Acts 16. 12-40: Fun in Philippi: The Gospel comes to Europe.

Acts 16. 12-40:   Fun in Philippi:   The Gospel comes to Europe.

The Story.   Philippi was an ancient city, which had become wealthy, partly through gold mining. It was now a Roman colony, the regional capital, and was strongly pagan influenced.  So Philippi was, like most European cities today, affected by prosperity, Politics and Paganism.  It's an exciting story of God at work: four miracles! 
 
First miracle... conversion of Lydia. (12-15)
When Paul arrived, he began by applying his usual strategy of starting among the Jews, but there were hardly any: not the twelve men needed for a synagogue; just a group of women who met at a “place of prayer” by the riverside.  Great place for baptisms. And that is what happened. The first miracle at Philippi – the first miracle on European soil, was the conversion of Lydia. She was a dealer in expensive purple dye or dyed cloth.  Purple dye was expensive, obtained from a species of sea snail: it took 1000 sea snails to produce enough dye to colour a narrow border.  So Lydia was a knowledgeable, educated, and probably quite well-off business woman. She was not born Jewish but was “a worshipper of God,” someone who recognised the truth of the Jewish faith and sought to worship the One true God.  And God was at work in her life.  Luke says “The Lord opened her heart”.  When Paul turned up preaching about forgiveness of sins through Jesus the Messiah, she saw it right away ,and responder to Paul's message.  We need the Lord to be at work, to remember that the conversion of a man or woman is a miracle.  We need to see God “opening hearts.” 

So Lydia believed the message and was baptised. No “baptismal classes,” no interviews.  Her baptismal classes were hearing the gospel; her interview was a conversation about trusting Jesus. Baptism was not just the natural next step; it was the first step.  And as soon as she was baptised, she was offering Paul and his team hospitality.  “Being family” – a community oriented approach to the Christian life – was the automatic and assumed stance after conversion and baptism.    This first European miracle was was a repeat, on European soil, of how conversion worked in Jerusalem (Acts 2)  

Second miracle... Deliverance of the slave girl. (16-22)
As Paul went up and down to the riverside prayer place, someone noticed: a wee slave girl who had a “spirit of divination,” demonic powers as a fortune-teller.  She recognised that Paul and Silas were servants of the real God, and day after day she kept shouting out as they past. Paul didn’t want this sort of advertising, and eventually he ordered the demon to leave, in Jesus' name.   The name of Jesus is stronger than the enemy, the demon left, and the girl was no longer able to earn money for the syndicate who owned her.

Once again, here on European soil, the rules of engagement are the same.  There is a “power encounter” between darkness and light,  the evil spirits and the Holy Spirit, and Jesus shows that his power is greater...  

However the consequence of this is that the slave girl's owners want to get even with Paul for ruining their income, so Paul & Silas are accused of sedition, arrested, flogged and thrown in jail; high security, their feet in stocks so they couldn't even stand up.... So the scene is set for the fourth miracle...

Third miracle... Prison break!
It begins with Paul and Silas singing God's praises.  That's a miracle in its own right.  These guys had been arrested, removed from the work they came to do; they had been beaten half-way to death; they had been thrown into a filthy, rat-infested dungeon; their feet were clamped in stocks so the toilet was  a bucket right under their noses... and they were not just praying “Lord, get me out of here!”  They were having a praise time: “At the name of Jesus, very knee should bow, every tongue confess him, King of glory now!”  Don't you think that's pretty miraculous in itself?  It must have made a deep impression on those who heard it.

Then as the prisoners listened, they heard another sound: rumbling, shaking, an earthquake shook the whole place; doors fell open as lintels collapsed; chains came adrift from the walls and stocks were snapped.  Another power encounter!  Everyone in that jail-house knew that God was on Paul's case.

But the miracle continued.  Nobody actually escaped!  Maybe they were too shell-shocked to move.  Maybe they were so interested in Paul and Silas's message.  For whatever reason they stayed where they were. 
Not all power encounters are about driving out demons or healing the sick.  Sometimes they are about the ability of God the transform our priorities and control our character. ...
Fourth miracle The jailer is converted
What an emotional roller-coaster.  Beginning with blind panic, and the Roman officer's decision to fall on his sword rather than face a court martial, then to gob-smacked relief of realising that the prisoners were still all present and correct... then the jailer said “What must I do to be saved?”  He was not asking about saving his skin.  He recognised that the rumours going round about Paul and Silas, the things the wee spae-wife said, were true.  This is a power encounter working the way it is supposed to... the power of God making people think about the truth of the Gospel... 

So the jailer believed in Jesus with all his heart.  He got water and washed Paul and Silas' wounds, showing love, compassion and respect for them. Then he was baptised – along with his whole family (which doesn't mean that babies were baptised but that everyone in the household trusted in Jesus). 

THE POINT:  Four miracles: two power-encounters, two conversions.  What do they have to teach us?

Mission is
1. Presence: Through spending time with people, showing the Father’s love in transformed character
2. Proclamation: telling the Jesus story; calling people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Power encounter: events that show the power of God.

Mission leads to Conversion that involves –
1. New birth, by the Holy Spirit.  It's something God does.  God opened Lydia's heart.  Let's pause and pray that the Lord will open hearts. 
2. Believing.  Christianity involves putting your trust in
3. Baptism.  Peter (1 Pet 3. 21) calls baptism “An appeal to God” (RSV) or “a response to God from a clean conscience” (NLT) 
4. Behaving:  a new believer compassionately washing the wounds of a prisoner, then taking his stand with the prisoner, for the Gospel.  
5. Belonging:  the practise of community.  Mission leads to conversion which leads to belonging.  I really struggle with the idea of “coming to Church” I want us to start being Church!
Very much, “as it was in the beginning”...  Christianity is made of these things, not just in Jerusalem, but in Philippi.   

THE Problem “But that was 2000 years ago, Pastor.”   Things have changed.  It's not that easy now in 2014 in Fife!  Things are different. You can't turn the clock back.  We know so much more than these people did: we've got the Bible; we've got nice buildings for people to come to and trained pastors to preach and lead, and wonderful praise bands.; we've got the Four Spiritual laws, we've had drive-in church and rallies in football stadiums, and God TV and Alpha and colourful literature...   You're trying to take us back to the dark ages, pastor, with all this emphasis on presence and community and the Holy Spirit. We have no confidence in the New Testament way (which worked!).  We have more confidence in the modern, institutional Church way (which generally doesn't work!)

Last Monday as I was getting on a train in Dundee, I put my foot  on something that didn't exist, and kind of fell onto the train.  I forgot to “mind the gap!”   Last week we thought about the difference between a people oriented vision of Church and a task oriented, institutional vision of Church.    I have difficulties with the gap between first century, early Church experience and our experience. We are so quick to adopt the institutional; the Bible's way is the way of presence, of community.

THE DIFFERENCE. 
Remember, Philippi is Europe.  The same Gospel message applies, it works.  In Gentile Antioch as well as Jerusalem.  The methods of Acts 2 – the power of the Spirit, faith in Jesus, baptism, transformation, life together in a radical community, they are not just for Jerusalem; they are not just for a special time in the Church's life.  They are transferable principles.  Luke is telling us the Gospel is still the gospel, wherever it goes.   Mission is still about Presence, proclamation and power.  Conversion is still about new birth, believing, baptism, behaving and belonging.
 

© Gilmour Lilly March  2014