Community Church Sermons

Year C

May 16, 2010

The Seventh Sunday of Easter

…but Then Jake Got Saved!

Psalm 97

Acts 16:16-34

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Sometimes you think you have God pretty much figured out. You get to a place where the Lord makes sense to you and your faith feels comfortable. You’ve got your theology in place, and your outlook on life is shaped by what you have come to believe. Everything is certain and sure. You are in control!

But then somebody like Jake gets saved!

Now “Jake” is not his real name, but I’m using it simply because I think it sounds cool to call this jailer at the Philippian city jail “Jake.” Jake the Jailer. It has a ring to it. And Jake’s story is one of those stories that we need to pay attention to – especially those of us who think this faith-thing is all about us.

I don’t know about you, but I find it helpful sometimes to study Bible stories backwards - instead of starting at the beginning and reading to the end, to start at the end and roll it back to the beginning. And this is one of those stories that is packed with all sorts of neat stuff when you read it backwards.

The story ends with Jake the Jailer getting saved! The book of Acts tells us that everybody is happy Jake came to believe in God. Maybe Jake was like some of us who everybody else knew had to get our lives straightened out. I think that’s what my best friend Dennis Astrella’s parents and my folks were thinking when they hauled us down to an evangelistic crusade one night when we were about 12. I’m guessing they were hoping beyond hope that God’s lightning would somehow strike and save us from our evil 12-year old ways. Well, the evangelist painted such a terrifying picture of hell and managed to convince us that we were headed there in a handbasket that when the invitation was given, Dennis and I just about ran to the altar to give our lives to Christ.

And everybody was happy that we got saved! Lots of people were happy when Jake the Jailer got saved, too.

But let’s step backwards and find out just how this happened to ol’ Jake.

The story tells us that the apostle Paul spoke these words to Jake the Jailer at a critical moment in his life. Paul said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” These words were powerful to Jake because he was at a crossroads in life where he knew things had to change – where he needed to head in another direction. He was so despondent about his life, in fact, that he was on the brink of suicide.

What was it that brought Jake to such a frightening place?

Well, rolling back a few more verses, we read that Jake had fallen asleep at the switch – so to speak. He was the Jailer whose job it was to guard the inmates at the local jail. But he had fallen asleep! And sometime after midnight that night, there was a big commotion. When Jake awoke, he saw a terrible scene - the cell doors were all swung open, and the chains that held the prisoners were lying on the ground. There had been a jailbreak, and he had slept through it! His dereliction of duty had unleashed into the streets of Philippi all sorts of bad people – murderers, rapists, thieves, and several Wall Street fund managers.

Jake had failed. He had let everyone down. And so he drew his sword to take his own life.

And that’s when Paul spoke out of the darkness of the dungeon. “Hey, don’t do that! Put your sword away! We’re all still here!”

Jake called for lights and torches were lit. Sure enough, all of the prisoners were still in their cells – chains off, doors open – but still there.

Let’s step back some more now, and find out why these criminals were still there and why Jake knew he had to listen to Paul.

Well, the story says that Paul and his buddy Silas were in their cell that night praying and singing hymns to God. And the other prisoners were listening, and probably laughing. You know, my brother once was staying over at our aunt’s house, and he was going around humming and singing Christian songs. My aunt called my mother and said, “Shirley, I think there’s something wrong with Steve!” My mother asked what made her sister think that. “Well,” my aunt said, “he goes around SINGING all the time!”

So there they are in the dark bowels of that jail and all night long Paul and Silas are singing. “Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning, our song shall rise to Thee!” “Up from the grave he arose! With a mighty triumph o‘er his foes!” “Kumbayah, my Lord, kumbayah!” “I am a ‘C’…”

Oh sure, go ahead and laugh! That’s what THEY were doing, those prisoners, I’m sure. But you know, people may laugh at your song of faith…until the earthquake hits! Funny thing, there is no damage reported anywhere else in the city. In fact the National Earthquake Center locates the epicenter of that quake right underneath the Philippi City Jail – and nowhere else.

The cell doors swing open. The chains come loose. But those prisoners aren’t going anywhere. They know they are in the presence of God! And Jake – the Jailer – in seeing this, knows that there is something going on here that has somehow spared his life. That’s when Paul tells him about Jesus. And Jake believes.

But wait. Let’s go back to the day before. Why were Paul and Silas thrown into the hoosegow in the first place? Because of a complaint filed by the Philippian Chamber of Commerce accusing Paul and Silas of wrecking a local business. This businessperson owned a little slave girl. She was possessed by a demon that enabled her to tell the future. The one who owned her was making a mint off her. She was his cash cow – that is, until Paul and Silas cast the demon out of her and set her free from demonic influence. She lost the ability to tell the future. She was healed, but her owner was outraged. So accusations were brought against them, and that’s how they got thrown in jail.

But how did they get to Philippi in the first place? Well, weeks earlier, while Paul slept, God gave Paul a vision. In it a man from Macedonia appeared – where Philippi is located - begging him to come and help. I wonder if the man in the vision could have been the guardian angel of…Jake the Jailer?

We’ll never know, of course. But here’s what we do know by reading this story backwards: Jake the Jailer was saved by a whole series of strange and wonderful events - events that defy logic, that are beyond explanation, that don’t fit neatly into the ordered categories of human reason. Because, you see, this faith of ours ultimately is not about us.

It is about God. God-at-work, saving and redeeming His children. Quietly working behind the scenes of life to bring about His will, and our good.

We may think we have this religious thing all figured out. We may think it’s all about us – our decisions, our actions, our efforts.

But then someone like Jake gets saved! And we see that salvation has come to him through a series of visions, chance meetings, jail sentences, hymn-singing, earthquakes, and even the simple invitation to believe in Jesus – believe in His love – believe in His forgiveness – believe in His power to save us from ourselves and to lead us to new life. We see that God has been at work in miraculous ways.

One night long ago, I was with a dad whose baby was on the brink of death. The doctors came and said there was nothing more they could do. They encouraged the dad to say “goodbye” and to “let go.” But he would not.

“Rich,” I said, “its okay to let Robert go to God. We are people of faith. We are people of the resurrection. The doctors know what they’re saying, and you need to accept it. There is no hope.”

I’d seen this sort of thing many times before. I had it all figured out.

But Rich refused to give up. He went into the NICU and knelt beside the isolette where his little baby lay dying. I saw his lips moving in prayer.

Not long after that, a young doctor came along and said, “A thought just came to me about what might be the problem. I want to try one more thing.” They wheeled this ashen colored tiny baby out of the nursery and brought him to the operating room.

Two hours later when they wheeled him back, he was bright pink, screaming at the top of his lungs, and very, very much alive. Robert is in his 30’s now.

You see, it’s not all up to us. There is a God who loves us, and who is all the time at work shaping the future of our lives.

And sometimes – just when you think you have it all figured out – just when you come to believe that you are the general manager of the universe - God comes along in ways that defy human convention. He speaks the word of life. The earth trembles. God’s power trumps human reason.

And we find joy – just like the people of Philippi found joy the day Jake the Jailer got saved!

Go into this week now, knowing that God loves you, and surrounds you, and is at work in your life to bring you salvation and joy.