Even if the door is open ...
11/19/2012 1:07:08 AM
Nov 18, 2012~John #147 in series


 

Even if the door is open …    (encouragement from 2012 Brooklyn Tabernacle experience - #3)

Acts 16:16-34 ~ Click to read:  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2016.16-34&version=NIV&interface=print 

Hello~ 

“Tell me the stories of Jesus, I love to hear …” my mama sang it to me when I was a wee child.  I sung it myself oft times, growing up in the Baptist church, and playing it over and over on my piano.  But how about the stories of Paul?  How beautiful the stories of Paul! 

Here’s a fresh take of a very familiar story out of Acts chapter 16* ~  know it is meant to encourage some of you who are about to ‘throw in the towel’ in some arena… your job?  Marriage?  Ministry? 

The story—Paul and Silas are in prison; they have been stripped and flogged, then fastened down in stocks, in a dank, cold, stone cell. ‘Their crime?  Paul cast a demon out of a woman who had been shouting at them day after day, as they went about their business.  Note: we do not find them moaning or crying or even complaining—though who could have blamed them?  Is this how God allows his servants to be treated!  But no, late as it is—about midnight actually—Paul and Silas are praying and singing hymns to God.  Amazing.

God hears their prayers, and in response, causes the earth to quake and the foundations to move so that the prison doors fly open!  And that’s not all . . . Paul and Silas’ shackles fall off!  Here is the puzzling thing—they do not leave the prison, (nor do any of the rest of the freed-up prisoners).  Remember, it is the middle of the night, so the jailer has fallen asleep.  He wakes up, sees the prison doors open, and logically assumes his prisoners have run for their lives.  Paul looks over to find the jailer with his sword drawn, and yells, ‘Don’t hurt yourself—we are all here!’ 

So stunned, so moved . . . the jailer brings Paul and Silas out and says, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’  (Maybe the second verse I memorized as a child—right after John 3.16)  Paul’s answer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…and thy house.”  (yes, I memorized in the King James Version). Believe … receive … saved from death into life.  Beautifully simple.

The jailer chooses to accept the good news of Jesus Christ, and has his family hear the gospel as well.  They too opt to accept the grace of God.  All are baptized. 

There are two valuable lessons for you and me:

~ First, notice answered prayer

Prayer/praise > God answers, causes an earthquake > prison doors open > shackles fall off

~ Second, notice Paul did not leave …

Your attention please! 

Just because the door is open, does not mean you and I should walk out.  Sometimes, even if a door is open and we have the right to walk through it—maybe even logically should walk through it—that is not what God has in mind.  He has a greater good in our staying at our post.

Look what happened as a result of Paul (and Silas) not walking out the open door: at a minimum, the jailer and his family all came to know Jesus.  No doubt, they become members of the Philippian church to whom Paul would write the book of Philippians – the beautiful letter of Philippians.

So be encouraged—even if you are weary at your post.  A bad season plus an open door does not necessarily mean it is time to go.  Seek God’s heart and mind on the matter.

Amen.

* - There were four different teachers at Brooklyn Tabernacle this past week, and so very different they were from each other:  Jim Cymbala, Dr. Tony Evans, Ravi Zacharias, and Tim Dilena.  This message was inspired by Pastor Tim Dilena, who recently joined the staff of B Tab., after 30 years of pastoring in Detroit.