Acts 16:9-15
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.
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.
In preparation for this sermon, I wanted to look up an article I recalled several years ago about a janitor donating several million dollars to some organizations after they passed away. I did not remember the school off the top of my head, when I searched online for the school, I found out that this had happened multiple times.
In 2014 Ronald Reed of Brattleboro, Vermont passed away at the age of 92, his estate donated $4.8 million to the local hospital and $1.2 million to the town's Brooks Memorial Library.
In 2004 Genesio Morlacci, gave $2.3 Million to the University of Great Falls in Montana. I started searching some more and saw many interesting occupations leaving multi-million-dollar donations to institutions and no one even knew these people had that kind of money. Everyday people who minded their own business and worked quietly like Thessalonians says. You never know what anyone is capable of, or what they can do if given the chance. There is someone that was very capable of doing big things in the book of Acts, that many people would have looked over but the Holy Spirit had another plan.
The Book of Acts follows the outgrowth of the Christian Church after Christ has ascended. In the text, we are following Paul around, and this story is funny because there are many times Paul’s trip to Macedonia almost did not happen. Paul was not trying to go to Macedonia. First, there were not a lot of Jewish people there. There was controversy about even preaching to Gentiles in the first place, then Paul and Barnabas disagreed on where to preach next, so they split ways, then Paul wanted to go to Asia, but the Holy Spirt kept blocking him from going. Paul has a vision of a man telling him to come to Macedonia,
Ancient Greece was composed of two Roman provinces: Macedonia in the north and Achaia in the south. Philippi was founded in 356 BCE by Philip of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great) but remained an insignificant village until it was “rediscovered” by Emperor Augustus as an ideal place for retired army officers who had faithfully served him during the battle of Actium (31 BCE).
Macedonia was a town made up of elites, land-owning farmers, pensioned colonists, skilled workers, merchants, service providers, and enslaved people. One of the citizens was a successful businesswoman named Lydia, and Acts tells us that the “Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul” (v. 14). She accepted the good news that Paul was sharing, and both she and her household were baptized. Then she offered them hospitality, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home” (v. 15). And they accepted.
We know Lydia is important because she had a name. Think about the nameless women in the Bible; there is a story in Matthew, Mark, and Luke where Jesus healed “Peter’s Mother-in-Law.” Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood. Jesus healed Jairus’ daughter. Do we remember Lot’s wife? What about Pharaoh’s daughter? We admire the generosity of the widow with two mites, and we talk about the woman at the well; we just don’t know their names. However, we know Lydia’s name. Lydia is a Greek name, not a Jewish one, so she was not born into the faith, which is also evident because the text calls her a worshiper of God. Sometimes in the New Testament, you see words like “God-fearing” or “worshiper of God” we read without passing. Still, in Greek, they mean that the person wasn’t born a believer that they learned about God later and started trying to follow Him, still got treated differently by some church people because they were not born into the faith and living it all their lives.
We also know that Lydia is not at a synagogue; they called it a house of prayer; you needed a certain number of Jewish men in the area to make a quorum for a proper synagogue, and Macedonia didn’t have enough of a Jewish population to make the cut. Nevertheless, Lydia is still there by the water, looking to worship the Lord.
Lydia was a business owner who dealt with purple cloth, which is important because the only people that wore purple during that time were royalty and powerful people in society. Everyone could not just wear purple back then because they liked the color. Lydia had a business, and it was a successful business with high-end clients. Lydia also had a house; the text says that Lydia said to come to my house, not my husband’s house or my son’s house, come to my house. Lydia became the very first European convert to Christianity. She was received into the Christian faith with no concern about purity, past, or even gender.
The believers baptized Lydia and her household (v. 15). Back then, when the head of the house was baptized, so was the rest of the family, the spouses, children, workers, enslaved people, and everyone followed the head of the household. An excellent scripture to have if someone is trying to get ordained and needs a scripture reference for baptizing infants. Then she opens her house as a base for Paul and his companions, insisting that they stay there while continuing their work in Philippi.
Lydia established in the Book of Acts one of the most vital churches. Lydia was an outsider, a stranger, an immigrant even.
In many congregations, welcoming strangers from foreign lands and unfamiliar cultures is a challenge. Across America today, immigrants are coming to church, just as they always have. But where previous waves of immigrants were predominantly European, these new arrivals are coming from non-Western countries with cultures and skin colors more alien to white Americans than that of Europeans.
Sometimes, these newcomers rattle established churches by introducing new worship styles. New worship styles are not always well received, but if we want the church, both this church and the worldwide church, we will have to talk to some strangers.
The first step in overcoming this challenge is to expand our outreach to people of different races and cultures, based on the understanding that everyone is made “in the image of God,” according to the book of Genesis (1:27). “When you meet another person,” says author and pastor John Pavlovitz, “you are coming face-to-face with a once-in-history, never-to-be-repeated reflection of the image of God. … If God is God, there’s no other option: they are each made of God stuff. … Every single day you encounter thousands of breathings, animated thumbnails of the Divine.”
Whether black, white, Asian, European, African, Latino, or Native American, a person is made in the image of God. In the eyes of God, everyone is welcome.
Next, we need to practice genuine Christian hospitality, showing the same kind of welcome that Jesus showed the people of his day. We do this by sitting down with folks on the margins of society, just as Jesus broke bread with “tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 9:10) — the scrub bulls of first-century Israel. Such a welcome requires a commitment to embrace all people as God has embraced us in Christ. It involves a willingness to see everyone as a child of God, a sinner for whom Christ died, a person bearing the image of God — no matter how obscured that image might be through personal sinfulness or societal prejudice. Lydia did this as well; she opened her house to Paul and the others.
Who are some Lydias that we can bring to our tables? Lydia had a lot to offer, and had people been sticklers for rules and traditions; she might not have ever been a help to the church.
Genuine hospitality is practiced when we learn to offer meals where people can gather around tables for conversations, leading to the development of relationships. And a genuine welcome is experienced when newcomers join small groups where they can grow in faith and deep-spirited friendships.
We must listen for our call to Macedonia and go out and find our way for the church and the kingdom of God. Who are the Lydia we can invite to church, who are the people who we wouldn’t normally speak to that could use Jesus?
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