How to Go With the Flow (of the Holy Spirit)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Have you ever felt like you had a plan, and then circumstances completely outside of your control changed that plan, and you didn’t know what to do?
That’s kind of a ridiculous question to ask right now, isn’t it? Who among us would’ve planned to have schools closed for half a semester, have toilet paper become the must-have item of the spring shopping season, or have millions of people out of work because many businesses just can’t operate safely as a global pandemic continues to spread? None of us would’ve chosen this path, but here we are.
Lots of things are going to get in the way of the plans you have for your life, I know that from experience. The plan that you have now, if you have one at all, will go through hundreds of iterations before you even graduate college! That can be scary, to know how much our plans can be changed by factors that we couldn’t possibly anticipate, but it doesn’t have to be.
Direction of the Holy Spirit
Direction of the Holy Spirit
How do we know that these things don’t need to be scary? Easy, we look at Paul’s 2nd missionary journey, where he visited some of the churches that he planted on his first journey, and then traveled even further hoping to continue to spread the Gospel and plant even more churches! But things got… weird after Paul, Timothy, and Silas left Antioch.
And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.
Now, this may not seem like such a big setback from just reading the words so let’s look at a map. They left Antioch and headed mostly North, which would take them into Europe through Byzantium, which was nearing half a million people in the 1st Century, easily making it one of the most populous cities in the world by a large margin. It’s quite possible that Paul intended to share the Gospel in this major crossroads of the world between Europe and Asia, ensuring that the message would in fact “spread to the ends of the Earth”. Instead, we see Paul getting sort of edged around until he ends up in Troas.
How does Paul react to these changes? He shifts course once, but the second time he decides to stop in Troas and wait to see what the Lord has in mind.
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.” 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.
And so Paul received the new plan! He sets off at once for Macedonia eventually reaching the city of Philippi and its approximately 3,000 residents. Not quite the sprawling metropolis of Byzantium but a strategically important town for Rome nonetheless. Almost immediately, people around Philippi react strongly to the message of the Gospel, a woman named Lydia and her whole household were baptized and many listened to the teachings of Paul. At this point, if I’m Paul, I’m probably feeling pretty good! He didn’t triumphantly bring the Gospel to the crossroads of the world but the message was being well received in Philippi, until....
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Paul was sent all this way, had is plan totally changed by the Holy Spirit, rolled with it like a champ, and now found himself beaten and imprisoned and had to at this point be thinking “REALLY? ALL THOSE CITIES ALONG MY ORIGINAL PATH AND THIS JAIL CELL IS WHERE I NEEDED TO BE?!” Except, Paul didn’t react that way at all
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,
And one thing leads to another and they end up back at the jailers house, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ and baptizing the jailer along with his entire household.
And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
They were released from prison the next day.
So what?
So what?
Life, doesn’t go the way we planned it most of the time. Sometimes we have our path dramatically altered by the Holy Spirit, sometimes we have our daily routine upended by a novel coronavirus. What stays constant in those times is what we are called to do. We are to joyfully sing praise to God, and to share the Gospel every opportunity we get. We are to continue doing that now while we are apart from each other, because in spite of everything that’s going on it is still true that we are saved by the blood of Christ, and He will work all of the bad things that happen to ultimately achieve what is good in God’s divine plan.