SEEING THE HAND OF GOD

“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
—Acts 16:30-31

THE FIRST THING we notice in our text is the wonder of God’s salvation. You see, it’s easy to see the hand of God working in the supernatural events in Scripture. It’s easy to see God’s hand when He parts the Red Sea, or when He makes water come out of a rock or sends manna from heaven. But how often do we miss the hand of God working in the natural events in this world? How many times are natural events dismissed as merely “acts of nature” rather than the hand of God? The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 27 reads, “What do you understand by the providence of God? The almighty, everywhere-present power of God, whereby, as it were by His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures, and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.” It’s the hand of God that we see in our text. 

NOTICE PAUL AND SILAS are praying and singing hymns to God when a great earthquake begins to shake the foundations of the prison. Suddenly the bolts holding the shackles to the wall of the prison fall out. God not only works out His glorious will by supernatural or miraculous events, but He is also working out His glorious will in the everyday events of our lives. This is demonstrated by the earthquake that loosens the bolts but doesn’t knock down the prison walls. These prisons were not constructed with the sophisticated equipment we have today, and it’s unheard of that the prison walls remained standing in this “great earthquake.” Yet this “great earthquake” only loosened the bolts of the shackles and opened the prison doors even though the foundations were shaken. That is the supernatural working of God in the natural events in this world to accomplish His purpose, and God’s purpose, according to our text, was to bring the Philippian jailor to faith in Jesus Christ. 

WHEN THE PHILIPPIAN JAILOR came running in and fell at Paul’s feet, he was not trembling because the prisoners had escaped. He wasn’t trembling because of the great earthquake. He was trembling because of the earthquake that took place in his own heart. In the heart of the jailor the kingdom of God had broken through the corruption of his sinful heart –he was born from above, regenerated by the Holy Spirit. While the jailor slept the Lord shook him to the depths of his soul through the earthquake, and when he awoke, he found himself on the brink of hell. That’s why he wanted to commit suicide. This is always the way of the world. When things are more than we can bear, it’s time to end it all. But Paul said to him, “do yourself no harm.” 

THE POINT IS that the Philippian jailor was one for whom Christ had died, and no matter if the Lord must turn the whole world upside down, He will save His elect people. As Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” And Jesus said in John 18:9, “Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none.” No matter what happens in this world, God will surely save His Church. Pray that the Lord causes His people to see His supernatural working through the natural events of this world so that His people would praise His name. 

Friday Devotional: March 7, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry