The Gospel Comes to Europe

Tonight will be from Acts chapter 16, verses 11 to 40.

Acts 16:11–40

Once, when we were going to a place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.

She earned a great deal of money from her owners by fortune telling.

This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting,

These men are servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved.

She kept this up for many days.

Finally, Paul became so troubled that he turned round and said to the spirit,

In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her.

At that moment, the spirit left her.

When the owners of the slave girl realised that their hope of making money was gone,

they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.

They brought them before the magistrates and said,

These men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas,

and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten.

After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison,

and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.

Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God,

and the other prisoners were listening to them.

Suddenly, there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

At once, all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.

The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open,

he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

But Paul shouted,

Don't harm yourself, we're all here.

The jailer called the lights, rushed in, and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

He then brought them out and asked,

Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

They replied,

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.

At that hour of the night, the jailer took them and washed their wounds.

Then immediately he and all his family were baptized.

The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them.

He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God,

he and his whole family.

When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order,

Release those men.

The jailer told Paul,

The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released.

Now you can lean.

Go in peace.

But Paul said to the officers,

They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison.

And now do they want to get rid of us quietly?

No.

Let them come themselves and escort us out.

The officers reported this to the magistrates,

and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed.

They came to appease them and escort them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city.

After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house,

where they met with the brothers and encouraged them.

Then they left.

Turn with me in your Bibles once again to Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

I want to read from verse 11 to verse 15,

and then we'll think about the whole of chapter 16 from that point on.

Here is the moment where the gospel begins to break through in pagan Europe.

So Acts chapter 16 at verse 11,

Acts 16 · chapter mention

From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace,

and the next day 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 named Lydia,

a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira,

who 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.

So we've been looking for the last few weeks at Paul's missionary journeys,

journeys that began from Antioch,

the church in Antioch, Paul's sending church.

So for this evening, I want us to imagine that we are Paul's sending church in Antioch.

So we've gathered together for worship once again,

and we are preparing to hear a letter that's come in from the mission field,

written by Dr. Luke,

to tell us about the progress of the mission.

Imagine how we would feel the sense of excitement as we read of these individuals

and the way God was working.

Imagine the praise.

Imagine how encouraging it would be to us as a young church,

surrounded by a largely hostile culture,

to be reminded of the fact that God is building his church.

Acts chapter 16 is an interesting one.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

There's been lots of momentum.

Acts is a really action-packed book.

Lots of momentum in the last few chapters.

We see the gospel advancing in towns and cities.

We see opposition to the gospel.

But it's kind of like wide scale.

It's, yeah, wide screen.

But here, Dr. Luke deliberately slows down and zooms in.

Now the attention is not simply on the city of Philippi.

And now he's looking at these individuals that Paul and Silas and the others met

and whose lives were changed by their encounters with Jesus.

So Dr. Luke deliberately records for us three of the earliest converts to Christianity in Europe.

So if we were sitting here in Antioch,

this prayer letter would be telling us of the first time that people had turned to faith in Jesus in Europe.

And so I want us to have that mindset and for us to think,

what lessons are there for us in the mission that we are engaged in?

And as we pray for mission in Edinburgh and Scotland and Europe and indeed around the world.

The first lesson I think that we would probably draw instinctively is we'd be reminded that the gospel is powerful.

Here we see once again God's gospel breaking through barriers.

So at first sight, Philippi in Europe doesn't sound like a very promising place for the church to take root and grow.

Let me give you a few reasons for saying that.

So when they arrive in Philippi, Paul's usual practice, we discovered this,

his usual practice when he finds a new mission center,

he'll go to where the Jews are gathering,

where people are still anticipating the coming of their Messiah.

And he'll say from scripture, the one you're waiting for is Jesus.

But when he comes to Philippi, that can't happen.

Verse 13, on the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate to the river

where we expected to find a place of prayer.

So we know there is no synagogue in Philippi,

which means there must have been less than 10 Jewish men in the city of Philippi.

The law was if there was 10 Jewish men, they were allowed to have a synagogue.

So there'd be at least 10 families or at least 10 individuals waiting for the Messiah

who Paul could begin to engage with.

That doesn't happen here.

So he needs to go to this alternative to this place of prayer.

Another way in which we see that this is not a very promising,

this is a hard ground for the gospel, in verse 16.

Once when we were going to the place of prayer,

we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.

She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling.

So this is a city where evil spirits are prominent.

This is a culture where the presence of evil can be felt,

and where even worse than that, people are actually profiting,

making money from the work of evil spirits.

Doesn't seem very promising for gospel work.

And then we can go down to verse 22 as another example.

So the owners of the slave girl, once she's changed and she's unable to predict the future,

they call or they haul Paul and Silas to the marketplace.

In verse 22, the crowd join in the attack against Paul and Silas,

and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten.

After they'd been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison.

So here is wide-scale opposition.

So the slave owners, they don't want the gospel.

It seems like a lot of people in the city gather together to oppose it,

and the magistrates are also standing against Paul and others

who would want to share the good news of Jesus,

attacking them, imprisoning them without trial,

as they'll discover despite the fact that Paul is a Roman citizen.

It doesn't seem like a very promising ground for God to do a work.

But the wonderful thing is God has his saving plan,

and Dr. Luke draws attention to the fact that out of this darkness,

God is working to call followers to Jesus

out of this moral and spiritual darkness.

Now, that's a very basic point,

but I think it's one that we can never hear often enough.

It's significant for us today in terms of how we pray

when we think about mission,

because we will know of situations and missionaries

who are active and churches who are active

where the church is small and fragile

and surrounded by hostility.

We will know of people working and situations

where evil spirits are a part of life,

where the demonic is a huge feature of the culture.

Thailand, Haiti, parts of Africa, many other places.

We know of situations where the government

and those who are in authority

want to crack down on Christianity

and would love to make sharing the gospel illegal.

We can think of so many places in the Middle East,

in North Africa, in China, in North Korea.

So in other parts of the world, we can pray

because we know that other people are having

these kind of experiences,

but the gospel is powerful,

and God is still seeking to build his church.

But for us here, I think it's important for us

to take heart for Edinburgh,

to take heart for Scotland and the UK.

Here we are discovering that Jesus' power

is greater than all the forces of opposition.

Here we are discovering the gospel can break through

a pagan culture as Europe was then,

and bearing in mind that Jesus is the same,

yesterday, today, and forever,

we are invited as God's people to be confident in him,

to trust that God is concerned for his glory,

that God is concerned to build his church,

that God is calling men and women and boys and girls

to faith in him,

and we are called to be part of that mission enterprise.

So I wonder if, as we think about that,

it's time for us to repent and believe,

perhaps to say to God,

I do believe, help my unbelief.

It can be hard to keep our faith

in the powerful gospel of God's grace in Jesus

when we meet with so much apathy,

when we see hostility,

or just people who don't seem interested.

We can lose heart.

We can be fearful.

But here is an invitation to believe

that he's still building his church

and he can still use us for his glory.

And so we see the gospel is powerful

and it breaks through barriers.

We see that God is powerful

and he opens people's hearts.

I think another thing that we would see

as we gather together to read this letter,

as we listen to Dr. Luke's words,

we'd be struck by the significant transformation

that's happening in the lives of these individuals.

And we'd be struck by the way Dr. Luke records it

because he makes plain

that it's the work of God that brings lasting change,

that it's as people believe in Jesus

that their lives are transformed.

We're reading of conversions

and we're being reminded

that someone coming to faith in the Lord Jesus,

that's God's work and not ours,

that we respond to the work that God does.

Let's see that in Lydia's case.

Lydia, who it seems like,

is the very first convert in Europe.

What do we know about Lydia?

In verse 14, we meet Lydia.

She's a dealer in purple cloth.

She seems to run some kind of fashion house.

So she is a wealthy lady.

We discover too that she was a worshiper of God.

So she is somebody who's not Jewish,

but she's become a convert to the Jewish faith.

She's not living as a Jew,

but she's reading the scriptures.

She's praying to the God of the Bible.

And so she gathers with other like-minded people

to pray on the Sabbath.

And what happens at the end of verse 14?

We're told the Lord opened her heart

to respond to Paul's message.

So in modern terms,

we would describe her as a seeker.

She's reading, she's praying,

she's putting herself in the place

where she can hear more.

But still, it's God by his spirit

that causes her to believe in Jesus as Savior.

Maybe this is the first time

she's discovered that all the promises

of God in the Old Testament

are fulfilled in the coming of Jesus, the Savior.

That he is the promised king.

That he is the true Passover lamb.

That he is the suffering servant

of Isaiah chapter 53.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

And God enables her to trust,

to believe in Jesus.

And we see evidence of her conversion.

First of all, in her baptism, verse 15,

when she and the members of her household

were baptized,

she invited us to her home.

So there's baptism,

this outward sign of an inner change.

She's now a member of God's family.

And just as Jesus called the disciples

to baptize people in the name

of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

now that she's believing,

she's baptized.

And then she shows hospitality.

She invited us to her home, verse 15.

If you consider me a believer in the Lord,

come and stay at my house.

So Paul and Silas and the others,

they've now got a mission base

in Lydia's house.

But we see how that develops.

By verse 40, read verse 40 with me.

After Paul and Silas came out of the prison,

they went to Lydia's house

where they met with the brothers

and encouraged them.

So it seems like the church begins to meet

and gather at Lydia's house.

So she's opening up her home,

she's using her resources

in order to allow God's church to grow.

Here is evidence of a transformed life.

Now, with the next person we meet,

in a sense, couldn't be any more different

to Lydia.

Where Lydia was wealthy and influential

and seeking after God,

we meet this slave girl in verse 16.

A slave girl who had a spirit

by which she predicted the future.

She earned a great deal of money

for her owners by fortune telling.

This girl followed Paul

and the rest of us shouting,

these men are the servants

of the Most High God

who are telling you the way to be saved.

So she's poor,

she's exploited,

she's a slave twice over

because she's a slave to this evil spirit

as well as being a slave to her owners.

There is this sort of striking situation

where she is, in a sense,

witnessing to the truth

of Paul and Silas' message.

But it's perhaps likely

that the evil spirit

is trying to discredit their ministry.

Everybody, I think,

would know this girl.

So as she comes alongside

Paul and Silas

and as they're listening to her

and they're listening to him

and they've got the same message,

perhaps the evil spirit

is hoping to discredit

what Paul and Silas are saying.

But what we discover

is that Paul becomes troubled.

In verse 18,

he's grieved by her situation.

So he turns around

and said to the spirit,

in the name of Jesus Christ,

I command you to come out of her.

At that moment,

the spirit left her.

So we read the Gospels

and we discover

spiritual opposition to Jesus.

We discover so many

who are possessed by evil spirits

and evil spirits

who know that Jesus is the Lord

but they hate him for it.

And we see that Jesus

is able to drive them out

with a word

because he is greater.

And here again,

we see that there is no context.

As Paul drives the spirit out

in the name of Jesus,

instantly the spirit leaves.

There is no contest spiritually.

Jesus always wins.

He is greater

than the power of evil.

And then we see God's power

in the life of the prison jailer.

So verse 23.

So when the owners realize

that they can't make money anymore

and they cause this fuss

and they bring Paul and Silas

into the marketplace

and they are arrested,

end of verse 23,

the jailer was commanded

to guard them carefully.

Upon receiving such orders,

he put them in the inner cell

and fastened their feet

in the stock.

So here is a professional.

He's going about his business.

He's been told to make sure

that these prisoners

don't escape,

that they don't cause any bother.

So he puts them

in the inner cell.

But while they are in prison,

the jailer receives

some remarkable impressions.

Verse 25.

About midnight,

Paul and Silas

were praying

and singing hymns

to God.

So the prison jailer

gets to hear

this remarkable testament.

Here they've been flogged

and beaten

and put in incredibly

uncomfortable stocks,

but they're singing praise

to God.

And not only that,

this jailer,

he witnesses God's power.

He witnesses God's power,

first of all,

in an earthquake.

Suddenly there was

such a violent earthquake

that the foundations

of the prison were shaken.

And then he sees God's power

in the fact that

despite this earthquake,

none of the prisoners

escape.

Going on in verse 26,

at once all the prison doors

flew open

and everybody's chains

came loose.

So you're expecting

prison break.

Of course,

especially when there's no chains

and there's open doors.

The jailer,

knowing that this escape

is more than his life's worth,

the jailer woke up

and when he saw

the prison doors open,

he drew his sword

and was about to kill himself

because he thought

the prisoners had escaped,

but Paul shouted,

don't harm yourself,

we are here.

This is not natural,

this is the power of God.

And it seems like the jailer,

having listened to Paul

and Silas,

credits it to them

as the men of God.

So here he finds himself

at the lowest point

in his life

when he's ready

to kill himself

and now he calls

for a light

and he falls before

Paul and Silas

and he asks that question

in verse 30,

sirs,

what must I do

to be saved?

And they replied,

believe in the Lord Jesus

and you will be saved,

you and your household.

Here is a reminder

of the extent

of God's grace.

It is open to anybody.

This working class guy

who had no thought

for Paul and Silas

and their message,

this guy who'd been brought

so low

that he was about

to kill himself,

God speaks to his heart,

God convicts him

of his needs

and he hears

that Jesus is the saviour

for him.

And again,

there's evidence

of his conversion.

We see it

in his hospitality.

No longer is he keeping

Paul and Silas

in the stocks.

Verse 33,

he takes them home

and washes their wounds.

He gives them a meal

in verse 34.

And he and his family

are baptized.

So if you read this prayer letter

from Dr. Luke

from the field in Philippi,

what impression are we getting

of the mission of the church?

We're getting this impression

that God is building

his church in Europe.

And he's doing that

by his power

and he's doing that

by his grace.

And we're learning,

again,

that anyone

who believes in Jesus

can and will be saved.

And again,

there are lessons

for us to reflect on.

Here is one of them.

The gospel creates

one church

from many backgrounds.

You couldn't get

a more diverse

beginning to a church

than what we have

in Philippi.

this wealthy woman,

this slave girl,

and this working class man.

But their diversity

speaks to

the power of the gospel.

It speaks to

the believability

of the church.

When the only thing

that a group of people

have together,

the only thing

that we share in common

is the fact

that we love Jesus,

that we've been saved

from our sin

through the finished work

of Jesus on the cross,

then that creates

a believability

where we're not just together

because we're

the same sort of social type.

It's not like

every other social club.

People think

that the church

is like a social club,

but it's not like that

because we all come

from different backgrounds,

different places,

different educations,

but we're brought together

because we love Jesus.

Every year,

we get an invite

slipped through the door,

an invitation

to our local bowling club

and their summer fest.

I used to like bowling,

carpet bowling

as a teenager,

wildlife and sky.

But one year,

we decided,

yeah, we'll go to this.

We'll see our neighbours,

we'll get to know folks.

And so we took,

the boys were still

fairly little at this point,

so we decided

to walk along the road

and we'd go to

the bowling club fest.

Well, we got as far

as the gate

and we looked in

and we saw nice tables,

nice white tablecloths,

everybody very prim

and proper,

everybody the same kind

of age and stage in life.

And we decided,

perhaps,

not for us.

That invitation

didn't seem to fit.

It said we were welcome,

but it seemed like

we would kind of stick out.

But when anybody

is invited to a local church,

it should never be like that.

There should be that sense

that whoever we are,

whatever our background,

whatever our faith background,

we should be able to come

and feel welcome

and able to hear

the good news of Jesus.

So the gospel creates

one church from many backgrounds

and we see that

in their stories.

Now we see it in

how they came to faith.

For Lydia,

she was a seeker.

Her need, in a sense,

was intellectual.

She needed to know

that the good news promise

in the Old Testament

had been fulfilled

in the coming of Jesus,

the Son of God

and the Savior of the world.

For the slave girl,

her need was very different.

It seemed like she had

lost her identity

because she was possessed

by evil spirits.

So she needed to be set free

so that she could be herself.

in Christ.

And then it seems like

the jailer

has a moral need.

It's interesting that he asks,

what must I do to be saved?

Commentators suggest

here is an example

of somebody

who's got a stricken

moral conscience.

Different points of need,

different social situation.

somebody of great power

and influence,

somebody of no significance

at all to most,

somebody who's brought

to the very lowest point

where they want

to end their own lives,

and they all discover

God's grace to them

in Jesus.

I wonder,

do we see

or hear something

of our story

in them?

them.

Have we come

to appreciate

that same grace

and power

and love

that they received

is also available

for us,

for you,

this evening,

through faith

in the Lord Jesus.

The last thing

to say about

the power of God

in opening people's hearts

is that what's clear

in the way

that Dr. Luke writes it

is that God saves,

but we must respond.

The message

of the Bible

is that God

has completed

a work of salvation,

that by ourselves

we are sinful,

we choose to walk away

from God

and his love,

and we are unable

by ourselves

to ever find

a way back to God.

So if we are ever

to know and enjoy God,

God must do something

and that's what he did

in sending his son,

Jesus.

So Jesus comes

to be perfectly obedient

where we are disobedient

and he comes

to die on the cross

to take our sins

and the punishment

that that deserves

on himself

to give us forgiveness

and eternal life

and that's a completed work

that we are called on

to believe in,

to believe in Jesus

as Savior.

It's a gift of grace.

It's something

that we must receive.

It's not something

that we earn.

It's not something

we work towards.

It's a gift

that we receive

and it's also,

as we discover from this,

it's a gospel

that we must share.

But let's think about

how we see this

in Lydia's story.

In Lydia's story,

verse 14,

it says to us,

the Lord opened her heart.

So there's God's work

in salvation.

But how does he do it?

He does it

through Paul's preaching.

So God chooses

the means of preaching

in order to carry out

his work of salvation.

And it says,

the Lord opened her heart,

but she obviously then

had to still believe.

So she says in verse 15,

if you consider me

a believer in the Lord.

So there is response.

God works in salvation,

but we are called

to share the gospel

if we're Christians,

and we're called

to believe the gospel

if we're not Christians.

And so all of us

are being invited constantly

to respond to the gospel,

either to believe in Jesus,

to forgive our sin

and to be our savior,

or to have faith,

to speak and act

for his glory

so that others

might meet Jesus

for themselves.

One last thing to notice

as we think about this

missionary letter,

and that's to see

that God's providence

serves his saving plan.

Imagine again,

this is the first time

you're reading this prayer letter

from Dr. Luke.

I wonder how we would feel.

Would there be a groan

when the angry crowd

attacked the missionaries?

Would we be thinking

to ourselves,

ah, what a waste

when they are thrown

into prison?

But as the story goes on,

we see how God

is able to use that.

The God of providence

is able to work good

even out of evil,

out of injustice,

out of torture

and hatred

and hostility.

And isn't that the story

of the cross?

That the greatest injustice

that has ever been carried out

in the world

is that men and women

wanted the death

of the perfect,

sinless son of God.

But God,

in his providence,

had planned for that.

And he used

the death of Jesus

in order

that men and women

and boys and girls,

as Fergus was praying,

might be turned

from enemies of God

into friends of God.

And that's what we see

in sort of verse 25 onwards,

that the arrest

of Paul and Silas

allows them

to be ambassadors

for Christ

in chains.

They have this

incredible witness

at midnight

praying and singing

hymns to God

where we would expect

groans,

we get songs,

where we would expect

curses,

we hear blessing.

They sound just like

Jesus on the cross.

Didn't shout insults

and curses

back at the crowd

that were baying

for his blood

and mocking him.

Rather,

he prayed,

Father,

forgive them.

They know not

what they're doing.

And in God's providence,

their powerful witness

is used

to bring

the jailer

to faith.

I read this week

a story

from the

Scottish Bible Society

from a woman

taken captive

by Al-Qaeda

in Syria.

For two years,

she'd been kept

in darkness

with her daughter

for two years.

They'd been tortured

and been told

if you turn to Islam,

we'll let you go free

immediately.

Well,

she said at some point

a guard

found a Bible

and the guard

wanted to hear

the Bible.

And so she began

to share

her faith.

and she said

that she had

the joy

before her release

to hear this

from her prison guards.

We have learned

to love Jesus

because of you.

And there again

is the providence

of God.

The worst

of evil

being turned

in God's hand

into grace

and salvation

for prison guards.

And so I think

this is a reminder

to us

never to underestimate

the power

of personal testimony,

to recognize

that the way

we approach

and experience

suffering

can speak

powerfully

to others,

that our lifestyle

matters

when we have

integrity at work,

when we avoid

gossip,

when we deal

well with suffering.

that speaks

to people

who are watching.

When we share

Jesus

as our hope

in the middle

of hardship,

it's a powerful

testimony

that's really

hard to refute.

Somebody once

said that the

providence of God

is not a heavy

hammer,

it's a soft

pillow.

Humanly speaking,

sometimes our

circumstances

can seem hard

and bleak

and we may

be tempted

to turn on God

and to accuse God

and to ask

questions of God

and there's a place

for that

but there's also

a place

for recognizing

that God

is with us,

that God

has planned

these things

and God

is able to use

even our suffering

for our good

and also

for the good

of others,

that the

providence

of God

is a comfort

to us

and it's also

important for us

in that sense

of mission

that we are

called to,

whatever our

circumstances,

God can use us

to seek to

extend

his kingdom.

But if the only

thing that we

can do

is to pray

then we're doing

a wonderful

thing

for God's

kingdom.

So that's

the beginning

of the story

of gospel

breakthrough

in Europe.

And wouldn't

it be amazing

for us

to have

that same

story to

tell in

21st century

Europe,

to recognize

that God

is at work

saving lives

and planting

churches

and renewing

established

churches.

And praise God,

that's what we're

seeing in our

city and in our

country.

But there's much

more to be

done.

There are some

parts of Scotland

that are ready

to be labeled

unreached

people group

and that we're

so far removed

from the

knowledge of God,

the knowledge of

the Bible,

from the good

news of Jesus.

But God

is powerful.

The same God

who opened the

door to pagan

Europe all those

hundreds of years

ago is the same

God today.

His grace is

great and God

still has people.

He still has us

as his church

that he can use

in order to

witness,

to draw people

to Jesus.

So he calls us

to know Jesus,

to depend on

Jesus,

and then to go

in his strength

that we would

make disciples.