Meet My Son Timothy
Tom Shrader walks through Acts 15:36–16:10, covering the sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark, the recruitment of Timothy at Lystra, and the Holy Spirit's redirection of Paul's team toward Macedonia. He draws out four characteristics of Timothy — like-mindedness with Paul, genuine concern for others, focus on Christ's agenda over self, and proven teamwork — as qualities every believer should pursue. The teaching closes with a practical framework for finding God's will: knowing and obeying Scripture, seeking godly counsel, and being honest about one's own motives.
“If you want to be somebody who communicates God's Word to a group of people, the most important characteristic you can have is that you love the people you're talking to — otherwise it's just going to become a performance.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Acts
Recorded: 2000 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 1 hr 4 min
Themes: mentorship, teamwork, discernment, conflict, missions, obedience, guidance, character, navigating conflict, young adult, new to leadership, mentor, feeling unworthy, new believer, seeking god's will, ministry partner
Scripture: Acts 15:36–16:10, Acts 13:13, Acts 15:37-40, 1 Peter 3:15, 2 Corinthians 11, Matthew 28:19-20, Ephesians 4:13, Philippians 3:8, 2 Timothy 2:2, Colossians 1:28, Acts 20, Philippians 2:19-22, 1 Corinthians 1, 2 Timothy 4:11, Galatians 2, 1 Thessalonians 4, Luke 12:16
Theological Themes: pneumatology, holy spirit guidance, sanctification, becoming holy, missiology, biblical discernment, calling, spiritual maturity
Full Transcript
The Heart of a Missionary
Acts chapter 15, verse 36 says this: "After some days Paul said to Barnabas, let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaim the Word of the Lord and see how they are." As I read through this, I try the best I can to read it with fresh eyes every time. I went back and re-read chapters 13, 14, and 15, along with the beginning of chapter 16 — the end of the first missionary journey. What I saw as I went through this is the Apostle Paul heading up a team that is clearly driven, a team that moves with purpose.
This team begins at Pisidian Antioch, and after meeting resistance there, they move out. They go to Iconium, and there is resistance there. They don't stop — they move to Lystra. So strong is the resistance there that we are told Paul was stoned and dragged to the edge of the city and presumed to be dead. But the next day he gets up and goes to the next city, and after a while there, he retraces his steps along with the team.
He is prepared, it seems, continually. By the way, that is the same call God has put on our lives. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us we are to always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks us to give an account of the hope that is in us. That means that you, as a believer, must understand what you believe, must understand what it means for a person to become a Christian, and not just understand and believe it — you must be able to articulate it. You must be able to articulate it in a way that is sprinkled with gentleness and reverence, in a way that is humble and thoughtful, in a way that is practical and always biblical. That is the call you and I have on our lives.
I was talking to somebody this week, and they were speaking of another man in the church. The comment made to me was: everywhere this man goes, he teaches Christ. It is not that he says, "Open your Bible." He simply lives it. As he speaks with people and asks what is going on in their lives, he will say, "We had something like that in our house. We dealt with a problem in our life, and Jesus Christ did this." Every conversation he has is brought back to the reality of what Christ is doing in his life — presenting Him, and ready to articulate in a reasonable way, filled with humility and gentleness, what it means to know Christ and what it means to live for Him.
The Gift of an Evangelist
As I read about that common call on every believer's life, it seems to me that what you see in Paul's life here is something a little different. This is the gift in the heart of an evangelist. This is what you see in the heart of a true missionary — one who is really called into a mission field. Hudson Taylor wrote these words as he thought of China: "I have a stronger desire than ever to go to China. That land is ever in my thoughts. Think of it — three hundred and sixty million souls without God or hope in this world. Think of more than twelve million of our fellow creatures dying every year without any of the consolation that comes from the gospel." And here is how he closes: "Poor, neglected China. Scarcely anyone cares about it."
That is what I see in the heart of Paul. I see in the heart of Paul this desire to say, "I need to go. I am called. I am driven — in the right sense of the word — to take this gospel message out to the world." But it is even deeper than simply proclaiming the gospel. He said, "Let's go back now where it has been proclaimed and see how those cities are doing."
You do not need to turn there, but we read it frequently — 2 Corinthians chapter 11, where Paul talks about momentary light affliction. When he speaks of that momentary light affliction, here is what he says: "Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A day and a night I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers in the sea, dangers among false brethren. I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure." Paul called this momentary light affliction.
But he does not stop there. I think the next verse is what is at play in Acts chapter 15, verse 36. He said, "Apart from such external things there is the daily pressure upon me of the concern for all the churches." Apart from all these physical, external things, there is in his heart a desire to know what God is doing in the churches. You see it here — let us go back to the cities where we proclaimed the Word and see how they are doing.
Making Disciples, Not Just Converts
That, indeed, is the fulfillment of the Great Commission. So often when we look at Matthew 28:19-20 and speak of the Great Commission, our whole emphasis seems to be on the word "go." And indeed, that is the call — you are to go, to go to wherever God has planted you, to wherever God has called you. But Paul did not simply proclaim the gospel, say "I'm done with that," and move on to the next person. The call is to make disciples, and that takes time. It means nurturing a person along and teaching them to observe all that Christ commanded. Paul says here in Acts chapter 15, verse 36, "Let's go back and see what is happening there. Let's see how they are doing." He does not mean physically — though that is certainly a concern. He wants to know how they are doing spiritually.
The Call to Disciple-Making
Are they following through? Is the leadership team developing? Yesterday morning at the men's breakfast, Les was talking about the men's conference. He said there were men who responded in different ways at the end of the day. Some said they had come to Christ. Some said they wanted more information. Others said they wanted to grow deeper in Him. And here is what he said: every person that responded is now being followed up.
That is the payoff. It is not just that you have an event and a bunch of guys say they are interested, and we get everybody all stirred up for a day and have a life-changing experience that lasts thirty seconds. Now becomes the work of disciple-making. That is the call that God put on us as a church — not just us, but all the churches.
In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul talks about the different giftedness in a body and says these gifts are given for the equipping of the saints. The word means being made fit or complete — moving people from a life of sin to a life of obedience. This equipping of the saints, that is all the believers, is given so they may do the work of service. God has given you a spiritual gift, a special enablement, to perform a function in the body of Christ. Ray Steadman says God gives you an ability to come alongside and perform that function with a certain sense of efficiency and effectiveness.
Paul says in Ephesians 4:13 that this work of equipping continues "until we all attain the unity of the faith." He is not talking here about some false ecumenicalism. The unity he speaks of is unity around the revealed truth that God has given us. He is not talking about standing around holding hands and singing kumbaya and creating an environment where everyone pretends to agree when in fact they do not agree at all. This unity is built around the knowledge of the Son of God.
Paul writes in Philippians 3:8, "More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things." Paul laid out all his credentials and then set them all aside, counting them as rubbish in order that he might gain Christ. As Paul writes to these churches, he identifies the supreme call: to know God and to know who He is. We as a church need to understand that this is our responsibility.
Passing the Faith Forward
This is the same responsibility Paul gave to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2 — "the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." The idea is to pass that on. To the church at Colossae in Colossians 1:28, he said, "We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ."
As Paul says goodbye to the elders at Ephesus, he tells them, "Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one of you with tears." He says in that same context that he preached the whole gospel. Paul is saying: for three years I was with you, and what I wanted to do was equip you and encourage you — to go back and make sure that these people are growing in the faith.
The Explosion Between Paul and Barnabas
Now the second missionary journey begins. Verse 39 tells us: "And there arose such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord."
There is an explosion. If all we have is the information at this point, we have seen these two men come together in a remarkable way. We saw Barnabas come alongside Paul at a time when nobody wanted to touch him. The Christians said they wanted nothing to do with Paul — they did not know whether he was truly one of them. Barnabas stepped forward and said, this is a man of God. He had heard Paul teach and preach, and he knew Paul had been converted and was one of them. These two men formed a deep relationship, and on the surface, having observed a fruitful missionary journey together, you would say nothing could blow them apart.
What happens? Right there in Acts 15:37, "Barnabas was desirous of taking John, called Mark, along with them." The word translated "desirous" is in the imperfect tense in the Greek, which means it is a continual desire — Barnabas is persisting. He keeps saying, Paul, if we are going to do this, let us take John Mark with us. Verse 38 gives the other side: "Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along, who had deserted them."
Why Did Mark Leave?
The last time we saw Mark was in Acts 13:13, and all we are told is that John Mark had left them. He had gone with them on that first missionary journey. He was a relative of Barnabas, and when Barnabas suggested taking him, Paul agreed and they departed. Not far into the journey, however, Mark left. We ask at the time: why did Mark leave? We do not know for certain.
It may have been that he resisted the new leadership. Paul had emerged as the leader of the team, though at the outset it had been Barnabas. Mark might have thought, Barnabas is my kin, and that is what I was counting on. It could also have been that as they moved into the mountains, the threat of danger became very real. As we read in 2 Corinthians 11, Paul was constantly in danger, and Mark may have said he could not handle it and wanted out. It is also possible that as a Jew, something about the direction of the mission gave him pause.
The Separation of Paul and Barnabas
He was a little bit uncomfortable with the reaching out to the Gentiles in such an aggressive way. It may be that he was just homesick. He's a young guy, and he's never been away from home. He wants his mom, he wants to go home — he's miserable. It could be that he's a strong starter but couldn't finish. For whatever the reason, he blew out, and now it's time to head out again.
Barnabas says to Paul, "Let's take Mark," and Paul said, "Absolutely not." There's a sharp disagreement, and these two men, who I would assume had a deep love for one another, now separate as a result of this differing view. You can't read it without wondering who's right. There's no direct answer we can get out of it — there's no passage where Luke says, "And Paul was right," or "And Barnabas was right."
Paul was an apostle; Barnabas wasn't. Barnabas certainly should have been in submission to Paul. We do see in verse 40 that there's no mention at all of Barnabas being sent out. It simply says Barnabas took Mark and away they went to Cyprus. Cyprus was Barnabas' home, so that would have been a logical move. I don't know if he just said, "Okay, I've had it with this — come on, Mark, we're going." It certainly doesn't record for us that the elders laid hands and sent them out.
It does say in verse 40 that Paul chose Silas, they departed, and the brethren had committed them, prayed for them, and sent them out. That may give us some indication that the church, at least, recognized the apostleship of Paul and his authority. Barnabas is not mentioned again in the book of Acts, though he is mentioned in 1 Corinthians, where Paul speaks of him in a positive way. Based on that, you'd have to say Paul's right.
Seeing Both Sides of the Disagreement
I went back and looked at some notes I had made almost twelve years ago about this passage, and I was pretty hard-line — Paul's the guy. Standing before you today, I do see Barnabas' point. Twelve years ago, I don't even think I saw his point.
Here's what Barnabas is doing: Barnabas is looking at the person. Paul is looking at the work. Barnabas is saying, "Paul, Mark's a young guy. He screwed up. He made a mistake. Paul, have you never made a mistake?" Barnabas sees something in this man — you can just feel it. He's saying, "Listen, I know he's my kin, but beyond that, this is a good guy. This is a diamond in the rough, Paul. He blew it, he acknowledges that he made a mistake. Come on, Paul — haven't you heard it said, failure's not fatal?"
And I can hear Paul saying, "Barnabas, I certainly sympathize with what you're saying, but do you remember what happened at Lystra? Do you remember how they took me out to the edge of the city and stoned me? Do you remember how we met opposition? I can't be in the middle of that going, 'Has Mark had his vitamins today? Was Mark okay? Throw that rock at me — is Mark all right?' We've got work before us, Barnabas. I'm not into a bunch of on-the-job training for a guy that bailed on me once before." You can certainly see the disagreement there.
Two Good Things Come Out of the Split
For whatever reason, these men are now apart. There are, however, two good things that come out of this. Number one, Mark gets a second chance — and boy, does he prove himself. He becomes the Mark who writes the Gospel. He becomes the Mark that Peter identifies as his associate. He becomes the Mark that Paul calls a co-laborer.
He is the Mark that at the end of Paul's life, Paul writes to Timothy and says, "Only Luke is with me. Timothy, come quickly — oh, by the way, pick up Mark, for he is useful for service." So this second chance sure paid off for Mark.
The other good thing is that at this point there are now two missionary teams out working. It shouldn't surprise us — Paul and Barnabas meant it for evil, God meant it for good. We shouldn't be surprised.
A Word on Church Planting
We were talking the other day about starting churches out of East Valley Bible Church. It's something that's coming up in a lot of conversations now, so I presume God is beginning to do something in that area, and I hope that He is. Somebody was talking to me about how that's always a goal of churches, but then it always gets lost — you're afraid to splinter something off. What will it do to this group in terms of economics, in terms of population? What about talented people? There's a temptation to say, "Let's find some guys we're not that confident in, guys we won't miss, and let's send them out."
No. You send people out not as a result of sharp disagreement, but as a result of God making it clear to the leadership team that He is raising up other people. It is my deep desire and passion that we become quickly a church-planting church — that we begin to identify not just areas and locations, but people that we send out. I pray we never get to a point where it happens the other way, where someone takes their marbles and goes down the road to start another church.
Paul and Silas Head East — and Meet Timothy
After the separation, Paul heads out. Verse 41 tells us that he and Silas move through Syria and Antioch, and now begin the trek east. As they move east, they come into Derbe and Lystra.
There is a certain disciple there. His name is Timothy. He is the son of a Jewish woman — his mother's name is Eunice, his grandmother's name is Lois, as we know from 2 Timothy. His mother is a Jewish woman and a believer, and his father was Greek. The tense of the verb indicates that his father is probably dead.
On the surface, this background is a great advantage to an evangelist. Timothy is both Greek and Jew, which gives him a certain degree of association with each of the cultures — although it does present a problem, which we will talk about in a moment.
A Young Man of Proven Worth
A young man, probably in his late teens or early twenties, with a great reputation. Look at verse 2: he is well spoken of by the brethren who are in Lystra and Iconium. Paul says he wants this man to go with him. Several commentators take a very strong view that Paul, in fact, led Timothy to Christ the first time through, and there is a certain relationship here. Paul later identified Timothy as "my true son in the faith, my beloved son," and in 1 Corinthians 1 he wrote, "For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord."
There is a special relationship here, but almost instinctively Paul looks at Timothy and says there is something about him. The guys from the church will frequently do that. Walter does this to me on a regular basis. I'll say, "Tell me about the guys in C2, tell me about the guys that you have in your area of ministry," and he'll say, "Boy, this guy's money — this guy's got it." We never quite know what it is, but he's got it. You look at him and you just know. Somebody walks in the room and you go, "He's got it."
I think that is almost the experience Paul had with Timothy. As he was around him, I'm sure he asked the other men what Timothy was like, and they said, "Man, this guy has a great reputation." Paul spots in him some level of giftedness — he's gifted. Oh, he needs work, but because he needs work, Paul says, "Come with me. Walk with me. Live with me. Travel with me. Listen to me." Paul was going to teach him how to teach by teaching and letting Timothy listen. He was going to help him in the areas where he needed help. And I believe Timothy ultimately helped Paul in return, because that is how a relationship begins to work.
A Letter of Introduction to the Philippians
Keep your finger there in the book of Acts, because we are going to move through Acts and Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians and Galatians and Ephesians, to Philippians chapter 2. In Philippians chapter 2, Paul writes what is, in a sense, a letter of introduction. On several occasions — to the church at Philippi, to the church at Corinth, and to the church at Thessalonica — Paul sends Timothy out as an emissary, and here he precedes that sending with this letter.
Here is what he says in verse 19: "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I may also be encouraged when I learn of your condition." Paul is sending Timothy on a reconnaissance mission, and that is the common thread we started with today. Paul wants to know what is going on in the church. Are the people growing in their knowledge and love of the Lord? Paul is concerned, if you will, about the success of the church — not whether it is growing numerically, but whether the people are growing.
Four Characteristics Worth Aspiring To
Now Paul says something remarkable about Timothy in verses 20 through 22. "I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare, for they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ. But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father." Paul gives four characteristics of Timothy here, and what has come up for me is that these are four characteristics we ought to be able to say about our own lives — and we will add a fifth one in a moment.
First, Paul says he has nobody else like Timothy. He is one of a kind. Some translations may say "like-minded." Certainly their personalities are different — Paul is continually telling Timothy to be firm, guard the truth, and not be timid — but Paul is saying their value systems are the same. When Paul says he wants to know Christ and Christ crucified, Timothy thinks that way too. When Timothy teaches, he teaches just as Paul does: Christ and Christ crucified, out of weakness rather than strength, out of dependence on the Holy Spirit, out of a love for God's Word, and with power. "Timothy is just like me," Paul is saying. "I am sending him to you."
Imagine, if you are a young man, that your mentor writes those words about you. It does not get much better than that. Whenever Larry writes a letter to me, he always addresses it to "my son in the Lord," and every once in a while he will write "my beloved Tomothy." I light up. Even now when I call him while he is hurting, I'll say "Doc," and he'll say "Tommy." It just changes everything. Imagine those words spoken over you.
Genuine Concern for Others
The second characteristic Paul names is that Timothy is genuinely concerned about the people he serves. If you are going to be involved in ministry — by which we mean service — if you are going to serve somebody, you have to be interested in them. You have to be concerned about them, not in a way where you are trying to figure out what they can do for you, but in a way that is genuine and real.
I was listening to Chuck Swindoll teach not long ago, and he was talking about four essential characteristics of a good teacher. The first one he named is that you have to know God's Word — study it, love it. That seems obvious. The second is that you have to be able to communicate, to have a style that brings people along so they are getting it and they are with you. The third is that you have to take the things that are complex and make them simple, and take the things that are already simple and keep them simple — not get to a place where you make everything so convoluted that nobody understands.
The Most Important Quality in a Teacher
He said, here is the fourth thing — and this is the most important ingredient in a teacher. If you want to be someone who communicates God's Word to a group of people, this is the most important characteristic you can have, far more important than any of the others. He said: you have to love the people you are talking to. You have to care about the people you are communicating with. Otherwise, it is just going to become a performance — you will simply get up there and dazzle them.
Over the last twelve years, I have had at least fifty people — between Priority Living, Sunday school classes, church, and traveling — say to me, "I want to be a teacher." I always ask, "Why?" And not one person has yet said, "Because I love people and want to communicate to them." Generally the answer is something like, "Well, I am a gifted presenter. I do human resource development over at Intel, and I think I have the gift of gab." The gift of gab — that is not in there. There is no gift of gab.
Your ability to communicate God's Word is rooted in something far deeper than presentation skill. Paul says of Timothy: this man can do it — and here is why. He is unselfish. He cares about Christ's agenda, not his own. He is not worried about how it makes him look or what it means for him personally.
A Proven Team Player
Paul adds one more thing about Timothy in verse 22: "You know that he's proven his worth. He served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father." This man is a team player. He is not the kind who shows up and says, "The pro from Dover is here — step aside, everyone. I will handle it from now on." In ministry, there is so often that temptation to let all the ministries gravitate around you while you stay at the center, as though working yourself out of a role is somehow a failure. I thank God that here on this campus, as diverse as we are as a staff, God has placed in our hearts a desire to work together as a team.
I was talking this week with a man involved in small group ministries, and I asked how things were going. He said it was going very, very well — and I respect his opinion a great deal. I asked him about Jim Harper. He said, "Jim is doing terrific. Let me tell you three things about him." First: his word — he hemorrhages this. He bleeds it. He thinks constantly about small groups, adult ministry, men's ministry, women's ministry. He is utterly committed. Second: he is doing it himself. He is not just telling others what to do in their small groups; Jim has his own groups where he practices exactly what he asks others to do.
The third thing he said was this: Jim is raising up people who are beginning to take over areas of ministry. He is replicating himself. The same thing is happening in C2 college ministry with Walter. The same thing is happening across areas of ministry all over. That is what you want to be.
Pursuing God's Agenda
Do you want to be used by God in a powerful way? It is actually quite simple. Find the area in which you are gifted. Be like Paul — be an imitator of Paul, as he is an imitator of Christ. Do not be concerned about whether anyone even notices it is you. Pursue God's agenda, care for God's people, bring people together, develop people, and God will do extraordinary things in your life — beyond anything you ever dreamed possible.
Can you imagine arriving in Philippi with that kind of introduction? Can you imagine when Timothy finally gets there and the emcee stands up and says, "We want to welcome Timothy — and here is what Paul said about him. One of a kind. Concerned about us. More concerned about Christ than about himself. And he is here to help us work together as a team." That is what this passage is about.
Timothy's Commitment: Circumcision
When Paul sensed all of this in Timothy — just as Barnabas had sensed it in John Mark — he was not looking at a finished product. Back in Acts chapter 16, Paul is saying, "Let's go with this." But before they leave, there is one thing more. Paul took Timothy and circumcised him.
You can almost picture the scene. Paul says, "Timothy, I want you to go with me." Timothy has heard a great deal about Paul and he is ready. "I have my Bible, my sleeping bag, my vitamins — I am ready." Paul says, "Well, there is one more thing we need to talk about." Timothy says, "I have my visa, I have my passport." And Paul says, "Timothy — circumcision. If you want to be part of this team, you need to be circumcised."
If you were here recently and have been studying this, you are probably thinking: that seems completely inconsistent. Galatians tells us that when Paul had Titus with him in Jerusalem, he refused to circumcise him. That was the entire battle, was it not? Did Paul not just fight this very issue at the first Council of Jerusalem? He did. The Judaizers were insisting that Gentiles needed to be circumcised, and Paul said absolutely not.
So what is the difference here? Go back to verse 1: Timothy's father was a Greek, but his mother was a Jew. In Jewish reckoning, that made Timothy a Jew. If Timothy was not circumcised, it was going to limit his access to the synagogues as he traveled with Paul and Silas, and it was going to hinder his ability to share the gospel. Paul's refusal to circumcise Titus had been a matter of theological principle — no one was going to impose circumcision as a requirement for salvation. But this was an entirely different situation.
Removing Barriers for the Gospel
When the question is salvation, Paul will not circumcise a man if it is equated to salvation. But now that the salvation issue is resolved, the conversation moves to peripheral matters — things we would consider nonessential. When Paul says, "To the Jew I became a Jew, to the Greek I became a Greek," this is what he is talking about. He is going out determined to eliminate every barrier. He does not want anything to stand between his team — Timothy, Silas, and himself — and the proclamation of the gospel.
Even though Paul is entirely correct to say circumcision is not required, he tells Timothy that if he is going to travel with them, he will be circumcised. And away they go. That is how the second missionary journey begins.
A Growing Church and a Growing People
Verse 4 tells us that while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees decided upon by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the churches to observe. The churches were being strengthened in faith and were increasing in number daily. This is a pattern seen all through the book of Acts: as the people in the church grow spiritually, God adds to their numbers regularly.
Questions come up about whether a church's growth is simply people transferring from other congregations. There are certainly people who come from other churches, and no one is going to turn them away. But in the getting-plugged-in class, the point is made clearly: if you are coming to this church simply because it is closer to your house than the one you were in before, that is not a legitimate reason to leave a church.
Something else is happening in a real and significant way, however. God is saving people through the work of His people. As believers become excited about their faith, that excitement is contagious. The people you go to school with, work with, exercise with, and spend time with — inevitably the conversation turns to Christ, and people are coming to faith. That is the byproduct of a healthy church. The church grows because the people are growing.
This is not about measuring how many people you can fit in a building. Consider that none of the conventional outreach tactics have been used here — no door hangers, no newspaper ads, none of those things. They are not needed. There are thousands of walking, talking advertisements for the gospel going out every single day when people leave the church. What matters is not whether the church is big or small. What matters is that you are a giant in the faith, because if you are, the church will be. That is exactly what the text is saying.
The Holy Spirit Closes Doors
As the team begins to travel, the map shows Paul starting in Jerusalem and heading north to Antioch, where this journey begins. From Antioch he moves into the region of Galatia — through Tarsus, Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium. From there his desire is to press westward into Asia, not the Asia we think of today, but the cities to the west. As he reaches the region around Pisidian Antioch, verse 6 tells us the Holy Spirit stops him. Paul's intention was to reach Ephesus, Laodicea, and the surrounding cities, but the door is shut. We are not told exactly how — only that the Holy Spirit prevents him.
What is striking about Paul is his response. When that door closes, he simply says, all right, if that is closed, let us go north. So he heads north into that region — and the Holy Spirit stops him again. That is what verses 6 and 7 together make clear.
With every direction blocked, Paul makes his way down to Troas, moving back toward the sea, more west than south. When he arrives at Troas, verse 9 records that he has a vision. A man from Macedonia appears, appealing to him: "Come over to Macedonia and help us." From Troas, Paul moves into Macedonia, and with that step, the gospel explodes into all of Europe.
Answered Prayer Looks Like No
What is deeply significant here is the way Paul processes the closed doors. He prays, states what he wants to do, and then — without fanfare — the Holy Spirit makes it unmistakably clear: not that way. And Paul does not respond by concluding that God has not answered his prayer. He recognizes that God has answered it. God said no. He said, "I do not want you going there."
How often do we pray, declaring what we want to do, and when God makes it clear that is not His direction, we complain that He did not answer? That is a self-centered response. He did answer. The answer was no. And notice how each "no" moves Paul closer to exactly where God wants him.
Paul cannot go west. He accepts it and turns north. He cannot go north. He accepts it and reasons: there is only one direction left — Troas. That puts him on the sea and opens up many possibilities. He gets there, and in a vision God says plainly: here is what I want you to do. Verse 10 tells us that when Paul had seen the vision, immediately they sought to go.
Finding God's Will
Look at the pronouns in the text. In verse 9, while they were passing through the area, the pronoun is "they." Then in verse 10, it becomes "we." Luke has joined the team. Luke says it was them — but now it is no longer them. Now it is "we," and away they go. This launches the gospel into Europe.
How to Discern God's Direction
Let me spend a few minutes on the issue of finding God's will. How do you find God's direction?
First, you have to know His Word. God's moral will is completely and entirely communicated to you in Scripture. When you have God's moral will for your life, you have it right here.
Second, you have to obey what He is telling you. Doesn't that make sense? You are out there seeking what God has for your life, and yet you are not doing what He is already telling you. I don't think He is going to answer that.
I had a man call me who wanted to have coffee. We met and talked, and I asked why we were meeting. He said he really believed God was working in his life and calling him into some specific areas of ministry — not a formal ministry, but specific things God was pressing on him. Over the course of the conversation, he mentioned his girlfriend, and I got the distinct impression they were living together. So I asked him about her. He said she was beautiful. I said I was sure she was, but asked whether they were living together. He said yes. I asked whether they were sexually active. He said yes. I told him we had a problem. Paul writes to the church at Thessalonians, "It is God's will that you abstain from sexual immorality." This man wanted to know God's will for his life while not responding to the will God had already revealed. I asked him why God would show him any more when he had clearly said, by his actions, that he did not care about what God had already given him. Why would God do that?
Godly Counsel and Honest Self-Evaluation
If you want to know what God wants you to do, you study and learn His Word, you know it, you obey it, and you talk to godly people. We looked this week in PL at the parable Jesus tells in Luke 12:16: "The land of a certain rich man was very productive." This man was already rich and then received a windfall profit. He had all these resources and faced a new dilemma, needing counsel he could rely on. And then it says he reasoned to himself — he asked himself what he thought he ought to do. You need people around you to give you godly counsel, not just your own voice.
There is nothing wrong with looking at circumstances and saying it seems clear that God has opened a door and provided an opportunity. But that alone does not mean you are supposed to go there. If you are in His moral will, obedient to what He has given you, talking to godly people, and laying out what the open door looks like and asking what they think — that process is how you begin to understand what God wants.
In that process, be honest. To the best of your ability, put your own agenda aside and get pride out of the way. So often when someone presents an opportunity, it appeals to the pride in you rather than to a real calling. This is true even in the area of spiritual gifts. I get people who say they want to teach and believe they have the gift of teaching. The way to confirm it is to get a classroom and a class. Sure enough, the first week thirty people show up, the next week twenty, and the next week ten. That tells you something. But there is nothing wrong with that. It closes one door so we do not have to worry about it anymore. Or perhaps the air conditioning was off, or the material was wrong — something we can work with. But we have to be honest in our evaluation of what God has given us.
Prayer as Part of the Process
Then you pray. You say, "God, I have this decision before me. Give me insight. Is there anything in Your Word You want me to know? Is there anything in my life that is sin and is impeding my decision-making?" Because if you are in the middle of some significant ongoing sin, there is no way God is going to say, "Let Me speak to you now, son." He is going to speak to you and say, "Stop that sin." Then you gather people who know you, love you, and care for you, and you begin to live life that way.
We do not know exactly how the Holy Spirit did it in Paul's journey — saying no here, no there, and yes forward. But He will do the same thing in your life, probably through that system or some variation of it. You can live a life knowing that you are about the work God has given you to do. What a joy there is in that. Next week, into Europe they go, and we will see the first convert as they move into this new area.
Closing Prayer
Father, we pray that our lives would be like those of Paul and Timothy — obviously very different circumstantially, but that we would be people who are truly linked in our minds with You, who are unselfishly pursuing Your agenda, and who truly desire to be about equipping and encouraging and building up the body You have given us. God, we pray for East Valley Bible Church. We pray that this would be a church where the saints are equipped and encouraged, a church that You use in a powerful way. And God, we pray boldly and at the same time filled with humility that You might multiply our work — that this might be a source You use to plant a church, and then another, and then another, and then another, because You work in the lives of the people here. Father, that is our prayer.