First Journey of Paul

Well, good afternoon again, brethren. I've asked that some more maps be passed out to you. I know we passed out a map to you last week, and that particular map was applicable to what I was covering and talking about last week regarding Paul. Where it was that he would go, who it was that he wrote to, what were the cities and kind of where they are, mostly in Turkey or in Greece, and in Italy, as far as the type of locations where we see the books of the Bible. The books, at least, that Paul wrote. The books of Romans and Corinthians and Thessalonians and Philippians and Colossians and Ephesians. See, those are all books that Paul wrote that were directed at certain congregations, many of those in Turkey or in Greece, because those are the areas that he primarily visited on his trips away from the area of Israel or away from Antioch, which is where he was actually traveling from. And I showed you last week that that's where those cities are, and on the other side of the map we had a kind of a diagram that gave some provincial information, information that we might think of as states here in the United States or up in Canada, you know, the provinces. And when we know what the names of some of those are, we can better follow what it is that we read throughout the book of Acts whenever we're discussing the travels and the work that the New Testament Church records. See, what we find in the book of Acts is that we've got a history, a really good history book of what it was that the church did.

You find that Luke was writing, he was writing that book in a sense as a follow-up to the book of Luke. He had recorded the life of Jesus, and then he was recording the Acts of the Apostles, not all of them, because you see Peter and John initially. You see Peter a little more, and you see some about Philip, and certainly you see Stephen dying as a martyr. You see James dying as a martyr. And yet then the most of the rest of the book from about chapter 9 on to the end, which it has 28 chapters. From chapter 9 on, much of what we read is about the Apostle Paul.

And as you know, I've covered in a couple of sermons several things about Paul.

One of the things we discussed was his conversion, the transition that God caused to take place, that caused him to come out of the deep-seated anger and hatred that he seemed to have toward the Christian faith. And he turned that around with the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to actually love, to love the members of the Church. And you see in his writing, not only in what Luke records about him and his travels, but you see in his writing to the churches, and you see in his writing to Timothy and Titus and Philemon. Because those are other books, as well as, I believe, the book of Hebrews. It's usually attributed to Paul, although a little debate over that. But regardless, he would be very well noted as an author of many of the books that we read here in the New Testament. And I think it's good for all of us to be well grounded in what it is that the book of Acts describes about the Apostle Paul, about his travels.

Because in essence, whenever he was commissioned by Christ, whenever he was struck down on the road to Damascus, whenever he was given a job to go to the Gentile world primarily, but also to go to kings and to go to either even the house of Israel or people of Israel that he would reach out to.

Whenever he was given that, he took that mission seriously, and he felt a responsibility to do that.

And so we should be familiar with what the book of Acts describes as Paul's journeys. Or, as you see on the map that I'm giving you today, this has the first journey on one side. It has the second journey on the other. And whether we'll get through all of those today, I don't know. But at least, you know, there were essentially four journeys that Paul took before he was imprisoned in Rome. And you see at the end of the book of Acts, you see Paul in captivity. You see him preaching the gospel from what seems to be a house there in Rome. He doesn't seem to be very restricted. He may have been under some type of house arrest, and yet he was there and it says for two years, he was proclaiming the kingdom of God. And he was proclaiming, because this was a big part of his message, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that all of us owe our lives, our eternal lives, to Jesus Christ. And so what I want to cover today, well, I'll back up and mention not only did I discuss how it was that Paul was brought to that position, but how it was that he was told he was going to suffer, and we're going to read about some of that today. And we read through the information that showed he was a Roman citizen, because he had been born in Tarsus, and that was in an area that was a Roman province. And so in the province of Cilicia, we also talked about how it is that Antioch in Syria was a significant, not only city, because it was one of the bigger cities in the Eastern Mediterranean, and was very much noted because of its size, and because, in a sense, of its location, because it was on a trade route. It was on a road system that the Roman military built and used in order to transport troops back and forth across the Roman Empire.

But we went over all of those things, and as I mentioned, Luke is recording these somewhat in a systematic way. And so from chapter 13, on to the end of the book of Acts, chapter 13 through chapter 28, you see a description of four journeys that Paul made.

And I want to go over those. I'm going to begin to go over those today.

What we find from Luke's writing is that he was putting this together to give accurate information, and yet you also find that Luke was including himself. He was writing it from the standpoint that we did this and we did that. So as he was traveling with Paul at least some of the time. It doesn't say he was there all the time. It does say he was there at least some of the time.

So I do want to go over pretty much at least the first map here where it says Paul's first missionary journey on the side of that map. You can see where this journey is going to begin.

It's not starting in Jerusalem, but it's starting where the star is, where the city of Antioch is, because that's where Paul was. That's where he started from. You also see on that same map that over to the left of that, only a little bit, is Tarsus. That's where Paul had grown up, or at least that's where he was born. Perhaps his very young years were there in Tarsus. I think you'd have to say he knew a fair number of people there. I would say he also may have become very familiar with the area from what we're going to read today. I do want to point out a couple of things here just regarding the way that the book of Acts is put together. There are two different things. You can read through this, and I again encourage you to do this. It's a very easy book to read. It's not terribly complex. There's not a lot of maybe deep doctrinal issues that need to be covered out of the book of Acts, but you do see the example of Paul going to the synagogue.

You see him preaching on the Sabbath. You see him concerned about the Holy Days. He mentions Pentecost. He mentions the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He mentions different of the festivals that we celebrate throughout the year as God set these out. Two of the things that I want to point out that in a sense are two sections in the latter part of the book of Acts that are kind of stand out. The first one is Acts chapter 15.

Now again, I'm saying that I'm sure many of you would be familiar with this, but I point it out because it's not a travel. What Acts 15 is about is it's about a ministerial conference. It's a conference that occurred in 50 AD. It's a conference that needed to occur at that time because Paul had begun. He had begun his first journey, his first travel up into what we would know of as Turkey today, and a number of congregations were being raised up.

At that time, Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas were asked to go down to Jerusalem and to confer with the elders who were there in the Home Office Church. That's where the original church was. They were in Jerusalem. As they went down there, as they discussed the issue of the Gentiles coming into the church, how the God had extended the Holy Spirit to them, and they gave instruction about what they ought to be consistently teaching to everyone. You see that as not really an inset because it's a very important part of the book of Acts. I'm not wanting to go into all of the details of that conference right now. That may be something we can go over later.

But I point that out because you see in chapter 13 and 14 of Paul's first journey. We're going to cover that today. You see in chapter 15 the break there with the conference. Then, starting at the very end of chapter 15 and into chapters 16 and 17 and 18, you see a second journey. These are where these are recorded. It pretty much shows you. We went from here to here to here to here, and it talks about some of the things that happened. Some of the things that occurred in the first century church. How it was that these congregations came about. In essence, sometimes you can see why it is that Paul would be writing what he did because, of course, after he had gone to many of these churches, he would later write a letter to some of them. But you find, of course, if you read the book of Romans, you realize that he wrote the book of Romans to the church in Rome having not been there yet. He wanted to come. He wished to be there. He desired to tour Rome. Of course, it wasn't going to be much of a tour. It's going to be a little different type of an entry into Rome because he's going to be in captivity. But nonetheless, that's where God said he would go. You find in chapter 16, 17, 18 pretty much the second trip. You find then later on the third trip. I would say from chapter, the second thing I wanted to point out was that the section from chapter 21 to chapter 26. So the first journey, chapter 13 and 14. The second journey, chapter 16, 17, 18. The third journey, chapter 18 and 19. And it gets up to chapter 20. And then in chapter 21 through chapter 26, you see in a sense kind of a different explanation that Luke is providing. Because what we find in chapter 21 through 26 is a number of incidents where Paul is needing to be rescued. He's needing to be rescued from the Jews who continually harass him. And he needs to be protected. He needs to be given opportunity to speak.

And what you see in those chapters, 21 to 26, is Paul's defense of what he was being falsely accused about. He was being said to say a number of things that he wasn't saying. And the Jews were bringing those accusations. And yet in many ways, what we find is that Paul was being in a sense protected. Protected by the Roman, different levels of Roman authorities. And ultimately, as he said that, you know, well, I'm a Roman citizen. I appeal to Rome. I want Caesar to hear what I have to say. And of course, all these other lower-level officials in the Roman system, you know, he talks before several of them. Before Felix, before Festus, before King Agrippa.

Whenever you read through his defense, you can learn a great deal about what Paul's message was, what his instruction was about believing, about committing your life to Jesus Christ, about the kingdom of God, and how the kingdom of God was the message in the Gospel that he continually preached throughout his work, not only as we see recorded here in Acts, but as we see him writing about in all of the other books that he wrote. So I want us to keep those in mind. The last two chapters, then Chapter 27 and 28, are really the voyage, the boat trip. He took a long boat trip to Rome. He took that, in a sense, again, in captivity. But you see that recorded in Chapter 27 and 28, and you can see the mishaps that happened along the way. But ultimately, as God had said, he was to get to the city of Rome, and he was to even appear, at least around Caesar's palace. And it talks about some people that God had drawn into the church who were of the household of Caesar, some who were very close there, who were brought into their closeness to God. And so, as Ken even mentioned, Joseph, and how it was that God was guiding Joseph. Now, Joseph probably didn't understand that to begin with. Being sold into slavery, I'm sure there was a fair amount of anger, and probably a lot of upset to begin with. He later was given a lot of favor, and he later was able to tell his brothers, well, I know that you meant ill when you sent me down here, but God has turned this out. He has changed this around and caused it to be a way to preserve the people of Jacob, the people of Israel. And I'm here simply as a servant, and he had come to understand what his purpose was and how it was that God had brought him to that point. And I think you would have to say, when you see the things that Paul went through, that you would also see a similar guiding, because God was guiding where Paul would go. So, let's look at this first map, the first journey. And you can see, like I said, it starts in Antioch. It goes out into the island of Cyprus, and then up into Perga, and you see mostly it's dealing with what we would call South-Central Turkey today. And yet, in another description, you see many of these locations that are mentioned here are what you would say in the province of Galatia. That's where he's going to ultimately write the book to the Galatians. It's not to a specific city, but to a province. And many of these cities are in that area. So, let's take a look, beginning here in Acts 13. Acts 13, we'll see how far we get. I went through most of this in my planning, and I only got through half of it this morning. So, I'm anticipating this is going to take longer than I would have thought. But hopefully, it can be helpful in helping us understand the books that Paul wrote, and kind of when he wrote them, and where he was, and what his thinking was. Because there is specific information in many of the epistles that he wrote that are extremely meaningful to know the setting that he was in, because ultimately he wrote many of those, or at least several, while he was imprisoned.

And that, of course, is usually noted in the book. So, here in Acts 13, you see verse 1, the church at Antioch. There were prophets and teachers. And verse 2, while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. And so, after fasting and prayer, they laid their hands on them and set them off. This was, of course, after Paul's conversion. It was after his time in Damascus and in Arabia. It was after he had gone back to Antioch and had been in Tarsus. This was several years after his initial conversion. And I'm going to say, since this is contained in chapter 13 and 14, and we're not always given all of the details of the time frame.

It doesn't show exactly. I believe from just reading different accounts about this first journey, that the first journey must have taken two, maybe three or four years. Surely two, if not three or four years prior to 50 AD. And so, you know, those years in the late 40s was when this was happening. And when Paul was being sent in this way from Antioch with Barnabas. And it says in verse 4, so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. If you see that, Antioch is not on the coast, but Seleucia is, so they had to go down there to be able to catch the boat.

And from there, they sailed to Cyprus. And when they arrived at Salamis, so that's the island of Cyprus, and Salamis would be a city, they proclaimed the word of Lord in the synagogue of the Jews.

And they had John Mark, John, also there to assist them. Now, I point this out because John has mentioned several times here in this particular account, and when we get into chapter 15 as well.

This was the individual who appears to be a younger man, who also was the author of the book of Mark.

He would later write this gospel of Jesus Christ in some ways at the direction or with the guidance of Peter, because he was writing down what Peter had relayed or conveyed to him, because he wasn't always there as a younger person. But here you see, as Paul and Barnabas were heading out, that John Mark was also going with them. In verse 6, when they had gone through the whole island, as far as Paphos, they met a magician and they had this encounter with this false individual.

And this must have been unsettling. It must have been unsettling to, if not Paul or Barnabas, certainly it was unsettling to John Mark. Because you find that this was a little disturbing, to find that we're on a mission from God and we run into a lot of opposition.

There were opposition from the Jews, there were opposition from false people in this case. And I'm not going to read through all of this to you, because you can easily read the whole account. But I wanted to point out some specific things, because you see their interaction there down to verse 12. And then in verse 13, Paul and his companion set sail from Paphos. And so on the other side of the Isle of Patn- or Cyprus, at Paphos they are going to then set off and sail up north and into, again, what we would call mid-turkey today, and come to a town called Perga. Paul and his companion set sail from Paphos, came to Perga in Pamphylia.

John, so this is talking of John Mark, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem. Now we don't really have a lot of information about why. Why did he leave them? Was he scared? Was he afraid? Was he sick? Was there some emergency that he needed to go attend to back home? Because his mother was in Jerusalem. And yet, it doesn't really say, but it does say that he left.

And you find Paul later, somewhat, what could you say, scolding him for running off like that. And yet you also find Paul even later in his writings commending Mark for the work that he had come to understand his need to be involved in. And he was very helpful and was a wonderful coworker with Paul and with others of the disciples. But you see some human interaction with what you read here. In verse 14, again, as we look at the map, we see that they went to Perga, which is on the coast. And then from there, and the arrows show that they went up to a city named Antioch.

And this Antioch was not, of course, the one they had started out from. This was a different Antioch, one that you would call Pisidian Antioch. So it says in verse 14, they went on from Perga, came to the Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down. See, that was not only Paul's custom, which we will later see that that's what he did in other places. But he went into the synagogue and he listened. He listened to what was being read. He listened to what was being covered because they obviously were covering the Old Testament.

And so they went into the synagogue and after the reading of the law and the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message and said, brethren, if there's any word of exhortation for the people, I'd like for you to give it. And so they politely waited for an invitation, and that invitation was extended. And so in verse 16, Paul stood up and with the gesture began to speak. Now you can read through what Paul had to say. And I'm again not going to try to go through everything that you can easily read and see what it was he was covering.

But what you see him pointing out was that everyone has a need to draw close to God. Everyone needs to come to understand who Jesus Christ is. And of course, he makes an appeal in the synagogue and to these Jews that David, that they clearly revered, is dead and buried. David has died, has been buried, and has turned to ashes. He has returned to the dust. But Jesus Christ was put to death. And after three days and three nights, he rose from the dead. He is no longer in the grave. He is alive and well.

And all of us need to have our lives secured in Jesus Christ. That's what he told him. If you read through here and you can see what it is he has to say.

He says in verse 39, by this Jesus, everyone who believes is set free from all those sins from which you can never be freed by the law of Moses. See, they had grown up in a system where they had used bulls and goats to... The blood of bulls and goats was involved in at least an act of forgiveness or an act that symbolized forgiveness. But he told them, well, that blood is not what's going to get you salvation. The blood of Jesus Christ is what you need. And in verse 42, Paul and Barnabas were coming out of the synagogue and people urged them to speak about these things again. The next Sabbath. And when the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews in devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. And so this was, in a sense, kind of their mode of operation. They would go to the synagogue, they would talk to the Jews, they would talk to the Gentiles. Because not only, we will see here in verse 44, not only the Jews were there, but in a sense almost the whole city of Pisidi and Antioch was there. In verse 44, the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. And so apparently it was the talk of the town. Apparently it was spread about to everyone. What is Paul preaching? What is he teaching about? What kind of gospel message is he presenting to us? And of course, in verse 45, when the Jews saw that the crowds were growing and they were filled with jealousy and blaspheming, they contradicted what was spoken by Paul. And both Paul and Barnabas spoke out and said, well, it is necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you, but since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles.

And this again was a pattern. They would go to the Jew first, they would talk to the synagogue, they would talk to those who should be or could be receptive. And yet if God did not open their eyes, if God did not change them, which he did some of them because there were many who were Jews who became Christians, but if not, then they would turn to the Gentiles. And so in verse 48, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and they praised the word of the Lord and as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers. See, here he again, Luke mentions how it is that people became believers whom God engaged their mind. He engaged, he drew them to an understanding that kind of the general populace did not have, many of the Jews did not have. They did not want to accept the facts that they had been responsible in putting Jesus Christ to death. See, that's something all of us have had to accept a certain level of responsibility for. Our sins have caused or brought about the death of Jesus. And, you know, we know we owe our whole lives to Him. And so in verse 49, thus the word of the Lord spread throughout the region, but the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the region.

It's interesting that the Jews would stir up leading people, leading men of the city and devout women of high standing. You know, as I think back at the little church group that I used to attend in when I was very young, you know, the congregation was a Protestant denomination and it was primarily run by all of the older women in the church. That was the setting in that type of a setting. And I think that the Jews realized that well, many of the women who are of high standing could influence others. And some of the men who are also of what are leading in the city could help them against Paul and Barnabas. And so in verse 51, they shook the dust off their feet and protested against them and they left. They left Antioch. Again, it doesn't give us a time frame. It doesn't show how long they were in Cyprus. It says they went through the whole country, went from one end to the other, the whole island, I guess we could say. And it says they went from there to Perga and it doesn't say how long they were there, but then they went from there up to Antioch. It doesn't say how long, but they're going from one place to the next. And perhaps for weeks or perhaps, well, we see at least here in verse 42 and 44, that multiple weeks go by.

So it could be weeks or months where they're having to go from city to city.

And it says in verse 52, the disciples, those who became believers, those who were either Jew or Gentile, who came to believe in the redemption that's available through Jesus Christ, they were filled with joy and filled with the Holy Spirit. See, that's a description of what the church should be like. We should be filled with joy. We should be filled with the moving and the stirring of the Holy Spirit to give us the blessing and the inspiration to turn from our old selfish carnal ways to the new ways that are being transformed and created in Christ Jesus. So in chapter 14, they left Antioch, but in verse 1, the same thing happened in Iconium.

They went to the next little town, a town that perhaps Paul may have been familiar with, but one that he would go and he would be preaching the same thing. The same thing occurred in Iconium, where Paul and Barnabas went into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of Jews and Greeks became believers. So again, it wasn't simply the Jews, but there were Gentiles who would become believers. But it says the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and polluted their minds or poisoned their minds against the brethren. And so they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who testified to the word of his grace by granting signs and wonders to be done through them. But the residents of the city were divided and some sided with the Jews and some sided with the apostles. And when an attempt was made by both Gentile and Jew with their rulers to mistreat them and stone them, the apostles learned about it and fled to Lystra. So they had been in Perga, they went up to Antioch. In Antioch, they went to Iconium. Here in Iconium, they're having to flee from there. But it says they had been there in verse 3, I guess. They had been there for a long time. They had been there at least for some period of time. It doesn't say how long. But it says they fled to Lystra and to Derby, the cities of Laconia, and to the surrounding country. And there they continued proclaiming the good news. Paul had a mission. He had a purpose. He had a commission from God.

And he was going to accomplish that mission. And amazingly, you find that as he goes to Lystra, and I think this is a beautiful account because many of us perhaps are familiar with Acts 14, 22 as a memory verse. It's one that we can read. It's certainly easy to read over here, where Paul is saying, the last part of verse 22, he says, it is through much persecution that we must enter the kingdom of God. And I think I may have mentioned that to us last time. But it is not just a kind of an easy path that God sets us on. But he does tell us that we're going to struggle. And that struggle in itself is good for us. It's not bad. It's not bad if we're struggling. It's not bad when we're learning to rely on God, when we're learning trust, when we're learning dependence. That is a marvelous thing. And amazingly, Paul mentions this in the city of Lystra. And I'm not going to read through the whole account where they heal someone. And then again, they're accused of doing this on their own. They point out that, no, the living God is the one who has done this. But in verse 19, we covered this last time, the Jews came down from Antioch, and they came from Iconium. And they went over the crowd, and they stoned Paul and drove him out of the city, supposing he was dead. But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and he went into the city. And the next day, he went on with Barnabas to Derby. Now, amazingly, you find that Paul is making this pronouncement about teaching the Word of God and preaching, and then actually being stoned and left for dead. And either God resurrected or God healed him, because you find so little information here, it doesn't say exactly any more than what happened. But in verse 21, after they proclaimed the good news in Derby, and had made many disciples, they returned! This doesn't seem like a good idea. You would think that Paul would have learned that, well, I think we ought to not go to Lystra. But that wasn't the nature that Paul had. That wasn't the inclination. He was concerned about those new Christians who were starting to believe and who were starting to receive a message that he had presented to them.

And so after they had gone to Derby, they returned. And if you look at your map, you can see they're making their way around through this circuit that we've just described. And they get to Derby, and they turn around, and they kind of go back through the same cities going back. And so they returned to Lystra, and then on to Iconium and to Antioch. And there, and this shows again what their what their purpose was. Once they were dealing with people who were believers, people that God would draw to be a part of the Church of God, people that God would grant joy and the Holy Spirit to, it says they would go back and strengthen the souls of the disciples and encourage them to continue in the faith. See, that's a part of what our church services are supposed to be about.

You know, we want to continue to strengthen one another and continue to be lifted up by the word of God. He says that they strengthen the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, saying it is through many persecutions or much tribulation that we must enter the kingdom of God. And after they had appointed elders for them in each church with prayer and fasting, and so there was a certain amount of ordination involved. This is how Paul and Barnabas had been sent out with prayer and fasting. And here they were ordaining elders in each city. They entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe. See, this was a pattern that Paul and Barnabas both would use. He wasn't going to see this area of people all that often, every few years, or perhaps he might be able to write a little bit to them. But in essence, he may not be able to be around them hardly at all. But he had to, as it says in verse 23, entrust them to the Lord. Entrust them to the one who could give them blessing, the one who could provide them forgiveness, the one who could help them to overcome. In verse 24, it says, they passed through Antioch, Pisidia, and they came to Pamphylia. So this is going down toward the coast. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, which is where they had originally landed on the shore of southern Turkey, northern north Mediterranean, they went down to Italia. So you see that on a map, a coastal city, a little bit away. And from there, they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had completed when they arrived in Antioch.

So their sailing went from Italia through this section of water north of Cyprus and back to the city of Antioch. And when they got there, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them and how He had opened the door of faith for the Gentiles. And they stayed there with the disciples for some time. Again, Luke uses terms, a long time or some time or for a while. It doesn't say always how long He had been there, but it appears that this whole tour and this kind of a circuit that they went up and around and then back through, you know, that took them several years to complete that. And yet, then we run into what I mentioned as far as Acts 15, which is a ministerial conference or a meeting that Paul and Barnabas are sent to where they meet the elders in Jerusalem, where they discuss how it is they need to proceed with the work.

And like I said, I'm not wanting to focus on that chapter right now. But if we drop down in chapter 15 to verse 36. So after some days, and Paul is again back in Jerusalem, he is there for at least a short period of time. He's there during the time he's meeting with the other elders. In verse 36, after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, Come, let us return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they are doing. See, does Paul have a love, and a care, and a concern for the people that God had drawn to know Jesus Christ and to become a part of a flock that he felt responsible for? Well, it's very clear that that's what he was doing. He was going back. He was going to. And if you look at the second map there, you're going to see some of the same names and cities. But actually you find that he's going to be going on to other places. He's going to be. And this is what we're going to read here in chapter 16. He's going to go on to areas that did not have yet the message about Jesus Christ.

But I want to point out here in chapter 15, verse 37, after they had determined that they should go back and visit with the brethren, in verse 37, Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. So in this case, John apparently was back in Jerusalem. Again, as I said, his mother lived there. And so he probably where he came went back to. We don't know exactly why he fled. But here you see that Barnabas wanted to take Mark with them. But in verse 38, Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in Pamphylia and who had not accompanied them in the work. See, Paul was somewhat upset over the fact that Mark didn't follow whatever he wanted or whatever he wished for him to do. Barnabas was much more reconciliatory. He was, as you see a description of Barnabas, a very kind, a gentle and encouraging person. He was actually from Cyprus. He may have been related to Mark. And he said, because this agreement was becoming sharp, they decided to part company. And Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed to Cyprus.

But in verse 40, Paul chose Silas and set out the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Here you see a disagreement that was sharp enough for them to go two different directions. But in essence, they were both—this was not a doctrinal dispute, but this was a matter of a choosing of, you could say, a personnel.

And sometimes you might run into those kinds of difficulties from time to time.

But again, they were both preaching the same thing. They were both teaching the Word of God and so you see a transition here. You don't see Barnabas written about now, but you see Paul and Silas starting this second journey. So we've gone through the first journey. We're going to be starting the second journey and go through part of chapter 16 here. It says, from Jerusalem, Paul went up through Syria and Cilicia. So if you see that on your second map, you can see that ultimately he gets back to Antioch from Jerusalem. And he starts out and goes through Tarsus and over to Derbe and over to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch.

These are the same places that he had been before. And it says in verse 1, Paul went to Derbe to Lystra where there was a disciple named Timothy. He was spoken well of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium. Timothy was actually from Lystra. And it says in verse 6, as they had gone to these several different locations, they went through the region of Phrygia and Galicia. So these are not towns, but more of the province that you can see there on the map. Let's see. Yes, you can see Phrygia on there. I don't see... Yeah, and Galicia is written on there. It's the area where all of these cities are in. And it says, they went through that region, Phrygia and Galicia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

So for some reason, they were not allowed to go to the southwest. And it goes on to say, when they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithnia. That would have been to the northeast. They couldn't go southwest. They couldn't go northeast. They needed to go on to Mysia. And so passing by Mysia, they went to Troas. And so you can kind of see what the route would have been. And you can see that Troas is, of course, up off of the coast of the Aegean Sea. So this is certainly a different area that Paul had not been in, and he had not presented the gospel there. But it says, when they came there, during the night, Paul had a vision.

And there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. And when he had seen that vision, he immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. And so in essence, this was a vision that Paul had been given to come over into Europe, come over into Greece. Well, it doesn't say Greece, I think, on our map, but it does show kind of the provincial names of Thrace and Macedonia, and then to the south of that, Achaia. These are the areas that enter the southern part of Greece today. You know, Greece extends up further than that to the north now, but at that time, you know, they were to go over into Macedonia. And it says in verse 11, they set sail from Troas. They took a straight course to Samothrace and followed following day to Neopolis. And from there, they went to Philippi. Now Philippi is a unique city. Philippi was somewhat of a renowned city. It had been built under the direction of some of the Roman rulers, a ruler named Philip, you can imagine. And it was a thriving city, and yet what I want to point out is, you know, we all know of Paul's book that he wrote to the Philippians. And yes, he's not going to write that for some time, but this is where he begins to be introduced to the people of Philippi. And it's interesting to see the makeup of what you might say would be the core or foundation of the people that were brought into the church in Philippi.

So here in verse 12, they went to Philippi, which was a leading city of the district of Macedonia, Roman colony. We remained in that city for some days. Again, Luke doesn't always say, how long were we here? But in verse 13, it says, on the Sabbath day. And so again, you see these references over and over again to what it was that the church was doing, what it was Paul did as a custom, what he and Silas were doing. They went outside the gate by the river where we suppose there would be a place of prayer. And we sat down and we spoke to the women who gathered there and a certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us. She was from the city of Thyatira. So she was from over in the area of Turkey because that's where Thyatira is. But she was now living in Philippi. It says, and she was not only from the city of Thyatira, but a dealer in purple cloth. And it says the Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.

You know, she apparently already believed in God or she had a concept of God, but God was starting to draw her to the message, to the gospel message that Paul was proclaiming of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. And so it says she listened eagerly. In verse 15, when she and her household were baptized, she urged them, saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, please come and stay at my home. She prevailed upon them. And you see that as a characteristic that Lydia represents. You know, one of, you know, it appears to be that she's very generous. It appears that she perhaps is very able to help and serve others. She's hospitable.

She's desirous of trying to help Paul and those with him in proclaiming the message that they are committed to proclaiming. And I mention that just because you're going to see a little more about her in just a minute. You see in verse 16, Paul encounters a girl who was a slave or a servant who had an evil spirit, a spirit of divination, and brought her owners a great deal of money. And of course, as he cast out this demon, their fortune or their way of making money disappeared.

And so that becomes a crisis for them. And of course, they are trying to, you know, get rid of Paul, says in verse 19, they seize Paul and Silas and drug them out of the marketplace before the authorities. And when they brought them before the magistrates, they said, these men are disserving our city. They're Jews, and they're advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt. The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them strip their clothes in order to be beaten. And after they'd given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison in order to the jailer to keep them secure. Now, was Paul supposed to be beaten as a Roman citizen? No. Were they following the rules? No. Was it something he was willing to endure? Yes. And you find, about midnight in verse 25, Paul and Silas were praying, and they were singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

Here, I guess this tells us what to do if we get thrown in jail. We need to pray, we need to sing hymns, and we need to appeal to God. But, you know, this is, of course, is what, you know, they had been put into the innermost cell. I guess you could say that that was into lockdown or into the back room or solitary, and they fastened their feet in the stocks.

But as they were appealing to God for help, they were asking God in prayer to provide them a direction. You see in verse 26, and again, I point this out because this is the makeup of some of the sound foundational members of the Philippian church.

This is the experience and the setting of some of the people who would become a part of the church in Philippi. And as Paul would later write to them, he can be very encouraging to them. He can be, you know, if you read the book of Philippians, one of the most encouraging books you can read.

It has so much good information and certainly uplifting in chapter 3 and 4, because he is writing a group of people who are mature and sound and stable in the Lord.

But in verse 26, suddenly there was an earthquake.

So violent that the foundation of the prison were shaken, immediately all the doors were open, everyone's chains fell off. Now that had happened to Peter as well. We read that, I think, the other day. He was in jail. All of a sudden the shackles fall off and the doors all open. He walks out.

Now even the church, when he went to see them, they couldn't hardly believe he was there.

But God is able to do that type of miracle. And certainly in this case, you know, he was making an impression on the mind of at least one. Verse 27, when the jailer woke up and saw that all the doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed everyone escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, don't harm yourself, we're all here. And the jailer called for the lights and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them outside and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? See, they had to have been preaching about salvation. They had to have been preaching about eternal life and about Jesus Christ being the way and the kingdom of God being what we eat. That's what they were teaching and preaching and what the jailer was aware of. But when he realized, you know, I'm dealing with some special individuals, I'm dealing with servants of the living God. And I, we want to respect that. We want to appreciate that. We want to be devoted to what God is teaching us. How is it that we can have salvation?

And so it says in verse 32, they spoke the word of the Lord to him and all who were in his house.

And at that same hour of the night, he took them and washed their wounds. And then his entire family was baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them. He and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God. See now, where it talks about in answer to the question, what do we have to do to be saved? They say in verse 31, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.

That of course was an initial step. That wasn't everything because obviously Paul fully agreed and understood that, well, you not only need to believe, you need to be repentant. You need to be baptized. You need to be a recipient of the Holy Spirit. You know, there were a lot of things that you could say would be covered in verse 32 when they spoke the word of the Lord to him and all who were in the house. He would cover that information with people and this was going to be a foundational member of the Philippian church. In verse 35, we'll read through to the end of this chapter at least and that'll be about as far as we can go today because there's a lot more to this story and we're going to need to pick it up next time in chapter 17. But in chapter 35, you see something about the kind of the way that Paul went about doing things. In verse 35, when morning came, the magistrates and the police sent the police saying, let these men go. And so the magistrates are going to now try to get out of a bad situation. They find that they have prisoners that seem to have extraordinary power and of course it wasn't that the prisoners had that power but that God clearly did. But the jailer reported the message to Paul and Paul saying the magistrates have said word to let you go therefore come out and you can leave in peace. But Paul replied and said they've beaten us in public, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens and they've thrown us into prison and now they're going to discharge us in secret. Certainly not. He was not going to back down from this particular situation. Now whether he had to do that or not, he could have gone on. But he's going to point out to them that what they just did in imprisoning and in beating him and Silas was completely against the law. And so he pointed that out to them. And so he said let them come and take us out themselves. And so he tells the police to go tell the rulers you can come and get us. The police reported these words to the magistrates and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens and so they came and apologized to them. That'd be a good way to try to solve an incorrect action to go and smooth that over and apologize. And so they apologized to them. They took them out. They asked them to leave the city. So it sounds like they were much nicer now telling them that we would like for you to go on down the road, please. After leaving the prison, they went to Lydia's house and when they had seen and encouraged the brethren who were there, they departed. See, the foundation of the Philippian church appears to be begun with Lydia and with the jailer. The jailer who had watched the doors fly open and the chains to fall off of the servants of God. You know, I would think that that individual was deeply committed to the work that Paul was doing and that they, as a member of the church, could help do as they continued to grow in their Christianity. So, of course, after that, chapter 17, Paul and Silas pass through Amphipolis and Pollyanna. We'll continue this story next time in chapter 17.

But I hope that this can be helpful in just going through, you know, these travels that Paul had and how it was. And this is actually the first place. You see several of the cities who are in Galatia. He's going to write to the Galatians. You see here the founding members of the Philippian church, those who were drawn by God to see something that they had not seen before.

But they were exceptional individuals and who set an example for others to be able to have a thriving congregation there in the city of Philippi. So, again, you know, we look forward to being able to cover more next time.