Have you ever been so frightened, so nervous, or so excited that your body shook?
I’m not thinking about watching or hearing a scarey story, but the real thing:
You were taking a loved one to talk to a doctor about something potentially disastrous.
You were confronted by large, snarling dog with the hair on his back standing straight up just like yours.
Or maybe you were called on to dismantle a nuclear bomb which in fifteen seconds was programed to blow up half the United States.
so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.”
I know that coffee can make some people tremble, and so can drug withdrawal.
I would guess that it has something to do with adrenaline or epinephrin,
but my guess is that there are probably other hormones that can cause it as well.
And I know there are other things like nervous disorders, sickness, and probably more.
For Belshazzar, it was the fear of God which made him tremble.
Did you know that the New Testament uses the word “tremble” in several different forms a dozen times?
Those twelve references come from six different Greek words, but they are all speaking about the same thing – an involuntary quivering of the body.
As in the case of Belshazzar, several of those references are related to sinful people who were confronted by the holiness of God.
In Luke 8 we read about a poor, unfortunate woman …
Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.
And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came TREMBLING, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.
And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”
And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.
Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul & Silas,
And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
Felix was the former slave who now thought that he was the king of the world.
He had stolen another man’s wife and was married to a Jewish super-model.
He had a powerful brother worked as an aide to Caesar himself.
But before that man was ushered out, Felix was the prisoner and Paul was the freeman – at least in some ways.
This morning I would like to make a couple of points of comparison between trembling Felix, the trembling Philippian Jailer and hopefully to us.
In I Corinthians Paul talks about preaching the gospel “in weakness, & in fear, & in much trembling.”
Do you realize that I am standing here before this morning as a representative of the Lord?
Do you realize that when I quote the scriptures, I am giving to you the eternal Word of God?
I am going to be judged for my faithfulness in presenting it to you, and you will be judged for the kind of reception that you give it.
Are you living in the light of eternity – as if your death was imminent and that the completion of your salvation was only moments away?
You & I are going to stand before God soon, and that should mix a little adrenalin into our blood stream.
We know more about Felix, because secular history has more to say about more prominent people.
But both men, at least to some degree, had similar backgrounds – in the Roman military.
It would be foolish to say that a military life automatically means a wicked life.
I think that it’s safe to say that it is difficult to be the kind of Christian that the Lord wants us to be, while in the military.
Despite the fact that Felix’ job demanded justice,
For “all have sinned and come short of the glory” and the standard “of God.”
but down in the depths of his heart he knew that it was morally reprehensible.
But I think that it’s safe to say that they were similarly HARD MEN.
Both had most likely had taken the lives of others, and perhaps had done cruel and difficult things.
They had probably faced the enemy, and their hands had shaken as they drew their swords.
There is a good chance that they had felt the sting of the wounds of war, and had seen their own blood.
These two were probably not quickly moved to tears, terror or tenderness.
But when it came to the things of God, at least in this particular case, they were brought to trembling.
Ungodly though they were, both those men HEARD THE GOSPEL of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In fact, they both willingly listened and even asked to hear more of the Word of the Lord.
Not that this was true at all times.
As Paul and Silas were being taken into the Philippian dungeon, they most likely tried to speak to their jailor about Christ, but were either ignored or silenced.
And as they later sang hymns, prayed and praised the Lord, they may have disturbed the jailer’s sleep, making him angry, like our neighbors disturb us with their late-night parties.
But the trembling ground caused by a God-sent earthquake made that trembling jailer quite willing to listen.
And as we said last week, Felix motives may have been insincere and even evil, but at least he forced himself to hear what Paul had to say.
However, neither his trembling, nor the jailer’s was caused by an earthquake, volcano, or snarling dog.
In both cases its source was the CONVICTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The Lord Jesus told His disciples, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
Of sin, because they believe not on me;
Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”
There is a unique relationship between the Holy Spirit and the conscience of man.
The conscience can be silenced, stilled or seared as with a hot iron,
He can do it more easily than you can flip a light-switch.
The conviction of God pumped adrenalin into their souls, and their bodies literally shook in fear.
Another point of resemblance is that BOTH MEN WERE DELIVERED from their tremors and their fears.
Before the end of the night the Jailer and his family were rejoicing in Christ as their Redeemer.
They had surrendered to Him, and like Paul had said, “Lord what would you have me to do?”
The Lord had give them new hearts; they had been born again.
In a sense they had heard the Lord Jesus say, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
“Let not your knees shake and your palms sweat, I graciously forgive yo of your many sins.”
Yes, but their motives were very different.
The Philippian cried out, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved!”
The Jailer was willing to do whatever the gospel demanded.
But the Governor wasn’t willing to do anything that would jeopardize his position or his earthly existence.
Last Sunday night I dealt with this question, so I won’t go into it very deeply again, but I must ask:
Why are YOU here this morning? What is it that you want?
You are being forced to consider some things from the Word of God, but what does your heart really want out of this exchange?
How you answer that question will play a great roll in whether you go away rejoicing like the jailer, or go away a dead man like the Governor.
Both men were CONVICTED BY GOD.
Both men were so frightened and excited that their bodies shook.
For the woman in Luke 8, when she saw that she was not hid, she came trembling and fell down before the Lord.
she bowed before Christ.
Both the jailer and the governor were filled with deep alarm by the power of God.
and that God will be perfect and just in the meting out of that punishment.
Most unrepentant sinners think that punishment is some sort of get-even scheme,
The Jailer in Philippi was broken by that conviction and was made a child of God by grace.
The Governor in Caesarea was hardened in his sin, and there isn’t anything in the Word of God to suggest that he ever repented or trusted Christ.
I suppose that if Felix ever had the opportunity to talk to a counselor about those visits with Paul and the trembling that he felt, he might have boastfully said that he had “embraced his fears.”
The truth was that he denied those fears, fled from those fears and buried those fears.
The conviction of God is not without its purpose.
Do you remember that day when you were first confronted with your mortality, your sinfulness and your appointment before the Judgment Bar of God?
Do you remember how you trembled?
What did you do with that conviction?
What did you do with it?
The problem is that this monster is real.
As in Jesus’ parables of the talents and the pounds, some day you will have to explain to the Lord, what you did with that conviction – those God-given tremors.
Not only did those men handle their trembling in different fashions, they HANDLED THE GOSPEL PREACHERS DIFFERENTLY.
The Jailer honoured Paul and Silas, washed their wounds, fed them and joyfully heard them even more.
He earnestly desired to be baptized at their hand.
all he wanted the preacher for was whatever gold and silver he might provide.
The Philippian received Him as his Lord and Saviour.
The Roman recognized Him as an object of curiosity.
As a result, Felix is in Hell today, awaiting his trial before the throne of God.
And the jailor is in presence of his Saviour, awaiting the redemption of his body at the resurrection.
Both men have an eternity in front of them, as all of us do.
But one of them will spend that eternity in the Lake of Fire, and the other in the glories of Heaven.
And now which will it be for YOU?
The determining factor, will be your relationship to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ?
Have you been regenerated – saved from your sin?