One thing
we do not have here is a lukewarm
life.
We are on the trail of the Apostle
Paul.
This guy is all passion.
He's all wing, all fire, all force for
Jesus Christ, and he's always on the move.
A very special call from God, and here
in this passage we have the passion of
Paul for evangelism and for the people of
God to teach them and disciple them, two
things.
We have also the person of Timothy who
is so different as a young man than
John Mark.
So, in the end, you're either a John
Mark or a Timothy as a young man,
young woman today.
We have here what I call the positioning
of closed doors.
They march across Asia Minor, one door after
the next is slammed, slammed, slammed, slammed in
their face for months.
From the moment Paul makes a decision to
go on a second missionary journey, there's conflict,
opposition and slam doors.
But you know what?
It was the biggest call, the biggest call
he'd ever received from God at this point,
maybe that he ever got in his whole
life.
And what follows it immediately, conflict with the
brethren, opposition and closed doors for months.
But he was right on target when he
heard it and made the decision to move
and act.
So the final thing we'll see is that
there's an open door at the end and
they pass right through it.
And it's glorious.
But to begin with, I'd like to start
reading at verse 30.
We're actually going to study from 36 down
to in Chapter 15, where we left off
down to Chapter 16, verse 11.
Sometimes chapter divisions in the Bible don't really
fit.
That's because in case you don't know this,
God didn't put them in there.
Man did.
Sometimes they're just in the wrong place.
So here we are.
Let's start with verse 30.
So we get back into where we've been.
You remember, the Judaizers came up from Jerusalem
where they'd gotten stale, wanted to stay Jews,
even though they become Christians and Jesus fulfilled
the law to put it away.
New covenant in his blood.
And they went around to the churches where
Paul preached the gospel, planted churches where people
believe that you were saved by grace plus
nothing in Jesus Christ.
So they had a council with Jerusalem.
Things worked out.
Paul stood against them, saved the gospel of
grace, and we read in verse 30 that
they were sent off and they came to
Antioch, which is back to the headquarters for
the Gentiles.
The church that Paul uses headquarters and ministered
from.
They went off.
They came to Antioch, verse 30, and when
they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered
the letter from the Council of Jerusalem.
And when they had read it, they rejoiced
over its encouragement.
Now, Judas and Silas.
This is a different Judas.
Silas is the one we want to be
concerned with themselves being prophets exhorted and strengthen
the brethren with many words, and after they
stayed there many for say, therefore, time they
were sent back with greetings from the brethren
to the apostles back to Jerusalem.
Then verse 34 is very interesting because it
seems like such an insignificant footnote.
However, it seemed good to Silas.
To remain there where the church in Antioch.
Who else was at the church in Antioch?
Verse 35.
Paul and Barnabas and they remain there, and
they were teaching and preaching the word of
the Lord with many others also.
So here you have three names Silas Barnabas
and Paul.
That will be whittled down to two names
before God is done.
Now here's what happens.
First of all, we come to the passion
of Paul.
This man is so on fire to reach
out to people that have never heard the
gospel before, so he's here for a while.
We read in verse thirty six.
Then, after some days, Paul said to Barnabas,
Let's go.
That's Paul all the way.
It comes a time when he's got to
go.
Paul was never content with the status quo.
Are you?
See, Paul had just come back from a
long missionary journey.
Months very successful.
Many churches were planted.
If Paul was to follow the pattern of
the average sure, or church worker, Sunday school
teacher, shall I go on?
If he was to follow the pattern of
the average person who signs up to do
something in the church and drops out after
several months, considering they have done their time
of service in the body of Christ for
life.
I put in my nine months.
How I'm looking forward to retirement into living.
You realize how many Christians live like that?
Really?
So many help a little while.
Oh boy, this is grueling.
But eight months of my life into teaching
children about Jesus Christ.
One of them may grow up to be
the next Billy Graham, but I'm not thinking
about that.
I'm just thinking of how grueling it was
and how glad I am that I got
my gold watch on my retirement.
If you live in and I'll spend the
rest of my time watching the time of
the picture breach until he stops so I
can go to Coco's and live out my
life with spectator itis filing in and filing
out, waiting for the shout of Michael, the
archangel in the rapture.
So many Christians live like that.
I pray to God with all my heart
that this church, Pacific Hill Church, is simply
not like that.
The church is not the building.
The church is us.
The people we should pray that we could
be like these people.
Paul was never plateaued out.
Are you?
I've arrived.
I'm there.
Paul says, Let's go now.
I like that, too.
Let's go now.
Let's not talk about it.
Let's do it.
Barnabas, let's go now.
Time for a second journey.
Paul was always and ever and always looking
for the next thing he wrote to the
Romans, and he says, I long to come
to you and I pray every day all
the time.
I pray for you without ceasing that I
come to you that I might impart some
spiritual gift to you.
Then in chapter fifteen, Paul writes to the
Romans and he says, I want to come
to you when I'm done doing what I'm
doing, and then when I'm done with you,
I want to go on to Spain.
Spain was the farthest point out.
Spain was the jumping off point to the
end of the earth.
You know where Jonah went when God called
him in Nineveh?
Nineveh was that way.
Spain was the end of the earth.
He headed straight for the jumping off point
of the end of the earth.
Paul is always praying and looking at him.
Where's the next place I can go?
What's the next thing I can do?
Where are the next group of people who
have never heard the gospel before?
And that's the way the early church operated.
It had people like Paul who spread that
kind of influence around.
So he says, let's go back and visit
the brethren in every city where we have
preached the word of the Lord and see
how they are doing.
So one thing about Paul is he was
always looking for the next person to reach
for the gospel with the gospel, but he
always held on to what is the secret
of long-term evangelism.
And do you know what that is?
Rightly dividing the word of truth, feeding the
flock of God because healthy sheep reproduce.
The most effective form of evangelism is to
disciple people.
Jesus said, this is the Great Commission.
Go into all the world and preach the
gospel, making what of all men disciples.
Why?
Because those are the ones that are well
fed, well taught, well rounded.
They grow up into the major of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, then they
can teach others.
None of us are called the sacks.
Some of us unfortunately become like the Dead
Sea with no outlet.
You should be like the Sea of Galilee
with lots of outlets and the River Jordan
running right through it.
Everyone always making it fresh and fruitful.
Paul knew that for the brethren to be
those that would reach out to others, they
would have to be well taught, well fed.
So he says, let's go back first to
the churches we planted and teach them some
more.
We know that that's what he did, because
if you look at verse 4535, Paul and
Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the
word of the Lord notice with many others.
Also, they'd already done that in Antioch.
That's why they were free to go out
and preach, and others could stand and preach
and teach in their absence and lead and
feed the church.
Hold your place here and turn in your
Bible to Second Timothy, chapter two, verse two.
Here is the secret of long-term effective
evangelism.
I am all for crusades, but in the
long haul, more people are one to Jesus
Christ.
They come out of the darkness and stay
there one on one, one on one, and
they already have somebody to follow up on
them because they're led to the Lord by
a friend who's going to be there tomorrow.
Somebody who goes to church is going to
take them to a church where they can
hear the Bible taught.
That's why Paul is about to die.
He's writing his last letter to Timothy and
in Second Timothy, chapter two, verse one.
He says, You, therefore, my son, the son
of faith, be strong in the grace that
is in Christ Jesus and the things that
you have heard from me and my many
witnesses commit these two faithful men who will
be able to teach others also give the
truth to men who will give the truth
to men who will give the truth to
men who will give the truth to men.
We are all about reproducing reproducers, and it's
the word of God, rightly taught, rightly divided,
digested and lived out that does that.
So that is the secret to long term
effective evangelism to blow into town, preach and
leave will not build up disciples.
So he says, Let's go back and build
them up.
Then we'll go on from there to where
we've never been before.
Passion of Paul.
Is that your passion to look beyond yourself
to someone else in your life that's never
heard the gospel?
We assume that everybody that is around us
that we know about because they live in
America or they live in California, has heard
the gospel at some point in time.
I remember for years we had a brother
here in the church.
He's now moved back east to help on
the churches there that we planted.
He told me he lived to be fifty
five in America and no one ever preached
the gospel to him.
No one ever preached the gospel to him
until he was fifty five years old.
You know, he does every day of his
life.
He goes out and he finds people alone
on the streets and he asks them if
they've ever heard the gospel.
And he's always leading people to Jesus Christ
because people are out there every day that
have never heard the gospel.
Paul wasn't like that.
I don't want to be like that.
I pray that none of us are like
that.
God fills us, feeds us.
Let's be reproducers of reproducers.
Let me say this and we'll move on.
You know more than somebody else in your
life.
Give away to them what you know.
Find someone in your life who knows less
than you do and teach them what you
know.
Even if it's one person, you'd be surprised
what God might do.
You will be surprised.
OK, the second thing we see here, which
is set up by the Holy Spirit in
the passage, is what I would call the
person of Timothy.
You say, what about John Mark?
Well, that's why I call it the person
of Timothy, because first is John Mark, who's
self-centered.
Second is Timothy, who has a shepherd's heart.
John Mark has a self-centered heart.
Timothy has a shepherd's heart.
Both are young men.
Why is one so different than the other?
Because of their heart and their decisions.
So here's God.
He's greatly gifted, Paul, and he gives him
the call now to go on a second
missionary journey.
Verse 37, he said, All right, let's go.
Now, verse 37.
Now, Barnabas.
So Paul gets this call from God to
go on this journey.
It's the biggest call of his whole life,
because it's going to lead to Europe, which
will lead to the whole world, which eventually
leads to us.
He gets the biggest call of his whole
life, and here's the reaction of Barnabas.
Verse 37.
Barnabas is determined.
Oh, wait a minute right there.
You have preconceived ideas.
Barnabas.
Yeah, I think I want my way.
That's true.
I mean, God gave the call.
You got your ideas.
Barnabas was determined to take with him.
John called Mark.
Just so happens it's his nephew.
Paul insisted they should not take John Mark.
No, Barnabas.
Yes, Paul.
No, Barnabas.
Yes, Paul.
No, Barnabas.
Yes, Paul.
No, Barnabas.
Yes, Paul.
And they had a contention.
Oh, my gosh, a contention between these men
of God.
Yes, yes, yes.
Finally, John Mark comes and says, I'm so
sorry.
I'm such a flake.
I'm dividing two great men of God.
I'm breaking up the Barnabas and Paul evangelistic
Association.
No, you know, this is not one effort
in that direction.
That's because he really was self-centered and
he really wasn't ready.
And Paul was right on target.
You see, they had such a contention.
Paul insisted that they would not take him.
That's such a contention.
Verse thirty nine.
It became so sharp that they parted from
one another.
Now you've got division in the church.
And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to
Cyprus.
He also sails right off the pages of
the Bible.
You don't see him again.
But the Holy Spirit follows Paul everywhere he
goes.
That in and of itself says something, whatever
it is.
I'm not sure.
But I am sure we don't hear of
him again.
He pushed the point.
Now, John Mark had a selfish heart.
He was young.
If you are young, you know what you
face?
The recklessness of youth.
See, the real problem with John Mark is
he was spiritually immature.
So when they were on this missionary journey
last time and God was really working.
He really blessed that trip.
When they were at Pamphylia, John Mark just
said, You know what?
I'm out of here.
I don't need this.
Everybody had to do double duty.
Paul was taken away from studies and preaching
time to do John Mark stuff.
OK, I'm going to have to cook dinner
because John Mark is gone.
So I can't go preach over here tonight
in Pamphylia because John Mark bailed.
Yeah, and I got to go to the
grocery store because John Mark bailed.
So you do dinner while I go to
the grocery store and I got to push
the shopping cart because John Mark bailed.
Everybody had to pick up the slack of
John Mark.
So Paul said, He's not ready.
We're not bringing him.
Barnabas says, Fine, I'm out of here, too.
Well, that's just great, Barnabas.
Isn't that human?
But you want to know something?
Above it all was this huge sovereign God
who's in full control, full control.
So what happens in verse 40 is that
Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by
the brethren to the grace of God, and
they end up bumping into Timothy.
What is sad about John Mark is that
he caved into the recklessness of youth and
he was self-centered.
And in the words of Jonah 2.8,
it says, They would observe lying vanities, forsake
their own mercy.
That is exactly what happened to John Mark.
So he's spiritually immature.
He's selfish and self-centered.
And he is in contradistinction to Timothy.
Exactly the opposite, as we'll see in a
minute.
But let me show you something.
We all battle the recklessness of youth and
some of us don't ever grow up, so
we battle it our whole life.
You know that some grow up, some don't.
But in Christ, listen, in Christ, with the
Holy Spirit, the word of God, we are
all to grow up into the measure and
the stature and the fullness of Christ.
We're all to go from children to young
men to fathers.
It's actually babies in the Lord, children, young
men and fathers.
It's always a progression to the upward call
of God in Christ.
We face not only the recklessness of youth
and all that brings.
It's a carelessness.
It's a blindness to the priorities of life.
Spiritually, it's a procrastination.
It's putting everything off as important today.
It's not submitting to elders.
It's all this anti-Bible stuff is what
the recklessness of youth is and self-centeredness.
And the thing is, is that whether you're
young and and reckless or you're old and
apathetic, because it tends to flip that way.
Some people stay reckless and immature throughout their
youth, and then they get older and they
become now old and apathetic.
So either way, they don't do anything for
God.
We all face, however, young or old.
The temptation in this day and age to
be self-centered, selfish.
Hold your place and turn your Bible to
2 Timothy chapter 3.
Every one of us here is going to
be tempted to not have a shepherd-like
heart, which doesn't mean you have to be
a pastor or full-time in the ministry.
It means that you are concerned about the
other sheep around you and how they're doing.
And if you know more than them, you
can pass on your knowledge and you're concerned
to see others come to Christ.
It's the heart of Christ is what it
is.
But every one of us face the temptation
to be like John Mark, immature, self-centered.
Why?
Because 2 Timothy 3 verse 1, Paul writes,
Know this, be knowing this, don't forget this.
In the last days, perilous times will come.
Why?
For men will be, what does it say?
Lovers of themselves.
Lovers of money.
Now, here's how it works.
Lovers of themselves, that's like the sewer pipe.
Out of that drips everything else in the
list.
Lovers of themselves are lovers of money, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving,
unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of
good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather
than lovers of God.
That's the day in which we live.
And on top of it, in the midst
of it, on Sunday, in a pew, having
the form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof.
From such people, when you know them, turn
away from them.
Don't hang around them.
Why?
Because they will pull you down into it.
This is heavy stuff.
It's a long list, and it's a powerful
magnet.
In the last days, a lot of people
are going to be that way.
In the time of Paul, John Mark bailed
out of a missionary journey where souls are
being saved to go into heaven forever, which
is the all-important issue of life here.
And he just walked away because he was
full of self-love.
So, you know what?
God has somebody else in store, and his
name is Timothy, and he has the heart
of the shepherd, a shepherd's heart, not a
selfish heart.
And he's waiting for them.
What is interesting to me is how the
Holy Spirit orchestrates this whole thing.
Verse 40 of Acts 15, but Paul chose
Silas.
Barnabas leaves Paul chose Silas and departed, being
commended by the brethren to the grace of
God.
They went through Syria, Cilicia, strengthening the churches,
and then they went on from there to
Derby and Lister, and behold, a certain disciple
was there named Timothy.
You know what just happened right there?
What just happened was human frailty in action.
Two men of God get in a big,
giant argument.
They part company.
That's human frailty in the kingdom of God.
So that they part company.
Barnabas and Mark leave.
Paul chooses Silas, and then they run into
Timothy.
And what you have is all of a
sudden you have a brand new team.
And this is, may I say, the European
team.
Barnabas was a Levite.
Barnabas was extremely Jewish.
John Mark was extremely Jewish.
Paul grew up in Tarsus in Greek culture.
Timothy is a Greek father.
He grew up in Greek culture.
And by the end of the chapter, there's
another chapter, but the section we're in, they
get a call from the man from where?
Macedonia.
And they go to Macedonia, which is Greece.
What they have here is a real Jewish
team that they need to get into Greece
and Europe, but the gospel is a Greek
team.
God uses a fight among the brethren, a
split in the church to form the team
necessary to take the gospel to Europe.
It's huge.
The principle is the principle is this.
Our God is sovereign, right?
And so he understands how we are.
So he uses the frailty of your humanness.
My humanness.
God uses the frailty of men to work
his sovereign purposes to advance the kingdom of
God.
He uses the frailty of men to work
his sovereign purposes to advance the kingdom of
God.
Write it down, laser it on your heart.
Don't ever forget it, because what happens is
when you see something like that going on,
you tend to panic.
Did you hear about Barnabas and Paul?
Oh, my God.
Which one do you think was in the
spirit?
Do you think Barnabas was in the flesh?
He walked off the page of the Bible.
Oh, my John Mark.
I never did like him.
He always had a funny look in his
eye.
How do you react when the brethren aren't
getting along?
Here's what I do.
I just go.
God's at work.
He's using his sovereign purposes to the frailty
of men.
He's going to use this.
Something's going to come out of this.
He's reorganizing and he's just woven it into
his plan.
Our human frailty.
If he didn't, how in the world could
he use the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise?
Because we are all lofty fools.
Oh, I don't like that.
I'm offended at that.
I don't know how you could be.
How many foolish things have you done in
your life?
They are without number.
I thank God he uses the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise.
I thank God that I get to see
Paul and Barnabas having an argument.
And I thank God I get to see
God use it.
So what happens then is Barnabas takes Mark
and leaves.
Then they come to Derby and Lystra.
And behold, a certain disciple was there named
Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman.
Act sixteen, verse one, who believed, but his
father was Greek.
He was well spoken of by the brethren
who are Lystra and Iconium.
You know, that tells us about Timothy.
Unlike John Mark, who's not well spoken of
by the brethren and Paul refuses to take
him, he's the opposite.
He is a man of God in his
own house, a man of God in his
own neighborhood, a man of God in his
own city.
And beyond Lystra, he's well known in Iconium,
which means he's already influencing well beyond his
own city, just walking with the Lord.
He's young like John Mark.
The difference is he has a different heart.
He's saying, Lord, I know I'm a young
man, but I know I'm reckless, but you
can fill me with your Holy Spirit and
the fruit of the spirit is self control.
So, Lord, you bring that fruit of my
life.
I don't want to be like that, perhaps
because they had already gone through there on
their last journey.
Perhaps Timothy knew about John Mark's bailing.
And in fact, I'm sure he did.
And perhaps he went to the Lord and
said, you know what, Lord, I don't ever
want to be like that.
And by the time they come back, everybody
knows him as this wonderful young man of
God, and he becomes the perfect one to
add to the team instead of John Mark.
Verse three, Paul wanted to have him go
on with him, so he took him and
he circumcised him because of the Jews that
were in that region, for they all knew.
They all knew.
See, Timothy's influence.
They all knew that his father was great.
Paul had him circumcised just to get that
distraction out of the way.
When it came to doctrinal issues of the
Jerusalem, he would fight tooth and nail when
it comes out to different situation where it's
just a distraction and a hindrance.
Get it out of the way.
I'm not so sure Timothy felt that way,
but at any rate, Timothy
becomes so much like Paul that when the
Philippian church later they're going to fill apply
at the end of all this later when
they want Paul to come, he said they
can't come right now, so I'm going to
send Timothy to you because he will do.
He will say he will teach exactly what
I would, and he will come back as
my eyes and my ears, and he would
tell me and show me what I would
have seen if I was there myself.
That's how submitted this young man is to
God.
All of that is to say, are you
a John Marker?
Are you a Timothy?
You don't have to stay at John Mark.
If you are one, you can become a
Timothy.
You don't know something really great.
God was at work in such a huge
way here.
God wanted Paul to disciple Timothy when Paul
is about to be executed in second Timothy,
writing his last song from last swan song
from the managing dungeon.
He's handing the baton of his ministry to
Timothy.
He's telling him all the last instructions he's
giving his ministry to Timothy.
God wanted Paul to disciple Timothy.
God did not want Paul to disciple John
Mark.
You understand that?
So he just allowed them to be themselves
for a little while.
It's all God has to do.
He doesn't have to do any magical that
let some of us get in a squabble.
Paul, he has to just take the spirit
away just for a second and move.
You know, let him be themselves for a
day and I'll get them all split up
and we'll get the plan going.
So what he did was he took the
patience of Barnabas and funneled it into John
Mark.
And later, Paul writes years later and he
says, send Mark to me.
He is profitable for the ministry.
He had changed so greatly.
Listen to this.
Barnabas leaves with John Mark.
You might say, gee, that's kind of a
tiny ministry to be stuck with on the
island of Cyprus.
Legend has it he stayed there and died
there.
No man kind of a tiny ministry after
the Barnabas and Paul Evangelistic Association and all
the Paul does later.
Jay Barnabas settled for the lesser one.
No, God was in charge.
God is sovereign.
God is in charge in your life.
You will have bickering.
You will make fleshy decisions.
God has already woven them into the plan.
Listen to this list of the Gospels in
your mind.
Matthew.
What's the next one?
Oh, my gosh.
Are you kidding me?
Here is a guy who can't even be
taken on the journey because he's such a
flake.
He writes the second Matthew Mark.
Here's the second gospel.
Matthew portrays Jesus as king of the Jews.
Luke portrays Jesus as the son of man.
John portrays Jesus as God.
Mark portrays Jesus as the perfect servant.
The very thing he was not the day
he left for Barnabas.
You know what?
That sneaky guy, Barnabas, he made his lasting
contribution after all massive.
The gospel of Mark and so much of
Barnabas is in that.
So isn't God good because you can go,
Oh, my gosh, I think I'm a John
Mark and I don't think I'm going to
get out of it in time and I'm
going to vanish.
No, you're not going to vanish.
God knows right where you are.
He'll continue to work and he will work
his plan if you just have an open
heart so that the new team is formed.
Timothy is right in there with Paul.
He is so usable.
He overcomes the recklessness of his own youth
early in life.
And in verse four, they went through the
cities and they delivered them the decrees to
keep, which came down from the council at
Jerusalem and the churches were strengthened in the
faith and increase in number daily.
One of the things you want to get
before we go any farther is this, that
you can be very, very young and you
can be very, very used.
Charles Spurgeon was 17 years old when he
pastored his first church, 17 years old.
Most 17 year olds today are still trying
to figure out why they flunked algebra.
Just kidding.
Think of the average 17 year old today,
or if you're that age, think of what
you think about.
Spurgeon was pastoring his first church at 17
at 19, 19.
He was in London.
He had taken over the pastorate of the
New Park Tabernacle.
The New Park Street pulpit is the first,
I believe, two or three or four volumes
in his Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit series.
Those sermons you read in there were preached
by a 19 year old teenager.
And I'll tell you something.
They are beyond most of the sermons you
hear from most of the pastors today that
are well beyond 19.
Do not underestimate how much God can use
a young man, young woman whose heart is
truly surrendered to the Lord.
Spirit of the Lord brings forth fruit of
the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, self
-control, long-suffering.
It's just awesome what God can do.
Let him do it.
Okay, team is now up and running.
They're moving forward.
Paul heard the call.
He's got his passion.
He then has Timothy who comes forth.
His person is godly.
They're moving.
They've had some conflict, but they're moving.
They're moving.
Where are they moving?
They're going across from Antioch across Asia Minor
like this.
Imagine now how excited Timothy is.
Oh, I'm on a team with Paul.
We're going to see church after church after
church after church planted.
I get to watch him preach and preach
and preach and preach all in this tour.
And imagine Silas.
I cannot believe I'm an associate with Paul.
This is incredible.
What I am going to see is a
lot.
No, you're not.
Not for a while, anyway.
See, God calls Paul to take this journey.
It's definitely God.
Definitely met with conflict, division, all these things.
Definitely God working at the same time building
a new team.
Then God sets about to position that team
exactly where he wants it for exactly what
he's called them to.
You want to know how he does the
positioning?
You may not like this by slamming doors
in their face for months and months and
months and months so that he can move
them with each slam door in another direction
until they can't move anymore because in front
of them is ocean.
So you read it.
Verse six, the positioning of closed doors.
And this to me is one of the
lessons we need to ever learn in our
life.
And once we do, we'll be so happy
because it will take a lot of bickering
and arguing and arguing and yelling at God
out of our lives.
We're always looking for open doors.
He opens doors.
No man can close.
The Bible says it has not.
I'm knocking.
I'm looking for the door to open.
Do you remember that he also closes doors?
No man can open.
And how often do you look for closed
doors?
We all look for open doors, but do
you look for closed doors?
I venture to say most of us don't,
and we're shocked when they slam and we're
moving so fast towards the closing door that
we get our nose caught in it.
You know, Lord, that really wasn't nice.
I didn't sign up for slam doors.
I signed up for joy and for love
and the overflowing cup, not slamming doors.
Well, that's how he moves us into position
for some of the greatest works of our
life.
This is the greatest call on the Apostle
Paul's life.
And look at this verse six of Chapter
16.
When they had gone through Phrygia and gone
to the region of Galatia, which is where
they've already been now.
Now they're into uncharted territory where they want
to share the gospel, preach it.
So what do we read?
They were forbidden, verse six, by the Holy
Spirit to preach the word in Asia.
What is this?
Lord, you call me to go on a
missionary journey.
I answer the call.
The team breaks up.
I'm still answering the call.
We get a new guy.
We get another new guy.
We got a new team.
Now we got a new team.
It's great.
Thank you, Lord.
Now we're moving across Asia.
Mind you forbid me to preach when you
call me to preach.
What is this?
Meanwhile, Silas and Timothy are going.
You're the great Paul.
You don't even preach.
So they go through Asia and they are
forbidden to preach verse seven.
After they had come to my fear, they
tried.
All right, it didn't work back there.
No, no, listen up, guys.
We're going to have prayer meeting tonight and
tomorrow we're going to hit my fear.
We're going to hit the ground running tracks,
flying mouth open.
We're going to preach it.
You see, God works here.
Second missionary tour.
You've got your T-shirts, right?
Right.
Yes, sir.
Do your people love him?
Yes, sir.
Are we going to my fear?
Yes, sir.
Right.
They tried to go into Virginia.
The spirit did not permit them.
Well, it's just terrific.
Let's have another prayer meeting.
Paul is really great.
There's a lot of fruit.
So passing by my fear.
Oh, this is terrific.
Now we just pass places.
Paul, you know what?
I think you were in the flesh when
you got an argument with Barnabas and God's
not blessing you anymore.
I think I think maybe you lost your
anointing and they come all the way to
Troas.
You know how long they have traveled?
They have gone the equivalent of starting in
Maine on foot and traveling all the way
across California and they haven't preached at all.
Can you imagine that I'm flying a jet
five hours and get out in L.A
.X.? No, they've been a long time and
they haven't done anything except get forbidden.
Slam, slam, slam.
The wind is blowing in their face.
They're fighting against the wind.
They're not sewing with the wind.
They're fighting against it all the way across
Asia minor.
And then they come to the Aegean Sea
and get their toes wet in the ocean
and they look at Paul.
They say, you know, I love your journeys.
Remind me to come another time.
This is great.
What are we going to do on the
way back?
Is it going to be just as exciting
as it was coming here?
Do we get the fish before we go?
I mean, they're human.
So let me just say this.
All of that was to lead them to
what we read in verse nine.
And a vision appeared to Paul in the
night.
A man from Macedonia stood and pleaded with
him, saying, come over to Macedonia and help
us.
Now, after he had seen the vision, immediately
we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding the
Lord had called us to preach the gospel
to them.
You know what happened?
One slammed door after the next.
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam,
bam, bam.
Keeps moving them like this until they're at
Troas.
They're on the Aegean Sea and straight across
from them is Necropolis, the port with Neapolis,
the port which is 10 miles from Philippi.
God wants this European team in Philippi to
preach the gospel so revival can break out
and it can spread from there and across
Europe and into England and into the Puritans
many years later and onto the Mayflower and
across the Atlantic Ocean to Plymouth Rock, where
they could get out with the gospel.
And we are here today knowing Jesus Christ,
because Paul answered the call way back, went
through division, went through conflict, went through opposition,
slammed doors and everything, got to the Aegean
Sea, stayed in faith, went to bed, praying,
got a vision from God, went across, took
the gospel to Europe and obeyed God.
Amazing, huge, absolutely huge.
And he used closed doors to get him
to that point.
He used closed doors to get him to
the entrance of the greatest thing he ever
did in his life.
Take the gospel of Europe, where it had
never been before.
There was a town in the South years
ago that was growing cotton, and that's how
they made all their money.
And then they got invaded by boll weevils,
and the boll weevils got all over the
cotton, ruined the cotton crops, and everybody was
really upset.
Somebody stepped forward and said, Do you know
boll weevils don't like peanuts?
Oh, fine.
Fine.
Got Diet Coke to go with them?
Slide them over.
Let's talk about it.
Do you know they don't like peanuts?
We should grow peanuts instead of cotton.
All the gang on the committee that says
this is the way we've always done it.
This is the way we're always going to
do it.
Everybody knows this is the way it's always
done, committee.
They said, We do cotton here.
We don't do peanuts.
So some real, real strong, courageous individuals said,
Let's go ahead and plow our fields of
cotton and plant some peanuts.
See what's happened.
It's like magic.
It's a true story.
To make a long story that's true short,
they ended up planting peanuts, and they had
bumper crop after bumper crop, and that place
became so wealthy from the peanuts so far
beyond what they ever had with cotton that
they put up a huge statue of a
gigantic boll weevil.
This is true of the city square.
What is the moral of the story?
Thank God for boll weevils.
So next time you hear the door slam,
if it's slamming today, if it's been slamming
all week, if it's been slamming all month,
it's been slamming doors all year.
Thank God for boll weevils.
Thank God for boll weevils, because they've taken
you to someplace new, someplace better.
These slam doors took him to the big
main entrance to Europe.
There was a couple that had a little
general store back east and years ago, and
they had a little milk, little bread, little
this, little that, few band-aids, you know,
a little aspirin and, you know, things these
little mom and pop shops have.
Well, some developers came along and they built
this big store over here that had all
kinds of things, discount everything type deal.
Then on this side over here, they built
a big discount market.
So everything in the one place was that
they had was discounted and had more of
it and was cheaper.
And then when they built the discount grocery
store, they had more of everything and it
was cheaper.
And so their business in the little mom
and pop shop stopped overnight.
So when they're, they're losing it, their business
is gone.
Slam the doors closed on their business.
So as they start to run out of
money, one day pop went to mom and
he said, you know, I got an idea.
He said, this is it.
We're going down the drain.
We're out of money.
We're going to have to close our doors,
but I have one last idea.
I think it'll work.
He said, we need to make a sign
with our last bit of money.
This is true.
We need to make a sign.
And she said, where are we going to
put them to sign?
And he said, trust me, baby.
I just threw that in there.
So they, this is true.
They went in, they, that part wasn't, but
they went in and they had this huge
sign made.
It's so huge.
It covered the whole little mom and pop
shop.
And you know what it said on the
sign?
Main entrance here.
Yes.
From that moment, everybody started piling right through
that door.
Main entrance here to get to the other
ones and their business went right through the
roof and mom and pop lived happily ever
after.
That is exactly what happened here.
They get to the GNC, Paul goes to
bed.
Lord, what are we going to do in
the morning?
There's no more land.
And God in the night says, main entrance
here to Europe, to the gospel in Europe,
to the biggest thing you'll ever do in
your whole life.
Right here.
All this hard getting here.
You had the wind in your face, but
from here you'll sail with the wind at
your back.
Literally look at verse 11.
They got up in the morning and verse
10, after they saw the vision concluded, they
should go to Macedonia immediately.
So verse 11, therefore, sailing from Troas, Luke
writes, we ran a straight course to Samothrace
little island, spent the night and the next
day to Neapolis port where they landed on
European soil, Philippi, 10 miles away from there
to Philippi.
What happened is Luke writes.
We ran a straight course.
Luke used a phrase he only used twice,
once here.
It is a nautical term in the Greek,
and it means to have the wind at
your back.
I love it.
We go all this way.
They get the wind in their face.
It's all opposition.
It's all difficulty.
Then they get to where God has been
taking them through all the difficulty.
They are right on target.
The sovereignty of God has been an action
of the spirit of God.
They are right on target when they set
sail.
Literally, physically, the wind was at their back.
They had the wind with them and they
set a straight course right over into Europe.
When God is closing doors in our lives,
maybe one right after the next, maybe for
a long time, he's leading us somewhere.
He's leading us to the main entrance to
the next phase of our life.
And when we go through that open door,
the wind is at our back.
God is with us and fresh breezes are
blowing.
And it's different than it was in all
the difficult months that it took to get
us right there.
And we're right in the middle of the
will of God.
Our God is an awesome God.
He is an awesome God.
And he is able.
He is able.
The next time you see a door slam,
say, thank you, Jesus.
It's hard, isn't it?
We don't like slamming doors.
No, it's very hard.
Unless you understand the truth here that makes
you free and you start looking for closed
doors.
You really do.
You start looking for closed doors.
Something happens.
You go, oh, that's a closed door.
Thank you, Lord.
You're working.
Where's the open one?
Slam another one.
Oh, wow.
You're getting really active.
Slam.
Boom.
Another one.
What a disappointment must going to be a
big open door coming up.
Boom, boom, boom.
Oh, that was horrible.
Oh, my gosh.
God, you really working.
I'm overwhelmed.
I've never seen so many slam doors.
Lord, I love you.
You're so good.
Next thing you know, the door opens up
and suddenly everything makes sense.
You have a brand new vision, brand new
phase, brand new team, brand new friends, whatever.
And his will has come in your life.
His kingdom is coming as well as being
done and will be done from there by
the leading of the spirit.
Our God is an awesome God and he
does reign and he works mightily by his
spirit in the hearts of those who love
him, who seek him, who surrender to him.
Are you a John Mark or are you
Timothy?
It's a matter of the heart.
It's your decision.
You don't have to be a John Mark
at any age.
You don't have to be apathetic because you're
old and you don't have to be reckless
because you're young or both.
You can just simply be godly.
You know something, if you are open door
or closed door, you're going to have what
most people around you don't have, and that's
contentment.
Because godliness with contentment is great gain.
Even when doors are slamming, you can still
be content because you have him.
Hi, my name is Danny Bond, pastor of
Living Streams Christian Fellowship, now meeting in New
Lenox.
The message you just heard was taken from
a Sunday morning study through the book of
Acts.
With a high view of God and his
word, the Bible allows us to share real
water with those who are spiritually thirsty, while
giving hope to those who long to be
close to God.
We would like to extend an invitation for
you to join us and experience for yourself
what the Lord is doing in Living Streams.
We meet Sunday morning at 10 a.m.
and Wednesday evening at 7.15. If this
message has encouraged you and you would like
directions to where we meet, call us.
815-478-0200.
Again, the number is 815-478-0200.
Thanks again for listening, and may God bless
you as you seek him.