Daily Thoughts from Acts: When Not to Witness (Acts 16:6-10)

And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 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.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.  (Acts 16:6-10 ESV)

Paul and his group head north and then west as the Spirit of Jesus, the One whom He sent to carry on his ministry in the disciples, the Holy Spirit, prevents them from preaching the gospel.  We don’t know how He did this, whether through an internal witness or circumstances, but they end up in the port city of Troas on the west coast of Asia (present day Turkey, see the map below).  Here Paul has a vision of a Macedonian man urging him to come there and help them, a call Paul and the team are ready to answer.

The call for “help” suggests the plight these people are in, as are all unbelievers, desperately in need of a spiritual rescue from sin and hopeless without Jesus.  Up until this point Luke, the author of Acts, has used the third person pronouns “he” and “they” to describe the team’s efforts but now he switches to first person, “we” as he joins the team in Troas.  No explanation is given for how this came to be but now the team is moving toward a quite different culture, a European culture, as Luke traces the movement of the gospel west.

It is also of note that sometimes the Holy Spirit prompts us not to share the gospel with someone.  Jesus teaches us in his sermon on the mount not to cast our pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6) and maybe it was a situation of this nature that the Spirit was avoiding.  Or there may have been other reasons.  He is the one in charge and we are to follow Him.

As we think about this for our own witness it may give us both a nudge we need as well as a release from pressure.  We need a nudge to pay attention to the Holy Spirit and to follow His direction instead of just assuming we know who we are to witness to and how.  Jesus did not operate on his own in this regard and neither did Paul.  Don’t know how to listen to the Spirit?  You’d better learn.

And we are released from the pressure of thinking we must always witness to everyone we meet.  Unless the Spirit is prompting us to do that we should not.  Our job is not to save people.  Our job is to obey the Holy Spirit and as He directs to proclaim the truth in the manner He directs us to proclaim it.  He will bring the response that He desires.  He knows what is going on in the heart of everyone we have contact with.  Trust Him.