“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Acts 16:30.
Acts 16:31 is very likely one of the most preached on verses in the Bible.
It is an answer to a question that will only be asked by one whose heart and mind has been wrought upon in mercy by the Lord Himself!
It is a question that reveals three simple facts that I would like every reader to consider and, if you have never asked this question, then by the grace of God may you be made to ponder and ask this question.
I. WE DO NEED TO BE SAVED.
Despite this being universally true, there are very few who ever become aware of this truth.
The intervention of God is require for this question to be asked!
1. In the case of the jailor there was a most marvellous intervention! “And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed,” verse 26.
Now, it is true to say such an intervention is not the usual way that the Lord employs in awakening and arousing a sinner.
In fact, I would say that the chief purpose in the earthquake which shook the prison was not the salvation of this jailer and his family but rather the vindication of His servants, Paul and Silas, both of whom had been treated must unjustly by the magistrates who had them beaten (verses 22-23), and most harshly, by the jailor (verse 24).
The Lord takes note of such treatment of His servants and will in His sovereignty make known His anger at the cruel actions of men.
I believe that the account give us here indicates why the earthquake truck the jail. “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. AND suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed,” verse 25-26.
The pitiless treatment Paul and Silas and their praying, doubtless for the Lord’s help, brought about this wonderful display of God’s irresistible power!
However, while the chief purpose of this act by God was the honouring of His servants and answering their prayers, the Lord was pleased to work a subsidiary consequence of His action, namely, the awakening of the jailer to his lost spiritual state!
I think the word “must” indicates that the jailor was aware of the absolute necessity of salvation and the urgency with which he must attend to this matter. Many who have the beginning of a concern about the eternal safety of their soul are deceived by the devil and their own love for the ways of the world, into believing that they do not need to show haste in obeying the gospel.
That is most dangerous for we must not “Boast . . . of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth,” Proverbs 27:1. The Lord counsels us: “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness . . . Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest,” Hebrews 3:7-8, 10-11.
Dear reader, ‘There is danger and death in delay’!
2. You will notice that such is the ignorance of sinful man, that the jailer through it best to take his own life. I think it true to say that under Rome, a jailer who loses prisoners will forfeit his life! This may be seen in the actions of King Herod following the deliverance of Peter from the condemned cell, by the Angel of the Lord.
“Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers, what was become of Peter. And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put to death,” Acts 12:18-19.
Immediately realising that death lay ahead of him, the jailer “drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled,” verse 27.
How wise is sinful man! It is best to kill yourself than have it done by others! That is a wonderful way of his trouble!
3. How the voice of the gospel preacher prevents men from such folly! “But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here,” verse 28.
The message of the gospel hinders sinner from doing themselves “harm”! The word “harm” means “evil”! That is what poor sinners are daily engaged in — doing themselves harm by evilly rejecting the only way to heaven, the only pardon for sin, the only light that guides to glory!
‘X-ray’
The Lord Jesus showed an ‘x-ray’ of the human heart to His disciples on one occasion.
“And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil (the same Greek ward as ‘harm’ in in acts 16:28) thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man,” Mark 7:20-23.
It has to be noted that “evil, harmful” thoughts are the first out of the heart. The jailor’s heart was still pumping out harmful thoughts, which would have ended his life and sent him immediately to hell, if it were not for the shouted words of Paul!
Yes, the jailor was suddenly made to realise his lost condition and that he needed to be saved!
II. KNOWING OUR NEED OF SALVATION DOES NOT MEAN WE KNOW THE WAY OF SALVATION!
The jailor said, in desperation no doubt: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” He knew he needed to be saved but he did not HOW to be saved!
1. That information comes from the God-ordained source of such knowledge. He at least knew where to find an answer to his ignorance. He asked the two men who just a short earlier he has treating cruel and dealing with them as common criminals. He now knew that they God’s servants, something clearly indicated by the earthquake. He therefore accordingly addressed them and “came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out”. He addressed them as “Sirs”! That word means “Lord or master”. It is actually used of God in Matthew 1:20. It shows that this man saw in these two men, representatives of the God of heaven. They therefore could tell him how to be saved.
Preachers ought ever to remember this and there be as faithful to the message they have been give, which is: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen,” Matthew 28:19-20. Let us ever note that we are to preach “ALL THINGS” that Christ has set forth in His Word!
2. How succinctly the two men answer the question. “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house,” Acts 16:31. I think it fear to say that they first of all ‘corrected’ him and indicated that he could not do anything to save himself.
No help in self!
Rather, he was to trust, place his faith in Christ for He is the author of salvation. “And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him,” Hebrews 5:9.
3. To believe the gospel message is to obey Christ, for He commands us to believe. He thus began His earthly ministry with these words: “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel,” Mark 1:14-15
“Repentance” is a turning away from sin in sorrow and “believing” is a turning to Christ and embracing His words of mercy and pardon. Is that not what that great summary of the gospel, as stated by the Saviour, sets down?
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God,” John 3:14-18.
III. TO BE SAVED WE NEED TO ACT AS DID THIS MAN.
“And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house,” verses 32-34.
1. There was immediate evidence of this man’s conversion. There was a most wonderful change INSTANTLY wrought in this man. That is how God works! There was an ‘IMMEDIACY’ about all of Christ’s miracles!
“And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed,” Matthew 8:3.
“So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him,” Matthew 20:34.
“But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her. And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them,” Mark 1:30-31.
2. It was evidence of a most radical change! “He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes . . . And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them,” verse 33-34. He who had readily “thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks” (verse 24), is now kindly releasing from the stocks, taking them out of the cells and into his house and gently washing their wounds and setting food before them.
Is this not evidence of the change that the grace of God works I the repentant, believing sinner?
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
3. It is the change that can be wrought in you, dear reader if you are yet in your sin. Paul set before the Christians in the pagan city of Ephesus what they had been and what they had become by the grace of God.
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast,” Ephesians 2:1-9.
The experience of the Ephesian Christian was that of the Philippian jailor. In truth it is the experience of every true Christian, whether in the first century or in the twenty first century!
Today, men tamper with the gospel. They attempt to make it more palatable to mankind and thereby make it totally ineffective. The gospel that saves today is that preached by Christ and His prophets and apostles. Any alteration, editing, or changing of it will not bring salvation but rather damnation. So said the Saviour!
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book,” Revelation 22:18-19.
Dear reader, your soul’s salvation utterly depends on what Christ says and not what men say. It depends on what Christ has done at Calvary’s cross and not what you may try to do!
I conclude with these final words.
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life,” Titus 3:5-7.
May you share in the joy of salvation that came to the jailer’s house that night long ago.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
29th August 2025
I would be most happy to send some helpful gospel literature or answer any questions anyone may have about this vital mater, should anyone contact me by email: kilskeery@gmail.com. Perhaps you could share this with anyone you know and love but who is not saved.