"More Lessons from the Road, pt.1 (Acts 15:36-16:15)" | 6/19/22
Acts 15:36-16:15 | 6/19/22 | Will DuVal
I recently watched the movie Unbroken, which depicts the extraordinary life of Louie Zamperini: the Olympic track star turned miraculous plane crash survivor turned World War 2 prisoner of war survivor. It’s a true and truly amazing story, full of important life lessons. But perhaps the most profound for me was the way in which God used the very thing that almost RUINED Louie’s life to RESCUE him time and time again, namely, his “un-break-ability”, his fierce stubbornness. As a wayward teenager, it didn’t matter how hard or how many times his father BEAT him, he just kept stealing, drinking, smoking, fighting. But after his older brother finally got through to him and Louie turned his life around, it was that same “never give up” attitude that propelled him to run harder, survive longer, and endure harsher torture at the hands of his Japanese detainers.
And the moral of Unbroken is the same lesson on display in Paul’s second missionary journey that we begin in Acts 15&16 this morning, namely, that:
“God turns the OBSTACLES in our lives into OPPORTUNITIES.” [*Repeat; MAIN IDEA: “God turns our obstacles into OPPORTUNITIES.”*]
And we’re gonna see that recurring motif run throughout FOUR separate stories in the text - 4 short pericopes, or distinct narrative units - all unified by this one common theme.
It’s the SAME theme that dominated Paul’s FIRST missionary journey, back in chs13 & 14 of Acts. Let’s quickly recap what we gleaned from those 2 chapters and 2 sermons, also comprised of 4 pericopes each (4 sequential stops along the journey).
in Ch13:
*while Paul was in Paphos, we learned that: “When the gospel is contested, we contend for the faith.”
*in Perga: “When the gospel is abandoned, we abide in the faith.”
*in Pisidian Antioch: “When the gospel is rejected, we remind others of the need for faith.”
*And in all Pamphylia & Galatia: “When the gospel is persecuted, we persevere in the faith.”
Similarly, in Ch14:
*in Iconium: “When we encounter hostility, we hold on.”
*in Lystra: “When we are misunderstood, we make the gospel clear.”
*Just Outside Lystra: “When we suffer, we stand firm.”
*And finally, on their return journey home: “When gospel growth is cultivated, we celebrate it and continue on”
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So we’ve witnessed God turning obstacles into opportunities all throughout Acts already and during Paul’s mission trips in particular, and in many ways his second missionary journey that we’ll be studying over the next THREE Sundays is just a continuation of that theme (...hence my title).
But we ALSO know the biblical principle that the more God REPEATS something in His word, the more important it is for us to stop and listen.
So let’s do that together now… I invite you to stand with me… Acts 15:36 - 16:15
“And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
ch16: Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, 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. 4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And 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.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.”
This is the word of the Lord…
So four scenes here, in four different cities - four stops along Paul’s journey - in which we see four examples of God’s redemptive power to turn our obstacles into gospel opportunities.
#1 - In Antioch (15:36-41): we see God turn Division into Multiplication
This is not exactly the start you hope for on a mission trip; they’re really limping out of the gate here in vv36-41. Paul and Barnabas, this missionary DREAM TEAM from the first trip in chs13-14 - Paul is the exhorter, Barnabas the encourager… Paul’s the preacher, Barnabas the pastor; they perfectly complement one another’s giftedness - and they’re ready to return and check in on their new converts. Because unlike a lot of churches today, they knew it’s not so much about how many churches you PLANT (anybody can plant a church; we could plant THREE churches tomorrow!); it’s about planting healthy, sustainable, thriving churches; strengthening existing churches. They agree on that much.
But they DON’T agree on whether or not to take John Mark with them again - Barnabas’s cousin - whether or not to give him a second chance. You may remember, John Mark had abandoned them on the first trip while they were in Perga, but now Barnabas is ready to forgive him, while Paul is NOT. So, v39: “there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other.”
Now, we shouldn’t rush the silver lining here. This had to be a PAINFUL separation, for both men. Commentator Kent Hughes (202-3) remarks, “Sharing not only wounds [from their first trip] but vision [for their second], they were [no doubt] soul brothers… This is the last glimpse Luke gives us of Barnabas, one of the noblest figures in the NT. In leaving Paul, Barnabas was separating himself from the greatest servant of Christ of all time. And Paul was losing the man to whom he owed more than any other human being… The omission of a harmonious conclusion indicates the unstated but undeniable failure of two of the greatest souls the church has ever known.”
But I think you and I can draw THREE hopeful takeaways from their failure:
1) No one is perfect. Even the apostles feuded and fell short. Sometimes it’s tempting to read the lofty callings of the Bible and think, “Well, that’s easy for THEM to say, for PAUL to write; he was under the direct inspiration of GOD!” But while Paul may have been inspired in AUTHORING Scripture, he was no more inspired in living it out than you and I are. We’ve got the very same Holy Spirit living in us that PAUL had. And yet, how often do we forget it, disregard it, and live unto the FLESH instead of the Spirit, just like he also did. Remember, Paul ALSO wrote: “I do not understand my own actions… I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing… Wretched man that I am! ” (Rom 7:16-24)
Any of you ever messed up a relationship big time? Maybe with someone significant from your past who is no longer a part of your present, and YOU are a big part of the reason why? If so, take heart this morning: at least you’re in good company. Paul did too. And so did Barnabas. And yet, God works through our fallouts, in spite of our failures. That doesn’t excuse our sin - our quarreling, dividing, refusing to reconcile. God still calls us, “so far as it depends on you, [to] live peaceably with all.” (Rom 12:18) And yet we have to realize that it DOESN’T always depend on us, and when we’ve tried everything to reconcile and they still refuse, we can trust that NONE of the rifts in our horizontal relationships can EVER cause a rift our most important VERTICAL relationship; NOTHING can “separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:39) Praise God.
2) But that leads us to a SECOND point, and a question: “Who WAS in the right here: Paul or Barnabas?” The thinker, or the feeler? Wisdom or Compassion. Was Paul right to show Mark JUSTICE, or was Barnabas right to show him MERCY? We’re clearly called to FORGIVE, but forgiving doesn’t always mean FORGETTING. Paul’s not ready to FORGET Mark’s betrayal. And there’s wisdom in that; the Church certainly thought so: in v40 they “commended” Paul’s choice of Silas instead. And yet, as Hughes puts it: “Our judgment goes with Paul, but our hearts go with Barnabas” (Hughes, 203). Paul was right to exercise discernment, and yet, it’s NEVER wrong to exercise forgiveness. So a second point we’d do well to remember here is that when we disagree, especially with fellow, Spirit-filled brothers or sisters, the TRUTH is most often somewhere in the middle. None of us has a monopoly on the truth, none of us is inerrant. So Proverbs 12:15 reminds us, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens.”
3) But thirdly and most importantly: God really does REDEEM. He “makes up for”, he “offsets” Paul and Barnabas’s failure here. What looks like nothing but disheartening DIVISION from a human perspective becomes marvelous MULTIPLICATION in the hands of an omnipotent God. One missionary team becomes TWO; one missionary route becomes two. Barnabas and Mark head west to Cyprus, while Paul and Silas head NORTH to Cilicia. Twice the opportunities for church planting and church strengthening.
Sometimes I wonder what Paul would think if he could’ve hopped in a time machine and seen the Church TODAY. How much explaining it would take for him to understand why there’s a church right HERE, and ANOTHER one literally right across the highway. “See, we’re BAPTIST, and they’re Pentecostal. And there’s ALSO Presbyterians and Lutherans and Methodists and Catholics and… you know what, Paul, you should probably just sit down; there are over 45,000 denominations worldwide; this could take awhile!” And I typically envision Paul shaking his head, getting upset, and replying, “What part of 1 Corinthians 1:10 did y’all not understand: ‘I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united’?!”
But if Acts 15 is any indication, perhaps Paul would actually be more SAD than mad, and he’d say: “You know, it IS good and pleasant indeed when brothers dwell together in unity (Ps 133:1). But praise God that He can use even our divisions to proliferate the spread of his gospel. Tell me, does the church across the - what did you call it “highway”? - are they reaching folks that your church isn’t reaching?” And they are; praise God.
#2 - In Lystra (16:1-5): God turns the obstacle of Exclusion into an opportunity for gospel Inclusion. Exclusion → Inclusion.
We’re in ch16 now, in Lystra, [here’s your MAP] where Paul and Silas meet a young believer named TIMOTHY, who “was well spoken of by the brothers”. Timothy had probably come to faith, along with his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois, who we know from 2 Timothy 1:5, during Paul’s first missionary journey about two years prior, perhaps even as a result of Paul’s having been stoned at Lystra in ch14. Just as PAUL never quite got over Stephen’s stoning in Jerusalem back in ch7, perhaps Timothy just couldn’t shake the image of a half-dead Paul limping on to the next town to keep on sharing the same gospel that kept getting him beaten and imprisoned, and Timothy concluded the only possible explanation was that the news had to be TRUE: Jesus really DID die for my sin and then raise from the dead 3 days later!
But in any case, “Paul wanted Timothy to accompany” them. But there’s a problem: Eunice was Jewish. But Timothy’s unnamed father was a “Greek”, a Gentile. Now, interestingly, in contemporary Judaism, a person’s ethnic Jewishness is typically determined by their mother’s status. But in the Bible, the line always followed the father, a principle known as “patrilineal descent” (Wikipedia, “Who is a Jew?”). So a strict 1st c Jew would NOT have considered Timothy to be a true Jew, and apparently he was even denied circumcision at birth. Yet, in every other respect, Timothy had been raised as a devout Jew; 2 Timothy 3:15 reports that “from childhood [Timothy] ha[d] been acquainted with the sacred writings”, the Jewish Scriptures. He was definitely an outsider as far as the Gentiles were concerned. So poor Timothy’s got only one foot in BOTH worlds, and sadly, that made him an OUTCAST to both the Jews and the Gentiles.
I fear that my son will suffer the same kind of marginalization. He’s a black boy being raised in about as WHITE a family… a neighborhood… a church as you can get. He’s gonna have a foot in both worlds, but I fear there will ALSO be times when he won’t feel completely included in either.
But watch what PAUL does; v3: “he took [Timothy] and circumcised him because of the Jews”. Now at first glance, Paul appears to be self-contradictory here. After all, HE was the one arguing LAST week in ch15 at the Jerusalem Council that it’s by grace alone that a person is saved; NOT by works of the OT Law like circumcision. Paul’s the one who wrote to the church in Galatia that “if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you… You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” (5:2-4) But the key word there is JUSTIFIED. It’s all about your motivation. Paul warns the Galatian Christians against circumcision because he knows they’re pursuing it for the wrong reason: out of bad theology, a wrong-headed obedience to the Judaizers, who still taught that circumcision was what SAVED you, what justified you, what made you right with God and procured your inclusion in God’s family. Paul says: if THAT’S your motivation, you’ve lost Christ and His grace altogether.
But Paul circumcises Timothy not for his inclusion in the Church - he’s already been saved by grace alone through faith alone - but rather, for Timothy’s inclusion in its Commission. Paul did it “because of the Jews who were in those places”; he knew they would NEVER fully accept Timothy as long as he had a foreskin. And more importantly, they would never accept Timothy’s gospel, His SAVIOR, Jesus. So Paul concludes: though circumcision counts for nothing, as far as Timothy’s salvation goes, if it’s a stumbling block to the salvation of these other JEWS, if HIS circumcision might mean their inclusion in CHRIST, not to mention TIMOTHY’S inclusion in Christ’s mission to the nations, then it's a small price to pay.
And isn’t it just like God to pick the guy who was excluded by everyone to preach the message of Christ’s radical inclusion of everyone?
To use Timothy to deliver God’s saving message to the very folks who once excluded him; v4 says, “they went on their way through the cities… delivering to them… the decision [reached in] Jerusalem”, i.e., the decision from last week’s sermon that following the Law can’t SAVE you; only faith in JESUS can.
What’s the practical application for US? Perhaps you too have suffered exclusion by a certain community. But what if that’s precisely the community God wants to use you reach? To preach inclusion to?
-What if God wants to give my son a platform to open the eyes of the white folks around him to the evils of racism in a way that I NEVER could, as a white man? (Happy Juneteenth, by the way)
-What if God wants to give ME an opportunity to witness to the lost country club folks I was blasting in last week’s sermon in a way that those inside that community aren’t able to, because fish don’t understand water?
Who has God given YOU the opportunity to reach? I think of so many of you at West Hills who grew up in the CATHOLIC Church: who better to reach the masses of people growing disillusioned with the empty ritualism and the works-based theology of the Catholic Church than former Catholics? Or our couple who came out of Christian Science: who better to help free people from that twisted version of the prosperity gospel, than those who once suffered under its weight before meeting the real Jesus? You may feel excluded now. Persona non grata at your old parish, your former “reading room”. But maybe that makes you EXACTLY the person that someone from that community needs. To hear first-hand that there is life, life abundant, outside Catholicism, outside Christian Science, outside the Country Club. And the point here about young Timothy’s circumcision is just this: if you’ve gotta carry a rosary, or a copy of “Science and Health”, or even wear a coat and tie to reach those people, then JUST DO IT.
#3 - In Troas (16:6-10): God uses the obstacle of a Closed Door to the gospel to Open [a] WINDOW of opportunity instead.
God actually closes TWO doors here. First, we hear in v6 that Paul, Silas and Timothy were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.” Now, that’s not the entire continent of “Asia” that we think of today, but rather a smaller province therein, to the South (see map again!).
But then we read on and discover in v7 that “when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go [NORTH] into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” there either!
“We don’t know exactly how they were forbidden,” Tony Merida (221) points out: “Did they receive a divine vision? Did the Lord withdraw their sense of peace? Did they experience transportation difficulties? …We don’t know.” But many commentators speculate illness, because interestingly, v10 here is the first time in all of Acts that Luke, the author, uses the first person pronoun “WE”: “immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia”. And we know that Luke was a physician by trade. So the theory is that perhaps Paul got SICK (we know he was quite prone to illness), which prevented him from heading south into Asia or north into Bithynia, and instead, God led him WEST to meet up with Luke, who served Paul not only medically, but missionally as well, by joining the team and personally chronicling their adventures together. That’s plausible. But all we REALLY know for sure is that God closed two doors: to the north and to the south.
Which makes vv9 & 10 kinda humorous to me. They had traveled from the east, so they just kept heading west til they hit TROAS on the coast. And we’re not sure exactly how long they stayed there, praying, asking God for an open door to head south and preach in Asia, or north into Bithynia, before FINALLY Paul received this vision in the night of a Macedonian man “urging him… “Come over [WEST] to Macedonia and help us.”” But I like v10: “And when Paul had seen the vision… [we went], concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel [there].” The verb “concluding” - sym-bi-ba-ZON-tes - means “putting the pieces together”; like Paul had solved some great puzzle. Let’s see: they came from the East, God closed the doors to the north and south, and it STILL took a supernatural VISION and all Paul’s power of reason to convince him to head west to Macedonia.
But before we laugh at him, we’ve gotta take a look in the mirror, don’t we? How many times have you and I prayed and prayed and prayed, “God, please, would you open a door to…
-this new position at work that I’m interested in.
-this new guy, or gal I’m interested in dating.
-a door to children; we desperately want to get pregnant.
And we tell ourselves that God must not be answering our prayers, because we haven’t received that promotion, that boyfriend, that baby. When it’s quite possible that God HAS in fact answered our prayer; He just answered it with a “NO”. Or at least a “not yet”; He’s answering with a CLOSED door, that we just don’t want to see, don’t want to accept. Because we lack the eyes of faith to see all that GOD sees - maybe that promotion would lead to pride, that boyfriend would lead to lust, that child would lead to idolatry.
Or maybe God’s just closing a door because he’s TRYING to open a window: He doesn’t want you to settle for marginal improvements in a vocation you’re no longer passionate about; He’s trying to get you to change careers altogether. He doesn’t WANT you with that guy, that gal, because maybe He’s calling you to SINGLENESS, so you can focus on your relationship with HIM. Or he’s just got someone even better out there that He’s preparing you for. Maybe He’s calling you to FOSTER, or ADOPT. You keep thinking, “God, why aren’t you answering my prayers?!” and HE’S thinking, “How many negative pregnancy tests do I have to send down before you take a HINT?!”
Pastor Skip Heitzig puts it this way: “God’s “NO” is just as important as his “GO”... Psalm 37:23 says that “God orders our steps”, but He also orders our STOPS. Our steps and our stops. His “Go” AND His “No”. We need to listen for both, be even to both.
How about when it comes to our own evangelism? That’s the context here, for Paul. The Holy Spirit “FORBID” them from preaching the gospel in Asia. I thought the Spirit’s whole job was to EMPOWER us to preach the gospel, and OPEN people’s hearts to receive it?!
But how about when He doesn’t; what if that person you’ve been PRAYING for, loving on, witnessing to for YEARS - that person on your Acts 1:8 Prayer Initiative, whose salvation you were fasting and begging God for just yesterday - what if God is closing the door. Not telling you to GIVE UP on them. Maybe it’s a “not yet”, like Paul’s ministry in Asia. LATER, on the return trip home, God WILL open the door for him to preach in Ephesus. And then on his THIRD missionary journey, in chs 18-21, Paul will preach all OVER Asia. And maybe one day God will open a door for YOU with that lost loved one too; maybe not. But what if in the MEANTIME, there are people all around you, right under your NOSE, who God wants to use you to reach with the love and hope of Jesus? Will you accept his closed door, for now, as a possible opportunity for an opened window of ministry to others, who are just as desperately in need of the gospel?
Speaking of which, and lastly, #4 - fourth pericope: In Philippi (16:11-15): God turns the obstacle of Disappointment into an unexpected Opportunity for gospel witness.
V11: “setting sail from Troas… [MAP again… they head WEST to EUROPE; for the first time the gospel is on European soil now; and eventually they make it] to Philippi,” which Luke makes sure to note was “a leading city… of Macedonia and a Roman colony. [So] We remained in Philippi some days.” For a good long while. Because it was an important city, filled with influential people. Philippi was considered the Rome of the East. And remember, Paul had been promised by God that He’d use Paul to witness to “kings and rulers”. So they’re lingering, just WAITING for God to use them in some mighty way, maybe another miraculous healing, perhaps even another stoning, if that’s how God wants to convict and call sinners to Himself.
But so far, nothing. No one in Philippi even cares enough to STONE Paul. Probably in part, because we think there wasn’t a synagogue there. “According to Jewish tradition, there had to be at least ten male heads of households before a synagogue could be formed” in a city (Hughes, 212). But apparently Paul and the team didn’t realize there weren’t 10 Jewish men in all of Philippi, because on the Sabbath, v13, having failed to find the synagogue yet, they wander “outside the gate to the riverside” in search, where they “supposed there [must be] a place of prayer,” that’s a common NT nickname for a synagogue: “place of prayer”, and Jews often worshiped near rivers for purposes of ritual cleansing. So here they are, thinking, “Well, we were HOPING to convert some of the influential Gentile rulers, since that’s sort of the demographic Philippi is known for, but I guess we’ll settle for the influential JEWS in town, if we can FIND any.
So you can imagine the disappointment they must have initially felt when they got down to the river and found only a group of WOMEN. Ladies - please don’t shoot the messenger here, but in the 1st c., women just didn’t have the status and influence that men did. Their testimony wasn’t even accepted in a court of law. That’s what made Jesus’ validation of women’s importance so remarkable; how countercultural that He let women into His inner circle! And yet, I think we should assume that Paul was HOPING to find the real “movers and shakers” in the Jewish community down by the river, NOT a bunch of women.
But then he starts chatting with LYDIA. And he discover that she IS a woman of means, a “seller of purple goods” in the lucrative royal robes industry. But more importantly, she was a “worshiper of God”. And “the Lord opened her heart” to Paul’s gospel, she believes, she’s baptized, and she forces her hospitality upon them, the same hospitality that she would come to be known for, as she hosted the newly born church of Philippi in her home (16:40); the same generosity that the entire CHURCH of Philippi would come to be known for in the years to come, being one of Paul’s biggest supporters and partners in his future ministry (Phil 4:10-20).
Once again, what looks like disappointment from a purely human vantage point, becomes opportunity in God’s hands.
CONCLUSION: But ONLY in God’s hands. That’s where we’ve gotta end this morning, with the reminder that NONE of this happens without GOD! He is the only one who can turn our division into multiplication, our exclusion into inclusion, our closed doors into opened windows, and our disappointments into opportunities.
And friends, God proved ALL of that, most powerfully, on the cross. Consider what God has done for us on the cross of Jesus:
*He turned Division (Christ was “cut off” from the Father…) → into Multiplication (...so that we might ALSO be made sons and daughters)
*Jesus turned Exclusion (we once were excluded from relationship with God, b/c of our sin) → into Inclusion (now b/c Christ experienced the rejection and exclusion that we deserved, we can be reconciled to God and brought into His Kingdom!)
*God closed one Door (Jesus shattered the Jewish understanding of who the Messiah would be! They expected a warrior king like DAVID; Jesus slammed that door shut when He suffered and died on the cross) → but He Opened an even better window instead (God’s plan was SO much better! He wasn’t just restoring a physical Kingdom for all Israel; He was opening up a spiritual Kingdom for ALL who would believe!)
*And Jesus turns all our Disappointments (imagine the heartbreak of Jesus’ disciples, as they beheld him on that cross…) → into Opportunity (... but then imagine their EXULTATION as they beheld his resurrection body standing outside the tomb!). That can be you this morning…