LYDIA, JUDGED TO BE FAITHFUL
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
ACTS 16:11-15-40
Key Verse
“And when Lydia and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged us to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay”. And she prevailed upon us”.
Acts 16:15
INTRODUCTION.
From the time that you are a young child and you are aware of what is happening around you, you know that there are ways to behave and live, what we call standards that apply to you. There are things that your parents allow you to do and there are things that your parent or parents do not want you to do. As you grow up you will come to know that there are things that you like, and there are things that you are able to do. But there are things that you are not able to do simply because you want to do it and as well some things are required of you that you do not like. But you come to know that you have a particular personality which is unique to you and you have certain dreams, and certain needs which will work to put you into a particular direction and allow you to achieve your dreams and desires.
You will feel the urging in you to follow a certain road that will lead to fulfillment and make you a whole person, a balanced person, knowing and doing what is good and what is right as opposed to doing what is wrong and what is not right.
Our Lesson today tells us about a woman named Lydia who used to sell purple material which was highly prized by the upper classes in the Roman Empire. Being a woman she would have a lot of competition and a lot of attacks by the men around her who thought that she should not be doing that kind of work and being successful at it. But she was strong and she persisted. She had her own home and her own family. But despite her success in life and her strong personality she realized that there was something missing from her life. When she went to the town of Philippi on business, a town some distance away from her hometown, she met with some other people that came together to pray and to study about God for she thought that knowing God would go a long way to solving her problems and meeting her needs. Since there was no church that she could go to she and the other people met at a riverside to pray.
God knew her heart and her desires to know Him, and God sent the Apostle Paul and some other missionaries right there to the riverside and they prayed and worshiped with Lydia and the other people and began to teach Lydia and her fellow worshippers about Jesus Christ. Paul taught her that Jesus came to teach people about God, and in doing His ministry He healed a lot of people and did all kinds of wonderful things. But she was taught that the rulers of the nation crucified Him but after three days He rose from the dead, taught His disciples and followers, and had had a great relationship with them. Then He went back up to heaven to be with God the Father. Jesus had finished His work to provide salvation for men and women.
When Lydia heard that good news that God had sent Jesus to save people so that they would have eternal life she gladly accepted what Paul was saying and she became a believer in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. She requested baptism and the Apostle baptized her and her entire household. She was so grateful for the truth that God had sent to her and that God had opened her heart to accept the truth, she insisted that Paul and the other missionary group come to stay at her house and do their ministry from her house and build up a church in Philippi.
They did this and that church, the first church in Europe, became one of the strongest and largest and most influential of the churches in Europe.
We know that God opened the heart of Lydia and she responded to the work of God in her heart. God sent the Apostle Paul and his other missionaries to meet her at the riverside. And they preached the Gospel of salvation to her. This was an unusual place to have a prayer meeting but that was how God arranged it. God knew Lydia’s heart and God would never turn away from her but God arranged for His teachers to come to her to help her to meet Him.
So we learn that whoever we are, male or female, business person or worker, people who others do not think highly of, no matter what kind of life we had lived in the past, God loves us and will care of us. Once we seek God we will find Him. He will come to us and He will help us and make us one of His children and take us into heaven with Him in due time and we will inherit eternal life and many blessings.