Title: Mission through meeting/Acts 16
The book of Acts is the act of preaching the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. However, evangelism is accomplished through evangelists and through meeting with people.
1 “There was a disciple named Timothy” (1).
Paul and Silas started their second missionary journey, and they came to Derbe and Lystra, where they met Timothy. Timothy will become a co-worker who plays the most important role in the missionary work of the Apostle Paul in the future. When the apostle Paul wrote his epistle to 2 Corinthians, he wrote: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Timothy the brother” (2 Corinthians 1:1). When he wrote his last letter, he also asked Timothy: “Come quickly to me” (2 Timothy 4:9). Timothy was the man Paul needed. Timothy was a man "to be praised" by the people of Lystra and later a man who "consider the matter [more than anyone else] sincerely" of the local church members (Phil. 2:20). Meeting good co-workers in the gospel is a blessing among blessings.
2 "I was sitting there and speaking to the women who had gathered, and I heard a woman named Lydia" (13:14).
Paul followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit to the first city of Philippi in Macedonia. I went out to the riverside to pray on the Sabbath, and while I was sitting and praying, I met Lydia among the praying women there. Lydia will be the one who provides a base for Macedonian and European missions in the future. Lydia opened her heart and listened to Paul, and her whole household was baptized and became the first member of the Philippian church. Lydia offered her home as a prayer place, or even as a chapel in the Philippian church. “Come into my house and say, ‘Stay still,’ and I compelled him to stay” (15). It is a blessing among blessings to find a good partner in the ministry who can give your heart, material, and home.
3 “The jailer was terrified and trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas” (29).
Paul and Silas met the jailer in the Philippian prison. From the prisoner's point of view, I met a guard who was in charge of the prisoners in the prison. But the prisoners were sitting and the jailer was kneeling before the prisoners. When the jailer heard Paul's words, he repented and believed in Jesus, and the whole house was baptized. He was the second member of the Philippian church. The jailer was perhaps the most influential evangelist in the city of Philippi, testifying of the most dramatic conversion event to anyone he met.
The process of meeting the jailer was not smooth. He met the demon-possessed maidservant first, and was arrested for driving the demon out of the maidservant, beaten and imprisoned. They were imprisoned in a deep prison and their feet were locked in lockers. But Paul and Silas got up in the middle of the night to pray and sing praises, and God heard their prayers and praises and opened the prison doors. In the end, he moved the jailer's heart and made him kneel before Paul and Silas.
The path of missionary work is never smooth. However, God allows the evangelist to meet the people who need it so that he can carry out the difficult missionary task. The Holy Spirit caused Philip to meet the Ethiopian eunuch, Peter to meet Cornelius, and Paul to meet Lydia. Later, he led Paul to meet Priscilla and Aquila, who were willing to sacrifice not only their house but also their neck (Romans 16:4).