Unbothered Faithfulness
Notes
Transcript
Good morning everyone!
So, you’re probably very familiar with the video that just played, but it was recordings and footage from the first ever humans to walk the moon…
The Apollo 11 mission in 1969 was a pivotal time, not only in the US, but around the world, as people witnessed three men travel all the way to the moon, a total round trip of 500,000 miles.
And this mission, it was more than just cool or neat. It represented new horizons, literally, a perspective of the earth we had never seen before.
They would have seen photos like this one:
This was a photo taken by the recent fly by of Artemis II.
In 1969, no one had ever seen this, rather than watching the moon rise on the earth’s horizon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin got to watch the earth rise on the moon’s horizon.
Surreal.
This was thought to be impossible: men walking on the moon.
It stepped the US ahead of the Soviet Union, it was a huge symbolic win over communism.
It pushed our technology forward, computing had to level up, manufacturing and precision machining had to meet the standards of space travel.
Engineering and communications would never be the same.
It inspired a whole generation, as they listened and watch and read about “one small step for man, one giant step for mankind”.
All of this, because three brave men dared to venture into the darkness of outer space, not really knowing what was ahead of them.
They were willing to put their lives on the line to step out, and to plant a flag on unclaimed, unmanned territory.
And I believe this is the mission of the church.
See, it’s our job, as followers of Jesus Christ, to venture out.
To go out with the mission to claim territory. To go into uncharted waters. To be visionaries, to be the first of our kind, or to put Biblical language to it, to reclaim the nations.
To into the world. To go to all places, especially those that are spiritually barren, uncharted, untouched, and maybe a little barren and scary.
And I think this is what Paul and his students did in Acts 16.
They were on a missionary journey, not going to places they were comfortable and met with friends…
But seeking places that weren’t filled with Christ followers, or devout Jews, or even people that were kind.
And this is what Paul faced in Philippi, and I’m really excited this morning to take a bit of a deeper dive into exactly how Paul wound up in this Greco-Roman city that we’ve been studying for that last few months.
So, this story is outlined in three main parts - all revolving around key households being converted.
And the first person they run into is a woman named Lydia
Lydia
Lydia
Now, let’s remember how Paul and his companions got to the town of Philippi in the first place.
Remember, Paul started in Antioch, eventually made his way to Derbe and Lystra where he picked up a fella named Timothy who would be Paul’s protege, they got to the region of Phrygia and Galatia where the natural route was to turn eastward into Asia, aka, modern day Turkey.
But, the it says the Spirit of Jesus blocked them. How? We don’t know.
But, Paul was confirmed with a vision in which a Macedonian man pleases with him to come over an help him.
And so, the story goes on with the gang heading over across the sea to a region called Macedonia, where they landed in the city of Philippi, and the rest is history.
But clearly, Paul wasn’t aimed for Philippi or Europe. He didn’t have the heart to go there, he had his sights firmly set on Asia.
And there must have been some level of anxiety and questioning, but either way, Paul let the troupe, rolled with the punches, and landed in a city where there was to synagogue, no Jewish population, not many like him at all.
So, landing in a city that was unfamiliar, Paul on the sabbath day, the where no work was done, only rest, he and his fellow Jewish compadres were trying to find a place of prayer.
Again, normally this would be the synagogue. Where everyone else was also praying, maybe they could rub shoulders with the local Jews, but no, they never find it.
13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate by the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women gathered there.
So, again, their expectations were dashed.
And instead of a quiet place of prayer, they found a group of women.
And one of these women, whether washing clothes or gathering water or maybe even gathering for religious purposes, they started to listen to Paul.
And the woman that is singled out by name in Acts, is Lydia.
14 A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying.
Now, we don’t know a lot about Lydia, but this verse is compelling.
First, Lydia was a God-fearing woman. Now, this may have meant she was a Jewish convert, a Gentile woman who was attracted to the God of the Hebrews, and began practicing the ways of the Torah.
But, we don’t know the extent of what Lydia knew, or practiced. Assuming this group down by the river was a group of Jewish women meeting for prayer on the Sabbath, there was no way they could get a religious foothold because of their gender.
And this may have played to their advantage, because they seemed very open to Christianity.
The second thing we know about Lydia: she was a dealer of purple cloth.
That means she ran a business, and was likely wealthy. Girl boss.
And this region she was from, Thyatira, it was a region known for purple dye and cloth.
And this wasn’t a simple process, this dye. It was expensive, there’s a reason it was reserved for royalty.
See, purple dye was made by a specific type of sea snail found in the Mediterranean.
And these poor snail were crushed, their mucus glands extracted, and the substance would sit in vats for a very long time to essentially ferment which would change to a purple color.
It would take anywhere from 12k-250k if these snails to make a single garment.
This process was very difficult, it stunk so it had to be outside the city, but the result was a prized piece of clothing.
So Lydia clearly could not do all that by herself, she must have had employees, customers, connections, she likely had a big operation.
And this person of influence, shes listening. Listening, overhearing Paul and Timothy and Silas talk about Jesus, and this thing called the gospel.
The good news.
And Luke, the author of Acts that were reading today, he makes sure none of the group of men can take credit for being convincing, or eloquent, or smart enough to convince Lydia.
No, he makes sure to add the line: The Lord opened her heart to respond.
Isn’t that amazing?
The Lord opened her heart.
Then it says this:
15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Her and her household, all baptized, all converted, all became believers that day.
And for Lydia, this may have had ramifications. If her clients found out she was worshipping this Christian God instead of their Greek or Roman gods, they may have withdrawn their businesses.
Her motives would have certainly changed from wanting to make as much money as possible to living a life for Christ…
Her life looked different now. She must have really had a heart change, because Lydia had everything to lose as a single woman in the first century.
She had a profound impact on her likely multigenerational home, on her employees…she was the first convert in Europe, and likely was instrumental in setting up the church of Philippi.
All because Paul was blocked from going east, and went west.
All because they were willing to follow the will of God into this foreign land.
I mean, all they were doing was walking down by the river to find a place to pray, but God used it for something amazing.
They used, and the Lord used, their situation for profound goodness.
And this success, as is normal, is met with spiritual warefare. Which brings us to our next character in the story:
The Slave Girl
The Slave Girl
Now, this is a really sad story, and this poor girl must have had a terrible life, not matter how you look at it.
So again, Paul and Silas are on their way to pray somewhere, again searching out a place to go,
And they’re met by this slave girl who can predict the future.
And this girl, she must have been pretty good at oracles, because her owners made their living off this.
People would come to this girl, get their future read, and pay the owners.
And of course, this was a very common pagan practice,
But I want to point out something that may be obvious, yet needs clarity -
This wasn’t a fortune teller at the local fair with their crystal ball, or voodoo mama juju in the tarot shop flipping cards.
This was a woman possessed by a demonic spirit.
And this sermon isn’t about demonology or the spiritual realm per se, but just know this -
From Scripture, we see evil spirits. We see demons. We see Satan’s power here on earth.
There is a spiritual realm, or world, something we don’t seem to have access to completley, but we seem to have an intersection occasionally.
And it seems to be because there’s a whole group of spiritual beings that hate God, and would love nothing more than for God’s creation, His image bearers, us, to hate Him too.
Some people suggest that these are merely cases of undiagnosed autism or schizophrenia, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,
These are real beings that torment and destroy.
1 Peter 5:8 gives this warning:
8 Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
So, this possesed slave girl seeks out Paul and Silas.
Notice, Paul isn’t trying to get his fortune read. They have no money.
There’s no reason for this evil spirit to be pursuing them.
But this girl won’t leave them alone for some reason.
17 As she followed Paul and us she cried out, “These men, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation, are the servants of the Most High God.” 18 She did this for many days. Paul was greatly annoyed. Turning to the spirit, he said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out right away.
Wow, persistent. Many days.
And the crazy thing is, she wasn’t wrong. She seemed to be proclaiming truth.
She was recognizing, or the evil spirit rather, that there was a one true God, God most hight, and He was a way to salvation.
Interesting.
And Paul, getting annoyed, which I can’t blame him after several days of this nonsense, casts the demon out.
See, most of the time, exorcisms of spirits were attempted by calling on the name of a more power spirit, at least in the Greek and Pagan religions.
But Paul directly calls on the name of Jesus.
And this evil spiritual attention to Paul and Silas, I think it tells us a couple of things:
One is that even evil and satan recognize there is a one true, most high God.
They know there’s a God that is more powerful than they are.
They know they’ve met their match, in fact, even saying the name Jesus makes them quiver in fear.
This spirit has zero control or power in the face of Jesus.
And two, I think this tells us that ground taken for the Kingdom will always get the attention of evil.
Notice, right after Lydia is converted, right after Paul starts gaining ground in Philippi,
He gets followed by an evil spirit. Making a scene, making a mockery of his savior and God.
Good will always get the attention of evil, like a moth drawn to a light, evil will always try to thwart good.
And even though this particular evil spirit is cast out, there is clearly evil in this city still, because this brings us to the last part of this story,
The town revolts.
The Town Revolts
The Town Revolts
My goodness, you would think seeing a successful exorcism would be an amazing thing,
But no! This slave girl’s owners are upset that their way to making money by exploiting this poor girl is gone.
And let me tell you, they are not happy with Paul and Silas.
19 When her owners realized that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. 20 Bringing them before the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are seriously disturbing our city. They are Jews 21 and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice.”
So, naturally in a very civilized way, the crowd attacked them, stripped them naked, severely flogged them, and threw them in jail with their feet in stocks.
Again, good men, good deeds, met with pure jealously, pride and evil.
There’s a reason Paul writes later that:
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
This entire crowd gathered behind these owners that lost money.
They lusted after money, so much that they enslaved a girl and sold her out.
They were totally blinded by the love of money that a fellow human became a product.
And now, Paul and Silas are paying for it. Physically.
This level of riot, it can only be from the agent of chaos, satan.
That evil spirit, it sounds like there was a whole master plan, satan and the demons knew casting that spirit out would cause a riot.
And when chaos reigns, humanity falls into evil.
14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. 15 Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice.
And after all this, after being guided by God to this place, being unfairly beaten, striped naked, mocked, ridiculed,
I would have been pretty upset, pretty mad at God, questioning my calling, questioning God’s will and direction for my life,
I mean heck, I get mad when Taco Bell doesn’t include my extra nacho cheese in the drive thru…
But we see Paul and Silas with a completley different attitude in this.
This might be my favorite verse in the Bible:
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
In jail, other prisoners listening, the prison guard, who by the way would be the cap on the Philippian story by being converted and baptized, him and his household,
They started singing. Worshipping. They weren’t bogged down, they were happy to be treated like Jesus was.
And that verse right there, it made me realize what the common factor in all this is.
The common factors that unite these stories, and actually many other Biblical stories,
It’s prayer and worship.
Prayer and Worship
Prayer and Worship
Think about it: I’m sure the group was praying for direction in their missionary journey, which landed them in Philippi.
I mean, Paul himself writes at the beginning of Philippians that he is “always praying with joy for all of the Philippians”.
Paul was a praying man.
Paul was looking for a place to pray when he found Lydia.
Paul and Silas were looking for a place to pray when they found the slave girl.
Paul and Silas were praising God and worshipping him in jail, shackles on their feet, as a witness to all the other prisoners.
It’s almost like this was their mission. This was they point to follow on the horizon.
Because it sure doesn’t seem like, throughout the whole book of Acts, that these guys had any control or knowledge of where they’d be next.
Just the amount of times Paul was shipwrecked alone should tell you, Paul didn’t have a master plan that he executed with precision.
It’s almost like prayer and worship, the entire time, was his constant, and everything unraveled from that.
There’s this term that I had never experienced before, if you’re a history buff, you might know it.
The term is “bridgehead”.
Now, A bridgehead is a strategic military position on the enemy side of a river or obstacle, secured to allow troops and supplies to cross safely.
Basically, an army breaks into enemy territory, sets up a small base, and waits on reinforcements.
It’s a small, yet strategically important operations that allows troops to slowly come in, making it for formidable over time.
A great example is D-Day in WWII. It was key because holding Normandy created a western front against Germany, which allowed an eventual stronghold to win the war. It was strategically worth the massive causalities the allies took.
This can also be used as a business term, where a company opens one store in a new country to test it, and eventually grows from there.
Well, Paul’s bridgehead into Europe was Philippi.
And his means of success was not smoke shows, attracting numbers, gaining money and followers,
It was prayer and worship.
Just like the Apollo 11 crew, Paul went into Philippi, with just a few men, and established a pattern of prayer and worship.
He didn’t want anything in return, he was simply following God’s will.
Which is prayer and worship.
This is the basis of why the church exists today.
And it makes me think, as I’m discerning the will of God in my life,
As I wonder where God is taking my family,
As I strategize even about this very church plant were in,
How much time to I put investing into prayer and worship?
How much do we value here, as a church, put onto prayer and worship?
Because we are called to be visionaries. To lead the charge.
We are supposed to go where no one had gone before, the world is our mission field, we are to go out into the unknown to borrow a line from Frozen.
But so often we get bogged down by an idealistic life that we don’t want to give up, even though we don’t even have it now,
We get distracted by things not going our way, by people being rude and mean, and not being Christian back to us,,
We pout when we’re treated unfairly.
And in doing so, we forget to stop and sing praises and hymns.
We forget to pray completley.
We forget that our demeanor and our posture toward God is so noticed by other people, for better or for worse.
We forget that God is even there half the time.
Paul puts it so simply, but so beautifully…
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray constantly, 18 give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
God’s will in your life is this - you don’t need to hunt for it, it’s right there.
This is our bridgehead. When we establish our small, tiny little base here in Clinton, IN,
This is how we do it. And if we do this, if we pray and worship, God will work, and He will reveal what He needs.
And in doing this, people will come. They will join, they will see Christ in us, it is more powerful than any evangelistic crusade, any sign on the highway, anything I preach up here….
It is one small step for us, and one giant step for the Kingdom of God.
We are establishing the Kingdom right here, this is our calling. To step out, no matter the cost, and make strides for God.
Two things as we wrap up this morning, with all the military talk and establishing bases, and all that, I think for one, we need to know our enemy.
Know Your Enemy
Know Your Enemy
Ephesians 6 says it best:
10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
Our enemies are not the people we see, not matter how mean they are, how opposed to us they are,
They are not the enemy. They are created in the image of God, and are like us, just without Christ.
Remember, our war is against the evils of Satan.
No human could ever muster up the evilness of created a giant riot of chaos.
There is clearly evil powers behind every evil action a human takes.
Now, that’s not to say we don’t allow that and succumb to it, we can’t just blame sin on the devil and go about our day.
But remember, we love people. We do. Always.
And we hate evil.
We are establishing strongholds, not against our fellow humans, but against Satan Himself, and Jesus built His church on the rock of Himself, and the gates of Hades cannot overpower it.
So stand firmly against evil and love people. Pray for them, and worship God.
Second, is we need to meet people where they are.
Meet People Where They Are
Meet People Where They Are
We are meant to be mobile people.
Even if Paul and Silas and Luke and timothy, even though they kind of got to Philippi by accident,
They were mobile.
They didn’t stand in the synagogue screaming at people to come in,
They met them at the river. In their homes. In jail. In the streets.
We have to go to the people. We have to live our lives so it intersects with others.
We have to pray and worship in public. It’s not contained to this building, it should be out in our community, for everyone to see.
Our lives have to reflect the goodness of God.
So, my challenge to us, as a church for this season, is to intentionally pray and worship. Make that our goal. Make that the goal in your life.
Pray and worship.
To close our our service today, we’re going to have an extended time to prayer right now, and then go into worship.
