1. Please pray with me.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing
in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. On
this weekend of the Sixth Sunday of Easter we celebrate again the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. He, the living God and only-begotten Son of the
Father, instructs us concerning his victory over death, sin, and the devil and
that he has all authority in heaven and on earth. In our Bible readings for
today we see that the Lord will enlighten all nations who bring their honor to
worship him as Lord of lords. The
message from God’s Word for the 6th Sunday of Easter comes to us
today from Acts 16:9-15 and is entitled, “Come
Over & Help Us,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Air Force launched a
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and forced the United States into World War II.
President Franklin Roosevelt described it as “a day which will live in infamy,” and the motto “Remember Pearl Harbor!” became a
rallying cry for the rest of World War II.
In Great Britain, Prime Minister Winston Churchill received the news of
Pearl Harbor differently. Churchill understood that this fatal mistake by the
Japanese in underestimating the United States would now force full-scale U.S.
involvement in the war. Upon grasping this consequence, Churchill reportedly
said, “Now we will win.” Throughout the course of history we find such
decisions which move things in a different direction. Here in Acts 16 God’s
plan to take the gospel into Europe rather than into Asia changed the face of
evangelism and the march of the church for hundreds of years. When we think of Martin
Luther and Philip Melanchthon we remember Europeans influenced by the decision
Paul made to follow God’s leading against his own personal preferences. God still changes history today. Not many
years ago, we thought the Berlin Wall wouldn’t fall and expected the Cold War
to go on forever. Who could have predicted in 1985 a united Germany and even
Christian missionary activity all across eastern Europe? God’s timing differs from what we would have
planned. Like Paul, we must trust the leading of the Holy Spirit day by day.
3.
Here
in Acts 16 we see that after experiencing the vision of “a man of Macedonia”
calling him to bring help to Europe, Paul and his companions reflected on their
journey. God was leading them to Europe.
Luke the Evangelist writes in Acts 16:11-12, “From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and
the next day on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony
and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several
days. Philippi was an ancient town,
having been renamed in 356 b.c. by
Philip II of Macedon after himself. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, it
became a Roman possession in 167 b.c.
But its greatest fame came from the fact that it happened to be the place where
the armies of Mark Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius in the
decisive battle of the second Roman civil war in 42 b.c. It was from this event that Philippi derived its
character in Paul’s day because for its part in the battle it was awarded the
status of a Roman colony that answered directly to the Roman emperor. Roman
soldiers were encouraged to retire there, and its citizens were exempt from
provincial taxes.
4.
Rome
didn’t know it, but the flag of Christianity was raised up in the Empire that
day, and the reigning Christ was about to win many to himself. G. Campbell
Morgan wrote: “How little the world knows of the Divine movements. Rome had small idea
that day, that the van of the army of its ultimate Conqueror had taken
possession of one of its frontal defences. On the day when Paul hurried from
Neapolis, over the eight miles up to Philippi—and came into the city and made
arrangements for his own lodging… the flag was planted in a frontier colony of
Rome, which eventually was to make necessary the lowering of her flag, and the
change of the world’s history.”
5. Acts 16:13 says,
“On the Sabbath we went outside the city
gate to the river where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and
began to speak to the women who had gathered there.” Paul and his
companions went to the riverside on the Sabbath instead of a synagogue because
there was no synagogue in Philippi. According to Jewish tradition, there had to
be a quorum of at least 10 male heads of households before a synagogue could be
formed. If these requirements could not be met, the faithful were to meet under
the open sky near a river or sea. So Paul and company walked outside the city
on the Sabbath, probably to the Gangites River, looking for some fellow Jews.
They discovered a small group—all women—who met to recite the Shema, pray, and
read the Law and Prophets. This was a divine appointment!
6. Acts 16:14-15
says, “One of those listening was a woman
named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a
worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When
she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home.
“If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my
house.” And she persuaded us.” Evidently
Lydia took her name from her native province—Thyatira’s ancient name was Lydia.
Because she was “a worshiper of God”—a
Gentile who saw truth in Judaism and wanted it, she came under the influence of
the Jews. The majority of those accompanying this wealthy woman were probably
family and servants. Lydia had been prepared for an encounter with the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and as she listened, “the Lord opened her heart.” Paul’s pharisaical prejudices, which in
pre-Christian years had taught him to pray, “God, I thank you that I am not a Gentile, or a slave, or a woman,”
had been altered by Christ and his growth in faith. Later he would write: There
is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one
in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)
7. As Lydia came to
believe in Jesus, she experienced the wonderful news of her sins being forgiven
by Jesus. Joy welled up within her and flowed over to her companions. Her
entire household believed. They were all baptized right on the spot. God opened
the heart of one woman in a colony of Rome, and that city became a mighty
beachhead for God. We can’t assess a situation by the numbers. One woman’s
heart in Philippi doomed the flag of Rome.
Dear Lydia then twisted the evangelists’ arms so they would stay at her
home. The world translated “persuaded”
in verse 15b is the exact word used to describe how the disciples prevailed
upon Jesus to stay with them after their encounter on the road to Emmaus. Philippi was destined to become one of Paul’s
most beloved congregations. Paul writes
in Philippians 1:3 and 4:15, I thank my
God every time I remember you. (Philippians 1:3) Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the
early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia,
not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you
only. (Philippians 4:15)
8. The apostles now
had the wind at their backs. God’s grace produced Christlike spirits and
sacrificial giving. Blown from the coasts of Troas to Samothrace to Neapolis,
they now breezed right into Lydia’s heart and home. It was experiences such as
this that caused Paul to write in Romans 1:16:
I am not ashamed of the gospel,
because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes:
first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
At this point it may have looked like all their trouble was behind
them. But from experience Paul knew better.
9. Some meeting! Imagine the joy at Lydia’s as Paul and
his associates in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ recounted the events that
led them to Philippi. Some church! Lydia the merchant princess
and her household were the beginning of the first European Christian church.
The rich and poor, slave and free, male and female, were all one in Christ. The
flag of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection from the dead
was raised up on a continent that needed it desperately! Some
life! Through thick and thin, despite the whirlwinds of Satan’s opposition,
the wind of the Spirit was always at the backs of Paul and his companions.
Wherever they were they were serving an awesome God. Some
gospel! I am not ashamed of the gospel,
because it is the power of God for the salvation of every one who believes:
first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Romans 1:16)
10.
Prayer: O Lord, help us to raise up the flag of your Son
Jesus wherever you desire to use us as your witnesses today and in days to
come. Help us to know with whom you want us to share the gospel of life, and to
do so wisely. Help us not to be mute because of fear, but to praise you always,
even in the most difficult circumstances. May your presence in us draw others,
even our enemies, to your salvation, found only in your Son. In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
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