When God Says No — Acts 14-16

0:00 Good morning. Turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 16. And let's open with a word of prayer. Heavenly father, we bow before your throne this morning. We thank you for this time that we have to open where your word.

0:22 We ask that you would bless it, ask that your spirit would speak to us, that we would be open to the words from you. In Christ's name we pray, Amen. All right, if you missed the last couple of weeks, Ben Davies and Ray walked us through chapter 15. And in chapter 15, we had the Jerusalem council and deciding whether or not it was necessary for a Greek who accepted Christ if they needed to be circumcised and come under the law of Moses to be saved. Right?

1:00 And the council at Jerusalem put a kibosh on that and wrote a letter and that letter was carried out. So that's kind of what brings us into chapter 16. And at the end of chapter 15, Paul and Silas had a little bit of a riff. Sorry, not Paul and Silas, Paul and Barnabas had a little bit of a riff. So Paul chose Silas and they went their way.

1:26 And Barnabas took John Mark and they went their way. So in chapter 16, we can divide up the first part of this. I'm gonna cover like the first 24 verses. And I'm gonna split this into two major sections. The first of which is Paul and his team moving from Derby into Troas.

1:48 And then what happens in starting in verse 11 is Paul beginning his work in the Macedonian city of Philippi. So, let's start reading starting in verse one. We'll cover these first 10 verses here. And he came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.

2:15 And he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted this man to go with him and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Now, they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees had been decided upon by the apostles and the elders who were in Jerusalem for them to observe. So the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number daily. And they passed through the Phrygia and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

2:51 And when they had come to Mysia, they were trying to go to Bithynia and the spirit of Jesus did not permit them. And passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

3:19 We'll stop there for a minute. So, in verses one and two here, Paul is meeting Timothy for the first time. Paul meets Timothy in Lystra. When Paul and Silas arrived in Derby, they had a lot of, they had great success here on their first missionary journey. That was just two chapters ago in chapter 14.

3:45 They also had a great time and were successful in Lystra, but that is where the crowd tried to honor them as pagan gods on that same missionary journey, also in chapter 14, not that long ago. But Paul begins his missionary journey from Antioch. And first what he does is strengthen the churches. That's what's trying to happen first. He's strengthening the churches, not planning new ones.

4:08 He's strengthening what's already there in the regions of Syria and Cilicia. That was at the end of chapter 15, right? So there is strengthening of the churches that's happening. And according to most estimates, there's about five years, four, five, six ish years in between the first missionary journey and this one. So, there was about five years that passed before we get to chapter 16.

4:39 And so, Paul would have been anxious and eager to see what had been going on in the past five years in these churches that they had worked in on their first journey. So, he meets Timothy. Timothy is a son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. And, whoops, there we go. So he meets Timothy and Timothy is doing a great work for the Lord.

5:11 He's well spoken of by everyone there. And actually, Timothy has such a strong impression on Paul that Paul wants to have him join the group. We presume that Timothy's father was an unbelieving Greek just from the context though it doesn't explicitly state that. But when Paul was in Lystra the first time, like I said earlier, they did try to honor Paul and Silas as gods. But a little bit later they also then tried to stone them and kill them.

5:46 So there was a lot of drama that happened the first time they were here and Timothy would have witnessed all of this. So, first, Paul's impressed by Timothy and what's going on in Timothy's life. And he asked him to join their missionary team which actually shows us, this begins to show us God's provision here. We're gonna see a lot of God's provision happen in this chapter. But we start seeing that here because Barnabas took John Mark and they split.

6:17 Right? And God brought Timothy to help join Paul and his team. So when you've got a Barnabas that leaves for whatever reason, God has a Timothy for you ready and waiting. This was all part of the plan. And it says here that Paul took him and circumcised him because of the Jews in the region.

6:56 This has nothing to do with salvation. Paul would never do that. But he's doing it because he doesn't want to hinder the ministry among the Jews. In the last chapter, Paul argues strongly that it's not necessary for a Gentile convert to come under the law of Moses. It's not necessary for salvation.

7:22 But at the time that Paul met Timothy, he was actually delivering this news from the Jerusalem Council. This was part of what they were doing at this time when they're strengthening the churches and delivering what came out of the council there. But Paul's not contradicting his statements or his beliefs here or contradicting what the council of Jerusalem had decided. He's doing it for the work. Paul didn't do it for Timothy's salvation or Timothy's right standing before God, but it's because his status.

7:56 So, Timothy was in a little funky of a situation because he was half Jewish. He had a Jewish mother and a Greek father. Paul is doing this for the sake of love for the people and for the ministry, right? He writes later that he becomes all things to all men, right? So, you're with someone and because they want to abstain from x, well, I'm also going to abstain from x while I'm with you because I don't want to cause you to stumble.

8:22 Right? Even though it's fine for me, if I'm with you, I don't want to create a barrier that's not there. So that's what this was about. He's not trying to please God through legalism. Timothy has...

8:34 This has nothing to do with legalism in any way. And Paul also insisted in Galatians chapter two. Titus, we have Titus who's a Gentile believer. Paul insisted that he did not have to be circumcised, right? So, there's no contradiction here.

8:49 But the big issue from the Jewish point of view is that by law, Timothy was a Jew because he was the son of a Jewish mother. So that made him a Jew. But because he was uncircumcised, that technically makes him an apostate Jew in their eyes. Right? So this is what's causing...

9:07 This would cause the rift and this causes them trouble when they're trying to minister to the Jews. Gentiles wouldn't care, but the Jews are going to have beef with it. So, Paul didn't want to have any kind of tension within the synagogue that there's any kind of issue. He's a Jew and he's circumcised. We're all okay, right?

9:28 That's what it's really about. It's just about love and trying to not create hindrances where there doesn't need to be any. It's becoming all things to all men out of love. So they're strengthening in the faith and increasing their number daily, it says. Paul, Silas and Timothy, now who joins the group, are enjoying a lot of great success out of their work in strengthening and growing the churches.

9:55 And the work is successful because their first interest is in strengthening the churches. The churches, sorry, strong churches will grow naturally. They'll increase in number as it says, right? Strengthening churches is what you need to increase. Not trying to increase through man made or man centered methods.

10:21 We don't need to go out and send out flyers and say, hey, come to our church. We have a great time when we're here. Right, we're not trying to get people that way. It's okay, you start strengthening the church. You build the church from within and then that's where the growth happens, right?

10:57 Why is the Holy Spirit providing a block? We're just trying to do the work of God. Why is there an issue here? So Paul wants to go to the Southwest. After he's strengthening the churches, he wants to go to the Southwest towards Ephesus.

11:14 But he's forbidden by the Holy Spirit to go there. And this is so interesting because Paul's trying to do something good. There's nothing wrong with what Paul's trying to do here. So, what's really the problem? Why would the Holy Spirit forbid Paul to do this?

11:28 He's preaching God's word to those who needs it. Why, you know, let's just let's just go. But the spirit of God directed Paul's work. And Paul was not the right person in the right place at the right time to do that. Not to go to the province of Asia Minor.

11:50 There's nothing wrong with the desire for Paul to go there, of course, but it wasn't God's timing and so he's forbidding it. And it doesn't tell us how exactly the spirit said no. It could have been through a word of prophecy. It could have been through inward speaking of the Holy Spirit or it could have been through circumstances. But one way or another, Paul and his team get the message.

12:16 So, Ephesus would come but later. It's not now. As a side note, when we're talking about Asia here, we're not talking about the Far East as we know it today. We're actually talking about the Roman province of Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey. So, not where you're actually thinking of in Asia.

12:36 So, alright. We're not going to go towards Ephesus. We're not going to go Southwest towards Ephesus. So, Paul turns north and he wants to go to Bithynia. But the spirit, again, does not permit them.

12:51 So they come down to Troas. Now, didn't set out to go to Troas. This is at least third on his list of places he wants to be. But, it's the Holy Spirit's plan to lead him there. And we start to see some more of the pieces unfold here.

13:09 Paul being responsive to the Holy Spirit as he is. He's willing to lay down his desires, his will, what he thinks is a good idea, and there's nothing wrong with his idea as far as we can tell. But he's going to lay that down to the submitting of the Holy Spirit. And this is an indication sorry, not an indication. This is an instance where we're being directed by the Holy Spirit through hindrance.

13:35 Right? Sometimes, the Holy Spirit guides us through opening doors. The Lord can drop something in your lap and make this the obvious. He... It's been...

13:47 The door's been opened. This is very obvious what we're supposed to do. But the other half of the time, the Holy Spirit speaks to us by closing doors. We think we've got we've got a plan, we've got an idea, there's nothing wrong with this. This sounds logical and reasonable, but God closes that door.

14:00 He closes this one. He keeps closing doors. Well, I guess I have to go this way now because all of the other doors have been shut. And sometimes that's the way the Lord works. So, we have to be sensitive to that as well.

14:14 Right? God's telling us no in these other places. Well, okay, that means he's funneling us into somewhere else. Not always are you going to have your choice for you dropped in your lap like that. We've got to be met with hindrances first.

14:48 So in Troas, God is making Paul's direction now clear. He's being invited to go to Macedonia which is west across the Aegean Sea. And this is a big move, literally and figuratively. This is moving Paul and his team from Asia into Europe. We're actually moving continents.

15:12 This is now going to become the first missionary endeavor into Europe. And so the wisdom of God's plan becomes so evident here even more so. So in Paul's mind he wanted to reach a few cities in the region. But God wants to give him a whole continent for Jesus Christ. And the man in the vision says, Come over to Macedonia and help us.

15:44 The Macedonian man wanted help. And Paul's going to bring Macedonia the gospel, the ultimate and best kind of help. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we saw it to go. Paul did not hesitate to answer the call of the Macedonian man. And Paul's team did not hesitate to follow him there, right?

16:12 You've got a strong godly man leading a strong godly team. And when that happens, you've got great things that can be done for Christ. God calls people to the mission field. Right? All the time.

16:27 Happens, I don't know if I would say daily. Maybe it probably does happen daily. There's enough people in the world that it happens daily probably. And he may call through unusual ways. Right?

16:36 Sometimes we might, there might be a vision, there might be a dream like the Macedonian man to call to to a call to serve God in a distant place. And the practical application for us is that this is this is still exactly the way God does it today. And so when that call is made, we have to be ready. We have to be willing. We have to be willing to submit to that calling.

17:04 And immediately we sought to go. There's a shift here in the the text. It's from they to we. They came down to Troas and now it is we sought to go. So some more of God's plan in shutting the doors was what?

17:28 Paul goes down to Troas and meets Luke. Luke, the doctor, who maybe is going to now be Paul's personal doctor. That'd be handy for someone as itinerant as Paul having your own personal doctor. But now we get Luke. So, you keep seeing these ways that God is directing this.

17:49 They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. And then they're forbidden by the Holy Spirit to go to Bithynia. God wanted Paul and his team to go to Troas and pick up a doctor named Luke. Because God said no to Paul twice, we have the book of Acts and the Gospel of Luke. So if you put yourself in Paul's shoes, and this is the same kind of stuff that goes on now.

18:21 There's no change. God doesn't change. Paul would have had no idea of the greatness of God's plan in working all of this stuff out. He would have had no idea. God wanted to give him a continent for the Lord.

18:38 God wanted to give him a personal doctor and give all of us the man who would write so much of the New Testament. So, the principle here is God knows what he's doing when he says no. God knows what he's doing. Alright, this brings us to the second section. So, in verse 11 now we shift and we can talk about the beginning of the work in Macedonia, specifically in the city of Philippi.

19:37 And a certain woman named Lydia from the city of Syatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God was listening. And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave girl having a spirit of divination met us who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune telling.

20:12 Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out saying, These men are the bondservants of the Most High God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. And she continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed and turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out at that very moment. But when her master saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.

20:45 And when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans. And the crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely. And he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. Alright.

21:28 Lot going on here too. This is kind of like, this is kind like Lystra in some ways. So, they arrive in Philippi after a couple days. So they sail from Troas. So they, now includes Luke, so Paul's picked up Timothy and Luke now.

21:46 And they sail across the Aegean Sea. And this is a big step. Probably it could have been even bigger step than what Paul even knew or realized at the time. The fact that it says that they sailed straight for Samothrace is revealing to us because it's actually a nautical term that means that the wind was at their backs. The winds were actually so perfect.

22:11 It was about 160 miles trip and they sailed that in just two days. Whereas on the return trip later in, that's the next chapter 20, it took them five days to make the same trek. So from there they head to Philippi, which is really the foremost city in that part of Macedonia. So Paul's following a plan here to plant churches in the major cities. It's easier to plant churches there and spread the gospel from these cities than to spread the gospel to these, right?

22:48 You start in the hubs and then work your way out. Now, as a little background, Philippi was the place where there was a very decisive battle of the second civil war in forty two BC. This is where Mark Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius. In forty two BC, it's not actually that long ago. We're not talking hundreds, right?

23:16 This was actually relatively recently where they had this civil war. And because of this, many Roman soldiers actually retired to Philippi. And Philippi had a... They were really proud of their Roman connection. Okay?

23:33 That helps with some of the background later. Okay? So, the conversion of Lydia happens. So, is verses 13 through 15. And on the Sabbath day they went out of the city to the riverside.

23:47 So, the fact that the Jews had no synagogue, the Jews in Philippi had no synagogue means that there there's an abnormally small amount of Jewish men. And why is that? Because you would have had to have 10 Jewish men to be able to have a synagogue, to constitute a synagogue. And no number of women would make up for that fact. So there were apparently not 10 Jewish men there in Philippi.

24:23 So they were praying by the river. So Lydia is a seller of purple. Purple being the royal color. So she deals in a very valued and luxurious product. And the dyes being used to make purple were very expensive and highly regarded at the time.

24:47 And Lydia becomes the first convert in Europe. Lydia is the first person to accept Christ in Europe. So we might say that the Macedonian man in Paul's dream turned out to be a woman. You could say that. But she's from Thyatira.

25:08 And what do we know about Thyatira? Thyatira was actually a well known center for the production of this purple dye and the fabric that was made from it. And later, there was also a church there. And we partially know that because it's one of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapter two. So you can go check that one out later if you want to see what actually happened in Thyatira.

25:35 But some background. So about Lydia, back to Lydia now. The Lord opened her heart, it says, to heed the things that were spoken by Paul. Before Lydia was converted, which is demonstrated by her baptism, the Lord opened her heart. That's the first step.

26:00 This is the work of God that has to happen in everyone who believes. In everyone who accepts Christ. Because, as Jesus said, No man cometh unto me except the father which has sent sent me, draw him. Right? I memorized a lot of this stuff in the KJV and then it starts getting mixed up when I try and recite it.

26:24 Sorry. But the Lord has to call you. The Lord has to open the hearts, right? So as an important aspect of, thanks, of evangelism, an important element of that is that the hearts must be opened. God must do that.

26:43 Right? Because without that there can be no genuine conversion. So, Lydia accepts Christ and begs them to stay with her, Paul and his entourage. She immediately sets out to doing good, right? Doing good works and supporting the ministry and the work of Christ.

27:15 She immediately opens her home so the hospitality, you know, you've got a wonderful example here of what's happening in the life of a new believer. I have a few words here about this from Charles Spurgeon. He says, quote, let us notice the working of the spirit of god. Providence brings Paul and Lydia together. Lydia comes there because she observes the Sabbath and loves the place of worship.

27:42 Paul comes there because he loves to win souls and, like his master, is on the watch for stray sheep. But it would have been a poor meeting for them if the spirit of God had not been there also. So we next read of Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. It is not wonderful that the Lord can open a human heart, for he who made the lock knows well what key will fit it. It was the spirit of God who did it, whatever the instrument may have been, and Lydia's heart was opened.

28:19 Opened to what? To attend. She attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. End quote. So they're going to stay with Lydia for their time in Philippi, at least for the first part of it.

29:22 Of course, today much of what fortune tellers and psychics do is a lot of money making sham. But what is true, what is true and supernatural in origin, as opposed to clever insightful guessing, I mean there are true supernatural things. There's no doubt that that is inspired by demons. And so there are still those today who are possessed like this. But because demons are created beings, they're not gods themselves, right?

30:04 I wouldn't suppose that they can actually read minds or actually foretell the future. They could for sure read and predict human behavior and could steer events towards a previously predicted outcome at the very least. So this girl follows Paul and his team and the demon is preaching, preaching for them. Preaching, saying, these men are bondservants of the most high God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. Well, that's accurate.

30:49 He's telling the truth. He's telling the truth. But Paul is greatly annoyed. Why is Paul annoyed? I mean, first it was days.

31:00 I mean, we'd all get annoyed if someone was following you, shouting this all the time. But, what's the real issue here? Paul does not appreciate the free advertising. Why? He doesn't need free advertising from a demon.

31:17 That's really the issue. He doesn't appreciate the source of the recommendation and neither does he need demonic approval of his work. And we see this in Christ as well. Christ did the exact same thing, didn't he? When Christ would cast out demons, he would often tell them to be quiet.

31:40 He would tell them to be silent. They were telling the truth. Something wrong with what they're saying really, but he would command them to be quiet for the same reasons. We don't need demonic approval of what we're doing here. We don't need demonic preaching of the truth.

32:00 We don't need demonic letters of reference. Demonic letters of reference. So Paul's had enough of it and he's annoyed. I love that Paul's annoyed. It may help you relate, doesn't it?

32:14 Paul's annoyed. So, he commands the demon to come out of her. Last time I was up here, Peter was casting out demons, I think. Jesus cast out demons on his own authority. But Paul was careful to speak on the authority of Christ Jesus and spoke beyond the afflicted girl and to the demon itself and casts it out.

33:14 Because there's sin in the world. So her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone. This explains, this really explains, this really, really explains why Paul and Phyllis were treated so badly. The masters of this slave girl cared nothing for her at all. Cared nothing about the girl herself, only for their ability to exploit the demonic possession for money.

33:45 They were were occult pimps. They were prostituting her spiritually. So they seized Paul and Silas. Now, they were singled out for a few reasons. Paul and Silas were singled out probably first because they were the leaders of the group.

34:05 But also by their appearance because they were obviously Jewish. And that's how they begin the accusation. It's how we... They're indicating that these men being Jews. Luke was a Gentile.

34:19 Timothy was half Jewish, but you got Paul and Silas who are obviously Jewish. And the anti Jewish sentiment, you know, lay very near the surface here. And then they make up some, a whole lot of baloney statements. They're exceedingly trouble our city. They teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or even to observe.

34:43 The high, like the high brow is amazing. So the charges are vague. They're so totally vague and they're just accusing them of being troublemakers. Like some, that's not helpful to anyone. They're just causing trouble.

34:56 Okay. That's worth killing them for I guess. But, apparently it was enough. The charges were enough because you've got the whole multitude and the magistrates who are biased against Paul and Silas. They're biased because of their Jewish appearance and because they also assume that they're not Roman citizens, which is not correct.

35:21 Now, the Roman citizen part is important because there were two very different sets of laws. You had one for Roman citizens which had very specific zealously guarded civil rights. And if you were not a Roman citizen, you don't have that. Which means you were left to the whims of the crowd and you know magistrates as it says here, right? The the local authorities.

35:43 You just, however they felt that day, that's how you were going to get treated if you were not a Roman citizen. And so, they felt entitled to abuse them because they're assuming they're not Roman citizens. And in fact they're even offended that they were being harassed by these Jewish men who are promoting this strange religion of this crazy crucified savior. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison. So they're beaten severely and then imprisoned, you know, they're put in the maximum security prison.

36:30 Jewish tradition gave a maximum number of blows that could be delivered, but Romans had no such limit. We don't know how many it was, but Paul wrote in second Corinthians, speaking about his life, he said, In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths more often. Right? That's in two Corinthians 11. Paul and his teams endured a lot of physical suffering, not just here.

37:03 There was a lot of others. They were stoned in Lystra just a couple chapters ago. But there was there was a lot of hatred and violence shown towards them. And, as if the beating wasn't bad enough, they're put into maximum security prison with their feet in stocks. And, the thing about stocks is not only that it helps keep you from running away, but they're extremely uncomfortable because they force, they would force the legs apart into such an uncomfortable and cramping position.

37:35 You know, the pain of just sitting like that was unbearable. The very early Latin scholars, Tertullian, said, Even in their pain, God was not far from Paul and Silas. Their legs feel nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven. Think about that and apply it to what's going on in your life today. The legs feel nothing while the heart is in heaven.

38:12 That's a good, it's a good reminder for all of us. We're wrapping up here and our time is running out and we're gonna stop here in a minute and Denzel in two weeks is going to tell us what happens. Join us again next time for what happens in two weeks as we hear about what happens to Paul and Silas in prison, in case you don't already know. But let's close with this. You know, in this passage we really see two of Satan's chief methods.

39:19 His triumphing was premature as it ever must be. In this case, it turned out to be his utter discomfiture and to the furtherance of the work of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, once again we thank you for this time that we've had together. We thank you for your word and what is contained in it.

39:43 We thank you for the examples that we have of the early church, of the early apostles, the early missionaries, and what we can take from this, Father. May we be able to take these lessons. May we be able to apply these to our lives. May we be quiet and sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We've read about the spirit guiding our paths through saying no, through closing of doors.

40:12 We've heard about the spirit of God calling to us to ministry. May we be receptive to these and to obey that call. We thank you for this time we've had together and ask for your blessing on us as we go now. In Christ's name we pray, amen.