The Macedonian Call

the book of acts i believe contains a
number of stories that can legitimately
be described as epic epic in the sense
that they are not only grand and
dramatic events
that profoundly impacted their own
generation
but events that have continued to
reverberate
through the centuries and continue to
impact the world
even today
let me just quickly
tell you about some of those stories
you'll be familiar with them the first
is the outpouring of the holy spirit
on the day of pentecost in acts chapter
2. you remember the story how
dramatically there were
tongues as a fire and
uh the sound of a mighty rushing wind
and
and all the assembly broke out speaking
in other languages and 3 000 people came
to faith with the outpouring of the holy
spirit on the day of pentecost did
was it took the power of god who made
the whole universe in his presence and
he brought it to earth in the hearts and
in the lives of his people
and in subsequent generation
that power
in god's people has enabled them to
penetrate virtually every society upon
the earth with the proclamation of the
good news of jesus christ
the second story that i would consider
epic in the book of acts is the
conversion of the apostle paul
in acts chapter 9 every sunday school
child knows the story
of how saul of tarsus was on the way to
damascus to imprison believers in christ
because of his opposition to the gospel
and how the lord jesus met him on that
road
knocked him to the ground and
transformed his life
from one of the greatest persecutors the
church had ever known up until that
point to one of its most flaming
apostles an apostle with a message to
the gentiles you and i
are here today in part because of paul's
conversion and his ministry to the
gentiles an epic story in its own right
closely related to that
is the conversion of
cornelius in acts chapter 10 and 11.
and cornelius you will remember
was a roman centurion a god-fearing
roman centurion and one afternoon at
three o'clock an angel paid him a little
visit
and said i want you to send for the
apostle peter who is in joppa a town not
that far from caesarea
on the mediterranean sea where
cornelius lived and you know the story
of how peter had that vision preparing
him to
not call unclean what god had called
clean went to cornelius's house preached
the gospel and guess what happened the
holy spirit fell on cornelius and all of
his household an epic story in its own
right because it finally began to show
the early jewish believers
that the gentiles shared in the
blessings of christ it was an issue that
was difficult for them to get around
the next epic story and we've been
talking about that in recent weeks of
course is the council of jerusalem and
its decision
that the gentile believers did not need
to keep the law of moses and as i've
shared with you what that did
is it took
what would have remained a small middle
eastern sect
restricted largely
to a dedicated few
and it made christianity a world
religion
and it enabled the christian faith
to spread all over the world and that
brings us this morning
to a fifth
epic
episode in the book of acts
one that
i would call
paul's
macedonian
call
it's recorded for us in acts chapter 16.
it runs the verses 6 through 10.
i want us to read it together
and then talk about
why that story
is an epic story because at first glance
it looks just like a little piece of new
testament history but its implications
for your life and my life as i want to
try to show you in the limited time that
we have this morning is incredibly
profound let's read it together
paul and his companions traveled
throughout the region of phrygia and
galatia
having been kept by the holy spirit from
preaching the word in the province of
asia when they came to the border of
missia
or meshia both pronunciations are
correct i had to look it up
they tried to enter bethennia
but the spirit of jesus would not allow
them to
so they passed by
missia and went down to troas
during the night paul had a vision of a
man of macedonia standing and begging
him
come over to macedonia and help us
after paul had seen the vision
we got ready at once to leave for
macedonia concluding that god had called
us to preach the gospel
to them
now before i talk about the
particular importance of that passage
in reading it together and perhaps in
looking at your
bulletin insert
who can tell me what is odd
about those verses anybody catch
there's a transition that happens here
in pronouns
the pronouns go from they
to we watch this let's read it together
again
verse 7 when they that is
paul
silas and timothy remember they're on
their second missionary journey
paul has just picked up timothy
in lystra
and silas has replaced barnabas because
they had that disagreement when they
came to the border of mission messiah
they tried to enter bithynia verse eight
so they passed by messiah
and went down to trollas
now notice what happens in verse 10
after paul had seen the vision we
got ready at once to leave for macedonia
concluding that god had called
us
to preach the gospel to them
it goes from they
to we
and them
luke
joins them
remember luke is the author not only of
luke's gospel
but also the book of acts in fact
scholars tell me that luke and acts at
one point used to be
a twin books together because they were
both authored by luke
well luke writes from an historian's
point of view
and up until this point he has examined
all the facts but he hasn't been part of
the trip firsthand
now here in troas
he joins them for their ocean voyage as
we'll see in a moment to macedonia
three more times in the book of acts
the pronouns change from they to we
and every time it is in connection with
an ocean voyage
which is rather interesting and i'm
beginning to wonder if maybe the apostle
paul didn't like ocean voyages got
seasick and wanted to bring a doctor
along with him just to enable him to get
through it i don't know but it's really
quite bizarre
because luke
never brings himself forward
but he enters into the narrative
when he travels with paul
and with his associates on the
missionary trip okay but back to this
story remember i said this is an epic
story it is just as big as pentecost and
just as big as paul's conversion and
just as big as cornelius's conversion
and and just as important as
the council of jerusalem in acts chapter
15.
so here's the question
why is this story
so important
well all we need to do
trying to get my little lighter to
behave here
look at the map
of paul's second missionary jury
now notice
antioch in syria is the starting point
because paul had said to barnabas let's
revisit the churches
in derby and lystra iconium and
antioch and pasitia that they had
visited on their first missionary trip
the first missionary trip had gone this
way you will recall and then back again
to
to antioch now barnabas and him they had
this big blow up about taking john mark
along and so paul and silas go back to
tarza's which is paul's birthplace then
they revisit derby they visit they
revisit lystra
where they pick up timothy and then they
go on to iconia iconium and to antioch
in pasitia
and then they travel into the province
of asia
but interesting thing happens on this
journey
the holy spirit
will not allow them to preach the gospel
in asia
so now what do you do well they keep on
traveling and you got a picture of this
because
this is like lord what are you saying
you're closing doors
but we're in the middle of asia what do
we do now so they keep on going
and they figure well here is the
province of bithynia and maybe the lord
wants us to preach in bithynia but guess
what happens when they get to the border
of bithynia the holy spirit says no goal
now what we're in the middle of asia do
we turn back
do we keep on going they continue to go
remember it's about 500 kilometers from
here to troas
so they continue to journey until they
come to troas
and he has this vision
of the man from macedonia saying
come over
and help us
and so paul immediately concludes that
god has called him to preach the gospel
in macedonia macedonia is over here
the rest of greece is over here and so
on and therein lies the significance of
this particular event
because what continent
is macedonia on
it is in europe
so here for the first time
we have the gospel
going
west
instead of east
and the significance of that is
incredibly profound because number one
most of us sitting here would not be
here we would not be christian believers
if the holy spirit hadn't sent the
gospel westward but equally important
it transformed
the western world
into
embodying
biblical values
in its institutions and in its life we
can let the screen go
and
therein lies the significance of this
story
the western world was evangelized
because of this momentous decision
to take the gospel to macedonia
and while the western world certainly
hasn't always lived up to its christian
values by any means
it does mean that christian values
permeated
much of history in the western world at
least until recently and in the limited
time that we have available to us this
morning i want to paint a little bit of
a picture
of some of the ways
in which this has impacted
how the western world lives and believes
its faith
and i don't know how many of these i'll
have time to mention but i want to talk
at least about this first one
this westward movement of the gospel
helped establish a
biblical world and life view
in the western world let me say it again
this westward movement of the gospel
helped establish
a biblical world and life view
in much
of the western world
now a world in life view
is the lens through which one sees life
everybody's got one
most people don't realize they have one
because they grow up with it and it is
part of the assumptions that are part of
people's lives but everybody's got a
world in life you and the world and life
you that you have determines what you
value what you think is important why
you are here and how life works
and dr peter jones
who is
a native of liverpool england
and a boyhood friend interestingly
enough with john lennon
one of the world's
most knowledgeable evangelical scholars
in terms of the rise of the new age or
new paganism
makes the observation that the western
world is in the midst of a battle
between two different worldviews
the biblical world view that we have
inherited
on account of the gospel preaching
back in those early days that
evangelized first greece then rome then
europe then
south america
uh africa and of course north america
we are in the midst of a gigantic battle
between opposing world views a biblical
worldview
and a worldview that is
essentially pagan
in orientation
the biblical worldview he calls to ism
the pagan view he calls
one ism
let me talk about each of those just
briefly and this engages our minds a
it may be hard to grasp
but
stick with me
because it colors
everything in the world today in fact he
will argue
that the major social battles of our age
like abortion and
same-sex marriage and
euthanasia and
many many values that are part of the
culture wars in north america can be
traced back to this conflict
between tuition
and one ism
take note of this
to ism of course is the kind of model of
biblical world and life view that we
talk about here all the time tuism
tuism means that god
and creation are separate
they are two separate entities
uh from a biblical point of view god has
always existed we don't understand that
he is the i am who i am and because he
is eternally self-existent everything
that exists in the universe comes from
the hand of god
has incredibly profound implications
because it means that he is outside of
creation even while he is a work within
creation
and as the god outside of creation he is
the one who has the power to tell us
what is right and what is wrong
he has the power to name whatever needs
to be named he names adam
adam as his image bearer names eve of
course but also names all the animals
naming in scripture is incredibly
important because it means that you have
authority over and you have a knowledge
of the character whose name you are
ascribing
and when paul says in ephesians chapter
that
god the father let me read you that
passage
it says that every family in heaven and
on earth
derives its name from god the father
which means that god has the right to
tell us who we are
how we should live and what pleases him
he has the right to determine how the
world
operates to ism you and i are familiar
with we may not always like to give god
that kind of authority even as christian
believers but that is basic biblical
world and life here now remember
a fallen human race
doesn't like
to be accountable to god
fallen human race
doesn't want to be told what to do by
god
fallen human race doesn't want god to
say how we who we are and how we should
live fallen human race
wants to do its own thing
and so oneism
is
a pagan
religion
that echoes the words of romans chapter
where through our wickedness we suppress
the truth
the truth about god
that is plainly visible in all of
creation you've heard me say this many
times from a biblical point of view even
even the the furthest removed pagan
looking at creation ought to be able to
determine two things about god
that he's there
and that he made everything
because nothing can make itself
from a biblical point of view
but you see
we suppress that truth
as a human race
and when we suppress that truth
according to romans chapter 1 what
happens
we are given over to darkness the bible
says what happens
is that our thinking becomes futile and
our foolish hearts become darkened and
we exchange the glory of god
for the images of birds and animals in
other words we begin to identify
creation
as
our
god
and therein
lies the key
to one
ism one ism doesn't believe that there's
a god out there who is above creation
no one ism
says that creation
is
god
there is a spark of divinity in all of
humanity
and so the classic name for that is
pantheism and here you see
a pantheistic logo
the sign of infinity everything is one
and when everything is one all the
world's religions are also
one keep that up for just a moment
without
belaboring it the points of one ism and
pagan spirituality are this
all is one one is all
humanity is one
all religions are one
there's only one problem we have
forgotten how divine we are and there is
only one answer
and that is to look within for the spark
of divinity
there's actually a website and you see
the logo of that website over here
called one ism
and this is by a fellow by the name of
herschel wayne hershaw
who claims to have gained all these
supernatural insights about the origin
and the nature of the universe
and he writes some amazing things that
sound like the christian gospel if they
weren't so far off listen one ism
introduces the means
to ease the crisis of global suffering
create equality improve human rights and
the eden principle
this pagan philosophy
all as one and one is all
enables us if we could only dig deep
inside ourselves
we can find what we need to find
to have world
peace
so
you may say that's pretty heady what is
that practically it means huge things in
terms of what you're hearing in the
world today
then
the differences that god has created in
the universe
begin to disappear
and so not only are god in creation one
but god and man
are one
they're intermingled
people and animals
are one
because we're all part
of the same creation
angels and demons
are really one
and
even more importantly and more
practically in terms of our
present day and age men and women
are
one
god's
created
differences in the world
begin to disappear
because the return to paradise doesn't
come by the cross of jesus
who died
so that we can be reconciled to god and
reconciled to each other we don't need
jesus
we become one
because the divine life in us brings us
all together and we are united to nature
and to
each other
as i said that is classic pantheism
and peter jones argues very persuasively
that as god
gives the world over to its seeing
and their thinking becomes futile and
darkened
then
our whole understanding of the world
gets turned upside down
and the gender confusion
that is being pushed on us from all
sides
is the fruit
of being given over to a world and life
view
that is
unbiblical at best did you know
that in
sweden
preschool teachers now
can no longer call boys and girls he or
she
they have to be called friends and you
may have heard the earlier news story
out of toronto this one particular
couple has a baby called storm
and they're raising that child without
telling anybody whether he is a boy or a
girl
because they want him or her to find his
own gender
and we live in a day and age of great
gender confusion
most of us are familiar with the gay
pride
label of
lgbt
now also q
l for lesbian a gay for
g for gay
b for bisexual
uh t for
transsexual and q for queer
but did you know
that that
acronym has now
grown
to include many more terms let me read
it to you now it's l g b t
q q i p to
that's all included under the umbrella
and i'm not sharing this with you to
make fun of that or for us to laugh at
it
because
gender confusion is an incredibly
painful thing
but understand we live in a day and age
where we have rejected god's designation
of who we are do you understand that
once we reject god's authority to tell
us what is what
what happens is that we live
in our own confusion because we have no
compass by which to measure things
and i thought of this as michelle and i
were on the ferry
from yarmouth to maine
now i've been on lots of ferries because
we always used to have to take the ferry
to pei before they build a bridge
but you were never outside of ice shot
of land
but when you go from yarmouth to
portland maine
it's open ocean and at one point in our
ferry trip i climbed up to the top of
the ship to look around and of course
when you're in the middle of the ocean
what happens
all you see is ocean
and it's a big circle all the way around
now imagine trying to navigate without
navigational tools
you get lost
and so years ago
you know they just found that franklin
expedition up north uh they got lost in
the ice but years ago how do they
navigate
well you navigated by the stars because
they were a fixed reference point
now today you navigate by all kinds of
modern and and
and and technological uh methods of
course
but the point is this
without a fixed reference point you get
lost
because now all you have to go by is
your feelings and your experience and
your own thoughts
and the moment you do that
you lose sight
of a reference point
and you wander
that's what has happened
when we have rejected god's authority
we have rejected biblical authority
now our authority is our experience
what we like
what each of us cherishes
and the problem with that
is we end up wondering
and so let me
tell you one story
that illustrates how profoundly this has
impacted life in canada
on a legal level
let me read you a quotation
from
a prominent
canadian
as he engaged the
abortion debate
that was just
getting going
and you tell me
who said this
this appeared in the toronto star
as part of an article
a while back
another toronto star in the montreal
newspaper
here's the quotation you know
at some point you are killing life in
the fetus in self-defense
of what
of the mother's health or her happiness
or of her social rights or her privilege
as a human being
i think she should have to answer for it
and explain
now whether it should be to three
doctors or one doctor or to a priest or
a bishop or to a mother-in-law is a
question you might want to argue
you do have the right over your own body
it is your body
but the fetus is not your body
it is someone else's body
and if you kill it
you will have to explain
pierre
elliott trudeau
in the lead up
to the changing laws
understand what he was saying
because he himself of course ended up
being pro-abortion
but at that point in history he was
saying you have to think through the
legal implications of knowing you're
actually killing somebody
however you want to explain it
that
is the reality right that's that's what
he said
now roll the clock forward 42 years that
i'm not picking on politics here so
don't misunderstand me
think back to justin trudeau
why did he decide for his caucus with
regard
to abortion issues
you cannot run
as a liberal candidate
unless you have adopted a pro-choice
position
you get the significance of that
it's gone from
we know this is wrong there may be
reasons we have to do it but we know
that it's wrong right
to now
it's no longer not wrong it is wrong if
you are pro-life and a member of my
caucus
you see what happens
and you don't have the stars to navigate
by
the more
we adopt a new age point of view
or a neo-paganism where god has been
exiled from life
the more
adrift
we go
and it's happening
at an increasing rate
and peter jones will make the argument
that it is not coincidental
that the rise of all these
social changes that we have been dealing
with in the last 40 years or more
coincide with a rise of the age of
aquarius
as in the 60s we began to import
eastern
religion
and so to wind this up
here is a short clip
from 1965.
by paul harvey
it's dated
it's american
but i think it is profoundly prophetic
if i were the prince of darkness i'd
want to engulf the whole world in
darkness and i'd have a third of its
real estate and four fifths of its
population but i wouldn't be happy until
i had seized the ripest apple on the
tree
the
so i set about however necessary to take
over the united states
i'd convert the churches first i'd begin
with a campaign of whispers with the
wisdom of a serpent i would whisper to
you as i whispered to eve do as you
please
to the young i would whisper that the
bible is a myth i would convince them
that man created god instead of the
other way around i would confide that
what's bad is good and what's good is
square
and the old i would teach to pray after
me
our father
and then i'd get organized i'd educate
authors in how to make lurid literature
exciting so that anything else would
appear dull and uninteresting i'd
threaten tv with dirtier movies and vice
versa i peddled narcotics to whom i
could i'd sell alcohol to ladies and
gentlemen of distinction i tranquilized
the rest with pills
if i were the devil i'd soon have
families at war with themselves churches
at war with themselves and nations at
war with themselves until each in its
turn
was consumed
and with promises of higher ratings
i'd have mesmerizing media
fanning the flames
if i were the devil i would encourage
schools to refine young intellects but
neglect to discipline emotions just let
those run wild until before you knew it
you'd have to have drug sniffing dogs
and metal detectors at every school
house door
within a decade
i'd have prisons overflowing i'd have
judges promoting pornography soon i
could evict god from the courthouse then
from the schoolhouse and then from the
houses of congress and in his own
churches i would substitute psychology
for religion and deify science i would
lure priests and pastors into misusing
boys and girls and church money if i
were the devil i'd make the symbol of
easter and egg and the symbol of
christmas
a bottle if i were the devil i'd take
from those who have and give to those
who wanted until i had killed the
incentive of the ambitious
and what do you bet
i couldn't get whole states to promote
gambling
as the way to get rich
i would caution against extremes
in hard work in patriotism in moral
conduct
i would convince the young that marriage
is old-fashioned
that swinging is more fun
that what you see on tv
is the way to be and thus i could
undress you in public
and i could lure you into bed
in other words if i were the devil i
just keep right on doing what he's doing
paul harvey
that's 1965.
isn't that prophetic
don't want to extend this
but understand
this is why the lord calls us
individually
as families in his communities
to embrace a biblical world and life
here
there is a god
he has revealed himself in scripture he
has revealed himself in christ he grants
us the holy spirit
and as you and i grow in union with
christ
and try to let his word shape our lives
in the middle of increasing darkness
we can still be salt and light
because i don't know about you but i've
read the last chapter in the book
and in the end
the kingdom of jesus wins over the
darkness
the dragon gets thrown into the lake of
fire
you