The other day Judy and I were running some errands, and she was telling me a story about boots.
Boots is not the name of a cat;
And they are often made with a tread which keep them from slipping on wet surfaces.
A couple of weeks ago she saw a pair that looked like what she wanted,
Unfortunately, after a week or so of more shopping she didn’t find anything more appropriate,
So she returned to the first store, but by that time her size had been sold out.
But if not, then it must have been the Lord’s will for her NOT to buy those boots.
The whole story made perfect sense, even if I am merely a husband and not an expert in either shopping or ladies fashions.
It didn’t take a Master’s degree in Theology to determine that it was not the Lord’s will to buy those boots.
It might yet become the Lord’s will at a different time, but until now, it has not been the Lord’s will.
Have you ever found the Lord’s will to be frustrating?
I was thinking about Judy’s little story for a few minutes after she told me.
I didn’t pursue the idea very far, but for just a moment I noted that . . .
But in the big and important things of life, God’s will often becomes difficult to justify and explain.
Sometimes we really don’t like the way that Jehovah directs our lives – or life in general.
In these seven verses we have another example of the confusing nature of the will of God.
Paul and his missionary team were on fire for the Lord, preaching the gospel and establishing churches.
Apparently God was blessing to such a degree that the churches were increasing in numbers daily.
The missionaries were successful beyond their wildest dreams in the most important work ever commissioned to men.
But then over a few weeks’ span, their work started running like a car with three spark plugs missing:
Stop, go, jump, halt, move, surge, hesitate, stop.
It must have been really frustrating to the missionaries before they figured out what the Lord wanted.
Our message this evening is not going to be complex, even if in some ways it will be technical.
Let’s think about the will of the Lord,
And in the process touch on one of my favorite areas of learning: Geography.
This is a message of stop and go.
One of the problems in studying Biblical geography is determining what words and names to refer to.
As we saw a few weeks ago, part of Galatia included Lycaonia and Pisidea,
Now as we consult most maps we find that Phyrgia was a region of the very confusing province of Asia.
Were Phyrgia and Galatia provinces, districts, countries or regions?
It all depends on who the historian or geographer is and to what period of time he was referring.
I once had the mindset that Asia was a place beyond the eastern banks of the Euphrates River and the Ural Mountains.
But according to some definitions Asia extends west – right up to the Mediterranean Sea.
And to confuse the matter even more, the western most part of Turkey was called the province of Asia.
If Israel isn’t in Europe or Africa then it must be in Asia.
Anyway, Paul and Silas were preaching the gospel and establishing churches throughout Phyrgia and Galatia.
When verse 6 uses the word “throughout” it causes me to believe that the missionaries were apparently visiting every major community in that area.
Every corner of the region was being touched with the truth.
Perhaps the group was split up into more than one team, with Silas and Titus going together, and with Paul and Timothy as another team.
We don’t really know who or how many people were involved; we don’t know if Titus was there at all.
In any case, under the Lord’s blessings the work was going very well.
And when the missionaries thought that the region had been well-covered, they decided to move west.
But they were FORBIDDEN by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia.
Here was a district at least as large as Galatia and in some ways even more important than Phyrgia.
But it was not God’s will for them to preach the life-giving gospel of Christ to those poor dying sinners.
Unbelievable! Incredible! Inexplicable!
Where does God get the idea that He has the right to determine who gets the gospel and who doesn’t?
( Where does man get the idea that he can tell God what to do and whom to save? )
How do you suppose the Holy Spirit conveyed that message to Paul and Silas?
We are not told, and it would be futile to speculate.
Do you suppose it possible that the missionaries could have mistaken the message of the Lord?
What part of “no” don’t you understand?
Well, actually it might be very easy not to understand, or at least to wonder if we really heard it correctly.
When there are no boots to buy, then it’s obviously not the Lord’s will to buy them,
Especially if the boots are really, really “cute.”
They traveled toward the part of Asia called Mysia, with plans to journey east along the Propontis to Bithynia
The Propontis, also known as the Marma Denizi, is the little body of water between the Black and the Aegean Seas.
It is one of the most important waterways in the world, linking southern Russia with the rest of the world.
There is a narrow water gate out of the Black Sea into the Propontis called the Bosporus.
On the European, northern side of the Bosporus is the city of Istanbul or Constantinople, and on the other side is what was called Bithynia here in Acts.
“Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.”
Once again the gospel was not at this time permitted into Bithynia.
So turning back to the west, Paul, Silas and the rest crossed Mysia, the northwest corner of Turkey, and came to the city of Troas, or the ancient city of Troy.
The Lord did not want Paul and Silas to spend time in Asia preaching the gospel.
But it needs to be realized that Ephesus was one of the major cities in Asia, and Ephesus eventually became a great center of Christianity.
It needs to be realized that the Book of Revelation contains letters to seven major churches of Asia.
And listen to the introduction to Peter’s First Epistle.
Many of the places where Paul was forbidden to preach, he later did visit,
Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia,
Assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.”
I wonder how much significance there is to the WAY in which this leadership of God is expressed:
“They were forbidden of the Holy Ghost,” verse 6
“A vision appeared to Paul in the night,” verse 9.
“The Lord had called us for the preach the gospel unto them,” verse 10.
There was no doubt that the Lord was sending them into Europe to preach the gospel.
I have heard a lot of dogmatic statements about that invitation, but they were all based on guesses.
It’s foolish to be dogmatic about guesses.
I have no idea how many times I have read or heard preachers and teachers suggest that this vision was probably Luke, the man who penned the Book of Acts.
They point out that “Luke” is a derivative of the Latin name of “Lucas.”
But that doesn’t really tell us anything about the vision.
It is apparent that Luke joined the missionary team here in Troas.
The people who think that Luke was the Macedonian in the vision suggest that he declined to identify himself as that man in the same way that the Apostle John didn’t identify himself in the Gospel of John.
This is pure speculation; a possibility, but not something about which to get too bold.
But how did Paul know that the man in the vision was a Macedonian if he didn’t actually know him?
He might have even said, “We, the people of Macedonia, want you to come over and help us.”
And don’t the words “come over” suggest that he wasn’t in Troas at the time?
Can you imagine how difficult and exciting this might have been to Paul and Silas?
How much of a culture shock would crossing the Aegean Sea have been?
Would it have been as great as a man from Turkey or India coming to America to preach the gospel today?
I really don’t know.
Whatever it felt like, the missionaries knew that this was the will of God.
They were chomping at the bit to get back into their calling, so they immediately took ship and sailed north.
When they knew the will of God, they didn’t waste a moment performing the will of God.
First, their ship came to Samothracia, an island half way between Troas and Philippi.
It might have just sailed around Samothracia, but it probably touched there for a short time.
Then it moved on to the port of Philippi called Neapolis.
It probably was a Latin name.
Maybe it was filled with Romans, and people with Roman names like “Lucas.”
And what do you suppose that “Neapolis” means? “New town.”
It’s at Philippi where we’ll take up this history next Sunday morning.