Life's Greatest Question | Acts 16:25-33 | Sermon by John Miller

I wonder what would you consider to be life's greatest questions I actually googled that this week I'm not a real computer guy but I actually know enough to be able to Google some questions and here's the five top answers or what are life's great questions number one does God exist that's a good question right is there a god people say well I'm an atheist or I'm an agnostic or I don't really know but a lot of people wonder does God exist and the second question on the list on Google was where did the universe come from you know we are here how did we get here how do you have something out of nothing we had to have something that was the great cause for this effect how was the universe created and then number three was how did life begin how did life begin what's the origin of life and then number four was what's life's purpose that's a great question why am I here I'm here why am I here what's the purpose of life is it just to be born to live to die and that's the end or is there life beyond the grave and that's the fifth and I think one of the great questions is is there life after death is there life after death and you know I believe the Bible has the answer to all of life's great questions amen you don't have to go far in the Bible Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 which by the way is the first book of the Bible first chapter of the Bible and first verse of the Bible it says in the beginning God so we take care of that question number 1 there is a God in the beginning God and then where did the universe come from it says created the heavens and the earth so a meaning when you open the Bible you find out there is a God and that God created all things were not here by accident and then how did life begin the Bible says that God created Adam and Eve I believe the first two human beings on planet Earth and they didn't evolve from lower forms of life over billions billions of years that they were created by God's power and God created man and woman in His image and his likeness don't you love the story of Adam and Eve God created Adam from the dirt someone said you guys are all a bunch of dirt clods he made Adam go to sleep took his rib and made the woman brought the woman to the man Adam took a nap woke up and found that he was married but he said wow man so he called her wall man it's kind of take woman's taking from wild man and and and you know what that's not so far off the Hebrew actually she should be called woman it's actually wow man she's like wow then hanging out with the animals and with God and then finally I got a wife this is pretty cool and so God created the husband and the wife brought them together and we have God's design even for marriage and then what is the purpose of life that we might know God that we might glorify God forever you were made to know God and we're gonna talk about what keeps us from knowing God and how we can come to know God but the purpose of life is to know God and to glorify God forever and then we also find in the Bible that Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life and he who lives and believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live and jesus said whoever lives and believes in Me will never die so Jesus is the answer to what happens beyond the grave he died he was buried he rose from the dead and the Bible says he's become the prototype are the firstfruits of those that have died so yes God exists God created the heavens and the earth and life began that God created it he created all life both animal life and plant life and human life and the purpose of life is to know God and once you die you can go to heaven and spend eternity with God but there is another question and we find it in our text today and have chosen it because I believe that it is one of the latest questions that we could ever ask if not the greatest question we could ever ask and I want you to see it with me in chapter 16 and verse 30 says then he brought them out verse 30 and said here it is sirs what must I do to be saved question mark what must I do to be saved why is this one of the greatest questions that could ever be asked because jesus said what would it profit if you gain the whole world and you lose your own soul what would a man give in exchange for a soul if you gain the whole world but you die and you are from all eternity separated from God what profit is there you've lost everything so I believe this is life's greatest questions what must I do to be safe or another way to put it is what do I need to do to go to heaven how can I know that when I die that I will go to heaven and spend eternity with God now what were the circumstances that led to this question we just read in verse 30 let me give you the background it's the second missionary journey of the great Paul the Apostle he was the great missionary of the early church and he's traveling on his second missionary journey he's with Silas and probably Timothy and Lucas with a group and they are in what today is modern Turkey and the Bible days it was known as Asia and they were on the coast of Asia which is on the west coast looking west over the Aegean Sea and they were praying God where do you want us to go where can we take the good news and they went to bed that night and Paul had a dream and in his dream he saw a man from Macedonia which is across the Aegean Sea to the European continent it was actually ancient Greece and this man was saying come over and help us so they woke up the next morning believing that God was in that dream leading them and so they booked a ship and they sailed across the Aegean and the first little city that they made their way to as the city or town called Philip I we have a letter in new testament to the church at the philippians r philip i and it was where they first led their first convert to christ her name was lydia they went down by the riverside wherever there was not enough male jews to build a synagogue they would worship by the riverside and so primarily a group of women and the Lord opened Lydia's harp she was a businesswoman seller of purple and she received Jesus first convert to Christianity on the European continent was a woman and so Lydia said stay at my house and you can evangelize the city and so for several days they're going around the cities in the street of Philippi preaching the gospel and then the Bible tells us there was a young girl who was demon-possessed and she was the property of some masters that used her for divination and fortune-telling they made prophet by her but she began to follow Paul and Silas around the city when they were preaching and she began to herald these men are the servants of the Most High God and they show us a way of salvation well after days of this Paul finally realized I don't want the devil advertising our ministry and so he turned to this woman and he spoke to the demon and he said in the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out and she was delivered and she was saved so the first two converts in Europe were women one was a very wealthy woman who owned her own business selling purple and the other was a very low slave girl who had been delivered by the power of Jesus Christ well what happened was the men who owned this gal and made profit by her fortune-telling they lost their business you know when you hit somebody in their pocketbook they get quite upset right they couldn't make any money anymore off this girl so they grabbed Paul and Silas start a riot they bring him down to the magistrates and they said these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city and they're teaching customs which are not lawful for us to teach and so they began to beat Paul and Silas ripped off their clothes beat them whipped them then they took him to prison and they handed him Oh to the jailer and he threw them into the inner prison in stocks and this is where we pick it up in verse 25 I want to back up and get a running start on verse 30 look at it with me in your Bible verse 25 and in midnight so they've been beaten they've been whipped they've been thrown into prison their feet and hands are in stocks and this is what Paul and Silas did they prayed verse 25 they sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them Luke makes it makes it very clear that the others in the prison heard their praises and their prayer verse 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake not just a earthquake but a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and every man's bonds or chains were loosed and the keeper of the prison of the prison salt Guard awakened out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open he drew out his sword and would have killed himself he was going to commit suicide supposing that the prisoners had fled the ball cried with a loud voice saying do yourself no harm we are all here then he called for a light and springing in came trembling and fell down before Silas and here's our question he said to them sirs what must I do to be saved now he's not asking what must I do to be a better person he's not asking what must I do for a better life or a better marriage or a better job or to be happy or to be rich how can I make more money no what need do I need to do in order to be saved he's talking about salvation from sin what did he mean by that question what must I do to be saved I believe that in the context he's talking about the saving of his soul that his sins could be forgiven that he could have eternal life and know that when he died that he would go to heaven saved from sin now many people are not asking this question today what must I do to be forgiven what must I do to be saved because they don't believe they're sinners we've lost any concept of sin today matter of fact we've lost all concept of truth we've all lost all concept of what is right and what is wrong but the Bible teaches that man's greatest problem is sin and all of the problems that we have in the world come from this root problem sin the problem is the problem of man's sinful heart that's the heart of the problem it all started back in Genesis chapter 3 when God made Adam and Eve and he placed them in the garden and gave them free will because he wanted real love he wanted a relationship with man he didn't want men to just be programmed to love him he wanted man to choose and so he put a tree in the midst of this beautiful garden he said this the only tree that you can't eat from now what the fruit was we don't know the apples gotten the bad rap over the years poor Apple maybe it was a kumquat maybe it was a banana I don't know hoe it doesn't really matter whatever that fruit was it was forbidden I was a one tree they shouldn't eat from and what they do they ate right and death and sin and all of the tragedies of the world have come into this world because of man's sinful disobedience sin is the breaking of God's law the Bible tells us we have all sinned we have all that is all humanity every human being has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God of the standards of God there's no one righteous no not one all of us have sinned and if we're going to be saved we're going to have to admit that you know God gave us what we call the Ten Commandments theologians calls the Decalogue the Ten Commandments they're not the ten suggestions by the way they're Ten Commandments and right on the top of the list is now she'll have no other gods before me you got that anything comes between you and your love for God then that is idolatry then you have thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not lie thou shalt not covet that's a good one all of these and Jesus even said you know if you have lust in your heart towards someone that you actually commit adultery in your heart Jesus said if you have hatred or anger toward somebody that God sees your heart and he says that you've already committed murder pretty hard to drive the freeways in California and not kill somebody I love that about the little boy that said to his mommy says mommy how come only when dad drives there's idiots on the highway you know every time dad drives the idiots everywhere but not when mommy drives I don't know what the deal is and it's so easy to have an attitude that's just pleasing to God or a covenant lustful or maybe you lie or steal or you cheat or maybe pride the Bible says is an abomination before God now this question what must I do to be saved implies a couple of things it implies that there are only two classes of people and this is what the Bible actually teaches there are the saved and the unsaved there are the saved and the lost there are those who are going to heaven and there are those that are going to hell if you're saved you're going to heaven if you're not saved you're going to hell not because you're a bad person we're born sinners and the fruit is our sin but because we reject Jesus Christ you don't go to hell because of your sin you go to hell because you didn't trust the Savior you didn't put your faith in the same God's thrown out the lifeline and you reject it if you're drowning and someone throws you a lifeline and you go no I don't want that in your drown you got no one to blame but yourself we threw you the right lifeline we threw you the answer all you needed to do was receive Christ and you reject that and you're lost you have no one to blame but yourself so it implies there are two classes Jesus said like this there are two roads there's the broad road that leads to destruction and there's the narrow road that leads to life he said there are two gates one is the narrow gate which reads to life eternal the other one is a broad gate which leads to destruction he said their two destinies one is heaven and one is hell jesus said he that has the son has life and he that has not the Son of God has not life but there's a second implication in this statement was must I do to be saved and that implies an awareness of being lost not only are there two groups saved and unsaved and by the way everyone in this service right now you're either saved or you're not saved it's kind of like you're either alive or you're not alive ever notice there's not degrees of life you're either live or dead you know like super-dead how dead are they like really dead you're either dead or you're not dead you're either alive or you're not alive so you're either saved you're not saying that my question is do you know if you don't you can you can know whether or not you're gonna go to heaven you know that you have eternal life you can know that your sins are forgiven now what made this jailer realize he was lost well number one it was the testimony of Paul and Silas I want you to notice that in verse 25 go back there with me in your Bible acts 16:25 at midnight Paul and Silas did what prayed and sang praises but wait a minute they've been falsely accused they've been whipped and beaten and they're thrown in prison and they sing praises to God when that happened you know that someone either has lost something or he's got something he's either not all there or he's got something that I don't know about if this was reading about me if I were in the story is this and John Miller was arrested beaten thrown in prison and he sulked and complained and griped and he died and we never saw him again end of story I put myself in the story and I would have been so bummed out God where are you why haven't you taken care of us Lauren what's going on but these guys are praying and singing praises unto God maybe they were singing I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth the humble will here thereof and be glad they're rejoicing in the Lord you know that God gives us as Christian songs in the night I love that it's midnight and they're singing they're imprisoned and they're singing that's because we have a wellspring in our heart we have this eternal joy in our life we know that God loves us we know that God is in control we know that God has a purpose we know that God has a plan we know that we're here to glorify God we know that even our trouble draws us closer to God we know that when we die we're going to go to heaven so we got nothing to lose and we have joy you know joy can't be bought in a drugstore joy can't be found in a bottle joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and is not dependent on circumstances even in the darkest night and the deepest dungeon in a prison cell they found the joy of the Lord and they were worshiping and praising God and I think that this spoke to the heart of this Philippian jailer this is what brought him to that question what do I need to do to be saved maybe you heard about the slave girl that had said these men show us the way of salvation and he wanted to know how to be saved or secondly there was the great earthquake and I believe that this is miraculous intervention by God looking at verse 26 suddenly there was a great earthquake just so happened right then right there while they were singing they're praising God sent an earthquake so that the foundations the prism were shaken and immediately all the doors were open which is an amazing thought you're in jail there's an earthquake and the doors open and everyone's changed were loosed this is nothing short of a miracle it's the kind of miracle you pray for when you're in jail by the way awesome God sent this miracle now what caused the earthquake somebody said that they were singing and God was tapping his foot to the music this is the first gospel concert by the way in Europe and they were just praising the Lord and God sent a little jailhouse rock their way no Elvis but they were rocking the jail man and all the doors opened their chains were loosed and what a miracle that was God performed and then thirdly the hopelessness of the Philippian jailer in verse 27 keeper of the prison awoke out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors were open he drew out his sword and would have killed himself supposing the prisoners had fled why because under roman law the jailer would be put to death if the prisoners escaped that's how they kept the jail or a really diligent matter of fact he probably shouldn't have been asleep he was sleeping on the job God sent the earthquake the prison doors were open to change and he thought everyone's escaped and this guy pulls out his sword and he's going to take his own life he's going to commit suicide thinking all hope is gone there's no future for me you know the tenth leading cause of death in the United States is suicide that's tragedy that's a tragedy the tenth leading cause of death in the United States is suicide there's one death by suicide in the United States every 12 minutes and the second leading cause of death between 15 to 24 year olds is suicide and I can't help but believe that today God may have brought you here to hear this message I believe with all my heart that maybe God brought you here today just you and he knows you my name Bible says he has the very hairs of your head all numbered and that God brought you here to tell you this message he loves you he cares about you he has a purpose for you and you can be forgiven of your sins and have the hope of heaven in your heart and life is worth living knowing God will bring life worth living into your heart and if you've been thinking about suicide or maybe you've got tempted suicide God brought you here to hear this message and I'm gonna give you an opportunity this morning to accept Christ to have the joy of your sins forgiven to know that you are a child of God you don't need to take your own life God wants to give you life and life more abundantly you become aware of your sin God brought you here today maybe it was the testimony of others maybe it was the circumstances like the jailer maybe it was the hopelessness of your own heart but God has brought you to this awareness that I am a sinner and I need a Savior and Jesus Christ is the answer to my sin now what must I do to be saved notice that must I do to be saved that indicates that there's a condition for salvation and it's not optional there's something that we need to do in order to be saved ad has provided the way we either accept it or we reject it what is the answer to life's great questions what must I do what must we do in order to be saved look at it with me verse 31 they said and who better to ask the question than Paul the Apostle and Silas what do I need to do to get to heaven I don't how can I be forgiven here it is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy family God will save you and if your family members trust in Jesus they will be saved as well I want you to notice what Paul and Silas did not say they didn't say live a good life clean up your life and God will take you to heaven that's a pretty common view how do you get to heaven just trying to be real really good well can you kind of be more specific how good do I need to be to get to have it just good how good just real good how good is real good everything about that I have people all the time say well I think I'm good enough to go to heaven how do you know how good is good enough to go to heaven just because you haven't murdered somebody you don't shoot heroin in your eyeballs you don't steal from people you don't do any wicked horrible things like your think your neighbor might do it like they're bad and I'm good you know you can always find somebody really bad that makes you look really good my god I'm bad but I'm not that bad they're messed up you know it's interesting the people were polled in the United States a majority of people in United States believe they're going to heaven but very few of them think they're going to hell everything so I'm going to heaven but nobody nobody that bully really believes they're going to hell because we all think that we're good enough to be saved so I need to say well become a good person or they didn't say secondly join a church become religious people think that if you join a church you get to go to heaven you don't join a church to go to heaven you don't become religious to go to heaven they didn't say get baptized and you get to go to heaven I got saved in 1971 and I had long hair and a beard and we were doing drugs and kind of a semi quasi hippie it wasn't a full-on hippie I was just kind of a little hippie you know I wasn't super hip hippie I was just a little hippie but we were doing drugs and had long hair and we're smoking pot and taking LSD and we're party and I remember I got saved I mean full on genuine saved born again but I still had long hair and a beard and I remember going to church them people freaking out it's like whoa you want to be a Christian kid you got to cut your hair I thought I look more like Jesus than you do I mean back then it was all about cut your hair cut your hair can you imagine what must I do to be safe get a haircut boy shave that beard put some shoes on take a bath by all means Paul didn't say any of that stuff the things that we think people would say you know be good stop doing that don't smoke don't chew don't hang out with those that do don't go to bad movies don't dance too much people ask me can Christians dance they go some can some can the ones I've seen dance should not dance in the name of Jesus don't dance you need help you know you gotta stop doing this and stop doing that he didn't tell him to stop doing anything What did he say here it is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved in that beautiful it's beautiful in its simplicity but it's so profound believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved now what does he mean to believe it simply means to trust or put your faith in we all have faith and trust you got in a car this morning most of you and you had faith that it would start why did you get in your car you had faith that it would start you took off from your house approached an intersection light was red and you put your foot on the brake in faith that your car would stop some of the cars I see you drive it takes a lot of faith to drive those suckers you get in an airplane by feet I've got an airplane yeah we get an airplane we don't check the gas make sure there's enough we don't kick the tires shake the wings we don't interview the pilot hear about that pilot took off and he was like drunk you've been drinking before yeah I can fly I can fly I think I'm gonna interview my pilot's now before I leave on a flight check out make sure they haven't been drinking remember the first time I ever flew on an airplane and the plane leveled out about 35,000 feet and we're crews along and the pilot walked by I'm like whoa who's flying this sucker what faith we put and other things and then someone says have faith in God just trust Jesus to save you oh no I can't do that high I can't trust Jesus why not Jesus is the object of our faith the Bible says in Ephesians chapter two verse eight and nine by grace you have been saved through faith that's the arm that reaches out and trust in Jesus Christ young old middle-aged rich poor strong smart weak good bad anyone can believe the thief on the cross was dying for his sins and he was out there hanging on the cross for his crimes and he turned to Jesus and he said remember me when you enter your kingdom Jesus and said well you got to get down be a good person get baptized cut your hair putting on a skinny tie in a suit and then you can go to heaven with me jesus said today you'll be with me in paradise you see it's so simple that people stumble over it I think they have to be good or work hard or be religious no the Bible says God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever what believes Trustin puts their faith in Jesus will never perish but have everlasting life now notice what it is we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ he is the object of our faith it's not in my religious deeds it's not of my good works it's not in my my ethnicity or might be an American or my you know being a good person or my religion it's not in my baptism my my confirmation it's in Jesus Christ in Christ alone so we're saved by grace through faith in Christ alone Jesus is the object of our faith and faith is only as good as the object it's placed in why do we trust Jesus Christ because he's God because he came from heaven and was born of a virgin only one that's ever done that he was fully man and fully God and because he lived for 33 years a sinless life never ever sinned he was the perfect god man and then he went to the cross and when Jesus died in the cross he gave himself voluntarily he said no one takes my life I'll and down in myself I said I have power to lay it down I have power to take it up again and when he died on the cross he cried it is finished meeting paid-in-full what does that mean it means that he paid for the sins of the whole world but you must appropriate what he paid for by receiving him through faith Jesus paid for your salvation but you must reach out and receive it as a free gift that's the only way for you to be saved so why do we trust Jesus because he's God who came from heaven born of a virgin lived to send this life died a substitutionary death for my sins on the cross and he rose again from the dead amen Jesus Christ was buried and three days later he rose again from the dead and guess what he's ascended into heaven and he's coming back amen Jesus Christ is coming again to judge the wicked in the day man do we need the Lord to come back and straighten out this planet what a mess jesus said I am the way I am the truth and I am the life and no one comes to the Father except by me if you're lost he's the way to heaven if you're ignorant he's the truth about God and if you're dead in your sins he's the life of God Christian as a person has the life of God in their soul but I want you to know the certainty of this answer she'll be verse 31 saved believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be safe not might be saved not hope to be saved not if you're lucky you'll be saved you know that you can absolutely know beyond any shadow of a doubt that when you die you'll go to heaven you today can know that when you die you'll go to heaven you can know that your sins are forgiven and you can have God's peace in your heart and this joy in your heart you can experience a love of God today if you will trust in Jesus Christ you'll be free from sins penalty from sins power and from the presence of sin one day all together when Jesus takes you home to heaven guess what happens when you trust in Jesus Christ your life changes forever amen Jesus Christ is all about changing us from the inside out Bible says it like this if any one be in Christ he is a new creation old things pass away all things become what new all things become brand new you can be born again and have a fresh start have you ever kind of wished that you could just start Life all over again did everything in your path could be cleaned and forgiven it can be Jesus can forgive you and give you a new life look what happened to this Philippian jailer first of all he had a new love and verse 33 took them in same hour the night and he washed their stripes he washed them from their stripes there their wounds in other words he had a new love and then he was baptized which means that he publicly confessed his faith in Christ and he had a new life and then in verse 34 when he had brought them into his own house he set food before them and they rejoiced believing in God with all of his family he had a new joy yet a new love he had a new life and he had a new joy and I believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ can do the same for you this morning why would you wait why would you put it off do you notice that one thing again that Paul did not say to the Philippian jailer when he said what do I need to do to be safe he didn't say think about it come back next Sunday wait a while he knew that this man was ready and that was the opportunity you know I believe that we should take advantage of opportunities when they arise and guess what opportunity you have right now right here this morning God brought you here to hear this message because I'm gonna give you an opportunity to trust Jesus Christ not just to hear a sermon but to trust a Savior not just to go to church to make you kind of feel better like okay I did something good maybe God will let me in the heaven but to really come to know God in a personal intimate way through Jesus Christ you can be saved there's no reason that anyone needs to leave this service this morning without knowing that if you died you'd go to heaven there's no reason for anyone in this service this morning to leave here not knowing that I have eternal life do you know by the way that none of us have a guarantee that you'll be here tomorrow you might die tonight I just thought I'd encourage you leave here what the preachers say you said I might kick the bucket tonight I said there's no guarantee I'll be here tomorrow I don't care how young you are you know I'm young I'm healthy you don't know what a future holds you don't know what tomorrow holds you ever thought about that you actually do not have tomorrow promised it's not guaranteed and I believe that it in a group this side there's an override someone someone may die tonight someone may die tomorrow someone may die this month but out of the numbers that I'm preaching to in this church service someone is soon to go to heaven I promise you that you know the statistics on death are really impressive 10 out of every 10 people living are going to die and the Bible says there's no one that can save their soul from the hand of the grave the only way to have assurance that you'll live beyond the grave is to take the hand of Jesus Christ the way the truth the life the resurrection and the life the bread of God who came down from heaven the hope that he can give you if you will trust in him and I want to give you that opportunity this morning you say what do I need to do you need to realize that you're a sinner as the jailer did all of us have sinned all of us have fallen short no one's righteous not one you need to then repent as the jailer did I believe when he came in trembling and asked the question that he was repentant he said well what do you mean by repent it means you change your mind about the way you're going you're going this way in your own rebellion and sin you have to change your my turn around and follow God you have to trust in Jesus today and then the last thing you need to do is receive him which means to believe on Him or to trust him by faith the Bible says whoever receives him God gives them the right of the authority to become the children of God even to those who believe on his name I can't do it for you your friends can't do it for you your wife or your husband your parents can't do it for you only you can do it jesus said I stand at the door of your heart and I knock and if you hear my voice and you open that door jesus said I'll come in and I will forgive your sins and I will give you the hope of heaven don't leave here today don't procrastinate don't put it off don't don't say I'm not ready when you say that you're rejecting salvation it's like a drowning man being thrown a lifeline then he rejects it and he dies we're throwing you a lifeline today and that's Jesus Christ and he is there and he will save you but you need to reach out by faith and receive him into your heart

Channel: Revival Christian Fellowship

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Length: 39min 19sec (2359 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 22 2018