How quick we are to blame other people for what we do! See if this conversation is familiar to you. "Why did you hit your brother?" "He made me do it." "What do you mean by that?" "He made me mad." So we go through many of our interactions, even as adults. We may be more sophisticated in our laying of blame, but the blame is assigned to someone else just the same. We do wrong and we consider that someone else is responsible for our wrongdoing. We are angry and we don't accept the responsibility for our anger. We are late, but it's because of those other people on the road. We make a mistake at work but we were distracted by something else that was happening in the office. Or maybe we simply choose to assign blame. "I didn't say you were responsible for it, I'm just blaming you."
Here in Acts 16 we see a different sort of casting responsibility. We see the apostles blaming the Holy Spirit for what they do right. Let's read some of our passage again, a little bit at a time, and see what we find from the Scriptures. I'll be quoting from the English Standard Version.
v. 6 "And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia."
We should probably try to answer a burning question and get it out of the way. Who are "they"? It isn't completely clear. Judging from chapter 16 verse 3 it is at least Paul and Timothy. It seems from chapter 15 verse 40 that Silas is also one of them. The book of Acts is typically considered to be authored by Luke, who seems to be with "them" judging from chapter 16 verse 15, where he uses the pronoun "us." Yet he does not use "us" or "we" here, which leads us to assume Luke is not with the others at this point. So we can assume at least three traveling companions: Paul, Silas, and Timothy. There are possibly some others with them.
As we read in verse 6 we see the places where Paul and company are. But at this moment I want to consider that as relatively unimportant. What do we see? They have "been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia." Why is this? We don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us. We can't speculate in a fruitful way. All we know is what Luke tells us. Yet we know Luke assigns the responsibility for this decision to the Holy Spirit. So I'd like to ask a question. How many times have we been forbidden by the Holy Spirit from speaking the Gospel in a particular place? Never? Actually, we can't say that. I've been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the Gospel in all sorts of places. It's quite simple. I've never been to a lot of places, and have been unable to go to those places. There are lots of temporal reasons I can see, but ultimately they are reasons Luke assigns to theology. God didn't allow this group of people to go to Asia. Maybe they were sick when a convoy was leaving in that direction. Maybe they found they didn't have money that would be needed to pay for their trip. Maybe they found that one issue or another kept them in Galatia. Maybe their donkey was stolen. We don't know. But we know that ultimately the Holy Spirit did not let them go.
Reading on, in verses 7-8 we see, "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."
These verses make me think about a situation when some of us would love to cast blame on the Holy Spirit. "Lord, I would have liked to have given money to the flood relief effort, but, you see, I didn't have any money left after going to the community dance on Friday night." "Lord, I would have liked to speak the Gospel when I was talking with my Dad in the hospital before he died, but you just didn't lead me to do it." "Lord, I would have liked to be kind to the clerk at the store but I just didn't feel led." Now wait a minute. Wait just a minute there. That's on the same level as saying "I punched my little brother because he made me mad. He looked at me." This isn't what the Lord is doing in Paul and company. They didn't fail to go to Asia because they were enjoying the cheese in Galatia. They didn't miss the convoy because they were busy eating in that really nice cafe by the Hellespont. They didn't blow their money because they wanted to go out dancing. They wanted to do the Lord's work. They were burning for the Lord's work. They were trying their very hardest to bring the Gospel to all sorts of people. Look where they went. Where's Mysia? Where's Troas? Just think about it!
Okay, did I let you think blankly for long enough? I confess I had to look them up to confirm it, even though I have a lot of background in this. So let's hit a little geography. Technically, Mysia is in Asia Minor. When Paul talks about wanting to go to Asia, if he gets to Mysia, he's kind of in Asia, but he wants to go farther. He seems to want to go inland. How do you get there? You go to Tros, the more modern location of Troy. Know what's there now? Istanbul. He's beyond the Hellespont, into Asia Minor, but isn't able to go inland, which seems to be his desire.
Quite the contrary of our efforts to dodge God's calling and the opportunities our Lord has given us, Paul and company are trying to get into Asia. They are trying for all they are worth. It's like when I go to a museum and look at ancient Greek vases. I want to see them up close. I take off my glasses and get right up to the case. I'd like to see them closer, handle them and look from all sorts of angles. Of course, if I were to try to open the case . . . we won't go there. These people want to bring the Gospel, the precious gift of forgiveness in Christ, to the people throughout Asia. They try to get there. Something interferes again and again. Really, we should be ashamed of ourselves. Do we really try to bring the Gospel into all our situations? No. We missed the trip upland into Asia because we were enjoying that great Trojan salad at the restaurant. We missed the opportunity to share the love of Christ because we were intent on our own plan, on our own timing, on our own agenda. Then we went and blamed the Holy Spirit. This ought not to be. We should be ashamed of ourselves. And I dare say we are. Look at these people with Paul. They gave up everything for the cause of bringing the Gospel to foreign lands. For the most part, what did we give up? I wonder. Not what "they" did.
Then again, maybe we have fared a little better than the picture I painted at first? Maybe we are starting to feel proud of ourselves. After all, we were telling people of the love of God right here. We've been shining the light in our community. But what we really wanted to do was be a missionary to Abu Dhabi. Or we were really intended to bring the Gospel to tribal people high in the Himalayas. We were really called by God to run an orphanage in Russia but we're stuck here changing our own children's diapers. Maybe I was supposed to be a missionary pilot but I'm stuck here flying a crop duster instead. I'd like to feed the hungry but I'm stuck here working in this grocery store. Doesn't the Lord care about the calling He gave me?
I guess we'd better have some good news then. Right then and there, while Paul is in Troas doing whatever he is doing, he has a vision from God. "Come here and help us!" See how Paul responds? The place he planned to go, the things he planned to do, his hopes seem to be falling apart. But when he has a moment, when there's an opportunity for him to go somewhere and do something, he finds a place to go and something to do. This he reads as the calling of the Lord. In obedience to this call Paul and company go to Macedonia. They end up in Philippi, where they hang out, wondering what will happen next. What does this apostolic band do? Naturally, they look for ways to share the Gospel. That's what they do. So as they are in Philippi, doing what they do, they wind up sharing God's word with people, being taken in by Lydia, a new convert, and the Lord plants a thriving church through their life and witness.
Where is the good news for us in this sermon? The good news is that all this work of the Lord happens when the believers are simply living out their lives where they are, doing what they would naturally do as believers, living for Christ in their community, and loving their neighbors as themselves. They are simply bearing the fruit of the Spirit, allowing it to be picked by the hungry people all around them. All they do is let the Lord direct them. You see, like Paul, we've been crucified with Christ. We no longer live. It's the Lord living in us. And what we do isn't really what we are doing. It's the life of the Son of God. Just like Paul is directed by the Holy Spirit by this circumstance or that, you and I are also directed by the Holy Spirit. We don't always know what his reason is, we don't always recognize the means by which he directs us, but we can have confidence that our Lord is directing our paths. Are we living as the redeemed of the Lord? Then he is setting up circumstance after circumstance for us. He is arranging all manner of opportunities for us to live out the life he has given us in our community. And when we change that baby's diaper, when we trim our rose bushes, when we clean up after our annoying dog, or our neighbor's annoying dog, when we talk to the clerk in the store, when we ask the librarian a question, when we see someone on the street or in the office, when we work for our employer or when we employ people for our business we are living out the life our Lord has given. We are living proof of the resurrection, because we have been called, we have been justified, we have been sanctified. The truth of God comes out of our lives. Do we mess up the situations our Lord puts us in? Sure. And by God's grace we will continue to repent and be forgiven. But sometimes we get the privilege of seeing the Lord working out his mercy and his grace in and through us. What if the Lord moves us somewhere else? That would be fine. Thanks be to God who has provided us with a new opportunity to love and serve our neighbor. What if the Lord leaves us right where we are? That's fine too. What if we are people who have needs and we end up depending on others? That's to God's glory as well. What about that Macedonian man? If he was a real person, did he not serve as a catalyst to move others into service and draw people to Christ? Did he provide believers with an opportunity to live out their faith? There's nothing wrong with that, is there?
In all we do, let us do it seeing our Lord's glorious work in and through us. May we look to the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, who uses our hands to demonstrate his love. May we have many opportunities to show and tell those around us that we are not living for ourselves, but that our Lord Jesus is living in us, giving us his forgiveness and grace, working through us his forgiveness and grace in others. May the Lord grant us repentance of our foolishness which says we are going to do things on our own, that we are sufficient, that he is not a relevant part of this situation or that situation. May our Lord Jesus Christ dwell in us, being all in all.
--
Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com and http://alex-kirk.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment