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Good morning friends, today is Tuesday May 28 and we’re reading together Acts chapter 16.
Chapter 15 ended with Barnabas retracing his steps back to visit the churches he and Paul had planted on their first missionary journey. His new partner was young John Mark, who had been on that first journey for a while (Acts 13:5). You’ll recall Mark was the center of the disagreement with Paul & Barnabas which divided them and birthed two teams.
Simultaneously, Paul invited Silas to be his new partner and they launched overland, first north into Syria, and then into Cilicia, and then west into the province of Galatia, revisiting the churches Paul had planted in Derbe and Lystra, a few years before.
For the rest of Paul’s life God seems to give him a passion for mentoring younger men in being “Disciple-makers”. Jesus had said “as you are going, make disciples of all peoples…teaching them all I have taught you...” (Matt. 28:18-20) Paul took that seriously, and in Acts 16:1 we meet Timothy, perhaps the premier example of Paul’s disciple-making efforts.
Notice please that Timothy’s mother is referred to as ‘a believer’. Perhaps she was among those who trusted in Jesus during Paul’s first visit to Lystra in Acts 14? Timothy is referred to as a ‘disciple’, indicating he too had believed, but Timothy had taken things further and pursued a deeper understanding of Jesus and His teachings. As you see Timothy joins the traveling team with Silas and Paul.
Acts 16:6-10 contains a very interesting account. God evidently gave Paul a passion to press further west, even into Macedonia, Eastern Europe, where he’d never been before, but twice it says the Holy Spirit prevented Paul from doing so. Does that sound confusing? How could God give Paul a passion to move forward and block his way, retraining him at the same time? Why would God do that?
Oh friends, I believe that happens often to us and it’s in our desire to push forward but being restrained, that God works to refine us, to prepare us, and to prepare the place to which He will lead us, for our engagement there. I’m confident Dawn and I have experienced that several times as God has moved us to Haiti, then Bala-Cynwyd, PA; then Montvale, NJ; then Fargo, ND; then Williams Bay, WI; then Maryville, TN; finally here to Leesburg, FL. In each case we sensed a strong leading of God, but also a timing adjustment. And in retrospect, in each case we can see why, both in us and in the place & people to whom God brought us.
If you sense God is burdening you for some spiritual activity but the door is not open to you yet, don’t give up, don’t passively do nothing, use the time to further prepare yourself and prayerfully seek to understand why God is delaying that for which He has given you such a desire. One thing for sure. Don’t force the door open till God opens it! But don’t give up on your passion either.
I wonder if you’ve ever had a “Macedonian call“? (vs. 9) An invitation to move somewhere, or to get involved where you are, in a special work of God in something like a new church plant or a missions trip or even a job change that put you into a new setting as an ambassador of Jesus? Dawn and I have, several times, and our response to His call is how Jesus has brought us into contact with every one of you to whom I send this each morning! We thank God for you, dear friends!
Notice the little word ‘we’ in verse 10. It’s very significant. Dr. Luke evidently joins Paul’s traveling group in verse 10 and for the rest of Paul’s life travels with him as his physician, friend and eventually the author of both the Gospel of Luke, and this book of Acts! There is no evidence Luke had trusted Jesus when he joined Paul, but somewhere alone the line, clearly he too became a passionate follower of the Christ!
Beginning in vs. 11 Paul is pioneering new territory, the Gospel is pushing into Macedonia, where it had never been proclaimed before! Philippi was the leading city of that region and Paul saw it as a strategic place to plant the church of Jesus. Notice who the very first person to respond to the Gospel was… Lydia, a business woman! Notice she opened her home for a place where people could come and hear Paul preach Jesus’ Gospel. Today we might call that a home Bible study, or a house church.
In many parts of the world that is how the church meets and grows. There are no large church buildings. In fact since the days of Paul, this has been the more organic, dynamic form of the church around the world. The house church movement in China or Cuba or India or South Korea may be the best examples in the past 100+ years. In those four nations alone the ‘house church’ movement numbers over 200 million Christians!
Are you part of such a group as you gather together in an interactive, praying, Bible studying group where you are able to ask questions, dig deeply into God’s Word, love and care for one another and really grow in your relationship with Jesus?
Do you see one of the dangers of ONLY attending a North American Church Sunday worship service is that you probably only sit and observe and listen rather than really engage with spiritual growth? May I ask you a question? How dynamic is your personal spiritual passion and growth? What’s feeding it? What’s minimizing it?
Finally in Acts 16 once again the devil riles up opposition to the work of God and Paul & Silas find themselves in prison. I’m not sure why Luke & Timothy were not also arrested, nor what they were doing while Paul & Silas received their beating and spent their night in jail, but what we do know is God used that historic moment to dramatically change the town of Philippi. An earthquake, an open jail, a jailer who becomes a believer, a town leadership group shocked they had imprisoned a Roman citizen without trial, a growing house church of new Christians.
Years later Paul writes his letter we know as Philippians to this house church, which has grown and multiplied, I’m sure. We’ll read that letter in mid September. Paul loved this town and these dear people, his first converts in Macedonia, and prayed for them often.
May I ask you a closing question? Where, in your lifetime, have you had opportunity to be part of a dynamic move of God in a place like Philippi? What happened there for you? Who were the passionate Christ followers you were associated with and what did Jesus do in your group? What lasting impact has that season of time had on the community there, and on you and others in that group?
Oh my dear friends, as I ask those questions I sure hope you are not looking out the window and scratching your chin and saying to yourself… ‘I don’t think I’ve every been part of an exciting move of God, anywhere I’ve ever lived?” Rather, I hope a smile has come across your face as you remember… and I hope it calls you to pray and thank God for that wonderful experience. I even hope you are able to say… “right now, right here, that’s what I’m experiencing in my life these days“.
Final question… what would happen if each of us, right now, bowed our heads and asked God to give us a passion to be part of a fresh and exciting work of God in the months ahead, AND to lead each of us to understand what role Jesus wants us to have in that fresh, exciting God work. Then, finally, open up your hands and your heart, and offer yourself to God… “Here I am Lord Jesus, do whatever work in ME you need to do, so you can involve me in a fresh, exciting, dynamic new work of God”.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“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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