1.1 Key themes⤒🔗

• A Christian believes in order to be saved.
• To be a true believer, one has to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
• To be a true believer, one has to trust Jesus with everything.
• God brings people to faith in different ways.

1.2 Acts 16:13-19, 23-31←⤒🔗

^16:13 On the Sabbath day we [Paul and his fellow workers] went outside the city gate to the side of the river, where we thought there would be a place of prayer, and we sat down and began to speak to the women who had assembled there.

^16:14 A woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, a God-fearing woman, listened to us. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying.

^16:15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me to be a believer in the Lord, come and stay in my house.” And she persuaded us.

^16:16 Now as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit that enabled her to foretell the future by supernatural means. She brought her owners a great profit by fortune-telling.

^16:17 She followed behind Paul and us and kept crying out, 'These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.'

^16:18 She continued to do this for many days. But Paul became greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!' And it came out of her at once.

^16:19 But when her owners saw their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.

…

^16:23 After they had beaten them severely, they threw them into prison and commanded the jailer to guard them securely.

^16:24 Receiving such orders, he threw them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

^16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the rest of the prisoners were listening to them.

^16:26 Suddenly a great earthquake occurred, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors flew open, and the bonds of all the prisoners came loose.

^16:27 When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, because he assumed the prisoners had escaped.

^16:28 But Paul called out loudly, 'Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!'

^16:29 Calling for lights, the jailer rushed in and fell down trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas.

^16:30 Then he brought them outside and asked, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'

^16:31 They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.'

© NET Bible

1.3 A believer←⤒🔗

People believe in many things. Some people will say that they believe in a certain leader, or in a certain political party. Some people will call themselves believers in “science.” What do we mean when we say that a Christian is a believer?

To believe is to have faith (or trust) in something or someone. We will try to describe the faith of a Christian, by looking at: WHY we believe; WHO we believe in; HOW we believe; and HOW WE BEGIN to believe. We can find answers to all of these questions in the passage that we have read.

1.4 WHY we believe←⤒🔗

When the jailer saw that God had opened all the prison doors, he was very afraid. Suddenly there was only one thing that he wanted to do. He wanted to be saved. He asked Paul and Silas: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Paul answered him: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (verses 30 to 31).

Why do we believe? It is to be saved! This is the wonderful news of the gospel. There is only one thing that we have to do to be saved from our sins and from eternal death. We have to believe.

1.5 WHO we believe in←⤒🔗

It is not enough to say: “You must believe.” WHAT or WHO should we believe? Paul said to the jailer: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Earlier, when he drove out the evil spirit from the slave-girl, he said: “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her” (verse 18).

So we see that Paul uses three names for the same Person: Lord, Jesus, and Christ. Each of these names teaches us something – something that we should believe.

“Lord” means that Jesus is the Lord or the King of all things. We have to believe that Jesus is truly God.

“Jesus” means “Saviour”. We have to believe that Jesus came to the world to save his people from their sins.

“Christ” means the same as “Messiah”. Both of these words mean “the anointed one”. In the Old Testament, oil was poured over a person’s head to anoint him for the service of God. Three kinds of people were anointed: prophets, priests and kings. Jesus was not anointed with oil, but with the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:21-22). He was the final Prophet, Priest and King.

When we believe in Jesus as the Christ, we trust him to be our Prophet, Priest and King!

1.6 HOW we believe←⤒🔗

Paul told the jailer to believe “on” the Lord Jesus Christ. To believe is to put your whole life on Jesus Christ. It is not enough to know about Jesus. You must trust him with everything. You must give him all your sins and all your problems and all your love. Because he is Lord, Jesus, and Christ, he can take all of it!

1.7 HOW WE BEGIN to believe←⤒🔗

The Holy Spirit is the one who brings us to Jesus Christ. How does he do it? In Acts 16 we see how he worked in different ways in the lives of three people. There was Lydia, a businesswoman who followed the Jewish faith. There was a slave girl who was abused by her owners. Lastly, there was the jailer – in our days we could call him a “security guard”.

Lydia knew the Old Testament, but she has never heard about Jesus. When Paul explained the gospel to her, “the Lord opened her heart”. She became a believer just like that, in a quiet way.

The slave girl had a very difficult life. She also had a demon in her. The Lord delivered her and suddenly her life was changed. It was a very dramatic event, because her life used to be so full of the power of Satan.

And then there was the jailer, who had an earthquake in his jail. Sometimes people need their lives to shake and collapse before they are ready to believe in Jesus Christ.

Do you see how the Lord uses different ways with different people? Perhaps you became a believer in a quiet way, like Lydia. Or perhaps the Lord delivered you from great trouble, even from the power of Satan. Or perhaps there came trouble into your life, and the Lord used it to bring you to himself. God works differently with each of us, but he brings us to the same faith. What is that faith? It is to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.