Acts 16:9–10: “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

April 13th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Paul received a call to take the gospel to Europe, to a very tiny harbor on the Aegean Sea (Mediterranean), in what is today western Turkey, very near the ancient city of Troy. Macedonia was due west across the Aegean Sea on the mainland of Greece. This statement, “Come over to Macedonia and help us,” literally brought the gospel from the mid-east and Asia on into Europe and the whole earth. We might say the reason the Holy Spirit did not permit Paul to go to Bithynia (further inland in Turkey) was so that we could hear the Good News. Paul literally brought Christianity to Europe, and then Europeans brought the gospel to the New World. Today the United States sends more missionaries out into the world than any other nation. One of the exciting things about being a believer is that God still speaks today, often in surprising ways.

There is another interesting item found in these verses, and it is the little change from the pronoun they to we. The second person we indicates that Doctor Luke, the writer of Acts, had joined Paul, Silas, and Timothy (who had also joined Paul and Silas). There are several other such we passages in Acts. Where this occurs we must conclude that Luke was with them. Some think it was Luke’s arrival that prompted the Macedonian vision, but many believe the “man of Macedonia” in the vision was Luke himself. Perhaps Paul was ill at that time, and needed Luke’s professional skills (malaria affecting his eyesight?). Others point to the famous medical school at Tarsus, which was Paul’s hometown, suggesting that Paul and Luke were old friends from college days. One way or another Dr. Luke joined the missionary team at Troas. The profound lesson here is to keep going and the Holy Spirit will be faithful to show you where. It had been a 700-mile journey from Antioch to Troas. God dramatically changed the course of human history in these two verses. Does God want to change the course of human history again through you?

“LORD, please use us this day we ask in Jesus’ name.”