SPEAKER_01: Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: God bless.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: So we are gonna continue our study in Acts, uh, even in this online format.
SPEAKER_00: And so hope you enjoyed your time together worshiping online.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's a little bit different, but hey, God calls us just to worship him where we wherever we are.
SPEAKER_00: So I hope you enjoyed that.
SPEAKER_00: And now we're gonna continue our study in Acts.
SPEAKER_00: Today we're gonna be in Acts chapter 16 and gonna be in verses 6 through 10.
SPEAKER_00: As we go there, let's remember what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Paul and Silas have are on a missionary journey.
SPEAKER_00: They've picked up Timothy, where we were last week, Timothy to come along with them.
SPEAKER_00: And we know this is Paul's second missionary journey because the first one we saw him on that journey with Barnabas.
SPEAKER_00: So this is Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're gonna find happening today in our passage is God called this missionary team to go to Macedonia.
SPEAKER_00: And like we talked about last week, we're gonna see this week too, while our call may be different from Paul and Silas and Timothy, God may not have called us to be missionaries to Macedonia or missionaries to another place.
SPEAKER_00: We still have a call in our life as believers.
SPEAKER_00: God has called us to something and to do something.
SPEAKER_00: And we we see that in our passage today.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna see that God has called us as believers, God has called us, and we need to obey and we need to follow his leading as we do that.
SPEAKER_00: So the challenge for us today is this we need to listen to the calling of God and obey that calling.
SPEAKER_00: So our question that we want to seek to answer today is if God called this missionary team, how did he speak to them?
SPEAKER_00: How did God speak to this team and so that they need to hear and and obey?
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna be in Acts chapter 16, I'm gonna start reading in verse six.
SPEAKER_00: And they went through the region of Fergia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
SPEAKER_00: And when they came to Missa, they attempted to go to Bithhnia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them.
SPEAKER_00: So passing by Mysia, they went down to Troaz, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.
SPEAKER_00: A man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us.
SPEAKER_00: And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you so much for this day.
SPEAKER_00: And even though it is a different setting and we may be at home or maybe watching in a different way, and we're not all together in person, Father, we still know that your word is dynamic and your word speaks to us.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray that as we study and engage with your word, that it will change us, that you will reveal yourself to us today.
SPEAKER_00: We love you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, it's in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So as we continue to look at this call, there's something I want us to see first.
SPEAKER_00: Just as I talked about earlier, we all as believers have calling.
SPEAKER_00: And last week we talked about in order to hear God and hear God's calling, let's start with what we know.
SPEAKER_00: So, so immediately let's turn to what we know on our calling as believers.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at it all through Acts.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I repeat this over and over, but in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, he says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: So we know that this is our call.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is the call that God has placed on our lives as believers in Him, we are called to be His witnesses of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so that let's start there.
SPEAKER_00: If we want to hear God speaking to us, if we want to hear what we're supposed to do and obey, let's start with what we know.
SPEAKER_00: We know that He has we He has called us to be His witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: So we need to do that.
SPEAKER_00: So now we come to the question, though, of how did God speak more intently to this missionary team and how did they obey?
SPEAKER_00: There are really three phrases here that help us to see how God spoke to them, and we're going to look at each one of those.
SPEAKER_00: First, we see in verse 6 that they were in Lystra when they met Timothy, and in verse 6, it tells us that they went to uh Phrygia and Galatia, and so they're headed north, and and Paul's goal was to go into Asia.
SPEAKER_00: There's some debate on exactly what he's talking about, Asia is.
SPEAKER_00: I believe he's talking about cities there along the Aegean Sea there that would include Ephesus, that would include Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: I think Paul was trying to go to those places, but here's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: And they went through the region of figuring Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul wanted to go to Asia, but he was forbidden by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I say that, that's the first statement that we need to see how God speaks to us or spoke to this team.
SPEAKER_00: They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And when I when I teach this, when I talk about this, people always say, Well, how?
SPEAKER_00: How did the Holy Spirit forbid them?
SPEAKER_00: We're not given that.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know that if it was a vision, if it was an audible voice, if it was just, well, we're not real sure how the Holy Spirit spoke to them, but we know that he did and he forbid them to go.
SPEAKER_00: But if that's the case, if the Holy Spirit is speaking to them and forbade them to go, let's let's look at what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of believers.
SPEAKER_00: So if you go back to John chapter 14, verses 15 and 17, Jesus said this about the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper or paraclete, an advocate, to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you and will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says he is going to send an advocate, somebody to walk alongside them, who is going to help them, but but he sent and he sends that to all those who believe in him, who see him, who believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you go down a little bit further, what Jesus is going to say is he's going away, but he's not going to leave the disciples as orphans, but he's going to send the Holy Spirit, and he tells us further what the Holy Spirit is going to do in John 14, verses 25 and 26.
SPEAKER_00: He says, These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.
SPEAKER_00: But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
SPEAKER_00: So what we have here is the Holy Spirit is going to teach them all things, and he's going to do that by bringing to remembrance all that Jesus had said to the disciples, all the things that the disciples, and you know, this last part when Jesus right here in chapter 14, we're within a week of Jesus' death.
SPEAKER_00: And he is just, it is, he opens up the floodgates.
SPEAKER_00: They are drinking from a fire hydrant here in all the information that they're giving them.
SPEAKER_00: I know they've got to feel overwhelmed, but what he's telling them is this advocate, the helper, the Holy Spirit, is going to bring to remembrance all that Jesus has said to them.
SPEAKER_00: So that's how the Holy Spirit speaks.
SPEAKER_00: But he even goes on further and talks about that in John chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to verses 26 and 27, he says, But when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me, and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds a lot like Acts 1.8 to me, that the Holy Spirit is going to bear witness about Christ to those disciples.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to bear witness to them, calling to remembrance what Christ has said, and they are going to bear witness about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They are going to be his witnesses, and they're doing that by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it reminds us so much of Acts 1.8.
SPEAKER_00: But then if you go on down a little bit further in chapter 16, in a little bit longer of a passage, if you start in verse 9, he gets into even more detail of how the Holy Spirit is working and gonna work in the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he says in 16, starting verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you ask me, where are you going?
SPEAKER_00: But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.
SPEAKER_00: For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.
SPEAKER_00: But if I go, I will send him.
SPEAKER_00: And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer, concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
SPEAKER_00: So he begins by saying he's going away, but it's good that he is, because the helper is going to come who is going to do greater things than he did.
SPEAKER_00: The helper is going to use the apostles to do greater things than Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what the Holy Spirit's going to do: He's going to convict the world.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to convict the world concerning sin, concerning righteousness and judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Sin because there are so many who do not believe in him, they need to know that they need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: Concerning righteousness, because Jesus is not there for them to see righteousness and what it looks like.
SPEAKER_00: So the Holy Spirit is going to convict them of that.
SPEAKER_00: And concerning judgment, because listen, what Jesus tells us in John chapter 3, verse 17, is that we have been judged already.
SPEAKER_00: When we do not believe, we have been judged already.
SPEAKER_00: So he's going to convict us of that because we do not believe.
SPEAKER_00: Then he goes on to say, though, I have I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
SPEAKER_00: When the Spirit of truth comes, 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 declare to you the things that are to come.
SPEAKER_00: He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
SPEAKER_00: All that the Father has is mine.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
SPEAKER_00: So again, the Holy Spirit is going to come.
SPEAKER_00: He is going to guide them in all truth.
SPEAKER_00: He's not speaking on his own authority, but he is speaking, he is whatever he hears from Jesus, he will speak and declare to them.
SPEAKER_00: So what we take from that is what the Holy Spirit is going to do in our lives, is he is going to take the word of God that has been spoken to us and given to us through the through scripture, and he is going to declare that those truths in our lives so that we may see is going to help us to understand, to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: He is going to speak the word of truth in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So the Holy Spirit, just as the Holy Spirit spoke and he forbade this missionary team from going, he is going to speak to us as well through these ways.
SPEAKER_00: He is going to bring to light the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: That means we must be in God's word to hear the truth of the Holy Spirit and his leading in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So the first, the first phrase that we see and how He spoke to how God spoke to this missionary team is he forbade them to go into Asia by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If you go back to Acts chapter 16, though, you see the second phrase.
SPEAKER_00: The second phrase you find in verse 7 when it says, And when they came up to Mysia, they attempted to go to Bithynia.
SPEAKER_00: So what they did is they wanted to, they were in Lystra, they wanted to travel basically due due east to um or due west, actually, to Asia.
SPEAKER_00: They forbade it, so they started going north.
SPEAKER_00: Then they wanted to go further north, but here's what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: He says, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the second thing we see: the spirit of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The question I get here most of the time is what's the difference in the Holy Spirit that we saw that forbade them to go to Asia and now the Spirit of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the biggest thing that we need to understand about this is this Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus, Jesus, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit, God the Spirit, they are one.
SPEAKER_00: They are one in the same.
SPEAKER_00: We worship a Trinitarian God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: There is one God, and we'll get to God the Father in just a minute, but there is one God who reveals himself, who manifests himself in three persons.
SPEAKER_00: Now I don't totally grasp that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't totally understand that how that works.
SPEAKER_00: We see that and we can see little illustrations of things, but all of those break down.
SPEAKER_00: What we know is God is one.
SPEAKER_00: He is one, but he is manifest in three persons.
SPEAKER_00: So we've seen the Holy Spirit manifested, forbidding them to go to Ajahn.
SPEAKER_00: And now we see the Spirit of Jesus, the Son, manifested, forbidding them to go up to Bithnea.
SPEAKER_00: But again, we don't know how the Spirit spoke to them, but we know He spoke.
SPEAKER_00: If you go even back to John, the Gospel of John, and in John chapter 17, Jesus prays what we we know is the high priestly prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And in that prayer, we see God praying for the disciples and what they're going to do, and not just for those disciples, but the disciples that are to come.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at that high priestly prayer and see how Jesus prayed and how he spoke to God about believers and see maybe how he's working and speaking to us.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he, if you go to John chapter 17, start in verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is praying, I have manifested your name to the people who you gave me out of this world.
SPEAKER_00: Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
SPEAKER_00: Now they know everything that you have given me is from you, for I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came to from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm praying for them.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
SPEAKER_00: All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
SPEAKER_00: And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
SPEAKER_00: While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.
SPEAKER_00: I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the Son of Destruction, that Scripture might be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
SPEAKER_00: I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
SPEAKER_00: I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
SPEAKER_00: They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Sanctify them in the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Your word is truth.
SPEAKER_00: As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in the truth.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is praying to the Father, and he says, Father, listen, I am praying for all those you have given me.
SPEAKER_00: All those you have given me are mine, and mine are yours, and I am coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I am Father, I am coming to you, but these are staying in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what he says: Sanctify them in truth.
SPEAKER_00: He has given us the truth of his word, and we are sanctified in that truth by the working of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is praying for those disciples that as they are, as they remain in the world, that they would be sanctified in truth.
SPEAKER_00: But then he says this interesting thing in verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: I do not ask only, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, and they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_00: The glory that I have that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and love the love them even as you have loved me.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me and before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_00: I made it known to them, I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
SPEAKER_00: Hear that last part again.
SPEAKER_00: I will continue to make it known to them.
SPEAKER_00: What is he gonna continue to make known to them?
SPEAKER_00: God's name to the and he's praying that for those who will believe because of what the apostles taught, that is us.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus continues to work.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about how Acts is a continuation of the work of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit through the lives of the of the apostles and the church.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus continues to work and continues to make God's name known.
SPEAKER_00: He is doing it with this missionary team.
SPEAKER_00: You say, how is he doing it?
SPEAKER_00: We're not exactly sure, but one way we know he's doing it by not allowing them to go to Asia, not allowing them to go to Bithynia.
SPEAKER_00: He they were prevented by the Spirit of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So then we come to the third saying.
SPEAKER_00: In the third saying, we find it on down a little bit further, and at the very last verse we read, and God called us.
SPEAKER_00: So we've seen the Spirit, the Holy Spirit speaking.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen the Spirit of Jesus speaking, and now we see God the Father speaking.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: So they go to Troas, and while they're there, Paul receives this vision of this man from Macedonia calling to him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us.
SPEAKER_00: So after this vision, Paul immediately he goes with to meet with Silas, to meet with Timothy Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: And many believe he's meeting meeting with Luke here because all of a sudden it changes from they to we.
SPEAKER_00: So they think Luke is included here.
SPEAKER_00: And after that vision, Paul goes and seeks their counsel.
SPEAKER_00: He seeks the counsel of those around them of this vision, and they all concluded that God called them to go and preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So again, here's what we see: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, one God, three persons, manifesting himself in three persons, speaking to this missionary team, calling them to go and preach.
SPEAKER_00: And so now we come to us.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Grant, so what?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, great.
SPEAKER_00: You have one God, three persons, manifest, he manifests himself in three persons and called this team.
SPEAKER_00: What are we supposed to do with this?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I think we need to do.
SPEAKER_00: Three things, real quickly.
SPEAKER_00: First is this we need to be faithful in what we know.
SPEAKER_00: We know that God has called us to be witnesses to the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: He's called us to that.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 1.8, you will be my witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: We need to do that.
SPEAKER_00: We need to walk in the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is speaking to us God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has given to us his word to sanctify us, the truth of his word to sanctify us.
SPEAKER_00: The Father sanctifies us through his word.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be reading and studying Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be praying.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be doing the things that we know, and we need to be faithful in those things.
SPEAKER_00: As we are faithful in those things, we need to be mindful of the Spirit's prompting.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I mean by that.
SPEAKER_00: For this missionary team, we don't know how the Spirit stopped them from going to Asia, but he closed the door and they didn't try to ram it open.
SPEAKER_00: He opened other doors and they walked through.
SPEAKER_00: All through our life, we understand that doors open and doors close, and those are not done by coincidence.
SPEAKER_00: They are done by the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And what we need to do is when doors close, we need to stop.
SPEAKER_00: And when doors open, we need to walk through until the door closes.
SPEAKER_00: We need to see that prompting of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Another way that the Spirit prompted Paul is he listened to the counsel of his team.
SPEAKER_00: After this vision, he went to Silas, Timothy, and Luke and said, Here's the vision that I saw.
SPEAKER_00: And it said it tells us that they concluded that he says we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
SPEAKER_00: That group together concluded, listen, one way that we hear the Holy Spirit's calling and prompting is we seek out wise counsel and we do the little things that we know we're called to do till he reveals more.
SPEAKER_00: So first, be faithful in what we know, be mindful of the Spirit's prompting.
SPEAKER_00: And then thirdly, don't get discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: It would have been easy for Paul to get discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to go to Asia, door closed.
SPEAKER_00: Went to go to Bithhnia, door closed.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, he goes to Troas, but here at Troas, door opens, and they walk through and they see some amazing things happening in Macedonia.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, the reason you and I are meeting together here in the United States of America, a big part of that is because they went to Macedonia, which is Europe, and on European soil preached the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He could have very easily got discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: All throughout his life, there are so many things that Paul could have been discouraged by.
SPEAKER_00: But what he did is chose to focus on the faithfulness of God, even through the discouragement, to focus on the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of being discouraged, he focused on God's faithfulness and kept moving forward.
SPEAKER_00: We need to hear the call of God.
SPEAKER_00: We have one God who speaks to speaks to us and manifests himself in three persons.
SPEAKER_00: We need to know that.
SPEAKER_00: We need to hear that.
SPEAKER_00: We need to listen to him and we need to obey.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: God, once again, we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to hear your call and obey.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at DeSotoHills.com.