The Lord Plants His Church in Philippi

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Good morning.

My name is Carrie Moulton and I'm a member of the Greeters.

The New Testament lesson today is a reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16, verses 9 through 34 and verse 60.

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 Samothrace.

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 Theatira 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.

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

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

She 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 annoyed that he turned 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.

When her owners realized that their hopes 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 Silas and Paul,

and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.

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

and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.

When he received these 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.

All at once, the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose.

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

he threw 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 for 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 the house.

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

Then immediately he and all his household 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 household.

After Paul and Silas came out of the prison,

they went to Lydia's house where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them.

Then they left.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

All right, good morning.

Before I forget, we have a rose on our communion table to celebrate

that Frankie and Jesse had their baby, a baby Nina.

And so we praise God for the gift of new life.

So when we agreed to help plant a new church in Berkeley about 20 years ago,

one of the questions we asked ourselves is,

what would be the easiest place to plant a church in the United States of America?

America?

Where would people be most receptive to the message of the gospel?

Where would have the least hard and rocky soil and the most fertile and soft and receptive soil

to plant a new church that could send down roots and grow?

Well, you may be aware that 20 years ago, and even still, it's the case that the San Francisco Bay Area

is the number one.

It's at the very top of the list of the least religious, most unchurched metro areas of the United States.

And before us today is this story about the Apostle Paul,

who went to a very unpromising place where there are actually no Christians.

And he planted a church among the most unlikely people.

He goes to this city in northern Greece.

The gospel had never gone into Greece.

And he goes to northern Greece knowing that he's entering a culture that's every bit as resistant,

every bit as unsympathetic to the claims of Jesus as our culture is.

And if you think that Berkeley is not a promising place for the gospel,

Philippi is way harder, right?

I've never been, you know, the victim of a violent mob.

I've never been beaten.

I've never been thrown into jail.

And you may be like, well, if you and Andrew were a little bit more like the Apostle Paul,

right, you might get a little bit more resistance and opposition.

Now, that's a fair point.

I'm reminded of an old pastor.

He said, everywhere the Apostle Paul went, there was either a riot or a revival.

But everywhere I go, they serve tea and cookies.

So what's up with that?

But we need to know the origin story of this church

because over the coming weeks and months,

we're going to be looking at the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to this church in Philippi.

And today we're taking a look at these three transformation stories of the first converts

that made up this new church plant in the city of Philippi.

Three very different people.

Lydia, the slave girl, and the jailer,

who had three very different encounters with the gospel.

All of them resulted in the changed lives of these individuals,

but also in the changed relationships of their families

and of the community of that living and flourishing church that began there.

And so three wonderful case studies of how God changes us,

of how God transforms us.

And I want to talk about them under these three headings.

The intellectual and gospel truth,

the oppressed and gospel power,

and the pragmatic and gospel life.

Okay, so the intellectual and gospel truth,

the oppressed and gospel power,

the pragmatic and gospel life.

Let's start with the intellectual and gospel truth.

We're told in verse 13 that Paul and Silas,

they go outside of the city gate on the Sabbath,

whereas there's this kind of outdoor open air synagogue

where women are gathered to pray and read the Bible.

And as an aside,

if the apostle Paul were as patriarchal and as misogynistic

as many people interpret him to be,

I guess the question is,

wouldn't he have turned around at this point?

Wouldn't he have gone and searched for some men?

But he doesn't do that.

In fact, it's through this group of women

that the gospel enters into Europe for the first time.

And in verse 13, we're told that Paul sat down

and he began to speak with these women.

And I imagine Paul asking them,

hey, what are you learning from the Bible?

And in this conversational kind of Q&A,

this give and take back and forth,

this just little dialogue that they're having,

Paul is reasoning with them

through his exposition of the scriptures.

And we're told that this woman, Lydia,

is listening intently to Paul's message.

Now, who is Lydia?

Lydia, we're told in verse 14,

it says that she's from the city of Thyatira.

She's a dealer in purple cloth

and she's a worshiper of God.

So city of Thyatira, that's over in Asia Minor.

That's over in Turkey,

which means that she's cosmopolitan.

She's multicultural.

She travels back and forth for business

between Turkey and Greece.

She's also a dealer in purple cloth,

which is an expensive luxury good for rich people.

This means that Lydia is a savvy entrepreneur.

She's a successful businesswoman.

She runs a high-end boutique

and sells beautiful things to beautiful people,

which means that she's quite wealthy.

And we know that because she has a home that is large.

It's large enough to host lots of people.

And then it says that she's a worshiper of God,

which is kind of a technical term

that refers to Gentile people

who become dissatisfied with their pagan polytheism.

Right, she knew that something was missing.

She knew that there was more to life than what she had

and she became disenchanted with her Greco-Roman lifestyle

and she became attracted to the God of the Bible

and she began to worship Israel's God,

this God of love,

this God of high moral ideals.

So how did the gospel come to Lydia?

Well, she's this amazing woman.

She's admirable.

She's smart.

She's self-disciplined.

She's successful.

She's put together.

She's a spiritual seeker.

She worships the God of the Bible,

but that's not enough.

Right, she needs the gospel.

And verse 14 says that she's listening intently

to Paul's message

and that the Lord opened her heart

to respond to Paul's message.

So what was the message?

Maybe you remember a couple weeks back

when Jesus rose from the dead

and that Sunday afternoon,

he went on a walk with some disciples

and he gave them the world's greatest Bible study.

You remember that?

And it says that as they were walking,

he talked them through the law

and the prophets and the Psalms.

He talked them through the whole story

of the Hebrew Bible.

And he said,

didn't the Messiah have to suffer all these things

and then enter his glory?

And Jesus on that Easter Sunday,

the resurrected Jesus,

he opened their minds

to understand the scriptures.

Well, that's what Paul's doing with Lydia.

Right, Paul's just simply

walking her through that same

Easter Sunday resurrected Jesus Bible study.

And he's telling her all about

the kingdom of God

and the covenants of God.

All about the promises

that God had made to Abraham

and Isaac and Jacob.

The promises that he made to Moses

and the promises he made to David

and through the prophets.

And he says,

all of those promises that God made,

God has kept.

And he's fulfilled them all in Jesus.

And he basically says,

look, everything you've been learning

about the Bible,

it all is a signpost pointing to Jesus.

Every true prophet,

every faithful priest,

every hero,

every lamb,

every sacrifice,

every king,

every suffering servant,

every majestic Lord,

all of it is pointing you

to the God who came in the flesh

and who was crucified and resurrected.

Now here is Lydia,

this amazing woman,

and she's listening to Paul's message,

this woman whose business is beauty,

this woman who sells beautiful things

to beautiful people.

And I imagine Paul told her,

he said,

you know,

when Jesus was on the way to the cross,

they put a crown of thorns on him.

And you know what they wrapped around him?

They put a purple robe on Jesus

to mock him as a king.

But you see,

the beauty of this king

is that he gave up all of his beauty.

He gave up all of his glory

to take the curse of sin and death

that was on you

and to take it on to himself

in order that he might take the blessing

that was rightfully his, right?

The one that he earned

through his righteous life of love,

that he might put that blessing on you,

that he might wrap that beautiful robe

of his perfect righteousness around you, Lydia.

And you said,

when she heard that,

it says the Lord opened her heart

to respond to Paul's message.

And that word,

responds,

means that she was attracted to it.

She was attracted to something beautiful.

She didn't just believe it.

She wasn't just convinced by it.

But this woman whose business was beauty

was attracted to the beautiful truth

of the gospel

that she heard from Paul

and she had never found anything

of such beauty.

And the Lord opened her heart,

which is the only way

that we can be changed, right?

For this sovereign God

to come and divinely intervene

and to take a heart that's closed

and to make it open.

To take a heart that's hard

and to make it soft.

To take a heart that's resistant

and make it receptive.

To change our heart of stone

and give us a heart of flesh.

Right?

And none of us would have been attracted

to the beautiful truth of Jesus

unless God had enabled us

and unless we had been regenerated

in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Unless God had given us the gift

of repentance and faith.

And that's what Lydia receives

and that's why she's baptized

as a sign that her sins

have been washed away

by the blood of Jesus

as a symbol

that she's been buried with Christ

and raised with Him

to live in the newness of life.

It says in verse 15

that when she and the members

of her household were baptized,

she invited us to her home.

She said,

if you consider me a believer

in the Lord,

come and stay at my house.

And she persuaded us.

You see,

once our hearts are opened,

our home and our resources

are open too.

Right?

As a tangible expression

of her new life in Jesus,

she invites these missionaries

into her home.

She says,

what's mine is yours

for as long

and as much as you need it.

And in verse 40,

we're told that she became

the host of that new church plant

in her home.

She says,

I want my home

to serve as a center

for ministry.

So she demonstrated

the root of her faith

through the fruit

of her generosity

by sacrificially giving

her home

and her resources

and her time

that she might honor

the beauty of Christ

and might build up

the beauty of the church.

Friends,

when we think about

the many people

like Lydia

here in the Bay Area,

the many people

like Lydia

that are somehow

by God's design

connected to our lives,

when we think about

all the people we know

who they sense

that something's missing

in their life.

Right?

They're disenchanted

with what they currently have.

They know there's more

than this.

They're disillusioned

by the radical secularity

and the hyper-individualism

of the Bay Area.

They're disillusioned

by their dabbling

in Buddhism

or Islam.

All the DIY spirituality

and all the partisan politics

that consistently over-promises

and under-delivers.

they need our prayers.

They need us to pray.

Our friends,

our neighbors,

our co-workers

need for us to pray

because they are longing

for a beautiful truth,

the truth of the gospel

that they don't yet know

that they need.

And they need us to pray

for God to show it to them.

Right?

That they might be put

in relationships

and circumstances

and opportunities

that they too

can hear that message

of the gospel

and that the Lord

would do what only

He can do

which is to open up

their hearts

to the gospel.

Does that make sense?

This is how a church

gets planted, right?

Because you've got

intellectual people

who need to hear

gospel truth.

But then also

there's the oppressed

!

The oppressed

and gospel power!

The oppressed

and gospel power!

The second case study

of transformation

is this slave girl

who's basically

a street kid

and she's got

tons of trauma

that's creating

lots of drama.

Okay?

And verse 16

says that once we were

going to the place

of prayer

and we were met

by a female slave

who had a spirit

by which she predicted

the future

and she earned

a great deal of money

for her owners

by fortune telling.

This girl

is tragically oppressed.

She's oppressed

relationally and emotionally

because either

her parents have died

or they've been

so desperately

in debt

that they sold her

into slavery.

And she's oppressed

economically

and socially

because her

quote unquote

owners

are involved

in a business

that exploits

girls for money.

Have you ever

heard of this?

It happens today.

And she's oppressed

spiritually

and morally

because she's not

filled with the

Holy Spirit

of the living God.

She's filled

with a dark spirit.

She's controlled

by a dark power

that enables her

to tell fortunes

and predict

the future.

And if you think

this is just

first century stuff,

this is a

multi-billion dollar

industry today

and it's growing.

She,

these dark powers

cause her to fall

into trances

and speak

in strange voices.

she's just a

deeply broken

person

and a deeply

broken system.

And Paul

sees her

and he's

troubled,

right?

He's troubled

by all

that's oppressing

her

and this city.

And it says

in verse 17

that she

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.

And she kept

us up for many

days and finally

Paul became so

annoyed that he

turned around

and spoke to the

Spirit.

Now why was

Paul annoyed?

Why was he

troubled?

Well for pagans

the Most High

God is who?

It's Zeus.

Right?

And there's

actually in the

Greek there's no

definite article

that says,

hey these guys,

these servants

of the Most High

God are telling

you that,

they're telling

you the way

to be saved.

For pagan ears

they would have

just heard,

you know,

the Most High

God,

Zeus,

these servants

are just telling

you a kind

of way to

have health

and wealth

and prosperity.

That's what

everybody was

hearing this

girl say.

And isn't it

confusing,

right?

Are we talking

about the one

creator God

of Abraham,

Isaac,

and Jacob?

Are we talking

about the gods

of Mount Olympus?

Are we talking

about Jesus

just being a

kind of new

God added to

the pantheon

who's come to

minimize our

pain and maximize

our pleasure,

like all the

Greek philosophical

systems that were

on order,

the Epicureans,

for example?

Is Jesus

just a way

and a truth

and a life

one of many

possible legitimate

paths by which

we come to

God the Father?

See,

this is why

Paul is

disturbed,

right?

Because these

dark powers

are not only

oppressing this

girl,

but they're

oppressing the

people of the

city by

introducing

confusion about

the message

of the gospel.

This girl,

what she needs

is she does

not need a

reasoned exposition

of biblical

truth the way

that Lydia,

the spiritual

seeker,

needed.

Right?

This girl is

not a spiritual

seeker.

She's spiritually

hostile.

And how does

the gospel come

to this girl?

You see,

what she needs

is she needs

power.

She needs a

power to come

from outside of

her.

She needs a

power to come

inside of her

and to drive

out all that's

dark, all those

dark powers,

all those dark

spirits, and to

replace them with

the power of

God.

And so Paul turns

around and it

says in verse 18

that he said,

not to the girl,

but to the

spirit, in the

name of Jesus

Christ I command

you to come

out of her.

And when that

happened it says

that at that

moment the spirit

left her.

She experienced

the power of

the gospel,

she experienced

the power of

Jesus, and she

was converted.

She became the

second member of

the church in

Philippi.

And some of us

say, well,

Jonathan, we're

too educated for

this.

You know, we're a

little too

sophisticated.

We know that

this isn't really

how the world

works.

And I get that,

but I wonder if

most of us have

been miseducated.

I wonder if

people that we

trusted to teach

us about the

world, they

didn't really tell

us about the

complexity and the

depth and the

extent and the

reality of evil.

And I wonder if

sometimes we're just

naive.

If there are some

things that

sociology and

psychology and

science just

simply cannot

account for.

And you see, it's

not just about

people like this

girl who are

obviously broken,

but even people

who do not look

deeply broken on

the outside.

People that we

know, maybe even

some of us, we're

often more controlled

by forces and

enslaved by spirits

and oppressed by

powers and

exploited by

systems than we

even realize.

People that look

fine on the

outside are very

often on the

inside, they're

addicted, right?

They're addicted to

work and career

and money.

People are on the

inside, they're

addicted to

technology and

entertainment that

has a hold of

them.

They're addicted to

pleasure and

consumption, they're

addicted to sex and

substances, and

maybe you can relate

to that addiction.

Whatever you live

for, that's the

thing that's

controlling you.

Whatever you live

for, that's your

real master.

You are a servant

servant to that

power.

And you see, this

slave girl doesn't

just need the gospel

truth that came to

Lydia, though she

does need that.

She needs the gospel

power of a new

master, the gospel

power of a new

lord.

She needs the gospel

power of the only

one who can really

come and break

through the power of

her slavery and

liberate her from all

of those deep and

complex layers of

oppression and set

her free.

And this question

is, have you been

set free?

Or are you

oppressed?

Are you bound up in

problems that are

beyond your ability

to deal with?

Do you find yourself,

if you're honest, are

you addicted to fear

and worry and anger?

Are you addicted to

work and alcohol

and sex?

Are you addicted to

past hurts and

resentments and

regrets and sheer

unforgiveness that you

cannot break free

from?

You see, what you

need, if that's you,

what you need is for

someone to pray in the

name of Jesus for all

of that to come out.

Right?

So that God's love,

the love of God the

Father can come in.

And the grace of

Jesus can come in and

the power and the

presence of the Holy

Spirit can come in.

Amen.

That's what people

need.

Right?

So we're talking about

the intellectual and

gospel truth, but we're

also talking about the

oppressed and gospel

power.

You with me?

Just blink, nod your

head.

All right.

Last thing is, we get

this amazing picture of

the pragmatic and

gospel life.

Right?

This third case study of

transformation is a

jailer who's most

likely an ex-Roman

soldier.

He's not an intellectual

like Lydia who mainly

needs gospel truth and a

reasoned conversation about

the Bible.

He's not this oppressed

slave girl who mainly

needs gospel power and

Jesus-focused, spirit-filled

prayer.

What is this guy?

This is just a dude.

Right?

What does this pragmatic

guy mainly need?

Right?

This battle-hardened war

veteran, he's not

spiritually seeking, neither

is he spiritually hostile, he

just is spiritually indifferent.

He doesn't care.

Typical guy.

What does he need?

What he needs is to see how

the gospel applies to real

life.

Right?

Because when Jesus set that

girl free, Jesus also set her

owners free of all the money

they were making off of her.

And when people are set free

from their money, they're not

really happy, are they?

So they go and they, you

know, they use some like

racially prejudiced,

!

anti-Semitic rhetoric to

stir up a violent mob.

And what happens?

Paul and Silas are stripped,

they're beaten within an inch

of their lives, and they're put

in jail.

And we're told that this

jailer is cruel to them.

This jailer is unkind to them.

Right?

He puts them in this inner

cell where there's no light

and there's fetid air.

He abuses them by stretching

out their feet and putting

them in stocks.

And you can imagine, they're

cold, they're hungry, they're

thirsty, their wounds are

festering, they're in severe

pain.

And verse 25, about midnight

Paul and Silas were praying

and singing hymns to God and

the other prisoners were

listening to them.

You see, the jailer needs to

see how the gospel practically

can change your life.

How the gospel can give you a

joy that's deeper than your

suffering.

How they can take away your

comfort, they can take away

your money, you can lose your

work, you can lose your health,

but you can still praise God.

What are they singing?

They're singing the Psalms.

They're singing the hymn book of

the Bible.

Right?

They're singing all those Psalms

about the Messiah who was

rejected but will be vindicated.

They're singing all of those great

hymns of the New Testament.

Colossians 1, Philippians 2,

Revelation 4 and 5 about the

person and the work of the Lamb

who was slaughtered and yet is

standing.

Right?

Who was humiliated and yet he's

exalted.

They're singing all these amazing

hymns and the question is when we

are stranded in the dark, maybe

not in a prison, but when we're

stranded and you will be

stranded when your car breaks

down, when you find yourself in the

emergency room, when your family

member is sick, when someone you

love dies, what are you singing in

the dark?

What hymns are we going to sing?

One of the things we want to do

here is just provide you every week

with hymns that you can sing at

midnight.

Right?

We think about that.

Like what do we want you to be

singing when you're at your worst?

What songs can you sing to say,

you know, even so it is well with

my soul.

And so here they are, they're

singing and why are they singing?

Well, Paul tells us in Ephesians 5

and Colossians 3, he says when we

sing psalms and hymns and spiritual

songs, we're actually doing two

things simultaneously.

We're singing to God and we're

singing to each other.

Right?

We sing to God with gratitude and we

make melody to him in our hearts,

but we're also teaching and

admonishing one another with the

gospel.

You see, when our brothers and our

sisters are discouraged,

as surely Paul and Silas were

discouraged, then our songs can

actually strengthen our brother

and encourage our sister.

And these prisoners hear this,

they hear Paul and Silas when they

should be cursing God, when they

should be complaining to each other.

No, what they hear is they're

praising God and they're encouraging

each other.

When they see and they hear the

gospel embodied in the real lives

of these men who are blessing God

and who are building each other up,

man, they're shaken.

And then what happens is that the

creator God sends an earthquake and

then they're really shaken.

Right?

Because God allows us to be shaken up

by current events so that we wake up

to his reality.

And so this jailer thinks that his life is

over because his prisoners are escaping

and when your prisoners escape, you're

going to die as a jailer.

They're going to kill you.

Right?

And here's this honorable soldier.

He says, I'm going to preserve my honor by

doing it before the executioners do it to

me.

And Paul says, stop.

We haven't escaped.

In fact, we kept all the prisoners from

escaping.

And it says in verse 29, I love this story.

The jailer called for lights.

He rushed in.

He fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

And he then brought them out and asked,

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.

And then they spoke the word of the Lord

to him and all the others in his house.

And what I imagine they told him in that

moment is, hey, Jesus, Jesus was beaten

like we were beaten.

And Jesus was bound like we were bound.

But Jesus went way beyond that.

He was nailed to the cross.

Right?

And he could have saved himself.

He could have escaped.

He could have procured his own freedom.

He could have prayed and had an army of

angels come down.

But he didn't do that.

He didn't allow himself to be rescued.

But he went into the deepest and the darkest

suffering to save us.

He lost his life in order to save our life.

And what they say to the jailer is, look,

the reason that we did not get our freedom at the

expense of your life is because we have already

gotten our freedom at the expense of Jesus' life.

And the reason we did not respond to your cruelty with

cruelty and your abuse with abuse and your unkindness

with unkindness, the reason we did not walk out of this

prison and leave you to die is because Jesus didn't leave us.

Jesus didn't walk out on us.

Jesus, in his mercy and in his forgiveness, he saved us.

And that's why we've done what we've done for you.

And the jailer has never seen a life live like this.

He's been living in a culture where you repay evil with evil.

And he sees this gospel life where you actually overcome evil with good.

And he sees that, wow, they have something that I don't have but that I want.

They have a gospel life that is unflappable and poised.

They have a gospel life that is enabling them to somehow sing with joy and peace in

the midst of suffering.

They have a gospel life that is enabling them to love sacrificially and to suffer

willingly for people they don't even know that they might be blessed and have life.

And so for this practical dude, for this pragmatic jailer, he says, if I can have that kind of

embodied gospel life, then I can face anything.

And so he says, what must I do to get it?

And I'm sure they told him what Paul writes in Romans 10.

If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God

raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

And the jailer did exactly that.

He repented and he believed.

And verse 33 says, at that hour of the night, the jailer took them and he washed their wounds.

And then immediately he and all his household 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 household.

And here's this tough guy who now commits himself to the ministry of caring for the weak and the wounded and the needy.

Here's this tough guy who's now over here committing himself to community and the breaking of bread with a new family.

Here is this man who has been baptized, buried with Jesus, raised with him to walk in the newness of life,

filled with the love and the joy and the peace of the Holy Spirit.

And why is he so full of joy?

Because now he can live that gospel life that enables you to sing in the dark.

He can live that gospel life that enables you to overcome evil with good.

See, the gospel, when you look at the differences between Lydia and the slave girl and the jailer,

we see that the gospel is for everyone.

And that means that we can't look at anybody in our lives and say that person could never become a Christian.

Right?

They're a woman or they're a man.

Right?

They're young or they're old or they're middle-aged.

No, you can't say that.

Here's wealthy Lydia.

Here's this poor slave girl.

Here's this middle-class jailer.

Here's people at the center of society and people out on the margins of society.

Here's this immigrant, Lydia, this immigrant from Asia Minor and this slave girl who's a resident of Greece

and this Roman soldier who came from the far reaches of the Roman Empire.

And that means the gospel is for everybody.

It doesn't matter where you're coming from.

Latino, African, Asian, European, Middle Eastern.

It doesn't matter.

Here's this market-oriented, white-collar businesswoman, Lydia.

And here is this state-oriented, blue-collar military guy, the jailer.

And here's this slave girl who's just checked out completely.

It doesn't matter if you vote for the red team or the blue team or no team.

Here's this woman who's spiritually seeking, Lydia.

This woman who's spiritually hostile, the girl.

This guy who's spiritually indifferent, the jailer.

Here's this woman who's spiritually hostile, the gospel.

Here's this woman who's spiritually hostile, the gospel.

The gospel is for everybody.

The gospel transcends all of our differences.

And because the gospel transcends all these categories that our culture wants to divide us on,

where our culture sorts us out by all of our differences, the gospel enables us to have a unity in the church

where there's division out in the broader culture.

Without the gospel, none of these people would have cared at all about each other.

They would have despised each other.

They would have looked down on each other with criticism and contempt.

But now they're a church.

Now they're the family of God.

Now they are one in Jesus.

Now they are all filled with the same spirit.

And it says in verse 40, when Paul goes back to meet with that new church plant,

there was gathered there in Lydia's house.

I'm confident that he encouraged these sisters and these brothers.

And he said to them, look, keep on being different.

Keep on being an alternative counterculture.

Keep seeking unity across all of your differences.

Keep being for the city.

And by all means, keep reaching out to all the people that God has put into your life

with gospel truth and gospel power and gospel life.

And I pray that God will enable us to continue to do that here

at Christ Church in Berkeley as well.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Amen.