Study in theActs of theApostles

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The Way AheadChapter 16v11-15

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IntroductionAt home, I have a picture of a man hitting his head off a lamppost. It is entitled ‘frustration’.

Frustration is an emotion we all experience throughout life. As children we get frustrated when we can’t finish our homework before our friends come round. Later we experience the frustration produced when the car won’t start, or, when the soufflé in the oven wont rise. Frustration reflects an intense disappointment as things fail to work as we had hoped or planned. God can use frustration if we will let him as we will learn from the passage before us.

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Open Mind Paul had a very clear idea about where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do on his second missionary journey. His motivation was beyond criticism. He wanted to see God’s kingdom expand! But Paul kept running into a brick wall. The way ahead was blocked and v6 tells us ‘the Holy Spirit’ kept him from preaching the word in Asia. We are not told what form that prevention took. What is clear is that Paul’s plans were frustrated producing what must have been one of the most disturbing experiences of the apostle’s life.

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Open Mind Paul’s plan’s for service and expanding the kingdom were brought to an abrupt halt - a situation we can often find ourselves in. And our response is crucial. We can do one of several things; 1. We can bulldoze our way through. 2. We can go in the huff with God because he did not see fit to bless our plans. 3. We can open our mind to what God is saying to us.

Paul opened his mind. It is in this context we are to understand the vision Paul received at Troas. A man from Macedonia appeared and said,

‘Come over and help us’.

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Open Mind Paul’s response was immediate v10. He drew the right conclusions from his past frustration and made plans to sail for Macedonia. Paul had not thought of developing his work in this direction. But his openness to what God was saying, made it easy for him to let go of his plans and change the direction of his work.

What can we learn from this? I suspect we all fear change. We feel threatened by the unfamiliar but secure with established plans, ideas and methods of working. Perhaps we fear the criticism of others, if having thrown all of our energies in one direction, we begin to throw them now in another.

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Open Mind Paul has been criticised for constantly trying to head in one direction while God wanted him to travel in another. This is an unfair criticism. It is far easier to redirect a moving object than to budge one that is immovable. Paul had a passionate concern to see Christ's kingdom extended and it is much easier to redirect the momentum of such a spirit, than to try to motivate the armchair Christian who has little real interest in God’s cause.

I suspect that those who have no experience of frustration in their Christian service are in turn content to accomplish nothing for God. Frustration is often a stepping stone to fruitful service when we are open to God’s voice.

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Open Mind God’s voice is something we hear primarily through his Word, both read and preached. It is clearly a mistake to say we will only respond to some kind of supernatural encounter.

However, what is vitally important to understand, whether we realise all the implications at the time or not, is that our response can help give shape the whole future development of God’s work.

The shape of Christianity in the West may have been very different if Paul had not responded to this call and crossed over into Europe.

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Open Mind God knew exactly what he was doing when he frustrated his apostle. He knew that there were many people in Europe disillusioned with the Greek and Roman gods who were at that time hungering for spiritual reality!

Ask yourself, what shape does God want his work to take in my locality, my town, my country? It may be quite different from what you had thought. That can be both unsettling and exciting. It is as we are both open to and obedient to the heavenly vision that a far greater work that we could have begun to imagine will begin to be accomplished.

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Open ContinentThe process of obedience is one that requires both tenacity and a confidence in God that will refuse to be discouraged by outward circumstances. As Paul and his companions set sail for Macedonia they doubtless wondered, ‘How will this new work develop, what kind of reception will there be for us’? After all God had indicated that this new continent was ripe for evangelisation. But there was no red carpet to greet them at Philippi, no brass band, no crush barriers to keep back the crowds queuing up to hear the gospel. What a tremendous anti-climax! Why had God brought them there?

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Open ContinentThere wasn't even a local synagogue from which to begin their work. And so we read in v13 that on the Sabbath day they went out of the city gate to the river. And what did they find?

A small group of woman at prayer. This handful of ‘women’ groping about in the darkness in search of some spiritual reality were to form the springboard for mission into Europe! God never stops surprising us about the manner in which he chooses to work!

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Open ContinentWhen God begins a new work he is often content with small beginnings. His ego is not threatened if the work gets off to a slow start. He is not insecure about what might thereby be accomplished. Indeed, he delights to bring something big out of something small. Have you discovered that small beginnings are despised in our ‘numbers-orientated’ society- unless a business mega-ratings then it is viewed with contempt. Now how we expect God to work and how he chooses to work are often miles apart! God did not begin the advance of his work in Europe with the mass conversion of thousands but with the significant conversion of one woman.

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Open ContinentIn any new venture it is easy to become discouraged. The response is not as great as we hoped for. Is it worth keeping going for just a few? Oh Yes for God has placed infinite value upon just one individual.

You may have heard of Samuel Rutherford, the Scottish covenanting minister who was exiled from his congregation in Anwoth and deprived of his pulpit. He wrote; ‘Heaven will be twice heaven for me if but one from Anwoth is standing by my side.’

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Open HeartAmong the group seated on the river bank was a woman called Lydia. A business woman whose interest in religion was not merely intellectual. She was aware that she had within her heart, what Pascal has described as ‘a God shaped blank’.

The seriousness of her spiritual quest is evident from the passage. Not only had she abandoned the idolatrous religion she was brought up with, she had found within Judaism something that promised spiritual fulfilment. But God was still distant, she still felt threatened by his righteousness and the by the perfection of his law. She was still aware that her sin stood like a great barrier between her and God.

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Open HeartGod reached into that situation with his missionary task force and news of how Jesus could fill the God shaped blank. Did Paul explain how Christ’s righteousness could be hers. He would have spoken of the grace of God’s forgiveness and show how Jesus by his death constructed a bridge from man to God. But all of these truths would have fallen on deaf ears without the prior supernatural operation of God.

We are told in v14 precisely what it was that God did; "he opened her heart". This takes us to the very heart of Paul’s confidence as he sought to pioneer the expansion of Christ's kingdom.

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Open HeartThe word translated "open", means to thoroughly open up, to remove every obstacle, and disentangle. Some may have tried to unfanckle skeins of wool that have become a tangled mess and so bring some sense of order to them. That describes what God did for Lydia. Without GOD'S intervention she could not have understood spiritual truth. By opening her heart, God opened up the way for an intelligent response to the gospel and he then breathed spiritual life into her to enable her to respond. cf. v14 ‘she took note of the Word of God’, or as some translate it, ‘she applied it to herself’! Her conversion does not bear all the dramatic elements associated with Paul’s. Hers was a quiet gentle work of God's grace but the reality was no less real. The direction of her life was changed!

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Open HeartWhy does the writer stress the fact that the mission of the church in Europe began with God opening Lydia’s heart. Surely in order to make it clear that God is the author of mission. The responsibility for the success of any work in which we engage in his name and in obedience to his command lies with Him alone.

The focus of our thinking should not rest on what we consider to be our gifts or abilities or experience but upon God’s grace. The work is God’s work and we can trust him to open hearts so that he both creates an appetite for himself and then satisfies that appetite.

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Opened HomeWe have seen the work of the apostle take a new direction, and noted that God doesn’t feel threatened by small beginnings. We’ve learned that it is God who open’s people’s heart’s making them responsive to the Gospel. But where is the evidence of this new work taking root?

Lydia asked for baptism! She wanted to be identified with the people of God openly and publicly. And while we do not underestimate the significance of that request, there is one further evidence that God had opened her heart. We find that she opened her home to God’s work. She exercised the gift of hospitality.

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Opened HomeHospitality is one of the gifts of the Spirit which the N.T. lists! Lydia wanted to be involved in the expansion of Christ's kingdom. But what could she do? She could open her home. The first convert in Europe was not destined to become a great preacher or, teacher but a landlady! Her home became the base for apostolic ministry and a place of refuge and refreshment for God’s people. Some people want do great things for God others bemoan that they can do so little for him. Note that God began this significant work in Europe by finding someone who would open up their home to him. Often our estimation of what is important to God’s work is far removed from his.

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ConclusionWhat began with frustration for Paul ends with the advance of God’s church. In Lydia God found a willing and obedient heart, a woman whose service provided a base for carrying out God’s work in Europe.

What might God accomplish through you as you open your minds to what he is saying, as you determine not to be discouraged by small beginnings, and as you trust God to open the hearts of those in your neighbourhood. One woman’s response provided a gateway into Europe. What might God do through you? Does that prospect excite your heart? It should!

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