Berean Break
May 3, 2015 broadcast
Acts 16:6-12
by George Sinkie


[printable PDF of Acts 16:6-12][audio MP3 of Acts 16:6-12]

[EGW editor’s note: Previous article in this series on the book of Acts — Following the Pattern]
     Good morning and welcome to the Berean Break, my name is George A, Sinkie and I am so glad you are able to join us today.  Do you have your Bible handy?  I hope so because I want you to check out what is taught here today.  There are many false teachers in the world today and so we need to on the alert and check out what is taught to make sure we hold to the truth.  As we begin today, let’s go to God in prayer:

Great God in heaven, we want to humble ourselves to You today.  We thank You for You word that give all the knowledge and direction we need to be pleasing to You.  Lord as we use You word to plant the pure seed in our lives and to water that truth, we pray that we will bring forth a harvest for You.  We also pray for moisture to come and water this world so it can bring forth growth.  We thank You for sending Jesus and it is by His authority we come to You now, AMEN!!

     Today were are going to continue our study of the history of the church of Christ.  We are following what is commonly called Paul’s second missionary journey.  This part of the history is recorded for us in Acts 16.  We are going to pick up and read from verses 6-10.  Got your Bible opened?  Acts 16: 6-10 reads this way in the NASB.  “And they passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and when they had come to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.  And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
     One of the first things we should note in this reading, is the change in pronouns
.  Note beginning in verse 6,”they passed,” verse 7 “when they had come,” again in verse 7 “they were trying,” and also in verse 7 “did not permit them,” and “they came down” verse 8.  But note in verse 10, “we sought” and “had called us. Here is why this is significant.  They and them are third person pronouns and are used when a third party is being spoken about in a sentence.  Luke is the writer, he is first person, the readers that Luke initially wrote to would be second person.  Paul and those with him are who he is writing about, that would be third person.  
     An example would be, if Luke and others with him did something, he would say, “we did such and such.”  If Luke, the writer was trying to tell the readers to do something, he would say, “You need to do so and so
.”  And last if Luke was trying to say that someone besides himself or the readers were doing something, third person would be, “They did this and that.”  So in verses 6, 7, and 8, Luke is talking about Paul and those who are with him, they were traveling here and there.  But in verse 10, where he talks about “we,” it indicates that Luke is with Paul.  
     So Luke did not do all this traveling with Paul, but they did meet up in Troas
.  Luke has used “we” numerous times here in the book of Acts, but it has always been when he was recording what someone else did and talked about it.  This is the first time in Acts when Luke is writing about something that he was there doing.  From now on in Acts when Luke writes something and he was there, he is going to say we, we did this, we did that.  When he is not with the ones doing the action he will write they.  Since the rest of the book of Acts follows Paul’s travels, we can tell whether Luke was with Paul or not.

     Let’s consider the travels that Paul makes here with some of his companions, Silas is one of these companions
.  If you have a map in the back of your Bible it might help to look at it.  It may be labeled Paul’s Second Missionary Journey.  It should show at least what is modern day Turkey.  This area is bordered on the North by the Black Sea, on the South by the Mediterranean Sea, to the West by the Aegean Sea and to the East it opens up into the main part of Asia.  Now remember those are our modern designations and may vary some from what they were called in New Testament times.
     Acts 16:6 says that they traveled through the “
Phrygian and Galatian region. If you look at your map Galatia is right about in the center of this land mass.  Galatia is an area, sort of like we think of a state.  The letter that Paul wrote to the Galatians, is written to the congregations of the church of Christ in this area.  The other area is Phrygia which is also in the center of the land just to the west of Galatia.  To the West of Phrygia, on the coast of the Aegean Sea is the area of Asia.  Don’t confuse this with the large land mass we call Asia today.  For some reason the Holy Spirit forbid Paul’s group from speaking the word in Asia.  I wish I could tell you why, but the reason is not given.  The gospel does spread into this area though.  We know this because in the first part of John’s book of Revelation, he is directed to write to the seven churches of Asia, these are seven congregations of the church of Christ in this area of Asia.
     Let’s go back to Phrygia again, now if we travel to the north of Phrygia we would enter Bithynia which borders onto the Black Sea
.  This area is mentioned there in Acts 16:7, but note in that verse that the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them to go to Bithynia.  Again we are not given any details as to why they were not allowed to enter this area.  To the West of Bithynia, North of Asia, and Northwest of Phrygia lies the area of Mysia.  Acts 16:8 says that they pass by, or another meaning of that word is to pass through Mysia.  They do end up in Mysia because they come to the city of Troas.  Troas is a port city on the Aegean Sea.  It is the area called Mysia and the whole area of Turkey is called Asia Minor.  This is just a few short miles from Europe.
     Let’s go ahead and read Acts 16:9-10 again, “
And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
     This is sometimes called the Macedonian call
.  During the time when the Lord’s church was just in it’s infancy, that is while God was still using miraculous powers to guide His church, God would use visions and dreams to guide His people.  As I mentioned earlier, with Asia and Bithynia, I’m not sure why God didn’t want them to preaching those areas.  And I’m not sure how He conveyed that message.  Here we see Him using a vision in the night.
     This is a call to go to Macedonia
.  Again looking at your map, we see the Aegean Sea that comes up between Turkey and Greece.  At the North end of the Aegean Sea is the area of Macedonia.  One of the main cities in Macedonia is Philippi and this is where Paul is going to head.  This is going to be an important milestone in the history of the church of Christ.  As far as the inspired record is concerned this is going to be the first time that the Gospel has been preached in Europe.
     Let’s look at some more of the text here in Acts 16
.  Acts 16:11-13, “Therefore putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days.  And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled.
     Having determined that God was calling them to go to Macedonia they board a ship that is headed there and the first go to Samothrace
.  If you look at your map you will see that Samothrace is a small island about half way from Troas to Neapolis.  They apparently spend the night there as indicated by the phrase, “on the day following.
     “
On the day following” they come to Neapolis.  Neapolis is the port city for Philippi, which lies on the land trade route.  The name Nea Polis means “New City.”  So after getting off of the ship they make their way to Philippi.  Philippi is described in two ways.  
     First it is “a leading city” in Macedonia
.  In part this is because of its association with the port city of Neapolis and being on the land trade route.  The merger of these two forms of trade brought a lot of wealth into the city.
     The other description is that it was a colony, meaning that it was a Roman colony
.  A colony referred to “a city or town with special privileges in that the inhabitants of such a town were regarded as Roman citizens”, such towns were originally colonized by citizens of Rome, in this case Octavius.  These privileges gave an individual a lot of legal protection.  We will see some of that later on here in Acts 16, so we will discuss that when we get there.  But let’s jump ahead a little bit to Acts 22, reading from verses 25-29 it says, “And when they stretched him out with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?”  And when the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, saying, “What are you about to do?  For this man is a Roman.”  And the commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?”  And he said, “Yes.”  And the commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money.”  And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.”  Therefore those who were about to examine him immediately let go of him; and the commander also was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had put him in chains.
     Note these things concerning Roman citizenship
.  A citizen could not be punished without a trial.  Citizenship could be bought, but it was expense.  One could also be born a citizen, this was the case when you were born in a Roman colony.  It was also a problem to put a Roman citizen in chains, again without the proper legal proceedings.

     Our time is up for today, but Lord willing we will continue to look at the history of the Lord’s church as it spreads into Europe
.  The church of Christ is on the move as the Gospel is preached and open and sincere hearts accept the truth.

     This Berean Break is brought to you, in love, by the pre-denominational and non-denominational church of Christ that meets at 1600 East First Ave. in Mitchell SD
.  You are welcome to meet with us at 10:00 Sunday Mornings for our assembly followed by a time of Bible Study, also on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 for an additional time to study God's Word.  If you have a comment or a sincere Bible question, please phone us at 605-770-5555.  We want to remind you of the non-denominational TV program, “KNOW YOUR BIBLE” on KDLT-TV at 9:00 on Sunday mornings.  This is George A. Sinkie for the Lord's church, here in Mitchell, good-bye for now.  Remember that we care about you and may God bless you as you do His will.

[printable PDF of Acts 16:6-12][audio MP3 of Acts 16:6-12]



      © George Sinkie; used by permission. rev.150504
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