In Jesus Holy Name October 3, 2022
Text: Acts16:6-9, 13-14 Redeemer Lutheran
“Keeping the Vision of Jesus”
The mysterious Watergate informant known as “Deep Throat” told reporters Woodward and Bernstein: “Follow the money,” He was right The same principle is a lesson the 1st century church learned: Instead of “follow the money” it was “Follow the Holy Spirit”. The vision of Jesus was clear. (Acts 1) “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” The “how” was not explained. The “how” slowly became visible to the disciples as they listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit, who guided their actions.
In the ancient Greek Theaters an actor would often speak two or three parts The audience would know who is speaking by the “mask” that the actor would hold up. (called “persona”) The audience recognized the role being played by the mask. For example in a youth play there would one person speaking two parts by changing the mask. (have two masks to demonstrate) The first person speaks: "Jesus died for your sins!" To which the actor by changing the mask would ask: "Yeh, but what has He done for me lately?" The same actor, changing to a third mask says: “Follow the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus, in His human body, could only be in one place at any one time, but His Spirit could be everywhere at all times. When Jesus was on earth, He could delegate power but when He was gone, His Spirit would fill the disciples with His power. It happened. (Leonard Sweet)
First on Pentecost… all the new believers in Jesus took the message of the resurrection back home. Second, Jesus told the Peter to include Gentiles. He had a vision and a visit to the home of Cornelius. Third, the Holy Spirit guided them through problems and persecution, including the important “Council” in Jerusalem. (Acts 15) Fourth, the Holy Spirit gave a vision to Saul on the Road to Damascus and then sent him and Barnabas on their first missionary journey.
On their first journey a pattern was set the Holy Spirit always guided them to a logical place, the synagogue. In every city that Paul and Barnabas went, they always started by speaking to Jews in the synagogue, which I referred to as “Common Ground”. They began with the O.T. scriptures. We too have common ground with friends and neighbors who say they believe in God… but remain dechurched. I suggested you begin with the “?” why., to begin your mission to share what Jesus is doing in your life.
Charles Swindoll points out that "When we study the journeys of Paul in the book of Acts, we’re not just reading the travel log of a man; we’re observing the redemptive plan of God unfolding as He promised. Through the ministry of Saul of Tarsus, God’s mission to reclaim His creation from the death grip of evil would move to its next stage.
Acts 16 finds the new missionaries are Paul and Silas returning to visit all the congregations from the first trip. But what happens when Paul tries to visit new areas in Asia. There are road blocks. We are not told what kind just that no matter how many times they tried they were blocked. (Read Acts 16:6-10)
The apostle Paul had a vision in the night while he was in Troas. In the vision a man begged him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (v. 9). Paul and his companions immediately adjusted their course and went to Macedonia to share the gospel. But there was a new problem. No synagogue. So where is the common ground?
When Paul and his friends got to Macedonia they tried to find a synagogue in which to worship. Apparently none existed in Philippi. On the Sabbath they found a group of women gathered by the river to pray. Paul spoke to them and shared the gospel. A woman named Lydia was in that group and “The Lord opened her heart” (v. 14). Who opened her heart? Paul’s eloquent sermon? No. The Holy Spirit. As Luther reminds us…”I can not by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel.” Paul shared Jesus as Savior.
Lydia became a helper of Paul and a woman of faith in the area. She was open to the gospel but Paul was open to her and her family. She invited them to her house. "Who are you inviting into your house?" I'm not thinking of the Fuller Brush man, or the individual who sells encyclopedias, the kid from the neighborhood school who is selling candy, the Girl Scout with her cookies, or the college student selling 20-year subscriptions to magazines. (sermon Rev Ken Klaus 2007)
Do you have children and grandchildren? Do they watch television? If your children watch the tube for two-to-four hours, which is the national average, they will see 40,000 television ads every year. Forty thousand ads which have been written by the most creative minds that can be found. Forty thousand advertisements being presented by the most beautiful, the most popular, the most glamorous, the most well-know personalities that money can buy.
Forty thousand advertisements selling everything from sugar-coated cereal to products I won't mention in a sermon on Sunday morning, but you know the ones I’m talking about. Forty thousand advertisements which tell your child, again and again, how he or she can be popular, desirable, accepted - loved. Forty thousand strangers every year are coming into your home and your children's lives.
Whom are you inviting into your home? Do you have a computer? Do your children and grandchildren have access to it? While I'm thankful that the industry offers parental controls to filter out some of the filth coming into your home; it is a rare household which can escape the equally creative and innovative purveyors of pornography who, with singular passion are dedicated to slipping sleaze into your home via a high-speed Internet connection. Perversions which an older generation considered to be unmentionable, partly because we never heard of them, are now routinely shown to the young and most impressionable.
Long ago, a woman did exactly that. When she heard the apostle Paul preach about the love of the Savior, of the sacrifice that the Christ made by dying upon a cross; when she heard about how the world's sins - her broken commandments - were carried and erased by that Savior, and how all who believed on Him as their risen and ever-living Lord were forgiven, she believed.
Indeed, Lydia, for that was her name, became the first person in Europe to be baptized and the members of her household were the first Christians on that continent. But Scripture tells us more than Lydia's name and her job as a seller of expensive purple cloth. The Bible tells us that after a while the lady Lydia came to the Apostle Paul and extended this invitation to him and those who were around him: "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay" (see Acts 16:13-15).
"Come to my house and stay." When Jesus is brought into a home, the changes cannot be measured. Rev. Ken Klaus tells of a mother who went to visit her son at college on Parent's Weekend. She got there early and was granted entrance to her son's room. She was prepared to see dirty clothes scattered everywhere; she was expecting to see half-finished pop-cans and pizza which had, from the growth of the green mold on the crust, been sitting out for a few weeks. What she wasn't prepared to discover were some of the immoral magazines which were also lying around.
Using the wisdom of Solomon, which Christian mothers seem to possess, she didn't say a word to her son. Instead, when she got home, she went out and bought her boy a picture of Jesus, sent it to him, and asked him to hang it on his wall. When he came home for Christmas vacation, she asked about the Jesus picture. Her son said he had hung it... and then, after a lengthy pause, added, he had also cleaned up his room. He told her that some of the magazines he owned couldn't stay in the same room with Jesus. He had to get rid of them. He had to stop visiting the porn sites on the web. He had made some changes in his life.
She is not the only mother who has given similar reminders. In August this year our first grandson, Isaac had to go to college a few weeks early because he would be working with the Boise State Marching band. He has great music skill and a scholarship, but no marching experience, so his job was to be on the side line during all day practice and run out and give the kids who are marching, water.
His comment the first week of school was: “I’m going to quite band. I don’t like it. All I do is serve the kids with water. I race out and bring them cups of water. It’s boring and not what I signed up for.”
So, in response. My daughter-in-law simply said, “So you don’t want to imitate Jesus who washed His disciples feet.” “Why do you not want to be like Jesus who asked His followers to be servants?”
And now as Paul Harvey said: “The Rest of the Story”. No word from Isaac. A week goes by. Then two. Finally he said. “I have decided to stay with the band, I have found a friend. I’m not the only one serving water.” This week end he attended a retreat with “Fellowship of Christian Athletes”. His comment:
“It was “great fun”, and I met a lot of new Christian friends.” So I say thank you to my daughter in law.
Who are you inviting into your home? Are your children and grandchildren hearing about Jesus? Do they see you practicing Christian values and behavior?
The situation in our households has revealed itself in shocking stories being played out in city and country, and in communities both rich and poor. There are too many dechurched and unchurched in those homes who know the Savior well enough to tell the family His story, to speak of the Savior's suffering, His death, and His resurrection. Children have a soul, and to neglect these immortal souls is the most tragic thing which any parent can do.
In the city of Jericho there was a despised tax-collector by the name of Zacchaeus. That man's home was changed when he warmly welcomed Jesus into his house. By the end of the night, Zacchaeus became a reformed believer. With faith in the Savior, he promised to help the poor and, with a bonus, return anything which he had stolen (see Luke 19:1-9).
A frightened father by the name of Jairus invited Jesus to his home and visit his dying daughter. It was an invitation Jairus never regretted having made. Before the Savior left Jairus' home, He had changed things. With the power that only the Son of God could possess, Jesus raised that little girl from the dead and restored her to her family (see Luke 8:41, 49-56).
In a Philippian city, without a synagogue, the Holy Spirit not only sent Paul and Silas there, but sent them to meet Lydia. She was a worshipper of God. In other words she believed in the God of the bible, just like your unchurched or dechurched friends…. Maybe you have been invited to their home for just such an opportunity. Lydia invited them into her home. Her home because the first “house church” in Greece.
Let the Holy Spirit guide your steps and your words. If a road is blocked He has another one for you.
Amen
