The Ways to Jesus

Acts 16:11-40

Introduction

How does one become a Christian? That seems to be a fairly reasonable question. If we claim to be Christians, then we better know how one becomes a Christian. I don’t think that I’m straying into heresy by saying the way to Christianity is through Jesus.

There are those who believe there are many ways to God. Whether that is true or not, as Christians we claim that the way to God is through Jesus. So if there is only one way to God, then does that mean that there is only one way to Jesus? Some would think so. Some Christians believe that a certain ritual need to take place. Some believe that a certain kind of prayer need to be prayed. It can be difficult when we encounter Christians who have a different experience than us.

I have had the opportunity to share my testimony many times. For those unfamiliar with my testimony, the short form is that I was raised in the church, became an atheist in my teens, began to believe in God again in university, ended up in jail in Mexico for being drunk in public and had God dramatically answer my prayer to get out of jail that I prayed in Jesus’ name. I have had a few different reactions to that testimony. Some people tell me they are jealous because they wish they had an exciting testimony like mine. I had another person tell me that she was skeptical that I was really a Christian because my experience was so different from anyone else she knew.

I would like to suggest that even though Jesus is the way to God, there are numerous ways to Jesus and that we need grace for those with different experiences. We are going to look at two stories from Acts. Luke is known for pairing similar stories with females and males in his Gospel and Acts. He does that with Paul’s mission to Philippi. But beyond showing that the gospel is equally for men and women, he shows something else here.

Lydia Meets Jesus

The first encounter that Paul and his team had in their mission to Europe, specifically Philippi in Macedonia, was with some women who were gathered by the river to pray. Who were these women? We are not told who they are ethnically, although based on the information about Lydia, she at least was a Gentile from a city in Asia Minor. That city was known to have a Jewish community. She seems to have encountered the Jewish religion at one point and was drawn to that God. Her and the other women were living out their faith according to the Jewish traditions. But this was not a synagogue. The requirement for an official synagogue was that there be at least ten men. We are not told that there were any men in this group. So they did the best they could with what they had. They gathered by the river and prayed to God. 

Paul began to share the gospel with this group and the Lord opened Lydia’s heart to what he was saying. This was not what we would call a dramatic conversion. Lydia already believed in the same God as Paul. She simply learned the role Jesus played in that relationship and she responded by being baptized. Lydia believed in Jesus and became a Christian. She then insisted that they come to her house, responding with the gift of hospitality.

The Jailer Meets Jesus

So far, Paul’s mission to Philippi was nice and peaceful. It would not stay that way for long. Paul cast a spirit out of a girl and her masters who depended on her for money were not happy. They were able to create enough of a fuss that Paul and Silas were arrested. Having been in jail myself, I count myself fortunate compared to Paul and Silas. I was just placed in a cell. They were beaten by rods. And yet this didn’t seem to dampen their spirits. Once in their cell and all chained up, the began to pray and sing hymns to God. That’s when there was an earthquake causing the chains to fall off and the doors to open. This was good for Paul and and the other prisoners but not so good for the jailer.

What would happen to the jailer when his superiors found out that I lost every prisoner. It would be more than a notation on his employment record. It would be death and not likely an easy death. Certainly the jailer saw his punishment as being severe enough that he was going to avoid it by suicide.

Paul stopped the jailer as none of the prisoners had left despite the opportunity for freedom. Like with Lydia, although in not as nice of a setting, Paul shared the gospel. “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” On the verge of suicide, Paul was encounter Jesus from the prisoner that he had recently been beating. This was a dramatic conversion. The jailer went from believing in whatever pagan gods he worshiped to believing in the God that been revealed in Jesus Christ. Like Lydia, the jailer was baptized and then took Paul and his companions to his home, sharing the same gift of hospitality.

Conclusion

Although Luke doesn’t record it in Acts, we can assume that at some point Lydia and the jailer met. They would have had some things in common, being the first converts in Philippi. It would be interesting to listen to their conversation as they shared notes about how they met Jesus. Lydia was already a believer in the true God and had a pleasant conversation about Jesus by the bank of a river. The jailer was on the brink of killing himself out of fear when he was confronted by Jesus in a jail cell. Very different experiences but both brought them to the same place: faith, baptism and hospitality.

When we look around this room, there are many different stories. There are those who cannot remember a time when they didn’t believe. Some had an experience as a child in Sunday school or at a camp. Others made a decision as adult, perhaps even later in life. Some lived a straight and narrow life, while others made some poor decisions or gave into temptations. No two of our stories are exactly the same in the details. So how can we be Christians?

The key is Jesus. If we meet the same Jesus that met Lydia and the jailer, then we are Christians. “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” And if you have been afraid to believe because your life has taken you in a direction that some other might struggle to identify with, this same Jesus is for you. I think that these two stories are meant to be read together to remind us of the different ways God works in our lives. We have no right to judge a person who has a different story. Lydia and the jailer were very different and we are different from them. But it is all the same Jesus. Instead of getting distracted by the secondary issues, let’s focus on what is important, the things that we find in these stories: believing in Jesus and responding by showing love to people.