Honoring Women On Mother's Day
Introduction
This is a special day for Mothers. We honor mothers and we thank God for them. It was Charles Spurgeon who said of his mother, "I cannot tell you how much I owe to the solemn word of my good mother." Today, I would like for us to honor all women; especially women of faith. God bless all the women, young and old alike, who desire to be godly women.
Elisabeth Elliot: “The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman.”
I. LIFE OF LYDIA
A. WORKING WOMAN.
Lydia was a working woman. She owned her own business. She was a seller of purple cloth. The production of purple cloth was a painstaking and tedious process and required thousands of shells from an ocean mollusk to make a couple yards of cloth.
Lydia reminds me of the modern woman who works outside the home as well as in the home. We are not told in the Bible if Lydia was married and had children. I am inclined to believe she was a widow and she had children. If this is correct, Lydia had the responsibility of raising her children and attending to her home.
Women today have so many responsibilities. They are trying to be a good wife to their husband and a good mother to their children. She wants to do a good job at her work. For the modern day woman, there are not enough hours in her day. There are clothes to wash, meals to prepare, children's activities to attend and the list goes on and no. She feels the pressure of trying to exceed in all these areas.
B. WEALTHY WOMAN.
Lydia was a wealthy business woman from Thyatira. In Biblical times, the color purple was associated with royalty and kingship. Only the wealthy could afford purple garments. We are led to believe she was prosperous in her business. She must have owned a spacious home. Her house was large enough for her family and her servants. Lydia had servants to care for her. She still had room to lodge the missionaries.
C. WORSHIPING WOMAN.
Wherever there was a large enough colony of Jews, a synagogue was established. It must have been very few Jews in Philippi because these women met for prayer by a riverside. The fact that Lydia worshipped God tells us that she was a religious woman. Lydia was a Gentile who believed in the Jewish God. She gathered with a few Jewish people and some God-fearing Gentile women at the river for prayer.
Just believing in God is not enough to be saved. It is also not enough to be saved by just being religious.
"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God" (Rom. 10.1-3).
The people of whom Paul wrote were religious, and even zealous in their religion, but they were religiously wrong and thus not saved. Jesus said to Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3)
Lydia was ignorant of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She needed to be saved. Lydia needed to hear the salvation message of Jesus Christ.
II. LORD OF LYDIA
A. EXPERIENCE OF SALVATION.
The Lord opened her heart to the preaching and teaching of Paul. She could not have been saved without the Lord working in her heart. He prepared her to hear the Word of God.
Jesus said, “He that hearth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24)
In verse 14, the Bible states that Lydia "heard us." It means more than just to be aware of the noise or sound of something--it means to listen to or to pay attention. This was Lydia's part in her salvation. She paid attention to what Paul was saying.
"Heart" in this instance refers to a person's mind. The Lord opens our hearts in the sense that He calls to us through His word and by His Spirit. We respond to His message when our minds are open to His truth.
The Lord opening Lydia's heart is like Jesus opening the disciples' understanding, "that they might understand the scriptures." (Luke 24:45)
This is a work God must do in all who believe, because as Jesus said, "no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." (John 6:44)
When we pray for lost people, we need to pray for God to open their hearts.
Lydia was not a Christian. She did have a hunger for a deeper spiritual experience with God. The mind is closed against the full truth until the Lord opens the heart.
B. EVIDENCE OF SALVATION.
The word translated "attend" in verse 14 literally means "to turn to." Lydia turned to the truth she had heard Paul preach. She then made a decision to apply those truths to her life. In other words, Lydia trusted and obeyed Jesus. Paul and Silas must have seen the evidence of Lydia's salvation.
What were some of those evidences of salvation?
Her baptism: She readily followed the Lord in baptism. Water baptism does not save, but it does give an outward evidence of genuine salvation. If there is no obedience to Christ to be baptized, there is reason to doubt there has been a genuine conversion. Jesus' last commandment to the disciples was "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:19-20 KJV)
Teach them to "observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." One of those things is baptism. If our salvation is genuine, we will follow the Lord in baptism.
Lydia wanted to be identified with Christ's death and resurrection. Lydia was willing to make a public statement of her faith in Christ.
Her witness: Lydia left that prayer meeting a new person in Christ; she was a born again believer. She must have gone and told her household of her salvation experience. Something as good and wonderful as salvation cannot be kept a secret. You have to tell it to someone. Lydia had a powerful influence on her household. They were all baptized, too.
Her hospitality: The Lord opened Lydia's heart and she opened her home to the missionaries. She said to them: "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there." Paul and Silas judged her faithful. They stayed in her home while they continued their missionary work. In verses 16 through 39, we read of their successes in leading people to the Lord and their persecution and imprisonment for the gospel. When Paul and Silas were released from prison, they returned to the house of Lydia. (16:40) Lydia took care of God's servants by being a servant herself. This is indeed an evidence of salvation. Christian women have a powerful impact for the cause of Christ and the betterment of this world.
LESSONS FOR LIFE:
1. Lydia was a busy business woman, but she made time for God. Make time for God.
You need Him!
2. This Mother's Day, let us honor all women. Show them the respect they should receive.
3. God's gift to every woman who will receive it is the gift of salvation.
The first time we see Lydia, she won't be wearing some dyed garment. She will be wearing the white robe of righteousness.