I invite you to take your Bibles again and open to Acts chapter 15 for our next message in this series going through the book of Acts, section by section, sometimes chapter by chapter. If you were with us Wednesday night, we covered Acts chapter 15, verses 1 through 35, a big chunk. where we saw the first church council that met in Jerusalem to clarify the sole condition for justification being faith alone, not faith plus circumcision or works of the law. And they stood on grace, and grace prevailed, thankfully. The church made a decision and a letter was written and it was to be sent to the Gentile churches and some Jewish churches as well, where there were Jews and Gentiles together. and grace prevailed. But what we're going to see this morning at the end of Acts 15 and 16 is the beginning of Paul's second missionary journey. And he's going to go all the way from the city of Antioch in Syria, as you see on the far right of this map, all the way to Philippi in the upper left corner of the map there in Macedonia. About 600 miles on foot. traveling, preaching the gospel, seeing churches planted. And this is part of the will of God. And what would lead the Apostle Paul to do this? Well, no doubt it was the value of the Word of God that he preached, as we are told in Isaiah 40, verse 8, that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever. Though the world may try to suppress and silence and censor this book, it has yet to succeed. And Satan won't. before Jesus Christ comes back, and we need not worry about that. The Word of God is quick and powerful, and it is enduring forever. But do you know what else endures forever? If you've been coming here to Duluth Bible Church for any period of time, you've heard this mentioned several times, that the two things that are eternal, besides God Himself, of course, are His Word and people. And that means people are valuable as well. Just like the Word of God is a treasure more to be desired than gold, we know that God bankrupted Heaven to send His Son here for us. Why? Because He considers us to be very valuable. His one and only Son became a man. In fact, when he was on the earth, he taught in Matthew 6, a great passage dealing with worries and casting our cares upon the Lord. He said regarding the birds, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And dear saints, of how much more value can we be towards the Lord than we are as demonstrated through Him giving His one and only Son, not to become an animal, not to become an angel, but to become a man. to live a sinless life, to die in our place, and to be the Savior of mankind. Romans 8 v. 32 reminds us, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Freely you have received. Freely give. We saw in our Scripture reading this morning from Matthew 10 when the disciples were sent out to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. And we're preaching the Gospel of the grace of God. A message even more devoted to the subject of God's grace. How much more should we proclaim the infinite worth and value of Jesus Christ to all men whom He loved and gave Himself for? This is what motivated the Apostle Paul we know from 2 Corinthians 5 that impelled him to go on to a second missionary journey that we're going to read about in chapter 15 now to chapter 18. Not all in this one message this morning. But in this portion we're covering today from Antioch to Philippi, we're going to see four main sections. At the end of chapter 15, we're going to see a contention between Paul and Barnabas. And as a result, we'll see two new mission teams formed coming out of the church of Antioch in Syria. And then we'll see in verses 1-5 of chapter 16, the meeting of Paul and Timothy, a new disciple, where Timothy decides to use his liberty to be circumcised, and though he wasn't under obligation to do so before the Lord, he chose to in love, and that became a very effective way of reaching Jew and Gentile for Jesus Christ. And then we see in chapter 16, verses 6 through 10, where the missionary team of Paul, Silas, and Timothy are directed to go into Macedonia, southeastern Europe, the first European mission. And then at the end of chapter 15, or 16 rather, this section, verses 11 through 15, the end of our message this morning, we're going to see the planting of the church in Philippi, how believers were willing to just conversationally share the gospel, and as a result, they were open-hearted people, and they were saved, and the church was planted. And we can be all part of this as well, if we're willing to follow the divine design and blueprint. Now you may be wondering, just in terms of chronology, and I covered this Wednesday night, but let me repeat some of this again this morning for context's sake. Where are we at in the book of Acts? Where are we at in the early church? Where are we at chronologically? Well, if the crucifixion and resurrection of our Savior occurred in April of 33 AD, We know that Pentecost came after that in May, that's recorded in Acts chapter 2. Then you have several significant events we've studied about so far in the book of Acts until we get to Paul ending his first missionary journey at the end of Acts 14, and then he goes back to Antioch. Peter comes down as Galatians 2 records, and Paul actually has to correct him there, and evidently Peter took the correction well because then the first church council occurred shortly thereafter in the late fall of 49. And then this morning what we're going to see is Paul's second missionary journey which occurs right after that first church council, right after Galatians is written, in the spring of 50 to about the fall of 52. So another year and a half long journey. or two-year mission by this team that Paul is on. So this was a major undertaking for the Apostle Paul that he has in mind. Now we pick it up in chapter 15, verse 36, where we left off from our last study. It says, then after some days, probably several weeks to months, this is in the spring of 50 AD, After some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing." In other words, retrace our steps from the first missionary journey where we went to the island of Cyprus and then we went up into Galatia and all those cities that Acts 13 and 14 describe. And why did Paul have a desire to do this? Because he had a pastor's heart. He wasn't merely preaching the Gospel to see the lost get saved. He wanted to see them grow and get established, as the Great Commission is more than preaching the Gospel, though that's where it begins. The Lord wants believers to be disciples as well, and to be sanctified, and for local churches to be planted as part of the universal Church. That is His divine design for this dispensation that we're living in. So he wants to go back, and he presents this to Barnabas. Barnabas shares this burden and vision as well. Verse 37, Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark. But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. Then the contention, and the Greek word there is paroxymos, By the way, when that is transliterated into English, what is a paroxysm? It's a sharp blow-up, an argument or dispute among two people. And that's what they had. In fact, it became so sharp that they departed from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. And the first thing that we note here is that there was this sharp dispute among two of God's choice servants. And it was over the issue of whether to take John Mark on this second missionary journey. And we see in the process that Barnabas literally set his will. And the term that's used there, and there's various words for the will of man in Greek, but this is the stronger of the two that we primarily see. The other's thelo, but this is boulomai. And boulomai is a very strong term for the will. And it says that he set his will. In other words, he was dug in. He was unwilling to change his mind. And he wanted to take John Mark. Now Paul, on the other hand, it says that he insisted that the translation of our New King James says here, which by the way, I don't know that that's the best translation. The idea of the Greek word there seems to be more of a reckoning or counting of worth. In other words, not thinking it worthy. This is not a worthy thought. It doesn't measure up. In other words, it's not a good idea. They had differences of opinion, but they approached the issue in a different way as well. I remember years ago hearing a message from Pastor Rich McCarroll, who's spoken at a number of our Bible conferences. He was teaching at another conference in Illinois I was attending, and he was teaching on this very passage. And he said, you know, you had two people who approached this problem very differently. You had Barnabas who was dug in, and for him it was a matter of the will, but for Paul it was a matter of the reasoning more. And we'll see what was behind these reasons. Now why might Paul have reasoned the way he did? And what can we learn from this even about the spreading of the Gospel? Well, turn with me in the book of Acts back to chapter 13. While we're in Acts, just turn a few chapters back to your left, and look at chapter 13, verse 13. After Paul and Barnabas had gone to the island of Cyprus, they then travel up to the mainland of modern-day Turkey or Asia Minor, and they come aground at Perga, and they go up to Pamphylia. But notice what it says, verse 13. Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia, and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. Now is there any reason given for why John departed back to Jerusalem? No, there isn't. We don't know the reason. We know that things got really hot and really heavy after John Mark left, as Paul and Barnabas proceeded up into the region of Galatia. In fact, Paul took it in the neck. Each town that they went to, there was intense persecution. In fact, look at chapter 14 with me next, and look at their entrance into Lystra. in chapter 14, verse 19. It says, Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there to Lystra, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. He was laying there, no doubt, unconscious. And this was one of the many persecutions he endured. And so Paul, knowing the cost and what was at stake in terms of physical persecution, thought, there's too much on the line here. I don't want to take someone with us who bailed out even before it got really difficult. I'm not going to take that chance again. And you can understand why he would come to that conclusion. You know what we can learn from this though? Turn with me next to the book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 3. is that one who's going to serve faithfully and alongside the Apostle Paul, and frankly none of us ever will because he's gone, right? But if you were in John Mark's shoes or Barnabas's shoes, what would it take to be the sidecar traveling with the Apostle Paul? It would take somebody who's willing to endure. Notice in 2 Timothy 3, verse 10, Paul is writing his very last epistle to Timothy, another servant in the Lord. He says, but you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. i.e., read there Acts 13 and 14. What persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. I'm still alive and I'm still trucking. The motorcycle and sidecar have not crashed yet. But the point is this, that when it comes to the preaching of the gospel, there is often opposition, especially from the religious. And that is why he says in the same book in chapter 1, In verse 8, he says, "...Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner." Paul is sitting in Rome in jail. "...But share with me in the sufferings for the gospel, or the sufferings of the gospel, according to the power of God." Just as the Word of God is quick and powerful to do its work, God takes the Holy Spirit who inspired that Word and He puts Him right inside of us as messengers of the Word. And He says, I'm going to be your sufficiency. I'm going to be your power. Would you trust in Me as a weak vessel? And I can use you then. That's what Paul did and that's what he's telling Timothy to do as well. And there are sufferings that go with the sharing of the gospel. It may be for us just a simple sneer and a scoff and a joke told behind our back or some gossips and rumoring behind our back. But for others in the world, it is intense physical persecution. And notice in chapter 2 why Paul endured all this and why he's admonishing Timothy to endure all this. In chapter 2 verse 10 he says, Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect. Those who would get saved by the sharing of the Gospel and believing it. That they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. You see, Paul wasn't out evangelizing for his own sake to build a name and a reputation for himself. He loved people. He was willing to sacrifice for them and even give his life. He had the mindset of the Lord Jesus Christ. towards the world. And that's what we can learn about the same example of the Apostle Paul. And that's what we learn about here that was driving him onto this second missionary journey. Now what about Barnabas? We've learned about Paul and his thinking and motivation, but what about Barnabas? Was Paul's thinking completely right and Barnabas's completely wrong? How was Barnabas thinking? Well, remember who Barnabas was. According to Acts chapter 4 verse 36, he was the son of encouragement. He had been given that nickname based on his pattern, that he would come alongside people and he would lift them up and encourage them, and so they gave him a nickname. In fact, we see that later in the book of Acts, don't we? In chapter 9, After Paul gets saved on the road to Damascus, he's up in Damascus and he wants to come to Jerusalem, but hey, we all know what Paul did to Christians before he was saved. This is a guy who rounded them up to be put in jail and even killed. And I'm not sure we can trust him. He may be a double agent coming into our churches to spy on us and do even more damage. But who goes to meet Paul? and says, oh no, this guy's genuine. I've actually seen him put his life on the line up there in Damascus, and I can testify firsthand and vouch for him to all you here in the church in Jerusalem. That was Barnabas. He did that for Paul. And then later in chapter 11, verses 25 and 26, when Paul is up in Tarsus of Cilicia, and he's kind of off the radar, And he's nowhere in the book of Acts in terms of we don't know what he's doing in serving the Lord. Who goes and finds him? Barnabas sought him out and thought, boy, Paul, we could really use you there in the church of Antioch and you'd be part of a good missionary team. So he was an encourager, one who sought others out. Now Barnabas also happened to be most likely the cousin to John Mark, so they were related by blood. That's an important thing to keep in mind. And perhaps Barnabas wanted John Mark to go because he's my relative, but perhaps also because he wanted to encourage him and lift him up. And by the way, as you look at, we won't take the time to look at all these passages right now, but I'd encourage you to do it. 2 Corinthians 1 verses 3-5 speaks of the God of all comfort. Comfort and consolation are mentioned several times in that passage. And each time, it's the same Greek word, parakaleo, which is the Greek verb form, or paraklesis, which is the noun form, same word, noun and verb form. And it means to come alongside of, to be called alongside of. But for what purpose? To lift up, to embolden, to strengthen, to give courage to. And in some contexts, to exhort or urge is the idea. And that's why we see each member of the Triune Godhead being an encourager. God the Father is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 1. God the Son is mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2. And God the Holy Spirit, who's often called the Paraclete. They're all encouragers. And let me just say this. If we are growing to be more and more like the Lord in terms of our character, are you becoming more of an encourager like the Lord you trust in and worship and serve? That's who He wants us to be. So let's go back to Paul and Barnabas here. Who was right and who was wrong in this situation? I think there's an argument to be made for Paul, but I don't think that's even the point of the passage when it comes to this missionary journey. In fact, I like what Dr. Thomas Constable says in his commentary. He says, their decision to go in separate directions certainly resulted in greater gospel expansion, since more people became involved as fellow missionaries and they covered more area in less time. Some Christians erroneously believe that any disagreement between believers is sinful. And there is no indication in the text, but there's no indication in the text, that this difference of opinion was sinful. Now some say that because Barnabas was dug in and willful, that that was self-willed. I don't necessarily think so. I think he had good motives for other reasons. And I think Paul had motives for other reasons. And I don't think that necessarily one was right completely and one was wrong completely. And God only knows their complete motives. But I can tell you this, what happened as a result of despite the separation in this team, is that now you've got two teams going out. So we read in Acts 15 verse 39, that the contention became so sharp they parted from one another and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and departed being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. Now some people say based on verse 40 that C, it says that Paul went on and he was commended by the church there in Antioch, but it doesn't say that of Barnabas and Mark going to Cyprus. So therefore, God the Holy Spirit put his stamp of approval on Paul's decision. But frankly, that's an argument from silence. In fact, we don't know what happened with Barnabas after verse 39. Other than that, two teams went out, and they both went two different directions. They parted ways, forming two mission teams. Paul went on another missionary journey on land, back to the cities that they had initially evangelized, there in Galatia, and then he's going to go up all the way to Macedonia and Philippi, whereas Barnabas and John Mark went back to the island of Cyprus, where they had been before, according to Acts chapter 13. But interestingly, Barnabas is never mentioned again. in the book of Acts. So some people take the fact that the church commended Paul and Silas to the grace of God, but doesn't say anything about that similarly with Barnabas. They take that fact plus they take the fact that Barnabas disappears from the pages of Acts as confirmation that Paul was right and Barnabas must have been wrong. Hold on. Hold the train here, folks. Remember why Acts was written? You may not. I mean, that was a long time ago when we started studying this book. But I spent a long time developing in the introduction why Acts was written. And remember, it was written by Luke to Theophilus, who was probably a lawyer right under Caesar. And Paul was going to be on trial, waiting there in Rome to go on trial before Caesar. And Luke and Acts were probably two documents written to the same guy, Theophilus, not only to clear Paul of charges that he was an insurrectionist or seditious within the empire, a troublemaker, and thus worthy of death. And we're not only written to clear Paul of that, but to present a case for Jesus Christ and Christianity before the emperor himself as an accepted religion and not one to be illegal and thus able to be prosecuted. And so that's probably the historical reason for why the book is written. And if that's the case, then really what happened to Barnabas after this is not all that important in terms of the argument of the book of Acts, right? That's why the book of Acts also doesn't say a whole lot about the Apostle John from this point on or the other apostles. It's all about Paul and what happens to him as he goes towards Rome where the book ends with him sitting in jail. So let's not read too much into that. as far as this lack of reference to Barnabas. But what happened to John Mark after this? Now this gets really interesting, and I think there's an encouraging lesson in all of this with respect to him. We are told in Philemon, verse 24, that he is with the apostle Paul in 60 AD in Rome, in jail, and Paul calls him one of my fellow laborers. Wow, that's really interesting. Whereas he had bailed out a decade before, a decade plus, now he's a fellow laborer, and Paul calls him such. In fact, in 2 Timothy 4, verse 11, when Paul is sitting in jail the second time in Rome, and this time he's not going to get off the hook. He's going to be executed. He's going to be martyred. And he knows it. The time of his departure is at hand. He says in that context, To Timothy, bring with you John Mark for he is useful to me for ministry. Wow, what a change from what we see in Acts chapter 15. And very interestingly, in 1 Peter 5 verse 13, it says that John Mark was with Peter when Peter was writing his first epistle. He calls him a true son in the faith. That's how Peter regarded him. So John Mark evidently was not only an associate of Peter, but then also later Paul. And the capstone of all of this is, guess who wrote the second gospel in the New Testament? the same individual who bears the name Mark. The Gospel of Mark. It's this individual. Many people think the Gospel of Mark reflects more of Peter's perspective on the life of Christ, and I think that's probably true, but that shows that he walked and was quite familiar and intimate with the Apostle Peter. In fact, in Acts 12, why did Peter go right to John Mark's house where John Mark's mom, Mary, had a group of people from church meeting in a prayer meeting. When Peter's let out of jail by the angel, that's where he goes. So Peter and John Mark knew each other very well. So John Mark had these relationships with these apostles, but they didn't just throw them aside and say, you're done, you failed, you had a blowout there in Perga. You're done, we can't use you anymore. Throw another body on the pile. They sought to build him up. And I think the Lord perhaps probably used Barnabas as a means to do that so that later he became useful to Paul and to Peter and thanked the Lord for Barnabas. Now, we also see from this passage in Acts chapter 15 that not only did Barnabas and John Mark go their separate way, but then Paul took somebody new. He took Silas with him on this second missionary journey. Now what do we know about Silas? Well, first of all, Silas is his Aramaic name. Silvanus is the Latin name that he would use as he would travel with Paul that you see in epistles like 1st and 2nd Thessalonians 1.1, where he's introduced as a co-writer with Paul and Timothy, because they're all traveling together at that point, as well as in 2nd Corinthians 1.19. But what's interesting about Silas is that he was seen already in the book of Acts chapter 15 and he was called one of the leading brethren in the church in Jerusalem. In fact, he was chosen to take that letter from the first church council from Jerusalem up to Antioch and deliver it to the church there. So he was a trusted and faithful individual. It also says he was a prophet in the early church. He spoke divine revelation as God gave it to him. And what's interesting as well is in chapter 16, towards the end of the chapter, Paul is put in jail illegally because he's a Roman citizen. He's been beaten without trial. But so was Silas. So Silas would be a great individual to take with you on another missionary journey, don't you think? This guy's got a great reputation. He's solid. He's a servant. He's a prophet. He's a leading man already among the brethren. He even has Roman citizenship. So if we get in trouble from town to town, hey, that's gonna come in handy. The Lord can use that. And he's a perfect sidecar for Paul. and a faithful minister as well. So this is what we see with Silas. He was a man who was willing to just faithfully serve like he did with Peter at the end of 1 Peter 5 and say, hey, if I'm going to hang with an apostle, whether it's Peter or Paul, I can work with them, but I'm going to come from underneath. and just have a servant's mindset. And you know what? As a result, we see in the second missionary journey, there's great cohesion and cooperation on this missionary team because they understood their roles before the Lord. But it took a servant's mindset and a humble heart on the part of Silas. This is who he was. So going back to the end of chapter 15, we read verse 41, And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. That's in reference to Paul now. He goes back up towards Galatia, near his hometown of Tarsus there in Cilicia, and they strengthen the churches. Then he came to Derbe and Lystra, towns in Galatia, and behold, Interesting word. Behold means stop and pause and let this sink in for a moment. Put yourself in the picture of the story and imagine this for a moment. Now you don't see the word behold very often in the book of Acts, but here Luke is saying stop and really let this soak in for a minute. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy. the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek, so he had a mixed parentage. We don't know if his father was saved, probably not, as it seems like his mom and grandma had more of the spiritual influence in his life. But notice how he was described, verse 2, he was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. We see that when Paul returned to Lystra in Galatia, he met Timothy, a young man who was a disciple with a good reputation among the churches there in Galatia. Now evidently, Paul had not met him on his previous missionary journey in Acts 13 and 14 to that region, but this time he does. and he's called a young man in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 12. Now 1 Timothy is written after the book of Acts or this scene right here. If this is about 50 AD and 1 Timothy is written about 62 AD, 12 years later, for Paul to call him a young man 12 years later means he's really a young man here in The Book of Acts, chapter 16. So about how old was he? Well, we don't know exactly. Some say that in 1 Timothy chapter 4, a young man could be even up to 40 years of age, maybe 45. Let's just say he was 40. Subtract 12 years, that would put Timothy in his late 20s here. But he had a good reputation. among the brethren." So again, he's well qualified to go with Paul on this missionary journey. So instead of Barnabas going with Paul, instead of John Mark going with Paul, the Lord says, in the place of Barnabas, I'm going to put Silas, and in the place of John Mark, I'm going to bring along a Timothy. And all because Paul was willing to walk by faith and let the Lord direct. And the Lord provides. And he prepares people's hearts and lives, just like a Timothy here. Now what do we know about this young man Timothy, besides the fact that he was young? Well, he had a sincere faith. And he had been taught from the Scriptures. about the Lord from his mother and his grandmother. Paul writes in his Swan Song, 2 Timothy 1, verses 4 and 5, that he greatly desired to see Timothy being mindful of your tears, apparently when they had last departed, that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. In other words, his mom was a believer, his grandma was a believer, they probably all as a family came to believe the Gospel once Paul and Barnabas rolled into town or they had heard it from those who did get saved. But it says in chapter 3 of that same book, that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, Timothy, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. In other words, Timothy had a mom and a grandma who no doubt prayed for him, no doubt taught him the Scriptures, and no doubt lived it out themselves and modeled it, so that when the Gospel came to Galatia, they were all ears. They got saved or believed the Gospel for the first time. They taught it to their son or he believed it too. And this family got became Christians, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. But he had a prepared heart. And I just want to say this to those of you who may be teens or young people here today. God can develop you into a Timothy. If you are willing to take in the Word of God, if you value what your parents have taught you, it is something precious. I was not saved until about the age of 19. I started reading the Scriptures in high school prior to that. But I wish I could get back 15 more years or so and have those years where I would have known the Lord, learned His Word, and had more of an opportunity to glorify Him and do His will. So if you live in a home in which your parents are teaching you the Word of God, though your peers in the world may not respect that and may reject that, they may mock you for it, thank God you have such parents. That was Timothy in his precious home. As a result, he had a sincere faith. Paul called him a true son in the faith, 1 Timothy 1-2. And he referred to him as my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, 1 Corinthians 4.17. That was Timothy. Now going on back to Acts, we read in chapter 16, verses three and four, that Paul wanted to have him go on with them. He wanted to have Timothy come along and join the team. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek. And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. Remember in chapter 15 at the first church council, They said, oh, you're definitely not saved, nor do you even need to keep the law to be spiritual, but for the sake of unity in the church made up of Jew and Gentile, let's propose this, that there's four things we want Gentiles to abstain from that are particularly offensive to Jews. One, of course, was sexual immorality, which was already contrary to the word of God. But then they wanted him to abstain from drinking blood, things strangled from idols, things polluted by idols, etc. And why would they do this? To avoid putting a stumbling block before Jews they would encounter. Remember, they're going to travel together and go into towns where they're first going to go to synagogues and find Jews, And then they're going to speak to the Gentiles and you're going to have Jew and Gentile getting saved and being part of the same church. You don't want to make it harder for Jew and Gentile to get along and have fellowship, do you? And so he proposed that Timothy be circumcised. And he was. Why? For the sake of unity in the church. As again, Under grace, circumcision and keeping the law was not required. But since Timothy had at least a Jewish mother and Jewish background, though his father was Greek, there were Jews who would find out, don't ask me how, that Timothy had not been circumcised. That was a thing back then, evidently. And they would be stumbled as a result, thinking he's not faithful in serving God. And yes, it's true, a lot of these Jews in the church would have to come to learn grace and God's program in shifting from the dispensation of law to grace. But in the meantime, why present a stumbling block to them? In fact, turn with me to Galatians 2 next. I want to show you there's a contrast between how Paul dealt with Timothy versus how he dealt with Titus. Galatians 2. We looked at this passage on Wednesday night in our last study, but let's see it again. So in Timothy's case, he says, if you're going to travel with me being at least half Jewish, you should be circumcised. But in Titus's case, being a full-blooded Gentile, he says, no, actually do not get circumcised. Why? Well, let's read about that in Galatians 2, verses 1 through 5. Then after 14 years, this would be about 47 AD, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and also took Titus with me. And I went up by revelation, God had told him to go, and communicated to them, that is the apostles, Peter, James, and John. I communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run or had run in vain." Now again, to clarify, he's not saying in verse 2 that I met with them privately in case maybe I got the gospel wrong and they had it right and they could correct me. No, that wasn't the point at all. Paul knew that his message was from the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't have to submit it to another man. The in vain thing that he's talking about here is if we weren't on the same page, if maybe they were off biblically, doctrinally on the gospel, then we've got a problem on our hands because we're going to be moving in two directions. But by meeting privately, we could get this resolved among ourselves first. But he brings to this meeting Titus as a test case because he's a full-blooded Gentile. Verse 3, "'Yet not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.'" Remember, it was the Jewish faction there in Jerusalem saying, well, yeah, we're saved by grace, but brother, you better get circumcised or you're just not fully accepted by the Lord. you're not really spiritual unless you keep at least the first step of the law. And then the rest of the yoke comes after that. but Titus was not compelled to be circumcised." Verse 4, and this occurred because of false brethren. We saw in our last study in Acts 15.1 that there were false brethren among them, those who professed to be believers in Jesus Christ intermingling into the church who actually did not have their faith in Jesus Christ and His work alone, but in their work of law-keeping like circumcision. And Paul calls them false brethren. Yes, there are true brethren and there are false brethren in churches today. Even in the early church. And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage. Paul says, don't bring that yoke anywhere near me. Get away from me with that. I want grace. Verse 5, "...to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you." It was for your sakes to preserve the liberty that we have in Christ Jesus. So on the one hand, he says in Titus' case, don't get circumcised. On the other hand, with Timothy, he says, use your liberty here to not stumble others and do so in love. And in fact, that's the lesson that we see. In Galatians 5, verse 13, where Paul writes, "...for you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh to indulge in sin, but through love serve one another." Now, we often speak of liberties here at Duluth Bible Church. What do we mean by those? Well, an area of liberty is that area that is not specifically addressed in Scripture as either being explicitly wrong in sin or explicitly right in the will of God. It's one of those gray areas where you have to apply the full counsel of God's word and use wisdom in your decision-making. God doesn't just give us a list of 10,000 things to do before we're saved and say, now just follow the list. Here's the rest of your Christian life. No, He wants us to operate based on response of faith to the word of God day by day as we abide in Christ and His word richly abides in us. And then He can direct us. But you know what else should be behind this? Love. Note that in verse 13, the word love. Do we really love one another? If we're saying, you know what? I know that drinking alcohol, for example, is not inherently sinful. Being drunk is, Ephesians 5.18, don't be drunk with wine. But not drinking alcohol. But I know that there's some brethren who have a hard time with any drinking at all. And when I go out to eat with them at a restaurant, I'm just going to go ahead and order a pitcher of beer and drink it in front of them to help them grow in grace. Really? Now, you're going to stumble that person and make it harder for them to even see the point and the principle behind grace. That's why in 1 Corinthians 10, And we won't go there for time's sake. Let me just encourage you again to read that section. In chapter 10, verses 23 through 33, Paul says, when it comes to liberties, let all that you do in this area of liberties be done to edify one another. That is to build one another up, not to stumble one another. And he says in that context that if meat has been offered to an idol, I know that I could eat that as unto the Lord, no problem, because that idles nothing. That meat is just meat. God made the meat. I can eat that as unto the Lord and even thank the Lord for it. But if I know that someone's going to be stumbled by that, whoop, I'm going to go to the other extreme and say, I'll never eat meat again if it means that that's going to stumble that other person. In fact, he goes on to say in that passage in 1 Corinthians 10, that he wants to do all things so that men might be saved. And I think this is what he meant in the context of 1 Corinthians 9 verse 20 where he says, "...to the Jews I became as a Jew, and to those who are without law, as without law, that I might be all things to all men." Not that he was a compromiser, he was very principled in his thinking and he understood grace. but the point of grace and liberty is not so that we would be free from the law, O happy condition. Sin as you please, for there is remission. Or, no, I've been freed from the penalty and the power of sin so that now I can just sin more and do what I want. That grace may abound, right? That's the thinking that Paul addressed in his day. No, we've been saved from sin, not to sin. but to have liberty not to sin. Because when we choose sin, we become in bondage to it and we submit to it. And what you choose to yield to, Paul says in Romans 6, that becomes practically your master, even if Christ is positionally still your Lord. And so we should choose to lose our liberties in love. And this is a great example of that. Now what was the result of Paul and Timothy's decision? Using their liberty wisely. Well, we see a great spiritual benefit resulted. Acts 16 verse 5. So the churches were strengthened in the faith. Not stumbled, but strengthened. And they increased in number daily. They grew numerically and they grew qualitatively. And that's what happens when a church understands grace and people practice it and use their liberties wisely in love. And may that be true here. But going on in Acts 16 we see in verses 6 through 9 it says, Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Now don't think like China and the Philippines and Japan. This is Asia, modern day Turkey, Asia Minor. And after they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas." Now I know, as you're reading all this, you're seeing all the map in your head, right? You know exactly where all these places are, so let's just look at it on a map, okay? So in the middle, by that red arrow, you see Phrygia circled there. That is the region of Galatia, where Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, Derbe was. But Paul wants to go north now, up towards Mycenae and Bithynia there in red. But the Holy Spirit says, stop. He stops them from going to Phrygia, which would be south and west, but also to the north. He says, stop. And so the Lord is basically channeling Paul and funneling him in the direction he wants him to go. I don't think it ever occurred to Paul that, you know what, he wants us to go into Macedonia and preach to the cities there. Until the Lord directed this. So he brings them to the coastal town of Troas. And from there it's going to be a beachhead or they're going to launch into southeastern Europe. And what we see from this is that the missionary team followed the leading of the Lord Jesus Christ via the Holy Spirit. And the Lord was the one who closed the door to go into Mycenae and Bithynia. But when the Lord closes one door, what does He do? He opens another. That's how He directs. And so if you have a heart to minister and serve the Lord, it's not that the Lord is going to say, no, I'm just going to kill that desire, sit on the bench for the rest of your life. It's going to say, well, I in faithfulness will sometimes answer no to close some doors, but I'll open others. And you can always count on that. One of the amazing things we see again in this passage, as we've seen throughout Acts, is that who is directing the church here? It's not even Peter as a first pope per se. It's not even Paul setting his will and saying this is what I think has to be done. Paul was flexible. He was yielded. He was willing to go where the Lord directed him. And so should we. Because he acknowledged who was over all? Jesus Christ, right? And when we think of the Great Commission going into all the world and not only preaching the Gospel, but then making disciples, teaching and baptizing, etc., all that is prefaced with Jesus' statement in Matthew 28.18, that all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. That's why, again, whether it's at your school or in your neighborhood or among your family members, wherever it may be on your team, If you share the gospel and the Lord leads you to do that, even though they may say don't, you have all authority. Now there's times where you need to be wise, especially on the job. But don't think that the government or private industry here in the United States is the ultimate authority. We serve the highest authority, dear saints, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he has told us to go. The other lesson that we see in all this is the same that's repeated in Revelation 3, verses 7 and 8, where Jesus speaks to the church at Philadelphia among the seven churches there of Asia Minor. And He says in that passage, I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength and have kept my word and have not denied my name. But the Lord opens a door, and if he opens a door and he wants us to go through it, he's going to give us everything we need to do that. The question is, are we going to be willing and yielded and trusting and filled with the Spirit of God to be enabled to do the work that he's called us to? That's what's needed for these open doors. But notice, They go over to Macedonia. Paul sees this night vision. Verse 9, And a man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him in this vision, Come over to Macedonia and help us. Verse 9. Now how do they interpret that, this missionary team? Verse 10, Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. Again, when you're walking by faith, you are counting, reckoning, concluding in various ways. And they calculated this up from a spiritual faith perspective and said, you know what, the Lord hasn't said stop preaching the gospel, He's just closed doors to go, so He must be redirecting us there. And that's where we're going to go. And what are we going to do when we get there? We're going to preach the gospel. And when it comes to the Gospel, we have to understand, first of all, that it's good news about God, who He is, and His character and His Son. God is triune, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He has various attributes. He is righteous and just, but He's also a loving God. We see all of these things combined in the Gospel message. We're told, by contrast, we as human beings, we're not holy. In fact, Romans 3.23, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, the composite of all His attributes that make God, God. There's truly no one like Him in the universe. And if for a brief fleeting thought, we even think that we might be running the show here on planet Earth, just stop and consider God in His glory. And we know by nature we fall short of the glory of God. We're sinners. And we can't save ourselves. That's why Romans 3.24 says, "...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption, the paying of a price that is in Christ Jesus." And many people have seen Jesus on a crucifix for years, but do not understand what He did or accomplished on that cross, or by rising from the dead. And yet we're told in the Word of God that when He died on that cross, He died as a lamb, a sacrifice, to take away the sins of the world, because He paid for them in full. And the resurrection is proof of that, that the work of Jesus Christ was not only sufficient, but it was complete, it was finished, and it was acceptable to God the Father. And we are accepted on the basis then of Christ's work for us, not our works, ourselves. And yet, what man often attempts to do is build a bridge over this chasm between a holy God and sinful man by his own works, religious works, sacraments, whatever they may be, or just being a moral, righteous person, even from an agnostic or atheistic sense. We think we're worthy, if there is an afterlife, to go to heaven. And so men, in essence, put their trust in works by nature. And where does that lead? You like the little motion graphic there to help wake you up today? All who trust in their works will perish. That is why the only remedy, the only solution, the only thing that provides redemption is faith in the work of Jesus Christ to bring us to God. You see, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 say, For by grace you have been saved, God's unmerited favor, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. And to break this down, And illustrated even further, these verses could be illustrated this way by what they are saying and what they're not saying. How are we saved? How are we not saved? We're saved by grace, through faith, the Bible says, and not of ourselves. We can't save ourselves. Someone else has to do the saving, a Savior, Jesus Christ. And salvation is a gift of God. That means it can't be earned through religious works or human goodness. It's all of grace. And this is the message they preached in their missionary journeys. And when one understands this message, they see God in a whole new light. and they magnify God for His righteousness and glory. and all His attributes. They love and appreciate His holiness. They know that they're loved through Christ because justice was met at the cross, and God sees me now through that cross. And they know that they have acceptance before God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. This is wonderful good news, and this is what the apostles were preaching, and Paul, and Silas, and Timothy. But you notice who else was preaching this message? the writer of the book that we're reading right now. Luke. Did you notice there in v. 10, it says, "...Now after he had seen this vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them." Who is this? This is Luke. So at this point, the missionary team consisted of Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke. You've got four guys on the team now. the writer of the Gospel of Luke, and now the writer of the Book of Acts. So we've got two Gospel writers now out on mission journeys. John Mark is on Cyprus with Barnabas, and he's going to write a Gospel later, and now Luke. Now how is Luke described in Scripture, and what did he do? Well, most people know he was the beloved physician, as Paul calls him in Colossians 4, verse 14. By the way, he's with Paul there in jail in Rome in his first imprisonment. And why would you need a doctor to travel with you if you were Paul? It's not even hard to see this, right? It's kind of like, why do football teams have a doctor or a trainer on the sidelines for every game? Because they know someone's going to get hurt eventually, right? And in fact, I picture this in my mind when Paul is at Lystra and he's stoned and they think he's dead. It says in the next verse that the disciples all stood over him. And then he rose up. I almost wonder if it was like those trainers running out on the football field kneeling down before that injured player. What's going on with you? How can we help? Is he dead? These are the hazards that Paul faced, the sufferings for the gospel. But you know what else I find amazing? That Luke wasn't just, hey, I'm just here to take care of the medical side of things. He saw what I've also underscored so far in the book of Acts that we've seen, that it's fine to do physical things to help people. Even a medical mission is fine, done in compassion to meet a physical need. But what is their greater need? the salvation of their soul for all eternity, the spiritual side of things. And that's why Luke also shared the gospel. Did you see that? In verse 10, he says, we determined or concluded that we were called to preach the gospel there. We, me included. So Paul viewed him as his fellow laborer. And by the way, he was with Luke to the very end. 2 Timothy 4.11, Paul writes, I'm here ready to die in Rome and only Luke is with me. He was a faithful support and companion to the very end. And this leads us to Philippi. Let me just mention a few things about Philippi here with this last section. Verse 11. Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. So they crossed the Aegean Sea up to Macedonia. Now they're in Neapolis, and they go as far as the city of Philippi. It says, and we were staying in that city for some days, and then on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made, and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. And so, the Lord Jesus again directed this team to the city of Philippi. By the way, when you see Philippi, think Book of Philippians. These are the believers that we're reading about here. This was a key city of Macedonia, it was a Roman colony. Basically Rome franchised itself out and had little Rome's, a Rome away from Rome, Rome away from home if you will, all around the empire. And Philippi was one of those key cities. It was very Roman in flavor. And there were very few Jews there, and that's why they were meeting for prayer down by the riverside, because they didn't have a quorum of ten male Jews to start a synagogue. But they had faithful women there. And it says that they spoke to these women. And what we see here is that this was conversational evangelism, not proclamational evangelism, as we'll see in Acts 17, before a huge crowd. And by the way, I think more and more as the age progresses here, at least in the United States, where there is opposition towards Christianity and censorship and control of the narrative, so to speak, that more and more we are going to be effective in our evangelism through one-on-one conversation with people we meet. In fact, I just read an amazing story this last week out of Iran. People have studied the house church movement in Iran. We think of Iran, you know, the Ayatollahs and Shiite Islam and Islamic fundamentalism and suppression of Christianity and Judaism, right? Exporters of terrorism around the world. Do you know that there are people getting saved in droves in Iran despite the persecution? And it's happening all underground. The word is getting out, and those who study this on a global basis, I read some report from an institute, said they think there are millions of Christians in Iran. Think of that next time you read about them in the news. And how is the Gospel being spread there? All through word of mouth, conversationally. And I think that's going to be true here. And who was one of those people who heard the gospel? Her name was Lydia, verse 14. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshiped God. She was a God-fearer, maybe not even a proselyte. But she gathered with these Jews and she prayed. And the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And so we see the first European to believe the Gospel was a woman named Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened. Isn't that beautiful? She was responding already to the truth she had. When more truth came along, God used that spoken word of the good news of the Gospel as the power of God unto salvation in her life, and I think that's how He opened her heart. It's not too mystical or difficult to figure out. Though I do think the Lord supernaturally is using His Word in the Gospel, to draw people to Himself, as John 6.44 says, as Jesus said in John 12.32, and as John 16.8 says, the Holy Spirit is doing. And remember this, that unless God draws people, they can't be saved. Yes, we all have a volition, have a choice to make, but God has to pre-evangelistically work in every person's heart. And in fact, I've said before that We're not technically saved by our faith. We're saved because He gave us the response and He determined and willed that we be saved if we believe. He has to do all the saving. We couldn't even believe in Jesus Christ if it weren't for the grace of God. That's why Acts 18.27 says that some had believed through grace. And this is very different from Calvinism, but I won't get into that right now. Verse 15, in closing, we see, And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. We learn from Lydia's example that she was a believer in Jesus Christ, responding to the word of God, who sought to be faithful. She even got baptized with her household And the Lord used that. In fact, later in this chapter, the church met in her home. She was that supportive. And the local church needs people like Lydia's, right? Amen. Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for these various people we've seen in your word and how you work through each of them. We know that each are a trophy of your grace. And may you do the same with the saints here of Duluth Bible Church, we pray. Amen.