Lydia of Thyatira
Today I continue from Acts 16:13-15, which describes that the Lord opened the heart of Lydia of Thyatira.
Hi, Students of the Word. What does it mean that the Lord opened our hearts and how could we benefit from it? These are some of the questions that I will answer in today’s Bible study.
I am Leroy and today we will continue with our Book of Acts Bible study.
Just to put this in context, Paul is on his Second Missionary Journey. His team of Believers is with him and they are now in Macedonia.
Click this link, If you prefer to watch the Video Bible Study for this lesson.
Lydia – The Seller of Purple
“And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.’
Acts 16:13
“… A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, and of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, [so Lydia was a Believer] heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.”
Acts 16:14
Then, the final verse.
“And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.”
Acts 16:15
What Is the Heart?
In this Bible study, when I talk about the heart, I am not speaking about that muscular organ in our chest. That heart beats and circulates blood around our body. But I am speaking of the spirit of a person, for that is the heart.
I also did a Bible study on that and I will leave a link to it here. This will also answer the question, Where is the heart?
What Does it Mean That the Lord Opened Lydia’s Heart?
It means that her heart was hardened and unbelieving. However, the Lord changed that, for, He touched it and she believed His Word.
The Scriptures describe this as, “the heart has waxed gross”, which means that it, has grown big with unbelief.
“For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
Matthew 13:15
Therefore, to open Lydia’s heart the Lord had to touch it. When he touched her heart, it was no longer hardened or unbelieving but understanding and believing of His Words.
The Heart That The Lord Touched Always Does This!
In other words, the Lord touched her heart and softened it. It was not firm, obstinate, and stubborn. But believing and pliable; you know mushy, cushy, believing, but not hard and obstinate.
If we trust the speaker, that is not the condition we want our hearts to be in when we hear the Word of God because we want to believe it.
The integrity of the speaker is of outermost importance. If we trust him, we should believe his words. If not, we should search the Bible.
Do this to ensure that the words that we are hearing are actually the true Words of God.
But, if you believe in the integrity of the speaker or the character of the speaker then you should believe the word.
Do Christians Possess Unbelieving Hearts?
However, before the Lord touched her heart, she had to hear the Word of God first. Consequently, the Scripture says in Acts 16:14:
When Lydia heard us, then the Lord touched or opened her heart. So you may ask do Christians possess unbelieving hearts?
Lydia was a Believer. The Holy Bible tells us in the opening verse that she worshipped God. Only Believers are worshippers of God.
So, she was a Christian because the Bible said that she worshipped God, but still, she had a hard heart. Some of Jesus’s disciples had unbelieving hearts and we see this after his resurrection.
We can see that in Mark 16:14, let me find this.
Examples of Christians With Unbelieving Hearts
“Afterward he appeared onto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.”
After the Lord had risen, the women saw him and explain to the rest of the disciples that Jesus had risen and we had seen him.
Now they did not believe the report of Mary and the rest of the women and this is what Jesus was, you know, berating them about, hardness of heart.
They did not believe the report that the women brought to them. So believers could possess unbelieving hearts.
Additionally, we see a display of an unbelieving heart too among other disciples. After the resurrection of Jesus, he had appeared to the disciples at least once before, but Didymus was not among them when he came.
Our Belief In Jesus Is Not Based On What We See
Now the disciples told Didymus that “the Lord has risen and he had come and we had seen him” but he was in disbelief.
This is what he said, see John 20:24-25:
“But Thomas, one of the twelve, [so he was one of the Apostles] called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.” [And this was after his resurrection].
“The other disciples, therefore, said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” [That the Lord was risen].
That is an unbelieving heart there among the apostles. Remember the Scripture had foretold that this would happen.
Jesus had also preached to them that he should rise on the third day, so this was not a secret.
Yet an apostle did not believe the Word of God. Mainly because of hardness of heart and today many Christians hear the Word of God and do not believe it for the same reason.
It happened in those days and it persists even up to today.
Why Did the Lord Need to Open Lydia’s Heart?
Because it was blocked by unbelief. Lydia would never have acted on Paul’s words if she did not believe them.
If her heart had remained hardened and unbelieving, she would never have listened to or attended unto the things that were spoken of Paul.
What is The Meaning of Lydia “Attended to The Things That Were Spoken of Paul”?
When the scripture says that Lydia attended to the things, which was spoken of Paul, it means that she listened keenly or attentively, she heard him, she believed him and then she obeyed him.
So, to see the scriptural definition of the word ‘attended to’, we could look at Job 32:12, Psalm 66:19, and this very scripture Acts 16:14, for the usage of this word in an identical context.
Job 32:12 says:
“Yea, I attended unto you, and, behold, there was none of you that convinced Job, or that answered his words.”
Job 32:12
So the speaker is saying, yes I listened to you, and none of you persuaded Job, or answered his questions. Thus, you perceived how the meaning of ‘attended’ here is parallel to that of Acts 16:14.
Our next scripture is Psalm 66:19.
“But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.”
Psalm 66:19
The first phrase of Psalm 66:19 means the identical thing as the second phrase of the same verse.
This is nothing more than a reflection of the major style of the Holy Bible: Repetition.
Here, David was praying. He said ‘attended’ means to listen attentively. So he says, God heard me.
This means that He had attended to the voice of his prayer. In other words, He heard his prayer.
This Is The Reason Lydia Got Baptized
So when the scripture said that Lydia attended onto the things that were spoken of Paul, it simply means that she heard him, she listened to him, she received that saying, then she went and performed the things that he asked or requested that she did.
We are going to look at one of those things that Apostle Paul asked her to do, later on in this Bible study.
We do not act on things we do not believe and that is why Lydia would never have attended to the things Paul spoke if she did not first receive a touch from God.
What Are Some Benefits We Enjoy Because The Lord Opened Our Hearts?
- First, we believed His Word
- We are converted,
- We shall be saved.
- We are empowered, and
- We possess the most effective and efficient weapon to battle the Adversary.
We will do as Christ did.
This Is How Citizens of The Kingdom of Heaven Operate
Christ spoke to every situation he encountered. Consequently, because he has touched our hearts and we believed his Word, we too can speak to every situation we encounter.
We can speak to sickness, we can speak to diseases and they will obey us if we believe. When the Lord touched our heart and opened it, it grants us power and we get that power when we received the Holy Ghost.
But, first, we must hear it. We must hear that Word from God, from a preacher, believe it, then, the Holy Ghost comes.
If we receive Him then we are empowered to speak and to act as Christ did on this earth. Let me conclude.
Conclusion
If our hearts are hardened, then it is blocked by unbelief. In this state, we cannot please God, because we do not believe His Words.
Because of the hardness of the hearts of the Children of Israel, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years.
They were just going around in circles for forty years, because of the hardness of their hearts. They died in the wilderness and they never got to enter the Promised Land.
Therefore when you hear the Word of God, the Scripture says, “Harden not your hearts as in the provocation. [Harden not your spirits].” Do not be stubborn. Don’t say you are not believing this, this is not true.
Receive that word with humility. So harden not your heart as in the provocation. That was the time the Jews did not believe that God could provide for them in the wilderness.
This Is The Reason The Lord Touched Lydia’s Heart
Do not follow them. Do not harden your heart like they did in the Day of Temptation in the wilderness, they tempted God.
They said, “Can God provide food for us in the wilderness?” Then, God sent them fowls. They ate and while they were eating the flesh of the birds, the Lord smote thousands of them, and they died.
So if you are not going to harden your heart, that means that you’re not going hear the Word, receive it, believe it, and then act on it.
Finally, the scripture puts it this way, while it is said today, not tomorrow, now, “If you will hear his voice, the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts as in the provocation.”
So if you believe that the Lord is speaking through me right now, believe this word, receive this word, that is what this scripture is saying.
But do not harden your heart. Do not be stubborn and say, “he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and that’s not what this means and that’s not what this is about.” Instead, receive this word.
Apostle Paul Instructed Lydia To Do This & She Did!
One of the things that Paul told Lydia to do was to be baptized in the name of Jesus. How do I know this?
The Scripture said, “When she had baptized,” that means she obeyed him, because the Lord touched her heart that she may attend on to the things which were spoken of by Paul, so that she would listen, believe, receive and do those things, which Paul requested of her, and one of those things was that she should be baptized.
So the scripture to tell us that she obeyed Paul said, in Acts 16:15, “And when she was baptized and her household.”
So the purpose of that phrase there is to inform us that the Lord touched her heart.
She heard Paul, she received Paul’s words and she obeyed him because one of the things that Paul told her to do is to be baptized in the name of the Lord.
She obeyed it and got baptized and not only her, but her entire household.
What Is The Importance Of Baptism For Lydia & Us?
So, have you been baptized in the name of the Lord? We can receive salvation by no other name except by the name of Jesus Christ.
Today, I encourage you to take on that name “onto” yourself. However, the only way to do that is to be baptized, by immersion, calling on the name of Jesus Christ.
That’s the only way you can take on the name of Jesus Christ to yourself. Additionally, that’s the only way you will have salvation with Christ.
If you take on his name, because without the name of Jesus, you can receive salvation no place, nowhere, it’s only through the name of Jesus.
It is not the only manner to receive salvation, but it is the only name by which we shall be saved. No other name can save us except through the name of Jesus Christ.
This Is How Paul Baptized Lydia & Her Household
So if you were baptized calling on the name of the Father, the name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Ghost, that is just repeating what the Lord asked us to do.
Not just to name a name because Father is not a name, Son is not a name, and Holy Ghost is not a name. They are titles.
But we must invoke the name of Jesus Christ when we are baptized.
As a result, at the time of your baptism, the Baptizer should invoke, “I baptize you, [insert your name here], in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and you too shall receive the Holy Ghost.“
That is how you are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. The Baptizer must pronounce the name of Jesus on the baptismal candidate as he immerses him or her into the water.
Thanks for your time. The blessings of the Lord are on you and I shall see you in another Bible study, if the Lord is willing. Bye.
