About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

–Acts 16:25-34 (TNIV)

With remarkable understatement, Luke describes an amazing sequence of events for us here. Would you be praying and singing hymns to God if you had just been beaten with rods to within an inch of your life? Would you be praying and singing hymns to God if you had just been thrown in jail unjustly and once there were restricted even further by being put in stockades? Yet that is exactly what Paul and Silas did! Their faith allowed (or perhaps compelled?) them to rejoice in being able to suffer for the Name. Amazing.

And then after an overt act of power, we see the effects of salvation (and thus always the reason for acts of overt power that the NT writers report). Notice carefully how the jailer’s behavior toward Paul and Silas changed. Prior to his conversion he treated them shamefully and cruelly. Now he treats them with kindness. Before he saw them as objects to be abused and mistreated. Now he sees them as human beings who are made in God’s Image and are therefore worthy of respect, dignity, and kindness. Before his conversion, the jailer’s behavior was powered by extreme despair that caused him to want to take his own life. He thought his prisoners had escaped and he knew that this would mean his own execution as a penalty for letting that happen. Afterward, however, Luke tells us that the jailer was filled with joy because he had found a relationship with the Living God through Jesus Christ.

This is the effect of the Gospel. This is what happens to people when the meet Jesus and realize exactly the gift he has given them. This is what allows folks to overcome all that life and Satan can throw in their way.

Do you have this kind of faith? Do you know the Jesus that Paul and Silas knew?