Sermon Notes from Sunday 17 March 2019
Acts 16 verses 6 - 12
I have taken this portion of scripture from an unusual angle today. Paul and the evangelists seem to have come to a place of standstill. They are not sure what to do. There are decisions to be made. Paul and the team waited on God. God doesn`t let us down. This morning I want to think about St Patrick`s Day, a day of celebration not only here but across the world and the universe. What do we know of him? The man who took all the snakes out of Ireland? He is spoken of in terms of leprachauns and shillelaghs. The one who turns the stone and decides the weather? Is that all we have to Saint Patrick? Think of the legacy he has left. He was a Christian missionary to Ireland. I want to look at him under 4 headings:
St Patrick the ordinary man
St Patrick the ordained man
St Patrick the overcomer
St Patrick the obedient
St Patrick the ordinary man. Most of what I have been looking at has come from The Confessions of St Patrick and his Letter to Coroticus. Patrick was just an ordinary young man. At 16 years of age there was nothing special about him yet God seeks to bless the people of this land through him. If you are professing God`s name today God wants to profess his name through you. There is nothing much said about Patrick`s early years. Somewhere around the time the Roman garrison left the shores of England the people of Ireland would riot, rape and steal. 1000 people were taken as slaves or servants, snatched away from their homes. Patrick was one such person. Paul said about the God of heaven "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out." (Romans 11 verse 33) God had a plan for Patrick, he would bring the gospel through this young man. His faith and trust was in the living God. The plan God had for him. Remember Jonah in the Old Testament? God saw the city of Ninevah, a wicked city, the people had turned away from God. God looked down and saw the people ignorant and unlearned about him. He had a message for them and God told Jonah to go to them. Some times things happen to us that we cannot understand. God leads us in different directions. God has determined blessings for your life and others around you. As we think of this missionary we cannot really see the purpose and mind of God at this time. Maybe God will do something miraculous with your life. Jonah tried to think things through. He thought God was mad, this was a nation who were cruel and callous towards the nation of Israel. Did God expect him to tell them to turn to God? That if they turned God would forgive them? Jonah ran away. When Patrick came to the shores of Ireland he did not know what would happen to him. "For I know the thoughts I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil to give you an expected end." (Jeremiah 29 verse 11) God wants to use us as we are. He wants you to offer yourself to him. Joseph was only 17 years of age when he left his father`s house. He was loved, respected and treasured in that home but was sold as a slave into Egypt. God had a great plan for Joseph and the nation of Israel. He was going to prepare a way for Israel to be saved. When we begin to think how God loved us, how he took his own perfect, sinless son and sent him into the world. How he sent him to the cross, bearing every sin and iniquity that we had. God takes the plain and ordinary things today. Think of the little girl taken captive and brought into Naaman`s house to tell him of the remedy for his leprosy. "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the thing are are mighty." (1 Corinthians 1 verse 27)
St Patrick the ordained man. Patrick was taken out to Slemish mountain to mind the sheep there for 5 or 6 years. Perhaps he remembered the teaching he received from his parents. His father was a deacon and his grandfather a pastor. He is out on the hillside day and night, in all sorts of weather. Now God starts to speak to him through his father and grandathers teaching. He was sitting in poverty, barely clothed, looking after someone else`s sheep. His eyes began to look heavenward. The Psalmist said something similar. He was in the miry clay. He started to look to God himself. He was ordained by God of heaven to bring his message back to Ireland. According to his own confession "I did not know the true Lord but I was in a strange land, the God of heaven opened my ears and I was converted." Unless the God of heaven opens our hearts, minds and eyes we will not be saved. We have to be praying, asking God to open our hearts and minds. Patrick prayed 100 times a day and prayed as many at night. He was ordained to bring the message of the gospel to the people of God. Paul said "I am a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God." (Romans 1 verse 1) We need to be separated unto God. Patrick related having a dream as he lay out on the hillside. He heard a voice telling him he would soon be home. He escaped that night in a ship. Before he boarded the ship there was a problem. Patrick prayed and before he had finished his prayer he was told there was room for him. He was following the Lord`s leading. Are we really following the Lord`s leading today? The ship Patrick was on was a pirate ship. They took the spoils and treasures from other ships around the coasts. For 2 or 3 weeks they were in near starvation and they turned to Patrick and said "if this God of yours is so good would you not seek his face and find us food." Luke 1 verse 37 "with God nothing shall be impossible." As the ship turned the next corner a herd of swine were feeding and they were able to kill and eat. Once Patrick arrived home he began to study theology.
Patrick the overcomer. Some years later someone spoke to him. Paul in our passage received a vision to come over to Macedonia. A man was asking him to come over and help them. Patrick received a vision that led to a burden for Ireland and paganism "we beseech thee holy youth come and live amongst us." Once again the battle was on for Patrick. Think of all the hurt he had for those number of years, a slave on the mountainside, all the hurt he had received. He knew this was from God. He had to consider seriously the consequences. God is calling you and I today. Am I prepared for the battle, to go through with God. This young man Patrick put the hurt behind him for the sake of souls in Ireland. Patrick had to consider whether he would go back into this situation. If the Druids found any escapees they would put them in a basket and roast them over an open fire. He had a lot to consider. Are there things that we have allowed to creep into our lives that mean we no longer have a vision for those who need to hear the word of God? Paul was an overcomer. He was about to leave an area when God told him no he had to stay and he saw souls saved as a result. Peter fished all night but never caught a thing. The Lord came and told him to launch out into the deep. Peter had to set aside the pain of all night catching nothing but when the Lord spoke he obeyed.
Patrick the obedient. He was obedient to that call. "It is Christ my Lord who saved me out of all my troubles, I am greatly a debtor to God who has bestowed so largely his grace upon me." He returned to Ireland and 200 churches were set up and Patrick saw thousands turn to Christ from paganism. A vision appeared to Paul in the night and there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him to come over and help them. The battle is now handed to you and I today. Will you keep working at it that we might hand the baton on to another generation to see the revival we have prayed for ourselves?
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