Dangerous Testimony: In the open

Acts 16:11–15 ¹¹After we put out to sea from Troas, we sailed straight to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis. ¹²From there we went to Philippi, which is a leading city in that part of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We stayed in this city for a number of days.

¹³On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate alongside the river, where we thought there was a place of prayer. We sat down and began to talk to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴A woman named Lydia, who worshipped God, was listening. She was a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira. The Lord opened her heart to pay close attention to what Paul was saying. ¹⁵When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

St. John reminds you, ^“This then is [God’s] command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and that we love one another just as he commanded us. Amen. (1 John 3:18)

While in the seaport city of Troas, the apostle Paul received a vision of a man of Macedonia begging him “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9). There are no discussions, no committee meetings, no master planning – Paul and his compassions of Timothy, Silas and Luke – simply go to Macedonia.

They traveled to Philippi – a very Roman city with very few Jews in it. Paul’s usual starting place for engaging the culture was to begin in the synagogue. Since there was no synagogue, Paul went to the river. Jews would often gather at a river for prayer and ceremonial washings on the Sabbath. Paul and his companions conversed with the women there and shared the gospel of Jesus with them.

One of the women was named Lydia. She was a proselyte – a Gentile who worshiped the God of Israel.

St. Luke tells us that the Lord opened Lydia’s heart. We aren’t told the exact message Paul preached but we can surmise that he preached the crucified and resurrected Christ.

The Holy Spirit didn’t only work faith in Lydia, but also the members of Lydia’s household. Since the river was right there, Lydia and the other women received baptism as a seal of their faith. Lydia then persuaded the missionaries to use her home as a base of operations for their mission work in Philippi.

I know we are blessed to have a lot of visitors today – in the sanctuary and online – as we celebrate the confirmation of fifteen young people. Something you’ll hear me talk about constantly in catechism classes, Bible studies and sermons is our need to engage with the culture. St. Paul engaged in his culture by taking the gospel to the synagogues for the Jews and the meeting places for the Gentiles or out in the open for Gentile converts to Judaism.

Paul preached Jesus wherever he went and to whomever he met. He wasn’t afraid to share the testimony about Jesus and Jesus’ affect on his own personal life. But this testimony often became dangerous as Paul was chased, arrested, imprisoned and stoned for giving his testimony. When you read the rest of Acts 16, after Paul and Silas left Lydia’s house, they used Jesus’ name to cast a demon out of a little girl. The apostles were thrown in prison for it.

There is a debate in Christianity – right now and for quite a while – on what to do with the whole issue of culture.

On the one side there are those within Christianity who look at the world around them, see the sin that so pervades the culture and decide that the only right thing to do is completely disengage from it. These folks dress differently, listen to different music, and watch different TV. Maybe they have stopped watching sports and paying attention to politics. They see the darkness encroaching and shelter themselves away from it. They are working hard to protect themselves and their children from the worldliness and evil that is increasingly encroaching on their families. They say, “live and let life” and hopefully they can be left alone.

On the other hand, there are those who overemphasize the importance of cultural engagement by making themselves look just like the culture. These folks unthoughtfully consume everything that everyone around them consumes – TV, movies, music, social media. Churches even do this by having pastors dress casually to preach and worship services filled with musical styles that are popular in the current culture. Then Christians look and act very much like the culture that is surrounding them.

You see there are elements of truth in both tendencies. But the way to engage the culture is not in our dress or our sports or our music.

So, what should we do? Learn from St. Paul. Engage the culture by being countercultural. There is nothing more counter to any culture than the cross of Christ.

This is what St. Paul had to say about preaching the cross: “We preach Christ crucified—which is offensive to Jews and foolishness to Greeks, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

Confirmands, you are going to be tempted to give up the vows you’re making today so you can fit in with the culture around you. The darkness threatens to envelope you … all of you. Pagans are no longer satisfied with you saying, “Live and let live.” They want absolute obedience to their woke theology. You must openly confess acceptance of everything they say and do. Otherwise, they will bully you, cancel you and destroy you.

Whether you are being confirmed today or you were confirmed decades ago, pray for the Holy Spirit to keep you strong and steadfast to your confirmation vows. To remain faithful – even to the point of death – rather than fall away from your baptismal and confirmation faith.

Engage the culture. That doesn’t mean you need to talk about sexuality or gender or race or anything else that’s consuming the culture right now. To be countercultural, just preach Christ crucified.

Here’s the thing – the cross is scandalous; it’s foolish it’s weak. Think about the message we are presenting to the world.

God saw that before each of us took our first breath, we were sinful. We were sinful from the moment of conception. The moment we began living in our mother’s womb, we were also waiting to die and be buried in the cemetery. As sinners, we were destined to hell where we must suffer an eternity of unquenchable fire.

To save us, the God who breathed the universe into existence and holds every galaxy in the palm of his hand, left the perfection of heaven to come to this world of sin and death. The Son of God was born of woman as an infant, taking his first breaths as God and Man in one person. Jesus did not come to blast away evil. He didn’t ride in to conquer. He didn’t come with legions of angels to destroy the culture.

Jesus came as a Light shining in the darkness. He made himself poor, taking the nature of a servant, having no place to lay his head … except on a cross. Instead of killing sinners, Jesus became like them (except without sin in himself). He stopped breathing on the cross and gave up his spirit. He displayed his divine and sacrificial love for sinful humanity by laying down his life for those he came to save.  

Do you hear how foolish this all sounds to the unbeliever?

God becoming a Man.

Salvation from death by dying.

Glory in the shame of the cross.

In his culture, Paul spoke to Greeks who were influenced by wisdom and philosophy. They saw their gods as distant and unfeeling.

There are many in our culture who see God the same way – as distant and uncaring. This kind of deity is convenient for them because that gives them an excuse to be spiritual but not religious. Their make-believe god doesn’t care about morality or accountability.

Here is where you go out in the open and preach your testimony – a testimony that can become dangerous to you. Because its message appears weak and foolish.

We heard from St. John today that you are not only to love with word and tongue, but also in action and truth (1 John 3:18). With word and tongue, with your actions and truth, give people what they so desperately need.

A Christ who pierces their darkness of sin with the Light of salvation.

The Way, Truth and Life in their lives of confusion, anger and death.

Instead of a god who is distant and unfeeling, this God is so invested in his creation that he takes on their flesh.

Rather than a god who doesn’t care about morality and accountability, the true God made himself accountable to his own heavenly Father – drinking the cup of wrath and being baptized with humanity’s sufferings (Mark 10:48).

St. Paul tells you confirmands of all ages, “Proclaim this foolish, weak and scandalous message. Then watch God work to meet his people where they’re at and save them.”

Look at what happened when Paul preached Christ crucified in the open by Philippi’s river. Lydia and her household were baptized. Lydia made her house the base of operations for the apostles’ mission work.

What happens when the message of Christ crucified is preached in our homes, school, and our new church with two campuses?

Since January of 2020, the Lord has blessed us with baptizing 8 children and adults, confirming 9 children and confirming 14 adults. That’s amazing! Those are mission church numbers! Today we confirm 15 more children. There are more adults and children who will be baptized and confirmed soon.

We pray that the Lord of the Church has great things in store for his Church on earth – and specifically here in Racine and Caledonia as we become a base of operations for mission work to our community. This is what happens when God’s people take their testimony of Christ crucified into the open.

The cross is counter cultural because it takes the whole ball of wax out of our control.

Paul gives us the reason why. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. … God chose the foolish things of the world to put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are strong, and God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to do away with the things that are, so that no one may boast before God. (1 Corinthians 1:18, 27-29)

We aren’t told exactly what Paul preached to Lydia and the women at the river. But we can properly assume he preached Christ’s cross. The cross takes away all human boasting because it is all God who does the work! Because there at the cross, Jesus wins for us righteousness (how? By offering up his perfect life in our place). There at the cross, Jesus wins for us sanctification (connecting the branches to the Vine). There at the scandalous cross, Jesus redeems, buys back a world of fools and weaklings and makes them his brothers and sisters.

In short, the cross means that God does it all and that we are entirely dependent upon his grace.

Confirmands, don’t just be a picture on the wall in the church basement. Go out into the open in high school, college, the workplace, your home and community. Preach Christ crucified. Don’t ever stop. Engage the culture by preaching Christ crucified. There isn’t a message on earth more countercultural than that. Amen.

Jesus encourages you, “My Father is glorified by this: that you continue to bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:8) Amen.