Acts chapter 16, and I want to
read from verse six. We're speaking about Paul and
Silas. Now when they had gone through
Phrygia, and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden by the Holy
Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mycaea,
they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them
not. And they passing by Mycaea came
down to Troas, And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood
a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, come over into Macedonia
and help us. And after he had seen the vision
immediately, we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto
them. Therefore, loosing from Troas,
we came with a straight course to Samothracea, and the next
day to Neapolis, and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief
city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony, and we were in
that city abiding certain days. And on the Sabbath, we went out
of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made, and
we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither.
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city
of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the
Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken
of Paul. And when she was baptized and
her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me
to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us. Paul and Silas had collected
Timothy, he was there too, as they moved up through what we
now call Turkey, but the areas where the apostles had gone on
their first missionary journey And this is what we call their
second missionary journey. And it appears as if Paul and
Silas and Timothy intended to visit a number of places where
they knew that there were churches or that they felt there was opportunity
to preach the gospel. They were making their way along
that route that they had previously visited with the intention of
visiting some new places also in Asia and Micea and Bithynia. But it's very interesting to
note that the Holy Spirit prevented them from going to these places. He forbade them preaching in
certain towns and in certain regions. And I think that that's
a very interesting fact. And it is something which I think
we all ought to be aware of in Scripture because it is noticeable
that the Holy Spirit clearly directs where preaching is to
be done and where preaching is not to be done. There were sinners
in these towns, just as there were in any other town or village. But there were no elect sheep
of God, at least not at this time. And so there was no need
for the gospel to be preached there. There was no call for
the apostles to take their ministry to those places because God did
not have anyone whom he was going to save in those places. And
for that reason, and for the reason that there were other
places to which the Lord would send his preachers, they were
constrained and prevented from going where their own will and
desire would ordinarily have led them. That's not to say that
there were never believers in these places and we discover
when Peter writes his epistle that he writes to the saints
that are in Bithynia. So there were believers in Bithynia
at a later stage, there just wasn't a need for the preaching
of the gospel in that town at this moment. Paul had other work
in other places that he would be called to do, places where
the gospel was needed and the timescale had an imperative. And therefore, he was directed
to go beyond, to go further. And as we read, we see that the
little party come to Troas. and there they are at Troas and
Troas is on the coast and it seems to be connected with the
city of Troy. I guess some of us from our history
will have heard of the city of Troy and those of us who don't
know about Troy from history should certainly know about it
from Hollywood and That, of course, was many, many years before,
probably over 1,000 years, maybe 1,200, 1,300 years before, that
the whole horse of Troy and city of Troy and Achilles and Hector
and all of that story about Troy took place. But here we are.
in the same region, in the same place. So it's lovely to see
how these connections can be made. And I'm just sorry that
I don't have the ability right now to show you one of those
little maps that I was showing on another occasion, because
it is a fantastic little map to show you where all these places
are with some super lines and brilliant arrows. But you can't
see it today, I'm afraid. So In the absence of those maps,
I'll just tell you that these little towns took them up to
the northern part of Turkey and right across from the southern
tip of Europe and Greece and Macedonia and into that part,
Albania as it is now, into that part of Europe with the Black
Sea up along the top and that was where now Paul and Silas
and Timothy were. And in that place, The Apostle
Paul received a vision. He received a vision, and it
may have been while he was asleep, it may have been while he was
awake, but he was conscious of the fact that he heard a voice. And here we find a call is given,
and this is sometimes called the Macedonian call, because
it seems to have been a man from Macedonia calling the Apostle
to come across and help us, Come and help us, Paul. We need to
hear about Christ. We need to hear the gospel. And
I think that's lovely. Isn't it? You know what we sometimes
say, we need a job. We need good healthcare. We need
good education. We need something for here and
something for there. How often do we hear people saying,
we need to hear Christ. Well, the apostle was called
and they determined that they would go into Europe with the
gospel. They would go across to Macedonia,
into Greece, which is in modern day Europe. And I wonder if any
of you noticed something interesting in verse 16 as we were reading
it. I just, not 16, I'm sorry. Oh, I've lost it. Oh, verse 11. No, verse 10. Verse 10. Should've, should've had it marked
down. Verse 10. Something interesting happened
in verse 10. I wonder if anybody noticed it when we were reading
it. There was a little change of pronouns. Did anybody notice
that? A little change of pronouns happened
in there. Suddenly it became we and us. See, this is a lovely thing that
scripture tells us almost accidentally sometimes. Do you know what that
means? Anyone? What does that mean there
when it says we and us? Luke joined them. Luke joined
them at Troas. Now, it's possible that he had
been there from before, right? I'm not going to be absolutely
adamant, but it's likely that what had happened here is that
he had come from Antioch and come by ship. and perhaps come
all the way around and met them at Troas. For whatever reason,
here we have a change. And now in the chapters that
follow, we discover that Luke, the writer of the book of the
Acts of the Apostles, is speaking in the first person. He's actually
there, and he goes with Paul, and he goes with Silas, and with
Timothy. So here's this little group.
Can you imagine what a powerful little group of preachers that
was? Luke, the writer of the gospel
and the writer of the book of Acts. Timothy, that young pastor
who Paul had taken and tutored and nurtured in the faith and
to whom several letters were written. Silas, who was a stalwart
and a helper to the apostle and the great apostle himself. There
they were and what did they do? The first thing they did was
they headed into Europe. They went to Philippi and here's
the gospel being spread out. This little party taking the
message. They go to a place called Samothracea,
which is an island which is pretty much likely just to have been
an overnight stop as they crossed this channel from Turkey, or
Asia as it was then, into Macedonia and Europe. They had an overnight
stay, and then the next day they sailed to a place called Neapolis,
or Neopolis, and the next day they went on to Philippi. And there seems to have been
a little bit of a delay when they arrived at Philippi, as
if they weren't sure quite what to do. Maybe there wasn't any
immediate opportunity to, say, for example, go to a synagogue.
It doesn't appear that there was a synagogue in this town.
And it may be that in the reading of the phrases, there was a little
bit of a delay. So what the apostles did was
they went out for a walk, maybe to talk about what their plans
were, what they were going to do, where they would go. And
as they were walking, they went down to the side of a river and
they discovered there a group of women praying and they decided
to sit down with them and amongst them and engage them in conversation
and to take the opportunity to preach the gospel. You know,
it doesn't have to be a big formal event like coming to church or
standing behind a pulpit or going into a synagogue and being invited
to read the passage of the day. We can talk about the Lord Jesus
Christ. in a very casual way, where we
sit down looking for an opportunity, perhaps not always pressing it
like some misplaced enthusiast, but looking for an opportunity,
taking an opportunity to speak about the Lord and the things
that the Lord has done as the Holy Spirit gives occasion and
opens doors. And that's exactly what the Apostle
did here. And Amongst the ladies, we discover
that there is one called Lydia. And Lydia is a long, long way
from home. See, that's why the apostles
had been prevented from going to these other places. Because
Lydia was on business. And she was in business from
Thyatira, which was way over there in the east, at Philippi. right at that time and so Paul
was sent from Antioch to Philippi to meet Lydia from Thyatira because
she had to hear the gospel that day at the riverside and see
the way the Lord brings his providences to bear upon the gathering in
of his church and people. She may have been a Jewish lady
And she hears the apostle preach the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
get a lovely little phrase here, that the Lord opened her heart. And that teaches us one thing,
if nothing else, that until the Lord opens the heart, the heart
is closed and bound and locked up against the gospel. But here
the Lord opened her heart and the Holy Spirit entered into
her soul with the gospel and with grace. It shows us that
the gospel and grace is God's work. It shows us that it was
God who ordained the circumstances, the occasion, the opportunity,
the message, and the reception of the gospel. She attended,
she listened, she received, and she believed the message as the
Holy Spirit gave her faith to do so. She believed the message
of the Lord Jesus Christ. She believed the message of his
death and his resurrection, his ascension into glory, forgiveness
of sins by his shed blood, and peace that was available from
God through that reconciliation which takes place on the ground
of the Saviour's sacrifice. She believed it. and having trusted
in the Lord Jesus Christ as her Saviour, she at once desired
to be baptised. Baptism, no doubt, was explained
to her, and her household, we discover here, are baptised with
her. That is simply recognising that
those who were with her that day also trusted the Lord as
their saviour. It wasn't that she, as the mistress
of the house, simply said, right you lot, we'll all get baptised.
That's nonsense. But they had believed with her,
and therefore they were baptised. and it's likely that they were
baptized there and then in the river that they were praying
beside. And it's lovely to see the reaction
of this lady. She invites the apostles into
her house to dwell with her and it shows that she had an immediate
desire to assist the gospel and the preachers of the gospel.
She had an immediate desire recognising the good that the Lord had done
to her soul to give something back in return to the Lord. And
the way in which she did that was to help and to support and
to encourage and to accommodate those that had led her to a knowledge
of the Saviour. This is a good picture of the
transforming work of the gospel in an individual's life. And
it shows us that grace and faith and labour go together in the
experience of a believer as we are converted to the Lord and
we seek to serve him and honour him and encourage his people
sharing fellowship with them and bring what good we can to
them. So that's the story of the Macedonian
call of Paul and Silas heading into Europe with the gospel and
the beautiful account of the conversion of Lydia whose heart
the Lord opened. Thank you for your attention.