Acts 15:36-16:15, "Guided by the Spirit of Jesus"
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Who is your guide through life? Are you on a self-guided tour of your life? Do you look to best-selling authors or experts and preachers online? They will give you six easy steps to do anything successfully. We are walking through the book of Acts, exploring how to be the community of grace on mission with Jesus. If Jesus is our guide in this mission, what kind of guidance should we expect? Are there six simple steps? Is there assurance of success? We may see that He leads in surprising ways, but into fruitful mission with some pretty amazing people.
Jesus Can Guide through Disagreement
Jesus Can Guide through Disagreement
We would like to think that believers in Jesus who share the Holy Spirit would never disagree. But this is not reality. We are still human beings, each with our own limited perspective on things. We each have things that are important to us that aren’t as important to others. For example, are relationships important? Yes. That means that if we come across someone in need of our time, we should set aside our plans and be with them. Is it also important that we keep our word? Yes. So that means we should complete tasks we said we would do. Which one is more important? Your answer to that question demonstrates our differences in personality, experience, and priorities.
Here, Paul and Barnabas both believe that relationships are important. They are going to visit the churches they had started on their first missionary journey. They want to encourage and build them up. And they will not do ministry alone. They will partner with someone. Relationships are important.
They also believe the task Jesus has given them is important. They are determined to accomplish the task. How they do both of those things brings the disagreement. Barnabas wants to bring John Mark with them. He had come with them before, and had left them halfway through their first missionary journey. This was an opportunity to give Mark a second chance.
Acts 15:38 (ESV)
But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.
The task needed to be completed, and Mark had not demonstrated he could complete the task. Does Paul not value relationships? Of course he does. He is partnering with Barnabas. He sees Mark from a different perspective. Mark is Barnabas’ cousin. That makes a big difference. Which one of them was right? Maybe neither. It is a genuine difference. The result of this “sharp disagreement” is the division of the team into two.
Acts 15:39 (ESV)
And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus,
Barnabas heads toward his homeland in Cyprus. Paul heads toward his homeland in Cilicia.
But you can also see this division as a multiplication. Because now there are two teams, Barnabas and Mark, Paul and Silas. Almost twenty years ago, Karen and I attended a church planters training. The EFCA church multiplication director gave the first lesson. He asked, what are some ways churches get planted? There are missionary planters that go to a new place and evangelize. There are churches that send out a team or establish a second location. And then, to my surprise, he said, “and there are church splits”. We usually think of a church split as a failure of some kind. It’s a negative. And that’s very true. But he pointed out that sometimes it’s through no fault of its own. The Jerusalem church was split up and dispersed all over the place in Acts 8 because of persecution. But maybe this was Jesus’ way of getting them out of their comfort and back on mission to bring the gospel to the end of the earth.
As we learn to live and work together as a community on mission with Jesus, His Spirit may lead us in strange ways. He may use persecutions and disagreements to send people into new places on mission. Over the last few years, there have been plenty of disagreements in our church and others. And some people have left this congregation over those disagreements. But they haven’t left the gospel movement (for the most part). They have moved on to another congregation, another part of the community on mission with Jesus. And God bless them.
Jesus can guide through disagreements to new partners. Paul and Silas make their way back to the towns they had left through persecution in Derbe and Lystra. But they find thriving churches there. In fact, a young man named Timothy has been noticed by the brothers and sisters in Lystra. So, Paul, being willing to move on in ministry from Mark, now has room on his ministry team for another protege, and Timothy joins them. The rest of the story is that Timothy proves to be such a solid young believer, he will eventually become pastor of the church at Ephesus, one of the most prominent churches of the first century.
Side note, Paul has Timothy circumcised. Why did he fight so hard to make sure this was not required of Gentile believers only to go and do this to poor Timothy? This is a special case. Timothy’s mother is a Jew, and Jewish law states that the child of a Jewish mother is Jewish, regardless of the father’s lineage. So, for the sake of Timothy’s entry into Jewish circles, to avoid any unnecessary obstacles to the gospel being received, Timothy is completing his Torah observance. But later on, Paul does not have Titus circumcised because he is a Gentile Christian. We see in his letters later that his principle is freedom in Christ, but causing no unnecessary offense.
In fact, part of the message Paul shares with these churches is an update about the decision on circumcision of Gentile believers.
Acts 16:4 (ESV)
As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.
And this strengthens their faith.
Acts 16:5 (ESV)
So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
Paul’s willingness to submit to the authority of the Jerusalem council is a lesson in how Jesus guides us in partnership. None of us ministers the gospel in a vacuum or alone. We are part of the body of Christ in our city, our region, and worldwide. We are partners in the gospel. Jesus will never lead us to work independently.
Putting together our first two ways Jesus guides us, disagreements could lead us to choose sides and follow the most appealing or charismatic human leader. But then the partnerships break down. We have many completely independent churches formed in the last fifty years with leaders who are not accountable to anyone. And a lot of damage has been done to people’s faith. But if we are following Jesus, the disagreements don’t lead us to independence. They can lead us to new partners, all of us led by Jesus, but practically accountable to the people Jesus has called to oversee us in the faith. And this strengthens the faith of the believers.
By the end of our passage, one more partner has joined Paul, Silas, and Timothy. His name is Luke, he is the author of this book recounting all of these events. And he might never have joined this partnership and done such a masterful work for the church if Jesus had not guided Paul and his team one more way.
Jesus Guides By Closing Doors
Jesus Guides By Closing Doors
Nobody likes a closed door. We have some opportunity in front of us that seems perfect for moving forward with our plans. And sometimes we think even for God’s plans for us. So, when that door of opportunity closes, it can be a blow to our enthusiasm, our ego, and even our faith. But sometimes Jesus closes a door to redirect us into His plan that is bigger than whatever we had expected.
Acts 16:6 tells us
Acts 16:6 (ESV)
And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
Not once, but twice,
Acts 16:7 (ESV)
And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.
To give you a visual on what is happening, here’s a map.
Paul, Silas, and Timothy are attempting to bring the gospel to the rest of Asia. They are ready to head east. They try twice. But the Spirit of Jesus is closing doors. I’m not sure what this looked like in practical terms. It could have been a sickness. It could have been some hostile local official. It might have been bandits on the road, or a natural disaster. Whatever it was, Jesus, by His Spirit, was speaking to Paul when these doors closed, “move on, this isn’t the way.”
It isn’t until Paul and the team get to Troas that two things happen. They meet Luke and he joins the team and changes the course of history. And Jesus gives Paul a vision.
Acts 16:9 (ESV)
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.”
Paul had set his sights on preaching the gospel all through Asia. That would have been good. Then once all those churches are strengthened, we can move on to other continents. But Jesus’ plan and timetable are very different. He says, “go west, Europe is ready.”
The Lord leads the team to Philippi, and immediately the Lord opens the heart of an influential woman to be baptized into the faith and support the team in their work. This is an encouraging confirmation that Jesus is a reliable guide on our mission.
And when we read on through the book of Acts, so many things happen that wouldn’t have happened if Paul had stayed in Asia. Disciples are made in Corinth that will go on to plant churches in other places, like Rome. And in the end, the churches in Asia plant more churches anyway, until almost all of Asia is evangelized by the end of the first century.
Paul later writes to one of these Asian churches, in Ephesus,
Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
The church is the family of God in Christ. The mission is God’s mission through Jesus. He is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. But that same power is at work within us. The Spirit of Jesus that can turn the world upside down with the gospel is at work within us to guide us into the places he wants the gospel to go next. He will close any door that does not lead to His glory.
We are the community on mission with Jesus. There is nothing more essential than that we learn to listen to the Spirit of Jesus and follow where He leads. And the ways He guides in this passage are surprising. It’s through disagreement, changing partnerships, and closed doors. But when He finally speaks, He speaks clearly and confirms His leading. If you are seeking to follow Jesus as your guide, don’t be discouraged when disagreements and doors close off what you thought were opportunities. He may be leading you into new partnerships that will carry you on in the mission of establishing the kingdom through the gospel of Jesus in a way you could not have asked or thought.
Jesus doesn’t do things the way we ask or think. When He wanted to establish the kingdom of God, He did not raise an army and conquer territory. He gave His life to conquer hearts. Communion.