I came across an article once which was entitled “These 3 Simple Words Can Save Your Marriage, Your Career, and Quite Possibly Your Life.”  It was about a management technique which came to fame in the 1980’s at places like Amazon and Intel.  It’s described as a “management principle that encourages healthy discussion and disagreement during the decision-making process, but that requires full support for a decision once made.”  Not walking away.  Not sabotage.  Not holding grudges or writing another person off.

The three words are “disagree and commit.”

Commitment is something we want.  We want to be committed to the kingdom of God, God being our helper.  While “disagree and commit” might have been popularized in the 80’s, the practice has been around for much longer.  We see in our story this morning a disagreement along with a commitment to a larger purpose.  We also see how a steadfast commitment to the work to which we are called together, particularly in the middle of our own plans amounting to very little or being thwarted completely, leads to new and unexpected leading by the Holy Spirit.  Let’s pray as we prepare to look at our story today.

We’re starting the 4th major turn toward Gentiles in our journey through Luke’s book of Acts.  The first was Peter going to visit Cornelius.  The second was the group of Hellenists or Greeks who were preached to at Antioch.  The third was the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas, which we have looked at here.  Now we’re coming to our 4^th, and we’ll spend a few weeks in it – the journey of Paul and Silas.

Which, of course, means that Paul and Barnabas are no longer operating as a team.  The band has broken up, as it were.  This is one of the great things about this book, which speaks of the Holy Spirit working in and through the church.  I find it heartening, particularly when you consider the troubles and disputes that can come up in churches.  Luke makes no effort to paper over or whitewash trouble, disputes, or disagreements.  Such as the one we have, as chapter 15 comes to an end.

Paul and Barnabas are planning to visit the towns they went to during their first trip – all the places they proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.  This is where the problem occurs.  Barnabas is on board, as they say.  He wants to bring along his cousin John Mark.  Paul does not want John Mark to come along.  John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia – “Then Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem.” (13:13). We’re not told why, but there’s an element of desertion here.  Barnabas wants to give him another chance.  Barnabas was all about second chances.  The son of encouragement.  Remember that he was the one who introduced the newly converted Paul to the believers in Jerusalem.  Perhaps Paul is hesitant as he remembers what happened in Lystra the last time.  Things got a little hot there.  Perhaps he feels he has no use for someone whose track record has shown him to be one to cut and run.

It’s called a disagreement, but it’s a little more than that.  The Greek word that’s used here is the same word from which we get “paroxysm.”  A sudden or violent expression of emotion or physical manifestation.  A paroxysm of laughter.  A paroxysm of coughing.  It was sharp.  Sudden.  Tempers no doubt flared.  “Don’t you remember what happened the last time?” on one side.  “You of all people should know something about second chances, and isn’t that what we’re supposed to be all about?” on the other side.  It’s not like either side is wrong necessarily, which makes it even more difficult.

They decide to go their separate ways.  Barnabas goes back to his home island of Cyprus, bringing John and Mark along.  Paul will continue on with Silas.  We’ll not hear any more from Barnabas or John Mark in this story, but that doesn’t mean, of course, that it’s the end of their story.  This is where they disagree and commit to things that come in.  Barnabas and Paul had a disagreement.  They were both committed, though, to the same thing.  They were both committed to the kingdom of God.  They were both committed to the spreading of the gospel – the good news of Jesus – and the upholding of communities of faith that had been established.  God uses this disagreement in a divide and conquer sort of way, as what was one missionary journey (or mission) becomes two.  They are committed to the same thing.

Speaking of second chances, this won’t be the last time we hear of John Mark.  John Mark is a great character to remind us of what life in Christ looks like post-failure.  It is thought that John Mark is the same John Mark who ran out of the garden without his clothes when Jesus was being arrested.  There are no ill feelings harboured here.  In fact, we read in Paul’s letter to Philemon (24) and the people of Colossae (Col 4:10) that John Mark will later join Paul.  Not only did he rejoin Paul, but he became a close and vital partner.  While in prison, Paul writes to Timothy, “do your best to come to me soon… Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me in ministry.” (2 Tim 4:11)  Paul will later ask for Mark to join him at one of the most difficult times of his life.

That is, as they say, another story.  For now, we have people coming into the story, people exiting the story, just as we have people entering and exiting our own stories and our church’s story.  Everything and everyone remains connected and committed to the cause of the Kingdom of God.  We see God taking a disagreement between Paul and Barnabas and turning it for good in a sort of divide and conquer way.  One planned journey becomes two.  Barnabas takes Mark with him and sails to Cyprus. 

Paul chooses Silas, and the believers at Antioch commend him to the grace of the Lord.  They go overland through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

When they return to Lystra, we find out that the ministry that has happened there has borne fruit in the person of Timothy.   The activity of the church is resulting in the formation of new leaders. His mother is a Jewish believer, his father is a Greek.  Growing up between these two worlds in a tough frontier town made him ideally suited for the work to which he is called here.  He is well spoken of by the believers of Lystra and Iconium.  He has a good reputation.  He had a sincere faith, and it showed.  Paul will write to him later and say, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” (2 Tim 1:5) You hear the phrase generational wealth a lot. Here we have generational faith and what is of more value in the kingdom of God – in the family of God?  Tell our young ones of God’s mighty acts of deliverance and show them what life in Christ looks like.  Pass it on and train up new leaders.  Paul will later write to Timothy, “You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.” (2 Tim 2:1-2)

Part of our task as followers of Christ is to be building up faithful leaders who will teach others.  Paul is living this as leaders are being raised up from within the church.  Timothy will go on to become like a son to Paul.  “My loyal child in the faith” is what Paul will call him in a letter.  How can we as a church encourage future leaders?  This is a question we must always be asking.

Timothy is circumcised.  This may seem odd in light of the Jerusalem Council’s decision.  The thing is, Timothy’s mother was Jewish.  Timothy was known, and this fact was known.  Paul did not want this to become a barrier for those to whom the team was presenting the good news.  We’ve said just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.  Conversely, just because you don’t have to do something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.  (Bolivian beer story)  They go from town to town delivering the news about what happened in Jerusalem.  The churches are strengthened in their faith and increase in numbers daily.

The final section of this hinge story takes our band into some pretty wild country.  They were forbidden by the Spirit to preach in Asia, which is the region to the south of what is modern-day Turkey (this is all happening in modern-day Turkey).  This means either that they planned to go through Asia and were prevented, or they were prevented from preaching while travelling through this region.  Either way, they move northwest through Phrygia and Galatia.  They’re on foot.  They’re heading into increasingly wild and mountainous territory.  Wandering into the unknown.  They attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.  They end up in Troas on the coast.

Now, this is a few verses, but it would have represented weeks if not months of travel on foot.  There’s no talk here of preaching and proclaiming happening.  Are we familiar in the church, with plans we had made or hoped for not coming to pass?  Are we familiar in the church, with struggling to be faithful – to be committed to continuing Christ’s work in the world – with seemingly not a lot to show for it? Moving into unknown territory while plans we had made are thrown out the window?  Are we familiar with this in our church life?  In our personal lives?  What do we do?

What do Paul and Silas and Timothy do?  They remain committed together.  They carry on in their journey, remaining open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Luke doesn’t tell us exactly what the guidance of the Spirit looked like for this group – whether it was in the Spirit forbidding them to speak the word in Asia or the Spirit not allowing them to go to Bithynia.    Sometimes the Spirit leads through dramatic visions.  Other times, not so dramatic.  The thing is that we seek the Spirit’s leading together.  No one was going along this unknown road alone.  Someone has put it like this – “For most of us, much of the time, the Spirit leads us quietly and obliquely.  Hopefully, we recognize that we have brothers and sisters as companions alongside us for when the way seems hard, and the direction is unsure.  It is easy to trust the Spirit’s guidance when the way is clear, but it is not so easy when we are being led down seemingly endless and unfamiliar roads. This is why fellow pilgrims are necessary.  Paul never travels alone.”

Neither do we.  We travel as pilgrim people together.  As we travel along together, dear Blythood Road Baptist Church, and face together all the unknowns and uncertainties the future may bring, may God keep this truth in our hearts.  We look for the Holy Spirit’s leading together.  The Holy Spirit has been known to lead the people of God to surprising places!  This passage ends with Paul having a vision of a man pleading to him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  This is going to result in the good news coming to what we call Europe today!

To what new destinations might God be calling us as the Blythwood Road Baptist Church family?  May we continue to seek the answers by the Spirit as we continue in prayers, the breaking of bread, the apostle’s teaching and fellowship.  May this be true for us all.