Sermon Tone Analysis

*ACTS 16:11-18  *

In the portraits of the two women found in Acts 16:11–18, we find examples of both freedom and bondage.

Lydia, the first recorded Gentile convert in Europe, was a truly liberated woman.

The nameless, demon-possessed slave girl typified those enslaved to sin and Satan.

§         Named after Philip II of Macedon (the father of Alexander the Great), *Philippi* was the eastern terminus for the great Roman highway known as the Egnatian Way.

The city was named *a Roman colony* by Octavian, following the battle of Actium in 31 bc.

§         The entrance of the gospel into the Roman empire: “/a colony/…” [16:12].

#.

*THE DIRECTOR OF EVANGELISM *

*1.        **The Sovereignty of God *

*a.        **The Holy Spirit  *

Paul’s plans: “/were forbidden by the Holy Ghost/…” [16:6].

§         κωλυθέντες - “/forbidden/” [16:6], aorist passive participle, ‘to prevent, hinder’; ‘to restrain’;

§         ὑπὸ - “/of/” [16:6], ‘denoting immediate agent’; ‘by’;

§         ἁγίου πνεύματος - “/Holy/ /Ghost/” [16:6],

§         ἐπείραζον – “/assayed/” [16:7], imperfect active indicative, ‘to examine’; ‘to submit another to a test’; ‘try to do something implying not succeeding’;

§         εἴασεν - “/suffered/” [16:7], aorist active indicative, ‘to allow, permit’;

§         Τρῳάδα - “/Troas/” [16:8], ‘a seaport colony on the NW coast of Asia minor’;

*b.        **The Direction *

God’s plans: “/and a vision appeared to Paul in the night/…” [16:9].

§         ὅραμα - “/vision/” [16:9], ‘that which is seen’; ‘a sight from God’;

§         ὤφθη - “/appeared/” [16:9], aorist passive indicative, ‘to see, perceive’;

§         Ananias: “/to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias.

And he said/…” [9:10].

§         Peter and Cornelius: “/Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean/…” [10:17].

*c.        **The Location *

The location: “/there stood a man/…” [16:9].

§         ἀνὴρ - “/man/” [16:9],

§         Μακεδών - “/Macedonia/” [16:9], ‘country and kingdom lying north of Greece in ancient times; today, however, it is the northern part of Greece;

*i.        **The Need *

The plea: “/prayed him saying, Come over/…” [16:9].

§         παρακαλῶν - “/prayed/” [16:9], present active participle, from /pará/, ‘to the side of’, and /kaléō/, ‘to call’; ‘to ask for earnestly’; “/And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter/…” [Joh.14:16];

§         διαβὰς - “/come/” [16:9], aorist active participle, ‘to step across’;

§         βοήθησον - “/help/” [16:9], aorist active imperative, from /boé//̄/ , ‘a cry, exclamation’, and /théō/, ‘to run’.

‘To run on hearing a cry, to give assistance’; ‘to come to the aid of’;

*Application*

 

*2.

**The Encounter *

*a.        **Missionary Approach *

It was Paul’s custom in each city he visited to preach first in the synagogue.

As a rabbi and a student of the greatest rabbi of the time, Gamaliel [Acts 22:3], Paul could be assured of getting a hearing there.

§         Antioch: “/they came to Antioch, and went into the synagogue of the Sabbath day/…” [13:14].

§         Iconium: “/In Iconium they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews/…” [14:1].

§         σαββάτων - “/Sabbath/” [16:13], ‘day of rest’; ‘seventh day if the Jewish week’;

*b.        **Philippi** *

The situation in Philippi: “/we went out of the city/…” [16:13].

§         ἐξήλθομεν - “/out/ /of/” [16:13], aorist active, from /ek/, ‘out’, and /érchomai/, ‘to go or come’;

§         ἔξω – ‘outside of’; ‘without’;

§         πύλης - “/city/” [16:13], ‘gate door’; ‘city gate’;

*i.        **Location *

The location: “/by the riverside, where prayer was wont/…” [16:13].

§         παρὰ - ‘beside’;

§         ποταμὸν - “/riverside/” [16:13], ‘river, stream’;

*ii.

**Public Worship *

The recognised place of worship: “/where prayer was wont to be made/…” [16:13].

§         προσευχὴν - “/prayer/” [16:13], ‘to pray(to), to ask’;

§         We best understand the term by differentiating it from the synonymous δέομαι, δέησις.

The distinction is that δεῖσθαι almost always means real asking whereas προσεύχεσθαι is preferred if the fact of prayer is to be denoted with no narrower indication of its content.

§         ἐνομίζομεν - “/wont/” [16:13], imperfect active indicative, from /nómos/, ‘law, custom’; ‘do customarily’; ‘to suppose, think’; 

§         εἶναι - “/made/” [16:13], present active infinitive, ‘to be’;

§         In Jewish law, a congregation was made up of ten men.

Wherever there were ten male heads of households who could be in regular attendance, a synagogue was to be formed.

§         Failing this, a place of prayer (/proseuche/) under the open sky and near a river or the sea was to be arranged for.

§         A typical first-century synagogue service would have included the Shema, the Shemoneh Esreh (the liturgy of "The Eighteen Benedictions," "Blessings," or "Prayers"), a reading from the Law, a reading from one of the prophets, a free address given by any competent Jew in attendance, and a closing blessing

*c.        **The Gospel Message  *

The spoken message: “/we sat down and spoke unto the women/…” [16:13].

§         καθίσαντες - “/sat/ /down/” [16:13], aorist active participle, from /katá/, ‘down’, and /hízō/, ‘to sit’, ‘to cause to sit’.

§         Paul took the usual posture a speaker assumed in a synagogue, sitting down, to address the women: “/and when he was seated, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth/…” [Mat.5:1-2].

§         ἐλαλοῦμεν - “/spoke/” [16:13], ‘to talk’, in some contexts with the semantic focus on ‘telling’;

§         Paul’s message: “/and Paul, as his manner was…reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must suffer, and risen again form the dead/…” [17:2].

§         γυναιξίν - “/women/” [16:13], ‘woman’ or ‘wife’;

§         συνελθούσαις - “/resorted/” [16:13], aorist active participle, from /sún/, ‘together with’ or ‘together’, and /érchomai/, ‘to come’;

§         A technical term for the coming together of the Christian congregation’; “/Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse/” [1Cor.11:17].

*Application*

 

#.

*LYDIA**’S HEART  *

*1.        **Lydia** - The Person *

*a.        **Lydia** *

The woman: “/a certain woman named Lydia/…” [16:14].

§         τις - “/certain/” [16:14], indefinite adjective, ‘someone’;

§         γυνὴ - “/woman/” [16:14], ‘adult female’;

§         Λυδία - “/Lydia/” [16:14], ‘the same as the ancient territory in which her native city of Thyatira was located’.

*i.        **Her Background  *

Lydia belonged to: “/of the city of Thyatira/…” [16:14].

§         Θυατείρων - “/Thyatira/” [16:14], situated on the other side of the Aegean Sea in Asia; now known as Asiatic Turkey.

§         The Revelation: “/unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things says the Son of God/…” [Rev.2:18].

§         Because her home* city of Thyatira* was located in the Roman province of Lydia, it is possible that “Lydia” was not so much her personal name as her name in business; she may have been known as “the Lydian lady.”

*ii.

**Her Occupation *

Lydia’s occupation: “/a seller of purple/…” [16:14].

§         πορφυρόπωλις - “/seller of purple/” [16:14], ‘seller of purple fabrics’;

§         The people of Thyatira were famed for their skill in the manufacture of purple dye, extracted from the juice of the madder root.

§         Lydia had come to Philippi as a trader in that dye.

There is inscriptional evidence for the existence of a guild of purple merchants in Philippi.

§         Lydia was presumably the Macedonian agent of a Thyatiran manufacturer.

*iii.

**Her *

Lydia’s business is not an incidental detail.

It marks her as a person of means.

§         Purple goods were expensive and often associated with royalty; thus the business was a lucrative one.

§         Purple dye, whether made from the glands of the murex shellfish or from the roots of the madder plant, was prohibitively expensive.

Purple garments were worn by royalty and the wealthy, and the selling of *purple fabrics* was a very profitable business.