Paul’s Second Missionary Journey And The Work Of Follow Up

Plans change, teams split, doors slam shut and somehow the gospel moves faster. We pick up in Acts 15 as Paul and Barnabas choose to revisit the churches they helped start, because evangelism is not a drive by event. We talk about what “right passion” looks like in real ministry, why follow up matters, and how the goal is not just a decision but mature believers rooted in the Word. If you care about discipleship, church health, and sharing faith with clarity, this one is packed with practical insight.

Then the story gets honest: Paul and Barnabas have a sharp disagreement over John Mark and separate. Instead of treating conflict as the end, we explore how God can still work through broken plans and complicated relationships. From there Paul’s second missionary journey begins with Silas and Timothy, including that challenging moment where Timothy is circumcised not for salvation, but to remove barriers to ministry. We connect it to Paul’s “all things to all people” approach and the wisdom of contextualization without compromising the gospel of grace.

Acts 16 turns into a masterclass on guidance and perseverance. The Holy Spirit forbids certain routes, a Macedonian vision redirects the team to Philippi, and the first breakthrough is Lydia, whose heart the Lord opens. We also walk through the confrontation with a demon possessed slave girl, the backlash that lands Paul and Silas in prison, and the midnight prayers and hymns that set the stage for an earthquake and a life changing question from the Philippian jailer: “What must I do to be saved?” If you’ve ever wondered what faith looks like under pressure, this story answers it.

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Transcript

Opening Prayer

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this today. Thank you, Father, for the opportunity to get in your word tonight. We pray that as we look at your word, we'll focus on you. Challenge us, Father, to be more like you, to imitate you and do the things this Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen. I guess where

Acts 15 Sets The Stage

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I was taking a look at Acts chapter 15 was to pick up where we left off the last time we were together. Chapter 15, we'll look at verse 36. And following.

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Let's go back and get to the brothers and all the time where we preach the words of the Lord and see how they read it. Also fall mark with them. And that's them in the number. They have just three minutes that they find out. Commended by the brothers, the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia saving the churches.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Thank you. Very good. Take a look at this, starts off. She mentions two names. You know, excuse me, Lydia's read, but written by Lou mentions two names here, talking about Paul and Barnabas. Now we know that Paul and Barnabas had had an exciting time on the first missionary journey. I say exciting time, but uh people came to know Jesus, but it was also a difficult time because they had to suffer for their faith. On the way back, that went back when they were telling everybody how great things went. And that's when, if you remember last week, verse of 15, we got what they called the Jerusalem Council. Remember, that was the time when people came together to determine if someone who was a Gentile was going to be a Christian, what were the requirements? Okay? If we remember last time they said they did not have to be circumcised, they just encouraged that encouraged them to uh well flee from sexual immorality. Uh I think they mentioned take care of the poor as well, things like that, but they did not have to be circumcised. That was the big deal. Now they're ready to drive back uh what we might call the beginning of Paul's second of four missionary journeys. And as they're doing that, they've got letters with them that are going to go tell people these are the results, this is what takes place. And as you know, this coincides with what we talked about this morning with Galatians, Paul's rock of Galatians, not long after this took place to kind of let people know uh of the decision, but really in Galatians, it's kind of fussy on them because they've kind of turned away from what they had taught. But as we're thinking about this, they're going on this missionary journey. There's some things we need to think about.

Right Passion And Right Priority

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One is to make sure that you have the right passion. Uh it says there, after some days, Paul and Barnabas said, let us return and visit the brothers in every city who proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they're doing. Okay, when they went the first time, they were being obedient to what God had called them to do. The catch is in doing that, they have what I would call a first love for those people. They didn't go do it just because it was a job. They did because God had called them. And as God called them to do it as they walked in Christ, they ministered, they loved them, and they did all that God had called them to do. They genuinely cared about these people. So this idea of going back shows us, oh, they're not just like a one-time evangelist just coming through, a one-time preacher coming through. They're coming in, they care, they want to go back now because it says here, let us return and visit them, proclaim the word, and see how they are. So this there's this idea of having a right passion. Question, how would one get that right passion? Well, I would imagine you get that right passion because it would be an overflow, if you will, of our love for God and our knowledge of what he's doing. We go, we go on a mission trip, and they go to West Virginia every year. You know, why do they go back? Is it to feel good? Probably not, because there's nothing feeling good about driving that far for such a short amount of time to turn around and come right back, okay? But you genuinely care for people, you go back and you check on them, and that's kind of what they're doing here: showing this passion uh because of this overflow that they have with the love of God. They know that He's about saving souls and encouraging people and discipling people. They want to be involved in that. So they have this right passion. Nothing that they show is their right priority. Look at the second half of the verse. It says, uh, visit the brothers in every city where we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they are. Now, here's where I'm gonna light a firecracker, and I'll throw right out from the middle of the word, not literally, so don't turn down the camera, but a little thing that might be a little bit controversial. Okay, let me say this up front. Understand this. We read God's word, there it is. But we try to interpret it, different people are gonna interpret it different ways. Okay, that's what we have Baptists, Methods, Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Pentecostals, etc., etc. Okay. Now, that being said, is one of them right exactly? Probably not. But they've all what they have in commonality in most of the dominations I mentioned is a physical focused on Christ. Trained, and the fact that there's only one way to have it, that's through God, and he speaks through his word. We all have agreement on that, and everything has a secondary issues. So, what I'm about to talk about would be like a secondary issue. It's not a it's not a hill that I was gonna die on for sure, but it'll give us food for thought. Okay? When I say right priority, it says they want to go back and check on those uh and see how they are. Specifically, visit them when visit the brothers and never see them, proclaim the word and see how they are. They want to go back. There's something about having that relationship that's important with evangelism. Now, if you looked at the case of Paul, once we go back and look at all those places Paul went to, many times did he speak once again at the lead? No, he stayed around to continue to teach the brothers the word of God. Okay, so when I study for this, I use different commentaries. Uh, this week there's one particular commentary I did not get to look at, I looked at an awful lot. Um, but the one that I did look at is a very conservative commentary, very reformed commentary. Okay, so what that means, how to put that in uh a simple format, would be very rigid, strict looking at how the word is written, as opposed to taking it loosely and have finding other meaning. So that's not in due justice if you're watching online, didn't do justice that kind of get kind of the idea a little bit more reformed looking. So listen to listen to thought on this. The commentator says that Paul would be an example of what we call a biblical evangelist. The idea that the gift of evangelism that he would go to a place, he would evangelize, tell people about Jesus, he proclaimed the gospel, and as he did that, he would establish church, a church, and mature the believers. Does that make sense what I'm trying to say? Biblically, the evangelist one has to give evangelism and you go into preach, and it's the focus is not telling somebody, you know, um, how to how to 10 steps to flee from sexual morality. No evangelists preach the gospel. This is the gospel, this is how the coming of Christ. That's that's what evangelists do, they evangelize, they take the message, they give it, right? So Paul's what the artist is saying here is that Paul is coming in as that biblical evangelist in the sense that he's coming and he's preaching the gospel, but he doesn't just leave it there. He stays for a while, he works with them to form a church and then helps to material believers. Does that make sense? Best way I can explain this kind of what the work that Debbie and I do, but we're in Latin America. When we went over there uh as missionaries, I guess that was our official title. The um we would go to an area and we wouldn't just go in and say, hey, here we are, here's Jesus, and turn around and walk off. We tried to plant ourselves there. As a result of that, there were churches that were started because we stayed uh six months to the year, a year and a half, two, two and a half years, however, to work with these folks. And even like in Guatemala, after we left the first time, when we came back the second time, we went back and checked up on the church that we helped start uh you know, four or five years prior to that. The idea of evangelism, you preach the gospel, but you stay and help mature believers. They say, now why is that controversial? Well, that's probably not controversial, but what I want to say next is when we see evangelists today, modern evangelists, what do they do? They come in, they preach, and then they're gone. Okay? Now, again, it's not a hillbone down. A couple times Paul preached and he only got one chance to do it, and he got stoned, he'd had to get out. Okay, not saying that it's wrong, because now if I said it's wrong to do that, then we're attacking to be like Billy Graham. And I don't want to tap Bill McGregor. There's a couple other vendors I might be attacked, but I don't want to tap in. He had a pretty good job, okay? He had that gift to share the gospel. But what is it as a church? If we look at those who had that gift of evangelism to share the gospel with people and help to ensure that the people get involved with the local church. Now, the argument with Billy Graham is the fact that when he has this, when he used to have this crusades, he would come into town with a big team and they would prepare the churches, they would teach them how to evangelize, how to go out and um uh do the promotions, etc., etc., to make it happen so that when he left, people from the different churches would get cards with people's names and phone numbers on to follow-up, leaving the church to do that. Sometimes that worked, sometimes that didn't. Back in Paul's day, they didn't do that. Paul stayed with them and did that. Again, it's kind of hard to compare the concept. The concept is evangelism, but you're almost trying to compare out those aren't just because the way we look at um evangelism, modern-day evangelism was completely different. But here's the catch. Paul had a love for believers, almost like a spiritual father to them. He'd helped start those churches. As I say in the second part there, they wanted to go back because they say, let us return and visit the brothers. They wanted to check up on them and make sure they were doing okay. They wanted to make sure that they were maturing in their faith and didn't want to just go in, preach the gospel, have an exciting time, and then just walk off and let the people just kind of flound their fear up for themselves. What's the problem uh if you if Paul would have just gone in, preached the gospel, and then took off and never looked back? If they had established a church, if they didn't appoint leaders, people would have felt good they had a good time and decision, but they would have had no way to mature in their faith because there was no one to teach them. But Paul went through then he encouraged Timothy to point elders in every church to make sure the leadership is there. So that's what we see uh with the apostle Paul. Uh, and love for his people, uh uh love as a spiritual father to make sure that they grew up in their faith. Um Colossians 1.28, listen to what that says. This is uh an affirmation in Paul's desire to see everybody mature. It says in Colossians uh 1.28, him we complain, him we proclaim, the heat's messed with my brain, but him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that when we may present everyone mature in Christ. So whether you're an evangelist or not, whether you're a preacher or not, or a Sunday school teacher, or a believer like everybody else, do we have a goal to let others come and know about Christ? And do we have a goal not only to mature ourselves, but to help others mature? You know, look at our Sunday school, for example. Do we, as teachers, want to make sure that they're growing in the faith? Hold them accountable, say, hey, how's it going? Were you able to study the lesson? Were you able to read your Bible? What did God say to you this week? How's it going? How can I pray for you? To help people kind of mature. That's what Paul's trying to do. He wants to mature. Paul was not just what somebody might call a hit and run evangelist, just come in and then go. He went in, he stayed, and he worked on maturing the believers. Now, the the next part, this is also a little bit controversial, but in a different kind of way, okay? Satan's desire is that there's not many missionaries, not being evangelists, that we stop the gospel, stop the service, go. Right before I came here, I was a triumph supply. I bring the equipment to grab some tribe agrees. And uh the lady checked me out, she says, Man, I wish they'd meant the law we couldn't work on Sundays. It's just too much. I said, Well, I appreciate you working today because I could have come in the other day of the week since I was on this side of town. I said, but also if they had a law we couldn't work on Sundays, I wouldn't have a job because I'm a preacher. Oh no, how do we make some, you know? But you know, statement would have it that we wouldn't need, and you know, at things to cause trouble. But look at the conflict here, and we're looking to see what God uh still is read. This one we lose a little more of this again.

Conflict Splits The Mission Team

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Look at verse 37. It says, now Barnabas wanted to take with him John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them uh one who had withdrawn from them in Babylon and had not gone with them to the work. All right, so all of a sudden we start to see a little bit of conflict. Paul Barnabas had gone and been a great work. At some point, John Mark had gone with them, but it didn't last very long. All right. Barnabas, whose cousin is Mark, or John Mark, Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark, was like, hey, you need to take him with us. Paul said, Don't feel like we need to do that. Well, who's right on that? What do you do? Well, they talked about it. Look at what it says now. Verse 39. There arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other. Barthes took Mark with them and seven decyphers, but Paul shows Silas and the party having been having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord, they went through Assyria and Stilicia, strengthening the churches. So what happens? There's a disagreement on the personnel. You want to make sure you have the right personnel for the job. There's a disagreement, and when you had one missionary team, Paul and Barnabas, now you have what? Two. Two missionary teams. So you see how there's a positive outcome of that? Instead of just having one group, now you have two groups. Uh one of the commentators said, Well, who was right on that issue? Should you take them or not? Well, that's really telling neither here nor there. Technically speaking, you read the scripture, it does say that Paul and Silas were committed by the church. Okay, that meant the church was behind them in support of it. Okay, maybe they took sides. Whether they took side or not, God was at work, and in Satan trying to cause it a division, and God went through that, and now they have two different groups going out to help spread the gospel and to continue to um check on the churches where they had uh been working at. Uh, Silas was the leader uh in the Jerusalem church, and I already mentioned that uh Mark and uh Barnabas were cousins, and Mark wrote the gospel of Mark. Now we'll take a look at the trip and where they go. Specifically,

Timothy Joins And A Tough Choice

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we'll look at uh Acts chapter 16, we'll start from verse 1 there. We'll see what I'm mentioning in Galatians. Now they're starting on the second missionary journey. You see them going um back to Azermine and through the province of Galatia, the southern portions going back to some of these cities. All right. Says in verse 16, Paul came also to Derby and Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was Greek. He was both spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Nikonia, and Paul wanted Timothy to accompany them. Now, when we look at that, we're thinking about the right people that are gonna go with him to do the work. That guy is Silas, and now they're going to take Timothy. Now we'll read more about Timothy and read the book of Timothy and other places like that. He had great upbringing, and he was uh his mother was Jewish, his father was a gentile. I mean by this time the writing events, his father was actually dead, according to some of the commentators. But they want him to go along to accompany them. And this is where it gets tricky a little bit again. Why? Because look at the next part of that verse during it. I read the whole verses. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany them. Then it says, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places. For they all knew that his father was a Greek. Now, do you see any problem with that? If we've looked the last couple of Sundays, especially Sunday night week ago, Jerusalem Council, you don't have to be circumcised to be a believer anymore. But one of the things about evangelism is taking right precautions and thinking about what it's got that I can do to make sure that I can be most effective in the work. Okay? Throw out an example. Okay. Back in the day, things have changed, but in El Salvador, tattoos used to be a big, big thing among the gangs. So if you're coming from the States and you're all tatted up, people are gonna have this impression of you that you could be part of one of those gangs or a rival gang. So if you wanted to go in and do ministry, it would be best to cover that tattoo up. That kind of makes sense. Not saying you go into hell if you have a tattoo or not, not saying if it's right or wrong, just saying, hey, to be a better communicator, to be received by the people in this evangelism effort. Let's be like Paul and say all things to all people. Okay? So when we see here, we see this circumcised Timothy. The first thing that comes to my mind is wait a minute, they don't have to be circumcised to be a believer. Why put that on him? Well, see, his mama was a Jew, so he was Jewish, but the daddy was a gentile, which would probably why he didn't need to circumcise, okay? People who were Jews are gonna be like, oh, I'm gonna learn Step Tim, he's a Gentile. Even though his mom was Jewish, he didn't follow through the customs. And Gentiles are gonna think, who cares? But we have to remember a couple of things. Um circumcision, again, circumcision is not for salvation, but it's more of an ease of traveling to be able to get around and being hurt. For the Jews, it would have been a stumbling block. Now, how that's a stumbling block, honestly, I got no idea of. Did they expect yet to Dorfic Man? I don't know, it just doesn't make sense to me. But that would be discussion. But it was big enough in the church today that that was a discussion. Okay, it's kind of awkward, but I mean it is what it is. Um, I also know that Titus, um, who was used by Paul and followed, he was a full Gentile. He was not circumcised. Had they told him to be circumcised as a full Gentile, then that would be more legalism when he saved. Here they weren't talking about being saved. Paul just says, hey, we're gonna go to some missionary work to do this, some things we might need to do would be this. Now, one of the modern-day examples, a friend of mine, the pastor of Columbia, uh, has built the places overseas in Muslim areas where all men have beards. The longer the beard, the better. Okay, they'll go around clean shape as long as the insult or just things you don't do. So, in preparation for that, uh, he let his beard grow out for a tip. He's not gonna watch this over good next to a wall, but the tip is to let his beard grow, right? So that he would kind of blend in a little bit more with the people. Okay? The idea you're going to work with people, try to blend in and not not totally get into culture, but do things to kind of help make it easier to remove these stomach blocks. Does that make sense? Another example would be uh in English, when um we use we want to say um okay, what do we do to say okay? Or back in the day, I don't we do as much as more as we used to. And there's a symbol we would do okay. Well, now we don't do that a lot, but back in the day you see that a lot. Well, other countries that's offensive and even vulgar, especially Brazil. And I forgot why it's vulgar, so don't ask me that. I don't remember. But I went to Brazil, they told us uh don't do that symbol because that was offensive. Okay? For us, it just means okay, everything's fine brave, you're agreeing with somebody. For somebody else means something different. So what we did, we changed how we acted in that sense, just so we could get the gospel and not have any any issues. Does that make sense? That's kind of what we're seeing here with with uh Paul and Timothy. Paul must take Timothy, Timothy want to take you, but you know there's a big issue about circumcision, no, half your family's in down there, that's not, but just to make things easier, not about your salvation, but just to make things easier, let's uh let's take care of that. Okay, and that's kind of what they did. All right. Uh listen to 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 19 through 22. And I kind of quoted this a minute ago. 1 Corinthians 9, 19 through 22. It says, For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more than to the Jews, I became as a Jew, in order to win the Jews. To those in the law, I became as one under the law, though not myself being under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside of the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law. To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, but by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I might share with them in its blessings. So you see the idea that Paul speaks to understand his audience to do he's working with in his preparations and looks for ways that he can get their attention, a hook, if you will, to kind of get them thinking about what he wants to share with the gospel without having things that would block that. Um another thing that Demon I would do overseas, uh common here in the U.S., our church doesn't do as much as it probably did back in the day. So we are long ago back in the day, but back in the day, it's not true that everybody came to church, drinks to the hilt or to the team, coating time, women, dresses, maybe even long dresses, and what they call pantyhose, those still words these days are slow. You know what I'm saying? Dressed in the team, makeup and everything, hats, okay. If Debbie and I would have gone in the mountains of Guatemala, me wearing a coat and type, and Debbie heels and a dress, how would that have gone over with people who ain't got a bad language? Do not have the one pair of shoes, no makeup, and uh no running warrant. Would there not be a difference between us and them? Now, to fully understand, yes, there are many times that as a pastor or me as a missionary, other pastors would come through, we might have on a coat and tie for a special occasion, like a wedding, but it wasn't like we pushed upon them, you had to be like that. For us, the issue is we're seen as rich Americans. We come in, they don't see us going to work at 9-5 job construction like they do. They see us going around and visiting people. I was like, how can they afford to do that? So, what are some things we can do to kind of blend in better with the people? Now, when it comes to vehicle, that's kind of difficult because none of them have vehicles except a few, you know, trucks for doing construction work, but that didn't have cars. So we didn't drive the nicest mealest car. We had something that could get us in and down at twice. So just things to think about and having the right preparation uh to be able to get in and out and do what God had called us uh to do, called us to do. Does that make sense? All right. Uh look at verse 4. And here we're looking at having what then we call the right presentation. It says in verse 4, as they went on their way to the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the church had strengthened in the faith and they increased in numbers daily. Okay, so what is the right presentation? Not only preaching the gospel, preaching the word, but they were also bringing a message from the Jerusalem church about the fact that you didn't have to be circumcised to be a member of the Christian church. Does that make sense? What are they teaching? Or they're teaching salvation is by the grace through faith alone. Uh so when we think about the right presentation, one of the things we think about is look at the presentation and look at the results. What were the results of them going back and giving this news uh about you don't have to be circumcised and continue to strengthen churches? One of the things that took place was they increased in uh numbers daily. God was at work, they had that they were preaching the true gospel, people came to know Christ. Now, the comical side of that is it might be some folks, some of the guys in the Bible that finally said, okay, now's the time to finally be a part of the church because they're not gonna ask me to cut myself. Okay. Uh that's not in the Bible, but humanly speaking, I can see people holding off because of that. Now, Razi, you know, have to be circumcised. So, hey, sorry, let's get in on this, let's be 100% in. All right. Next

The Spirit Redirects Toward Macedonia

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thing we look at is the idea of going to the right place. How do you know where to go when you want to evangelize? Okay. Jesus took the time of people, he walked the earth, you know, as he lived his daily light, he was ministering to the 12th. Uh, missionaries today, how they know where to go. How did Jeffy not know where to go when we left? Well, what we had done is we were just starting to go when Lord opened the doors. For me, he opened the door back in 1989 that to give me exposure to what life was like in other countries. I moved to Brazil. Uh came back from that, then had the chance. Um five years later, Roger Debbie and I got married, Lord opened the door for me and my dad and go to Haiti for about two weeks. Just a mission work there. So that gave me more experience. After that, Debbie and I were in seminary, and we're praying about what God wants us to do, but we're thinking about the mission pill, possibly, or pastoring the church. I said, Well, if that's what you want to do, well, you're gonna have to convince my wife of that. And it's gonna be both of us that you're gonna have to open the doors. Well, you know how God is, and he's at work, he's gonna open those doors. And that's what he did. We spent, you know, the first pair round spent uh two, two and a half years in uh Guatemala and then went back later for another two years. I say on that to think about the idea of the right place, and we see that in these verses. So let's take a look at verses uh six uh through ten. Somebody want to read Acts 16, 6 through 10 for me. I just I need to get some more, I suppose that's right. They went through the region of Persia and the Galitab, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. That sounds interesting. What do you mean that the Holy Spirit's forbidden of speaking the word in Asia? You think you want to speak everywhere, but God's at work and He is at work, He's got a specific place He wants you to go to. What do you do? You keep searching and going and going and let Him guide you to exactly where He wants you to be. What's wrong in Asia? Well, don't we know that something big came about from Asia later on? If you were here what two Sunday nights give three Sunday nights ago, or I don't remember what is it? Is that the Christopher spoke? Remember what he spoke on? Pop Quiz. Yeah, Revelation, the churches in Revelation, right? And one of those churches he spoke on Ephesus, whatever called. There's a couple other ones. All those, you know where they come from? The region of Asia. Now, God was gonna do something, and he did something with those churches, and it's recorded later in Revelation. But at this point in history, that's not where God was wanting Paul to work. That's why we see it says the Holy Spirit, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word Asia. So they're going through this region. And it says here, verse 7, and then they come up to uh Mysia. They intended to go to Bithnea, but the spirit of Jesus didn't allow them to, didn't allow them to. So verse 8. So passing by Mysia that went down to Troas. Troas can be a uh a port city than a GNC. So they're right there on the coast, okay? I don't know about you, but I don't I wouldn't mind having to call to be a missionary on the coast. Uh not during the heat of the summer like it is right now, but when it's cooler, I like the beach, I like the beautiful water, and I like the atmosphere. It's kind of neat. But this look what happens when they get there. It says in verse 9. A vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him, and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. Imagine that. Paul out there by the sea, next thing you know, he's got this vision. What is it? See, there's a man standing there. Somebody's never met, he didn't know. And that man is begging, saying, Hey, please come and help us. It says in verse 10, how did Paul respond? It says, When Paul had seen the vision, immediately he said, We sought to go on into uh Macedonia, concluding that uh God had taught us to preach the gospel to them. So what happens? Well, Paul, the people with him, which would be Silas at this point, they're like the Timothy, and obviously Luke, since he's the writer, it's following along with them. They get up and they go uh toward Macedonia. Now, what's unique about this is if you were to look at a map, you go down to the GNC, I think I would say the uh might get east to west mixed up, but on one side of the sea is where they're at in Troas. Now they're being called to go over to Greece, which is on the other side of the sea. So all they have to do to get there is just simply get on the boat and cross over. And that's what they do. They go from uh Troas to the opposite side to Macedonia. All right.

Lydia’s Heart Opens In Philippi

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Now, moving forward, let's take a look at verses uh 11 through 15 of chapter 16. So setting sail from Troas, we made the direct voyages, our voyage to uh Sampras on the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. Verse 13, and on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we were supposed, where we supposed there would be a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the woman, who to the women, excuse me, who had come there. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, uh, from the city of uh Diretira, a seller of purple goods, who is a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pray, pay attention to what was being said by Paul. And after she was baptized and her household as well, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me and be faithful in the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. So, what's taking place here? They're being obedient to go, not knowing exactly where they're going, just they need to get over to Macedonia. They need to hear the gospel over there. They get on the ship, they go a couple stops, they finally get them where they go. They're going out and going out by the river, right? And all of a sudden, there's people out there, there's women out there. And as they're speaking, God is at work. They come across a lady who has heard about God, who, as a described here, uh uh, who was a worshiper of God. And it says here, the Lord opened our heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. How important it is to be obedient to go and share a message when God calls us to do it. We don't necessarily know who's listening. A lot of times we might say, well, especially in preaching and evangelists, we might say, Well, you know, it looks like so-and-so's not even paying attention, but could get in the service, they might be the first one down the aisle. All right. You never know who's listening when you're sharing the gospel. But never being faithful to go and share the gospel. And what happens, Lydia comes to Father. She's been worshiping God, that she heard the true message of salvation, so she's baptized, and not just her, her whole family as well. What a blessing that would be. Why? Because the Lord said, don't go to these other places. The Spirit got Paul and his group to come to Macedonia. Uh, aside from that, Lydia is also the name of my grandbaby who was born on Monday. So we mentioned her name this morning, Grace. Her name is Lydia Grace Riley. So just a little plug there. Thanks for your prayers for her. They're doing great. Uh, mom is doing great as well. So we get thankful for that. So just a little shout-out there in the middle of that. All right.

A Demon Cast Out Sparks Backlash

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Um, now turning from Lydia's conversion, uh, which we'll see more about her in the writings of Paul, but let's go to this next section, verses 16 through 18. All right. Somebody want to read verses 16 to 18 for me.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had the spirit, uh which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her own nurse by fortune telling. This girl, Paul and Paul, and the rest of us showing, these men are servants of the Most High God who are telling me the way to be saved. She kept us up for many days. Finally, Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said, In the Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come over her. At that moment, the spirit left her.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Paul's being faithful, he stays with Lydia, and as he's preaching the gospel day in and day out, all of a sudden something starts happening. People are listening, but all of a sudden, we're gonna see Satan's at work, attempts to stop the ministry, and eventually we're gonna see people in jail because they're spreading the gospel. Something Paul's know he's familiar with, he's experienced that before. We're gonna take a look at this. So that's a place of prayer, and all of a sudden, here comes a slave girl who's what? And brought her of owners much gained by fortune telling. Okay, the way we say this today is she was possessed. Okay, and she had this ability, supposedly, her owners were using her as a slave to make money, get profit off of it. Okay, and what's this girl doing? Well, she's technically interrupting what Paul's trying to do. It says in verse 17, she followed Paul crying out, these men are servants of the most high God to proclaim to you the way of salvation. Oh, to explain the frustration about that, I want to take you to Guatemala. Can't do that right now, but let me at least tell you about it. Mr. Dukes has been there, he's seen this with his eyes. Uh, you've traveled over scenes, you may have seen this in other countries as well. But Mr. Mr. Dukes would come to visit us in Guatemala. We'd take them to tourist areas because there's some pretty sights to see, and sometimes you might want to take a three-day or super home with you. Well, many times they wanted you to buy something, they would follow you around. Yes, there would be booths set up, but there'd also be people that'd be walking around. You see this in New York City. I remember seeing it in New York City, maybe in touristic places in DC as well, where somebody's trying to sell you something. And it's not like they just say, okay, thanks, and go on. No, they follow you and follow you and follow you. It's not at the airport in one while as well. When you come out, the little kids will sell you bubble dome or something like that. They're gonna follow you around. Well, that's cute at first. If you like what they're selling, that's great. But at times that can just be kind of annoying because like, okay, we get it, we don't want it, leave me alone. But no, that's what was happening here. These this girl was following after Paul day in and day out and just talking and talking and talking. Now, what were they saying? Let's know what she was saying, though. She says, These men are servants of the Most High God who proclaimed you the way of salvation. Well, that's actually a good thing, is it not? So saying, here comes here comes preacher so-and-so, he's gonna tell you about Jesus. Okay, that seems positive, but it's that on and on and on doing this being interruptive to Paul and his group, so much so that it makes Paul upset. Let's somebody says, She did this for many days, and Paul became greatly annoyed, turned and spoke to the girl. Is that what it says? Spoke to the spirit. Then he speak to the girl, you know, not the girl because I have the head, but you don't do that. But he spoke to the spirit because he knew God had allowed him to understand what was going on, that it wasn't just you that she was saying, Oh, these guys are gonna tell you about Jesus. No, he knew there was something going on, and he says, he speaks to the spirit, and it's not the Holy Spirit, okay? It's it's a demon. He says, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, and it came out of her that very hour. Well, that's a miracle. Somebody killed from demon possession. That's great. But what's the problem? Well, that spirit that was reclaiming Jesus was saying they were gonna reclaim Jesus. That same spirit was the one that was also helping his owners up there make a lot of money. Well, now that spirit's gone, how are those owners gonna get money from this girl? Because their source of income is gone with her because that spirit is no longer here, and she can't do the divination that she's doing to help them make their money. So that's gonna cause a little bit of trouble. Look at verse 19. It says, but when her owner saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the marketplace before the rulers. All Paul did is say, hey, get out. He's tired of his girl yapping. Doing that, the owners find out what's going on, but they take them, seize them by force. Okay, if we're going to the center of town, we're gonna get the settled. Look at verse 20. They're before the rulers. It says, When they brought them there to the magistrates, they said, These men are Jews and they're disturbing our city. Verse 21. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or to practice. Now, what is it that they're detailed? What the girl said. She says, These men are servants of the Most High God and proclaim the way of salvation. They say, if you want to get saved, just happen. That's all they're doing. Is that causing a disruption in the city? No. They're mad and they're gonna pick the fight because they lost their source of income. You see, the devil's gonna get in stuff like that and try to mess things up. It says uh in verse uh 21 because they advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept this practice. Now, it says us as Romans, wasn't Paul a Roman? Roman citizen? So he was one of them, but yet they're trying to really throw him under the bus, if you will. Getting them to accept practices that it's not lawful according to them. Verse 22. Somebody starts complaining, people are gonna jump on the bandwagon with the negativity. Verse 22, the crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. Now, how about that for us going mission trip? Because they're talking about Jesus. And then we cast out a demon and we see a miracle take place. Next thing you know, we're seen, we're taking before rulers, and they start taking our clothes off, and then they want to beat us with rods. I don't know about you, but I don't want to go on that mission trip. I think I'll just pass them that way. You know what I'm saying? I'm not interested in that. But Paul and Silas, that group, they were gonna be faithful to do what God was calling them to do. Goes on to say in verse 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, they put them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in his stalks. Are you talking about going from a great, exciting day to a bad depressing, what seems like a depressing day? Paul Stallis experienced that. Going there, you preach the gospel, tell everybody to get saved, you cast out a demon, think they have anything good, next thing you know, not only they get stripped back naked, they get beat, and they didn't get let go after that. After they got beat, they get put in jail. And it wasn't like they were just put in jail, okay, just go sit in the waiting room or go sit in the first part of the jail, whatever you want to call it. No. The master's told, hey, lock them in the inner park, and not just lock them but love. They tell the jailer, God, just put them in there, put their feet in the stalks when it can't move. Tell them about humiliation. I'm talking about suffering. Paul and silence were suffering for the sake of the gospel. Are we willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel? Right now in Oarnsburg County, I imagine, and I could be wrong, but you go by even part of this county and you start preaching Jesus. I don't think you would get arrested and beaten and put in jail. You might get have some trouble if you're trespassing on somebody's property, you might get put in jail for that. You're probably not gonna get beat for that. I doubt you're gonna have that. It could happen. But there's other places and other cities in the U.S. and across the globe where you could be persecuted for sharing faith. But Paul and Silas and his group, they were gonna be faithful to continue to preach no matter the circumstances. What's gonna happen to us? Well, people might listen to us or they might think we're crazy. Black right our feelings, but it's nothing compared to what Paul and Silas went through. All right?

Worship In Prison And A Jailer Saved

SPEAKER_00 42:07

It says, now they're in jail. Stop, right? Never been to jail to be put in jail, either this people, but they've just got put in jail. What are they gonna do? The middle of night. Well, if you think that people can go to sleep, they'd be all mad. Why they go to jail? Here, God, I'm trying to serve you if you do this, why, why, why? Listen how they respond. This is verse 25. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. They took advantage of a bad situation. Instead of griping and complaining, what do they do? Sing praises to the Lord. And as they're doing that, singing songs and pray, they're making a disturbance. But in a positive way, right? Other people were listening to them, are hearing that. At that same time, the Holy Spirit starts really working. Look at verse 26. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately the doors were open and everyone's bonds were unless. Alright, so obviously a great miracle has taken place. Or it's in one miracle with a girl getting the demon taken out of her, but now everybody's in jail. All of a sudden, the doors come open and their stocks are broken, so people can get loose from that, right? Look at verse 27. When the jailer awoke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself. Supposing that the prisoners had escaped. Kind of makes sense. If you have one job that's to take the prison, you wake up and the doors are open, obviously they're gone. Uh, what are you gonna do? Well, you're gonna have to face the consequences. He got the consequences, yeah, we're gonna be pretty bad, so much so he was willing to uh take his own uh life. But look at verse 28. Verse 20 says, but Paul cried in a loud voice, Do not harm yourself, for we are all here. The jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. The article that he helped get in jail to lock them up back in the back of the stocks. Now he's like, Wow. They didn't act like most people would act who've been put in jail. There's something different about them. He may or may not have heard earlier them singing. Near the end, he probably didn't because then he was asleep and the earthquake woke him up. Okay, and the earthquake hit, or was it singing? So he probably didn't hear all of what was going on. But he's like, well, something must be different here. Uh jail gets the lights, he goes in, and then he says he goes, he falls down before Paul's silence, verse 30. He brought them out and he said, said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? In the midst of bad circumstances, in the terms of being treated unfairly, what doesn't seem right or just, instead of playing complaining, Paul's silence remains faithful to God, talking to him, praising him, singing his name. People are hearing that, and now there's an opportunity for God to bring someone else to Christ. Even if it does happen, it's not normal that the chain would fall and the doors would be open. But that happened, and I go in, and here's Paul and Silas of prisoners when they're all there. Something's going on. So much so it called him to say, no, tell me about this. What can I do to be saved? And we see in verse 31, they said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household. Didn't say anything about getting circumcised. Didn't mention any of that. Didn't say you got to go to church, they say, it just says you've got to believe, you've got to faith. Okay? That's because of God's prayer. Verse 32, they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour and night, washed their wounds, and he was baptized as it once. He and all his family. When he brought them up to his house and set the food before them, and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. So, how's that for a jailer who knows nothing about the Lord to go to work, basically his job, sleeping on the job because that's about what they do? We have cameras about the fact that they didn't spite a simple job, don't everybody say. And all of a sudden, his whole life is turned around because he sees two people who are living what they say and believe. The passions and their words are matching. Does that make sense? So they he sees these guys are the faithful people, religious people. He believes, and not only does he come to know Christ and follow after and what we call a day of believers' baptism, his household came to follow Christ as well. So going from being B, because you cast a demon out of somebody, the more people come and they know Jesus, or Paul and Silas, hey, you bring all the beatings you want. That means somebody's gonna be saved, let's do it. Now, today's world, we'd probably look different. I like to call people come to know Jesus, but all the beatings. I imagine as Scott, if he'd come in right now, he'd love to preach the gospel, but he'd like to get beef for that. Probably wouldn't want to. Now, he's a big fellow, he probably can handle it himself, you know. But the idea here is be faithful to preach the word where God calls you to preach. If he says don't go somewhere, don't go, don't send anything, don't send anything, but because you do it, do it and leave the results to him. Whether it turns out for good or you get in trouble over it, be faithful and watch what God's going to do. There's a lot of times God's doing stuff, they just don't understand it. It didn't make sense to Paul and Talos and why couldn't they go to these other places? No, God wanted them to get her Macedonian because they need to come into Christ and suddenly just juggle her. But had He not listened, that would not have happened in the way that it was recorded. So there's an idea here being faithful to God each and every day and to preach or speak or share our faith with others. Make sense?

Announcements And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Summoner What I like versus stop mail, we'll pick up 35 uh next Saturday evening. So like the plan. All right. Quick reminder, don't forget this uh Wednesday we'll have our rubber services, and then next Saturday be here at 9 o'clock for the bank sale and the back to school uh batch. Looking forward to a great time. We will have Tinta as always. Uh pans will be nice and cool. And hopefully it won't be too hot on the outside, but we'll survive. Anything you need to say about the bank sale? We're good on that. We're good on that. All right, I don't know if I mentioned this morning, but I did talk glory this week, and all the supplies went in there. We could get anything we need. As a matter of fact, I think she said we could add some extras so that next year we'll have some stuff right next year we can do that. So thanks for all the help donated help by donating things to that. All right. Let me close this with prayer and uh I'll let you go. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you, Father, for the time looking for the word at. Thank you that we see that the Holy Spirit is working uh to bring people closer to you. Father, we know that same Holy Spirit works today in our lives and through us, and you'll continue to draw on into yourself. So I pray that you'll guide us to Father for those who need to hear your word. See what you're gonna do. We love you. We pray that you'll uh get us home safe this evening and pray your will be done. We can come back and worship you again on uh this coming uh Wednesday and Sunday morning. We pray also, Father, for our back to school bastards as we uh interact with the community. I pray that you bring people here, not just that need a backpack, but just need some encouragement, need to hear your love, um, who you are and what salvation is all about. I pray we'd be faithful to share that as we have opportunity. We love you. We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.