So in the next section, beginning in Acts 16.6, if you want to turn there, just to have a reference there to go with for reading and stuff and looking at, we see that Paul and his group are having now completed their visit to the churches that were established in his first mission, that they now head north, most likely from Pisidian Antioch.

Paul’s Journey and the We Sections

so they made it that far up until 616, and they want to go north, as we see, and then go west. We're going to talk about that in the text as we come to it. But that's our reference point. And if you could just keep that map up there for a little while longer, And many have suggested that Paul seems to have planned to head directly across Galatia into the providence of Asia, perhaps to Ephesus. So many of the scholars think, because the text will not tell us, as we're going to read shortly, where he actually intended to go initially. It just says Asia. It could be anywhere in Asia. But he probably wanted to go to Ephesus, is what most of the scholars think.

But he was prevented from doing that. So that's what he intended to do, perhaps intended to do. Again, the text isn't clear on what he actually intended to do at that point in time. But we're going to later see in Acts that Paul does eventually make it to Ephesus, but he does it on his third missionary journey, not on his second missionary journey, which is what we're on still now. So he does make it to Ephesus eventually, but not this time. While that may have been his intent here, and we see clearly.

What we see clearly is that Paul was prevented from going the way he intended. We're going to see that. He was prevented from going the way he wanted to go. Yet the gospel outreach was further expanded into new geographical and ethical boundaries, as we're going to see. And Paul's method for outreach has been so described as one geographical region at a time. You know, if you look at Paul's missionary journeys, he was methodical. He'd go from one geographical region at a time and would establish churches in one geographical region and then move on to the next one, establish churches, move on to the next one. That kind of was the way he did his mission work.

And, and so that's what, what, what scholars have described to one geographical region at a time approach. By way of observation, I didn't think I was going to talk about this. One perceptive brother and I talked about it last week as a sidebar, but you're going to see the use of these first person pronoun we's starting. And I was, I was telling him, I'm probably not going to say anything about it, but then the more I thought about the more I should probably say something about it because there's a lot of ink written on this. And if you pick up a commentary, you want to do some commentary reading, or you pick up a devotional book on Acts, you're going to run across this. So this isn't an alien thing. Or if you're going to teach, you're going to run across having to grapple with these we sections. First person, personal pronoun, we. And that starts in 1610. And it begins the so-called we sections of Acts, W-E sections of Acts. And you see these punctuated in this latter half of Acts at various points. So I'll just outline where they are, and they're delineated. They're not always, it's not we from here on out. It's we punctuated at different times in Paul's missionary journeys in his ministry. So the first one is in 1610. It goes to 1617. The second we passage is from 25 to 2015. The third we passage is from 211 through 18.

And then the fourth and final wee passages are found in chapter 27, 1 all the way to 28, 16. And these sections point to the fact that the human author, because that's who's writing this, right? Luke is writing this, so when you hear the word we, the natural assumption is that Luke was physically there. He wasn't just writing as this distracted, abstract historian that's going around getting his sources in order and organizing what he's going to write. He was actually present for these sections, so he's writing them from a more, autobiographical sense. And you get this sense when you read those sections. I was talking to the brother last week, and if you read those sections, they typically tend to have more narrative description and less to do with the activity of what's going on in the missions. And so that would just give you the hint that that person is actually there. They're actually looking around and seeing this stuff happen and play out at that time. Surprisingly, there's a number of critical authors here. That think it's just a literary tool that Luke uses, that he wasn't really there, which.

I can't even think, unless you have such a preconceived notion that Luke couldn't have possibly been there, why you would even come up with that? Because the text is just so clear. I mean, that's just arguing against the text. And you never want to be arguing against the text when it comes to God's Word. You don't want to be arguing against the text. You want to be arguing with and for the text. You want to be submitting to the text as a believer. And so it's just boggles the mind that, that there's many strident voices out there that think that these wee things are just literary concoctions that, that goes in the face. Remember we, I've argued again and again, since way back in Luke and then in Acts at the beginning, I re-argued it, that Luke is a historian. He's writing as a historian. So he's not just going to make stuff up. You know, he's writing limited. He's coned down. He's focused when he's, he's got an intentionality. He's not writing a complete history on anything. He's got a purpose, but the stuff that he talks about and writes about actually happened. We have to believe that as Christians. It actually happened, because if it didn't actually happen, why are we basing our lives on? Why are we orientating our lives off of a fairy tale, a fable, a story? That doesn't make any sense. They are actual historical facts. And Luke is personally present during these events, and thus his writing, as he does as a historian, yet from a first-person point of view, because he was actually there.

In those sections. At the very least, this adds to the truthfulness. That's why it's important to argue for this. It adds to the truthfulness of not only the designated we sections, but of the whole of Luke acts as a composition, as being based on durable, historical eyewitness, whether it's first person we with Luke along with the rest of them, or if it's a third person, he gets it from a source who was there when he wasn't, and he writes it down, a trusted source that validated and told him what happened. These are historical facts. That's the only way to really read this and be faithful to what he's written. Otherwise, you're just...

Not even faithful to what he's written because he doesn't come off as, he's not telling us he's writing a fable or a story. He's telling us he's writing history. Therefore, as we've stated over and over and over again, what is related here in all of Luke's acts is historical. And that's why I thought I better bring this up just to drive that point home once again. It's historical. It's historical. It's factual. It's truthful. I just was reading, I have a pile of books I read every day. I don't read them every day. I try to read them every day. I don't get to them every day. They're sitting in my living room right next to the lamp and a comfortable chair. And I go through them. Not all of them are Christian. I read Shakespeare's sonnets is in there, for instance. I like poetry. So that's in the stack. But most of them are theological. One of them is written by a very liberal pastor who's getting ready to retire. It's his last year of ministry. It's a journal. It's his journal entries. And I'm reading it and I'm scratching my head sometimes. Some of the stuff he comes up with, I agree with. A lot of the stuff he comes up with is like, no. And one of the things he came up with that relates to these wee passages, I'm jumping off. It seems like I'm jumping off and I'm not. I'm going to bring it back to these wee passages and the historicity of the Bible.

He says, when I was in school, when I was in college, I used to think there was a truth, that there was a truth to argue for. And he's reading this one book by Aldous Huxley. I can't remember the title. It's not Brave New World, the one everybody knows and has read, right? It was another book that he read. And in that book, there's a thesis sentence that he pulls out and he says, and I read this just this morning, obviously.

By way of providence here. He says, Aldous Huxley says, everybody is partisan. Everybody is partisan. And what he means by that is that everybody has a point of view they're arguing from. There's some truth to that, but I think he's taken it way too far into the medical physical realm, the author, this liberal pastor. And he's saying, it's all perspective. And he said, when I got to seminary and he went to a liberal seminary and was in seminary, the pastor's writing in his journal there and it's published in the book I'm reading. He says, I realized and was taught, he was taught this, that the truth is not, facts. It's not, it's a person. It's Jesus. See, see, they shifted. The truth is, and there is a sense in which Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, right? But to argue it that he's the truth as a person allows for squishiness. It allows for squishiness. It allows for, and then he says, everything that we ascribe to. And as we look at the scriptures, it's just our perspective. The truth is actually Jesus in the person and all the other positions are just perspectives of the truth and the truth undergirds them all. And I'm like reading this, thinking this guy is really lost.

Yeah. Yeah. It's, he's just so lost. But anyways, that's why it's important to come back because you bump into people in those critical scholars. I'm sure they're filling his book, his study. Would argue this way. And so the truth is just everywhere. Every position has truth. Well, then if that's the case, I mean, there's positions that contradict each other. That's dissonance. That doesn't even make any sense. Anyways, so these are historical, coming back to the text here. Historical we. Luke is here. Luke is present. Luke is writing from the first person, plural, because he's with other people on the missions team, as we're going to see. So that's our introduction. Let's read, if we can, Acts 16, 6 through 10. Could someone read 16, 6 through 10 nice and loud for us?

God Redirects Paul’s Mission

So, as we have alluded to in the introduction, the Apostle Paul was prevented from going the way he intended, as we just read the text and see. He was prevented. He had intended to go away, and he was prevented from doing that. Luke emphasizes this over and over and over again, and thus underscoring its importance. Luke wants us, and he combs down on this, and remember who's being prevented from doing what he intended. It's the Apostle Paul. He's an apostle with a capital A. right? And he's intending to do something for the glory of God, for God's fame, to reach a people that he has envisioned he wants to reach.

And he's prevented from doing that. And not only is he prevented once, but he's prevented twice from doing it. And so who prevented the, and I'm saying this purposely, the apostle Paul, who prevented the apostle Paul from doing what he intended to do, according to Luke? The Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit or God or Jesus, the spirit of Jesus intended, had prevented the apostle Paul from doing what he wanted to do. Who prevented him from going in? Now look at the detail of the text. Let's look and see what the text says. I want you to use the exact textual phraseology because I got a purpose for this. Who prevented him from going into Asia?

So he wanted to go into Asia somewhere. We think Ephesus maybe. Let's just say Ephesus for kicks and giggles. A lot of the scholars think Ephesus with good reason. He wanted to go into Asia. But the Holy Spirit, he says, having been, verse 6b, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, 6b. Who prevented him from going into Bithynia? Look at where Bithynia is.

He sensed by the Holy Spirit he couldn't go where he wanted to go in Asia. So he's going to head straight north from that bent point there is Bithynia, way up there north, northern past Galatia, past the Roman province of Galatia. He wants to go up into Bithynia and preach the gospel there. What does the text say? Who prevented him from going? So the Holy Spirit prevented him from going west. Who prevents him from going north to Bithynia? What does the text say specifically? The spirit of Jesus did not allow him, verse 7b. And then, so then he's directed to, to go to Macedonia. And I want you to see where Macedonia is. So from the bent portion, Pisidian Antioch, go way over to Troas and then way up to Macedonia. And we're going to end up in Philippi and he's going to spend a lot of time. The text is going to spend a lot of time in Philippi. We're just going to scratch the surface, Lord willing, today on that. But so who allows him or directs him, which is more accurate, to go not to Asia, across to Asia, not west, not north to Bithynia, but rather northeast, way, way, way over, far, going, how many people groups is he going past? How much land is he covering where he's not allowed to preach the gospel, to go to Macedonia, way over here, way up in the corner, and specifically to Philippi, that first.

Over to the right, that first town is where he's going to end up and be directed. Who directs him? Specifically, what does the text say? Who directs him to go there? God, God. It says, concluding the ESV says that God called him to preach the gospel to them. It was God who directed him through the vision of the man from Macedonia, right? Pick up A that you guys so quickly, rightly concluded from. And this is something I hadn't noticed before.

The Trinity’s Guidance to Macedonia

Exactly. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Did you notice the Trinitarian formula there? I didn't notice that until I was studying this. And that's why Luke isn't just varying this just to be literary.

He's teaching us some theology here. And that's why I wanted us to specifically use the words used in the verses that they came up. 6B, the Holy Spirit, second person of the Trinity, was involved in directing Paul not to go to Asia. The Spirit of Jesus, or third person of Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The second person of the Trinity, the Spirit of Jesus. Jesus explicitly mentioned doesn't want him to go to Bithynia. But God, which is the normal designation by itself, God is the Father. The Father directs him to go to Macedonia. So there you have a Trinitarian formulation. This is all of the Godhead working to direct God's purposes. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stunning when you think about it. Stunning. The important thing here is that God had other plans at this time for Paul, Silas, Timothy, and as the we indicates in verse 10, Luke. God had other plans for them than they had for themselves. Paul Hill says it well. He says the geographical scheme is certainly not the dominant motif in this section. What's the dominant motif in this section If it's not the geographical scheme, the will of God, which is manifest in the way he.

Leads them and directs them. It's the divine leading that's the important part here. That's the emphasis. And Luke goes out of his way to write verse after verse, showing how God intervenes, God directs. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit direct the missionary group of now four. Notice how it's just growing as they move on on the second there. Now four, it includes Luke with the we, introduction of the we, first person, plural pronoun. So the father, verse 10, the son, verse seven, the spirit, verse six, together lead Paul to a decisive new breakthrough, a mission to Macedonia. And then I'm quoting here, Pohill, and he writes anachronistically, because it's not called Europe yet, the witness on the European soil. This would eventually become Europe over here, Macedonia, but it's not Europe in the first century. So he's speaking a little anachronistically there, anachronistically, so out of sequence. Pohill insightfully comments, the Spirit, quote, the Spirit had blocked every direction sought by human initiative.

Since the missionaries left Lestria and Iconium. Now it was time to understand why? Why? Why did God overrun all of their human initiative to direct them in a very almost heavy handed way, you could say? I mean, certainly in a stellar, extraordinary way. So that flows into my next question when we talk about the why there of Peterson.

Trusting God When Plans Change

What does this stunning spirit preventing preaching of the gospel as Paul and his team had intended suggest? What does it suggest when God controls and directs them not to do what they intended? What does it suggest? There's a distinct purpose involved here. Good. Yep, at this time first, specifically. So God wanted them to go to Macedonia. So he closed every other door.

There's still a bit of mystery here. You don't understand all of the why, but we can assume some of the whys. It suggests some whys to us. But ultimately, there's a mystery of God here. God has a plan, right? We don't always understand what that plan is. But we just submit to what he reveals to us. You know, when Abraham left Ur of Chaldea, he didn't know where he was going to end up. There was a season, a long season, where he had no idea where God was directing him to go, but he knew he had to leave his hometown. It's the same thing here.

Ordinary Guidance and Extraordinary Visions

This is extraordinary. To have this kind of direction, dreams, visions, and stuff, that's extraordinary. That's not the ordinary means God uses to direct his people. I don't know of any Christian that tells me they're fully directed by visions and prophetic utterances, right? What are we normally directed by as Christians? By that very word of God, by prayer, by the spiritual disciplines, by coming together with each other and bouncing. And what do you think of this? What do you think of this? And having them usually, if they're good, faithful friends, they'll come back with some scriptural warrant for what they're telling you. They're not just telling you their opinion. So there's ordinary means here that we follow day in and day out. If you look at all the visions and the prophetic utterances all through Acts, and even if you go back into Luke, they're relatively rare. Remember, Acts covers decades and decades. It seems compressed to us. Like, oh, it seems like almost every chapter God's doing this. No, that's not how it works.

These are extraordinary things that are happening to this group of missionaries. The ordinary things are by far called ordinary because that's normal or normative. That's the normal way God speaks to his people is through his revealed word. So, good. But it takes wisdom to know when you're supposed to pursue, when it looks like a no or it's hard. And you could argue, I guess, that it's a no if it's hard. Some people punch out, but you may have to go through some hard things. And there's scriptures for that, too. But the scriptures here are teaching that we need to trust God.

So, these are the things I suggest. I wrote down, I thought of that it suggests. And some of these things you've already mentioned, some of them you didn't. And I'll just run through my list real quick, just by way of encapsulating our discussion. It suggests that the ministry in Macedonia and Greece was God's priority at this time. It suggests that God has a plan. It suggests that God is in control and sovereign. It suggests that we should trust God even when we don't know why or how or who or what or where or when. All those interrogatives. Even when we don't know that, we trust God. Sometimes in life, in the life of faith, we don't always get the answers to our questions. But if we trust God, we can wait for not the answer we want. That's not what we're waiting for. But we're waiting for the answer that he provides. You ever notice that for those who've been saints a while? There's an answer you're seeking God for, for a situation or circumstance you're in. And it doesn't ever seem like you get that answer. But you do get some sort of measure of an answer, not a full answer, this side of glory, for many of the things that afflict us the most deeply and severely. But you get a partial answer or the start of an answer. But it's usually to affirm what God wants to teach you in this, not the answer you were asking about.

I've noticed that from time to time when I'm going through something particularly difficult or I'm weeping with a saint who's going through something particularly difficult. I don't have the answer for why you're going through that. But what I can tell you is to trust God. And I don't mean it in a trite way. I mean it in a real abiding, dynamic, substantial, pillar-sinking, solid way. And I mean it for myself too. We have to go on like that because we don't have all the answers. This is a sinful world. Sinful things, bad things happen. We don't always know the why or the who or the how or the what or the when. But we do know God. We know his character. And I think that suggests that this.

Inner change between Paul and God suggests that to us by way of practical application. If we trust God, we can wait not for the answer we want, but for the answer that he provides.

God’s Timing and Sovereign Plan

In due time, God would allow the gospel to be planted in those regions. We see that those regions that Paul wanted to go to in Asia and Bithynia. We see that if we fast forward to chapter 18 and 19 of Acts, and if you look at 1 Peter 1.1, In Peter's letter, you know that these places were evangelized. They just weren't evangelized now. God wanted them to be evangelized later, obviously. He wanted Paul and his group of three others to go to Macedonia now in Acts 16. And that's the take-home message for this section, I think.

Note in Acts, while divine direction does happen when believers least expected by visions and promises, they're rare. You notice that whenever, that's the other thing I wanted to bring out. I'm glad I read that because it kind of echoes what I said earlier, but I didn't bring out that part. You know, I've ran into brothers and sisters who kind of expect to be talked to like that, but that really isn't where the accent of scripture lies, is it? When people are talked to like that and prophetic utterances and visions, they didn't even expect it. Most of the time, the lion's share of the time, It just came out of the blue. They weren't like holding God to communicate with them like that. God just chose to very rarely, sometimes in redemptive history that we have recorded in our Bible, communicate with some saints like that. And I don't know why he does it that way, some very rarely, and then the normative way.

I don't know all the ins and outs of how God works that out, but I do know that most of the time, for most of us, in fact, probably virtually almost all the time, we're going to be getting our direction from this written word. We're not going to be having these extraordinary, phenomenological things happening to us all the time, nor, and God forbid, if we ever expect God to do that, because none of the saints ever expected God to do that. You can search high and low. It just happened when it did happen, surprising to them as much as it is to us who read it. And it happens. So that's a good caution. I do run into some charismatic brothers or sisters who kind of expect that this is the way God speaks to his saints all the time. And sometimes those brothers and sisters, I'm not saying all the time, some of them are good brothers and sisters, and some of them led me to the faith that were of that ilk. But sometimes, perhaps a lot of times, maybe, some of these brothers and sisters, they'll overstep what God's Word clearly teaches to say that they have an impression or a vision or prophetic utterance that tells them to do this instead and you're like well wait a minute God doesn't contradict himself that can't be from God, so we got to be careful on that score too when we start getting into those charismatic gifts or those charismatic gifts that some of our brothers and sisters seem to want to wade into all the time, so that's just a word of caution there for us all so So...

We can't necessarily expect regular guidance from God in such extraordinary ways. We certainly can be encouraged by his regular guidance found in his word, through gospel initiative, through loving concern for those we seek to reach, through planning wisely. Yes, the Bible does teach us to plan wisely, even as Paul tried to plan and was stopped from planning, which was extraordinary, as we said. But normally that's what the word teaches that we are to do as believers. And we can be encouraged by, as Peterson says, and I'm quoting Peterson here on this last part, quote, Luke's narrative to believe in God's sovereign overruling and intervention to direct the progress of his word and his people where necessary. God can overrule. Why can God overrule? Because God's sovereign. And that's, if you don't hear anything else or take home anything else I say today, I just want to bless you to remember and bless myself to remember that God is sovereign. God's in control. I don't care if you're in the deepest valley. I don't care if you're on the highest mountaintop. I don't care if you're most of the time in the Middleton, either sloping up or sloping down as we all do in the Christian life. God's still sovereign in all of that pathway, all the elevations up and down. He's sovereign. Take that to the bank. Take that. Trust that. Bank your life on that and be encouraged by that, even when we don't understand everything that's going on in a particular moment that we're in. So anybody else on that section?

Responding to God with Obedience

What about the response? This is a blessing, isn't it? What was the response of the team to God's directing? What was their response when God directed them so heavy-handed, as it were, to go to Macedonia? What was their response? This is really important. This is very practical for us, right?

Immediately they went. They obeyed. When they heard from God, they obeyed. That's the mark of a faithful disciple. If you hear from the word of God in the word of God, that you would obey the word of God, they heard through that extraordinary means and they obeyed. But the bottom line is obedience to God, submission to God, trusting God, being encouraged by God. They obeyed immediately. Verse 10a, when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we, again that we, all four of them, Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, all submitted to what the vision had told them. They immediately sought to go, it says. All four shared the vision. God, and this reminds me of a.

Wisdom When Scripture Doesn’t Decide

It wasn't directly answered in the Word of God and what he wanted to do. It was a geographical move he was considering, but it was going to be very uprooting for his family. And he was agonizing over it. This was when we were young Christians. I remember this distinctly. And he called me. I was in Minnesota at the time going to grad school. And he calls me. He said, Larry, I got a question for you. I've been seeking God. I've been in His Word. I've been praying. I've been attending church. I've been submitting to God. And he says, I can't get an answer on whether I should move or not. I get nothing, Larry. I get nothing. And I told him, I said, well, brother, it sounds like you're doing everything right. Sounds like you're doing all the disciplines that you're seeking God. You don't want to, you're not contentious with God. You're not trying to disobey God. You're trying to do what's best for your family. And I said to him, sometimes if you go out to California from Michigan, if you do that. And because you don't know for sure, I said, God hasn't told you not to do it. It's not directly attributed in the word. If you're afraid you make a left-hand turn when you should have gone right, I said, our God is big enough. He can take that left-hand turn and make it a right-hand turn. That's how sovereign God is. So you're doing everything right.

I say you just decide if you're going to go out there or not, because I can't counsel you one way or the other to go or not to go. This is one of those areas I can't, but I can say you're doing everything I would counsel you to do already, there's nothing more I can say. But don't be afraid. Don't be paralyzed to go forward is basically what I was telling them. And neither should we. For some of these issues, the Bible doesn't speak directly on. But are you being moral, ethical? Are you submitting to God? Are you considering the voices around you? Especially if you're like a family unit. Are you listening to your family members? If you're the only one saying, let's do this. And all of your family members are saying no. You know, there's been times in my marriage where I just had to wait. I would just decide to wait. It was one of those issues. So I said, well, I'm just going to wait and see if God will change my wife's mind or maybe change my mind on this issue. Because we don't have to act on everything that pops into our head, right? We don't have to act on some of this stuff, especially if we don't got unanimity. Sometimes, you know, you do have to go without unanimity, but they should be very rare.

I truthfully, but it sounds like a joke, but I truthfully say, I've sought for this unity within my family, with my spouse in particular.

So hard and valued it so much that there's only one time I actually told my wife, I hear what you're saying, but we're going to do it anyways. And you know what it was over buying a snowblower because I was on call one weekend for one of the first weekends I was on call my first winter here in Duluth, you know, and I got called in like four times over the weekend and the snow was coming down all weekend long. And I had to shovel out after I'd get home because I had to be clear enough to get out to the hospital again if I got called back in for an emergency, right? So you can imagine shoveling all weekend long, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, how sore your muscles would be at the end of that. I mean, I was just raw. I was basically couldn't hardly lift my arms. Literally, I'm not exaggerating here, literally. And I told my wife, we're getting a snowblower. And she thought, no, we don't need a snowblower. And I said, we're getting a snowblower. And she said, no, we don't need a snowblower. And I said, I've heard all your arguments for not getting, And she gave me many arguments for not getting a snowblower. You know, she's the financial whiz in the family. I said, I've heard all your arguments, but I'm going to just pull out the leadership card here and I'm getting a snowblower.

But that's the only time, I kid you not, that's the only time I've ever done that. If you're the kind of leader in your household that's pulling out the leadership card all the time, you maybe should question that. That's not a good tactic for your marriage. So you don't want to go to that well too many times and too often, especially for stuff that you don't need to. Make sure it's something that needs to be done, leaders in your household. Okay? Anyways.

Anybody else on God's directing and obeying God.

Availability, Faith, and Trust

You see, availability is more important than intentionality. That's what I got from this. Availability, because we don't do anything apart from God's grace, apart from God's enabling, right? It's not about us, people. This isn't about us fundamentally. It's about God and God moving. So your availability to God is actually more important than what you intend to do for God. You have to be available and then obey when God tells you to do something, right? To follow God like this, to follow God like this can be hard, isn't it? You're like throwing off all caution almost. You could take it that way. I'm not trying to take, you got to hold this stuff in tension. But it does take great faith and trusting, not only in our own desire or interest, but trusting God. We have to trust God to walk like this. You got to trust God when he guides us, that he has good plans for us because he's a good God. I mean, that is when Christianity gets interesting, when you trust God like that. How big is your God? How big is he? Is he big enough to trust like this?

Are you confident enough in God to walk the walk of faith like this? Not having all the answers all the time. Even in the hardest circumstances. I've seen so many people apostatize their faith over horrible things that have happened to them. It's only the one that radically trusts god that's going to have a durable faith that side of all that grief and pain, Peterson observes, it's not human planning, but what God wills that drives the response. To this, there is only one response, obedience. End of quote. I love that quote. That's what I put in there.

The Mission Arrives in Philippi

Can someone read the next section, 1611 through 15? So the team of four proceed probably from Presidian Antioch, and they go from that crook that bent there, I wish they had Presidian Antioch up there, up to Troas, which is about 200 miles. Then they board a ship, and they go up that way to Philippi, which is another 120 miles by sail. So we're looking at 200 plus 124, 20. And then it's 10 miles inland to get to Philippi. Lasts a little bit on foot, right up into Philippi in Macedonia. So that's their journey. So they're bypassing all kinds of people, all kinds of land. They're making double time to obey God.

And so they get to Philippi.

Finding a Place of Prayer

And they waited there for some days till the next Sabbath before beginning to witness. Paul is following his usual pattern, which would have been to sought out a synagogue. But the telling thing is, he doesn't go to a synagogue, does he? This is a way far flung away from the Middle East colonial city of the Roman Empire. And guess what? It takes 10 males at this time by rabbinical law to make a synagogue. And they obviously don't have 10 Jewish males in Philippi to make a synagogue. So there's these women, these Gentile women, like Cornelius was a Gentile believer of God, meeting outside the city gate outside. Because there's no synagogue to meet in. There's no house. They don't have 10 men. And there's all these women.

And that's where Paul goes because he hears that they're there. And so apparently there was no synagogue. So they learned of a place of prayer outside the city gates. And so this gathering of women, as Paul Hill observes, I imagine he's saying this with a smile as he's writing it, quote, the closest thing to a synagogue at Philippi. And Paul took the usual posture of a speaker, assuming the synagogue sit-down position to address the women. So he sits down by the river like he's a teacher in a synagogue. And these women who are God-fearers, they follow God, but they're not fully converted to Judaism, much like Cornelius' was back in Acts 10. And he begins to teach as if he's their rabbi or the rabbi they've come to see from that sitting position.

Lydia Stands Out

Among the women gathered, one stood out, and she was Lydia. And we are out of time, as my little alarm reminded me. And then now the time has expired. We're going to pick back up on Lydia. And I want you to think about, There was one that stood out, Lydia. Who is Lydia? Why did she stand out? So that's where we're going to pick it up. That's going to be our question. First question, why did she stand out? Because Luke spends a lot of ink on Lydia. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this time. Help us to trust you, to radically trust you in every situation or circumstance we find ourselves in. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.