CONVERSION OF LYDIA

The churches of Christ Greet You (Romans 16:16)

Please read with us a lesson from the sixteenth chapter of Acts of the Apostles, beginning with the sixth verse. The writer, in speaking of Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy (who made up the apostle's company) says: “Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis; And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days. And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, if ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.”

Thus we have read to you the inspired account of the conversion of Lydia and her household. In studying any case of conversion recorded in the New Testament, for the purpose of understanding fully the subject and method of conversion to Christ, we think it wise, as we have done in examining two preceding cases, to look carefully first at the person who is the subject of the change.

Let us see if we can form a clear and distinct idea of the woman here introduced, previous to the time that the apostles came into her presence. We think this will be well worth all our study, independent of the question of the process of conversion. We think you will find it true all through the Bible that every woman introduced in Scripture in any conspicuous way, is a remarkable one ‑ remarkable for some striking virtues, or for some equally striking vices, and therefore well worthy of our consideration in studying human character.

This woman, when she was introduced to us, was not at home. She was a woman of Thyatira, a city in Asia Minor, even now a town of many inhabitants, mostly Turks and Arabs; and she is presented to us in the city of Philippi, about three hundred miles away from her home, across land and sea. We find her a businesswoman, engaged in selling purple cloths. The purple dye was the most costly known to the ancients, and consequently it was never applied to cheap goods. Only the most costly fabrics were dyed purple; consequently, to be arrayed in purple and fine linen, was to be rich; and the Emperor was sometimes referred to as the man who wore the purple.

She was not then engaged in a cheap business that required no capital. If she was employing her own capital in purchasing and selling these goods, as is most probable (for the modern system of traveling salesmen had not been introduced), then she was a woman in comfortable circumstances. Yet she was dependent, apparently, upon her own womanly exertions for her livelihood, having no husband, brother, father or friend to depend upon, or, if she had, preferring to be independent.

Now we have known a great many business women, and we have very frequently found that their business contact with the ungodly world, struggling and pushing, and working all manner of selfish schemes, each to get the best of another, has often robbed them of some of the more delicate traits of womanly character, and they are frequently worldly women with very little religious character or sentiment. We wonder if business relations in a heathen land had such an effect upon Lydia.

We are told in the very brief account we have of her ‑ brief, but extremely suggestive ‑ that she worshiped God. Nobody in that city worshiped God, except as the result of Jewish education and training; all the rest were heathen. Lydia, then, was either a Jewess of Thyatira, or one of those devout women who, having attended the Jewish synagogue had been made a convert to the Jewish faith. We are not able to determine by the brief statement of the text, which of these is her true position, and we presume it makes no difference. She worshiped God!

Many a man who professes to be a Christian in our cities and all over our land, in all the different lines of business, labors through the Lord's day like any other day, when it is customary for men in his line to do so. He claims that he is compelled to do it in self‑defense. Lydia was not a woman with this type character. When the Sabbath day came, her house of business was closed; it remained closed all day long. There was no back door into that store; she and the women, whom she had employed with her in the business, could not be found there. They had left home, and left the town, and gone outside of the city to spend the Sabbath.

On the occasion mentioned in our text, they were out there at a place of prayer, spending the holy day on the bank of the stream which flows close by the walls of the city ‑ doubtless under the shade of overhanging trees. From the fact mentioned that Paul supposed there was a place of prayer out there, we have reason to believe that this had been the custom of that group of women for a considerable time past.

Lydia, then, was a woman of business; she was a woman of fidelity to her God, whom the temptations and competitions of trade could not seduce from the faithful observance of the law of her God. This was true even though she was far away from home among strangers where there was no Jew perhaps in all the city to carry back a report of her dereliction’s, had she been less faithful to the Lord than she was. Now we have known men and women who conduct themselves with great propriety when they are at home where everybody knows them. But if you could put on an invisible coat and follow them when they are far away in some great city, where they think nobody knows them, you might be astonished. Although there seems to have been no synagogue in Philippi, and no men there to assemble together and conduct the usual services of the Sabbath, still, Lydia and those women that were with her resorted to this place of prayer as faithfully as though the elders were there to conduct the service.

There is one remark made in connection with the conversion of Lydia that should attract special attention, and that is the statement that the Lord opened her heart. Have you ever raised the question, what was the defect in Lydia's heart that required the Lord to open it? One gentleman said, "Why, of course, Lydia, like all other unregenerate persons, was totally depraved , and it required a direct divine influence upon her dead soul to awaken her so that she could hear the word of the Lord preached with profit." This man was not well acquainted with the high and grand religious character of the woman, putting to shame many a Christian woman of the present day. Whatever may be true, then, of the doctrine of total hereditary depravity, if Lydia had ever been in that condition she had certainly well gotten over it at this time. Still, there was some defect about her heart, so that in order to bring about her full and complete establishment in Christ Jesus our Lord, her heart must be opened. Now to open the heart is a figurative mode of expression. The heart is compared to something that is closed up; something that is narrow, contracted; and it must be opened, or expanded with grander and nobler feelings.

Have you in your congregation a member noted for penuriousness? Suppose some preacher were to address the audience in a very powerful and telling way in behalf of some charitable institution, and you see that brother, who usually puts only a nickel into the charity box, throw in a twenty dollar bill; you would say, He has opened his heart; or, That preacher has opened that brother's heart. You mean by opening the heart, that the heart which had been contracted and narrow has been filled with a grander, nobler sentiment than usual; and haven't you noticed, whenever some grand, heart‑swelling sentiment gets possession of you ‑ haven't you noticed your chest heave and expand, sometimes finding vent in overflowing tears! We think it likely that this physical sensation first suggested the figure of opening the heart.

When an apostle would come before a congregation of such Jews and present the humble Jesus, point to His having established a kingdom not on earth, but one spiritual and eternal, it shocked them fearfully - shocked all of those ambitious feelings of the Jewish heart; hence Paul's saying that Christ crucified was a stumbling block to the Jews. Now that was a defect in their hearts. Lydia had it; and Peter had it until he was brought to the house of Cornelius. That feeling had to be removed from Lydia, or she would reject the Gospel. When it gave way, she welcomed into her heart this crucified Messiah.

There is another question about the opening of Lydia's heart which is worthy of a moment's passing notice; that is, the effect of it. The remark that “the Lord opened Lydia's heart that she attended to the things spoken by Paul,” is very commonly understood to mean that it enabled her to listen favorably to the Gospel which Paul preached; but that is a mistake. Our text reads differently. The first statement about her is that Lydia "heard us.” That includes the fixing of her attention upon all that was said. The second statement is, "the Lord opened her heart." That was subsequent to her hearing. Then the third is, that she "gave heed to the things that were spoken by Paul.” Now there were certain things appointed for every person like her to do, and she gave heed to those things. She believed what he preached. She repented of whatever sins she knew herself to be guilty of; and she was baptized; then the text says "when she was baptized, she entreated us to come into her house." The result of opening her heart was that she gave practical attention to the duties prescribed for her, having heard already, before her heart was opened. There is the simple story of this good woman's conversion to Christ.

The question might be raised, what need had she of being changed at all? Would not she go to heaven if she died as she was? Perhaps she would, if Christ had not been crucified and ascended into heaven, and if the law had not gone forth that men should believe in Him and obey Him, in order to obtain the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. But that had been the established law of heaven for quite a number of years. And it was necessary, if Lydia, under the Christian dispensation, should be saved, that she should hear of Christ, believe in Him, and come to Him as the mediator between God and men, to obtain the forgiveness of her sins. This she did at once ‑ as soon as she heard the Gospel message.

But we are not yet done with the subject of the opening of Lydia's heart. The statement of the text is that the Lord opened it. And there has been a great deal of speculation as to how the Lord did it. Many people, as soon as they read a statement of that kind, imagine a direct exercise of God's power upon the heart, and we are sure if there is any case of conversion recorded in the book of Acts where we would expect God to proceed in that way, if He ever does, this case of Lydia is the one. For observe, while she was going out from Sabbath to Sabbath praying on the bank of that river, there was not a preacher of the Gospel on the continent of Europe in which she lived. There was not one who was able to tell the story of Christ, within hundreds of miles of where she resided. So if God ever does open the hearts of men and women whose prayers He is hearing, to bring them entirely into harmony with the divine will, without the preached word, we should expect it to be done in that instance. But it was not done. On the contrary, the text clearly reveals to us a deliberately laid out method that God pursued, in order to reach the heart of that woman, and we are now to trace it.

It was a most interesting sight to God and angels to see that group of women every Sabbath day. No faithful, true‑hearted men or women ever assembled to worship God, especially under trying circumstances, that it did not interest every intelligent being in the heavenly world. God heard those prayers, and be determined (to speak in the human style), to answer them. He does not begin to work for the salvation of Lydia, as He did for the Ethiopian eunuch, by sending down an angel. He does not begin, as in the case of Cornelius, by sending her an angel and telling her where to send for a preacher; but He begins this time by working on the preachers in a different way.

Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy were at this time traveling together and preaching through the different districts of Asia Minor. Did you notice that geographical sketch that we read in the text? These geographical sketches, when we come to them, are sometimes, like genealogical tables, regarded as very dry reading. But when you come to such a passage as that, you should always raise the suspicion in your mind that it is dry because you do not see through it. Nearly always there are some most precious truths imbedded in those dull passages in the Scriptures.

The preachers had finished their work in Phrygia and Galatia, and they resolved that they would next go down and preach in the district then called Asia, of which Ephesus, where Paul afterward preached nearly three years, was the principal city. But the Spirit of Jesus, dwelling in these inspired men, said, No, don’t go to Asia. Paul could not understand why this was. Then they consulted, and sought to go into Bithynia. Now Asia was off to the left; Bithynia off to the right. But the Spirit would not suffer them to go into Bithynia, so, as they had finished up all behind them, and were not allowed to go either to the left or to the right, they moved straight forward.

And passing by the little district called Mysia ‑ passing it by in the sense of not stopping there to preach ‑ they struck Troas, on the shore of the Aegean Sea. They had gone as far as they could without a ship. And if they take a ship, where, among all the seas, will they go? They were thoroughly nonplussed; and they wondered, no doubt, as you and I would wonder, why this mysterious overruling by the Spirit of God? But we can see it. God was hearing those prayers over on the bank of that stream, and He was working to get these preachers there.

They went to bed that night puzzled, and in the night Paul has a vision. He seems to see, away across the sea, standing on the shore of Macedonia, a man beckoning to him and calling out, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." Of course this was impossibility, but we often see impossibilities in our dreams. The next morning Paul tells of his vision, and Luke says, we concluded that "God had called us to preach the Gospel to them;" that that was the reason we were not allowed to go to Asia, or Bithynia. The Lord wants us over there. So, says Luke, "Straightway we sought to go forth into Macedonia.”

The expression, “We sought to go," is well chosen here; because they could not go down any day to the rivers edge and get on a steamer bound up or down the river. Very seldom would there be a ship in that little town of Troas; and when there was, it would not usually be sailing to Macedonia, but to some one of the great cities, like Athens, or Corinth, or Ephesus. So, they "sought to go," and when they went down to the wharf, there was a ship. We suppose they called out, just as you and I would, "Where is this vessel bound"? "To Macedonia," is the answer. "Can we get passage on it?" "Yes." "When will she sail?" "Today. Come on board, if you wish to go." And they went on board.

The vessel weighs its anchor, is soon out in the open sea, and here comes another expression of the author which you must notice. The truth is, dear friends, you are never safe in overlooking a single word when you are studying the Bible. That expression is, "We made a straight course to Samothrace." You cannot make a straight course on a sailing vessel, unless you have a favorable wind; otherwise, you have to tack. The wind was blowing in the right direction. If you will read in the twentieth chapter, you will find that when they sailed back over that water, it took them five days. Now they ran it in two days, and that shows that the wind not only blew from a favorable quarter, but that it was blowing a stiff breeze. Today, some might be heard to say, “What good luck!” Was there any luck about it? Oh! we can see so plainly, and Luke saw it afterward, that the hand which holds the winds and guides the mariner over the sea; the hand which had guided that vessel into the port of Troas, was guiding it now, to bear those preachers onward in answer to the prayers of those women. God had been hearing those prayers, and was preparing to answer them. He was working for the opening of Lydia's heart.

A stranger may come to your city to spend a night. There is a prayer‑meeting over in that church building; there is a theatre over here. To which will he go? That depends on who he is. Paul and Silas, as soon as they heard there was a prayer‑meeting, did not hesitate. When they arrived, they sat down by those women. Oh! The simplicity of those apostles! Paul did not put up a temporary pulpit; he did not hunt around for means of giving dignity to the meeting. They all sat down on the green grass, or the bare ground, and we have wondered why the women did not get up and leave when those strangers came and sat down by them. It must have been because they could see in the faces of these men that they were not the kind of men to be afraid of. They allowed them to sit down and begin to talk; and what a talk it was! No formal sermon, but a plain conversational deliverance to these pious and godly women, of the wondrous news of a glorified Redeemer, who had been slain and buried, but was now sitting on the throne of heaven, ruling over heaven and earth for the church.

Now then, when it is all through, when Lydia and those women accept the truth and are baptized then and there without delay, showing how willing they were to walk in the way of the Lord, Luke looks back over the journey, the long, weary labor, the doubt and the uncertainty, and he sees it all explained. The Lord was hearing the prayers of these women, and in all of these strange movements He was simply reaching out toward the heart of Lydia and the others, that He might open their hearts to receive and obey the Lord. Is not that wonderful? That arm, which moves the universe, is moved often by the prayers of very humble creatures; while heaven and earth and men are moved about under the guiding band of God, to answer those prayers.

Does God ever do anything like this for you and me? It is the word of the Lord that conveys to our hearts the mind and power and will of heaven; but how did it happen that that particular preacher preached to us? How did he happen to be there, and how did we happen to be there, when our heart was opened? If you had an inspired writer, his mind enlightened by Him who sees all things, you might have as strange a story written about yourselves as was recorded about Lydia. We imagine that wherever in the broad earth there is a poor soul in darkness and struggling for light, sacrificing self in order to please God, God has an eye on that person; He hears those prayers, and He will overrule and overturn and direct, until the truth shall, some way or other, reach that soul.