The Rights of Life

Pop Quiz

We’re going to have a pop quiz today!

Who “tested” my words from last Sunday (Witness the Power of God)?

Well, I do practice what I preach and test everything, including myself.....I mis-spoke and mis-informed you last week.

I didn’t intentionally, I promise I would never intentionally do such a thing, but it did occur nevertheless. When I was speaking of 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 where Paul says:

1 Thessalonians 5:21–22 ESV

21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

I connected this verse with the idea of testing for the proper use of Scripture as a primary means of recognizing false teachers and pulled support from another part of Scripture where Paul says that even himself or angels are to be accursed if they attempt to change the gospel.

My mind got ahead of my mouth and I failed to cite the Scripture I was quoting, which left the impression that you would find this Scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5.

In fact, the proper Scripture citation is Galatians 1:6-10, which reads:

Galatians 1:6–10 ESV

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. 10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Therefore, I apologize for my error. It is never my intention to mis-lead you in any way. Lesson: Test EVERYTHING, even yourself!

Moving on, today we are going to have a bit of story time from the Bible.

Story Time

Acts 15:36–16:15 (ESV)

Paul and Barnabas Separate

36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

16 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

The Macedonian Call

6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

The Conversion of Lydia

11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

We’re going to read a story of events in Acts 15:36-16:15 and discuss what is going on here, historically.

There is no structured outline, like normal, in your handouts. Instead, I left open space for you to take your own notes on anything that stands out to you personally.

My hope is that by the time we are done, you will see a clear application to your own lives out of it.

Acts 15:36–16:15 ESV

36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. 1 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily. 6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

This is an interesting series of events, but not necessarily a passage you would point to and say there is clear Spiritual teaching here. Or would you?

I’d like to start by talking about this “John called Mark” in verse 37:

We don’t always have the right people in our life.

I’m just going to call him Mark for the sake of words and clarity.

We don’t know a lot about Mark prior to this, but we do know that, according to the early church fathers, that Mark neither followed or ever heard Jesus speak (Eus. Hist. Eccl. 3.39.15).

He was a Jew living in Jerusalem and was likely converted to Christianity sometime after the crucifixion of Christ, possibly as one of the 3,000 of Pentecost.

This is not sure though, as the first time he is mentioned in Scripture is in Acts 12:12, which occurs in AD 44 (approximately 14 years after the crucifixion)and even then he is mentioned in passing as a member of a household where Christians gathered to pray. So there is a a big window of time there.

What we do know is that his family was a wealthy Jewish family, which meant he would have been well respected and well educated; particularly in Greek as his family likely had many dealings with both the Romans in Jerusalem and foreigners who spoke primarily Greek.

He was also the cousin of Barnabas.

This made Mark the perfect candidate for Paul to recruit when he and Barnabas visited Jerusalem in AD 49.

In our passage, we fast forward about a year and it doesn’t seem like recruiting Mark was such a good idea after all.

He seems to be causing quite a bit of trouble.

It is indicated that he has, on at least on occasion, refused to participate in Paul’s ministry, which is causing division between Paul and Barnabas. The Scripture says they had “a sharp disagreement”, which I believe was more than just a simple argument.

This was likely a knock-down drag out shouting match with heated tempers and poorly chosen words that caused one of Paul’s devout followers to say “You know what, I’m done. I no longer want to travel with you, I’m going my own way!”.

This Mark guy is BAD NEWS! His actions and decisions have divided and weakened Paul’s ministry severely.

However, we fast forward 10 years, and because of his split from Paul, Mark has been spending sometime in Rome, where Peter arrives to visit the church.

This is when Mark starts to follow Peter closely, which is crucial because, though by all accounts Peter is an eloquent and moving speaker, we must remember that he was a fisherman; which meant he was not very educated so his Greek speech would have been shaky at best and it is unlikely he could write in Greek.

So Mark becomes Peter’s Greek interpreter, which many scholars believe leads to Mark taking dictation from Peter to write the letters of 1 Peter and 2 Peter; then later to Mark recording the sum of Peter’s teachings of Christ in what we know today as The Gospel of Mark.

If Mark had never split from Saul, we may never have had these very important books of the New Testament.

With this in mind, we see here in our passage, approximately 15 years prior, that God’s plan goes well beyond what we can see in our current situations.

The next thing we see that comes from this split of Paul, Barnabas, and Mark is that Paul is led to go to the city of Lystra.

We don’t always choose the right direction for our life.

In Lystra, we see that Paul runs into someone who, eerily, has the same qualities of Mark.

Timothy is a Jewish Christian, thanks to his mother, and is also well versed in Greek, thanks to his father.

This is the same Timothy who follows Paul on his missionary journey for several years and eventually is left in Ephesus as the leader of the church of the Ephesians and to whom Paul’s Letters 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy are written.

Immediately after recruiting Timothy, we see a very interesting part of this journey in verses 6 - 10:

Acts 16:6–10 ESV

6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Now, this journey is interesting. From our perspective, and likely Paul’s; going directly to Asia would have been a much more fruitful trip.

It was a shorter distance to travel and had many large cities, the country as a whole was much more populated than the path they took and would have provided enormous opportunities to spread the gospel.

However, the text doesn’t clarify for us how, but somehow they were keenly aware that the Holy Spirit did not want them to go to Asia and instead they took the long way around through a region that was, by comparison, desolate and head straight to Troas; and this is where it really gets interesting.

In verse 10, we see something of immense implications occur, which most people never realize as they skim over this verse:

Acts 16:10 ESV

10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

We all know Luke, the author of the third Gospel in the New Testament and also the author of the book of Acts.

However, did you realize that Luke, like Mark, was not one of the original Twelve Apostles of Christ? In fact, Luke was even Jewish.

He was a Gentile, a Greek doctor from Antioch.

As a doctor, he was a man of science, Greek doctors in that time typically involved a mixed knowledge of philosophy, history, and biology in their treatments. Like many, scientists today, Luke likely was not concerned with or convinced by the existence of God.

In addition, as a doctor, he likely constantly traveled throughout his entire region offering his services as doctors were typically limited to on a few per region in all but the large cities.

Here is where we get to the interesting part.

In all of the Gospel of Luke and throughout most of Acts, Luke consistently uses third person pronouns like “they” and “them”, indicating that he was recording things and events that were being told to him.

However, in Acts 16:10 Luke suddenly switches to the first person pronoun “we”.

You see, Troas was in Luke’s home region of Antioch and Luke would have likely only been visiting there for a short time as he made his customary rounds throughout the region; and the Holy Spirit lands Paul in Troas just in time to run into Luke which results in Luke joining Paul’s ministry and, by implication, Luke’s conversion to Christianity.

Consequently, we have two significant books of the New Testament, not to mention the fact that Paul is going to need a doctor considering the persecution, beating, and imprisonment he is going to face in the coming years; it is believed that thanks belongs to Luke for Paul surviving long enough to deliver us many of his New Testament letters.

Therefore, we see in this section of our passage, that in taking away Paul’s trusted companions Barnabas and Mark, the Holy Spirit made room for Timothy and Luke, both who would have significant impacts on Paul’s mission and be instrumental in God’s plan for the New Testament.

Lastly, Lets take a look at what appears to be the final target of this leg in Paul’s journey: Lydia.

We don’t always seek the right things for our life.

The first thing I want to point out is that Paul is now in Macedonia, on a new continent.

He has just left Asia and now has crossed the sea and landed in Modern-day Greece, on the continent of Europe.

The next thing that is interesting here is that Paul has a dream of a man calling him to Macedonia, but it is a woman he meets.

I think this could be because to Paul’s Jewish mind, if he was going to a new place to spread the word, he would target the men fist, because in Jewish society men held all the influence.

I don’t want to speculate on this too much, but the point we can take from this bit of information is that the Holy Spirit doesn’t always think and act the way we do.

Nevertheless, now we meet Lydia, the very first European Christian. I want to talk about her for a minute, Lydia was a long way from home.

Thyatira was all the way back across the sea and halfway across Asia, back the way Paul came from a year or two ago. So she likely traveled between her home, to gather her goods, and Philippi, to sell them in the region of Macedonia.

The text gives us two reasons to believe she was a wealthy merchant.

First, she had a large house in Philippi and

second, she was a seller of purple goods.

Purple was the color of royalty, and Lydia’s purple was particularly expensive and desired.

The clothing she sold was equivalent to the modern Lamborghini, if you were rolling around Philippi in Lydia’s purple, you were somebody.

Because of this, she likely had social and economic contacts in high places all throughout the region.

We also learn that she is a “worshipper of God”.

Don’t confuse this with being a Christian though, this term “worshipper of God” was a term Jews gave to non-Jews would knew of and prayer to the Lord, but they were not Jews and didn’t necessarily ONLY worship God.

Regardless, when she meets Paul, she wholeheartedly converts to Christianity and it is her house that becomes the church of Philippi; the same church that Philippians is written to.

In addition, it is likely the social and economic support of Lydia which gave Paul the opportunity to travel across Macedonia and eventually establish the church in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians) as well as the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians).

The Rights of Life

Romans 8:28 (ESV)

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

In summary, when we first read this passage we saw what looks like the travel log of the world’s worst vacation.

Paul fought with his friends and they left him,

he misses all the good spots in Asia and instead ends up taking the worst and longest route to his destination,

and when he gets there he doesn’t even find who he came to visit!

But in the background, the Holy Spirit was in control and at work.

He was removing people who Paul no longer needed in his group to make room for those whom Paul would desperately need in order to complete his calling.

The Holy Spirit was ensuring Paul would be just where he needed to be in order to form an entirely new continent of Christians by planting the first European church in Philippi and giving him the resources he would need to continue.

All this while laying the foundation for eight of the books we now have in the New Testament:

1 Peter,

2 Peter,

Mark,

1 Timothy,

2 Timothy,

Luke,

Acts,

and Philippians.

Did anyone have any idea this was the story we were reading?

Our lives can be like this story. When we look on the surface, we see bad things happening all around us.

We are losing friends and family because of our faith,

our life is headed in a direction that doesn’t seem like the best way,

and we always seem to be finding things, situations, and people we aren’t looking for.

But when we live controlled by the Holy Spirit we can be confident that his plan is greater than our own.

We can be confident that the losses in our lives will be used to make room for what we will desperately need in the future.

We can be confident that, however unlikely, the direction our life is headed in is the exact direction we need to be going to receive God’s blessings.

We can be confident that we are often searching for the wrong things and that the Holy Spirit will deliver to us the things which will help us to serve Him better.

Romans 8:28 says:

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

In other words, when we live life controlled by the Holy Spirit, we can be confident that God will turn all the perceived wrongs in our life into the profound rights of our life.