Acts 16:9-15
May 25, 2025
Whenever a person serves a tour of duty in the military, usually 3 or 4 years, the service member knows that the time is coming when they will be moved to a different unit at another installation. As part of the preparation process, the service member usually gets to request where he/she would like to go for their next assignment. When I was in the Army we would list 3 places where we would like to serve and most of the time you would get one of your three choices, based on your skill set and the needs of the Army. When I was finishing my assignment in Germany many years ago, I requested to go to Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Bragg here in North Carolina, or Fort Campbell in Kentucky for my next assignment. I had friends at those installations and I thought it would be fun to serve with them. I told the assignments officer that I was open to going almost anywhere, but I did not want to go to Fort Gordon, Georgia, because I had done my initial 5-month communications officer schooling at Fort Gordon and I wanted to experience something different. Three weeks later I received my orders for my next assignment to: Fort Gordon, Georgia.
I couldn’t believe it, but the Army made their decision and I had to abide by it since I had my orders. So I went back to Fort Gordon and when I checked in at my new unit, there was a guy who met me, showed me around, and invited me to his house for dinner. He had arrived at Fort Gordon a few months earlier and he, too, had not put down Fort Gordon in his top 3 choices for his next assignment, so we quickly became good friends. A few weeks later we were watching a football game together at his home and the TV camera showed people in the stands holding up a sign that read, “John 3:16.” My friends then said, “I looked up that verse in a Bible in the library recently, do you know what that verse says?” To which I replied, “Yes, doesn’t everyone? For God so loved that world that he gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in him will
not perish, but have everlasting life.” “That’s right,” he said, “how did you know?” “I learned it at church or in Sunday School,” I said, “when I was growing up, didn’t you?” “No,” my friend said, “I didn’t go to church or Sunday School at all growing up.” “Do you and your wife want to go to church with me next Sunday?” I asked him. “Sure, we’ll give it a try” they said. And with that simple invitation, my friend and his wife started coming to church with me. They did not come every week, in fact he was rather stunned when I told him that I went every Sunday. Eventually, we both left Fort Gordon and the Army at the same time, but we kept in touch over the years as he and his wife eventually moved to Florida, had 3 children, continued to attend worship periodically, and made sure his children all learned the words of John 3:16.
I wasn’t interested in going to Fort Gordon and I don’t know if God sent me there to invite this man and his wife, who became my friends, to church, but I’m sure many of us have had those experiences where we had one thing in mind we wanted to do, only to learn later on that God had something else in mind and His plans were very different from ours.
In our first lesson for today from the book of Acts we see a woman named Lydia, and what’s interesting is that if it had been up to Paul and his companions where they wanted to go to preach the Gospel of Jesus, they wouldn’t have met Lydia, and we may have never heard of Lydia, and many people may have never known Jesus. In the verses leading up to our text, Paul and his friends wanted to travel to some large cities in Asia to preach the Gospel, which certainly made sense as large cities presented an inviting mission field where large groups of people could hear the Gospel of Jesus. It’s just like when new churches are started today, organizers will look for large cities or for places where the population is growing where there is no church. But it says in verses 6-7, “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow
them to.” I’m sure they all wondered, “What’s going on? Why won’t God allow us to go to those different areas? There are several large cities there. We want to serve Him and people there need to hear about God.”
God then explained it to them in a vision that appeared to Paul one night. In the vision Paul saw a man from Macedonia standing there, urging him to come and help the people. So Paul and his companions immediately went to Macedonia, thinking that God had called them to preach the Gospel in that area. But when they arrived, initially nothing happened. There wasn’t a large crowd waiting for them when they arrived as they may have expected. Plus, Paul often began his work in a new city by preaching at the local synagogue, but there was no synagogue in this city. Therefore, since there was no synagogue and no large crowd of people waiting for them, I’m sure they must have thought, “Why would God lead us here to this area?”
So it says in our text that on the Sabbath they went to a place on the river where Jews would often meet for prayer. This was not unusual since Jews would often have places near water for prayer in order to follow all of the ceremonial washing rituals as prescribed by Jewish law. When they arrived, there were only some women who had gathered there for prayer and one woman was named Lydia, but she was not even a Jew. She was a dealer of purple cloth, which meant that she probably dealt with the rich, because purple was a color of royalty. Apparently she and the other women must have learned something about God before Paul and his friends arrived, because even though there was no synagogue for worship, these women got together at the river and prayed on a regular basis.
What a wonderful example Lydia sets for all of us. Even though she was probably very busy with her successful business, she took time to make her way out to the river to join her follow believers in prayer. I’m sure it would have been easier for Lydia to say, “Why do I need to go down to the river to pray? I can do that right here in my house.” Instead, Lydia understood the
importance of getting together with other believers on a weekly basis. She knew that she needed their encouragement and that she could be an encouragement to them.
But then when Lydia heard from Paul all about Jesus – how He was born, fulfilled all of God’s laws, died on a cross for the sins she committed and the sins of all people, and how Jesus rose from the dead and promised to come back someday, she knew that she needed to be cleansed of her sin by Jesus. So she was baptized and she received the gift of forgiveness from God that made her part of His family. But she did not stop there. I’m sure she told this news to everyone in her home, because our text tells us that her entire “household” was also baptized.
As a forgiven child of God, Lydia learned that she was a member of a special family – a family that involved more than just the people in her house. Through Jesus and her baptism she would be connected to Christians everywhere, so wanting to support the work that Paul and his friends were doing she insisted that they stay at her house. As a result her home became the headquarters for mission work in the area and eventually a church was started in that city. I’m sure Lydia did not plan on doing any of those things, but she allowed herself to be used by God to reach more people for Him.
This weekend many people will gather with family and friends to remember those who gave their lives in military service to our nation so we may enjoy the many freedoms we have today. But the ultimate sacrifice we should remember daily is the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross to free us from our sin so that we can live with Him forever. That sacrifice changed Paul’s life and Lydia’s life to the point that they were willing to serve Jesus even if it meant doing things they did not plan to do or going places they did not plan to go. Through our faith and our baptism, we are all part of God’s family and may we all be open to God’s leading, like Paul and Lydia, to serve Him. After all, you never know how a simple invitation to someone to worship with us can change their life.
