The Macedonian Call

Turn with me to Acts 16. If you are visiting us this morning we are going through the book of Acts in a series we’ve entitled Mission Unstoppable.

Acts 15:36-16:10

In 1982 a 33 year old truck driver named Larry Walters decided that he had had enough of spending his free time just sitting in his back yard and so he got the idea that if he tied some weather balloons to his lawnchair, he could float over his neighborhood and see his neighbors from a different perspective. So he purchased 45 weather balloons from an army surplus store and with the help of some friends he tied them to his lawnchair and strapped himself in and his friends cut the tethers holding the chair down. Larry expected the lawnchair to rise to about 100 feet and he brought a gun so he could shoot the balloons when he wanted to come down.

Rather than rise to 100 feet though, Larry and his lawnchair immediately ascended to 16000 feet! He was in the middle of the commercial air traffic lanes and two commercial airline pilots reported spotting a man on a lawnchair outside their window. Larry was too afraid to take his hands off the lawnchair to shoot any balloons and so he floated for 2 hours. Finally becoming cold and numb at that altitude he worked up the courage to shoot some balloons and descended low enough to get caught in some power lines, briefly blacking out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes. When Larry safely reached the ground, reporters were eager to ask him a number of questions including why he did it. His answer was, “you can’t just sit there.”

God has called the church to mission. It’s what Acts is all about: the continuation of the mission of Christ through the church by the Holy Spirit to all the world. It’s a mission of movement and expansion and growth. It’s a mission that calls to every Christian man, woman and child and says, “you can’t just sit there.” God doesn’t call any believer to sit out life on a lawnchair, He calls us to rise up to serve His glorious purposes.

But many Christians can ask honestly, what are His purposes for my life and how do I discover what they are? We want to glorify God with our lives, we want to be of service to His kingdom, but we might wonder what does that look like? How do ordinary people with ordinary talents, ordinary resources, and ordinary opportunities, glorify God in a significant way? Sometimes those questions can paralyze us into inactivity – we just don’t know what God wants us to do, don’t know how God wants us to serve, and we don’t want to do the wrong thing, we don’t want to miss God’s leading, so many Christians knock on doors and wait, but never seem to see doors open. How do we find the place of spiritual ministry God has called us to?

With these questions in our minds, it may seem like turning to the greatest missionary team the world has ever known – Paul and Silas – is just a recipe for more discouragement. They blazed a missionary trail across the world and changed history like no other team before or since. We just want to be used by the Lord and bear fruit for the gospel in some small way with our lives. They’re soaring at 16,000 feet and we just want to get our lawnchairs off the ground. How can we relate to them?

Actually, as they kick off this first missionary journey together, I think there’s a lot we can learn from them. Certainly the call on their lives is unique – there are no apostle Pauls here – and their experiences are unique in some ways, but there are ways that their experiences are common to all believers and common to how God operates in our lives. So from their experience I want us to consider four common principles in how God works and leads His people.

1. God can lead us best when we’re moving

The idea for this second missionary journey began when Paul said to Barnabas, “let’s go check on the churches we planted and see how they’re doing.” Pretty simple and straightforward – we planted churches 3 years ago, let’s go check and see how they’re doing. No record of them fasting and praying about doing it, they just decide it would be a good thing and they get ready to go. They start moving in a direction. But a problem comes in almost immediately, as Matt pointed out last week, when they have such a sharp disagreement over taking John Mark with them after he deserted them on their first missionary journey that Paul and Barnabas can’t see eye to eye and they end up going in separate directions. But it doesn’t stop them from going in a direction. Barnabas takes John Mark and goes to Cyprus and Paul chooses Silas and, after being commended by the brothers in the church, they return to the churches planted in Asia Minor with the intention of strengthening and encouraging these young churches.

While they’re moving in that direction, they meet a young man that Paul recognizes has great potential for the kingdom – Timothy. Paul invites him to join their missionary party and Timothy will become an effective pastor and like a son to Paul. This wasn’t part of their plan – they had no idea they would meet Timothy – but as they were moving God added to their plan and this addition would have a significant spiritual impact on the church as Timothy becomes a true and loyal co-worker with Paul, a man Paul would later say of: I have no one like him.

And so they visit all the churches – and verse 5 says the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in numbers daily. And then in verse 6 they decide to expand their mission and go to new regions and plant new churches. There’s nothing particularly mystical about how they are making decisions – they’re committed to serving the church and preach Christ, they have the commendation of the brothers in their home church, and with that in their hearts they are free to move about the country. When our desire is to glorify God and either strengthen existing churches or plant new ones, when we seek input and commendation from those God has placed as spiritual leaders in our lives, we can move and trust God to lead us.

One important note before we leave this point: God’s purposes revolve around the church. That’s not me as a pastor saying that, that’s the clear message of Acts and the entire NT. It’s fashionable to be sour on the church today. One ministry has gone so far as to say the church age ended in the 80’s and now it’s a mark of a true believer that they don’t go to church. The church is a people, and it’s the people of God, and according to the NT it’s the only people of God on earth. It’s the bride of Christ – He has no other, and it’s the vehicle through which the ministry of Christ is continued – there is no other. That’s not to say that there aren’t effective parachurch ministries, but wise pm’s are connected to the local church. Compassion Int’l’s policy is that they will not go into an area with aid unless there’s a strong local church there, because they believe they need to church to make their ministry effective long term.

So we’ve got to be moving – doing something, serving somehow, going somewhere. Someone might say, “but what about the verse in Isaiah that says we are to wait on the Lord.” And there are certainly times when we need to wait because direction is needed. But listen to the verse again:

They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

The primary point of that beautiful verse isn’t to lock us into inactivity, its grace-filled soaring and running and walking with energy that comes from God. God can lead us best when we’re moving. If you’ve found yourself stuck and not doing anything, not going anywhere, and not deciding anything out of fear you might miss God’s will, I believe the Lord wants to speak a word to you: move. Do something. Find your purpose in God’s purpose which is the strengthening of the church and move in some direction to serve and invest in the local church by the grace God has given you, and God will lead you.

2. As we’re moving, God will lead us through both yes’s and no’s

After visiting the churches already planted Paul and Silas decide to expand their mission and go to new regions and plant new churches. And this is where things get interesting. It’s a great plan, they’ve got great motives, there’s just one problem: God keeps stopping them at every turn.

They came from the east so first they try to head further west and the Spirit forbids them from speaking the word. So they head north, thinking they will go into Bithynia. But the Spirit of Jesus wouldn’t allow them to enter. We aren’t told how they are stopped – maybe through prophetic word, maybe through circumstances, we don’t know – but it’s clear that they’re really stopped – forbidden to preach, forbidden to enter a region. Now they are really limited in where they can go, so from this point far north they head west and find themselves in a seaport city called Troas.

And they must be wondering what God is doing – the only direction they have is negative direction – where not to go, what not to do. Then Paul finally has a vision in which is positive direction: a man from Macedonia is calling them to come help. And taking all the factors into consideration they agree this is the Lord’s way of leading them to Macedonia. In hindsight we can see that the Lord was directing them away from Asia and into Europe – a direction that would have huge implications for their fruitfulness and the growth of the gospel in all the world. John Stott writes about this in his commentary on Acts:

With the benefit of hindsight, knowing that Europe became the first Christian continent and was until fairly recently the main base for missionary outreach to the rest of the world, we can see what an epoch-making developments this was. It was from Europe that in due course the gospel fanned out to the great continents of Africa, Asia, North America, Latin America and Oceania, and so reached the ends of the earth.

Let me say that God doesn’t usually lead His people through visions. Sometimes He does, but not usually. Not even Paul was typically led by visions – this is a rare occurrence for him and it will be even rarer for us. But the principle of God leading us in certain directions through both yes’s and no’s is very common. When God says “no” it is a positive answer because it means He is narrowing our path in a certain way or He is redirecting our path in another direction. Both are good because God knows what He’s doing.

a. Sometimes God constricts our lives to get us where He wants us

Sometimes God narrows our lives in ways that can seem mystifying – we can really wonder, what is God doing? I think Paul and Silas must have wondered that as they traveled long distances and met closed doors each time. But those closed doors were positioning them for the right open door.

A story that came to my mind when I thought about this was the story of the Slacks. If you are visiting us, Matt Slack is the assistant pastor here, but it’s an amazing story of how they ended up moving from Florida to Corning, NY years ago. In April of 2005 the Slacks found themselves homeless because of mold in their home after Florida had been hit by several hurricanes. For five months they were homeless, trusting that God had a plan but having no idea what it was. In a short time they found themselves looking at a home that had no value, an insurance company that wasn’t going to cover the loss of the home, and land they couldn’t use. God was uncomfortably constricting their lives. During that time they were seeking God as to where He wanted them and Siobhan had a dream like the Macedonian call – the Lord told her that someone was calling out for help. She felt like this was why everything had happened (the hurricanes and mold and losing their home) and they were supposed to go help the ones calling out but they didn’t know where they were supposed to go so they continued to seek God. Around that time there was a church plant going out from Metro Life Church (where they attended) and they went with it, but after 6 months though they loved being a part of that church plant they knew that wasn’t where they were supposed to be and that they were supposed to come to Corning. They didn’t make the connection at the time between Siobhan’s dream and their move up here, but it was God’s intention all along to send them to our church to be tremendous help and blessing to us at a time when we really needed it. God was constricting their lives to get them where He wanted them. Sometimes God constricts our lives to get us where He wants us.

b. Sometimes God says no because He has something better in mind

Who of us can’t think of times when we thought something was good and God said “no”. When I look back at my life, some of the most positive answers I have gotten from God have been “no’s”. They don’t seem positive at the time, but in God’s wisdom and providence they are very positive. At CG the other night Tony and Gaby shared how years ago they had the possibility of moving to Ithaca with Tony’s job. Everything looked perfect. They were more than ready to leave the area they were living in, they loved the Ithaca area and the job looked great. But God said no. At the time they couldn’t understand why, but later they would find out the plant Tony would have worked for was going to have a huge lay-off (Tony would most likely have been laid off) and the Lord wanted to bring them to the Corning area to be a part of GCC family (and we are grateful!).

God says no quite a lot. David Livingstone tried to go to China, but the Lord sent him to Africa. Carey planned to go to Polynesia, but the Lord guided him to India. Judson went to India but was soon driven to Burma. The Lord leads us with both “no’s” and “yes’s”.

Maybe you’re in the middle of a “no” or a “not now”. When God says no it’s a positive thing – lovingly made with our good and fruitfulness in mind. We need to have faith in His wisdom and good plan and keep serving and moving, trusting that God has a better “yes” in mind for us.

3. As we’re moving, God will often lead us into triumph through trial

They come to Macedonia and the city of Philippi and a wealthy woman named Lydia is saved and a church is started in her home. Lydia is the first European convert mentioned in the Bible. But as Paul is ministering in Philippi, a woman with a demonic spirit begins to harass them and finally Paul casts out the spirit. That doesn’t make the men who owned this slave girl and were profiting off her happy, so they get a mob riled up and they are accused and arrested. Let’s pick up the story in verse 22-34

Their ministry has barely begun when they’re arrested and beaten and shackled and put in a deep cell. It would have been so easy for Silas to begin to wonder, what is going on here? From the beginning things have been going wrong. Maybe God is angry at Paul for breaking up with Barnabas after all.

They are in pain, they are in prison, they have every reason to despair, but they praise instead. They are so grateful for God’s deliverance and goodness to them that they lift up their voices in praise to God. They aren’t singing about how God is going to set them free from their shackles, they are singing of how through Christ they have already been set free from the only shackles that really bind us – the shackles of sin.

No matter how bad things might get, Christians have so much to praise God for. We have been saved by the precious blood of Christ, set free from the chains of sin, and rescued from the wrath to come. Knowing this, we can be assured that God will safely see us through every trial and bring triumph out of it. When God leads us into testing, it’s to bring a testimony.

In this case, the real miracle wasn’t the prison doors being opened or the shackles coming undone. When you look at it, no one escaped anyway so what was the purpose of their coming undone? It was to so frighten and convict a Roman jailer that he would cry out “what must I do to be saved?” and the shackles of his sin would come undone and he would be set free – he and all his household. What a miracle! The jailer is washing the wounds of Paul and Silas, and Paul and Silas are washing the jailer of his sins through baptism. What an evidence of God’s saving, merciful grace. And evidence that it was God leading them into that dark place to begin with.

When God leads us into trials, we can praise God with the same confidence. If you are in a severe trial right now, please don’t think that the encouragement to praise God is said to belittle the pain or hardship of the trial. Trials can really hurt and hearts can really ache. Praising God in the trial doesn’t deny that, but it declares a greater reality by faith and helps keep our eyes on that greater reality. Christ is with you in your hardship and trial and he will bring you to triumph through it. Praise and trust Him.

4. As we’re moving, God will do great things through small steps

Real quick, but this was, as Stott wrote, an epoch-making event – it would change the history of the world and especially Europe and Christendom. But it’s told through 3 humble lives changed by the gospel: a wealthy woman, a slave girl, and a Roman jailer. The church in this city and Thessalonica and Berea would all grow strong and have a major evangelistic impact on these cities but God inspired Luke to write of 3 humble lives being affected by the gospel.

God changes lives one life at a time. The Lord doesn’t want you discouraged because you may never lead thousands to faith in Christ. He does great things through small steps. One soul is worth so much to God He sent His Son to die on the cross to save that soul. Many of you are touching people one person at a time. Often unseen, often unheralded, maybe you don’t even know the impact you’re having – but as you move to strengthen brothers and sisters in grace, as you counsel, share Christ, encourage, correct, God is at work doing great things. We may never know this side of heaven – live to strengthen the church, preach Christ, and keep moving. God will faithfully lead you into increasing fruitfulness for His glory and your joy.

God’s will and His call on our lives as Christians is that we not just sit there, but rise up to serve His purposes, to strengthen His church with the grace given to us. That’s His will for each of our lives and it is a good will – at the end of our lives it won’t matter to us how much money we made or things we accumulated or popularity we achieved.

Let’s close with Paul’s own encouragement to the Colossians. An encouragement that reveals that it is God’s will that we bear fruit to His glory.

And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Col. 1:9-10

So we should move to serve Him in some way and trust God to lead us as we move.