Post by Zac Loh on Oct 5, 2009 23:35:36 GMT -5
Outward Manifestation Of Inward Transformation
Acts 16:23-34
This message gives me hope. It tells me that as long as I am willing to be changed by the Lord at the inside, I am in for a life of God’s miraculous help and intervention on the outside.
We don’t deserve anything less than the supernatural miraculous intervention of God. Expectation draws down His blessing!
And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. (Acts 16:23-26)
Let’s find out two principles about the miracles of God:
1. Miracles And Persecution Go Together
Throughout the Book of Acts, we see miracles and persecution run parallel.
This is not a rosy gospel …this is a rocky gospel …and the prison was rocked!
2. The Glory Came …Praying And Praising Despite The Persecution …Produces the Miracle
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. (1 Peter 4:14)
When you suffer for Christ, there is bound to be manifestation of heavenly glory on earth in your situation. This enables you to pray and praise God despite the persecution. Then miracles are just waiting to happen ...they are around the corner.
And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” (Acts 16:27-28)
Why did the keeper of the prison attempt to kill himself?
One Bible commentator wrote that the keeper decided that to kill himself there and then, because it was better than to experience the humiliation of being punished in public which would have resulted in death anyway, as the death penalty would have been meted out - as it was the standard form of punishment for such apparent dereliction of duty.
Another, a Bible teacher, wrote that the keeper of the prison job was the main thing going in his life. To lose it, was to lose everything (including his honor, if I may add). So as a consequence, he decided to kill himself.
Whatever the reason or motive for the keeper’s attempted suicide, the fact of the matter is that GOD WAS GOOD to the keeper. His life was spared. Much more, he was saved from an eternal prison called hell.
Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household. (Acts 16:29-34)
This part of the story of the keeper of the prison is symmetry with the story of Zacchaeus the chief tax collector in Luke 19:1-9.
What were the similarities?
1. They both hosted the servants of God.
2. Salvation came to their households.
Somebody mentioned that the message of grace is the most needed in our times. And we have the debate: on one side, we have the Christian responsibility to implement certain disciplines and practices; and on the other side, we simply trust and claim what Jesus had already done for us – the blessings and benefits.
A minister of God, Bobby Conner, coined this term: “opposing dynamics” meaning two opposing truths actually merge producing synergy. The wise weave two seemingly opposing truths together and harness them.
Bottom line, we want the real true grace of God, not assumptions or presumptions. Not a false grace, but the true mighty grace of God!
The keeper’s natural response to such a dramatic event in his prison was to ask to be saved. He now feared the Almighty God more than the Roman Empire. He was spiritually imprisoned by the Roman Empire, now set free by the Almighty God.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13; underline mine)
These two verses …one after another …first we have `work out your own’ …then we have `it is God who works in you’. Doesn’t it appear confusing? On one hand, we work out our own. On the other hand, it is God who works. Yet, by reconciling these two “opposing dynamics’, we will understand that we are to work out what God is working within us.
The keeper of the prison experienced the transformation within him. He experienced the liberating power of Christ. He followed through what God was working within him. He expressed and demonstrated a genuine outward manifestation of inward transformation. His gestures reflected the life of Christ within Him. His actions were corresponding to the divine work of God within him.
Acts 16:23-34
This message gives me hope. It tells me that as long as I am willing to be changed by the Lord at the inside, I am in for a life of God’s miraculous help and intervention on the outside.
We don’t deserve anything less than the supernatural miraculous intervention of God. Expectation draws down His blessing!
And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. (Acts 16:23-26)
Let’s find out two principles about the miracles of God:
1. Miracles And Persecution Go Together
Throughout the Book of Acts, we see miracles and persecution run parallel.
This is not a rosy gospel …this is a rocky gospel …and the prison was rocked!
2. The Glory Came …Praying And Praising Despite The Persecution …Produces the Miracle
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. (1 Peter 4:14)
When you suffer for Christ, there is bound to be manifestation of heavenly glory on earth in your situation. This enables you to pray and praise God despite the persecution. Then miracles are just waiting to happen ...they are around the corner.
And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” (Acts 16:27-28)
Why did the keeper of the prison attempt to kill himself?
One Bible commentator wrote that the keeper decided that to kill himself there and then, because it was better than to experience the humiliation of being punished in public which would have resulted in death anyway, as the death penalty would have been meted out - as it was the standard form of punishment for such apparent dereliction of duty.
Another, a Bible teacher, wrote that the keeper of the prison job was the main thing going in his life. To lose it, was to lose everything (including his honor, if I may add). So as a consequence, he decided to kill himself.
Whatever the reason or motive for the keeper’s attempted suicide, the fact of the matter is that GOD WAS GOOD to the keeper. His life was spared. Much more, he was saved from an eternal prison called hell.
Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household. (Acts 16:29-34)
This part of the story of the keeper of the prison is symmetry with the story of Zacchaeus the chief tax collector in Luke 19:1-9.
What were the similarities?
1. They both hosted the servants of God.
2. Salvation came to their households.
Somebody mentioned that the message of grace is the most needed in our times. And we have the debate: on one side, we have the Christian responsibility to implement certain disciplines and practices; and on the other side, we simply trust and claim what Jesus had already done for us – the blessings and benefits.
A minister of God, Bobby Conner, coined this term: “opposing dynamics” meaning two opposing truths actually merge producing synergy. The wise weave two seemingly opposing truths together and harness them.
Bottom line, we want the real true grace of God, not assumptions or presumptions. Not a false grace, but the true mighty grace of God!
The keeper’s natural response to such a dramatic event in his prison was to ask to be saved. He now feared the Almighty God more than the Roman Empire. He was spiritually imprisoned by the Roman Empire, now set free by the Almighty God.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13; underline mine)
These two verses …one after another …first we have `work out your own’ …then we have `it is God who works in you’. Doesn’t it appear confusing? On one hand, we work out our own. On the other hand, it is God who works. Yet, by reconciling these two “opposing dynamics’, we will understand that we are to work out what God is working within us.
The keeper of the prison experienced the transformation within him. He experienced the liberating power of Christ. He followed through what God was working within him. He expressed and demonstrated a genuine outward manifestation of inward transformation. His gestures reflected the life of Christ within Him. His actions were corresponding to the divine work of God within him.