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38th Street Church of Christ 3904 38th Street NW Canton, Ohio 44718 330-492-5523 Fax: 330-493-7119 |
“Lydia: The Hospitable Heart ” |
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I. Introduction.
A. The first known convert to Christianity in the region of the
world now known as Europe, was a woman, named Lydia.
Her conversion marked a beginning of the church on what
was to become the continent from which the gospel spread
in the centuries that followed.
1. Lydia, herself, was not European. Her name is also
the title given to a large province in Asia Minor,
which had been the region of her birth.
2. The capital city of the province was Sardis, one of
the cities of Asia addressed in the opening chapters
of “Revelation.” Lydia’s last, and best-known, king
was Croesus, who reigned in the sixth century, B.C.
and was famous for his great wealth. He was
defeated in war by Cyrus, the ruler of the Medo-
Persian empire in the time of Nehemiah and Ezra.
Cyrus used the wealth of Croesus to help him
conquer most of the then-known world.
3. Now, in the first century, A.D., Lydia was but a
promise of Rome’s empire, but, by the close of that
century, it had become a thriving center of
Christianity. God’s concern for the church at Sardis
is found in Revelation 3.
B. Lydia’s own place of origin is identified as a city called
Thyatira. It, too, was the location of one of the seven
churches of Asia (Revelation 2:18-29). The city was
located in the area of Asia Minor where, Luke tells us,
Paul, Silas, and Timothy were “. . . forbidden by the Holy
Spirit to preach the word in Asia” (Acts 16:6).
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1. When this door closed to Paul and his companions,
God led them into Europe by means of a dream:
“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man
of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying,
‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’”
(Acts 16:9).
2. Macedonia was the Roman province that extended
over much of the upper peninsula of Greece,
between the Adriatic and Aegean seas. The place
to which Paul went after this vision lies in modern-
day Greece (Acts 16:10).
C. Because of the change in direction, Paul met, and converted, Lydia outside of her home area. She was a business woman, “. . . a seller of purple . . .” (Acts 16:14). Lydia was also one “. . . who worshipped God” (verse 14). Her story, in “Acts” is brief, but interesting and enlightening.
II. A Life Transformed.
A. Paul and his fellow-laborers for the gospel were on the
second missionary journey, whose description extends from
Acts 15:36 to 18:22. The writer, Luke, apparently joins the
pilgrims just before they crossed over the narrow strait
from Troas (in Asia Minor) to Macedonia (in Europe).
This is signaled by the change of pronouns, from “they” to
“we”, in Acts 16:10): “. . . immediately we sought to go
to Macedonia, . . .” Now, Luke writes as an eyewitness to
the events he describes.
1. Luke gives a detailed account of the route they took
to Macedonia (Acts 16:11-12). The short, two-or-
three-day journey, was mostly by sea. The route
from Troas to Neapolis covered about 140 nautical
miles. Neapolis was the port city nearest Philippi,
ten miles further inland.
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2. Philippi took its name from King Philip II of
Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. It was
the eastern starting point of a famous Roman road,
the Egyptian Way, which then went west to
Thessalonica, a distance of 150 miles.
a. The city was now, in the first century, a
busy, commercial center, at the crossroads
of two major trade routes, the land route to
Thessalonica and a sea route through
Neapolis.
b. Luke describes Philippi as “a colony”
(Acts 16:12), meaning a colony of Rome,
governed by Rome and having a large
number of Roman citizens. Its government
was directly responsible to Rome,
independent of the provincial authorities of
Macedonia. Exempt from Macedonian
taxes, it was a prosperous city.
3. Paul’s usual evangelistic strategy was to
take the gospel first to the local synagogue,
because, if he went to the Gentiles first, the
Jews would never listen to anything he had
to say. But Philippi, being a thoroughly
Gentile city, had no synagogue.
4. There were Jews in Philippi, but so few that they
would not support a local synagogue. (There had to
be at least ten men to start a synagogue). According
to Jewish tradition, in places where there was no
synagogue, women could pray together in groups if
they choose to, but men had to form a legitimate
“minion” (the ten men above the age of Bar
Mitzvah) before they could have any formal, public,
communal worship.
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B. Paul and his companions learned the place where Jewish
women gathered to pray on the Sabbath, and went there
(re-read Acts 16:13). The “river” was a small stream
known as the Gangitis, just west of the city.
C. The one woman who responded to Paul’s teaching was
not Jewish at all. Lydia did worship the one, true God,
but she was a Gentile. She was a businesswoman who
sold purple dye and expensive purple-dyed cloth,
manufactured in her town of Thyatira. The rare and
expensive dye (actually more red than purple) came from
a spring-shelled mollusk called a murex. The process of
obtaining this dye had been developed in Tyre, hence the
dye was called Tyrian dye.
1. At Thyatira, manufacturers had perfected a better
method for obtaining this dye and produced a less-
expensive type similar in color.
2. The more-expensive Tyrian dye was the base color
for “royal purple,” one of the most precious
commodities in the ancient world.
3. Lydia, as one involved in this trade, must have been
a woman of some means. Since she had a
“household” (Acts 16:15) she must have maintained
a home in Philippi, with servants. This, too, points
to a woman of some personal wealth.
II. An Open Heart.
A. Do we seek God, or does God draw near to us? Lydia
represents an illustration of how God redeems lost souls.
1. From our human perspective, we may think we are
seeking God, that trusting Christ is a decision that
is within our own power, and will, to choose.
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2. While we have our own will, and a right to seek, or
not to seek, a relationship with God, when a person
opens their heart to Him, God draws near to us.
When we accept Christ as our Savior, we open our
heart to the power, and grace, of God. If God
Himself did not draw us to Christ, we could never
come to Him on our own (John 6:44: “No one can
come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws
Him; . . .”). And, in John 6:65, Jesus says, “. . .
‘Therefore I have said to you that no one can come
to Me unless it has been granted to him by My
Father.’”
B. The closed human heart is in bondage to sin
(Romans 8:7-8: “Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor
indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot
please God.”).
1. We are powerless to change our own hearts, or to
turn from evil to do good (Jeremiah 13:23: “Can
the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its
spots? Then may you also do good who are
accustomed to do evil.”).
2. The Bible portrays the spiritual condition of every
sinner as a hopeless enslavement to wrong or evil.
C. Lydia is described as one “. . . who worshipped God”
(16:14), who already knew of the one, true God, and Luke
says (verse 14): she “. . . heard us.” Here the writer uses a
Greek word meaning she was listening intently. She gave
attention to what Paul and his companions were saying.
Hers was not a closed, but an open, heart. She sought God.
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1. But, also in verse 14, Luke makes it clear that,
while Lydia was listening, it was God who drew
near to her so that she would absorb the message.
Her open heart was opened by God: “The Lord
opened her heart to heed the things spoken by
Paul.”
2. God will not change the “hardened” heart, but He
can, and will, draw close to the heart opened to
Him.
D. God’s will does not force us to believe in Him, or His Son.
Grace doesn’t push sinners, against their will, to accept
Christ as Lord. Rather, God draws an open heart to faith
and repentance and obedience. God draws an open heart to
Christ. Luke’s description of Lydia’s conversion says it
simply and eloquently. God opened her heart to believe,
and she did.
E. For her part, Lydia responded immediately. God’s power
and grace does not leave the sinner out of the process.
Lydia heard and heeded. She willingly accepted the truth
of the gospel and was baptized for the remission of her sins.
III. Conclusion.
A. Lydia’s faith was immediately evident in her actions. And
her “household” followed her lead. This word could
describe an earthly family, but we do not know whether
Lydia was married. One thing that suggests she was not is
her being involved in business. In the culture of the first
century, it would have been very unusual for a married
woman with family responsibilities to be involved in an
outside business, especially one that might require travel
from one continent to another.
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1. Lydia is really identified as the head of “her
household.” Verse 40 of Acts 16 refers to “. . . the
house of Lydia. . .” It puts her in a position of
authority and ownership.
2. She may have been a widow. But, because of her
economic situation, her “household” most likely
included servants.
B. Lydia’s was both an open heart and a hospitable heart. She
“begged” Paul and company to come to her house and stay
with her while they were in Philippi. In all likelihood, this
included more than just Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke.
Not knowing their plans, or how long they might be
staying, she agreed to provide for them indefinitely.
C. Considering what happened to Paul and Silas at Philippi,
Lydia was exposing herself to possible trouble with the
authorities by being associated with these men.
D. Her hospitality opened the way for the church to penetrate
Europe. And, Paul, Silas and others stayed in the city for
“many days” (verse 18). Lydia must be recognized, and
commended, for both her faith and her hospitality. She was
but the first of many who obeyed the gospel at Philippi.
Her house became the first meeting place of the church
there.
E. Lydia’s open heart, and her hospitable nature, produced
great results in the spread of the gospel in a whole new
area.