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[Announcer] (0:00 - 0:17) Think about the Bible like you never have before. You're listening to Christian Questions. Experience more episodes, videos, and Bible study resources at ChristianQuestions.com. Our topic is: "Why Didn't Paul Preach in Asia?" Here's Rick and Julie.

[Rick] (0:19 - 0:26) Welcome everyone, I'm Rick. I'm joined by Julie, a long-time contributor. Julie, what's our theme scripture for this episode?

[Julie] (0:26 - 0:35) Acts 16:6: "They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the holy spirit to speak the word in Asia."

[Rick] (0:35 - 1:21) When we read the Bible, it sometimes appears to say things that just don't make sense. Think about the scripture that plainly says that God did not want Paul to preach the gospel in Asia. Why would that be?

Jesus told his disciples to preach the word throughout the world. Didn't Asia count? This apparent discrepancy can stimulate all kinds of questions and even provoke doubt as to the equity of God's character.

The good news is, the answer to all of this is not only sensible, it is profound and inspiring as well. When we understand the lay of the land--the literal geography of the area--and the big picture of the mission that the disciples were given, a whole new conclusion emerges.

[Julie] (1:22 - 1:48) When I think of Asia, I think of the world's largest and most populated continent with the countries of Japan, China, India, parts of Russia, and others. Today, only 1% of those living in Japan are Christian, only 2% in China, and so on. Does this trace back to Paul being forbidden to speak the gospel message here so long ago? The simple answer is no, but there's wonderful lessons worth looking into more closely.

[Rick] (1:48 - 2:20) Here is the context. We want to look at why does God say don't go there, essentially. Here's the context of the first refocusing of direction that the Apostle Paul and company were given. Now, he was in Antioch, which was in Syria, and he was revisiting several churches as he traveled northwest. That's where we're picking up at the beginning of Acts 16. We're going to get to this point where God says don't go there, don't preach there, and we're going to figure out, well, why? Julie, let's look at Acts 16:1-4:

[Julie] (2:21 - 3:10) "Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer... he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted this man to go with him... Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to observe." It helps to be looking at a map of Paul's second missionary journey to see where these locations are. We're going to include that in the CQ Rewind Show Notes for this Episode. Paul's in Derbe, then he's in Lystra. These are cities in the Roman province of Galatia in Asia Minor. Now, Asia Minor is our modern day Turkey in Western Asia. It's a tiny part on the continent of Asia in what we call the Middle East.

[Rick] (3:10 - 4:15) There's a lot to figure out in terms of where, what is and why. Here's the thing that's most important. Paul is going to be--we're going to be looking forward-- he's going to be going on a massive, massive missionary journey and he's bringing Timothy along. This is where he meets Timothy.

It says in the scripture, he "wanted this man to go with him." You can see there are things coming together for something much bigger. Of course, we know that Timothy became a very integral part of the entire gospel mission working with the apostle Paul. Let's continue now. Paul and company revisited many churches. They started in Jerusalem and they gave updates on what had been worked out for the sake of broad Christian fellowship at the "elders conference" back in Jerusalem. That was in Acts 15. The chapter before this, they're having this big conference about circumcision and the Law and Christianity and liberty and they come to a conclusion. Now Paul is spreading the word to the already existing churches on, here's what we came up with. Now let's look at Acts 16:5-6:

[Julie] (4:15 - 4:36) "So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily." Then here's our theme text. "They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the holy spirit to speak the word in Asia." Okay, so remember, Paul is already on the continent of Asia. He started from Jerusalem and Israel is in Asia.

[Rick] (4:36 - 5:42) Israel is in Asia. That's an important part of this whole perspective here. We have to look at this and understand what's happening. The first refocusing direction was given as they're getting ready to enter this Roman province of Asia, as you so aptly described. This tells us that Paul was looking to focus on evangelizing again. He's been giving messages to existing churches.

Who is the Apostle Paul? He's the evangelizer. He's looking to evangelize again and he intended to do that in this province of Asia, which was right before that. Now, if we were looking at a map and the ancient territories involved, it would be a little bit easier to be able to determine what does this journey look like. Describing the map: Paul is heading west into the areas of Galatia and Phrygia, and there's Lystra and there's Derby and there's all these places. He's coming right up to the province of Asia. He's kind of heading west at this point and is about to go into that area. Julie, let's expand that, just the notes, a little bit more on that situation.

[Julie] (5:43 - 6:02) You've heard of Ephesus. Ephesus will eventually become this capital, or is this capital of Asia. Here you also had established, later on, the seven churches that are in Revelation chapters 1-3. We know this Roman province of Asia eventually becomes a very important part of early Christian history.

[Rick] (6:02 - 6:44) That's big because it's not like the gospel wasn't preached there. It became a very central part of the gospel, so the question still remains; okay, so why isn't Paul supposed to teach? Paul's whole life--let's go back to what he was called for-- his whole life was focused on fulfilling the clearly, clearly assigned mission that he received at his conversion. That mission was given to Ananias to be told to Saul of Tarsus after he was blinded by the vision of Jesus, and Ananias is going to bring him to Christianity. Here's what Jesus tells Ananias to tell the Apostle Paul in Acts 9:13-16:

[Julie] (6:44 - 7:16) "But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has the authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake." How hard this would have been for Paul, with this mission, to not stop and preach to everyone he could find!

[Rick] (7:16 - 8:55) Right. It was his absolute bottom line core-value mission: spread the gospel. What happens? Well, we go back to our present account. Paul obeyed. They didn't preach, even though he wanted to.

Instead, they journeyed. Here's the question; well, how did God's spirit let him know? The scripture doesn't tell us. We don't know how God's power and influence made this so clear to him. The key is what we do know is that Paul is that energetic, submissive and serving heart that followed where God's spirit led.

He was driven. He's like a spiritual wind-up toy. You wind him up, put him on the table--preach, preach, preach, preach. He goes in a direction and nothing stops him. That's who the Apostle Paul was, but he obeyed. As we move forward through that, what we want to understand is that there is a principle of, you have your mission but it has to be in the context of God's spirit. It's the power of God-instructed, refocused direction; God-instructed, refocused direction. I think I know what I'm supposed to do until God tells me, no, there's actually a different way to go about things.

Paul's example of not preaching teaches us a fundamental lesson. As disciples of Christ, we are to simply follow the leadings that God provides for us, even when it might mean we don't get to be engaged in some privileged work. We need to just settle down and say, but I'm supposed to! But I'm not supposed to right here, right now, because God's providence is leading me differently.

[Julie] (8:56 - 9:21) That's difficult. Paul wasn't given a reason for not preaching, but he was given this clearly refocused direction so he complied. The key to answering this question--why couldn't Paul preach in Asia--is first, we're talking about a tiny Roman province, not the countries of Russia, Japan, China, and India. Further, Paul wasn't told "don't EVER preach here." The timing was just "not yet." Often our timing is "not yet."

[Rick] (9:21 - 10:35) Yeah, actually very often. Sometimes our timing is "not yet," and then when it comes around it's very different than you might think. Here, Paul listened. Again, when we realize the zeal and the strength that the Apostle had day and night to preach and to set up the churches and keep moving forward, this would have been a difficult, difficult thing. Having listened, Paul and those with him traveled for several days and approached the northern borders of that province of Asia. Now as they approach those northern borders, what we're seeing here is they are moving north through this province of Asia. Julie, this would have been probably a really, really long journey. It would have gone days, maybe weeks of journeying.

You walk all day, you camp, you walk all day, you camp, you walk all day, on and on and on. When you think about that, you think of all the ground they would have had to cover, it gives you a real sense of restraint because....

JULIE:

Right, because they can't preach as they go, which is what he really wants to do. RICK:

Right. So this is just about point A to point B. Let's now look at Acts 16:7:

[Julie] (10:35 - 10:58) "...and after they came to (the Roman district of) Mysia, they were trying to go into (the Roman province of) Bithynia, and the spirit of Jesus did not permit them..." That's very interesting because this time they're thwarted from entering Bithynia, which is to the north.

This "spirit of Jesus" intervened. We have two obvious questions: Why can't they go to Bithynia?

What is this "spirit of Jesus?"

[Rick] (10:58 - 13:00) It's like they're heading directly for Bithynia. Then when they get near, they're like, oh, no, no, you can't go there either. It's like, wait, what? When you think about it, you have this drive, you have this given mission from the Lord Jesus himself-- you must go preach! Bring the gospel before kings and the Gentiles! Go do that! Twice now, twice now it says he's not supposed to do that yet or here. Those are the key things. Why not? Why not go into Bithynia? As with everything scriptural, there's a great answer for this; the question, why not go there? Well, we believe that the answer lies in the big picture of what was supposed to happen with the gospel. We always have to look at what's happening in our daily lives in the context of the big picture. The big picture was described by Jesus just before his ascension.

Here's what he said in Luke 24:46-47:

JULIE:

"...and he said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." RICK:

You have a very specific message from Jesus. He's going to ascend and that's the end.

They don't see him anymore and the message is preached to all nations. But the message says very specifically, begin from Jerusalem and preach to all nations. Remember those two pieces because that becomes critical in understanding how this whole thing fits together.

That's the big picture. That's where the ultimate answer for this whole thing lies. In accordance with God's providence, the Apostle Peter--now we're going to pause on Paul for a moment and we're going to go to the Apostle Peter--he was tasked with a ministry throughout--well, guess what?! Asia and Bithynia! Both places where the Apostle Paul was told not to go. Peter writes about this much later in 1 Peter 1:1-2:

[Julie] (13:21 - 13:42) "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: may grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure." Okay, so the Apostles Paul and Peter are working separately on the same big picture mission and Peter has Bithynia covered. When we pull back on this, just a few individuals have very limited time to deliver a really big message for this new concept of Christianity to take hold, so they need to be efficient and smart in the logistics.

[Rick] (13:43 - 14:38) They can't text each other-- by the way, Peter, where are you? I mean, think about it.

They had no way to communicate. You see God's spirit guiding one apostle to go do these things and guiding the other. Neither one knows what the other is really, really doing.

It doesn't matter because the direction comes from above. Though Peter and Paul were working separately, they were in perfect harmony with their collective "big picture" mission; preach the gospel throughout all nations. There was another destination to which the gospel needed to be delivered by the Apostle Paul, but where was it? Where was he supposed to go? Here's where we look at the second question because it was a curious phrase that you mentioned in that scripture; that the "spirit of Jesus" did not permit them. What is this "spirit of Jesus" and why did it redirect them?

[Julie] (14:38 - 14:48) For those of you who are reading your King James Version, this phrase doesn't appear. We're reading from the New American Standard Version, and many of the other modern translations do include "spirit of Jesus."

[Rick] (14:49 - 15:07) We see this "spirit of Jesus" as the power and impact that Jesus and his life and example have upon us. With this in mind, let's continue with the Acts account because it's going to be made clear when we put all the pieces together. Now we're in Acts chapter 16:8-10:

[Julie] (15:07 - 15:55) "...and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas." Let me stop. Troas is a region within the Roman district of Mysia. The Greek city of Troy was here, and we know that story of the Trojan horse. For those listeners who are really good at Bible trivia, at the end of his life while in prison, in 2 Timothy 4:13, Paul asked Timothy to bring him the coat, books, and parchment he left here in Troas. He's here in Troas after being turned away from Bithynia in the north. We'll continue with verse 9: "A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. 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."

[Rick] (15:55 - 16:23) "Concluding that God had called us to preach" to them. That's powerful because he gets this vision, and it's a man basically in the vision saying, come help us, come help us. From Troas to get to Macedonia, you have to get on a boat and you have to go over the Aegean Sea to go from Troas to Macedonia. It's a very straightforward mission. Now there's a straight line for the Apostle Paul to follow through on.

[Julie] (16:23 - 16:55) Macedonia is a Roman province, or was a Roman province. Today it's part of Greece, North Macedonia, Albania, and Bulgaria. Mount Olympus is located here.

Alexander the Great was from here. Paul gets this vision with clear direction, finally, as to where to go next. Again, this is a little stressful. Paul has this energy, this desire. He needs to keep walking in faith for his next instruction. Does that sound familiar?

How does this second redirection for the Apostle Paul and company reflect the "spirit of Jesus?"

[Rick] (16:56 - 17:44) Now we know where, but how does the "spirit of Jesus" come into play in this? I think the best way to answer this is to let Jesus explain it himself. Note that the words in the following scripture that we're going to be quoting are spoken in a synagogue in Nazareth.

This is in Luke 4, in a synagogue in Nazareth. Now Nazareth was a poor Jewish town. It didn't have a good reputation.

Remember "Can any good thing come from Nazareth?" He's in the synagogue, and these are the words. Now let's pay close attention because you look at these words. These are early in Jesus' ministry, and of course, the Apostle Paul is way after Jesus' ministry. There's a dramatic connection between the two. Let's look at, Julie, Luke 4:17-21:

[Julie] (17:44 - 18:23) "And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him (Jesus). And he opened the book and found the place where it was written, THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD. And he closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Rick, what great news would this have been to the poor and needy listening in Nazareth!

[Rick] (18:23 - 19:24) It would have been tremendous news, but they essentially rejected him. But here's the thing. The thing is, what you have in the scripture, it says, "the spirit of the Lord is upon me..." When we go back to when Paul was first told don't preach in the province of Asia, the spirit guided him to not preach. You've got the spirit of the Lord behind what Jesus is quoting. He says, the spirit is upon me. He's being driven by God to do what? To help the poor, the captives, the sick and the oppressed, to preach the gospel, to spread the message. You think about that.

That's what Jesus was all about. That encapsulates the spirit of Jesus, because he had the spirit of God driving him to do those things. Perhaps when the Apostle Paul has this vision of a Macedonian man needing help, it's revealing to him the depth, the power, the direction that he's being called to go. This is exactly what my Lord came for and now I am being driven to do just that.

[Julie] (19:24 - 19:40) This isn't about always making sure he's carrying five loaves of bread and two fish on him to multiply for whoever is hungry. Macedonia is a poor place, but what it really needed was the gospel. It's even bigger of a message for all of humanity who is starving and sin-sick.

[Rick] (19:41 - 20:43) Macedonia needed the gospel; needed Paul's attention. He walks all of those days and weeks through the province of Asia, not able to go into Bithynia because there's a need that he has no idea exists, but he's following instructions. When he gets to the point where it's obvious to go across the Aegean Sea, he's there and he's ready. What happens? Macedonia embraced the gospel, even though they were steeped in idolatry and faced many, many, many serious challenges. Years later, the Apostle Paul reports to the other churches in their vicinity of their strong spirituality in spite of their problems. Julie, these next scriptures are just utterly inspiring because as we read these scriptures, let's remember, he gets a vision of a Macedonian man saying, come help us. What did they need help with? Listen to this.

This is afterwards. This is after they have become mature Christians. Listen to just how beautifully they grow into Christ.

2 Corinthians 8:1-2:

[Julie] (20:43 - 20:59) "Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality."

[Rick] (21:00 - 22:06) Let's pause on that. "In a great ordeal of affliction" they had what? An "abundance of joy" in spite of "deep poverty." They're not just not quite making ends meet. We're talking "deep poverty." What happened is, it says that they "overflowed in the wealth of their liberality." What does that mean? What it means is the Apostle Paul was always looking to support those Christians who were in greater need, and he would bring that message wherever he went. What we're going to see is that these Macedonian Christians were saying, we need to contribute. We need to help you help others who have need. Now, look at yourselves.

You have "deep poverty" and great affliction. Here you are saying, but they're our brethren. They are attached.

They had been given a hope in Christ that superseded all of their trouble, all of their poverty, all of their affliction. It took all of those things. It made them of no effect because the Apostle was showing them something that was magnificent.

Let's read the next two verses in 2 Corinthians 8:3-5:

[Julie] (22:07 - 22:27) "For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God."

[Rick] (22:27 - 23:32) What do you have happening here? He says, "I testify." Now he's writing to the Corinthians. They weren't nearly as impoverished. He's telling them that they, beyond their ability, contributed, gave, because they wanted to. My imagination runs wild on things like this. I can imagine the Apostle Paul being with them and mentioning there are other churches that need help. They're like digging into their pockets and finding the little coin here. Look, look, look, this is tough for you. It's okay.

Their reaction is, you don't understand. You are able to help those who are in great need. We'll figure it out. Here. I don't have anything else, but we'll figure it out. "Begging us with much urging." He was trying to back them down.

They urged him, please let us be part of this! These are the ones. These are the ones that the Apostle Paul found in this journey.

It's a beautiful, beautiful picture of what the Lord had in store for him. God didn't tell him at the beginning, oh, I've got a big surprise for you. He just said, walk, obey, don't preach.

Not yet. I've got a job for you later. It's a great, great, great lesson.

[Julie] (23:32 - 23:56) Yeah, it's a precious lesson. Paul was prolific in spreading the gospel in Macedonia. Not only did he start churches in Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea, but it's also thought that he wrote the books of 2 Corinthians, 1 Timothy and Titus from here.

It got his heart excited as well, and he was able to preach the gospel in a bigger way than he could have if he had not listened.

[Rick] (23:56 - 24:24) You look at that and say, wow, that's a tremendous reason for Paul to have had to go there. But that's not the whole story. Oh, no, no, no.

That's only a part. That's only the beginning of the whole story. The beauty of being guided by God's spirit and also by the spirit of Jesus is now going to be truly, truly revealed because these churches in this region were the first of a massive gospel expansion, a massive gospel expansion.

[Julie] (24:24 - 25:19) What do you mean by that? From here, the gospel could be spread throughout Europe and from Europe to the whole world, which is what Jesus had said Paul would end up doing. We have a great quote from GotQuestions.org.

" ...This area is still known as the gateway to Europe. Up to that point in history, the gospel had been limited to Asia, and many historians credit Paul's heeding the Macedonian Call with the spread of Christianity into Europe and the Western world. ...The history of the church--and of the world--forever changed because of the God-given dream known as the Macedonian Call." Paul and his companions wouldn't have been where they needed to be had they lingered in Galatia any longer. This is less about God forbidding Paul to preach in this territory of Asia, more about Paul's trusting in God's divine timing. What a lesson for us!

[Rick] (25:19 - 25:34) It's huge! Just to sort of cap that lesson off with even a bigger picture, remember Jesus' words before his ascension? He says, beginning in Jerusalem, preach the gospel to the whole world.

Where did Paul start this journey? In Jerusalem.

[Julie] (25:35 - 25:35) Jerusalem, yes.

[Rick] (25:35 - 26:52) When he goes into Macedonia, he goes to the gateway of Europe, which is the gateway to the rest of the world. Literally, in a sense, the Apostle Paul was fulfilling Jesus' words at his ascension by starting in Jerusalem and then working through to the gateway of Europe and opening the gospel there. What a powerful, powerful message! He found these wonderful Christians, followed exactly what the spirit of God led him to do, worked in the context of the spirit of Jesus himself, of what Jesus would have done, how Jesus would have done it. What we have is the power of God-instructed, refocused direction. Think about that.

God-instructed, refocused direction; God's plans and purposes are always far above any plans or imaginations of our own minds. By keeping him from preaching in Asia at that specific time, God arranged for Paul to be his tool to open the door for the gospel to spread into Europe and then to the rest of the world. He allowed himself to be used in this incredible way, and the blessing is obvious.

[Julie] (26:53 - 27:00) One thing we all have to remember is, when God says no, it's always to make room for a bigger yes!

[Rick] (27:01 - 27:53) It's so true. It is so true. We want to understand the magnitude of God saying, no, don't go there.

Then he gets near Bithynia. No, don't go there either. Why?

Because I have a bigger mission. I have other plans that you don't know about. How often, folks, how often in our Christian walk do we have to look at our lives and say, this is what I think. Then we need to add, if God wills, and keep our hearts and minds open so we can follow the directions and instructions of God's providence through His spirit and be part of what God's plan is all about, and that is the salvation of the world. Think about it. Folks, we love hearing from our listeners.

We welcome your feedback and questions on this episode and other episodes at ChristianQuestions.com. Coming up in our next Episode: "Are There Different Kinds of Evil Spirits?"

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