This again took place while Paul was in Philippi. During their time there, the Apostle Paul ended up beaten and in jail along with Silas because Paul had cast out an evil spirit of divination and soothsaying that had grieved his spirit (v18).

While they were in the jail, at midnight they were praying and singing praises to God, and all of the prisoners could hear them (v25). It sounds like they were having a evangelistic church service with the other prisoners while in prison themselves. As this was taking place, all of a sudden there was an earthquake, and all of the prison doors were opened, and all of the chains holding the prisoners were loosened (v26). At this point the keeper of the prison woke up from his sleep and saw that the doors were open. He was about to kill himself, as he thought that all of the prisoners had escaped (v27). Paul stopped him by shouting out in a commanding voice that all of the prisoners were still there (v28). The fact that the others also in prison at the same time as Paul and Silas had not attempted to escape also suggests that the worship service was getting to a point where the prisoners were more interested in hearing more than being able to escape from prison.

At this point, the prison keeper came into the prison and fell down at the feet of Paul and Silas (v29), asking them “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (v30). They had clearly identified themselves as having a message of salvation, available to all – whether prisoner or prison-keeper – and what the prison-keeper had seen convinced him that he too needed this message. The prison-keeper brought Paul and Silas out of the prison (v30), washed their wounds (v33), took them to his house, and fed them (v34). No doubt all of these kind actions were also done at great personal risk to the prison-keeper, with the potential to be charged with dereliction of duty – he obviously saw this as less important than being saved. He also wanted the message to come to his whole family (v33) and his whole household (v34).

Let us now look at the answer given in this instance of how to be saved. The answer to the question started in verse 31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”.

In the next verse, we find part of the message summarised by “And they spake unto him the word of the Lord” (v32). This verse shows us the nature of some scriptures – an exhaustive list is not given, as it can be assumed that the reader knows the kinds of things that Paul and Silas would have said. The scripture in this instance can add to our understanding, without necessarily leading to a complete understanding without the study of all of the references to this topic in the whole Bible. This is further explained in Isaiah 28v9-11 as follows:

• 28v9: Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

• 28v10: For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

• 28v11: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

Clearly the process starts here with the milk of the word, and taking little by little we keep adding to our understanding. As our understanding grows we move from the breasts and milk onto more solid food, still adding a piece at a time to our understanding of God’s word.

At the conclusion of Paul’s message, the prison-keeper and his whole household were baptised, as we can see from this current verse. Also notice that it happened immediately – there being no need to attend anything like a 12-week course in repentance or such like that some people can make an obstacle to baptism today. We are reminded here of the words of the eunuch from Ethiopia: “what doth hinder me to be baptized?” (Acts 8v36) and Peter: “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized” (Acts 10v47) – all showing both the urgency of baptism and also the lack of ceremony-planning required.

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