God’s Guidance
How do you know which way to go? Do you ever get lost? I’m what I refer to as directionally challenged. I can and have gotten lost while following a GPS, which takes a lot of skill. Ok, not just while driving, but in life, which way do you go? That’s a hard question. Here’s two short answers. 1) You follow God in whatever situation you find yourself in. 2) You follow God wherever He leads. We’re going to see some different situations in today’s text, but we’re also going to see that God guides through it all. And you can be encouraged that God is guiding you, even now.
God is sovereign even amidst disagreement. (36-41)
Our passage begins with a disagreement between Paul and Barnabas over whether to take John Mark along on their missionary journey. Barnabas wanted to give Mark another chance, even though he deserted them earlier. But Paul didn’t want to give him another chance. Their disagreement was so big they ended up splitting ways. We’re going to see, though, that God was still in control through it all. But first, we need to note this:
Disagreement in ministry is to be expected.[1]
If two of the greatest, most godly people in our Bible had such a heated disagreement that they split ways, who are we to expect that we won’t face disagreement in ministry?[2] Sadly, we’ve seen that even this week in our church. We mourn the transition of Damon as our worship leader. He has served and loved this congregation well for a long time. Moving forward in transitions like this is difficult. There’s confusion and hurt and uncertainty. It happened with Paul and Barnabas. It’s happened in every church. And it will sadly, happen again. We are people in need of grace working alongside people in need of grace.
Barnabas is my favorite person in the New Testament (apart from Jesus). The book of Acts doesn’t mention him again after he took Mark and set sail for Cyprus.
God guides even amidst disagreement.
Despite the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas, we see God’s sovereignty guiding the course of events. Paul and Barnabas may part ways, but the mission of spreading the gospel continues, showing us that God’s plans aren’t stopped by human disagreements. I read this just this week, and it has greatly encouraged my heart.
“We will all encounter relational challenges while doing God’s work, so let’s walk humbly and graciously before God and one another.
We should also be encouraged that God sovereignly worked through the conflict to achieve his purposes. The result of the split is that instead of one mission journey there are two. This doesn’t imply that all Christian arguments are justified! This text doesn’t give us a warrant to complain, murmur, and quarrel with other brothers and sisters—these are sinful behaviors (1 Cor 10:10; Phil 2:14). But it tells us God can work through all sorts of means to advance his gospel; he can even bring about growth through separations. This split surely wounded both men, for through it Barnabas lost the companionship of the most powerful missionary of all time, and Paul may have lost the friendship of a man to whom he was greatly indebted. Yet through pain and the conflict, the gospel marches on.”[3]
God is in control even amidst our disagreements. Though Barnabas isn’t mentioned again in Acts, his ministry continued on, as did Paul’s. Paul would later, at the close of his final letter, instruct Timothy, “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.”[4] Paul and Barnabas never stopped working, and God never stopped working.
Also, as Paul and Barnabas departed each other, Paul now had Timothy with him as his companion, and Timothy could reach people in a different way than Barnabas could. He was a young disciple whose mother was Jewish and whose father was Greek. He could appeal to both the Jews and the Gentiles in ways that Barnabas couldn’t.
We should seek to remove barriers to the gospel. (1-5)
This decision to circumcise Timothy seems at odds with what we saw last week from the Jerusalem council. If you remember, we saw that Jesus + nothing = everything. You cannot add works of the law to salvation. Salvation is in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone. Specifically, what the Jerusalem council gathered about was whether circumcision was necessary for salvation. And Paul was one who got up and vehemently argued NO. Now, he is having a colleague circumcised.
Paul’s decision to circumcise Timothy highlights his commitment to removing unnecessary stumbling blocks to the gospel. In their cultural context, circumcision was a point of contention between Jewish and Gentile believers. Paul, being a Jewish Pharisee himself, knew the barriers that would be present to the Jews hearing the gospel, and he sought to remove anything that would get in their way.
We must prioritize the gospel above all else.
Paul’s actions underscore the primacy of the gospel message. He is willing to set aside personal preferences and cultural norms to ensure that nothing hinders the spread of the gospel. In doing so, he sets an example for us, reminding us that our allegiance to the gospel should outweigh anything else.
Timothy’s mother was Jewish, which meant he was considered Jewish by heritage, but his father was Greek. When he would encounter Jews and seek to share the gospel with them, and they found out he wasn’t circumcised, they would immediately write him off and not hear what he had to say.
Think about that for us. We are not saved by works, but there are works that should accompany our salvation. And a large one is proclamation of the gospel. And our life’s pursuits should be centered around that purpose.
Finally, we see one more act of God’s guidance, one that I have leaned on many times.
Follow God always and wherever He leads. (6-10)
I told you that I am directionally challenged. I have gotten lost with a GPS before. BUT, there is a GPS app I love and that has served me well. It’s the Waze app. It’s crazy though, because it takes you many different ways. You’ll go through small back roads, down people’s driveways, through houses (just kidding). Really though, it takes you strange routes 1) because it seeks to bring you the quickest routes, and 2) because it knows what’s up ahead. This is the same way God leads us. We may not understand why we are on a road that we are on, but we should trust the one who is guiding us.
This vision serves as a pivotal moment in Paul’s ministry, prompting him to redirect his efforts toward Europe and illuminating the importance of following God’s leading without hesitation.
We should be sensitive to all the ways God leads us.
We don’t know who the man was that Paul had a vision of, and we don’t know how it all played out, but Paul was receptive to God’s promptings in both the big and the small ways.
Paul’s responsiveness to the vision of the Macedonian man reveals his acute sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t hesitate or question the validity of the vision but instead responds with immediate obedience. He models for us how we are to follow God’s guidance.
We see the Trinity at play in the guidance of Paul to Macedonia. He’s forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak in Asia (6), by the Spirit of Jesus to go to Bithynia (7), and concluded that God had called them to preach to Macedonia (10). God guides us. He guides us by His Spirit, through His Word, through godly council, through life situations, and more. He guides through open and closed doors.
Walk through open doors and keep walking when doors close.
This is how I seek to follow God’s will. If He provides an opportunity, pursue it until He closes the door. When a door closed, Paul kept walking. He didn’t necessarily know where he was going, but he trusted God and knew he had been entrusted with the gospel, so he kept going. He was already halfway to Macedonia when he got the call.
When you follow a GPS and something happens up ahead, say a wreck…what does the GPS do? “Rerouting…” When it rerouts, should you keep following the old route? No. You have difficulty reaching your destination. You should follow where it leads.
Paul kept walking when doors were closed. By the time he got the clear vision to go to Macedonia, he was already halfway there.
You can walk through any door because you know God goes before you.
I love Deuteronomy 31:8. It is the first time one of my the greatest promises in the Bible is promised… “He will not leave you nor forsake you.” I want you to dwell on the rest of the verse.
Deuteronomy 31:7-8 – 7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. 8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
Take this to heart in your life. Even through difficulty and disagreement, God goes before you. And you can follow wherever He leads.
[1] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/on-disagreements-in-ministry/
[2] https://chucklawless.com/2021/02/10-quotes-on-church-conflict/
[3] Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Acts, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville: B&H, 2017), 219.
