Holy Bible - Obsidian Study Guide

Paul's Second Missionary Journey

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Paul’s Second Missionary Journey

Overview

  • Testament: New
  • Book: Acts
  • Chapters: Acts 15:36-18:22
  • Summary: Paul and Silas depart Antioch to revisit the Galatian churches, are redirected by the Spirit to Macedonia via a vision, plant churches in Philippi (where Lydia and the Philippian jailer are converted), Thessalonica, Berea, and Corinth (where Paul spends eighteen months), before returning through Ephesus to Antioch — making this the journey that first brought the gospel to Europe.

Details

The second missionary journey begins in controversy. Paul proposed to Barnabas that they revisit the churches planted on the first journey, but “the contention was so sharp between them” over whether to take John Mark (who had departed at Perga) that Paul and Barnabas permanently parted ways (Acts 15:39). Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus; Paul chose Silas and traveled overland through Syria and Cilicia. The rupture, painful as it was, doubled the missionary enterprise. At Lystra, Paul circumcised young Timothy (whose mother was Jewish, whose father was Greek) and added him to the team — a pastoral decision to maximize Timothy’s access to synagogues, even as the council’s letter liberated Gentile converts from the same requirement.

The Holy Spirit’s direction was unusually specific on this journey. Paul and his companions were “forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia” and “the Spirit suffered them not” to enter Bithynia (Acts 16:6-7) — providential detours that drove them northwest to Troas. There, in a night vision, a man of Macedonia appeared to Paul and pleaded, “Come over into Macedonia, and help us” (Acts 16:9). The response was immediate: “immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them” (Acts 16:10). The shift from “they” to “we” at this verse indicates Luke himself joined the party at Troas.

At Philippi, a Roman colony in Macedonia, the first European converts are named and remarkable. On the Sabbath, Paul spoke to women gathered at a place of prayer by the river. Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from Thyatira, heard; “whose heart the Lord opened” (Acts 16:14); she was baptized with her household and pressed the missionaries to accept her hospitality. Then came crisis: Paul cast a spirit of divination out of a slave girl whose fortune-telling had made her owners rich. The owners dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates; the two were stripped, beaten with rods, and thrown into the inner prison with their feet in stocks. At midnight, “Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them” (Acts 16:25). An earthquake shook the prison; all the doors opened; every chain fell. The terrified jailer, on the verge of suicide, heard Paul cry out that all the prisoners were present. He fell trembling before them: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” — the plainest form of the great question in Acts. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31). The jailer’s household was baptized that night. In the morning, Paul revealed his Roman citizenship — obliging the magistrates to come and personally release them — a detail that established the church at Philippi on a footing of legal dignity.

At Thessalonica, Paul reasoned in the synagogue for three Sabbaths from the Scriptures, “opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead” (Acts 17:3). Many believed, but a riot organized by jealous Jews drove the missionaries to Berea, where the congregation is memorably praised: “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). Pressure from Thessalonica reached Berea too, and Paul was escorted to Athens, leaving Silas and Timothy to follow.

At Corinth, Paul spent eighteen months — his longest single stay in any city on any journey. He met Priscilla and Aquila, recent Jewish refugees from Rome (expelled by Claudius’s edict), worked with them as a tentmaker, and preached every Sabbath. Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, and the team’s presence intensified Paul’s preaching: “he testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ” (Acts 18:5). A Jewish opposition drove him from the synagogue, but a vision from the Lord assured him, “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city” (Acts 18:9-10). The proconsul Gallio’s refusal to adjudicate a charge of unlawful worship gave Paul’s ministry legal standing. The eighteen months at Corinth produced the letters of 1 and 2 Thessalonians — the earliest of Paul’s preserved correspondence — and rooted a church that would receive his longest and most systematic letter some years later.

Key People Involved

  • Paul (Apostle) — the journey’s driving figure; preacher, miracle-worker, Roman citizen, tentmaker
  • Silas — Paul’s companion throughout; with him in the Philippian prison at midnight prayer
  • Timothy — joined at Lystra; Paul’s “true son in the faith”; present through the journey’s major stops
  • Priscilla and Aquila — met at Corinth; partners in tentmaking; instructed Apollos; traveled with Paul to Ephesus

Key Places

  • Philippi — first European church; Lydia; the jailer; midnight hymns; Paul’s Roman citizenship asserted
  • Thessalonica — synagogue preaching; riot; 1 and 2 Thessalonians written here or from Corinth to this church
  • Athens — Paul at the Areopagus; preaching to philosophers; Dionysius and Damaris believe
  • Corinth — eighteen months; Priscilla and Aquila; Gallio’s ruling; the church that receives Romans later
  • Troas — the visionary crossing point; where the Macedonian call came
  • Macedonia — the region entered through the vision; the first territory of European Christianity

Important Verses

“Come over into Macedonia, and help us.” — Acts 16:9

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” — Acts 16:31

“They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” — Acts 17:11

“Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee.” — Acts 18:9-10

Cross-References

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