GOSPEL MEDITATION # 48
The Book of Acts # 48 Acts 16:1-10
Timothy Joins Paul and Silas & The Macedonian Call
- Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
- Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
- Timothy, his mother Eunice is Jewish; his father Greek. (Origen says they lived in Derbe.) He had not been circumcised. Paul reasons he needed to be however in light of the future ministry. (see Galatians 6:15) In that part of the world, there was a large Jewish presence.
- The trio of Paul, Silas, and Timothy visit the churches from the first missionary journey some years earlier.
- It was important to relay to the new churches the “decrees” made by the apostles and elders of the Jerusalem Church.
- Consult a map of Paul’s missionary tours at this point. There are points that are unclear, but most commentators think the trio headed northwest but the Holy Spirit, for reasons not known, did not want them to evangelize in that western part of Asia. At Mysia, they intended to advance northeast but Jesus did not allow that.
- The three then went off to Troas, where Luke probably joined them, and in the night Paul had a vision, in the Greek an arama, whereby Paul saw a man of Macedonia, the northern part of Greece, calling them to them for help.
- It was then concluded that God wanted them to preach the Gospel there.