In today’s passages, we read how Paul began his second missionary journey, bringing Silas with him to share the good news from Philippi down to Corinth. In our last session, we saw that the salvation of the Gentiles was due to their faith alone. Today, we’re reading a step further as these two apostles began sharing Christ’s message of freedom with Gentiles from varying walks of life.
What can today’s reading teach us about the salvation found in Jesus?
One notion we keep seeing throughout these passages of Scripture is the freedom found in Jesus. Jesus sets us free from the condemnation of our sin and the reality of eternity spent separated from God.
Jesus’ gift of saving faith and freedom does not come from following rules nor from meeting the criteria of the world; rather, it’s the simple act of believing in Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, that we would be made right before God the Father. We see from the story of Lydia, a woman of influence whose heart was opened by Paul’s words of salvation. She was a woman who had the riches of the world, yet knew she needed salvation that could only be found in Jesus. Another key figure in this passage is the jailer, a hardworking man on the verge of taking his own life. He recognized the power and freedom of God on display inside the jail, which ignited the desire to be saved.
The missionary journeys of Paul and Silas were birthed out of their own experience of freedom found in Christ. They had been called by God, empowered by His Spirit, and sent forth to share the good news of freedom from sin found in Christ Jesus. This freedom was so profound that they risked their lives so others could hear and believe. May you believe in the power of the same God who has equipped you with the same simple message of salvation. Lead boys and girls through your faith in the risen Savior who desires that all would believe, just as the men and women in today’s story did.
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