WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday November 15, 2015
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FROM DERBY TO
PHILIPPI
(Taking the Gospel
across social and cultural barriers)
(Acts 16:1-15)
Acts 16:1-15 chronicles the story of the beginning of the Apostle
Paul’s second missionary journey, which for the first time, would lead him into
Europe. Along with Silas, and later, Timothy and Luke, Paul travels into the
ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia, which, at that time (around A.D. 50), was a
province of the Roman Empire. The men had persistently tried to go north,
deeper into the peninsula of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), but the SPIRIT OF
JESUS, by way of some unexplained methods, had not allowed them to enter at
that time.
With the issue of the basis of “Gentile
inclusion into the Church” now officially settled at the Acts 15 council, Paul,
sets out with Silas, who had replaced Barnabas on this second missionary
journey. Paul and Barnabas had split after a disagreement concerning Barnabas’
cousin John Mark. Paul had become disappointed with John Mark, because he
abandoned them on their first missionary journey, while at Perga of Pamphylia
(Acts 13:13).
Barnabas and John Mark had already set sail
for Barnabas’ homeland, the island of Cyprus, to begin working their second missionary
trip there. Meanwhile, Paul and Silas make their first stop in Derbe, and then,
move on to Lystra, the home of Timothy, where Paul had preached on the first
missionary journey, and was stoned by an angry mob and left for dead.
The
people of Lystra had thought that Paul and Barnabas were the Greek gods “Hermes”
and “Zeus” after they had healed a cripple man there in their city. However,
some Jews came down later from Antioch and Iconium, and they turned the people
against Paul and Barnabas, causing them to have to flee to Derbe (Acts
14:8-19).
While in Lystra, they meet the young
Disciple Timothy, whose mother was a Jewish believer, but whose father was a
Greek. Timothy was well respected by the believers in both Lystra and Iconium,
and so Paul asked him to join them on their mission. Out of respect for the
opinion of the Jews in that area who knew Timothy’s father was a Greek, Paul
arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left. The three men then
traveled from town to town explaining the decision made by the Apostles and
Elders at Jerusalem during the Acts 15 council, that, “Gentiles did not have to
be circumcised to become Christians”.
Next, Paul, Silas, and Timothy traveled
through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, as the HOLY SPIRIT still would not let
them go any farther into Asia Minor, at that time. They traveled instead, on to
Mysia, and again, tried to go north, this time, into Bithynia, however, the
SPIRIT OF JESUS compelled them, instead, into the city of Troas. It is here
that the author of GOD, Luke, joins the journey, and it is also there that GOD
shows Paul a vision, telling him to go to Macedonia (Europe) and preach the
Gospel there.
So they boarded a boat and sailed from
Troas to the island of Samothrace. There they spent the night, and, the
following day, they sailed on and landed in the port city of Neapolis. They
then went to the neighboring major city of Philippi, a Roman colony at that
time, in the district of Macedonia, and there, they abided for three days.
On the Sabbath, they went down to the
riverbank, where the people who were worshipers of GOD met to pray. They sat down
to talk to some of the women who had come together there. One of them, Lydia of
Thyatira, who was a merchant of expensive purple cloth, and a devout worshiper
of GOD, listened intently and opened up her heart to what Paul and his
companions were saying about CHRIST.
Lydia soon accepted what Paul and his crew
were saying about CHRIST, and she was baptized, along with other members of her
family. Lydia then insisted that Paul and his entourage come to her house as
her special guests. She and her family had, that day, become the first
Europeans in recorded Scripture to accept CHRIST into their lives, and this was
truly a cause for celebration.
And so we see, at a time when it seemed
that all doors were being shut to Paul and his companions, it turns out that
GOD, in HIS infinite wisdom, had something much greater in store for those who
were willing to work according to HIS will. It must have seemed strange to
Paul, being blocked from the Roman province of Asia by the HOLY SPIRIT, but no
one can ever know and understand the eternal plan of GOD. Ironically, as
history would have it, Asia Minor would become the place that was to contain
all of the recipients of the letters to the seven churches mentioned in the
Book of Revelation by the Apostle John.
Paul and his entourage were then compelled
to go the route of Alexander the great, a pagan king, whom GOD had used some
400 years earlier to spread the Greek language and culture all over world. HE
had, by doing so set the stage for the writing of the New Testament, of which
Paul himself would be its most prolific writer. The world had also already seen
the translation of the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures, into what then had
became, the universal Greek language of the “Septuagint” (the Greek version of
the Old Testament) at Alexandria over 200 years earlier.
Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy all believed
in the sovereignty of GOD over all things, and we can see, quite vividly,
throughout the Book of Acts, just how that belief impacted their everyday life
and travels. And as for the Thyatiran woman, Lydia, and her family, they, in a
very special sense, had become immortalized through their faith and belief in
CHRIST. They will forever be remembered as being the first European family to
accept our LORD and SAVIOR. And her first act as a Christian was, ironically,
to invite other Christian people into her home. It is the kind of human action
that CHRIST had just a few years earlier, commanded us to perform.
Before we can offer our love, charity, and
ministry to people who come into our Church, we must first be able to offer
that same love, charity, and ministry to people who come into our homes.
Oftentimes we look at home as a place where we go to shut the world out, but equally,
it should be a place with an open door. The effectiveness of our ministry at
church is always predicated upon the life we live at home. The way to a changed
home, church, job, and life, has always been, through a changed heart.
A Sunday
school lesson by,
Larry D.
Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official
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