Acts 16 - A lesson in Pioneering

In Acts 16 Paul travels into Greece, making his way quickly to Philippi where he then embarks on witnessing locally. This results in the conversion of Lydia, the baptism of her household, and her house becoming a base for the ongoing local mission.

Paul has a strategic head. He apparently skips Samothrace and Neapolis in order to reach the key city of Philippi. Yet remember that his original strategy was to turn back into Asia, until interrupted by the 'Macedonian Call'. Strategies are good, but we should continually put them before the Lord and allow the Spirit to interrupt us!

Once in Philippi he and his small team go to a place that they have heard is a place of prayer: presumably Philippi has no formal synagogue and on asking around they hear of this place where people gather. It is instructive for us to note how in each place Paul initially heads for where there is already some kind of (monotheistic) faith. Perhaps in his mind he figures that this is the best place to get started since people will already have a notion of seeking God, and a knowledge of God's promises. Paul is looking for people to join the cause of Christ, and in this way he looks for 'low hanging fruit' first of all. He does this expectantly, underpinned by that call of the Spirit that took him across the water to Greece.

At the place of prayer they discover Lydia and get into conversation. We are told that "the Lord opened her heart to Paul's message". This hits on another principle - that the Spirit is ahead of us, preparing people so that they are ready and open. Fundamentally we can be as slick in our conversation as we like, but unless the Spirit is at work we will see little movement.

Things then appear to move rapidly. Perhaps it was all 'same day', perhaps Luke has truncated the story. Either way Lydia invites the team to use her house which apparently becomes a base for the ongoing work. She does this with the words 'if you consider me a believer in the Lord', in other words 'do I qualify?'. Culturally she had the disadvantages of being both a woman and likely Gentile background - but in God's eyes they answer is a resounding 'yes'! Paul and the team have the wisdom to go with what God is doing rather than being boxed in by their own cultural assumptions, and so the base is established. 

As we pioneer, looking to bring gospel witness across an area, it is therefore worth keeping in mind:

• The original sense of Spirit given call
• Being strategic in method and yet submitting that to God's ongoing direction & re-direction
• Asking around for a sense of what is already there to be found 
• Looking for people who are already seeking, who are open, and in whom the Spirit is already working
• If newcomers are moved to do so, letting them host the base for the next phase of work 

Paul is strategic and methodical, but it depends on following the call of the Spirit and joining with the work of the Spirit for progress to be made.

The True King

Recently it was Ascension Day - when Christians remember the moment the disciples had their last resurrection encounter with Jesus. From this point 'he was taken up' and disappeared from their sight.

It is easy to just focus on quaint images of the risen Christ somehow floating up into the sky, eventually disappearing behind the clouds and saying 'that is Ascension'. Maybe it physically happened exactly that way, maybe it didn't - but either way there is more to it than that!

Through the cross, resurrection, and subsequent ascension Jesus was moving into his true and rightful place - as the Sovereign King of the whole earth, with all principalities and powers to be under Him. The physical ascension is therefore the final scene of the whole 'Ascent to Title' drama. It is the completing moment in a sequence from which springs the glorious message to the world: "There is a new King on the throne!".

The writer of Hebrews captures this key theological concept in chapter 1 verse 3: "... he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in Heaven".  

The apostles and initial believers who clung together immediately after his death and resurrection were given the task of 'sent messengers', to be witnesses to this new King (Acts chapter 1). They were to take the message far and wide (across the Roman empire and beyond) that there is this new King. The language used throughout the New Testament exactly matches the Greek/Roman language for announcing the crowning of a new king or emperor across the conquered lands. It is the root of the word 'evangelist' ('evangelion') - the one who brings the good news of the new rightful ruler.

Ascension is therefore not merely a somewhat romantic notion of the physical Jesus disappearing from view - it is a geo-political statement of cosmic proportions. All our witness to the world (in whatever form) stems from this new reality. It is good news, with good news ramifications for all the world down through the ages, today, and for ever.