Chapter 21—In the Regions Beyond
This chapter is based on
Acts 16:7-40
.
The time had come for the gospel to be proclaimed beyond the
confines of Asia Minor. The way was preparing for Paul and his fellow
workers to cross over into Europe. At Troas, on the borders of the
Mediterranean Sea, “a vision appeared to Paul in the night: There
stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into
Macedonia, and help us.”
The call was imperative, admitting of no delay. “After he had
seen the vision,” declares Luke, who accompanied Paul and Silas and
Timothy on the journey across to Europe, “immediately we endeavored
to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called
us for to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore loosing from Troas,
we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to
Neapolis; and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that
part of Macedonia, and a colony.”
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“On the Sabbath,” Luke continues, “we went out of the city by a
riverside, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and
spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman
named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which wor-
shiped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened.” Lydia received
the truth gladly. She and her household were converted and baptized,
and she entreated the apostles to make her house their home.
As the messengers of the cross went about their work of teaching,
a woman possessed of a spirit of divination followed them, crying,
“These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto
us the way of salvation. And this did she many days.”
This woman was a special agent of Satan and had brought to
her masters much gain by soothsaying. Her influence had helped to
strengthen idolatry. Satan knew that his kingdom was being invaded,
and he resorted to this means of opposing the work of God, hoping
to mingle his sophistry with the truths taught by those who were pro-
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