and be baptized.  Does he understand all of what it means?  Probably not.  I not sure we understand it all either, even with all the teaching we’ve received.  But what he does know he believes and Jesus saves him.

       Fast forward  two thousand years. The setting changes but the issues are the same.

       Sam was another tough soul – a high school teacher and coach. He had a foul temper and sometimes indulged in language that would blister paint.  It especially came out on the football field.

       One of the students at his school, a quiet junior varsity cheerleader, made a pledge to God to become more upfront about sharing her faith.  Following the final football game of a losing season, the cheerleader approached Coach Sam.

       “Coach, when you take the Lord’s name in van, it hurts me because I am a Christian.”

      He yelled at the girl and she began to cry and walked away.  But from then on, every day in history class, Coach Sam watched the girl closely.  At the end of the year, Coach Sam asked her to remain after the exam.  He sat down next to her and asked, “Do you remember when you spoke to me about my swearing?”

      “Yes, sir.”

      “You said you’re a Christian. Isn’t everyone in America ?”

      “No , sir.”

      As the two talked, the coach noticed his voice getting softer and this young woman becoming more bold and aggressive.  Finally Coach Sam asked, “What would I do to become a Christian?”  

       The girl turned to face him directly and put her finger in his face.  “Coach, you need to get down on your knees right now, confess your sins, and ask the Lord to forgive you for taking His name in vain.  You need to thank Him for dying for you.”

       Coach Sam did just that.  Eventually Coach Sam went into ministry and served the Lord for at least twenty years with Young Life.   He lost track of the girl because her father was in the military and the family moved a lot.  But what would have happened if that girl had not been bold, direct and clear in witnessing?

       The point from the experience of Paul, Silas and this young teenager is that you never know when people may be listening.   Today people in Moorpark are listening and watching us.   

       You do not need to be in a jail to witness. Your prison might be down at Albertson’s or at work, at the bank, or maybe next door to where you live. As people see our lives, do they see a spirit of complaint?  Or do they hear praise songs even when we are mentally or emotionally beaten, in the stocks and in the dungeon?  

       What is our testimony?   What kind of questions will it lead people to ask us?  What we do as a congregation and as God’s people will impact men and women in this city.