Night Calls – A Call to Help
Acts 16:1-10
Introduction: Have you ever experienced the frustration of being in the middle of something you had planned to do only to be interrupted by someone who needed your help and assistance? The Apostle Paul was carrying out his plan for accomplishing the Great Commission when God had to interrupt him with a call in the night for help.
I. God directs His children by His spirit.
A. Romans 8:14 we read “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”. Are you being led by the Spirit?
B. Acts 13:2-3 “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’ Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away”
C. The apostle Paul following the leading of the Holy Spirit journeyed to the churches that were planted on his first missionary trip. Paul, Silas and Timothy were passing through cities, strengthening the churches in the faith, as well as seeing daily increase in people being saved (Acts 16:4-5).
D. “I will seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.” – George Mueller
E. John 16:13 “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”
F. An old sailor repeatedly got lost at sea, so his friends gave him a compass and urged him to use it. The next time he went out in his boat, he followed their advice and took the compass with him. But as usual he became hopelessly confused and was unable to find land. Finally he was rescued by his friends. Disgusted and impatient with him, they asked, “Why didn’t you use that compass we gave you? You could have saved us a lot of trouble!” The sailor responded, “I didn’t dare to! I wanted to go north, but as hard as I tried to make the needle aim in that direction, it just kept on pointing southeast.” That old sailor was so certain he knew which way was north that he stubbornly tired to force his own personal persuasion on his compass. Unable to do so, he tossed it aside as worthless and failed to benefit from the guidance it offered. – copied
II. God’s direction is not always our direction.
A. Acts 16:6-7 “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.”
B. “Forbidden” - (Hindered, prevented) literally means to cut off, to cut short, to prevent, to restrain or to forbid by word or act.
C. Asia needed the Gospel, but this was not God's time. Asia was an important region and God would establish churches there but for now Paul was forbidden to speak there.
D. Paul was “forbidden” of the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia, and not allowed “to go into Bythinia,”. He lived in the things of God close to the spirit world. His ear was trained and his heart tuned to hear what others less quiet, less loving, less obedient never could. A lady, asked how she knew the voice of the Spirit, answered, “How do you know your husband's step and your child's cry from the step and the cry of all others? I can not tell you how I know the voice of the Spirit, but it is as real to me as the voice of any person I know.” Another lady asked, “How do you know the voice of the Lord?” hesitated a moment when her little niece Rilla, then four years of age, said, “You hear Him in your heart, don't you, Aunt Abbie?” It was no puzzle to the little child that God should speak to His own. If we are “filled with the Spirit” and “live in the Spirit,” and “walk in the Spirit,” we shall have an intimate, personal knowledge of the Spirit as real as that of our dearest friend. - copied
E. Ephesians 5:18 “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit”
F. We must be willing to lay down our will and plans for the direction that the Holy Spirit brings.
III. God’s direction is at times the direct opposite of our direction
A. They had just come from the east and wanted to go either south or north but the Holy Spirit’s direction was west.
B. There are many plans in a man's heart, Nevertheless the Lord's counsel--that will stand.
C. Acts 16:8 “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."
D. A call in the night for “Help” This man of Macedonia represented the culture, intelligence, religion, and achievements of a supposedly enlightened Greek civilization. But the truth was both he and those he represented were in the darkness of spiritually bankruptcy.
E. The Word “Help” comes from two greek words – boé meaning a cry or exclamation and theo meaning to run) and means to run on hearing a cry, to give assistance. Boethéo means to succor (KJV says God "is able to succor them that are tempted" in Hebrews 2:18) which is a word you may not be too familiar with, but which means literally to run to or run to support hence, to help or relieve when in difficulty, want or distress; to assist and deliver from suffering. - copied
F. The greatest help we can bring anyone is the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ! It is good for us to bring provide social assistance, medical aid, disaster relief, etc but without the life changing gospel of Christ, all you have done is put a band aid on a lethal wound. What help of eternal significance have you given them?
G. Romans 10:14 “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”
IV. God’s directions are to be followed to the letter.
A. Acts 16:10-11 “Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis.”
B. It should be noted that in the calling of Paul to Macedonia. Paul was already active, trying to preach in the province of Asia, then in Bithynia. He was not waiting idly at home, hoping to receive a call. We do not know exactly how, but the Holy Spirit clearly closed the first two doors, but then opened another by this call in the night. God calls to those who are actively seeking to do His will and work.
C. “I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.” – George Mueller
D. Psalms 119:60 “I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your commandments.”
E. Where our Captain bids us go,
'Tis not ours to murmur no;
He that gives the sword and shield
Chooses too the battlefield
Where we are to fight the foe. – Source Unknown.
F. Ecclesiastes 5:4 “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed”
V. When we follow God’s direction God blesses.
A. Acts 16:13-14 “And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.”
B. The Spirit of God used Paul as a vessel to win the heart of this woman to Christ.
C. An interesting observation is that here we see one solitary convert, a woman, already a seeker after God, and a native of the very area where they had been forbidden to preach! God's ways are so much higher than our ways. Don’t stop following GOD’s direction in your life, you never know who you touch
D. There are two distinctions that clearly set my plans apart from God’s. First of all, mine are easier. Much easier. Second, my plans don’t usually work out. Not the way I want them to anyhow. God doesn’t have that problem. His plans never fail. They can’t fail. - copied
E. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts (plans) that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts (plans) of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
F. Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
