God is a Sneaky Sneak

God is a Sneaky Sneak

Today we are considering Acts 16:9-15. We often read the book of Acts following Easter Sunday because it tells us of the way that the early church spread in the years and even decades following Christ’s resurrection. If you read through the book of Acts, you will see that the Holy Spirit constantly pushes the boundaries and breaks down walls, allowing the gospel message to travel further and wider.

In verses 6-8, which are not a part of our focal passage, we read that the Spirit has forbidden them to speak about the gospel in Asia. She also prevents them from traveling north to Bithynia. So they traveled west to Troas.

This is where our passage begins. During the night, Paul has a vision of a man from Macedonia, which lies across the Aegean Sea. In the vision, the man pleads with him to travel to Macedonia to help them. Paul understands this as a call from God and so he immediately travels there.

On the Sabbath day, Paul and his companions head down to the river, hoping to come across a place of prayer. There, they encounter a woman named Lydia. We are told that she is a worshiper of God, that she comes from the city of Thyatira, and that she deals in purple cloth.

Let’s make a few observations. First, the person Paul encounters is a woman, not a man, as he saw in his vision. Second, Lydia is from Thyatira, which was a city in Europe, which is in Macedonia. Evidence suggests that in Thyatira, women had more agency than they did in other parts of antiquity. Third, Lydia deals in purple cloth. This tells us that she was likely from a wealthy family or perhaps was independently wealthy. One would have to have significant funds to start dealing with purple cloth, and their wealth would only increase as they continued to trade the cloth.

Lydia found her heart opened to what Paul and his companions were teaching and preaching. She says to them, ‘If you find me faithful, come and stay in my home.’ What follows is that Lydia and her entire household are baptized. Because of the book of Revelation, we know that a church is eventually formed in the city. Lydia is the first European convert, and she goes on to be one of Paul’s most generous supporters in his mission to share the gospel.

We titled this session, ‘God is a Sneaky Sneak.’ Perhaps we should have said the Holy Spirit is a Sneaky Sneak. Throughout the narrative, we see the Spirit guiding and nudging Paul where she wants him to go. She even goes so far as to disguise Lydia as a man in the vision she gives to Paul. Perhaps the spirit knew that Paul would have been hesitant to go if he thought he was being led to help a woman.

When Lydia’s family is baptized, there is no mention of repentance or any stipulations attached to their baptism. Likewise, there is no outpouring of the Holy Spirit as we see in other baptism stories. Perhaps this indicates that they already believed, and it was simply the baptism that was needed.

In this story, we see the importance of remaining open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. If Paul had ignored the queues he was given during his travels, he may have never made it to Macedonia. Likewise, if Lydia had not been open to hearing what Paul had to say, she might have missed the spirit opening her up to hear him. The spirit speaks to us all in the ways that we hear most clearly. It remains on us to listen and look for the sneaky workings of the Holy Spirit so that we, too, might travel where God calls us to travel.