Acts 16:9-15
This week I had to spend some time at the dentist – about 3 hours, actually. My dentist loves talking and we had plenty of time so quite early in the piece, when she wasn’t reaching into my mouth, she asked me what my subject would be this Sunday. I said, “Lydia.” That made her curious as she’d not heard of Lydia – well not as a Bible character anyway. So as we went on with what we had to do, she looked Lydia up on her computer and found out some interesting things to add to what I was able to tell her. It made for an interesting conversation.
I’ve been asked that question before and I love it every time because it almost always leads to good conversation. It’s not unique to my position, either. I’m sure you’ve been asked what I talked about on Sunday. Isn’t it good to be able to give an answer that gets conversation going? We don’t know how Paul got the conversation going with the women by the river at Philippi but we do know that he had a very interested audience. Particularly Lydia who, I suspect, would have asked a question or two of her own.
I want to touch on 5 things in relation to this story of Paul, Lydia and friends.
Listening to God
Paul didn’t rush around trying to share the good news in his own strength, in his own way, with everyone he came across. He did it in God’s strength and in God’s way. He took time to listen to God. After a couple of times heading off and God calling him back, Paul heard God telling him to go to Macedonia. And that’s where he went. Do we need to spend more time listening to God, as well as talking to him, when we pray?
How do I know God wants us to present Life Stories followed by the Alpha Course? I believe it was direct inspiration from God. As I got up from my prayer time a couple of weeks ago the Holy Spirit put the thought in my mind. We’ve been praying about this for quite some time and also working towards it. We will need some helpers to run the Alpha course and I have approached another church to lend us some people. We each have a part to play: we all need to pray that the courses will achieve their purpose and we need to invite people. So, pray and invite someone to Life Stories. Then keep praying over the next several weeks and prepare to invite someone to Alpha.
Willing to go
Paul was asking God where he was to go next so, when he got his direction, he went, in this case by ship. He didn’t make excuses. He knew how important it was that those people should hear God’s good news. We probably won’t be called as far afield as Macedonia – but you never know! (Remember that for Paul it was more like here to Christchurch by sea.) For most of us, sharing the good news will happen closer to home. There will be people God puts on our hearts, maybe neighbours along the road, people we meet in the op shop, family, friends, and so on. Are we willing to go to them? To invite them to hear and think about these human interest stories?
Knowing what to say
Paul knew what to say about Jesus to Lydia and the other women by the river. There are two things we need to know: the good news and our experience of it. It’s good to think through what we believe and to be able to put it clearly into words, however few. To do this, we need to spend time reading our Bibles, talking about it with others and being determined to explain as clearly as possible what our faith means to us. And it doesn’t hurt to practice. One night this week I dreamt I was sharing the good news with a businessman and he embraced Jesus and then made some good changes in his business. What am I coming to when I practice sharing the good news in my sleep?
We also need to be able to tell our own stories – to describe our experience of meeting and living with Jesus. You may want to use Alpha to revise your knowledge of the faith and both courses coming up are good opportunities for sharing what our faith means to us.
Donald Miller is the founding Director of Storyline, an organization that helps people live better stories. Every Sunday he features on his blog a brief “sermon” from an unlikely source. Bccause Donald is in the United States I get the ‘sermon’ on Monday. Last week he featured Francis Collins, the geneticist who led the Human Genome Project. Collins came to faith later in life and in this interview with CNN, talks about why.
This comment is from Donald Miller: Just the other day my girlfriend and I were paddling across a lake. A duck went by and Betsy tried to get a picture. As I steered us closer to the duck, it hit me again. It hits me about once a month. How can anybody not believe there is an intelligent design behind all this? Not only are the colors of the duck amazing, but my brain is amazing for even being able to process that subjective reality. And also for knowing the thought the duck is amazing is subjective in the first place. And all this an accident? It’s a rationally absurd position. This is, of course, no proof of Christianity. But it’s certainly a logical idea. I’m grateful for people like Fancis Collins, who is not alone in his faith amongst the scientific community, and who expresses so plainly and disarmingly his belief in God. Not only does the duck give me faith, but Fancis does as well. There’s something that made us. My reason tells me that. My faith says Jesus has something to do with it. I hope you found this short interview encouraging and that it stimulates thought and conversation.
You may feel that you can’t tell your own story let alone explain the good news. But you can invite a person to the Life Stories course – it’s a good start.
With the Holy Spirit’s help
The Holy Spirit was already at work in Lydia. She was ready to receive the good news about Jesus. She was what the Jews called a God-fearer. That term referred to anyone who was interested in Judaism but hadn’t yet become a committed Jew. Lydia was not a Jew but she was around Jews. They were her friends and she was looking into their beliefs. When Paul shared the gospel Lydia was excited to hear it and seemed to respond at once. It’s wonderful when this happens and we need to pray that God will enable us to meet people who are ready to respond – to bring such people to Life Stories. There are people around us who are not yet Christians but who are interested and thinking about Jesus, the Bible and all that. You probably know some people like Lydia. But we know that this isn’t always the case. We also need to be patient and continue to pray for the people we meet who are not yet quite as ready as Lydia, and for the Holy Spirit to make them ready.
Showing by actions
Lydia is described as a seller of purple cloth from Thyatira which is a city in western Turkey. In all probability Lydia was of some social standing, a seller of luxury items, cultured, well educated, widely traveled and wealthy. She was the head of her household so probably single. When Lydia received Jesus she showed by her actions that she was different. She and her household were baptised, and she wanted to welcome Paul and his team into her home. We’re not told how receiving Jesus affected her business, but inevitably her customers would have noticed a difference. Maybe she told them that she’d discovered something much more precious than the expensive purple cloth she sold them!
Recapping these 5 points. We need to listen to God for our instructions. We need to be ready to go and do what he asks of us. It helps a great deal if we prepare ahead of time what we’re going to say – learn to tell our story and to explain the gospel. We must work in with the Holy Spirit because we can’t do it on our own. Our faith will show in our actions.
So I am inviting you to apply this by thinking through how Jesus has impacted your life – your thinking, your speaking and your actions – and telling your story to at least one person this week. I believe you will enjoy some good conversations along the way.