Two weeks ago we looked at the story of Jonathan and his armor bearer charging the Philistines. It was one of those times in scripture when God said not just yes but maybe. Why did God say maybe? Because he wanted Jonathan to pick a direction and go. God was waiting for someone to choose to move. It would have been best of Israel if it had been Saul the king, but it wasn’t. That’s ok though the principle was still the same, when God calls He wants His people to move, and when we do He blesses it. For us this is an example of one of the words that I want to be a church value. This is the principle of abandon, an all out sell out. When God calls we go with Him so that He can do all that as the armor bearer said, all that is in His heart. That’s what we want here at Madison and that’s what we want in our lives. For God to be able to do all that He has dreamed. This can be difficult because think about how big God is, His dreams are not our dreams.
Today at Madison is one of those abandon days. We’ve just dismissed our kids to 252 for the first time. This spring we wouldn’t have pictured building a stage and pulling sound and lighting systems out of storage for our kids, but God did. Already I can tell you that God is moving there, last year when our Children’s Center held it’s parent night and Bryan and I got to talk with the parents about the church their reaction was, that’s nice pass the pizza, this year they wanted to hear what we had to say because they could see the investment that we as a church are willing to make in their kids lives and in their families lives. It may have become the dream of the staff and the many volunteers who helped get us to this point. But before it was our dream, it was God’s dream. I expect to see Him do far more in that program, why? Because God dreams big, as His people so should we.
It’s great when God says, “yes.” That was the sermon two weeks ago. But today’s sermon, today’s sermon is about when God says, “no.” It just doesn’t sound as fun does it. But when it comes from God is it really that bad? As we’re going to see, Paul wants to go one way in life and God keeps stopping Him until finally He finds where He needs to be. So it got me to thinking about the roads not taken. I mean, what if I wasn’t a pastor, what would that look like? And I’ll go even further since I was thinking about the road not taken, so I didn’t want to think about being an accountant again either. So what if those two things were taken off the table. What would I be?
Well I think that I would like to play my guitar for people. Yeah, just traveling and playing, but I like to be with a team, so I’d want someone with me (introduce Bryan), and neither of us can play lead so we’d need Randy. And we can’t hit the high notes so we’d need someone like Gary. Yeah, I’d like to play music with a group of guys like this. But then what would we sing? Well we’d want to tell people about Jesus, we’d want to tell people about the Bible, and at some point we might just come to Acts chapter 16 and we’d want to tell people about it through a song. So if we could do anything that we wanted it would probably come out something like this. PLAY “THE SOUNDS OF SILAS.”
Okay just because that thought of God saying, “no” isn’t fun doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun. The truth is that despite what some preachers may say, sometimes God says no. We don’t enjoy it, we don’t like it but there it is. It’s interesting but even in that fun song that we found, the author didn’t start with God saying, “no” but with the vision to go to Macedonia. We don’t like to think about God saying, no. But sometimes He does. Before we go much further though we also need to realize that sometimes God hasn’t said, no, He just didn’t say yes. Sometimes the pain, frustration and disappointments that we face in this world, are just because we live in a fallen world. Not all of our disappointments come from God. Sometimes these thing just happen. Some of you are struggling to find work right now, or to find a job to pay what you’re used to making, that may be from God, but I think it’s just the economy. It doesn’t mean that God can work in it to grow you and eventually bless you, but it doesn’t mean that He sent it. Some of us can’t sell a house or some other asset. You know what I refuse to believe that God is up in Heaven say, “J.D. you’re not going to sell your house, just ‘cause I want to mess with you.” I refuse to believe that, I think my house isn’t selling because the market stinks, all by itself. These things happen. That’s what I think, but I know something else, God will use our struggles, yours and mine, today’s and tomorrow’s, to grow us to be more like Him. To use us to be a blessing to other people, and that, in God’s economy, will be better. God never wastes a hurt.
An example of someone who went through a bunch of struggles, that I don’t think were all from God, but that God used would be Paul. Think about it, at this point in history Paul is probably feeling a little discouraged.
Think about three events that had happened in his recent past. First he was stoned at Lystra. I preach on this over the summer, one moment their calling him a god, lower case “g” it was Hermes, the next their dragging him to a high spot, pushing him over backwards, and then dropping heavy stones, preferably on his head, until they were convinced he was dead, then they drug what they assumed was his dead body outside the city and left him there for dead. That is a real bad day. The physical miracle is that his body ever got up from that. But think about the mental miracle. How could he ever face a crowd again? How could he have the courage to proclaim the gospel ever again? But he did. By the way think about this, what about the guilt he had to face when he thought about the fact that he had done this to others? How do you recover from that? I don’t think that God willed Paul’s stoning, but I do think He used it to so that Paul would understand how great God’s grace is for us.
Then there was the council of Jerusalem. Paul who has been a Pharisee, but has now found Christ, goes back to speak to the church in Jerusalem, but rather then it being a victorious trip back home to share about all that God has done with the Gentiles, when Paul gets to Jerusalem, he has to debate the people there on behalf of the Gentiles. Worse for Paul we are told that his main opponents were the party of the Pharisees. These were Pharisees who had become Christians, you know, people exactly like Paul, these were the people that he naturally should have been friends with, but he has to go and debate them. He won the debate but at what personal cost?
Then after that “victory” he has a fight with Barnabas. The subject was John Mark who ran away when the going got tough. Barnabas wanted to show grace and take him on the next trip, and Paul, the apostle of grace, didn’t want to. So we are told that they had a sharp dispute and parted ways, Barnabas with John Mark and Paul with Silas. Here’s the thing, no matter who you think was right in this dispute, given the few details that we know, I’m sure that it hurt Paul deeply. Not only were he and Barnabas as great team, but you’ll remember that when Paul first was converted and first wanted to be accepted as a part of the church it was Barnabas who stood up for him and caused the rest of the church to accept him. Barnabas probably wasn’t just Paul’s best friend in the church, he was probably Paul’s first friend in the church. Now they’ve had a fight, they’ve parted ways it’s just one more thing that adds to the hurt that Paul is feeling.
But Paul knows that one of the secrets of life is that when you are down and hurting often the best medicine is to find someone else who needs help and help them. So that’s what he sets out to do. That’s where we pick the story up in Acts 16, “He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised Him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help.’ 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. From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, were we expected to find a place of prayer. We sated down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us.”
So here we find Paul, body and more importantly soul, battered and bruised and look at where he goes to start. Back to Lystra, why not after all he rocked it the first time he was there. Okay bad joke, but you remember that when his body was healed he and Barnabas had gone back to the towns that they visited on the island and strengthened the churches there. So Paul comes back a third time and here at the sight of one of Paul’s most painful experiences he finds perhaps his favorite protégé. Here we find Paul at the end of his rope. Think about it, he doesn’t meet Silas until the end of chapter 15 and off they go as missionaries. You ever feel like you’re at the end of your rope. You’ve got no where left to turn and no where left to go? Paul was there, for the sake of the gospel. I mean when we get there we often wonder what we did wrong. But you know what the good news is. When we are at the end of our rope, when we feel alone, God is still there, and he is never at the end of his rope. Paul sets off on this lonely journey, to deliver the message of the Jerusalem council, by the way a message that he probably would have considered to be a compromise more then a victory. But God is at work.
God knows that Paul needs some people at his back. People who will support him, encourage him, and pray for him. To me the first half of Acts 16 is God putting those people into place so that Paul can endure what is going to take place in the rest of the book. The first person that God puts into place is Timothy. You understand that as we read through Paul’s letters back to the churches, there are several protégé’s that will be mentioned, but perhaps none as frequently or as warmly as Timothy.
Why did Paul love Timothy so much? I think that it was because of the heart that Timothy showed. Here was a young man who was willing to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel. Understand, Timothy’s ministry starts with a great act of humility. Look at verse 3, “Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in the area.” Excuse me Paul had just gone all the way to Jerusalem to argue against the need for circumcision. Later in his letter back to the Philippians in chapter 3 Paul will call circumcision mutilation, but here he circumcises Timothy. What is going on? Simple Timothy is all gentile, his mother is Jewish. So to make sure that there is peace in both world Paul circumcises Timothy. But you understand that Timothy was willing to agree to it. Think of the humility this took. I mean Timothy was a teenager at this point in time. Can you imagine explaining this too him and then saying, Timothy for the sake of unity this is important. I think most teenagers would respond, it ain’t that important. But Timothy says yes, yes he wants to go on the mission, but also yes he doesn’t want there to be anything that distracts from the cause of Christ. Because he has his eyes on what is truly important, Timothy says yes.
Understand what God is doing here. God is beginning to surround Paul with the people that he needs to be successful. Paul may have understood that he was the apostle to the Gentiles, but all of his travels so far have been within the area of the Diaspora, the area where the Jews had been scattered. He was going to places where there would be people like himself. Even now, after Paul and company deliver the Jerusalem decree, he still wants to stay in the area where his people are. This is natural, but God is calling him to something different. Notice what happens, the end of verse 6 it says, “having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.
Notice Paul goes to the edge of the Diaspora, to the place where the Jews and the Greeks are but that’s it. Then he wants to head for home, and God says, “No.” Why, because God had a different mission for him. But notice God doesn’t tell him where to go yet, because Paul doesn’t have all of the people that he needs to be successful. Of course Paul started with Silas and now they’ve added Timothy. What’s different about Timothy? Just that he is a teenager, but that his father is half Greek. In other words he would have looked different then Paul, he would have spoken different then Paul, but he also would have looked a whole lot like the people that Paul was being sent to.
So Paul needs Timothy, and God brings them together. Then Paul meets Luke in Troas after God says no. I italicized that word after for a very important reason. So often when God says no we think that is the end of the story. But for God it is only the beginning of a better story. Paul is about to leave Asia for the first time and God is getting him ready for the journey. It’s going to literally change the world and God wants Paul ready for it. So much so that God says no again, notice, verse 7, “When they came to the boarder of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.” If you’re Paul you’ve got to wonder what is going on here. All he wants to do is preach the gospel, and he’s really good at it. But God is constantly saying no. Here’s a quick lesson and I want you to add this to your notes, when God says no to a good thing, it’s because he has a better thing. God keeps telling Paul know, and yet doesn’t tell him where he’s going yet because Paul needs someone else. Paul needs to pick up Luke and that happens in Troas. How do we know that this is where Paul picks up Luke, it’s really simple and really subtle. Until now it was Barnabas and Paul, then Paul and Barnabas, now Paul and his companions. But then we come to the vision in verse 9 and reaction in verse 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 go ready at once to leave for Macedonia.” They become we and Luke subtly tells us where he enters the story.
Lesson to be learned so many times when we think God’s no is the end of the story, it is actually only the beginning. Why does Paul need Luke? Because Luke is a first rate historian who tells us Paul’s story. You see God is not just going to use Paul to impact the world during his time, but for all time. To do that took someone with the talent, training, and skill of Luke who could capture his world with such detail that even current historians must respect the detail of his writing.
Some people speculate why it is that we don’t know what happened to Barnabas at this point in the story but we know so much about Paul. I don’t think it’s because God stopped using Barnabas, after all you’ll remember that in the list of the notable teachers at Antioch Barnabas was mentioned before Paul. I believe that God still used Barnabas to proclaim the gospel. I think the difference is Luke. So many times we think that we have to be gifted in certain area’s to have a great impact. Paul would change the world, but if Luke doesn’t tell us about it, how does he change our world. Luke had the gift of taking detailed notes, a seemingly small gift, but we all owe him a great debt. I don’t know that Paul would have thought he needed to take a historian along, but God knew that Paul needed to and God wouldn’t let Paul leave until he met Luke. You never know the people you’re going to need but God does.
So in Troas Paul meets Luke, and all of them are called to Macedonia. It is interesting to note that in the vision the man asks Paul to help them, because in helping them Paul is helped. Look again starting in verse 11, “From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colon and the leading city of that district of Macedonia.” God is sending Paul to Philippi. It seems to be a strange place. First of all the main reason for its existence is that it was situation at the entrance to a mountain pass, it was established as a military garrison, if someone wanted to invade from the outside they had to get through Philippi. On the surface a Roman military city would not exactly be the first place that you would want to try and preach Jesus. But that is where Paul ends up.
Also note that Paul didn’t exactly know how to reach these people. Notice verse 13, “On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer.” Notice the term expected, they expected to find the synagogue there, but there wasn’t one. Synagogue’s took 10 men to establish and instead Paul finds mainly women. He is out of his element, his expectation aren’t meeting reality, but what does he do. He preaches Jesus anyway. The result was great. It starts in verse 14, “One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth.” Acts 16 is the story of Paul’s journey with unexpected people and none are more unexpected then Lydia. It’s not just that one of their leaders was a woman. It’s not just that the context implies that she was the head of her household. She is a seller of purple. To understand that statement, you have to understand the power of purple. Purple dye could only be made by harvesting certain crustaceans and then crushing them to produce small amounts of the dye. It was hard work, the shells were rare and the dye was expensive. Purple cloth was literally worth its weight in silver. When Luke tells us that she was a dealer in purple, he’s telling us she was rich, because she had to have the money to acquire where product in the first place.
But she listens to Paul, she was already a worshipper of God but now she goes from worshipper to believer. When she does, she and her whole family are baptized. Here’s something that important for us to remember, it’s something that Luke noticed right away. Verse 14, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” Luke realized that the Spirit of God was the source of what happened in her life. You see other people were there, but she was the one who responded. Luke doesn’t mention it, but I’m sure that Paul took the time to preach at those other cities, we don’t read that anybody responded there. But here someone responds and Luke says it’s not the brilliance of Paul’s preaching, it’s the pull of the Holy Spirit. The lesson for us, we need to depend on the Holy Spirit the way that Paul did. Don’t let Satan tell you that you can’t share with someone, because you can. The same Spirit that worked for Paul walks with as well. God used Paul, God used Luke and God wants to use you. Look around and then take your opportunities.
There’s something else to see in the Power of Purple though. It was the representation of Roman Power. If you were a senator the mark of your position was that you would have purple as part of your outfit, maybe a sash or whatever. The Roman emperor was the only one allowed to have a tunic made entirely of purple, it was to show his power. It’s not just that purple was the symbol of Roman Power but so was Philippi, again this city existed as a military base, it’s presence saying to any would be invader don’t even think about it. But God invaded the very darkness of that empire. Where others wouldn’t dare to send armies, God sends Paul with Silas, a teenager, and a doctor who was really good at taking notes. The result transformed the empire and the world forever. Why because God uses different weapons then we do. When Roman Power met the Gospel, the confrontation wasn’t a matter of strength but the heart. Look at verse 14 again, “the Lord opened her heart.” From the beginning the relationship that Paul had with the church in Philippi was one of love. Love was something that the might of Rome couldn’t conquer.
Years later when Paul was in prison, anticipating his possible execution, and writing to his churches you notice something when he gets to Philippians. Every other church he feels the need to be formal, to establish his credentials, and make well reasoned and detailed arguments. To Philippi he just writes “Paul and Timothy servants of Christ.” He writes to them as friends and speaks words of encouragement. He writes of the encouragement that they have given back to him. During those dark days of Roman persecution, this church that was founded because God said no, and this Apostle who wanted to stay in Asia helped each other to make it through and the world would never be the same.
You see to do all that God dreamed, Paul didn’t just need his traveling companions, he needed the church in Philippi. We’ve got to understand that when God says no, it’s because He wants what’s best.
