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Lydia · Lesson 1 of 1

The Lord Opened Her Heart

Acts 16:11-15 · Read 5 min · think and write 20 min

← Lydia For leaders

Acts records that while Paul and his companions were at Troas, “A vision appeared to Paul in the night. There was a man of Macedonia standing, begging him and saying, ‘Come over into Macedonia and help us’” (Acts 16:9). “When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go out to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the Good News to them” (Acts 16:10).

This lesson reads what happened after they came to Philippi in Macedonia, by the riverside outside the city.

Read TogetherActs 16:11-15

11Setting sail therefore from Troas, we made a straight course to Samothrace, and the day following to Neapolis;

12and from there to Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, the foremost of the district, a Roman colony. We were staying some days in this city.

13On the Sabbath day we went outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.

14A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us. The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul.

15When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.

Think It Through

What do you see?

  1. Where did they set sail from, and what city did they come to? How does the passage describe that city? (vv. 11–12)
  2. Where did they go on the Sabbath day? To whom did they speak there? (v. 13)
  3. How does the passage describe Lydia? When she heard them, what did the Lord do? (v. 14)
  4. After she and her household were baptized, what did she say to them? What happened? (v. 15)

If I were there

  1. Imagine you are Lydia: on the Sabbath, at the place of prayer by the river, some men from far away sit down and speak to the women who have come together (v. 13). What would you be thinking? (The passage records only that she “heard us. The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul” (v. 14); it does not record what was in her heart at that moment. This question asks you to put yourself in her place.)
  2. Imagine you are one of Paul’s companions: she begs you, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay” (v. 15). What would you be thinking? (The passage records only, “So she persuaded us” (v. 15); it does not record what they thought. This question asks you to put yourself in their place.)

What is God like?

  1. “The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul” (v. 14). Reading this, what comes to mind?
  2. “Immediately we sought to go out to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the Good News to them” (v. 10); and in Philippi, by the river, “we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together” (v. 13). Reading this, what comes to mind?

What does this mean for me?

  1. She ‘heard’, and the Lord opened her heart “to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul” (v. 14). When you have listened to preaching or read the Bible, has there been a time when it was as if your heart was opened, and only then did you really take it in?
  2. All this happened on a Sabbath day, outside the city by a riverside, at “a place of prayer” (v. 13). Where and when do you usually hear God’s word?

Notes

To Philippi. “Setting sail therefore from Troas, we made a straight course to Samothrace, and the day following to Neapolis” (v. 11); “and from there to Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, the foremost of the district, a Roman colony. We were staying some days in this city” (v. 12).

By the river. “On the Sabbath day we went outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together” (v. 13).

Lydia. “A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us” (v. 14). The passage tells us only these few things about her: what she sold, what her name was, where she was from, and whom she worshiped.

The Lord opened her heart. “The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul” (v. 14). It was Paul who spoke, and she heard; the one who opened her heart, the passage says, was the Lord.

Come into my house. “When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.’ So she persuaded us” (v. 15).

Afterwards. Later, in Philippi, Paul and Silas were put in prison; what happened in between is in Paul, Lesson 5. “They went out of the prison and entered into Lydia’s house. When they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them, then departed” (v. 40). After this, the New Testament does not mention her name again.

For Them Then

Later Paul wrote to the Philippians: “You yourselves also know, you Philippians, that in the beginning of the Good News, when I departed from Macedonia, no assembly shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you only” (Phil 4:15). This letter does not mention Lydia by name.

Readers can see this: in this chapter Acts records that she “begged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay’” (v. 15); and that later, when Paul and Silas came out of prison, they “entered into Lydia’s house. When they had seen the brothers” (v. 40).

For You Today

Perhaps you have been reading the Bible and listening to preaching for many years, and you often feel that nothing goes in: you know all the words, you have heard the teaching, and yet there seems to be a layer between it and your heart. Or perhaps you are anxious for someone in your family or a friend: you have said the same things many times, and still they do not take them in.

This lesson does not say that you need to try harder before you can take it in; nor does it say whose fault it is when nothing goes in. What it shows you is this: on the Sabbath “we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together” (v. 13); Lydia “heard us. The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul” (v. 14).

This week: Each time you read the Bible or go to a meeting this week, first ask the Lord in one sentence to open your heart to listen. If you would like to, pray the same for someone you are concerned about.

Scripture: World English Bible.