Summary:

Now that the Bible is complete, the Spirit speaks only through the Book He wrote. But here (v.6), He spoke either audibly or by a vision (cf.v.9).

Two years later, the Spirit did let Paul preach in Asia (19: 10), but not here. This was perhaps due to the way Paul was preaching. He was just going from one small town to the next, and “all Asia” would never hear the Word that way! In Acts 19, Paul taught his disciples in a school and converted some disputers, and they all went out together to preach. So the Spirit forbad him to preach in Asia until he examined his methods and learned how to improve them as an adult son.

That’s how God sees us! Jewish fathers recognized that their boys were sons on the day of their adoption, a day that today they call their bar mitzvah. God adopted you when you got saved (Gal.4:4-6), so He now sees you as an adult son. That means we must make our own decisions, and not wait to hear the voice of our Father guiding us every step of the way.

But you needn’t worry about the lost souls in Asia who died in the two years it took Paul to get there, for they heard the kingdom gospel when Jews who believed it at Pentecost brought it back to them 12 years earlier (Acts 2:9). We know the kingdom gospel was also preached in Bithynia (Acts 16:7) because Peter wrote a letter to saints there (IPe.1:1).

The Spirit told Paul where not to go, but didn’t tell him where to go right away, for He wanted to get Paul used to the idea that things were changing from Him telling Paul where to go to letting him decide as an adult son.

But eventually He told Paul to go to Macedonia (Acts 16:9), the area above Greece where the Mideast meets Europe. He didn’t tell Paul to go there because He loves white Europeans more than black Africans or other peoples. He just knew they’d receive the gospel faster, and word of it would get out faster. That’s not a racist thing to say, it’s a generational thing. At that time they were more open to the gospel, and the church in Greece did get it out fast (IThes.1:9). The Romans in Italy helped (Rom.1:8) by using the famous Roman roads. It helped when Paul was thrown in the palace slammer, and the royals heard about it (Phil.1:13). They wanted to meet this famous prisoner, and some of them got saved (4:22). When word of that got out down those Roman roads, it made it acceptable to be a Christian—even posh!

When Paul first passed through Galatia here (Acts 18:6) he had eye trouble (Gal.4:13-15) that Jewish kingdom prophets like Elijah used to be able to heal. But the prophet Silas (Acts 15:32) was with Paul (15:40,41), and couldn’t heal him because the dispensation was changing. God didn’t heal him, so he could learn how to be spiritually strong (IICor.12:7-9). Comparing the “they” of Acts 16:6,7 to the “we” of verse 10 shows Luke had joined Paul, Silas and Timothy (16:1-5). This proves things were changing, for Luke was a doctor (Col.4:14), and Paul now needed a doctor. God shut down Luke’s kingdom program, so he served God as Paul’s doctor.

We see a type of another dispensational change in the way God showed Paul this vision. In time past, God Himself appeared in men’s visions, or He sent an angel to appear in their visions to deliver His message. Paul saw a man delivering God’s message, typifying how today God’s messengers are men, not angels. We see this change first typified when Saul saw Ananias in a dream right after the dispensation began with his conversion (Acts 9:11,12). We see another dispensational change typified when the man begged Paul to come. In time past, God ordered men to do things. That typifies the difference between law and grace. For example, under the law, God commanded men to walk in His ways through Moses (Deut.5:33). Under grace, God beseeches us to walk in His ways through Paul (Eph.4:1; IThes.4:1). The dispensations they were achangin’!

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “The Dispensations Are A-changin” Acts 16:6-11

Summary:

Timothy was already a “disciple” (v.1), so how can Paul call him his “son” (ITim.1:2), a name reserved for men he led to Christ (cf.Phile.1:10)? Paul led Tim to the Lord during his first visit in Acts 14:6,7. He had help from Tim’s mom, who prepared his heart by teaching him the Scriptures (IITim.3: 15). Her mom prepared her (IITim.1:5), so she could prepare him. Finding Tim saved, Paul began to prepare him for the ministry, so he in turn could prepare others (IITim.2:2).

Since Grandma Lois raised Tim’s mom Eunice in the Jewish faith, she would have taught her not to marry a Gentile (Deut.7:1-3). But Eunice didn’t listen (Acts 16:1). And when verse 1 described her as “a Jewess which believed,” but doesn’t describe her husband as a Greek who believed, he must not have been saved. That’s why Acts 16:1 says “behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus.” Great men of God don’t often come from a marriage of mixed faith, but Eunice overcame that disadvantage by teaching her son the Word of God!

Since it had been 7 years since Paul led Tim to the Lord, he had time to become well known among the brethren in two cities (Acts 16:2). Part of that was Paul’s doing, for Paul visited Tim’s town a second time to confirm him (Acts 14:21, 22). So by the time Paul made this third visit, he saw so much he liked in Tim, he decided to take him with to preach in other cities (Acts 16:3) to train him for the ministry.

Picking a half-Jew/half-Gentile to help him was a picture of what was happening in Acts. Paul’s first helpers, Barnabas and Silas, were fully Jewish, Tim was half Jewish, and later Paul picked a full Gentile named Titus to help him. That pictures how God’s servants went from being Jews to Gentiles, as they are today. Tim typified the Body of Christ, made up of Jews and Gentiles (ICor.12:13). He needed wine for his sickliness (ITim.5:23), a type of how the early church needed the wine of the gifts of the Spirit (cf.Acts 2:4,13) until the Bible was complete.

Tim probably got saved at age 5 and began training seven years later at age 12. That’s the only way 12 years later he could still be called a “youth” (ITim.4:12). Twelve is the age Jewish boys had their bar mitzvah, and were considered old enough to begin apprenticing for their life’s work.

But why’d Paul circumcise Tim (Acts 16:3)? It was because the Jews in that area knew he wasn’t circumcised, and would not let him in their synagogues when Paul came to preach to them. So Paul let Tim become “as” a Jew to win them (ICor. 9:20-23), as James advised us all to do (Acts 15:19-21).

But that doesn’t mean it’s okay to be baptized so Baptists will let you teach in their church, so you can win them to the grace message! Circumcision gave a Gentile a new nationality: Jewish. So Paul circumcised Timothy to make him acceptable to Jews as a member of the Hebrew nation, not to make him acceptable as a member of the Hebrew religion. But no one is a Baptist by nationality, so the only reason to be baptized would be to join the Baptist religion.

Later, Paul refused to let his Gentile helper Titus be circumcised (Gal.2:3-5), because that wouldn’t gain those Jews to Paul’s faith, it would join Titus to the Jews’ faith, and obligated him to keep the law (Gal.5:3cf.Rom.6:15).

The “decrees” (Acts 16:4) were the ones James made in Acts 15. Paul was delivering them to Gentiles, and he could now point to Tim as a living example of doing things not to offend the Jews! Paul established those new Gentile members of the Body of Christ (Acts 16:5) with the mystery (Rom.16:25).

All of that ended up being the first step in Tim’s training. Lesson #1 was how to be respectful of the convictions of others. Sad to say, many grace believers haven’t learned it!

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “Paul Begins To Train Timothy” Acts 16:1-5

Summary:

Now that the Jewish kingdom church has written Paul’s new Gentile converts to say they didn’t have to keep the law, they “dismissed” the men they sent to deliver the letter (v.30).  Once they read it, the Gentiles “rejoiced for the consolation” (v.31). “Consolation” can mean to relieve someone of suffering (cf.IICor.7:1).  They were suffering after legalists told them they had to keep the law, and could only be consoled by “rightly dividing the word of truth” (IITim.2:15), because the law was in the word of truth—just not in the part to you!

Judas and Silas (v.32) were Jewish kingdom saints who “exhorted” them like James did, by saying they weren’t under the law, but should abstain from offending the Jews (v.20).  They “confirmed” them with Old Testament truth.  Barnabas did too (v.35).  Paul confirmed them with grace.

Barnabas wanted to take Mark on Paul’s trip to confirm others (v.36,37) because he had experience as their gopher (13: 2,5). But Paul didn’t, because Mark left them in the lurch (13:13).  As Mark’s uncle (Col.4:10), Barnabas was close enough to Mark to see signs he was maturing spiritually now that 7 years had passed.  But the “sharp” contention between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:39) proves believers are no longer filled with the Spirit in a way that empowers them to live “with one accord” (Acts 1:14; 2:1,46; 4:24; 5:12).

The Bible doesn’t say which man was right, because both could cite Scripture to back their position.  Paul thought of Proverbs 25:19, and Barnabas thought of how God proved Himself a God of second chances with Jonah and Peter and others.  Plus, Paul gave men responsibilities like gophering to see if they were faithful enough to be given more responsibility (Lu.16:10), and Mark proved himself unfaithful.  So both men could cite Scripture, but even today good men differ over the Scriptures.  That causes splits, but God works better in a lot of smaller ministries than in one great big one.

Barnabas took Mark home to Cyprus (Acts 4:36 cf. 15:39) to teach him how to be faithful by teaching him God’s Word.

Eventually, Mark must have proved himself to Paul enough to where the apostle felt comfortable telling others to “receive” him (Col.4:10). Mark must have made the most of that second chance, for Paul calls him a fellow-worker (Phile.1:23,24) “profitable for the ministry” (IITim.4:11).

We know God also gave Mark a second chance, for He allowed Mark to write a book of the Bible—one that presents Christ as the perfect servant! That means God will not only welcome you back with open arms if you’ve been unfaithful to Him, He can actually use what you learned while you were being unfaithful!  What a great God we have!

This split worked out well for Silas too.  In Acts 13, the Antioch church recommended Paul go forth with God’s grace (Acts 13:1-4), and now Silas was going with him instead of Barnabas (15:40,41)—probably as his gopher, since he was going in Mark’s stead.  There’s no record Silas ever did any teaching while with Paul.  He helped Paul with non-ministry things, as Luke did as the physician who traveled with him ministering to wounds inflicted by unbelievers.

Paul took Silas with him back to the churches that he and Barnabas started.  Awkward!  But it gave him a chance to explain the dispensational difference that had taken place since the days men were empowered to be of one accord.

If God’s given you a second chance, are you thankful enough to give one to others?  If you will, God can use you to then give good advice to others, like the advice Paul gave Philemon.  Philemon had an unprofitable slave who could be “profitable” to his master (Phile.1:10,11) if he’d just give him a second chance.  If you’ll start looking at bad things that happen to you the way Paul was inviting Philemon to, as something God can make into something better than you had before (Phile.1:15,16), life will be a lot more enjoyable!

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “The Aftermath Of A Special Delivery Letter” Acts 15:30-41