So my last service here as pastor, but I trust many services still to come. I look to be a loyal backbench member of the church here. Now, the next members meeting, my application goes before the church, my wife's too, for membership, because as a pastor, automatically you cease to be a member when you stop being pastor. So members, I'm trusting that you will me and my wife back in, because we're just so glad to be staying part of a church family. And that's what we are. We're a family. Jill and I got married in 1980. We have the six children, 11 grandchildren, lots of them here today, and we're a family. I wouldn't want to leave my family and go somewhere else and think, well, we've had 41 years as a family now. I'll go and try another No, I'm glad to stay as a member of the family here, if you will have me. So I'm at the altar, I've said I do, I will. What are you going to say at the members' meeting? But many, many memories, many baptismal services here, many burials, many marriages, many people coming to faith. many, many new faces here. And it's all to the glory of God. This is what Jesus Christ has done and is doing and will do. So my last service as pastor, it's Meg's baptism. I'm so glad we're focused on a baptismal service. And what I want to look at is the first convert to Christianity on European soil. And it's followed by the first Christian baptism on European soil. And many say, quite wrong and incorrectly, that Christianity is a Western religion. Certainly not. Certainly not. It came late to the West. It began in the Middle East. It spread into Asia. It spread then into Africa. It was only after 20 years it set foot into Europe and Philippi, modern day Greece. Christianity, what's it all about? It's certainly not just belief in God. Many believe in God who are not Christians. Christianity, what is it all about? I was talking to a couple in our garden a few weeks back, and there's a chap who's getting close to faith, it seems. He wouldn't say he's a Christian yet, but he said, I've come to understand something. I said, oh, what's that? He said, Christianity. I used to think it was all about God. Well, he certainly does include God. But he said, actually, it's all about Jesus Christ, isn't it? I said, yes, isn't that wonderful? You've got something, you've seen something, many miss the clues in the name. Christianity, it's all about Christ, and Christ is his title, it's not his surname. Christ means promised one, and throughout the Old Testament, God had promised one who would be the rescuer, and who'd do away with our biggest problem. And when he came, they gave him the name because the angel said, you will call his name Jesus. And that's his given name. And we love to use that name because it's the name that brings us to God. Jesus, the name above all names. He's given the name Jesus. Jesus means salvation. God saves, God is saviour. So Christianity. Now the first convert on European soil was a lady called Lydia. And here she is in Acts chapter 16. What can we say about her? Well, she was a woman. And she was away from home. Her home was Thyatira, and that's the western edges of modern day Turkey. What's she doing in Philippi? Well, she runs a business. She runs her own business. She's a businesswoman. And she's obviously quite a successful businesswoman because she deals in a very precious commodity. We're told that she was a seller of purple goods. Now that might not mean a lot. to you but to have purple in those days. There's a young lady down here on my left wearing a shade of purple. Now, back in the day, young lady, you would have been quite something because to wear purple, to get the dye purple was a very expensive process. It came from a particular source which was rare and difficult to find and so to have a cloth dyed in purple showed that you were some body. And I've just got blue and cream. There's a young lady here all dressed in purple. And one or two more around as well. I can see some wealthy people here amongst us. But Lydia, she was a successful businesswoman. She dealt in purple goods. We learn as well that she is a worshipper of God. She's religious. So she believes in God. And we ought to believe in God. We must ask ourselves the question. I mean, my background is that I'm a chemist. My degree and PhD are in chemistry. And at the age of 19, I don't know if I've mentioned this in the past over the years, but I didn't believe there was a God. And I believed in Big Bang and evolution. But the ultimate question is, Where has it all come from? Because nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could. There is a first cause. Of course there's a God and Lydia knew that and many knew that and she's a worshipper of God. It seems that she's a proselyte. That means she's come to faith not only in God, but in the God of the Jewish people. She has looked at the Old Testament and the prophecies and the promises and the stories and the history and the accounts and the Psalms and the Proverbs and she's seen the God revealed there and she has said this seems to be right to me and she identifies now with the Jewish faith and she's converted and she's a worshipper of God and if she is a proselyte she'd have been baptised into the Jewish faith. Faith. And more than a worshipper of God, she's serious, because on a Sabbath day, she's found in a prayer meeting. That's quite something. Well, lots of folks who are happy to go to church on a Sunday morning, and that might show that you love your church, one said. And then you maybe, you even go Sunday evening. So you're a Sunday morning or Sunday evening person. And that, someone once said, shows not only do you love your church, you must love your pastor as well, if you'll go twice on a Sunday. But then there are those who go to the prayer meeting as well. And there's nothing very attractive about a prayer meeting if you don't love God. If you don't love God, prayer meetings are boring. really is a test as to where we are in our Christian faith. But here's this Lady Lydia. She's a proselyte. She's come to faith in the God of the Old Testament, the God of the Jews. And she's serious about pursuing her faith because she's found in a prayer meeting. But for all of that, she's not yet saved. She can't say that she's going to heaven. If you talk to Lydia before the prayer meeting, she'd say, well, I hope I'm going to heaven. That's what many say today. And what's their hope built on? If you ask them, well, what's your hope built on? They'd say, well, you know, I try my best and out come all the eyes. I go to church and then he would say, well, I get along. Now there was no synagogue in Philippi because there weren't enough men. You had to have 10 men to form a synagogue in a particular city. Well, clearly there weren't 10 Jewish men there. So the best they could do was hold a prayer meeting And it was the ladies who gathered together by the riverside. So she'd say, well, I do believe in God. And I go to the prayer meeting and I try to help people. And I give some of my money from my purple goods to good causes. But it was all external. And she wouldn't be able to say, I'm definitely going to heaven. Maybe that's you this morning. You've come into a meeting. It's a lovely meeting. We're witnessing. Meg's baptism, you've heard the Bible being read, you've sung some interesting hymns, you're hearing a man speak, but it's all sort of external. If I say, are you going to heaven? You'd say, well, yeah, I hope so. And is there really a heaven? And what's it like? And that would be Lydia as well. She worshipped, she prayed, but here's the missing piece. She didn't know God. She knew about him. She learned about him from the scriptures. But she didn't actually know him in a personal living relationship. And that is the heart of Christianity. Because what Jesus Christ has done historically, 2,000 years ago, events took place that split time in two. It is 2021 because of him. Now, modern people will try and rub that away and say, well, it's 2021 CE, Common Era. Why is it the Common Era? It's the Common Era because it's Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord. We date back to those events in the Middle East 2,000 years ago, where there was a real man of history, Jesus Christ, who changed the course of history. and who now rules and commands the hearts of countless millions of people, not only here in St Melon's, but in Afghanistan this morning. And we hear reports of underground secret churches in Kabul that are being hounded by the Taliban. Well, if they hound them to death, they only sweep them into glory. Jesus Christ is victorious. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And brave people are standing today as we are in comfort and saying, I am a Christian. It costs us very little here, it seems. Why doesn't it cost us more? Why won't we stand up and say, I believe in Jesus and this is what he's done for me? They will give their lives for that. We find it so difficult ourselves. But Jesus Christ died for one reason and rose again from the dead to bring us to God. Lovely verse by the Apostle Peter. Christ died for sin once for all, but just on behalf of the unjust, why? To bring us to God, to bring us to God. That's the object of the exercise that we might know him. And Lydia had religion. It's what she did. And religion is not and never will be enough. Lydia. in a prayer meeting, but not yet saved. Now, let's look now at this other character that appears in the narrative, Paul, the Apostle Paul. Down by the riverside, a group of ladies, suddenly two men come along. One is the Apostle Paul, and he begins to speak to the ladies by the riverside, and they're listening to Paul. And Lydia is listening to Paul. What do we know about Paul? Such a change came in his life. He had a name change. He was called Saul of Tarsus, who was a vociferous antagonist and persecutor of the early Christian church. He consented when people were put to death for declaring Jesus Christ and the resurrection. But as he was on a journey on one occasion, you can read about in Acts chapter nine, to round up Christians that they might be put on trial and condemned to death. Jesus Christ intervenes in his life on the road to Damascus. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Notice that. Saul is persecuting Christians, and Jesus says, you're actually persecuting me. That's how much he identifies with me and you. you touch a Christian, you touch Jesus Christ, you're persecuting me, he says to Saul. And Saul is incredibly converted and Jesus says to him, I'm going to make you a witness to Jews and particularly to the Gentiles and I'm sending you out. And for the next, well, Maybe another 10 years before we reach this particular point here, but for 10 years he's been preaching wherever he has gone. And his focus is always Jesus Christ. He could have chosen many texts from the Old Testament, but his focus is always to bring out the promised Messiah from the Old Testament text, because everything in the Old Testament speaks of Jesus Christ. He didn't just appear on the scene in around about 4 BC and live till 29 AD. The Old Testament is all about Jesus in picture, shadow, type, prophecy, songs, pointing towards him. And Paul says, he is the Christ, he is Jesus. And when he writes one particular letter, he says this, when I came to you, I decided to know nothing amongst you, except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I'll look to the next pastor to take up that mantle. I'll know nothing among you, great intellects, steeped in the Old Testament prophecies and Psalms and the books and the law. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He comes to people, he says, I don't want to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's our only hope. Further on in the particular letter, he says this, 1 Corinthians 9, water me if I do not preach the gospel. 1 Corinthians 15, when I came to you, I delivered to you what was of first importance, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. He was buried, he was raised again, according to the scriptures. Paul was all about sharing the gospel. So he gets down by the riverside. He sees a group of ladies. They are Jewish. either Jewish born or Jewish proselytes. They're in prayer, praying to a God they don't yet know. And so Paul begins to speak. What do you think he spoke about? While we're not told, but we can use our spiritual common sense and understanding and intellect, he told them about Jesus Christ. And he would draw on the Old Testament prophecies and promises that they knew so well. And he shared with them the gospel. And let me share with you the gospel. I've prayed the gospel. I've explained the gospel. Let me say it again. Let me tell you the old, old story. We've got a problem, each and every one of us here. Now, many stories represented here. Some of you are pretty young. Don't know who the youngest person is sat here right now. I don't know who the oldest one is here right now. So we have various ages, various financial backgrounds, various intellects, various states of health and well-being. But we all have one common problem that's common with all mankind. It's a disease of the soul that affects the body and affects society. It's called sin. and sin in its essence is, I will go my own way. I'll not have this God to rule over me. Now, if there is a God, and I say, since there is a God who made me and whose air I'm breathing right now and afterwards whose food I will eat and whose medicines I will take if I'm not feeling too good and I'll interact in his world, What a terrible thing to say. I want nothing to do with you. And that's the heart of sin and we can't help it. God says he makes a reasonable demand. Love me and love your neighbour as yourself. We might make an attempt but we can't do it because we got a superior love that is love for me. Let me use an old illustration. If I took a photograph of you right now, I'd put it on pan, pano. And I send it now to Nick. It's gone to Nick and he puts it on the wall there. Who are you going to look for? Who do you look for? Did he get my right side? I wish he got this side, not that side. Is my hair really like that? We look for always attention to me. This is sin. And what it does is cause a rift between us and God. And we don't know him. We might know about him, but we don't know him. And we were made to know him. That's our raison d'etre. made to know God and nothing but knowing God satisfies. You try and fill the hole with things, money, possessions, relationships, nothing satisfies. We were made to know God. And because of sin, we can't go home to heaven because heaven is pure and clean and beautiful. And if you went there as a sinner, it would rapidly become like planet earth and we wouldn't be happy there forever and forever. Sin is the problem, Jesus is the answer. God, the Father, sends God, the Son. That's confusing. And he comes in the power of God, the Holy Spirit. That's even more confusing. One divine being, but three persons. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Three gods, no one being, three persons. Same essence, distinct in their persons. The Father, the Son, the Spirit. And the Father sends the Son. He willingly comes. He becomes a man like you and me. But he hasn't stopped being God. In that one person, Jesus Christ, you have two natures, fully God, fully man. He has a perfect human nature, not a sinful one. He's come to do us good. Why does he come? To take away our sin. First of all, he lives the life we cannot live. He lived a perfect life in my place. He sits the entrance exam for heaven. He puts your name on the paper and he passed. He represents you. And then on Calvary at the end of his life, sin must be paid for, the wages of sin is death. And Jesus Christ says, I'll willingly go there. He is almighty God, the soldiers arrest him, he goes through a trial, he's beaten, he's spat upon, he's then nailed to a wooden cross. He could have stopped it, of course he could. He has power to calm a storm, walk on the water, feed the 5,000, raise the dead. He could certainly have stopped that. But he didn't, because that's why he came, to pay the penalty for your sin and mine on the cross of Calvary. Now what happens there? It's not just a physical death. It's hell on earth as God the Father pours out on his son the wrath that we deserve. And he's laid in the tomb. Is sin really dealt with? The resurrection proves that it is. Had he stayed in the tomb, we'd have been wondering. Oh, there are tombs for many political leaders, religious leaders. There's an empty tomb where Jesus Christ once lay. There's no grave, no relics, no body. Up from the grave, he arose. He was seen by many. He ascended back into heaven. The apostles go to their deaths, the majority of them declaring Jesus Christ and the resurrection. and on pain of death they never recanted. He lived for me, he died for me, he rose again. This is the gospel. How do I benefit? Believe, believe. Repent of what you are and the sin that caused the death of Christ and embrace the merits of what he did for you. He lived for you, he died for you, he rose again. Trust in him, embrace him with your soul. and Lydia is listening to the gospel and Paul is preaching the gospel and Paul is focused on Jesus and every Christian ought to be focused on Jesus and telling other people about Jesus. Let me add a little letter to the name Paul and we've got a Missionary back from Brazil, glad to have her back, Paula. And she's telling me a story. She's been down on Queen Street with others recently, talking to people that are around there on Queen Street. And one person she's been meeting has got a complaint about Paula. And the person has been complaining about Paula, that all Paula does is talk about Jesus this and Jesus that. Every time we meet Paul, it's Jesus this and Jesus that. There's only one thing wrong with what Paul is saying, because Paul wasn't only Jesus this and Jesus that, he was Jesus the other as well. Jesus this, that, and the other. So Paul, you've got to add something to Jesus this and Jesus that. It's Jesus this, that, and the other, because he's all we have to say. is all we have to say. We look to meet physical needs where we can, but the ultimate answer is the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lydia is listening and other ladies are there listening as well. But let me say this now, coming to a conclusion, to hear the gospel is not ever enough. And for you, it's not enough to hear the gospel because you can end up giving an intellectual assent to a certain set of facts. Jesus Christ, son of God, lived and died and rose again. I'll pray a little prayer, God forgive me. That's never, ever enough. listening to a testimony. It's just gone live on our website again recently. And the young man said this, I suddenly came to see that Jesus died for me. And I believed it. He said, not only intellectually, but spiritually. And not only that Jesus died for sin, but he died for me. And that's what makes the difference. It becomes personal. And it's not just intellectual, but it's also spiritual. So let's finish with the most important person that appears on these pages. Now we've had Lydia, we've had Paul, now we look at the Lord himself. Because here in Acts chapter 16 and verse 14 is a very important statement. Here it is. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshipper of God. Now here it is, the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. The Lord opened her heart. There were several ladies there. Paul spoke to them all, but God the Holy Spirit now comes and he comes to the heart of Lydia and her heart, not the bit that pumps, but the centre of her soul, because I'm not just a body, I'm a soul that thinks and talks and decides and likes and dislikes and plans and communicates. And the Spirit comes to the heart of Lydia's soul and opens it up. so that she can understand. Puts new life there where there was once death. Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. It's a work of God, the Holy Spirit. And as all those ladies were listening and Paul was speaking, the Holy Spirit chose Lydia to open her heart. And she not only listened, she paid attention. to what Paul was saying, and she believed it with all her heart. At that point, she received new life and sins forgiven. She had new ears to hear with, new eyes to see with. And when Paul was speaking, she heard the voice of God, repent, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Does that happen to you this morning? Lots of people listening here, lots of friends and family members and folks come because it's a special occasion for my last service as well. And I've declared the gospel. Has it become real to you this morning? Because that's what it's all about. It comes to an encounter, an encounter for Lydia. She wasn't expecting it that Sabbath day morning. Maybe you weren't expecting it either. But suddenly God himself taps you on the shoulder, opens up your heart and says, these things are true. Repent and believe and you shall be saved. Oh, Lydia transformed and therefore she was baptised. Now, she didn't wait several years, Megan. She was baptised the same day. And it was all sudden for her. You've been through a process. Now you come to see. But once we believe, one of the first things we need to do is to be baptised. And Lydia was, and Megan is about to be, and what about you? Have you believed? then obey the Lord Jesus Christ and go through the waters of baptism. Well, we come to a conclusion and there's the end of 21 years of pastoral ministry and we're ending on a very high and wonderful note. The declaration, the gospel and the gospelling picture as Megan goes under the waters, she's not becoming a Christian, she's doing that because she already is a Christian. It's a picture of the gospel, dying to my old life, rising to new life in Christ. Sins washed away by the Lord Jesus Christ, risen to serve him in his resurrection power. May God bless us one and all. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this brief time in your word and this special occasion here this morning that we can hear the gospel. What a privilege And we can respond to the gospel if you will stir our hearts. We pray for that wonderful work of the Holy Spirit. Commend Megan to your care now as she goes through the waters of baptism. May she truly meet with you in a spiritual manner. In Christ's name we pray.