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Good morning.
My name is Carrie Moulton and I'm a member of the Greeters.
The New Testament lesson today is a reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16, verses 9 through 34 and verse 60.
During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us.
After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
From Troas, we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace.
And the next day, we went on to Neapolis.
From there, we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia.
And we stayed there several days.
On 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.
One of those listening was a woman from the city of Theatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth.
She was a worshiper of God.
The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.
When 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.
Once, when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.
She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.
She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting,
These men are servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved.
She kept this up for many days.
Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit,
In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her.
At that moment, the spirit left her.
When her owners realized that their hopes of making money was gone,
they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.
They brought them before the magistrates and said,
These men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.
The crowd joined in the attack against Silas and Paul,
and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.
After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison,
and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.
When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God,
and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Suddenly, there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.
All at once, the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose.
The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open,
he threw his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul shouted,
Don't harm yourself.
We're all here.
The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell, trembling before Paul and Silas.
He then brought them out and asked,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
They replied,
Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.
Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in the house.
At that hour of the night, the jailer took them and washed their wounds.
Then immediately he and all his household were baptized.
The 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 household.
After Paul and Silas came out of the prison,
they went to Lydia's house where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them.
Then they left.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
All right, good morning.
Before I forget, we have a rose on our communion table to celebrate
that Frankie and Jesse had their baby, a baby Nina.
And so we praise God for the gift of new life.
So when we agreed to help plant a new church in Berkeley about 20 years ago,
one of the questions we asked ourselves is,
what would be the easiest place to plant a church in the United States of America?
America?
Where would people be most receptive to the message of the gospel?
Where would have the least hard and rocky soil and the most fertile and soft and receptive soil
to plant a new church that could send down roots and grow?
Well, you may be aware that 20 years ago, and even still, it's the case that the San Francisco Bay Area
is the number one.
It's at the very top of the list of the least religious, most unchurched metro areas of the United States.
And before us today is this story about the Apostle Paul,
who went to a very unpromising place where there are actually no Christians.
And he planted a church among the most unlikely people.
He goes to this city in northern Greece.
The gospel had never gone into Greece.
And he goes to northern Greece knowing that he's entering a culture that's every bit as resistant,
every bit as unsympathetic to the claims of Jesus as our culture is.
And if you think that Berkeley is not a promising place for the gospel,
Philippi is way harder, right?
I've never been, you know, the victim of a violent mob.
I've never been beaten.
I've never been thrown into jail.
And you may be like, well, if you and Andrew were a little bit more like the Apostle Paul,
right, you might get a little bit more resistance and opposition.
Now, that's a fair point.
I'm reminded of an old pastor.
He said, everywhere the Apostle Paul went, there was either a riot or a revival.
But everywhere I go, they serve tea and cookies.
So what's up with that?
But we need to know the origin story of this church
because over the coming weeks and months,
we're going to be looking at the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to this church in Philippi.
And today we're taking a look at these three transformation stories of the first converts
that made up this new church plant in the city of Philippi.
Three very different people.
Lydia, the slave girl, and the jailer,
who had three very different encounters with the gospel.
All of them resulted in the changed lives of these individuals,
but also in the changed relationships of their families
and of the community of that living and flourishing church that began there.
And so three wonderful case studies of how God changes us,
of how God transforms us.
And I want to talk about them under these three headings.
The intellectual and gospel truth,
the oppressed and gospel power,
and the pragmatic and gospel life.
Okay, so the intellectual and gospel truth,
the oppressed and gospel power,
the pragmatic and gospel life.
Let's start with the intellectual and gospel truth.
We're told in verse 13 that Paul and Silas,
they go outside of the city gate on the Sabbath,
whereas there's this kind of outdoor open air synagogue
where women are gathered to pray and read the Bible.
And as an aside,
if the apostle Paul were as patriarchal and as misogynistic
as many people interpret him to be,
I guess the question is,
wouldn't he have turned around at this point?
Wouldn't he have gone and searched for some men?
But he doesn't do that.
In fact, it's through this group of women
that the gospel enters into Europe for the first time.
And in verse 13, we're told that Paul sat down
and he began to speak with these women.
And I imagine Paul asking them,
hey, what are you learning from the Bible?
And in this conversational kind of Q&A,
this give and take back and forth,
this just little dialogue that they're having,
Paul is reasoning with them
through his exposition of the scriptures.
And we're told that this woman, Lydia,
is listening intently to Paul's message.
Now, who is Lydia?
Lydia, we're told in verse 14,
it says that she's from the city of Thyatira.
She's a dealer in purple cloth
and she's a worshiper of God.
So city of Thyatira, that's over in Asia Minor.
That's over in Turkey,
which means that she's cosmopolitan.
She's multicultural.
She travels back and forth for business
between Turkey and Greece.
She's also a dealer in purple cloth,
which is an expensive luxury good for rich people.
This means that Lydia is a savvy entrepreneur.
She's a successful businesswoman.
She runs a high-end boutique
and sells beautiful things to beautiful people,
which means that she's quite wealthy.
And we know that because she has a home that is large.
It's large enough to host lots of people.
And then it says that she's a worshiper of God,
which is kind of a technical term
that refers to Gentile people
who become dissatisfied with their pagan polytheism.
Right, she knew that something was missing.
She knew that there was more to life than what she had
and she became disenchanted with her Greco-Roman lifestyle
and she became attracted to the God of the Bible
and she began to worship Israel's God,
this God of love,
this God of high moral ideals.
So how did the gospel come to Lydia?
Well, she's this amazing woman.
She's admirable.
She's smart.
She's self-disciplined.
She's successful.
She's put together.
She's a spiritual seeker.
She worships the God of the Bible,
but that's not enough.
Right, she needs the gospel.
And verse 14 says that she's listening intently
to Paul's message
and that the Lord opened her heart
to respond to Paul's message.
So what was the message?
Maybe you remember a couple weeks back
when Jesus rose from the dead
and that Sunday afternoon,
he went on a walk with some disciples
and he gave them the world's greatest Bible study.
You remember that?
And it says that as they were walking,
he talked them through the law
and the prophets and the Psalms.
He talked them through the whole story
of the Hebrew Bible.
And he said,
didn't the Messiah have to suffer all these things
and then enter his glory?
And Jesus on that Easter Sunday,
the resurrected Jesus,
he opened their minds
to understand the scriptures.
Well, that's what Paul's doing with Lydia.
Right, Paul's just simply
walking her through that same
Easter Sunday resurrected Jesus Bible study.
And he's telling her all about
the kingdom of God
and the covenants of God.
All about the promises
that God had made to Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob.
The promises that he made to Moses
and the promises he made to David
and through the prophets.
And he says,
all of those promises that God made,
God has kept.
And he's fulfilled them all in Jesus.
And he basically says,
look, everything you've been learning
about the Bible,
it all is a signpost pointing to Jesus.
Every true prophet,
every faithful priest,
every hero,
every lamb,
every sacrifice,
every king,
every suffering servant,
every majestic Lord,
all of it is pointing you
to the God who came in the flesh
and who was crucified and resurrected.
Now here is Lydia,
this amazing woman,
and she's listening to Paul's message,
this woman whose business is beauty,
this woman who sells beautiful things
to beautiful people.
And I imagine Paul told her,
he said,
you know,
when Jesus was on the way to the cross,
they put a crown of thorns on him.
And you know what they wrapped around him?
They put a purple robe on Jesus
to mock him as a king.
But you see,
the beauty of this king
is that he gave up all of his beauty.
He gave up all of his glory
to take the curse of sin and death
that was on you
and to take it on to himself
in order that he might take the blessing
that was rightfully his, right?
The one that he earned
through his righteous life of love,
that he might put that blessing on you,
that he might wrap that beautiful robe
of his perfect righteousness around you, Lydia.
And you said,
when she heard that,
it says the Lord opened her heart
to respond to Paul's message.
And that word,
responds,
means that she was attracted to it.
She was attracted to something beautiful.
She didn't just believe it.
She wasn't just convinced by it.
But this woman whose business was beauty
was attracted to the beautiful truth
of the gospel
that she heard from Paul
and she had never found anything
of such beauty.
And the Lord opened her heart,
which is the only way
that we can be changed, right?
For this sovereign God
to come and divinely intervene
and to take a heart that's closed
and to make it open.
To take a heart that's hard
and to make it soft.
To take a heart that's resistant
and make it receptive.
To change our heart of stone
and give us a heart of flesh.
Right?
And none of us would have been attracted
to the beautiful truth of Jesus
unless God had enabled us
and unless we had been regenerated
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Unless God had given us the gift
of repentance and faith.
And that's what Lydia receives
and that's why she's baptized
as a sign that her sins
have been washed away
by the blood of Jesus
as a symbol
that she's been buried with Christ
and raised with Him
to live in the newness of life.
It says in verse 15
that when she and the members
of her household were baptized,
she invited us to her home.
She said,
if you consider me a believer
in the Lord,
come and stay at my house.
And she persuaded us.
You see,
once our hearts are opened,
our home and our resources
are open too.
Right?
As a tangible expression
of her new life in Jesus,
she invites these missionaries
into her home.
She says,
what's mine is yours
for as long
and as much as you need it.
And in verse 40,
we're told that she became
the host of that new church plant
in her home.
She says,
I want my home
to serve as a center
for ministry.
So she demonstrated
the root of her faith
through the fruit
of her generosity
by sacrificially giving
her home
and her resources
and her time
that she might honor
the beauty of Christ
and might build up
the beauty of the church.
Friends,
when we think about
the many people
like Lydia
here in the Bay Area,
the many people
like Lydia
that are somehow
by God's design
connected to our lives,
when we think about
all the people we know
who they sense
that something's missing
in their life.
Right?
They're disenchanted
with what they currently have.
They know there's more
than this.
They're disillusioned
by the radical secularity
and the hyper-individualism
of the Bay Area.
They're disillusioned
by their dabbling
in Buddhism
or Islam.
All the DIY spirituality
and all the partisan politics
that consistently over-promises
and under-delivers.
they need our prayers.
They need us to pray.
Our friends,
our neighbors,
our co-workers
need for us to pray
because they are longing
for a beautiful truth,
the truth of the gospel
that they don't yet know
that they need.
And they need us to pray
for God to show it to them.
Right?
That they might be put
in relationships
and circumstances
and opportunities
that they too
can hear that message
of the gospel
and that the Lord
would do what only
He can do
which is to open up
their hearts
to the gospel.
Does that make sense?
This is how a church
gets planted, right?
Because you've got
intellectual people
who need to hear
gospel truth.
But then also
there's the oppressed
!
The oppressed
and gospel power!
The oppressed
and gospel power!
The second case study
of transformation
is this slave girl
who's basically
a street kid
and she's got
tons of trauma
that's creating
lots of drama.
Okay?
And verse 16
says that once we were
going to the place
of prayer
and we were met
by a female slave
who had a spirit
by which she predicted
the future
and she earned
a great deal of money
for her owners
by fortune telling.
This girl
is tragically oppressed.
She's oppressed
relationally and emotionally
because either
her parents have died
or they've been
so desperately
in debt
that they sold her
into slavery.
And she's oppressed
economically
and socially
because her
quote unquote
owners
are involved
in a business
that exploits
girls for money.
Have you ever
heard of this?
It happens today.
And she's oppressed
spiritually
and morally
because she's not
filled with the
Holy Spirit
of the living God.
She's filled
with a dark spirit.
She's controlled
by a dark power
that enables her
to tell fortunes
and predict
the future.
And if you think
this is just
first century stuff,
this is a
multi-billion dollar
industry today
and it's growing.
She,
these dark powers
cause her to fall
into trances
and speak
in strange voices.
she's just a
deeply broken
person
and a deeply
broken system.
And Paul
sees her
and he's
troubled,
right?
He's troubled
by all
that's oppressing
her
and this city.
And it says
in verse 17
that she
followed Paul
and the rest
of us shouting,
these men are
servants of the
Most High God
who are telling
you the way
to be saved.
And she kept
us up for many
days and finally
Paul became so
annoyed that he
turned around
and spoke to the
Spirit.
Now why was
Paul annoyed?
Why was he
troubled?
Well for pagans
the Most High
God is who?
It's Zeus.
Right?
And there's
actually in the
Greek there's no
definite article
that says,
hey these guys,
these servants
of the Most High
God are telling
you that,
they're telling
you the way
to be saved.
For pagan ears
they would have
just heard,
you know,
the Most High
God,
Zeus,
these servants
are just telling
you a kind
of way to
have health
and wealth
and prosperity.
That's what
everybody was
hearing this
girl say.
And isn't it
confusing,
right?
Are we talking
about the one
creator God
of Abraham,
Isaac,
and Jacob?
Are we talking
about the gods
of Mount Olympus?
Are we talking
about Jesus
just being a
kind of new
God added to
the pantheon
who's come to
minimize our
pain and maximize
our pleasure,
like all the
Greek philosophical
systems that were
on order,
the Epicureans,
for example?
Is Jesus
just a way
and a truth
and a life
one of many
possible legitimate
paths by which
we come to
God the Father?
See,
this is why
Paul is
disturbed,
right?
Because these
dark powers
are not only
oppressing this
girl,
but they're
oppressing the
people of the
city by
introducing
confusion about
the message
of the gospel.
This girl,
what she needs
is she does
not need a
reasoned exposition
of biblical
truth the way
that Lydia,
the spiritual
seeker,
needed.
Right?
This girl is
not a spiritual
seeker.
She's spiritually
hostile.
And how does
the gospel come
to this girl?
You see,
what she needs
is she needs
power.
She needs a
power to come
from outside of
her.
She needs a
power to come
inside of her
and to drive
out all that's
dark, all those
dark powers,
all those dark
spirits, and to
replace them with
the power of
God.
And so Paul turns
around and it
says in verse 18
that he said,
not to the girl,
but to the
spirit, in the
name of Jesus
Christ I command
you to come
out of her.
And when that
happened it says
that at that
moment the spirit
left her.
She experienced
the power of
the gospel,
she experienced
the power of
Jesus, and she
was converted.
She became the
second member of
the church in
Philippi.
And some of us
say, well,
Jonathan, we're
too educated for
this.
You know, we're a
little too
sophisticated.
We know that
this isn't really
how the world
works.
And I get that,
but I wonder if
most of us have
been miseducated.
I wonder if
people that we
trusted to teach
us about the
world, they
didn't really tell
us about the
complexity and the
depth and the
extent and the
reality of evil.
And I wonder if
sometimes we're just
naive.
If there are some
things that
sociology and
psychology and
science just
simply cannot
account for.
And you see, it's
not just about
people like this
girl who are
obviously broken,
but even people
who do not look
deeply broken on
the outside.
People that we
know, maybe even
some of us, we're
often more controlled
by forces and
enslaved by spirits
and oppressed by
powers and
exploited by
systems than we
even realize.
People that look
fine on the
outside are very
often on the
inside, they're
addicted, right?
They're addicted to
work and career
and money.
People are on the
inside, they're
addicted to
technology and
entertainment that
has a hold of
them.
They're addicted to
pleasure and
consumption, they're
addicted to sex and
substances, and
maybe you can relate
to that addiction.
Whatever you live
for, that's the
thing that's
controlling you.
Whatever you live
for, that's your
real master.
You are a servant
servant to that
power.
And you see, this
slave girl doesn't
just need the gospel
truth that came to
Lydia, though she
does need that.
She needs the gospel
power of a new
master, the gospel
power of a new
lord.
She needs the gospel
power of the only
one who can really
come and break
through the power of
her slavery and
liberate her from all
of those deep and
complex layers of
oppression and set
her free.
And this question
is, have you been
set free?
Or are you
oppressed?
Are you bound up in
problems that are
beyond your ability
to deal with?
Do you find yourself,
if you're honest, are
you addicted to fear
and worry and anger?
Are you addicted to
work and alcohol
and sex?
Are you addicted to
past hurts and
resentments and
regrets and sheer
unforgiveness that you
cannot break free
from?
You see, what you
need, if that's you,
what you need is for
someone to pray in the
name of Jesus for all
of that to come out.
Right?
So that God's love,
the love of God the
Father can come in.
And the grace of
Jesus can come in and
the power and the
presence of the Holy
Spirit can come in.
Amen.
That's what people
need.
Right?
So we're talking about
the intellectual and
gospel truth, but we're
also talking about the
oppressed and gospel
power.
You with me?
Just blink, nod your
head.
All right.
Last thing is, we get
this amazing picture of
the pragmatic and
gospel life.
Right?
This third case study of
transformation is a
jailer who's most
likely an ex-Roman
soldier.
He's not an intellectual
like Lydia who mainly
needs gospel truth and a
reasoned conversation about
the Bible.
He's not this oppressed
slave girl who mainly
needs gospel power and
Jesus-focused, spirit-filled
prayer.
What is this guy?
This is just a dude.
Right?
What does this pragmatic
guy mainly need?
Right?
This battle-hardened war
veteran, he's not
spiritually seeking, neither
is he spiritually hostile, he
just is spiritually indifferent.
He doesn't care.
Typical guy.
What does he need?
What he needs is to see how
the gospel applies to real
life.
Right?
Because when Jesus set that
girl free, Jesus also set her
owners free of all the money
they were making off of her.
And when people are set free
from their money, they're not
really happy, are they?
So they go and they, you
know, they use some like
racially prejudiced,
!
anti-Semitic rhetoric to
stir up a violent mob.
And what happens?
Paul and Silas are stripped,
they're beaten within an inch
of their lives, and they're put
in jail.
And we're told that this
jailer is cruel to them.
This jailer is unkind to them.
Right?
He puts them in this inner
cell where there's no light
and there's fetid air.
He abuses them by stretching
out their feet and putting
them in stocks.
And you can imagine, they're
cold, they're hungry, they're
thirsty, their wounds are
festering, they're in severe
pain.
And verse 25, about midnight
Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God and
the other prisoners were
listening to them.
You see, the jailer needs to
see how the gospel practically
can change your life.
How the gospel can give you a
joy that's deeper than your
suffering.
How they can take away your
comfort, they can take away
your money, you can lose your
work, you can lose your health,
but you can still praise God.
What are they singing?
They're singing the Psalms.
They're singing the hymn book of
the Bible.
Right?
They're singing all those Psalms
about the Messiah who was
rejected but will be vindicated.
They're singing all of those great
hymns of the New Testament.
Colossians 1, Philippians 2,
Revelation 4 and 5 about the
person and the work of the Lamb
who was slaughtered and yet is
standing.
Right?
Who was humiliated and yet he's
exalted.
They're singing all these amazing
hymns and the question is when we
are stranded in the dark, maybe
not in a prison, but when we're
stranded and you will be
stranded when your car breaks
down, when you find yourself in the
emergency room, when your family
member is sick, when someone you
love dies, what are you singing in
the dark?
What hymns are we going to sing?
One of the things we want to do
here is just provide you every week
with hymns that you can sing at
midnight.
Right?
We think about that.
Like what do we want you to be
singing when you're at your worst?
What songs can you sing to say,
you know, even so it is well with
my soul.
And so here they are, they're
singing and why are they singing?
Well, Paul tells us in Ephesians 5
and Colossians 3, he says when we
sing psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, we're actually doing two
things simultaneously.
We're singing to God and we're
singing to each other.
Right?
We sing to God with gratitude and we
make melody to him in our hearts,
but we're also teaching and
admonishing one another with the
gospel.
You see, when our brothers and our
sisters are discouraged,
as surely Paul and Silas were
discouraged, then our songs can
actually strengthen our brother
and encourage our sister.
And these prisoners hear this,
they hear Paul and Silas when they
should be cursing God, when they
should be complaining to each other.
No, what they hear is they're
praising God and they're encouraging
each other.
When they see and they hear the
gospel embodied in the real lives
of these men who are blessing God
and who are building each other up,
man, they're shaken.
And then what happens is that the
creator God sends an earthquake and
then they're really shaken.
Right?
Because God allows us to be shaken up
by current events so that we wake up
to his reality.
And so this jailer thinks that his life is
over because his prisoners are escaping
and when your prisoners escape, you're
going to die as a jailer.
They're going to kill you.
Right?
And here's this honorable soldier.
He says, I'm going to preserve my honor by
doing it before the executioners do it to
me.
And Paul says, stop.
We haven't escaped.
In fact, we kept all the prisoners from
escaping.
And it says in verse 29, I love this story.
The jailer called for lights.
He rushed in.
He fell trembling before Paul and Silas.
And he then brought them out and asked,
sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they replied, believe in the Lord Jesus
and you will be saved, you and your
household.
And then they spoke the word of the Lord
to him and all the others in his house.
And what I imagine they told him in that
moment is, hey, Jesus, Jesus was beaten
like we were beaten.
And Jesus was bound like we were bound.
But Jesus went way beyond that.
He was nailed to the cross.
Right?
And he could have saved himself.
He could have escaped.
He could have procured his own freedom.
He could have prayed and had an army of
angels come down.
But he didn't do that.
He didn't allow himself to be rescued.
But he went into the deepest and the darkest
suffering to save us.
He lost his life in order to save our life.
And what they say to the jailer is, look,
the reason that we did not get our freedom at the
expense of your life is because we have already
gotten our freedom at the expense of Jesus' life.
And the reason we did not respond to your cruelty with
cruelty and your abuse with abuse and your unkindness
with unkindness, the reason we did not walk out of this
prison and leave you to die is because Jesus didn't leave us.
Jesus didn't walk out on us.
Jesus, in his mercy and in his forgiveness, he saved us.
And that's why we've done what we've done for you.
And the jailer has never seen a life live like this.
He's been living in a culture where you repay evil with evil.
And he sees this gospel life where you actually overcome evil with good.
And he sees that, wow, they have something that I don't have but that I want.
They have a gospel life that is unflappable and poised.
They have a gospel life that is enabling them to somehow sing with joy and peace in
the midst of suffering.
They have a gospel life that is enabling them to love sacrificially and to suffer
willingly for people they don't even know that they might be blessed and have life.
And so for this practical dude, for this pragmatic jailer, he says, if I can have that kind of
embodied gospel life, then I can face anything.
And so he says, what must I do to get it?
And I'm sure they told him what Paul writes in Romans 10.
If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
And the jailer did exactly that.
He repented and he believed.
And verse 33 says, at that hour of the night, the jailer took them and he washed their wounds.
And then immediately he and all his household were baptized.
The 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 household.
And here's this tough guy who now commits himself to the ministry of caring for the weak and the wounded and the needy.
Here's this tough guy who's now over here committing himself to community and the breaking of bread with a new family.
Here is this man who has been baptized, buried with Jesus, raised with him to walk in the newness of life,
filled with the love and the joy and the peace of the Holy Spirit.
And why is he so full of joy?
Because now he can live that gospel life that enables you to sing in the dark.
He can live that gospel life that enables you to overcome evil with good.
See, the gospel, when you look at the differences between Lydia and the slave girl and the jailer,
we see that the gospel is for everyone.
And that means that we can't look at anybody in our lives and say that person could never become a Christian.
Right?
They're a woman or they're a man.
Right?
They're young or they're old or they're middle-aged.
No, you can't say that.
Here's wealthy Lydia.
Here's this poor slave girl.
Here's this middle-class jailer.
Here's people at the center of society and people out on the margins of society.
Here's this immigrant, Lydia, this immigrant from Asia Minor and this slave girl who's a resident of Greece
and this Roman soldier who came from the far reaches of the Roman Empire.
And that means the gospel is for everybody.
It doesn't matter where you're coming from.
Latino, African, Asian, European, Middle Eastern.
It doesn't matter.
Here's this market-oriented, white-collar businesswoman, Lydia.
And here is this state-oriented, blue-collar military guy, the jailer.
And here's this slave girl who's just checked out completely.
It doesn't matter if you vote for the red team or the blue team or no team.
Here's this woman who's spiritually seeking, Lydia.
This woman who's spiritually hostile, the girl.
This guy who's spiritually indifferent, the jailer.
Here's this woman who's spiritually hostile, the gospel.
The gospel is for everybody.
The gospel transcends all of our differences.
And because the gospel transcends all these categories that our culture wants to divide us on,
where our culture sorts us out by all of our differences, the gospel enables us to have a unity in the church
where there's division out in the broader culture.
Without the gospel, none of these people would have cared at all about each other.
They would have despised each other.
They would have looked down on each other with criticism and contempt.
But now they're a church.
Now they're the family of God.
Now they are one in Jesus.
Now they are all filled with the same spirit.
And it says in verse 40, when Paul goes back to meet with that new church plant,
there was gathered there in Lydia's house.
I'm confident that he encouraged these sisters and these brothers.
And he said to them, look, keep on being different.
Keep on being an alternative counterculture.
Keep seeking unity across all of your differences.
Keep being for the city.
And by all means, keep reaching out to all the people that God has put into your life
with gospel truth and gospel power and gospel life.
And I pray that God will enable us to continue to do that here
at Christ Church in Berkeley as well.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.