Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I wonder if you often dream when you sleep? When you wake up do you try to integrate your dreams into your real life or do you pass them off as simply sleep imagination? Does God speak to us, sometimes in our dreams?
Do you remember Joseph’s dreams in Genesis 17 or Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28 or King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams, which Daniel interpreted in Daniel 2 & 4? Come with me back to about the year 50ad and to Troas where I left you yesterday with the apostle Paul, Silas and Timothy. Paul was about to have a dream! Troas was a city looking west out over the Aegean Sea. Beyond those waves was and is the great country of Greece and the region of Macedonia. I imagine none of these three men had ever been this far west before. So, why had they come to Troas?
Yesterday we looked at the remarkable claim of Acts 16:6,7 that Paul and his companions had been pushing west, having left Syrian Antioch, going from town to town sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in places it had never been heard before. But rather than the Holy Spirit opening wide the way before them, the Spirit of God had actually been preventing them from going into the provinces of Asia.
Time after time they had encountered unexpected God created ‘roadblocks’ which forced them to take detours to other places, eventually ending up in Troas.
Pause. How do you and I handle the frustration of ‘roadblocks’ and ‘detours’ as we rush through our busy days? How often do we consider it might actually be GOD steering our course and helping us avoid disaster? While there in Troas, Paul had a very significant dream, which changed history!
I find that dream in Acts 16:9,10. “During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us’. After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them.” (Acts 16:9,10) Do you see the historic significance of what occurred in these two verses?
Paul was a student of the Old Testament and I’m sure he knew very well EVERY Biblical story of a vision or dream in which God was speaking to a person or family or even a nation. Therefore, when Paul awakened, it did not take him long to explain his dream to Silas and Timothy and begin making a new plan. Troas was not a destination; Troas was a launching pad!
God was calling Paul into Central Asia, specifically Macedonia, for the purpose of taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the intelligent, sophisticated, but also superstitious Greeks! Now we know Dr. Luke was the human author of the book of Acts, and did you notice the change in pronoun here in verse 10? Luke uses the words “we” and “us”! Is it significant? Absolutely, for this tells us Luke the Greek Physician joined the apostle Paul, Silas and Timothy there in Troas, perhaps the very day after Paul had his dream!
How did it happen, we don’t know, but I suspect Paul may have been ill, and Dr Luke may have been the physician they found to help Paul. It appears a relationship formed very quickly. Perhaps Dr Luke was planning a trip to Macedonia anyway, so he decided to travel with Paul and his companions. Pause. Do you see God at work here my friends in very strategic ways? Many more times Paul would be needing a doctor in the months and years ahead, and God provided Dr Luke to travel with Paul.
But also, the entire Greek world would need to know the Gospel and the story of Paul, and the Greeks would certainly far more trust a Greek physician writing the story than either a Jewish Pharisee or a Jewish fisherman from Galilee!
That’s why Dr. Luke began the first of his two historical accounts, the Gospel of Luke & the book of Acts, with these words: “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us. Just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly, accurate account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” (Luke 1:1-4)
History does not tell us who this ‘most excellent Theophilus’ was, but clearly, he was an intelligent, highly regarded official and he had sufficient financial means to commission Dr Luke to first investigate and then write a detailed account of the life of Jesus Christ; (the Gospel of Luke) and then a personal account of the missionary journeys of Paul the apostle. (the book of Acts) Of course, as with all Biblical writers, while Luke did investigate and did write from his personal memory or even logbook he probably kept while traveling with Paul, we understand that Luke was directed in his writing by the Holy Spirit of God. (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20,21)
Pause. Can you imagine my friends, what would be missing from the Bible if we did NOT have the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts!? Oh, thank you Jesus for how you blocked and detoured Paul’s journey; allowed Paul to fall sick, needing a doctor in Troas; and helped Silas and Timothy find a Greek physician named Dr. Luke!
Having now received clear direction from God via a dream, and with a traveling Greek physician at his side, the apostle Paul was reinvigorated and rallied his companions to join him on board a ship headed to Macedonia. From Troas, a port on the extreme western end of modern-day Turkey, to Neapolis in Macedonia, would be a journey of about 150 miles across the Aegean Sea.
Midway on that journey was a small island Samothrace, which had a high, often snow-covered mountain, which served as a landmark for those traveling ships and safe harbor is the weather turned foul. Dr. Luke records their ship stopped at that island for an overnight and then went on the next day to Neapolis. Can you imagine the excitement of Paul as he stepped off that ship for the first time in Macedonia, Asia! Oh, for so long he had hoped God would allow him to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the Greeks of this place!
Evidently, they stayed only briefly in Neapolis, for Luke writes: “From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. We stayed there several days.” (Acts 16:11,12) Oh my friends I think we need to rest here with Paul, Silas, Timothy and Dr. Luke.
Philippi was a magnificent and very strategic city and tomorrow we’ll find out why! For today, the lessons learned study notes below will help you dig more deeply, and the worship song will refresh your soul. Pause and consider how God guides you in life. Is it His word, or Godly friends, or maybe dreams? And I’ll be here in Philippi, waiting for you tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: Acts 16:6-12.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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