If you'll turn in your Bibles, you'll find the passage for this morning in the book of Acts. This is Luke, volume 2, the book of Acts. In Luke, we read the story of the earthly ministry, the advent, the incarnation, and the earthly ministry of God the Son who had taken on human flesh, true humanity. In what we might call the Gospel of Acts, or Luke, Volume 2, we read the story or stories of the continued ministry of that same Jesus after he had ascended and gone to the right hand of the Father and continued to work in the world through or by his Holy Spirit and particularly in his church. And so we find ourselves this morning in Acts chapter 16, and I will read the first 15 verses from Acts chapter 15. He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him 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. 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. Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the 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. 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 on to Neapolis. And from there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony, 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 named lydia a dealer in purple cloth from the city of thyatira who was a worshiper of god the lord opened her heart to respond to paul's message 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 thus far the reading of god's word may he write this word on our hearts and may he give us true faith congregation of the lord jesus christ this is a remarkable story and it's one in a series of remarkable stories if we had time which we won't and I won't take we could spend all day considering just this business of the Holy Spirit preventing Paul from going to Asia it's a difficult passage but what we should take from it first of all is the active work of the Holy Spirit in the apostolic church fulfilling the commission or mission that jesus gave to his church in the officers that is the apostles that is actually taking place as we hear the story in our ears and in that sense we might say using the colloquial expression right before our eyes or in this case before our ears and then paul is given a vision or they are given a vision of a man of Macedonia calling and saying, come. And, of course, they take that properly so as a call from God to go and preach the gospel to the Macedonians, and that's exactly what they do. And yet, what do they find? Well, we'll come to that in a moment. This, in case you're not familiar, just to refresh our memories, since we're sort of diving into the middle of Acts, this is written by Dr. Luke. That's how he's described in Colossians. The word there means healer or physician. He's a co-worker of the Apostle Paul and a Gentile. And he writes this two-volume work, Luke-Acts, to a certain Theophilus. We don't know really anything about Theophilus. We can make some deductions, some inferences. He seems to have been a person of some standing, judging by the kind of language that Luke uses toward him, possibly as it was in the ancient world. he may have been Luke's patron or somebody who was certainly interested in Christianity. And Luke is writing this account about 62 A.D. Now think of when our Lord Jesus was crucified and ascended. We're thinking in the early 30s. So this is a little less than 30 years after the crucifixion and ascension, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus. Now, children, 30 years may seem like a long time because maybe you've only been alive for six or seven or eight or nine years. And so 30 years, you think, well, that person must be near to death after 30 years. But you'll see soon enough that 30 years goes by pretty quickly. And some of us remember things that happened 30 years ago more clearly than we remember what happened yesterday. It's a strange thing that happens to us. So we can expect that even on a purely human level, Luke had very clear recollections of these wonderful things. And then, of course, we understand that God, the Holy Spirit, was guiding him, giving him what to say, not in a mechanical way, but in a wonderful, mysterious way. The Spirit operated through all the gifts that Luke had. He was a very highly educated person. And if you ask the seminary students, they will tell you that they would much rather read the Greek of John in the Gospel of John or 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, than they would like to read the Greek of Luke or Acts, because it's some of the most difficult Greek in all of the New Testament. And it's as elegant and highly stylized as any of the Greek in the classical period. So we know he was a well-educated person. And he's writing to illustrate the progress of the gospel and of the nature of the new covenant. Sometimes we have conversations with our friends, Christian friends, and I've had this conversation. Maybe you've had this conversation and they say to us, well, we're a New Testament church. And by that, they mean that there's a complete discontinuity, a breaking between everything that happened before Jesus and with everything that happened after the coming of our Lord. Well, if we're going to find out what a New Testament church looks like, we need to read the New Testament. We can't decide ahead of time what a New Testament church looks like. But we have to pay attention to the New Testament itself, and it's helpful to pay attention to the book of Acts. Now, we recognize there are some differences between the New Testament and the life that we live now. We don't get Macedonian visions, and the Holy Spirit, at least probably in the way that it's meant here, doesn't prevent us from doing the kinds of things that he prevented Paul from doing. And yet there are very important ways in which the life that we live now in the new covenant after the age of the apostles is very much like the apostolic church. And what you saw this morning is an illustration of the ways in which our life is very much like the apostolic church. We here are a new covenant, a New Testament church. We may not receive visions and we may not speak making funny noises. I can do it for you. But I'm not confident at all that's what happened in the apostolic church. That's what people will tell you sometimes. It's pretty clear to some of us anyway that the languages with which they spoke in Acts and elsewhere were actual real languages that the Holy Spirit enabled them to speak. But here in chapter 16, verses 11 through 15, which is where we're going to focus this morning, as we look at Abraham, Acts, and Admission, we see a wonderful example of what the New Testament church looks like and the ways in which we are a New Testament church. First, a little background so we can understand what's happening here in 11 through 15. You remember Abraham. God came to Abraham about 2,000 years before the coming of our Lord, And he entered into a covenant with Abraham, and we read about that in Genesis chapter 17. So look, if you have your Bibles, look with me at Genesis 17, and just verses 5 through 7. Genesis 17, 5 through 7. Look at what the Lord said. We can even start with verse 4. Genesis 17, we'll start with verse 4. Look at what the Lord said to Abraham. As for me, this is my covenant with you. You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram. Your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. And I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and your descendants after you for the generations to come to be your God and the God of your descendants or your children or your seed after you. That's the fundamental promise of the covenant of grace. God promised to Abraham to make many nations out of one man and that I will be your God and your children's God, to put it plainly. You say, well, what does that have to do with Acts? Well, loved ones, it has everything to do with Acts. At the end of his sermon in Acts chapter 2, what did the apostle Peter say as he was led by the Holy Spirit? In Acts chapter 2, people said in verse 37, when the people heard Peter's sermon, when he prosecuted them for their sin, they were cut to the heart, God's word says. And they said to Peter and to the other apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? And what did Peter say? Look at verse 38. Repent, meaning recognize your sins and acknowledge them. And be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, which is what we saw this morning. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 39. The promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call. When Peter says the promise to thousands and thousands of Jewish men representing thousands of family members gathered there at Pentecost, when he says the promise, what promise did they think? Well, of course, they thought of the promise that God made to Abraham. I'll be a God to you and to your seed after you. But not only that, I will make of you many nations. And what do we see here in going back to Acts 16? God calls them to Macedonia. And so from Troas, they put to sea and they go to Samothrace, which is about halfway where they were headed. And then the next day they go on to Neapolis, which is the port for the city of Philippi. And so they disembarked at Neapolis and they walked about 10 miles inland or traveled anyway, probably walked. And they got to Philippi, which is the first European city. Because this is in northern Greece, just on the Aegean there. In fact, it's still there. In Greek, it's Philippoi. We say Philippi in English. It's named after Philip the Great, Philip of Macedon, who had conquered the city about 350 years before Christ. About 150 years before Christ, it had become a Roman city, a Roman colony. And over the years, lots of veterans had sort of retired to Philippi. There had been some major battles there. So in that sense, Philippi was a little bit like living in San Diego. People come and they serve. And after they serve in the military, sometimes they stay because it's nicer here than where they were before. They're here for the same reasons we are. And so it becomes kind of a retirement area for military. well that's what Philippi was it was a Roman colony it was a free city it had all the rights of an Italian city even though it wasn't in Italy and granted by the emperor Caesar and in fact because it was a colony because it was a free city Luke says very careful historian that he is and was that it was a a significant city in that part of Macedonia and they stayed there several days. All of this is a fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise. I'll be God to you and to your seat after you. And to whom does Paul appeal in Romans 4 as the father of all believers? To whom does Paul appeal in Galatians 3 as being the foundational covenant to which the mosaic was added later well in both Galatians 3 and we won't look at these and in Romans 4 the apostle Paul says that Abraham is in this sense the first Christian Abraham is the father of all believers that's what God's word says in Romans 4 that Abraham is the father of all believers he was a believer before he was circumcised when he was a Gentile and he was a believer after he was circumcised when he was a Jew. And all who believe in the same Savior in whom Abraham believed, our Lord Jesus says in John chapter 8, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced. The Jews said, we're Abraham's children. And our Lord said, no, you are not. You are Satan's children. If you were Abraham's children, you would do as Abraham did. You would believe in me. And so here we are in Acts 16 and we see the fulfillment of this Abrahamic promise. And we see here then the Abrahamic background for Lydia and her conversion and all the things that happen. So Paul begins then, and we begin to see the fulfillment in Acts of this promise made to Abraham 2,000 years before. And now it's happening right before our ears and eyes. And on the Sabbath, and when we see Sabbath there in verse 13, we understand that he means on the Saturday Sabbath because we know that the Christians met on the first day of the week. And there's a different expression in the original text for that day, on the first of the Sabbaths, which is the first day of the week. This is the Saturday Sabbath, and they go outside, maybe a couple of miles to a river just outside the city gates, probably because there's a small Jewish diaspora, a small community of Jews. And it's so interesting here. In contrast to Pentecost, where you see all those men gathered, largely men, what do we see? We see not a great thronging mass of people, right? Remember the vision that they had of the Macedonian man? You think they might have expected throngs of people and they get off the boat at Neapolis and they walk 10 miles to Philippi and they got to town and where are all the people? You think they might have begun to doubt the vision. Well, this is very disappointing. We were prevented providentially by the spirit from going to Asia and we're called to Macedonia and we're ready to preach the gospel. We've got sermons, we've got the sacrament to administer, churches to establish, and there's nothing. So on Saturday morning, when it was time to go to synagogue, they went outside the city gate, and they went to a quiet place where they expected to find, and this is an ambiguous expression, the scholars are divided whether there was a building or not it's difficult to tell and Luke doesn't tell us and he probably doesn't want us to know Luke usually tells us the things he wants us to know but they at least we can say with the NIV here a place of prayer and in my mind for what it's worth I think of them being out of doors and they're and they sit down and they begin to speak but with whom with powerful and influential people will know they've already gone outside the city they've gone to someplace that was quiet they've gone to someplace that was out of the way that was deliberately out of the way why because the Jewish communities were not always in favor and so if they wanted to meet for worship on the Sabbath they had to go someplace quiet where they would be left alone and and they are so probably it's the case that they are so disfavored in this Roman colony where Roman religion would have been very strong, where worship of Caesar would have been very strong. The Romans said the Roman confession is the basic Roman confession is very simple. Caesar is Lord. Caesar dominus est. Caesar is Lord. That was the basic religion of the Roman soldiers and of faithful, if you will, obedient, loyal Roman citizens. But the Jews couldn't say that. The basic confession of the Jews was what we find in Deuteronomy 6. Hear, O Lord, Shema Israel, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And, of course, what are the Christians confessing? Jesus, not Caesar, is Lord. We give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, but we give unto God what is God's. And only Jesus can be called Lord. And so they come out on a Saturday, perhaps Saturday morning, for the morning gathering. And they sit down with this probably small gathering of women who had gathered for a prayer. And they began to speak. That's very, very important. Lots of times when people talk to us about New Testament or apostolic Christianity, whenever they talk to us about it, it's frequently not about the word. It's frequently about all the wonderful, powerful things that God did last week or is going to do next week. Oh, sister, so-and-so was healed. And we were slain in the spirit. And we spoke in tongues and the like. And I have a little bit of experience with some of this. And the truth is, loved ones, and I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings here. The truth is that what happens in those circumstances is that ordinary things that you and I would describe as ordinary things become redescribed as supernatural things. And I struggled with this for a long time because it seemed to me that, well, maybe the Lord was really doing remarkable things among those people, but not among our people. And, well, what's wrong with us that he's doing all these remarkable, wonderful, apostolic things among them, but not among us? Maybe they're right and we're wrong and maybe I just don't have enough faith. So I made a serious investigation of all of these things firsthand, personal and academic and biblical and historical. And I'm telling you that, in fact, all the things that are frequently claimed to be apostolic and powerful and wonderful aren't really all that they're cracked up to be. What I'm really saying, children, is that you're not missing out on much. It's kind of exciting at first, until when you go again the next week and the same people have the same miracles. And then you find out it's not all that miraculous. Now, I'm not saying that God never does anything wonderful or surprising. He does it all the time. But he doesn't do it just because some fellow says he has to do it. Because God is free, God is sovereign, and we're going to see that. Now, I want you to pay attention here. God didn't call them to Philippi to do some marvelous, spectacular, glorious thing that the whole world would see and marvel and say, wow, that's amazing. He called them to Philippi to sit outside with a small group of Jewish women who were of no particular importance, and they just spoke. That's really, really important because the power is not in us. The glory is not in us. The outcome is not in us. The power is God's, the glory is God's, and the outcome is God's. But he uses instruments, he uses humble, small, and not very remarkable things. And one of those humble, small, and not very remarkable things is a sermon that Luke doesn't even record for us, preached to this small group of people by the Apostle Paul. And God the Holy Spirit operated, worked sovereignly and powerfully through that sermon. And one of them particularly is Lydia. Now, in the ancient world, it's just the fact that females are not frequently listed in narratives. They just aren't. They're usually subsumed under a male headship or some other corporate headship. But Luke singles out a woman named Lydia in verse 14. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia who was a businesswoman, which happened in the ancient world, probably more than we realize. She's probably a widow, although that's not certain, but it seems likely, given what we know about this sort of business that she was in. And she was in a business where they took some seashells or some other materials and they dyed cloth purple, and this purple cloth was quite valuable. She may have been on a business trip, she may have lived in Philippi, we don't know. Again, Luke doesn't tell us, he doesn't want us to know. But what he wants us to know is that here's a businesswoman, Lydia, who knew where the Jewish women gathered on the Saturday Sabbath, on the Jewish Sabbath. And we know she was from the area region, the city of Thyatira. And we know that she was a pious woman, that she was a worshiper of God. She may have been a Gentile again, and she may have been a Jew. There's dispute. Again, we don't know for sure. But we know she was there, and we know she wanted to worship God, but we also know that she didn't know God as he had revealed himself in Jesus Christ. She knew what was some, perhaps, of what was in the Old Testament, particularly what was in the Pentateuch. She knew probably some of what was done in the synagogue. She knew that basic confession that I gave you before. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. The Lord is one. she knew some of the benedictions perhaps that they recited in the synagogue 18 benedictions one of which was i thank the lord that thou has not made me a woman or a gentile dog and don't and don't think that that didn't sting sometimes when she heard that and don't think that she didn't think why are these men this this Jew and and this Gentile why are they stopping to talk to us how odd is that and why did Paul and Luke stop and talk to these women because they were fulfilling the commission they were fulfilling the promise They were fulfilling the very thing that Peter had said in Acts chapter 2. For the promise is to you and to your children and to as many as who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call. Families, covenant families will be brought in. Jews will be brought in and Gentiles will be included now in the kingdom. They were once far away. They were once strangers. They were once aliens. They were once outsiders. They were once unclean. They were once dogs. Now they are recipients of the good news. And what must they do to be included into the people of God? They don't have to become Jews. They only have to become believers. But how can that be? How can people become believers? How does it happen in the new covenant? Well, look here at verse 14, the second half of verse 14. And that gets us to our last point, administration. How is the new covenant administered? Well, it's administered in some ways, just like the old, the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the law and the administration of a sacrament of inclusion into the covenant community. under Abraham the gospel was the same that salvation through death is coming and we have a clearer picture of what that means it means God the son came and obeyed and did all that the law required and he died and he was raised on the third day and he was a set and he is ascended and seated at the right hand of the father that's the good news of course the law is the law love the lord your god with all your faculties and your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets that's exactly what paul said to these women as they were gathered outside philippi and just as it was under abraham the only way that anyone ever comes to faith is when the holy spirit operates look at the second half of verse 14 the lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message loved ones if you are here this morning and you are believing it is because God the Holy Spirit has operated powerfully wonderfully mysteriously through the preaching of the gospel to make you who were once dead in sins and outside the promises Jew or Gentile now alive believing united to Christ by faith children this morning your mom and dad stood up and you stood up here with them and I'm sure it was a little scary looking at all those faces sometimes it is scary but they stood up and their knees were probably a little nervous maybe your knees were bouncing and they stood up for a reason because they wanted to say that they believe that what Jesus did he did for them and for you and they believe it for themselves not just that other people believe it but they believe it for themselves that's why they stood up and that's exactly what happened here in act 16 with lydia she heard the gospel in her ears from paul as these men sat down and he started they started saying the same things that you've heard pastor say here same things that you're hearing me say this morning and she believed just like your mom and dad and we trust just like you do and when and and she and it's because if you look in verse 14 the lord opened her heart your mom and dad have stood up and believed and professed because the lord opened their heart that's the only way it ever happens it's a miracle nobody here is rolling on the floor nobody here is speaking in unknown languages nobody here is being knocked on the forehead and dragged away but there's a miracle taking place a sovereign holy spirit miracle it's called faith it's called new life God the Holy Spirit's given new life to dead bones praise God and if you believe this morning it's because God the Holy Spirit's given you new life just like he gave to Lydia and look at verse 15 and just like Abraham and when she and the members of her household were baptized just like Abraham on the eighth day you will circumcise your son and all the members of your household look at Genesis chapter 17 household circumcision household baptism who was in the household well we don't know in this particular case but I can tell you in general if you trace out this word household it's oikos you will find almost invariably children in most of them it's a corporate body in other words everybody in that household slaves it's quite likely she had servants children they all received the sign of initiation of entrance into the visible covenant community just like Abraham Abraham is the father of all who believe household circumcision household baptism and Luke presents this very matter-of-factly he doesn't explain he doesn't elaborate he doesn't have to why because Peter's already explained it for the promises to you and To your children, to as many as who are far off, to as many as the Lord our God shall call. When we baptize households, when we practice covenant baptism, it's not magic and it's no more magic than circumcision was. Did circumcision make Abraham alive? No, it was a sign and a seal. It's not magic. Does baptism make people alive? No. no more than circumcision did it's a sign and a seal it's an illustration of what God does children, the minister Pastor Donovan put water on your heads and he said I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit he put the name of God on you you belong to God and we will pray and your parents will pray and they're going to teach you you're going to we trust learn the catechism with all of us and gradually we trust maybe even right now god the holy spirit is opening your eyes maybe you already believe we trust that so and if not then it will be we expect that because god said i'll be a god team to you and to your children after you you belong to God he belongs to you and God operates this way this is the normal way that God operates it's the apostolic way and just one last final note here from our passage if you look at the last verse verse 16 there's just a small note here that Luke adds or verse 15 she invited us to stay at her home almost in passing but then he adds this quotation if you consider me a believer in the lord she said come and stay at my house and she persuaded us what what does this signal it signals the the end of the story as it were having been included into the visible covenant community she didn't wait for them to include her she included them into her life you come and join me in my house because we are all now one family in Jesus Christ no Jew, no Gentile, no male, no female no slave, no free all sinners made righteous by the free favor of God through faith alone in Jesus Christ we've all received the same baptism signifying the same forgiveness of sins God bless this congregation God bless this family with all the benefits of the covenant of grace that we have seen this morning signed and sealed Amen