Macedonia

You know, there is a major discussion in church news, and we talk about the out...

the, uh, recent articles from Greek Macedonian hierarchs, all about the, uh, all about the ecclesial situation, and of course, all about the, uh, how of course the Ecumenical Patriarch does not have the exclusive right to just issue Tomos of Autocephaly wherever they please, and that it is ultimately the prerogative of the mother church of each autonomous jurisdiction to, uh, give them autocephaly.

That would then be received by the whole church.

We have $5 from Andrew Palamas.

So many of the Christians in Rome, not all of them, but many of the Christians in Rome probably would have crossed paths with Paul or the other apostles at a variety of places, whether in the Holy Land or somewhere in the greater Greek world.

Today, the nations of Macedonia, which today is called North Macedonia, but Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey, Romans 16 is Paul's longest list of greetings by far.

Most of Paul's letters end with him saying, say hi to Joe, say hi to Jenny, and oh, by the way, Bill says hi.

So usually, and obviously I made those names up, but there's usually...

And it was certainly a brave act, but tragically it did not end well for Tyre, as he was quickly captured, convicted, and hanged for it.

but the bigger event occurred the same day down in Aegean Macedonia in the city of Drama.

There, the Greek resistance movements decided during the night of the 28th that they would begin a coordinated series of attacks on municipal and police infrastructure used by Bulgarian forces.

Attacks were carried out by both Greek and Slavic speakers within the movement and managed to kill around six Bulgarian police officers and at the same time proclaimed a new people's government.

But I was back in Acts this morning, actually, and I was in Acts 16, interestingly enough, right before Acts 17.

And I came across again, the story of Paul's vision of the Macedonian man, which really struck hard to my experience.

And it's verse six in chapter 16.

And it says, they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in the province of Asia.

He did not have a dream, which again is very important in my own experience.

But a vision appeared to Paul during the night.

A Macedonian man was standing there urging him, come over to Macedonia and help us.

After Paul saw the vision, we attempted immediately to go over to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

The journey took an unexpected turn when the Holy Spirit prevented Paul from preaching in several regions of Asia Minor.

During the night, Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia asking for help.

Interpreting this as a divine call, they immediately decided to go to Macedonia, starting with the city of Philippi, a Roman colony.

In Philippi, on the Sabbath, they went to a place of prayer by the river, where they met Lydia, a seller of purple fabrics and a God-fearing woman.

Paul's message deeply touched Lydia, and the Lord opened her heart to accept the gospel.

She and all of her household were baptized, marking the beginning of Paul's mission in Macedonia and the continued expansion of Christianity across cultural and geographical boundaries.

During their mission in Philippi, Paul and Silas encountered a situation that would further test their faith and resilience.

As they were going to the place of prayer, they met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination.

That journey, by the way, that started, let's see, back in 21.

Was it chapter 21 or Macedonia, Greece, Ephesus, on to Jerusalem, chapter 21.

He goes on to Jerusalem, arrives in Jerusalem.

He's arrested in Jerusalem in chapter 21.

And although other writers say they also had a shield, I do not know, for the reasons given above, how the sarissae and the shield could exist together.

In addition to this, in the engagement that Paulus Aemilius had with Perseus, King of Macedonia, I do not remember a mention being made of shields, but only of the sarissae and the difficulty the Romans had in overcoming them.

So that I conjecture that a Macedonian phalanx was nothing else than a battalion of Swiss is today, who have all their strength and power in their pikes.

The Romans, in addition to the arms, ornamented the infantry with plumes, which things make the sight of an army beautiful to friends and terrible to the enemy.

The arms for men on horseback in the original ancient Roman army was a round shield, and they had the head covered but the rest of the body without armor.

Whence it results that in the former men of virtue are raised, in the latter they are extinguished.

Whoever, therefore, considers the part of Europe will find it to have been full of republics and principalities, which from the fear one had of the other were constrained to keep alive their military organizations and honor those who greatly prevailed in them.

For in Greece, in addition to the kingdoms of the Macedonians, there were many republics, and many most excellent men arose in each of them.

He was ready to minister.

And all of a sudden, He gets a Macedonian call and he leaves and goes over further east into Macedonia.

Macedonia is this northern area of Greece.

If he's in Troas right there, he travels further east, takes a short boat ride, maybe a day or two, and gets up to Macedonia.