Acts 16:1-15 - Frontiers

Summary:
Timothy gets circumcised. The Holy Spirit says NO to spreading the gospel. Luke steps into the story. And Lydia and her fashionable household get baptized down by the riverside. All that and more as  Gregg DeMey (Lead Pastor), Jeff Klein (Pastor of Outreach), and Caryn Rivadeneira (Director of Care and Worship Planning) wade into Acts 1

Today's Hosts
Gregg DeMey, Lead Pastor
Jeff Klein, Outreach Pastor
Caryn Rivadeneira, Director of Care

Questions/Comments:  We'd love to hear from you! Email ASK.

Note: Wade in the Word is a weekly podcast designed to take a deep dive into scripture for the weekend message. Join our pastors, staff, and occasional special guests as we reflect together.

Wade in the Word podcast is a production of Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church, located in Elmhurst, IL. Wade in the Word is produced and audio-engineered by Kyle Olson, Technical Director. For more information about Elmhurst CRC or to find out about other tools and resources to grow you and your family in faith, visit elmhurstcrc.org.

Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

paul, people, church, household, Timothy, baptized, circumcised, god, person, Jesus, holy spirit, baptism, city, big, purple cloth, believer, luke, thought, women, book

SPEAKERS

 Gregg DeMey, Jeffrey Klein, Caryn Rivadeneira,

Gregg DeMey  00:08

Hey, Friends Welcome to the weekly installment of Elmhurst CRC Wade in the Word podcast, Pastor Gregg here. It's turning fall outside this week. And we're kind of turning the corner into a new season in the book of Acts as well. We're going to dive into Acts chapter 16, which is really the beginning of Paul's second missionary journey. And we're gonna hang out in the book of Acts until chapter 20. So through the month of October, sitting here with Pastor Jeff Klein. Good morning, he may or may not have almost hit me with a motor vehicle. Yesterday, I saw him walking, I thought it'd be funny because I was in a different car to approach him rapidly. And he glared at me with the eyes of like, what is this nut job doing? It was an unfamiliar vehicle, not the normal climate deal, but I did just stop in the middle of the driveway at church and like who, who is this? Also sitting here with Caryn Rivadeneira, who just celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary with

Caryn Rivadeneira  01:16

Yes.

Jeffrey Klein  01:17

So on Facebook, I think even wrote Happy Anniversary.

Caryn Rivadeneira  01:20

I think you did. I just saw the comments. Thank you for that. Yeah, it feels like a very big milestone. Right. And you're enjoying time.

Jeffrey Klein  01:27

Are you going on some like trip to like some Island somewhere? You just

Gregg DeMey  01:33

have Portillo's?

Caryn Rivadeneira  01:34

Exactly. Yes, that would be one day, one day, we'll get that trip. And yeah,

Gregg DeMey  01:39

we do have a Greek island in today's passage and 16 lovely islands of SAML thrice.

Caryn Rivadeneira  01:46

Yes. So yeah, right. We'll go there.

Gregg DeMey  01:49

would love that amazing. Oh, yeah, we are going to be Acts 16 and cover move the first 15 verses. So if you hear this in advance of Sunday, hopefully, this will be great preparation for hearing and experiencing God's Word on Sunday. That's what we're all about. Want to do everything we can to gather around God's word these days. It's one of the few things that can truly unite us and keep us together. We'll start off with the first five verses, I'll lead into it. So then Paul came to Derby. And then were a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and unbeliever, but his father was a Greek. And the believers that Lister and I conium spoke well of him. So Paul wanted to take Timothy along on the journey. So he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

Jeffrey Klein  02:42

As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

Gregg DeMey  02:55

Alright, so this is gonna be an amazing chapter. Paul and Barnabas have just broken up. They're a dynamic duo. And Paul is heading out with Silas. And if you remember his first missionary journey, he's actually going through these towns in reverse order. So kind of coming from the opposite direction. This time around. And maybe because of the breakup with Barnabas, I like to think maybe Paul's his antennas are especially open to the next generation of leaders, or multiplication, and runs into this young man, Timothy. So just a little guesstimate of a timeline. I mean, there's a couple of letters to Timothy from Paul, later in the Bible. And in those letters, Paul still refers to Timothy as a young man. And those are probably 15 years at least later. So probably, he's a really young guy, like likely a teenager, at this point when Paul runs into him. So also, I think that he's they're probably communicating the decision of the apostles and the elders in the Jerusalem church to these more remote churches at this point, it does kind of hint at their, like, passing on the news of the decision about like, how much of the Jewish law Do we really need to follow and be engaged with? And there's a little bit of a mystery here, possibly, that the whole decision of the Jerusalem church is like, hey, just do these things so that we can stay in fellowship, Jews and Gentiles together. Don't have to be circumcised, but just don't mess around with pagan idols. Stay away from meat with blood in it. No meat. Yeah, no. Right. And, and no sexual immorality. And somehow fresh off that decision. Paul runs into Timothy identifies him as spirit-filled and potential leader and then has him circumcised. Right, what's going on?

Jeffrey Klein  04:49

Well, again, I only go by what I've learned from Ray Vanderlaan, and some of the guys he reads but Timothy was a Munzer or a mamzer, which means he was an outsider. airborne have a legitimate marriage, the Jewish way of thinking because his mother was a Jew, but his father was a Greek. So this made him an illegitimate kid, right? Because he was there wasn't a purebred Jewish kid. And so it says he does he's circumcised.

Gregg DeMey  05:16

So this is not according to God, this would be called prejudicial attitudes. That's right.

Jeffrey Klein  05:22

That's right. Yeah, we should clarify. Yeah. So this is the prejudice edges today. And I think Paul, being the person who wants to include the Gospels inclusive, right, so it circumcising Gentiles would have been inclusive because they would have been forced to Sunday, in this case, the Jews would have thought of Timothy's illegitimate kid. So Paul goes, I'm going to circumcise him for the sake of these Jews to show them that everyone's included. Everyone's part of this family of

Gregg DeMey  05:49

God. So wonder if Timothy was on board with it. Yeah, I

Caryn Rivadeneira  05:51

know. That's kind of crazy. I was thinking though I find it strange that he wasn't circumcised at least today. You are Jewish, through your mother.

Jeffrey Klein  05:59

But actually, in this silliness case, that wouldn't have been they would not allow him to be circumcised wouldn't have allowed us his father was a Greek so the this era of Judaism, okay, what is said Timothy absolute cannot be circumcised because his father interesting. So he was definitely on the outside. Okay, this is this idea of the mums or the mamzer. Right, this word. He's on the outside of the inside Jewish kind of insiders, right? He's on the outside because he can't become circumcised it goes against the law to circumcise him. So Paul steps up and says, I'm going to be circumcised

Caryn Rivadeneira  06:33

so this then would have been shocking, I guess, to the fellows. What?

Jeffrey Klein  06:37

And again, yeah, so by

Gregg DeMey  06:38

way of contrast, another one of Paul's protegees is named Titus. And there's also a letter from Paul to Titus. Those are actually consecutive, the letters to Timothy and Titus. And in Titus case, we know from the book of Galatians, that there were some Jews were clamoring for Titus to be circumcised as a Christian leader. And Paul said, like, No, no, no, that's not how it works. You don't have to be circumcised and actually refused to have Titus circumcised. So two different protegees, two totally different approaches. I think there's a little bit of it, because there were demanding believers clamoring for Titus to submit to the entire law that Paul took extra pains to say, like no, for sure, we're not going to do this, because we're going to focus on grace. In Timothy's case, I think Paul had this long-term vision of like, we're going to be side to side. And Paul's strategy was always to go to the synagogue first. And probably strategically, thinking like, we don't want this to be a hurdle. So we don't have to do this. But if Timothy hopefully is willing to do this, like it's part of our building a quicker bridge of trust and connection between all these future people that hopefully the Holy Spirit will take us to. And in Titus case, like, I think that moment had already passed, and there were believers just like you have to do this. And Paul was like, Hey, no, yeah, here's what you need to do. Right?

Caryn Rivadeneira  08:03

There's a sweetness of it. I mean, again, it's poor Timothy, it sounds horrible, but also then it's a kindness to his mother as well, because if he wouldn't have been allowed to have been circumcised I mean, that would have been difficult for her as a Jewish person. So she must have been happy.

Gregg DeMey  08:17

wonderfully we do know the name of Timothy's mother and grandmother Lois and Eunice— awesome names.

Jeffrey Klein  08:27

Not really good Hebrew names really, though, are they?

Gregg DeMey  08:30

They're Eunice for sure is a Greek name.

Jeffrey Klein  08:33

This is a Greek name. Right? So yeah. Yeah. I just love the all-inclusiveness of Paul just kind of salmon embrace this guy completely bring him completely in. And I'm going to make the statement that, you know, the gospel brings people in it welcomes people, and includes them. I like that.

Gregg DeMey  08:49

Yeah. So kind of amazing that Paul IDs, Timothy's gifts is such a young person. Just curious if anybody did this for you. Maybe even as like a hockey player, as a pastor, or for you as a writer, or creative person. Like I find, like many of us, in adult life can like to look, look back and point to a moment where maybe a spirit-filled adult, like connected with us or called something for the thought of us.

Jeffrey Klein  09:20

Yeah, I mean, definitely, you know, I can think of a number of people in my life that definitely called things out of me. You know, Steve Raleigh in college was an older guy, grad student hockey player, fellow hockey player, and he would often call things out of me. I think I told this story lies about being in the hospital bed and he came brought me the pizza and yeah, that was Dave. I remember getting to Holland, Michigan, and having these two pastors that hired me as a youth pastor. I think I was probably complete, like a disaster. Looking back now, I know I was a complete disaster. But I thought I was amazing, right? So I thought I was just The amazing youth pastor. And these guys just patiently called things out of me and brought me along and on the journey to a whole new place. And so yeah, yeah, I could keep going. There's been a lot of those moments in my life. Even one of my best friends, Scott Davis, I think, probably, our personalities are different. He's a thinking super thoughtful, like, person. And God brought him into my life at a time when I was probably not as thoughtful, you know, just kind of this passionate, emotional, let's go do it. And, you know, Davis would be like, hey, Clay, why don't we just slow down, which is similar to how great domain is for me now?

Caryn Rivadeneira  10:35

Absolutely.

Gregg DeMey  10:37

saying you were less thoughtful,

Jeffrey Klein  10:39

and less thoughtful in the past, which I know is shocking. But it's true.

Caryn Rivadeneira  10:47

Yeah, I mean, of course, there have been people on the way. I mean, from the time you know, one of my teachers when I was seven, who I don't, you know, when you're seven years old, I don't think people are recognizing, a gift to write, but probably seeing how I loved it and kind of came alive during these. Yeah, so because I can't imagine she wasn't Wow, this, she's a genius. You know, it wasn't that sort of thing. But I'm just ever grateful for that because it just misses water. strats sort of. Yeah, saying that that was a legitimate thing to be excited about and want to do. And then also, I hadn't thought about this for a long time. And I feel bad. I can't remember this professor's name. But freshman year in college, an English professor, on one of my papers just wrote, I hope you'll, you know, consider majoring in English. And at the time, I was an English secondary education major, but just seeing that little note was the can maybe he wrote that on everyone's paper because they're trying to bolster the department.

Gregg DeMey  11:39

Need more majors as a grown-up? I

Caryn Rivadeneira  11:41

understand that now. But at the time, it just felt like a little encouraging thing. And, yeah, certainly people I've worked with along the way bosses, you know, they're, they're very good at sort of helping you identify what you do well, and what you don't do well, and I'm grateful for both. Yeah, usually.

Gregg DeMey  11:58

So I would say for me, this is one of the dynamics I miss about the church planting world to some degree because it's just taken for granted. Like, if you're planning a church, like any messing stuff up, you're gonna be failing all the time. So there's kind of like built-in. I likewise counsel and mentoring and coaching, whereas nothing against established churches are beautiful Elmhurst CRC, more of the attitude and like, you know, pretty healthy, established churches, like, Hey, if you're a pastor, they're like, mostly, you should have your act together. And if like, you do something wrong, like, Oh, it's time to have a serious conversation. So the assumptions, assumptions are just different. Like in the established church, I think it's mostly like, hey, if you work here, you're probably pretty mature, and maybe a little standing around the edges here and there. Whereas the church planting world is like, no, you're a complete mess. The church is a complete mess. It's, it's in infancy and formation all the time. So let's get after it. Lots

Caryn Rivadeneira  12:51

of grace there. Yeah. Yeah. And I

Jeffrey Klein  12:53

think it's also caused us to think about, you know, every person out there who is around us that we could actually speak into a call on like, absolutely right. People don't, you know, sometimes build the confidence, they don't see in themselves, what we see in them, right. And so speaking into their lives and saying, Hey, I see this in you, is a super important task. You know, I know Kyle groaners, our youth pastor is looking for mentors for the young people want to be awesome to get some adults saying, Hey, I think it'd be good, you know, coming alongside a couple of kids and calling this out of them, taking them on this journey, going, going in the dream with them. So doing this for each other in church is big, I think, a big deal.

Caryn Rivadeneira  13:30

And I don't even know that it needs to be I mean, mentors are great, don't get me wrong. But I think to your point, seeing that gift, and somebody and just saying it to them is so important, like whatever it is, I mean, just you hear somebody play something beautifully, or say something, you know, say something profound, just to be able to say, that was really good. That was what you should think or whatever. I mean, I think we minimize the impact, even if we don't know that person. Well, just how meaningful that can be to somebody.

Jeffrey Klein  13:55

Yeah, yeah. Because I mean, I don't think we all know what our gifts are nor necessarily how we're supposed to enter into this. And we probably aren't really aware of how God's made us to do certain things until somebody encouraged us to try it, or to step into it, or they see something as it's like, oh, really, you think I could do that?

Caryn Rivadeneira  14:13

And a lot of people think what they do well, naturally, or what they love to do is stuff everybody can do, especially young people, you know, they probably don't see it as special or interesting, or whatever. It's just like, Yeah, whatever. So it's good to call.

Gregg DeMey  14:25

Yeah, I see the same thing musically. Probably one of the most fruitful times in my life as in California as a worship director. And I just love calling forth like, people to identify themselves like as worshipers and to some degree, like even as singers, and it has nothing to do with whether you're an awesome singer or not. It's just like, I think we're all made to worship God. And some of us can sing a little better than others. And like, it's pretty easy to identify the people with whatever the musical training or the native musical skill but in the church, where the gold really is when you get, like participation all the way around the circle? Yeah. So when I left I think I was a congregation of about 350. And there were 80 people on the worship team. Awesome. It was like a quarter of the people like identified themselves as worship leaders to some degree or another.

Jeffrey Klein  15:20

That was a big strategy in the megachurch. I worked in we would bring people into that would just like to play good music. Yeah. Even people that weren't Christians would be on our worship band just playing with us. And they'd often become followers of Jesus through the process. He's just playing music.

Gregg DeMey  15:34

Yeah, that's it. Because as musicians, if you're having a good time, like making music, right, every musician has friends, right? Don't go to church who are like just playing their instrument in their basement by themselves, especially these days. So a little bit of a shameless plug for choir like this is, I mean, we're in a transition period in terms of Sunday morning worship. And in terms of choir, and like, if you'd like to come to sing, if you have like a little spark of like, Oh, I would like to be involved in with, like, I would love. It doesn't matter if you can, like hold a great tune or not, like more than 50% of the job is just having the openness and expressiveness to want to connect with the congregation and redirect all that energy, up to God to even

Jeffrey Klein  16:18

I could be in the choir. Yeah, because I have a lot of expressiveness, but I don't have very many vocal skills. Yeah.

Gregg DeMey  16:24

So we've only had a few choir rehearsals this year, but I think people are already getting this message. And honestly, if you're like listening to this, like, I'm not a singer, but like, a couple of people showed up just like last week, who are not singers, and we're gonna be like, great worship leaders.

Jeffrey Klein  16:38

And so well, and

Caryn Rivadeneira  16:38

there's something about when people are gathered together to worship, that it becomes this amazing group to you know, you sort of see that I peeked in a little bit at rehearsal, I was here for a different meeting. And you can just kind of see like, there's an energy and there's something happening and like this could be a very exciting group to be a part of people who are committed to lead worship. So

Jeffrey Klein  16:58

if we're doing shameless plugs, I need some Paul's, to find some Timothy's in this church to form these little groups.

Gregg DeMey  17:06

Because we now

Jeffrey Klein  17:08

and now, you know, and now I guess, pause, that would be people to find some Timothy's and, and form a little group and take these folks in a journey. So yeah, you'll be hearing more about this. But

Gregg DeMey  17:20

this is biblical discipleship. That's the way it happens. Exactly. Alright, let's like Paul, let us journey on Acts 16, six through 10.

Caryn Rivadeneira  17:31

Alright, here we go. Paul and his companions traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province, province of Asia when they came to the border of Mysia. They tried to enter  Bithynia,  but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas,

Gregg DeMey  17:52

during the night there, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him to come over to Macedonia and help us in 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. And to reverse order here. So there's lots of geography in these few verses. I mean, basically, Paul is going to and fro in what is now modern Turkey, through the Roman provinces, in that part of the globe. So I think probably Paul had some questions, where's the Spirit of God leading us to go? And it seems like the Holy Spirit is closing certain doors, and then opening other doors. So in verse 10, toward the end, we get the first mention of we, in the book of acts like before now it's always been like Paul and Barnabas, are they? So what is going on with us here?

Jeffrey Klein  18:58

Well, Luke has joined the team, or join the traveling party, at least right, we think that he must have joined up with them and is now traveling with them. So he's no longer they did this. And they did that. But we did it together.

Gregg DeMey  19:11

Right. So Luke being the author of gospel of Luke in the book of Acts, yeah. Right.

Caryn Rivadeneira  19:16

Yeah. I love this. I love that suddenly, it switches because like, Oh, here he is. Yeah, I had the morning devotional and the next little passages where he brings himself more into the story, too. And I just talked about how I think this is so so great, because again, it's like this reminder to that, like, these are real people actually doing real things. And yeah, he's part of the story. It's a nice reminder for us that, you know, we're part of God's story. And so I

Jeffrey Klein  19:43

Yeah, well, I think we are awesome, like, missions meant to be done together. Yeah. I think a lot of times we think about our missions on our own, but it's meant to be done together. So Paul has brought along Timothy that he's grooming he's also got Luke alongside him. Silas is somewhere in the picture even though he's not many So we have a little traveling team of people. I can't imagine doing ministry without a team. Like I know that was one of the hard things for a church plant for me was that I didn't really have a team around me. So all the things you're not good at, you suddenly have to do them anyway. Because you're just the only person there to do it right? And you can try to get volunteers to do it. And they do they help. But ultimately, it falls on your shoulders, right? So you're just by your field, sometimes by yourself just trying to play along and plow through this. And so, yeah, being part of a team is awesome.

Gregg DeMey  20:31

So while Luke has a little bit to say about Paul, kind of recruiting and identifying gifts in Timothy, we have no idea. Like how this relationship formed, maybe it was something similar that Yeah, became a believer. I mean, it seems as though he is a Gentile at some point, Paul identifies him as a doctor, a dear and beloved physician. And we know from the way Luke starts his gospel that he had a knack for, systematic thinking, like interviewing people writing things down. So very significant that like, at this point, he's a first-hand witness, like, you probably didn't have to do a bunch of extra interviews for this portion of the book of Acts.

Jeffrey Klein  21:08

And doctors, I mean, when you go to a doctor's office, they have to take all those notes. Now it's on a computer, but painstaking notes forever. So it's like, I think probably, yeah, just

Caryn Rivadeneira  21:18

gonna say something about his handwriting. No, because his

Jeffrey Klein  21:21

handwriting could be bad. Trevor, try to read your prescription.

Gregg DeMey  21:24

Yeah. Well, so speaking of that, there's the this is totally hypothetical. But one possible motive, Paul, and Luke's connection could have been a condition or a health difficulty for Paul, that's true. I mean, he does refer to like a thorn in his physical flesh at one point. And there's been a lot of theories of like, hey, what was Paul's thorn in the flesh? Was it some kind of sickness or debilitating condition? Or was why are troll saying?

Jeffrey Klein  21:52

Some people say that. That's just me. It's me. But it's some people saying, I don't know why they would. Yeah, the one.

Gregg DeMey  22:00

The one I think, is the most legitimate theory, I think comes from the book of Galatians. Because Paul does write to the Galatians, like these two little details, like, like when we first connected, you're so sacrificial, that you would have torn out your very eyes for me. And then at the end of the book of Galatians. It's like Paul, kind of in the ancient world, he typically like spoke a letter and someone would write it down for you. But Paul, typically he would write the closing in his own hand, and he says, at the end of Galatians, like, see with what large letters I write to you, in my own hand, almost like, possibly he couldn't see it, or maybe had a whatever a tremor or something would be the other possibility. But there are those two references that possibly have to do with eyesight in the book of Galatians. Yeah, we do. But we

Caryn Rivadeneira  22:46

don't know. I mean, but physically, by this point, he probably was a bit of a mess as

Jeffrey Klein  22:50

well, eyesight has not stopped having visions. So even though maybe you can see, wow, he's having visions from the Holy Spirit. That's a different kind of eyesight. So

Gregg DeMey  23:01

the Holy Spirit does keep getting things done through visions. So it's interesting here that they tried to enter the region of Bithynia, which would be like where modern Istanbul is kind of an upward northwest of Turkey. And even in the ancient world, like, there are huge population centers there. The city of Nicea, which figures in church history a couple of 100 years later, and Byzantium, which would become Constantinople, which would become Istanbul, so probably, like the biggest population center of this entire region. So Paul probably was like, we need to get there, we're gonna go, like, strategically, that's where a ton of people are at. and for whatever reason, the Holy Spirit, like, shuts the door on going there.

Jeffrey Klein  23:49

Yeah, I think he sends it to another strategic region, where Alexander the Great launch tis kind of campaign across the world from so I mean, the Holy Spirit knows some things that Paul doesn't know. So you know, but also, obviously, Europe, it's a big deal, right? to suddenly jump to this other continent.

Gregg DeMey  24:08

Yeah. So the Macedonian man, of all the regions that have been mentioned, all of them are in Asia, or turkey, except for the Roman name for the region of Macedonia, right, which is on the European continent. So this is a big

Jeffrey Klein  24:25

jump to a new place. One, one writer I was reading, postulated that he thought the master journeyman look like Alexander the Great because apparently, there were tons of statues of Alexander the Great in this city of Philippi. And all these regions, this whole region, because of his launching his campaign, to conquer the world for Greece back in the day. You know, I don't whatever that's just postulating I don't know. But that's Yeah, it's interesting that

Gregg DeMey  24:49

so Alexander had been dead for more than 300 years correct point. However, his legacy and the impact of the spread of first Greek culture and then Roman culture and it's awake was Totally pervasive and profound.

Jeffrey Klein  25:02

Exactly. Yeah. Do

Caryn Rivadeneira  25:03

we think it's, I mean, I'm just curious that they differentiate. And obviously, this would be Trinitarian. But at one point, they're capped by the Holy Spirit. And then we're mentioning the Spirit of Jesus. And I'm just wondering, vision-wise, is that do you? Do we feel like maybe Paul is actually feeling like he's hearing from Jesus sort of seeing another vision? I mean, he's been spoken to directly Do we? Is that interesting? Or do we think it's just still the Holy Spirit's different words?

Jeffrey Klein  25:29

I just think it's different words for the holy words for the

Gregg DeMey  25:32

one and the same. Paul, in Corinthians. refers to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Jesus, like it's all.

Caryn Rivadeneira  25:41

Yeah, yeah. I don't know. Just in the vision, a thing you wonder, like, how he, what he was seeing what he heard? Yeah. And it also just made me think a little bit, you know, and this is a little bit different reasons. But the number of times Jesus in the gospels that weren't that funny, but where it heals someone and say, don't tell anybody. Don't say it. So it is interesting, sort of how this, you know, we always think that the command is always spreading the gospel everywhere all the time. And yet sometimes there are times Yeah. Curiously, gets shut down.

Gregg DeMey  26:11

No, so totally agree. I typically think of the Holy Spirit as the one who opens, shines the light on the next step. And totally, that's true. But sometimes the spirit closes the door. Yeah. Or, like, cuts off a route. And we don't always know probably what the Holy Spirit even saves us from or why, or to what end? Or who else he has in mind to great there's

Caryn Rivadeneira  26:33

could be other people heading there. Yes. Right.

Jeffrey Klein  26:36

Have you had this experience I've had, I've had this man, it was early in my ministry, but I was, I was in Holland, Michigan, I was a youth pastor and Christian education pastor at this church. So totally different gift sets, right? youth pastors, just like get with the kids go crazy. Chris education pastor at the time, that was, you know, we didn't call it spiritual formation or discipleship, then we call the Christian education. So that was just lining up all the classes and teachers and basically running a school in the church, which you know, as you know, my gifts now it's like, yeah, that's, that was not I did it, I got it done. But it was super painful. So I decided that it was time for me to go be a full-time youth pastor somewhere, and I was looking for jobs. And I looked in Oklahoma church there, I looked at several churches that I reached out to were interested, I interviewed in some of those churches, and every time we get to like the last hour of like, Okay, I think this is where we're gonna be going, I'd say to my wife, I think this is probably going to be it. And then something crazy would happen. The one church was interviewing me and they said, our other youth pastor decided to stay. So we're just going to cut this off. And like, literally in the ninth hour, I'm like, what, and this happened, like over and over again. And then it was three months later that Timothy Christian was called by Well, I should say, a parent from Timothy Christian called and said, You should interview for this, or you should look into this job. And that was kind of God's turn for my life and ended up there. So that was one experience I thought of like about where it got, I got blocked from all these other places, I thought were genius to go. pursuing this youth pastor life that I was, you know, had in my mind, and then ended up a Timothy, which I never would have. I remember when I got the call thinking, I think I told Dan van Prooyen. Yeah, I don't really think I'm called to be a Bible teacher. But you know, thanks for it, but it was actually it was perfect.

Caryn Rivadeneira  28:28

Yeah. So I'm just trying to think about if there are times when I felt like the spirit I'm in again, I say this publicly. I'm not a great evangelist. I'm not someone who's always out there specifically, you know, sharing the gospel per se. But I'm trying to think if there's ever been a time though, I can't imagine it were like Jesus would or I would have felt the spirit kind of saying, like, No, no, don't bring up anything spiritual now like that. I can't imagine. happening. I've

Jeffrey Klein  28:55

felt I think that's happened to me. Yep. Right. where it's like, you've got this plan. I'm like, Okay, time present. Yes. And then clearly the spirits like, Yeah, no, no, this is not the right time. Yeah, for that to happen. So figure something out. For sure. Right here your time. You're way too early. You're way ahead of my thing here. My timing, you just need to not talk about that talk about this. Right. And so yeah, if you listen, if you're smart enough to listen, which I'm not always smart enough to listen, right? Then you don't go to that talk. You do another talk, right?

Caryn Rivadeneira  29:24

Maybe it's cuz I'm not generally doing that. I am. Yeah, whatever. I mean, I talk about Jesus and all this sort of stuff, but just a specific, you know, altar call kind of, you know, like the people who you hear are always leading people to Christ on their knees, you know,

Jeffrey Klein  29:39

I mean, I know I don't Yeah, I think people are definitely gifted in different ways. Right. Call the different things. This is one of the things God's called me into right. Multiple times. So

Gregg DeMey  29:49

yeah. Yeah, for sure. I experienced I mean, my young adulthood, I just wanted to play music. I mean, even if I went to three years of seminary, yeah, I still just wanted to play music and serve the church through music. And yeah, not that like the Holy Spirit shut off the opportunities but in a way, like made it clear like right yeah.

Jeffrey Klein  30:12

And now look at you're a lead pastor still playing music

Gregg DeMey  30:16

Yeah, God never said it was gonna be forever maybe I'll get

Caryn Rivadeneira  30:19

you smiling so big right now maybe I'll just get my music again. Yeah, all right

Gregg DeMey  30:29

okay, so some doors get closed. Paul has this vision and they lean into this kind of open door following division. So just think about the amount of trust everybody who is with Paul must have in his relationship with the Lord. I mean they pretty much reroute all of their plans and hit the high seas as a result so, Lita sounds Klein at verse 11.

Jeffrey Klein  30:54

from Troy as we put out the sea and sales straight for Samothrace and the next day we went to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philip II, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there for several days.

Gregg DeMey  31:10

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 speaking to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, and she was a worshipper of God. Then the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.

Caryn Rivadeneira  31:32

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.

Gregg DeMey  31:44

Hmm. All right. Want to talk quickly about strategy here? Yeah. So again, Paul probably wanted to go to these big population centers in Bithynia. That gets closed off so they go from the port city of Troy class, which is still in what we'd call modern-day Turkey city of ancient Troy. If you ever had to read the Odyssey or the Iliad, it's a

Jeffrey Klein  32:08

on the A GNC a beautiful place. I mean, you can see like, 15 feet into the GNC when you're on it. It's amazing. Like it's super clear water, so

Gregg DeMey  32:17

so they take off from there, stop off at an island. So literally, like, yeah, a Greek island, a Greek island.

Jeffrey Klein  32:25

Right? It's awesome debate

Gregg DeMey  32:26

between the Asian landmass and the European landmass, and then land in the apalis, not Minneapolis, just Minneapolis, which, which means new city, means new city and Greek, so aptly named there literally are going like doing this new thing, new thing in the spirit. And from there, this is where the strategy takes over again, I mean, the biggest city in this region is flip eyes. So Paul's desire to be in a place where things are happening, where there's a big population center, where there are connections to be made, and influenced to spread like that is where he goes immediately. And we do know from Paul's general strategy, that he would always go to a synagogue first to connect with the Jewish population, they are now far enough away, there is no Jewish synagogue in Philippi,

Jeffrey Klein  33:17

I have a feeling that's why I wanted to go the other places, they're probably still worse your synagogues there, which it was his mission strategy, right? Go to the synagogue and start there. Now he goes to a place where he doesn't have a synagogue doesn't exist. So imagine his walk into I don't know, some massive city. Hey, guys, here we are to spread the gospel, the Holy Spirit is sent us where do we start? How do we begin? Like, what, what? And so he, you know, goes to this place of prayer that he hears about.

Gregg DeMey  33:44

Yeah, so interesting that in the absence of a synagogue, they still do try to connect with people, like in a spiritual place, and who already have kind of their spiritual antenna up and tuned in.

Jeffrey Klein  33:57

Some people call this looking for the person of peace in a city. So people that are persons of peace, or those who already have considered or are considering this idea by God and they're okay with the idea of like, maybe I do believe in this, maybe I'm pursuing God seeking Him. If you can find those persons of peace in your workplace, in your neighborhood, in your you know, whatever coffee shop, those are the people to start with on your mission.

Caryn Rivadeneira  34:21

Reminds me of Mr. Rogers, advice to look for helpers. Yeah, sort of like

Jeffrey Klein  34:25

Jesus, it was Jesus' advice to His disciples, you know, go into a town and find the people that are sort of already predisposed to this and start with them. Don't start in the middle of a bar with a bunch of people that are like, Christians think, you know, it's like, you know, I'm saying, maybe they wouldn't be in a bar. Maybe they'd be a Walmart, I don't know. But I'm just saying, right, you know, like, I'm just more likely, but I think you know, I love how he starts with he finds a person of peace and I'm gonna move in with this person.

Gregg DeMey  34:51

Right? So they do go to this place on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath does a little sorting so it's people maybe who understand the Jew Rhythm and that observance as a spiritual way of organizing their life and calendar, and rather than going to the city square, because probably there's still going to be like Roman hubbub going on even on the Sabbath day, to go outside the city, probably to a lovely place where there's water, I mean, much like us, we've, whatever it feels like we have internal space when we're in lovely, you know, outdoor places, mountain rivers. It's a funny detail to me that it's just the women who gather there, as if like, synagogue and church attendance for all these many 1000s of years, maybe are a little more inclined from the feminine disposition.

Caryn Rivadeneira  35:44

Yeah, it reminded me a little bit of one of my classes recently we are reading some womanist theology, which is essentially black feminism. And one of the tenants of this has been the importance of going down to the river to pray, you know, write their songs about this. And for black women traditionally, that had been even back to slavery-like the importance of gathering at the river so returning reading this I thought well, it's just very interesting. Is there something ancient roots to say? Yeah, I mean, whether it's a safety thing or beauty thing like you're saying, I mean, just the idea of but don't you find in washing things I don't know washing and praying

Jeffrey Klein  36:19

this lady is like she's dealing in purple cloth Yeah. She's like in the garment industry she's in like the clothes making industry like I don't know like with these women be models around the river would they be like the people model in the clothes would they be there? I don't know. say like, I mean, like this would have been an interesting group of people that to find like their women either. Yeah, we sometimes picture people in the Bible's like, Oh, this was some dumpy woman at the river making purple cloth but what if she was like slicked back on your fashion he's, you know, of Philip II. This is a wealthy city with lots of like, retired Roman soldiers in it, and lots of you know, expendable income. So what if she was like in the center of that whole, I don't know, making of clothes and fitting them to people and helping people become beautiful. And this is an interesting thing to think about. Like here's these missionaries with these possibly be really beautiful women all gathered to the river. All the supermodels hanging out

Gregg DeMey  37:23

I wish I could see you all, but my eyesight

Caryn Rivadeneira  37:27

never mentioned.

Jeffrey Klein  37:30

Like, yeah, I might be attracted to that particular set. Police appear also.

Gregg DeMey  37:36

So we do know a few things for sure concretely about this woman. So she's from a city that is not in Europe. Like she's from a city on the other side and the Asian side, Thyatira.  I mean, we do know her name, Lydia, obviously, and that she's a dealer in purple cloth, which is not like I don't know, be an Amway salesman. It's like

Jeffrey Klein  38:00

a high-end. This is high-end stuff. Yes. Yeah. This is like high-end clothes.

Gregg DeMey  38:05

She's probably I mean, it seems like she is entrepreneurial, maybe owns her own business. It's like she's the one getting this done. Yeah.

Caryn Rivadeneira  38:14

Yeah. I mean, it refers to her household, which I think is interesting. I don't think typically, the women are the ones who have the household. So it's she's, she's the head of it, whether it means she's single, or it's because it's her and all her workers or whatever. But she's obviously a woman means

Jeffrey Klein  38:30

so you just picture these four single missionaries all moving in with the models,

Caryn Rivadeneira  38:35

the models changed. My perspective is completely I love

Jeffrey Klein  38:39

this. I love this. I can't wait for the breaches on Sunday just talking about these.

Gregg DeMey  38:44

Pick that might be semi hypothetical. It might be but it's. So the other thing we know about her is I mean, she's probably a Gentile, but she was a worshipper of God. So how she came to observe the Sabbath, how she came to be like her past spiritual journey. We have no idea.

Jeffrey Klein  39:01

Yeah, tie it, Thyatira right. This city was definitely probably had a Jewish synagogue. So she was probably a Jewish prasiolite. Again, someone that had been influenced by the Jews to worship this true one living God. And she had been practicing this practice of the Sabbath and praying. And so now she takes it with her to Philip II, and she has this place of prayer going so. But yeah, you're right. We have no idea where she came from what her journey was to get here.

Gregg DeMey  39:28

So a little bit striking, no, majorly striking that the first European congregant is a woman, God seemed does seem to have a knack for. How should I put it? I mean, Mary Magdalene is the first witness of the resurrection. Lydia is the first so there's nothing in God's economy of things that's like, nope, has to be guys first because it made Adam first. I mean, at this point in Jewish history, I mean, it's a strongly patriarchal system. So I mean, Acts 15. It does sound like there are not women leaders in the Jerusalem church yet. I mean, it's the apostles, the elders, they just address them as brothers. But like, God has no problem, like leading the charge into Europe with Lydia as the first convert and witness.

Caryn Rivadeneira  40:20

For sure. I mean, it's again, I think it's just the change Jesus brought about that. Yeah. So even though I'm picturing and just all these women lounging by the river and praying and their purple class and taking early photos, or whatever they did, then but you know, when these guys show up, there's not a sense of, you know, and she says, like, if you believe I'm a believer, and they persuaded her wasn't like, yeah, we'll go back and see what your dad says about this, or what your brother or what your husband, whoever would have been the man in her world, and that would have been, that was part of the patriarchy, she didn't really have the power, usually in this culture to, you know, to declare these things. And so I do find that quite remarkable. But yeah, Jesus changed that. And, I mean, obviously, she was a woman of influence. So you know, an influencer is a big term in our culture today. But I think that's also what we're seeing, you know, as these people, God, this has got opened up her heart. So there is the sense of she's going to be someone that people listen to, obviously. And

Jeffrey Klein  41:17

yeah, she's obviously got this place of prayer that she started showing her influence, right? She's got these women with her praying and by the river. I mean, this is Sunday, she obviously started up and is doing this. And

Gregg DeMey  41:30

yeah, it's an interesting to turn of phrase. Luke, Luke says that the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message, which is a very similar phrase to what Luke uses in Luke 24. On the after the walk on the road to Emmaus on Easter Sunday night, when in the breaking of the bread, their eyes are open. So it's like the same verb there. I love that kind of Luke speaks to this moment of, like, transformative openness, were like, oh, but it

Jeffrey Klein  42:03

also speaks to sometimes we put all this pressure on ourselves, we have to deliver this perfect message of evangelism, we got to get all the facts, right, we got everything. Well, what if it's really the Lord that opens people's hearts, right? So maybe it's not all on us, we have to put so much pressure on ourselves, we can just lean into what if we find this person of peace, and we lean into what the Holy Spirit's already doing there, it makes it pretty easy to be on a mission. Because now you just lean into that and the Lord opens their heart or opens their minds and you don't have to convince them or argue with them or have all these genius, apologetic arguments, you can just lean into what the Holy Spirit's already up to.

Gregg DeMey  42:38

Alright. So Lydia's household is mentioned here, and the fact that her entire household is baptized. So what does that term mean? household in the New Testament like this will come up again later in chapter 16, with the household of the head jailer in the city of Philip II, and a similar outcome spoiler alert of a whole household being

Jeffrey Klein  43:04

baptized for nearly as earlier the next 10. Right. The same thing, it was a household. I mean, it's the word oitavos. And it means a I think it means an extended spiritual family, or in this case, it wouldn't be a spiritual family just being extended family, because it wasn't spiritual yet, until Paul showed up and made it spiritual, but it was definitely an extended family of people that were all living together, operating together as a community of people,

Caryn Rivadeneira  43:27

but it includes your servants or slaves, right? I mean, it's everybody

Jeffrey Klein  43:32

who lives us larger people, all the people that are in this under this person's influence rights include your children, it does include your children. Yes, it does. I think and I think you're serving slaves, employees, whatever, people that are in your extended family, I've read that these could have been as big as 70. Right people in these households that were under the leadership of this person, Cornelius, or in this case, Lydia, or the jailer, you know, we know each house who would have been a different size, depending on the probably the person's means and whatever influenced but

Caryn Rivadeneira  44:05

so what is the say about salvation, then? Because we always think, you know, it's a personal way of personal salvation or personal relationship to mean Jesus, I need to accept Jesus into my heart personally. When we read these stories about households being baptized, do we feel I mean, again, this is all part of the debate of believer versus

Gregg DeMey  44:21

in every single person to have the same experience exactly in this entire household or something going on. Whereas the head of the household, yes, like your spiritual connection in the way you're going to lead and guide and Shepherd your household. Like, from then on is enough to baptize everybody into the household of God.

Caryn Rivadeneira  44:39

Right? Well, it's like it's for me in my house will serve the Lord. I mean, that's quite a command that you can't force

Jeffrey Klein  44:45

it. I just, I also wonder, like in our modern-day, baptism, and we are super careful which we should be with who he baptized, but at the same time, I wonder if these household people would have actually passed any like questioning. Or tests that we would have given them right? Like, do you believe that the word of God is the only rule for faith in life? Well, not really. I don't even know what the word of God is, you know, but I want to be baptized anyway. Because you get a copy.

Caryn Rivadeneira  45:11

Exactly. Yeah. So I mean, it's not been written yet, but do you believe it?

Jeffrey Klein  45:15

But it is interesting how you know, I mean, I've heard I've read of churches in America doing baptisms, Sundays, where they offer baptism and say, if you want to be baptized, you know, this is the day we're baptizing. If this is the Lord's calling you to this, come on down, that feels really unreformed, unstructured on just feels kind of scary. You know, but yeah, in my church plan experience, we are going to baptize a young wife of a guy who come to our church, she had never been baptized. So she says, we announced it the Sunday before. The person that cuts my hair still today. Her name is Nancy. She was there listening to this, I tried to explain baptism to her at least five times with my Bible with all my theological genius. I tried to sit her to the table and explain baptism, you know, I thought she was ready to be baptized. And every time she just kind of gets up and go, I don't know, I just, I just can't seem to understand this. And so six o'clock the morning of this baptism 6 am. I get the phone rings. It's Nancy. Jeff, I was up last night. No, the night. And I couldn't sleep. So I just started praying. And I had this vision of myself being baptized after this straw. You're not baptized this morning? Do you think I could do that? So, Nancy, I've tried to explain to you like five times? Yeah, it's a no-brainer. Like, just come ready, be baptized? Let's do this. So we baptized this young lady. And then we baptized Nancy, based on this vision? You know, I don't think Nancy could have answered all the questions. But she certainly was ready to commit her life to Jesus and wanted it to be kind of all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit gave her this vision to say, I want to do this. That's pretty cool. I love it.

Gregg DeMey  47:00

Yeah. I mean, baptism can be a confirmation of the work that God has done. But it can also be, I think, earlier in the stages, that can be a significant part of the work that God is doing. Right. And, I mean, we had to give a little pro-reform talk for a second, that's fine. I mean, some sometimes, no knows. But sometimes, folks from different traditions will be like, how can you guys baptize babies? There's like, show me in the Bible where there's a baptism. And typically,  pointed moments like this in the book of Acts where like, there's an entire household that gets baptized and like, what do you think that means? Because they're likely were children and, like, possibly small children. Yeah, involved in this. And just like recognizing that our connection with God is far bigger than just what we have figured out what we believe rationally, what we understand to be true, and just how for millennia at this point, like circumcising the male's of households as a sign that like we're in the family of God together. Now, the sign of baptism is clearly for men and women, boys and girls. Yeah. And I don't think there's anything in God's word that says Like, now, it's for adults only. Like, my family used to be like you, you were in at eight days old, and the sign was in your flesh, but now in the New Covenant, in the household of Jesus Christ, it's only for adults who understand it.

Caryn Rivadeneira  48:33

Well, and I think to your point about that story, I think that's beautiful. And to me, that's the same reason why we do baptize babies. It's an act of God, it's the Holy Spirit at work. So that's, I think what we're understanding, you know, is he couldn't explain it, but it was God calling her to that. And so as parents, it's the same. Yeah,

Jeffrey Klein  48:50

even now, I'm not sure Nancy could explain all of the reasons why she's, you know, have all it together. But she totally understands that she belongs to Jesus, and she wants to belong to Jesus. And so that was to be enough to go okay.

Caryn Rivadeneira  49:04

I think if we can ever explain that stuff perfectly, then we're like, in trouble because I think it's hard to articulate why I have a hard time explaining sometimes why I believe in God, right. I start talking like, Oh, this is so weird, you know, or whatever. All these things are baptism. I mean, we can try and, you know, they're the forms and stuff we read and the things we believe, but ultimately, it's all super mysterious. I mean, I feel the same way with communion. You know, I've heard beautiful stories of people, you know, kind of unsure about communion. Maybe we'd be like, I don't know if you should, but like the way God has worked in people's hearts the way Jesus does, I mean, it's, it's mysterious. And

Jeffrey Klein  49:40

it's such tension. Yeah. When you're, again, I understand your church, you want to be responsible with these sacraments and these things, but it's such a tension between that and the kind of saying, well, it is God's thing. It's his Holy Spirit's work, right. So we don't want to take control of that or in any way. And like we have all the spiritual insight as to who ought to take this and who not or who ought to get baptized? Who's not? I don't know. It's such a weird tension to be involved in, you know, again it. Yeah, a camp. You know, I've had kids ask me, well, you baptize me. I'm like, well, you got to call your parents first. We got to talk to your parents because I'm not going to baptize you and have your parents have no idea what's going on. So, you know, but yeah,

Gregg DeMey  50:25

I mean, sometimes it's like this, where people want to make it more about like you exams Master, or like a person who likes, wow, this person was a speaker. And I really was like, wow, I heard this person play this awesome song, it'd be even more meaningful if they baptize me. And generally, like, no, be baptized in your home.

Jeffrey Klein  50:43

Exactly. Go to your church,

Gregg DeMey  50:45

I mean, the place that's going to love you and disciple you. I mean, whatever. Sometimes it's like, great, and it's the right thing to do in the moment. But like, that is that is a thing. You don't want to play into

Jeffrey Klein  50:56

the celebrity thing like, Oh, he's the speaker. And so he's gonna his baptism is gonna really, really

Caryn Rivadeneira  51:01

take off.

Gregg DeMey  51:03

Right? Yep, the same thing with serving communion or performing a wedding. Like, I mean, the early church went through a little controversy over this. Like if it turned out if you were baptized by someone who turned out to be a lousy, right priest or pastor, did that invalidate your baptism? Right? And the resounding answer, through all these centuries has been like, nope, because it's God working that idiot in front. So that's true. I mean, it's comforting. I mean, I've we've probably all received communion from people whose hearts were not in it, or who later had a colossal failure of some kind. Right, right. And if the person who performed your wedding was cheating on their spouse, it doesn't invalidate the Yeah. Right, the sacred promises that you made in God's presence or God's blessing and your commitment to do just that. Cool. Sure. All right. So one last word. I mean, we've kind of been, I think, getting at this tension between like, individualism, again, if the baptism is about like, I want my baptism to be with a star spiritual person. But the unit of discipleship is not individual in the book of Acts, or the New Testament, like the unit of discipleship, I forget, who am I quoting by saying this like brain? Yeah, is the household? Yeah. So I mean, this is why think, like Lydia's whole household because she's accepting the mantle of responsibility to disciple her household from here on out, Paul's not going to be there for the next right year, or five years or 10 years. There, it becomes them the early spiritual leaders. Yeah,

Jeffrey Klein  52:41

there's actually a belief that in China when China was closed off to Christianity was made illegal to meet in public gatherings around Christianity, there were about a million Christians when they reopened that iron curtain, there were 60 million Christians, the people that have studied this postulate, it was the household church that grew the believers of Jesus in China, that underneath the surface on an underground were these households that were meeting, and was the households that were discipling each of these people into following Jesus, that's how they grew so much.

Gregg DeMey  53:14

So weirdly, in our society, we like the extremes of really, really big and spectacular, are just totally personal and individual.

Jeffrey Klein  53:21

Right, right. So I mean, then it's, it's pretty profound to think about what does it look like to do church that is organized in these type of households, or you know, where you can empower the households to be the ones who disciple their children, the people there in their influence? that's a pretty profound and radical thought for the modern American church.

Caryn Rivadeneira  53:41

It is especially I mean because our households look very different. We're not it's our own little family. But if you extend it out and think about your broader family, the people you work with, you know, maybe not necessarily who work for you not as servants, but as staff members or whatnot. Yeah, it's changed. Yeah, there's

Jeffrey Klein  53:59

there's a lot of people that are under your influence more than you know. And, again, I think, yeah, it could be a profound way to reach the world, but it would, it would require us to move differently in a society that moves very much individualistically and with a lot of busyness, and yeah,

Gregg DeMey  54:16

all right. Well, this is an encouraging thought. Yeah, it is. So super looking forward to this worship service. We should have a lively time on Sunday, and Pastor Jeff will be bringing an awesome word from his heart of Acts 16 so hoped to see many of you face to face to be in person and sing and sing and worship. Alright, peace, friends.