Becoming a Man of Unwavering Faith (12 page)

And so, the Bible says they preached the Word of God to the jailer and all his household, who all came to saving faith in God. Then the Bible says the jailer rejoiced much. One translation says he leaped for joy with all his house, because they believed in God! Four times it states
“all your house.”
So God wants our households saved!

It was an earthquake that brought the jailer to God. God does not send sorrow and trouble and heartache and cancer and AIDS and all of that. Great tragedies happen every day. God is not the author of all of that. But earthquakes can bring us to God! And sometimes it has to be allowed in order to shake us to our foundation.

You may be going through great trouble, an earthquake, right now. You say it’s worse than anything you can imagine, and you don’t know what you’re going to do. Let it drive you to your knees. Commit yourself to God.

You might ask, “Well, will God do for me what he did for the jailer?” God will do anything for this world! He’ll send laborers across your path. He’ll send angels to warn you. He’ll appear to you. With God all things are possible!

Let’s believe for every nation to be shaken by the power of God, but let’s also believe for our own families and friends and neighborhoods and schools. We must get the violence and the drugs and the pornography out of our young people, and we must set them free. We must get our fathers committed to Jesus and our mothers living for Him, and then our cities will be changed!

You need to shout, “My household shall be saved!” Say it again! “My household shall be saved!”

Do not discount the power of your faith and influence.
It’s amazing what one person who’s saved can do in a household. See how the jailer who got saved asked Paul to come and preach to his household, and everyone in his household got baptized. It’s amazing what one saved person who lets his or her light shine can do for Jesus!

When I first put my faith in Christ, my entire household went to nightclubs and was living for the world. I was a little timid and wasn’t sure what to say to them, but instead of going out with them, I’d stay home and get out the big old family Bible and read it. I didn’t understand much of what I read, but I was trying to let my light shine.

One night my sister Mary was going out to a nightclub and came and stood right beside me. Then she said, “John, why do you stay home and read the Bible now and don’t go out with us?” I didn’t look up, but I said, “Mary, I’ve given my heart to Jesus, and I’m not going to the world anymore!” I thought she’d pounce on me, but nothing came out of her mouth. So I looked up, and tears were running down her face. She said, “John, do you think Jesus would save somebody like me?” I said, “Oh, Mary, He will. He will.” In that moment, Mary knelt at the dining room table and passed out of darkness into light, out of death into eternal life.

And one by one the other members of my family came
to faith. Mother got saved. My other sister came running in one night and said, “I was in a tent revival, and I gave my heart to Jesus.” My brother gave his heart to the Lord. Daddy wasn’t so easy. He said, “When you’re dead, you’re dead like a dog. Roll me over in a ditch. That’s all there is to life.” I said, “Daddy, if that were true, I’ll never bother you again. But you’ve got to live on forever somewhere.” Thank God, he got saved!

As men of unwavering faith, let us let our light shine! It’s wonderful what one light can do!

“
P
raise the L
ORD
! Blessed is the man who fears the L
ORD
, who delights greatly in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches will be in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. He will not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. His heart is established; he will not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies” (Psalm 112:1–3, 7–8).

These are tough days when most men live in dread, worry, and anxiety. But if we are greatly delighting in the commandments of the Lord, we don’t have to live in dread. We are settled that Jehovah God will take care of us. It’s settled. It’s written.

Beyond that, though, as men of faith, our deep concern must be in reaching our family, our friends, our
neighbors, and telling them about Jesus so we can take them to heaven with us.

In Acts 10:1–5 is a marvelous story of God’s compassion on a man who was concerned about his house. Here is a man whose heart shares the interests of God’s heart—that his entire household and neighbors would come to faith in Christ!

“There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius!’ And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, ‘What is it, lord?’ So he said to him, ‘Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter.’ ” Then in Acts 11:14, it continues the statement regarding Peter: “Who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.”

This man was like so many people who are religious and do many good things. He was a devout man who feared God, gave away much alms, and prayed to God always but did not have a relationship with Jesus. He needed Peter to come and lead him into the way of
salvation. He knew about God, but he didn’t really know God.

But this seeking man does not go unnoticed by God, who was so moved by this man’s reaching toward Him that He sent an angel to him. The angel said to him, “Your prayers and your giving has come up to God for a memorial.” God hears the cry and the prayer of men.

The angel told the centurion to send for Simon Peter to come tell him the words whereby he and his household could be saved. In the meantime, despite the fact that it was ten years after Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every person, Peter needed a vision of his own to convince him to go to Cornelius, because Cornelius was a Gentile, and the Jews had no dealings with Gentiles. Racial prejudice was a deeply embedded issue in the life of the early Church as a carryover from their past, and Peter wasn’t perfect.

So God first got Peter ready, and when Peter met Cornelius’s household, he told him these words that we as men of faith need to incorporate into our lives as we reach out to our loved ones:

“Then Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted
by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins’ ” (Acts 10:34–44).

I see seven principles in these ten verses that I believe every man of faith needs to know.

“I perceive that God shows no partiality” (v. 34).

The first basic principle is that God has no favorites. He is no respecter of persons. He loves the prostitute just as much as He loves the virgin. He loves the alcoholic just as much as He loves the sober man. God doesn’t respect the color of your skin. God doesn’t respect the social standing that you have. God loves everybody the same way.

God is no respecter of persons, and that’s where we need to start. This is crucial, because we may have a hard time believing that some of our loved ones, relatives, and neighbors can come to faith because of the way they’ve lived. Those same people may also believe they can’t get saved because of the way they’ve lived, so we have to make them realize God is no respecter of persons.

“But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him” (v. 35).

This represents the all-encompassing acceptance of Jesus for every nation and every person in every nation, which includes your own family and neighbors. Everyone has the same opportunity for faith.

“The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all” (v. 36).

The third principle is that peace comes by Jesus Christ, and Jesus is Lord! There is no way to get peace of heart except through Jesus. You can’t buy it, sniff it, shoot it, drink it, or manufacture it. The only way in the world you can have peace of heart and lie down at night knowing everything is right between you and God is through Jesus Christ.

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (v. 38).

Just as Peter did, we must tell people that God sent His only Son into the world. Jesus was born of a virgin and
lived His life doing good, demonstrating the goodness and the mercy of God. He went into every city and every village, healed every sickness and every disease among the people. He stood by the woman caught in adultery and lifted her up (John 8). Jesus brought the despised Samaritan woman who had been married five times, living with a man to whom she wasn’t even married, to salvation and reached out to her entire village (John 4). He sought out Zacchaeus who didn’t feel worthy to even come into His presence (Luke 19). He reached out to the bad and the good alike, constantly demonstrating God’s love by doing good. Tell people that God is a good God.

“We are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree…” (v. 39).

The fifth principle is that we must tell our loved ones that Jesus was crucified in their place. He didn’t know sin. The reason He went to the cross was He was bearing our immorality, our anger, our stealing, and our sins of all kind. He bore our sins. We must tell them that Jesus came to pay the price. He died on that cross and paid the price of God’s judgment so we can be free of sin and shame and guilt. (See 1 Peter 2:24.)

“Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead” (vv. 40–41).

God raised Jesus from the dead. On the third day, a mighty angel rolled the stone away—not to let Jesus out, but so the disciples could get in and see that He’d already risen from the dead! Resurrection power came upon Jesus, and He was raised from the dead, and His body was glorified as a human body. Then He went down into Satan’s domain and approached the devil as the risen Conqueror of death, taking the crown from his head and taking the keys of death from him.

Read in Revelation 1 where Jesus stands as brilliant as the sun pulsating with eternal glory. Jesus died on the cross and paid the price for our salvation. He said, “I am He who lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of Hades and of death” (Revelation 1:18).

We’ve got to tell people that Jesus died for them! And He arose for them! Thank God! That’s what He did. He arose from the dead! These are words whereby salvation is delivered.

“And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead” (v. 42).