SCRIPTURE: Acts 16:1-15 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 7-17-22
As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us for the first time or are joining us at our North Main campus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.
SERIES INTRODUCTION
We’re returning to the book of Acts today. Acts is one of three books in the Bible we’ve been journeying through over the past several years. Earlier this year we finished the gospel of Mark — and our goal — Lord willing — is to finish the book of Acts this year as well. In fact — if you have your Bible — please turn with me to Acts chapter 16. We’ll be looking at verses 1-15.
But since we’re returning to Acts — after taking nearly two years off from the book — let’s remind ourselves of what we’ve previously encountered. And you can catch up on all of the sermons from the book of Acts — and any other sermons that have been preached at Gateway — by going to our website — gatewayepc.org.
The book of Acts begins with an introduction where we learn that Luke — a doctor — has been hired to do an investigation on the life of Jesus and the early church. And Acts is part two of his investigation. So Luke’s been hired to do research, to verify facts, to make sure the stories circulating about Jesus and the church are reliable — and we have his findings in the gospel of Luke — part one of his investigation — and the book of Acts — part two.
And right away Luke records the ascension of Jesus. As I’m sure you’ve heard, Jesus was crucified on a cross, but death could not keep him in the grave. And for forty days he appeared — preparing his disciples for the mission he was about to give them.
And on the day of his ascension — the day he went to Heaven — Jesus, “ordered them (his followers) not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4b-5 ESV)
And then he said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:8-9 ESV)
Jesus promised his disciples that they’d be given the power needed to accomplish their mission of taking the news about him to the whole world.
Next comes the account of the disciples finding a replacement for Judas — the one who betrayed Jesus. And the unexpected twist is that the person picked — to be one of the twelve apostles — is someone we know virtually nothing about. He’s a nobody in church history. But there’s great news for all of us: Jesus loves to use a nobody for his glory.
Then comes the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise when — in Acts chapter two — the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples. And as Peter preaches his first sermon — people respond to his message — and a new community is formed — united together by a common faith in Christ.
And we see these ordinary followers take advantage of ordinary opportunities to tell others about Jesus. They help others to see what their greatest need is — they need a Savior to rescue them from Satan, sin, death, and Hell. And Jesus is the Savior — for he is the only One who saves.
Then we saw how the early Christians prayed for boldness in the face of persecution. The religious leaders had begun arresting Christians for telling others about Jesus and they threatened — “If you keep it up — you’ll suffer even greater harm.”
And in the midst of these threats — all of the Christians — not just the apostles — not just the church leaders — all of them prayed for boldness to remain faithful to Jesus even if it meant suffering on their part.
Next we saw what faithfulness and unfaithfulness look like through the stories of Barnabas — a faithful servant — and Ananias and Sapphira — their story is a tragic one of unfaithfulness. Then we saw the apostles — and the early Christians — again resist the fear of suffering for the name of Jesus. In fact, we saw that they considered it an honor to suffer for the One who suffered and died for them.
Continuing in Acts, we saw how the early church leaders resisted being distracted from fulfilling their unique role. Some widows were not being taken care of — and the apostles did something extraordinary. They had the congregation appoint others to care for the widows so they — the apostles — could stay focused on prayer and preaching.
Then — through the murder of Stephen — we learned that if we want to stand confidently for Jesus — if we don’t want to shrink back when others attack us because of our faith — we have to be ready — prepared — full of God’s Word and Spirit.
Then we came to great news — the gospel is for everyone. It took the early Christians some time, but they finally began to fulfill the mission Jesus had given them as they begin to share the gospel with everyone. And then we saw what we mean when we say that someone’s been saved by the gospel. Through Saul’s conversion, we saw the work of God in our salvation and how God uses other believers to help someone move from their old life — a life of sin and rebellion against God — to a new life of loving and following Jesus. We’ll see this theme again in our verses for today.
We’re getting near the end of this overview I promise. As we continued in Acts, we encountered barriers to our joy and learned how to overcome them. Next we wrestled with how to overcome the fear of persecution. The fear of suffering — because of our faith — once again — was the topic.
Then we looked at a story in Acts that gave us an opportunity to talk about why we strive to be a sending church and why we tell you each and every week that “you are sent.”
Then we spent a few weeks talking about our words. We looked at the message of life — the gospel — and how we’re to use our words to proclaim this Good News. We also looked at how our words are being used in a war — a war we’re all in. And — in this war — our words can be used to poison minds, to manipulate others, and to spread lies — or our words can be used to proclaim the gospel and God’s truth. And we all need to be wise and God-glorifying with the words we speak.
Then — after looking at both what it means to be humble leaders and humble followers — we returned to the topic of our words and how we — as Christians — are to disagree with one another and how we’re not to disagree with each other.
And that’s where we left off in Acts — on how not to disagree — as we looked at Paul and Barnabas disagreeing over whether or not to take Mark along with them. Both Paul and Barnabas refuse to hear the other out — and they end up going their separate ways. Division — not unity — wins the day — at least for this moment in their relationship. Barnabas takes Mark along with him while Paul chooses Silas to be his new partner in ministry.
Which catches us up to our passage. Here are the words found in Acts chapter 16. Beginning in verse 1.
Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.
5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily. 6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us. (Acts 16:1-15 ESV)
SERMON INTRODUCTION
What leads you? Meaning — what is it that’s behind your decisions — the reason behind the choices you make? For many — in our country — it’s pleasure — pleasure is the chief goal of life for them. For others it’s comfort. For some it’s fear. For others it’s science or logic. For others it’s wanting to be rich and famous. What leads you?
For example…why are you here? Or why aren’t you here — if you’re watching from home? Why is the rest of your day filled with whatever it’s filled with? What’s leading you?
For all of us — we need to be aware of a narrative in our culture that’s trying to influence us. The narrative is that we’re the final authority over what we do — we’re the determiner of what we do or don’t do.
Christian or not — this is the narrative that’s so easy to believe. And — listen — this is a godless narrative.
Now — we do make decisions — God’s given us the ability to make decisions. But there are many decisions we face that don’t have specific guidance from Scripture. For example — you won’t find a Bible verse telling you which college to attend or if you should go to college at all. And the same is true for many of life’s decisions.
Yet — something the Christian faith does teach us — is that our entire personhood has been affected by sin — including our decision-making process. And — yet — according to our cultural narrative — we’re supposed to trust ourselves as some sort of perfect determiner of every decision we make. And — I think — many of us see a huge flaw in this thinking. Even if you don’t believe in sin — you know things aren’t perfect — you know that you’re not perfect. Thus your and my decisions aren’t always the best — sometimes they lead us down the wrong path.
Now — not only does the Christian faith teach us that our entire personhood is affected by sin — it also teaches us that there’s someone more trustworthy than ourselves to lead us — and that’s God. And today we’re going to see a few ways in which God leads his people — which is good news for all of us imperfect decision-makers.
GOD’S LEADING THROUGH OTHERS
Let’s return to verse 1 and see that — one way God leads us — is through others.
Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.
5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily. (Acts 16:1-5 ESV)
We’re seeing how God leads us through others — and there are many examples of this in these verses. We see Timothy being led by Paul — but what you may not catch — is we’re also seeing that Timothy was led by his mother and grandmother — more to come on this in a moment. And we also see the churches — throughout this area of the world — being led by the Jerusalem church and the decision its leaders made in the previous chapter. Let’s look at each of these more closely.
Timothy follows God’s leading — through Paul — when Paul asks him to accompany him. We know this because Timothy’s mentioned in the next five chapters of Acts as a companion of Paul. Additionally, Paul mentions Timothy in many of his letters such as Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, and Philemon. Often, Paul mentions Timothy as having been sent by Paul to the church he’s writing to.
For example, “I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 17 That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.” (1 Corinthians 4:16-17 ESV)
And writes, “We sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith…” (1 Thesslaonisn 3:2 ESV)
Finally, two of Paul’s final letters — including the last letter he wrote — are to Timothy. Timothy allowed God to lead him through Paul as he was sent to various churches to do whatever was needed for the sake of the gospel.
Do you have someone in your life who God uses to lead you in this way — or are you the only person through whom God can lead you? Now — if this is the case — where you’re it — how different are you living compared to those living according to our godless culture which says “you lead you”? For — as we see in our verses — God uses others to lead us. Who is God using to lead you?
Back to Timothy — Timothy’s a biracial young man. His mother’s a Jew and his father’s a Greek. Yet — though his parents have two different ethnicities — and most likely two different religions — his mother raises her son up to follow Jesus. We know this is the case based on what Paul writes about Timothy when he says, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.” (2 Timothy 1:5 ESV)
What a spiritual legacy Timothy’s grandmother — Lois — and his mother — Eunice — have. They passed on their faith in Jesus to Timothy — they raised him up to fear, know, love, and obey the Lord. They saw it as their responsibility to lead him in the faith. Their goal wasn’t to just make him into a good, responsible Roman citizen — but to disciple him. To show him — through their lives and God’s Word — what it means to follow Jesus. And look at the results of their leading in his life — he becomes a key figure in the early church. I bet Lois and Eunice had no idea that the young boy — who they were doing their best to raise up to love Jesus — would one day be written about in the Bible.
Parents don’t forget to lead your children — especially to spiritually lead them. Is it hard? Of course it’s hard — but it’s not to be neglected. Lead your children. And listen — if you consider Gateway to be your church — how are you helping us to lead the next generation to fear, know, love, and obey the Lord? It’s all of our responsibility to lead the next generation to love Jesus. And — who knows — maybe the next great church leader of history is in our nursery right now with a dirty diaper and a snotty nose and you have the opportunity to be a small part of their story of God leading them. Will you follow God’s lead?
Finally, we see these churches — in the area of Galatia — allowing the Jerusalem church to lead them. Do you know that churches can have just as much of a “We’ll lead ourselves, thank you very much” attitude as individuals? It’s part of the reason why there’s been such a rise of the non-denominational church. Now — there are many wonderful non-denominational churches — but do you know why most churches choose to be non-denominational? Because they want to be the final authority for themselves as a local church — they want to lead themselves and have no one else as an authority over them.
Yet they have no way to practice what we see these churches — here in Acts — practice. What’s that? Submitting to the leadership of others — the guidance of others — submitting to the God-ordained decision of others. These churches in Galatia submit to the leadership decision of the apostles and elders of Jerusalem. And this wasn’t a decision on some small matter. The decision was on what a non-Jewish believer in Jesus had to do in order to be part of the Christian church. And circumcision was on the line — and you know all of the men were interested in the outcome of the decision. I mean — how many men today would let someone else make that decision for them?
Now — we’re part of a denomination — the Evangelical Presbyterian Church — and it’s a pretty good one. We’re not perfect, but there’s a strong desire to be an orthodox — that means we agree to the historical beliefs of Christianity — and a strong desire to be a faithful group of churches who submit to one another. We practice what’s called connectionalism. Where if a pastor or a church gets out of line theologically or in doing a certain practice — the pastors and all of the other churches will step in. And that includes me — as a pastor — and Gateway — as a church — we submit ourselves to the authority of our denomination.
And this same kind of submission is to be found in our local churches — this is what church membership is all about. We’ve got a group of folks finishing up their church membership classes tonight. Church membership is us submitting ourselves to one another and to the leadership of the church. Church membership is saying, “I don’t want to be the sole authority over my life — even my spiritual life — for to be a Christian is to be someone who submits themselves to the leading of God through others.”
Have you done this? Have you become a member or are you keeping yourself at arms length — keeping yourself as the final authority over your spiritual life? And — if you are a member — have you taken back spiritual authority over your life where — you’re a member on paper — but living as your own authority?
Members of Gateway commit to making it a priority to physically gather with the church to worship, commit to being an active participant in a Life Group, commit to serving the people in this congregation, commit to going to the world to proclaim the gospel, and commit to giving financially to support the ministry of this church. If you’re a member, are you doing these things?
And I know that there are seasons in life that may affect our ability and availability to do these things — but I also know how common it is for the reason to simply be that someone’s taken back authority over their life — deciding to no longer submit to the church. But God leads us through others — how is he leading you through others?
GOD’S LEADING BY HIS SPIRIT
Which sets us up for another way that God leads us — and that’s by his Spirit. We’re in verse 6.
And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:6-10 ESV)
God leads us by his Spirit. Something I find interesting here is that twice we read that the Spirit kept Paul and the gang from going where they wanted to go. I find this interesting because — question class — why did Paul want to go to these cities? To preach the gospel, right? He’s not wanting to go to these cities for a vacation, or to set up a ponzi scheme, or to do something we view as either neutral or really really bad. He’s wanting to proclaim Jesus. And — yet — the Spirit stops him from going.
Now — does God love the people in these cities? Of course he does! Does he want them to hear the gospel! Yes again! Yet God’s plan didn’t include Paul and his companions being the ones to go to these cities to proclaim the Good News at this time. And — never forget — God’s the one in charge. Like Paul and Silas — our role is to obey God and not go against his plan.
When’s the last time the Spirit kept you from doing something for God? If you’re not a Christian, this may be a question you’ve never considered. When things don’t go your way, you may have many reasons why things didn’t work out — but God isn’t one of them.
These days people point to oppression, systemic injustice, and all sorts of reasons why they haven’t been able to accomplish their goals. Let me invite you — if you’re not a Christian — to at least consider that it may be God — who’s trying to get your attention — by not letting you achieve what you think is best for yourself.
Now — if you’re a Christian — I know there have been times when you felt like you were supposed to do something for God and things didn’t go as planned. Now — for sure — there are times when we face obstacles that we’re supposed to overcome — other times we may experience attacks from the enemy. But — my point — is that in our verses we have an example where it’s not an obstacle nor is it an attack from the enemy — it’s God’s Spirit keeping Paul from going to different cities to proclaim the gospel. When you encounter a disruption to your plans — do you even ask or consider, “God, are you trying to tell me something here — cause this isn’t going according to my plans?”
But man this is difficult to discern, isn’t it?
For example, think of a church ministry — I don’t care if you think about something as broad as our kid’s ministry or Sunday morning worship or if you think more specific — like VBS or Life Groups. Now think of a scenario where things don’t go according to your plans and it’s frustrating — like “you’re trying to travel to a particular city on a missions trip and no matter what you do you just can’t find your way there” kind of frustrating.
- Or maybe only half the volunteers that are needed sign up for the event you’re in charge of — even after an announcement with lots of pleading for people to sign up was made on Sunday morning.
- Or everyone in your Life Group cancels at the last minute.
- Or — I don’t know — the church building burns down — the scenario is yours to create.
Have you got a scenario in mind? OK. Is this an obstacle to overcome, an attack by the enemy, or is God’s Spirit leading you in a different direction? When it comes to being led by God’s Spirit — how flexible are you? Are you open to his leading and your plans not always aligning?
King David wanted to build the Temple and God told him no — your son will build my Temple. This wasn’t a bad desire — on David’s part — it just wasn’t God’s plan for him. What might you have interpreted — in the past — or are interpreting right now — as an obstacle to overcome — or an attack from the enemy — when it’s actually God’s Spirit leading you in his direction?
GOD’S LEADING IN SALVATION
And God’s Spirit — through a vision — leads Paul and Silas to Macedonia. We’re in verse 11.
So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.
14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us. (Acts 16:11-15 ESV)
Here we see God’s leading in salvation. Macedonians were considered uncivilized and not worth interacting with by the Greeks. They were a people viewed as unworthy and unlovable. So — be amazed by God’s love — for these are the people God’s Spirit leads Paul and Silas to go and proclaim the gospel to. This wasn’t Paul’s idea — or any of his companions — this was God’s idea. And they eventually arrive in the city of Philippi. Now this city had become a retirement town for Roman soldiers — so it had a military feel to it. And it was a city with no significant Jewish presence — thus Paul doesn’t go to a synagogue — like he’s done in other cities — and instead goes to a place near a river where he’s heard that there’s a prayer meeting going on.
And he meets a woman who worships God — but hasn’t yet believed in the gospel. Wait what? She’s a God-fearer — a Gentile who’s converted to Judaism — but she hasn’t heard the gospel. This prayer meeting is happening on the Sabbath — after all — indicating that though the Jewish population wasn’t significant — it did exist. And we see God leading Lydia — in her salvation — with the phrase “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” (Acts 16:14b ESV)
This is the new birth — being born again — what theologians call regeneration. Where God’s Spirit gives life to our spirit so we believe in Jesus Christ and repent of our sins. This is a wonderful gift to us from God — where he opens our hearts so we pay attention to what’s being said as we hear the gospel. For some — this happens the first time we hear the gospel. For others — this opening of our heart takes place after having heard the gospel many many times. But this is God’s work in our salvation. This opening of our heart — so we can respond to the gospel — isn’t something we can do without God leading us.
But good news for us all — God leads us in salvation! He’s gracious and kind and gives life to our spiritually dead hearts so we hear and respond to the greatest news ever told — the news of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus. And Lydia believes the gospel and she responds by being baptized — along with her household. And her next words are remarkable — for she says, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord…” (Acts 16:15b ESV)
And we’re back to God leading us through others. For she submits herself to Paul and Silas. She says, “You judge me. You judge if my profession of faith is true or not. You hold me accountable.” She says, “I’m not making any claim for myself — spiritually — that I won’t allow you to inspect and hold me accountable to.”
For those of us who claim to believe in Jesus — who in your life — besides you — has permission to hold you accountable to your profession of faith? Who’s allowed to inspect your life as to whether or not you’re living according to a heart transformed by the love of Christ?
Remember — the culture of the world preaches the message that we all love to hear, “I am my own authority. I submit to no one but myself — especially when it comes to my relationship with Jesus.” But the message of God — that runs counter to the world — is “You are not your own — you don’t belong to yourself — for God has bought you with a high price.” And this is what it means to believe the gospel and submit ourselves to him.
CONCLUSION
Do you believe in Jesus? If you do, do you see how gracious and kind God’s been to you in giving your spiritually dead heart new life? If so, then you know you’re not your own — but you are God’s to lead. Follow his lead.
If you don’t believe, is there something stirring in you right now — something that may be making you a bit uncomfortable or confused? A desire to believe wrestling with a desire to be your own. Know that there’s no middle ground. Your desire to be loved and be alive — and your desire to be your own are in conflict and only one can prevail.
If the Lord is opening your heart to believe, may the prayer we pray in a moment be your prayer. And if you’re not sure — or are unconvinced about all of this — keep coming back — for you’re welcome to come and explore life’s deepest questions and the answers that Jesus provides.
Let’s pray.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, for those whose hearts are wrestling with whether or not to believe — I ask that you would save them. Give life to their hearts — the new life that receives your Good News with great joy and delight. The new life that receives your gospel message and responds to it with words like Lydia’s, “Judge me to be faithful to the Lord.” A life submitted to your leading through others and your Spirit.
Spirit of God — thank you for leading us. Forgive us for when we’ve interpreted your leading as an obstacle to overcome or an attack from the enemy. And help us to be flexible followers — for there will be many times when you’re leading and our plans part ways. May we always be people who follow your lead.
And — Jesus — thank you for salvation. Thank you for submitting yourself to your Father’s will. Thank you for submitting yourself to our bloodthirsty hands as we crucified you on the cross. For — by submitting yourself — you brought salvation to the world.
And — as we trust in faith — that you — Father, Son, and Spirit — have been at work in our hearts today — I ask that everyone listening would repeat this prayer after me.
Gracious Father // thank you for leading me here today. // Forgive me for so often resisting your authority. // Help me to submit to your leading through others. // And through your Spirit. // And thank you for leading me in my salvation. // We pray all of these things in Jesus’ name. // Amen.
BENEDICTION
May you go following God’s lead — as he leads you through others, his Spirit, and in your salvation. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.