The Lord Opens the Door to Philippi
Tom Shrader walks through Acts 16, following Paul's second missionary journey to Philippi and his encounter at a riverside prayer gathering where he meets Lydia, a wealthy merchant of purple fabric. God sovereignly opens Lydia's heart to the gospel, and her immediate response in baptism and hospitality illustrates the marks of genuine conversion. Shrader also examines the slave girl with a spirit of divination, using her story to warn against false messengers who deliver true-sounding messages for personal gain rather than from a converted heart.
“If God doesn't open a heart, it is never going to happen — God is sovereign in all areas, including salvation.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Acts
Recorded: 2000 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 38 min
Themes: missions, evangelism, conversion, hospitality, sovereignty of god, false teachers, prayer, obedience, new believer, seeking purpose, missionary, feeling called, navigating spiritual deception, young adult, generous giver, searching for faith
Scripture: Acts 16:9-16, Acts 13:38, Luke 16, Romans 1, Hebrews 13:2, Romans 12:13, 1 Peter 4:9, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Theological Themes: divine sovereignty, regeneration, new birth, missiology, baptism, discernment, pneumatology, the holy spirit
Full Transcript
Paul Arrives at Philippi
Would you open your Bibles to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 16? That is where we are in our study. Paul has actually begun his second missionary journey, but he is doing it with a bit of a different team. Barnabas is not with him this time. Silas has replaced him. John Mark is not with him. Timothy has replaced him. And we saw last week that the personal pronoun in the text changes from "they" to "we," so we believe that Luke has joined them as well.
They have headed out on this journey and arrive in Troas. When they are there, look at verse 9: "A vision appeared to Paul in the night. A certain man from Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.'" And when he had seen that vision, "immediately we" — you may want to circle that, because it indicates that Luke has joined them — "sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel there, therefore putting out to sea from Troas, we hit a straight course."
Let me walk you through this on the map one more time. When Paul starts this journey, he is moving from Jerusalem up to Antioch. It is in Antioch that he is delivering the message resulting from the First Jerusalem Council, and it is there that this second missionary journey begins. Paul decides to head west and revisit the churches at Derbe and Iconium and Lystra. He desires to go into Asia, but God stops him. That is all the text tells us — the Spirit did not allow it.
What I love about Paul is that he did not just sit there and wait. He wanted to be active, so he says he will go to Bithynia — in other words, head north. When he heads north, he has essentially the same experience. Again, we do not know how, but God stops him. Paul then decides to move to the seaside city of Troas, and when he gets there he hears this call and resolves to move over to Macedonia. He lands at Neapolis, stays briefly, and then heads inland approximately ten miles to the city of Philippi. That is the backdrop for where we are this morning in our study.
The City of Philippi
It is important for us to understand some things about the city. Look at verse 12: "From there, from Neapolis, we went inland to Philippi. It was a leading city in the district of Macedonia. It was a Roman colony." That detail becomes significant a little later in our study.
Philippi was very much associated with Rome. Almost a century prior to this, Brutus and Cassius — the two murderers of Julius Caesar — fought a battle here against Antony and Octavian. Octavian and Antony prevailed, and Octavian went on to become emperor. As a gesture of gratitude toward this city, he extended to its citizens the full rights of Rome. That meant no scourging, arrests only for extreme crimes, and the right to appeal to the emperor. The city shared Rome's language, customs, and even its military structure.
Interestingly, even back then government manipulated people through taxes. Retired military soldiers were offered a lifetime free of taxes if they would move to certain colonies, so Philippi had a concentration of former Roman military men living there. The citizens were very proud that their government and law were patterned after Rome, and there was a great kinship between the two cities. The time frame is about twenty years after the death of Christ, and Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke arrive in this city.
Two Kinds of People
Imagine the backdrop for the story today. Here comes Paul to town, twenty years after Christ has died, and yet the gospel has not yet spread to this little colony of Philippi. The story graphically demonstrates that in this world there are two kinds of people. We celebrate the diversity of people, but ultimately, in God's view, there is not such a great diversity. There are two kinds of people: those who know Christ as their Lord and Savior, and those who do not.
Now, within those who know Him, there may be varying levels. Some are only a month into their walk, just beginning those first steps. Others are decades in, with such closeness to Him that their blood seems to run with Scripture. But essentially there are two kinds of people — those who know Christ and those who do not. We are going to see an example of both today, as two women become the focal points of our discussion.
Most importantly, what we see is a graphic demonstration of the power of God. Make no mistake — when we read the book of Acts, this is not about Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke. This is about God. This is about the way God works.
A Place of Prayer
When Paul comes to Philippi, he is determined to preach the gospel to the city. It is his custom to go to the synagogue, but we read in verse 13 that he did not do that. On the Sabbath he went outside the gate to a riverside, where he was supposing there would be a place of prayer. What we discover is that there is no synagogue in Philippi. Apparently the Jewish population there is very small. Scripture tells us you needed at least ten men to form a synagogue, and apparently that number is not present. Again, this is very much a Roman city.
Paul Arrives at Philippi
Scripture told us that if you did not have a synagogue, you should go to the river, if possible, and pray there. As Paul came to the town, he began to explore and do his work, and he discovered there was no synagogue. He asked about prayer by the riverside, and was told that indeed there was prayer down by that river, and away he went.
When he arrived, he sat down and began to speak to the women who had assembled. He realized that there were only women gathered there. We have no idea how many, but we get a sense that it was not a large gathering.
Paul's Background and the Women at the River
It is important to remember that in his background as a Pharisee, Paul would have prayed every day this prayer: "O God, I thank Thee that I am neither Gentile, nor a slave, nor a woman." Paul would pray, like all of the Pharisees, "God, thank You that I am not a Gentile, or a slave, or a woman."
I remember I had not been a Christian very long when I was talking to one of the ladies in the office about the Apostle Paul, and she said to me, "Well, you know he's a male chauvinist, don't you?" I said, "Well, no, I didn't know that. I'll go back and try to understand what he's saying here." What I discovered is exactly the opposite, and it is what you see here.
Paul did not say, "Oh, there are just women here — this is not a group worthy of my time." It is the same thing we see in the life of Christ.
God's Design for Men and Women
When people come along and say that Christianity at its core is chauvinistic — that it is chauvinistic to say wives should submit to their husbands — here is what we need to understand: God figured out a long time ago that men and women are different. We were watching the evening news about a year ago when they broke this as if it were breaking news, saying, "We have a report of a study just released, and the conclusion of this study is that men and women are different." I thought, wouldn't you love to have the money back on that research?
We are plumbed differently and wired differently. God says that in the order He designed, as men and women come together as husband and wife, men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, and wives are to submit to their husbands. That is not chauvinistic. That is God's plan — the Creator's plan for marriage.
Faithfulness to Small Groups
Paul did not walk away and say, "There are just women here, so let's move on." Nor did Paul say, "I don't do small groups — Silas, why don't you take this? This isn't a big enough group." I was talking to someone this week whom I don't know at all, and he was saying that his church is small, and his pastor seems to make them feel that he ought to be speaking to a larger group. That is a man who really does not understand how God works. God works in your life, and you respond to whoever He brings into your life.
When we were at the other church, we were just starting that second Sunday night service, and it was pretty difficult to get people there at 4:30. One Sunday night — and this is an absolutely true story — the service had eleven people in it, and three of those eleven were my wife Susan and my daughter Saren Haley. I did walk in, look around, and feel that for a moment, but I caught myself and said, "God, thank You. There are eleven people here, and three of them really need to hear this. What a great privilege."
Maybe God has given you five fifth graders to minister to — what a privilege that is. Maybe God has put you in the nursery, given you these newborns to hold and pray for, and called you to reach out to their moms and dads. Maybe God is calling you to some ministry with kids.
The Need Right Here
We see this mentoring movement catching on — Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Let me tell you, we have a huge need right here. Right now, there are about 330 junior high and high schoolers meeting over in room 200 and in rooms 27 and 28, and we could really use your help on the volunteer staff in that area.
Imagine if God gave you two high school kids and you could pour into their lives. In a couple of years, they go to college knowing Christ, grounded in their faith, and they begin to stand up for Him on that college campus. Maybe God puts a call on their hearts, and one day they are in ministry speaking to thousands — and it all began with you being faithful to that small group He brought you. Never get to the point of thinking you are too big for that.
Lydia: Prepared by God
Paul said, "If we have got women here, let's go," and indeed God had not just women there, but one in particular that we know about — one whom God had prepared for that moment. There was a certain woman there named Lydia. Whenever I hear that name, I think of Groucho Marx: "Lydia, oh Lydia, my dear old Lydia, Lydia the tattooed lady." I am sure this is a different Lydia he had in mind.
We find out she was a seller of purple fabrics — an entrepreneur, a very successful businesswoman. She was trading in purple fabric, and purple was the most expensive of the fabrics. The dye used to color this fabric purple was taken from a shellfish, and each shellfish would provide only one drop of dye. There were knockoffs where some would grind up the shellfish and use that as a cheap imitation dye, but it took a large number of shellfish and a great amount of work to dye a single fabric. These were very expensive items, used almost exclusively by the ruling class and the very wealthy.
Lydia: A Worshiper of God
Lydia trafficked in purple cloth. In Luke chapter 16, Jesus speaks of a certain rich man who habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, and that fabric was among the most expensive available — the very rich were the ones who could afford it. Lydia was from Thyatira, which would have been over in Asia — interestingly, the very area God had not allowed Paul to enter. She was now here in Philippi, presumably on business, though living there as well, and she was a worshiper of God. That meant she was not worshiping pagan idols. She was worshiping the God of Israel, though she was not herself a Jew.
The Message Paul Would Have Preached
She was listening, and the Lord opened her heart. We don't know the exact message Paul delivered, but we can reasonably guess it was very similar to the one he gave in Acts chapter 13, when he went to Antioch and spoke in the synagogue. He gave those Jews a history lesson — he talked about their ancestors and how God worked in their lives, about the promise of a Messiah, and about the fulfillment of that promise in the person of Christ. He explained how Christ came but the Jews did not recognize Him, that they killed Him and crucified Him, and that He rose from the dead, and that the promises and prophecies were fulfilled in Him.
In Acts chapter 13, verse 38, Paul said this: "Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him — that's Jesus — forgiveness of sin is proclaimed to you, and through Jesus, everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be freed through the law."
What That Message Means Today
That was great news to those Jews, but you may be sitting there wondering what it means for you. Here is what it says. If you are here today and you do not know Christ — you have never come into a personal relationship with Christ — you instinctively know there is a God. Romans 1 tells us everybody understands there is a God. And in your heart, you also know that you are a sinner.
You may say, "I'm not a sinner." But have you never sinned? Even once or twice? How many sins does it take to make someone a sinner? One will qualify. In fact, technically none — you come into the world with the sin of Adam already on you. You are born a sinner, and you cannot free yourself from the guilt of that sin or its consequence, no matter how hard you try. But Jesus Christ came, and He forgives sin, and it is through His death that you are freed from the bondage of sin.
The Sign of a Converted Heart
There is nothing quite as energizing as the testimony of new believers. When Tanya came and told the story of Bryce and Debbie, she said it was exciting — that God had just seemed to explode in them. That is God working in their lives. How do we know it is real? Tanya said she thought it was real, and when asked why, she said the first thing they did was begin to examine their lives and see sin in their lives. That is conversion. All of a sudden, their sin is forgiven, and now there is a desire to go and sin no more.
Once freed from the burden of sin, the desire is never to return to it — and when we do return to it, our hearts are broken. That is why one of the great indicators of where you are spiritually is what happens when you sin. When you sin, is your heart broken? Or can you sin and say, "No big deal, the big guy upstairs will take care of it"? That is not the sign of a converted heart.
The Lord Opens the Heart
They heard the message, and there in verse 14, those of you who know this passage will have your eyes go immediately to those words: the Lord opened their heart. They didn't do anything. It hit Lydia just like it hit Bryce and Debbie — suddenly, it all made sense. Not because of anything they did, but because God worked in their lives. The Lord opened their heart.
Have you ever noticed how, when Jesus preaches to certain groups using parables, He often says at the end, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear"? There were people standing right there who had no problem hearing physically, but spiritually they were deaf. God has to intervene. God has to open their ears. God has to open their heart. That is what happened here — the Lord opened their heart, and now they could respond.
God Does Not Need Our Help
This is important, and we need to spend time on it. When Jesus said, "No one can come to the Father unless the Father draws him," what He is saying is that no one will ever be converted by cleverness, or by speech, or by witnessing alone — only by God opening a heart. It is at this moment that God performed a radical heart transplant on Lydia: out with the hard heart, in with a heart that conforms to the will of God.
A.W. Tozer speaks to how this understanding spreads into the area of evangelism, and this is challenging ground, so stay with it. Probably the hardest thought of all for our natural egotism to entertain is that God does not need our help. We commonly represent Him as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world.
God's Sovereignty in Salvation
Evangelistic appeals are often based upon a fanciful picture of God Almighty as somehow frustrated — as though God has worked and worked but just cannot get through to a certain group of people, and you are the one who can reach them when nobody else can. We get this image of God, softly and tenderly calling, "Come here, come here — I want you to be saved, but I just don't quite have the power." Yet that is not the testimony we hear from those who come to faith. It is: "God opened my heart." That is how it works.
I have been in a church where the pastor said, "God's voted yes, Satan's voted no — you decide." How manipulative is that? No — God decides. God chooses. Does He use people? Absolutely He uses people. And it is wrong — deplorable and sinful — to say, "Well, God is going to save whoever He is going to save, so I don't need to be involved." We need to go and we need to evangelize. But we do it with the understanding that if God does not open a heart, it is never going to happen. God is sovereign in all areas, including salvation.
Here is what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: "When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom proclaiming to you the testimony of God. I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." We have this image of Paul as possessing a mighty voice and commanding presence. Yet here is what he says about his own ministry: "I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of the power of God." This accomplished scholar, this brilliant man, says he did not come with great human wisdom. What he did was preach Christ and Christ crucified.
As you begin to share your faith, it is important to remember these words: any effective speaker can move people, for good or for bad. Tozer writes, "I fear that thousands of young persons enter Christian service with no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation that His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of." Tozer saw many men and women — especially young men and women — entering ministry thinking that God has gotten Himself into this situation because He loved the world so much, but lacks the power to get it done, and so they will go and rescue God.
When that is our thought — that evangelism depends upon me, that conversion depends upon the way I speak — that is a load too great to bear. If I believed your spiritual condition depended upon me, I could not stand up here. I do the best I can, I study the best I can, I work as hard as I can, but whether any of this connects is the Holy Spirit's job, not mine.
Freedom From Guilt in Evangelism
Do you want great freedom in the area of evangelism? Have you been in churches — or perhaps your own mindset — where your life is driven more by guilt than by anything else? God's evangelistic plan is going to go on with or without you. But shame on you if you are not used by Him in this plan. And shame on you if you approach it thinking you have to bail God out. God's plan will continue.
God had this woman, Lydia, ready. Let me remind you how we got here. Paul wants to move to Asia — no. He wants to go north to Bithynia — no. He moves to Troas, and at Troas a man appears in a vision and says, "Come to Macedonia." He goes to Macedonia. As God is preparing the messenger, He is preparing the receiver. Lydia is there, and He opens her heart.
Lydia's Household and Baptism
Something marvelous happens in verse 15. She heard these things — and not just her, but her whole household. We do not know whether they were all gathered there at that moment. There is obviously some time passing here. We do not know if she went back to the house. What we do know is that she is going to take Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke back to live with her. Perhaps it happened there — we simply do not know. But what she did was this: when she believed, when she came to Christ in repentance and faith, she moved right to the waters of baptism.
I did not get a chance to hear the message on baptism, but I am confident the point would have been this: Brice and Debbie are no more saved because they were baptized. You are saved by grace through faith. What baptism does is give you the opportunity to publicly declare that your heart has been converted. When they came up out of that water, nobody had to hold up a sign that said "Applause." Did you notice that? Almost instantaneously, hands came together in response, because everyone in the room understood the power of that testimony. I guarantee that somebody in this room was either encouraged or challenged by that testimony and by that baptism. That is what public declaration does.
The Mark of a Converted Heart: Hospitality
Look at what Lydia does next. She urged them, saying, "If you judge me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay there." She prevailed upon them. This sounds very close to nagging — "If you really love me, you'll stay with me" — that kind of thing. But again, it is a trademark of what we see in a converted heart: hospitality.
In Hebrews 13:2, the author says, "Do not neglect showing hospitality to strangers." Paul says to the church at Rome, "Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality." First Peter 4 says, "Be hospitable to one another." When Paul speaks about instruction to widows, he says one of the characteristics of their lives should be hospitality toward strangers. And when we looked at the qualifications for elders, hospitality appears — almost as a strange insert among those qualifications.
Why hospitality? In that day and age, there were no hotels or motels — there were inns that were filthy, expensive, and decadent. One of the ways you could see a converted heart was in the way it opened its home to others, particularly to those traveling in the service of the gospel.
The Slave Girl and the Spirit of Divination
As Paul and his companions stayed in Philippi and continued preaching and teaching, something happened. A slave girl with a spirit of divination began following them. In our terms today, she would be called a medium — someone in contact with demons. That was an important and valuable trait in that day. As one scholar writes, "Greeks and Romans put great stock in divination. No commander would set out on a major campaign, nor would an emperor make an important decree without first consulting an oracle to see how things would turn out." A slave girl with a clairvoyant gift was a goldmine to her owners, and she was bringing her masters much profit.
Make sure you understand this: she is not of God. She is of the devil. In fact, we are going to see that she is possessed by demons. There is a group of men who own her and who are exploiting her. Day after day she followed Paul and his companions — Luke says "after us" — though she seems to focus particularly on Paul. She kept crying out, "These men are bondservants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation." She continued doing this for many days, and Paul was greatly annoyed — sorely troubled, deeply bothered by it.
Finally he turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her." And it came out at that very moment.
The Truth Inside a Demonic Message
Now look closely at her message, because this is quite interesting. She says three things. First, these men are bondservants. Is that true or false? It is true. Paul in fact commonly identifies himself as a bondservant. Second, she says they are bondservants of the Most High God. That term, "Most High God," is used over fifty times in the Old Testament to speak of the God of Israel — the one true God, the Sovereign God. So is it true that they are bondservants of the Most High God? Absolutely. Third, she says they proclaim the way of salvation. She does not say they proclaim some way of salvation, or a way among other ways. She says they proclaim the way of salvation. Is that true? Yes, it is.
When we take this message apart, what we find is that everything she is saying is absolutely true. These men are bondservants of the Most High God, and they are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. So why is that so annoying to Paul? That is his own message. Here is the problem: Paul understands that the messenger is not someone who knows Christ in a personal way. Even though the message is right, the messenger is a demon. And so he exercises his apostolic authority and casts the demon out — "You come out."
Now, if these men who owned this girl really cared for her, you might think they would rejoice at that moment. Exactly the opposite happens. They saw that their hope for profit was gone, and they seized Paul.
Why Paul Was So Determined to Eradicate the Demonic Message
I want to stay on this point. Why is Paul so annoyed, and so determined to eradicate this demon and its message? There are two reasons.
First, when someone comes to you proclaiming something that sounds true, if that person is not converted, their heart will quickly turn toward profit for themselves — whether that means prestige, power, or money. This may come as a shock, but there are people who proclaim the gospel who are not converted and who are in it for the cash. Have you ever sensed that as you listened to certain teachers? "God wants you rich. God wants you powerful. God wants you healed and wealthy. God has a plan for you, and you need to plant that seed today. Here is how you plant that seed — send me a hundred dollars, and God will bless you a hundred times over." Have you ever wanted to write back and say, "Why don't you send me a hundred dollars and let Him bless you that way?" They are shysters and hucksters, and Paul warns against them.
Satan's Subtle Strategy: Counterfeit Alliance
But there is something even more dangerous than that. When Satan attacks us, he does so in two ways. One is an overt, hostile attack — we are going to look at one of those in a moment. But the other is a subtle attack, often built around alliance, where he creates something that looks very similar to the Christian faith but is not Christianity at all.
You and I live in a town that has a perfect example of this: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It even says "Jesus Christ" in the name. They call Him Lord and Savior and use all the familiar language. But here is the reality — same words, different dictionary. Their Jesus is very different from the Jesus you worship. Their view of man is very different from your view of man.
For you to really swallow a lie, there has to be some truth in it. I used to come home after having had too much to drink, and Susan would ask, "Have you been drinking?" I would say no — and she somehow knew I had. So I had to refine my approach. Eventually when she asked, I would say, "I had two." And for a while, I think in her own deceived way, she wanted to believe it was only two. That is how a lie works. Any lie you are going to believe has to carry some ring of truth. When something makes no sense whatsoever, you dismiss it immediately. But when there is just enough truth in it, the door cracks open.
That is exactly what happens when you allow someone with an unconverted heart to begin teaching even something that is true. It will not be long before error dominates. I was watching a film about Jim Jones — you remember Jim Jones, who led those —
The Danger of Praise from the Wrong Source
Jones was a man who was really embraced by the city of San Francisco. He did some incredible things through that church to feed the hungry and the poor, and to educate — some very good things. The message even initially had some sense of truth to it. But he was an egomaniac out of control who was delivering a message for his own gain.
Paul said he could not have that, and so he cast out the demon, and the demon came out of the girl. Even in the life of Christ, as demon-possessed people began to heap praise on Him — declaring He was the Son of the Most High — Jesus never accepted praise from them, but cast out those demons. Paul follows in that same tradition.
Arrest, Prison, and the Purposes of God
Her masters saw that all the hope of profit was gone, and they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace. Here is Paul, obediently following everything God had for him. He comes to Philippi, meets Lydia, shares with her, she responds, the church is planted, and it begins to grow — and in the midst of all this, God allows these two to be arrested and thrown into prison. Not just prison, but into the dungeon.
A lot of times in moments like that, we would be asking, "Where are you, God? Did you blink? Run out of juice? Out of batteries?" But God had Paul and Silas right where He could use them. The same thing is true in your life and mine. We leave the story hanging right there and will pick up exactly at that point next week.
Closing Prayer
Father, please teach us through the life of Paul. Remind us that if You are not at work in our lives and the lives of those that we speak with, our words and our cleverness and our arguments are never going to change their mind. They do not need their mind changed — they need their heart changed.
God, we pray for those who might be here this morning who do not know Your Son Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, that today may be a day of salvation for them. May You open their eyes to see the sin in their life, so that, like the testimonies we heard in the baptismal this morning, it becomes so clear at that moment that we are lost and hopeless apart from You — and that once we are with You, nothing can separate us from You.
God, we pray that this week, as we share our faith with the men, women, and students we come in contact with, You would use us in a powerful way — that we would be open and honest and available for You to use. We thank You for Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke, but keep it ever fresh in our minds that this is not a story about them. This is a testimony to Your power and Your strength and Your grace and Your mercy, and we thank You for that. We pray that You fill us with that Spirit. We ask it of You in Jesus' name. Amen.