ACTS 16 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra.
(A quick glance at the Google Earth MAP cover for Paul’s Second Missionary Journey will reveal merely the start of this 2nd mission.)
Start new
The apostles’ intention was to return to churches of their first missionary journey but plans have changed. Paul’s journey must start on new roads into all the world without Barnabas.
Have you ever had to start new journeys to places where you thought you knew the way?
AND somehow your GPS great planning systems to travel back to where you have been before sends you in a completely different direction?
THAT’S what happened to Barnabas and Paul.
BUT there is a connection between these two missionary journeys we may have missed.
(really all 3 mission trips of the Apostle Paul)
Acts 15 – Connecting 2 Missionary Journeys
In fact, the Holy Spirit had other plans for their new start to familiar as well as new and unfamiliar places.
AD 49 – THE JERUSALEM COUNCIL
“Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”
Our conflicting Christian maps of what WE THE CHURCH plan to do in our MISSIONS to preach the Gospel to all of the world often blur a higher view from the perfect perspective of Holy Spirit of God plans.
The heart of man plans his way,
Proverbs 16:9 ESV
but the LORD establishes his steps.
Barnabas and Paul then planned to deliver a letter to all the followers of Jesus Christ — Jews and Gentiles — an important encouragement from their recent Council in Jerusalem with the Apostles and leading members of the Antioch Church in Syria.
YET LATER..
.. they separated from each other.
Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed..
ACTS 15:39b-40a ESV
Two apostles of the Church separated?
YES.
Their second separate journeys to deliver encouragement of the Council in Jerusalem to distant new churches with Jews and Gentiles joined in the worship of the risen Lord Jesus Christ DID NOT go as THEY had planned.
YET NOW,
the apostles’ missions will include two more apostles sent forth [*] by the Holy Spirit: MARK with Barnabas and SILAS with Paul.
40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended [*] by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
Paul wanted to return to encourage new believers in these towns with the Council’s letter and instructions on his second missionary journey initially planned with Barnabas.
Joseph of Cypress, his fellow apostle with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, had parted ways to encourage his fellow Cyprians. Their previous new start together occurred after a brotherly disagreement between Saul of Tarsus and Barnabas.
That dispute also involved their assistant John Mark son of Mary, who remained at the foot of the Cross during Jesus’ crucifixion. They had also welcomed Peter into their home after the Apostles miraculous escape from Herod’s prison in Jerusalem.
Before Paul’s 10 year Missionary Journey
- + AD 30 – Jesus’ Crucifixion (Mark’s mother at the foot of the Cross
- Jesus’ RESURRECTION! 3 days later
- Pentecost with the Holy Spirit giving believers a new start in an eternal life and sending out hundreds of witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection into all the world.
- AD 32 – Stephen martyred in Jerusalem with Saul of Tarsus as witness, who then is sent out by the Jews to terrorize Christ followers.
- ~ AD 37 Jesus appears to Saul on a road in Syria and he witnesses the risen Lord!
- After his return from Arabia Saul will start a new preaching of the Gospel
- in Damascus (Syria),
- Jerusalem,
- Caesarea (Herodian port of Rome in Samaria near Galilee, all part of Roman Syria
- and Saul’s home of Tarsus, a port city of Roman Cilicia.
- Then this new start:
- on ‘3 missionary journeys’
- after about ten years of proven faith
- Saul is now also known as Paul
- on ‘3 missionary journeys’
- After his return from Arabia Saul will start a new preaching of the Gospel
Paul’s nearly continuous MISSIONARY JOURNEY of 10 years
AD 47-57
SOON our outlined divisions of CHAPTERS & VERSES of Acts will navigate a new course — a journey so different from our mortal TIME that Christians often miss months and years in the blink of an eye between verses.
In this brief section of ACTS of the APOSTLES we call:
‘The Second Missionary Journey of Paul,’
the ‘apostle to the gentiles‘ will join with many other apostles sent out into all the world of their first century with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
ALL will be sent out by the Holy Spirit whose plans may differ from our own.
NEXT, God-willing, we will meet some of these new companions of the Apostle to the Gentiles as Paul continues his ‘2nd missionary journey’ …
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