A Blessed Earthquake

Acts 16:25-33

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Hello, my name is Tony Pittenger, I’m one of our synods pastors. Right now, I serve out in Washington state and out there, Washington state is earthquake country. I was actually a student at our Bethany Lutheran College way back in 1989 on October 17th, it was the Loma Prieta, better known as the San Francisco earthquake or the World Series earthquake.

The Oakland A’s were playing the San Francisco Giants and the Bay Bridge collapsed. It pancaked, trapping people, even killing people. Earthquakes can be absolutely devastating. Can you imagine calling an earthquake a blessed event? Well, just listen to this. This is from Acts Chapter 16, starting at verse 25. We read

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Instantly all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains came loose. When the jailer woke up and saw that the prison doors were opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, because he thought that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted with a loud voice, “Don’t harm yourself, because we are all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling in front of Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them outside and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus[e] and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his home. At the same hour of the night, he took them and washed their wounds. Without delay, he and all his family were baptized. (Acts 16:25-33 EHV)

A blessed earthquake. Bible tells us that they were baptized, the entire household, the young and the old, and as Saint Paul also writes, Paul or Silas, the one who baptized him. Paul writes about baptism, saying that all who are baptized have been buried with Christ, they’ve been connected to Calvary to Good Friday through baptism. Says that they have risen to new lives with Christ through baptism. Paul wrote to the Galatians, saying that in baptism, we are dressed, we are robed, we begin to look like Christ, his righteousness, his holiness, his purity on us. St. Paul, when he was baptized, he was told to be baptized to wash his sins away.

We have new lives. The Bible says that they were baptized and that they believe the word that Paul and Silas had spoken to them. So they believed, they believe what? Well, they believe that Jesus had died and had risen. They believed that has the Old Testament prophesied all our sins, all their sins were laid on him. [Jesus] And then again, he had risen. They believed that as Paul wrote to the Romans, that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. It’s revealed from faith, for faith, for the just or the righteous shall live by faith.

Those people weren’t perfect after that night. I’m sure they still struggled with sin, struggled with bad habits, struggled with the culture around them. But a change began that night. That night of that blessed earthquake right there in that household, probably surrounded by shards of broken dishware, pots and all sorts of other things. But surely the change began that night. The change begun by God, what he had worked in them, burying them by baptism, burying them with Christ and raising them to new lives.

You may not remember when you were baptized. If you were baptized as an infant like I was, you may not remember it. But if those words of God were true for those people in Philippi, then those words are true for us. In baptism, we’re connected to Jesus. We’re connected to Good Friday. We’re connected to Easter Sunday and his resurrection. In baptism we are robed, we are dressed in Christ. In baptism, the power of God for salvation is revealed by faith, from faith to faith for the Gospel is the power of God for salvation.

You may not remember your baptism, maybe you do, but here’s one thing for certain. Your Savior, God himself, he remembers. He knows what he did that day for you. And so the day of your baptism is as blessed as that night of that earthquake in Philippi. Until I see you again, God bless and keep you all.