It began with Lydia
Acts 16:11-15 · Vern Peterman · Feb 25, 2018
Acts (2017-18), No. 53
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926198505504

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. As we step our way into Acts 16, 11 through 15 that Courtney just read for us here. We'll be taking a look at a little bit of a look back and then to kind of give us some continuity and bring people forward. Secondly, looking at some of the background to this passage. So anyway, let's move into it.

One of the things that we brought up previously Is that after a sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas? We find that Barnabas took his cousin as it turns out John Mark to the island of Cyprus, which is where Barnabas was from and Apparently spent some very productive time with him. We'll actually take a closer look at that in weeks ahead here and then Paul, rather than having John Mark with them, rather than having Barnabas alongside, picked up Timothy, and so Timothy ends up being a very critical person in the New Testament. We'll talk about him in a bit shortly.

So the sharp disagreement between the two of them, though it could have been a train wreck, It turned out to be very purposeful and very useful, and more people were built up and restored as a result of that than would have been the case had they simply gone with the original plan that Barnabas proposed. One of the points we made also was that Timothy was half Jewish. He was born of a Jewish mother and a Greek father. Apparently, Timothy's great Jewish grandparents didn't care a whole lot because it was actually a prohibited Marriage to have this Greek father and the Jewish mother, but they didn't care and so they put this marriage together Timothy and Timothy's Grandmother however were believers and did bring things to Timothy out of the Old Testament.

So we have this fellow, Timothy. Timothy, as we're going to see in the weeks ahead, is a very pivotal, critical person throughout the pages of the New Testament. Not only are we going to see him more as we go through the book of Acts, Timothy is listed either as a co-author or included within 10 of Paul's 13 letters. So this is significant. Timothy is right alongside For most of Paul's letters, and where he is not included, there's reason for that, and we can touch on that as we go through it. So we'll be looking much more closely at the life of Timothy as we go through. We know more about Timothy out of the New Testament than we do most of the apostles.

It's very interesting that the Lord would design things that way. You have on page one of your handout this map of Paul's second missionary journey. This traces it starting in Jerusalem, heading up to Antioch, going through Cilicia and then Galatia and then on into, as we introduced last week, Troas. And then we'll see today that Paul, having been guided by the Holy Spirit, guided by the Holy Spirit, is then traveling into Philippi.

This is the establishment of the first church on what we call the European continent. If you came to Paul and said, hey, you started a church on the European continent, he'd say, what? Yeah, I wouldn't have any idea. So that's our term, not theirs. But nonetheless, it was by direct guidance of the Holy Spirit that Paul did not go up to Bithynia or Northern Galatia or Cappadocia, Pontus, as you see marked on the map there, but rather instead was directed to go over to Philippi, in that direction, and establish churches on the European continent.

Here's Acts 16, 11-12, Therefore putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony, and we were staying in this city for some days. So, one of the things we pointed out is they went from Troas.

Troas was the New Testament era name for, I'll say, the general area, not the precise location, but for what was Troy, and that's where the myth of the Trojan horse came from. Most of those myths originated somewhere around 1200 BC in their historical background here. And so this Trojan horse story that we have coming from the Greeks comes from the city that was there, later called Troas. Here you have a map that zeroes in on the quarter of the page that is relevant to where we'll be looking at here.

So you look at Troas, you find Troas just slightly right of center. And so that's where they started. They went from there to Samothrace and then from there to Neapolis and Philippi. So this dramatization shows them on a rather small boat. They may have gone something like this or perhaps even something larger, we don't know. Here's Samothrace.

What's really interesting is one of the reasons they'd head for it is easy to see. It is a small island that, believe it or not, the top of that mountain is about the same elevation as Denver. A mile high for a small mountain. So really astounding. So they would aim for that because you could see it from quite a distance.

Even if things got a little misty or foggy or something like that, you could see it from quite a distance and stay oriented. heading for there, and then from there heading over to the mainland. Samos means the heights, so are mountains, so the heights are mountains of Thrace. That's the meaning of it.

So they headed over from Samothrace over to Neapolis. Neapolis was right near Philippi. It was the coastal city, not that big actually, but Neapolis means new city. So that was the term they headed there, but they were ultimately aiming for Philippi, as we'll take a look at shortly. Here's Neapolis. It's again right on the coastal area and there's everything from ancient to everything in between buildings there at Neapolis.

They got to Philippi. Philippi had been a Roman colony established in the century right before the New Testament era. Philippi is an amazing sort of place. It's one of the places where the archaeology, where the old city of Philippi is very visible and a lot of it has been restored in some degree so that you can recognize it.

What you see is the roadway. In fact, if you look carefully, you can see a little car going along there. That's the old Roman road. All they did was say, hey, the Romans did so good, all they have to do is pave it. And so that's the old Roman road. This side of the road on there, you'll find that's where the pagan temples were.

Right there on this side, this picture is taken up on the mountainside. The mountainside had two particular purposes. One, it was a place to bury people. So lots of various headstones and monuments and that kind of thing. The other thing, it was a place of mines. And if you worked in the mines, it was good to be near a headstone. It was that bad. The average age of a miner in those days was about 25 years. Not so good. As a matter of fact, one of the threats that they would make to the slaves is, if you don't behave yourself, I'll send you to the mines.

So here's Philippi looking from up on the mountainside. Mines, headstones, the pagan temples. Then what you see, and we'll be taking a look at this next week, what you see right in the middle, and extending across the center, that's the marketplace, or sometimes called the Agora. This is where Paul and Silas were, as we'll see the account next week. This is where Paul and Silas were when they got themselves into some trouble with the Roman victors. In the back there is a bathhouse and gymnasium.

So anyway, in addition to that, Philippi also had, and this is a well restored one, but Philippi also had a good theater and was not only for dramatic presentations, but was also used as a place to do various kinds of military demonstrations and things of that sort. It's one of the reasons why the Apostle Paul could use a lot of athletic terms and military terms and even Roman colony terms, as he wrote to the church at Philippi, Philippians, as we're accustomed to calling it. So he first went there, as described here in the passage we're just starting to read here now, and he wrote the book of Philippians just over a decade later. Here's another shot of Philippi, looking a little closer to the Agora, or the marketplace, with the bathhouse there, background and so for an archaeological site it's fairly well preserved and partially restored.

One of the things we also see in this passage are more of the terms we and us. We began seeing that last week, from the beginning of chapter 16 to the end of the book of Acts, not continuously, but often on, and quite a bit, you see the pattern of words used we or us, reflecting that Dr. Luke is with them. And so starting from probably Troas to this point here, getting over to Philippi, we'll see that Dr. Luke is with them. There is some debate. Dr. Luke went to a medical school, obviously.

There's one in Philippi and there's one in Antioch. And so that's a conflicted tradition. We don't know which one he went to. I personally And we'll take a look at it. I personally think that it's very likely he actually went to the medical school in Philippi and may even have been from there. But we'll take a look at that later.

The passage has the we and us references. He's there with Paul and Silas and Timothy and perhaps other believers as well who are at this point unnamed. But he starts writing like that, and so we can tell, at least from this point on, much of it is first person. That is, he's including himself among those who are there with him.

One of the things we'll find out as we go through with Dr. Luke, he is faithful through thick and thin, as we say. Dr. Luke would end up writing the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. Between those two fairly long New Testament books, he wrote more than a quarter of the New Testament. So here's a guy who was unlike much of the New Testament. He was not Jewish, from what we can tell. He was a God-fearing Gentile, the appearances are. One who had a respect for Judaism and then being presented with the gospel, became a Christian believer. Paul calls him the beloved physician.

This is Colossians 4.10.

Near the very end of Paul's life, he wrote that he had sent various ones to different ministries. One of the things we pointed out, for example, Titus was sent to Dalmatia, that is also called Illyricum. And that is a place, I was talking with Lindy, she'll be going on a boat along the coast. There right next to Dalmatia and Illyricum. You'll see that on the map. It's on the front page. There is Delmata. That was the Roman name There were some who fell away even Demas was one who was mentioned earlier and was said to have gone off with the world Only Luke was with him. He wrote. Okay. So here's dr. Luke sticks around when the going gets tough Sticks around when you really need him.

He's there and So here's Philippi, it's a Roman colony, chosen to represent Rome locally. If a place was called a Roman colony, they had certain privileges, we'll talk about that in a minute, but it was to have someone represent Rome locally. You guys are Romans, you're to represent Rome, you are to be Roman to the core, and you are to represent what our empire is in that city.

One of the rewards is that many of them would get a tax-free status for being in that colony. Often those colonies were established with two to five thousand men. This one was prominently Gentile, very few Jews at this point in time, and we'll see further evidence of that as we step into it here. So here's Philippi.

It's been established as a Roman colony. People hear the word Rome or Roman or something like that. I am Roman, and boy, they just snap too. That just really resonates with them. It's a well-developed city at that time. It is decades old. not an ancient city.

It has an agora, a very well-marked out, very well-established marketplace. It has a theater, as we saw, which is also used for military and athletic purposes, as well as pagan temples. Those are the temples that we saw on the near side here of the roadway. On the mountain above were the mines and gravestones with pagan markings. It's really interesting.

Today, with gravestones, people have all sorts of things that are marked on gravestones. A lot of them very simple, some of them somber, occasionally humorous. I've even seen pictures of gravestones shaped like Harleys and things like that. Well, here on the gravestones, they would have various kinds of pagan markings, and you could even hire the Thracian Horseman Association to come and escort your loved one's soul into the netherworld, right? So all these markings went along with this very pagan viewpoint where what happened in the netherworld was very uncertain and you wanted to make sure that got done right.

Here's Acts 16.13, and on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside where we were supposing there would be a place of prayer We sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. So this is very interesting. Several things about it we want to make note of here.

First, what does it take to make a synagogue? How come they're meeting out here at this river? It took, according to the tradition of the Jews, and of course if it was a tradition it was law, right? Ten adult Jewish males required to form a synagogue, and if you didn't have one, then the typical thing was to get by a riverside or some substantial natural feature. You know, here's a huge rock, here's a large tree, something that would mark, here's where we get together. Right?

In this case, they chose a river. There's apparently not the ten Jewish males, as required. And while there may have been men, there were certainly not very many of them, and they're not even made note of here by Dr. Luke. So the Jews who are present by are along the...

Now, here's an interesting pronunciation thing. Gangites is one of the things I've seen, or Gangetes. And the Greek name for river is Potamos. That was one of my nicknames when I was in high school. Anyway, so to pray together there, but it didn't necessarily have to be Jews. You could have God-fearing Gentiles who would also come there, right? And those Jews who were gathered there, most significantly women apparently, and perhaps only women except this time where Paul and his companions come.

So Acts 16.14 And a certain woman named Lydia from the city of... Now, here's another pronunciation. Thyatira or Thyatira, I hear both. I've never talked to anybody from Thyatira or Thyatira to get it checked out. So, I don't know.

So, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshipper of God, was listening and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. Now, one thing is these Purple items, that was kind of a summary term for things that were purple, scarlet, crimson, red, and all of those were expensive. The dyes were particularly one of the reasons why any of those fabrics were very expensive.

The scarlet dye was made from Mirex shells, and that's likely the one we're talking about here in Act 1614. They would go out and collect myrix shells, thousands of them at a time, and grind them up. That would be the source of the scarlet dye. Crimson dye was made from the eggs of a crimson worm. So they'd go around to an oak, they'd look for these nodules, and they'd look to break them open and get the eggs out, and then they'd use that for a dye.

So, I mean, these things were like, wow. But no matter how you did it, it was very expensive. It was very expensive. So, what you have here is the Greeks gave the Phoenicians their name. Phoenicus, red ones, because the Phoenicians were the ones who made the purple dye from the Myrax shells like these. So this is a tradition passed along from earlier centuries. Up to 10,000 shells were needed for one gram of purple dye. That's a lot of shells. a gram of dye was worth five to ten grams of gold.

Isn't that amazing? So this is very expensive stuff. So for Lydia to be a seller of these kinds of materials meant that just even get into the range of being able to afford that. She was a woman of substantial means. There's one other thing, and this is an area where we can check Dr. Luke. Was Dr. Luke correct in his stating that there were prominent women in certain places? The answer is, ding, yes. He was correct.

In some areas of Galatia, and in this part of Macedonia, women had a more prominent role in society than in the rest of the Roman Empire. This may very well be one of the reasons why Lydia would see the opportunity and move to this area. Where she was from, she would not have the opportunity that she had here. A woman would not own a substantial business like this. A woman would not be able to speak out and to lead except in this area or parts of Galatia.

So Acts 13.50 talks about the prominent women. This is in Paul's first missionary journey with Barnabas.

And then we'll see again, we get twice into Acts 17. Prominent women are mentioned again, and every time Luke gets it right. The location of where he talks about where the prominent women were or were from is right spot on. He gets it right every time. But this would explain a few things.

Lydia, a woman, sold very expensive purple goods, ordinarily in their own empire. That is not happening, except for these areas. She was from Thyatira, however you wish to pronounce it. She was from there, but that's not where she was operating her business. So she may have had some resources and seen the business opportunity by moving over here to Philippi. So she had some resources for production, but in terms of her being someone who could actually make a big business out of it and go and sell purple goods, this was the right move for her. She was a worshipper of God, so likely she was a God-fearing Gentile, rather than Jewish. We do have records of other women named Lydia from this area, by the way.

Everything seems to fit, and everything seems to fit the explanations there. It says the Lord opened her heart, It is critical that there be a work of the Lord in the heart of a person so that he or she will believe. By the way, if it wasn't for the Lord's work, would any of us believe? Nah. No, it is because of the Lord's work that we believe. Jesus described the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of unbelievers in John 16, 5-11. And we'll look at that shortly here. Because of the work of the Lord in her heart, she was responsive to what Paul had to say, which was to present the gospel of salvation to her and to the others. So here's John 16, 5-11. Jesus is speaking, and by the way, this is towards the end of the Last Supper. Jesus is, by this time, possibly even on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane.

But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you ask me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

And He, when He comes, that is the Helper, the Holy Spirit, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me. And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. Sin, righteousness and judgment. But it's the work of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit has a ministry with unbelievers. This is it. This is the description. The Holy Spirit has a different ministry with you and with me.

Here's Acts 16.15, 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. So, not only did she come to the Lord, but she also was then hospitable. She very, very likely had a large household. So, Lydia and those in her household, it says. So, basically, she responded and all those in her household with her, which may have included other relatives, servants, those kinds of things, responded in faith to the gospel. who were baptized to picture the salvation they already had. They were not baptized so as to receive salvation by means of baptism. See the distinction there? An important one. They may have been baptized right there in the river Gangites or Gangetes, depending on how you like to pronounce it.

Lydia, being a seller of purple, had a substantial business and dwelling to offer Paul and his companions. I'd like you to come stay with me. I've got dozens and dozens of rooms, plenty of options for you. Here would be an example of a Roman villa. We don't know exactly how her place was configured, but it could have been as substantial as this. just rather amazing. It would be another one. And so this kind of a structure would be the sort of place where there are plenty of places for them to stay. And so she offered it and they received it.

One of the things we've been talking about in recent weeks and even months here is God's will. And so one of the things we pointed out last Sunday as well as previously is there are three kind of circles that we use to diagram God's will. The outer circle is God's sovereign will, which is fixed and irreversible, and includes your position and possessions in Him, that is, in Christ. So these are things that God has set in place. These are going to happen. God's moral will is revealed in scriptures, intended to be lived by the life of Christ.

And finally, God's individual will consists mostly of learning to make wise decisions with godly wisdom rather than worldly wisdom in dependence upon the Lord. So we presented last week, and we'll go over them briefly this week as well, principles of knowing God's will. Now, one of the things we found is that there are certain methods of revealing God's will that were presented in last week's passage that were particular to the era of the apostles. And so we'll take a look at some principles that apply to us in our era.

And one of those is the principle number one. The first principle in finding and knowing God's will is to walk in fellowship with Christ, abiding in Christ. One of the points we made, and we will make again, is the word principle means a fundamental truth or the way things work or both. Fundamental truth or the way things work or both.

So the first fundamental truth and the way things work in finding and knowing God's will is to walk in fellowship with Christ. Secondly, the will of God is not about looking first for the direction where to go, but to Him. There is a tendency for Christians sometimes to go try to find the yellow brick road, or the golden path, or some such thing, as if that's what God primarily is interested in. He wants us to have a focus upon Him as primary, not, I've got to find the yellow brick road.

Principle number three, God may indeed use circumstances to lead and guide us, both negatively and positively. Don't go here. But the circumstances are not a substitute for fellowship with Christ, Jesus, or His Word. Principle number four, God has also provided those who may counsel us in areas where they can bring in their experience, foresight, and insights into God's Word, or their expertise in specific areas of life.

Okay, and then principle number five, if we're walking in fellowship with Christ and are seeking guidance from his word, godly counsel, then if God does not seem to provide direction, because you ever have that happen, or you hear people describe that? I'm looking for God's will, and God just isn't saying anything, you know?

I've seen the other where people get hunches. Oh, I just asked the Lord what he wanted me to do and the light just turned green so therefore he wants me to do, you know. No. Anyway, people can sometimes kind of get off in the wrong direction with that. God may in fact be leaving the choice to us if he's not made it clear that I want you to go this way instead of that, right? Finally, principle six, even if we follow principles one through five, we should not expect that God's will is going to be proven out by our path, being free of trials, obstacles, pains, and challenges. And that, principle six, is a big... Shoot the pop-ups. Okay. Do I get points? Pow! Okay. So anyway, here we go.

One of the things, and I've seen it happen, I've even seen pastors and churches get off on this, where something bad has happened, it means God doesn't want you to go there, He's punishing you or something like that. If things are going along smooth and everything's great, then it means you're doing the right thing. And it isn't necessarily the case. What we see in this particular instance in the book of Acts, chapter 16, is a very good case in point.

Things at Philippi started off pretty well. You hear about any wrinkles? Not so much. They go down to the river. There's this lady, Lydia, who happens to be, probably we would say in their terms, fabulously wealthy. And she is also responsive here. And she's got plenty of places for them all to stay.

Paul, Silas, Timothy, Luke, and any others who might be with them. But things are going to get pretty rough for Paul and Silas very shortly. Specifically those two men. We'll also see that the terrible circumstances Paul and Silas find themselves in do not mean that they're outside of God's will. Or that their terrible circumstances are the end for them.

I gave you a little bit of a foreview. What they would commonly do in the prisons, and where they're going to put Paul and Silas, they would have a kind of a hole dug back into the side of a rock face, about the size of a dishwasher, and they'd shove your tail side in there. And by the way, hadn't necessarily cleaned up from the last guy who they shoved back in there, right? They'd shove your tail side back in there, and they'd put the bars across and lock your hands and your legs on the bars that went across, and there you sit. At that, Paul and Silas start griping.

Do they go, whew, whee? No. Singing. Wow. So this is amazing stuff. But because the circumstances are bad, and we can certainly understand if they at least griped and groused a bit, but they didn't. Even though the circumstances are going to be bad in next week's passage.

Oh, by the way, they're going to get a, how do I call it, a Roman massage. You know what a Roman massage is? That's where they masseuse. It gives you a very deep massage. very quickly. So, you're going to get that. The Lord opened Lydia's heart to listen to and respond to the gospel. Her hospitality to Paul and his companions was God's gracious provision for them. Hey, this is great! It must be in God's will, right?

What will follow in Philippi will not be at all pleasant for Paul and Silas. They follow in their Roman massage to get this hole the size of a dishwasher that stinks. As a matter of fact, Nancy and I were there in Jerusalem with Courtney and Ingrid. We went into a prison that had not been used for a while, but it still smelled pretty bad. Anyway, that would be like the place where Paul and Silas were, only things would be a little more fresh. This will be what God uses in their lives and in the lives of the jailer and his household, and it will have eternal impact. So, we're going to take a look at that.

One of the key things as we look at principle number six is just not to instantly draw conclusions about, oh, circumstances are good, I must be in God's will. Circumstances are bad, I must be out of God's will. No. That's not a proper conclusion. And we thank you, Lord, as we look at these truths.

These are lessons to be learned, sometimes tough ones for us. And we thank you that they're there. There's truth there in scripture. These are truths that are valuable for us as individual Christians, as parents guiding children, other influences that we have as grandparents and as aunts, uncles, etc. We just thank you for the truths that are revealed here and for the valuable truths that we're going to gather from next week's lesson. And we just give you thanks and we pray in Jesus name. Amen.