Good morning and good Tuesday. If you had Labor Day off yesterday today is really Monday, so congrats on a 4 day work week. We had a lot of rain here in Fort Worth yesterday, so Marge and I hung around the house and tackled a couple of home projects while Margie roasted a brisket. Yum, the house still smells like a tasty BBQ joint…thank you Margie, I love your cooking! Later in the day while the rain still fell, we curled up and watched a movie. The new Jack Reacher movie with Tom Cruise. It was pretty good but every time I see a Tom Cruise movie I think about Will Ferrell as Ricky Bobby running around saying, save me Tom Cruise…ha!
Well, here we are this morning humming right along in the New Testament book of Acts and specifically chapter 16. We ended chapter 15 yesterday with Paul and Barnabas splitting up and taking the gospel in two different directions. By the way, if you’re interested in back-tracking and catching up on some past chapters or if you want to binge read and knock out a whole book in one sitting, all the chapters are right here on our Facebook page and they’re in order. If your new to the 5 minute challenge I highly recommend it, time spent in God’s Word is time well spent indeed!
Part of the purpose of Paul’s 2nd journey was to retrace his steps from his first missionary trip to check on the churches that had been started. Paul felt a responsibility for these people, these churches, they were close to his heart. After the recent challenge we discussed yesterday in chapter 15, Paul knew these churches could fall prey to the same false teaching, so he sees the need to warn them as well as encourage them.
Early in the trip he comes back through Lystra and Derbe and he encounters Timothy. Timothy had been saved on Paul’s first trip through and Paul knows his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois (2 Tim 1:5) and sees much potential in Timothy. Paul recruits Timothy for their journey and Paul will write both books of Timothy to him later on in the New Testament. Considering Timothy’s age when Paul wrote those books to him, we can deduce that Timothy would have been around 30 years old here.
Now the missionary team is up to three, Paul, Silas and Timothy. They went to all the churches in the area and specifically alerted them to the decision that had resulted out of the Pharisees demanding circumsion to be saved. (Acts 15:1) As a result of their visits we’re told “the churches were strengthened in the faith and their numbers grew daily.” (Acts 16:5) The churches grew daily! God’s Word was spreading like wildfire.
Now the next paragraph to me is one of the most powerful in chapter 16. Paul is a mighty man of God, right? Of course! Paul is a mighty servant of God, right? Of course! So at this point Paul knows exactly where God wants him to go right? NO WAY! Paul will attempt to go his ‘own way’ twice in back to back verses but the Holy Spirit will ‘forbid them’ and ‘not allow them.’ So a mighty man of God like Paul that will later write half of the New Testament has no idea where God wants him to go? EXACTLY. He is walking daily with God.
There are two huge factors that God has been speaking to me in the last several years and it sums up in just two words…Availability and Obedience. God has showed me how they go hand in hand and one without the other will not allow you to fully be used by God. Let’s look at availability. Are you available to God? If you’re working 50 hours a week, spend 12 hours commuting, have tons of activities on the weekend, spend 10 hours a week taking care of your yard and pool, run a business on the side and still have enough time to watch a few hours of TV every night are you available for God to use? Do you know who I’m describing above? Folks, that was me 4 years ago. I in no way was available to God to be used. I was being used by others and being used by the world but I was not available to be used by God. You might know people like this in your life. You want to have dinner with them but in the back of your mind you think, “they're always so busy they wouldn’t have time for me” so you just don’t ask. They’re not available and it shows. God is no different. If you’re not available, He looks at your life and says why bother, they’re too busy for me. That was me.
Now let’s look at obedience. I’ve got big news for you, if you make God a big priority in your life and make yourself available to Him, HE WILL USE YOU. Here’s more big news for you. GOD WANTS TO USE YOU. It’s why He made you and what you were made for. Everybody is always searching for the meaning of life or wondering what their purpose is. I can settle all that in one simple sentence. We were built and created to serve God and serve others. Its that simple. The real question should be ‘HOW’ will I serve him and serve others? God makes us all much differently and Parise God He does! Its not my cup of tea to work in the nursery at church and change diapers but thank goodness He made somebody that loves to do it! As you make yourself available God will be calling quickly. When He starts asking what will you say? As we ended up in Florida serving for 6 weeks this summer we also ended up going to youth camp with the students. The message theme all week was “All God wants is your yes.” A lesson on obedience. When God asks you to ‘do’ for Him, all He wants is your yes.
The lesson? Change your life, make yourself available to God and when He comes calling give him your yes. Availability and Obedience. Give it a try. It’ll change everything.
So here is Paul and he wants to go south to Asia. The Holy Spirit ‘forbids it.’ (Acts 16:6) Since Paul can’t go south he formulates a new plan and thinks he’ll go north into Bithynia but the Holy Spirit ‘did not allow them.” (Acts 16:7) Now this is an important note here about Paul’s level of obedience. How ready he is to deal with no. If your truly obedient to someone and they say no what will you do? I’ve dealt with employees in the past that were so loyal and obedient until you asked them to do something they didn’t want to do and then their obedience turned quickly into disobedience and complaining. Not Paul, God said do, and Paul did. So Paul can’t go south, he can’t go north and he came from the east so guess what? Yep, he’s going west. He has a vision that night to go to Macedonia. He IMMEDIATELY goes (Acts 16:10) and he runs smack dab into where God wants him to be. Beautiful harmony.
He picks up Luke (the author of this book) at this time and now there are four of them (Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke) and they head west to Phillipi in Macedonia. For the first time the gospel will be going into Europe. They encounter women having a prayer meeting on the Sabbath and they go and preach to them. We encounter Lydia, who will be the first Christian convert in Europe. They of course have no place to stay so Lydia says, “come stay with me.” You know these guys were walking all over the desert following God and many nights had to just sleep on the ground. I can only imagine how welcome it was when someone asked them to come and stay in their home. Blessed fellowship follows you inviting fellow believers into your home.
Once in Phillipi guess what? Yep, you guessed it, trouble and jail. Paul cast out a demon in a young girl that was being used by her owners as profit making fortune teller. Once Paul did this the profits dry up and the owners are a little peeved with Paul. They accused them of disturbing Roman customs and it gets heated quickly. They tore off the apostles shirts, whipped them across their backs and threw them in prison. (Acts 16:23) So freshly off getting lashes, put in jail and locked into stocks, what do these guys do? Cry out to God? Pray for mercy? Beg God for freedom? Acts 16:25, “about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them.” I have no idea what it would be like to have this kind of faith and joy in God like these men had, but it’s my life’s journey to discover it.
Now here we will encounter something that is becoming somewhat regular in the book of Acts, a jail break. We’ve already seen the Apostles busted out in Acts 5 and then Peter sprung by and angel in Acts 12 and here as Paul and Silas are singing to God, ‘He brings a great earthquake that shakes the foundations of the prison and opens all the doors and unfastens everybody’s bonds.’ (Acts 16:26) So you’d think that Paul and Silas would see the opportunity and run for freedom, right? Nope, they stay behind and save their guard in not just one way, but two ways. He is about to fall on his sword because all the prisoners are escaping but Paul stops him, he saves his physical life. Then Paul shares the Gospel and the man accepts Christ and receives real life, eternal life. Man, this Paul guy right?
The jailer takes them to his house where he is so excited to have Paul tell his family the message about Jesus that he has just heard. Acts 16:34b, “And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believd in God.” That’s a truth about the gospel we cannot afford to lose, we should be so excited about Jesus and the abundant life He offers we should want all of our family and friends to hear it! The jailer’s whole house comes to know Christ and they clean the wounds of Paul and Silas and feed them. Blessed fellowship again by inviting fellow believers into your home.
They find out that Paul and his group are Roman citizens and let them go. But Paul in a bold stroke of genius demands an apology from the magistrates for what they have done to them. Out of fear, the leaders comply and as a result this exonerates the jailer and his family, thereby protecting this new Christian family from further persecution. God and Paul are always one step ahead.
Yet another great series of unbelievable events we encounter this morning. I am so blessed to be able to get up and read God’s Word and write about Him every morning. I pray that you experience the same power and wonder from spending just 5 minutes in God’s Word every morning.
Remember, be available and give God your yes.
Rich blessings to you my friends.
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