From Derbe to Philippi

November 15, 2015 Background Scripture: Acts 16:1 – 15 Lesson Passage: Acts 16:1 – 5, 8 – 15 The spread of the Christian faith was due in large part to the persecution of the church and her missionaries. The external persecution caused the Christians to scatter and as they went they proclaimed the good news to all who would listen and receive it. Today’s lesson highlights a different mechanism that spurred Christian propagation and that is internal disagreement among the missionaries. In our text, Paul and Silas pressed on into Asia while Barnabas and John Mark sailed to the island of Cyprus. This separation was due to the dissension between Paul and Barnabas concerning John Mark accompanying them on their planned mission back into Asia. Whether it was external persecution or internal dissension, God used it all to His glory. In Lystra, Paul and Silas met a young Christian convert named Timothy whose mother was a Jew and father was a Gentile. Since this was Paul’s second missionary trip to that area, it is quite likely that Timothy was one of the many converts from his first trip. On this trip, Paul felt compelled to add Timothy to their missionary team but first circumcised him so that the Jews there would not be offended with Timothy’s presence since much of their mission work was done in the Jewish synagogues at that time. Paul’s circumcision of Timothy is an indication that Timothy’s father was not a Jewish proselyte or the circumcision would have taken place earlier in his life. The work of Paul and his missionary team in that area and the surrounding locations strengthened the congregations that were previously established. The size of the congregations also grew as a result of their work. From Lystra, Paul continued to trace back through the cities he visited during his first missionary journey. This work was interrupted at least twice by the Holy Ghost. First when Paul wanted to go into an area that the Holy Ghost forbade them and secondly when Paul was given a vision of a cry for help from Macedonia. Paul’s vision showed a man in Macedonia requesting their help so his missionary team responded by going to Macedonia. It should be noted that Luke was part of the missionary team because he writes the account of their work in the first person plural. In other words, Luke wrote about “we” went into the region. Although the vision indicated the request came from a man, the first group they encountered was a group of women having prayer meeting on the side of the river. One of them, Lydia, received the gospel message and was baptized along with her household. For a time, her house became a haven for the missionary team in Macedonia. The leaders of the missionary team, Paul and Silas, would later suffer beatings and imprisonment before a man would emerge and be saved and that man was the keeper of the prison. Paul’s heart was set on retracing his previous missionary trail when the mission team went to Derbe but the team was diverted to Philippi by the prompting of the Holy Ghost. Robert C. Hudson October 30, 2015