Paul's Most Precious Church

 

In her book “The God Who Hung on the Cross”, Ellen Vaughn told how the Gospel came to a small village in Cambodia. In September 1999, a missionary traveled to northern Cambodia. Christianity was unheard of throughout that area. When the missionary came to one small village he was surprised. The people warmly embraced him and his witness for Jesus. One old woman told the missionary, "we have been waiting for you for twenty years."

In 1979 this village was attacked and overcome by Communist soldiers who, planning to kill them, had the villagers dig their own graves. They knelt before the holes they had dug waiting for the machine guns to cut them down. One of the women remembered a story her mother told her about a God who had hung on a cross. The woman prayed to that unknown God, hoping He would save them.

Hearing her, first one then another, the villagers pleaded with the God of the cross. When they finished praying they opened their eyes. The soldiers were gone. Ever since that day this village in the Kampong Thom Province waited for someone to tell them "the rest of the story" about the God who had hung on a cross. When the missionary walked into the village he found a fertile ground, for God had gone before him to prepare it.

From Acts 15:36 to Acts18:22 we find a record of events which took place during Paul’s second missionary journey. In Acts 16:6-10 we are told “Paul and his companions ...kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia ... During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:7-10).

It now became plain to Paul why the Holy Spirit had been closing other doors in his path; Macedonia needed help. The best help that Paul could render to the Macedonians was to preach the gospel to them. Jesus asked “what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). He also said “very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24).

Taking the vision to be God’s directive Paul and set off to Macedonia ;“ Sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis; from there we travelled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days” (Acts 16:11-12). The phrase “we came with a straight course to Samothracia” possibly means that there happened to be a favourable wind that day which blew the ship all the way to their destination. The God who had blocked some paths this time cleared the way to his desired destination.

This is the first use of “we” in the book of Acts instead of "they". It indicates that Luke the beloved physician (Col.4:14) and the author of Acts, had joined the missionary party at Troas. His presence is denoted by the personal pronoun “we”. Macedonia is a country in Europe. May be a trickling of the gospel had got in to Europe already but here’s the first recorded entry. Neapolis, the port of Philippi, represents Paul’s first footprint on what we now call Europe.

“On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there” (Acts 16:13). What  Paul found  when he arrived in Macedonia was not the man who had appeared to him in his vision, but a group of women who had gone there to pray in a roofless "house of prayer". Paul’s habit was that whenever he visited a town he would go the synagogue first.

Philippi had no synagogue an indication that very few Jews lived there. Jewish law permits Jews to build a synagogue in a place only if they have a congregation with at least ten men. This regulation is observed very strictly. If there are less than ten men, the only thing they are allowed to do each Sabbath is to have an open air meeting beside a river. Rivers offer fresh water for ceremonial washings (Lev.14:5). The scene at Philippi recalls Psalm 137:1 where exiles sat “by the rivers of Babylon”.

The God-fearing worshipers in Philippi maintained regular worship despite being few and living in a Roman colony shaped by a pagan religion. Their faithfulness to God prepared the way for the gospel to enter and take root in the city. Paul approached the gathering not as a passing observer but as one prepared to proclaim Christ. Expectant hearts gathered there for God had prepared this appointment long before the missionaries arrived.

‘One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us’ (Acts 16:14-15).

Purple was the color of royalty. The purple clothes which Lydia sold were expensive. And yet she did not mind all the discomfort and inconvenience of attending a riverside prayer meeting; her heart was set on worshiping God. She was a wealthy business woman but still found time to meet with other women on the Sabbath. We must remember that at that time there was no sabbath rest in the pagan Roman culture. The day when Lydia worshiped God was likely a regular working day in Phillipi.

Lydia  was religious but not yet redeemed.  Even though she had been worshipping God faithfully and was a religious god-fearing woman, that alone could not save her from eternal damnation. She still needed a Saviour. No matter how faithful you are in religious matters, if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you will not enter heaven. Jesus told Israels’ teacher Nicodemus, “very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3,10)

This reminds us of another story recorded in Acts 10. Cornelius, a centurion, gave generously to those in needs and prayed to God regularly. He was a righteous man who was respected by all the Jewish people.  He was devout and feared God with all his house. An angel said to him, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor”. God sent Peter to take the gospel to this righteous but unsaved man. Cornelius name needed to be in the book of life because without that he could never see the face of the Lord that he served so faithfully on earth.

The Lord opened Lydia’s heart to respond to Paul’s message. Here we see the relationship between God’s work and human responsibility.  It was God who opened her heart, but He did so as she listened to His Word. "The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom.1:16; James 1:21). "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom.10:17), but it's God who changes the heart. In Ezekiel 36:26 God says “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh”.

Lydia's story assures us that the Lord orchestrates meetings, prepares hearts and empowers His Word to accomplish what He pleases. He works in marvellous ways to bring people in contact with His Word. In the case of Lydia, God used the apostle Paul to bring the Gospel to her. It is interesting to see how God used various circumstances to bring both of them to the same place. We are told that Lydia was not from Philippi. She was from Thyatira which is located in the province of Asia.

Paul and his mission team tried to go to Asia but were prevented from doing so (Acts 16:6). Instead they were led to Philippi by a vision.  Lydia was in Philippi for business reasons. God orchestrated their meeting so Lydia could hear the message from Paul and get saved. God still sovereignly and purposely positions us to be with people who are spiritually searching. Our responsibility is to simply share the gospel or to be silent witnesses of its saving power (2 Cor. 5:19-20).  It’s God’s job to open and change hearts (1 Cor. 3:6-7).  

Isn’t it wonderful to know that the circumstances which led to your salvation were all carefully planned by God?Lydia became Europe's first recorded convert. After being saved, she and her entire household were baptized. The act of baptism signifies acceptance of the Gospel. The order in the Book of Acts is clear: Believe and be baptized (Acts 2:41). All believers who have experienced the Lord’s great mercy and grace in salvation will naturally want to see their loved ones saved as well.

Genuine faith blossoms into action; Lydia’s first instinct was to practice hospitality. She persuaded Paul and his team to stay in her home. This reveals her sincerity in wanting to serve God with her resources and to enjoy blessed fellowship with God’s servants. Her home became a ministry base; similar to Mary’s house (Acts 12:12) and Philemon’s house (Philemon 2). This God given hospitality was strategic, providing rest, fellowship and a launch point for gospel advance. Lydia's conversion transformed her home into instruments for God’s mission.

Her home became a meeting place for the growing church in Philippi. God used her position, resources, and willingness to advance the gospel in a Roman colony. The ministry of the church is strengthened as believers faithfully serve one another and work together for the spread of the gospel. Lydia opened her house for such a purpose. We can see this in Acts 16:40 “And they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed.” 

Lydia’s home became the very first place in Philippi where Christians met together regularly, and thus it was the very first house church to be planted in the whole of Europe. And all this was possible because God used an ordinary woman called Lydia. Nothing more is mentioned in the Bible about Lydia after Acts 16. But it is remarkable that her encounter with the gospel at a humble river side prayer meeting produced results that neither her nor Paul could ever have imagined; her home  became the doorway for the gospel into Europe.

Lydia became a strategic partner in gospel advance. Scripture notes her by name, underscoring personal worth.  Women played an active role in the early church (Luke 8:1-3). Jesus’ public approach to the Samaritan woman (John 4:7-26), affirmed women's worth and role in God’s kingdom. The Bible is filled with examples of women who were greatly used by God: Deborah, Hannah, Esther, Ruth, Abigail, Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Phoebe and Priscilla. Women are never footnotes in God’s redemptive plan.

The church at Philippi was the first church in Europe, planted by the apostle Paul. The church was one of the truly great churches in the New Testament, one that gave Paul great cause for rejoicing. The Philippian church became one of Paul’s closest partners in the gospel(Phil. 4:15-20). When they heard that Paul was in prison, the church sent him a gift by a messenger named Epaphroditus. Paul sent a thank you letter to the church through him. That letter it the book of Philippians in the Bible.

This letter stands out as one of the most personal that Paul wrote. It is joyful in nature and doesn’t harshly rebuke the congregation. Paul shows his immense gratitude to the church by thanking them for their generous gifts. The letter is marked by joy, gratitude and confidence in Christ. It overflows with the theme of joy in spite of his circumstances which seemed to militate against having joy.