Choosing Joy In A Post-Traumatic World - Philippians 1:1-2 Series

Have you ever experienced that time when you felt like you knew what you wanted to do? It seemed like the right thing to do. But then what happened? It got shut down. We sometimes say God closed the door or something like that. And I'm talking about big decisions. Maybe you were thinking about starting a relationship with someone and God closed the door. Maybe you were thinking about buying a house and God closed the door somehow. Maybe you were thinking about moving to a different job and the door closed. There's a little frustration with all of that, I think, and I think that's what Paul was feeling in Acts 16. So if you have your Bible, turn to Acts 16 because in Acts 16 we have the story of Paul arriving in Philippi. But I want to take you before that. I want to take you to what's happening in Paul's life before that takes place.

Now Paul is a seasoned missionary. He's on his second missionary journey. He has a plan. When he goes into a town, he often will teach in the synagogue or he'll teach out somewhere. Then what he'll do is he'll see people come to Christ. And when people come to the Lord, a church forms. And then he moves on to the next place after being there for a little while. Sometimes he's run out of town. Sometimes he leaves voluntarily. But that's Paul's MO. And that's what he's done his whole missionary journey in the first missionary journey. Now he's in his second missionary journey and he continues to go to a city to start a church by sharing the gospel with individual people.

So I can imagine that he's pretty frustrated when we get to Acts 16. Because he's in Galatia, he wants to go down to Asia, but God shuts the door. Watch. This is what it says. And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. Did you catch that? It says – having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. I just wondered, how did that happen in his life? Did he hear an audible voice where the Holy Spirit was speaking to him? I wonder what that sounded like. Or was it a dream that he had where God shut it down and shut the door? I don't know. But Paul says, “Okay, I can't do that. I guess that isn't what God wants us to do. Let's go to plan B.” But God shuts the door on plan B. Look at this. It says there – And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. I'm going, wait a minute, how did they do that? What did God do that shut the door?

We know that God speaks through His word. That is His primary way that He speaks to us. Any other kind of experience we have with God must be evaluated on the basis of God's word. But then God does use other ways to speak to us, doesn't He? I mean, there's some times when I have a bright idea. I just think it's the best idea straight from the Lord. I tell it to my wife and she says, “I don't think so.” Because I think sometimes God uses people, doesn’t He? You start telling your idea to someone else and they go, “I don't think so. I don't think this is what we should do.”

Now he's on this trip with Silas and Timothy. Paul, Silas, and Timothy are on this trip now. Maybe the three of them start talking and Paul says, “I have this great idea. Let's go down to Asia. I have this great idea. Let's go down to Bithynia.” And maybe they're saying, “I don't think so.” Maybe there's something happens within the group. Or maybe it's circumstances. Isn’t it true that sometimes you plan to do something, you want to go somewhere, you want to move in a direction and what takes place? The circumstances don't work out and God shuts the door. You have to ask sometimes, why does He shut the door? Why is God shutting the door on evangelism? I mean, that's got to be the most important thing that we do. Right? But God's telling Paul, “No, Paul. I don't want you to do that.”

Now I believe God has something completely different for Paul than he ever thought of before. We're going to get to that in just a minute. But now God has said no twice. So what do you do when God says no twice? You go to the beach. That's what he does. It says – So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. That was down by the waterfront. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia… Now Macedonia is where he's going. That's where Philippi is. That's our city where our letter is going to be written to that we're going to be studying. This man from Macedonia in this vision, was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. And yes, I think God did call them to preach the gospel to the people in Macedonia.