Passing the Torch, Part 3

T.J. asked me as I sat down next
to him just now after prayer, almost astonishedly, there’s
a part three. There is a part three. And even
though I have five extra minutes, there may even be a part four.
The outline is there in your bulletin with places for notes. And you see that we’re closing
to drawing near the end of our consideration of Acts chapter
15 and done so with a purpose. We’re looking at Acts chapter
and 15 with a consideration of the establishment of the Philippian
church in anticipation of studying Paul’s epistle to the Philippians.
So we’re looking at Acts chapter and 15, which is specifically
where we find the founding of the Philippian church. And I’m
doing it in such a fashion as to kind of look at it loosely
as kind of a method, if you will, for planting churches. And that’s
why I entitled the study Church Planting 101 Components of a
Church Planting Ministry. And I think I did so, as I indicated
several weeks ago, almost in response years ago to someone
challenging me to a particular model of church planting. And I think my comment then was
there is no one model of church planting and that the model that
is given to us in Scripture is adequate. And little did I know
how adequate this model is. As we have begun to look at various
components that make up the ministry that passes the torch, the torch
of the gospel and the torch of the work of ministry itself down
through the centuries by way of and we’re going to try and
keep to a pretty quick review. I’ve broken it up into, I think,
11 points, 11 observations. learned from the ministry of
the planting of the church in Philippi. And so just by way
of a quick review, I want to go back to Acts chapter 15 and
what kind of course our way forward. And then I’ll tell you when the
material is new and you can wake up those who’ve been with us
for the last three weeks. First of all, In looking at these
ministry lessons observed from the establishment of the church
in Philippi, we see that establishing churches is, first of all, a
ministry that is born out of a heart of shepherding the flock
on hand. This is the heart of pastoral
ministry, as we saw, where in verse 36 of chapter 15, Paul
said to Barnabas, let us return and visit the brethren in every
city where we proclaim the word of the Lord. Too often, as I
suggested in ministry, there is this mentality that says evangelism
is enough and that’s all we need and that all we got to do is
get them saved and let them fend for their own way. Well, the
great commission is to make disciples, not just to get people saved.
We are to preach the gospel. We are to proclaim Christ. We are to share with our friends
the great provision that God has given in the Savior, the
Lord Jesus. But we are also to take people
and to minister to them and to disciple them, to edify the saints
and to grow them in Christ. That is the great calling of
the church. And that merely is what we acknowledged here, that
the Philippian church and the establishment of it was not foremost
in Paul’s mind. Foremost in Paul’s mind was the
strengthening, the girding up of the saints. Secondly, establishing
churches is not only ministry that is born out of a heart of
shepherding the flock on hand, But it is advanced, as we saw
repeatedly, by a pluralized effort. Throughout Scripture, but especially
when it comes to the eldership, you see a pluralized effort. I think I shared several weeks
ago, I would never if I were ever to do church planting again,
which I have no intention of. If I were to ever do a church
plant again, I would do so with a plurality. I would go with a fellow elder. And in fact, that’s the only
church planting effort that I will ever support again. Look again at the repeated pluralistic structure
of this whole passage. After they had spent some time
there, verse 33, they were sent away from the brethren. And what
it refers to specifically there is Paul and Barnabas, verse thirty
five. In verse thirty six, we see Paul
and Barnabas. Paul said to Barnabas, by way
of a pluralistic approach to ministry, said, let us return. Not let’s each go do our own
thing, even after the breach. that Paul and Barnabas suffered,
they each took another brother to themselves, Paul and Silas,
Barnabas and Mark. And they, as a pluralistic approach
to ministry, went out. We spent time on that and I’ll
move on from there to point three. Church planting 101, the components
of a church planting ministry. Thirdly, establishing churches
is a ministry legitimized by the commissioning of the local
church. We have way too many ministries
out there that are completely unattached to any local church. That’s a huge problem. It drains
good resources. limited resources off of the
local church, which is the institution that God has promised to bless.
It’s the institution that God wants to use in the world for
the advance of his kingdom. That doesn’t mean that God can’t
use other ministries, parachurch ministries and the like. But
the problem is when those ministries are completely unattached to
the local church. They don’t answer to the local
church. Those who serve in it don’t answer to the local church.
And you have essentially, even if it’s well ordered, chaos. Churches plant churches. Churches
are God’s institution for advancing the gospel in the world repeatedly. Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Silas,
those who were commissioned out were constantly being sent out
from the local church with blessing, with encouragement, probably
with financial support, but with the local church’s authority. It’s the local church where the
authority for ministry resides. Verse 33, after they had spent
some time there, they were sent away. And we took some time to
show you, they were not sent away because they were rude guests.
They hadn’t overstayed their welcome. They were sent away
from their brethren in peace to those who had sent them out.
It’s almost like a puzzle piece on a game board. Paul wasn’t
going anywhere unless someone moved him. Paul wasn’t going
to do his own thing. And that’s my point here. That’s
simply my point. That Paul went out, Paul’s ministry,
Barnabas’s ministry was the blessing and had the blessing of being
commissioned or legitimized by the local church. Point four.
Point four. Establishing churches is a ministry
that is born out of a heart of shepherding the flock on hand,
advanced by a pluralized effort, legitimized by the commissioning
of the local church, and fourthly, characterized by serving with
a constant view to discipleship. I mean, this is the Apostle Paul,
if the Apostle Paul could have had the mindset that, look, I’m
going to just advance the gospel as far and wide as I can, as
long as I can, as long as the Lord gives me days. I’m not going
to worry about passing the torch, as it were, to another generation
of faithful preachers. I’m not going to worry about
that. Paul could have. If there was
anybody ever that could have had that mentality, it was Paul.
Perhaps the greatest evangelist the church has ever known. If
Paul was going to put all of his eggs in one basket, Paul
would have been justified in doing so. But he didn’t. Paul didn’t say, all I’m going
to do is preach. You guys take care of discipleship.
You guys take care of ministering to the young men in the church.
All I’m going to do is preach. That’s not what Paul did. Look
at chapter 16, verse 1. Paul came to Derbe and to Lystra.
Remember, his whole intent is to go out and minister to the
saints, those who had already come to Christ. He was looking
for growth. And in Derbe and Lystra, he found
growth where it says a disciple was there named Timothy. I believe
in my heart that Paul had Timothy in mind among those great saints
that had already come to Christ. And Paul was looking for growth.
He was looking for development. He was looking to pass on the
torch. Second Timothy 2.2, when Paul
wrote to Timothy years later at the end of his life, he gave
Timothy the same exact command. These things pass on to faithful
men who will be able to teach others also. You can never take
a static approach in ministry and not worry about future generations
by developing those in your midst. Point five. Point five. The fifth component of a church
planning ministry is that establishing churches is ministry that is
conducted by actively awaiting God’s direction. Now, I told
you that Paul didn’t go anywhere without being sent by the local
church, but this sending was a rather general sending. Paul wasn’t going to just sit
and wait for God to tell him specifically how and where to
do something like so many of us do. We want God to open a
door. We want to be invited to do thus
and such. We want to be asked to head up
a particular ministry. But not Paul. Paul had ministry to do all around
him. And Paul was busy doing things
all the while God is preparing to impart to him a new and specific
direction. Look at verse four. It says that
while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering
the decrees. Paul had a goal. Paul was headed in a particular
direction that all the while he’s moving about, he’s carrying
out and conducting specific ministry tasks. You’ve heard it said that
it’s easier to steer a moving vehicle, and that is exactly
the case here. The God found in Paul a willing
servant, an eager servant willing to do whatever the task was required. And in this particular case,
he found in Paul a vehicle that was very soon to be steered. Point six. Point six. Not only was Paul actively awaiting
God’s direction in that very context, he received God’s sovereign
redirection. Establishing churches is ministry
point six that is guided by God’s sovereign redirection. It doesn’t
mean that you’re flaky or willy nilly. It doesn’t mean that you’re
double minded. But you have to know we planted
this church Fully expecting to have an elder within the first
two years, we planted the church as community Bible church and
purpose to meet in a school until the church got big enough that
we had to move out. Now we meet in another church’s
building called Providence Bible Church, and it took us almost
seven and a half years before the Lord provided another elder. God’s sovereign redirection. God is in charge. We can purpose
to do whatever we purpose to do. And I’m so thankful as we
look back. Remember, most of you, if not
all, have seen our little distinctives bulletin that we hand out from
time to time. Our little distinctives brochure
repeatedly says we endeavor to be. We endeavor to be. We can plan our way, but ultimately
God is in control, right? Man plans his way, but God directs
his steps. We see here that Paul was heading
in a particular direction and it’s a noble direction. Look
at verse six of chapter 16. They pass through the Phrygian
and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit
to speak the word in Asia. The Holy Spirit is not a cosmic
killjoy. He’s not against Paul speaking
the word in Asia. He will do that later. God desires
all to be saved, all manner of men. But on this particular occasion,
God had a sovereign plan that he was going to affect. Look
at verse seven, and after they came to Mycenae, they were trying
to go into Bithynia. And the spirit of Jesus did not
permit them. We don’t know exactly what. And
there was all kinds of fanciful speculation as to exactly what
prevented Paul. Some says it was his health.
Some say it was money. God can use any and all or any
combination of those things to steer and to guide. We don’t know exactly what the
Lord used, but we do know that he was the Lord was successful. in thwarting Paul’s efforts to
go in one direction and then thwarting his efforts to go in
another direction. And there was only one direction
to go, either retreat and go home, which wasn’t an option,
or to press on straight ahead. And God provides Paul an ample
directive in the dream to come to Mycenae as we looked at last
week. Point number seven. Point number seven. And this
is where you actually begin to get into the actual planting
of the Philippian church. Everything else is kind of preparatory. Sound principles from God’s word
that should attend our ministries. But it’s only here that really
the Philippian church comes into view. Let’s pick it up in verse 10
of chapter 16. When he had seen the vision,
that is the vision of the Macedonian man beckoning them to come to
Macedonia to help them. When he had seen the vision,
immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God
had called us to preach the gospel to them. It was evidently a clear
enough message, perhaps attendant with an audible voice or interpretive
message, that Paul came away with a clear conviction that
he was to go to Macedonia to take the gospel there. Verse
11, so putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course
to Samothrace and on the day following to Neapolis and from
there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia,
a Roman colony. And we were staying in this city
for a number of days. And on the Sabbath day, we went
outside the gate to a riverside. We were where we were supposing
that there would be a place of prayer. And we sat down and began
speaking to the women who had assembled. This is we touched
on a bunch of this last week and so a little more detailed
review. Point number seven is that establishing
churches is ministry that is begun by watching for the spiritually
sensitive. That doesn’t mean that you don’t
preach the gospel to the flagrantly heathen. But there are those
that are spiritually sensitive that They believe in God in some
general fashion. Perhaps they’ve had some crisis
in their life that has driven them to their knees. And they
have some awareness, some understanding of God, which Paul says in Romans
1 is basic. That’s part of what we ought
to have. A basic understanding and belief in God is to be expected. We can presume that when we speak
to somebody, that’s what Paul says. Romans, chapter one, and so Paul
comes to this place of prayer and it indicates that, as we’ve
already seen, there wasn’t enough Jewish believers, enough Jewish
men to constitute the establishment of a synagogue. And so they had
these little prayer meeting places near the river so that they could
accommodate their washing rituals and they could pray. And it says of Lydia that she
was a God fearer. which really just denotes a Gentile
that had in some degree assented to or come to some kind of agreement
with the God of the Jews and an understanding of approaching
the God of the Jews. And remember, that was Israel’s
purpose was to be a light to the nations and to draw in those
Gentiles to God. And there was a whole protocol
which attended that. And so when Paul came to a new
city, his typical approach was to go into the synagogue, but
because there was no synagogue, Paul went to the next best place
and that was to the place of prayer. And he comes upon this
place of prayer and he meets just a number of women there
in prayer, which indicates that the men of the city, if there
were any Jewish men, were so spiritually dull that they were
unavailable for the worship of God. And that only these women were
desirous enough to gather together and to pray to God. We were reminded of Lydia that
obviously a wealthy woman, a woman of intelligence, a saleswoman
who had some desire, some knowledge of God that she wanted to foster. And with others. But by name,
only Lydia is mentioned. She’s prominent in the. In the
account. And that as Paul began to speak
the gospel to her. She responded, as we will see. Ministry must look for those
not exclusively, but we must be watchful of those that are
spiritually sensitive. I can promise you, you’ll never
know if you don’t talk to people about it. I think it was a number
of years ago that we maybe even have seen the little business
cards, it was like a little table tent business card that folded
up. And it simply said, you’re invited. You’re invited, do you have a
place of worship? And again, there that presumes a whole lot
of things. Number one, it presumes that
there is a God. It presumes that God is worthy
of worship, and it also assumes that you should have a place
that you’re worshiping. And you know what? I’m OK with all of
those. I’m OK with walking up to someone that I don’t even
know and saying, do you have a place of worship? I mean, in
10 seconds, you’re going to be into it. In 10 seconds, you’re
going to know exactly where they stand. They’re either going to
tell you, I don’t need to worship or there is no God that I worship
or I worship in the mountains or I don’t need a church building
in which to worship. You’re going to know. It’s a
good line of reasoning. It’s a good way to approach somebody. And we don’t do it enough. You’ll
never know if you don’t talk to them. You’ll never know who’s
spiritually sensitive. But if you find somebody who’s
reading the Bible like the Ethiopian eunuch, if you find somebody
who’s spiritually sensitive in some degree, maybe they’ve had
some crisis. Maybe you’ve been in their life
enough to know that, you know what, they’re ripe. They’re talking
about God. They’re talking about a higher
power. They’re talking about these things. They’re looking,
they’re searching. You know it because you were
there. We’ve got to watch for the spiritually
sensitive and when we do, we share Christ. We share Christ. And that’s what Paul did. On the Sabbath, we went out to
the gate to Riverside where we were supposing that there would
be a place of prayer. And we sat down and began speaking to
the women. who had assembled, then it wasn’t
just that Paul was speaking to them cordially and talking to
them about the weather. I believe Paul began right then
and there, like he did everywhere else. He began to expound the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Which brings us to point eight. Point eight. Establishing churches
is ministry not only guided by God’s sovereign redirection and
begun by watching for the spiritually sensitive, but number eight,
establishing churches is ministry that is limited by the sovereign
work of God in response to ministry. Now, what kind of a method is
this that acknowledges that God has limited it? What kind is
it? It’s God’s kind. It’s a kind
that the church would do well to return to. It’s a kind that
the church would do well to fall on their knees and remember that
in all things, but especially with regards to salvation, God
is sovereign. And that no method that we ply
can be used to circumvent God’s great sovereignty in the salvation
of a soul. I want you to go back to the
passage, if you would. We sat down, verse 13, and began
speaking to the women who had assembled. A woman named Lydia
from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshipper
of God, was listening. We’ve already indicated she wasn’t
a true Jewish convert yet. She was a worshipper. And the
Jew used that title as one, a Gentile who was a proselyte, a convert
to Judaism. A worshipper of God, and she
was listening. And the Lord opened her heart
to respond to the things spoken by Paul. Now, I don’t care. I don’t care what background
you’re from, that is a difficult statement that is a doozy. That
is one of those statements that Scripture from Scripture that
you better have an answer for this one, how that is even possible. You better have an answer or
an understanding of this. Let’s look at a couple of observations
of that. First of all, you have to note
that Lydia’s heart was closed. That’s essentially what is communicated
there when it says the Lord opened her heart, it must have been
closed prior to that. Perhaps you might say Lydia was
exceptionally dull spiritually and in that sense she was closed.
that she was like many, but not all, that she was just spiritually
dull, like so many people seem to be. Except that God had already,
by virtue of His Holy Spirit, called her a worshipper of God,
a convert to some degree. No. What Lydia had was a product
of the fall and what all people suffer from, and that is spiritual
deadness. Her heart was totally closed,
just like every person’s heart born into this world is. And
it took, if you will notice, the Lord Himself to open her
heart. You have those twin evangelical
truths that are so often ignored. You have here Total depravity
and you have irresistible grace blended right into this passage. This is how Charles Spurgeon
described this condition. Charles Spurgeon said evangelical
repentance can never exist in an unrenewed soul. It’s true
of Lydia. It was true of you, it’s true
of me, it’s true of every person ever born on the face of the
earth, that what Spurgeon says, until God moves first, you’re
dead. It’s not that you will be dead,
you’re dead where you sit until God moves. Spiritually speaking,
you are dead. He goes on, evangelical repentance
can never exist in an unrenewed soul. We are as helpless to cooperate
in our own regeneration as we are to cooperate in the work
of Calvary. God didn’t nail part of you to
the tree that day. And it is the cross alone that
meets the guilt of sin. And it is regeneration alone
which meets its power. Sinner, unconverted sinner, I
warn you, you can never cause yourself to be born again. And
though the new birth is absolutely necessary, it is absolutely impossible
to you. You know what that echoes? That echoes John chapter three,
when Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again. And if you
go and you read it carefully and objectively, Jesus didn’t
tell Nicodemus to do anything. He didn’t tell him to do anything.
He just told Nicodemus and wanted Nicodemus to to interact with
the desperate nature in which his soul found itself. That he
was a dead man, a walking dead man, and then unless God. Gave him new birth. He would
remain forever dead. Though new birth is absolutely
necessary, spurging continued is absolutely impossible to you
unless God the Spirit shall do it. Do what you will. And still
at your very best, there is a division as wide as eternity between you
and God. The Spirit of God must make you. You must be born again. The same
power which raised Jesus from the dead must be exerted in raising
us from the dead. The very same omnipotence without
which angels or worms could not have had a being must again step
forth from his privy chamber and do as great a work he did
at the beginning of creation in making us anew in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Do you hear what he said? The
same God, the same power that created the heavens and the earth
and all that’s in it. That is the same creative power
that must work in a sinful individual just for them to be able to open
their eyes to spiritual things. And if you’re sitting here and
you know in your heart that you have faith in Christ, we should
be humbled to the core of our being that God moved first. that God opened our eyes. In the salvation, Spurgeon continues,
of every person. There is an actual putting forth
of divine power whereby the dead sinner is quickened. The unwilling
sinner is made willing. The desperately hard sinner has
his conscience made tender. And he who rejected God and despised
Christ is brought to cast himself down at the face of Jesus. You
know it was you. You know that there was nothing
in you that inclined yourself to a holy God. I know it of me. There must be a divine interposition,
a divine working, a divine influence or else do what you may. Without
God, you perish and you are undone. Genesis six, five, God looked
down and his evaluation was of a particular society, but it’s
true of each one of us. As God looked down, he saw that
the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Can
you have any more superlatives in a single sentence? The heart of man was desperately
wicked. You’ve heard me say it before,
my evaluation. After the fall, we are inherently sinful as a
people. As human beings, after the fall
of Adam and Eve, we are inherently sinful, physically dying, temporally
vexed and spiritually dead. We’re spiritually dead. Our hearts,
just like Lydia’s, are closed. And unless God does something
miraculous, we perish. We perish. I mentioned from time to time
Ephesians chapter Chapter two, it’s a fascinating passage. It’s
one that, you know, well, you were dead in your trespasses
and sins. And what horrible news that is.
Ephesians, chapter two, verse one. But the simple sentence
in that passage is that, but God of verses four and five that
made us alive. We didn’t make ourselves alive.
God made us alive. And he did it the same way that
he did for Lydia. He opened our hearts to respond
to the things spoken by Paul. That’s what God does. Calvin
called them the spectacles of faith, where all of a sudden
you see things that you’ve known and heard and seen for a long
time that suddenly by God’s grace alone makes sense. You understand
it. You see Christ for who He is.
You see that God is holy. You see yourselves as a vile
wretch. And you see Christ for who He
is. God’s perfect Son sacrificed for you. One pastor said it this way,
we declare on scriptural authority that the human will is so desperately
set on mischief, so depraved, so inclined to everything that
is evil, so disinclined to everything that is good, that without the
powerful, supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit,
no human will ever be constrained toward Christ. And yet you have
churches by the thousands that will use every tactic, manipulative
and otherwise to try to coerce dead sinners to life. And you can’t do it without the
gospel, you can’t do it without Christ. It’s not that we’re sick, we’re
dead. That’s the doctrine that Scripture
promotes. 1 Corinthians 2,14 says it simply,
A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.
For they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them.
Cannot. He has a utter inability to understand the things of God.
For they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them
for they are spiritually appraised and he doesn’t have God’s spirit.
spiritual things are spiritually discerned. Because sin has adulterated God’s
creation and left humanity with a darkened, even deadened understanding
of those things, and because general revelation is insufficient
to lead sinners to salvation, Paul says that merely looking
out on the mountains that border our precious city, is enough
to tell us that there’s a God. Listening to a bird chirp. Listening
to a baby cry. Those things are enough to tell
us that there is a God. And that’s why Paul says you’re
without excuse. If you don’t even have a basic faith that
there is a God, you’re without excuse. But it’s not enough. It’s not enough to lead us to
salvation. And that’s why sinners need what
Calvin referred to as the spectacles of faith. They need the illuminating
work of the Holy Spirit. And Scripture is what imparts
that truth. It is illumination by the Holy
Spirit that is needed for a right understanding and a right interpretation
of those spiritual things. Practically speaking, what we’re
talking about here, when it comes to the Holy Spirit’s illumination
of God’s Word and the individual’s inevitable response to the work
of God, is the whole work of regeneration in the heart of
an unbeliever. It’s God who moves first. It’s
God who gives them the spectacles of faith. It’s God who opens
their heart to believe whatever term you want to put. It’s God
that moves first. And with their eyes opened, regenerated,
made new, reborn, it’s then that they see who they are. It’s then
that they begin to move in a Godward direction by way of repentance. It enables the blind sinner to
see the truth, recognize it as truth and respond accordingly. One sound theologian said of
regeneration, he described regeneration in these terms. Regeneration
is a creative work of God. We’ve heard that before, right?
It’s the same power of God that created the heavens and the earth.
It is a creative work of God and therefore a work in which
man is purely passive. in which there is no place for
human cooperation. Salvation is wholly of God. It
consists of the implanting of the principle of the new spiritual
life in man, a radical change of the governing disposition
of the soul, which under the influence of the Holy Spirit
gives birth to life that moves in a Godward direction. You want
it more simply than that? God opened her heart. to respond
to the things spoken by Paul. That’s what happened there. The
Holy Spirit touched her heart and opened her eyes. So that
she could see so that she could hear the things that were being
spoken to her and she responded. Luke has that tendency in writing
the book of Acts, Luke constantly recognizes God’s sovereignty
at work, not only in Lydia’s life, but also in Acts 13, 48. When the Gentiles heard this,
they began rejoicing, glorifying the word of the Lord. And as
many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. You mean
it’s limited? Yep. It’s limited by God. Acts 18, 27. He wanted to go
across to Achaia. The brethren encouraged him.
He wrote to the disciples to welcome him. And when he had
arrived, he greatly helped who? Those who had believed through
grace. Without grace, without a work
of God that initiates in the heart of an unbeliever, no one
comes to Christ. You know what? That’s a biblical
doctrine. It’s exactly what Jesus said.
Matthew 11, 27, all things have been handed over to me by my
father. No one knows the son except the
father, nor does he nor does anyone know the father except
the son and anyone to whom the son wills to reveal him. That was the Lord’s work according
to what our Savior himself had said in John 6, 44, no one can
come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will
raise him up on the last day. So you pause and you say, why
am I telling you this? Just because we’re talking about
the ministry of the church. And I believe that a healthy
view of the sovereignty of God and the sovereign action of God
in the work of a unbeliever is absolutely crucial to the work
of the church. We don’t manipulate, we don’t
steer, we don’t coerce anyone into the kingdom. We’re faithful to our calling,
we do what God’s asked us to do, preach the word, proclaim
Christ, minister to others. Care for souls and let God take
care of the response. There’s a parallel point that
I’ll try to get in before the end of our time. Look back again
at verse 14. A woman named Lydia from the
city of Thyatira, seller of purple fabrics, a worshipper of God,
was listening. And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things
spoken by Paul. And when she and her household
had been baptized, she urged us, saying, if you have judged
me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. She
prevailed upon us. Establishing in church is number
nine is a ministry that is encouraged by the hope of a sovereign sweep. That it wasn’t just Lydia that
the Holy Spirit had set his sights on, it was Lydia’s household. And we don’t even know what that
entails. Perhaps it was even some of the women that were there
worshiping with her by the river. Perhaps it was some family members
at home. Who knows? Her aging father?
Her young son? Her husband? We don’t know. But it does say that it was her
household, which I take to mean her entire household and all
that that entailed. Her servants. We know that she
was a wealthy woman. The point is simply this, and
you’ve seen it time and time again. that when one comes to
Christ, the father, the wife, a child in the home, so often
the Gospel spreads like a sweet fire, doesn’t it? Because people
see a Gospel-touched life. They see a life changed and they
cannot refute that. And they too succumb to the wooing
of the Spirit, don’t they? Now, there are those And we have
to acknowledge this. There are those that look at
this and sadly would say that because it says she and her household
had been baptized, that this would refer to infant baptism. And I understand the argument,
but I reject it completely. I believe confession, a confession
of faith precedes baptism because of that, it’s completely improbable
that when it says her household, the children who were immature
and unable to understand the things of the gospel would have
been baptized. The ones that were baptized were
probably her relatives, her servants or grown up children. Even that is speculation because
there is no mention of her husband, nor of the fact that she even
had children. All we know of is that it was
this great household that came to faith. We don’t have a single
proof of the baptism of children in the age of the apostles. And because of that, you can’t
necessarily derive from here the idea of baptism just simply
because it mentions household. Believe the believers are baptized. Believers are the ones that come
to faith. Believers are the ones whose
hearts are opened. Those who are able to understand
the things that are spoken them and respond in faith. Those are
the recipients of baptism. Well, there will be a part for. I’ll introduce the final one
of the final points and we’ll close with these In the next
Lord’s Day. Church planting. One on one,
the components of a church planning ministry. Point number 10 is
that establishing churches as a ministry that is conducted
with a compassionate concern for the spiritually insensitive. For some who maybe thought that
it was going to go in the direction that we minister only to those
believers or those that are sensitive to the gospel. The passage about
the Philippian jailer will put to rest all those fears because
the Philippian jailer is an image. He represents all of those debased,
debauched, depressed and downgraded people that we meet every day.
This guy couldn’t have been further away from a consideration of
spiritual things. When you meet him, you will be
utterly appalled at his behavior. You should be. In closing, let’s just read beginning
in verse 16. It happened that as we were going
to the place of prayer, a slave girl having the spirit of divination
who is bringing her master’s much profit by fortune teller
by fortune telling. Following after Paul and us,
she kept crying out, saying, These men are bond servants of
the Most High God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.
She continued doing this for many days, but Paul was greatly
annoyed and turned and said to the spirit, I command you in
the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out at
that very moment. But when her master saw that
their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and
dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. And when
they had brought them out to the chief magistrates, they said,
these men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews and
are proclaiming customs, which it is not lawful for us to accept
or to observe being Romans. The crowd rose up together against
them and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and
proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had
struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison,
commanding the jailer to guard them securely. And he, having
received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and
fastened their feet in stocks. Now, unless you think it’s like
many of our modern day halfway house Vacation home prisons. This was a dungeon of every sort. Dark, without windows, next to
the sewer pipe, an open sewer pipe, fastened in stocks, bleeding
from their wounds. This is the man that we’ll look
at next Lord’s Day. Let’s pray. Oh, Father God, We thank you
for this little glimpse into ministry, into the establishment
of the Philippian Church, into principles that attend the work
of the Lord. And Father God, we humble ourselves
before you at even the mere recollection that you in our lives moved first
that you opened our eyes to see Christ and to see our penalty
that had already been paid by Him in full. O Lord God, we’re
humbled. All the more we are inclined
to do your work your way. Grant us grace, Father. greatest grace, in Jesus’ name,
Amen.