Household Salvation – Acts 16:25-34

Jan 20, 2015 | Acts

Let’s pretend that a certain young man began to dream about visiting Japan.

He had heard a visiting missionary talk about the people of that country, and this boy wanted to see them.

As he grew up, he never lost this dream, but, he was young and never had the opportunity to go.

Then when he was in college he fell in love with a beautiful young lady, and they were married.

He shared with her his longing to see the Orient, and she grew to have the same desire.

But after graduation he was offered a job, and he settled in to family life which God blessed with three children.

Every once in a while a missionary would visit his church,

And this man’s mind would go back to Japan,

But with his job, his wife and the kids, there was never any money or opportunity to fulfill his dream.

And yet the dream never really went away.

He still talked about it, infecting the rest of his family with visions of Mt. Fuji, high-speed trains, pagodas and Japanese life.

Finally, the day came when his boss gave him a big bonus and a three week vacation.

Finally, he had the means to make the trip that he always wanted.

So he called a travel agent and booked a round-trip ticket to Tokyo.

Do you think that this man would be permitted to let his wife and children fly on his single airline ticket?

Do you think that the stewardess allowed all five people to sit in the same seat for that extended flight?

Do you think that all three kids would be satisfied with a single tiny package of pretzels?

There are no airlines anywhere in the world who would permit five people to fly on one economy ticket.

And neither can a whole family go to Heaven on the faith of only the father

Verse 31 makes an extremely important statement.

It’s important enough to spend at least two consecutive Sunday mornings in its study.

“Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, AND THY HOUSE.”

That verse should be often preached and expounded; it needs to be understood and applied.

It needs to be exhibited, examined, exposed and explained

BUT – it must NOT be exceeded or exploded.

This marvelous verse has been misunderstood and misinterpreted with tragic consequences.

There have been hundreds of thousands of false teachers who have used this verse to declare that …

The babies of Christian parents are saved and guaranteed entrance to heaven.

These heretics often go on to say that the only thing that these infants need is to be christened – sprinkled with a little “holy” water.

There are few, if any, more damnable doctrines than this idea of infant baptism and infant salvation.

But then there are other false teachers,

Who say that a father may believe on behalf of his, children making them Christians.

They point to this verse and say, “See, that is what the Bible teaches.”

But that is NOT what the Bible teaches.

They say that it is not necessary for children in a Christian family to believe on Christ.

But that is EXACTLY what this verse DOES teach.

And then there are true saints of God, parents with small children, who interpret this verse to be a promise from God that all their children will one day be gathered into the arms of the Saviour.

I sincerely wish that this verse was such a promise and that all our children are guaranteed to be saved.

But that is not what it is saying – neither to the Philippian jailor – nor to you and me.

And the sad reality is that there have been thousands of wonderful Christian parents who have had children live and die outside the salvation of Jesus Christ.

This is not a promise that the families of believing fathers will all eventually be saved.

Rather it is a promise that the FAMILIES of believing fathers, who believe on Christ the way that their father believes on Christ – those wives and children will be saved as well as he.

No verse should be twisted to contract other verses like John 3:36:

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:”

BUT – “he that believeth NOT the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

What exactly does this verse teach about household salvation.

It teaches that HOUSEHOLD SALVATION requires HOUSEHOLD FAITH.

Let’s say that your particular household is made up of Dad, Mom and three kids.

If that family is one day going to be assembled together as a complete family in Christ …

If that family is going to abide in its own mansion which the Lord has gone to prepare for it …

Then every member of that family will have to trust Christ for his or her salvation.

I know that salvation is by the grace of God,

And that the Lord reserves the right to save the newborn and unborn as He chooses.

I know that salvation is by the grace of God,

But for those of us with ears to hear, minds to think, and hearts to use in believing –

Salvation is by grace – THROUGH FAITH.

Just as sin is a personal transgression against the Lord, salvation from that sin is just as personal.

If your family is going to be united in Heaven throughout eternity, then every member of your family will have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

One day, years ago, the Lord Jesus was talking to a man by the name of Nicodemus.

He was telling him that he needed to be born again just as much as any other man.

And in the course of the conversation our Lord referred to an event out of the ancient history of Israel.

The nation had been complaining against the Lord; they had been sinning against Jehovah.

And so God ordained that an army of poisonous snakes should attack the camp.

Everywhere the people turned there were serpents with their sharp fangs and fiery bites.

And if anyone was bitten by one of those fiery serpents, whether they were adults or children, male or female, grandparents or infants, they would die.

BUT there was also a miraculous remedy proscribed:

Moses was told to fashion a replica of a snake out of brass, and to put it on a tall poll.

If anyone, who had been bitten by one of those snakes, would just look at that brass serpent, believing that the Lord would save him,

Then God promised to heal him of the poisonous snake venom.

Jesus said “As Moses lifted up 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.”

Several times in these five verses the Lord Jesus used the pronouns “whosoever” and “he.”

Those are personal, individual words; they aren’t describing groups of people.

Several “whosoevers“ might together become a group, and a bunch of “hes” would become a “they.”

But the promise of John 3:16 is made to people as individuals.

Whosoever believeth in Christ will not perish, but have everlasting life.

And, likewise, the promise of the Lord Jesus made in John 5:24 was given to PEOPLE AS INDIVIDUALS:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”

On the day of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem He very clearly declared faith to be a personal matter:

“Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.

And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.

I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”

Let’s say that the jailor of Philippi was married and had three teenage boys,

For that entire family to be saved and to join their father in Heaven,

Then mother was going to have to repent of her sin and to trust Christ,

And so would each of those boys.

Each and every snake-bite victim had to personally look to the cross.

He that believeth on Him [Christ] 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.”

Household salvation requires complete household faith.

One person cannot put saving faith in Christ on behalf of another person.

That may be Mormon doctrine, and it may be Catholic doctrine, but it is not Bible doctrine.

That may be Mormon doctrine, and it may be Catholic doctrine, but it is damnable doctrine.

Household salvation requires household faith.

And household faith therefore requires HOUSEHOLD EVANGELIZATION.

The keeper of the Philippian prison asked, “What must I do to be saved?

And Paul and Silas answered: “You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

In Romans 10 Paul expanded this thought (please turn to Romans 10):

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”

There is that same word: “What must I do to be SAVED?”

 “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”

Verse 9 – “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

How did we define faith, when we looked at Paul’s answer last week?

We basically said that faith is the act of the sinner whereby he entrusts his eternal soul to the Lord Jesus.

It is the acknowledgment of the Lord’s salvation, and our recognition and enjoyment of what He has done to redeem us from our sin.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”

As far as our salvation goes, Biblical faith requires the complete surrender of what we perceive to be our rights and the control of our souls.

But obviously, there must be some sort of understanding of what is going on.

There must be an explanation and a recognition of Who the Saviour is and what it is that He has done to save us.

That means that there is the necessity of evangelism.

How will the sinner ever call on the Saviour, or believe on Christ when he hasn’t heard about Him?

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Not only did Paul say that all the people living under the jailor’s roof would be saved, it appears that they were.

Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.”

If this man had a wife and three kids, then these verses tell us is that his wife and his three children believed the message of the Gospel, and individually they put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is how complete families can be saved.

Before these people believed on Christ, they were told about the Saviour.

They Lord saved them as individuals – not as a family unit.

Not only does this scripture show us an example of household evangelism and household faith, but …

We also see HOUSEHOLD EVIDENCE of salvation.

Every member of the family was baptized as an expression of their new life in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Perhaps they all went out to the river just outside of town and were immersed in the cool stream that flowed down out of the mountains to the northeast.

But it appears more likely however that they were baptized in the well or fountain that supplied water to the prison.

As always, I have some unanswered questions about this:

For example, were there any servants in this man’s household?

That would have been quite likely with his position and responsibilities within the government.

If he did have servants or slaves, then the scriptures seem to indicate that they too were saved.

And then those people were baptized and became members of the mission in Philippi.

That makes for some interesting social problems, which shouldn’t have been problems at all for genuine Christians.

Nothing has done so much for the rights of women and children, slaves and minorities than Bible Christianity.

Atheism, agnosticism and, yes, even humanism have not contributed a tenth of what Bible Christianity has done to improve the general human condition.

In HISTORY we read about slaves, and gladiators and Sparticus fighting for their lives.

But in the BIBLE we read of slaves worshiping Christ by the side of their masters.

And we hear God’s apostles telling the saints to treat their servants as fellow citizens of heaven.

And than another question that I have in this regard is with the other prisoners of the Philippian jail:

Were they also given the opportunity for a fuller explanation of the gospel?

Were any of them repentant and putting faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus?

And then if so, were any of them later baptized.

To be honest, I can’t detect any references to the other prisoners here in Luke’s account, but it may have been that he simply chose not write about them, because his focus was on the jailor and his family.

Then again, if there were any converts among the prisoners, that would have confused the social structure of the prison even more.

But at the very least the jailor and his family were saved and baptized.

And then, in addition to being baptized, this new convert did his best to ease the pain of the missionaries.

“And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

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.”

The jailor and his entire household enjoyed the privilege of hearing a clear presentation of the gospel.

They repented of their sinful condition and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour.

And then this man took his evangelists out to a place where he could tend to their wounds.

It sounds to me that if the others in his household didn’t actually warm the water and apply the towels, at the very least they were there with love, respect and sympathy in their hearts and on their faces.

They too felt the sting of what had been so unjustly done to Paul and Silas.

They gave evidence of a change in their hearts.

And then after the baptisms, Paul and Silas were brought into the kitchen or the dining room of the jailor’s apartment, and the missionaries enjoyed a catered dinner.

Once again, if there were too many household members to each play a roll in preparing or serving this meal,

At the very least they were there, making it as much from them as it was from their father or master.

The scriptures seem to suggest that it wasn’t just the jailor, but everyone was rejoicing in the salvation of the Lord Jesus.

There was an household of people saved by the grace of God that night.

There was a whole household that were evangelized.

There was a whole household of believers.

And there was a household of people who gave evidence of new life in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you joined them in these things?

Please don’t trust the faith of your father to take you to Heaven.

You have as much RIGHT to the gospel as he has, and you have as much RESPONSIBILITY to listen to it.

YOU must repent of your sin; YOU must trust Christ your Saviour too.

Except a boy or a girl be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven.

Are you absolutely sure that YOU have been born again?