Introduction
We left Paul and Barnabas back in Antioch last week. They had gone to Jerusalem to resolve the issue of whether circumcision was necessary for salvation. And the apostles and elders in Jerusalem agreed with Paul and Barnabas that circumcision was not necessary. You don’t have to become a Jew in order to be saved. Sinners are saved from condemnation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave up his life as the ransom to pay for our sins and who was raised from the dead to give us life. Whoever trusts in him receives forgiveness and peace with God and the hope of everlasting life in the presence of God.
And having resolved that issue, Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord. That’s what we read in verse 35 of Acts 15. And it’s interesting, because this is the second time that Luke has told us that there were several preachers and teachers in Antioch. He says it here in verse 35 of Acts 15. And then, at the beginning of Acts 13, he told us that in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers and he names five of them, including Paul and Barnabas.
And it’s perhaps possible that the reason Luke tells us twice that there were a number who taught and preached in Antioch is so that we would not think that Paul and Barnabas were abandoning the Lord’s people in Antioch whenever they went off on their missionary journeys. Whenever Paul and Barnabas went off on a missionary journey to proclaim the good news of salvation throughout the Roman Empire, the members of the church in Antioch were not left on their own, because there were other preachers and teachers to strengthen their faith through the reading and preaching of God’s word. In a similar way, I’m not allowed to leave my pulpit unless I’ve made arrangements for someone else to cover for me.
The Bible frequently likens God’s people to sheep and sheep must not be left without a shepherd to feed them. And so, when a minister leaves his pulpit, someone else must take over and feed the congregation on the bread of God’s word. And whenever Paul and Barnabas set off on a missionary expedition, there needed to be others who could feed the congregation on God’s word while they were away.
15:36–41
And Paul and Barnabas are ready to go on another journey. According to verse 36 of chapter 15, Paul suggested to Barnabas that it was about time they went back to visit the believers in all the towns where they had preached the word of the Lord to see how they’re doing. So, they want to go back and strengthen the believers in the churches they planted.
And Luke tells us in verse 37 that Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them, but Paul did not think it wise to do so. Why not? Back in verse 13 of chapter 13 we read that they had taken John Mark with them on their previous missionary journey. However, after sailing from Paphos to Perga, John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. We don’t know why he left them, but according to Luke in verse 38, Paul thought that John Mark had deserted them. And since that’s the case, Paul was unwilling to take John Mark along again.
Barnabas, though, was prepared to take him. According to Colossians 4:10, Barnabas and John Mark were cousins. So, that might have something to do with Barnabas’s willingness to take him. And Barnabas was also known as the encourager. When Paul first travelled to Jerusalem after his conversion, the believers were suspicious of him and were unwilling to welcome him. But Barnabas, the encourager, welcomed him and persuaded the others to welcome him too. And here’s Barnabas once again, encouraging his cousin by suggesting they give him another chance.
So, Barnabas wants to take him and Paul doesn’t. And it seems they can’t agree. Neither of them is willing to change his mind. In fact, according to verse 39, they had a sharp disagreement about it. And it was such a sharp disagreement that the only solution was for them to separate. Barnabas took John Mark and headed for Cyprus. Paul took another man, one called Silas, and went through Syria and Cilicia.
Now, Luke doesn’t take sides. He doesn’t say which one was in the right and which one was in the wrong. And he doesn’t tell us the arguments Paul and Barnabas used to try to make their case. And that means that we don’t have enough information to make a judgment about this. You might have your own opinion about who was right and who was wrong. But that’s all it is: an opinion and you can’t be dogmatic about it.
But what’s interesting, of course, is that they don’t do what they did at the beginning of chapter 15. At the beginning of chapter 15, Paul and Barnabas had a sharp dispute with the men who were saying you have to be circumcised in order to be saved. And when they couldn’t agree on that, they went to Jerusalem and appealed to the apostles and elders for a decision.
That’s what they did at the beginning of chapter 15, but they don’t do it here at the end of the chapter. And I think the difference is that the dispute at the end of the chapter between Paul and Barnabas about John Mark was only a personal disagreement. It was a private disagreement among friends, whereas the dispute at the beginning of the chapter was about the fundamentals of the faith. The dispute at the beginning of the chapter was about the way to be saved from condemnation and what should be preached and taught. It was a theological dispute about the faith which needed to be settled once and for all, whereas Paul and Barnabas’s dispute over John Mark was a personal disagreement and less important.
In this life, believers will always have disagreements with one another. We’ll disagree over all kinds of issues. We can’t all agree with one another all of the time and people hold opinions about all kinds of matters which are largely indifferent and unimportant. But when it comes to the faith — when it’s about what we believe and what we teach — then it’s vital that we work it out and reach an understanding about what God has revealed to us in his word. We must always ascertain what God has taught us in the Holy Scriptures. And once we have worked that out, we need to stick to it and not move away from it.
This year is the seventh-hundred anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in 325. And the Council of Nicaea was a gathering of bishops who met to settle a dispute about what the church believed about the Lord Jesus. Some were saying that the Lord Jesus was not fully God and that he was created by God. But when the council of Nicaea met to discuss the matter, they agreed that the Lord Jesus is fully God. He is indeed God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, having the same being as the Father. They settled the matter once and for all and put down in the Creed of Nicaea and in the subsequent Nicene Creed what Christians should believe about the Saviour. And there were more councils of bishops in the early years of the church to settle similar things for the church. It’s always important that theological issues or issues concerning what we believe are settled. But when it comes to personal matters or when it comes to unimportant issues, we can disagree with one another and learn to live with those disagreements so long as we continue to love one another in the Lord, who loved us and who gave up his life for us.
And before we move on, notice this one other thing. As a result of their disagreement, the mission of the church was doubled. Before their disagreement, Paul and Barnabas intended to go together on one mission. After their disagreement, they went separately on two missions. As a result of their disagreement, there were two missionary teams to do two times the work. God, who is able to work all things together for good, was able to bring good out of their disagreement. And despite our sins and shortcomings, God is able to work through us to accomplish his purposes in the world.
16:1–5
Let’s move on now to the next part of today’s passage which is verses 1 to 5 of chapter 16. Luke focuses on what Paul did next and how he went to Derbe and then to Lystra. And remember, he’s going back to where he had been before to strengthen the believers in the churches they planted. And in Lystra there was a believer named Timothy. We now know Timothy as the recipient of two of Paul’s New Testament letters.
Luke tells us that Timothy’s mother was a Jewish believer. So, she had grown up as a Jew, but now believed in the Lord Jesus as the only Saviour of the world. That was Timothy’s mother. His father was a Greek. So, he was a Gentile. And that’s all we know about him. The believers in Lystra spoke well of Timothy. to Paul. And so, Paul decided to take him on their missionary expedition.
But Paul anticipated a problem. Since Timothy’s father was a Gentile and not a Jew, Timothy had not been circumcised as an infant. And Paul anticipated a problem, because it was his normal practice, whenever he visited a city for the first time, to go into the Jewish synagogue, where he would preach the good news of the gospel. But some of the Jews might be offended by the presence of Timothy, because they would have regarded him as an apostate: as someone who had abandoned the Jewish faith. And if they were offended, then they wouldn’t be willing to listen to Paul. And so, for the sake of the gospel, Paul circumcised Timothy.
And it’s important that we realise that the situation here was very different from the situation at the beginning of chapter 15. At the beginning of chapter 15, some people were saying you have to be circumcised in order to be saved. There were saying that faith in Christ is not enough for salvation; you have to be circumcised as well. And Paul opposed that belief. And the apostles and elders in Jerusalem opposed it as well. They were very clear: circumcision was unnecessary for salvation, because we’re saved through faith and through faith alone.
However, the situation here in chapter 16 is very different. No one is saying that Timothy had to be circumcised in order to be saved. No one was saying you have to become a Jew in order to be saved. No one was doubting Timothy’s salvation. The issue in chapter 16 is about being sensitive to the people they were trying to reach with the gospel. Paul’s attitude is that we don’t want to offend them and we don’t want to do anything that will keep them from listening to the gospel. We don’t want to shut any doors by being insensitive to those we want to reach. As Paul says elsewhere, his policy was to become all things to all men, so that by all possible means he might save some. And so, to the Jews, he became a Jew; and to the Gentiles, he became a Gentile. When he could do so without sinning against God, he did what he could to fit in with the people he was trying to reach. He accommodated himself to them.
That was Paul’s approach. And we have to admire Timothy’s dedication to the mission, because it’s one thing to be circumcised as an infant and it’s another thing entirely to be circumcised as an adult. But Timothy was prepared to suffer in this way in order to remove any obstacle to preaching the gospel to the Jews they met on their missionary journey.
And you’ll find missionaries doing similar things today. When they go to a new place, they’ll find out the customs of the local people and instead of dismissing them as irrelevant or unimportant, instead of looking down on the local customs, they’ll adopt them so long as they can do so without sinning against the Lord. And in this way, they hope to build bridges with the local people and to open a door to the gospel.
And as we live our lives each day among people who don’t believe, it’s very easy for us to look down on them for the things they do or say or believe. It’s very easy for us to offend them by being insensitive. Maybe there’s some activity which they love. And it’s not sinful. God hasn’t forbidden it. But you consider it a waste of time or silly. But for them it’s important. And if it’s important to them, then you should respect that, because no-one is going to come to you and ask you about what you believe about Christ, if it’s clear to them that you’re looking down on them.
Let me give one example. When we lived in Naas, I knew a man who loved to fill his house at Christmas with all kinds of decorations. He had reindeer on the roof and on the front lawn; and the inside of the house was packed with all kinds of decorations from dancing Santas to trains that puffed around a track to singing snowmen. And every year he invited us to view them. I wasn’t too interested, but it was important to him. And so, we went, because I was trying to build a relationship with him in the hope that one day he would come to faith in Christ. Instead of looking down on him, I visited him.
After Paul had come to trust in Christ, he regarded circumcision as unimportant. It had no value to him once he realised that we’re saved by faith. And it was clearly of no importance to Timothy, because until now he never saw the need to have it done. But Paul and Timothy were prepared to remove every obstacle which might have prevented them from preaching Christ to the Jews they were trying to reach.
16:6–10
In the rest of that part of the passage, Luke tells us that they travelled from town to town to visit the churches they had planted. And to each church, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about staying away from anything to do with idolatry. And the churches were strengthened in the faith and they grew daily in numbers. So, as a result of Paul’s ministry, the believers grew in their faith and others were converted to faith in Christ and added to the church.
In the next part we read about how they planned to go into other areas, but were prevented fro doing so by the Holy Spirit. So, according to verse 6, they wanted to go into the Roman province of Asia, but were kept from it by the Holy Spirit. We don’t know how the Holy Spirit stopped them and redirected their path, but he did. Instead of going into the Roman province of Asia, they went around the region of Phrygia and Galatia. Then, according to verse 7, when they tried to enter Bithynia, the Spirit stopped them once again. And so, they went instead to Troas. And that’s where Paul had a visionary dream in which a man from Macedonia appeared to him and begged him to come over to Macedonia to help them. And it seems from what we read in verse 10 that Paul and his companions — and his companions now include Luke himself, because he now refers to ‘we’ — discussed the vision and decided that God was calling them to preach the gospel in Macedonia.
And before we move on, it’s worth pausing to consider how God will put obstacles in our way. There’s something we want to do and we’ve planned for it. We’ve even prayed about it. But it doesn’t happen. Our way is blocked. The door is closed. We can’t proceed. Someone applies for a job which they really want. But they don’t get it. A young person applies to do a course and they really want to do it. But they don’t get in. You hope to go on holiday, because you need a break. But something happens and you can’t go. And I’ve known people who felt called to the ministry or who felt called to be a missionary, but they were not accepted.
How are we to respond to these disappointments? We should respond by remembering what we believe about the works of God’s providence. The works of God’s providence are his most holy, wise and powerful preservation and control of all his creatures and all their actions. In other words, whatever happens to us is part of God’s holy and wise and powerful plan for us. We are in his hands and he opens one door to us and closes another. He guides us this way and then his guides us that way. We can’t understand his purposes, because God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. But when God closes a door to us, we should remember that he’s in control and that he’s our faithful and loving Father and he must have some good and holy and wise reason for what he has done. And so, we’re to submit to his will for us. We’re not to grumble and complain. We’re not to turn against him. We’re not to give up the faith. We’re to keep believing and we’re to trust that he knows what is best for us.
God knew what he was doing when he prevented Paul and his companions from going into the Roman province of Asia and into Bithynia. God was leading them to Macedonia. And Macedonia was part of Europe. God was leading them into Europe.
16:11–15
And that brings us to the final part of today’s passage in verses 11 to 15.
They travelled from place to place until they reached Philippi. Luke tells us that it was a Roman colony and the leading city in the district. And on the Sabbath Day, they went outside the city to the river, where they expected to find a place of prayer. Some of the commentators say that the phrase ‘a place of prayer’ was a way to refer to a Jewish synagogue. And so, Paul and his companions were looking for the local synagogue, which for some reason was outside the city. Alternatively, there might not have been a synagogue at all. After all, Philippi was a Roman city and there may not have been many Jews living there. In that case, Paul was hoping that if there were any Jews, they would meet at the river. And so, they went to the river to meet them and to tell them about the Lord Jesus.
And they found some women and spoke to them. And Luke points out one of them to us, whose name was Lydia. And the reason he points her out to us is because the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. By nature or by birth our hearts are closed like an oyster shell. They are firmly closed to the things of God and we aren’t able to believe him or his word. But God opens our hearts. He opens our hearts and enables us to believe.
That’s what he did to Lydia. And thank God, because that’s what he did to many of us here today. He opened our hearts and enabled us to believe in the Saviour who died for us so that we might have eternal life in the presence of God. And since God is the only one who can open hearts, then we who believe should pray and pray and pray again for him to open the hearts of all of us and to open the hearts of the people who live around the church and who live around our homes and who work with us. We should cry out to God to open their hearts to believe the good news so that they will receive forgiveness and peace with God and the free gift of eternal in the presence of God.
And after she believed, Lydia and her household were baptised. Do you see that in verse 15? And that’s interesting. She was the one who responded to the message. But everyone in her household was baptised. So, everyone who belonged to her and depended on her was baptised. And that’s because God’s promises to his people have always been to the one who believes and to their children. And so, when God established his covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17, he established it with Abraham and his descendants. He would be their God and they would be his people. And in Acts 2, when Peter preached about Christ on the Day of Pentecost, he told the people that God’s promise regarding forgiveness and the Holy Spirit is for them and for their children. And whereas in the past, the sign of God’s covenant was circumcision, now the sign of God’s covenant is baptism. And so, believers and their children are baptised and receive the sign of God’s promise to be their God. God is not only my God, but he’s the God of my children. And if you’re a believer, then he is not only your God, but he’s the God of your children also.
Someone may say that Luke doesn’t say that Lydia’s household contained children. And that’s true. But the word translated ‘household’ was normally used in those days to refer to children. And as one of the commentators (Peterson) says, it would be remarkable if no babies were included in any of the four household baptisms recorded in the book of Acts. And it also fits with what we know about God, who establishes his covenant with believers and with their children.
And baptising our children is a wonderful thing, because when a child is baptised, God is making clear that before we loved God, before we knew anything about God, he loved us and he sent his Only Begotten Son into the world to suffer and die for us and for our salvation, so that all who believe in his name are washed and cleansed and pardoned for ever and they receive the free gift of eternal life. Before we loved God, he loved us and did all of this for us. And before we loved him, he loved us and he placed on us the sign of his covenant to reassure us of his love for us in Christ and his willingness to wash our sins away. He placed his mark of ownership on us so that we would serve him all the days of our life.
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