And he was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, and ..
Paul's 2nd mission had brought Berean Jews with ears to hear Scripture into the fold of Christ's Church.
.. by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and ..
Thessalonica had been an important stop on Paul's 2nd missionary journey & he would encourage them with two letters in A.D. 50-51 while completing this 3rd mission.
.. Gaius of Derbe..
where the crowds sought to worship Paul as Hermes and Barnabas as Zeus
.. and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.
Timothy of Lystra near Derby has already been an important disciple and pastor since the 2nd mission of Paul and Silas.
An important Aegean port of Troas
But these had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas.
Acts of the Apostles 20:5
Τρῳάς –
Troas = “a Trojan”
Troas, a city near the Hellespont, formerly called Ἀντιγονεια Τρῳάς, but by Lysimachus Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ Τρῳάς in honor of Alexander the Great; it flourished under the Romans (and with its environs was raised by Augustus to acolonia juris italici, ‘the Troad’)
And we sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days; and there we stayed seven days.
Acts of the Apostles 20:6 – the ‘we’ most likely: Paul, Luke the physician who journals their mission and other disciples
Note the timing AFTER the days of the Passover Feast.
And possibly in Philippi these disciples of the risen JESUS may have remembered HIS breaking of the Bread and taking the Cup commemorating HIS death for our sins.
The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ just a generation before would be foremost in the hearts of these disciples as Paul is about to preach the Gospel in Troas.
After some pause in A.D. 2023 for celebration of our Lord's birth, God-willing we will return to the witness of yet another miracle in ~A.D. 55 in Troas.
The Third Missionary Journey of Paul – ACTS from a stop in Troas – To Be Continued…
1st c. Roman region of Asia lies between PHRYGIA to the S & MYSIA to the N
Last time we mentioned the beginning of their land journey, but these few verses provide no account of which towns or how long these men stayed in this part of the central plain beyond Lystra, Derbe and Iconium before sailing to Europe from Troas.
7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.
8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.
Troas, Asia Minor
the leading of the Spirit
You may have thought that Paul, Silas and Timothy had wandered from town to town in the mountains aimlessly proclaiming the Gospel wherever they happened on a town or small city. NOT SO.
Here is how 21st century Christians (having to know every reason for every act of any 1st c. apostle of Jesus) will often trip over the mysterious leading of the Spirit.
And just a reminder from the Greek that an apostle is a delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders, especially orders from the triune God.
WHY did Paul, Silas and Timothy end up in Troas (perhaps ready to sail back to Antioch or to Cypress once more where Paul could meet up with Barnabas and John Mark)?
How is it that Paul did NOT choose a land route to Europe to begin proclaiming the Gospel to all the world?
Luke tells us:
ACTS 16:6 ..having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
ACTS 16:7 ..but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.
τὸ πνεῦμα Ἰησοῦ – ho pneuma – the Spirit – (SAME WORD)
definition in part G4151 i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
CHRISTIAN, do YOU obey the ALL-KNOWING and ETERNAL power of the risen JESUS?
Do you allow the HOLY SPIRIT to direct YOU in directions GOD plans so different from the paths YOU would take?
PAUL not only has encountered the risen JESUS some years back when Christ REDIRECTED this apostle to the gentiles in an entirely different direction,
but Saul of Tarsus AND ALL of these apostles were “sent out” by the HOLY SPIRIT, as well as from their local Church back in Antioch.
The Lord Jesus continues to order his 21st c. disciples of the church into unknown, even mysterious places — into a world unfamiliar to their former witness of God.
Taking the Gospel into a Greco-Roman world
Roman roads & routes of the Aegean Sea later in AD 125
The Lord Jesus continues to order his disciples of the church into unknown, even mysterious places — into a world unfamiliar to their former witness of God.
The increasing presence of Rome in so many strategic ports of the Aegean in Paul’s day dominated all travel in and between the major cities of Eurasia.
The Apostles might have sailed back to Antioch from the Roman-occupied towered town and port of Troas. Yet by the command of the Spirit they took the commercial ferry routes toward Philippi near the north-western shore of the Aegean – a leading Greek city in Europe.
A vision in Troas
ACTS 16:9
And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying,
“Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
What will Silas and Timothy think of this sudden change of tickets for an entirely different journey ahead?
And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Troas to Neapolis, Philippi, Macedonia
Sailing from Troas to Neapolis
11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace,
and the following day to Neapolis,
You'll have difficulty finding 'Nea polis' on a map because it's Greek for "new city." Even on Cypress Paul had been to Nea Paphos, built after an earthquake had destroyed much of Paphos.
Nowadays the city's nickname is "the cyan city" (Η γαλάζια πόλη) and the symbol of the municipality of Kavala is the head of goddess Parthenos, the patron goddess of ancient Neapolis, as depicted in the coinage of the ancient Greek city. - source: Wikipedia
12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days.
(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.
ACTS 15:36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “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, but the LORD establishes his steps.
The Holy Spirit had sent our Paul and Barnabas from Antioch Syria to the gentiles
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
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’ …
