This sermon was preached at First United Lutheran Church in Hammond, Indiana on Sunday, May 26, 2019.
Good morning. First, I want to thank you for welcoming me again. I came to visit a year ago and you graciously allowed me to take time in this pulpit to talk about the joy of knowing the Good News of Jesus. Specifically, during that visit a year ago, I mentioned that the Good News of Jesus as a graduation from death to life. A moving on from the constant struggle of earning our way in the world, to the eternal peace of knowing we are loved and found worthy by God.
I want to talk more about this Good news of Jesus today. But specifically, I want to talk about following Jesus in that Good News.
Our reading this week from Acts of the Apostles starts with a vision that came to Paul in a dream, “a man of Macedonia,” the Scripture says, “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 the God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
Before we get into what happens in this passage, I think it’s important to consider where Paul and his companions were at this point in time, and how they got there.
In the section before this reading, Paul and company left the area around Derbe and Lystra, and the Scripture says “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.”
I want to put you at ease by saying I don’t expect anyone to be able to point out all of these places on a map. But, I do think it’s worth noting, after looking at a few maps, that this first stretch of the journey adds up to somewhere around five hundred miles. We just covered five hundred miles of travel over two sentences, so let’s take a second to step back and consider what was going on here. Other than helping us map out the journey, what is the point of mentioning the route that was taken by Paul?
The first thing it says is “they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak to word in Asia.” Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever been forbidden from doing something, but in my experience, it’s usually something that I want to do. No one has to forbid me from eating peas. Doughnuts, on the other hand, it can be helpful to have those forbidden every once in a while. So, when we read that the Holy Spirit forbade them from speaking the word in Asia, we have to think that, maybe, their whole plan to this point, had been to go through Asia and preach the Gospel there. But this isn’t what ended up happening. They were forbidden.
I think we should take note of two things here. For one, plans can change very quickly. We need to hold very loosely onto the plans we make, even if those plans are about sharing Jesus with others. Paul is on a missionary journey, and so you’d think it should work out. We need to be open to things not going the way we’d hoped. The second thing is that we need to let the Holy Spirit guide us. God knows what he’s doing. God knows what’s right even if it doesn’t make any sense. We don’t know why Paul was forbidden from speaking the word in Asia, but we know for whatever reason, it was the right decision.
We also know that because he couldn’t go through Asia, Paul ended up passing through Galatia, and we know from our Bibles that a church ended up being planted in that area. We have Paul’s own letter written to that Galatian church. And we know from the reading later in Acts that Paul does end up speaking the word in Asia later on during his missionary journey, he just doesn’t do it now. We can’t understand God’s timing, but we know it’s right. We know that God has a better judgment than we do.
Earlier this year, I was shopping for a new computer, and I was comparing a lot of different models. I use my computer mostly for recording and mixing music, and I wanted to get something that would help with that. I wanted something that would be intuitive enough that I can get ideas down quickly and easily. I decided that I would get an iMac because it had everything I would need built in, and would be ready to use right out of the box. I started saving my money, and making plans for when I would make the trip for the purchase and how I would pay for it. I even made sure I freed up my schedule for the week after I was planning to make buy it so I’d have time to sit and figure everything out. When I got to the store, I told the salesperson what I wanted, and as we were talking, he said that they were actually releasing a better model two weeks later. I had set out with a certain plan of what I wanted, and it turned out that there was something even better, but it would require me to wait longer to have it.
Even though I knew that a better thing was coming (and it was my own choice to wait), at that time, I was actually kind of frustrated. I knew things were going to get busy, and I had a timeline in place for when I wanted to get things done that after waiting two weeks would not longer be achievable. I could have still made the decision to get the old model, but I opted to wait knowing that in the long term, it would be better for me.
Unlike me, Paul didn’t have the benefit of knowing what was coming next. He only knew that his plans weren’t going to work out the way he had thought. Paul had a plan for how he wanted to see God’s work done. He had an idea for what it would be like, and planned this whole trip around that. God said no. When God says no, we don’t have the benefit of knowing why, or even what might happen instead. All we know is that God knows. All we know is that God has a better understanding of what is right.
Rather than pass through Asia preaching the Gospel, Paul took a five hundred mile trip around the area because now was not the time. As I mentioned, we know now that this trip probably helped establish the church in Galatia. We also know now that he did end up spending years in Asia, specifically in the city of Ephesus, which we read just a couple chapters later. But at the time, all Paul knew is that what he wanted to do was forbidden. Likewise, our reading says, “when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.”
So, not only were their original plans thrown off, but when they tried to make a new plan, that one was also turned down. And unlike his desire to go to Asia, we don’t have a record of Paul visiting Bithynia at any point later in the book of Acts.
The reason I bring all of this up, about his travels around Asia, is because before we read the passage from today, we need to put ourselves in the place that Paul was when these things happened. Our reading starts by saying, “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.’” If we start there, we only see how God moved to do what Paul wanted him to do. We only see God saying “Yes” to Paul’s willingness to go on his mission and do great things in Jesus’ name. If we start here, we only see the fruit of Paul’s final “yes” the Spirit, but not the full work of obedience in following God’s “Nos” for five hundred miles along the way.
We live in a Social Media culture. We live in a world of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We live in a world full of snapshots that don’t tell the full story. While we all know this truth, we don’t always live like we do. While I know that every one of my friends posting on social media aren’t sharing everything, I can’t help but to feel the envy, the jealousy, the frustration when it looks like their lives are so much better. When I see perfect families, great friends, amazing jobs, fulfilled passions. When it looks like everyone else is achieving their goals, I turn back on myself and ask why I haven’t done the same.
When we only read the successes of ministry, and only see the great works of mission, we can be discouraged by our own failings. We can convince ourselves that the long line of “Nos” in our lives won’t ever end. This culture of Social Media didn’t start with the internet. It didn’t start with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These platforms are just a mirror of who we are. It’s been our culture as long as we fallen humans have been around. We’ve always put our best face forward. We’ve always hidden our struggles. Even in our reading, we are rushed through the inaction of Paul and his friends, who couldn’t do what great things they thought they would. They couldn’t do the mission they had set out to do. And we are then given this detailed image of a vision, of purpose, of God working miraculously through his chosen for the work of his Kingdom.
When we hear eloquent preachers, when we watch joyful givers, when we experience gracious hosts, when we witness effective evangelists, we aren’t seeing the whole picture. We are only getting a snapshot of the life lived in Christ. We see the one “Yes,” but we don’t see the series of other “yeses” and “noes” which led to that point. We don’t see the five-hundred-mile detours and disappointments along the way.
After that long trek around Asia, Paul was eager for a “yes” from God. Paul had his vision of the man from Macedonia, and our reading continues, “we immediately sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” Luke, who wrote this book is one of Paul’s companions here (that’s why we have “we” and “us” in this passage). After the roundabout way they had to go in order to avoid the places they were forbidden to preach, you can hear the clear excitement in his writing. They were still on the other side of the Aegean Sea from Macedonia, so Luke outlines the rest of their journey, “setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony.”
They took a direct voyage, then the following day continued on their way. They finally knew where God was leading them to go, and they couldn’t wait to get there. Then, Luke writes, “we remained in this city some days.”
Even after the call was made clear, and when they arrived as quickly as they could to the city, it took a number of days in that city before that call was realized. This is another “yes” they had to make. To say “yes” to the patience of God, and to trust the call that they received. This is where they were meant to be, even if they couldn’t see why. Then, they went to where they thought was a place of prayer, and spoke to some women who had gathered there. “One who heard us,” Luke says, “was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, sayin, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.’ And she prevailed upon us.”
If Luke had an Instagram back in the first century, this would be the picture that we all see. A woman merchant came to faith in God because of Paul’s preaching all the way in Macedonia (where God led them, remember), then invited the group to stay at her house during their time in the area. But, having read the rest of the passage, we at least have an idea of all the steps it took to get here. And remember, five hundred miles is a lot of steps.
And you probably didn’t catch it unless you happen to be very adept at first century geography, but Lydia is from the city of Thyatira, which is located right in the heart of Asia Minor, the very place that Paul and his friends were forbidden from entering during their journey. God fulfilled their plans to share the word in Asia, but it first happened with this woman in Macedonia.
Most of the time, following Jesus looks more like the five hundred mile walk, than it does like the visions and conversions in today’s reading. Part of that walk is being okay with God saying “no,” and always ready for when God says “yes.” His plans are greater than our plans. If we are willing to listen, and if we can be honest with ourselves and with God about our joys and frustrations, hopes and disappointments, God has a place for us in his purposes to do the work he has given us to do. But we need to trust that he knows what’s right, and he knows what’s good. We need to trust that God cares more for us than we often realize, and we can’t look to the lives of others to judge ourselves or our success. God is with us in the five hundred miles. He is with us when our plans fall through. He is with us even when it feels like he’s not. We need to continue turning to him, looking for his guidance, and trusting that his purposes are greater than our plans.
