PT-3 "The Liberated Woman" (Acts 16:11-15)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/17/2018 8:54 AM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-3 “The Liberated Woman”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:11-15

            Message of the verses:  11 So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. 14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.”

            We want to continue to look at verse fourteen in our SD for today.  We have already written about where Lydia was from and not want to take a moment to look at what she did for a living.  She was a seller of purple fabrics.  In the day when this was written purple dye either came from the glands of the murex shellfish or it came from the roots of the madder plant, and no matter which place it came from it was very costly.  During this day and age only royalty was wealthy enough to purchase things that make of purple.  With all of this said we must assume that Lydia had a very profitable business, as when we look forward to verse fifteen we see that she had a house large enough to have all the missionaries in it.

            As we continue to look at verse fourteen we begin to see how Lydia became a believer in Jesus Christ as we will look at what John MacArthur says as “three sequential aspects of it.  The first thing we see in verse fourteen was that she was a worshiper of God, and so we can conclude that her heart was a seeking heart.  From our study in Revelation, as we looked at the seven churches we found that many in the seven cities worshiped idols, so Lydia may have been an idol worshiper and then decided to begin to look at the Living God and worship Him.  Her case is similar to when we looked at Cornelius in Acts chapter ten, the one that Peter came to his house to tell him about Jesus.

            We see that seeking God, like Cornelius did was her first step in becoming truly liberated.  How did she seek God?  Well I can say that according to Romans 3:11, which says “There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God; (Phillips).  God is the One who has to draw people to Himself, and that is what He did for Lydia.  Let us look at another verse, this time from the gospel of John and see what Jesus said:  “"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

            John MacArthur writes:  “Her conversion, and those of Cornelius and the Ethiopian eunuch, illustrate an important principle.  An often-asked question about evangelism concerns the fate of those who never hear the gospel.  Lydia’s conversion shows that God will reveal the fullness of the gospel to those whom He causes to honestly seek Him.  In John 6:37, Jesus said, ‘All that the Father gives Me shall come to me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.’  God will never turn away the seeking heart.”

            The next thing we look at is that Lydia was not only seeking, but she was “also was listening,” and what she was listening to was the gospel message being proclaimed by Paul.  I suppose that there are far too many people who listen to the gospel message, but are not really hearing and understanding it.  We saw an example of this from Acts chapter nine when Saul of Tarsus heart the message, but those around him “did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking.”

            I want to conclude this SD with a couple of sections from the Lord Jesus Christ who was condemning those who heard without listening.  The first is from Matthew 13:11-17, and then from John 8:43-45.

“11 Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ’YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; 15 FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 "For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

“43 “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. 44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.”

            We will continue looking at Lydia’s conversion in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that it is good that when I give out the truth of the Gospel message that I make sure the one I am talking to understands it.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will continue to work out the details of moving my father-in-law to his new room.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The Apocrypha”

Today’s Bible question:  “What was the first plague that God placed on Egypt?”
Answer in our next SD.

4/17/2018 9:32 AM