God Gives Direction and Liberty

Sunday, May 19th, 2024

Followup from Last Lesson

Last week’s question: What are some rights you will lay down this week, to connect with other people? [Give people an opportunity to share what they did and how it went.]

Introductory Information

Paul is on his second missionary journey. He brought Silas with him, and then picked up Timothy in Derbe and Lystra. Now the three of them are traveling together. [Share Map with people]

Fun fact: in verse 10, it appears that Luke finally joins Paul and the team while they are in Troas

READ

Question to consider as we read:

How does God lead us?

Acts 16:6–15 CSB

6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia; they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 Passing by Mysia they went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, the next day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, a Roman colony and a leading city of the district of Macedonia. We stayed in that city for several days. 13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate by the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women gathered there. 14 A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. 15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

EXAMINE

What are the key points in this passage?

#1 | The Lord is working in various ways in this passage

The Holy Spirit “forbid” them to speak the word in Asia

Acts 16:6 - This seems odd, that the Holy Spirit stopped them from preaching the Gospel in a certain place.

The Spirit of Jesus did “not allow them” to go to Bithynia

Acts 16:7 - There is a change in description here. (Holy Spirit vs. Spirit of Jesus) Perhaps the Lord communicated with them more directly this time.

God gives Paul a dream of a man from Macedonia begging "Cross over to Macedonia and help us”

Acts 16:9 - Now the Lord is using another means of directing them - a dream where they are seeing the people God wants them to reach

The Lord “opened Lydia’s heart” to respond to what Paul was saying

Acts 16:14 - God had been closing doors to evangelism before, but now He was opening people’s hearts to hear it

#2 | There are so many questions in this passage

Why would God prevent them from preaching the Gospel somewhere?

Perhaps it was a safety issue. Maybe those people groups were not yet ready to receive the Gospel. Maybe God wanted to add certain people to the team before they preached to those regions - there could be so many reasons.

Exactly how did the Lord “forbid” and “not allow” them to go to the other places?

It could have been through prophecy, visions, circumstances that blocked their course, gut feelings, plans that kept failing, etc.

Why did the Lord lead them toward Macedonia the way He did?

Perhaps there was a specific need that God wanted Paul and the team to address, beyond just preaching the Gospel

Maybe the Lord was stirring their heart with compassion by giving them a face to connect with

What exactly does it mean that the Lord opened Lydia’s heart?

Maybe she was initially resistant to the Gospel

Maybe it’s referring to an ongoing thing God had been doing in her heart ahead of time - preparing her

Further questions:

Is this always required? Why is Luke pointing it out here and not in every case of people hearing the Gospel?

Can a person still resist the Holy Spirit when He works to open their heart?

# 3 | No matter what the answers are, the conclusion is the same

Every one of these acts of God to guide and direct them, could have been missed or ignored

If Paul and the team hadn’t been paying attention and weren’t actively submitting themselves to God, they could have...

Misinterpreted signals that God was blocking them from certain paths

Dismissed Paul’s dream as something random

Failed to see that the Lord was working on Lydia’s heart

Within God’s guidance, there is both direction and liberty.

God told them where to go, but let them figure out how they would get there

God gave them a region, but they chose the route and the city

God showed them a people group, but not names and addresses - they had to go find the people who were ready for help

God opened Lydia’s heart, but she still had to listen and respond to the Gospel

This is still the way God directs us today - He points us in a direction but doesn’t give us step-by-step instructions.

So we must:

Remain alert and attentive to God. He is always guiding and directing our paths, and not always in ways that are obvious.

Move forward in faith and courage (without waiting for the step-by-step) - putting into use the skills and talents that God is developing in us

Consider the inspiring account of Abraham in Hebrews 11:6–8 “...without faith it is impossible to please God… By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going.”

APPLY

Explore and apply the passage with these questions:

[These questions must be focused, yet very open-ended. Allow the conversation to go where people take it - we want to encourage everyone to share and explore the topics of the passage. You don’t have to ask all these questions. Sometimes a group may only get through one or two questions. Select the questions you think are right for the conversation. Then, as it comes time to wrap up, refocus the conversation to “land the plane.”]

What stood out to you in this passage?

What mistaken assumptions do we have, about the way that God leads us? (For example, we think He is going to give us the step-by-step, or that He will only guide us on really big decisions, but doesn’t care about the little things)

What is something you learned today that you can put into action this week? How will you do that?

Where we want to “land the plane”

We need to be alert to God’s direction and leading, but recognize that He will rarely make things obvious. He gives us a “wide path” and expects us to use the gifts He has given us to move forward. Following God is this balance between reliance and courage.

REFLECT

Prayer Points for Today

Let’s ask the Lord to open our eyes to the way He is leading us in our every day lives

Devotional Question for the Week

What doors are being closed by God in your life, that you think are still open? What doors are being opened by God in your life, that you think are still closed?

FOOTNOTES

The first of the “we” sections begins here in Acts, indicating that Luke joined the party of Paul, Silas, and Timothy. The how, why, and precise location of Luke’s joining the group are left unstated. Stanley D. Toussaint, “Acts,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 398.

Lydia was a seller of purple cloth. This purple color came from a shellfish, the murex, or from the root of a plant. She was from Thyatira, a city known for its commerce in Asia Minor (cf. comments on Thyatira in Rev. 2:18–29). She was a worshiper of God, a term used for Gentiles (e.g., Cornelius [Acts 10:2] and those in Thessalonica [17:4] and Athens [17:17]) who were not proselytes to Judaism but who did worship Yahweh. Even so, they were not in the New Testament church, the body of Christ. The Lord opened her heart (cf. Luke 24:45) to respond to Paul’s message. Stanley D. Toussaint, “Acts,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 399.