DISCOVERING GLADNESS
#329 DISCOVERING GLADNESS
Scripture Acts 16:14-15 Orig. 11/13/1966
Rewr. 10/1975, 3/22/1990
Passage: 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Purpose: To share a biographical message of a woman’s search for gladness, and finding it in Christ.
Keywords: Biography, Lydia Joy Salvation Conversion
Revival
Introduction
Discoveries are not left to men and women of science and adventure. Everyone of us has had experiences with such sudden exposure in our lives. Some of our discoveries have left us with joy, others with apprehension.
I remember, as a child, awaking to discover that I had the measles. As a young soldier, in a military hospital, I went to bed thinking I would be released the next day. Awaking that morning, I discovered that I could not get my boots on. During the night a penicillin reaction had surfaced that left me as sick as I have ever been in my life.
My dad told of the discovery that as a twelve year old lad, his dad deserted him and my grandmother. As a seminary student, working in the aircraft industry, I went to work one Friday to discover that a pink slip awaited me. My job had been phased out. How many people have returned from some ordinary visit to their doctor with the discovery of some grievous malady such as cancer, or diabetes?
But all of the discoveries are not sad ones. Many in fact are glad ones. An acquaintance of many years becomes a trusted friend, and it’s a joyous discovery. The doctor tells us of some serious malady, but, he says, there is a cure. Gladness abounds. A letter or phone call gives the news that we are soon to be grandparents. Happiness unequivocal. Lydia tells us of her discovery, as it is told by another in song.
Mankind is searching ev'ry day In quest of something new,
But I have found the living way, The path of pleasures true.
I've found the pearl of greatest price, Eternal life so fair.
'Twas thro' the Saviour's sacrifice I found this jewel rare.
Chorus
I've discovered the way of gladness, I've discovered the way of joy.
I've discovered relief from sadness, 'Tis a happiness without alloy.
I've discovered the fount of blessing, I've discovered the living Word.
'Twas the greatest of all discoveries When I found Jesus my Lord.
I. Lydia Testifies to Us that She Was a Seeker for Gladness. V14, And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us. NEB Lydia—who was a worshipper of God, was listening, and the Lord opened her heart. The state of her mind and heart was in quest for truth. It is obvious that she already had wealth. She was unusual for that day, unusual in the sense that most women would never have the opportunity for assertiveness.
She was not seeking success. Some insist that she represented a firm in Thyatira, a city known for its purple dyes.
She was not seeking religion as such. Often she’d been at pagan altars. In cities such as Philippi with a Jewish element, she would join them. All the more remarkable in light of her business. Her relationship with these Jews was made the more profound by the fact that as a Gentile, she was not accepted as an equal. [The Jews] would tolerate her presence only. To the Greeks she was a silly woman who closed her profitable business to go to church. To Paul and other local Christians she was on object of God’s love and concern.
There are still people around who merely tolerate other people without concern for them as persons. There are still others with us, who, like these Greeks, put their merchandising ahead of everything else. They are creatures of materialistic habits, and not even religion, no, not even truth is to impede their habits.
There are some characteristics that mark her seeking with success:
· By recognizing that material goods don’t guarantee happiness (Terry Meeuwsen—former Miss America—gave her testimony at 1974 LBC; the perspective of her goal was clearly [stated], “As Miss Wisconsin, I was first runner-up to a roller skater”);
· By opening her mind and heart to the search for truth;
· By examining the options;
· By starting where she was—not left hopeless by the past, not overburdened by fear of the future. Someone has share a viable truth. “A religion that does nothing, that gives nothing, that costs nothing, that suffers nothing, is worth nothing.”
II. Lydia Found in Christ the Gladness for Which She Had Been Seeking. V14, Whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. What she heard of Paul should be evident to us.
· That she was a sinner. The only preaching worth anything is that directed to human need. Romans 3:23, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
· That sin separates from God. That people are created equal is just not true, that death is the only equalizer. Romans 6:23, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
· That God loved her. Romans 5:8, But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
· That Jesus is the means through which all people may be saved. By the time Acts rolls around, the Christians were already being jailed for their faith. God uses the occasion of the jailing for proclamation. Acts 4:12, For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. They took note of that these men had been with Jesus.
· That faith in Jesus is essential. Ephesians 2:8,9, By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
· Finally, that we must openly confess Him as Lord. Romans 10:9-10, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Lydia did the only thing that a human being can do that will bring him into the arena of God’s saving grace. She threw off the oppressive burden of false truth, and half-truth. She voided the meaningless burden of human religious system. At the urging of the Holy Spirit, she opened her heart to the gospel.
III. What Lydia Found Would Affect the Whole Course of Her Life. V15, 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.
· She accepted the challenge of the gospel: Belief in its truth, hope in its calling and anticipation.
· Her life was influenced by the things which she discovered: Being faithful as she understood faithfulness; being helpful as she interpreted need; being persuasive when she knew that her helpfulness to others was faithfulness to her Lord.
Closing
The daily newspaper told the story. It was datelined Ontario, Canada. A woman named Rose Crawford had been blind for fifty years. After delicate surgery and several days of impatient recovery the doctors removed the bandages. Those who were there tell the story. She wept for joy when for the first time in her life she could do what most of us take for granted. She could see. Her first words were “I can’t believe it.” Even in the sterile white of her hospital room she saw a dazzling world of form and beauty.
The profundity of her story, however, is that for the last twenty years of her blindness, it had all been unnecessary. The surgical technique had been used and her vision could have been restored at age thirty. She just assumed that there was nothing that could be done about her condition. How much of her life would otherwise have been different.