Acts 16,23-34. Cantate

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Acts 16,23-34        3019 

Cantate 039 weiß

Pudentiana, Virgin at Rome, 1. c 

19. Mai 2019 

1. O Christ our Shepherd, risen from the dead, receive our joyful voice this day, so that we sing: „Blessed be God who has given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (Löhe 479) 

2. »And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice: „Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.“ And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said: „Sirs, what must I do to be saved?“ And they said: „Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.“ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.« 

3. Cantate is Latin for sing, and thus today’s Introit exhorts us: »Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things!« (Psalm 98,1). Things, however, did not seem marvelous for Paul and Silas: they were beaten and thrown into jail. This happened in Philippi, a Roman colony in Macedonia. The charge against them: these men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city; they advocate customers that are not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice (Acts 16,20-21). Their crime that led to this accusation: Paul had exorcised a girl who had a spirit of divination (Acts 16,16.18). The girl was a slave, and her owners became mad because without her ability to fortune tell they lost income she brought in for them; thus, they brought Paul and Silas before the magistrates (Acts 16,19-20). 

4. Paul and Silas make the best of their predicament: they prayed, sang hymns and comforted their fellow inmates. Just a few years earlier, Jesus had told His apostles on Maundy Thursday: »„A slave is not greater than his master.“ If they persecuted Me, then they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, then they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of My Name, because they do not know Him who sent Me. Indeed, the hour is approaching when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God« (John 15,20-21; 16,2). Thus, Paul and Silas were thrown into jail for proclaiming the gospel. 

5. Luke does not give details as to what the gospel is that Paul and Silas spoke to the terrified jailer and his family. Luke is more specific in other places in his book of Acts. Luke gives us some details as he records one of Paul’s sermons a chapter later: »Paul reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for Jesus Christ to suffer and rise« (Luke 17,2-3). Throughout their epistles, Paul, Peter and all the apostles are very clear what the gospel is: Christ was crucified for us as payment for our sin and that He rose from the dead on the 3. day (1. Corinthians 2,2; 15,3); we are justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law (Galatians 2,16). This is the gospel the apostles preached again and again; this is the gospel Paul and Silas preached to the jailer and his family.  

6. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ (Romans 10,9.17). The gospel is about certainty, and faith receives and believes this certainty. The jailer asked: What must I do to be saved? Paul replies: Believe in Jesus and you will be saved. Is it that simple? Can it be that easy? Surely, we must do something on our part? The gospel says: yes, it is really that simple; Jesus has done everything for you already, and you do not need to add anything on your part. The certainty of our forgiveness and salvation is not grounded upon anything we might do but is solely grounded upon Christ and what He has done. The simplicity of the gospel has confounded human reason and given great peace to countless people since it first left the mouths of the apostles and disciples. 

7. We respond to this free gift of the gospel with thanksgiving and songs of praise. In the words of the psalmist: »Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens! Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with strings and pipe! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!« (Psalm 150,1-2.4b.6a). The apostle also exhorts us: »Address one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ« (Ephesians 5,19-21). 

8. Paul and Silas lifted high the crucified Christ and a Roman family was saved. That family then lifted high the crucified Christ, they were baptized and they rejoice in fellowship with a meal. This morning we have lifted high the crucified Christ with our worship and prayers; we have heard His gospel in Scripture and hymn. This gospel assures us of our salvation. We hear it, we’ve been baptized, we will partake of it in the Lord’s Supper, we have receive it, believe it and rejoice in it. Only Jesus forgives and saves.  Amen. 

9. Let us pray. O Risen Christ, all the earth sings the glory of Your Name; we also praise You and we ask that You shoulder our heavy burdens alongside us or, if You will, bear them entirely for us, so that we receive Your light burden which is manifested in the reality of Your resurrection, that we are comforted and at peace with Christian discipleship that teaches us to trust You in all things.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.