Lydia – A Hospitable Heart Opened
Pastor Mathew Magera – 8/25/19 – Sermon 364
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Every year I have to submit a report that shows our
membership totals. Every year I have to submit a report that shows our baptisms
and our funerals, our weddings, our transfers. Every year I have to submit a
report with our average worship attendance. Numbers. Numbers that stay roughly
the same, give or take a few. Nothing much seems to change which can be both
encouraging and discouraging. Worship attendance isn’t going down, but on the
other hand it isn’t going up. There aren’t that many funerals but on the other
hand there also aren’t that many baptisms. It’s not that the story of Lydia’s
conversion directly relates to what we might think of the statistics in these yearly
reports but her story can provide us with some encouragement especially during
those times we, as the Church, feel underwhelmed.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father, from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Lydia’s name is mentioned twice in the Bible, both
in Acts 16. The few short verses read moments ago contains the only information
we are told of her. We know she was listening to Paul speak. We know what she
did for a living. We know she was baptized. We know of her hospitality. Seeing
that I had so much to choose from, I thought I would choose to focus on one
part of one verse in her story. Her Baptism.
Lydia’s baptism was just one of many during this
time. The book of Acts could also be known as a book of Baptisms. In Acts 2, on
the day of Pentecost, over 3,000 were baptized. In Acts 8 a group of Samaritans
were baptized, Simon the Sorcerer was baptized, and the Ethiopian Eunuch was
baptized. In Acts 9, Saul who later became Paul was baptized. In Acts 10, a
group of Gentiles were baptized. In Acts 16, Lydia and her household were
baptized and later on Paul’s jailer and the jailer’s family were baptized. In
Acts 18 a bunch of Corinthians were baptized. In Acts 19, a bunch of Ephesians
were baptized. That’s a lot of baptisms. The Church was growing by leaps and
bounds. Baptism after baptism after baptism.
How could the Church possibly grow like that and now
today we look around at our small community and feel overjoyed if we get to
count our baptisms on more than one hand? How could so many communities of
unchurched people become baptized followers of Jesus when today I can purchase
a pack of 12 baptism certificates that will end up lasting a few years. We can
think all we want about churches in other growing areas but it still brings us
back here where we might be so discouraged wondering what we are missing.
The early Church grew because people in that day saw
groups of unchurched people and they actively went out and spent time with
them. The early Church grew because each person viewed themselves as
missionaries in their own communities because that’s exactly what they were.
The early Church grew because people were convinced of the truth that had been
shared with them. They believed their faith was true and they shared it with
others. The early Church grew because they were builders. They weren’t physical
builders but spiritual builders. The early Church grew because these builders
were not afraid of the unchurched and they were eager to engage them. They went
to win people for Christ and ground them in a commitment of faith. The Gospel
was on the tips of their tongues ready to be shared. They found ways to speak
God’s Word to them, to teach them the faith, and walk with them on the road to
baptism and Christian fellowship. They
did not believe that sharing the Gospel was shameful but a mandate from Christ
himself. Fear of rejection did not govern them. This is why the early Church
grew. These Christians of the early Church believed in the promises of baptism.
They believed in the forgiveness of sin. They believed in deliverance from
death. They believed in deliverance from Satan. They believed in the gift of
eternal life. Lydia was one of these believers. This is what took claim on her
life and all who were with her. She wanted to open that gift. All of this
sounds kind of hard to live up to, doesn’t it?
It’s hard! Of course it’s hard! Think of all this
that was taking place in the years after Jesus rose from the dead. Do you think
Satan looked at the explosive growth of the Church in the first century and
just sat back and let it happen? Of course not. He got off his duff and started
doing anything in his power to slow that glory train down.
Sometimes it feels like we’re working just to keep
the doors open, fighting an uphill battle. I definitely feel that the Christian
Church today is facing more opposition now than it ever has. We live in one of
the wealthiest and most prosperous nations in the world. Just look at what the
promises of God are up against today. There are promises of a good life,
promises of a big house, promises of a well paying job. You can get anything
out there that you set your mind to. There are so many promises. Who needs the
church at that point? Who needs the hope of Jesus when you can just set your
mind to something and get it yourself? No wonder the Church in North America,
the ones who used to send missionaries to third world countries to preach the
Gospel and share hope, are now receiving missionaries from those very same
countries doing the very same thing for us. We live in a very discouraging time
as the Church.
But, when one person says there is something better
than all of those empty promises out there, something happens. When one person
receives the Holy Spirit and is given faith, something happens. When one person
chooses to put their trust not in the promises of this world but in the
promises of God, something happens. Is God’s power not displayed when that
happens? To know that God’s power can go up against even the largest promises
of a first world nation and still win in the end? Of course we knew Satan would
up his game. He’s going to make it more and more difficult for this good news
to seem good to us because he knows how good it is. He knows if we truly
believe in this Gospel it will ruin him. God’s Good News isn’t about to be shut
down. God’s Good News isn’t about to be set aside. God’s Good News is the Good
News and it will succeed, it will conquer, it will prevail! I feel like I should
ask for an amen on that.
We may look back on the early Church and see the
sheer numbers that were baptized and added to the faithful. We may look back on
that and be discouraged when we see what little we feel like we are
accomplishing. But, you see, through it all God has not changed. God continues
to grow the Church in the 21st century the same way he grew the
Church in the first century. It is not a matter of baptizing 2 or 2,000. The
Church will always grow the same way it always has, one baptized member at a time.
Instead of focusing on the many, let’s focus on just the one. The individual.
The single heart who was claimed on the cross. Yours. Mine. We, here in Trufant,
may for the most part remain pretty stagnate in our numbers but that is no
reason to lose heart. You are the beautiful baptized body of Christ and God
will not let His Church fall because His kingdom will continue to grow one
baptized member at a time.
Lydia was one of the many that were baptized in the
early days of the Church. Someone shared the Good News with her and she was
changed. Her heart was not only opened to the love of God but it was opened
then to the love of her neighbor. Lydia let God change her because she saw
something in these Christians that she wanted for herself, the very love of the
God she had been worshiping and yet not known of the promises He made to her.
Lydia shows that our baptism does not stop when the
water dries. Baptism changes us. We are a new creation. This means we continue
to be transformed and renewed each day. God works those promises into our daily
life and will hold true to them as we grow in faith, love, and obedience to his
will. That is our responsibility. From this we become biblical and confessional
Lutherans. We become resilient during times of trial and temptation and, as a
result, will desire to share that Good News with joy. As these promises take
root and as we take responsibility to nurture them we, too, will come to be who
the builders of the early Church were, allowing God to remove our fear, to
equip us with zeal and the ability to go out into the world.
While we don’t have a baptism every Sunday to remind
us of these promises, we can still be reminded of them taking root within our
own lives whether we are sprinkled with water by some happy children or we hear
the announcement that our sins are forgiven yet another time. It may be easy to
get lost within the sheer numbers that are presented in the book of Acts, but
like the story of Lydia reminds us, God grows the Church today the same way we
see it grow in the Bible, one baptized member at a time. It’s always been one
at a time. Even that 3,000 number we get on the day of Pentecost happened one
person at a time. And each time we have the opportunity to witness such an
awe-inspiring event as we do in Baptism, we can remember that God’s Church is
not going to fail, it’s not going to succumb to the world around us. No, God’s Church
is going to stand firm the way it has for over 2,000 years. God is going to
remain in control. God is going to remain the almighty. God is going to remain sovereign.
And we know this because of the promises he made to us in our baptism. So,
together let us go from this place encouraged that though our work seems relatively
minor, in the bigger picture, God’s big work of salvation is being worked out
and we have been given the privilege to watch and take part in this story as
God continues to grow His Church one baptized member at a time. To God be the
glory, now and always. Amen.