Acts 20:35: “It Is More Blessed to Give Than to Receive”

INTRODUCTION

One time when I was teaching sixth grade—it was near Christmas time, and we were talking about Christmas presents—and I remarked to my students, “You know, it is more blessed to give than to receive.”

One of my best students—a girl—said, “Mr. Sommerville, that just makes no sense!”

That it is more blessed to give than to receive made no sense to her because she was so young—she had so little experience in life.

She was a thoughtful child. She was telling it as she saw it.

Now that little girl would be in her 60s, and she has done a lot of giving and receiving; I am pretty sure that she has a different view by now.

Do you know where that saying comes from?

I. It’s in the Bible. Jesus said it. But it’s not in the gospels. It’s in the Book of Acts, in the 20th chapter.

St. Paul was on his way to Jerusalem to be in time for the Festival of Pentecost. What Paul didn’t know, but we know, is that there he would be arrested, spend several years in prison, experience a shipwreck, end up under house arrest in Rome, where he would eventually be executed.

However, at this place in the story, he had made a stop at a town named Miletus, where he sent for the elders of the church in Ephesus because he wanted to bid them farewell.

He would doubtless have preferred to make a visit to Ephesus, which was a few miles inland, but there was no time, so he sent word to the leaders of the church to meet him at Miletus for a visit.

In his speech, as recorded in Acts 20, Paul told these people how he had served them with humility and with tears and with trials. He reminded them that he had been faithful in teaching them in public and from house to house.

He also told them that he was on his way to Jerusalem, knowing that there would be afflictions awaiting him there. But he had no choice, he said, because he felt compelled to finish his work of proclaiming the gospel.

It was a sad speech because, as he told them, this was his farewell. He knew that he would never return to Ephesus.

Paul used himself as an example of what it means to belong to Jesus.

His example would be especially powerful because his listeners knew him well, and they knew that every word he said was the true.

Let me read the last part of the speech in Paul’s own words (Acts 20:31-end):

“Be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to warn every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me. [At this point, we can picture Paul holding up his work-worn hands. He goes on] In all things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

And when he had spoken thus, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they all wept and embraced Paul and kissed him, sorrowing most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they brought him to the ship.

As I said, one might take these words for boasting, except that these people knew Paul well, and they knew that he was example of everything he taught.

He had taught them and warned them of dangers and wept for them.

He had supported not only himself but also his companions with his own hands. They had seen him hard at work sewing the heavy haircloth of the tents he made for his living.

They knew that he wasn’t interested in their silver or gold, but only in their souls.

They knew that he had taught him daily, in public and house to house.

And he had set them an example. And it is that example that he wants them to remember.

And so he gives us some words of Jesus that are not included in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

II. We all have experienced the embarrassment and awkwardness of receiving. And we have experienced the joy of giving.

A. It’s easier to give than to receive, isn’t it?

So often when someone does a generous action or presents us with a generous gift, it humbles us.

We think, even if we don’t say, “Oh, you shouldn’t have!” Or, “How can I repay you?”

When you receive an unexpected gift, you have a feeling of obligation.

But when you give an unexpected gift you have a feeling of fulfilling your purpose in the world.

The happiest people in the world aren’t those who have the most but those who feel the most useful—the ones who feel like their lives have blessed others.

So, it is important also to be able to receive—and so to let another person feel blessed. We don’t have to feel embarrassed—or obligated—or unworthy—we just have to feel loved.

I want to give you a little warning here. I am not talking about gifts that expected of you—like Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, anniversary gifts, or wedding gifts.

I am talking about things you do—just because you want to—whether they cost money…or time…or effort…or imagination.

B. There are many ways to give. Money is obvious, but there are other ways to give.

Another way of giving is to give time—the time it takes to listen. If you’re lonely, to have someone spend time with you can be a welcome gift.

Kind words are another way to give. Words of encouragement, or forgiveness, compliments, or words that show you care. Have you ever given a compliment and had the person say, “Thanks, I needed that”? Or, “You’ve made my day”? I have.

Here is a story you can relate to. I found it in an Upper Room devotional booklet, from February 27, 2013. The writer is Charles Axe. Mr. Axe was a convict.

He tells how he was brought to the doctor’s office and was sitting there in his orange prison jump suit, and handcuffed to his two armed guards.

The officers had brought him there because he had just experienced a heart attack.

He understood the reactions of the other patients as they looked him over—the glancing looks, their keeping their distance, their silence.

Here is his account of what happened next:

“An elderly woman walked in, smiled, and said, ‘God bless you. I hope you are doing well.’”

“I replied, ‘I’m fine.’ “Suddenly, my anxious feelings were replaced with calm. ‘Thank you,’ I added.

“Afterwards in the van heading back to the prison, I thought how that one person looked beyond the outward signs of what most consider a second-class citizen and saw a person—a person who, though surely one of God’s own people, was in many ways estranged from the human family. Maybe it was simply that she saw an opportunity to do good.”

Then Mr. Axe writes this,

“The apostle Paul reminds us that as Christians we are called to show consideration and care for others, particularly for those in need and “of low position. While such actions may not always come naturally, that special effort can make a significant and lasting impression on people’s lives. It did for me.”

Never underestimate the importance of a kind word.

Never underestimate the importance of a welcoming smile.

Help is a good gift. That is why so many people get pleasure out of volunteering.

One of our residents has a granddaughter who spent many weeks at St. Luke’s Hospital. Since he was at the hospital so much, he began to volunteer. Now, many years later, his granddaughter is in high school. But our friend still goes to the hospital to work for free as a volunteer every Friday.

I have a friend who goes to the waiting room of the cancer clinic every week to welcome and help the people as they wait for their treatments.

At one time this friend belonged to a group who volunteered to sit with dying patients in shifts, to make sure that no one of them would die alone.

I read a story about a person who was engaged in this kind of hospice ministry. The man he was sitting with slept most of the time, and the volunteer began to wonder whether what he was doing was really worthwhile. One day as he was sitting there, wondering whether he should leave, his patient opened his eyes and said, “I love it when you are here. It’s just so peaceful.”

And the volunteer knew that his time had been well spent.

For a time I used to volunteer at the Mission of Hope, a mission on First Avenue that serves lunch to needy folks, operates a food pantry, and conducts Bible studies and also church services.

I was impressed by the faithfulness of the volunteers who came every day to work for free to help those in need.

In Romans 12 the apostle writes, “Love one another with brotherly and sisterly love. Outdo one another in showing honor” (v10).

Some gifts don’t cost much, but they require imagination. One day we came out of church and went to get into the car, and there on the seat was a beautiful pie. We never learned who had honored us with the pie. We had no one to thank. It made us want to be especially nice to everyone.

C. The verse I read speaks of the blessedness of giving. It’s not only better to give than to get but it brings more happiness.

“Blessed” is really just a stronger word for “happy.” Someone said that “blessedness is happiness with God at the core.

Psychologists have done experiments that reveal that giving stimulates pleasure centers in the brain.

This is one reason why, psychologists say, that most of us find more pleasure in giving than in receiving.

I suspect that as you look back on what were the most satisfying experiences of your life, they may have been times when you gave a gift that cost you something.

A Christian businessman had made a lot of money and then lost it all. Someone said to him, “If you hadn’t given so much away, you’d still be a rich man.”

He answered, “What I gave away was all I kept.”

This is what Jesus meant when he spoke of laying up treasure in heaven.

This is what Jesus meant when he said, “Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back” (Luke 6:38).

A NOTE AT THE END

But I want to add; most of us are better at giving than we are at receiving.

We must be willing to receive as well as give—because when we receive we let others be blessed.

I think with regret times when I was unwilling to accept gifts from others because I was embarrassed at their extravagance. I see now that was wrong.

So when someone offers to do a favor for you, don’t be embarrassed or wonder how you can repay her. Receive the gift gratefully. And if you feel indebted—just pass it on by doing someone else a favor.

That’s the best way to repay a favor—pass it on. If everyone would do that, earth would be like heaven.

1 Kings 17: Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

INTRODUCTION

Sometimes it seems that troubles never come one at a time but in bunches.

Did you ever feel that God had delivered you from one disaster, only to land you in another?

Today I want us to consider the story about the famous prophet Elijah and a poor widow who befriended him and won an honored place in Bible history.

I. It was one of the darkest times in the history of the Kingdom of Israel.

A. The king was Ahab, one of the wickedest kings Israel ever had. But his queen, Queen Jezebel was, if you can believe it, even more wicked than he was. Queen Jezebel encouraged King Ahab in his wickedness.

Jezebel wasn’t an Israelite; she came from Sidon, a city of the Phoenicians, far north of Israel. This is in modern day Lebanon.

Jezebel had her own ideas about worship. She brought with her 450 priests of the god Baal and 400 prophets of the goddess Asherah.

Ahab made an altar in the capital city Samaria for Baal, and led Israel away from the Lord, the God of Israel.

B. Then came the fearless prophet Elijah.

Elijah appears suddenly on the scene in 1 Kings 17. He was sent to announce a terrible judgment. He said to the king: “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word!” (I Kings 17:1).

After he had delivered this message, the Lord instructed him to save his life by going to the Brook Cherith, a little stream in the wilderness, 90 miles away to the south.

God told Elijah that during this terrible drought, he could drink from the brook and that the ravens would feed him.

B. So Elijah set out and walked the several days it would have taken him and settled down by the brook Cherith.

Every day the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening.

The raven is a nasty bird. He is a scavenger that feeds on dead animals. But evidently the bread and meat was okay, because it kept Elijah healthy.

C. Then the brook dried up because there had been no rain for so long.

With Elijah it was just one thing after another.

He had escaped from King Ahab, who was determined to kill him.

The brook had provided drink, and the ravens had provided food, and now the brook had dried up.

D. So once more God spoke to Elijah: “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you” (1 Kings 17:8).

Elijah must have been surprised by this announcement because Zarepahth was 120 miles north, and it was in the heathen country where Queen Jezebel came from.

When God told Elijah that he had commanded a widow to feed him, Elijah may have supposed that he would find some rich widow with a pantry full of food. But that’s not what happened.

II. Reading from 1 Kings 17:10-16:

So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.”

And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; and now, I am gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.”

And Elijah said to her, “Fear not; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel, ‘The jar of meal shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not fail, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’”

And she went and did as Elijah said; and she and he, and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not spent, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by Elijah.

B. Let’s picture the scene.

Here comes Elijah, after living outdoors for some weeks, he hadn’t changed his clothes or shaved. He didn’t smell very good. He must have seemed pretty rough to the lady.

The woman was desperately poor. She was preparing a last meal for herself and her son before they starve to death.

But she obeyed the prophet. She set out right away to get the water.

But then Elijah called after her: “While you are at it, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

I wonder whether Elijah suspected how much he was asking. And the woman told him her situation.

When Elijah promised that if she would give him that first little cake of bread, her jar of flour and her cruse of oil would not give out until the rains came back, he was asking for an unreasonable amount of faith on her part—faith that this foreigner was truly a prophet, and, if she obeyed, she would be rewarded.

B. This woman had faith.

There must have been something about this strange foreigner who called after her that marked him as a prophet.

Of maybe she was one of those generous souls who was accustomed to putting others’ needs before her own. In the name of his God, he promised her that her needs would be taken care of. And she believed him.

She took a chance.

Faith is always “taking a chance,” taking a chance that God is real and that his promises are true. Faith is a venture. There are no guarantees.

There is always room for doubt. If there weren’t room for doubt, faith would not be faith.

And she was rewarded. The jar of meal kept being miraculously replenished and the little jar of oil kept being miraculously replenished until the rains came again and the famine was over.

C. So here is a lesson for us about how God works in a life.

The little I have will stay little if I hold it tight in my hands.

But if I give God what I have—whether it is little or much—he will bless me with abundance.

What God asks of us is to give him first place in our life.

Jesus made the same point when he told his disciples, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35).

My life is my most precious possession. And Jesus asks me to give him my life.

He says, in effect, “Keep your life for yourself, and in the end it will dwindle away and be gone. But if you can trust me enough to give yourself to me, I will make your life a blessing to you and to others for ever and ever.”

So what does it mean to give myself to God?

When I first became truly committed to Jesus, these two little sentences from 1 Corinthians jumped off the page and lodged in my heart. Here they are: “You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Jesus died for me. He gave everything for me. Now he asks me to give myself to him.

Giving yourself to Jesus is made up of a lot of little things—little acts of kindness… using our money for God… spending time with someone who is sorrowing… forgiving someone who has hurt you… praying seriously every day... feeding on the Bible and letting what you read there mold you to Christlikeness…

One preacher put it this way. “We think that giving all to Jesus is like taking a $1000 bill land laying it on the table—‘here is my life, Lord, I’m giving it all.’ but the reality is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1000 for quarters. We go through life putting 25¢ here and 50¢ there. Usually giving our life isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love 25¢ at a time” (Fred Craddock, quoted by Pheme Perkins in The New Interpreters Bible, on Mark 8:39-9:1)

CONCLUSION

This would be a good place to end my message, but there is more in the story.

Elijah stayed with the widow and her son for many days.

And after a time, the son became ill and died.

The widow came to Elijah and cried out, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!”

In those days people believed—and some people still do—that when bad things happen to people, it is their fault. God must be punishing them for something they’ve done.

Some people also believe that the good things that happen to us are rewards for our good behavior.

It is true that sin has its price—but it is not always in this world.

It is also true that goodness has its reward—but it also may not be in this world.

So Elijah was stricken with grief.

He took the child and carried him into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed.

1 Kings 17:19-24:

Then he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?”

Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s soul come into him again.”

And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again and he revived.

And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother: and Elijah said, “See, your son lives.”

And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

We don’t know the name of this woman, but she has an honored place in scripture.

Jesus spoke of her in a message in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth as an outstanding example of faith (Luke 4:25-26).

You may feel like you have little faith. You may pray for more faith. You may have doubts

But faith in the Bible has little to do with having no doubts.

Faith in the Bible has to do with obedience.

Jesus said that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains.

Jesus isn’t telling us to get more faith. He is telling us: “You have enough faith; now use it.”

A woman was entertaining a guest. She took a silver teapot out of the cupboard. As she did, she remarked to her friend: “Dreadfully tarnished! I can’t keep it bright unless I use it.”

It’s the same with our faith. We can’t keep it bright unless we use it.

And the way we use our faith is by obeying God in everything we do—big or little.

Our part is to step out and do the right thing. We put our faith to work by seeking to please God in everything we do.

Acts 16.25-34: A Midnight Praise Service in Jail

INTRODUCTION

The story so far—

Paul and his missionary partner Silas, along with Timothy and Luke, were traveling in Asia Minor (now modern Turkey) and had gotten to Troas, a seaport city on the Aegean Sea. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia pleading with him: “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

So Paul and his companions booked passage on a ship and sailed across the north end of the Aegean and landed in Macedonia, now part of Greece. Now, for the first time, Paul was in Europe.

They came to the city of Philippi. Paul’s first convert was a lady named Lydia who Paul met at a little prayer meeting of Greeks and Jews who gathered to pray by the riverside.

As Paul spoke, we read, “The Lord opened Lydia’s heart to listen eagerly to what Paul said.” Lydia and the members of her household were baptized, and she invited the missionaries to her house. It appears that a little gathering of believers began meeting in Lydia’s house—a “house church" like all churches of that time in history.

Some days went by while Paul and the other missionaries spoke about Jesus in the city and instructed the new Christians at Lydia’s house.

But one day while the four missionaries were going to the place of prayer, they met a slave girl.

She was what the ancients called a “pythoness,” a person possessed by a wild demon that supposedly foretold the future. The superstitious people of Philippi paid good money to the owners of this girl to hear her rave and conjure up the spirits of the dead and foretell the future.

The slave girl took notice of Paul and his friends, and for several she days followed Paul and Silas crying out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation!”

What she meant by “salvation” probably had nothing to do with what Christians or Jews meant by salvation. “Salvation” was a common idea of the time and meant rescue from the malevolent spirits that filled the air and caused unexplainable disasters to befall people.

Paul didn’t need this kind of publicity and after several days of this harassment, Paul turned around and ordered the evil spirit to come out of the girl.

By curing their slave of her demon, Paul had deprived the girl's owners of the their profit from her affliction. So they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities and accused them of disturbing the peace of the city by proclaiming strange gods. They were beaten with rods, thrown into prison and their feet locked in the stocks.

It is here that we will take up the story as recorded in the Bible.

Acts 16: 25-34:

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s fetters were unfastened.

When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, “Men, what must I do to be saved?”

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

And they spoke the words of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house.

And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, with all his family.

Then he brought them up into his house, and set food before them; and he rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God.

I. Let’s imagine we are there that night in Philippi.

A. Paul and Silas had endured a severe flogging with rods. They were bruised and bleeding, and their feet were securely locked in the stocks. They couldn’t get comfortable. They could hardly move. It was a miserable situation.

But rather than moan and groan about their predicament, Paul and Silas were passing the time praying out loud—praying in those days was out loud—and singing praise songs—at midnight!

Think of the jail as one big cell. All the prisoners were in the room together, each one locked in his stocks. It was pitch-dark

The other prisoners were listening to this singing and praying. They were astonished. They were having an interesting night.

B. Suddenly there was a violent earthquake. The doors flew open, the stocks sprung open, and the prisoners were free to leave.

The poor jailer assumed that the prisoners have already escaped, and he drew his sword to kill himself.

We aren’t told why the jailer thought it necessary to take his life. Some point to the fact that if a prisoner escaped, the jailer was executed as the man responsible.

I think that it is more likely that that the jailer saw the earthquake as an act of judgment and thought he was a goner.

Paul quickly called out to him, “Don’t harm yourself; we are all here!” Perhaps the other prisoners, having heard the singing and praying and praising realized that the earthquake was God’s answer and were too awed to use their chance to escape.

C. Anyway the jailer called for lights and ran in and trembling, he fell before Paul and Silas. He said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Now the jailer didn’t know any more about what Christians meant by “salvation” than the slave girl had. As I said, there were many strange ideas of salvation going around in the ancient world. But he had been frightened out of his wits by the earthquake that seemed to be a response from heaven to the apostles’ singing and praying.

But whatever the poor jailer meant by being saved, Paul took the occasion to tell about what Jesus had done to gain eternal salvation of all who believe.

Of course, Paul said much more than simply, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.”

We read, “They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.”

Paul explained who Jesus was and how he had died on the cross for sins and been raised from the dead and was still alive. The risen Christ was calling sinners to a new life of faith and obedience.

The jailer’s first act as a new believer was to wash Paul’s and Silas’s wounds. Then he and his household—his wife, children, elderly parents, slaves, and whoever else may have lived in that house—were baptized.

Then, we read, the jailer brought Paul and Silas up into his house and served them dinner and everyone rejoiced in their new found salvation.

D. The next day, after the apostles were released, they returned to Lydia’s house where, we read, they encouraged the brothers and sisters, and after that departed.

It appears that Paul left Luke and Timothy behind to minister to the little congregation that met at Lydia’s house, because in the next story we read only about Paul and Silas continuing to the next city.

II. Let’s consider what we can learn from this story.

A. First of all, notice that something good came out of something bad. It was bad that Paul and Silas were arrested and beaten and locked up. But this was God’s opportunity to work dramatically to catch the jailer’s attention and lead him to faith, along with his family.

B. Paul’s answer to the jailer’s question: “What must I do to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your house.” sums up in a few words what it means to come to Jesus for salvation.

The angel had told Joseph before Jesus was born: “You are to call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

The name “Jesus” literally means “Savior,” and “Savior” is a grand concept in scripture.

Jesus is the Savior because he forgives sins and wipes out the barrier that keeps us from God.

Jesus is the Savior because he sets us free from the power of sin in our lives and gives us a new life of hope and love.

Jesus is the Savior because he fills our life with meaning. Even the bad things have meaning for us because God can make all things work together for good for those who love him.

Jesus is our Savior because he is our constant companion; in all our troubles and all our joys we can turn to him, for he is always at our side.

Jesus is our Savior because he fills our life with hope. We need no longer fear the unknown future.

Jesus is the Savior because he takes away the sting of death, assuring us of eternal life with Jesus, a glorious future that lasts for ever.

CONCLUSION

Let me tell you about my friend Jim.

Jim was a hard-core offender. He had been locked up 9 times. He had a rap sheet with more than 40 offences on it. He was a crook. He was violent. He was a loser.  He was a hopeless alcoholic.

He become so despondent he tried to kill himself.

He became deeply depressed because of the way he had treated his wife and his two daughters—and how he had treated his second wife and his son.

He realized that the whole world would be better off if he had never been born.

In his despair, he decided to kill himself.

He tied a rope to the top bunk of his prison cell, made a noose and put it around his neck. He leaned into it until he passed out.

He woke up in the psychiatric ward of Davenport Hospital. An elderly lady in a nurse’s uniform was sitting in the room knitting and rocking. She was on suicide watch.

Here it is in his own words:

“It was humiliating. I felt like the world’s biggest loser. I lay there and looked at the ceiling and said, ‘God, if you are real, do something with me. I quit. If something doesn’t change inside my head, inside my heart, I’m just going back the joint and kill myself.’ There was no lightning flash, no angels. But it just seemed like a load had lifted off me. I had just given it up.”

He started reading the Bible. He told himself. “If I’m going to be a man of God, I need to find out about it.” He began to pray—just talking to God.

He read the New Testament through, he remembers, in three days.

Shortly after that he was transferred to the prison in Mt. Pleasant where I met him, about three months after his conversion.

I had a Wednesday night Bible study there. Jim really knew his Bible. He fed on it. He tried to live it. He talked about what he learned to the other inmates. He was, he laughingly recalls, a “Jesus freak.”

That was more than thirty years ago. Jim is an old man now. He’s not well. But he’s not lost his grip on God.

He works in his church. He and his wife Ginny open their home to ex-convicts who have no place to go when they are released from prison. They stay with Jim and Ginny until they can get on their feet.

Until recently—until they closed the jail he visited—he went every Wednesday and held two Bible studies—one for the women and one for the men.

Jesus became Jim’s Savior. He saved Jim from death and despair. He saved Jim for a life of usefulness.

Every story is different. We come to Jesus by different routes.

But there’s always a change—from sin to grace—from sorrow to joy—from fear to faith—from living for self to living for God—from serving my own interests to serving others—from a dark future to a glorious future.

Acts 16:11-15: Lydia: an Example for Us All

INTRODUCTION

Did you ever meet someone only briefly, and wish you could have had the opportunity to get to really know him or her?

You sensed in that person a kindred spirit—a person with whom you would have much to share. But you never had the opportunity.

One of the things I look forward to in Heaven is to look up some of these people and hear their stories.

One of the people I look forward to meeting is a lady named Lydia. We read only a few sentences about her in Acts, chapter 16.

I. It was Paul’s second missionary journey. Paul and his missionary partner, Silas, along with Timothy and Luke, were journeying through Asia Minor—what is modern Turkey.

A. They had arrived at Troas, a seaport city in northwest of what is now Turkey.

It was night and Paul had a vision. A man from Macedonia—a country across the Aegean Sea—appeared, standing, and calling to Paul: “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”

The missionaries didn’t waste any time; they got right on a ship and set out for Macedonia. And the first city they entered was the city of Philippi.

This was the first time Paul had set foot in Europe.

B. Here is an eyewitness account, in Luke’s own words:

Setting sail therefore from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the leading city of the district of Macedonia, and a Roman colony.

We remained in this city some days; and on the Sabbath day, we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God.

The Lord opened her heart to give heed to what was said by Paul.

And when she was baptized, with her household, she besought us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us (Acts 16:11-15).

II. Normally, when Paul entered a town he had never visited, he would go to the synagogue, the place where the Jews would gather for worship. Paul always preached first to the Jews wherever he went. He would accept the hospitality of those who were friendly and establish a base of operations in that city.

A. Evidently in Philippi there was no synagogue. To form a synagogue, you needed ten Jewish men, and evidently there weren’t ten Jewish men in Philippi to form a synagogue.

But there were some women who gathered at the riverside outside the city gates every Sabbath to pray. So the missionaries joined them the next Sabbath day. And there Paul told them the good news of the gospel.

B. One of his listeners was Lydia, a businesswoman who sold purple cloth.

In those days all dyes were made from naturally-occurring substances, so there were only a few colors available for dying cloth.

Purple dye was the rarest and most expensive. It was made from a certain kind of sea snail. Purple dye was especially valuable because instead of fading, like most colors, purple became brighter with weathering and sunlight.

So as a seller of purple cloth, Lydia was wealthy and respected. She would have had connections with the wealthy class.

Lydia was not a Jew. She was what was called a “God-fearer.” That is, a Gentile who rejected the pagan religions and was attracted to the faith of the Hebrews. That was why Paul found her among the Jews at their place of prayer beside the river.

C. Whenever Paul explained the gospel, several things could happen: some people became hostile. Some people were interested, but did nothing about it. Some people wanted to learn more.

But Lydia’s heart was ready. We read, “The Lord opened her heart to give heed to what was said by Paul” in other words, she welcomed the message of salvation, and Jesus came into her life.

Like all people who truly receive Jesus into their lives, Lydia set about to put her faith to work.

First of all, she wanted to be baptized. By baptism, Lydia bore witness to her commitment to Jesus Christ. She declared her intention to live for God.

But Lydia wasn’t going to come to Jesus alone. She brought her whole household into the faith—this would have involved her servants, and perhaps children or an elderly parent, and anyone else who lived with her.

So all in her household were baptized and entered together into the new faith.

She invited Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke to come stay at her house.

She was putting into practice one of the most important ministries a Christian could have in those days when inns were rough, unpleasant, dangerous places—that is, the ministry of hospitality.

Evidently Paul and his friends hesitated, because we read, “She prevailed on us.”

We once read a book about the importance of Christian hospitality. It was entitled, “Open Heart, Open Home.” That described Lydia. Her heart was open to give heed to what Paul said, the Lord Jesus came in to live there, and now her home belonged to Jesus also.

In fact, Lydia’s house became the first house church in Philippi.

All churches in those early days were “house churches.” It was hundreds of years before the first church buildings were built.

Paul and his companions started having church, and others believed, were baptized, and gathered to pray and worship and learn about their new faith.

A few years later Paul wrote a letter to that little church. It was the letter to the Philippians. It is in our Bible. Paul says in his letter: “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, thankful for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”

I like to think that it was in Lydia’s house that letter was read as the Christians gathered to read the letter from the man who had brought them the gospel.

III. So what can we learn from Lydia? What is the moral of the story?

A. We learn that the Lord opens hearts. Lydia was in the right place at the right time. Her heart was ready to receive the truth. And it was the Lord who opened her heart.

Let us always be in a place and in an attitude to receive the truth.

It is important to go to church and Bible studies if they are available to you.

It is important to read you your Bible and Christian books.

I once visited a church member who was terminally ill. I wanted to read to her from the Bible. I asked if she had a Bible for me. She said she had one someplace. It was in a drawer, but we couldn’t find it.

It is good to have a Bible always within reach—and to read it every day, think about what we read, and put it into practice.

It is especially important to read the stories of Jesus and the letters to the young churches in the New Testament.

Like daily prayer, the Bible reading helps us keep connected with God.

B. It is also important to put our faith to work.

Lydia won her servants to the Lord. She invited the missionaries to make her house the base for their ministry in Philippi.

Because Lydia is especially named in the story, we have every reason to believe that Lydia was one of the leaders in the new church that met in her home.

CONCLUSION

Let me tell you how God opened my heart to come into my life in a way I had never experienced before.

It was 66 years ago. I was 18, a freshman at the University of Kansas.

I had gone with a group of fellow students to a missionary convention at the University of Illinois, at Urbana, Illinois.

I was a believer. I had always gone to church. I knew Bible verses. I knew the doctrine. I believed that Jesus was the only way of salvation.

I had been baptized four years before.

But something happened during those few days that I still can’t explain.

For the first time in my life I felt the excitement of belonging to God.

I had heard all my life about “believing.” I believed.

But during those few days I understood that it wasn’t just believing things, it wasn’t just believing that Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life.

Suddenly I realized that Jesus was not only my Savior, he was my Lord.

And now I wanted to live for him every day of my life.

I had tried to read the Bible, but it had seemed to be a dull book—full of stories I had heard a hundred times.

But now something changed. When I got back to school I carried my New Testament with me all day on campus.

When I studied in the Library I took time out whenever the whistle blew for the change of classes, I read a few pages in my Bible. I marked the best parts.

I had morning devotions and wrote down what I learned as I read.

I made a prayer list and prayed through it every day.

Since that time I’ve made mistakes. I’ve sinned. I’ve been disappointed. I’ve struggled with doubt. But I’ve always kept my hold on God, and he’s kept his hold on me.

I think I had an experience something like Lydia’s. The Lord had opened my heart to hear and believe and obey the truth of God.

Everyone’s story is different.

God works differently in different lives—in Lydia’s life, in Paul’s life, in my life.

Sometimes he works gradually, over the years.

Sometimes he works in a moment.

But God still opens hearts. Has he opened yours?

The important thing is to be available, to be ready, to put yourself in the place where God can open your heart and come in—and stay with you until the end.