What Must I Know to Be Saved? I. Introduction A. The Bible is a great and wonderful resource, profound in its message, sublime in its depth B. The story of the Bible can be understood by simple and/or uneducated people; people can explore its depths for years and still find new insights and wisdom C. Nevertheless, especially for those who are new to the Bible and its story, it can be very daunting and confusing! 1. There are a lot of names and places that are not familiar to modern Americans 2. It is longer than the books most people read anymore 3. Many are afraid that they are not good enough, holy enough, or skilled enough to read and or come to an understanding of what God has revealed in Scripture! D. As we explore the Bible it is good to remember that God has communicated with mankind so that people can understand His purposes for them and how they can be saved! 1. Many of the Apostles, Jesus’ early followers, were uneducated Galileans, reckoned from the “backwoods,” and yet they were the ones Jesus chose and through whom the Gospel was preached (Acts 2:7-8, 4:13) 2. Christians preached God’s message in the language of the people, primarily in the common Greek spoken throughout the Roman Empire (Acts 2:9-11); they preached to the educated and uneducated, the mighty and the slave, and most of those who accepted the message were among the lowly in society (1 Corinthians 1:18-30) E. Even then we do well to consider: what does a person need to know in order to be saved? II. New Testament Examples A. Our question is important to God; He has not left us without guidance! B. In the Acts of the Apostles many examples of conversions are recorded 1. The Gospel of the Kingdom has been preached since the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-48) 2. We believe that the Gospel remains the same until this day, preached both to Jewish people as well as Gentiles (cf. Galatians 2:6-9) 3. Therefore, we can have complete confidence in the examples of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:15-17): if we follow the pattern of how people learned about the Gospel in Acts and do the things they did, we will share in the same blessings (or, if we follow in a pattern of disobedience, to suffer the same penalty!) 4. Likewise, if we can ascertain what people in the book of Acts knew before they obeyed the Gospel, we can have confidence that people today can obey the Gospel if they share in the same knowledge! C. Jewish People in Jerusalem (Acts 2:14-41) 1. The first people to hear the Gospel and could obey it were the Jewish people who were present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13) 2. Peter preaches to them about Jesus’ resurrection, declaring that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had crucified, God had made both Lord and Christ (Messiah, or King; Acts 2:14-36) 3. They were cut to the heart, wanted to know what to do; they were told to repent and be baptized, and 3000 did so (Acts 2:37-41) 4. So what did they know before they obeyed the Gospel? a. As Jewish people raised going to synagogue they would have known the Old Testament, its stories, and the hope of the Messiah b. They had known of Jesus of Nazareth and the signs and wonders that God did through Him (Acts 2:22) c. They knew Jesus had been killed; in fact, many of them had been responsible for His crucifixion (Acts 2:23, 36) d. Through his preaching Peter makes known that God raised Jesus from the dead, that Jesus ascended to heaven and received authority, and God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, and would give the gift of the Holy Spirit to all who submitted to the Lord (Acts 2:14-36, 38) e. They also were told to repent (metanoeo, change their hearts and minds) and be immersed in water in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38) 5. Does everyone have to know all of that in order to obey the Gospel? D. The Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40) 1. Later on in the book of Acts the Gospel is preached to an official (or eunuch) of the Kandake of Ethiopia, her treasurer (Acts 8:26-27) 2. He was reading from the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 53; Philip, the preacher, asked if he understood what he was reading; the eunuch asked how he could unless he received guidance (Acts 8:28-31) 3. The eunuch wants to know of whom the prophet speaks in Isaiah 53:7-8; from that passage Philip begins to preach Jesus to him (Acts 8:32-35) 4. While they traveled the eunuch saw water and asked to be baptized, and it was done (Acts 8:36-40) 5. What did the eunuch know before he obeyed the Gospel? a. As a Jewish man by birth or as a proselyte he also would have known the story of God and His people; he is a good Bible student based on his question in Acts 8:34 b. Yet before he met Philip he indicated no awareness of who Jesus of Nazareth was c. During the time of the chariot ride the eunuch learned enough about Jesus so as to understand Jesus was the Son of God and that he needed to be baptized (Acts 8:35-36) E. The Philippian Jailer and the Athenians (Acts 16:22-34, 17:16-34) 1. Later on Paul will preach the Gospel to Gentiles, including a Philippian jailer and some people in Athens 2. Paul and his companion Silas are beaten and jailed by the authorities in Philippi (Acts 16:19-24) 3. They pray and sing and the prisoners listen to them; a great earthquake opens their shackles and the doors; the jailor prepares to kill himself, but Paul tells him not to, for all are still present (Acts 16:25-28) 4. The jailor comes in trembling, falls down, and wants to know how to be rescued; Paul tells him he must believe in the Lord Jesus and he will be saved (Acts 16:29-31) 5. Paul preaches the word to him and his household and they are baptized (Acts 16:32-33) 6. Soon after, in Athens, Paul begins talking with philosophers in the marketplace about Jesus and the resurrection (Acts 17:16-18) 7. Out of curiosity they want to hear more; Paul begins preaching about God based on their altar to the unknown god, affirms God as Creator, that we exist in Him and we are His offspring, that He cannot be truly represented by the work of our hands (Acts 17:19-29) 8. Paul then declares that the time of ignorance has passed; God calls all to repent, giving assurance of the day of judgment through the resurrection of Jesus; some believe (Acts 17:30-34) 9. What did the Philippian jailor and the Athenian believers know before they obeyed the Gospel? a. They had no previous knowledge or experience with YHWH the Creator God of heaven b. The Philippian jailor saw that divine power surrounded Paul and Silas, and despite knowing little to nothing about the God they served, wanted to know how to be rescued; he learned about Jesus, put his trust in Jesus as Lord, and was baptized (Acts 16:29-33) c. The Athenians learned that God was one, our Creator, and could not be represented by an image; He sent His representative Jesus who was raised from the dead; all men must repent, for judgment is coming (Acts 17:19-31) F. While other examples can be found in the book of Acts these three are representative and give us a sufficient idea of what is to be known in order to be saved III. Jesus and Faith A. From the examples in Acts two things stand out: people who obeyed the Gospel had to know who Jesus was, and they had to know what to do in order to follow Him B. Jesus of Nazareth 1. The Gospel, in the end, is the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of God (Mark 1:1) 2. Those who obeyed the Gospel knew that Jesus was the Son of God: He came from God, was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power by God and did good for Israel (Acts 2:22, 10:38) 3. They knew He died on the cross, according to the Scriptures, not for any evil He had done, but in order to forgive us of our sins (Acts 2:23, 13:38-39, 1 Corinthians 15:3) a. By necessity such means we must recognize that we have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23) b. It is helpful to recognize that Jesus did what we could not, for we cannot atone for our own sins, but deserve condemnation (Romans 6:23, James 2:9-10) c. There is no salvation in any other name (Acts 4:12) 4. The powerful and compelling element of the preaching of the Gospel, and what would have convicted all who heard and obeyed, was that even though Jesus died and was buried God raised Him from the dead as had been prophesied in Scripture (Acts 2:24-31, 10:40-41, 17:30-31, 1 Corinthians 15:4-8) 5. They would have also known that after His resurrection Jesus ascended to the Father who gave Him all authority in heaven and on earth; they also were told that Jesus would return again to judge the living and the dead (Acts 2:33-35, 10:42, 17:30-31) 6. The Jewish believers would understand the idea that Jesus was the Christ, the promised King of Israel, and that by ascending to heaven as the one like a Son of Man God would have made Him ruler of an eternal kingdom and an everlasting dominion (Acts 2:36; Daniel 7:13-14) 7. All believers, Jewish and Gentile, would recognize that if Jesus is truly Lord, He is the One who has all authority and that everyone should be subject to Him in all things (Colossians 1:15-20, 3:17) C. Faith and Obedience 1. Those who obeyed the Gospel were told to do so on the basis of their faith, or trust, that Jesus is Lord and Christ (Acts 16:31, etc.) 2. That trust is rooted in accepting as true the declarations about Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, lordship, and return as previously enumerated 3. Yet trust cannot be merely a thing of the mind; it must be manifest in one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions (James 2:14-26) 4. Thus those who trusted that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, would confess, or speak aloud that statement of belief before others (Acts 8:37, 1 Timothy 6:12-14) 5. They were commanded to repent, or change their hearts and minds, to no longer follow the ways of sin and death but to follow the ways of Jesus (Acts 2:38, 10:30) 6. They were also commanded to be immersed in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 2:38, 8:36, 10:47-48, 16:33) 7. From then on they would be expected to follow the ways of Jesus, growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, pressing on to maturity (Hebrews 5:14, 2 Peter 3:18) IV. What Must I Know to Be Saved? A. We have seen from the revelation of God to man what a person needs to know in order to be saved B. A person must hear and accept the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth: Jesus lived as the Son of God, died for our sins, was raised in power on the third day, ascended to the Father, receiving all authority and a kingdom as the Son of Man, and will return to judge the living and the dead C. A person must then put their trust in Jesus as Lord 1. This trust is manifest in confession, repentance, and baptism 2. To have this trust is to make our own what Peter recognized in John 6:68-69: Jesus has the words of eternal life and is the Holy One of God, so to whom would we otherwise turn? D. Will we understand everything perfectly? No. Will we grow in our understanding and appreciation for these things as we mature in Christ? We absolutely should. E. Do we have to know where these things are in the Bible or even be familiar with the Bible? Not at all; as we have seen, the Philippian jailor and the Athenians had no contact with the Bible before Paul, and whereas they heard a Biblical message from Paul, still did not know much about the Bible when they converted F. But we must recognize these things are true and preserved for us in Scripture (2 Timothy 3:14-17, 2 Peter 1:20) G. We must learn to trust in the Lord Jesus, proving willing to submit our own will to His in matters both easy and difficult, and seek the resurrection of life (Philippians 3:7-15) H. Today you have learned what you need to know in order to be saved; will you put your trust in the Lord Jesus and obey His Gospel today? I. Invitation Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: And brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved”? (Acts 16:30) The Philippian jailor asked the question of greatest importance to Paul and Silas: what must I do to be saved? We do well to turn to God’s message to mankind in Scripture and see what people knew and did in order to be saved. We can trust that if we know and do what they knew and did, we will share in the same blessing. May we find salvation through the Lord Jesus! 2: And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house” (Acts 16:31). Paul tells the Philippian jailor what he must do in order to be saved: he must believe on the Lord Jesus. He must first know something about Jesus and how He is Lord. He must also put his trust and confidence in Jesus. May we do the same! 3: And they spake the word of the Lord unto him, with all that were in his house (Acts 16:32). If the Philippian jailor will be saved, he must know about Jesus. Paul and Silas preach the word of the Lord to him. The jailor would have learned about Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and return. May we know the word of the Lord and be saved! 4: And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, immediately (Acts 16:33). Did the Philippian jailor believe? Most certainly. We know this because he was baptized! He put his trust in Jesus as Lord and then would have confessed Him as the Son of God and repented of his past ways. He then was baptized for the forgiveness of his sins. In this way the Philippian jailor was saved. May we do the same and be saved!