WWUTT 1097 The Man from Macedonia?

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We hear stories today about a person receiving a vision or hearing some kind of voice from God and maybe they even got saved that way.

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There's only one way a person gets saved. They heard the gospel and they believed it. When we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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Find all our videos and other ministry resources at www .utt .com.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Acts.

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This week we're in chapter 16 and I'll start reading where we left off yesterday, verse 6 through verse 15.

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And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the

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Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Misea, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

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So passing by Misea, they went down to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.

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A man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us.

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And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

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So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a

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Roman colony. We remained in this city some days, and on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we suppose there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.

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One who had heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God.

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The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying,

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If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us.

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In yesterday's reading, which was chapter 16, the first five verses, we were introduced to a new player in this missionary work of going about spreading the gospel around the

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Roman Empire and ultimately to the world. And that new character that entered this story was Timothy, Paul's protege, someone who would be very influential in even writing much of these

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New Testament letters that would go out to the churches, for Paul would dictate and Timothy would write down what

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Paul told him to write. Of course, we also have 1st and 2nd Timothy, which Paul wrote to Timothy when

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Timothy was preaching in Ephesus. We've got a new person that has been introduced in today's reading, someone else who was very influential in the writing of the

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New Testament. Did you catch who it was? It's actually the author of this particular book, and that is

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Luke. Luke comes into the story today. Now, you didn't catch his name, but this is the first time that Luke referred to himself in the collective we.

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So somewhere in this trip to Macedonia, Luke became part of this missionary entourage going out with Paul to spread the gospel.

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He begins to refer to himself now as he's telling this story, which makes up the book of Acts.

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So we start in verse six here. They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the

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Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. Now they've been in Galatia once already.

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They've been in the area of Phrygia, but now they're just passing through. They're going even farther north to then go west across that northern area of Asia over to Troas, then across the sea to Neopolis and Philippi.

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Now, as they're traveling through an area that they've already been through, Galatia and Phrygia, they would have thought these missionary guys who have been commissioned to go out and spread the gospel.

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They would have thought, hey, we need to be stopping in some of these towns and we need to be preaching to these people.

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But the Holy Spirit has something different in mind. So they're on this 400 mile journey here that's going to take them all the way over to Neopolis and ultimately to Philippi.

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And if you know about this story in Acts 16 with Paul and Silas in Philippi, then you know what's coming.

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You know that Paul and Silas are going to end up in prison, and this is where they convert the Philippian jailer.

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That's the story that Acts 16 is most known for. But this is how the Holy Spirit is guiding them for the time being, not stopping in any of the towns that they're passing through.

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But there is a particular destination that the Spirit of God wants to take Paul and Silas and their missionary group, too.

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So it says they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

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So, I mean, logic would dictate to them, hey, we need to be stopping and preaching in all these towns that we're going through.

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The Holy Spirit has something else for them to do. Verse seven. And when they had come up to Myseia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the

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Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. The Spirit of Jesus, by the way, is just another term for the

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Holy Spirit. There isn't any difference between the two. The Holy Spirit was given by Christ to his apostles, and he said,

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I will give you a helper. It will be my spirit. And so this is the Spirit of Christ that has come upon them.

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The Holy Spirit of God, third person of the Trinity. Absolutely. But still in reference to being the

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Holy Spirit of Christ, since Christ was the one who gave this spirit to his apostles.

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So Jesus is going to keep them from speaking in Bithynia. They don't actually go into Bithynia. They're traveling kind of to the northwest.

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So they would have thought, hey, let's just go right into Bithynia and preach there. Nope. The Spirit is going to take them further west to Samothrace and ultimately to Troas.

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So verse eight passing by Myseia, they went down to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.

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A man of Macedonia was standing there urging him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us.

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And when Paul had seen the vision immediately, we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

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Now, because of this story in Acts 16, there are other people who will say that they have seen visions that were given to them by God of things that we're supposed to do and places they were supposed to go, etc.

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Now, it might be Jesus himself appears to them in this vision or it could be an angel or maybe they describe something like what we're reading here.

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Some man had appeared in a vision and said, hey, come to me or come help me or something to that effect.

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Now, one of the ways that we hear about this occurring most commonly in Christian circles today is in regards to Muslims, Muslims who will say that they saw a vision of somebody.

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There was a vision that appeared in their mind or something to that effect and then led them to believe the gospel somehow.

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I'll give you an example of this. This was a story that I heard and believed for a long time. But there's

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I actually have no way of proving that this ever happened. I don't even remember who told me the story.

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So there was at one point, I believe this to be true, but I have no way of confirming it at all. Anyway, there were these two men who believe that they were led by God to start a church.

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And the main outreach of this church was going to be the Muslims in the major city in which they lived.

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So they even found the highest or the neighborhood with the highest concentration of Muslims and they rented out an apartment and they would go and share the gospel with those

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Muslims. And they had some flyers printed up or some business cards or something. And after sharing the gospel, they would give them a business card and say, hey, here's where our apartment is at.

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We're starting a church there. Come on up. We're there at such and such a time every day. And they did this for day after day.

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And this went on for months, but they never got any response to their missions work. They would share the gospel.

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They would hand out a business card. No one would ever come. So they would sit in that apartment, which they did day after day for months, never got any response from anybody.

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So eventually they decided, well, maybe we didn't hear from God. Maybe we made a mistake and they made the decision.

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We're going to give it until this date. And then we're we're shutting down the whole operation. We're not going to renew our lease on the apartment.

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This thing will just come to an end. So they get to the last week that they're there. And I believe the way this story was told to me, it was even the last day.

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And they're praying and asking God what what he wants them to do.

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And as they're praying, there's a knock at the door. It's curious. So they get up and go to the door and open up.

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And there's a man there. This man says that he's a Muslim, but it's not one of the guys that they remember witnessing to.

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And the man tells them that he had a vision in which God appeared to him and said, you need to go to this building.

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You need to go up to this floor and you need to knock on this door. And the man says,

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I'm just following what the vision told me and I've knocked on this door. So what am I here for? What is it that you're going to tell me?

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And the two guys are like, well, this is amazing. And so they bring the guy in and they share the gospel with him. The man becomes a convert.

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He repents of of Islam and becomes a Christian. He goes and tells his friends.

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They come back to the apartment. These two men preach to them as well. And then a church starts up by this whole thing.

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Now, that sounds like an absolutely wonderful story, doesn't it? But again, I have no way of confirming that it's true.

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I don't even remember who it was that told me this story. I just know I heard this from somebody else. And I was amazed by it when

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I heard the story. And I believed it for a long time until I listened to some folks who were asking questions about Muslims getting visions like this.

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Apparently, it was a common thing to hear these stories about men who were Muslims having visions of God or an angel or something.

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And they were getting saved from these visions that they had. But the visions could never be confirmed.

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No one was ever able to provide proof or evidence that this had ever taken place.

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They're just stories that come up from from somewhere. Sometimes you might hear the story from somebody who actually says that they were a

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Muslim or they were part of Islam. And they they received some sort of a vision.

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And they're Christian today because of their vision. But there's no way to confirm any of this. And that's really the way these stories go.

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When I hear of them, they're just hearsay stories that with no credible evidence to confirm them.

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It's not some widespread phenomenon for the apostle Paul says in Romans 10, verses 14 and 15.

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How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

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And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent as it is written?

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How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? Now, someone might say, well, when these

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Muslims get this vision, it's not the vision that saves them. But it's that vision that leads them to the gospel.

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OK, I'll give you that. But please produce for me one example of this happening and the conversion that results is genuine and lasting.

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Why is it also within these stories that it just seems to be happening among Muslims?

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Like, why isn't it Mormons that are experiencing this or some new ager that's getting a vision of Christ?

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That's calling them to go visit these missionaries and then hear the gospel and therefore be saved.

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It's nobody like that. It always seems to be coming from Muslims or regarding Muslims.

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See, that in itself is is kind of strange why it's mostly isolated to that group.

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And I've had a few emails about this as well. When we do our Q &A on Friday, I've had a few emails.

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I don't know when the last one was that I responded to. But somebody asking what what to make of these stories.

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Have you heard of these Muslims? Every question is the same way. Have you heard of these

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Muslims who are getting these visions and those visions are therefore leading them to Christ?

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But again, it's they're just hearsay claims with no basis in truth. And I even remember

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David Platt sharing one of these stories at the last Southern Baptist convention that I attended in Dallas.

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So it wouldn't have been the one that was this year, but the one that was last year, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. When David Platt was giving his missions update, his missions report for the

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International Missions Board, he told this story about some Muslims who saw this vision of a guy in a white robe that was telling them to to listen to the guy dressed in white.

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That's going to come talk to them. And anyway, there's this whole big story that went on around it. But it was just David Platt repeating a story that he heard from somebody else.

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It wasn't anything that he was witness to. And this was, again, in a Muslim region and involved some

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Muslims hearing the gospel. There was no confirmation to any of the things that David Platt was saying.

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It was just hearsay, even on his part. It was hearsay. So that's the way these stories go.

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And a lot of times when you contend with somebody over a story like this and say, well, I just kind of doubt that it's true.

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This is the thing that they point to this story here in Acts 16, where, hey, Paul had a vision of a man in Macedonia who was calling them over to share the gospel with him.

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Yes, Paul did the apostle in the first century. This was

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God doing something different through his apostles that he is doing through us today.

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There is not a need for us to have visions and voices from people in other parts of the world, for we know that we need to go out to the world with the gospel.

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And we have it here for us in the Bible. The prophetic word more fully confirmed, as Peter describes it in 2

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Peter 1. So in Hebrews chapters 1 and 2, it says there was a time long ago when

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God was using these means to communicate his message. But today we have it fully confirmed in Christ.

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We don't need these visions and voices and miraculous things anymore to confirm the scriptures for they've already been confirmed for us.

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Now go and share the gospel. Amen. So this is something that happened with Paul and his missionary group.

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It's not something that we should expect would happen to us. So now going on to verse 11, setting sail from Troas.

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We made a direct voyage to Sumatra Sea. It wouldn't have been very far, just a slight little jump across the northern portion of the

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Aegean Sea. And when they landed there in Sumatra Sea, they went to Neapolis.

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And from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a

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Roman colony. And this means that the apostle Paul would have been able to gain what he needed to gain for the purpose of advancing the gospel for he himself was a

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Roman citizen. And he will use his Roman citizenship for the purpose of advancing the gospel.

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He'll do it even here in Philippi. We remained in this city for some days. And on the

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Sabbath day, we went outside the gate to the riverside where we suppose there was a place of prayer.

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And we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named

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Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshiper of God.

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Now being a seller of purple goods means that Lydia would have been a woman of significant wealth.

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For this was like the garments of kings and the rich to wear something that was purple.

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So since she is a maker and seller of purple goods, she was probably well to do.

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May have been the matriarch of her family, which means that she was a woman that was kind of in charge of everybody that lived in her household.

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And she may have had a substantial household since she was a woman of significant earnings.

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So this woman was a worshiper of God and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

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So she would have known of the Hebrew God, but maybe did not know the gospel of Christ, which is what

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Paul and Silas were there to share with her. And the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

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This is what we're witnessing here. Regeneration, the doctrine of regeneration, the

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Holy Spirit of God regenerating her heart to listen to and hear and understand what was being preached to her by Paul and Silas in the sharing of the gospel.

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We have regeneration talked about in Titus 3, 5. He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

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Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

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So even our ability to hear the gospel and understand it, this is the work of God.

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You do not respond by your own ability to respond to the gospel as though you have earned your salvation by your works.

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Our response comes by a work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And that's what happened with Lydia right here.

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The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

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And she believed it. And after she was baptized and her household as well, she urged us.

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There you have the collective we there again. So Luke had referred to himself as we and then refers to himself with everybody that was with Paul and Silas here as us.

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And she urged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.

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And she prevailed upon us. That's just another way of saying she convinced us to stay.

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We smelled a good meatloaf and wanted to stick around and have some dinner. Likely Lydia started a church in her home.

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So the church in Philippi was in the home of Lydia, and she wanted them to remain to continue to preach the gospel to them that they might grow in the knowledge of these things all the more.

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And so the apostle Paul, along with Silas and the missionary group, they were convinced to remain and continue to preach the gospel to them.

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So that's what it that's just what it simply means. Thereby, she prevailed upon us. She convinced us to stay and we continued to preach the gospel to them for several days.

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So then what we get to next in verse 16 is Luke, as he continues telling this story, he says, as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune telling.

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That's where I'm going to leave the story for now. We'll come back and continue it tomorrow.

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Let us conclude with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gospel that has come to us.

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And we know that we have come to salvation because someone brought the gospel to us. Someone preached it to us.

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Someone in obedience to God who said to go out to the nations and preach the gospel, making disciples, baptizing in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, obeying this great commission that we have in Matthew 28. Someone preached the gospel to us and we turn from sin and believed in his name.

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And so we are saved. And so may we know this is how a person is brought to salvation by the preaching of and hearing the gospel.

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We're not waiting for visions and voices. We're taking it out now so that others may hear and know and so be saved.

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Give us courage to do this. Help us to have enough of a grounding and understanding of our faith that we know how to answer the person who asks us for a reason for the hope that lies within us.

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But we are doing this with gentleness and respect. We ask for your continued guidance upon us as we live according to the gospel and share the gospel in Jesus name.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .tt .com and click on the

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Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the