REAL CHURCH: MISSION MOMENTUM- ACTS 16:11-15

REAL CHURCH: MISSION MOMENTUM- ACTS 16:11-15

today we're going to enter into a story in the book of Acts chapter 16, where we're going to encounter a lot of people who are quite like us. You're going to see yourselves in the story. You're going to see your neighbors and friends in the story. And hopefully in the midst of all of that you will see the Lord Jesus Christ, the savior of the world in this story. The story opens in this way, the apostle Paul has been trying to go to different places to preach the gospel. And somewhere along the way he received a vision of a man from Macedonia, from a different part of the world. And so he concluded that God was calling him to take the gospel to that part of the world. And so he travels over land and sea, hundreds of miles are covered, to go to this place called Philippi, which is in Macedonia. Philippi is a city. And he gets to the city and he's weary and he needs to rest. And it's the Sabbath day. And so he's resting on that day, but he's looking for a place to pray because there's a big city here.

GOD PREPARES THE SOIL 11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days.

To appreciate what we’re about to discover, we need to remember two pieces of information.

This is the fourth phase of the church’s mission. The Lord Jesus gave a mission statement to His followers in Acts 1:8 just before His ascension: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Jesus said He would give His disciples power, Holy Spirit power, for a specific task. They were to be His witnesses to the world. You will be, He said, my witnesses. He was going to use His disciples to tell the world about what He had done at the Cross.

But it would not be haphazard. The Lord had a specific plan in mind. The mission would involve a series of phases. You’ll start in Jerusalem, He said. And they did, in Acts 2. Then you will be my witnesses in all Judea, and phase two happened on schedule as recorded in Acts 2-7. Then, phase three, you will go to Samaria, which again happened right on schedule (Acts 8).

Just one phase remained, the biggest of them all. Phase four—you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. Beginning in Acts 10, the followers of Christ began to reach the Gentile world, an assignment that’s been ongoing now for nearly 2,000 years.

Beloved, that’s why we must be a missionary-minded church, too. Phase four isn’t finished yet. There are still unreached people groups on this planet. God has chosen to reach them, too. And to use us.

The team expanded in Troas. Notice the pronoun "we." Apparently, Paul recruited Luke there. They left Troas—again, that’s where Paul had the vision—and sailed northwest. The winds must have been favorable. The 156 mile trip from Troas to Neapolis took only two days, with a one night stop in Samothrace. The return trip for Paul on his third missionary journey would take him five days (Acts 20:6). There was literally "smooth sailing" this time, and the team must have sensed that God was up to something big.

Which He was. He always is. Granted, His plan may not go as we expect, but it’s always on schedule.

After landing, the missionaries took a ten mile trek from Neapolis and ended up in Philippi. It was the right place, as we’re about to see.

We should always expect WORK for the WILLING

God’s agenda is to fulfill Acts 1:8. To the ends of the earth, that’s where He’s going. He’s not an American God. He’s preparing people from every nation, language, and tribe for the gospel. If that’s true, then this must be true as well.

God’s agenda must be our agenda. My friend, there’s a big world out there, and God wants us to see it. Are you looking for the prepared situations God has in store for you? To see them you must look for them. You must be available.

I believe that’s why Paul didn’t stay long at Neapolis and went to Philippi. He was in tune with God’s agenda. He often went to strategic cities to do evangelism—like Philippi. He established a beachhead there. He reached the main cities, and then equipped the disciples to reach out to the surrounding area after he left.

GOD PROVIDES THE OPPORTUNITY 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

THE FIRST GOSPEL HEARERS IN EUROPE. Who were they? Poets, statesmen, philosophers, heroes, kings? No! “Women.”Why women and not men? Perhaps because the men came at another hour, or because the women had a special service for themselves. Did wives meet there to pray for their husbands, and sisters for their brothers, &c.? All we know is, that women are always more religiously disposed than men. Note—1. That the gospel is universally appreciable. Had the apostles felt that the truth required culture, logic, philosophic acumen, they would have gone first, not only to men, but to men of the higher type.

Over the last several weeks we have been encouraging the members of this congregation to pray and move to a life of deeper prayer. God is with us. God dwells among us, but we're asking God to come down and draw near in different ways as we want him to help us as we engage our community with the story of Jesus, as we go out looking for ways to help people all around us. We're praying God to take us deeper.

We're doing what we see our forefathers do. Paul began his gospel mission in Philippi by praying. And he went back to that place of prayer many times. Why did he pray? Well he prayed because gospel mission begins and ends with prayer. It's our way of saying to the Lord and to each other, "We don't have the resources. We don't have the strength. We don't have the skill or the stamina to do what you've called us to do. So we're asking you to come and help us in this gospel mission. To point us to the people around us who need you the most and whose hearts you have opened to receive the story of Jesus."

So we're asking God to show us the way and we're asking him to show us the way so that we can help show others the way to Jesus. So Paul is praying the way his forefathers did. Way back in the Old Testament Abraham, our forefather in the faith prayed for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that God would show mercy on them and not bring his judgment upon those cities.

We also see that Solomon prayed in his day that God would hear the prayer of the foreigner, that God would hear the prayer of the outsider who found his way to the house of the Lord. And then God would hear from heaven the prayer that those outsiders were praying that the God would receive them into his community and into his family.

We're here today because of the prayers of Jesus and because of the prayers of parents and friends and others who have come into our life and had showed some kind of concern for us. Think about what's happening in this story. The Apostle Paul has been praying and seeking, searching for the man from Macedonia, but he finds himself in the middle of the night in a jail cell. And we didn't read this in the passage of scripture before the sermon, but it's in the same chapter. You could go read the details later on but the gist of it is this. Paul is in a dark place. It's the middle of the night. He's singing Psalms. He's praying with his coworker Silas.

Lydia came to the river (14a). God saves all kinds of people. Lydia came from the upper end of the social scale. She was a businesswoman, a seller of purple. Barclay says that the purple dye had to be gathered drop by drop from a certain shell-fish and was very costly. Wealthy people and royalty wore purple clothing.

According to Luke, Lydia was actually not a local, but was from Thyatira, a city in Asia Minor, a city located in the province of Lydia. It’s possible that "Lydia" wasn’t her actual name so much as her business identity. She may have been known as "the Lydian lady."

Unbeknownst to her at the time, though Lydia came to Philippi for business reasons, God brought her for another purpose. He was about to change her eternal destiny.

It happened the day she came to the river. What happened?

Lydia came to the Lord (14b).

GOD OPENED HER HEART. THIS ISN’T THE FIRST TIME LUKE EMPHASIZED THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN SAVING A SINNER. IN ACTS 13:48 HE WROTE, "WHEN THE GENTILES HEARD THIS, THEY WERE GLAD AND HONORED THE WORD OF THE LORD; AND ALL WHO WERE APPOINTED FOR ETERNAL LIFE BELIEVED."

If the Lord opened Lydia’s heart, what does that indicate about the condition of her heart prior to that moment? It was closed, just like the heart of every person prior to God’s working in salvation. Romans 3:10 says, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God." No one seeks God until God opens the person’s heart.

This same word for "open" appears in the story of a deaf man in Mark 7:33-35, "After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!" ). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly."

Luke also used the Greek term in his gospel to describe what happened to the two disciples at Emmaus in Luke 24:31, "Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight."

The Greek term dianoigo means "to open by dividing or drawing asunder, to open thoroughly (what had been closed)." In some texts it’s used to refer to the opening of the eyes and the ears. It can also mean to open the mind of someone, that is, to cause the person to understand something.

In Lydia’s case, God opened her heart. In addition....

God enabled her to respond. The English Standard Version reads, "The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul." After God opened her heart, the message made sense to her and she accepted it.

Perhaps you’ve wondered, "Why don’t all people believe—like Lydia did—when they hear the gospel?" 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Only those whose heart and eyes God opens will believe.

I’m so thankful that God opens hearts. If He didn’t our ministry would be in vain. But because He does we can share the gospel with confidence. He will open the hearts of His people.

WHAT ARE THE HINDRANCES TO A CORDIAL RECEPTION OF THE TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL? l. Pride in the human heart is a great obstacle. This evil disposition works not only in the vilest of mankind, but in those who are in their outward conduct blameless, in the moral and decent. 2. Prejudice is another powerful obstacle. Would you not have thought that the Jews of old would have believed in the Saviour, and have been instructed by Him in the way to heaven, seeing He performed so many miracles as proofs of His mission before their eyes? But they did not receive His words. And why did they not? They expected a triumphant Messiah. 3. The love of sin is another very great obstacle in the way of cordially receiving the truths of the gospel. 4. Lastly, the love of the world is another great obstacle. We do not say that Lydia was a lover of sin and of the world; because it is said “she worshipped God”; but there can be no doubt that her heart was full of Jewish prejudices against the religion of Christ; and in that state she would have continued had not her heart been opened so that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul.

We should always expect a HARVEST for the HUNGRY

I want you to think about something. To us, it may have seemed like a very insignificant beginning—just a handful of women in a man’s world. But that’s where Paul and his team went.

It’s ironic that in his Macedonian vision at Troas Paul saw a man, but when he arrived God prepared an audience of women. note that Paul opened his European ministry by attending a ladies’ prayer meeting!

There are a couple of lessons here for us.

WE MUST LOOK FOR PREPARED PEOPLE. THEY’RE OUT THERE, AND WE’LL SEE THEM IF WE’LL LOOK. GOD IS PREPARING PEOPLE FOR US TO REACH.

WE MUST LOOK FOR WAYS TO PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL. TO REACH PHILIPPI PAUL PREACHED ON THE BANKS OF A RIVER AND LATER IN JAIL. WE MUST SHARE CHRIST WITH THE PREPARED PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY, TOO, IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS, IN THE REST HOMES, IN THE JAILS, AND IN THE SCHOOLS. LOOK EVERYWHERE! THERE ARE RIPE OPPORTUNITIES ALL AROUND US.

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT GOD CAN USE YOU TO REACH LOST PEOPLE? HE CAN! YET QUITE FRANKLY, A LOT OF CHURCH-GOERS AREN’T CONVINCED.

GOD PRODUCES THE TRANSFORMATION 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

Lydia gave evidence of her conversion (15). When God saves a sinner, there is always evidence of it, visible evidence. In Lydia’s case we see three external indications of the internal change.

She was baptized. There’s no such thing in the book of Acts as an unbaptized believer. When a person professed faith in Jesus, he or she made it public through baptism. If you claim to be a Christian but have never been baptized, I urge you to take this step of obedience.

It’s interesting that Lydia wasn’t alone in this decision. The members of her household were also baptized. "The word ‘household’ implies that the members of the family (and the slaves) who understood the Word, believed and were saved, and then were baptized. There is no evidence that infants were baptized, here or anywhere else in the Book of Acts."

She made fellowship a priority. Luke says, "She invited us to her home." When we become followers of Christ, we become part of His Body, the church. A true Christian values fellowship with other Christians. Lydia did. She invited the missionaries to her house, no doubt so she could learn more from them about Christ.

What about the person who says, "I don’t need the church. I’ve got the Lord."? Lydia knew instinctively they go hand in hand. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house." The desire for fellowship is evidence that a person is a genuine believer.

She began to use what she had for the Lord. She opened up her home. She began to use her food, her beds, her dining room table and chairs for the Lord’s work. She must have been a woman of considerable means to open up her home to four men (Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy).

This is key. When a person becomes a Christian, he must stop looking at what he has as his own. It’s the Lord’s, and he uses it for the Lord.

That’s why Romans 12:13 exhorts, "Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality." Hospitality is supposed to be the norm, not the exception. When Christ enters a person’s life He changes the person’s attitudes towards his possessions. It’s no longer, "What’s mine is mine, and I have a right to keep it." Rather it’s, "What was mine is now God’s, and I have a responsibility to use it for Him and His work."

Peter said the same thing in 1 Peter 4:9, "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling." It’s supposed to be an open-door policy for the Christian.

Is that how you view your house? Is it a place of ministry or a fortress where you hide out?

Luke says Lydia "persuaded us" to stay. It’s the same word used to describe how the disciples on the road to Emmaus pleaded with Jesus to stay with them. Lydia would have it no other way. She was so grateful to the Lord for His gift of grace that she insisted she use what she had to help His workers. She joined the team.

We should always expect fruit from the faithful

AND HERE AGAIN WE SEE THE OBVIOUS DIVINE WORK OF GOD ON THIS MISSION. YET, WE ALSO SEE THE HUMAN ELEMENT OF PAUL.

• WHAT IF PAUL SAW THERE WAS NO SYNAGOGUE AND MOVED ON TO THE NEXT CITY?

• WHAT IF PAUL HAD FAILED TO SEARCH FOR A PLACE OF PRAYER?

• WHAT IF PAUL HAD DECIDED PREACHING TO WOMEN WASN’T WORTH IT?

• WHAT IF PAUL HAD DECIDED NOT TO DELIVER THE GOSPEL?