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Acts 16:32-34  The Salvation & Baptism of The Philippian Jailor & His Household

Introduction:

	In our text today the Philippian jailor gets saved and baptized.  Likewise 
all of the members of his household get saved and baptized.  
	
I.  A review of our previous text

	In our previous text the Apostle Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in 
jail at  Philippi, one of the major cities of Macedonia.  At midnight Paul and 
Silas were singing and praying when suddenly an earthquake shook the jailhouse 
which they were in.  It is my understanding that this is the way that 
earthquakes always come --- suddenly and without warning.  That quake came 
suddenly and then suddenly it was over --- done.   
	This particular earthquake shook the jailhouse so violently that all of 
the doors of the jail were left standing wide open.  Even the locks which had 
held the legs of Paul and Silas in the stocks were also undone.  The Philippian 
jailor, thinking that all of his prisoners had escaped was about to commit 
suicide by falling on his sword and he would have but Paul cried out saying, “Do 
thyself no harm for we are all here.”
	Then the jailor came in to Paul and Silas and asked them that all 
important question: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  To put it another way, 
he asked, “What do I have to do to go to heaven?”  “What does God require me to 
do in order for me to go to heaven?”  
	He was told, “You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”  
He was also told, “Let any member of your household believe on Jesus and that 
person will be saved.”    

II.  Paul and Silas taken to the home of the jailor

	V. 32, “And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were 
in his house.”  You will note that the scene in this verse has moved from the 
jail, where Paul and Silas had been prisoners, to the home of the jailor, where 
they are welcome guests in his home.  They are in the home of the jailor because 
he has taken them to his home.  The home of the jailor was apparently somewhere 
on the grounds of the jail.  It was located close by so that the jailor could 
keep a close watch on his prisoners both day and night.  Yet he would also still 
be able to spend some time every day with his family.
	On this particular occasion we can see two very important reasons why the 
jailor would take Paul and Silas and go immediately to his home.  First of all, 
he would be concerned about their physical safety.  Earthquakes have been known 
to kill people and he would want to check to find out if anyone in his household 
had been injured of killed.  It must have been a great relief to him to find 
that all of the members of his family were save and sound.  
	The second reason that he would carry Paul and Silas to his home that 
because he was concerned about their eternal safety.  He had just found the 
answer to his own eternal well being.  He had just found out what God requires 
of him in order to be saved so that his soul would be eternally safe.  He had 
just found out how to go to heaven.  He had just found out that in order for one 
to be saved, he must put his hope and his trust in Jesus, the great miracle 
worker in Israel that they had heard so much about even in this land which was 
so distant from Israel.    
	The implication is that he had immediately believed what Paul and Silas 
told him,  that he had immediately placed his hope of heaven in the saving power 
of Jesus Christ, he had immediately trusted Jesus to save his soul, and that he 
was immediately saved.  Now he wanted every member of his household to hear the 
message of salvation.  He wanted them all to be saved.  So when he went to his 
home to check up on his family to see about their physical well being, he 
carried the preachers with him in an effort to provide for their spiritual well 
being.  
	There was actually a third reason why the jailor carried Paul and Silas to 
his home.  By now he was feeling a deep compassion for them concerning their 
pain and suffering from the beating they had taken.  V. 33, “And he took them 
the same hour of the night, and washed [their] stripes...”  That is, he washed 
their backs which had been beaten with a rod.  He washed away the clotted blood.  
He bathed the swollen places.  He did what little he could to reduce the fever 
that must have surely sent in by this time.  He did what he could to help 
prevent infection from setting in.  He did what he could to help their wounds to 
heal.  
	It is natural for any human being to feel compassion and sympathy for 
another human who is suffering.  It is especially a mark of a Christian to do so 
and to seek to help relieve the suffering of others.  The compassion which the 
jailor now felt for Paul and Silas is a strong indication that he was now 
genuinely saved.  

III.  The baptism of the jailor and his household

	(V. 33), “...and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.”  Let me 
remind you that the jailor had inquired about what he must do in order to be 
saved.  Let me also remind you that baptism was not one of those things that he 
must do in order to get saved.  Yet baptism he was baptized, he and all of the 
members of his household.  Luke says that they were baptized “straightway.”  
That is, they were baptized without any unnecessary delay.  It appears from this 
verse of Scripture that they may have all been baptized that very night without 
waiting until daylight to come.  I think, however, that the verse could mean 
that they were baptized the next day.  At least we know that they were all 
baptized and that they were all baptized without an unnecessary delay.  
	We cannot help but wonder how the jailor knew that he should be baptized.  
The answer is that Paul and Silas must have told him that he and all his house 
should be baptized.  They did not tell him to be baptized in order to get saved, 
but now that he and his household were saved, they must have told him that it 
was the will of God for him to be baptized.  
	This was in keeping with the Great Commission which Jesus had given to the 
church at Jerusalem.  Jesus had instructed the Jerusalem church to carry the 
gospel to all nation and to baptized those who believe the gospel message and 
get saved.  This was also in keeping with what Paul had experienced when he 
believed in Jesus and got saved.  He first believed in Jesus when he was on the 
road to Damascus.  He had been struck down by a light from heaven.  When he 
looked up into heaven, he saw Jesus up in heaven.  He had inquired, “Who art 
thou?” and Jesus had answered, “I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest.”  
Paul immediately believed that he was, indeed, talking with Jesus.  He 
immediately believed that Jesus is the Christ of God, the Savior of men.  Paul 
asked, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” And he was told, “Arise and go into 
the city and it will be told you what you are to do.”  He arose and went into 
the city and was told that he should be baptized and so he got baptized.  So now 
that the jailor and his household were believers, now that they had done what 
they must do in order to be saved, he told them what God wanted them to do now 
that they were saved.  
	And they did.  The jailor and all his household got saved.  That means 
that the jailor led the way.  He presented himself as a candidate for baptism.  
He encouraged his wife and all of the members of his household to be baptized.   
This means that not only the members of his immediate family got baptized, but 
the slave servants who were in his household also got baptized.  
	By the way, some people mistakenly use this passage of Scripture to teach 
that the baptism which Paul did was done by pouring water on the head of the 
candidate.  They say that there was no place available to Paul which he could 
have used to immerse the jailor and the members of his household.  They say that 
Paul took a bowl of water and sprinkled or poured water on the head of each one 
of them.  
	Let me point out to you that the original language of the New Testament 
will not justify this kind of interpretation.  I think that you know that the 
New Testament was not originally written in the English language.  It was 
written in Greek.  The Greek word which is translated “baptize” does not mean 
“to sprinkle or to pour.”  It means “to dip or to immerse.”  Therefore, this 
passage does not say that Paul took water and sprinkled it or poured it upon the 
heads of whose who were baptized.  Rather it means that Paul took the person 
which he baptized and dipped that person down in the water.  He immersed that 
person completely in water.  
	Let us just for a few moments assume that Paul did use a bowl of water.  
How would that fit with the meaning of the Greek word used in the New Testament?  
If you try to apply the biblical meaning of the word “baptize” to Paul’s 
situation in our text you would have dipping the candidate down in a bowl of 
water and completely immersing him in a bowl of water.  That interpretation just 
not fit the meaning of the Scripture.  
	And by the way, there are others who mistakenly use this passage of 
Scripture to try to justify the baptism of infants.  They say that since Paul 
baptized the entire household of the jailor that must have baptized an infant 
and that this Scripture, therefore, proves that infant baptism is Scriptural.  
	Not so.  Back in Acts 8:36-37 Philip was led by the Holy Spirit to tell 
the Ethiopian Eunuch that in order for him to qualify for baptism he must 
believe in Jesus with all his heart.  That same Holy Spirit had led Paul and 
Silas to the city of Philippi to preach the gospel there.  The Holy Spirit would 
not have led Paul to baptize any person who had not believed in Jesus.  I think 
that it is obvious that little infant babies are not capable of believing in 
Jesus and trusting Him for salvation.  According to what Luke said in verse 34 
of this text, which we will get to in a few moments,  all of the members of the 
household of the jailor was old enough to believe in Jesus Christ.  Every member 
of the jailor’s household was old enough to believe in Jesus.  Not one of them 
was an infant.  Neither Paul nor Silas baptized any infant in this household nor 
in any other household.       
		

IV.  Rejoicing in the home of the jailor

 	V. 34, “And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before 
them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.”  There was great 
rejoicing in the house of the jailor that night.  They had lots of very good 
reason to rejoice.  In the first place they had reason to rejoice because they 
had all just survived an earthquake.  Many a person has not been so fortunate.  
Many a person has been instantly killed or so badly wounded that they dies soon 
thereafter.  So far as I can tell from this record, not one person in this 
jailor’s family was hurt in any way in this particular quake.  That was, indeed, 
a good reason for them to rejoice.  
	An even better reason for this jailor to rejoice was that now he was saved 
by the marvelous grace of God and would go heaven whenever he would die.  This 
was better than being spared in the earthquake.  In fact, it was the best thing 
that had ever happened in his whole life.  It was the best thing that could ever 
happen to him in his whole life.  This was, indeed, a great reason for him to 
rejoice.
	But there was more!  Not only was he now saved, but every member of his 
immediate family were saved.  Every member of his household was saved and on 
their way to heaven.  What a blessing!  What a joy!  Even his slaves were saved 
and he was glad.  What a night.  What great joy he had and what great joy his 
whole household experienced!   
	Incidentally, I think there was another thing that brought great joy to 
that household that night.  The jailor and his family brought out food and set 
it before Paul and Silas and he gave them a good meal.  I am not certain whether 
or not they had been fed anything since they were thrown in jail.  If so, it 
would have been a very small amount of some not-so-tasty food.  I would think 
that now the jailor and his family now bring out the very best that they had and 
set it before Paul and Silas.  I know that Paul and Silas enjoyed their meal, 
but I am confident that the jailor and his family were the ones who got the 
greater joy by providing this good meal for the two men of God who had brought 
to them the message of salvation.  It is always more blessed to give than to 
receive, but it was especially so on this occasion, because they were filled 
with such gratitude.  All of this household were now believers in the true God 
and believers in His Christ and it was to their great pleasure that they set 
this meal before Paul and Silas.  
  
V.  What Paul would say to us if he were here

	Paul would tell us that the in order to be saved one must believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ.  One must not only believe that Jesus lived, died and arose 
again, but he must believe that Jesus is the Savior that God has sent to the 
world.  He must believe that those who call upon Jesus and trust in Him for the 
salvation of the soul will be saved.  Paul would urge each person in this 
building today who is still unsaved to call upon Jesus and ask Jesus to save 
your soul.  Paul would tell you that tell you that there is no other way whereby 
you can ever go to heaven.   
	Paul would tell us that those who are saved should be Scripturally 
baptized.  God wants every person who is truly saved to be baptized.  That is 
why Jesus has given authority to each Scriptural New Testament church to baptize 
people who have been saved.  Now no one should seek to be baptized before 
getting saved.  Salvation comes first and then baptism should follow.  Getting 
baptized cannot save you.  It cannot even help  to save you.  Jesus and Jesus 
alone can do the saving.  But after you are saved, God wants you to be baptized 
and become a member of a New Testament church.  
	Paul would tell us that if one wants to experience real true lasting joy, 
then he should place his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save his soul and be 
saved.  Then after he is saved he should present himself to a New Testament 
church and be Scripturally baptized.