Through The Bible - Acts 16 - Part 2

Brett Meador: The word of God. The more they preach the word, the more they teach the word, the church grows. That was probably the number one thing that caused church growth in the book of Acts.
Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador, and today's word: still living and powerful.
Brett Meador: What's the second component? But it's not unrelated. Faith. Now, where does faith come from? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so, where the church is established in the faith, they were established in the faith, and the church multiplied.
Kurt: The book of Acts depicts the early church growing through various missionary journeys of Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, and others. But Pastor Brett Meador, in his verse-by-verse study series of Acts, emphasizes not just how, but why people's hearts were opened. And that's because the teaching of the word of God. More in today's word of how the church is established in faith.
Brett Meador: In Acts chapter 16, Paul had an interesting series of events that brings him to the place God ultimately wants him to be. So let's pick it up right there in verse one of chapter 16. It says, "Then came he to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, or Timothy, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess and believed, but his father was a Greek." This is where we're introduced to Timothy, or Timotheus as he's called here, which it says was well reported of. Timothy had a good reputation by the brethren that were in Lystra and Iconium. Verse three: "Him, Paul would have to go forth with him, and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek." This is an interesting thing because Timothy is what they would have viewed in those days as an apostate Jew. Remember, I already told you he's a Jew because he had a Jewish mother. But why is he an apostate Jew? Because he's uncircumcised. Why do you suppose Timothy was uncircumcised? Because he had a Greek dad, and his dad was probably like, "I don't go for the circumcision stuff with my son." And so Timothy was uncircumcised. Why did Paul, after giving them a big argument, and Peter as well, and deciding that Gentiles don't have to be circumcised, why did they circumcise him? Well, some would say because he was a Jew and he needed to be circumcised. But that even kind of goes against the council because even Peter said, "We aren't even able to keep these laws and rules. So we're just like they are." Why would he do this? Most scholars want to note that Timothy was circumcised not for salvation, but it was really to prepare Timothy for his time in ministry. In the places they were about to go, the Jews would never listen to an uncircumcised Greek, let alone an uncircumcised apostate Jew. The Lord is going to have Timothy be in a very different place. And for him to be relatable and usable, nothing hindering the Jews from listening, there was this idea of circumcising him so that he would have a voice. There's a relatability that Timothy needed in order for him to be effective in the role that God had for him. There's different ways the Lord uses different people. I believe that the circumcision of Timothy was really for the purpose of saying, "Timothy, the Lord's going to use you in a certain group of people. It's not to be fit to be saved," but he was being circumcised to be fit to serve and minister to Jews in the synagogues. Timothy wouldn't even have been able to be allowed into the synagogue where Paul would preach if he wasn't circumcised. It was a decision that Timothy probably agreed to. I think Timothy was a willing participant in this and said, "I want to be used and I don't want anything to get between me and my ability to serve the Lord." And so it's for that reason he was circumcised. F.F. Bruce, in his commentary, said, "By Jewish law, Timothy was a Jew because he was the son of a Jewish mother. But because he was uncircumcised, he was technically an apostate Jew. If Paul wished to maintain his links with the synagogue, he could not be seen to countenance apostasy." It not only would hurt Timothy's ability but even Paul's ability. And so he willingly went to that. Verse four: "And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees," the ones that we got in Acts 15, remember the council in Jerusalem? They delivered the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and the elders which were at Jerusalem. "And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily." I always like to hear why the church increased. People write books about church growth. Most of them are wrong. I've never really read a good book about church growth except for a book called the Bible. Maybe you could even say the book of Acts. I've never read a great book about church growth. They all miss the mark. Back in the '90s, it was being seeker-friendly. If you want to have church growth, you got to make your church seeker-friendly and make sure the unsaved feel like this is the friendliest place so they're never offended. Don't preach anything offensive. Make sure they sit in comfortable chairs and they have coffee and a McDonald's and all that stuff, if you remember seeker-friendly. The problem with that model was the Bible says, Jesus said... remember the woman at the well was asking, "Where is God? Is he up on Gerizim or Jerusalem? The Jews say he's on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. We Samaritans believe that he's to be worshiped on Mount Gerizim. Which one?" And Jesus said, "No. The Father seeketh those who will worship him in spirit and in truth." It's not about the place. The seeker-friendly movement went wrong. They were trying to reach the seekers. But you want to know who the real seeker is? It's the Father. The Father seeks those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. And it's interesting, it's in spirit and truth. Churches often bailed on that part to try to woo the seeker. But the seeker was not the people. That was a huge theory that lasted for 20 years, the seeker-friendly movement. Now, when all those failed or eventually learned it wasn't the greatest way to go, they are the ones sounding the alarm about megachurches. I understand megachurches are easy to poke fun at. There is a lot of bad ones, I suppose, but there is also a lot of good big churches, too. But it's not about that. They are missing the whole point. The Father is the seeker who's seeking people who will worship him. I believe people get saved not by us trying to carefully woo them tenderly without saying anything offensive. The gospel's offensive. Jesus said that. The gospel divides. The gospel is offensive, but it's still something people need to hear. I do believe you can preach it in love and at the same time with power. But with all that said, here we see the church growth. In the book of Acts, there's two main things and they're not unrelated that we see church growth. Does anybody remember? What are the two main things?
Guest (Male): The word of God.
Brett Meador: The word of God. That's the big one. The word of God increased, so the number of the people increased. That was probably the number one thing that caused church growth in the book of Acts. The more they preached the word, the more they teach the word, the church grows. I think that's still a secret today, and sadly there's so many churches that aren't figuring that out. They'll tack on one little scripture, maybe, in their little Ted Talk sermons. They don't want to preach the Bible. That's too preachy or teach the word. That's an old book, and what does the Old Testament have to do with anything? The word of God is living and powerful. And that's what we need to tap into. So if people come to me and say, "Hey, pastor, what's the secret? What's your secret sauce to get everybody there?" If you have to pin me down, I really do think it gets to this thing we see in the book of Acts. People are hungry for the word of God. The word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. I believe if a church, pastor, or ministry will faithfully preach the word and not skip verses... There are good churches that don't go through the Bible, I'm going to say that. But I think the best thing is to go verse by verse, chapter by chapter. I think you won't miss anything God wants for you. The church multiplied. That's what we see in here. What's the second component? But it's not unrelated.
Guest (Male): Faith.
Brett Meador: Faith. Now, where does faith come from?
Guest (Male): Hearing.
Brett Meador: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Who applies the word and makes that happen, turning reading of the word into faith? Who does that?
Guest (Male): The Holy Spirit.
Brett Meador: That's the Holy Spirit part. That's why I'd say all of those things are really linked: the preaching of the word, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And that's what our text says, verse five, "And so were the churches established in circumcision." No. Established in keeping rules and regulations. No. Forming a great committee. No. Like all the things churches get established in today, not here. It says they were established in the faith. You might want to mark that in your Bible. I think that's a really missed and important text there where it says, how are the churches established? They were established in the faith and increased in number daily. Do you remember I showed you when Paul had to hammer the Galatians because they went from saved by grace through faith back to the laws, where Paul says, "Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?" That's the word, by the way. "Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you. This only would I learn of you, received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit, you are now made perfect by the flesh?" See, the Galatians were going, "Well, what we need to do is get more into these works and the laws and going back to Judaism." But Paul says, "Are you kidding me? Did you receive by the spirit works of the law, ability to do that?" That's a rhetorical question, and the answer is absolutely not. He said, "Or did you get it by the hearing of faith?" And the answer is by the hearing of faith. That's why Paul would see this beautiful work happening here and why Luke would record it in verse five, "So were all the churches established in faith." And the disciples multiplied, which is so cool. Now, just a quick reminder because I have to say this, because it's so important and people miss it. It's not about works. Your salvation... it's not only that you're saved by grace through faith, but that's how you continue. You walk in faith. Some people say, "Okay, now you're a Christian, saved by grace. But now you got to start doing some stuff." I agree, faith without works is dead, and you'll see evidence of good works in a person's life. But I think we always want to hurry that process up, that work of sanctification that God does, and we want to speed up and try to clean people up. And I think that can be a mistake. But we do look for good works in a person who's saved because that's what the Bible says you can look for and see. The church was not established in good works nor their mission program or whatever. The churches were established in the faith. And so people get into the dos and the don'ts about the Bible. But the way we're saved is the way we stand in our faith. What are the prerequisites of salvation? Well, remember Romans 10:9, "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Those are the two things. Repentance gets you to where you confess and believe. So repentance is also part of the deal. You repent first and realize you're a sinner doomed, and then you reach to the Lord for salvation by confession with the mouth and belief in heart. And that's how you're saved. But that's also how you stand and have longevity. Your longevity as a Christian doesn't depend on your works. It's still your longevity as a Christian, still confession with the mouth, belief in heart, and then you will be saved for eternity. That's an important thing to kind of bring to the light here. Some teach you can fall from grace from sin, and if you do a sinful deed, then you got to quickly repent and ask forgiveness so that you can go to heaven. No. You do need to ask forgiveness whenever you sin. Confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive you, and that's important. But if you sin and then you get killed in the process of that sin, can you still go to heaven? Yeah. Christ died once for all sin, and that's an important thing to remember. Paul himself, by the way, even will admit to his young protégé Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:15, he'd say, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that I, Paul the apostle, Jesus came into to save sinners of whom I am chief." He said, "I'm the chiefest of sinners." And Paul said this as a really old man. So it wasn't right after he was killing Christians and changed his name to Paul. He called himself the chiefest of sinners. In fact, Paul understood his sinfulness even greater when he got old. When Paul was young, he said, "We're all sinners." Then he said in middle age, "I'm a sinner." And then just before he died, he said, "I am the chiefest of sinners." Was Paul getting worse as time went by? No, I think Paul came to the realization that he was a sinner, and every part of him there was still sinfulness in him. That's kind of an important part of this. When the Bible talks about this salvation, we have to be really careful about not trying to put salvation and then attaching it to works. Works is something that happens as a byproduct of salvation. Once you are saved, you will see good works. So anyway, they were established in their faith, and as their faith grew, so did their numbers grow. Great church growth program. There you have it. When somebody says, "Hey, what's going on today at Athey Creek? Can you just say, 'Well, in the book of Acts, it says when the word was preached, it increased people's faith, and as the faith and the word was increasing, the numbers increased.'" And that's all we're simply seeing here. Verse six: "Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia, the region of Galatia," that's where the Galatian church would be, "and there were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the spirit suffered them not. And they passed by Mysia and came to Troas." Okay, so they're bouncing Lystra, Derbe, Iconium, Lystra, and then to Troas just so you can kind of picture the Paul's journey. There's several little stops along the way as they're going. But it's interesting because this idea from Derbe and Lystra through Phrygia, this Troas is sort of the west side of the nation Turkey. And the Holy Spirit is guiding Paul by not letting him go to certain places. Have you ever been intent to do things and it just seems like, "Why is the Lord not allowing me to do what I want to do, go where I want to go?" And it's an interesting dilemma sometimes, and we can sit around and pout. "Why is the Lord bouncing me around? Why did God seemingly have me move to that town and then have me bounce back to this town or the other town?" I see that all the time. Good friends of mine over the years, I've just seen where the Lord just moves people. Who knows why he moves you? He could use you for a season in one place and then bounce you to another place. And you're wondering, "Why am I bouncing around?" The Lord's like, "I've got things for you to do in those places." The place you want to go... "I want to move to Maui or Kihei or whatever. I want to move to Hawaii." And the Lord's like, "No, I'm not going to let you do that." "Why, Lord?" Well, the Lord may not want you to be in Maui or Kihei. There's a special calling on people that have that calling. But I love this verse six, "But we were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia Minor." That's where he was last time. He spent his whole time in Asia Minor. Now you might say, "Wow, Brett, I wish the Holy Spirit would guide me like that." Well, first of all, I think he does. It's just it doesn't feel good sometimes. Paul puts kind of a positive spin on this. "Well, I was forbidden by the Holy Spirit." That's the way he puts it. But most scholars agree it's because of the circumstances of people hating him, wanting to kill him, not being able to preach, being forbidden to preach. Like those were the things where he says, "It was the Holy Ghost forbidding me to do that." Rather than complaining about what he couldn't do, he just does what he can do and goes where he can go, and it's because the Holy Spirit is good. This chapter sounds so romantic. Paul's bouncing around all over the world in his travels, but I think it's just Paul putting a nice thing on it. We went through all kinds of suffering, but he says, "It was the Holy Spirit allowing us to not go where we weren't supposed to go." Sickness... some people believe Paul and Silas, Timothy and Luke maybe had sickness. Maybe people wanted to kill him. But the thing you all have to remember, sometimes the troubles in life can be the Holy Spirit keeping you from going a certain direction. Maybe you have a physical ailment or even cancer or something you're like, "Why, Lord, would you ever allow something like this in my life?" You can't go on the trip you wanted to go or you can't visit those people you wanted to visit, and you can have heartbreak or you can just say, "Well, that's the Holy Spirit who's not allowing me to do certain things. Maybe the Lord is saving you from something even greater in your future." I remind you of Hezekiah, who was told by Isaiah the prophet, "You're going to die." And Hezekiah said, "No, I don't want to die, Lord!" and he cried. The Bible says he chirped like a bird. Just chirped like a bird, "Lord, don't let me die." And the Lord says to Hezekiah, "Okay, man, I'm going to give you 15 more years." And as you know, those 15 years were his worst years of his life. Would have been better had he kicked the bucket and went to heaven because remember, he was a believer in God. He was a good king who was headed for heaven. But instead, in the last 15 years, it was nothing but blood and guts, warfare and despair. And the worst thing, he became the father of a new son whose name was Manasseh, who was the most wicked king in the history of Israel. God's perfect will was to say, "Hezekiah, it's time for you to come home to be with me." But Hezekiah said, "No!" I believe that's where the Lord said, "Okay." And I call that the permissive will. God will sometimes permit you to do what you want to do, but it may not be his perfect will. Now, some people struggle with this. God's perfect will's always done. Well, I get that. God is sovereign, and I understand that part of that equation. But it does seem like there's times in the Bible where God sort of says, "Okay, if you want to do it this way, I'll allow it. But it's going to be the long way around. It's going to be the hard way around. It's going to cause misery and stuff, but we'll let you do that." "I'm still going to let my sovereign plan come unfold, but it's going to be through pain and suffering because you're making the wrong decision." That's kind of the important thing. So be careful. You might have to take the hard road in life, but it's God, it's actually the Holy Spirit guiding you. Paul was held up by the Holy Spirit. And then he finds out why in verse nine. It says, "And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us." After verse 10, "He had seen the vision immediately we..." Would you mark the word "we" there? That's where Luke starts including himself. So some argue that somewhere there in this last little jump to Troas, that's where Luke was picked up on the team because from here on out he's talking about "we went here" and "we went there." Before this, he was saying "they went there and here." So that's where we believe Luke joined the crowd. Verse 10: "After he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, which is Europe, remember, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them." So Paul sees the vision. Remember we talked about, does God use visions still today, yes or no? Should we see more visions or less visions today? More. The Bible says, remember Acts chapter two, Peter was preaching there in Acts 2:16 through 18, and he said, "Your sons and daughters," quoting from Joel the Old Testament, "your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." It's talking about in the last days, "I'm going to pour out my spirit upon all flesh." So I think that we'll see more. And again, how do you know if a dream or a vision is from God? Well, it's got to align with scripture. And it's got to be also agreed on by other Christians. You should have confirmation and safety, Proverbs 11:14, in a multitude of counselors. That's kind of important. So running it past other believers. But here Paul has a vision, and it seems confirmed by the guys. "Okay, let's go to Macedonia then. If you saw a Macedonian man, let's go." Now, be careful with the vision thing because I've seen that abused too. "I had a vision and a dream that I'm supposed to divorce my husband because he's a jerk and he leaves his socks out on the floor." What would you say to a woman who says that? Her husband's a jerk and she doesn't like him, so she had a vision and a dream from God.
Guest (Male): Goes against the word of God.
Brett Meador: Goes against the word of God. Divorce is something God hates, the Bible says. And there's only one sort of acceptable reason for divorce, and the Bible made it clear it's for the purpose of adultery. There's biblical grounds for divorce. But you can know that it's the wrong thing when a person says, "I had a vision that I'm supposed to divorce my husband" when the Bible says there's only really one ground for divorce in that way. Kind of important. There's safety in a multitude of counselors but also the word of God. Be careful with visions and dreams. Make sure it aligns with scripture. That's important.
Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador with some good insight in today's word for following the leading of the Holy Spirit, drawn from our continuing verse-by-verse look into Acts chapter 16. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area, where Pastor Brett Meador's the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. All right, Pastor Brett is here now. When the subject of sharing our faith with others is brought up, it can sometimes make a lot of Christians nervous, especially when they're called to do it themselves. But not sharing our testimony, Brett, not sharing the good news of the gospel, that can actually be a sin, can't it?
Brett Meador: Yes, Kurt. I think it can be. I think sin is just missing the mark according to the Bible. We think of big sins as murder, adultery, but there's this thing called the sin of omission. That's failing to do what we know is right. James 4:17 says, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good but doeth it not, to him it is sin." So when God gives us opportunities to share the gospel and we sort of hold back out of fear or apathy, we're actually withholding the very message that brings life, eternal life. We worry about saying the wrong thing or being rejected by our friends or not knowing enough. But when we step back and think about it, evangelism, it's simply sharing what Jesus has done for us. It starts to feel less like a burden when you really do it, and it becomes this giant privilege for us to be able to share the good news that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, that he rose on the third day, and if you accept and confess your faith in Christ and repent of your sin, it says you'll be saved, Romans 10:9 and 10. So that command, "Go into all the world," Mark 16:15, "Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature," that's not just for pastors or missionaries. That's for all of us.
Kurt: Thank you for reminding us about our own personal testimony and what Christ has done in our own life can be such a powerful thing. Well, one last time, I want to mention that if you'd like to connect with us, just go to our website at todayswordradio.com. Well, that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue the story of an earthquake that hit while Paul and Silas were in a Roman prison. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.