Paul and Silas set out from Antioch on a second missionary tour (Acts 15:40-51). They started across Syria and Cilicia, picked up Timothy in Lystra (16:1-3), and made their way from town to town westward, sharing with the churches that had been founded in what’s now eastern Turkey: and those churches were strengthened in faith and increased in numbers (16:4-5).

So the mission team worked their way farther west. They went through Phrygia and Galatia – and the Holy Spirit forbade them from speaking the word in the province of Asia (15:6). Wait, what? They pressed on, further west: they attempted to go preach in Bythinia, but again the Spirit did not let them (15:7). What’s going on: the Spirit prevents people from doing mission work?

I think I might have given up and gone home to Antioch, if the Holy Spirit kept canceling our best efforts and turning the mission project into a bust. But they pressed on to the west coast of Turkey, to Troas, on the Aegean Sea. There was apparently already a church there, where the mission team spent the night. Had this church perhaps been founded by travelers who had been in Jerusalem on Pentecost (2:9)? We should notice that the pronouns in the story change from “they” and “he” to “we” right here (16:10) – this suggests that the writer of the narrative joins the group at this point. This in turn suggests that the author of Luke and Acts – traditionally, Luke the physician – was a member of the church in Troas. That night Paul had a vision where he saw a Macedonian pleading “Come over to Macedonia and help us” – and the mission went across the Aegean to Macedonia, to preach the gospel in Europe (16:10-12). And Luke went, too. Throughout Luke and Acts he never identified himself by name. He only let us know that he had become part of the missionary team by writing things like this: “We set sail from Troas … ” (16:11).

We don’t have any information on how the Spirit forbade them or prevented them from preaching in their chosen mission locations: but in hindsight we can see that the Spirit was steering them province by province westward along the length of Turkey to bring them to Troas, and then across to Macedonia. The lesson seems to be that if you just keep going, the Holy Spirit will steer you to where you need to be; but if you keep yourself carefully parked, you can ask Jesus to take the wheel but you’ll still be parked in the same place.

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Spirit of God: you push us to places beyond where we have figured, in order to fulfill the purposes of the kingdom. Grant us the grace to go forth with joy and anticipation, in the confidence that your good purpose will be an astonishing blessing for us, and for those whom we serve.