Douglas A Steven
Acts 16: 26-34
1 Cor. 15: 51, 52
I just had an impression about the need for change, a change for what is better. Some people are changing for the world. That is a sad state of affairs. You hear of young people who were once in fellowship and they have changed their course. They changed their outlook. They have taken their eyes off the Lord and they are walking away. They are walking away from what is good. They have changed. They have made a bad change. Oh, beloved brethren, I read about this jailor because what a change came over him. It is really the gospel in a sense, but here was this wicked man who had cast Paul and Silas into the jail and put their feet in the stocks and in the inner prison. He did all that he could do to contain them so that he could go to bed and sleep. But God was speaking. God spoke to this man. God had this man in mind. Earlier Paul and Silas had been in Philippi at the water where there were women praying, v 13. And there was a man needed. There was a man needed for that place to be with those women. And God had this man in mind, I think. It would certainly appear that God had him in mind because He changed him. God changed him. It was not Paul that did it. Paul did not change him. Paul acted like a Christian. Paul had been changed. Paul had had a big change. Anyway, the point is that Paul and Silas were singing, “in praying, were praising God”, v 25. They fully accepted their circumstances, two of the greatest vessels on the earth at that time, representing the glories of Christ - all His glory - and the preaching of the gospel. That was their work and then something happened: this earthquake. Have you ever had an earthquake in your life? I have had an earthquake in my life. You get so shaken up in your soul. What has happened? It may not be a physical earthquake. Now this was a physical earthquake, but you can get an earthquake in your life: God shakes you up. And what is in view? It is to change you. To change your mind, change your view, change your direction. Maybe you are going the wrong way, like the two on the way to Emmaüs. The Lord came along and changed them right around, turned them back to where they belonged amongst the brethren. "They found the eleven", it says, Luke 24: 33. Their hearts burned within them as the Lord opened up the Scriptures to them, v 32. Is that not a wonderful way to change a person? Well, that is what we need to do; to go after people and change them from going in the wrong direction.
I feel for these young people. I do really, because they are going in the wrong direction. Well, this man was changed, and it was a very fine change. He did all that was needed. He washed them from their stripes. “What must I do that I may be saved?” Have you ever cried out that? Have you ever cried out anyway? If you cry out, the Lord will hear you, if you are crying in earnest. And He will change you if you are needing to be changed. This man was certainly needing to be changed. And so they said to him, “Do thyself no harm”. He was going to kill himself. He was going to take his life. You think of that. He thought the prisoners had gone and, of course, he would probably lose his life anyway, as he would be held responsible; but Paul cries “with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm”. The gospel goes out every week; it goes out every Lord’s day. The gospel, the grace of our God, is being sounded out, “Do thyself no harm”. “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved”. That is the word here. “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou” - that is the man first, the head of the house - “and thy house”. The whole house is in mind. God had a household secured for the locality in Philippi. What a wonderful way to change a man. And how ready he was to be changed! He did all that was necessary. Here was a man that cared. He cared for Paul and Silas eventually. He did not care about putting them in the jail but he cared for them afterwards. He was sorry for what he had done. It is a good thing to be repentant if you are sorry. Tell God you are sorry for what you have done. Well, this man did that anyway. It showed he was changed. He washed them from their stripes, and they spoke the word to him, and they were baptised. Paul and Silas must have told them about baptism. Well, you will have to die too. You may have to die physically, but morally you will have to die, going out of sight because Christ died for you. Christ did physically die. But baptism means that you take your place alongside the death of Christ morally, and you come to learn that He has died for your sins, and you have to live for Him. That is the situation, as far as I see it: “Believe on the Lord Jesus .. thou and thy house … and was baptised, he and all his straightway”. And then he fed them. Well, he cared for them really, did he not? He cared well for them.
I want to just speak about the other scripture, dear brethren, just to talk about the final change. I do not want to say too much about that but that is a wonderful thing. Who knows too much about it? Paul obviously knew. Paul knew what was going to happen in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye. Can you measure that? Can men with all their computerised machinery measure the “twinkling of an eye”? No, no, but that is what is going to happen at the resurrection, when we are going to be changed. That is what Paul says, we are going to be changed; that is the rapture. He is speaking about the rapture. He speaks about it again in Thessalonians. The Lord shall come “with archangel’s voice and with trump of God”, 1 Thess 4: 16. You think of the trump of God; it would be a military sound: in a sense it has a kind of military side to it, the trump of God. The world will not hear it. They will not hear it. Nobody other than those who are the Christ’s will hear it, or even see the rapture. We will all be gone in an instant, in a twinkling of an eye. There will be the trump of God “and the dead in Christ shall rise first”. How wonderful that is; you think of that. How many are the dead in Christ, awaiting their call? Well, their bodies are in the grave, but their spirits are with Christ, of course, but we are awaiting the call. We are looking forward to it when He comes. "He that comes", it says, “will come”, Heb 10: 37. There is no doubt about that, and "he will not delay"; and "we shall all be changed". What a wonderful change it will be. We need to be changed now, you know. We can be changed. We had a meeting on Lord’s day morning, here in this place, and I felt myself - someone said afterwards to me, ‘You know, it would have been wonderful if the Lord had come this morning’. Well, we are ready for Him to come. We had such a sense of His presence amongst us, I felt. I think we all did. We felt there was this movement from glory to glory. I read that scripture afterwards. It says, "we ... are transformed", 2 Cor 3: 18. You see, that is another change. That is the first change. You are changed as a believer, and then you find this wonderful change as amongst the saints of God; you come together with them and you remember the Lord Jesus, and you have a sense, an impression and experience of His presence, and you are lifted up in your spirit and you know there is a change taking place. What is it? It is "from glory to glory". You are "looking on the glory of the Lord" and you are being changed. I know the brethren have had this experience, but I just love to speak about it, because we had it on Lord’s day. And we have had it before. And if the Lord spares us and we are left here, we will have it again. Well, are you ready for that? Are we all ready for it, looking for this wonderful change that will be experienced in our lives, and then this final change when our blessed Lord will come? He says Himself, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am there ye also may be”, John 14: 3. Is that not a wonderful proposition? That is the best thing we can think about, being with Christ and then forever, with bodies of glory in "conformity to his body of glory", Phil 3: 21. We will all go. All those who believe in the Lord Jesus will go together. It is not just a few of us here. Think of the millions that will be raptured. We could never count them. You get some idea of it in Revelation.
Well, dear brethren, I trust we are encouraged and we look forward to the Lord’s coming when we will all be changed into our glorious bodies forever. For His Name’s sake.
Grangemouth
22nd May 2012