So I'm going to ask you to please remain standing out of honor for God's Word and to take your Bibles and turn to Acts, the book of Acts, the 16th chapter. I'm going to begin reading in verse 1 and I will read through or through verse 10. So it's the first 10 verses of the book of Acts. And when we come to chapter 16, I'll remind you that this is the beginning of the second missionary journey. The first missionary journey is complete. This is the very beginning of a second journey now. Acts chapter 16, verse 1, God's Word says this, Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra, and a disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer. But his father was a Greek, and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra in Iconium. And Paul wanted this man to go with him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem for them to observe. So the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number daily. And they passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go to Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. And passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Let's pray. Father in heaven, how grateful we are for the gospel. We read these words where they were called to this place to preach the gospel. The Lord, I now have the privilege to preach the gospel in this place. And so I ask the Lord that you would bless the preaching of your word. I asked that it would go forth powerfully. I asked that your Holy Spirit would lead us in the way of truth and give us understanding. We ask for your glory and, of course, for our good, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may please be seated. If you are like me, you don't like too many things that are new. I kind of like old things. I like old books. I like old art. I like old architecture. I like old baseball diamonds. I like Fenway Park and Wrigley Field and old Yankee Stadium and those type of things. I just seem to like old things. But not everything that is new is bad. I do like new medicine. I think new medicine is a lot better than medicine was 100 years ago. I like new technology. New technology is better than it was before. Well, in the text that is before us today, everything we see is new. We have a new missionary team. There's a new missionary worker. There's a new vision for the team to employ. And we even see a new church that gets planted. But from these things you're going to learn today, I hope, the importance, first of all, of world missions. How important world missions is. But also the power of God to do whatever it is He pleases. Over and over the Bible tells us that God is in control over all things. One text tells us the lot is cast, but it's every decision is the Lord's. Cast your lot however you want. Whatever decision comes about, it is of God. Another text tells us is there anything that comes to pass that God has not ordained it? Is there anything that happens that God has not been in control, that God has not approved of that, that God has not ordained it? The psalmist says our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Well, you'll see the truth of that as we consider now, first of all, the new missionary team. And men and women, to understand chapter 16, you really need to remember how chapter 15 ended. Remember, there was one missionary team that had gone. That one missionary team was headed by Paul and Barnabas. And together they went on the first missionary journey proclaiming Christ and planting churches. Well, now the second missionary journey is going to begin. And the purpose originally was for Paul and Barnabas, the team, to go back to the churches they had planted in these different regions and to see how they're doing. If you look at chapter 15, you look at verse 36, it tells you that. Verse 36 of chapter 15 says, 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. Well, that was the intent. But as you know, something almost unthinkable happened. It's verse 37. Barnabas wanted to take John, called Mark, along with them also. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along, who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. Now, I think you see the problem. Mark deserted them on the first trip. Basically, Barnabas wanted to let that slide. Barnabas wanted to, let's go ahead and take this young guy, Mark, let's go ahead and take him, give him a second chance. Paul is absolutely not. No second chance for this guy. Well, they disagreed and we are told this, verse 39, and there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another. Paul and Barnabas separate from one another. Can't agree. Men and women, which one of them was right? Think I've asked it before. We don't know. We're not told. We're not only told which one was right and which one was wrong, we're also not even told that this split up was wrong. Nowhere is this split up between the two of them even condemned. It just happens sometimes. Sometimes things like this happen in a church. But in the providence of God, remember the one who ordains whatsoever comes to pass, good things resulted. What good things resulted from this? Well first, Mark did get a second chance. Barnabas brought Mark with him. And Mark did redeem himself. And I think you remember later on, Paul will write to Timothy. And he'll say to him, Send me Mark, for he is useful to me. But the second good thing that happened is that there's now two missionary teams. Two teams that have gone out instead of one. Two teams proclaiming the gospel. Two teams now that are planting churches. That's why one man has written this. Said you can have a First Baptist Church or a First Presbyterian Church. The church can have an argument and split. And the result is the Second Baptist or Second Presbyterian Church. So there are two churches. This may not be the best of all possible ways to start churches, but it is one way, and God does often seem to bless the two churches. So here now are the two new teams. Look at the end of verse 39 and following. You see this, it says, And Barnabas took Mark with him, and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. And he was traveling through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. So two new missionary teams. Well, that takes us now to what we'll call the New Worker. You look at chapter 16, first two verses. It says, Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra, and a disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer. But his father was a Greek, and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. Now here is where we meet Timothy. Timothy who we see so much in the New Testament. Here is where we meet him for the very first time. And right away there's something here that we learn about Timothy. Do you remember 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 that I've referred to so often, usually in funerals? 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul tells the Thessalonians this. He says, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and to work with your hands just as we commanded you so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. Now some translations say so you will have a good reputation with those outside the faith. lead a quiet life, work with your hands, have a good reputation with others. People, that was Timothy. Look again at verse 2. Verse 2 tells us, and he was well spoken of by the brethren. Timothy had a good reputation with others. But there's something remarkable here. Something remarkable with this new worker that is easy to miss, but I don't want you to miss it. Look at verse 3. It says, Paul wanted this man to go with him. Here's this guy with this great reputation. Here's this godly man. He wants Timothy to go with him. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Now people, it'd be real easy just to read over those words, and he took them and circumcised them and move on. But I want us to pause here. I want us to consider what that means. Do you remember when we were in Genesis? When we went through the book of Genesis years ago, we came to chapter 34. And in chapter 34, there's that text where there's this girl named Dinah. She's the daughter of Jacob. Jacob's brothers, she has many brothers, are Jacob's sons, or her brothers. And there's this guy named Shechem. Shechem wants to marry Dinah. But Shechem had done something to Dinah, and I won't go into it, that makes the brothers really mad. The brothers can't stand this guy, and they want to harm him. But Shechem wants to marry Dinah. So he says to his father, Hanor, says, hey, get me this woman. Get her for my wife. And so he does. He goes to Jacob. And he goes to Jacob and he says, hey, my son really wants to marry your daughter. Oh, what will it take? In other words, name your price. That's how it was done in those days. Name your price so that my son can marry your daughter. Well, Jacob's sons see an opportunity. And they say to the father and to the son, you know what? We're Jewish and we're circumcised. All your people are not. We don't think that's right. All of you, all your men should be circumcised. And that would be pleasing to us. Well, they won't do anything it'll take. So they go back to the men and they tell them, all of you, you all need to get circumcised. And so they do. And then here's what we read. in the text. It says, Now it came about on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took a sword and came to the city unawares and killed every male. You see what they're doing? He said, hey, we think you all need to be circumcised. And they were, but they were in such pain. And on the third day, such pain, they're unable to fight. They're in agony. And so that's when the two go in and just kill them all. Again, you see the pain that is involved in that. What's my point? Well, I haven't made my point yet. I remember when I preached that in Genesis chapter 34 years ago, I remember illustrating it this way, because I want you to understand this. My brother-in-law, Josh, great guy. He's a drummer in a heavy metal band. He is what they call a body modifier. He's completely sleeved and so forth with tattoos. His ears have been stretched. He had, at least one time, a bone through his nose and the piercings in his eyebrows and so forth. I have a magazine up in my office, if you don't believe me, where he's hanging. from a flesh hook, flesh hooks, where they put hooks in the flesh of his back and hoist him up. And he's like this, just resisting the pain, just hanging there from his flesh. Now people, years ago, the Indians did the very same thing for their warriors. They did it with these eagle claws in the chest and would raise him up. And if they could do it without screaming, that was called the okie paw test. And my brother-in-law has done that several times. He can hang from flesh hooks. I got a picture of it. Not only that, he has taken a razor blade and had his tongue cut in the middle. And then every two hours he had to floss it so that the two sides heal. And now it's like a snake's tongue. I think I'm making my point is that he can withstand a lot of pain. His pain tolerance is unreal. And yet he told me, and Gina, he said that he had had a procedure, I'll call it that, as an adult, similar to circumcision. He said, I've never been in such pain. He said, I was seeing stars. Now if he felt circumcision with such pain as an adult that it was the most pain he ever had, My point is circumcision on an adult man hurts. It hurts a lot. This is no minor thing when it says Paul took Timothy and had him circumcised. And remember, and Timothy agreed. Now you're going to do what, Paul? Okay, let's do this. And why? I mean, after all, it's a good question. Why did they do it? We would all, you know, endure a certain amount of pain for a certain length of time if it was for the correct ends. Why? Why did Timothy agree? Why did Paul want to do this? Well, Luke tells us. It's the end of verse 3. It says, In other words, they did it for the Jews. They did it so that it wouldn't cause a problem with them. But people, do you see a problem theologically right here? We spent three weeks in chapter 15 of this book. Three weeks where Paul argues with what are called the Judaizers, with the Jews who said to become a Christian you first have to become Jewish through circumcision, then trust in Christ. And Paul was adamantly against this. Because that was a distortion of the gospel. And because it was a distortion of the gospel, he was against doing that. In fact, when he wrote to the Galatians, he said this, But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. We did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour. so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you." In other words, I had this guy Titus with me. He wasn't circumcised and we wouldn't do it. We wouldn't have him circumcised. We wouldn't even budge on that. Why? Because the gospel was at stake. Because the true gospel is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And if you add anything to it, it's no longer the true gospel. Well, then why did he have Timothy circumcised here? Because this wasn't about the gospel. This was simply about the proclamation of the gospel. This was simply about not offending the Jewish people. As one man writes, when the essence of the gospel was at stake, Paul refused any compromise whatever. However, when the gospel was not at stake, as was the case here, Paul was willing to compromise many things in order to win others to Christ. Now people, this would be a good place for me to ask you. Is there any of your Christian freedoms, your Christian liberties that you're willing to give up for the sake of others? For the sake of not being offensive to others? Paul, and obviously Timothy, cared so much for other people. and for the advancement of the gospel that they were willing to have him circumcised. No small thing, people. Well, we've seen the new missionary teams. We've just met this new worker, Timothy, and now a new vision is given. Look at verses four and following. It says, now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. for them to observe. So the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number daily. And they passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. And passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. Now people, if you were to look at a map, you would see that what Paul was doing is he was trying to go west. Trying to go west, but the Holy Spirit stopped him. So he tried to go north, but the Holy Spirit stopped him from going north. So he kind of went in between the two regions and he ends up in a place called Troas. People, this is what is called negative guidance. It is God simply closing doors so that we will end up right where God wants us to be. One commentator says this, says, we need to understand that closed doors, though they are a type of negative guidance, are nevertheless true guidance. If we can learn anything from the Apostle Paul here, we learn that negative guidance merely keeps us from where we are not called in order that in God's time we might come to where God is calling and will provide blessing. I have experienced this negative guidance, and I think all of you have as well. If you look back over your life, you'll see how God has closed doors to bring you right where he wants you to be. I moved down here 33 years ago. to go to Biola with the purpose of being a missionary. I was a intercultural studies major when I began at Biola. I wanted to be a missionary to Japan. I like Japanese culture. I had heard that only one half of one percent of Japan are Christian. And so I was a missions major with the intent of going to Japan as a missionary. And God closed that door rather firmly. He closed that door. I changed my major to Christian education. My new intent was now I'm going to go back. I'm going to become a Methodist minister and then go back to the Methodist church I grew up in where I never heard the gospel preached and I'd preach the gospel. But to become a Methodist minister you had to go to a liberal, if you will, seminary. You couldn't go to Talbot Seminary at Biola. You had to go to a different Seminary. So I applied to Princeton. I even went back to Princeton for four days of interviews and tour and all of those things, but God closed that door. I got 50% off my, somebody paid 50% of my tuition if I went to Talbot. That's thousands of dollars over three years to go to Talbot. Well, there went the Methodist ministry because you couldn't go to Talbot and be a Methodist minister at that time. You can now. Well, then in the foyer of Talbot Seminary there was a Navy recruiter. The Navy. And he had that brochure, and it had a helicopter landing on an aircraft carrier, and the chaplain's getting off the helicopter, and it's you too can be a Navy chaplain. And the recruiter told me this, here's the deal. Here's what the Navy will do for you. You're beginning seminary right now. You're already a college graduate. You join the Navy. We put you in the Navy reserves. Because you're a college graduate, we'll make you an ensign. You're an officer. We will pay you a little bit each month because you're in the Navy Reserve. The Navy will pay for seminary. When you get out of the Navy, we will make you lieutenant junior grade, lieutenant JG, and you begin your naval career." Well, there was my plan. But God closed that door. And He closed that door rather solidly. People, that was 25 years ago. is when I graduated from seminary 25 years ago. Do you know where I'd be now if I'd been in the Navy? Retired. I'd be retired and living on a very large government pension right now. But God closed that door. And I have, and Gina can attest to this, I have for 25 years kind of grumbled, kind of Been a little upset on, God, why did you close that door? Why didn't I go in the Navy? Would have been so good for my family, would have pleased my family, I'd be retired, blah, blah, blah. 25 years, I've thought that. I didn't get the answer until about a month ago. A month ago, my sister called and I went on one of my trips up to the Bay Area. Luke wanted me to play catch. I said, I can't, I'm going up. I've got to go see Grandpa. Oh, when are you coming back? I said, I'll be back the day after tomorrow. Mark says, don't go. Luke's saying, don't go. I get in the car, I drive, I have that lump in my throat because I should be home. I shouldn't be gone for a day. I'm going to be gone for a whole day, two nights actually, and a whole day. Then that day, you guys have that earthquake down here. Gina has to deal with the earthquake by herself. Mark falls and gets that cut in his face. She has to take him to emergency by herself. And I'm in San Francisco and I can't do anything. And I said to my family then, I said, I now understand why God closed the door to the Navy chaplaincy. One day is bad. Six months is what you do in the Navy. They put you on a ship and you're gone for six months. And I even said to Gina, can you imagine? Bye, I'll see you at the end of baseball season. I'll see you at the end of football season. Hope everything goes well. I can't imagine it. And I didn't realize it 25 years ago. I understand it now. God understood it then. Some people are cut out for that, some people aren't. I now, after 25 years, understand that's not me. I'm not cut out for that. God has shown me that. negative guidance. That's what Paul experienced until he received what we call positive guidance. Verses 9 and 10, look at them. It says, a vision appeared to Paul in the night. This is a very positive guidance. A man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. And when he had seen the vision immediately, we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." People, we've seen new missionary teams. We've seen a new missionary worker in Timothy. We've seen a new vision or a new call to now go to Macedonia. In fact, Luke writes this in verse 11. He says, so putting out to sea from Troas, we, and by the way, in Acts, whenever it says we or us, Luke is including himself. Luke was on this trip. Luke was with them. It says, we ran a straight course to Samothrace and the day falling to Neapolis. Straight course. is a common article phrase. It means sailing before the wind. In other words, the wind is taking them on a straight course. The wind is right behind their sails, taking them straight to where they need to go. And it takes them two days to get there. Later, you'll see them make the exact same trip, and it takes them five days. Five days because the wind is contrary. The wind is against them. And that is why G. Campbell Morgan says this. He says, sometimes upon the king's business, The wind is with us and sometimes it is against us. Sometimes men and women in the king's business, we go through trials. Sometimes we go through difficulties as this church did years ago. And sometimes the wind is with us. Sometimes God is really blessing and things are quite easy and going smoothly. Well, that is certainly true for the mission field. So people, why all the effort for foreign missions? Why go at all? Why all the danger? Why all the sacrifice? Why all the difficulties to send and to go into foreign countries with the gospel? Well, you have the answer for you right here. That's it. It's at the end of verse 10. God called us, Luke says, to preach the gospel to them. Here's why. Because God called us to preach the gospel to them. Paul went through all kinds of difficulties, all kinds of trials that he itemizes when he writes to the Corinthians, but he went because God called him to go. But it's not just because God called, although that's reason enough. There were people in Macedonia who needed to hear the gospel. Gospel means good news. They needed to hear the good news of what Jesus has done for them. They needed to hear how through faith, Jesus Christ, our faith in Christ, they could be justified in God's sight. They could have new life. Well, there's another reason, though, why Paul went. Another reason why we do go on missions. Paul says this. He says, when he writes to the Corinthians, he says, for love compels us. It went out of obedience to God, but also love compels us. We can't help it. We love you guys. Love compels us to come to you with all these difficulties, with all these trials, to go ahead and have Timothy circumcised, all that, but love compels us to do this. And we see that love right here in this text. We see that kind of love that compelled these missionaries. You see it when Timothy is circumcised for no other reason than just to lessen the hindrance to the Jews who are going to be hearing the gospel. In fact, when Paul tells the Corinthians, love compels us, he goes on and he says this, that they have concluded this quote, that Christ died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. It says love compels us to come to you, because we've concluded this, that Christ died for all, so that we no longer live for ourselves, but we live now for him who died and rose again. And love has compelled us to come to you. Men and women, when we take communion this morning, that is what we're remembering. We're remembering that gospel, that good news of Jesus Christ, that good news that he has kept the law on our behalf, that he went to the cross, that he died bearing God's wrath upon himself that we deserve, and he died for all so that we might live for him.