Acts 16:30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

This question was posed by the jailer to Paul and Silas who had been thrown in his jail by the magistrates who had ordered them first to be stripped and flogged. What was their crime? They had come into town preaching the gospel and encountered a slave girl who was considered a “fortune-teller” and was thus making money for her owners. She identified Paul and Silas as “servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”

You would think Paul and his companions would have appreciated the ‘advertisement’ but she kept doing it day after day to Paul’s irritation because he had concluded that she was possessed. Finally he addressed the spirit in her: “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” (See verse 18) The spirit left her and that got her owners mad because they lost their source of income. Their complaint to the magistrates: “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” (See Acts 16:20-21).

What the townspeople or the authorities did not count on was a visitation from God at midnight. Hallelujah! Paul and Silas, despite their wounds and lack of freedom, were singing and praying. Then there was an earthquake which could have allowed all the prisoners to escape. The jailer was scared to the point of taking his own life. But Paul shouted “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”  The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, and your household.” (See Acts 16:28-30). That is still the simple uncomplicated answer! In contrast, one will be lost by doing nothing or being indifferent to the gospel of Jesus Christ.