Acts 16:9-15 A common criticism
of biblical Christianity is that it is patriarchal, outdated, and antagonistic towards
women. And my response when I hear this criticism
is always the same: why don’t you
actually open up and a Bible and read it.
When
you do so, what any honest student of the Bible will find is that God tells the
story of his love for the world not just in the lives of Adam and Abraham and Joseph
and Paul and the Twelve--but also in the lives of Eve and Sarah and Mary and in
the faithful women of the cross and empty tomb.
The story of God’s
love and grace and forgiveness is a story that embraces all people—including women--
and that the gift of God’s Son and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is for: slave and free—Jew and Gentile—men and women.
We see how true
that is in the Book of Acts. Not only
does God use Paul, the Hebrew scholar and free Roman citizen, to accomplish his
mission—but he also uses the gentile Timothy and the slave Onesimus and the
woman Lydia
to share the Good News of his salvation with the world.
We can rejoice to
see how Christian wives and mothers and daughters and church workers and
businesswomen have changed the lives of those around them for the better—for time
and eternity. We see these biblical
truths vividly portrayed in the story of Lydia—an early Christian believer. Luke
writes:
A vision appeared to
Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and
saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." And when Paul had seen the vision,
immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called
us to preach the gospel to them. So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct
voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to
Philippi, which is a 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.
Every time you
hear someone tell you how terrible and oppressive the church has been to women,
and how women have been short-changed by bible-believing Christians, I want you
to remember how, from the very beginning, the church has reached out especially
to women with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We read this story
about Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke purposefully
seeking out the place where the women of Philippi gathered for prayer so
that they could speak to them about Jesus-- and two thousand years later we say,
“well of course—why wouldn’t they?”
But what we don’t
see (because the world and humanity has changed so dramatically in the
intervening years) is what a radical act this was on the part of these Christian
men—how different their attitudes toward women were than the prevailing
societal views. Rabbinic Judaism of that
day regarded women as second-class citizens at best and beasts of burden at
worst.
But the leaders of
the early church knew and believed something totally different about women: they knew from the Lord’s own example that
women were objects of God’s love and concern no less than men—they knew that that
women’s souls were eternally valuable to God—they knew that that God wanted all
people, men and women, to have a life with him through faith in his Son.
This attitude of
God towards women was beautifully modeled by the Lord Jesus during his earthly
ministry. Women were his followers. Women were his students. Women supported his ministry. Women were used as positive examples in his
teaching again and again.
Where men of his
day refused to acknowledge women as fully human—Jesus sought them out and
taught them and welcomed them and made a place at this table for them and
engaged them in conversation again and again.
Where men
abandoned our Lord in his moment of deepest need at Calvary-- it was faithful women
who were found at the foot of the cross.
And where men were
hiding out in fear after the resurrection-- it was the faithful women who were
charged by Jesus with the first apostolic mission of taking the Good News of
the resurrection to the disciples.
Paul and Timothy
and Silas and Luke knew the example of the Lord and his love and concern for
women and modeled that same kind of love and concern as they took the Good News
about forgiveness in Jesus out into the world.
And that there
were just a few women gathered together for prayer that day in Philippi made no
difference—those few women were just as important to them as the thousands of
pilgrims that had gathered in Jerusalem at Pentecost- and the hundreds of
learned scholars assembled on Mars Hill- and the emperor himself in Rome.
The Good News for
us is that the love of God in Christ is meant for all people and would be taken
to all people—including women. Luke
writes about one of these women:
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.
Every time you hear
someone complain that Christianity is hostile to women I want you to remember
that the very first convert to Jesus Christ in Europe was a woman that even modern
people two thousand years later can recognize.
We know from
ancient Roman history that, at this time, Philippi had a corporate guild of
dyers and Lydia was no doubt a member of that guild-- and because purple was
the most sought after color of all in the ancient world we know that Lydia was
capable, successful, and wealthy.
The fact that
Lydia had an economic life outside the home is a special comfort for modern,
Christian women.
The majority of
Christian women today work outside of the home and I know that this is not done
without some degree of guilt. Most of us
were raised by moms who were able to stay at home and be full-time homemakers and
many women today wish that they could do the same. But the world has changed- and now many women
work and feel guilty about it- wondering if they are doing the right thing by
their families.
There are some
parts of the church that are not particularly helpful to women in this—some
preachers and teachers—and other women—who add to working moms self-imposed guilt
by almost equating being a stay at home mom with being a true Christian and a
working mom as coming in a distant second in their piety. These folks are
wrong.
The love and mercy
of God in Christ did not pass Lydia by because she was a working woman—but was
given to her too. Luke writes that: The Lord opened her heart to pay attention
to what was said by Paul.
Before her
conversion to Christ, Lydia
was a Gentile believer in the God of Israel.
She would have known that a Messiah had been promised but she did not know
that the Messiah had taken on flesh and bone and was named Jesus.
If she were to be
saved and have a life with God, she still needed to hear that Good News that the
apostles were sent to bring and so she listened to what they had to say. Paul wrote in Romans chapter ten that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God.”
That is how
conversion worked in Lydia’s
life and it is how conversion works in every believer’s life. The Gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection is
the power of God unto salvation and the Word of God is sent into the world and
does not return to the Lord without accomplishing the saving purpose for which
it is sent.
That is exactly what
Lydia experienced that day as she heard for the first time the Good News about
Jesus who was crucified and raised for her salvation.
Lydia’s conversion
is a picture of every conversion—no ranting of some wild-eyed preacher to work
up his subject—no manipulative altar call with soft music in the background to
get us to come to the front—no emotionally agitated decision on the part of the
hearer.
Simply the still,
small voice of the Spirit of God powerfully working in our hearts through the
Good News about Jesus and giving us the faith to say: “I believe”—just like
with Lydia. Luke writes that, after
hearing the Good News: she was baptized, and her household as
well,
When Jesus gave
his church the Great Commission he said:
“Go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you”.
Now it is
self-evident that in the word “nations” Jesus was not talking about baptizing
geographic areas delineated by physical boundaries and ruled by some particular
form of government. He was talking about
the people in the those areas—all the
people without restriction--and so Lydia, a gentile woman, was baptized-- and
so were those in her household—no matter their age or gender or ethnicity.
The Good News
about Jesus-- and Holy Baptism-- and the gift of the Holy Spirit is that God
intends them for all people and Lydia wanted to make sure that her family and
friends heard about Jesus and believed in him.
Luke writes:
She urged us, saying,
"If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and
stay. And she prevailed upon us.
In Lydia’s example
of taking the Gospel to her home, we see a beautiful picture of Christian
womanhood that has repeated itself countless millions of times over the last
two thousand years of the church’s history:
faithful Christian women, making it their first priority in life that
everyone in their homes knows Jesus as well.
There is simply no
way to calculate the spiritual good that Christian women have accomplished over
the course of salvation history for the eternal welfare of their friends and
families through their Christian lives and through their witness to Jesus
Christ and the Good News that his love is for all people—including women. Amen.
