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Acts 16:10-15  PAULS ARRIVAL IN MACEDONIA

Introduction:  

	In our previous text the Apostle Paul had received a vision from the Lord 
in which a man from Macedonia had pled with him to come over to Macedonia and to 
help the people of Macedonia.  In our text today Paul, along with all of the 
mission team who were with him, arrive in Macedonia and have their first 
convert.  

I.  The mission team’s certainty of the Lord’s call

 	V. 10, “And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go 
into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach 
the gospel unto them.”  Let us first note the word “he,” speaking of the Apostle 
Paul.  “He had seen the vision.”  Luke calls attention to the fact that it was 
the Apostle Paul who had seen the vision.  It was only Paul who had seen the 
vision.  None of the others on the mission team saw the vision.  
	Yet after Paul told the others on the team what he had seen and what he 
heard in the vision, all of the members of the team were convinced that God was 
calling all of them to go to Macedonia and preach the gospel there.  The fact 
that the vision was given only to the Apostle Paul would serve as a reminder to 
all the group that God had made the Apostle Paul as the leader of the team and 
all of them were to honor his God given place of leadership and follow his 
leadership.  
	Looking back to the difference of opinion between Paul and Barnabas about 
whether or not to carry John Mark with them on this second missionary trip, this 
indicates that Barnabas should have respected Paul as the God called leader of 
the team and should have gone along with his judgment even though he differed 
with him on the matter.  
	But the members of this team were all in agreement that the vision given 
to Paul, their leader, was intended to show that it was God’s will for all of 
them to go to Macedonia.  
	Note also the pronoun “we.”  Back in verse 4 Luke had used the pronoun 
“they” when referring to the members of the team indicating that he was not 
present at that time.  Likewise in verses 6 and 7 Luke spoke of the team using 
the word “they.”   He was  not with them at that time.  He had not been with 
them from the time they left Derbe and Lystra and journeyed to Troas. But now at 
Troas Luke says “we,” including himself in the group.  So Luke has now joined or 
rejoined the mission team.  This makes  four on the mission team that we know 
of.  There was Paul,  Silas, Timothy and now Luke.  There may have been others, 
but if so we know nothing about it.  
	Luke would, of course,  be a valuable asset to the team.  For one thing --
- he was a physician.  His skills as a physician would not be needed to cure the 
Macedonian people.  The Apostle Paul had the gift of miraculous healing which he 
could use in healing sick Macedonians.  But the gift of miraculous healing was 
not used to make their own group well.  It was used only as a witness to the 
unsaved that these men were men of God and spoke the truth of God.  Miraculous 
healing was never used solely for the purpose of getting sick people well.  It 
was always used to give testimony to the truth of the gospel message which the 
man of God delivered.    Yet it would  be helpful to have a team member who 
could doctor the others on the team when they were sick.  
	Luke was also a good writer.  The Lord used Luke as a historian to record 
the events of their journey and pass that information down to us.  We are 
indebted to Luke for  writing this Book of Acts which we are now studying.  

II.  Their haste to do the will of the Lord

	(V. 10), “...immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia...”  Being 
convinced that it was the will of God for them to go to Macedonia, they 
immediately set about trying to go there.  This would mean catching a ship and 
we do not know how long they had to wait to catch one, but we can be assured of 
one thing.  The very next day after Paul had the vision, they went down to the 
ship docks and sought to find passage to Macedonia.  They would catch the first 
ship out.  Last Sunday I called to your attention how let down the Apostle Paul 
must have been when they were being hindered on every turn from going to the 
places to which they wanted to go.  They must have all been very much 
discouraged.  But now that they had found out where the Lord did want them to 
go, they were very excited and eager to go.  So they wasted no time trying to 
catch a boat to Macedonia.  

III.  The blessings of the Lord in find passage 

	As I mentioned earlier, we do not know how long they had to wait to find a 
ship going to Macedonia.  I like to think that Paul had the vision one night and 
they caught the boat the next day.  I admit that it might not have been that 
quick, but I think the Lord provided them with transportation pretty quick.  
	One thing we do know:  The Lord really blessed them in find the right ship 
to catch.  V. 11, “Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course 
to Samothracia, and the next [day] to Neapolis.”  They left Laos one day and two 
days later they were in Macedonia.  When they left Laos instead of following the 
coastline the ship which they caught headed straight out to sea toward 
Macedonia.  They did make one overnight stop at the Island of Samothracia.  But 
the next morning they were on their way again toward Macedonia and before the 
end of the day they were in the port of Neapolis in Macedonia.   
	So they made the boat trip in just two days.  If they had caught a boat 
that followed the coast and had stopped at every port to load and unload cargo, 
there is no telling how many weeks it would have taken them to get to Macedonia.  

IV.  The mission team at Philippi

	V. 12, “And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part 
of Macedonia, [and] a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.”  
Paul and the mission team arrived in Macedonia at the seaport city of Neapolis, 
but they did not stay there to do mission work.  Instead they moved on to the 
city of Philippi, which was the chief city of that part of Macedonia.  Some 
seaport cities grew to be large cities, but apparently Neapolis was not very 
large.  Paul and his mission crew moved on to the much larger city of Philippi.  
	Philippi was located right near some gold mines which apparently helped to 
account for their growth.  In addition to the gold mines, it was located right 
in the middle of a large very productive agricultural area.  This, too, helped 
to account for their growth and prosperity of the city.  In addition to this, 
the Roman governmental office for a large Roman colony in that part of Macedonia 
was located there.  This would also mean that a sizable Roman military unit was 
located there.  Still one more thing had helped to account for the growth and 
prosperity of the city of Philippi, it was located on the only overland trade 
route between the continents of Europe and  Asia. 
	 If Paul and his mission team had stopped do mission work at Neapolis and 
had started a church there it would have been a long time before that small 
church would be able to spread the gospel to other cities of Macedonia.  But if 
they started a church in the larger city of Philippi that church would have a 
much better opportunity for growth   and they would  be able to more quickly 
reach out in all directions to spread the gospel in Macedonia.  

V.  A starting point

	Attending a prayer meeting service held by Jewish women out by a riverside 
was the starting point for their mission work at Philippi.  In other cities 
where Paul had done  mission work he had started by attending the Jewish 
synagogue in that city where, as a Jewish brother, he would be given opportunity 
to speak and bring news from the homeland.  He, of course, had always taken 
advantage of that opportunity to tell the people of the Jewish synagogue about 
Jesus and declare to them that Jesus is the Christ whom the prophets of old had 
foretold.  He knew that they had already heard about Jesus and about the 
crucifixion of Jesus, but Paul would tell them about the resurrection of Jesus 
from the dead and that the resurrection of Jesus had been very well 
substantiated by a great host of witnesses.  Paul himself was one of those 
witnesses.  While Paul was on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus for the 
purpose of arresting disciples of Jesus, he had seen Jesus sitting on the throne 
in heaven.  Jesus had identified Himself to Paul.  
	Paul probably would have started this mission work in Philippi by 
attending a worship service at a Jewish synagogue, but it appears that there was 
no Jewish synagogue there.  This is unusual because there were certainly a 
number of Jewish families located there.  Wherever there was a lot of prosperity 
there were always a lot of Jews and where there were a lot of Jews there was 
usually a synagogue.  Philippi was a large and prosperous city but there was no 
synagogue there.  It seems that these particular Jewish men were interested only 
in wealth and not in worship.  .  
	Never-the-less, the Lord provided Paul and his mission team a very good 
opportunity to preach the gospel.  The Jewish men were not interested in 
worship, but the Jewish women were.  They were so interested in worshipping God 
that they met out by the river in a prayer meeting service every sabbath day.  
They would gather on the river bank and sing hymns, read scripture and pray.  
They would do this every sabbath day. V. 13, “And on the sabbath we went out of 
the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and 
spake unto the women which resorted [thither].”  
	The women, who worshipped every sabbath out by the riverside, did not 
usually have men to join them in their worship services, and they were tickled 
to have Jewish men to come out and join them.  They, of course, gave their men 
visitors an opportunity to speak and bring news from back home.  We can be sure 
that the Apostle Paul brought them good news.  He brought them news about Jesus, 
the great miracle worker being crucified.  He brought them the good news that 
God raised Jesus from the dead.  He used Old Testament Scripture to show that 
Jesus is the Savior whom the prophets of old had foretold.  He declared to them 
the good news that any person who would believe in Jesus would be forgiven of 
all his sin.  This would mean that this person would go to heaven when he dies.  

 VI.  Their first converts

	V. 14, “And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city 
of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard [us]: whose heart the Lord opened, that 
she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.”  One of the women in 
the prayer meeting service was a very prominent business woman.  She was a 
seller of purple.  Purple was a dye obtained from shell-fish back in Thyatira 
where she came from.   As a merchant she would sell the dye itself or she would 
sell merchandise which had already been dyed.
	Luke tells us that as the Apostle Paul spoke to this woman about Jesus the 
Christ that the Lord began to work on her heart.  I am sure that the Lord did 
this through the Holy Spirit.  The Apostle Paul presented the truth God about 
Jesus.  He presented the word of God and God sent the Holy Spirit to the heart 
of this woman to impress upon her heart that what Paul was saying is the truth.  
He was telling the truth that Jesus is the Christ whom the prophets of old had 
foretold.  He is the Savior of lost sinners.  She became convicted that she was 
a sinner and that she needed to be saved.  Accepted what Paul said as the truth 
and she accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior.  She stopped trying to save herself 
by her good works and she trusted Jesus Christ to save her soul.  Lydia was 
their first convert.  
	But there were other converts  right soon.  The conversion of Lydia would 
lead to others.  V. 15, “And when she was baptized, and her household...”  Lydia 
was saved in the prayer meeting service and she invited those preachers to her 
home to present the gospel to the members of her household.  As a result all of 
her household were saved.  Her entire household including her servants got saved 
and they were all baptized. 
	(V. 15), “...she besought [us], saying, If ye have judged me to be 
faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide [there]. And she constrained 
us.”  Lydia, being a successful business woman, apparently had a large house.  
She invited the entire mission team to stay in her home.  She would provide for 
them a place to stay and food to eat.  This was a real blessing from the Lord to 
that mission team.  

VII.  Letting the word of God speak to our hearts

	As the Apostle Paul presented the word of God to the women who were in 
that prayer meeting service, the word of God spoke to her heart.  As we hear the 
word of God today we need to let the word of God speak to our hearts.  Even as 
we worship God in this service today I appeal to each of you to let the word of 
God speak to your heart.    
	First, let your heart listen to the word of God concerning the importance 
of regular worship of God.  Those women going went to great effort to worship 
the Lord.  They did not have a building in which to meet.  They did not have 
seats of any kind on which to sit.  They sat on the ground.  In the summer they 
bored the heat and in the winter they braved the cold.  How much better 
opportunities we have to worship the Lord in our time.  We have a good church 
house in which to meet.  We have heat in the winter.  We have air conditioning 
in the summer.  We have pews on which to sit.  They are cushioned pews at that.  
This ought to challenge us to be faithful to attend the house of God to worship 
our God.  
	Next, let your heart listen to the word of God and believe the gospel 
message.  I think it is safe to say that the women in that prayer meeting 
service had never heard the true gospel message before.  Yet upon hearing the 
gospel for the first time in her whole life turned to the Lord and trusted Him 
to save her soul.  Today it is not uncommon for unsaved people to sit under the 
preaching of the gospel time after time without them ever trusting their eternal 
destiny into the hands of Jesus Christ the Son of God.  Some listen to the 
gospel for many years and never trust the Lord to save them. They hear the 
gospel for a lifetime and yet never in their lifetime ever turn to the Lord and 
trust Him to save them.  If you are unsaved and you have never yet trusted Jesus 
to be your Savior, then you need to take a lesson from Lydia.  Do not put off 
trusting in Jesus another day.  Call on Jesus and ask Him today to trust your 
soul.  
	If you have been saved and you have members of your household who have 
never been saved, then you should let the word of God speak to your heart and 
convince you to witness to them about being saved.  You can give them your own 
personal testimony about how Jesus saved your soul.  If you need someone to come 
to your home and speak to your loved one like Lydia did, then let the word of 
God speak to your heart and call upon someone to come and help you talk to your 
loved one.  There are a number of people who will be anxious to come.  Your 
pastor will be happy to come.  Your Sunday school teacher will be happy to come.  
There are others in our church who will be happy to come.  
	If you have been saved, but you have never been baptized let the word of 
God speak to your heart about your need for baptism.  It is most certainly true 
that a lost person does not get saved by getting baptized.  Getting baptized 
will not even help to save a lost person.  But once one is saved, the Lord wants 
him to be baptized.  Lydia and the members of her household set a worthy example 
for us to follow.  

Conclusion:

	Listen, if the word of God has told you that you need to do something and 
your own heart has told you the same thing, then it is time for you to stop 
putting it off until some other time.  It is time for you to do it.