Let us forever be thankful
April 24. 2009 (Friday)
This past Wednesday evening at our church we read in Acts 16 that Paul had a second missionary journey. A few years had gone by since his first one, and he was led of the Lord to go back to those places he had visited, see how they were doing, and encourage them to be steadfast in their commitment to Jesus Christ. This time his companion was a man named Silas, a Jewish convert from Jerusalem who had been a big help to the Gentile Christians in Antioch of Syria. The two began the trip by visiting the churches in Syria and Cilicia, churches that had no doubt come into being through the work of Paul during the years after his conversion when he lived in his home town of Tarsus.
After visiting the churches just mentioned, the pair made their way over the mountains to Derbe, then Lystra, on to Iconium and finally to Antioch of Pisidia, all places where churches had been started on the first mission trip. A young man named Timothy joined them in Lystra. Timothy’s mother was Jewish but his father, now dead, was a Gentile. In Antioch, they met again the physician, Luke, a Gentile Believer who later wrote the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts.
The missionaries wanted to go to Asia, but were prevented by the Spirit, who also prevented them from going to Bithynia, their second choice. God had something else in mind for them, as he led them westward to Troas, where Paul, Silas and Timothy were joined by Luke. At Troas Paul had a vision calling him and his friends to Europe, specifically to Macedonia. As soon as they found a ship headed that way, they set sail across the Aegean sea to take the Gospel to the West. You and I today are beneficiaries of that decision, as the gospel moved into Europe, and ultimately to us here in the “New World.” God moves in mysterious ways. How thankful we should be that those men were faithful to that vision.