This Brings Joy

Acts 16:32-34

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Our devotion today is based on a wonderful story in the Book of Acts, Chapter 16, and I’ll set the story a little bit. St Paul had been thrown in prison, along with Silas, for preaching the Gospel about Jesus. And one night there was a violent earthquake and the jailer who took care of that prison was afraid that all the prisoners had escaped. And so he had taken a sword and was putting it right up next to his chest and was going to run himself through and kill himself because he knew he’d be responsible for all the prisoners who escaped. Suddenly Paul calls out, “Stop, We’re all here. Don’t harm yourself.” And the jailer comes rushing in and drops to the feet of Paul and Silas, and he says to them, the greatest question in the world, “what must I do to be saved?”

How do I get to heaven? Is really what he’s asking. And it’s interesting that Saint Paul doesn’t say to him, well, you got to do this and do this. He doesn’t give him a list of things. All he tells him is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that beautiful message of the gospel tells us that God has taken care of everything. What it takes for us to get to heaven is nothing from us. But it’s entirely God’s doing. And what He has done for us through the work of Christ. So Paul simply puts the gospel in front of this man and invites him to believe.

We’re told that he was so excited that he took Paul and Silas back to his house, and he had them teach the gospel to the members of his house. And then we’re told that immediately he and his entire family were baptized. I love this passage, though, from Act 16.

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.

And then listen to this.

The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God. (Acts 16:32-34)

Now, this brings up a point about our families and our family life. The gospel is, of course, primarily about getting us to heaven some day, and we have that through faith in Christ. But it also has a transformational quality for our own personal lives and our marriages and our relationships to our children. When the Gospel is brought into the home, it also brings joy and gladness into the home as well. And so even though the most important thing about learning about our Savior is getting to heaven, when we know we have that, and when we make that the most important thing in our lives, it also has this wonderful earthly impact back into our marriages and our relationships with our children and our parents. And we see that reflected in this story.

So it’s a wonderful thing that the heavenly home we have waiting for us also has such a tremendous impact on our earthly homes here in this life. God be praised. Amen.