July 24, 2000
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Aug. 6 Lesson
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Mission trips change the lives of the missionaries
___Acts 16:11-15, 22-34
___11From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. 12From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
___13On 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. 14One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. 15When 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. ...
___22The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
___25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. 27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"
___29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
___31They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household." 32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God--he and his whole family.
___By Ronnie Prevost
___The fall semester at Hardin-Simmons (and our other Texas Baptist colleges and universities) begins in just a few weeks. For me, one of the many joys of the beginning of the new school year is seeing my students from the previous year and hearing their accounts of experiences on church mission trips and student missions during the summer. Of course, these accounts are very different in many ways. How-ever, they share many similarities.
___Each begins with the idea, the dream or the vision for meeting a need. Then people make themselves available to minister to the need. What follows is much preparation and a whole lot of hard work. Most who go on mission trips and summer missions anticipate certain questions and understand the work will not be easy. They also know such efforts often lead to trials and real difficulty. There is anticipation and the realization that the unexpected always occurs somehow and somewhere.
___Mission efforts always result in changes in the lives of the missionaries and the objects of their ministry.
___Our Scripture passage shares many similarities with these stories.
___The missionary journey of Paul and his companions did not just happen. Its roots are to be found in Paul's first missionary journey and its results. Within the fellowship of the church at Antioch of Syria were five men who were granted a missions vision by the Holy Spirit. They prayed and fasted and sent off two of their number, Saul (Paul) and Barnabas, on that first missions trip (Acts 13:1-3). Though meeting with various difficulties, the journey was successful, and Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch with a report of the many who had been saved--including many Gentiles. This caused some disagreement as to how Gentiles were to be converted.
___The church in Jerusalem discussed the matter (see Acts 151-21). At issue was how the young, mostly Jewish church should treat Gentiles--especially those who would become Christians. The Jerusalem council (as it is known) decided to regard as brothers and sisters Gentiles who had accepted Jesus as Lord. It also acknowledged the gospel was not for Jews only, but for Gentiles too.
___After reporting this to the church in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas decided to set out on this second journey. Their purpose was to check on the churches they had started on the previous trip and, of course, to share the gospel with even more.
___The second missionary journey started in controversy. Paul and Barnabas parted company over John Mark (the young man who had deserted them early on their first journey). Barnabas took John Mark with him. Silas accompanied Paul (Acts 15:36-40).
___Paul and Silas retraced Paul's steps through the cities of Derbe, Lystra and Iconium in Asia Minor. Timothy joined them in Lystra.
___The group's short time in Troas (in Asia Minor, present-day Turkey) proved pivotal. There Paul had a dream in which a man from Macedonia asked him to "Come over to Macedonia and help us" (Acts 16:9). Believing the dream was from God, Paul and his companions immediately left for Macedonia, just a short northwesterly sail across a portion of the Aegean Sea.
___They landed in the city of Neapolis. This "new city" (this is what its name meant) was the port city for the leading city of Macedonia, Philippi.
___Philippi already was an ancient city. Originally known as Krenides, it was near large deposits of gold and copper, vital to the production of bronze, a metal widely used for weapons. This military importance led to its being conquered by and named for Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. It also was the site of a great battle between warring Roman factions during the civil war that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar. Augustus, the first Roman emperor, named Philippi a Roman colony, and many veterans of the Roman legions settled there. It was a thoroughly Roman city, and the Roman citizenry were its aristocracy.
___On the Sabbath, Paul and his company gathered at the Gangites River at Philippi to pray. There they met a group of women that included a Gentile business woman from Thyatira who worshipped the God of the Jews. Her name was Lydia. Though we know no details of Paul's message, Acts 16:13-15 tells us he spoke to the group and Lydia "opened her heart" to his message. The gospel also was shared with Lydia's family. They, too, believed and Lydia insisted on hosting the missionaries.
___Things were going well for this mission trip, but unforeseen problems were just around the corner.
___Later, while again engaged in prayer, Paul and company met a girl possessed by a spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She was possessed also by people who "owned" her and exploited her abilities. Concerned with her situation, Paul cast the spirit from the girl. This enraged her owners who could see only their monetary loss. They had Paul and Silas arrested, charging them with disruption of the social order. The two were beaten and imprisoned, shackled by their feet. Their jailer was ordered to watch them especially carefully.
___Rather than bemoan their situation, the two jailed missionaries prayed and sang songs of praise to God. (Perhaps Paul was reflecting on this event when he later wrote Romans 8:28 or--again in prison--Philippians 4:11-12.) As they sang and prayed and as the other prisoners listened, an earthquake shook the prison and the doors were all opened. Horrified that his prisoners might all escape and he would be held responsible, the jailer decided to kill himself. What a welcome surprise for him when Paul called out that the prisoners remained in their cells.
___Amazed and humbled at all that had just happened--and more than relieved--the jailer asked, "What must I do to be saved?" His physical life already had been saved. He was probably a Gentile with no previous knowledge of Judaism. How did he know what to even ask? Perhaps he had heard what Paul and the others had been preaching. Had he heard about the rescue of the spirit-possessed girl? Had he been listening to the words and the witness of Paul and Silas's prayers and hymns? Whatever, he was desperate for more and, in a gesture of submission, knelt at Paul and Silas's feet and asked that question of supreme importance.
___ Paul's answer to the jailer was simple: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." As if affirming the decision of the Jerusalem council, Paul did not list laws to be obeyed nor rituals to be observed. The statement was a simple call to faith. And Paul, by referring to the jailer's family, was demonstrating this same faith commitment was necessary for anyone to be saved.
___Many of us who are already Christians do not find this call to faith surprising. In fact, we assume it. We easily recognize that Paul's statement has a clear foundation in Habakkuk 2:4. We can also wonder that so many Jews and early Jewish Christians overlooked what seems so obvious to us. Unfortunately, we can take it and its meaning for granted.
___Crucial is that Paul's response linked belief to the lordship of Jesus. Vital to understand is that it was and is not belief "about" Jesus which saves a person. It is belief in and commitment to his lordship.
___There are many ways to understand the role of another term, faith, in this. Faith can be seen as that which gives meaning or is of ultimate concern in our lives. These seem to provide the link between "faith" and "belief in Jesus as Lord."
___It is when a person--any person--turns (in faith) to Jesus and makes obedience to his lordship the ultimate concern in their lives, that they are saved. This is illustrated in Jesus' dialogue with the rich young man (Matthew 19:16-23). Jesus was leading the young man to consider what was most important to him--what gave real meaning to his life. Unfortunately, it was his wealth and not God.
___The response of the jailer and his family when they heard this message was different. They all believed in Jesus as Lord and were saved. The results were amazing.
___The passage shows two things the jailer and his family did that showed the lordship of Jesus in their lives. First, it changed the way they looked at people. They did not treat these prisoners as subhuman. Paul and Silas were no longer "common criminals," but human beings and brothers in Christ. So, the jailer and his family dressed their wounds and offered hospitality including table fellowship. Second, obediently they followed Jesus in baptism. Of course, the changes in the lives of Lydia and others who already had been saved--and their acts of obedience--were the same.
___Jesus' life can be seen as a mission trip too. He saw us not for what we were, but for what we could be. Certainly it is by his sacrifice that our sins are taken from us. He died for us and has offered his friendship and hospitality--now and forever. This was and continues to be an act of truly amazing grace. What anyone must do to come into that grace is believe in him who died for us. That is, we make him and his will the center of our lives. Then, we are saved and changed. It was true for Lydia, the Philippian jailer and his family--and for all people today.
___Ronnie Prevost is professor of church ministry at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene
For thought and discussion
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