Supplemental Lesson 9
by
Steve Bryant
Read Acts 16
One of great truths of the Biblical drama is that no one’s life is
insignificant or unimportant. God values and loves every person that He has
created. And believe it or not, that applies to ordinary people like you and
me. Here’s another truth that comes from the human experience: Often times,
we mistakenly believe that since we are all ordinary people, that God would
only do ordinary things in our lives and through our lives.
But I would urge you to go back to the very beginning. Do you remember how
God created the first man and the first woman?
With the man, God took the dust of the ground. Nothing but dust! That which
sends us to the allergist for relief. God took dust, and from it, He formed
an extraordinary creature.
With the first woman, God took a leftover rib out of Adam’s chest. A rib
bone! The kind of thing you and I would make our dog do tricks over. God
took a rib bone, and from it He fashioned the most beautiful,
extraordinary, and complex creature in the entire Universe!
He started with dust and bones, and He added to it His divine breath and His
unending love. He put in a little bit of Himself – in His own image – and He
ended up with people worth dying for.
This is your story too. Just an ordinary run-of-the-mill kind of person, but
if you let God touch you, and recreate you, you become extraordinary in His
sight and through you, He will do extraordinary things. He takes things as
ordinary as dust and bones, and people like us, and He transforms it all
into glorious and wonderful and loveable creatures. The point of the Gospel
is that in Jesus Christ, we can be transformed!
Think about Lydia. Her story is found in the 16th chapter of Acts. Paul had
come to Philippi in his missionary travels. It was a city of Gentiles,
wonderful folks, many of whom were seeking God. But they did not know Him.
The God of the Israelites was not known to them, and Jesus was yet to be
revealed to them. But they, like many people in our culture today, were
seeking. We’re told that Paul encountered a group of women down by the
riverside. To them, the river was a place of prayer. It’s that way in many
religions. For the Hindu people it’s the Ganges. For the early Native
American people it was the mighty Mississippi. For Christians, the Jordan is
a sacred river. So, Paul knew he’d find seekers by the river’s edge.
I picture her standing above the group of women below who are listening to
Paul. She listens more intently and begins to make her way toward him. He
speaks to them of a God whose love for them was so great that He would send
His own Son to die for them, and that they too can have the gift of life
everlasting if they believe.
Like a man who stumbles over a treasure hidden in a field…
Like a woman who desperately searches and finally finds that one lost
coin…
Like a wayward son who discovers that his father still loves him….
She too makes the discovery of a lifetime. It all makes perfect sense.
Lydia’s search is over. God has found her through the preaching of Paul. She
runs home and tells her whole household, and leads each and every one of
them to the preacher at riverside. And there, Lydia and her whole household
were baptized.
Now, if all we knew about Lydia was that she was seeker who responded to the
Gospel and led her whole family into a relationship with Christ, that would
be enough. She would be a great role model for all of us. She would teach us
about the joyful responsibility to share our faith with family. But that is
not all we know about her. There is more.
We know this: The moment Lydia rises from the waters of baptism, and climbs
up that muddy river bank, she does so with the distinction of being the
first European Convert to Christianity! Did you realize that? It’s true. The
first European convert, which means that most of the Presbyterian Women I
know can trace their spiritual roots back to Lydia.
What else can we learn about this woman whose place is so prominent in our
spiritual family tree? Well, we know that Lydia was a purple merchant. There
was a certain purple dye extracted painstakingly, drop by drop, from a
shellfish that came from the Indian Ocean thousands of miles from Philippi.
The dye was literally worth more than its weight in gold. Purple fabrics
were worn by the rich and the powerful. Any shade of purple, from deep to
lavender, was the rage. Needless to say, purple merchants were typically
fabulously wealthy people. And such would have been the case with Lydia.
There are some other clues that help us learn more about her. She is one of
the very few women in the Bible whose name is not identified with a man. If
she was a widow, we would have been told. She is simply Lydia. She isn’t
known as someone’s wife. She stands on her own. Are you beginning to get the
picture? Lydia is a strong, successful business woman. Some commentators
suggest that when Acts refers to her ‘household,” we’re not talking about a
husband and children, but her servants.
All speculation aside, Lydia is a woman of means, a professional who has
worked hard and even gone against the grain of her culture, and she has been
richly blessed. And like so many women and men, who have worked hard to
build a business or a career, like many who have labored hard to attain a
certain level of social standing, like many who have fought hard to get
where they are in life, there is still, deep inside, something which compels
you to the river’s edge, or to the prayer group, or the Bible study, or the
worship service. Because, in the final analysis, none of the success, none
of the material gain, has the power to satisfy the hungry soul. Saint
Augustine said it in a prayer 1600 years ago: _’Lord, our hearts are
restless until they rest in Thee.”_
And that really touches on something else we learn about Lydia: Christ
entered into her life and brought that sense of fulfillment and completion
that she was seeking after. Christ did not tell her, that in order to be
faithful, she would have to give up her influence and her success and her
wealth. Instead, He showed her its ultimate purpose.
Acts tells us that she invited Paul and his companions into her home.
Probably something off the pages of Mediterranean Living. The 16th chapter
of Acts tells us that Paul went from her spacious home to a small dank
prison cell. They arrested him because he set a little slave girl free from
the evil that had haunted her. God sets Paul free from prison through a
miraculous earthquake, and where does he end up? Back in Lydia’s home, where
Paul was _encouraged by the brethren_. That’s the language of the church.
That phrase lets us know that something has happened in Lydia’s home! It’s
now a church. 2000 years ago, the place of worship for the Church was
virtually always in the home. There, in Lydia’s home, the church of Philippi
was born. Not just any church, but the church of Philippi! The church to
whom Paul wrote his most joyful letter! The church which was clearly Paul’s
most favorite of all! No doubt, Lydia had that kind of influence upon them.
What a great person! Remember Lydia.
God honored her seeking, and found her by the river’s edge.
God’s grace in Jesus Christ put the pieces of her life’s puzzle
together.
Serving the Lord became her purpose and joy. She realized that she had
been so richly blessed, so that she could be a blessing to others.
And she could never begin to image how her faith has touched generation
after generation.
Closing Prayer
_Lord, give us a riverside of fresh encounter. Satisfy our seeking with
truth from on high. Breathe into these ordinary bodies once again,
transforming the ordinary into the conduit of extraordinary grace.
Invigorate us with a shower of Your mercy, love, and truth. And let us, like
Lydia, discover the meaning and purpose of the innumerable and immeasurable
blessings You have bestowed upon us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. _