Lydia, of Thyatira

Lydia, of Thyatira In Lydia's conversion there are many points of interest. Observe that it was brought about by providential circumstances. She was a seller of purple, of Thyatira. That city was famous for its dyeing trade, which had flourished there ever since the days of Homer. The mode of producing a peculiarly delicate and valuable purple seems to have been known to the women of Thyatira. It may be that Lydia had come to Philippi upon a journey, or that while her manufactures were carried on at Thyatira, she resided during a part of the year at Philippi, to dispose of her goods. The communication between the two places was very easy, and she may have frequently made the journey; at any rate, Providence brings her there when the hour of her conversion is come. You will remember that Thyatira was situated in that part of the country into which Paul was forbidden by the Spirit to go and preach; therefore, had Lydia been at home, she could not have heard the truth; and as "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God," she must have remained unconverted. But Providence brings her to Philippi at the right time. Here is the first link of the chain. But how is Paul to be brought there? He must, first of all, be shut out of Bithynia; and he must be silenced in his journey through Mysia; he must be brought to Troas, close by the margin of the sea; he must look across the blue sea, and muse upon Europe's needs; he must fall asleep, and in the visions of the night, he must be prompted to cross to Macedonia; he shall ask for a ship—that ship shall be bound for Samothracia, and for no other place; he must land at Neapolis, and by the same instinct, he must make his way to Philippi; he cannot go in any other direction; he must be brought there at the very time when Lydia is present; he must find out the little oratory by the river's brink, for God ordains that Lydia shall be saved. Now, how many different threads were all interwoven here, to make up the fabric of her providential conversion! In this case, God rules and overrules all things to bring that woman and that apostle to the same spot; and everything in God's providence is working together for the salvation of the elect. In Lydia's case there was not only preventing providence, but there was also grace in a certain manner preparing the soul. The woman did not know the Saviour; she did not understand the things which made for her peace, yet she knew many truths which were excellent stepping-stones to a knowledge of Jesus. If not a Jewess by birth, she was a proselyte of the gate, and therefore well acquainted with the oracles of God; she was one who worshipped God; nay, she was one of the most devout of God's worshippers among the Jews. Though she was far away from the synagogue—some forget the Sabbath when they travel in foreign lands—yet when the day came round, she was found with that little handful at the river-side oratory. I doubt not that she had read Esaias the prophet, that she could carry in her heart and remember such words as these, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.... He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth." As in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, the Scriptures she had read, though they were not understood for want of some man to guide her, had prepared her mind: the ground had been ploughed ready for the good seed; it was not a hard rock, as in the gaoler's case. She worshipped God; worshipped Him in sincerity; worshipped Him looking for the coming of the Messiah, Israel's consolation; and so her mind was prepared for the reception of the gospel. Doubtless, in many of us there was a preparation for Christ before Christ came to us in quickening grace. I know that in some of our cases the pious example of a godly father, and the loving instruction of a tender mother, had softened us somewhat, so that though still we were unsaved and still out of Christ, yet we were like the man who laid at the pool of Bethesda, we were close by the edge of the healing stream, and there was not in our case that sudden, that astounding change which we have seen in others. Still, we ought to ascribe all this preparatory work to sovereign grace, for grace—free favour—does much in which no grace of effectual salvation is perceptible. I mean that before grace renews the heart there is grace preparing us for grace; grace may be setting the mind in activity, clearing us from prejudice, ridding us of a thousand infidel and sceptical thoughts, and so raising a platform from which Divine grace conducts us into the region of the new life. Such was the case of Lydia, such is the case of many; Providence and grace co-work before the effectual time is come. Her conversion took place in the use of the means. On the Sabbath she went to the gathering of her people. Although God works great wonders and calls men when they are not hearing the Word, yet usually we must expect that, being in the way, God will meet with them. It is somewhat extraordinary that the first convert in Europe was converted at a very small prayer-meeting. There were only a few women there; we have no reason to think that there were any more males than just Paul and his friend Luke; and these, you see, had called in, as we say, accidentally, and had been moved to give an address at the prayer-meeting, and that address it was which was the means in God's hand of opening her heart. Let us never neglect the means of grace; wherever we are, let us not forget the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. May you ever have, even if as yet you are unconverted, a love for the courts of the Lord's house, and for the place where His people meet together. Love the prayer-meeting; do not say of it, "Only a prayer-meeting!" God loves to put honour upon prayer, upon the assembly of His people directly for His worship; and you may hope, that even if the sermon shall not have been useful, and if the common Sabbath-day service may not have been blessed, yet perhaps, on the Monday evening—perhaps, too, in that little cottage, when there are only a few women present—you may meet with God, who did not appear to you in the greater assembly. Be diligent in the use of the means; be constantly in God's house, as often as the doors are open and your engagements will permit, for Lydia's conversion takes place in the use of the means.

It was assuredly a work of grace, for we are expressly told, "whose heart the Lord opened." She did not open her own heart. Her prayers did not do it; Paul did not do it; the Lord Himself must open the heart, to receive the things which make for our peace. To operate savingly upon human hearts belongs to God alone. We can get at human brains, but God alone can arouse human affections. We may reach them, we grant you, in the natural and common way, but so to reach them, as that the enemy of God shall become His friend, and that the stony heart shall be turned into flesh, is the work of grace, and nothing short of Divine power can accomplish it. Lydia was baptized, but her good works did not end at the water; she then would have the apostles come to her house. She will bear the shame of being thought to be a follower of the crucified Jew, a friend of the despised Jewish apostle, the renegade, the turncoat—she will have him in her house; and though he saith Nay, out of his bashfulness to receive aught, yet she constrains him, for love is in her heart, and she has a generous spirit; and while she hath a crust it shall be broken with the man who brought her to Christ; she will give not only the cup of cold water in the prophet's name, but her house shall shelter him. I do not think much of a conversion where it does not touch a man's substance; and those people who pretend to be Christ's people, and yet live only for themselves, and do nothing for Him or for His Church, give but sorry evidence of having been born again. A love to the people of God has ever been a distinguishing mark of the true convert. Look, then, at Lydia, and remembering that she is but a specimen of many, let her case rest before you, and let the prayer go up, "Lord, bring in Lydias, according to Thy mighty grace."

"The Lord opened Lydia's heart, to attend to the things that were spoken." No doubt the Lord removed prejudice. This prejudice is an evil which we have to fight against in very many. In Lydia's case it would be Jewish prejudice; perhaps the report had reached her, as it had most cf the Jews, concerning Jesus of Nazareth; she knew that her race had hounded Him to the death, that her nation had even said, "His blood be on us, and on our children." Paul, the apostle, was the subject of much of this prejudice among the Jews, insomuch that when writing his Epistle to the Hebrews, you will have observed that he does not begin with his name, as he does in all the other Epistles, because he felt that the very name Paul, from the fact of his having been an eminent Pharisee, and having become a Christian, was distasteful to the Hebrew people. But God removed all this prejudice from Lydia's mind; she sat down to listen to Paul with a determination to give him a fair hearing, and to weigh the matter and see whether these things were so or not—somewhat like the Bereans of old, who also had their hearts in a measure opened, for they searched the Scriptures to see whether things were so. The devil often covers men from head to foot in a coat of mail, so that when they come where the arrows of God are flying, there is very little hope of their being wounded, because there is scarce a joint of the harness which the devil has not protected by an iron rivet of prejudice. When her heart was opened her desires were awakened. She felt now a wish to understand this matter, and if there was anything in what the apostle was saying about eternal salvation—about complete pardon by the blood of Him who was the "Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world," she said to herself, "I should like to know about it; I hope it may be true; I wish I may get an interest in these things." So she listens, anxiously desiring to be impressed by the Word. She has a hunger and a thirst; and those people have this blessing—"They shall be filled." When we get people, by God's grace, as far as hungering and thirsting, then we are very thankful to say, this is the opening of the heart. As the oyster, when the tide comes up, openeth its shell, so when the tide of grace is coming, God often makes men open their hearts, so that now they may get the spiritual supply.

Well, there was a desire awakened, but this was not all; there came another kind of opening, her understanding was now enlightened. So her understanding was opened; she had a clear view of the gospel; she could see in its height, and depth, and length, just that which her soul wanted.

Then came something else; now her affections were excited, she felt growing within her a love to Him who, though He was equal with God, yet took upon Himself the form of a servant. As she heard Paul describe His sufferings, as she pictured to herself the scene around the cross, she thought she could hear the death-shriek and mark the flowing blood, and she seemed to think, "Yes, I love that Man: I love that God; my heart goeth after Him; O that He were mine! Yes," said she, "I love that preaching; sweet to my ears are those doctrines of mercy." She began already to rejoice, and "Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound," for if they do not yet walk in the light of God's countenance, yet they shall, for so the promise runs. All this, I think, is included in the term, "Her heart was opened." Her affections were now kindling towards Divine things. And then came faith; she believed the whole of the record. She took it to be absolutely true, as Paul had stated, that there had been a Messiah; that He, according to Scripture, was the Son of God, and was also the Son of man; that He had suffered, the just for the unjust, and that she, believing in Him, had her sins forgiven. Faith came now through hearing. She took God at His word; she simply and humbly put her soul at the feet of that cross where the blood was dropping, believing that, as it fell from Heaven, it pleaded for her, and as it dropped on her it gave her peace with God through Jesus Christ.

Faith being given, all the graces followed. Now she hated her sins, she repented. Now she loved righteousness, she sought after holiness. Now she had a bright hope of the many mansions in the Father's house. Now she began to run with holy and happy feeling in the ways of obedience to Christ's commands, and she became, not merely a believer in the elements of Christianity, but she went on towards perfection, adding to her faith courage, and to her courage experience, and to experience brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. Onward she went in the way of her God. All this the Master did by opening her heart to attend to the things that were spoken of by Paul.