Life of Paul Part 30 - Is Being a Worshipper of God Enough

Well, good morning everybody.

Hey, it's wonderful to see you. How about taking a Bible, let's open it together to Acts chapter 16, if you would please. Today we're going to look at the life of a lady named Lydia. Lydia has the distinction of being the very first person ever to trust Jesus Christ on the continent of Europe. So look at her story, and then after looking at her story, we want to see what that has to do with your life and my life here in the 21st century.

Now a little bit of background. Remember that the Apostle Paul has put together a new team to go out on what we know of today as his second missionary journey. It was Paul, Silas, Timothy, and then of course Dr. Luke who was practicing medicine in Troas and decided to stop doctrine and start preaching with him. Luke and his team has reached Troas on the northwest coast of Asia Minor, and there Paul has a dream where God makes it clear God wants him to sail across the Aegean Sea and over to Europe to begin in the province of Macedonia. So Paul does that, and that's where we pick up the story here in verse 11. From Troas, we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace and the next day on to Neapolis, and from there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony, and the leading city of that district of Macedonia, and we stayed there several days. Here's Neapolis, the port city of Philippi, the island of Samothrace part way across, and Paul said we landed at Neapolis and then walked the 10 miles from Neapolis inland to the city of Philippi. Now the road that Paul walked on is the road called the Ignatian Way. It was actually a Roman road that connected the Eastern Roman Empire with Rome itself, and if you didn't want to sail to Rome, go by sea, the way you went by land was beginning here at Neapolis on the Aegean, overland to Dyrrhachium on the Adriatic, and then sailing across on a little ferry to Brundisium and on to Rome. This is the road that Paul took between Neapolis and Philippi, and interestingly, the road, many long sections of it, are still there 2,000 years later. You can go walk on the Ignatian Way. When these guys built the road, friends, they built the road. No potholes, no splits.

We ought to get them to come build the roads in D.C. is all I got to say. But anyway, that road is still around. Now what happened when Paul got to Philippi? Well, verse 13, on the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate to the river where we expected to find a place of prayer, and we sat down and began to speak to the women who were there. Paul's standard operating procedure was to go to the Jewish synagogue in any new town, but there was no synagogue in Philippi.

There weren't enough Jewish people to have one. So instead, he went looking for whatever Jewish people there were, and he knew they would be down by the river because to do the Jewish rituals and prayers of the Sabbath, they needed water to do certain ritual washings. And so they were down by a little brook, a little stream that runs outside the ancient city of Philippi. That stream is still there today. It's called Lydia's stream, and there's a little open amphitheater. You can go down there, you can meditate, read the Bible and pray.

It's still there today. That's where Paul went and met these ladies there. Verse 14, and one of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God.

And the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. Now there are four things we find out about Lydia from this passage. Number one, the Bible tells us that originally, Lydia was a native of the city of Thyatira.

Thyatira was a city in the Roman province of Asia, modern day Turkey, about 50 miles north of Ephesus, about 100 miles south of Troas. And the women of Thyatira were world renowned for their dyeing industry, their purple dyeing industry. They made purple dye from mollusk shells. It took 8,000 mollusk shells to make one ounce of purple, and these ladies were famous the world over for the purple that they produced. In fact, in the Iliad, the Greek poet Homer actually mentions these ladies talking about, and I quote, the purple dyeing practiced by the women of Thyatira.

Lydia was from this town. The second thing we know about Lydia is that Lydia imported and retailed this purple cloth in the city of Philippi. Now remember, in the Roman world of this day, purple was worth its weight in gold.

The only people who were allowed to wear purple clothing was the emperor himself, Roman senators, high ranking Roman military officers, Roman aristocrats, and Roman government officials. But verse 12 tells us that Philippi was a Roman colony, meaning that there were all kinds of Roman big shots like that here in this city. So there was a market for purple in the city of Philippi, and what Lydia did is she got all her friends back in Thyatira to ship it to her, and then she retailed it.

She's a businesswoman. Number three, we learn that Lydia was financially quite well off. To trade in this kind of expensive commodity, Lydia had to have a lot of capital at her disposal, and then we're going to learn in just a minute she had a house that was so big in Philippi that not only did it put up her husband, her children, her servants, but she was able to put Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke up as well.

This woman did just fine for herself, thank you very much. Number four, we know Lydia had a serious desire to know about God. The Bible calls her a worshiper of God. The apostle Paul finds her down by the river here praying with these Jewish ladies because there was a sincere desire in Lydia's heart to connect with this God.

Now the critical question for the morning that we need to ask and answer is this. Sitting down there by that river, did Lydia already have eternal life? Did she already have a place in heaven? Were her wrongdoings already forgiven by God? Was she already a child of God before the apostle Paul showed up and shared with her the information about Jesus Christ that he did?

The answer is absolutely no. She had none of these things. The Greek word that's used here, a worshiper of God, the Greek word sabamene, literally means a fearer of someone, someone who stands in awe of somebody else, somebody who does homage to somebody else. It's used eight other times in the New Testament and in none of those cases does it ever refer to a true believer in Jesus Christ. It refers to people who have a warm, fuzzy feeling about God.

It refers to people who are open to God, sensitive to God, maybe even seeking God, but never once does it refer to someone who has crossed the line and embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Now Lydia had never embraced Jesus as her personal savior because she had never heard of Jesus before. And the apostle Paul shows up, tells her about Jesus the Messiah, and Lydia decides, as verse 14 says, to respond to Paul's message and to give her life to Jesus Christ.

Suddenly, man, the deal was closed. Suddenly the process was complete. Lydia was no longer just a fearer of God. Now Lydia was a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Now Lydia was a possessor of eternal life. Now Lydia was a new creature in Jesus Christ.

And man, was she excited. She ran home and she led her husband to Christ, her children to Christ, all her servants to Christ. Verse 15, then she and all the members of her household were baptized. She brought the whole shooting match back down to this little river and said, Paul, we want to all get baptized, the whole shooting match of us.

Can you do that? And after this, she invited us, Paul, Silas, Timothy, Luke, to her home and she said to us, if you consider me now a believer in the Lord, come and stay here at my house. And she persuaded, literally, she forced us. You say, well, that sounds kind of weird. Why would the Bible say she forced them?

That's the reason. Friends, whenever the apostle Paul went to any new city to start a church, you can read about it in his letters, he did not accept financial contributions from anybody in that city. He would not accept hospitality from anybody in that city because he was afraid that people would misjudge his motives.

They would wonder, are you here to help the sheep or are you here to fleece the sheep? And so therefore, he always worked for a living as a tent maker. He always stayed in his own rented places because that way he kept everything clean. And it's clear he tried to resist this woman. He did not want to stay in her house. But friends, this lady was in sales. You understand what I'm saying? This woman must have been a closing machine, is all I can say, because she convinces the apostle Paul to change his mind and to move in with her, which is what he does with the whole team. And this is where we're going to stop today. But you know what?

Paul is going to figure prominently in the ministry of the apostle Paul in the years to come. We'll talk about that when we get there. That's as far as we want to go in the passage because we want to ask a really important question, the most important question about Lydia's experience that we've seen today. And you all know what it is. So everybody ready? Everybody ready? Here we go.

One, two, three. So what? All right.

You say, Lon, so what? I'm happy for Lydia. I think that's neat. I'm glad she came to Christ. She's the first believer in Europe.

I know it for Trivial Pursuit. Big whoop. What difference does this make to me? Well, I think that there's an incredible lesson in Lydia's experience for you and me. You know, I had a lady in my office not too long ago, and she said, Lon, I got to tell you, I simply cannot accept the fact that unless a person embraces Jesus Christ as their personal savior, unless a person accepts Jesus and what he did for them on the cross, that unless they do that, they have no chance of going to heaven and no chance of having eternal life.

I can't accept the fact that a sincere Buddhist, a sincere Muslim, a sincere Hindu, a sincere Jewish person, a sincere Aborigine or pygmy, if they're as sincere as they know how in following God in the religion of their choice, I cannot accept the fact that God wouldn't allow them into heaven if they're as zealous and sincere as they know how to be. Well, you know, there are a lot of people in our world who believe just like this lady does. In fact, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there were some folks here this morning sitting in the audience who say, well, I agree with that lady. Well, friends, people who hold this opinion, they would look at Lydia here in the Bible and they would say, you know what, Lydia was just fine before Paul ever showed up. I mean, she was down there practicing her Jewish faith with a zealousness and a sincerity that had her down at the river praying on a Saturday morning. She didn't need the apostle Paul to come into town and evangelize her. That woman, if she'd have died down there by the river before Paul ever showed up, she was just fine with God. She would have gone to heaven. She would have had eternal life because she was just as sincere and just as zealous as she could be in following her religion and seeking after God.

This is a very popular opinion. The only problem with this opinion is that the Bible says it's just flat wrong. You know, the Bible says sincerity is not the basis on which God dispenses eternal life. The Bible says that zeal for God is not the basis on which God lets people into heaven. As a matter of fact, the Bible declares without apology that the only basis upon which God dispenses eternal life and God lets people into heaven is on the basis of personal faith in Jesus Christ, personal reliance on the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And as a matter of fact, the Bible actually comments to this issue of zeal for God and sincerity for God when it's separated from a true faith in Jesus Christ.

And listen to what God says about this. Romans chapter 10, verse 1. Paul writes and says, My heart's desire and prayer to God for my Israelite brothers is that they obtain eternal life.

They don't have it yet. For I can testify on their behalf that they have a zeal for God. You will never meet a person with more zeal for God than an Orthodox Jewish person. Paul says, I testify to that.

I agree to that. However, their zeal is not based on knowledge. It's not informed zeal. What do you mean by that, Paul? Verse 3. They do not understand the righteous standing that God offers to give people as a gift. Instead, they are determined to try and establish their own righteousness by their human religious activity and zeal. Well, Paul, what's the problem with that? If they're as zealous as they can possibly be in seeking God in their own religion and their own human activity, what's wrong with that? Romans chapter 3, verse 20. No one will ever be declared righteous in God's sight by human activity.

That's what's wrong with that. You can be as zealous as you want in human religious activity. Nobody's ever going to be right with God like that. But, the Bible says, and here's the great news of the Bible, but God offers to give us a righteous standing in His sight, free, as a gift.

You say, well, how do you get it? Verse 22 of Romans 3. This righteous standing with God comes through faith in Jesus Christ's blood to everyone who is willing to believe.

Folks, Catholic, Baptist, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, animal, vegetable, or mineral, doesn't make one bit of difference. The way God gives out eternal life, the way God gives out a righteous standing in His sight, the way God grants people entry into heaven, the Bible is clear, is based on personal faith in Jesus Christ, personal reliance on the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross, and that is the only way God gives it out. The rest of the Bible agrees with this. John chapter 14, verse 6.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody, there's our key word, nobody comes to the Father. Nobody gets eternal life and gets into heaven unless they come by way of me. Acts chapter 4, verse 12. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven.

Not Buddha, not Confucius, not Mohammed, not Rabbi Schneerson, not Joseph Smith, not Mary Baker Eddy, not Miss Cleo with her tarot cards on television. There is no other name under heaven by which we can be delivered. John 3, 36. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ has eternal life.

Whoever does not believe will not see eternal life, but rather God's judgment resides on that person instead. Friends, God is not illogical. God does not do nonsensical things. And if Lydia was fine without Paul ever coming to see her, if Lydia had eternal life just the way she was, if everything with Lydia was great and she was already on her way to heaven, why in the world would God take Paul half a continent, have him sail across the Aegean Sea to meet her and deliver information about Jesus to her if she was perfectly fine just the way she was? That's illogical.

That's nonsensical. God doesn't do that. The truth is Lydia was not fine just the way she was before Paul showed up.

She was part way through the process of gaining eternal life, but she would never have been able to close the deal with God had the apostle Paul not showed up and given her the information about Jesus Christ that he did. Let me see if I can explain this to us a little different way. The Bible says that there are two ways, two kinds of information that God has imparted to the human race about himself, two ways that he's done this. The first we call general revelation. General revelation comes to the human race through creation, through the physical world around us. There is information in the physical world around us about God that God has put there for the human race to see. Here's what he says, Romans chapter 1 verse 20. For God has made known to mankind since creation some of his invisible qualities.

Which ones? Namely, his eternal power and his divine nature. And how am I supposed to learn that about God?

Well, it's learned by means of what God has created. What this verse is telling us is that any thinking person ought to be able to look around at the trees, the stars, the oceans, the complexity of our own human body and figure out there's got to be a God who made all of this somewhere. That's why Psalm 14 one says the fool has said in his heart there is no God. All you got to do is just look around. Of course there's got to be a God. And you know, if you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your real and personal savior, my appeal to you is this. Please do not let the secular public education system of America educate you beyond your intelligence.

Don't let them do that. You don't really believe, do you, that there were carbon atoms, nitrogen atoms, oxygen atoms floating around in the abyss and suddenly lightning struck them and everything you see came from that? You can't possibly believe that.

If you do, you have been educated beyond your intelligence. Folks, it takes more faith to believe that than it does to believe there's a God somewhere who made it. And all God wants you to do if you're here is look around. The first step in coming into a relationship with him is to simply look around and say, my goodness, there's got to be a God.

I don't know who he is or where he is, but all of this stuff just doesn't pop up out of nothing. The next time you see a tree, the next time you see the stars, the next time you watch your human body in action, God says there's a message there about me. Now Lydia done this. Lydia looked around and figured out there's got to be a God. That's why she's down at the river praying, hoping somehow to connect with this God. The problem with general revelation is there's not enough information there in trees and stars and water and the human body to allow us to close the deal with God.

It'll get us part way, but it won't finish the job. And that's why there's another whole area of information about God, revelation that God has given the human race, and he's given that information to us in what we call the B-I-B-L-E. This is called special revelation. That is information about the person and the work of Jesus Christ, about his deity, his virgin birth, his death on the cross, his sinless life, his resurrection from the dead, God's offer to give us eternal life as a gift if we simply trust Christ. And friends, before we can close the deal with God, before Lydia could close the deal with God, we've got to have special revelation. We've got to hear the information about Jesus Christ so that we've got the raw material we need to make the deal with God for eternal life. Now if a person responds correctly to general revelation, they look around like Lydia did and they go, wow, there's got to be a God somewhere.

I wish I knew who he was. God takes it as his personal responsibility to get that person special revelation so they can close the deal. Didn't he do that for Lydia? Didn't he take Paul and take Paul across an entire continent and the Aegean Sea to make sure she got the information she needed to close the deal?

Yes, he did. And he does that for people all over the globe every single day. Lydia was not just fine. She needed what the apostle Paul brought her. And you say, but Lon, maybe God in his mercy sometimes will exempt this system. I mean, does a person always absolutely have to know about the person and the work of Jesus Christ in order to close the deal and have eternal life?

The answer from the Bible unequivocally is yes. Listen to what the Bible says, Romans 10, 13. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, like the thief on the cross did, like Lydia did, will be delivered, will be forgiven, will be granted eternal life.

However, there is a proper way that we have to go through in order to call on the name of the Lord and make this deal work. The next verse explains it. Romans 10, 14 says, but how can a person call on Jesus Christ if they haven't believed in Jesus Christ? And how can a person believe in Jesus Christ if they've never heard of Jesus Christ?

And how can a person hear about Jesus Christ unless somebody goes and tells them about Jesus Christ? Verse 17, consequently faith, the kind of faith that works, the kind of faith that closes the deal, the kind of faith that brings us eternal life. Faith comes by hearing the message of Jesus Christ. And the message is heard by means of the information that God has given us in the Word of God.

I don't know how God could say it any clearer than that. What this means is that no matter how sincere a person may be, no matter how religiously zealous a person may be in some religious system, we can't close the deal with God and get eternal life unless, number one, we hear the cognitive facts about Jesus Christ from the Bible. Number two, we embrace those facts in our heart as true. And number three, we then decide that on the basis of those facts, we're going to transfer our trust off of our own human religious activity, off of our own human religious effort as our way to get to heaven. We're going to transfer our trust off of that, which is what Lydia did, and onto what Jesus did for us on the cross, which we've just heard about now. That's how we complete the deal, friends. That's how we close the deal with God and get eternal life.

And how in the world are we going to hear the information we need to do this? Well, folks, we're going to hear it the same way Lydia did. Somebody comes and tells us.

If you're here today and you're a follower of Christ, if you're here today and you know the minute you die here on earth, and you're going right to heaven, let me tell you why you know that and why you're in the incredible position you're in today. It's because somebody at some point in your life told you about Jesus Christ. Your mama told you. Your daddy told you. Your Sunday school teacher told you. Your preacher told you.

Billy Graham told you on television. Somebody at work told you. Somebody in the neighborhood told you. Somebody on the metro told you. Your son told you. Your daughter told you. Somebody told you. And that's why you're where you are today in your relationship with God.

You couldn't be there any other way. And let me just say to you, the people that are all around you at work, in your neighborhoods, in your families, who are like Lydia, they're not right. Things are not okay between them and God. And the only way they're going to get okay is for them to respond to the cognitive facts about Jesus in the Bible. And the only way they're ever going to hear it is if you and I open our mouths and we tell them.

That's the only way it's going to happen. You know, I had a lady who comes. She comes to our church here. She's from Israel and she just recently gave her life to Jesus in Christianity 101 a couple rounds ago. So she came up to me a couple of weeks ago after the service and said, you know what? I'm going back to Israel for Passover.

In fact, she's back in Israel right now. And she said, I think I'm going to tell my mother and my father. I'm going to break the news that I believe Jesus is the Messiah. She said, but you know, it's a little scary. And I said, well, yeah. I mean, I remember when I went through that 30 years ago, getting ready to break the news to my parents. And I said, there's a big part of you that says, oh, maybe not this visit. Oh, maybe not this time.

But, you know, you can't give into that. I said to her and I'll tell you why. My dad's in heaven today. My mom's in heaven today. My only sibling, my brother, is on his way to heaven today.

And you know why? It's because when they got ready to close the deal with God, they had the information they needed. And the reason they had the information they needed is because I told them that's how they had it. And I said, if you don't go tell your mom and your dad, you may be the only person in the world who could ever tell them that. If you don't go tell them, you are robbing them of the information they need to close the deal with God and get eternal life. Now, whether they're willing to do it or not, hey, that's not your business. But if you don't tell them the information they need, they'll never be able to do it even if they are willing. You've got to go tell them, and their soul is worth a little bit of embarrassment. If you're a little embarrassed and you're a little scared, their soul's worth it. You tell them. Well, I'm confident that she's over there doing that.

But, friends, that's true of everybody you know and you care about. Of course it's a little embarrassing to do this sometimes. Of course we're a little nervous. Don't you think Paul was a little bit nervous down there at Philippi by the stream? I think he probably was a little bit nervous. But he knew Lydia wasn't okay. He knew none of those women were okay. And he knew their souls were worth a little bit of embarrassment and a little bit of fear pressing through that.

And that's why Lydia's in heaven today, because Paul did that. He said, well, I don't really like it like this. I don't really think this is fair. I don't really like the way God runs heaven. Well, you know, all I can tell you is that's tough. I mean, you're not run in heaven.

Neither am I. God's run in heaven. And if God decides this is how he wants to run heaven, that's his business. Our job is not to decide whether we like the way God's run in heaven.

Our job is to listen to what God tells us, believe what God's telling us, and adapt our behavior accordingly. And, friends, our world system's trying to talk us out of this and convince us that everybody's fine. We're all fine.

Everybody's okay. And you know why? Because, number one, they want us to leave them alone. And, number two, they want us to shut up.

And we can't give in to that. We can't let them undermine our confidence in the truth of the Word of God. And the truth of the Word of God is Lydia needed Paul and your friends need you and me. Because if you don't tell them the information and if I don't tell them the information they need, they can't close the deal.

They're not fine. And so my challenge to us here today is to believe what God tells us, not the propaganda of our world system. And then to go out there and do what the Apostle Paul did. Listen, folks, if we weren't here to tell our friends and neighbors about Jesus, we could have gone to heaven already. There's no other reason to stay.

All the stuff you're piling up, you're not taking. So why else are we here? The only reason we're here is so we can do what the Apostle Paul did for Lydia. May God help us to do it lovingly, respectfully, kindly and gently. But may God help us to do it. Let's pray. Now, with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I want to give you just a minute, if you're willing, to offer God a little bit of a proposition. And here's the proposition. I want you to think of somebody you really care about in your family, in your neighborhood, at your office who's like Lydia.

They're not fine. And I want you to offer God this proposition. Lord, you open up the opportunity in your perfect timing. Make the circumstance just right for me to talk to them about Jesus.

And even though I'm a little nervous, you have my word, I'll do it. If you're willing to make God that proposition for your friend or your loved one, I want you to take these quiet moments and tell him that. Lord Jesus, thanks for talking to us straight up today. Thanks for telling us the truth from the word of God just the way it is. And my prayer is that you would help us, people who say we're followers of Christ, people who say we accept the Bible as the word of God, that you'd help us to believe what you tell us about how the deal gets closed. And then, Lord, that you would change our behavior, change the way we relate to people around us, because we believe something is true absolutely from the scripture. Lord, I pray you would make us bold, respectful but bold in sharing Christ.

I pray you would remind us people out there are not okay. And, Lord, I pray that we would deem their soul's worth, whatever little embarrassment and fear we have to face, to do what Paul did, to share with them the information they need to close the deal. These people we've prayed for, open up an opportunity soon for us to follow through, Lord, and give us the courage to do what we've said. Lord, thank you somebody told us how grateful we are. Help us to do our job, Lord, now and tell others. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.