One Message, Three Methods Series

I recently put a post on the Edgewood Facebook page: “Knowing that it is God who draws you to Himself in salvation, could you share what method or means God used to bring you to faith in Christ?”

Here are some of the responses…

• A beautiful Christian mother!

• When our second child was born with hydrocephalus, she had surgery at three days old. This made us start thinking about what happens if she doesn’t survive. At the same time, one of Mike’s co-workers was witnessing to him. We both were led to the Lord by this friend.

• Multiple volunteers with our youth ministry demonstrated unconditional love to me and that really started the process. But a sermon on Daniel 3 [was when] I decided to follow Christ.

• Foundations planted in me at Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and churches wherever my mother could get us to go.

• Pregnancy at 16 and seeds planted by an uncle who is a pastor. Five years I struggled with the thought that I was doomed. Didn’t want that for my children so started attending a church when I was 21. Someone from this church shared the gospel with me.

• I was saved at a Campus Crusade youth rally under Billy Graham’s preaching.

• My parents’ faithful attendance in a Bible preaching church.

I’ll never get tired of hearing how God saves people! Please open your Bibles to Acts 16:11-34 where we will see how God uses many methods to get His message out.

Background

Last week we learned God uses imperfect people to accomplish His perfect purposes. In the first part of Chapter 16, Paul and his team traveled from town to town to disciple new believers. As a result, verse 5 tells us the believers “were strengthened in the faith and grew in numbers.”

Let’s pick up the narrative in verses 11-12: “So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 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.” With smooth sailing and the wind at their back, the team made great time. Philippi was a Roman colony in Greece where many Romans had settled because of the promise of no taxes. It was known as “Rome away from Rome.”

Paul and his companions utilized three different methods with three different people.

• A religious woman

• A rejected teenager

• A regular guy

You probably know some religious people who don’t know Jesus; chances are good you can think of a person who has felt rejected by people and is enslaved to sin; and my guess is you know a bunch of regular people who are just going through the motions. God wants to get a message to these three types of people, but He first prepares messengers, like us, to send their way.

1. A Religious Woman (13-15)

First, let’s consider the religious woman. Paul and his team arrived in Philippi expecting to find the man who had appeared in the vision. Verse 13 describes what happened: “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.”

According to Jewish law, a synagogue could only be established if there were ten men who could commit to the congregation. But since Philippi did not have a lot of Jews, a group of women met near a river at a “praying place” or makeshift chapel.

BTW, the Bible is filled with examples of women who were greatly used by God – Rachel, Sarah, Shiphrah, Puah, Deborah, Hannah, Esther, Ruth, Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Priscilla, and Phoebe, just to name a few. In that culture women were treated as property or second-class citizens but Christianity elevated women to a higher status.

It was important to be near water so they could ritually wash their hands before prayer. These women gathered to recite Scripture, to read from the Law and the Prophets, to discuss what they read, and to pray. On occasion, they would listen to a traveling teacher give an exposition or exhortation. We see this in the last half of verse 13: “and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.” The word “spoke” refers to natural conversation, not preaching. I picture this like our Growth Groups which meet to informally study the Scriptures. If you’re not yet connected to one, we offer both mid-week and weekend groups.

Verse 14 introduces us to one of the worshipping women: “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.” Lydia was from a town which was famous for making purple dyes from shellfish and was probably in charge of a branch office in Philippi. Purple was the color of royalty. While she was no doubt a successful businesswoman, she was also a “worshiper of God,” which meant she was a Gentile who had not fully converted to Judaism but was sincerely seeking the one true God. She was religious but not yet redeemed. She was praying but had not yet discovered God’s purposes for her life.