Joe Hansum
Notes
Transcript
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.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, there are too many interesting stories that could be told about Joe. We’d probably be here for days thinking through all his fishing stories, boating stories, and one-liners. “He was a good Joe,” as so many people have affectionately referred to him. He didn’t just love the outdoors and people though, but as we heard in the obituary, he loved music, and he was proud of having been able to play in so many different places for so many people. That’s probably my one disappointment about him as his pastor is never getting a chance to hear any of his music. Joe also could make anyone laugh and bring a smile to your day.
One of his most endearing qualities that I haven’t mentioned yet was his humility. A humility which followed the example set in Scripture for believers, but also humility that allowed him to keep focused on what is most important in life. Joe picked our passage today, at least the central verse of it, verse 31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” What did he want everyone he met to know? What made him ready to go on from this life for the last couple of years? Wholehearted faith in his Savior, Jesus Christ.
We’ll unpack what that means and what that looks like this morning. We want to start with the crazy story that Acts 16 is. You’ve got these 2 missionaries, Paul and Silas, who were dragged, attacked, and beaten. We’re not talking about just a whoopin’, but severely beaten; so much so that they had wounds. Yet later that night while hurting and shackled, they could be found praying and singing. They were worshiping God, who they believed in, that faith which led them to this situation and caused them to endure all this, they were worshiping God at midnight in the prison. Then an earthquake happens creating a situation where every prisoner, not just the good guys or the innocent ones are suddenly set free; no, everyone was set free. But for some reason, they all stayed put.
That’s the kind of story that Joe would like, and I think he could probably tell it better. But anyways, the jailer upon realizing the situation knew there was something more going on here. This doesn’t just happen, the whole situation, but then also there’s the fact that these 2 men of faith had just saved his life. Instead of them pleading for mercy to their captor, it’s the jailer who fell to his knees before Paul and Silas, his inmates, and he begged, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
One of the things I’ve been pretty persistent about in my preaching is that the kind of faith that Scripture invites us to is not just factual identification. Faith is not you or I saying, “I believe Jesus is real. I believe he lived back 2,000 years ago. I believe he died on a cross, and even came back to life, and went to heaven before dying again.” Faith is not us saying that the same way that we could say, “The first president of the United States was George Washington.” We believe both things to be true; we could answer true on a true or false test, but neither is deep Christian faith.
Real faith is trust. Faith is believing in. It’s believing that yes, Jesus was here and the cross and the resurrection are all real, but what’s behind that? Faith is what a person must have in order to say, “I believe Jesus had to die, a sinless man had to die, to pay for, to take the punishment upon himself for sinners.” Faith is saying, “I believe that I can do absolutely nothing to have any shot at heaven or being restored with God after death, but Jesus gives all who trust in him a free gift of mercy and grace for eternal life. I believe that Jesus wasn’t just a guy, but he is God, and God loves me even though I sin against him over and over and over again.”
That is faith. Accepting that if it were up to any one of us—we are in hell. The apostle Paul, also known as Saul, did a lot of good things in spreading the gospel later in his life, but early on he was a Pharisee who at the very least put Christians in jail. He was the guy who could probably command the beatdown that he had just experienced. Did he really deserve to be saved? The answer is no, and it’s the same answer even if we haven’t done things that seem that bad. Because each of us sins, and Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.” It is hell.
But thanks be to God that in Jesus Christ, what Jesus came to do and fulfilled on Good Friday and Easter, the gift of God is eternal life and it’s presented to all who have faith, to all who believe! Acts 16 tells us a crazy story, a crazy real event, but the truth cannot be anymore serious. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” That is the only way.
Faith isn’t just for our heads and hearts though; it changes how we live. Notice what the jailer did—at that hour—again, it’s after midnight. He took these guys home. He cleaned their wounds. His whole family got baptized. He fed them. Why would he do all that? Verse 34 gives us the answer, “He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God.”
Can someone be happy just because? Just because they get to do what they enjoy? They like their job, they get to travel, they have money to spend and have fun, they enjoy and love their spouse—all of that kind of stuff. Can’t someone be happy just because? Can’t someone go through their life, doing whatever they want, and live decently and happy. I suppose the answer is yes, you could, and yet it would seem that you’d never be able to feel settled. It would always take more of something.
But what the jailer had, and I think we can truly say, what Joe had, filled them with more than enough joy. Men like this, and I hope many if not all of us, are satisfied. Having Jesus, believing in him, filled each of these men in such a way that they were willing to give more rather than needing or wanting more. Faith in Jesus changes a person. It enables them to praise God amid terrible trial and turmoil. Knowing one’s salvation allows them to let go of whatever feels so necessary for fulfillment on this earth. If you were here for Tillie’s funeral, I preached from Hebrews 12 verses 1 and 2, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” The life of faith is one that determines, “I don’t need anything other than Jesus for myself, and I want others to know that same joy and same faith.”
The jailer made sure his whole family knew what he did, what he received, what he believed in that night. Joe has made sure that everyone here today knew what he had if you didn’t already, too. What must you do to be saved? What do you need in order to have true, life-changing and life-giving joy? “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Amen.