在夜间有异象现与保罗。有一个马其顿人站着求他说：“请你过到马其顿来帮助我们。”
保罗既看见这异象，我们随即想要往马其顿去，以为神召我们传福音给那里的人听。 （使徒行传 16:9-10）
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当保罗和他的一小群宣教士团队来到特罗亚时，上述的记载是他们在那里活动的唯一记录。
特别的事件，是保罗在夜间看到了异象。
我不太确定为什么指它是一个异象而不是一个“异梦”。也许保罗还没有睡着，他完全清醒，并看到了异象。
通常当圣经描述异象时，通常在那个时候，那个人是完全清醒的。对于异梦，这个人是睡着了。
神说一次、两次，世人却不理会。人躺在床上沉睡的时候，神就用梦和夜间的异象（约伯记 33:14-15）。(Indeed, God speaks in one way, even in two, yet someone does not perceive it. In a dream, a vision of the night, when a deep sleep falls on men slumbering on their bed. )
“梦是夜晚的景象” (Dream = Vision of the Night)
保罗是不是睡着了并非重点，重要的是他知道神在异像中对他说话。
异象里的景象，是看到一个男人，马其顿人（希腊人），请他来帮助他们。
马其顿在今天的希腊北部。它是亚历山大大帝的故乡。
让我们回顾历史
- 在古代时期（公元前 6 世纪之前）小亚细亚的西海岸也是希腊人的聚居地，被称为爱奥尼亚（Ionia）。
- 然后随着波斯帝国的发展，居鲁士大帝于公元前 547 年征服了希腊人居住的爱奥尼亚地区。
- 在古典时期（公元前 5 世纪和 4 世纪），希波战争仍在继续。波斯人将从东方出发，一路向西，来到特罗亚地区，然后穿越赫勒斯滂海峡(Hellespont)向西进发。
- 公元前334年，亚历山大大帝力挽狂澜，同样渡过赫勒斯滂海峡，来到特罗亚半岛，然后向东进发，最终征服了波斯帝国。
- 然后开始了300年的希腊化文化。
特罗亚是东西方的交汇点。
这个异象的重要之处，在于它是关于马其顿的。在犹太人眼中是一个外邦人。这个呼召是专门针对希腊人的，这是一个非犹太人的族群。
这标志着一个新开始
今天大多数基督徒都是非犹太人。只有一小部分是犹太信徒，弥赛亚信徒（全世界 24 亿基督徒中约只有 350,000 人，约占 0.014%）。
我们通常不会对传教工作或接触非犹太人，会感到有任何不寻常的事情。我们今天认为，福音是应该传给所有国家和所有种族，这是理所当然的。
但在使徒行传的时代，情况并非如此。早期基督徒走到这个阶段，在发展上经历了很多步骤。
也许彼得的话代表了当时犹太人的想法：“你们知道，犹太人和别国的人亲近来往本是不合例的。” （使徒行传 10:28）。神借着重复 3 次的异象，向彼得传达一个信息：“神已经指示我，无论什么人都不可看作俗而不洁净的。”（使徒行传 10:28b）。
那么，福音该如何传给外邦人呢？
And a vision appeared to Paul during the night: a certain Macedonian man was standing there and imploring him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and6 help us!”
And when he had seen the vision, we wanted at once to go away to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. (Acts 16:9-10)
When Paul and his small band of missionary team arrived in Troas, the above statement was the only record of their activities there.
The particular event was Paul, he caught a vision during the night.
I am not sure why it specified that it was a vision and not a "dream". Perhaps Paul was not sleeping yet, he was fully awake and caught the vision.
Usually, when the Bible describes a vision, it is in the day time, the person was fully conscious. And for a dream, the person would be sleeping.
Indeed, God speaks in one way, even in two, yet someone does not perceive it. In a dream, a vision of the night, when a deep sleep falls on men slumbering on their bed. (Job 33:14-15)
"A Dream is a Vision of the Night"
Whether Paul was sleeping or not is not the point, but he perceived that God is speaking to him through the vision.
The vision was a man, a Macedonian man, asking him to come to help them.
Macedon is in today's Northern part of Greece. It was the home country of Alexander the Great.
Let us take a look into the history.
- During the Archaic period (Before 6th cent BCE) the western coast of the Asia Minor was Greek, known as Ionia.
- Then as the Persians gained power, Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek-inhabited region of Ionia in 547 BC.
- For the classical Period (5th & 4th Cent BCE), the Greco-Persian Wars continued. The Persians would come from the East, and march up to this Troas region and across the Hellespont to venture west.
- Alexander the Great in 334 B.C.E would reverse the tide, cross the Hellespont, and come here to the Troas peninsular, then venture east, and eventually would conquer the Perian Empire.
- Then started the 300 years of Hellenistic Culture.
Troas was indeed the place where the East meet the West.
What is important about the vision is that it was about Macedonia, a foreign Gentile race in the eyes of a Jew. The calling was specifically to the Greeks, an ethnic group distinct from the Jews.
This Marks a New Phrase.
Most Christians are non-Jews today. Only a small fraction are Jewish believers, Messianic believers (of about 350,000 out of 2.4 billion Christians in the world, approximately 0.014% ).
We normally would not think twice about anything unusual about missionary work nor about reaching the non-Kews, we think it is taken for granted that Gospel should be to all nations and races.
But it was not like this in the time of the Acts. It took many steps in the history of development for the early Christians to arrive at this stage.
Perhaps the statement by Peter presented the Jewish thinking of those times: And he said to them, “You know that it is forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or to approach a foreigner." (Acts 10:28). God had to convey a solution to Peter via a vision repeated 3 times: And Peter said to them, “ And to me, God has shown that I should call no man common or unclean." (Acts 10:28b).
