“A Come to Jesus Experience”

Acts 16:16-34

May 23, 2004

Saint Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming

I have gotten a couple of comments about this morning’s sermon title. No one driving up or down Durwood Road has stopped or called the church to ask me what a Come to Jesus Experience is. But some of you, who have read your newsletter or seen the title on our board outside or in the bulletin have stopped me in the hallway and asked me what such an experience is. I think that most of us know what a Come to Jesus Experience is. But maybe I should quickly point out that there is a difference in a Come to Jesus Experience and a Come to Jesus Meeting. A Come to Jesus Meeting happens when someone that you know or someone that you live with or work with is not doing what you expect them to do or what you want them to do. And so you call them into your office or you go to their room and you have a little talk with them. I do not mind telling you that I have been on both sides of Come to Jesus Meetings. I have a minister friend who now lives in Texas. When she was in Arkansas, she worked in the conference office. One of her favorite things to say went something like this, “John and I had a Come to Jesus meeting, and well, he didn’t come to Jesus.” That was her way of saying that the person that she talked with did not come around to her way of thinking.

Annie Grace just celebrated her third birthday. It is not hard for me to remember what it was like when we brought her home from the hospital. From the very beginning, Susie was a wonderful mother. Annie Grace’s father, on the other hand, was another story. I should have listened more carefully when my friends told me that a baby would change my life. Change my life she did. It would have been better if she had gotten her days and nights straightened out before she did. Since I am a night owl, I usually took the late shift. When she cried, I gently picked her up, cuddled her, changed her diaper, fed her, played with her, and rocked her back to sleep. I remember one particular night. Annie Grace cried out at 2:30 or 3:00. I did all of the things that I was supposed to do. I picked her up, I changed her, I fed her, I played with her, and I rocked her. She did not want to go back to sleep. My prayer life improved during Annie Grace’s early days. I prayed more often and usually this was my prayer, “Lord Jesus, please make this baby go to sleep!” When that did not work, I tried to reason with her. If you have ever tried to reason with a child, especially one that is six or seven weeks old, then you know how that went. Finally Annie Grace and I had to have a Come to Jesus Meeting. It did not work, by the way. In those early days, she did not come around to my way of thinking. Annie Grace and I had another Come to Jesus Meeting just last night when it was time for her bath. My guess is that last night’s meeting will not be the last time that she and I will have.

What I have described is a Come to Jesus Meeting. A Come to Jesus Experience is a little different than that. Come to Jesus Experiences are powerful events that happen in our lives that help us to take an inventory of our lives. And sometimes, they change us forever. I have had more than one Come to Jesus Experience in my life, but the one that I remember the best happened when I was in college. A few of my fraternity brothers at Lambuth went to spend the weekend at Joel Wittenton’s family’s cabin a few miles from Jackson. To get there, we had to turn off the highway near Bolivar, and then travel a mile or so down a winding, gravel road that had sixty year old trees that lined it. There is a detail in this story that you will need to know. Our retreat happened in the middle of tornado season. That is a clue for what will happen later in this story of mine. The weekend was great. During the day, we fished, talked, relaxed, and played games. On Saturday night (I hate to admit this to you) we did some of the things that fraternity brothers sometimes do, we had a party. Around ten o’clock, the wind began to howl and so we slipped inside the cabin for safety. When we thought that the storm had passed, we went back outside, but this time, when the winds began to howl, we did not have time to make it back inside. Instead ten of us tried to get in the back of Jimmy Jeffords’ jeep. I am sure that the jeep was made to seat six. Somehow we got nine inside. Do you want to guess who was number ten? That is right! It was me. So I held on to the spare tire, a fraternity brother, and dear life! What they say about tornadoes is true. They do sound like trains. This one lasted less than ten minutes and when it was over, I looked down at my feet. There, lying there, was the top of a tree. It was not a huge tree, but it was a tree that was inches from my feet. I cannot tell you what else happened that weekend, but I can tell you this, come Sunday morning, I was in church!

Maybe you do not want to hear this from your preacher, but in those days I was not as close to Jesus as I should have been. Please understand this. I do not believe that Jesus sent a tornado and a tree to get my attention. I do not believe in a God who works like that, but get my attention it did. And ever since then, I have been trying to walk a little closer with Jesus. I know that not all Come to Jesus Experiences are dramatic. Moses’ encounter with the Almighty was. He was on top of a mountain, minding his own business, when a bush blazed and they spoke to him. The apostle Paul had a dramatic Come to Jesus Experience when he traveled towards Damascus. But more times than not, life changing experiences are less dramatic and traumatic than these. However they happen, these experiences give us the chance to look at our lives in a different way. And when they happen, you have a choice. You can do something with them or you can ignore them.

In the lesson that we read together a few minutes ago, we meet a man who has an experience with God and decides to do something with it. Let me set the scene up for you. This story comes in the midst of a couple of conversion stories in the Book of Acts. The verses that precede our lesson tell us about the conversion of Lydia, a dealer of purple cloths, who opened her home to Paul and Silas. When they leave there, they make their way to what Luke calls a place of prayer. There, Paul and Silas come face to face with a young woman who is a slave, who makes money for her owners by telling fortunes. Luke tells us that she had a spirit of divination and that she followed Paul and Silas wherever they went. When she was near them, she cried out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” What she said was the truth. That was not the issue. Perhaps Paul and Silas nodded their heads when they heard her say this the first couple of times. But after several days of it, Paul was annoyed by it. Luke tells us that Paul turned to the woman, invoked the name of Jesus Christ, and demanded that the spirit come out of her. And come out of her it did. This is what got Paul and Silas in trouble. You see, with the spirit coming out of her, a source of income for her masters disappeared. They were not going to take that sitting down, and so they contacted the leaders of Philippi and accused Paul and Silas of inciting a riot and advocating customs that were unlawful. That was the trumped up charge. The real charge was that Paul and Silas had taken money out of their pockets. After a severe beating, the leaders ordered Paul and Silas to be thrown into prison. Their feet are shackled and they are put in the most secure part of the jail. A sound beating followed by a night locked up might dampen the spirit of some preachers. I do not mind telling you that it would dampen my spirit! But it does not dampen the spirits of Paul and Silas. In fact, Luke tells us that the men prayed and sang hymns to God. Luke also tells us that the prisoners listened to the prayers and to the hymns.

About midnight, the earth shook, the doors of the jail flung open, and the shackles on the feet of the prisoners opened. Luke does not tell us that the earthquake was the work of God, but you get the idea that it was. After all, the cell door opened, the shackles fell off the feet of those inside, and yet the walls stayed intact! The quake, of course, woke the jailer up and he came running. When he saw what had happened, he drew his sword, not to try to capture escaped prisoners. He assumed that they had escaped. No, the jailer drew his sword to kill himself because he knew that he would be held responsible for the freedom of the prisoners. Most likely he would receive a death penalty for their escape and so he was quickening that process. But before he could do that, Paul called out to him and said, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” The jailer calls for lights and sees that for himself. Luke does not have him say this, but I am sure that he thought this: “What are you still doing here? Your chains were off. You could have run away. You were free to go!” But instead of putting the shackles back on their feet, he got out of a prison of his own when he asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

That, my friends, is an important question, don’t you think? I will be one of the first to admit that our church, the United Methodist Church is not comfortable with the word saved. Sometimes we ask: “Saved? Saved from what? Saved from who?” While some Christians use the word to describe the very minute that they received Jesus into their hearts, us Methodists talk about a journey of realizing who we are, and who God is. We talk about all of this in terms of being in a right relationship, a justified relationship with God. Part of me wishes that the jailer had asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be right with God?” But, you know, it really does not matter how you put his question. It is the same question, “What must I do to know the God who unshackles his servants and sets us free?” Some commentators have speculated about the jailer’s question. Some have said that his real question was this one: Sirs, I am in a mess here. What can I do to get out of this mess?” Maybe he thought that come morning, his boss would come in and see what had happened and blame him for everything.

I do not think that that is what is happening in his life. I think that the jailer has heard the testimony of singing and praying prisoners. I think that he has had an encounter with the Almighty and wants to know what to do with it! What to do with it is simple. Paul gives us the answer when he says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. Another translation has this, “Put your faith in Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

That is it. That is all that is required. In getting ready for our sermon, I ran across some statistics about who people believe in. These statistics told me that forty percent of the people polled believe in Peter Jennings, twenty-six trust the Pope six percent trust Billy Graham, and three percent trust God. Three percent? Three percent? I know that Peter Jennings is reliable. I realize that the Pope and Billy Graham are important. But only three percent for the Lord God Almighty?

I know that believing and trusting is easier on some days and harder on others. I know that it is easy to believe when the promises of God seem to be showering down. It is easier to believe when fear is gone and when our uneasiness goes away. I know that it is easier to believe when our health is good and when terrible things have not happened to us. I know all that and you know that, too. I want to remind you of that! I also know that it is harder to believe when life is hard and difficult and when we feel like we are all alone. I am amazed, aren’t you, when I meet people who are facing something very hard, who in the midst of it, find the faith to say, “Everything is going to be all right.”

What must I do the jailer asks. I think that you have to believe in the God who believes in you. What must I do to be saved? What must I do to get out of the prison that I am in? What must I do to be right with God? The answer is all the same, believe. Believe when your eyes cannot see and where your heart finds new ground. Believe in the God who loves you enough never to leave you or forsake you. Let me close with some of Paul’s other words. Later he will pen these, “By grace you have been saved through faith (through trusting) and this is God’s gift to you.” Let us pray.