Paul’s second missionary journey to Macedonia and Philippi (Acts 16) By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Paul’s second missionary journey to Macedonia and Philippi (Acts 16)   4/21/2026

By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical precepts & Gospel music

 

Scriptures reading (Acts 16)

¹ He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek.² The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. ³ Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.⁴ As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. ⁵ So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

The call to Europe (Acts 16:6-10)

⁶ Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. ⁷ When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. ⁸ So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. ⁹ During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

The work at Philippi (16:11-40)

          ¹¹ From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. ¹² From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia, and we stayed there several days.

           ¹³ On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴ One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. ¹⁵ When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “Come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

¹⁶ Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune –telling. ¹⁷ This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” ¹⁸ She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

¹⁹ When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. ²⁰ They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar ²¹ by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

²² The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. ²³ After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. ²⁴ Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.

²⁹ The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. ³⁰He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? ³¹ They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved –you and your household.” ³² Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. ³³ At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.³⁴ The Jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God- he and his whole family.  

    

³⁵ When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” ³⁶ The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.” ³⁷ But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

³⁸ The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. ³⁹They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. ⁴⁰After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went ot Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left.

 

Verse 3 circumcised him. The Jerusalem council had declared that circumcision was not necessary for salvation or for acceptance into the Christian church (15:19), but because of Timothy’s part-Jewish background it seemed expedient in his case, in order to enlarge his local usefulness in witnessing, in the case of Gentile Titus, Paul insisted that he not be circumcised (Gal.2:3). This indicates that the strong influence of the Judaic background remained among the Jewish believers. It disturbed and frustrated the move of the Lord’s gospel.

Verse 6 Paul traveled in a northwesterly direction around Asia, to Troas and on to Greece. As in the evangelistic work of Philip (8:29,39), the move of the apostle Paul and his co-workers for the spread of the gospel was not according to their decision and preference or according to any schedule made by human council, but by the Holy Spirit according to God’s counsel. They intended to speak the word in Asia, but the Holy Spirit forbade them. Forbidding is a part of the Holy Spirit’s leading.

Verse 7 The Spirit of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the preceding verse are used interchangeably, revealing that the Spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a general title of the Spirit of God in the New Testament, the Spirit of Jesus is a particular expression concerning the Spirit of God and refers to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who, as Jesus in His humanity, passed through human living and death on the cross. This indicates that in the Spirit of Jesus there is not only the divine element of God but also the human element of Jesus and the elements of His human living and His suffering of death as well. Such an all-inclusive Spirit was needed for the apostle’s preaching ministry, a ministry of suffering carried out among human beings and for human beings in the human life.

The Holy Spirit’s forbidding them to go to the left, to Asia (v.6). and the Spirit of Jesus’ not allowing them to go the right, to Bithynia, indicated a straightforward direction for the apostle and his co-workers. Thus, they went in a direct course to Macedonia through Mysia and Troas (v.8).

Verse 9 Not a dream or a trance. Macedonia is a province of the Roman Empire in southeastern Europe by the Aegean Sea between Thrace and Achaia.

Verse 10 we. Luke joined Paul and his group at Troas and went with them to Philippe, where he remained when the others left (v.40). Six or seven years later he rejoined Paul (20:5) and remained with him until the end of the narrative. Sought. We. Is used here for the first time to include the writer, Luke. This indicates that from Troas, Luke joined the apostle Paul in his ministry journey. Lit., sought. This was a major step in the Lord’s move for the spreading of His kingdom to another continent, Europe. It explains the intention of the Holy Spirit’s forbidding, the Spirit of Jesus’ not allowing, and the coming of the vision in the night. To carry out this particular leading in the Lord’s strategic move required the endeavoring of the apostle and his coworkers. This they did immediately. After seeing the vision from God, they needed to conclude, that is, to understand what it meant, by exercising the mind- a mind saturated and directed by the Spirit (Eph.4:23) according to the actual situation and environment.

Verse 11 Troas is a seaport on the Aegean Sea at the northwest corner of Asia Minor, opposite Macedonia. Samothrace is an island in the Aegean Sea between Troas and Philippe. Neapolis the seaport of Philippi.

Verse 12 Philippi. A Roman colony was like a piece of Rome transplanted abroad, so that those who held citizenship in a colony enjoyed the same rights they would have had if they had lived in Italy. Other colonies mentioned in Acts are Antioch in Pisidia, Lystra, Troas, Ptolemais, and Corinth. Roman Colony – A fortified outpost of the Roman Empire in a foreign county where the citizens had equal rights with those in the capital, Rome. Hence, Philippi was a strategic point for the spread of the gospel at its beginning in Europe.

Verse 13 outside the city gate to the river. Apparently, there was no synagogue in Philippi; it required at least ten men to organize one. Sabbath indicating how widespread Judaism and its influence were, even in Europe. Prayer – Man’s prayer to God affords Him an opportunity for His move among men on the Erath.

Verse 14 A dealer in purple cloth. Thyatira in Asia Minor was famous for its purple dye. The Lord here, who opened the heart of Lydia to give heed to the preaching of the gospel, must be the Spirit, who is the Lord Himself (2Cor.3:17).

Verse 15 Baptism immediately followed their believing, as the Lord commanded in Mark 16:16. Lydia, after believing and being baptized, entered into fellowship with the apostle and his coworkers the fellowship of the Body of Christ as evidence of her salvation. This is truly an expression of the fact that she had received grace. The first house that the Lord gained in Europe through His gospel and for His gospel. (v.40).

Verse 16 a spirit. The girl was demon-possessed and was being exploited by her masters.(v.19). used in reference to a prophesying demon, and also in reference to a fortuneteller. The art or practice that seeks to foresee or foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge by the aid of supernatural powers.  

Verse 20 throwing our city into an uproar. Judaism was not a prohibited religion (the cult of the emperor being the official religion), but propagating it was regarded as a menace. Paul and Silas were regarded as Jews, since, at this time, the Romans considered Christianity to be a Jewish sect.

Verse 24 Lit, timber; an instrument of torture with holes to hold the prisoner’s wrists, ankles, and neck. The same word is used in reference to the cross in 5:30; 10:39; Gal.3:13and 1 Pet2:24)

Verse 31 and your household. These words must be connected with “believer” as well as “be saved.” Each member of the household must believe in order to be saved. Indicating that the family of the believer is a complete unit for God’s salvation, like the family of Noah (Gen.7:1), the families partaking of the Passover (Exo.12:3-4), the family of the harlot Rahab (Josh.2:18-19), the family of Zaccheus (Luke 19:9), the family of Cornelius (11:14), the family of Lydia (v.15), the family of the jailer here, and the family of Crispus in 18:8.

Verse 33 Again baptism was practiced immediately after someone believed. This must have been done in the bathing pool at the place where they were, which, according to the word up in the next verse, must have been downstairs. This shows and testifies to us that the believers in the early days did not have any regulation or ritual; rather, they took appropriate measures in accordance with local conditions.

Verse 34 After believing and being baptized, the jailer did not care for the officials who were his superiors or for the criminals. He too came into fellowship with the apostles, the fellowship of the Body of Christ, as a token of his salvation.

Verse 35 The Roman lictors, those who held the rod to clear the way for the magistrates and to execute punishment on the criminals.

Verse 37 Roman citizens. Paul was born a Roman citizen (22:28), which gave him certain rights, including a public hearing. Flogging of any Roman citizen was prohibited by law, the rights of Paul and Silas, therefore, had already been violated.

 

 

 

Bibliography,

 

King James, The Holy Bible (KJV), Cleveland, OH: The world publishing company

 Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie study Bible(NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986

Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.