Growing Through the Journey

Pastor Joe Fuiten, July 20, 2003

Today we received a record number of new members. That is pretty encouraging for the middle of Summer. At our board meeting on Thursday night we reviewed the basic offering income. We ended up either 3 or 5% (depending on whether you compared it to one year or 52 Sundays). Even after moving some people to the branches, and others to the school building fund, we still were up. These are both very encouraging indicators. I would like to meet visitors at the Dove Bar after the morning services.

Scripture Reading: Acts 17: 1-4. (page 785)

1 When they had passed through Amphipolis[1] and Apollonia[2], they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ," he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.

My curiosity is raised as to why Paul just “passed through” Amphipolis. It had been a capitol of one of the four divisions of Macedonia from 168 to 148 BC and was an important city.

There are several possible answers, none of which we are able to prove, but the speculation might actually be helpful to the main thrust of the message.

The main idea today is that God speaks into our lives through natural circumstances. He speaks to the one who is not a believer in God through circumstances. If that is you, I would like to suggest to you that your own thinking will create the place of readiness to know God. I have seen it happen in a variety of ways. I have experienced it myself.

At a very fundamental level, you may well become frustrated with your life. It might not be just through difficulties. It might even be through success. Even when you feel like to have it all, there is still an empty spot. It is a spot that only God can fill.

You see people struggling hard to fill that place. For some it takes a negative tack. They become easily angered. Even little things set them off. Things that should hardly even matter can create a disproportionate response. They become very critical of everything or everybody. If something is wrong with others, then maybe I am not so bad myself.

Others take a positive approach. They are going to do good for the world. They might become active in boys or girls groups, school things, civic groups, or just friendship circles. They really work hard at being a good citizen and a good person in the ways that appeal to them. But when the dust all settles, they still have the same feeling inside.

Once a person becomes a Christian, a lot of those tensions go away. There is a sense that the biggest question of life has been settled. We feel forgiven. We have made a connection with God and it is very satisfying. For the first time in our life, we really feel complete. We know we are on the right track. If everything could stay like that it would be wonderful. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

In time, the Christian can face a lot of the same issues. We can fall victim to all the human stuff of feeling inadequate, being rejected or losing. We might fall into apathy and be without real motivation. We can also slip into anger or frustration. We can become hard on ourselves or on those around us. We can begin to doubt what God’s plan is for our lives. We wonder if we are really doing what we should. We might be going to heaven but we’re either not too happy about the journey, or at least greatly worried about it.

Given what I know about myself and others, I wonder what Paul must have been like. Over the last while it had been a very mixed bag for him. Most every place he has gone he has had success until he gets run out of town. Not long ago at Lystra, he was stoned and left for dead. Just a while before, probably only a few days ago he and Silas had been severely flogged at Philippi. Even though the jailer and some others got saved, you would have to wonder about it.

It is possible that he didn’t want to take on Apollonia and Amphipolis right then. Both were tough places. For those of you who have been reading the Left Behind series, you will remember that one of the books was titled Appolyon. This town was named after the same demon. It didn’t get any better at Amphipolis. They had the Artemis Tauropolis temple there. The priestesses of Artemis were drinking the blood of bulls and doing other strange things. The first coin shows Artemis riding a bull. The second coin shows her with the Macedonian war club and shield. Both coins were minted in Amphipolis. There were the intellectual temples featuring the goddesses of the arts and sciences, including the one to the goddess Cleo, the muse of history. It was a thriving, energetic, pagan city that Paul just walked through. No preaching, no teaching, and apparently no effort at reaching those people.

Maybe it was still recovery time for Paul, letting a few more days pass so the last of the bruises from the flogging would go away. The text and history are silent on why he does not stop there. Chrysostom thinks he was just bypassing the smaller towns, but he did stop in Philippi and it couldn’t have been bigger than Amphipolis. This was a station on the Via Egnatia but still he didn’t stop.

We don’t have any indication of self-doubt in Paul. There is nothing of him lashing out or becoming disrespectful of others. He must have been doing something right because he stayed pretty healthy emotionally through all these things.

Instead of stopping he just heads for Thessalonica, the capitol of Provincia Macedonia since 148 BC. There, over a three-week period, he tells the story of the death and resurrection of Jews and many are saved.

There is nothing in this text to suggest why Paul didn’t stop, but he certainly had his reasons. We have every reason to believe he was in the general will of God.

What is going on inside of you today? More importantly, what might God be saying to you through what is going on inside you? Personally, I believe there are definitely levels in the spiritual life and that we tend to jerk upward from one to the other rather than progress smoothly. The reason is that before we can make progress, we need to be aware that we need to change. At the first stages of any level, we are pretty happy. At the latter stages is when we feel the pressure. The pressure is what tells us it is time to change.

In my work life I have a philosophy. I apparently don’t usually say it out loud because I surprised Craig with it the other day. What I try to do is work as hard as I can until I start to go nuts, then I remind myself that everybody else gets their stuff done in 24 hours, so I reorganize and keep going. The building pressure and stress tell me it is about time to do something different.

I think the same principle applies to our relationship with the Lord. It really cannot stay the same. As things happen, you feel the pressure rising. It can be positive or negative. At some point you become aware of it and realize that things need to change. The more you resist change, the greater the pressure grows.

In fact, that pressure is a good thing. It is created by the gap between what you are and what you need to be. That pressure was what helped me to be become a Christian. The rising frustration with myself made me turn to the Lord. I knew I needed him.

If I am growing stale in my life, something needs to change. If I am starting to become critical instead of affirming, something needs to change. If I want people to wait on me rather than me waiting on them, it is time to progress. If where I have been no longer satisfies me like it did, this is an indication from the Lord.

There will probably be lots of movement within God’s will. Even if you are doing everything right, you will be forced to change to grow through the stages of life.

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