The passage
      v6-8. Paul, along with Silas and Timothy, visits Lystra, Iconium and Pisidian Antioch, but they are restrained by the Holy Spirit from heading into Asia and visiting Ephesus, or going north into Bithynia. So, they end up at Troas. Luke again recounts Paul's sensitivity to the leadings of the Spirit, either through an inward prompting, a prophetic word, or some physical, social or political restraint.
      v9. In a vision, the Spirit leads Paul to journey to Macedonia.
      v10. Paul immediately arranges transport to Macedonia. The change from "they" to "we" indicates that Luke now joins the missionary team.
      v11. Luke carefully notes the route taken to reach Macedonia.
      v12. Disembarking at Neapolis, the missionaries travel to Philippi. Philippi was a Roman city colonized primarily by veteran soldiers who had served in the great battles of the era (42BC: Antony and Octavian over Brutus and Cassius. 31BC: Octavian over Antony and Cleopatra).
      v13. In visiting the city, Paul seeks out the Jewish community, following his pattern of "to the Jew first." In Philippi there is no synagogue, only an unofficial meeting of a group of women, some of whom are God-fearers.
      v14. At the meeting there is a business-woman named Lydia. She is obviously an intelligent, self-motivated, moral woman, but in particular she is a God-fearer - a Gentile seeking after God. In line with the principle, those who seek find, the Lord makes sure she can understand Paul's explanation of the gospel. On hearing the good news of the kingdom, she puts her trust in Jesus.
      v15. Her family (household) is also evangelized; they believe and are baptized. She offers hospitality to the missionaries and her home soon becomes the centre for a new church in Philippi. The seed sown, now bears fruit.

Evangelizing Baby Boomers
      Lydia represented the upper middle-class members of her society. She was a self-motivated, hands-on business woman. Yet above all, she was a seeker after God, and in the gospel found the divine in Christ.
      Lydia is very like the upper middle-class members of Western society - the social justice crew. They are the cognitive thinkers of our society, baby boomers, modernists. They read widely and were brought up watching TV. This group was once greatly influenced by the gospel in Western society, but today they rarely come to church and view organized religion as an anachronism. For organized religion they are the lost generation, and there is little evidence that their children, Generation X, will return to the church.
      In the 80's, when the baby boomers were coming into their own, organized religion had retreated from the real world and internalized religious experience. Baby boomers are modernists, they are focused on objective concerns rather than inner tranquility. The drug of the 80's was Cocaine not LSD. By the time the church caught up in the 90's, baby boomers had all but severed their links with organized religion.
      The objective concerns of baby boomers are easy enough to identify:
        i] Family. Marriage stability and permanency were expressed in delayed formal marriage, although as we moved through the 90's, marriage breakdown became endemic. For their children, education was paramount. This is evidenced in the growth of privately funded schools.
        ii] Morality. Although initially socialist, egalitarian, the trend for baby boomers is toward a conservative, rather than radical morality.
        iii] Politics. The politics of the middle ground. Swinging allegiance is the name of the game for baby boomers.
        iv] Preservation. Anti nuclear, anti union, anti multinational, and an interest in "futures".
      This lost generation to the church is just waiting for the good news of the kingdom. Under Christ, their life can have meaning and security within a community of like-minded people. To reach this lost generation our message must not only be relevant (we must scratch were it itches), it must be real (we must live it).
      As baby boomers begin to age, the funeral industry is gearing up to service these children of the 50's. They know well that a memorial service read from a book by a robed official of organized religion does little to satisfy the longings of this peculiar generation. The "flowery" is no longer welcome. "OK for dad and mum, but not for me".
      Communicating the gospel to baby boomers remains a task undone. If we are to see their hearts opened, and see them respond to the gospel, then we are bound to contextualize our message, shape it to fit while still retaining its truth.

v7
      kata thn Musian "to the boarder of Mysia" - to the Mysia. Boarder/frontier is assumed. "In the region of / in the latitude of", are other possibilities.
      ouk eiasen (eaw) aor. "would not allow" - did not permit.
      to pneuma Ihsou "the Spirit of Jesus" - An interesting change from Holy Spirit in v6. Some commentators suggest the different way the travellers were prevented prompted the different title. It is more likely the titles are interchangeable, but are not intended to blur the individuality of the Spirit and Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus.

v8
      "So" - This particle is added in the English to indicate that the travellers did what the Spirit had directed.

v9
      oJrama ...... tw/ Paulw/ wfqh "Paul had a vision" - a vision ..... to Paul appeared.
      dia thV nuktoV "during the night" - Luke probably intends us to understand it was that night, during the night, the first night after their arrival in Troas. The presence of the article makes this point, although the article is not found in all manuscripts.
      parakalwn (parakalew) part. "begging" - urging, exhorting.... The word "begging" carries a negative sense in English. The sense of the verb is carried better with a word like "urging", even "pleading".

v10
      wJV "after" - when. "After" carries the sense better in English
      ezhthsamen (zhtew) 1st. ps. pl. aor. "we got ready" - we sought, in the sense of to attempt to attain some state or condition*. They sought to act upon Paul's vision by immediately heading for Macedonia, ie. "we got ready." Note the "we". Luke has joined the mission team.
      proskeklhtai (proskaleomai) perf. "had called" - summon. The significance of "called" in English is losing its impact due to secularization. A word like "instructed" or "summoned" carries more meaning.

v12
      prwthV meridoV thV MakedoniaV poliV "the leading city of that district of Macedonia" - a prominent of district of Macedonia city. The Greek is unclear. Philippi is not the leading city of Macedonia, that honour goes to the capital, Thessalonica. Nor is Philippi the leading city in its district, that honour goes to Amphipolis. The TEV has a stab at the meaning with "a city of the first district of Macedonia."

v13
      exw thV pulhV "outside the city gate" - outside the gate. "Outside the city" makes the point.
      para "to" - beside. They have come out of the city and are beside the river.
      ouJ enomizomen proseuchn einai "where we expected to find a place of prayer" - where we were supposing of prayer to be. The word for "prayer" is not normally used of "a place of prayer", but that is obviously the intention here. The TEV "a place for prayer" is a better English rendering as the site is certainly not an official, or unofficial synagogue. "The Jews meet at this spot for prayer."

v14
      sebomenh ton qeon "who was a worshiper of God" - worshiping God. The expression implies she is a God-fearer, rather than of Jewish descent.
      hJV oJ kurioV dihnoixen thn kardian "the Lord opened her heart" - of whom the Lord opened the heart. The language is quaint in English, and given that for a Jew the "heart" is the seat of understanding rather than emotions, we may like to say "opened her mind", "enabled her to understand." If we try to update the language to "made her receptive", or even worse, "caused her to accept", we move beyond a form of figurative language which both recognizes divine sovereignty and human free-will.
      prosecein (prosecw) inf. "to respond" - to pay attention. It is taking the meaning of this word too far to translate it as "respond" or worse, "accept" or "believe". "To listen eagerly", NRSV, is better. I take it that if a person is a seeker, the Lord makes sure that not only do they hear the gospel, but that they can understand it and so properly respond to it. Lydia is obviously a seeker, given that she is a God-fearer, and so the Lord not only shuffles the missionaries over to Macadonia to speak with her, but provides her with a clear word.