Re-directed by God

May 21st 2023

Series: The Book of Acts

Sermon Title: Re-directed by God - Acts 16: 6-15

Topic: Journey through the book of Acts.

Key Passages: Acts 16: 6-15

Sermon Blurb: In today’s message we see God re-directing Paul. Sometimes God has to shift our focus and we will see how he did that in this message.

Sermon:

Hello Family Church!!!!!

Family Moment

Welcome back to our study through the book of Acts!

Last weekend we paused this series to honor the mothers in our church and it was a ton of fun!

Let me just say this….

You do NOT want to miss a week here at Family Church because you never know what kind of awesome stuff you are going to miss!

Last weekend we did some fun things to honor the women in our church and if you missed it you need to make sure to be here next mother’s day!

And Dads…..

Let me just say you do NOT want to miss father’s day!

It is going to be a fun church service to honor all men in our church!

PAUSE

Today we get to jump right back into the book of Acts.

Grab your Bible and open it up to where we left off….

Acts 16

As you are getting there….

Let me catch up any guests we have today.

The book of Acts is all about the church that was launched by Jesus shortly after his resurrection and return to heaven.

A few weeks ago we saw Paul and his ministry partner split company…..

Then two weeks ago we met Timothy who became Paul’s new protege.

And today we will see Paul leading more people to Jesus and growing those people in their faith.

PAUSE

Let’s read and then unpack somethings…..

Acts 16: 6-15 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.

7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.

9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Let’s pause there and dive deeper into what is going on here….

Look at this map of Paul’s Journey we are talking about.

Because never forget the Bible is a story about REAL people and REAL places.

Look at the bottom left corner….

Paul represents Paul’s prior missionary journey….

Then orange represents Paul’s return trip home…

Then today we are talking about the purple arrow…..

We saw the first leg of this journey two weeks ago….leaving Antioch and heading toward Asia…

Picking up Timothy in Derbe you see in the middle of the map in Galatia….

Now they are heading across Asia…now you historians are probably thinking…..ummmmmmm Asia is NOT there….

This is not Asia in the far east…

This was thousands of years ago and what was know as Asia Minor in the Roman world or today what we call Turkey….

PAUSE

But let me point something out here…..

Look at verse 6&7 again….

6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.

Does anyone notice something interesting here?

Come on work with me….anything????

God stopped them!

The Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, kept them from preaching in Asia Minor….

Why you might ask…..

We are not sure….but he did for some reason…..

But they do NOT give up….they just move on the next area.

So they head to Bith-theeen-ah but again Jesus stops them!

Again….why?????

Why would God STOP someone from preaching?

Why would God inhibit someone from hearing about Jesus?

Why would God not allow Paul to do something he was called to do?

PAUSE

Honestly….

We do not know why God stopped them….

We do not know why God closed the door.

But God did….

PAUSE

Has that ever happened to you?

Have you ever though you were following God and God slammed a door in your face….

And you had NO idea why!!!!

Maybe you ever got mad at God for that….

Let me share a story with you about a time that happened to me….

Add a story here about a time God closed a door or two in your life… and how that was hard and did NOT makes sense at the time.

Slotting 5 mins of story time here…..

Erik story on being called to Yemen and God blocking him.

Here is the point we see in the Bible and I had to learn in my life…

Sometimes God will re-direct my life and I will NOT know why.

Repeat…..

And you might NEVER know why God did not allow you to do what you thought God was calling you to do.

BUT….

But we need to trust God knows things we do not….

And we need to trust that God’s plan is better than ours….

And we need to accept that we do NOT want to walk through a door that God has closed….

Paul had to learn that.

And some of us need to learn that.

That might be why you have not gotten the promotion at work.

God might have a different plan for you.

That might be why you did not make the team.

That might be why you did not get the house you wanted to buy.

That might be why you did not get into the college you wanted to.

That might be why you did not get the job you wanted.

That might be why any number of things…..

Sometimes God has to re-direct our lives…..

And we need to trust God….even when it does NOT make sense….

PAUSE

So, Paul gets re-directed several times by God….

Let’s see what happens next…..

Verse 11…says from Troas…

Let’s put that map back up real quick…..

In the middle of the Green area of the Map is where Paul was…

He thinks he is following God’s leading on the purple line through Asia…

God keeps re-directing Paul…

He ends up right by the Agean Sea at Troas on the top left of Asia…

And he is about to set sail and stop at an island..

Then he will land in Macedonia at the top left of the map…

This is where Paul was re-directed to….

And we are about to find out why.

Verse 11…..

11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.

14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.

15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Let’s pause reading there and unpack this story because there are some interesting things in this passage to note….

First note that God re-directed Paul to a different place so that those people could hear the message of Jesus and come to faith.

It was not the people Paul thought he was going to reach…

But it was clearly who God wanted to be reached.

And Paul goes and does something interesting….

He goes and preaches to the women!

Now understand that might not seem like a BIG deal to us.

But that was a BIG deal back then!

And remember Paul was a trained religious leader.

And what Paul does right here goes 100% against the training he had before he came to know Jesus!

Jewish tradition back then would CONDEM Paul doing something like this!

Even Roman culture would not have endorsed this.

And we have said this before….

And we will again here….

Not had God elevated the position of women inside a culture that oppressed women!

PAUSE

So, Paul leads this woman named Lydia to accept Jesus.

And to me it is interesting…

Why did this make it into the Bible?

Why does Lydia get named?

Why is Lydia special?

When so many other women go un-named in the Bible….

Why was she????

Well….

Most scholar point out that she must have been an exceptional woman for a few reasons…

1st – She owned business.

She owned a purple cloth business is says in verse 14.

Again, in a Roman male dominate world….

That was not normal.

Now maybe it was her husbands and he passed away.

Or maybe it was hers alone…we do not know…..

But we know here it is hers….

2nd – It also verse 13 & 14 show she was a Jewish woman who loved God and God moved on her heart to accept Jesus.

3rd – You can see in verse 15 she led her household.

Which again….would be unique in the ancient world…unless your husband had passed away….

And I want to point something else out here….put verse 15 on the screen again….

15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home.

Look at how GOD phrased this….

God’s words….

Listen to this because this is where it can be hard for the Baptist people in the room…..

And this is something the reformed, Catholics and Lutherans will love!

Look at GOD’S phrasing on this verse…..

She and the members of HER household were BAPTIZED.

Now let me point out something…..

Look back at verse 14…..whose heart was opened by God….

Whose church….

Lydia…..

Now look at the verse on the screen….

Who was baptized because of this?

Lydia and her household….

This is not even close to the only time we see this phrase in the Bible…

We see so many passages in the Bible connected households and their children (Gen. 18:19, 31:41, 36:6, 47:12; Num. 18:11; 1 Chron. 10:6; Matt. 19:29; 1 Tim. 3:12).

Elsewhere in the Bible, entire households are referred to as being saved (Luke 19:9; Acts 11:14, 16:31).

Infants were just as much a part of the covenant as adults in the Old Testament (Gen. 17:7; Deut. 29:10-12; cf. Matt. 19:14).

And all that if you know culture back then….

If a family converted to Judaism as an example….

The ENTIRE family converted to Judaism….

Which meant all adult males were circumcised.

All young males and babies would get circumcised…

AND all slaves would….

So….I know some people struggle with infant baptism….although those same people do NOT struggle with infant circumcision for some reason…..

But passages like this clearly show…because of a head of households faith…..

Everyone in the household…..at any age…..

Are baptized…..

PAUSE

I know that pains the Baptists here to consider….

I know that excites the reformers to hear….

But we are just trying to explain things in the Bible….

And you can study deeper and we can chat if you like!

PAUSE

Now let me also point out something else about Lydia….

Lydia must have been wealthy!

Look at the rest of verse 15 again….

she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Lydia must have been wealthy, because she insisted Paul and his companions stay at her home.

To have a home meant you were wealthy alone.

To have a home big enough to house a missionary group meant she was VERY wealthy….

And you are about to see she is a very generous wealthy woman…

You will see next week at the end of this chapter before leaving Philippi, Paul visited Lydia once more.

Most scholars will point out that they came to visit her for two reasons.

1st to see the church she started…..yes you heard that correctly…..

I don’t want to get to much into next week….but you can look at head at verse 40…..

Or the people with Bibles can!

See this is why you ALL need to bring your Bible to church!

But in verse 40….you will see the come to her house to meet with other believers…..

Which again most scholars would say this was the FIRST church outside Asia Minor!!!!

Lydia’s conversion marks the start of a new movement in the Bible!!!!

Up to that point, the gospel had not gone further west than Asia Minor.

In fact, on this journey, Paul’s original intention had been to stay in Asia, but God had changed his plans, do you remember that point???

The early Christian church there, supported by Lydia, influenced thousands of travelers over the years.

When she took Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke into her house, she helped launch one of the first home churches in Europe.

The second reason they came to her was likely to get money or supplies for his further journey on the Egnatian Way, an important Roman highway.

Large sections of it can still be seen in Philippi today.

Also interesting for you deep bible people….

Thyatira was addressed by Jesus Christ in the Seven Churches of Revelation.

Revelation chapter 2.

And interesting thing for you deep Bible people to ponder….

Lydia was a leader in this church clearly….

As you study this and link to revelation see if you notice a correlation to God’s critique in Revelation….

Let me wrap things up….

Lydia's story shows God works through people by opening their hearts to help them believe the good news.

Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ through grace and cannot be earned by human works.

As Paul explained who Jesus was and why he had to die for the sin of the world, Lydia showed a humble, trusting spirit.

Lydia responded and she was baptized…

Lydia lead her family to follow her…..

Lydia brought salvation to her entire household, an early example of how to win the souls of those closest to us.

Lydia also credited God with her earthly blessings and was quick to share them with Paul and his friends.

Her example of stewardship shows we cannot pay God back for our salvation, but we do have an obligation to support the church and its missionary efforts.

The story of Lydia in the Bible is a great example of God’s providence and His care for believers.

Lydia was a worshiper of God but, like Cornelius in Acts 10, who had not yet heard the gospel.

God rerouted Paul and friends and also ensured that Lydia would be in the right place at the right time to encounter Paul and hear the good news of Jesus.

And, as Lydia heard the gospel, God opened her heart so that she received the life-giving message.

This story has SO MUCH divine intervention!!!!

We see the sovereignty of God in salvation!

As Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them” (John 6:44).

PAUSE

Let’s wrap this up with a life application today…..

And for those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church.

We love to end our messages with an application point to your life.

Something that you can take away from the message and apply to your life this week.

This week’s life application says this……

Life Application: Timothy’s mother and grandmother guided him toward Jesus. Paul continued that investment. How could you do the same as a parent / grandparent / guardian / friend / co-worker / team mate? As a result of today’s message, I will ____________________________ .

Let me encourage you to write down one simple thing you WILL do as a result of what you learned this week….

And watch what God does!!!!

Let’s Pray…..

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