A Transformation Scene, Hardened, Broken, Saved.

(Read Acts 16:9-409And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. 10And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. 11Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis; 12And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days. 13And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. 14And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. 15And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us. 16And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: 17The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation. 18And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. 19And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, 20And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, 21And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. 22And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. 23And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: 24Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. 25And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26And 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. 27And 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. 28But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 29Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 32And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. 33And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. 34And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. 35And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go. 36And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace. 37But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. 38And the serjeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans. 39And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city. 40And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed. (Acts 16:9‑40).)
Part 1.―The Hardened Sinner.
SELDOM, if indeed ever, has there been presented on the stage of this world, a scene so marvelous― whether we contemplate the drama, where the sensational imagination of the human mind finds vent for itself, or the truthful records of the historian―as the “transformation scene,” enacted within the dark, dingy walls of an ancient prison during the midnight which hours succeeded a day of cruel deeds.
Let the mind of the reader go back over a good number of centuries to a city in a European province where Rome had her martial sway, but where the name of Christ was not yet known. In the city, there are a few Jews, proselytes, who own the “One True God,” whom they professedly worship as Jehovah, the God of Israel; the rest are sunk in idolatry. The former, who, it appears, were only women, not having a synagogue, resort to the river side on the Sabbath day for prayer. One day two strange men, who had come from far, join them, and for the first time the name of Jesus falls upon their ears. One heart, at least, is opened to receive the Saviour, and at once she opens her house to lodges the servants of her newly found Lord.
An unseen evil personage, who has had his dupes disturbed from their infernal stupor through these two men in other parts of his dark dominions, is following on their track with a keen eye. What had been done through these men in Asia, from whence they had just come, he, no doubt, fears be may repeated in Europe, where, till now, he has had its teeming millions―with the exception of a few scattered Jews and a handful of proselytes―bowing to, idols, that through these he might get the worship of God’s fallen creatures to himself (1 Cor. 10:19-2019What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? 20But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. (1 Corinthians 10:19‑20).)
He is more alarmed still as he beholds these two men on their knees, day after day, and hears their earnest cry going up to God to make manifest His power in this place also. Well he knows his own power cannot stand against the power of God. Already his dark domain of death has been entered by One he could not hold in its iron grasp. Yea, by the death and resurrection of that One he has himself been annulled in regard to his power over all those who take sides with Jesus, the mighty Victor. Wherever these two men went, the power of Christ’s death and resurrection made itself known and felt.
To raise, open hostility against them does not at first commend itself to that foul, wily fiend. A more subtle method is adopted. A woman, who had long been an active agent for his Satanic deceptions, is selected to act as an “angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14, 1514And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:14‑15).) Her familiar evil spirit takes possession of her and she at once assumes to advertise these two men of God as “the servants of the Most High God, who show unto us the way of salvation.” This she did many days, as she pointed them out to the inhabitants of that city. This kind of help would have deceived many a servant of God as to its source, but one of these men was “not ignorant of Satan’s devices,” as he tells a lot of worldly Christians afterward (2 Cor. 2:1111Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Corinthians 2:11)). The great heavenly “search light” of God’s spirit in him enabled him to see underneath all this apparent help a diabolical “plot” to spoil the work God had brought them there for. His quick spiritual ear caught also the deadly sound of the hiss of the old subtle serpent, and the suppressed growl of the “roaring lion” behind the angelic tones of her proclamation.
As a wise servant of God he forbears interference for days, for his mission was not to denounce Satan, but to preach Christ, but the limit of forbearance came, and the spirit of Python is commanded to come out of her. This makes the enemy appear in his real true character as the avowed adversary of God and man’s blessing. He, who but an hour before spake in the melodious tones of an “angel of light,” is now arousing the whole city with his fearful growls as the “roaring lion,” seeking to devour the men who would have none of his deceitful help (1 Peter 5:88Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: (1 Peter 5:8).) His work appears a real success. The men are seized, false witnesses swear lies against them; stripes are laid heavily upon them and finally they are handed over to the jailer with a strict charge to keep them safely, who then THRUST them into the inner prisons and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Let the reader mark well the word above in Capitals, as that word lets us into the secret of the jailer’s real state of soul when the Spirit of God first brings him before us. It was right that he should do his duty, as a servant of the State, by seeing that prisoners handed over to him, with such a charge, to keep them safe, were put in irons in the inner prison. But his duty could have been performed without his casting, or THRUSTING these meek harmless men―the meekest prisoners, I doubt not, ever put under his charge, into their cells. But God is careful to note the manner in which he did it, that we might make no mistakes as to the nature of the material God was going to operate upon by His Spirit, to bring about a revolution in the man that would be to the everlasting honor and glory of the “God of ALL grace.”
We will now gladly let the curtain drop on the first part of this remarkable scene, where Satan has been the chief actor. First, as an “angel of light,” in the woman. Then as the “roaring lion” in her angry masters―the tumultuous multitude―the frenzied magistrates, and lastly, the Godless, Christless, sin-hardened, unfeeling-hearted jailer. As the adversary of God, Satan has done his work well. He has God’s servants safe away from the streets and highways where the multitudes might have heard the gospel and been saved. Their sphere of labor is reduced to a few square yards in a dingy cell with no occupants but themselves. “Surely I have triumphed gloriously,” he might have said to himself in tones of congratulation as he saw the last light of the prison go out, and all was wrapt in darkness and hushed in profound silence, while the thousands of citizens outside are asleep on the brink of hell and don’t know it.


Part 2―The Broken-Down Sinner.
Let us lift the curtain shortly before midnight on that same scene―the prison. All is perfect tranquility. Prisoners and jailer fast asleep; God’s servants as well perhaps, for He may have given “His beloved sleep” (Psa. 127:22It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. (Psalm 127:2)). All at once a most unusual sound is heard proceeding from the inner prison. What can it mean? It grows louder and louder. It is the voice of men drying to their God. From praying, they burst forth into songs of praise. Strange disorder this at the dead of night Stranger still that such outbursts of praise should be coming from the lips of men who had been brutally scourged only a few hours before, Why could these men act thus? They “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:1818While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)). These are the inspired words that explain their mysterious action. Christ filled their souls’ vision which lifted them far above their bleeding hacks and heavy chains. Surely music so sweet never before reached the ears of God from that dark prison.
But heaven is not the only listener; God will have the other prisoners in the jail aroused out of their midnight slumbers to hear the heavenly melodies of His beloved servants also. And shall it be counted too wonderful if some of these criminals heard the convicting and life-giving Word of the “Son of God” in their souls at that moment? For all this was but the glorious beginning of a night of divine wonders.
But let us in spirit now betake ourselves to the jailer’s bedroom. There he lies fast asleep; no heavenly music has awakened him. Not a care disturbs his rest. No thought of the bleeding wounds and heavy chains of these meek, lowly, and harmless men he had thrust into prison. Hardened wretch thou art! But more cruel still is the devil, who binds thee with his chains, and thou art not aware of it. But oh, sleeper, if thou hart no thought of these “men of God” and their chains, surely they have thoughts of thee and thy chains, for though we are not told what these men prayed for, yet how readily we can conceive that the one whose cruel hands fastened the irons on their flesh would have a large place in their big, compassionate, loving hearts, which would lead them to pour out their desires for his salvation into the ears of God. They had drunk deeply into the spirit of their Lord and Saviour, who prayed for His enemies, saying, “Father, forgive them,” &c., and three thousand of His murderers were saved in answer (see Luke 23:3434Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. (Luke 23:34); Acts 2:36-4736Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 37Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 40And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. 41Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 42And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 44And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. 46And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (Acts 2:36‑47)).
Further, had not one of these very men reason to regard his own conversion as an answer to the gracious petition that lie heard presented to the Lord by the dying martyr Stephen, who used his latest breath in saying, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:6060And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:60)). If heavenly music did not waken the jailer from his slumbers, God, who has set His heart upon him for blessing, has other means, and He will use them. He can shake the earth, and He does it. The earthquake does its Creator’s work. The foundations of the prison are shaken. The prison doors open. The prisoners’ chains are loosed, and the jailer is aroused from his natural sleep, but that is all. His soul is as fast asleep in his sins as ever. There is not a single trace, as yet, of a thought of God, or his own lost condition having entered his soul. His fears of the prisoners having fled does not awaken his sin-hardened conscience either, for he then takes a sword to kill himself, the very last thing he would have done if he knew that death would have sealed his doom forever in the sinners’ hell. He only preferred suicide to “public execution,” which he knew would have been his fate, as it was with those who had charge of Peter on the night of his escape (Acts 12:1919And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea, and there abode. (Acts 12:19)).
God’s voice was to be heard in his soul by other means than the earthquake altogether. The earthquake had done its work at the bidding of the “Creator”; God, the Holy Ghost, will now do His work in the soul of the jailer. The tongues that had filled the prison with praises must be the same medium through which the voice of God is to be heard in the sinner’s soul. “Do thyself no harm, for we are all here!” were the words that carried straight home to his inmost soul the voice of the “living God,” and at once he is a convicted, broken-down sinner, wholly absorbed with one and only one thought―the salvation of his precious soul. What a strange revolution was wrought in an instant! Without a single thought of God, and the weapon of death in his hand ready to cut his life of from the earth one moment, and the next moment there is nothing but the fear of meeting a holy God before his trembling soul, which makes him fall at the feet of his ill-used prisoners, saying, “What must I do to be saved?” Previously, the fear of the prisoners having escaped was his one great concern; now he loses sight of every prisoner in the jail save the two men of God, at whose feet he has fallen, a broken-down, repentant sinner. All the other prisoners may escape, for aught he cares, if only he can get his own soul saved.
Oh, my reader! is this the case with you? Of all questions you have to face, there is none of any comparison to that of your soul’s salvation. An eternity of unspeakable blessedness with Christ in heaven, or everlasting torments with the devil and the lost in the “lake of fire,” are the issues of your acceptance or rejection of Christ as your Saviour. If ever a man might have pled an excuse for delaying the great question for at least a short time, it was the jailer at that moment. He might have said, “Wait till I get the prison doors all secured again, to keep the other prisoners in, and I will come and see if you can tell mellow I am to be saved.” But no; it must be now or it might be never.
But what was there in these nine short words from the lips of God’s servant that should so overpower him with a sense of God’s presence and his own lost condition? Surely God’s name was not even mentioned. Nor was he reminded of his hardheartedness towards His servants. There were no thundering’s of Mount Sinai, demanding obedience to God’s law, or death as the penalty of disobedience. What then could it be? for no one can read the inspired story without seeing these words were the means the Spirit of God used to bring that sinner face to face with God, and which gave him such a sense of his own unfitness to meet Him. One short word will answer the question, viz., GRACE. Yes, dear reader, the grace of God, reflected in the conduct of His servants, at that moment wrought in the jailer’s soul what the rumbling noise of the earthquake and the tottering foundations of the prison failed to do. It was with him at that moment as it was with Elijah when the Lord was to pass by him on the mount of God. God was not in the great wind that broke in pieces the rocks, nor the great earthquake, nor the fire, but in the still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-1311And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: 12And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 13And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? (1 Kings 19:11‑13)). Yes, what but a heart rim-full of divine love and grace could have mad Paul give utterance to such words of compassion under the circumstances? What could have been more natural than for these two men to let the cruel wretch who had thrust them into their cells commit the rash act he was about to perform, and make good their escape. But instead of acting thus they do what was supernatural or divine―they refuse to avail themselves of the liberty their loosened fetters gave them the chance of, and did their utmost (for Paul cried with a loud voice) to prevent their enemy from injuring himself.
It was this divine and heavenly grace that gave him such a sense of his own vileness, for if the God of these two men was, in His nature, what was expressed at that moment in His servants, he must have felt it was all up with him in his then present’ condition, for he was in his nature the very reverse, and therefore unfit for God’s presence―vile, lost, and hell-deserving.
This is your nature, dear reader, too. You belong to the same stock as the jailer if you are still in your natural state. If you were ushered into the presence of God as you are, you would be miserable, for you have not a nature that can respond to His, which is love. Besides, God is holy and righteous in His attributes, and He can have no one in His presence in heaven but what will be in perfect harmony both with His nature and character. Therefore man must be born again. You must, by the operation and presence of God’s Spirit, be made a possessor of a new nature, to fit you to enjoy God and live in His holy, blessed presence. Mere morality will not do, for with all this there is in your nature real enmity to God (Rom. 8:77Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (Romans 8:7); Eph. 2:33Among 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. (Ephesians 2:3)).
We will now consider the momentous question put by the anxious jailer, viz., “What must I do to be saved?” and God’s soul-emancipating answer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Like many an anxious soul he asks what he was to DO to be saved. But the answer was not what he was to DO, but on whom he was to believe. He was told to believe on a person who had done all the DOING that was needed to satisfy the claims of a holy God, whose throne had been outraged by man’s sin, so that the believing sinner could be justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:2424Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24)). This is God’s simple but pointed answer to man’s anxious inquiry. This is how millions have been saved, and this is how the reader can be saved also. Ignore this, God’s only way of saving a sinner, and you will ensure for yourself an abode with the lost through all eternity in the “lake of fire” (Rev. 20:1515And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)).


Part 3.―The Saved Sinner (or Saint).
We will now raise the curtain on the third and last scene presented to us by the Spirit of God within those prison walls, and we shall be fully justified in styling it the grace “transformation scene,” for what but the grace of God could have produced in so short a time a change so remarkable as that seen in the jailer after God’s servants spake unto him the word of the Lord? “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” (vss. 32-34).
This is indeed a scene of moral grandeur. The cruel, hard-hearted sinner violently casting the men of God into the inner prison, unmindful of their bleeding backs, now full of tenderest pity, doing his very utmost to soothe their sufferings by washing their wounds. The same hands that fastened the irons on their flesh now busy with soap, water, sponge, and towel. The jail-keeper’s own dining-room is now judged by him to be the only fit place for the men he had thought only worthy of a felon’s cell. The squalid fare of the prison he gladly replaces with his own well-spread table for his royal and heaven-born guests. The terrors of hell, too, that made him fall trembling at the apostles’ feet, were supplanted by a “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” by believing in the God who so loved him as to give His Son to die for him.
All this, mark, was the precious product of pure grace. No works of legality found their expression in him. Not a single command or even an exhortation to do any of the good works he was now so full of had been given him. They were all the lovely, natural, spontaneous fruit of the new and divine nature formed in his soul by the Holy Ghost, who had revealed Christ to his heart. But this glorious diffusion of mercy and blessing must be worthy of the One from whose large heart it flows. It will not stop at the jailer. It must permeate the whole house. All participate in the rich outflow. “He rejoiced, believing in God, with ALL his house.”
There is still another side to this grand night’s work. The Lord is bent on making this transformation scene a record one in more ways than one. He will not only make it one of richest blessing to those whose hearts have been opened to receive it, but He will also rebuke the enemy who dared to oppose Him in His work of grace, and from whose hands He had “plucked this brand (the jailer) from the burning” (Zech. 3:1,21And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. 2And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? (Zechariah 3:1‑2)). He publicly turns the tables upon the enemy in the morning. The direct instruments of Satan―the magistrates who commanded God’s servants to be scourged and put in prison are forced to come and beseech these same men to take their liberty (vs. 39). Surely the wily enemy has outwitted himself. He can no longer say to himself, in tones of congratulation, “I have triumphed gloriously.”
But we must leave this lovely scene, as space will not permit us to dwell on it longer, much as the heart loves to linger over it. For it is well for us to learn what true “conversion” is, as set forth in those who are brought before us in the inspired Word of God. There we learn what a change it makes in a man in a very short time. All we have seen of the jailer took place within an hour or two. He first comes before us as a sin-hardened sinner, thrusting the men of God into prison. Then an anxious sinner, at the apostles’ feet, crying, “What must I do to be saved?” And lastly as a saved sinner (or saint), filled with joy, and displaying the lovely fruits of the Spirit.
Which of these three conditions are you in, dear reader? Hardened in your sins, with no thought of getting saved? Or convicted of sin, and anxious to be saved? Or having taken Christ as your Saviour, are you saved, and do you know it? We leave you to answer before God, and pray you not to sleep till you are in the same blessed state as the jailer when the Spirit of God finally drops the curtain on the last scene in the divinely inspired narrative of Acts 16.
“Salvation! oh, Salvation!
Endearing, precious sound!
Shout, shout the word “salvation!”
To earth’s remotest bound:
Salvation for the guilty,
Salvation for the lost,
Salvation for the wretched,
The sad and sorrow-tossed.
This good gift unto us
Is sent from heaven above;
Then praise the Lord! O praise the Lord!
For all His love.
J. M.