The general extent and purpose of Paul’s missionary journeys appears in Romans 15:18-24: “From Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ,” with the ambition that as many as possible of those who had not yet seen or heard of Him might see and understand.
In these journeys we find the apostle attended by special guidance, special opposition and special companions. The guidance was that of the Holy Spirit. Note the repeated proofs of His personality in the narrative. At the very first it was He who said, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” They set out, “conducted by the Holy Ghost.”
On the second journey, He who had first called them is found restraining and controlling their movements. For what providential purpose was it that Paul was compelled to pass by Ephesus, “forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia,” until Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth had received the gospel message? Three years are spent in Ephesus on the third journey. Why must it be omitted on the second? We may not be able to assign a reason, but the fact is worth noticing. The prohibition to preach in Bithynia is remarkable for the words in which it is given: “The Spirit of Jesus suffered them not.” So the words are read by critical editors of the Greek text. The expression is unique, but furnishes a beautiful illustration of the promise, ” Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age.”
On the third journey, the guidance of the same Spirit appears in a fresh aspect. “The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.” The prophets “said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.” It is not a little remarkable that the apostle deliberately, and it would seem rightly, rejected the warning. But its force and purpose appear in the charge to the elders at Miletus. What else could have pointed the apostle’s warnings like this witness of the Spirit? “I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no longer.” Not that they would never see him again–but for the present their conversation was closed.
In regard to this guidance, the behavior of the apostle is noticeable. He never planned or purposed according to the flesh–that the yea and nay of his proceedings should rest with him. He left it to the providence of God, and the mind of the Spirit, to settle where he should go. When the door was open he would enter. But even in the contention, or irritation, when Paul was parted from Barnabas, the work of the Lord was the thing for which the apostle contended; not his own personal predilections.
The special opposition of Satan to the apostle’s progress must not be overlooked either. “Satan hindered us,” he writes to Thessalonica. “I was greatly hindered,” and “I was let hitherto,” he writes to the Romans. Elymas, the sorcerer, and the spirit of divination at Philippi, and the messenger of Satan to buffet him, were manifestations of the same power. Special efforts must meet with special opposition; otherwise it would be impossible to say, “I have fought the good fight” (comp. Mk. 4:37-41; 5:1-20).
Nor must the human companionship provided for the apostle be forgotten. First Barnabas, then Silas and Timothy, and, not least, Luke. It has been observed that Luke, to whom we owe the history in the Acts, seems to have a special connection with Philippi. At the beginning of Paul’s first visit to Macedonia, the “we” of the narrative (Acts 16:10) first indicates the presence of the narrator, who seems to have remained at Philippi; for when the Philippian magistrate released Paul and Silas, “they comforted the brethren and departed.” Similarly in the last journey to Jerusalem, “We sailed away from Philippi” (Acts 20:6). The details of Paul’s sojourn at Philippi, as also of that last journey, are given with a peculiar precision in the one case, and a loving interest in the other. Every magistrate in Macedonia has his proper official name. Every day of that last journey is chronicled, and sometimes even the hours.
Other points of interest (and they are almost innumerable) can only be glanced at. The curious adaptation of the several speeches to the audiences whom Paul addressed is a wonderful testimony to the varied powers of the man. Contrast the speech on Areopagus with the sermon at Antioch in Pisidia; the address to the mob at Lystra with the charge to the Ephesian elders; the speeches before Festus and Agrippa with that delivered at Jerusalem from the castle stairs.
Perhaps no man ever possessed more power of throwing himself into the present situation, while not forgetting those absent, than the apostle Paul. The “care of all the churches” was no mere phrase with him. For this vivid realization of the unseen, whether on earth or in heaven, he had special assistance from the Holy Spirit. May not we also seek to widen the range of our affections by the same hallowed influence? Though so far above us, the heart of the apostle vibrates to every feeling of our nature. “Who is weak, and am I not weak?” Who is so dependent on the “Spirit of Jesus” to labor in the midst of infirmities? In universal sympathy he was, perhaps, nearer than all others to his Master. In this part of “the way of surpassing excellence” (a way more life-long than all his journeys) we may hear him say to us, “Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ.”
–From A Handbook to the Epistles of St. Paul