Date:24.4.16
Text: Acts 16:11-40
Place: Swansea/Charlestown am
Title: The Church – a mixed bag
File: MFFL #1 (Making Friends for Life#1)
Slide 1
Over the years there have been some fantastic newspaper headings. Here are some of my favourites...From The Herald-News, Westpost, Massachusetts “Official: Only Rain Will Cure Drought”.
Slide 2
From Cornell Daily Sun, December 7, 1995“Study finds sex – pregnancy link”. On numerous newspaper’s back pages after Australian Pat Cash beat Czechoslovakian (later American) Ivan Lendl in straight sets in the Wimbeldon final. "Cash is better than a Czech". And when first division Inverness Caledonian Thistle beat Premier League heavyweights Celtic 3-1 in the Scottish Cup (2000), the Sun came up with this whopper! “Super Caley go ballistic Celtic are atrocious”
Slide 3
But if we were creating a headline for the passage from Acts 16 that we read this morning, one such caption would be "Jesus arrives in Europe!"
Slide 4
Because although Jesus himself never left the region of Palestine, here for the first time the message of Jesus comes to Europe. Europe that continent with all those fine cathedrals, the place where the Pope lives, the community which kept the gospel flame alive for century after century, first heard about Jesus when Paul preached the good news in Philippi in about 50AD.
Here was a decisive step that the Apostle Paul made, a step which helped to change the world. And it all starts with Paul going to Philippi and being unable to find a Jewish synagogue there. Now it took just 10 Jewish men to start a synagogue, so there couldn't have been many people in that city who were interested in the Lord God of the OT. But Paul tracked down a few women who met to pray and told them about Jesus. And one them, Lydia became a Christian.
Slide 5
1. Paul and Lydia As Neil Armstrong once famously said, “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!”Because here a woman becomes the first European convert. Not a king, not a powerful business man, not a general, but a woman. A religious woman who prayed to Yahweh but didn't really know the one she was praying to. A woman who came each week to worship but still didn't have a personal relationship with God. A woman who was a long way from her home in Thyatira but who that day found her spiritual home with the Lord.
You know that is no different to today. There are many people who think they are Christians yet who haven't yet trusted in Jesus. There are many people who pray and pray regularly but their spiritual life is not going anywhere. There are many people who believe in God, but who need to learn to trust in Jesus for their salvation. And here Paul has helped change a life just by going to a place of prayer and sitting and talking with the people there about Jesus. And we see once Lydia’s heart is opened, she then opens up her home! And that becomes Paul’s base while in Philippi.
But ultimately it was not Paul who converted Lydia, it was the Lord working with Paul. For v14 says “the Lord opened her heart.” Yes Paul spoke and God applied the message to her heart. Paul went to worship and the Lord ensured he would find these women praying.
You see ultimately we don't change the world, but God does. We have no power over the future but God does. And he wants us to work in partnership with him. He desires us to step out in faith and he will ensure that our faith is multiplied. For ultimately there are many people around us like Lydia, who are seeking the truth. Who want to know about their Creator but they don’t know where to look.
For there is today still a spiritual hunger in Australia among many people. It’s just that people are turning to science, to spiritual experiences, to alternative religions, to places and people who will touch their feelings and emotions. And often they don’t come to the Bible, to the Church, to us. So maybe we need to go to them and be willing to discuss Jesus with them. To make them think about whom they are actually praying to. And as we do that we need to ask that the Lord will open their hearts. That the Lord will lead us to those he is already at work in. That God will bring them into his kingdom, like he did this time with Lydia.
Slide 6
2. Paul & the Slave Girl. Yet there was more to happen in Philippi than just Lydia and her household being converted. Paul kept on looking for opportunities to tell others about Jesus but found himself soon shadowed by a young slave girl who was demon possessed. And this particular demon gave her the ability to predict the future.
Now you don't have to be too smart to know if you can pick tomorrow's winning LOTTO NUMBERS today, you've got it made. And so there are some guys, they’ve got this girl, and they’re making a FORTUNE from their little FORTUNE TELLING business.
Until Paul has had enough. He doesn’t need the demons telling people about the Most High God so after a few days he turns around and tells the demon to come out of her and immediately the spirit leaves her. Now when Paul exorcises the demon that possesses her, he exorcises her owner’s source of income as well. And they are not very happy. And so they call the city officials together, they get a mob to come to the marketplace and Paul and Silas are now in real danger.
But in the meantime, another local has been changed, maybe even saved. This girl with no rights, no power, no status now knows the way to be saved and with the demon that was stopping her now gone, there is nothing stopping her from actually being saved. And with this incident being wedged between Lydia and the Philippian jailor, it is not too far fetched to see, the next member of the Philippian Church. A slave girl. This first Church in Europe is going to be a liquorice all sorts isn’t it? But then the gospel is for all people, men and women, rich and poor, slave and freeman. Jesus coming to Europe is having an amazing impact, isn’t He?
But please notices Paul is not trying to grow this Church through just the rich and famous. The wealthy, the influential. Here is a woman, a girl in fact, a slave girl. But Paul ministers to her as well. In fact he will minister to anyone whom God pleases around him. Today the Church talks about being strategic. I have heard pastors talk about praying for the mayor, the principal of the school, key businessman because if God converts them they will have a ready made influence. But all people need Jesus. And the church isn’t all about the rich and the powerful. In fact sometimes they get in the away of God’s mission. For here a slave girl may well have become the most likely second member of this liquorice all sorts Church.
Slide 7
3. Paul and the Prisoners But it’s about to get even more bizarre for meanwhile Paul & Silas’ day is going from bad to worse. They are then “stripped, beaten and thrown in a jail cell." Amazing isn’t it?They are called by God to take the gospel over the Europe for the first time so you would expect that everyone's arms would be right open in acceptance, wouldn’t you? You would expect that an open door from God would lead to a wonderful straight, easy path filled with lovely flowers & surrounded by God’s continual blessing. But instead that paths leads them to the slammer.
But Paul and Silas don’t act as if it is a bad day, do they? For about midnight they pray and sing songs to God. Their bodies may be tied up but their spirits are soaring. Their wounds may be aching but they are still thankful to God. Their legs and hands are stuck but no one can stop their mouths and their voices.
Now I reckon they had every right to be downright angry with God. Or at least disappointed! Or maybe ask “Why God, why did you bring me to this place. And where God, where are you when I really needed you?" They might have said all of that, but they didn’t say any of it. Instead they prayed and they sang hymns to God.
Now before we see what actually happened, do you think that if you met someone like Paul you would be interested in having what they had? If you saw someone who didn't whinge when they were wronged. Who didn't complain when things didn't go their way. Who was able to praise God and do it genuinely even when they felt the pressure from all sides. Don't you think that there is something very attractive about that person? Don't you think that person would have a greater sense of peace, of security, of the fact that God was utterly and completely in control?
I would, wouldn't you? Well Paul and Silas are imprisoned after a shocker of a day and they sing and they pray and they praise God and the Bible says all the other prisoners were listening to them. Now on one level they had no choice, did they, they too were stuck in prison. They were going nowhere. They were a captive audience. But in another sense even these hardened criminals were impressed with Paul and Silas' attitude, so much so that when the jailhouse rocks and rolls due to the coming of an earthquake and all the chains fall off all the prisoners, they don't go anywhere. Paul and Silas and all the prisoners just stay in their cells!
Once again Paul and Silas make an impact, a huge impact on their world by showing how a Christian trusts in God no matter what their outward circumstances. They make an impact by singing "How Great thou Art even when their circumstances are not so great!" They so exude the presence of God within their lives that people feel safer with them, than freedom from their cells.
Slide 8
4. Paul and the Jailor. I remember being on a Beach mission at Hat Head, near Kempsey while still a young Christian and some of the locals in the caravan park were vandalising our tents and our equipment while we slept. So it was decided that we would take it in turns to sleep in various tents - the big Marque, the Kitchen tent, there was always plenty of guys willing to protect the fridges if I remember correctly, the teenage tent and the others.
Well this one night it was my turn to look after the junior teens or JT's tent. Well I normally sleep pretty soundly, but I was a bit on edge that night. I didn't really like the thought of confronting a group of kids with knives or spray cans or whatever. Anyway in the middle of the night I heard some muffled sounds just outside and I froze. Then I saw the flap of the tent open up and a couple of guys crawl on through.
I didn't really know whether I should just pretend I didn't see them or try and stop them. But as I was thinking about it, a voice said "Steve are you there?" "Yeah" I replied as I recognised the voice of Matt, one of the guys who had been coming to the mission programme each day. Matt said "Steve, what must I do to be saved?!?!"
"What must I do to be saved? They were the exact words that the Philippian jailor used to the Apostle Paul, the night that he was whipped, thrown in jail and then a bit later an earthquake came and yet none of the prisoners escaped. So what must one do to be saved?
Paul replied "Believe in the Lord Jesus - you and your household and you will be saved." Believe in the Lord Jesus. It’s that simple. Believe in Jesus. Trust in Jesus. Realise that when Jesus dies for your sins and when you ask for forgiveness from him that not only does acceptance come, salvation comes & a change of lifestyle comes.
Believing in Jesus is what will change a person's life as well as change their future. And we see that the jailor accepts Paul’s words, he does believe in Jesus. And for the next who knows how long, Paul explains to him the implications of that belief. And it is interesting that for Paul the urgency of the gospel takes precedence over his own comfort and security. He still has the raw lacerations on his back from his previous floggings but before anything else he explains to the jailor about the life of faith.
Amazing.And then it is obvious that the jailor understands what Paul has said, he has soaked it all in because before he is baptised what does he insist upon doing? But washing their wounds, fixing up the very beatings that he himself might have given Paul the day before. And then he is baptised, he and his family. Then in the wee small hours, the jailor takes Paul to his own house and fixes them a meal, they enjoy table fellowship.
Just hours before he was the representative of an unjust and cruel regime, now they are brothers, equals in Christ, fellow believers. Paul’s message and his lifestyle has changed this jailor and his family. And will ultimately help change how he runs his household and his prison, as well as how he will from now on live out the life of faith.
So friends from this short passage we see Paul does some amazing things that in turn will help change the world. He deals with four people, each in a different way, but each has an enormous affect. To a rich lady during a quiet discussion he answers her enquiring mind and brings her to eternal life. To a slave girl, he frees her from the evil that possesses her. To some rough prisoners, he exploits the fact that he has a captive audience and shows them the joy of being a Christian even in the midst of suffering. And in the midst of a dramatic miracle of an earthquake, Paul deals with a man who comes to him with an incredible need and he points him to Jesus.
Now when you think about it, it would be hard to imagine a more different group of people that formed the first European Church than a business woman, a slave girl, maybe one or two prisoners and a gaoler. Racially, socially, psychologically they were world’s apart. Yet all of them are changed by Jesus and form the one Church.
Racial in the Church we have an immigrant from Asia, a local slave girl and prisoners, probably Greeks and A Roman soldier. Socially, you have the rich (Lydia), the middle class (the jailor) and the poor (the prisoners and slave girl). Personally Lydia could be said to have an intellectual need. She is one whose mind has been opened by the Holy Spirit. The slave girl and the prisoners would have psychological needs as they would all have had very difficult backgrounds. And the gaoler has a moral need as his conscience has been aroused and he cries out to be saved. Yet all their different needs are met in Christ.
Friends doesn’t that give us confidence this morning about the Church? No matter what the needs of our family and friends, no matter what their background or nationality, no matter what they have done in the past, Jesus can come to them and save them. Jesus can then live in them and change them. Jesus is the one that everyone can find salvation in. And we the Church should make up a community of faith where all can fit in, where all can learn about faith and grow in their trust of Jesus.
Slide 9
That’s what the church is all about. It is a home for people like you and me. No matter who we are, what our nationality is or our background, the message of Jesus brings us together and brings us to God. Why not find yourself in Church sometime soon.