The Lord Opens Hearts to the Gospel based on Acts 16:9-15

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I. Read Acts 16:9 and comment on vision. Our first Bible reading today from Acts 16 tells us about a vision that the apostle Paul had. The vision was a man from Macedonia saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9). The vision in the night was something that Paul thought of as a message from God. Immediately Paul and his co-workers set sail for Macedonia. They concluded that this was the next area that God wanted them to preach the Gospel.

We are not told if this was an angel. We are not told how Paul knew this man was from Macedonia. We do not know if this man had special clothing that identified him as a Macedonian. The message of the vision was a simple one. “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” This area of the world is an area we call the nation of Greece today.

II. Need to hear the message and Romans 10:14-15. The people of Macedonia needed to hear the message of the good news about Jesus. They did not know about the saving work of Jesus. They needed someone to tell them this important message. Romans 10:14-15 tells us, “14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” We would not know about Jesus unless someone told us like our parents or our Sunday School teachers or our pastor. God still works through people to tell the good news about Jesus to others.

III. Line from hymn and Luther’s Small Catechism. I like the line in the hymn (“Hark, the Voice of Jesus Crying”) we sang earlier, “If you cannot speak like angels,/ If you cannot preach like Paul,/ You can tell the love of Jesus,/ You can say He died for all.” We do not need to be like angels or Paul to tell others about the amazing love of Jesus who died for all. The message is more important than how the message is delivered. Simple words about the love of Jesus can change the lives of people dramatically. The real power behind the words is the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings people to believe in the sacrificial work of salvation Jesus has accomplished for us. Martin Luther’s words in the Small Catechism remind us, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the one, true faith.”

IV. Urgency of Paul and his co-workers. Paul and his co-workers went to the area of Macedonia right away. They believed that God wanted them to tell people in Macedonia about Jesus. They ended up in the city of Philippi. Since there must not have been enough Jewish men there to start a synagogue (at least 10 men were required for a synagogue), Paul and his co-workers went to a place of prayer outside the city by a river.

V. Read Acts 16:13-14 and comment about Lydia. The writer of Acts 16:13-14 tells us, “13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”

The place of prayer might have been a small building or a place where people gathered to make their requests and thanksgivings known to God. No other men are mentioned as being there. A group of women were there. One woman in particular was singled out. Her name was Lydia. She was from another city named Thyatira. She sold purple goods that were expensive to make and buy. She was likely a wealthy woman. She also was a worshiper of God. She knew about and believed in God, but she did not know about the saving work of Jesus. Paul talked about the love of Jesus to her. “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention” to the words of Paul.

VI. Read Acts 16:15 and comment. The writer of Acts 16:15 lets us know: “And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.’ And she prevailed upon us.” Lydia was baptized and the members of her household were baptized, too. We are not told if she had children or not. She must have had a fairly large house for Paul and his co-workers to stay with her.

VII. Conclusion. There are still people around us that maybe believe there is a God, but do not know about the love of Jesus. Some of those people might be grandchildren or friends. Some of those people might be strangers we will only meet once and never see again. Since we believe in the saving work of Jesus on the cross and through the empty tomb, we have gospel good news to tell others. The hymn we sang earlier began, “Hark, the voice of Jesus crying,/ ‘Who will go and work today?/ Fields are white and harvests waiting--/ Who will bear the sheaves away?’

Loud and long the Master calleth;/ Rich reward He offers thee./ Who will answer gladly saying,/ ‘Here am I, send me, send me’?”

We might be tempted to think that someone else could do a better job of telling others about the love of Jesus. We might be tempted to think a pastor or a teacher or a professor could do a better job of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. The truth is there are certain people that we meet that might not meet any other Christian. You do not have to preach a sermon about Jesus or write a commentary about a book of the Bible. Some people do that with the gifts God has blessed them with. Many other people use simple words about being a sinner in need of forgiveness and about Jesus paying for that forgiveness with the blood He shed on the cross. Those simple words can be used by God’s Holy Spirit to open the hearts of people to life changing words of the good news about Jesus. The hymn we sang recently ends with these good words to consider: “Take the task He gives you gladly,/ Let His work your pleasure be;/ Answer quickly when He calleth,/ ‘Here am I, send me, send me!’” Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.