Open Eyes for Open Doors (Acts 16.1-15)
I know that last week’s announcement that in 2027 my family and I will be leaving; I will be transitioning out of my role of lead pastor of Connexion, and we will begin the process of planting a church in the east of the Paris suburbs. I know that this news came as a bit of a shock for a lot of you.
But maybe it also made a couple of things a bit clearer—like, for example, why we wanted to do a series entitled “Ambitious.” The project of this coming year, both for the new church plant and for Connexion, is nothing if not ambitious. It comes with incredible opportunities, but it also comes with a cost—a cost for my family, a cost for Joe’s family, a cost for whoever may end up joining us in this project, and obviously, a cost for all of you. When we planted Oberkampf last year, that was ambitious as well, and that too came with a cost. There are members of Connexion whom we love, whom we won’t see on Sundays in a couple months’ time.
So when we undertake any project like this, we always need to hold it up to the mirror of Scripture to see whether or not it’s is the sort of thing we should be doing. It’s not much of a spoiler to say that we believe the answer to that question is definitely yes; but it would be helpful to see clearly in Scripture why that is the case.
Two weeks ago, we started by looking at man’s ambition for himself (which often goes awry) and God’s ambition for his people (which is always bigger and better than our own). And last week we saw God’s ambition for the product of his church: the fruit that he calls us as individuals and as a body to bear for his kingdom.
That “fruit” is displayed primarily in holiness—a radical obedience to God’s commands. We see perhaps the most intense commandment for the church when Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, in Matthew 28: those are the marching orders for the church.
Sadly, a lot of really ambitious ministers build ministries that allow them, the pastors, to serve themselves rather than serve the church. And even if we’re not exploiting people to get rich—even if we’re avoiding a so-called prosperity gospel—this self-serving sort of ministry is still quite easy to fall into.
So how can we tell that a person’s or a church’s ambition is truly an ambition for the kingdom of God? How can we tell that our ambition is motivated by a true desire to obey Christ’s commands, and not to serve ourselves?
Those are our questions for today, and to answer them we’re going to be in Acts 16, v. 1-15.
In Acts 16, the apostle Paul is at the beginning of his ministry to the Gentiles. He’s traveling around and strengthening the church, sharing with them the Jerusalem apostles’ instructions, and sharing the gospel with those who have never heard it.
When the chapter begins he’s in an area in which there is still a good mix of Jewish and Gentile believers. And this is the context we’re going to start in. We’re going to see that true, godly ambition that is not self-serving, but that is for the kingdom of God, is displayed in four main ways in this text.
The first is a willingness to go where people are, rather than making them come to you.
1. “All Things for All People” (v. 1-3)
Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
We’re not going to spend a lot of time here, because we actually spoke about this at length a few weeks ago when we were in 1 Corinthians 9. In 1 Cor. 9.22, Paul said that that “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” That is, he has learned to adapt to the people around him in order to more effectively share the gospel with them.
Or, if wanted to put that another way, he never does anything that God prohibits—but he does many things he doesn’t have to do, but that are helpful for getting a foot in the door. The example Paul gave in 1 Corinthians was the fact that he refuses to be paid for his ministry.
The example we see here is maybe even better.
Paul meets this young believer Timothy, and sees that he’s got great potential. So he wants to take Timothy with him to be his protégé in ministry. But there’s a problem: the people where they’re going know Timothy, and know that he’s only half Jewish: his father was Greek. So if they want to be able to minister to everyone—Jews and Gentiles alike—they’ll run into a problem. According to the Law of Moses, in order to participate in the life of the synagogue, you had to be circumcised. Timothy isn’t circumcised—which means there are many places he won’t be able to go with Paul, many conversations he won’t be able to have.
We don’t know how old Timothy was at this time; we know he was a young man, but still…a man. Not a baby. I don’t want to put too fine a point on it, but if ever there was a picture of the extremes a Christian may be called to go to in order to become “all things for all people,” this is it. Timothy is circumcised as an adult, so that he can go with Paul where Paul needs to go.
And that’s what you’ll see in kingdom-oriented ambition—it’s not the only thing you’ll see, but you will see this. Kingdom-oriented ambition will go to people. And I don’t just mean geographically or physically. I mean relationally and culturally as well. We may have conversations with people who tell stories about things we don’t care about, but that we’ll invest in, not because we’re particularly interested in the story, but because we’re interested in the person. We may join clubs or serve local non-profits, not in order to proselytize by slipping in through the back door, but because ultimately the ministry of the kingdom is a ministry toward people.
It’s important to notice that we have no mention in the text of a Jew who came to faith in Christ because Timothy could be present in the synagogue. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t—we don’t know, and Luke (the author) doesn’t tell us because that’s not the point. We love people, and we want to meet them and serve them where they are, whether they ultimately come to faith or not. The result is God’s affair; our job is to meet people where they are.
The second way we see that Paul’s ambition is truly for the kingdom of God is found in the fact that he perseveres in faithful teaching, even when it’s hard.
2. Faithful Teaching Even When It’s Hard (v. 4-5)
4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
This may not seem like that big of a deal, and Luke doesn’t spend a ton of time here because he already covered it in chapter 15. In that chapter, Paul met with the apostles in Jerusalem to arrive at a consensus as to what he should teach when he goes into a mixed territory, where there are both Jews and Gentiles. They needed to make sure they were all in agreement about questions like, Do Gentile believers need to follow the Law of Moses to be saved? Does a Christian essentially need to become a Jew?
And they agreed that the answer to this question was no. The apostles gave a couple of specific requirements that go back to what Paul wrote to the Corinthians, which we also saw recently: abstain from idolatry and sexual immorality, and a couple of other things that would have been cultural stumbling blocks. But the headline of those instructions was, No, Gentiles do not need to follow the Law of Moses, they do not need to become Jews, in order to follow Jesus Christ.
That was great news for the Gentiles, of course; but it would have been a very difficult sell for many Jewish believers, who were resisting this new religion because they feared losing their way of life and their cultural identity. The apostles, and Paul, knew that these instructions would be met with opposition from some corners.
And yet, they did it anyway. They faithfully communicated the decisions reached by the elders in Jerusalem, and shared the gospel boldly, even in the face of opposition.
So already we have two examples of ways to see that our ambition is for the kingdom of God, and not for ourselves: our teaching will remain faithful to God’s Word, even in the face of opposition; and we will be willing to adapt ourselves to the people we’re trying to reach (even when that adaptation is very difficult), in order to be able to communicate the gospel more effectively.
The question is, why would Paul and Timothy, why would anyone, be willing to do these hard things? What would make them willing to make courageous choices, take bold risks, make painful sacrifices (literally!), for the gospel?
The answer that we see in the second half of our passage is that Paul and Timothy are willing to take these kinds of risks because they know and fully believe that God is wise, God is good, and God is guiding them where they need to go.
That’s the next thing we see, the next validation of godly ambition for the kingdom of God:
3. Submission to God’s Direction (v. 6-10)
6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
When I sat down to prepare this sermon and came to these verses, my mind immediately went to all of the things that people could say about it. I’ve had so many of these conversations before. We’ll get into this more thoroughly in the fall, when we pick up 1 Corinthians again, so I won’t spend a lot of time here today.
One example may help. When I was about seventeen years old, there was a girl in our church, a friend of mine, whose mother came to me one Sunday and said, “You know, I had a dream last night that I believe came from the Lord, and in that dream God said you were going to marry my daughter.” She was absolutely serious; she brought it up more than once after that day.
Obviously, that dream she had was not a word from God; I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t that.
That’s an extreme example, but people do sometimes talk this way. “I felt God telling me that I shouldn’t go into this place,” or “I shouldn’t take this job,” or “I should marry this person.” I’m not saying this doesn’t happen; I believe it does. God does give us strong convictions sometimes, and they shouldn’t be thrown away too easily because they make us uncomfortable.
However, there are two things I want to say about this today. Firstly, we need to be really be careful about making decisions based on these impressions we may have, because sometimes they’re just that: impressions. Even the apostles allowed for the possibility that they might be wrong; even the apostles often sought counsel.
Secondly—and this is the main thing—the way in which God speaks to us through his Holy Spirit is not the point of these verses. Luke (the author) doesn’t say exactly how the Holy Spirit kept them from going to Asia, or how he kept them from going into Bithynia. And the fact that Paul had a dream that directed him to Macedonia doesn’t mean that everyone will, or that every dream is necessarily a word from God.
So if the way God speaks to us by his Spirit isn’t the point of these verses, what is the point?
The point is that God is the one building his church—not mainly the apostles. Paul and his companions want to go one place, and God stops them; they want to go somewhere else, he stops them; and then he brings them where they need to be.
Often God will direct his church into places they never even considered going before—either through circumstance or through conviction, or both. A couple of years ago we wanted to purchase the Chinese cultural center in the 10th for our church; it looked perfect, and we were pretty convinced it was the right way to God. But God kept us from going there—he kept our circumstances from lining up and allowing that purchase. Where is he going to guide Connexion in the future? I don’t know; but he does.
Similarly, we hadn’t considered planting a church in the east of Paris until several months ago, but when the opportunity arose, we had to ask ourselves, “Is this opportunity perhaps God’s way of directing us?” So we prayed, and we sought counsel, and we considered it very carefully. And over time, the circumstance and the conviction lined up.
There are a lot of things churches plan to do, that never come to pass; and there are a lot of things churches never plan for that actually work themselves out.
God is the one who directs his church. God is the one who builds his church. A church with a real ambition for his kingdom will go where God directs, and they’ll do it joyfully, knowing that wherever he brings us is exactly where we need to be.
Which brings us to our fourth and last point. We can see a real ambition for the kingdom of God when we have open eyes for open doors.
4. Open Eyes for Open Doors (v. 10-15)
11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
So remember why they were in Philippi. Philippi was, as Luke tells us, a leading city of Macedonia and a Roman colony. It was filled with people who may well have been that man from Paul’s dream, saying, “Come to Macedonia and help us.”
But we have no indication in the passage that they had a plan once they got to Philippi. They knew where God had directed them to go, but they didn’t have contacts in the city; there didn’t seem to be a huge Jewish presence in the city. A first step of any new ministry or church plant, once you know where you’re planning to go, is to simply spend time in a place and see what it’s like—see what can be done.
So they’re at the riverside on the Sabbath, where there was supposed to be a place of prayer. There’s a group of women gathered there, and Paul starts speaking to them about the gospel.
Anyone who’s done something like this—just gone outside and shared the gospel with whoever happens to be there—knows that you never know exactly what’s going to happen. You may have people who are curious, who are pleasant and willing to talk (but no more than that), and you may have people who want nothing to do with you. The thing is, you just can’t know until you try.
Every time you walk outside in a city, there are people, and every person is a potential open door. You just never know until you say something to them. You never know until you knock on that door.
So that’s what Paul does—he starts talking to whoever’s there. And it so happens that there’s a woman in that group, a woman named Lydia, who “was a worshiper of God.” This doesn’t mean she was a Christian, but she was familiar with the God of the Jews and had at least some attachment to the Jewish religious life. Lydia was also a seller of purple goods, so she was likely wealthy and had a place of some prominence in the city.
She’s listening to Paul, and something happens. At the end of v. 14, we see one of the most astounding sentences in all of Scripture: “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”
When I first started reading my Bible seriously, I struggled a lot with the notion of the absolute sovereignty of God—the doctrine that says without a direct intervention on God’s part, no one comes to faith. Faith is a gift from God, it does not come from us. I didn’t like the idea that my faith was God’s doing and not mine, because it prompts a lot of questions about everyone who doesn’t have faith.
Acts 16.14 is one of those verses that I didn’t know what to do with, because it’s so unbelievably clear. Lydia was listening to what Paul was saying about Jesus—but plenty of people who are curious, even interested, listen to the gospel without really hearing it. Plenty of people hear the gospel and never come to faith.
But for everyone who does come to faith, there is a moment where what we see here happens in us.
C. S. Lewis famously told the story of his conversion by saying (I’m paraphrasing), “I got on a bus an atheist; when I got off the bus, I was a Christian. I have no idea how or why I was convinced over the course of those few minutes, but I couldn’t deny it either.”
My father had a similar experience: he went to a religious service because there was a girl he liked. But at the end of the service, he no longer cared about the girl, because he had heard about this Jesus, and he believed in him, and he was desperate to know him.
For me, it happened far more gradually—I can’t put my finger on when it happened. But I do remember the moment when I realized that despite my best efforts to not be a Christian, I could no longer say I didn’t believe. That possibility had been taken out of my hands.
We go places and we cross paths with people and we begin talking to them, and we have no idea how it’s going to go or what’s going to come out of it. It may end really badly; we may say something embarrassing; we may not know how to answer a question; we may even lose a close friend or a relationship we cared deeply about.
So why do we do it?
We do it because God is sovereign. We do it because when God decides to save someone, that person is saved—he opens their heart to pay attention to the gospel and believe. And the possibility that that could happen is just too real, and too desirable, to ignore.
Already, if Lydia were the only person in Philippi to meet Christ, that would have been a happy ending to the story. But we see in v. 15 that Lydia believes and is baptized, and then everyone in her house as well. Then she invites Paul and his collaborators to come stay in her house. And her house becomes the first hub for the Christian faith in Philippi—they become the Philippian church.
One conversation by the side of a river leads to the founding of a brand new church in a place that had none before. And if you read on, you see that this church radically upended the socio-economic life of that city.
All because from the very beginning, Paul and his companions had open eyes for any door that God may open for them. God knew what he was doing, and he did it very well.
Conclusion
I know that the current context of the church can make things feel a bit uncertain. We’ve got Oberkampf launching in a little over two months, then we’ve got another church plant in preparation which will mean losing a pastor and transitioning to another one. We want to make things as easy as possible for you all during that transition, and thankfully, we’ve got time to give you all the details as we go.
But I hope you see that none of these things are bad. Moving into situations that stretch us is not bad; it’s how we grow. Taking risks for the kingdom of God isn’t bad; that’s how the kingdom progresses. Stepping into uncertainty isn’t bad; it forces us to trust in God’s power and wisdom to bring us where he wants us to be.
Ambition for the kingdom requires us to go. It requires us to sacrifice and meet people where they are. It requires us to be humble enough to accept a change of plans, and to be okay with the fact that God sometimes says, “No, that’s not where I want you.” It requires it to have a keen radar for opportunity, and to keep our eyes open for any open doors God may place in our path.
Everything we’ve seen today is both true for the church, and true for us as individuals.
God may ask you to make hard choices and to prioritize an opportunity for the kingdom of God over your own comfort or preferences.
God will ask you to submit to his Word even when it goes against what you want to do.
God will ask you to be humble enough to accept that he knows where you need to be better than you do, and to trust that his plans are better than yours.
God will ask you to keep your eyes open to those around you—your neighbors or your colleagues or your friends or your family—and seize every opportunity you have to serve them and love them well, to show them Jesus and to speak to them about Jesus.
Is this a risky life? Sure it is. Does it bring pain and fear? Absolutely yes.
Is it good? If the Bible is telling the truth, and the kingdom of God is the ultimate goal and the ultimate blessing for the world that God made, then it’s better than anything we could imagine. The life to which he calls us is the life for which he made us—for his glory, and for our joy, now and forever.
