Acts 15-16:13 NIVUK
[13] 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. [14] One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. [15] When she and the
members of her household were baptised, 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. https://bible.com/bible/113/act.16.13.NIVUK
The first time I ever led someone to Christ was on the beach at Costinești in Romania. The tool I used to present Gospel truth to a student was something that existed in plentiful supply: sand. The very sand I walked on with an American brother. The very sand God led us on to find that young man.
People have used the most interesting tools to explain the Gospel to their audience. Some have used the arts, or sketchboards, or drama or mime. I once did it with a pool table, a cue and a set of pool balls.
But what happened here stands on its own as being historical and more than a little bit special. This, you see, is not just cross-cultural evangelism. This is transcontinental evangelism. This is the first time, ever, in recorded history, when the Gospel is preached on European soil.
It is thoroughly ground-breaking.
And yet, we might think, thoroughly unremarkable. We see a man talking to a woman by a river. Not a big deal.
But this conversation is thoroughly remarkable and has much to teach us.
I see four aspects that are important.
The first is The Unwilling Missionary:
Acts 10-16:6 NIVUK
[6] Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. [7] When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. [8] So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. [9] During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ [10] After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. https://bible.com/bible/113/act.16.6.NIVUK
This might take some understanding, but it’s clear from this text that Paul did not want to go to Philippi: it took Divine intervention, in the shape of a vision, to get him to go there.
But why?
The main reason, I believe, was the huge cultural difference. Each of the places Paul wanted to go to was in Asia Minor – modern-day Turkey. Paul himself was born in Asia Minor. There would have been many Jews scattered around that particular area. We know this from the letters he wrote to places like Galatia, where he references Jewish law a lot.
Yet in Philippi? Not even a synagogue.
By being sent to Philippi, Paul is being sent to a city where the majority of people were Gentiles.
We know from the Gospels, and from history, that a racial and religious divide existed between Jews and Gentiles which was almost insurmountable (see John 4:9).
And yet the call to reach the whole world, not just the Jews, was unmistakable (Acts 1:8).
Moreover, we should never make the mistake of believing that this was a New Testament thing, something that Jesus dreamed up to keep the disciples out of mischief. Far from it. This was part of God’s plan all along (Isaiah 49:1-9; see also Genesis 12:1-3).
We might see the book of Jonah as a little oddity in the Old Testament: a nice little bedtime story for children. But in this story we also see a reluctant missionary: a prophet esteemed in his own land who is deliberately called and sent by God to his enemies to preach the good news to them and to turn them back from disaster (Jonah 1:1-2). And why was he reluctant?
Probably for the same reasons as Paul: race and religion.
Let me tell you, this is not the only time in Acts where God calls his servants to cross huge racial and religious boundaries with the Gospel, and not at all the first time they struggle with that call.
The early church has to be persecuted before it would move from Jerusalem (Acts 8:1).
It took an angel to move Philip to speak to an Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26).
It took a vision from God to propel Peter to witness to Cornelius (Acts 10:9-17).
They had the command, but for them to reach out across the barrier in their mind and their belief system, God had to intervene.
Still today we Christians are thoroughly unwilling to reach out to those from a different culture or who speak a different language or who worship a different god. We are far too comfortable defending the borders of our gated community comforts to realise that God has moved the opportunity to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth right to our very doorstep.
He had made it easier for us than ever.
So why are we reluctant?
Do we need to confront our biases and ask ourselves if we need God to intervene miraculously in our lives to get us to obey Him?
As well as the unwilling missionary, we also see The Unlikely Location, in the very character and location of Philippi.
The city of Philippi was a predominantly pagan Graeco-Roman-Macedonian city. It would not be surprise if there were plenty of pagan temples and shrines there for all manner of false gods. The fact that Paul released a demonised child there also indicates that this was a place where belief in the spiritual world was open and accepted.
The highly specific legal charge in Acts 16:20-21 leads me to question if not only Roman citizenship was at stake, but also worship of the Roman Emperor, who had granted them that citizenship, with its all privileges and rights.
This was also a border town. There would have been a lot more than Roman soldiers and Greeks and Macedonians here. There would have been other peoples from the Balkans and the Black Sea, such as the Scythians. Its location on a trading route meant that Europeans and Asians of just about every hue would be passing through. The character of the city would be in constant flux.
There is no doubt that Philippi would have have been a very different, and difficult, place for Paul to evangelise.
The events that unfold there for Paul and Silas prove that.
However, in a sense, this difficult character also made it a highly strategic place to reach with the Gospel. It was on a main trading route, with many different nationalities passing through. Win them for God, as Phillip did with the Ethiopian eunuch, and the Gospel would spread to their country.
And that is how the Gospel was taken towards the ends of the earth.
I see a great encouragement here.
As Christians, it’s easy for us to get sucked into right-wing nimby-ism when people from other nations come to our towns and cities. It’s far too easy to be drawn into xenophobia and the need to ‘defend the character of our nation ‘.
But that very idea is complete and utter nonsense. No nation – not even North Korea, the most insular state in the world – has ever maintained its original character. Every nation has been touched by migration and change. That will always be the way of the world. So the fight to retain the ‘character of our nation’ is a foolish and vain struggle – many of us live where we are because other people didn’t care to do this, so why use it to keep other people out?
Instead, like Paul, we should use the opportunities of our multicultural societies to the full. Perhaps if we were less focused in keeping our nations in a backward state of unattainable racial utopia and more focused on taking the opportunities God is placing on our doorstep then the Gospel would spread further and faster and deeper.
So we see two aspects of this visit to Philippi: an unwilling missionary and an unlikely location. We also see An Unexpected Audience:
Acts 16:13 NIVUK
[13] 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. https://bible.com/bible/113/act.16.13.NIVUK
Now, there are a lot of nuances in just this one verse that we need to unpack.
As we have previously said, there was no Jewish synagogue in Philippi. The reason for this doesn’t seem to have stemmed from the local authorities – Jewish tradition dictated that a synagogue could only be founded if there were at least ten men (indifferent to the number of women). In cities where there was no synagogue, Jews would often gather at bodies of flowing water like rivers, likely so ceremonial washing could be carried out, and they would form a place of prayer there.
So here’s the thing: Paul and his companions go looking for the place of prayer, but find only women. This was the Sabbath, so it stands to reason that if there were men, they would have been there.
What does this mean?
There were no Jewish men in Philippi.
Paul, an Orthodox Pharisee, who could not be seen in public with a woman who was not his wife, is now preaching to a whole bunch of women, in a public place, and in the open air.
Water like this would not just be used for ceremonial washing. It would also be used for bathing, for cleaning clothes, for drinking. It isn’t too much of a stretch of the imagination to say that Paul’s words were likely within earshot of many people, including those who had no intention of believing in God.
This was, truly, a paradigm-shifting encounter.
Moreover, there is something else strange about this audience.
The one woman who responded to the message – Lydia – had a Greek name and came from a likely Greek-speaking city in Asia Minor (Thyatira). Her home city was famous for its purple dyes, which were expensive and used to dye clothes worn by the rich elite – so in all probability, she was wealthy. She also had a house in Philippi (Acts 16:15). This means that she was either in the import-export business from her home city or travelled back and forth between Philippi and Thyatira.
Either way, this woman is a rich entrepreneur.
That might sound relatively interesting, but consider this: Jewish women were not supposed to be this involved in business.
What am I saying?
It is likely that Lydia was not Jewish, but instead, despite her wealth, was a seeker after truth who came to that place of prayer and found the truth when Paul preached.
More than that, as a rich, female Gentile, she was about as far removed from the typical profile of a candidate for conversion as you can possibly get.
Consider the typical profile of those who followed Jesus:
Mark 17-2:15 NIVUK
[15] While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. [16] When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ [17] On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’
It wasn’t those whose lives were all together and who wanted for nothing who followed Jesus. No: it was those who were ‘in with the out crowd’, whose lives were a mess and headed in the wrong direction – it was poor sinners who needed to repent.
It was not a rich cloth trader with the world seemingly at her feet.
And yet this woman not only sought after God in a Jewish place of worship, but found Him through Paul.
This is something we need to grasp. God calls who He will. We have no say in the matter.
Ours is simply to accept them with love into the Body of Christ.
And this leads us from the unwilling missionary, to the unlikely location and the unexpected audience, all the way to The Willing Seeker:
Acts 15-16:14 NIVUK
[14] One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. [15] When she and the members of her household were baptised, 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.
And just how willing was she! She did not just identify as a believer. She was not just baptised in the very waters beside which she had heard the Good News. No, more than that: at incredible personal risk, she welcomed a man like Paul into her home, and later on accommodated the church in that same home (Acts 16:40). She even did so despite the fact that Paul and Silas had already been thrown in jail (Acts 16:23).
This rich woman, and a Gentile at that, received the Gospel and clung onto it enthusiastically with both hands.
Is it interesting that, throughout the Gospels and Acts, we read of male spiritual leaders who had access to the greatest Jewish theological education and knowledge, yet do not seek God and had plenty of reasons why not. Yet here we have a woman, likely a Gentile, who is seeking after God, finds Him and, at great personal risk, follows Him.
It is absolutely true that often the most unlikely people in the most unlikely places become the most enthusiastic believers.
Paul came to Philippi. He had no desire to go. He was thoroughly reluctant, in the great tradition of many other people whom God has called who were equally reluctant. And yet, in an unlikely place he finds an unusual audience, and there, in amongst a small open-air gathering of Jewish women, was a Gentile Seeker who became a founder of the church.
We cannot lose sight for one second of the radical nature of Paul’s mission. It was thoroughly ground-breaking. He would not be the last. Many other men and women would follow throughout Christian history who, like Paul, would stretch the boundaries of what their culture allowed – or even what their church culture allowed.
They would dress like locals – Hudson Taylor.
They would feed the neglected poor – William Booth.
They would forge new ways through unknown continents at immense personal risk – David Livingston.
They would take a principled stand against slavery, no matter the cost – William Wilberforce.
They would dedicate themselves to the care of the injured and dying on a battlefield, regardless of their affiliation – Florence Nightingale.
Christians who are dedicated and focused on living out the Gospel and seeking out opportunities to share it have always, and will always, live on the ragged edge of misunderstanding, both in their culture and often in their church. Yet it is through them that the Gospel has spread throughout the globe.
Paul didn’t want to go to Philippi. But when he went there, he sought an opportunity to share the Gospel and took it, no matter how strange it might seem.
Why?
Because his focus was on sharing the Gospel to anyone and everyone.
So, Christian, what is yours?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, forgive me for my preconceptions and my prejudices. Remove from me any reluctance I have to take the opportunities you place in front of me to share the Gospel. Help me to see that You can transform even the most unlikely person in the most unlikely situation. Amen.
Questions
1. Why was Paul so unwilling to go to Macedonia? What did he prioritise first? What did it take for him to change his mind?
2. What was so different about Philippi for Paul than the other places he had been to? Is this similar to where we live?
3. How can we be better attuned to the Holy Spirit’s guidance to where people would be willing to listen to us and believe? Where are our best opportunities?
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