Acts 16:5-18
Paul, Silas and Timothy continue their journey Eastward through Phrygian, Galatia, and Mysia, until they come to Troas in Acts 16:8. This whole time they are trying to head north in to Asia, but for some reason not given in the text God prevents them from do this. God is deliberately driving them eastward towards the region we call Europe today.
There is a minor detail here that it would do us good to pause on, but is often over looked in this section of scripture. This detail is that Paul, the great Apostle, apparently was unsure of God’s plan for a while. Paul was trying to push into Asia, and it seems he kept trying even though the Spirit kept blocking him. This should be encouraging to us, that not even Paul knew God’s plan with perfection and if God could use him so greatly despite that, then we should not be discouraged when we are in that same position.
Is God blocking you from doing something you want to do, even though it seems to be the right thing to do? It could just be he has another plan for you. Just because something is “good” and “right” does not mean its what God wants you to do. It would have been a “good” and “right” thing for Paul to evangelize Asia, but that was not God’s plan for him at this time.
In Acts 16:9 we see that plan. Paul is given a message via a dream, which is God’s plan for the team. A man from Macedonia pleads for Paul to come help his people. Many commentators on this passage have attempted to identify the man in the vision, and one option I see often is that it is Luke himself in the vision, but that does not make sense in light of the next verse. The most likely answer is that this man is not a specific person, but just a general vision.
Acts 16:10 is a very interesting verse as for the first time in the book the perspective changes from third person to first person. The text says “we sought to go” in Acts 16:10, and then in Acts 16:11 it says “we ran a straight course.” This tells us that Luke the author of Acts has joined with the missionary team. Based on the simplest reading of the text Luke must have joined them in Troas, and been with the team when the vision came to Paul.
Once they push off they head straight to Philippi and do not appear to have stop to minister anywhere along the route. Philippi was a Roman Colony and that means the people there had certain privileges and rights that most of the empire would not have but it does not have much of a Jewish presence.
Paul’s normal mode of operation would have been to first go to the local Synagogue and preach there. Paul as a traveling Rabbi and Pharisee would have been granted a platform to speak and the audience would have already been familiar with God through the Jewish Scriptures. Here in Philippi we do not read of him doing that, nor do we read of any references to a synagogue or any real Jewish presence. Since it takes ten men who are heads of households to start a synagogue, we can assume that there were less then ten Jewish families in Philippi at this time.
Instead Paul looks outside of town for a place of prayer, and knowing Jewish culture like he did he knew to look by the river. There he finds what was probably like a modern day small home group, a group of woman reading and talking about the scriptures, and praying together. It must have be a rare treat to have a real Rabbi come and teach them like Paul. I can imagine he had their full attention right away. Here finally was some one that could answer their questions and open the scriptures to them. The language used in the Greek text suggests that in this occasion Paul’s teaching was more conversational and informal and not a debate like we read when he is in the synagogues. That suggests this audience was open to him and welcomed him in to their number instead of see him as a threat.
In Acts 16:14-15 we read one of Luke famous summary statements, this time in regard to a rich woman and her family. The text introduces Lydia in one sentence, and in the next her and her entire household are getting baptized and inviting the previously unknown missionaries to stay with them. Lydia, being a rich merchant, must have had a large and spacious home and plenty of room for the four guests. It also appears that the first European church was started in her home at this time. Lost in the summary is Lydia’s conversion, and her household’s conversion, which may have even had some miraculous events surrounding, but we are not told.
It is interesting here to note here Paul’s evangelistic method. He merely lays out the truth as plain as he can, and leaves it up to God to do the heavy lifting. He explains this in 1 Corinthians 2:1-4, where he says, “I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom,” and that his “preaching was not with wise and persuasive words.” Today if you walk in to any major bookstore you can find a zillion and a half books teaching you the best way to present a point, this trick or that trick to win an argument, and a dozen other persuasion methods. Paul did not use any of them, he merely explained the truth in clear language and let the truth of the words of Scripture speak for themselves.
Some time after Lydia is converted, Paul runs in to a slave girl who is apparently posed by a demon. This girl follows Paul’s group around for a while and pronounces the truth. It worthy of note here that everything the demon says is the truth, and there does not appear to be any deception in it at first glance. This is an important fact to note, the most evil and vile person is still fully capable of speaking the truth and the whole truth at that, but we still must reject them.
If Paul had not cast out this demon, then everyone would have assumed she was with the missionary team. This would have given the demon an inside track on the newborn church. Since this salve girl was known as a fortune teller, many would likely make the jump to call her a prophet which could have had devastating results on the church there.
This should be a stark warning for us today. Just because a person preaches the truth, does not mean that person is a true minister of God. When the devil tempts Christ he quotes scripture, but applies it wrong in an attempt to deceive, but this demon said and applied everything correctly. One could expect that once this demon had an in it would have slowly twisted the truth and drawn people away from God and crippled the church there. We must be ever vigilant that this most deadly kind of demon does not make it into our numbers.
The problem for us is it may take some time to realize the danger. We must be every ready to test all things that we are taught, and be ready to call out falsehood when it rears its nasty head. To put it in a practical example, it may be that the first few times you visit a new church everything that is preached, and everyone you meet seems to line up well with scripture, but over many consecutive visits you start to notice real problems. I am not talking about silly things like order of service, or type of music, but more serious spiritual things. As an example maybe the preacher says that Jesus is “a way” instead of “the way” to be saved. That would be enough reason to leave that church and find a real minister of God.
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