From
Acts to Revelation
Part
43 – The Call of God
Pastor Bruce A. Shields
House
of Faith Church | www.PS127.org
| www.TruthDigest.org
INTRODUCTION
Last week we left off with Paul and Silas
picking up Timothy, and continuing on their Second mission trip.
We also saw how the Holy Spirit prevented
them from preaching the gospel in certain areas, causing them to continue
traveling to an unknown destination.
Today we will see how God continues to
guide them, adding Luke to the group, and giving Paul a vision.
We will also see how we do not battle
against flesh and blood, but our battle is a spiritual one.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE
Acts 16:9-18
9 During the night Paul had a vision of
a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help
us.” 10 After
Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave 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, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to
Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district[a]of
Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the
city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat
down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of
those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a
dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her
heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her
household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider
me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she
persuaded us.
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met
by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She
earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.17 She
followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most
High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She
kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned
around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to
come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
I.
PAUL'S VISION IN TROAS
a. Remember,
the Holy Spirit was leading them on their second mission trip.
i.
They tried to enter into the region of
Phrygia and Galatia, but were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to stop and speak.
ii.
They traveled past Mysia, Bithynia, and
finally stopped in Troas.
b. Paul,
traveling with Silas and Timothy, has a vision in the night.
i.
A man in Macedonia (a part of modern
Greece), came to him asking for help.
ii.
This Second mission trip would bring the
Gospel to the West for the first time!
c. From
“They” to “We”
i.
We see from scripture, up to this point,
Luke, who authored the Book of Acts, goes from referring to Paul's group as
“They”, to “We”
ii.
This shows us that by this time, Luke has
joined Paul, Silas and Timothy on this Second Mission trip.
d. When
Paul awoke, he knew that God had showed him the vision to lead him into
Macedonia.
II.
IN PHILIPPI, THE ROMAN COLONY
a. They
travel through Samothracia, Neapolis
i.
This would be the very first presentation
of the Gospel on European soil
ii.
This was the beginning place of Western
Civilization
b. They
traveled from Nealopis to Philippi
i.
Philippi is he chief city of Macedonia,
what we call a Capital
ii.
A Roman colony.
c. Though
they faced hardships there, a Church was established.
d. There
they spoke with a woman's prayer group
e. A woman
named Lydia, responded to Paul's message
i.
Her and her household were baptized.
ii.
Lydia worked outside the home
iii. She had
her own business, dealing in purple cloth
f. She
invited Paul, Silas, Timothy and now Luke to her home.
III. THE
WITCH
a. On the
way to prayer, a woman possessed with a spirit of divination
i.
A slave who made money for her masters by
predicting the future
ii.
The Bible does not say that
fortune-telling, witchcraft, magic, etc, is not real...it says that these
things come from evil-sources, and must be avoided.
iii.
This woman did these things because it
wasn't her, but the power of the evil spirit which possessed her.
b. She
followed and mocked Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke for days
i.
Saying to all, “These men are servants of
the Most High God, who show us the way to Salvation”
c.
Paul, annoyed, turned to THE SPIRIT
i.
Paul does not address the woman, but the
evil spirit.
ii. Ephesians
6:12 “For we battle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
d. “I
command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”
CONCLUSION
Now the slave was no longer
possessed, which created a problem for her masters, who could no longer make
money from her fortune-telling.
If you want to get a worldly
man upset, mess with his money.
We will see that these men did
not serve God, but money was their master, and they did not care they were
using evil to gain it, they only cared about gaining it. And when the Apostles
cast the demon out of their slave, and they saw they could make no money from
her, they were angry.
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