So we’ve followed PETER through the last two weeks > we’ve seen his raising of Tabitha back to life by the power of God’s word, we’ve seen how far the Gospel reaches as he preaches the good news EVEN TO GENTILES.
Today, for today and next Sunday as well as we close out the series > we switch over to PAUL. What was Paul up to, how was his ministry going? We’re in a single chapter, Acts 16, for these two weeks so we’re not going to cover all of what Paul was up to, but we can hone in on some significant aspects of his ministry.
Before we get into what Paul was up to today, first I’ve got two questions to get us thinking:
What do you think of when you hear the phrase ‘OPEN YOUR HEART?’
Maybe the Madonna song ‘Open your heart,’ open-heart surgery, sharing & feeling the love…
What does it mean have an OPEN HEART?
Society might say having an open heart means feeling the love, sharing the love around.
Also having a heart for people > caring for others in need, listening to other peoples’ problems and concerns, having empathy/sympathy for what other people are going through, can also mean being open/exposed/vulnerable… Plenty of jobs are focused around this ‘heart for people’ > people who work with people! Teachers, nurses, social workers, youth workers, being a pastor/church worker, customer service, hospitality, the list goes on.
If we look to Paul, going by the evidence of what’s in the bible he had a heart for people, he had an ‘open heart’ for sure > just look at the greetings and farewells in all of his letters to all these different churches! He calls the people he writes to ‘loved,’ he sends ‘grace and peace’ to each group, he thanks God for them, he sends his own personal love to them. Really important to be aware of that side of Paul, the significant number of people he served in his ministry, the people he reached and got to know well, the people he worked with in ministry.
Who does Paul come across today? Lydia. She is a prominent businesswoman, she sells valuable purple cloth, she is a ‘worshipper of God’ we read here. Paul must’ve then shared his message of the good news of Jesus, because it says next ‘her heart was opened to respond to [his] message.’ And then she invites Paul and his crew to stay at her place, and they do so.
Some interesting bits about Lydia > she is likely to be the first European convert to Christianity, and she may have become a leader in her community, providing her home as a gathering place for local Christians, something that was hard to come by in this area at this time. Lydia, Tabitha who we’ve heard about in this series, and Phoebe – who’s mentioned in Romans – are often seen together as women who played notable roles in the early church > an interesting one to do some further study on there, not much said about them in the bible but plenty to dig into historically there.
Back to what happens when Paul meets Lydia? The Lord opens her heart to respond to Paul’s message. It’s a striking image, a profound concept I think, the way God opens hearts.
The Greek word for heart is ‘kardia’ – where we get cardiac from – but in the bible it doesn’t just mean heart.
It also means mind, character, inner self, will, intention, centre.
So we’re not just talking about a feeling, or a fleeting moment of wanting to help someone out – as Lydia does by offering her house as a place to stay. More than that, she was a worshipper of God and her and members of her household have just been baptized! This is not only an emotional response, this is spiritual, it’s goes deep, right to her core! God’s word through Paul reaches her in her heart, mind, character, inner self, will, intention and centre. That’s deep, that’s extensive, comprehensive. Total life-change is going on here – more of the border-crossing, boundary-breaking reach of the Gospel we heard about last week.
And it’s another case of things being put very simply – all this happens in the space of a few short sentences. That’s just how Luke writes the book of Acts, short, simple, to the point a lot of the time. I wonder why he writes this way > maybe to get the most important points across, to highlight what God does more than all the things we do. Maybe to be less about details, more about God’s amazing work in people and in the world.
If we think about it like this, that’s how we can find ourselves in this picture too. We’re not just ‘following along’ Peter and Paul in this series, we’re following Jesus, we’re being spoken to by God’s word. When we spend time in God’s word together we get a ‘direct injection’ of God’s word to our heart, mind, character, inner self, will, intention and centre. That’s the point of all this, following their stories because we’re part of the same bigger story, the story where God loves the world he made and he saves it through the sacrifice of his son. We’re part of that story, these biblical figures lived it out, we get to live it out, this is a big story with a big impact!
As we live it out, as we live out our parts in this story – which is as people who’ve encountered Jesus, who’ve been encountered by Jesus – God calls us to, like Lydia, to open our hearts. To have our hearts opened by his word. To receive him and the good news he has for us and all people in our heart, mind, character, inner self, will, intention and centre. Get it right in there, right where it counts.
This is not something we only tap into on Sunday mornings, only when we’re in a moment of crisis, only because it’s our tradition or an expectation we feel obligated to uphold. God is there for us, reaching out to us through our time in his house on Sunday mornings, when we’re in desperate need and through our traditions and history and practices upheld over many years. He is there in those those things, but he’s also there on a regular Tuesday afternoon, when we wake up during the night, when we’re celebrating and when we’re just getting by.
A really important note here: having an open heart DOES NOT mean ‘feeling it’ all the time. Sometimes we do feel it for sure, but not all the time. Anyone who’s been in this faith game for a little while knows you definitely don’t feel the love all the time! Sometimes we feel a complete absence of love, if we’re in a difficult personal circumstance, if we’re tired and worn out, if we’re not where we want to be or struggling to know what to do.
But despite all that, and within all that, God is constant.
He holds us up when we need a helping hand, he grounds us back down to earth when we get a bit to happy with our own work, and he walks alongside us in those days when we’re just getting by. Because his love is constant, we can think of his heart being open to us! This open-hearted thing is not just about our hearts, but God’s heart, God’s love for us. That’s why he reaches us not only in our feelings and emotions, but also in – this is the take home message today if you haven’t figured it out yet – in our mind, character, inner self, will, intention and centre.
So where do you find yourself this morning? I wonder what your situation is, how your walk with God is going, how things in your personal life are tracking today. As we always do there’s opportunity to pray what’s on our hearts and minds during worship today, and I’d also encourage you to seek out opportunities to pray with and for each other.
God is speaking to you this morning, whatever your situation is. If it’s been a busy week, a quiet week, if you’re well, if you’re not so well, if you’re feeling good/bad/indifferent even! He has words for you today, he can do the opening of your heart today. Even when our hearts might be closed off, even when our hearts are troubled > as we heard in our gospel reading today.
We’ve got spiritual surgery going on here! God reaching into our innermost being to make us his own, to give us new life, to carry our burdens, to call us into his loving embrace and hope for the future, whatever may come. Jesus says, ‘do not let your hearts be troubled,’ and he makes the way for us to be at peace with and in him.
So let’s pray for ‘open hearts’ today > this doesn’t mean just feeling it, but it means living it, being carried along by the work of the Holy Spirit, being reached in our heart, mind, character, inner self, will, intention and centre, by the one who’s heart, who’s love is big enough for us.
Lord we thank you that you can open hearts, you can reach us even when we’re closed off to you. Lead us to open our hearts to your work in our lives, and we ask the love you give would flow out of us and reach out to others. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Tom Kitson 