J. Albrecht…Trinity 12…Aug. 23, 2026…Acts 16:9-15…The Secret of a Missionary Spirit in the Christian’s Heart

⁹ And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. ¹¹ So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, ¹² and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. ¹³ And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. ¹⁴ One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. ¹⁵ And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, Amen.

INJ who has given us the command to go into all the world with the message of salvation, DFR:

When’s the last time you went to a crowded beach or swimming pool? It’s a mass of confusion, isn’t it? You might hear children screaming while they play, splashing water at each other. You hear parents yelling across the beach, or loud talking amongst themselves. It is overwhelming to say the least. To the untrained eye, it looks and sounds like disorganized chaos.

But to the lifeguard on duty, it is anything but. You see, the lifeguard is trained to keep his eye out for a certain kind of splashing. He or she listens intently for the wrong kind of screaming – the kind that signals, “I’m in danger, help!” In order to save lives, the lifeguard must always be tuned in to what is seen and heard.

We go through life much in the opposite manner. You walk past people all the time assuming nothing other than they are about their daily business. Any encounter you have with an individual in merely by chance. The Apostle Paul gives us a different perspective to have when it comes to how we perceive the world around us: by having a missionary spirit. Last week, we considered in Romans 8, the great love that God has for each one of us by sending His Son Jesus to be our Savior from sin and death. By Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, He has triumphed over our great enemies – sin, death, and the Devil. Now secured by and in this love, nothing in all the world can every separate us from Him who loves us.

But we are not to simply rest as if we have nothing now to do. In our text this morning, Paul teaches us how to always be ready to share the assurance of salvation we have with the world that needs it. The Secret of the Missionary Spirit in the Christian’s Heart: 1. There is always an eye open to the world’s need 2. There is always an ear open to the Lord’s call 3. There is always a heart open to the world’s salvation

As we consider these thoughts from our God, let us pray: Sanctify us by Your truth, O Lord, Your Word is truth, Amen.

The verses right before our text tell us that Paul was not intending on going into Macedonia to preach the Gospel. He was in the midst of his second missionary journey, and he wanted to go into Asia and Bithynia, but the author of the Book of Acts, Luke, says, “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” It’s a curious detail to be given, isn’t it? Why wouldn’t the Holy Spirit allow them into Asia or Bithynia? It’s not as much the Holy Spirit didn’t want them to go there, but that He was about to present an opportunity somewhere else.

That somewhere else was Macedonia. Paul receives a vision from the Lord of a man who either by what he said, or by how he was dressed made it known where he was from. Paul knew for certain it was Macedonia. The request of this man was simple, “Help us.” A call for help might be different depending on who you are asking. If you ask a doctor for help, the need would be dramatically different than if you asked a baseball coach for help. But this man was calling out to an Apostle of Jesus Christ. They need what only Paul and his companions could give them: the message of Christ crucified for the sins of the whole world: The Gospel.

Paul shows the first secret to the missionary spirit in the heart of the Christian. There is always an eye open to the world’s need. Paul knew his purpose – he who had received such grace and forgiveness from God, was now sent to carry the message of the Gospel to the Gentile world. The Gentiles were steeped in paganism, blinded by the idea that God was many and those gods were moody tyrants who take their wrath out by calamities and disasters. They don’t know who the true God is – the one who reveals Himself in the Scriptures. They don’t know the God who said, “¹⁸ In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.”

This prophecy was speaking of the Gentiles. Paul knew this, he knew the Gospel was meant to go to them. So when the Holy Spirit closed a door he was hoping to go through, he didn’t lose heart. He knew another door would open. Because no matter where he went, there would be sinners who were deaf and blind to the LORD who saved them and he was carrying the message to set them free.

Things have not changed today. Wherever you go, there are those who do not yet know God – their Maker, Redeemer, and Comforter. God may close a door here or there, one we may desperately wish to keep open. But we don’t need to be discouraged; with an eye open to the world’s need, we too will see other opportunities the Lord presents.

When Paul and his companions reached Philippi, a city in Macedonia, they hoped to set about their usual way of brining the Gospel to a new place. Paul would first go to the Synagogue – to the place of worship of his own Jewish people. Except, there was no synagogue in Philippi.

Here is where Paul exhibits the second secret to the missionary spirit in the heart of the Christian: There is always an ear open to the Lord’s call. The prospects didn’t look great according to our way of looking at things. If there was no Jewish foothold in the city, that would make it that much harder for Paul to reach the Gentiles in the city. Nevertheless, Paul didn’t leave Philippi as a lost cause. The Lord had brought him here for a reason – the Gospel would take a foothold somewhere, and he would remain patient. Paul spent a few days in Philippi getting the lay of the land – it is then that he found out about a meeting place some women had for prayer.  ¹³ And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.

The women Paul met with here were either Jews or converts to Judaism. They had a knowledge of God. But their knowledge was limited – they had not yet known of Jesus and how He came and brough salvation for the world. This is where the Lord had called him to go. Did Paul wonder if the vision of the Macedonian man was to be fulfilled with these few women? Maybe for a split second, but in the end, no. Paul saw his mission field and gladly proclaimed God’s love to them. Paul understood God to be fulfilling His promise that, “where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” The Lord doesn’t call based on numbers. He doesn’t say, “I am with you if you fill a 3,000 capacity theatre with people.” No, it is where two or three are gathered together. He calls for His grace and love to be proclaimed to souls – individual souls.

By this we see Paul exhibit the third secret of the missionary spirit in the Christian’s heart. There is always a heart open to the world’s salvation. Here we see how salvation takes root in the heart. There is no emotionalism, no ranting and beating upon the hearer by the preacher, no shouting and agitation by the hearer: only the silent touch of the Spirit as the ear conveys the blessed truth to the heart.

Paul never claimed for himself the power to open human hearts; yet, though he could not open them, the Gospel which he preached, the power of God unto salvation, could do this wonderful thing. Faith, then, comes by hearing. But only hearing in idle curiosity will not do. The ear is the avenue to the heart; and right hearing permits the Gospel to reach its real inward destination.— It is God’s action through and through. God sends the apostle to proclaim help and salvation, and He guides Lydia to the place where the proclamation is made. It is God’s joy to bring these two together.

The heart open to the world’s salvation means to trust God to bring the results. Paul’s journey to Philippi was a success because God’s salvation had settled into the heart of Lydia. She had been set free by Christ so then Jesus’ words were fulfilled, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. That alone was success, but God very often brings even more blessing out of one success. Through Lydia, many more would come to know their Savior Jesus.

You and I might be tempted to think, “The prospects aren’t there. The ones I know certainly won’t receive what I say.” Imagine if Paul said that with Lydia, or whoever first shared the message of salvation through Jesus with you through that about you. Lydia would be lost, you would be lost, I would be lost. You never know when a heart is primed to hear about God’s love for them. You can never underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit to change hearts.

What we have is such a beautiful privilege. It is a great and important call to engage in mission work for sure; but the need is everywhere; the help for that need comes from the Lord Jesus who offered Himself on the cross as that sinner’s substitute, paying for their sin, delivering them from eternal death; and the changing of hearts comes by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. We dare not play God, but we do joyfully become God’s heralds – proclaim[ing] the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Do you have the missionary spirit in your heart? You might say no, underqualified. You’d be right, and so am I and so was the Apostle Paul. We are sinful human beings who let fear or failure stand in our way of telling what God has done for us. But that is exactly what makes you the most qualified. You are a sinner. You have been forgiven for all your sin by the grace of God and through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross in your place. You have eternal life secured in the love of God. This message is very personal to your own life and you know how precious a gift it is. Your heart is already primed to know the world’s need, to hear the Lord’s call, and have a heart for the world’s salvation. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. Amen.