Something’s Happenin’ Here

        It’s sad when you meet someone young who is already old.  You know the people I mean.  They are just going through the motions.  They are playing out their string.

        It’s even harder when it’s a friend.  For me, it is hardest when that friend is a brother or sister I’ve known in ministry.  They are putting in their time until retirement.  They still serve in the church but they aren’t really engaged.  

       Others haven’t made it this far.  They checked out a long time ago. 

        Ben Patterson writes in Deepening Your Conversation With God:  “The career road of ministry is littered with the bodies of fatigued and spent religious professionals.  That’s because the ministry is not a career, nor are we who serve in it professionals.  The ministry is a calling.  The distinction between the two – calling and career – is pivotal…

       “The word career gives itself away.  It comes from the French carriére meaning a road or a highway.   The picture is of a course on which one sets out, road map in hand, goal in sight, stops marked along the way for food, lodging and fuel.  Looking back, we can speak of one’s career as the roads one took in life. But more often we speak of it looking forward, as the path one chooses and plans to travel professionally, an itinerary charted and scheduled. The destination is primary.  The roads are well marked.  The rest is up to the traveler. 

      “A call on the other hand has no maps, no itinerary to follow because a call depends on hearing a Voice.  The organ of faith is the ear, not they eye; we walk by faith, not by sight.  First and last, a call is something one listens for.  Everything depends on the relationship of the listener to the One who calls.

       God called Abraham to go to a land that “I will show you.”  Why didn’t God just tell Abraham where He wanted him to go, give him what he needed to get there, and be done with it then and there?  Why this ‘I will show you” business? It’s so frustrating!  But God knows us too well.  He knows that if we had the plan and the place, we’d try to get there without Him.  Just ask Abraham.  And we need God far more than we need the plan and the place.”

       The Apostle Paul and those who travel with him are well aware of what it means to follow without a map.  They are traveling through what is now Turkey .

       Somehow or another, they are forbidden by the voice of the Holy Spirit to enter the Roman province of Asia .  They say, “That’s good! We’ll head north to Bithynia along the southern shore of the Black Sea .”  The Holy Spirit  then says, “Don’t go there.”  The missionaries are cut off from the south, the north and the east.  They finally end up at Troas on the west coast near ancient Troy .  Then Paul has a vision of a man from Macedonia who says, “Come to Macedonia and help us.”  As a result, Paul and his companions carry the gospel into Europe . 

       Troas is a very important place in the story of the church.  When were in Turkey last summer we were only seven miles from Troas on our way to see the ruins of Troy .  I asked our guide Orhan about a quick side trip but he told me, “There’s nothing to see there.”

       Now sometimes people will say “There’s nothing to see” when there’s everything to see.  A circus train could collide with a truck filled with nuclear fuel.  Hazmat teams would be hard at work while dodging giraffes and elephants.  Some cop would be sure to say, “Just move along. There’s nothing to see here.” 

      But I learned to trust Orhan.  If he says “There’s nothing to see” there is nothing to see – even where so much happened.

       Paul, Silas and Timothy arrive in Troas .  Some writers suggest that Paul suffers a recurrence of malarial blindness.  He first experienced this “stake in the flesh” at Perga on the first missionary journey.  Now it is back.  He needs a doctor.

       There is no doctor shortage in Troas .  The eastern Aegean was a center of medicine. Hippocrates himself came from Chios .  Herophilus came from Chalcedon .  Galen was a product of the great temple and healing center of Asclepius in Pergamum .  But the Holy Spirit leads Paul to a doctor named Luke. 

       In Luke, Paul discovers a strong brother in Christ – the man who later wrote the Gospel as well as the Book of Acts itself.   This meeting begins on of the “we sections” of Acts – the times when Luke is present.

       Paul receives his vision of a man from Macedonia who says, “Come and help us.”  As soon as possible, they catch a ship across the northern Aegean Sea .

       Now there is an old Celtic benediction which says “May the road rise up to meet you and may the wind be always at you back.”   When Carol and I were in Ireland we’d add, “But we’ll be darned if we’ll tell you which road it is.”   There is a severe shortage of roads signs there. 

        But the sea has no roads. All Paul needs is the wind.  Luke, with a typical Greek love for travel details writes:  “We traveled with the wind at our back straight to the Island of Samothrace .” The winds were so perfect that they make the 156 mile voyage in only two days.  They land in Macedonia at Neapolis and travel eight miles to Philippi . 

        Philippi was an old town.  But it was renamed in 356 B.C. by Phillip II, the father of Alexander the Great. 

        Philippi ’s greatest claim to fame is that it is the place where the armies of Mark Antony and Octavian defeated the forces of Brutus and Cassius.  This was the decisive battle of the Roman civil war that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar.  You read the play junior year of high school.   Philippi was awarded the status of a Roman colony that answered directly to the Roman emperor.  Roman soldiers are encouraged to retire there.  It’s citizens are exempt from provincial taxes.  So over the years Philippi becomes a little Rome .  Roman language Roman dress and Roman customs hold sway there. 

        Philippi is the city where Paul founds the church that becomes his personal favorite -- his “joy and his crown.”    It is the church that stands beside Paul personally and financially throughout his ministry.  Paul writes, “I thank my God every time I remember you.”

        Now in a sense, that’s awfully tender talk to use for a church like this one.  The majority of the church, like the majority of the city, was composed of tough veterans from the Roman Legions and their families.  But somehow these seasoned soldiers become the strong backbone of a church dedicated to following the Prince of Peace.  

       That may seem strange.  But my experience with veterans – including those in this congregation – tells me that this is exactly what to expect.  Veterans love to build things.  That’s what made the Greatest Generation so great.   They’ve been there; done that as far as the violence the world has to offer.  They don’t have anything to prove to anyone.  They can be gentle.  My own father, who carried a BAR through France in Patton’s 3^rd Army, is a good example.  No one was gentler than my dad.

        Some men were talking at a dinner party after the end of World War II in Europe .  One man at the party was loudly saying that it was time to go after the Russians now that the Nazi’s were crushed.  He was for all-out war as soon as possible.  One of the combat veterans at the party explained that the man was so bloodthirsty because he’d flown a BMD during the war with Germany .  It turned out that BMD stood for “big mahogany desk.”  Those who had seen combat were ready for peace.  They’d had all the excitement they could handle.  Now they wanted to create something that would last.

      Veterans like this become the backbone of Paul’s greatest partner church. But not yet.  First the gospel has to gain a foothold.

      When Paul arrives in a new city , he usually goes first to the synagogue to speak to the Jews.  But there is no synagogue in Philippi .  Apparently there aren’t ten Jewish men to make up the needed quorum.  So Paul and his companions head down to the banks of the Gangites River where they hope to find a place of prayer. 

      They discover a small group of Jewish women gathered there.  Paul and Silas begin to preach the Gospel, as always, to the most available people.

       Then they expect God to do something! 

       That seems to be a missing note among Christians in many places today.  Many churches have given up expecting God to do anything.  If the Holy Spirit were suddenly removed from their program, nobody would notice the difference.  They do not expect God to do anything.  But the early Christians did.  They preach the Word and they expect God to act. 

       And God acts.  The gospel enters Europe – through a woman’s Bible study and prayer meeting.      

       One of the women in the Jewish prayer group is a gentile named Lydia .  That is probably a nickname.  The city she comes from, Thyatira, was formerly part of the Kingdom of Lydia .  She is the Lydian lady.  It’s on her business cards. 

       Lydia is a rich business woman. Her company imports garments that have been dyed with the colorful dye now known as Turkish red.  Thyatira is the source of the dye.  She is there by the river praying with the Jewish women because she is a “fearer of God.”   She sees the truth in the God of Israel and wants in. 

       Now, as she listens to the words about Jesus, God opens her heart and she believes. So the first “man from Macedonia ” turns out to be a woman from Asia .  Her large home becomes the meeting place for the new church.   She demonstrates the reality of her conversion through hospitality and generosity.

       The conversion of Lydia is seen as a big deal in the church today.  She is the first of Paul’s converts in Europe .

       But I doubt if Paul and his companions thought of it that way.  I doubt that Paul turned to Luke and said, “Hey write that down in that book you’re working on.  Lydia ’s our first convert in Europe .”  Paul and his companions didn’t think of Asia and Europe as two continents.  They aren’t really. 

       To the Greeks there was the Aegean Sea , the adjacent lands and the islands.  The eastern shore of the Aegean, modern Turkey , was called Ionia .  It was every bit as Greek as Greece itself.  Homer, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Thales all came from there.

      Europe was not a big deal for Paul. But looking back, we can see that it was a very big deal in history.  Europe will become the radiating center of spreading the Gospel all over the world – including right here.  It is from Europe that the gospel spreads to North and South America , Australia , Asia and Africa . 

       When the Apostle Paul and his small group moved from Asia to Europe , they changed the course of Western civilization.  Now if the Emperor Claudius was asked to name the most significant event of his reign, he would not have dreamed that the big event was when an obscure little bald-headed Jew decided to leave Asia for Europe .  That’s how little we understand the history we are living through!  We don’t understand what the great events really are.   But perhaps no event since the cross of Christ itself has so affected the world as Paul’s decision to cross that piece of water. 

       He did it because of a vision.  Let’s talk about vision.

       When I was in seminary I took a class from a man named Chuck Miller on Developing a Discipling Ministry.   He used to annoy me in class by asking us questions like “What is your vision for Africa ?”  I barely had a vision for the youth group I worked with and he wanted to know about Africa .

       But now I do have a vision for Africa .  I’m excited about our ministry team to Makobe that will touch down in Nairobi later today.  I am excited that Melissa Johnson is in Uganda with Impact. 

       This may be the first time you are with us.  Let me tell you clearly who we are and why we do this.

       We know that God calls us to three great commitments as individuals and as a church.  I want you to think about each of these and take your own temperature on each of these.  All three are essential.  They must come in this order.  You can’t skip any of them.  

       First, God calls each of us to a commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  Most of us are there.  If you aren’t there, if you have questions about what that means, if your children have come home from VBS singing songs you can’t really understand or relate to, please talk to me.

       Second, God calls each of us to a commitment to the church as the body of Christ.   Most of us are growing in that area.

       Third, God calls each of us to a commitment to the work of Christ in the world. 

       There are many needs out there.  Not every need is a call for us to get personally involved.  But we each need to get involved somewhere.  That’s the third commitment.

       Perhaps your “man from Macedonia ” is quite literally a man from Macedonia .  The church in Europe is generally in a bad way.  The population is increasingly secular and un-reached.  The large, beautiful historic churches often function as little more than museums.   I have seen some exciting ministries in Europe .  But I have seen a lot more dying ones.  We can make a difference through groups like Christian Associates International that is seeking to plant vibrant congregations throughout Europe .  That’s Christian Associates International -- CAI (not CIA)..  I’ll be glad to put you in touch.

       Perhaps your “man from Macedonia ” is an orphan child from Kenya .  Perhaps your “man from Macedonia ” is a latchkey kid in Moorpark in need of after school tutoring. Perhaps your “man from Macedonia ” is a frightened, pregnant teenager.  Perhaps your “man from Macedonia ” is a person with a substandard house who needs your skills in Habitat for Humanity.  Perhaps your “man from Macedonia ” is a person in need of help from the food pantry.  Perhaps it is a mom who is at her wits end and needs a listening ear.  

        Whatever it is one of the above or none of the above but something else, our Mission Outreach Ministry Team would be glad to help you get started.   The contact numbers are printed right on your outline.  A print out with contact information and details on twenty four different opportunities for involvement is on the table in the entry way.

       We can’t decide where God would have you serve.  But we know that the last essential commitment is that we do serve.