A Church Is Built By The Power Of God (Acts 16:6-40)
Over a year ago, I remember working in my garden and wondering what on Earth was going to happen at this church. I think more clearly when I’m in the garden, sweating all over the place. As the days passed, I realized that the only way forward for our church was through God’s guidance and leadership.
If this little church in Conway was going to survive and then thrive as a church body, then God was going to have to do a mighty work. If this church was going to grow, it would be because of an act of God.
And we prayed more fervently than we had in a long time. There were some prayer meetings here at the church. You were praying at home. And we began to see some incredible things happen. People were professing faith in Christ and being baptized. People were visiting our little church. And the spirit in this place has been amazing.
I was thinking about all this as I prepared the sermon for this week. And rightfully so, for the Church is built by the power of God. And that includes local churches as well.
A Church is built by the power of God. Certainly this is true of the Church worldwide. But it is also true of the local church. Some local churches are really not churches at all. They serve a lot like country clubs, where a person pays their dues and gets to be a part of the experience. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about a local church.
We are a Protestant Church, a Baptist denomination is part of that historic stream of Christianity. Protestants have always understood a true local church to have 3 marks.
The first mark of a church has been that the right preaching of God’s Word is done there. There is a reason why the pulpit is right in the middle of the stage and why it has historically been that way. The preaching of God’s Word has been primary for us.
The second mark has been that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are administered at that church. We will have the Lord’s Supper at the end of our church service today. And we administer baptisms in the baptismal just behind me.
The third mark is that the Church disciplines wayward members. If there is open sin, it’s not ignored and pushed under the rug. We see the outline of how that is to take place in Matthew 18:15-20.
When I say that the Church is built by the power of God, I am speaking of the place where these things happen. I am not talking about the place that these things are ignored, or done in a token manner. No Church is perfect, but where these things are part of the Church’s life you have a local church. And that place is built by the power of God.
Our text today is how the Church at Philippi came into existence. And we see that God brought it into existence by His direction and power. And it produced a people that couldn’t be more different. But they were the people that came together to start the Church at Philippi. God directed Paul and Silas to deliver the gospel to Macedonia, where they delivered the gospel to a wealthy woman and a Philippian jailer that trusted in Christ. They and their families became Christians that day and the Church began. And it is quite possible that the slave-girl is in the mix as well. That is how the Church at Philippi began. And that is our topic for today.
The Church is built by the power of God.
The Church Is Built By God’s Direction (Acts 16:6-10)
Paul and his crew went through Phrygia, the intended to go to Asia, but they were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia” (Acts 16:6 ESV). They then attempted to go to Bithynia, “but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (Acts 16:7 ESV). And as they were headed to Traos, Paul saw a vision in the night. It was a Macedonian man urging them to come to Macedonia and help them (Acts 16:9).
Paul immediately understood that this was God moving them to go to Macedonia to preach the gospel. And that is what they did (Acts 16:10). They changed course and went to Philippi, which was a leading city of Macedonia.
We are not told how the Lord led them away from Asia or Bithynia. We are just told that He did. And so, they turned away from those places. But we do know that the Lord gave a vision to Paul in which a Macedonian man cried out to them for help. And after seeing this vision, he understood that the Lord was calling them to go and preach the gospel in Macedonia.
This text may strike us as strange. But, at this point in the Book of Acts I hope that it does not. You see, God is in control. He is sovereign over all. And He is leading, guiding, and directing the building of His Church. The gospel is going out to the nations, and God is directing that.
Last week we saw that God even used the fight between Paul and Barnabas to expand His Kingdom and grow disciples that would go forth and preach. Today we are seeing a more active and up front direction from God the Holy Spirit to go to Macedonia.
Why are we here as a church?
I think you know the answer that I am going to give to you. But I want to give it in more detail today.
There are 18,672 people living within 3 miles of this little church. 80% of them are not regular church attenders.
God led a handful of people, that grew much larger, to begin a church right here. And when that happened, there were only dirt road entrances to this place. Today, there are subdivisions, apartment buildings, and other homes all around us. It still feels like we’re in the country on this plot of land with trees all around us. But there are 18,672 people living within 3 miles of this little church, 80% of them are not regular church attenders.
So, why do you think that God put us here?
Why do you think we are here, in this location right now?
God made all of this happen. He knew what things were going to be like here in Conway someday. He knew all that was going to take place. He knew how hard some of those times would be. But we are here, in this location, near a lot of lost people to declare the grace of God to.
The Church Is Built By The Saving Power Of God (Acts 16:11-15)
There was apparently no Jewish synagogue in Philippi. Paul had previously gone first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. But in this case, he didn’t have a place of worship to go to. The closest thing that he had was a gathering of women at a place of prayer by the river side (Acts 16:12-13).
Paul preached the gospel to this group of women. Because we have already seen some of Paul’s sermons, we know that he spoke of God’s grace and mercy found in Jesus Christ. In Jesus there is forgiveness of sins.
God created the world and everything in it. And it was good. He also created humans, who were themselves good. But they rebelled against God’s rule and brought condemnation down upon all of mankind. From that point forward, all of humanity has been stained with the taint of sin. We don’t sin because of something outside of us, we now sin because we are sinners. To our very core, we are rebels against God. And we all have God’s wrath and justice hanging over our heads. But God did not leave us in that state. He has provided forgiveness of sins for us in Jesus Christ.
God the Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. His name is Jesus. He lived a perfect life and accomplished all righteousness on behalf of wicked sinners. And He died on the cross and paid the punishment for sin. God’s wrath fell upon Him in our place. And so, in Christ our sins are forgiven and we are accounted as righteous.
All those who repent and believe are forgiven and counted as righteous. Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change in action. We go from believing that we are good and that we can get to God on our own, to believing what God says about us and the salvation He has provided for us. Faith is trust in Christ. We now understand that we cannot ever earn our good standing with God. We cannot make it to Him on our own. But God has provided for us a Savior. And we trust in Him.
Forgiveness is found in Christ alone. That is the message that the Apostles proclaimed and it is the message we proclaim today.
And out of all those women that were gathered on that day, one believed. Here is what we read about her.
“the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14 ESV)
Her name was Lydia. We know that she was a well-to-do woman because of the line of business she was in. She sold purple goods. Purple was not made as it is today. At this time it was smashed from the mucus glands of certain snails. It took a lot of snails to make purple die, so only the wealthiest in a society would wear purple. It was a status symbol that only royalty, priests, and nobles could afford.
We also know that Lydia was a worshipper of God. This meant that she was not a Hebrew woman by birth, but she did worship with the Hebrew people as much as a Gentile could. She was not fully converted to the Jewish religion. But she was worshiping from afar as many people in her day did.
Lydia heard the gospel, trusted in Jesus as Savior, and was baptized. This same thing happened with the rest of her household as well.
Lydia and her family are the first European converts to Christ. And so, Lydia’s family is the beginning of the first European Christian Church.
The gospel was on the move.
As has been the case throughout the Book of Acts, the progress of the gospel was met by demonic forces. And, here we find a slave girl “who had a spirit of divination” (Acts 16:16 ESV). She was making a lot of money for her owners by “fortune telling”.
This girl followed Paul and the rest of the group around proclaiming that
“these men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”(Acts 16:17 ESV)
And this irritated Paul.
I laugh as I write this. Because saying it this way is quite funny. But the truth of the matter is that she is following them around day after day saying this over and over again. Even though what she says is true, it would be quite annoying and probably distracting from the message they were trying to proclaim.
Well, Paul eventually had enough and said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” (Acts 16:18 ESV). And the spirit came out of her. That seems like the end of the story with the slave girl. But it’s not. We’ve really only gotten started here and we don’t really hear about the slave girl again.
As it turns out, the demon possessed slave girl was quite a money maker. Apparently a slave girl hat could not do fortune telling just didn’t bring in as much money. And so, the owners had Paul and Silas dragged into the Marketplace before the rulers.
It is interesting though that they do not accuse Paul and Silas of damaging their slave or casting out a demon. They accused Paul and Silas of disturbing the city and advocating “for customs” that were not “lawful” for “Romans to accept or practice” (Acts 16:21 ESV). And without any background information this just doesn’t make sense.
Jews were allowed to worship in Roman colonies, but they were not allowed to proselytize. On occasion the Jews were punished for it when they grew. This has led many commentators to think that some sort of Jewish persecution was the reason for there being no men at the riverside where Lydia was converted. But we really don’t know.
Paul and Silas were found guilty and attacked by the crowd. Their clothes were torn off them and they were beaten with rods and thrown into prison (Acts 16:22-24).
The church in Philippi is off to a rough start.
Paul and Silas were in prison, persecuted for the name of Christ again. And rather than be hopeless, gripey, and mopey people they prayed and sang hymns to God (Acts 16:25-26). And there was a great earthquake.
Now, it was customary for Roman soldiers that lost prisoners to be sentenced to death. This jailer saw what had taken place and decided to kill himself. But Paul cried out to him and told him not to harm himself (Acts 16:28). And the jailer said to Paul, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30)
Paul and Silas delivered the message of the gospel to this jailer. And then they were able to speak with the jailer’s entire household. He was baptized and so was his entire family.
The power of God to save was again on full display. The jailer listened to the hymns and prayers of Paul and Silas and felt the power of God in the earthquake. And was immediately asking what he must do to be saved.
The next day Paul and Silas were let go in secret. But Paul would not have it. He was a Roman citizen and knew that this treatment was unlawful. He demanded an apology before leaving (Romans 16:33-34). Then they met the Church at Philippi at Lydia’s house (Acts 16:40).
Why will our church be effective and carry on?
Why will our church grow as we preach the gospel?
All three of these events reveal to us the saving power of God.
First, Lydia’s heart was opened to pay attention to what Paul was preaching. Out of all the women in that place, one person had their heart opened to pay attention to what Paul was preaching. What was it that Paul was preaching?
Paul was preaching the gospel. He was declaring that we are saved, not because of anything that we do but through what Jesus has done for us.
But people are darkened by sin. And people need divine aid to trust in Jesus Christ.
This is something that we see throughout the whole of Scripture. Look back at the Book of Deuteronomy.
“And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.” (Deuteronomy 29:2-4 ESV)
The people had seen miracle after miracle take place. They saw many signs and wonders as God brought them out of the Land of Egypt. But even though this was the case, they still needed divine aid to understand what had taken place. And Moses said that the Lord had not yet given that to them.
Notice also what Jesus said to His disciples, in an often quoted passage of Scripture.
“At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”” (Matthew 11:25-30 ESV)
Who is it that knows the Father, the one whom the Son chooses to reveal Him to.
Again, it’s a work of God to open the eyes of the sinner. It’s a work of God to cause a person to see the glorious truth of the salvation found in Christ alone.
In another rather famous comment Jesus said to Nicodemus,
“Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”” (John 3:3 ESV)
Out of all the women that heard Paul preaching that day, it was Lydia that trusted in Christ. God did a work in Lydia’s heart and revealed to her the salvation that is found in Christ. And then she trusted in Christ and was baptized.
We are not sure if the slave girl came to faith in Christ, we’re just not told. But we certainly hope so. And if so, how is it that she came to faith in Christ? Again, by the power of God. The demons knew who Jesus was and the truth of the gospel Paul preached. And Paul, by the power of God cast the demons out of her.
And how is it that the Philippian jailer was converted?
Was it not again, the power of God? As the very foundations of the place were shaken by God’s might was the jailer not brought to see the truth of the gospel.
What is it that is just plain obvious to us as we read through the start of the Philippian Church? That these people were converted to Christ by the power of God.
As a Church, we must always remember that.
What gives us confidence as we go forth proclaiming the gospel to the many people that live near our church? It’s not our own abilities. It’s not our ability to put on a show or to convince people like a used car salesman.
Our trust is in the power of God. It is God who saves. We go forth and declare the message, and God does a work in the heart to reveal Himself to those who believe.
You must know this. It is by the power of God that people come to faith in Christ. It is by the power of God that rebel sinners are brought into God’s family. It’s by the power of God that your loved ones may come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s by the power of God that the people that we will see baptism after baptism in this very church.
We Are Faithful And God Works
I look over the creation of the Church at Philippi and see so many different things coming together. God’s sovereign care over His Church and the growth of His Church is abundantly plain every step of the way.
God told Paul where not to go and then where to go. When the missionaries got there they ran into Lydia, who God powerfully converted. Paul got frustrated and cast out a demon that got him thrown into jail. While in jail, he was able to preach the gospel to a man that was more than ready to hear it and he was powerfully converted.
God was orchestrating the entire thing.
But we also see the faithfulness of God’s people throughout this text.
Paul obeyed the Lord’s call to go to Macedonia and not the other places.
Paul and the group with him preached the gospel when they got there.
Paul and the group with him prayed and sang hymns while in prison. Their lives were a testimony and their songs proclaimed the greatness of God and salvation in Christ.
Paul and the group did not leave, but preached the gospel to the jailer.
To say that the Church grows by God’s power does not mean that we are to neglect our part.
This is something that people just don’t understand very well. I don’t know if it is because they are unable, or if it’s just not easy to understand. But God is in complete control. All things that take place on this Earth are part of His plan. But we are ourselves to be at work. God ordains the ends as well as the means, and we are the means for declaring the grace and mercy of Christ to a lost and dying world.
We have work to do.
I hope we can all look back at times in our lives where God used our small acts of faithfulness in a powerful way. I’ve received messages from people from High School that thanked me for inviting them to church and talking with them when I was a student. And, at the time, I was super nervous about doing any of it. And I almost always thought that what I was doing was making no difference at all.
I remember inviting one friend of mine to church over and over. I felt like I was really pestering this guy. But his grandma was pestering me to invite him to church over and over because she knew we were friends and played football together. He is one of those that sent me a message 15 years after graduation.
Other friends that I talked with about Christ or invited to church, now go to church and are raising their families in church. Do you realize what a big deal that is? In those moments so long ago, something was done that altered many generations.
I know that I would not be here myself if friends had not invited me to a youth event. I went and began going to church. And after a while of going to church, I trusted in Christ. Those friends and that Youth Pastor did something that brought me to saving faith in Christ and altered my life and the life of my family.
Those are instances of past faithfulness that God used to bring me to faith and others to faith in Christ.
This is what I am talking about.
God did the work of converting the soul. But people were faithful to declare the gospel and invite others to hear the gospel.
I worked at the Post Office and a guy there was radically converted to Christ shortly before I left. He began speaking about Jesus as openly as he could in the workplace and wild things happened. These people began looking into Christianity for their selves and a few of them professed faith in Christ and became faithful church members.
How many children were brought to faith in Christ because their parents faithfully taught them God’s Word and brought them to church and God used that to convert them? A lot. Probably most of the conversions in America today work that way. Faithful parents raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and God uses that faithfulness to bring people to Him.
God is sovereign. He is in complete control. But that doesn’t mean that you just sit back and watch the world turn.
You have work to do. And the fact that God is at work should give you confidence to go forth and declare Christ to others.
Conclusion
A church is built by the power of God. And we see that in the church at Philippi. These people met together, encouraged one another, and reached out with the gospel to others. And eventually, Paul wrote to them the Letter of Philippians which begins this way,
“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:1-6 ESV)
By the power of God that church was created. They came together and brought joy to Paul who first delivered the gospel to them in Acts 16.
What I want you to see today as we partake in the Lord’s Supper is that it is by the power of God that you are here today. Those of you that have trusted Jesus Christ, you have been brought to Christ and now have the opportunity to partake in the Lord’s Supper with the other Christians in this room.
I want to challenge you, this week, to pray in a special way for the power of God to be at work in our church. For it’s not by special methods that the people around us will come to Christ and the work of our church be effective. It will be by the power of God.
R. Dwain Minor