Acts 16:6-10

Calls for help come in a variety of ways. The person with car trouble will pull his car off to the side of the road, prop up his hood and wait for a Good Samaritan to offer his help. I had kind of forgotten about his one but the baby who wants to get out of the crib or who needs a diaper change or who is hungry will cry and cry until mom or dad comes in to get him. The third grader who needs help with a math assignment may simply set his book on your lap with a confusing look in his eye. The teenager who gets mixed up in the wrong crowd and who starts using drugs and alcohol cries out for help as he becomes distant, indifferent and rebellious.

Calls for help. Calls for help that come in a variety of ways. How about this one?  . . . – – – . . . ? Need to hear it again? It’s Morse code. Three dits, 3 dahs, 3 dits. It’s been an international distress code for ships since the early 1900’s. It wasn’t until years later that the letters S.O.S. were actually attached to the dits and the dahs and that S.O.S. was recognized as a universal cry for help even without the use of Morse code. So it really wasn’t until years later that meanings like Save Our Ship or Save Our Sailors got attached to the letters S.O.S. Well, this morning, we come across a cry for help – an S.O.S. – in the Book of Acts chapter 16.

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

The events of the sermon text took place after the initial leg of Paul’s second missionary journey. Paul and Silas had started this missionary journey by revisiting many of the congregations that they had established on their first missionary journey – congregations in Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. Paul wanted to stop and check in on them. He wanted to see how things were going. He wanted to encourage them. He wanted to strengthen them in the Word of God. After visiting those cities where congregations had already been established the question then became where do we go from here? Where can we go now to proclaim the Gospel? There were several options before them. As they explored those options, however, it became clear that God had other plans for them and that the Holy Spirit would be the one who would be directing them. When they tried to go west, we are told that they were “kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the Word in the province of Asia.”  When they tried to go north we are told that “the Spirit of Jesus [a reference to the Holy Spirit] would not allow them to.”

It would be interesting to know how God prevented them from going into those areas. God may have spoken to them directly. He may have spoken to them indirectly through the advice of others or even through circumstances that convinced Paul that these areas were a no-go, at least for the time being. The fact of the matter is we’re simply not told how God prevented them; simply that he did. God guided these missionaries to take the Gospel where he wanted it to go. He did that with an S.O.S. – a cry for help . . . not a cry for physical help or for financial help or for emotional help or for medical help or for social help but for spiritual help. This spiritual cry for help – this S.O.S. – came in a vision, a vision that Paul had of a man from Macedonia begging him to come to them.

A cry for spiritual help . . . perhaps because of another S.O.S. – an S.O.S. we talk about in confirmation class, the S.O.S. of the Law. The S.O.S. of the Law states that the Law Shows Our Sins. What sins had the mirror of God’s Holy Law exposed in the hearts and minds and words and lives of these Macedonians, sins that had made them realize that they were in desperate need of help? Was it pride – a pride that had insisted that they were good enough on their own and that they needed no Savior? Was it selfishness – a selfishness that had made them greedy and discontent? Was it idolatry – an idolatry that had broken not only the First Commandment but also the Sixth as well? Could it have been the sin of trying to add works to God’s free grace? Was this vision simply God’s way of telling Paul that there were many in Macedonia who were drowning in unbelief? We’re not told. We’re simply told that the man in this vision cried out, “Help us!” They were in danger spiritually.

Maybe there’s a little Morse code of our own that each of us should be pounding out (. . . – – – . . .), a little S.O.S. of our own, our own spiritual cry for help . . . Save Our Souls. The S.O.S. of the Law has the same effect on us; it shows us our sins – sins of doubt and frustration and indifference reflected in our attitudes toward the cries for help that come to us. Doubt – we see someone who is living in sin . . . “oh, what good will it do to bring this up? He won’t listen. He won’t change. Nothing I say will do any good.” (As if God’s Word doesn’t have the power to change hearts.) Frustration – we see that same skeptic every Thanksgiving at our dinner table or every day at work . . . “oh, how many times can I reach out to him? I’ve done all I can with that person. I can’t do any more.” Indifference – we see someone drowning in the sea of unbelief . . . “oh, someone else will throw him a life preserver, someone else will share Jesus with him, maybe tomorrow when I’m more in the mood I’ll reach out to him.”

Firefighters don’t question whether or not water will put out fire – from experience they know it does. Firefighters don’t complain every time the alarm goes off – they quickly spring into action. Firefighters don’t wait for the fire to come to the fire station – they race to the scene. Dear Christian, like a firefighter who heard the alarm go off inside the fire station and who slid down the fire pole so that he could quickly put on his gear and speed off to the rescue in his emergency vehicle with the sirens roaring, Jesus responded to our spiritual S.O.S. – our repentant cries for help. He came from heaven to earth, putting on human flesh, to rescue us from sin and death. The thing about Jesus, though, is that we didn’t need to beg and plead him to come to our rescue. He had in mind to do that all along.

He had in mind to come to this earth as a human being – God in human flesh – for one reason and one reason alone. “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus rushed not into a burning building but he battled a fire that none of us will ever have to see. He fought the fires of hell on the cross – and he put those fires out – not with water from a hose but with his holy, precious blood that he shed for you and for me and for the whole world. Yes, battling that fire cost him his life – that was just how determined and dedicated he was to save us from sin. But Jesus took that life up again. Lest we, on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, forget, Jesus rose from the dead. Lest we forget, “Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in him will live even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in him will never die.”

S.O.S. – not only is it a cry for help it is also a call to help. Jesus answered the call to help us . . . another S.O.S., if you will . . . another S.O.S. that we talk about in confirmation class . . . the S.O.S. of the Gospel. The S.O.S. of the Gospel Shows Our Savior. The Gospel shows us that Jesus lived up to his name – he saved his people (he saved us) from our sins. Fully aware of this Paul was not only ready to respond to this Macedonian man’s cry for help but he also knew that he had to act quickly. Luke tells us, “After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them.” Since this was a call from God and a call for spiritual help these men responded with a sense of urgency. The left Asia and, for the first time, crossed over onto the continent of Europe.