The Second Missionary Journey

Acts 15:36-18:22

            One of the saddest stories in the New Testament is tucked at the end of Acts 15. Paul and Barnabas want to check on the churches they established in Asia Minor. Barnabas wanted to bring his nephew John Mark, who had abandoned the original mission, and Paul adamantly and obstinately refused. They were at such loggerheads that they broke up. (What’s ironic is that years later, Paul wants Mark to join him, because Mark is helpful to Paul; 2 Timothy 4:11). Psalm 133:1 exclaims, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” and Paul himself will come to realize how important unity is to the witness of the church. I wonder how things might have gone had hot-headed Paul remained in partnership with the older, wiser Barnabas!

            That’s a question we cannot answer, but Paul set off to visit the churches in Asia Minor by a land route. Paul wanted to move on and open new churches, but the Holy Spirit prevented it. Maybe the Holy Spirit used something dramatic like a vision or dream; maybe it was conditions—a flooded river, news of brigands on the highway. However He did it, He eventually directed them across the Aegean Sea to Greece.

            In Greece, Paul had several significant experiences. In Philippi, a Roman colony (more about that when we read Philippians), there was apparently no Jewish synagogue, so we meet Lydia, a God-fearing Gentile. Later we meet an unnamed Romans jailer. In both cases, they are baptized along with their whole households. Two points here: Baptism begins at the beginning of the life of faith; it is the sacrament of initiation. Therefore it assumes a lifetime of following Jesus. Second, in the practice of baptizing whole households we are led to consider that that includes the children, too. So, perhaps a hint at infant baptism.

            Chapter 17 finds Paul founding a church in Thessalonica and being chased out by jealous Jews. The church remained, though, and Paul wrote two of his 13 letters to them to help them who had had their teacher ripped away too early. In Berea Paul found a warmer reception, and the Jews of the synagogue examined the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was correct, but trouble followed him form Thessalonica and off he went again.

            Paul’s time in Athens, the philosophical center of the world, forced him to work differently. His work attracted those philosophers, who wanted a well-reasoned account of his faith. Paul’s presentation on Mars Hill begins with their own religiosity and offers that the one god they don’t really know is indeed the one true God. Interestingly, his account leads from God as Creation right to the resurrection of Jesus, a point that was controversial in Greek philosophy.

            Chapter 18 brings Paul to Corinth (notice that the relationships and churches Paul formed on this journey account for more than half of his letters: 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philippians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy). Paul stayed there for a year and half. Imagine how much more thoroughly he trained the Corinthians than he had been able to train the Thessalonians!

            In many ways, this second missionary journey was the central time of Paul’s ministry.