Acts 16:9-15
“ [Acts] programmatic thesis [is] after receiving the power of the Holy Spirit, says risen Jesus, the disciples ‘shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.’” [1]Kavin Rowe says this in World Upside Down. He goes on to quote Barrett saying “the universal extension of the witness to the resurrection of Jesus is… ‘the content of Luke’s second volume.’”[2] Essentially the Acts of the Apostles is a book which details the faithful response of the Apostles to the resurrection of Jesus. When we come to Acts 16, then we should not be surprised that we find a story about this witnessing. Paul has received a vision that he and his companions are to head to Macedonia. Paul and his companions act in obedience to this vision, and Luke makes sure to articulate how they were making their way to Macedonia. As they go we see the programmatic thesis at work. Paul and his companions spend “some days” in Philipi. This does not indicate exactly how long they had been there, but it does indicate that it was not a quick stay in Philipi. unfortunately, we do not learn what they were doing for those days. Perhaps they were teaching as Paul had done elsewhere. Maybe they were working in the market place. We really do not know what they did during the week days in Philippi. What we do know is that they intentionally embodied Jewish worship practices. Paul has not yet said that he was going only to the Gentiles. That happens in chapter 18. Up to this point, Paul is probably seeking out either Jews or “God fearers.” This is one of the themes that Doug Campbell points out in his biography of Paul. Paul is almost always making friends with strangers. When Paul meets people, and when they convert to Christianity, Paul is not afraid of letting people new to the Way help him on his journey. In fact, Paul’s genius actually may have been his incredible networking skills. If we place this pericope in the wider context we see that Paul has intentionally chosen Timothy as a traveling partner. Even though the Jerusalem Council said that people need not be circumcised, Paul had Timothy circumcised for the benefit of any Jews who were in the area. After delivering the message from the Jerusalem Council, Paul then receives the call to go to Macedonia, an area full of Greek people. Paul, highly attuned to the Spirit has chosen an excellent traveling companion. This goes to show that “the Christians were subject to the freedom and initiative of the Holy Spirit and would go where the Spirit led.”[3] Often the Spirit led them to use the gifts, talents, and cultures with which they were born to further the mission. Adolf von Harnack argues that the Jewish synagogues “formed the most important presupposition for the rise and growth of Christian communities throughout the empire. The network of the synagogues furnished the Christian mission with centers and courses for its development, and in this way the mission of the new religion, which was undertaken in the name of the God of Abraham and Moses, found a sphere already prepared for itself.”[4] This explains why Paul and his companions go looking for a place to pray outside the city by the river. According to Charles Talbert there is strong evidence of “a Jewish custom of locating places of prayer [near water].”[5] Since these places of prayer were customary, we can see how Paul co-operated with the Holy Spirit and went to those who he thought might be most receptive of the gospel. In this case we meet a “worshipper of God” who is also Greek. Her cultural affinity to Timothy is not accidental. God uses these connections to open up Lydia’s heart to the gospel. She responds with baptism, but she moves beyond simply having water poured on her. “Her behavior reflects the disciples’ traits of being hospitable and sharing material goods with those who teach the word.”[6] She convinces Paul to stay at her house. This further indicates that the “social inequality as existed between Jews and God-fearers in the synagogue does not exist with the Messianist movement.”[7]
In this short passage we see the collaborative ways in which the Church works with the Holy Spirit towards God’s mission. Though God uses social location and culture to assist the early church in its mission, Rowe makes clear;
“The ultimate origin of the Christian mission lies in the act of God. That is why the Christian mission is a novum[8]: it does not, it cannot, arise naturally out of the mundane sphere- death is the final boundary of natural human life- but comes directly from the new life given by God to Jesus on the other side of death. The location of the origin of the Christian mission according to Acts, that is, is beyond death, and in this way Christian mission exceeds dramatically all human possibility of creation and initiation. It not only is but must be the missio Dei. The early Christian mission in Acts is best seen, therefore, not in terms of daring initiative or social creativity, but in terms of response.”[9]
These short verses contain offer us a microcosm of Acts. Given its programmatic thesis, we see how the whole book is a response to the resurrection which creates the church as the witnesses to the ends of the earth. Paul has found that God has worked with the mundane to create an opportunity to reach another person, and in this case, a vital person to the mission of the Church. Lydia, being a dyer of purple, ends up becoming one of the main financiers of Paul’s missionary endeavors. It contains within it several lessons, not least of which, however is the need for evangelistic fervor on the part of the church today. As we read through the book of acts we see, “Mature faith [in Acts] is not primarily pictured as memorizing scripture, growing close with a small group, being in worship each week, or serving on every church committee… In the gospel, mature faith is pictured as taking up the work Christ did for us and offering it for others.” [10]
We live in an age where many Christians are afraid of sharing the good news. We do not want to come across as disingenuous. Far too often churches have applied bait-and-switch tactics for evangelism. Others treat the gospel like it is a multi- level marketing sceme. Still other churches have tried to use hell and fear to scare people into following Jesus. All these tactics come across as selling snake oil. They do this because the gospel is not about getting out of hell. The gospel is not bait and switch. The gospel when properly preached is actually good news because it says “that our whole life can be full of the radiance of God, that Jesus’s kingdom is indeed coming, that all creation will be blessed- that is a beautiful gospel.” [11] Perhaps this pericope is an opportunity for you to assist your church in rightly imaging evangelism. My guess is that God has done something great in the lives of the people who are there. Perhaps they have been christians for years and they have lost their zeal. Perhaps they think God does not have anyone with whom they can share the gospel. Paul went down to a river and in one day he recruited a lady who committed her life to God. Her finances propelled the mission in an incredible way. As Wesleyans we believe that God’s prevenient grace is going before us. God can use our social location to connect us to others who need to hear the good news. The question for us is, are we looking? As Christians are we more concerned with our own eternal destination? Or are we living in the Kingdom seeking out those who need to hear this great message. Have our churches become full of “Toxic Inward Focus[12]” which places personal preferences over missional zeal? Do our hearts break for that which breaks God’s?[13] Matt Miofsky says, “Jesus is the sort of good news you can’t keep unless you give it away.”[14] The gospel becomes most powerful in our lives when we start sharing it and seeing it transform the lives of people around us. May Paul’s life serve as an example to us all. May we be witnesses to the resurrection where God has placed us.
[1]C. Kavin Rowe, World upside down, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010), 120. [2] ibid. [3] Ibid, 119. [4] Adolf von Harnack, Mission and Expansion, 1 (trans alt). Rowe provides this citation in his work, but the words are Harnack’s. [5] Charles Talbert, Reading acts, (Macon, Georgia, Smyth and Helwys, 2005), 141 [6] ibid, 141 [7] Ibid, 141 [8] Novum is latin for “new thing.” Rowe uses this term to indicate the ways in which the Christian missionary zeal is unique. He says, “there is simply no good analogue to early Christian mission in the ancient pagan world” (117). [9] Ibid, 123 [10] Matt Miofsky and Jason Byasse, 8 Virtues of Rapidly Growing Churches, Nashville, Abingdon Press, 2018), 45. [11] Ibid, 49 [12] Toxic Inward Focus is a term coined by Doug Paul from 100M. He argues that the Holy Spirit is constantly being poured into our lives. However, if we do not pour that out into other people, it is akin to sepsis. We must share the good news otherwise it can turn and actually poison us because we have used the gospel and turned our hearts inward, Augustine’s definition of original sin. The gospel necessarily turns our hearts out to those who need the great physician. [13] Taken from Hillsong’s Hosanna, which might be an appropriate song for this Sunday. Chris Tomlin’s “I Will Follow” could also connect with how Paul responded to the Holy Spirit. [14] Miofsky and Byasse, 52.
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