Open Doors (Rev. Dr. Howard Burgoyne)

It's my privilege to welcome my superintendent who's also the superintendent of all the East Coast Conference

Denomination all the churches from Virginia all the way up to Maine

He has a very special place in my heart specifically because I met his mom and dad here at this church

Dean and Joy were going before they went to live with the Lord in glory and

They were so instrumental in impacting and supporting my life

I got to know them and then I got to know Howard. I was like, oh, this is why Howard is the way he was

They were just they prayed for me every single time that I preached

Anytime I was doing something or going through something. They said, oh, yeah, we prayed for you this morning and I knew it

I knew it. I could tell and

Their prayers over you have also impacted your life in so much ways, so I appreciate it

I do want to say that Howard's probably wondering what a kid-friendly axe-throwing contest is and

Wondering what kind of church this is so but welcome

Thank you, Cheryl

I did wonder about kid-friendly axe-throwing and I am grateful to know that it's kid-friendly

But what about adult-friendly axe-throwing I might be interested in that and the scarecrow contest that sounds

fascinating as well, so

Takes me back to thinking about the Wizard of Oz scarecrow, but

Looks like you're gonna have a lot of fun this season

Christ Church, it's great to be with you today. I

Consider Christ Church the apple of my eye as the superintendent in East Coast Conference for many reasons

I'm a native of Rhode Island a born in Providence raised in Cranston

grew up in the Providence and Riverside Covenant churches in the middle 1980s the Holy Spirit

Called my parents to leave that church of many years of membership to come over to be a part of this new thing

God was doing West Bay Covenant Church

Where they labeled they labored with another group a group of people over more than a decade to try to plant a church

In this region and then in the fullness of time

Christchurch and West Bay Covenant Church found each other joined forces and the rest is history and

My parents were a part of this church all of their later years love this congregation

And I'm always glad and grateful to be here to visit and today to preach I

Want to open up God's word with you today from the book of Acts the sequel to

Luke's gospel the story of the

Continuing story of Jesus mission in the life of the early church and the 16th chapter

Beginning in verse one. It's a time of transition

And great opportunity and peril in the life of the church and from my first

Conversation with pastor van in the summer about coming to speak while he would be away

This text came to mind right away and as I've been reading it and studying it and pondering it

I pray that it's a timely word for this congregation in its season of opportunity and peril as they all are

So listen for the word of the Lord as we read from Acts 16 beginning in verse one

And I read in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit

Paul came to Derby and then to Lystra

Where a disciple named Timothy lived whose mother was Jewish and a believer

But his father was a Greek

The believers at Lystra and Iconium they spoke well of him

Paul wanted to take him along on the journey

So he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area for they all knew that his father was a Greek as

They traveled from town to town

They delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey

So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia in Galatia

Having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia

When they came to the border of Missia, they tried to enter Bethany, but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to

So they passed by Missia and went down to Troas

During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him

Come over to Macedonia and help us

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

From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samathras and the next day

We went 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

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

One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia a dealer in purple cloth

She 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

Thus far, this is the word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

Today I want to

Invite you to ponder this text and its relevance to Christ Church and to the church more broadly in this time and season in our history

And to discern the ways in which the Lord is directing our path in mission

This text emerges more than 2,000 years ago in a very different social and cultural context

Then we are familiar with

But if you read Luke and Acts together you see them as prequel in sequel and use their amazing themes that

Tie them together that cross-reference the movement of the spirit in the life and ministry of Jesus

From his incarnation and his mission to his crucifixion his resurrection his ascension

And now in the book of Acts the outpouring of the spirit at Pentecost

Which takes all of the life in the history of Jesus and makes it applicable and available to the church throughout time

The same Lord that's present in the person of Jesus is directing the mission of the church here in Acts 16

And I want you to believe with me and to reflect with me that the same spirit is doing that today in our time in

2024 as we prepare for 2025

the mission of Jesus

To his disciples was to go into all the world and to make disciples

Jerusalem Judea

Samaria and

the uttermost parts of the earth in

Their imagination the uttermost parts of the earth were pretty much the Mediterranean Basin down into Africa out and across

Asia Minor Greece Rome all the way to Spain

In fact Paul's aspiration in his own ministry was someday. I want to go all the way to Spain

That's as far as you could kind of imagine in that era to think that that would be the well-traveled life

if you could circumnavigate all around the Mediterranean Basin and

The spirit is at work in the church advancing the mission of Jesus from place to place and now

They are in that broad category of the uttermost parts of the known world

Where new challenges would be present

The inclusion of Gentile people and dealing with their own practices and habits both religious and social and family life

Those would call for new sensitivity and new leaders

And frankly a reimagined discipleship

You know as the mission of Jesus goes throughout the world sometimes it gets more complex

It's more challenging our

Imagination in our mindset has to be broadened again and again as we think how does the life and gospel of Jesus apply

In our context and in our time

What Luke wants us to read and understand is that the spirit is leading us in that question

In x-16 in this travel log we encounter a young man a new disciple

Timothy

Gift of God is what his name means

Timothy will play a significant role from this point forward in the ministry of Paul

Two letters in the New Testament will be written to Timothy by Paul

Timothy will be sent on apostolic mission

To shepherd the church and to help them to mature

Timothy is a leader in the next generation of Christian leaders in the church and

Luke wants us to understand that Timothy also represents the conundrum that the church is in and it's time

Because his mother is Jewish

Thanks be to God

and a believer

His father is a Greek. Oh my

This is the wrestling of the church in this time

How how do we bring Jew and Gentile together into fellowship in the gospel of Jesus Christ?

The church has been wrestling with this breakthrough in advance by the spirit now for some time

Peter had had a vision on a rooftop

Being told to go with men who are at the door of the house of Simon the Tanner and he was taken to a

Roman centurion named Cornelius who was a God

fear and

Peter comes to that literal place the gate to the house of the Gentile and

Stands at a border and a barrier wrestling with all that he has been taught in raised up with that Jews live

distinctly from Gentiles and so literally for him to

Step across the threshold is to break the barrier of his own culture and heritage

He only does so because the spirit has nudged him that that which was a human barrier is to be transcended

by the spirit

so

Paul similarly in this place is at a place a juncture of transitions and

Border crossings and boundary breaking that is difficult to experience and in the light in hindsight

Perhaps we see God is at work here

Timothy in the ancient world

embodies the impossibility of

mixed marriage

His mother is a Jew and the believer his father is a Greek. We have a mixed marriage here

Jews are not supposed to marry outside of their faith, but you know when they do sometimes they have children even can you imagine that?

Timothy is the embodiment of a contradiction

His mother is Jewish and believer and we find elsewhere that his grandmother was also a believer

But his father is a Greek and perhaps his father is still also in his pagan understanding

And so Timothy's very existence is both problematic

But it's also a promise. He is a spiritual mulatto of sorts

Being half Greek half Jew. He's multi ethnic. He's interreligious in his identity

And what's understood and believed in the community is because his father is a Greek Timothy was never circumcised

as a child so he is the living embodiment of this

dangerous difficult place of in-betweens in

Acts 15 it had been clarified by the

leaders of the church in Jerusalem that

Circumcision and devotion to Judaism was no longer necessary

To be attached to Jesus that one did not have to become a Jew first to become a Jesus follower

But by faith in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ one could be redeemed and brought into the people of God

So on principle, Timothy doesn't need to be circumcised. He's free to live

Uncircumcised in his flesh because he is devoted to Jesus Christ as Lord

But Paul understands the practicality of the matter

That while he's settled in that and the church is settled in that

There are still people in the wider church that are caught up in that that are wrestling with that and to bring

Timothy with him into various places. He will go particularly among Jewish populations

will be problematic and

So Timothy is asked to do the difficult thing

to be circumcised and

Therefore to avoid the source of anxiety and uncertainty that's present in the church. So Timothy

Consents to that he's circumcised and he joins

Paul in this ministry

We do not know at the beginning of the text how significant that is that we hear that his father is a Greek

But by the time we get to the end of the story, we'll realize the Greek being Greek and going to Greece is what this text is

all about and

The larger point I want to raise up here for consideration is that God is always in the business of raising up people

new people

young people

different people

People from different cultures and contexts people from different nations and nationalities

God is raising up new and different people

Who he intends to appoint and anoint to be a part of his ministry and service in the world

Because the gospel is for all people

everywhere

We understood that the gospel was to the Jew first and then also to the Gentile

But we understand that Jews are going to have a difficult time the further away they go of

Translating culture and context without prejudice. It's just the reality of human limits

It's easier to go perhaps one degree of separation or two degrees of separation

Away from what's normal and natural for us

But by the time we're asked to go three times away our heads are spinning

So it takes new people to reach new people in new places and new generations

The spirit of God is raising up new people

And I want to encourage you Christ Church to ask the question in these days

Who is God raising up calling to be a part of our fellowship our ministry our witness in the community

Who's new in time? Who's new from a new generation who comes from a new place that while it adds complexity to the congregation

It adds strength and opportunity

To those who have yet to be reached

In the book of Acts we were told that the meaning of Pentecost

Included that the spirit now would be poured out on all people

That would be young people and older people

Men and women rich and free slave and and freed people the spirit would be poured out upon all of them

And they would be given gifts to speak and to bear witness to Jesus

They would have dreams and they would have visions

It would be a prophetic community that would advance the mission of Jesus to the uttermost

parts of the world and this is what's unfolding in the book of Acts and it comes with some difficulty and some

Uncertainty as there's division between Paul and Barnabas between Silas and now Timothy

The mission teams in some ways are breaking up, but now there's more than one team

Barnabas will go with John Mark to Cyprus and Cyrene, which is where he's from and Paul and Silas and now young Timothy

Will continue on this journey heading across what is modern-day Turkey

Seeking to encourage the churches. They have already started but also to proclaim the gospel among new people

And as we see in the story, they are adjusting as best they can

To accommodate these social sensitivities of the community

They want to do it without compromising the integrity of the gospel or their growth in Christ likeness

But yes, a half Jew Greek

Convert is what now in the company of the Apostle Paul

As they go forward to advance the gospel

And I wonder as I visit Christ Church today as I visit churches week to week

I look out for who are the new people

That God has brought into your fellowship

People who come from a different space

From a different culture or class from a different nationality or heritage

That both challenges the church and strengthens the church by that diversity and that inclusion

That's what the church is wrestling to do in the time of the Apostle Paul

And so Luke goes on and says that Paul and his companions

While the church is being strengthened and built up day by day. They they're not traveling again

And they go throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia get your map out and look at this this afternoon

They're traveling across modern-day Turkey from east to west pretty much along the southern half

And they're going from region to region

Having been kept by the Holy Spirit. We're told from preaching the word in the province of asia

And then when they came to the border of missia another district, they tried to enter the city of bithynia

But again in perplexity the spirit of jesus would not allow them to

So they passed by missia

And they went down to troas

Luke is eager for us to understand that the spirit who is with the believers and filling the apostles

For their ministry is giving them guidance day to day

In the covenant church, we've historically talked about the important one of our covenant affirmations is the cultivation

Of a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit

That in our walk with jesus, there's the marvel and mystery that the spirit of jesus

Comes to fill us and to rest in us to give us wisdom and guidance

And direction both broadly and sometimes very specifically like

Get up across the room and go talk to that person kind of guidance

And some of it's positive and this case some of it's negative like don't do this

I know you want to go here, but the spirit says no, this is not for you and that happens twice in a row

Perhaps frustrating to paul and his companions

Perhaps they've journeyed long and it's about time for cocktail hour

Or maybe whatever they would have done in that time and they were hoping to get off the road and find

A little place, but the spirit says no keep traveling. This is not for you twice in a row

They're wearied and tired and don't understand why this isn't as good a town or that for us to go

But there's no discussion about the debate

Simply luke tells us that the spirit of jesus sovereignly

Says he would not allow them to

And so they finally come down to troas on the coast

And now a divine appointment occurs for the apostle

During the night paul had a vision of a man of macedonia

Standing and begging him and hear these words

Come over to macedonia and help us

Come over to macedonia and help us

Come over to macedonia

and help us

And paul realized the holy spirit was speaking to him

When they had set out they had no plan to go beyond the bounds of what we would call turkey today

They were on a land trip. They only packed for their land trip

You know, they didn't bring their ocean going close or whatever they needed there

This was a five-day trip or whatever. No, there's a pivot by the movement of the spirit come over to macedonia and help us

And after paul had seen the vision he discusses it with luke and with sylas and with timothy

For the first time in the book of acts you see this now in this text

The word we drops in here in verse 10 of chapter 16

We

Includes luke the author so it's very possible that in this moment luke who has

Recorded all things in luke's gospel doing his research

Now actually becomes participant and travel companion

In the second missionary journey with paul and sylas and timothy because only now does he say we

Got ready and that's his continuing frame of reference

We got ready at once to leave for macedonia. We concluded

God has called us to preach the gospel to them

You see christian experience of the holy spirit

Builds on the christian witness. We have a scripture

The bible tells us to go into all the world and preach the gospel

That's pretty broad

We could sit with that text and say okay, we're to go into all the world and preach the gospel

But where should we go first?

Where should we go next? There's no answer to that in the bible

The bible is broad counsel for all god's people throughout time

But the spirit of jesus is able to take

That and apply it to us in time and space contextually

The spirit is able to prompt individuals and communities

About what their next step is

About which door is open and which door is closed

We don't pit the spirit against scripture. We understand the spirit illuminates the word of god

And applies it to our life for the sake of discipleship and mission

So paul wakes comes in the morning and says i've had a vision he processes it when his team

And he realizes the spirit is calling us to go where we have not even imagined or prepared to go

And a marvelous thing

After two nos in a row

The spirit now says go go go

And they do

You see it is the spirit's work

Who serves as our advocate

And our guide

The spirit both restrains us

And constrains us

The spirit prohibits

And the spirit promotes

The guidance of the holy spirit is both negative

And positive

The closing of doors

And the opening of doors

I thank god

For every door

That the holy spirit has closed

In my life

If every door was open my life would be a train wreck

I'd just be a mess

I can't handle every open door

At tv show door number one door number two door number three remember that back in the day

No, we there is an open door for us

in revelation three

In the letters of john to the seven churches in asia the area where paul is now

Jesus introduces himself this way to the church in philadelphia

These are the words of him who is holy and true

Who holds the key of david

What he opens no one can shut

And what he shuts no one can open

I know your deeds

See i have placed before you an open door

That no one can shut

Christ church

God has closed some doors to you in this time

Thank god for closed doors

Closed doors for you probably means an open door for somebody else

It's not all about us

But god opens doors for you

And an open door for you

Is a closed door for somebody else

Your call is to discern lord what doors are open for us

And you are nudging us to go through

And which doors are closed to us?

How do we know the difference between an open door and a closed door?

While you push on all the doors

You're not passive in saying oh lord open the door for me and I shall proceed

You say no we tried to go here and it didn't work

We learned from that lesson and then we tried to go here

And it didn't work and we learned from that lesson and we stepped back and we reflected

It seems that the spirit of the lord both in our hearts and in our experience

Has closed that door to us and we should rest in that

But when the lord speaks in ways that we can hear and discern together

That god has opened the door for us then he's holding it open for us

Then we should proceed together in faith and obedience

Friends what is your open door?

What opportunity it isn't necessarily the opportunity right here or here

It's not always right on the path the smooth path. We'd like it to be on

Sometimes the open door is in a place. We weren't prepared to go

And it requires a trip across the water

to another place

Macedonia

And the man we don't know and a story we haven't yet heard

We get enough insight and enough clarity that we can walk by faith faith is never presumption

Faith is taking god

at his word

God opens the door and he holds it open for our obedience

So paul and his companions

Hearing that and discerning it together

Make plans and they proceed across the water

Stopping in samathrists and then to neapolis and then to filipi it seemed to be always paul's aspiration

Then when he went from province to province he went to the capital city in that region

And began from there to share the gospel and to see

Where he might find an open audience and he does this here

He goes across to macedonia lands at neapolis

Goes to filipi, which is a roman colony and it is the capital of that region

And they spend several days there

And then on the sabbath day we're told

They come down

to the river

Often expecting to find a place of prayer

Now there's synergy in this text. I want to point out to you between

Peter's experience in acts 10 and paul's experience in acts 16

I think luke puts these here to show us parallel experience to these two apostles who sometimes butted heads

And yet ultimately collaborated

Peter gets credit for being the apostle that breaks the barrier and goes to cornelius's house

And before he can even give the invitation the holy spirit falls upon them

Gathered there and it's like pentecost part two

And they go oh evay

The spirit is given to gentiles

They hadn't even been baptized and they certainly hadn't been circumcised

And they realized god is really serious the gospel is going to gentiles

But it was peter who got the privilege of saying yeah, you know

I had a vision and I obeyed the vision and I went and this is what happened

And I get to be the first to preach to the gentiles through a roman centurion now here paul

In act 16 says well peter has his story

I had a vision too in the middle of a night when we were here in troas

And I get to be the one who travels across the water

To be the first to proclaim the gospel among greeks

Greeks what do we have about greeks around here? Oh timothy

Timothy who I thought that was going to be problematic because he's half greek and half jew

Let's put him out in front here

Because timothy embodies in himself in his own life story. I bet he even speaks greek

like a greek

Yes, god is preparing the church to walk through the open door with grace

and understanding

And so they go down to the river

expecting to find a place of prayer

And lo and behold, we don't find a man from mastodonia here, do we?

We sat down and began to speak to the women

Who had gathered here

And one of those listening is a woman

From the city of thigh attire a thigh attire is back over in turkey

But her name is lydia

We're giving her name

Lydia lydia is a businesswoman

A dealer in purple cloth

That's luxury goods in the ancient world

Purple cloth was tray expensive

Oh only the wealthy may enter if you had purple cloth and you you were adorned in purple cloth

You were in the one percent

She's a wealthy businesswoman under an international business trip

And she is a worshipper of god

A vision of a man from mastodonia come and help us

Find its initial answer in a woman who's not even from those parts

But on a business trip in filipi at the river

Who is in her own way the best she understands

A worshipper of god

As cornelius was a godfearer and a roman centurion

Who came to trust in christ through the ministry of peter

Lydia is a worshipper of god

Who first hears the message of jesus through the lips of the apostle paul

And a young protégé timothy

We should never ignore the reality that god

Maintains a wider witness and presence in the world

Than we are often aware of

It doesn't mean we give into universalism

And lose the distinctive of the gospel

It means that we always believe that god is at work ahead of us

That whatever light people have some people are responding to that light

Some are groping some are uncertain

But there are people who don't yet know the gospel of jesus

Who cultivate a heart of prayer

Who worship god as best they know

And perhaps in their prayers there's oh god i wish i could know you better

But how could that be?

And one comes in the fullness of time

To tell the story of how god has come into the world

Himself in the person of jesus so that we might know god face to face

And know the story of the forgiveness of our sins

And the gift of eternal life

And luke says in this marvelous moment of trembling uncertainty

At this beachhead in massadonia

In a journey that's gone farther than they ever imagined or certainly asked

The lord opened lilias heart

To respond to paul's message

It's not that paul was so erudite and convincing

Paul confessed about himself. He says i'm not an impressive preacher

I write pretty heavy letters. He says i'm just not that great a preacher

It's not about the preacher and their persuasion. He's not a greek

Retirition with flourish and fanfare

It is not paul who opened her heart

Notice what the text says

The lord

opened

her heart

Friends there's no greater gift

No greater witness of our own life

And to come to that moment in our own time and story

Where the lord

Opens our heart to the gospel

Whether it's in a church service under the ministry of a preacher

Whether it's watching someone on television

Whether it's reading a scripture

Whether it's through the witness of a friend in a coffee shop

Whatever the story is the most marvelous day in our life

Is when the lord opens our heart

To respond to the message and we realize for ourselves

God is

speaking to me

God is calling me to believe that christ

Lived and died and rose for me and is calling me to trust and to follow him

And that happens

For lydia the first disciple on what we will call the european

continent

Now paul and his group they're just moving within the roman empire from province to province in place to place

The fact that it goes across the aegean to what is macedonia is fairly incidental to paul

But in the perspective of history

When we think about all that has happened in what we would call western christianity

And all that has gone from europe and broadly understood to the uttermost parts of the world the great

missionary movements that have gone out from to europe

Excuse me and from europe

This is the beginning of it right here

The first convert in what we will call europe

Is a business woman

Her name is lydia

She's a dealer in luxury goods

And she's well established and has a large household

And luke tells us that having believed and being baptized

She then invites

All of them into her home for the spread shall we say

If you consider me a believer in the lord

Come and stay at my house

Hospitality is always an essential part of discipleship

particularly in the book of acts

And

Lydia is not just here to be converted and then to depart

lydia brings the gospel

To her whole household. She's head of household here

For she and the members of her household are baptized

In the ancient world the smallest social unit was not the individual

It was the household

As goes the householder so goes the household

The philippian jailer will be the same way he will be converted and then his whole household

Everyone there his family servants all of them

Would be baptized and brought into the christian faith the same thing here lydia makes a decision

It's compelling upon her entire household to be baptized

Men women servants children

Whoever's there are invited into their home now

And her home becomes the launch pad for the gospel's expansion throughout greece and macedonia

You're bringing me a cup bless your brother

Oh, that's great wine, thank you

All right

And so what I want to share with us this morning to think about

The lord is directing both the preacher and the hearer

He's been preparing lydia to hear this message for some time

Think of all the things that the holy spirit is doing

In and through this movement to bring the right people to the right person at the right place at the right time

Pivot the story and think of it through lydia's perspective

Lydia is a worshipper of god best she understands she's carrying out her business

She's made a business trip across to macedonia to sell her purple goods on a Sabbath day

She's gathered at the river as a place of prayer and to kibitz with other women

And these men come and sit here at the river

And begin to tell a story and in that telling of the story

A heart is strangely warned

And faith in jesus christ begins to emerge and she confesses i believe you paul

And paul observing the sincerity of her heart

And then says well baptism is next and she and her old

Householder baptized and now the church will begin in the house of lydia in macedonia and beyond

paul's responsibility

Was simply after the vision to discern it in the community and then to say

We should go we should proceed

Through the open door

Friends when we walk through the open door

God is the one who's prepared for what's on the other side

We're not responsible for everything that's consequence

God is responsible in the consequence

Our responsibility is in the obedience

To come to that unanticipated place

Where a new base of witness will be established

And from there the gospel will spread to Athens and to Corinth and to baria

And then to the uttermost parts of the world

Christ church, let's walk for a minute ten years from now in our imagination

Let's let's say together that somewhere in the next season the holy spirit speaks to you

And says no

No

Yes

And in that no no yes you discern together in real time

The lord is calling us to venture forth together

To advance the mission of jesus among people who need help

And we go

And we never imagine what may happen

What begins with one person

With one name and one story in one place

Establishes a beachhead that leads to something else

And then ten years from now

All the fruit that emerges from that

We look back on and say we never could have asked or imagined

For that it was not anything we did it was the lord preparing people in advance

All we did was take one step at one time

Of faithful obedience to push on a door and behold it swings open

And we proceed

Churches that are healthy and discipleship

And missional and adventure

Are simply churches willing to listen

For the voice of the spirit

And lean into opportunities

And to see what the lord may do

The rest is history and fruitfulness and adventure

Our task is to discern the difference between no no no no no

And yes yes yes yes yes

And in that space to be faithful to the risen lord

Who is with us

My prayer as your brother in christ and superintendent

Is that i will share with you in the joy and the journey

Of that discernment

In this next season of your life. What is jesus calling you to do together?

May that adventure of faith and faithfulness fill your hearts with joy

And anticipation

And might you in your own life of prayer

Listen for what the lord by the spirit is saying to the church

Amen