6/25/23 The People of Philippi - Part 1: Lydia

The People of Philippi – Part 1: Lydia

Acts 16: 6-15

They say that there are really only 2 seasons in Wisconsin – the season of Winter, and the season of Road Construction.

Every year as soon as the Winter snow melts away, we see those pretty orange cones & barrels pop up out of the ground – and this year we seem to have a bumper crop of them, don’t we?!

Have you noticed that no matter which direction you are coming from, LaValle is a bit more difficult to get tothese days?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely not complaining…come Winter, we’ll all have some beautiful roads to drive on around here. But until then, some of us may need to alter our route a bit in order to get where we need to go.

The Summer of 2023 will be remembered by many of us as the season of road construction and detours.

Our passage for today from the book of Acts deals with a detour of sorts as well – a detour for Paul and his companions.

If you recall, last week we looked at Paul’s dramatic encounter with Jesus while on his way to the city of Damascus. This meeting with the savior would forever alter the course of Paul’s life – he would go from Saul the most infamous persecutor of Christians, to Paul the most famous preacher of Christianity.

God called Paul to spread the gospel to many parts of the ancient world. The book of Acts describes three specific missionary journeys that Paul (Along with various companions) would undertake in order to introduce people to Jesus Christ.

Today’s text from Acts chapter 16 puts us in the early stages of Paul’s second missionary journey in which God is about to force Paul to take a detour from his original plan….has anyone here ever experienced a detour in life?...Yep, me too.

Paul’s original itinerary was to go directly from the towns of Lystra and Derbe through a regional area referred to as Asia (At that time) which would have been to the Southwest.

Traveling through Asia would have brought them to important cities such as Ephesus, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Colossae, Sardis, and Thyatira.

Indeed, there would one day be churches in these towns, but for this specific missionary trip, the Holy Spirit directed Paul to take a detour around Asia to the North and eventually cross the Aegean Sea at the city of Troas.

From Troas they sailed West across the Aegean Sea to a small port city called Neapolis, and from there they traveled ten miles inland to the city of Philippi.

Philippi (Located in Northern Greece) was a significant trading center AND it would represent the first town on the continent of Europe in which Paul would bring the message of the gospel – and eventually plant a church.

Philippi would be the northernmost city in which Paul would travel on any of his missionary journeys, with this specific journey being over 3,500 miles in total distance.

In fact, if you add up the total distance that Paul would have traveled on all 3 of his missionary journeys, it would have been around 10,000 miles!  - That would be the equivalent of walking to and from New York City to Los Angeles…nearly 4 times!

Paul’s companions would have included Silas & Timothy, and they picked up Luke in the city of Troas where he had been practicing medicine – remember, Luke was a Physician.

I’m not sure how Luke’s patients may have felt about their primary provider suddenly leaving town – hopefully he was part of a good HMO !

Through a powerful vision and the Holy Spirit’s prompting, God made it abundantly clear that He wanted Paul and his companions to reach the European city of Philippi at just the right time to encounter three specific individuals – A wealthy textile trader named Lydia, a demon-possessed slave girl, and a local jailor.

All of these people would be delivered from their current condition and at least 2 of them would become founding members of the Philippian church – the first church in Europe.

In a couple of weeks, we will be looking at Paul’s letter to this healthy & growing church in Philippi (The book of Philippians) that Paul authored years after this visit while he was imprisoned in Rome.

But for now, Let’s begin looking at what scripture tells us about Paul’s original visit to the town of Philippi – and the people he meets there.

Verse 13 (Acts 16:13) tells us that on the Sabbath, Paul and his entourage “Went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer.”

Generally, It was always Paul’s habit to search out the local Jewish synagogue whenever he came to a new town. Paul’s credentials as a rabbi, studying under the highly revered Gamaliel, would have commanded him an audience in any synagogue, anywhere in the world.

So why doesn’t Paul search out the synagogue in Philippi?....well, because there wasn’t one.

Since Jewish custom specified that there had to be at least 10 Jewish men living in a certain town to start a synagogue, we can deduce from the absence of a synagogue that there were less than 10 Jewish families in this town, and if I were to guess, because of its distance from Jerusalem, I would be surprised if there were any Jewish families living in Philippi at all at this time.

So, rather than going to the local synagogue, Paul goes down to the river where people of various faith traditions would apparently gather to talk and pray.

This makes sense, doesn’t it? Rivers, lakes, oceans – bodies of water somehow tend to bring out the spiritual side of people.

Have you ever sat around a campfire by a lakeshore or maybe you’ve taken a long walk along an ocean beach? In these environments, conversations naturally tend to drift toward serious issues such as faith and what lies beyond this world – especially if its during sunrise or sunset!

Over the years, I remember having some very deep and meaningful moments of prayer or conversation while watching the sun come up or go down over the waters of an ocean or lake.

I think I’ve mentioned before that on my regular hikes around Devil’s Lake, I equate certain landmarks with each family that regularly attends this church, and those landmarks remind me to pray for you…..I won’t say who the South Shore Outhouse reminds me of!…Just Kidding, I have not, nor will I ever, equate anyone here with a toilet! 😊

Prayer near the water was the situation here in Philippi – numerous women met by the river to talk and pray.

Verse 14 (Acts 16:14) tells us that one of those women was named Lydia.

The text informs us that Lydia was a “Dealer in purple cloth”

In the ancient world, purple clothing was quite rare and very expensive. This is why purple is still synonymous with royalty – In the ancient world, only the wealthy and noble people in society had enough money to afford this shade of clothing.

So, why were purple fabrics so expensive?

Purple dye could only be produced from one of two rare biological sources. The first was the murex shellfish, and the other were roots of the madder plant.

Both of these were difficult to find and process, making purple dye a rare and expensive commodity in the 1st century.

Lydia bought and sold this expensive dye and the fabrics that were stained with it.

This would have made Lydia a woman of high social standing and very well off financially.

Verse 14 also informs us that Lydia was a “Worshipper of God” but that her heart had not yet had the chance to be opened to the gospel message.

Did you catch that? Like Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, Lydia had turned away from pagan idolatry and the false gods of her culture….she had come to the understanding that the God of Israel was the one true God.

Lydia, however, was still missing something….she was missing crucial information, information concerning the risen messiah, Jesus Christ.

Information that Paul would disclose to her while on the banks of that small river on the outskirts of town. …Information that would change her life forever.

Like anyone else alive after the resurrection of Christ, Lydia needed to hear, AND respond to, what Jesus had done for her on the cross in order to be completely cleansed of her sins.

Remember Peter’s words in Acts 4:12….”Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Even though Lydia worshipped the one true God, she was missing a genuine relationship with Jesus….and it is through this relationship that God will transform any seeking soul into a saved soul.

It really is all about Jesus!

Lydia was honestly seeking God, and God always responds to genuine seekers by disclosing Himself to them…and the disclosure of Himself will Always be built upon the saving foundation of Jesus Christ!

Jesus reminds us in John 6:37: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”

God drew Lydia unto Himself…and when Lydia heard Paul’s presentation of the gospel, we are told in verse 14 of today’s passage (Acts 16:14) that “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.”

This is a picture of the process by which God saves people. He first draws individuals to himself, then the drawn individual is given the ability to respond in faith, repentance, and obedience.

John 6:44 reinforces that reality: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

A lot of us probably know some Lydia’s in our lives – people who are seeking, they are searching for God, but they don’t yet have a saving relationship with Jesus.

This is why evangelism is so important. This is why missionary work is so important.

And, by the way, missionary work isn’t always in faraway places. Too often we think of missionary work as only taking place in areas of the world where people live in mud huts and speak a foreign language.

Certainly, mission work is needed in these areas of the world, however, missionary work is needed more than ever here in the United States as well!

Unless you’ve been locked in a cave for the last 30-40 years, you know that our country has been rapidly moving away from biblical principles in almost every aspect of public life.

The government, the media, and the public educational system have all shifted away from what once were Judeo-Chistian values to what has become a position of indifference, and in many places, intolerance toward biblical morality.

Preaching of the gospel message is needed around the world, and more than ever before, to seekers right here in our own backyard.

Lydia was a seeker, God opened Lydia’s heart to receive the information concerning salvation through the name of Jesus, and Lydia responded in belief – becoming the first European believer.

After Lydia gives her life completely over to Jesus, we see her begin to display tangible fruit of her new faith through acts of obedience and hospitality toward Paul and his companions.

Look with me at verse 15 (Acts 16:15) of our passage for today.

Here we see Lydia (And the rest of her family who had also accepted Christ) obediently decide to get baptized – remember, baptism is a form of obedience as it is a way for the believer to publicly proclaim what Jesus has done for them inwardly through His death, burial, and resurrection.

We also notice that Lydia invites Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke to utilize her house as a ‘Home-base’ for the duration of their stay in Philippi.

This act of hospitality is sometimes overlooked, but it is extremely important because Lydia’s act of generosity toward Paul and his companions demonstrates her attitude toward her own material items and her own time.

We probably all know some people with lots of money and very little time…

Usually they go hand in hand, right?  if you have lots of cash, you also typically have a very busy work schedule in order to accumulate all of that money.

Lydia was well-off, but after hearing the gospel message from the greatest missionary to ever walk the earth, her priorities seemed to shift.

Suddenly, her top priority seemed to be one of wanting to spend time with these men of God and sharing her house and property with them rather than the priorities of accumulating wealth and nurturing an impressive social status.

Has anyone seen the 2018 movie Crazy Rich Asians?

It’s one of my daughters’ favorite movies – Its about a man from a very wealthy family in Singapore and he takes his Chinese-American girlfriend back home to meet them where, of course, all sorts of things go wrong – before everything eventually goes right….isn’t that the plot of most romantic comedies?

Anyway, the extremely wealthy mother of the rich young man leads a Bible study in Singapore with her rich friends but unfortunately their attitudes and actions do not line up with their professed faith in Christ.

Not to spoil the plot too much, but by the end of the movie the mother’s attitude becomes one of humility and grace rather than one of pride, arrogance, and jealousy – I wished they would have made a connection between her new attitude and having a new relationship with Jesus, but its Hollywood, so you know that won’t happen!

We don’t exactly know what Lydia was like before giving her life to Jesus, but I’m guessing that she may have had some similarities to the mother from Crazy Rich Asians. With much wealth comes the temptation to have much pride and greed.

Scripture is full of accounts that remind us of the inherent dangers that come with an overabundance of wealth…from the Rich Young Ruler in Mark chapter 10, to Zacchaeus in Luke 19, to Joel and Abiah, the sons of Samuel who scripture says were “Lovers of money.”

1 Timothy 6:10 reminds us that the “…The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

It’s true – some of the most depressed, stressed out, and frustrated people I know also happen to be some of the wealthiest people I know.

James chapter five gives us the full force of scripture’s warnings against indulgence and over-accumulation when it says “Now listen, you rich people and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.” (James 5:1-3)

Wealth, in and of itself, is not evil, but scripture reminds us that an overabundance of wealth more easily leads to a life of selfishness, pride, and greed.

Lydia was a wealthy woman. She dealt with one of the most expensive commodities of the ancient world.

And yet, after meeting Jesus, she began to use her wealth for the Kingdom.

Maybe some of you can relate to Lydia. Maybe you have prioritized money to the point that it pushes people out of your life.

Maybe some of you have an overabundance of wealth & material items, and God is working on your heart to begin using your extra resources in a way that blesses others and honors him.

Jesus knew that we human beings are a naturally greedy sort – that is why he is recorded in the gospels as saying “It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23) and that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24)

Lydia becomes a wonderful example of a person with an abundance of resources who also gives generously from those resources – and, in the process, makes an impact for the Kingdom of God.

If you are in a similar life situation, consider giving of your time and money for the sake of the Gospel – Then, as Jesus says in Matthew 8:20, you will “Store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven.”

Let’s Pray.