As we look into the Word of God, let's pray and ask for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Father, we come to You this morning acknowledging our desperate need for the Holy Spirit, for His ministry in our hearts and our minds, to open the bread of life to us that we may eat it, to open our ears to hear from You To open our eyes to see Christ glorified. To move our wills to respond to Your Word. We see in this text, Lord, that the sovereign Spirit of God opened the heart of Lydia. And we pray He would do the same for us. Pray for anyone here today who does not truly know Christ through the saving gospel. By your power, Lord, would you draw, would you draw their hearts? Would you open their hearts like you did to Lydia and cause them to be able to respond to the truth that is spoken? I pray, Father, that all of us who know Christ would also respond to Your Word today and see the obedience of the apostles to respond to Your call and see the obedience of Lydia as she applied her newfound faith. Lord, I ask that You would give me the words to say, that I would merely be Your mouthpiece These people have come here today not to hear me, but they have come to hear from You. So we pray that Your Spirit would make that possible. We commit our time to You and pray that our lives would be transformed by Your Word. In the name of Christ, we pray, Amen. There is no lasting ministry for the Lord without the power and the leading of the Holy Spirit of God. Before His crucifixion, Jesus promised to send His Spirit to empower His disciples. He promised that this would take place after His ascension to heaven. For example, in John 14 we read, And I will ask the father and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever. That is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold him or know him. But you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. So Jesus made it clear that the Holy Spirit would be sent by Himself, and that this Spirit, whom His disciples knew to be among them, would now be in believers. He would actually live within the bodies of believers in Jesus Christ. As a result, He would lead us and guide us into all truth, and He would empower us for ministry. Two chapters later, in John 16, Jesus says this, but I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. His disciples were worried because Jesus had said he would be going away and he said, don't worry, it's to your advantage that I go away because I will send the Spirit. For if I do not go away, the helper shall not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin, because they do not believe in me and concerning righteousness, because I go to the father and you no longer behold me and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. So. Jesus said the spirit when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment. In other words, the Holy Spirit would work in the hearts and lives of unbelievers, drawing them to faith in Christ. Jesus goes on then to say, I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Jesus was a wise teacher. He knew He could not give His students everything in one dump truck load. But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me for he shall take of mine and shall disclose it to you." So Jesus says, when the Spirit comes, He will lead you into all truth. And that truth will glorify Me. That's one of the principles we need to understand about theology. The theology of the Holy Spirit. And that is that the Holy Spirit of God never draws attention to Himself, but always draws attention to Jesus Christ. Jesus said, He shall glorify Me. So you know that the Holy Spirit of God is at work in your life when your life is glorifying Jesus more and more each day. That is one of His great works. Now, the words that we have gone back to repeatedly in our study of the book of Acts are found in Acts 1, and they form a basic outline of the book. In chapter 1 and verse 8, we read Jesus promising His Spirit again to be sent to the disciples. Now it was a matter of days in which it would take place. The disciples are worried about when the kingdom shall come. Jesus said, don't worry about that. I have other work for you to do." And so he says in verse 8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth. This is a basic outline of the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit will come. He says when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, not if the Holy Spirit has come upon you, but when. When I fulfill my promise to send my spirit, he will come upon you. He will come upon you in great power and you will receive power to be my witnesses. And this witness will have a ripple effect. We'll begin in Jerusalem and then move out to Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth. And we see that continuing throughout the book of Acts. Today's text begins with a call to obey the leading of the Spirit of God. We noticed last time in previous verses that the Holy Spirit forbid Paul and Silas and their new companion Timothy from going to certain cities where they desired to preach the gospel. The purpose for this forbidding from the Holy Spirit was to move them quickly to the port city of Troas so that Paul could receive a divine call to take the gospel to Europe for the very first time. So I want you to notice a call to obey in verses 9 through 12. This call to obey begins with a vision from the Lord. Verse 9, a vision appeared to Paul in the night A man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia. Now, we understand from the scriptures that in times past, God spoke to his people in various ways, which are no longer necessary since the written word of God is now complete. For example, Hebrews 1, the first two verses says this, God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days, has spoken to us in His Son. And then we see in the Great Commission passage in Matthew 28, that now the revelation of his son is confined to the written word of God. And our responsibility now is to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, teaching people to observe everything that the Lord commanded. But before the scriptures were complete, God spoke to some of his people through visions, as we see here in verse nine. And so this vision appeared to Paul. He saw a man of Macedonia. Something in the appearance of the man or in the language spoken by the man in this vision immediately made it clear to Paul that this man was from Macedonia and this man was standing there appealing to Paul, begging him to come to help them. And when he had seen the vision, verse 10 tells us that immediately Paul and Silas and Timothy along with Luke discerned that this was the Lord's will. This is the first time now that we see Luke as a part of the team. Verse 10, the first person plural, we, is used for the very first time. So these four men discerned that this was the Lord speaking to Paul through this vision. and that it was time for them to immediately move toward Macedonia. They had concluded, verse 10 says, that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. It's obvious that the help that the man from Macedonia was calling for was spiritual help. Verse 11 then says, so putting out to sea from Troas, We ran a straight course to Samothrace, which is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It was the location of a mystery religion where the people worshipped the false god Kiburi. The Greeks called this island Poseidon's Island. Poseidon was the Greek god of sea and earthquakes. And from this idolatrous island, they then moved on to Neopolis and from there to Philippi. Philippi is, according to Luke, a leading city of the district of Macedonia, also a Roman colony. Philippi is named after Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great, who named the city after himself. Sounds like a humble guy. The city had the status of being a Roman colony, which meant that it had been organized by the state and was probably a military outpost. It was to this city that God called the missionaries. And it says at the end of verse 12 that they were staying in this city for some days. Difficult to put a number on that. How many days is that? We have no idea. But they were there for quite some time. So this was the call from the Lord. Come to Macedonia. And so immediately they picked up and moved and traveled to Philippi. Where then we notice in verses 13 through 15 a conversion to observe. a conversion to observe. It was God who had called them and moved them to Philippi, and He called them there because He had been previously working in the heart of a certain woman, preparing her to hear the Gospel. So verse 13 says, 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. They went to the riverside where they knew they would find a gathering of people who were interested in religion, so to speak, or at least interested in hearing a spiritual message. They did not go to the synagogue because apparently there was no synagogue in Philippi, which would lead us to conclude there were not ten men who were heads of their households who were at least interested in the Jewish religion that could have formed a synagogue. And so they went to the riverside. They were supposing that they would find people praying there, and that's exactly what they found. We sat down, verse 13, and began speaking to the women who had assembled. So not finding ten men, In the city, they did find a group of women who were at the riverside in prayer together. What a wonderful testimony to the sovereignty of the Spirit of God at work in the lives of these women and at work in the lives of the missionaries, directing them to meet so that the gospel could be proclaimed. It's not unusual that they would find a group of women speaking. Biblically and historically, women have always had a significant role in the life of the church. Though it is not a leadership role, it is no less significant. Many women ministered to the Lord Jesus during his three year public ministry. In fact, they were the first to come to the empty tomb on the resurrection morning. Many women ministered to the Apostles. In fact, the Apostle Paul mentions many women by name in his letters. Here we find a group of women who have assembled for prayer. And out of this group of women, the Holy Spirit through Luke singles out for us his attention on a woman named Lydia in verse 14. And probably more accurately, she is a Lydian woman. That is from the area of Lydia, whether or not her actual name was Lydia is difficult to understand or to nail down. She is a woman from the city of Thyatira, which is in the region of Lydia. So her name could be Lydia or she could merely be a Lydian woman. A woman from the region of Lydia. Her name, Lydia, reminds us that Thyatira is in the territory of the ancient kingdom of Lydia. People from this city were famous for their skill in the manufacture of purple dyes, which were extracted from the juice of the matter root. That was the case here with Lydia. She was a seller of purple fabrics. There is no mention of a husband. Perhaps she had never been married, but most likely she is a widow. She had a household, which probably included children and many servants. She appears from the context to be a wealthy businesswoman who moved from Thyatira to set up shop in Philippi. to sell her purple fabrics. She is, according to Luke in verse 14, a worshipper of God. This does not mean that she is saved at this point, but this means that she has left her idolatry and she has begun to follow the God of the Jews. We find other Examples of this in the book of Acts. People who were worshippers of God or God fearing, and yet they had not heard the gospel, and so they had not yet been saved. For salvation to occur, this woman needed to hear the gospel. Romans 1017 makes it clear that faith comes from hearing and her hearing by the word of Christ. There is no way for a sinner to be saved apart from the work of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the gospel. Both are now at work in the life of Lydia. The Holy Spirit has been working in her heart and drawing her to the one true God, and now she is about to hear the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit sent the missionaries to Philippi in order to bring the gospel to this woman named Lydia. So there's a sense in which we could say that the man in Paul's vision was to lead him to this woman who needed to hear the gospel. I want you to notice three aspects of Lydia's conversion. Three aspects of the conversion of Lydia, which are incredibly important for us to observe and then to apply. The first aspect is what I will call divine regeneration. Divine regeneration, that is, a divine new birth. That is, she is born again. by the power of God. And we see this in the latter part of verse 14. Look at verse 14 with me. This worshiper of God named Lydia was listening and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. So as she was listening to the message that Paul was preaching, it was the Lord who opened her heart to hear this message. There is no way for a sinner to be saved unless the Lord opens the heart. The Word of God is clear. We are prior to salvation. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. And unless the Holy Spirit of God does a work, a person cannot be saved. It is not contrary to modern evangelicalism, simply a matter of coercing someone into making a decision for Christ. Anybody can do that. This is a supernatural work of God. calling the sinner to Christ. This is the Lord opening her heart. Jesus says in John 6.44, no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. No one. can come to faith in Jesus Christ unless the Father draws Him. No one can come to faith in Christ unless the Holy Spirit convicts Him of sin and righteousness and judgment, which is what Jesus said the Holy Spirit was sent to do. So it was the Lord who was drawing Lydia to Himself. And that is what caused the Holy Spirit to lead His missionaries to this place. According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit is the agent of the new birth. Listen to what He said in John 3 in His conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus said, beginning in verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. The only way any sinner can be born again is if the Holy Spirit does that work. This is divine regeneration. This is the Holy Spirit through the power of the gospel, giving new life to spiritually dead sinners, awakening them that they might receive Christ. This is all the work of God. As the scriptures teach us, faith and repentance are both gifts from God. So the salvation of Lydia was a work of God. Mark that down. Don't ever forget that. The salvation of Lydia was a work of God. And so is every true conversion. Every true conversion is a supernatural work of God. So the first aspect of her conversion that I want you to notice is divine regeneration. The second is obedient faith. Obedient faith. Look with me at the beginning of verse 15. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, if you've judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay. Here we see the obedience of baptism. It was Lydia and her household who had been baptized according to verse 15. Immediately upon being converted by the power of the Holy Spirit, this woman wanted to publicly proclaim her faith in Jesus Christ. She wanted the world to know that Jesus was her Lord. This is a step of obedience. And the Scriptures teach us that baptism is just that. It is a step of obedience to the Lord. It is the first step of obedience. It is commanded by the New Testament. Lydia had obedient faith. Let me ask you, if would-be followers of Jesus are not willing to obey the simple command to be baptized, what is the likelihood that their life will then be characterized by further obedience? This is simple, obedient faith. This is evidence that the Holy Spirit has worked in this woman's life. Now, the fact that the New Testament teaches baptism as a command is evidenced in five ways. First, Jesus commands baptism. Jesus commands baptism in Matthew chapter 28. It is part of the Great Commission. He also approved of baptism and he even exemplified obedience to baptism by being baptized himself by John the Baptist. This pleased the father, Luke says in Luke chapter 3 and verse 21. Second, Peter commands obedience to baptism. In Acts chapter 10, we noted that Peter answered the people, surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did. Can he? And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. I know that some of this is repetitious of previous messages here in the book of Acts, but I want you to see that this is the normal Christian life over and over in the book of Acts. we find that believers responded in obedience to the command to be baptized. In Acts chapter eight, we notice thirdly that Philip administered baptism to the Ethiopian eunuch. Immediately upon conversion, this man wanted to be obedient to the Lord's command. Fourth, we see baptism is the expected response of believers in Christ. We've seen this many times in the book of Acts already. We will continue to see it all the way until the end. And Paul assumes that believers will be baptized because he uses baptism as an illustration of how deeply we have been immersed in union with Christ. In Colossians 2, Paul writes, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. So baptism is a command to the church. It is therefore a demonstration of one's commitment to following Christ as Lord. Immediately, Lydia wanted to be baptized. And she and her household were baptized. Now, advocates of infant baptism like to point to this passage with Lydia as proof of their practice. However, there is nothing in the text that supports the conclusion. There is no indication anywhere in this text that there were any children involved, children younger than the ability to respond to the gospel themselves. There is absolutely no evidence in the text. It is an argument built totally upon silence. And so based on the other examples of household baptisms that we have in the book of Acts, we are right to conclude that all who were baptized here in the household of Lydia were all those who had responded to the Gospel. You will never find an example in the Scriptures of a person being baptized who has not first believed. It is impossible for an infant to believe in Christ is absolutely no biblical basis for the practice of infant baptism. Here we have a beautiful example of believers baptism, that is, those who believed followed Christ. So we see obedient faith. is an aspect of her conversion. And then thirdly, I want you to notice faithful love. Faithful love is the third aspect of Lydia's conversion. Lydia urges the missionaries in verse 15, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord coming to my house and stay. In other words, since you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, since you have believed my testimony that my faith in Christ is genuine, and therefore you are willing to baptize me, then come into my house. Receive my hospitality." Lydia wants to be faithful to the Lord. And she says, since you've judged me to be this, then receive my hospitality. And it says at the end of verse 15, she prevailed upon us. That is, she would not take no for an answer. She was a woman given to biblical hospitality, showing her love to strangers, not merely to her friends. And she wanted to demonstrate the love of the brethren to the missionaries, and she would not allow them to say no. She prevailed upon them. Her love for the brethren is rapid evidence of the genuineness of her conversion. 1 John 3.14 says, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. In other words, one of the evidences of genuine conversion will be love for other believers. will be a desire to be with other believers who love the Lord and love His Word and are like-minded in following Christ. This is evidence of true conversion. In fact, John also said in 1 John 2 that those who had defected were those who had never really been a part of the believers. They were physically a part, but never spiritually. Never in the heart. Lydia immediately was filled with a love for the brethren, and her house became a place of ministry. She immediately wanted them to come to her house and stay there that she might minister to them, meet their needs, encourage them. The last verse of the chapter indicates to us that her house continued to be a place of ministry. After they were released from prison, they went out and entered the house of Lydia. And when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. So Lydia's home became a place of ministry. And therefore, she serves as a good reminder to us that our houses are not to be museums, but to be ministry centers. Too many times in our American materialism, we think that our house has to be just perfect before we can have people over. Oh, I'd love to have people over, but you know, that room isn't painted yet and that room isn't done yet. We come up with endless reasons why we cannot have people into our homes. Why? Because we think our homes are supposed to be museums where we show off all that we have acquired and be careful to tell people not to touch. That is an unbiblical mentality. A home is not a museum. It is to be a ministry center. place to use to encourage other believers, to strengthen them in the faith, to hold Bible studies, to serve meals to others, to reach out to your neighbors who do not know Christ. This is a great example for us to follow. Lydia followed the instruction that we read earlier in Romans 12, 13. We are to be contributing to the needs of the saints and practicing hospitality. That's the way Lydia was. She had an obedient faith and a faithful love for God and for other believers. She wanted to please God with her life. She wanted to live for the Lord. This is the immediate change that the Holy Spirit makes in the life of this woman. So we need to understand that the Holy Spirit leads those who desire to please the Lord. The Holy Spirit led the missionaries to Lydia's place of prayer by the river because they desired to please Him and because the Holy Spirit wanted Lydia to hear the gospel. The Holy Spirit led Lydia to faith in Christ and to a life of living for the Lord. Let me ask you this morning by way of application. What is the Holy Spirit leading you to do? And then let me ask you another question in response to that. Who are you going to please? What is the Holy Spirit leading you to do? And who are you going to please? Turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I just want to give you some very specific application this morning and even give you an assignment for the rest of the week. I want to share with you some verses out of 2 Corinthians 5 that have radically impacted me in the last couple of years. They've really transformed my thinking Not that it's complete. It's not not near complete, but it is being renewed. My mind, my thinking is being renewed by three verses out of Second Corinthians, chapter five, that I want to share with you and I want to make for you an application assignment. Second Corinthians, chapter five, in verse 9. Now, Paul has just been talking about how he would rather be home with the Lord than to remain in his body on earth. He would rather be absent from the body and pleasing to the Lord and in the presence of the Lord. So he's been speaking about the temporal nature of this life. Now, we don't have to look too far to understand that our life is temporal, right? Haul out an old photo album. Look at yourself 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and you quickly understand this life is temporal. There's a day coming in which we will not be here any longer. And so the challenge that Paul gives to us is, look at what life you have left on this earth and ask yourself, what am I going to do with it? And who am I going to please with the remaining years of my life? And he comes to this conclusion in verse 9, therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. This is the goal. Paul says, this is my ambition. My ambition in life is to be pleasing to the Lord. And that needs to be our goal and ambition to be pleasing to the Lord. So part of my assignment to you this week is to memorize that verse. to memorize 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 9. And as you memorize it, make a commitment to the Lord that this will now be the overarching principle of your life. That every decision you make from this moment on will be made in light of 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 9. Therefore, We also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. Not to be pleasing to everybody else. Not to be pleasing to our family, not to be pleasing to our friends, but to be pleasing to the Lord. So every time you are confronted with making a decision in the weeks ahead, ask yourself these three questions. Am I seeking to please God? Am I seeking to please God? Or am I afraid to please God because I care more about pleasing men? I don't know if you struggle with the fear of man as I do. I don't know if you struggle at times with being a people pleaser as opposed to a God pleaser. I do. And it makes decisions very difficult at times. But I really have to boil it all down and say, OK, Lord, I know this is a difficult decision to make, but I have a choice here. I can either please you or please the people around me, but I cannot do both. And we have to come to that point in our life. There are hard decisions that the Holy Spirit leads us to make, but we have to make those decisions based upon 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 9. Do I please God or do I try and make everybody in my life happy? Because you try and make everybody in your life happy and you have now embarked upon an impossible task that will plunge you into a dark valley of despair that you will never get out of. Because you cannot please everyone. And you are not even called to please everyone. And as I preach that to you, there is one large mirror in front of me. Because I preach it to myself. Am I seeking to please God? Or am I afraid to please God because I care more about pleasing men? Therefore, third question, How can I please Christ most? How can I please Christ most? How can I look at the remaining years of my life and apply 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 9 to be pleasing to Him? Now, I said there were three verses in 2 Corinthians 5. So, skip a few and go to verses 14 and 15. Because this forms the foundation of why 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 9 is so important. Look at verse 14. For the love of Christ controls us, or constrains us, or motivates us. Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." Let me tell you this about verses 14 and 15. 14 and 15 forms the theological motivation for verse 9. Verse 9 is the commitment to be pleasing to Him. The theological motivation comes from what Christ has done for us. Verse 14, the love of Christ controls us. It constrains us. In other words, we have to do what we have to do because Christ loves us so much. And we have to do what we have to do because we love Christ. Having concluded this, The one died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all. Look at this verse 15. He died for all. Why? So that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. What is Paul saying? He is saying that our nature is to live for ourselves. That is the default mechanism of our hearts. When there's nothing else compelling us to live in another way, we just naturally slip into default mode and live for ourselves. And Paul says, because Christ died, we are to no longer live for ourselves, but for who? For Him who died. and rose again on our behalf." That to me is a portrait of Lydia. She came to faith in Christ and immediately what governed her mind was, how can I be faithful to the Lord? How can I show my love to this Lord who died for me and rose again? And in that way, she is a great example for us to follow. Is that going to be our motivation? Is that going to be our commitment this morning, Lord? My ambition in life is just to please you. Forgive me that I so often want to please others. Forgive me that my nature is to to serve myself. I want to no longer live for myself. I want to no longer serve myself, but I want to live for Him who died and rose again for me." That's the response. That's the response the Holy Spirit wants from us this morning. So my assignment to you is to spend every day this week, from now until next Sunday, meditating on 2 Corinthians 5 verse 9 through 15. Every day, whether it's morning or night or noon day, every day this week, Read 2nd Corinthians 5 verses 9 through 15. Read it over and over and over again and say, Lord, what must I do to please you? And when the Holy Spirit makes that clear, then you surrender to that. And no matter how hard it is, you make that decision that is most pleasing to Him. Father, we come to you this morning in so great of a need for your help. We come to you having been convicted by the Holy Spirit of God Your Word makes it so clear that true conversion leads to the fruit of a life of obedience to You. That obedience is manifested in so many ways, not only through proclaiming our faith in You through baptism, but also through living our lives for You each and every day opening our homes to show the love of Christ to others. Oh, Father, I thank you for reminding us of the ministry of the Holy Spirit this morning, how He called your missionaries to go to another place to fulfill your will, and how your Holy Spirit called Lydia to respond to the gospel and then to apply the Gospel to her daily life by no longer living for herself, but living for the one who died and rose again for her. O God, we pray that You would help us this week to apply the principle of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We know that it is Very natural and very easy for us to please ourselves and to please others. We hardly even have to make any effort to do so. It is the easy road. And yet, you called us to a hard road. Narrow is the way that leads to life. You called us to follow hard after Christ. which means there will be hard decisions that we have to make that force us to choose between pleasing You and pleasing ourselves and pleasing You and pleasing others. Oh God, I pray that You would give us a faith that is so simple and so childlike that we just say, we must follow Christ, we must please Him, and we must please Him most of all. So, Father, work in our hearts. Open our hearts to receive Christ for the very first time for those here today who do not know You. For those of us who do know Christ by Your grace, open our hearts to live by a higher principle That is, to make it our ambition to be pleasing to You. Do this work in our hearts by the power of Your Spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.