Value All Acts 16:16-19; Psalm 139:13-16) Lesson for January 20-21, 2018 Brad Goad I ve been to musuems where there are beautiful Tapestry s hanging on the walls. I ve seen large ones and small ones in museums and homes. One of the most massive Tapestry s in the World (made in one piece) is called Christ in Glory by Graham Sutherland and hangs in St. Michael Cathedral in Coventry England. It took ten (10) years to make and is 75 x 38 (about the size of a tennis court). It shows the Risen Christ and is surrounded by the four (4) Evangelists in Revelation. It is believed to be the largest continuously woven tapestry in the world. The interesting thing about tapestries is they look beautiful on one side and then if you were to look at the back side of a Tapestry, it is entirely unrecognizable. (See photo of a crown tapestry below)
To have the Beautiful Masterpiece the Work of Art.the Finished Product, you realize that there are a lot of things going on that can look a bit messy based on the view that you might have. It can look as though things happen without purpose and look meaningless to a bystander. However, you can be confident that every movement, every motion, every piece of yarn and textile is placed with purpose and meaning, with an end product in mind. Sometimes our lives can be messy. Ministry can be messy. Choices can be messy. And yet if we are faithful to follow God, even during those messy times..there will be a Masterpiece of Purpose and Meaning that develops before your eyes. Just as a Tapestry is woven together, today we are going to weave two (2) passages of scripture that from the backside of the tapestry appear to be messy and unrelated, but when we look at the finished product, it is a Masterpiece of God. Let s begin in Acts 16. If you remember a couple of weeks ago we looked at the end of Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were put in jail for disrupting the community because of their ministry. Ministry can be messy sometimes, and the innocent can be penalized. While they were in jail, the earthquake happened, the chains and cell doors were broken, and freedom was at their fingertips but they chose to stay put. As a result, the jailer who was responsible for keeping them safe ended up being saved and had a complete life change and transformation. That is a Tapestry. It is something that appears very messy from one angle like two men unfairly put in prison, two men beaten and whipped, and two men shackled in the depths of a prison. It can be described as Messy. Unjust and Meaningless. Then you look at it from another angle and we see it from the Master s perspective - A jailer gets Saved and Baptized. In fact, his entire household gets saved. The tapestry becomes a masterpiece. The Tapestry doesn t begin in the prison it doesn t even begin with the beating and whipping. The Tapestry begins with the tale of two (2) women. The setting is Paul and Silas with Timothy and Luke.four men of God doing mission work. They had been going to cities on this journey of faith, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ and Salvation. They traveled by foot and boat.and ended up in Philippi. (This is the city that Paul eventually wrote to in the letter of Philippians). They were doing what they typically did.sharing and speaking about Jesus Christ. We will pick up the story in vs. 14. Acts 16: 14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us.
Lydia was a successful businesswoman. The fact she sold purple fabrics tells us she sold items to those who had money and power. In our times she would not be selling at the Dollar Store, she would be selling at Nordstrom s or Lord & Taylor under her own brand name. She had a tender heart to God already in that she was a worshiper of God and she was listening to the message. The Lord opened her heart.and she responded. Think about the Tapestry involved for Lydia unbeknownst to her. Paul had traveled to seven other cities by this point both by foot and boat. God, the Master Artist, began weaving time and travel of Paul and others on this journey step by step, mile by mile, nautical mile by mile, all along the way, and sometimes the weaving of this looked messy. But now Paul was in Philippi.Lydia who was not from Philippi, was in Philippi doing business. Ironically Lydia was from Thyatira, which was off the path of where Paul was traveling. It would be like we were traveling to Dallas..and she lived in Austin. You could go through Austin, but it s not the most direct route. And God was weaving it all together.even to the point of having Lydia in Philippi at the right time...and Lydia responded with full belief. That s the Tapestry of God. Then we come to another lady in Philippi that was not wealthy, not a successful businesswoman that would have the respect of others in the traditional sense. We do not know the name of this other woman; she is merely referred to as a Slave Girl. She did have an occupation; she was a fortune teller. Let s look at Acts 16:16 Acts 16: 16 It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. 18 She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her! And it came out at that very moment. Notice the timing of this.lydia, a successful businesswoman was saved.and no sooner had this taken place and they were heading for a place of prayer..they come across this slave-girl. The fact that she was a slave girl means she was not able to make her own choices. She was a slave times two. First she was a slave to her owners who made money off the fortune telling. Secondly, she was slave to Satan who gave her the spirit of divination. In Greek, it is literally the Pneuma of Python. The Python was a mythical serpent or dragon that guarded the oracle of Delphi, the renowned temple of priestesses who supposedly uttered prophecy while under a trance1. It would be safe to say that someone with her abilities would have a significant client base in a world that believed in mythical teachings and superstition. So this unnamed girl was a double slave ; one in the natural world and two in the supernatural world. And you would think the 1 (Swindoll s Living Insights New Testament Commentary, ACTS, page 326)
words she is saying is not bad.taken in and of themselves, the words are true, These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. And yet, Paul is aggravated by this. greatly annoyed by this slave girl. It would be like someone you just couldn t shake; she followed them everywhere. And I would imagine at the top of her lungs with great pride she would be saying these words. These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. And by doing this, she would appear to the innocent bystanders that she is part of the ministry of Paul and Silas and the others. She was not contradicting them. In fact, this unnamed slave girl was heralding them time and time again. But Paul saw beneath the surface. Paul saw what was taking place on the back of the tapestry.and it was messy. Paul was not mad at the girl and did not cast any blame or shame on this unnamed slave girl. Paul was mad at Satan. Paul was mad at the Demonic Spirit that was in her. Paul took a stand and made a statement.directly at the Spirit. Acts 16: 18 b But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her! And it came out at that very moment. The story of Two Ladies..each a Tapestry in the Making Lydia.successful business woman.and God was weaving circumstances in her life to bring her to Philippi for such a time to hear the truth of the Gospel through Paul and the others. The Unnamed Slave Girl.making a living, though not on her terms or by her own choice, instead enslaved both naturally and supernaturally; she was also in Philippi while Paul was ministering..as God was weaving circumstances to have her follow in such an annoying way to capture the attention of Paul. Both ladies experienced a life change...and new found freedom. From one angle, a messy, confused, tangled up life without eternal purpose. God, the Master Artist and The Great Weaver of Circumstances was putting all things together in such a way that He is glorified. And yet we know that the Tapestry will always have a messy side. Look at the next few verses Acts 16: 19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, 20 and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, 21 and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans. In our vernacular, the unnamed slave girl would be what we refer to as part of human trafficking. She is being used for the profit of her masters. And she was set free and their profit margin was going to decline because of her changed life.
These were the circumstances woven together to put Paul and Silas into prison. We must always remember that God is Always at Work. God is the Master Weaver and sometimes we can t see the beauty of the moment. We can t see the beauty of the picture. We can t see the beauty of the potential. We get tangled up in the gritty, ugly, frustrating, mundane things of life and forget that God is in Control. We forget that God has always been in control. When I think of the Ultimate Tapestry, it begins earlier than any words that are spoken. It begins earlier than any miles that are traveled. In fact the Tapestry begins before any of us takes our first breath. Lydia and the Unnamed Slave Girl.had the very same beginning. Each of them were woven in their mother s womb. The Tapestry for both of them and even us, begins before we take our first breath. I love how David explains the Tapestry in Psalm 139 (New Living Translation) Psalm 139: 13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. (NLT) For Lydia and the Unnamed Slave Girl.the Weaving didn t begin in Philippi. It began as God began the weaving and knitting process in their mother s womb. God knows us so intimately.from the very beginning. The Tapestry begins at conception. (Note: You don t have to go into great scientific or graphic detail.) And it could even be argued before that moment God is at work just to get the sperm and the egg. Think about the number of sperm that goes out and then the number that goes into the fallopian tube and the one that reaches the egg it s a process with purpose. The Tapestry begins and God weaves. David realized it..thinking about his life. Thinking about his circumstances. Thinking about how he can t hide from God. David realized that God knew him from the inside out. God does not just know the physical movements. God does not just know the mental thoughts. God does not just know the words spoken or miles traveled. God knows the heart the inner most being of each and every person. God knew the innermost part of David, which led him to write Psalm 139. God knew the innermost part of Paul and Silas..which led them to travel from town to town by foot and boat. God knew the innermost part of Lydia and that for whatever reason she would not have been as receptive to the Gospel in her home town, so the weaving of the tapestry took her to Philippi. God knew the innermost part of the Unnamed Slave Girl.we do not know how or why she was put into this slavery and made accessible to the demonic spirit..but the weaving of the tapestry took her to Philippi and the ministry of Paul and Silas.
God still knows the innermost part of each one of us. God, the Master Artist created each one of us individually. Each of us is wonderfully complex. Lydia was complex.paul was complex.the Unnamed Slave Girl.was complex. God created us to be Complex beings from the inside out. The weaving together of our inner most parts physically is a tapestry in itself. We have over 200 bones 650 muscles in our bodies. The large intestine is about 5 feet long the small intestine is about 20 feet long. And all of this began in our mother s womb as God wove us together in a delicate, masterful, wonderful way. We are God s Workmanship Created with Purpose. A Masterpiece.a Tapestry.and Work of Art still in process. This is Value to All People. The Value of that person begins in the womb, as the knitting and weaving begin; as the Master Artist begins working on the masterpiece at conception. Paul realized that God was an Artist, in fact several years later he wrote a letter to the Christians in Philippi.the place Lydia came to know Christ the place the Unnamed Slave Girl was set free. Paul writes these words and think of them in light of the Tapestry of Life. Philippians 1: 6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Even though life is messy, and circumstances can be overwhelming and confusing. Each of us has Value that began in our Mothers womb. The Good News is that God isn t finished with any of us yet. The weaving continues and the Tapestry Masterpiece is in the making.