A heart opened to the gospel

Acts 16:13–15 ESV

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. 15 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.

IN the text today we are going to see how God prevails upon a human heart to be receptive to the gospel. It is a beautiful thing to acknowledge the work of the Spirit in a persons life that leads them to believe in the gospel.

Yet, before we can simply talk about how God saved this woman and her household, we need to see this story play out in many miraculous ways in order to understand how glorious our God is in saving people.

In fact, Acts 16 will stand out among other chapters in this book as a place where God’s divine plan being steered by his Spirit in his people is one of the best displays of his glory and power.

But today, we will continue to understand what the mission of the church was and how Pauls second missionary journey began.

If you remember last week, we saw that Paul was to carry a letter to the churches from Jerusalem, that they no longer needed to require gentile believers to be circumcised. As they are preparing to go to the churches they helped establish, Paul and Barnabas have a falling out and separate from each other.

Paul is now traveling with a man named Silas, and the story will pick up with familiar places and names that we will become much more familiar with later in the NT.

Acts 16:1–2 ESV

1 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.

So Paul is headed back to the towns that he helped start a church in, but remember these were places that ended up opposing him and even stoned him and left him for dead.

Can you imagine what it felt like for him to head back to these places? He was stoned and left for dead in Lystra. Before we can talk about young Timothy can we just for a moment acknowledge the trauma he was to face in going back to those places? We are quick to talk about the obvious ways these men suffered because it is talked about in scripture, and yet we lose the human side when we fail to stop and think about things like this. Scripture isn’t saying anything about what Paul felt internally, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t for a moment ponder what that must’ve been like for him.

And in the midst of however he felt returning to this place, he meets a young man named Timothy. We know that Timothy is spoken well of by the brothers there and his mom is Jewish and his Dad is Greek. This is not pointless information. We need to know his background because of what happens next.

Acts 16:3 ESV

3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

Wait… Hold on… Isn’t Paul traveling to strengthen the churches he started by carrying a letter from Jerusalem that says they do not need to require Gentiles to be circumcised? YES, he is.

So this seems really odd that he wants to circumcise Timothy. But please notice that Luke is telling us why. Because everyone knows his father is a Greek, and the people they are to minister are mostly Jews. And while we do not have an exact age for Timothy, the best scholars can figure is that he is approximately 18 yrs old here.

So, Paul thinks it is so important for young Timothy to be circumcised in order to come along on this missionary trip, that he is willing to do it himself. Why? What would make this so important? I think Paul explains why in his letter to the Corinthian church.

1 Corinthians 9:19–23 ESV

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Why did Paul do this to Timothy? For the sake of the gospel. For the sake of being effective with the Gospel. So this brings up an important question?

Can our lives put a limit on the effectiveness of the gospel we preach?

Now, if you have been a Christian for a while, everything in you should be screaming NO!!!! WHY? Because we know that it is the work of the Spirit that draws sinners to Christ and God that gives them faith to believe the message. And yet, we also know that we should answer, yes. And we may hate that we know there is part of it in which we should answer yes, but it is true.

Our lives can be lived in a way that will become a stumbling block to others in hearing the gospel. The witness of our lives will either point to the holiness of God or not. The things that we do can turn people off to hearing the gospel or can attract them to hearing the gospel.

And while I am not saying that our lives and the things that we do will not save anyone, because salvation is of the Lord, we must acknowledge that as ambassadors of Christ in this world, we can say and do things that will hamper the effectiveness of the message being preached from us.

What I am being careful not to say is that we hamper the gospel message. No, we hamper it from being effective being preached from us. Meaning, God can use someone else if we have been unable to be the ones to carry it to certain people.

Now, if you are hearing a LAW heavy message, I don’t think you are understanding what I am saying. It is not all about you, and yet there are things you can do that will make it impossible for certain people to hear the message from you.

And so Paul is saying that he strived to be all things to all people so that by all means some may be saved. When he says, ‘by all means’, he talking about things he can do… Things like circumcising Timothy so as not to be an offense to the Jews that are trying to reach with the gospel.

And if you still think I am weighing to heavily on that side of Law preaching, making it all about something you do as opposed to the work of Christ and the application of the Spirit, then stick with me because this story becomes far more balanced soon enough.

Acts 16:4–5 ESV

4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

So, Paul takes Timothy with him, after he circumcised him, and he continues on the journey he set out for, to strengthen the churches in the faith, and set the record straight about the Gentile believers.

Yet, the thing is, that the decision they carried from Jerusalem was for the believers in Antioch specifically. So why did they carry it to the churches in Derbe and Lystra? Well, the early church saw the decision as having a two-fold purpose. First, the decree had specific implication for the Antioch church. Secondly, the decree had principles that were of benefit to all other churches.

Why do I mention this? Well, as Al Mohler put it, “God’s word not only transcends people groups but also spans thousands of years.”

So, if it was good enough to strengthen those churches in the faith, then it is good enough to strengthen our church in the faith. This is why we read these stories and preach these principles… God uses his word to strengthen his church.

God uses his word to strengthen His church

Now they didn’t know at that time that this would be considered God’s word, but it was a decision for the church that came out of much debate and discussion and prayer. It was written for God’s people everywhere to be encouraged when they would come up against false gospel issues.

It has been used over and over in the history of the church to fight off false gospel issues, and to this day we look at these stories and find encouragement to keep the Gospel at the center of our ministry and to guard the flock from other issues that would consume them.

Back to the story, we are going to see some extraordinary things happen.

Acts 16:6–8 ESV

6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.

Couple things to notice here… First notice that the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus are both ways to talk about the third person of the trinity, God the Spirit.

It is important we understand that this is meaning the Same Spirit and not something different than the Holy Ghost.

The big question becomes, HOW? How did the Holy Spirit tell them not to go to certain places? Since the scripture does not tell us that information, the best we can do is understand who the people are and make educated guesses. Like remembering that in Acts 15 in the 32nd verse, it mentioned that Silas was a prophet.

At that point in the church the office of prophet was still in use as the written word of God was not circulated or used in their worship yet. It seems most reasonable to believe that unless told otherwise, that the prophet among them prayed and spoke on behalf of the Lord in these times.

That isn’t the important part here, because it wasn’t written out in plain words for us… so what is the important part here?

The Holy Spirit leads God’s people for specific reasons

There are very specific reasons why they were lead to not go into those regions. Before we can see what those reasons are, I want to address the idea that it was somehow unloving to not allow these men to preach the gospel in those places.

First of all in Acts 2 Luke tells that there are Jews from the region of Phrygia present. As for the region of Mysia and Bithynia, these places become Christian strongholds some years later, and even host some of the most famous councils of the early church, like the council of Nicea.

So, while they wouldn’t know it at the time, God already had a plan for those places and he had a different direction for them. Which is really the big idea here, that the Holy Spirit had a specific reason for them to go else where.

Sometimes people like to read the book of Acts and see this as a reason to proof text their decision to do or not do certain things, and use the excuse of , God is telling me to do this. And others cannot argue with them because its the big trump card.

But what becomes clear as we read, is what that reason was. They were told where not to go, but how will they know where they should go?

Acts 16:9–10 ESV

9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

One small point I need to show you before getting to the big idea here… Notice that the author, Luke goes from saying they to WE...

This is the point at which Luke joins the party on their missionary journey. He will start to tell the story from this point forward as WE were going, instead of ‘they’ were going.

Here we see that aul has a vision. God doesn’t just tell where not to go, but he gives them specific instruction on where they should go to preach the gospel.

In this case, they are in a place called Troas, which is a port town on the Aegean Sea. If you are good with Geography, they are in the area of Turkey and needing to cross over to north of Greece.

All they know is that there seems to be a man that they can tell is Macedonian, he is calling them over to help them. The only way they knew to help anyone was to preach the gospel to them. So they will set sail to go figure out who it is they need to preach the gospel to.

Acts 16:11–12 ESV

11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days.

So they sail to Samothrace, and then to Neapolis… Two ships to get to the other side of the Sea, and then onto Philippi. Why? Because the man Paul saw was Macedonian, and that was the main city in that region.

So, while they had some direction from the Lord, they still had to figure some things out to the best of their ability. It was like God told them each day where every step needed to be. Sometimes people read this and try to make it look like God is whispering in their ear at every step, but that clearly isn’t the case.

The Holy Spirit gives them direction but then they need to be obedient in order to figure out the rest. In fact that is what makes sense of the next verse, they had to figure it out on their own… I will explain.

Acts 16:13 ESV

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.

They wait till the Sabbath… WHY?

Because they know they will find Jews who are going to worship on that day. With out asking everyone what they believe they should find a group of them worshipping according the OT Law.

Now, here is historical in fo that will make sense of this part. The year before this episode, in Rome there was a decree to expel all Jews. This being a Roman province and a major city in this region meant they would tell the Jews living there that if they wanted to worship a God other than Caesar, they needed to go outside the city gates to do so.

So, that is why they would look outside the gates.. but why by the riverside?

In those days, all synagogues would be built by a water source because of the heavy emphasis on ceremonial cleansing laws. So it would be an educated guess on their part to look for Jews outside the city near the river on the Sabbath.

So again, the Spirit gave them much help but they also had to figure some things out themselves. God doesn’t just zap us with all the right info in order to do his will in our lives.

He gives us his word and we are called into a relationship with him. As we worship the Lord and live for him, he will guide our lives, and if need be he will close down certain things and open up other things for us to do. And then there are simply times you do what you know expecting the Lord to show you what to do. This story shows us all these things happening in the same story.

The point isn’t what God is or isn’t doing and saying, but rather being devoted God in all things at all times, and trusting him to make sense of everything in our lives.

It is at this point that this story gets exciting and makes sense.

Acts 16:14–15 ESV

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. 15 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.

Could it be that the Holy Spirit stopped these brother from preaching the gospel elsewhere because God had in mind for them to make the journey out to Philippi to preach by the river in a city where Jews couldn’t worship God, just to reach Lydia and her family?

YES! That is exactly what we learn from this. And this is where the story declares a beautiful truth that will finally makes you at ease with my former point that, “our lives could limit the effectiveness of the gospel we preach”...

Because we see that no matter what Paul did to Timothy for the sake of being able to preach to the Jews, it wasn’t about their work and nothing they did actually got Lydia saved… Rather is was all the work of an Almighty and Sovereign God who moves his people into position to preach the gospel and then he and he alone open their hearts to receive it.

Only God can open a sinners heart to hear the gospel message

We are given no other reason to believe that Lydia became a believer that day other than God opened her heart to receive what she heard.

It says, The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”

We do not know who else was there and received the gospel from these brothers, but we do know that Lydia did.

We also know that Lydia is a seller of purple goods, which means absolutely nothing to us, but to them it meant that she was a wealthy woman. Purple is the color of royalty and wearing purple clothing meant you belonged to royalty or some high honored political position.

She was most likely wealthy from selling goods of purple, and she was not a Jew because she is described as a worshipper of God and not a Jew. Yet she was with the Jews where they worshipped, indicating that she believed there was one true God.

Furthermore, she believed and so did her family, which is why they were promptly Baptized. She was not baptized before believing, but after the Lord had opened heart.

And finally she begs them to stay with her, and they do because they see her as being a genuine convert.

Here was a woman who was trying to figure out who God is by worshipping him with Jews, meaning she was hearing lots of Laws, like ceremonial washing to remain clean. And then came the brother who carried a letter from the jerusalem church that declared Gentiles did not need to fulfill the law in order to receive Jesus Christ as their savior. It was by Grace alone that they were saved.

The Lord opened her heart to hear this and she then believed.

This is still how it works to this day. The gospel is preached with clarity to everyone, and the Lord somehow helps some to have their hearts open to hearing it and believing. They then believe and are baptized and join the visible family of God as the church.

And just like then, the Lord still directs his people for specific reason in life, to preach the gospel to those he has waiting to hear it.

And so what… What should we glean from this?

How about that we should learn to pray in a way that looks to God to open hearts of the people we can preach the gospel to. And that we should see that things in this life either work or don’t work because the Lord may be directing into the right situation where we can encounter those whom he has marked out for salvation.

So let us pray that God would surely guide our paths in this life that we may encounter people like they met Lydia, and that the Lord would open their hearts to hearing the gospel.