Trinity 12
Dear friends in Christ. Today’s text describes an important event not only in the history of the Church but also in world history. With the Lord bringing Lydia to faith through the word preached by St. Paul, we have the first recorded European convert to the holy Christian faith on European soil. The proclamation of Christ crucified had left Asia and now had reached Europe.
This was huge—Lydia was the first of many million Europeans who would be brought to faith in Christ. Not only was this monumental in the lives of these people personally and in the history of salvation—the spread of the Gospel—but this was also monumental in the history of Europe and thus the rest of the world. Christianity had a huge cultural impact on Europe and helped form Europe. Christianity’s influence on Europe was major and positive. In the worship of the god of political correctness those bureaucrats responsible for drafting a European “constitution” left out completely even just the cultural influence and impact Christianity had on Europe—in spite of the valiant efforts of the two previous popes to include at least a reference to Christianity.
To help picture for yourself what life/ culture would be without Christianity—think of what life is like where there is no, or, at best, minimal influence from Christianity—the Middle East (ironically enough where the Church at first was strongest), Asia, and now the western world in which Christianity is increasingly rejected and has become nothing but the debris of a formerly Christian society.
Our text describes the humble beginnings of Christianity in Europe. But from it we learn that mission work—the spread of the Gospel—is Christ’s work, as He promised [Matthew 16.18]: I will build My Church. Jesus directs the course of the spread of His kingdom, the Church as He sends missionaries and as He crowns His work with success.
1. Our text paints before us the truth that our good and gracious Lord is directing the spread His Church. We see in a few verses before our text the Lord actually shutting the door of the spread of the Gospel to a certain area: Now when they had gone through Phyrgia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Why the Holy Spirit forbade them at that time to preach the word in that Roman province, we cannot answer; why the course of the Gospel went here and not there, we do not know; to say that we do, means to claim to know the mind of God. All that we can say is that mission work happens in God’s way and at God’s time—all governed and ruled by His love and grace.
It is vital that as we read our text and as we pray for mission work today, and support our missionaries with our gifts, and engage in our own personal mission work as we tell others the good news about Jesus that we remember that Christ directs the mission, the spread of the Gospel. We cannot force Christ; we cannot haul out our charts and maps and put quotas on the Holy Spirit. Instead, we faithfully do what the Lord called us to us and in glorious faith and confidence pray, give and tell, knowing the Lord is ruling and guiding all.
Our text begins: And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us". By that, the Lord was calling Paul and crew to that area to work spreading the Gospel. It is vital to remember that when Jesus ascended into heaven, He isn’t now until the Last Day locked away up there; instead, Jesus ascended precisely so He could be with His Church wherever He sends her, wherever she is. The holy Evangelists records [Mark 16.19; Acts 1.1]: So then, after the Lord had spoken to the disciples, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs; and: The former account I made…of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which He was taken up—the point being that Jesus is still doing these things. As Jesus directs the spread of His Gospel, having His word go here and there, He is building His kingdom, the Church. He is directing the course of the Gospel on earth today, sending His word to a certain place at a certain time.
The glorious thing is that our Lord sees and knows our greatest need. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us". Our Lord here saw the need of the Macedonians, the people of that area of northern Greece. They needed His spiritual help and mercy—just as all people do. Through this He brought them spiritual help and mercy and over time from there He moved to other parts of Europe bringing them His help and mercy; from there to the Americas, to other parts of Africa and Asia.
"Come over to Macedonia and help us." God’s greatest grace is when He does like He does here—when He sends missionaries with His word. All people have that great spiritual need to be rescued from sin, death, devil and hell. There is only one way of rescue and that is by the work of the Holy Spirit in the word; He creates faith in the heart to believe and receive the promises and gifts that Jesus won for us on the cross. People may know that things are not right between us and God; they may very well feel the accusing voice of conscience; they may even actually long to be rid of sin. But until the Lord sends His word, through which His Spirit works mightily to create faith, there is no help for humankind out of its dreadful spiritual condition. In His grace and mercy, the Lord acts mightily—but again, we do not know the why’s, the when’s and His timing. But He does work when and where He pleases and opens doors—here in our text, the door to Europe. Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis,and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony.
Let us remember that today Christ is still building His Church. Like He did in Paul’s day, sometimes it seems that He shuts the door and bolts the window; but also, like in Paul’s day, He is guiding the spread of His Church—and in grace He chooses to use even us as His instruments. What a great grace of Christ! He uses us to bring His saving word to those who need it; He uses us as messengers of the words of eternal life. That means what? We have our own Macedonians: "Come over to Macedonia and help us". Not only do we pray for and support our missionaries in far off places, but personally we know people who do not know Christ. They, too, have that great spiritual need of rescue from sin, death, devil and hell; they, too, need the forgiveness of sin and the righteousness of Christ. Let us hear their voices and pray for them. Let us ask the Lord to use us as His instruments to bring unbelievers we know His saving word. Let us ask the Lord to give us opportunity and to recognize that opportunity to tell others the Good News about Jesus. Let us be open to the Lord’s direction—like He did with Paul to the Macedonians, maybe He will direct us to someone we did not even think of. To be sure, it may seem at times that the Lord prevents us, giving us no opportunity; but let us not lose heart for when the Lord calls and works, at His time and in His way, He works mightily directing and guiding the spread of His kingdom—the Church. Just as the Lord granted a favorable wind to Paul and crew, speeding the boat along, so also we are assured of His blessing as, led by Him, we tell the Good News about Jesus.
2. With as much “divine-fanfare” as this mission to the Macedonians began, one would think that when Paul and the others got there, there would be huge crowds awaiting and hanging on every word. Instead, what do we find? The most humble of beginnings! The Lord leads them to the city of Philippi. Paul’s custom was first to go to the synagogue and announce to the Jews that the Messiah they were waiting for had come—Jesus of Nazareth. But there was no synagogue in Philippi. Instead, Paul goes to the river where Jews would gather if there was no synagogue: And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where we were supposing there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who met there. Here’s the first recorded Christian worship service on European soil! Were there great crowds? A few women. We would look like a mega-church!
But here you see that the Lord crowns His mission work, the spread of the Church, the Gospel, that He directs, with success. With great success humanly speaking? Hardly! We meet Lydia. She is the first European convert on European soil. She is a Gentile/ non-Jewish woman whom the Lord had brought to faith in Him and in the coming Messiah. St. Luke describes her this way: Now a certain woman named Lydia was listening to us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. Notice: she is mentioned by name. Combine that with the few that are there and what do we learn from that? God is very specific. He works very specifically. He had worked on Lydia in the past—taking this non-Jewish woman who knew nothing about the true God and the Savior and brought her to faith in Him. He had worked on her in the past to prepare her for just this moment—the preaching of the Savior, Christ Jesus, that He had come!
Again, God is very specific. He deals with each one of us personally. He works throughout our lives preparing our minds and wills; nothing that happens to our Lord’s dear Christian is mere fluke or happenstance. It is the Lord’s gracious working on us personally.
Just as the farmer prepares the soil for the sowing of the seed, so does our Lord prepare each of us—like He did Lydia—for the sowing of the seed of His Word!
Although Lydia was listening intently to Paul, although she had the beginning, intention, the desire to believe and receive his message, it wasn’t something she could do. Instead, the Lord had to create that faith in her heart. Our text: The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. Her faith was not her doing, but the Lord’s. That’s how He crowns His mission work with success—He works in that person’s life, specifically, be it here Lydia or be in the 3000 on the first Christian Pentecost. He opens the heart to hear and He creates the faith to receive the promised blessings of forgiveness of sin, life, salvation, peace, joy, etc.
Conversion is always God’s work on us—personally and individually. The Holy Spirit is present with the word and opens hearts so that we hear and by His grace and power are converted. This applies to adults, like Lydia, who came to faith; and it applies to the infants in baptism as through the word of God with the water of baptism, true faith is worked in the heart. For an adult, like Lydia, faith leads to baptism; for an infant/ child baptism leads to faith, all by the one and same Spirit!
She and her household were baptized. Lydia’s faith showed itself. She wanted both to be of service to the Lord and the spread of the His Kingdom and to have the apostle with the word in her house that she may grow in the faith. "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay." So she persuaded us.
Like Lydia, the Christian wants to serve the Lord with all that he/she is and has—lives of love, service, prayer, sacrifice, being the Lord’s instrument to bring others into His kingdom. And the Christian will desire to be in the Lord’s house to receive His gifts to us personally in the word, the absolution, in our very mouths with our Lord’s body and blood in the sacrament.
Dear Christian, rejoice! Mission work is God’s work. In His grace He sent you His word and He has brought you to faith, crowning His work for you with success. INJ Amen.