SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY
Scripture, Acts 15:36-18:22
The Inception—After the Jerusalem Council Paul returned to Antioch where he spent some time, "teaching and preaching the Word of the Lord with many others also." "And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the Word of the Lord, and see how they do" (Acts 15:35, 36). He felt that he must be advancing the work of Jesus Christ.
The Companions (Acts 15:37-40).—Barnabas proposed to take John Mark, his nephew, with them on this second journey. But Paul strenuously objected, basing his objection on the ground that this young man had deserted them (Acts 13:13) at a very important juncture in the first journey. We are told that the contention was very sharp between Barnabas and Paul over this matter. It was finally settled by Barnabas taking John Mark and sailing for the island of Cyprus and Paul choosing Silas for his companion. When Paul came to Derbe and Lystra Timotheus was invited to join him, which he did (Acts 16:1-4). Luke, the author of the Acts, goes with this company into Macedonia (Acts 16:10). We can trace Luke's connection with the missionaries by the "we" passages.
That Paul was afterwards reconciled to Barnabas and John Mark is shown by his kindly mention of them in his Epistles (1 Cor. 9:6; Col. 4:10; 2 Tim 4:11; Philem. 24).
The Wide Scope is a marked feature of this journey of about 3,200 miles.
The first journey was through Cyprus, where Barnabas was well acquainted, and through that section of Asia Minor roundabout the province of Cilicia, where Paul was practically at home. Paul was born in Tarsus in Cilicia and it was to this region that he went for some part of the time between his conversion and his call to the missionary work (Acts 9:30; Gal. 1:21).
The second journey carries Paul into entirely, to him, new provinces of Asia Minor and into Macedonia and Achaia. He comes into close contact not only with the rough native populations of the Asian provinces but with the cultivated philosophers of Greece and the effeminate voluptuaries of the heathen temples. Here are new tests for this missionary and the gospel which he preaches, but he meets them all. This journey had a large significance for the spread of Christianity. Had the gospel failed to meet the wants of all sorts and conditions of men, there would have been no further triumphs for it.
Value to the World.—"This journey was not only the greatest which Paul achieved but perhaps the most momentous recorded in the annals of the human race. In its issues it far outrivalled the expedition of Alexander the Great when he carried the arms and civilization of Greece into the heart of Asia, or that of Cæsar when he landed on the shores of Britain, or even the voyage of Columbus when he discovered a new world."
To Paul's turning westward, instead of eastward, through the guidance of the Spirit, and his entering upon his work in Macedonia (Acts 16:7-11) Europe to-day owes her advancement and Christian civilization. It is stating a sober fact when it is asserted that without Christianity Europeans would now be worshipping idols, the same as the inhabitants of other sections of the world where the gospel of Christ has not been made known.