The Macedonian Call
Notes
Transcript
1. Antioch
1. Antioch
You find in Acts. 15 that there was a council meeting in Jerusalem mainly about Paul and Barnabas’s 1st missionary journey and the reports that they would bring to the men in Jerusalem. There was also a meeting on how they should address the situation of two men that were traveling to churches and saying that in order to be saved you must be circumcised after the manner of Moses.
The council comes to a decision and the decide to write letters to these churches and also send Judas and Silas with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch.
So they go to Antioch and deliver this message.
After the message is delivered the Bible says that they stayed there teaching and preaching.
Antioch must have been a comfortable place to minister at. It pleased Silas in v. 34 to stay there.
Its easy for a young minister to get comfortable where you’re at.
Its easy to use the place that you are at as a parking spot, because you are in your comfort zone.
you dont want to leave your space because outside of it are pressures and difficulties.
But for Paul, the church in Antioch was not a parking spot, it was a launching pad.
In the words of Robertson McQuilken,”In a world where 9/10 people are lost, 3/4 have never heard the way out, and 1 out of every 2 cannot hear, and the church sleeps on. Could it be that we think there is another way, or perhaps we do not really care that much.”
Have we become so comfortable playing church and experiencing all the emotional buzzes that we become complacent in our calling?
God help me if i let comfort cloud the vision
God help me if i let complacency drown out the voice of the call!
Paul cared and so should we.
2. Paul’s 2nd missionary journey
2. Paul’s 2nd missionary journey
In ch. 15:36 Paul cared so much that he and Barnabas felt the need to go on a 2nd missionary journey.
But v. 37-39 show that Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement on whether or not Mark should join them.
V. 39 says that the contention was so sharp that they had to part ways.
Here you had 2 good godly men who agreed on the importance of the journey, but they couldn’t agree on the composition of the team.
2 dedicated men who just brought unity to the churches, but they could not work out a disagreement between themselves and they parted ways.
It does not really matter who was right in this disagreement, but this does show us that there are still disagreements in the church.
Not everyone will always get along.
I may have a different opinion, someone might rub me the wrong way, but God help me that I do not become so bitter and jaded that it blocks the voice of God in my life!
I mat have a disagreement with my brother, but i will still love him, and if we have to do a separate work for now, God still has a perfect purpose that He has called us to fulfill.
2 Cor. 3:5
King James Version Chapter 3
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
God does not call perfect people. He uses people who have imperfections and limitations because they depend on God.
3. Closed Doors
3. Closed Doors
In the 1st few verses of ch. 16 Paul and Silas go through Derbe and Lystra and they run accross Timothy and they preach the message that they recieved from Jerrusalem. The churches they visited were growing in number and increasing in faith.
But you find in v. 6-7 that God kept them from traveling into Asia and Bithynia.
So Paul just 1 ch. ago has to split from his travel buddy, but then gets a good report from the churches he visits, and now all of a sudden there is an interruption in Paul’s travel plans.
The Bible does not say that God offered a reason for these interruptions, just that the spirit suffered them not.
Has there ever been a time in your life where your plans were interrupted?
Times where things seemed like they were going great, everything was falling into place, but all of a sudden a door shuts in your face.
It’s dissapointing.
Its disheartening
You say God I had it all worked out
God I had a plan for the future, I had dreams and visions of what i could accomplish.
And when God closes the door you are left wandering.
Stuck in the waiting room, vision is not quite what it used to be.
But, sometimes God says No, not right now.
4. What You Do While You Are Waiting
4. What You Do While You Are Waiting
If your Bible has a map you can look and see the path of Paul’s 2nd missionary journey.
Paul leaves Lystra and passes into Iconium, he aims to take a northwestward turn into the region of Asia. God closes that door.
He then keeps moving without an exact word from God on where to go.
He aims to take a northward path to Bithynia. But, God also closes that door.
And still Paul does not have an exact word from God on where to go.
So Paul still keeps moving.
Even though God closed the doors in Paul’s face, Paul never stopped moving.
There may have been a period of silence, but Paul never turned around and went back.
He couldn’t see into the future where God was taking him.
God does not roll that way.
If we could see where we would be 5 years from now, we would probably backslide because we would think that the trials will be to overwhelming to face, or others would be so egotistical, that they would backslide.
God doesn’t reveal His will that way.
But when we walk through times when things are not so clear, it’s not time to turn around and quit, it’s time to keep moving and trust that God has the future worked out. KEEP WORKING!
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Keep moving, keep working!
Talk about how God closed doors in your life.
Bro. David McGoverns sermon “Above All the Call”
I thanked God because He was there in the middle of what i though was a failure, God was there in the middle of that doubtful time in my life.
Someone may be full of unbelief.
Someones faith may be weak
Someone may be in a period of silence, or in a waiting room.
But im pleading today, do not turn back, don’t stop your journey, keep moving, God is Calling!
5. The Vision
5. The Vision
When Paul is forbidden to go into Bithynia, he heads back westward through Mysia and to Troas.
In 16:9 Paul receives a vision in the night of a Macedonian man calling for Paul to come and help them.
V.10 says that immediately they endeavored to go to Macedonia because they were sure that it was God who had called them to preach there.
There was no question about it.
Because Paul knew that it was God who closed the doors, and it was God calling him to Macedonia, shows that there must have been some spiritual discernment in his life.
Paul knew the voice of God.
We have to know the voice of God in our lives!
In a generation where we are bombarded with the voices of entertainment, politicians and mainstream media, and even people who are crying out to make sure that their voice is heard, and their agenda is pushed.
It is easy to tune into those voices.
But we must make sure that above all we hear the voice of God!
WE need a daily walk with God.
I cannot just ride on the coat tail of my heritage, but i have to get a relationship with God for myself.
I have to have spiritual desires.
I’ve got to get into a place of prayer and private devotion.
Why? Because i do not want to voices of the world to drown out the voice of God!
6. What Was Macedonia
6. What Was Macedonia
Paul knew without any doubt that it was God calling him to Macedonia
Now consider, Macedonia was a place that had not been preached in yet.
No church in the Macedonian province.
Macedonia was a Roman province, so we know that their religion was steeped in superstition and mysticism.
Their worship included drunkenness and sexual immorality.
Humanism and philosophy abounded in Athens.
Witchcraft and philosophy were popular practices is Ephesus.
Everywhere one went there were racial and political tensions
And yet Paul did not question God’s call for him to preach in Macedonia.
7. Our Macedonian Call
7. Our Macedonian Call
Some might say that we cannot respond the the Macedonian call today.
That’s a false statement because the Macedonian call was a call for help.
Sin is destroying the souls of people everyday.
People are burdened, bound, and blinded by sin.
Consider the problems that we face today as a nation, ungodliness and immorality are practiced and promoted on every front.
Drugs and alcohol abuse continues to destroy lives.
Children are abused, and innocent blood is shed.
People continue to live in hate and suspicion of those who have different views.
Our freedom is under seige.
The Church is under pressure from every direction.
And people in this nation wring their hands and they wonder how they can solve all these problems!
My question to you today is in the middle of all the darkness and chaos, can you hear the Macedonian crying for help?
Can you hear the call going forth today?
Can you hear God calling you to something?
There is a frequency that God calls you at. Only you can hear it and only you can perceive what it is that God is calling you for.
8. What is the Call.
8. What is the Call.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
This is called the Great Commission.
As believers we need to understand the factors of the Great Commission
There is an Authority.
In v. 18 the word power means authority.
The entire Gospel of Matthew stresses the authority of Jesus.
There was authority in His teachings
Jesus used authority in healing and even in forgiving sins.
He had authority over satan and He delegated that authority to His apostles.
Matthew made it clear that Jesus has all authority.
No matter where He leads us, He has authority, He is in control.
By His death and ressurrection, He defeated all enemies and won for Himself all authority!
When we read in the book of Acts we see that the early church operated on the basis of God’s soverign authority.
They ministered in His name.
They depended on His power and guidance.
They did not face a lost world on the basis of their own authority, but on the authority of Jesus Christ.
2. An Activity.
The Greek word for “go” in v. 19 is actually not a command, but a present participle.
The command in the Great Commission is to teach all nations
Since “go” is a present participle in this context, it means that the disciples were already going and moving.
So Jesus tells the disciples,”While you are going, make disciples of all nations.”
No matter where we are, we are called to be witnesses.
No matter what situation we are in the authority and righteousness of God should be revealed through us Holy Ghost filled children of God!
Can you hear the Macedonian calling out for you to be a witness?
Can you hear the Macedonian calling for you to teach them?
Among all the chaos in this fallen world, can you hear a sinner crying out to hear the truth?
According to Roman ch.1-3, all men have an oppurtunity to know God through nature and conscience.
And all are condemned as sinners whether they are judged by Law or conscience.
So Paul emphasizes the only way to be saved in Romans 10:13
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
So clearly according to scripture God does not count the ones who have not heard as innocent, because the only way to be saved is by calling on Jesus!
But Romans 10:14-15
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Can you Hear the Call?!
9. The Call From Beneath
9. The Call From Beneath
You find a familiar story in Luke 16 about the rich man and Lazarus.
in v. 23 they pass away, but their souls end up in drastically different places.
Lazarus was escorted into a place called Abraham’s Bosom.
The rich man was sent to Hell, the abode of the dead, a place of utter torment.
in v. 27-31 that since the rich man could find no relief for himself from the flames and the torment; that Lazarus be sent down to warn the rich man’s family and friends before it’s too late.
I wonder today, how many men and women are screaming from the flames of Hell,”Please tell my family about the Gospel, please tell them about the saving power of Jesus, please compel them to come in!”
I wonder who would answer the call from beneath.
10. The Call From Within
10. The Call From Within
Back to Acts 16:9-10, Paul receives this Macedonian call.
And he has such a passion for it that he responds immediately.
He couldn’t wait until another time, he had to respond immediately.
The distance from where we was in Troas to Neopolis, and to the port in Philip was about 150 miles or about a 2 day journey.
He had to make the journey immediately, if he waited too long it could have been too late for someone else.
Paul says in 2 Cor. 2:14 that the love of Christ constrains him.
The love of Christ urges him!
The love of Christ literally bends and burdens him to the point that he has to let someone know about the Gospel.
Closing
Closing
Does the love of God urge you?
Is the love that Jesus showed for you when He shed His blood for you on the cross enough to push you to tell someone else, to bare witness about the truth that’s been revealed to you?
Can you hear the Macedonian Call
Close eyes and pray.
Ask if they are thinking of someone, a friend, a family member.