Acts 16 — Believe On the Lord Jesus Christ, and Thou Shalt Be Saved
Paul takes Timothy. The Spirit forbids Asia; a vision at Troas — Come over into Macedonia, and help us. They sail to Philippi. Lydia, a seller of purple, is opened to attend. A slave girl with a spirit of divination follows them; Paul casts it out; her masters drag the apostles before the magistrates. Beaten and put in stocks, at midnight Paul and Silas sing. An earthquake; the doors open. The jailer is about to kill himself; Paul stops him. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. He is baptized that night.
“And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
— Acts 16:31
- v.1-5 Timothy joins; churches strengthened
- v.6-10 The Macedonian vision
- v.11-15 Lydia opened to attend
- v.16-24 Slave girl delivered; apostles imprisoned
- v.25-34 The earthquake; the jailer saved
- v.35-40 Magistrates apologize
The Lord opened her heart. Conversion described in three words. The opening is His; the attending is hers; both occur together. Faith comes by hearing, but the hearing requires an opened ear.
Lydia is the first European convert recorded in the New Testament — a businesswoman, a worshipper of God, ready for the next step. The gospel often finds prepared hearts and brings them in.
At midnight... sang praises. Worship at the bottom. They had been beaten and put in stocks; worship was unreasonable; they sang anyway. The prisoners heard, and so did heaven.
Faith's gravity check. When you sing in the dark, you are saying that God's worth does not depend on present circumstances. The earthquake came; the singing came first.
The simplest evangelical answer to the most important question. Believe — the condition. On the Lord Jesus Christ — the object. Thou shalt be saved — the outcome. And thy house — the gracious extension.
The promise to the household is not automatic but offered; each member must believe (v.34 — believing in God with all his house). The promise opens the door for the family that the head of the house has just entered.
Verse 25 sets a discipline for hard nights. When the circumstances are wrong, sing anyway. Worship at midnight is not denial of the trouble; it is confession of the God who is greater than it. You may not know what the earthquake will be that follows your song — but your song is its own evidence that you have not handed God over to the trouble.
Paul's answer to the jailer's question is the gospel in its simplest form — Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The chapter's movement from Asia barred to Europe opened, from Lydia's heart to the jailer's house, is Christ carrying His gospel west. The whole missionary thrust of the New Testament passes through this chapter, and the gospel's portability is laid bare: it can save a businesswoman by the river and a jailer in his cell on the same trip.
The forbidding of Asia (v.6) and the vision of the Macedonian man together form a guidance pattern — closed doors and an open one. God's direction often comes by what He prevents as much as by what He calls.
Help us. The plea of a continent in the dream of one man. The gospel comes to Europe by this prayer. One night's obedience changes the course of two thousand years.