Reflections on "Overhearing Gospel" Acts 16: 6-15

I think this sermon covered much of the same ground I have already covered this summer.  Not sure if that's helpful for people to hear similar points from different stories, or if it's just repetitive.  

It might be fun to preach the first passage read, Paul's travelogue (Acts 16: 6-10), by itself and explore that a bit more than I did in this sermon.  I remember hearing a sermon preached when I was a kid about this passage.  I think the minister (Rev. Horace Douty at Culpeper Presbyterian Church) focused on how God closes some doors and opens others.  That might be a good sermon one day.

“Overhearing Gospel” August 31, 2014; FPC, Troy Acts 16: 6-15

Introduction: this does not feel like a significant moment in Acts. First we read an itinerary of where Paul and the people he is with are going. Luke probably included this snippet to give the listener a rationale for why Paul went some places and not other places. Just a travelogue.

and then we read a low-key story about Paul talking to some women one morning as they gather to pray down by the river

Admittedly, if you are a woman there is a good chance you have studied about Lydia at a woman's Bible study because she is often lifted up as a role model for women.

But this story lacks drama. In fact, God is at work in a subtle way.

Move 1: Reminder, you never know where God will be at work.

a. Luke continues his pattern of presenting stories of a man and a woman as a pair.

1. Lydia overhears Paul proclaiming the gospel, converts, and then is baptized.

2. If we read beyond her story we discover the jailer who observes what is happening with his prisoners and converts and then is baptized.

3. this intentional pairing by Luke to show the inclusive nature of God's reach.

b. We also see another of Luke's patterns – he

continually tells stories of wealthy people or people of status who become believers.

1. Remember the story of the Roman centurion a few weeks ago.  An example of a person of stature who converted to Christianity.

2. Now Lydia, who scholars assume that Lydia was a Greek (or maybe Roman) woman of some stature because she is mentioned by her first name, instead of being referred to by her husband's name (The Acts of the Apostles:  A Socio-Rhetorial Commentary, Ben Witherington, 42).

2. She also sells purple cloth, which indicates she has her own business, and purple is also associated with the upper class.

3. Luke's is writing to a Gentile-Christian audience, which has people in the upper class (Witherington, 492), so he wants to be clear that God is at work in their world.

4 Luke is expanding the circle.

c. WE also note that the story unfolds specifically down at the river.

1. Some friends gathering to pray.

2. Not gathering for a sermon, just hanging out together talking.

3. Don't know, but I bet they talk a little, share stuff, catch up on each other's lives, then have a time of prayer.

4. This day Paul and a few others are there and they start talking. Again, nothing dramatic.

5. But at this inconsequential gathering Lydia overhears Paul talking and more importantly overs the good news of Jesus Christ in a way that calls her to new place in life.

6. I don't think she began the day thinking, “when I go down to the river something amazing is going to happen.”

7. When people tell me the stories from their faith journey, they do not usually begin with "I decided I was going to have a faith experience today."  No, the "aha” moments usually surprise us in unexpected places.

8. “I was at the grocery story....”

“I was at work....”

“We were on vacation....”

9. We discover God in surprising places – often surprising because they seem so ordinary, and yet that ordinary place becomes the place where God is revealed.

d. We may not know where God is going to be at work but God knows.

1. Ties together the two passages we read this morning.
2. 
   
3. 2. God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, has been directing Paul to go here and not go there. It was no accident that Paul happened to be down by the river when Lydia was there.

WE may not know where God is going to be at work, but God does.

Move 2: Challenge for us as followers of Christ – push ourselves to make the connection between what we are doing in our lives and the one who is Lord of our lives.

a. Listen for where God sends us.

1. Paul did that.
2. Notice that Lydia invites Paul into her home.
3. She wants to engage God.
4. She wants to figure out what's next.
5. She wants to know where God might be sending her.
6. As disciples, we need to be intentional about seeking God and about living our lives in ways that others can overhear the gospel when they are around us.

7. (this point was not in the Chapel service sermon) As we baptize this morning we express how intentional we are about working so that Ellee Mae will hear the gospel as she grows up in this congregation. We may not be that intentional in all we do, but it reminds us of our task as followers of Christ to be intentional as we share the gospel in the world.

b. Not that everything depends on us.

1. IN fact, in vs. 14 we are told that the Lord opened Lydia's heart.
2. But, as God is at work in her life, Paul arrives to tell her the good news.
3. We need to be there to be part of what God is doing.

Conclusion: Down at the river;

down at at the restaurant;

down at work....

there are people waiting to hear the Good news. Go and tell them.