When Jennifer and I got married, we spoke about having kids. After a couple of years spent being young and childless, we decided to start having kids. We wanted many kids. Then, we couldn’t have any children. We tried, and tried, and tried. We spoke to doctors. We tried several unsuccessful adoptions. We served as foster parents. However, we didn’t have any children to have as our own. Then, one day after Jennifer went to see a doctor for some other matters, we found out she was pregnant with miracle baby #1, Jeremiah Kirkland McCraw. God would later bless us with two other boys.
We had this great plan to start having kids exactly two years after we got married and then be done having kids before we were too far into our thirties. Instead, we didn’t have our first child until our late twenties, and we were still having them into our late thirties.
You see, people have plans, but God often has other plans.
Today’s sermon is entitled “The Plans of God and the Plans of People.”
In today’s passage, we’re going to see some of the travel plans of Paul the missionary, and we’ll see how some of God’s plans were a little different.
Before we go any further, let’s go to God in prayer and ask Him to speak to us.
(prayer)
As we journey through this passage today, we’ll identify three realities of the plans of God and the plans of people.
First, . . .
I. Sometimes we have good plans.
Paul put together some good plans to visit some churches on his missionary journey.
You may recall that God multiplied the missionary work of Paul and Barnabas by working through a division the two of them had, and God produced two different mission trips that involved even more missionaries than before.
Now, Paul is making some more mission trip plans.
Let’s look at these first few verses of Acts 16. Look at verses 1-4:
1 Paul went on to Derbe and Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman, but his father was a Greek. 2 The brothers and sisters at Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to go with him; so he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, since they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they traveled through the towns, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem for the people to observe. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
So, we see Paul’s plans for his journey.
At the end of chapter 15, we learned that Paul and Silas went to Syria and Cilicia.
Then, here at the beginning of chapter 16, they go to Derbe and Lystra. Those are good plans. Keep preaching the gospel; keep strengthening churches; keep encouraging the disciples.
So, here’s a map. They were in Antioch; then they traveled all the way to Cilicia in last week’s passage; now they make it to Lystra.
We also learn that Paul meets a disciple named Timothy.
Timothy was a well-respected half-Jewish disciple.
By the way, Timothy would go on to be a great missionary in his own right, as well as a famous young pastor in the Church of Ephesus.
He is so famous because Paul would later write two biblical books that were letters addressed to Timothy. These letters are called 1 and2 Timothy.
I’ve preached on these books if you’d like to check out the sermons on our website.
We learn in verse 3 that Paul wanted Timothy to go with him on their journey, but there was something that Paul wanted done in order for Timothy to travel with them. Paul wanted Timothy to be circumcised.
Now, you might wonder why Paul would want to do this.
Well, verse 3 tells us. It says, “ . . . because of the Jews who were in those places, since they all knew that his father was a Greek.”
However, if you paid attention in Acts 15, you might say, “Wait a minute! Didn’t they settle the issue of requiring Jewish laws for Christians in Acts 15?”
Well, yes and no. What Paul was fighting for in Acts 15 was for Gentile people not to have to become Jewish in order to obey God.
What Paul is doing in Acts 16 with Timothy is taking a step to ensure that their missionary team does not cause any offense as they seek to preach the gospel in Jewish synagogues.
We do this today as well. Ministers of the gospel, missionaries, and wise Christians will take steps at times to not cause offense.
For example, drinking alcohol is not a sin. However, I don’t drink alcohol because that might be frowned upon for a Baptist preacher to drink alcohol in a city like Bartow.
So also, tattoos are not sinful. However, if stood in the pulpit with a tattoo on my face that said “I love Jennifer,” some people might think differently about me.
Again, wearing shorts and flip-flops in the office is not unbiblical at all. However, in our context, some might think that I didn’t care about my calling as a pastor if I did that.
To be clear, none of those things are sinful. However, in order to not cause offense, I try to be wise with my decisions on such matters.
You see, since Timothy had a Jewish mother, he would have been considered a Jewish man.
Yet, he wasn’t circumcised, which wasn’t a good thing for a Jewish man.
It would have caused unnecessary offense as they sought to minister in the Jewish synagogues.
So, it was a good plan for Paul to have Timothy circumcised. Timothy may not have thought it was a good idea at the time, but it was.
Paul had a good plan for Timothy, and he had a good plan for their travels.
Sometimes people have good plans.
However, . . .
II. Sometimes God redirects our plans.
Listen to what happens in this chapter and how Luke (the author of Acts) writes about it.
Look at verses 6-8:
6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia; they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 Passing by Mysia they went down to Troas.
We see here two times that the Holy Spirit stopped the plans of Paul and the other missionaries.
In verse 6, Luke says, “ . . . they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit . . . ”
Then, in verse 7, Luke says, “ . . . the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. ”
By the way, there should be no confusion or concern with the different ways of speaking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of God, the Spirit, they’re all names for God the Spirit.
However, we see God redirecting the plans of the missionaries.
You know, we really don’t know why God redirected their plans and we don’t know how Luke knew that God redirected their plans. However, God did, indeed, redirect their plans.
Let me just say something quite plainly: God’s plans are better than our plans. Amen?
If God wants to redirect our plans, we should welcome that.
Even when we don’t know why, even when we don’t know how, even when it hurts, even when it’s confusing, even when it seems strange, we should welcome a change of plans by God.
So, we see that Paul, Silas, and Timothy were not permitted by God to go to Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), instead they ended up in Troas.
Ok, here’s our other map that we were looking at earlier.
Here is Troas. Quite the journey, as you can see.
God changed their plans and took them on a great journey to reach Troas. It was not what they had in mind, but it was what God had in mind.
Listen, brothers and sisters.
God may have different plans for your life than you have for your life.
God may have different plans for your ministry than you have for your ministry.
God may have different plans for our church than we have for our church.
That’s ok. Not only is it ok, we should welcome it.
Sometimes God redirects our plans.
Finally, . . .
III. Sometimes God gives us clear plans.
Have you ever felt like God made something very clear to you? I remember a few times in my life that happened.
One time that happened is when God called me to be senior pastor at this church. Jennifer and I both knew from fairly early in the process that God was going to lead me here. It’s hard to explain how we knew. There was just a peace and clarity about it. It wasn’t because I was some special pastor. I had never even been a senior pastor. I tell folks, our church was really desperate, so they even allowed me to take a shot at being a senior pastor. It wasn’t me; it was God. Part of God working through that process was making it very clear to me and Jennifer that He was leading us to Bartow.
Sometimes God makes His plans very clear.
Look at what happened in this passage. Look at verses 9 and 10.
9 During the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Notice two things from these two verses:
First, notice that Paul had a vision.
Now, we must be careful here to realize that not all visions are from God. Sometimes, you may have a vision because you ate a bad burrito. Or, perhaps you had a vision after taking the pain medicine from your oral surgery.
However, some visions are from God. In fact, God has worked through visions through all of human existence.
So, when we consider a vision, we should consider if it’s from God. We should ask ourselves questions such as the following:
Does it fit God’s will?
Does it conflict with Scripture? If so, it’s probably not from God.
What do other godly people think about the vision?
How did the vision come to me?
We should think through these questions and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal His ways to us.
Second, notice that Luke says that they concluded that God has called them to preach the gospel in Macedonia.
Apparently, upon considering the vision, they believed that it was, in fact, from God.
God was making it very clear to them what He wanted them to do next: He wanted them to go preach the gospel in Macedonia.
We’ll learn next time, that’s exactly what they did.
The Lord made His will very clear to Paul and the missionaries, and they obeyed.
Also, here’s a little fun fact about Acts: Notice in verse 10 that Luke says, “we.”
This is the first time that Luke includes himself in the journeys, indicating that he is likely now traveling with Paul, Timothy, Silas, and others.
That’s just an interesting little fact in this story.
We learn in Acts 16 that sometimes we have good plans, sometimes God redirects our plans, and sometimes God gives us clear plans.
No matter how it comes upon us, we must always be willing to follow God’s plans.
That takes us to our bottom line:
Bottom Line: God’s people must follow God’s plan.
There’s nothing wrong with having a plan, right?
I have lots of plans. People who know me know that I’m a planner. I have a plan to make plans.
Plans are not a bad thing, but our plans must never get in the way of our obedience to God’s plans!
God’s people must follow God’s plans.
We must follow the plans that God has already revealed to us. We must love. We must share the gospel. We must be holy.
We must also be open to following the plans that God has not yet revealed to us. We must pray. We must listen. We must be open to a change of plans.
God’s people must follow God’s plan.
Challenge yourself this week in this one way:
Weekly Challenge #1 – Ask God to reveal His plans to you.
The first step to following God’s plan is to know what His plans are.
Ask God to reveal His plans to you for your life.
Ask God to reveal His plans to you for our church.
(Gospel presentation – you may have plans for your life, but God has something better; you may have no plans for your life; well, God has something for you)
(closing prayer)
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