Redeem Crisis Moments

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Since the beginning of the year we’ve been walking through the book of Acts, which is the historical record of the brand new Christian church in the first century. We’re calling the series “You Will Be My Witnesses,” because at the very beginning, those are the words Jesus spoke to his disciples …and those are the words he continues to speak to us. We are his witnesses.

So over the past few months, it has been awesome to see the people of The Chapel stepping up and owning that calling. Our friend Kevin King, from New York City, calls it “turning up your spiritual volume.” Instead of having one way of talking when you’re around your church friends and another way of talking when you’re with everyone else, turning up your spiritual volume means you speak freely and openly about your faith, no matter whom you’re with. Mentioning to your friends what you learned in church, or how inspiring it was to see people baptized. Talking about how you served the homeless over the weekend. Sharing with a family member what you’ve been praying for in your life, or offering to pray for something in their life. Inviting someone to celebrate Easter at The Chapel, or to come to the egg hunt the day before Easter. Etc. All of those are ways to live out our calling as witnesses for Christ, and I’m seeing it happening, and the church is growing, and we are part of this revival that God is bringing around the world. And I have to say: it makes it really fun to be a pastor.

So if you are living out that calling as a witness for Christ, you know this: sometimes people are receptive to what you say—they lean in—they want to hear more. And sometimes people are not receptive—there’s an awkward silence, or they change the subject. And that’s fine—sometimes people just aren’t ready.

But there are certain moments in life when people tend to be more open than usual—when people who are normally resistant become receptive. Today’s passage in Acts 16 is the story of one of those moments, and there’s a lot we can learn from it.

Before we read the passage, I want to give you a quick biology lesson. I love eating lobster, like most of you. But there’s something about lobsters that I never knew, until a few years ago. Just stick with me here. As lobsters are developing, deep in the ocean, there comes a time when, in order for them to keep growing, they have to shed their shell and grow a new one. It’s called “molting,” and lots of animals do it, but if you were a lobster it would be particularly scary. Because—think about what your shell represents: it’s your protection; it’s your strength; it’s the way you’ve navigated life. And now all of a sudden, you need to your shell off and leave it behind. And here’s the scariest part: right after you leave your old shell, there’s a period of time when your new shell hasn’t grown yet. Which means you are really vulnerable. Fish swim by you with a hungry look in their eyes. And I don’t want to put thoughts in the mind of a lobster. I’m not even sure lobsters have minds. But if they do, it must be really tempting to go back to the old shell. But if they want to survive, they have to leave it behind. And that is weirdest thing you will ever hear in church.

If I had to describe that process in one word, I would use the word crisis. For the lobster, this is a crisis moment. Here’s how the dictionary defines crisis: “A dramatic emotional or circumstantial upheaval in a person’s life.” A dramatic emotional or circumstantial upheaval in a person’s life. Ever had one of those? Of course. We all have. Something familiar gets pulled away; something changes;

we feel vulnerable and uncertain. We all have those times. And here’s the point: those are the moments in life that God plans and orchestrates to break through our shell and open our heart to receive what he has for us. And therefore, if we’re living as witnesses of Christ, talking freely about our faith with the people around us, one of the times when those people will be most receptive is during times of crisis. And listen: we don’t want to miss those times.

Okay: just a little background for today’s passage. Back in Acts 1:8, Jesus told his disciples they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So by now they’ve already spread the gospel in Jerusalem and all throughout Judea and Samaria. And now they are bringing the message to the ends of the earth. And Acts 16 marks the first time the gospel crosses into Europe. So Paul and Silas are in a place called Philippi, which is modern-day Greece. And they get in trouble with the local authorities for disturbing the peace. Let’s pick up the story in Acts 16, verse 22. This is God’s Word for us today…

22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 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—he and his whole household. This is the Word of the Lord.

The focus of this message is not Paul and Silas. They’re part of the story. But I’m going to actually focus on the jailer, and try to view this event from his perspective. We don’t even know what his name was. It’s likely he was a retired veteran from the Roman army—that was commonly the kind of person who got jobs as jailers. So I want to look at this whole thing through the eyes of the jailer. And let’s divide it into three scenes.

First, Crisis. Crisis. So the jailer is on duty at the prison, and these two foreigners that he’s never seen before get brought to the prison. They’re not in good shape—it’s obvious they’ve been severely flogged with whips. Back then, whips were made of leather cords, sometimes with bits of stone or metal at the end of the cords. So Paul and Silas are bloodied and streaked with tears and sweat. The jailer is commanded to guard them carefully, so he walks them past the outer cells, which are used for minor offenses, and he brings them into the inner cell—the one furthest from freedom. He chains their wrists to the wall, and just to make sure there’s no possibility of escape, he locks their feet in the stocks. Nighttime comes, and the jailer falls asleep.

At some point in the night, he’s wakened from his sleep by the sound of something strange. He’s used to hearing prisoners groaning in pain, or screaming for justice, but this is different. This is the sound of singing. He sits up and listens more closely, and he realizes they’re singing to their God. He can’t make out all the words, but he hears words like kurios—the Greek word for “Lord,” and Iesous—Jesus. He’s so taken aback by what he hears, that he just sits there for a moment, and listens. Then the singing stops, and he hears those same voices talking, and he realizes they’re praying to their God. The prayers don’t sound angry or desperate; they sound more hopeful and strong. And then the singing starts up again. And the jailer sits there, on the edge of his bed, in stunned silence.

As we know, this jailer is about to experience a huge crisis. But this moment, before the crisis, is setting the stage. The way that these believers are acting, chained in that prison cell, is preparing the jailer’s heart for how he will respond when the crisis hits. And here’s what you and I need to know: as witnesses for Christ, the way we act around people before crisis hits their lives is setting the stage for how we can influence them after crisis hits their lives. Does that make sense? The way we act around people before crisis hits sets the stage for how we can influence them after crisis hits. None of us is perfect, but are we living in a way that reflects Jesus? In this case, Paul and Silas had been treated completely unjustly. They were beaten and imprisoned with no due process, which was against Roman law. But they were walking in the footsteps of a Savior who was also treated unfairly, and who modeled how to respond when you’re treated unfairly: you love your enemies; you pray for those who persecute you, and you worship God in the storm. Are we living in a way that reflects Jesus, especially in the hard things of life? People are watching.

So before the jailer’s life is cracked open by a major crisis, he hears these Jesus-followers—beaten and starved and chained to the wall—singing.

And then the crisis comes. Earthquakes weren’t uncommon in that region. But this is a violent one. The prison building is shaken so severely that the prisoners’ chains are ripped out of the wall. The doors break loose from their hinges. The jailer jumps out of his bed and sees what’s happening, and it’s his worst nightmare. We have an ancient document called The Code of Justinian, which talks about Roman law in the first century. And the law says if you’re guarding a prison and a prisoner escapes, you will receive the same penalty that the prisoner would have received. That’s the law, and the jailer knows it.

So he sees the doors hanging open, he assumes that the prisoners are gone, and he panics: he pulls out his sword—it’s the Greek word for a short sword or dagger—and he’s about to run himself through. Because that would be way quicker than execution by the Romans.

This is a crisis. This is a man who has a stable job; he’s a respectable member of the community; life is going well…until this moment, when everything is turned upside down. And so many times, when God wants to do something significant in our lives, he uses a crisis to get our attention. He cracks open our shell, and it’s terrifying.

I was looking back at some of the testimonies of people who’ve been baptized here at The Chapel, and I saw a common thread through most of them. Here’s one:

I never really had a desire to have a personal relationship with Christ until my sister died after giving birth to a child I would then adopt. It was hard for me to understand how my sister could be taken away from me and my daughter given to me in the same moment. For some time I had known it was impossible for me to bear children of my own. In the miracle of having a newborn to raise and the intense

grief of losing a sister I loved, I accepted Christ as my Savior and began my relationship with Jesus Christ.

Here’s another one: “…after my second divorce, while at Spa 23, a man from the Chapel, who I did not know, asked me if I was okay. I must have looked terrible. We talked and he gave me some sermons to listen to. After listening to them I found the Chapel and started attending. Shortly after that, I decided to accept Christ permanently in my life.”

Do you see the common thread? Crisis. Some kind of major life upheaval. It’s not always as dramatic as those—sometimes the crisis is more internal. Sometimes that crisis is so painful that it feels like death. And sometimes—like with the jailer—people respond by entertaining thoughts of taking their own lives. But somehow, in all of that, God is up to something.

I want to show you one other definition for the word “crisis.” Listen to this: A crucial or decisive point or situation; a turning point. For each of those people who were baptized, and for the jailer, the thing that felt terrifying or confusing turned out to be a turning point.

When your world gets rocked, the typical thing is to think, “I just want things to get back to the way they were before.” Right? Let me crawl back into that old shell! Because that’s all you know. If that’s where you are right now—if your world has been rocked by crisis, and you want to get back to normal—think about this: maybe God wants to take you somewhere you’ve never been before.

Okay—scene number two, I’ll call Questioning. In the chaos of the moment, Paul shouts out, “Don’t harm yourself! We’re all here!” The jailer calls for lights, and he falls to his knees in front of Paul and Silas, trembling like a leaf, and he says, “What must I do to be saved?” Some people have suggested that the jailer wasn’t asking about spiritual salvation—that he wanted to be saved from punishment by his superiors. But why would he ask Paul and Silas about that? The only thing that makes sense is that the jailer knew what Paul and Silas stood for, and he realized he desperately needed what they had. So he asks.

Verse 31: 31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. I don’t know what the jailer first thought when he heard that answer. Maybe he thought it was a little too simple. “Believe in the Lord Jesus…” So you’re saying that’s step 1, right? What’s the next step? And we don’t have the rest of the conversation recorded here, but the jailer apparently gathered the rest of his family members, and Paul and Silas “spoke the word of the Lord to them.” So they explained things more, and they answered their questions. But it all came down to one thing: you have to open your heart and put your faith in the Lord Jesus. Notice it’s the Lord Jesus—which means you’ve got a new lord—a new master. But you enter into that relationship purely by faith.

When you live as a witness for Christ, and you turn up your spiritual volume, and you’re there for people during their crisis moments, sometimes you will have the opportunity to share the simple good news of the gospel with them: “Believe in the Lord Jesus.” It’s that simple, and it’s that powerful.

I wonder if maybe God has brought you here today to be confronted with that simple and powerful message. Maybe you’re in a crisis mode—the way you navigated live in the past has been cracked open, and you feel disoriented, and you’re questioning things. And you need to know that the gospel is so simple, and yet so life-changing. And it’s this: Jesus died on the cross for your sins, and he rose again on the third day. And he offers to forgive you, and make you part of his family. But you have to respond! It doesn’t happen automatically! It’s a decision of faith.

So here’s this jailer, in the middle of the night; he’s got his whole family together; they’re talking to a couple of beat up prisoners. And they are confronted with Jesus.

Which leads to the last point: Conversion. Look at verse 33: 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 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—he and his whole household.

That night, the jailer’s life is changed permanently, because he responds to the gospel with faith. He says “Yes.” He receives Christ. And so does his whole family. Remember—this is a personal decision—you don’t inherit it from your parents. You have to own it. And they all do.

A soon as he gets the prisoners cleaned up, they find some water—maybe it was a public fountain near the prison. And right there in the middle of the night, Paul and Silas baptize this family. Can you imagine that scene? Can you imagine baptizing the person who had just locked you up? Can you imagine any of them sleeping at all for the rest of that night?

So there’s this midnight baptism, and then he brings Paul and Silas into his house; he fires up the grill and puts some bread in the oven to bake and serves them a big meal. And it says the jailer is “filled with joy.” Because he knows there’s been a turning point, and everything has changed. He doesn’t know what his future holds, but he knows Jesus will be in it, and even if he ends up in prison, he could even be joyful in that, because he has Jesus. That’s conversion. And in the revival that God is bringing all around us right now, we’re seeing that happen all around us, and it never gets old.

Crisis leads to questioning, and questioning leads to conversion.

When I think of how God works through crisis, one of the people that comes to mind is my friend Chris Ankner. And I’m so thankful that Chris has agreed to share his story today. Would you welcome Chris to the platform?

Dave: Chris, we first met back in the fall of 2001, shortly after 9/11. I think you were about 26 years old. What was going on in your life at the time?

Chris: Talk about…

-having heard Dave speak at 9/11 prayer service at LP Borough Fields and wanting to meet me.

-the job with Sherwood Securities in Jersey City, high times.

-dot.com bubble bursting in summer 2001, people started getting laid off. Crisis beginning.

-going to Skydive Sussex with Jeff, meeting Lize—Christian. Getting to know her.

-going to office on 9/11/01; best friend from work had left for Cantor Fitzgerald in the Trade Center. Realizing he was gone.

-for the first time realizing life was fragile—“ironic, because I had spent the majority of that summer jumping out of airplanes.”

Dave: So how did you respond to all of that?

Chris: Heard Billy Graham. Heard Dave. Things started making sense. Got laid from job, which deepened the crisis. Lize left, which deepened the crisis further. Went to FL to visit Lize’s family; went to church. Pastor talked about the gospel…everything came together, opened heart to Christ that day.

Dave: So I remember when you came up and introduced yourself to me here at The Chapel, you were a brand new Christian. And you were trying to decide whether to propose to Lize. Do you remember what I said?

Chris: You said go for it! Got engaged…married…2 teenage kids. Something about how important your relationship with God is in your life.

Dave: Thanks for sharing!

Did you see the pattern in Chris’s life? Crisis…led to questioning…which led to conversion.

Let me leave you with two final challenges.

The first challenge is for believers. If you are a believer, and you’ve accepted your mission as a witness for Christ, care about people enough to know when they’re going through crisis—to know when their shell is cracking open, and they feel confused and scared. Be there for them, listen to them, and keep your spiritual volume turned up around them. And when they ask, you may have the opportunity to lead them to faith in Christ. Or invite them to church, and we’ll make sure they hear the gospel.

The second challenge is for unbelievers. If you do not know Christ personally, it is no coincidence that you’re here today. You were supposed to hear this. You were supposed to hear Chris, the skydiver, remind you how fragile life is. You were supposed to hear the weird story about lobsters losing their shells. And if you’re going through a time of crisis, I want to urge you: resist the urge to get back to normal, and get back into your old shell. Open yourself up to what’s next. Have the courage to ask the question: “What must I do to be saved?” Because the answer is so simple: believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.