Yesterday's message at Revive was a lot to bite off. Chapter 29 in The Story covered a huge chunk of the NT writings and journeys by Paul and I knew getting through it all was a near impossibility.
For those who were not able to be with us yesterday the title of yesterday's message was 'The Beginning of Missions"as we looked into the life of the apostle Paul and his missionary effort through the church at Antioch. I had several hopes going into yesterday's teaching and only God knows if those hopes landed on good soil and developed into something more. But one of the big ones that I will mention again here as an outset to this post which effectively is functioning like the conclusion of the message yesterday is that we would have a stronger contextual framework for the entire NT by looking into the missionary journeys of Paul. I don't think its an overstatement to say that if one can grasp the journeys of Paul and major events on those journeys he or she has a much better ability to conceptualize how the entire NT works together. And as I stated yesterday for the day in age in which live this is desperately important because the faith is under fire. As a buddy of mine was once encouraged by one of his mentors "we need more Christians who know more, not more Christians who know less."
Without further commentary let me pick up where left off at about 11:45am yesterday. Pages 412 to about 420 in chapter 29 of The Story give us a little bit of what took place in the second Missionary Journey of Paul. On his first stop in Derbe/Lystra we are told in Acts 16:1-3 he gets this young guy named Timothy to join him. Funny thing is Paul has to circumcise him before he is a legit part of the second missionary journey along with him. Talk about paying the price to serve on mission. How many of us would just rather send out support letters right? But Timothy like Paul knew that serving God was an uncomfortable reality at times. I am grateful Timothy sucked it up and went ahead and kept on following. There is a lot of application for being an effective missionary in the first few lines of Acts 16. From Lystra Paul headed to Iconium and Antioch of Pisidia most likely encouraging the saints from what Luke tells us in Acts 16:4-5. It's refreshing to know Paul stays so connected through out his ministry with churches that he has helped start. In this is a principle for churches and missionaries to stay engaged with each other through the long haul as difficult as it is in this fast paced communication heavy thing we call life. I hope I can do this.
Acts 16:8 Paul leaves from most likely Antioch of Pisidia and heads north towards Troas. Receiving the Macedonian call there Paul departs for Phillipi in Acts 16:12-40. It is there he meets, teaches and baptizes Lydia of Thyatira, frees a trafficked slave girl, gets beaten, jailed, and rescued from prison. But not before he leads the suicide driven jailer to Jesus. Paul's google calendar was pretty nuts for those several weeks he was in Phillipi. But isn't that a pretty good example for us as modern missionaries? To be active in our service and not lazy? Going on from there Paul heads to Thessalonica in Acts 17 where intimidation and bail all come into play. The point: Missions can and probably will get messy at some point. After Thessalonica Paul travels to Berea in Acts 17:10, Athens in 17:16, Corinth in 18:1-11 where he most likely writes 1 and 2 Thessalonians to the folks he had just visited in Thessalonica. From Corinth Paul heads to Ephesus, then Ceasarea and back to Antioch of Syria.
Paul stays active and on mission for Jesus along with using his brilliant intellect of theology in the OT to stand up for Jesus. In Athens his theology and doctrine come into play in a big way. Check out Acts 17:16-18 if you want to see for yourself. Paul sets the bar high for missions and I am glad he provides such a sterling example.
I would love to go into more detail on what happens at each site and the third journey but I have to run. I will try to post again soon and finish up some of what we see on that trip.
For those interested Revive is planning her first mission trip to Nicaragua December 5 - 12 thru chosen children ministries. Anyone interested please contact me to find out more on how you can support, pray and be involved. Blessings.
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