Sermon Tone Analysis

Saving Lydia

Saving Lydia

, “So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 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.

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.

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.

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.”

“So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 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.

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.

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.

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.”

Luke’s account of Paul, Silas, and Timothy’s ministry in Philippi covers the rest of .

It is by far the longest record of Paul’s activity in any European city or town.

In previous chapters the focus has been on Paul’s public preaching in synagogues and town centers, but here we see that has changed a bit, it is now a pattern of individual encounters or evangelism with households.

Now we see Paul as he enters into the realm of personal evangelism.

We see salvation here emphasized, rather than the kingdom of God or eternal life, as the message being proclaimed in this city.

We see this also in , “Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

We also see this from the dubious admission for the young lady with a satanic spirit in

, “She followed Paul and us, crying out, “ These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”

So, I think we can take from this that the Greco-Roman religion was familiar with the language of salvation, but they used it in a variety of ways, which Paul’s gospel would have challenged.

These three stories in the verses 16:11-40 symbolize the kind of people encountered by the missionaries in this city.

They also show the consequences of preaching the gospel across the spectrum of Greco-Roman culture and life.

So, I think we can take from this that the Greco-Roman religion was familiar with the language of salvation, but they used it in a variety of ways, which Paul’s gospel would have challenged.

These three stories in the verses 16:11-40 symbolize the kind of people encountered by the missionaries in this city.

They also show the consequences of preaching the gospel across the spectrum of Greco-Roman culture and life.

Other people were no doubt converted, but Luke gives us only these examples, together with the households of Lydia and later the Philippian jailer.

Let us pray…

In his new book, “Get Real: Sharing Your Everyday Faith Every Day” (New Growth Press), pastor John Leonard hopes to recast the way we think about evangelism.

He says instead of cornering victims to talk to, Leonard wants us to watch for those who could use a listening ear.

Leonard thinks we should engage all people including our enemies; because this will make our Gospel-sharing efforts bear more fruit.

We all would like a clean, orderly, Christian life; but that isn’t always the case, that isn’t always real.

As individuals, couples, families, and communities sometimes we go through ugly stuff.

We really would like to avoid these messes because deep down we don’t believe Christianity makes a difference.

We really would like avoid these messes because are afraid to admit that we doubt the Gospel can help — we believe that the gospel only works for good people who have their life together.

But the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only antidote to all the problems in ours lives and theirs also.

Most of us are pretenders — pretending we are good Christians, pretending that our lives are together, pretending that we do not have challenges — but we have never truly let the Gospel into the dark places of our lives, and we avoid going into the dark places in others’ lives.

Both inside and outside the church people are looking for real and honest relationships, not hypocrisy.

The gospel of Jesus Christ offers an honest and necessary relationship with Jesus Christ himself the author of our salvation.

This relationship is what saves us and it is what saved Lydia as well.

(1) Saving Lydia requires prayer

The passage opens with the missionary team of Paul, Silas, and Timothy in the port city of Troas.

Troas was located across the Aegean Sea from Greece; it is on the western shore of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) near the site of ancient Troy.

Now remember that The Holy Spirit, whom had closed all other doors of ministry for them, had directed the missionaries here.

Now at Troas, Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia, which is on the mainland of Greece, pleading with him to “come over to Macedonia and help us.”

In response to the vision, Luke notes, , “…immediately they went to Macedonia, because they were compelled that God had called them to preach the gospel to them there.

Therefore because of God’s clear and compelling call they reacted by “…Setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace,” Samothrace which is an island in the Aegean Sea, approximately half way between Asia Minor and the Greek mainland.

They stayed there overnight probably to avoid the great hazards of sailing at night.

“…And the following day to Neapolis, which is an another port city of Philippi.

When the missionary team landed in Neapolis, Paul’s ministry finally reached Europe.

The team did not stop to preach in Neapolis, but went “… on from there to Philippi,” Philippi was the eastern terminus for the great Roman highway known as the Egnatian Way.

The Romans were superb road builders.

The major routes were graded and paved making travel and commerce easier than ever before.

The Egnatian Way extended from the Adriatic Sea to the Constantinople, the road was a major link between Italy and Asia it ran through Thessalonica and Philippi.

Now “… Philippi was a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony.

As a Roman colony, Philippi had the right as a self-governing, independent government.

They had the right of freedom, the right of exemption from taxes and the right of holding land in full ownership.

The text tells us that “…they remained in this city some days.”

As we continue with the text it says, “And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer…” It was Paul’s custom in each city that he visited to preach first in the synagogue.

As a rabbi and a student of the greatest rabbi of his time Gamaliel.

Paul was assured of getting a hearing there.

Remember to form a synagogue, required the presence of ten Jewish men who were heads of a household.

Evidently Philippi’s Jewish community was too small to form a synagogue, so in such a place they would have instead a place of prayer.

A place of prayer, under the open sky and near a river of a sea

Paul went first to a ‘place of prayer’ on the Sabbath, where he shared the gospel with the Jewish women and others who gathered there outside to the riverside.

Pastor, what is prayer?

The most basic definition of prayer is “talking to God.”

Prayer is not meditation or passive reflection; prayer is a direct address to God.

It is the communication of the human soul with the Lord who created our souls.

Prayer is the primary way for the believer in Jesus Christ to communicate their emotions and desires with God and to fellowship with God.

Prayer can be audible or silent, private or public, formal or informal.

All prayers must be offered in faith (), in the name of the Lord Jesus (), and in the power of the Holy Spirit ().

Christian prayer in its full New Testament meaning is prayer addressed to God as Father, in the name of Christ as Mediator, and through the enabling grace of the indwelling Spirit of God.

This is what Lydia and the other women here were seeking, they were seeking a direct address and conversation with God.

Paul wrote, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” ().

Worry about nothing; pray about everything.

Prayer develops our relationship with God and demonstrates our trust and utter dependence upon Him.

The text tell us that missionaries sat down, which is the normal posture for teaching began to preach and teach to the women before them.

The fact that Luke here only mentions women is further evidence of the small size of the Jewish community at Philippi.

Lacking a man to lead them, these women met to pray, read from the Old Testament law and discuss what they had read.

To be taught by a traveling rabbi such as Paul was no doubt a great blessing and a rare privilege.

Isn’t it ironic the first people Paul preaches to in Europe were women?

So many times Paul is falsely accursed of being a male chauvinist by those who reject his teaching of the role of women in the church.

, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.

For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

When Paul says, “I do not permit.”

Paul is self-consciously writing with the authority of an apostle; rather than simply offering an opinion.

Paul here is offering context for his apostolic instructions to the church for the ordering of church practice when the church is assembled together.

Within that context, two things are prohibited: (1) Women are not permitted to publicly teach Scripture and/or Christian doctrine to men in church, and (2) women are not permitted to exercise authority over men in church.

Women are allowed to teach other women, and children; both which are encouraged elsewhere in Holy Scripture.

, “And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Then there is passage in on women teaching children.

, “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”