Paul's 4th Missionary Journey

There has been a teaching going around the grace movement that is incorrect. The teaching is as follows:

In 1st Corinthians 13 Paul said,

“8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”

The incorrect teaching is this:

“That which is perfect is when all the scriptures for the bible were written and completed.”

This is incorrect. I do not know who started this teaching, but it seems to have been passed down from generation to generation of grace believers.

They teach that tongues was done away when Paul finished writing his letters. They teach that “that which is perfect” is the completed canon of scripture. This is not possible. Tongues and all those miraculous powers that God handed out ceased when Paul got to Rome.

“That which is perfect”, is a revelation that Paul received when he got to Rome that we can know the love of Christ and that this was God’s eternal purpose that he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. This article will explain:

http://www.gracebiblestudy.net/God%27sEternalPurpose.html

Now if you have your doubts about, “That which is perfect” that is quite alright, but it is very easy to prove that, “that which is perfect” is not the completed canon of scripture. There is a teaching that disproves that and it’s called Paul’s 4th Missionary Journey.

If you look in the back of your bible you will probably find a few maps and maybe you will have a map of the missionary journeys of the apostle Paul. They will show three missionary journeys, which take place during the book of Acts and more than likely they will show Paul’s trip to Rome.

Paul’s trip to Rome is NOT his 4th missionary journey. That is his trip to Rome.

The first three missionary journeys of Paul are very easy to locate in the book of Acts, but Paul’s 4th missionary journey is hidden deep in his latter epistles that he wrote after he got to Rome. Many refer to these as his prison epistles, which is an incorrect term also because 1st Timothy and Titus were not written while he was in prison.

Paul went to Rome and was imprisoned and then was released and then imprisoned again. While he was released, he had a 4th missionary journey.

So let’s travel deep into the latter epistles of the apostle Paul and see his 4th missionary journey.

In Acts 28 Paul gets to Rome. When he gets here he receives “that which is perfect” which is also known as “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.”

Paul wrote the book of Romans while he was in Greece in Acts 20. In Romans 15 he says,

“29 And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.”

Now whatever the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ is, he knows he is going to have it when he gets to Rome. Paul was also told, “When that which is perfect is come. That which is in part shall be done away.”

When Paul gets to Rome he receives “that which is perfect” which is also referred to as:

1.The fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ in Romans 15.
2.The manifold wisdom of God in Ephesians 3
3.God’s eternal purpose in Ephesians 3.
4.The fellowship of the mystery in Ephesians 3

When Paul received this revelation when he got to Rome, tongues and all those other miraculous powers such as healing, miracles, raising the dead and such were done away with. Paul was told a long time ago they would stop when that which is perfect would come, and when he got it they stopped just like he said they would.

So let’s start with Paul where the book of Acts leaves him: in Rome in prison (his own hired house). In Acts 28 it says,

“30 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,

31 Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.”

This is where Luke stops the book of Acts. If we are to learn anymore about where and when Paul went anywhere we will have to look in Paul’s epistles.

Now first let’s look back at why Paul went to Rome in the first place. In Acts 25 it says,

“10 Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest.

11 For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die: but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar.

12 Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go.”

So Paul, being a Roman by birth, had the right to appeal unto Caesar. So Paul was sent to Rome to stand trial before Caesar. When he gets to Rome, Luke ends the book of Acts with Paul being in Rome for two years waiting for his trial before Caesar.

While Paul is waiting for his trial he writes four epistles and sends them out. He writes Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.

Now to show Paul was still bound in prison let’s cover the verses in these epistles that do so.
In Ephesians 6 it says,

“19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

20 For which I am an ambassador in BONDS: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”

In Philippians 1 it says,

“13 So that my BONDS in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;”

In Colossians 4,

“18 The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my BONDS. Grace be with you. Amen.

In Philemon,

“10 I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my BONDS:”

So without a shadow of a doubt, the apostle Paul is in bonds when he writes these epistles.

Now we should note whom Paul used to send these epistles:

In Ephesians 6,

“21 But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:

22 Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts.”

Philippians 2,

“25 Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.”

Colossians 4,

“7 All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord:

8 Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts;

9 With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here.”

Philemon

“10 I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds:

11 Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me:

12 Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels:”

So we see here that Paul sends Epaphroditus to Philippi. Philippi is kind of out of the way compared to the other epistles he sent. Now Ephesus, Colosse and Laodicea are fairly close to one another and Paul send Tychicus and Onesimus to these cities.

Now if you are wondering why Laodicea is one of the cities, we need to go to Colossians 4 which says,

“16 And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.

17 And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.”

These two verses tell us that Archippus lives in Laodicea and when we read the book of Philemon it says,

“1 Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer,

2 And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house:”

Even though this epistle is titled “To Philemon” it is actually written to Philemon, Apphia, Archippus and the church in his house. And where does Archippus live? In Laodicea. The epistle to Philemon is the epistle to the Laodiceans that Paul refers to in Colossians 4.

So Philemon lived in Laodicea, thus why we have the city of Laodicea as one of the cities the epistles were written to.

Now let’s start covering scripture where Paul was planning to go when he was released. Now remember, Paul was waiting for his trial before Caesar. In Philippians 2 it says,

“23 Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.

24 But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.”

In verse 23 Paul says, “…so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.” Paul knows he is awaiting his trial but he also feels the outcome will be in his favor for in verse 24 he says, “But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.”

So from verse 24 we can see that Paul expects to be released and when he does, he plans to go to the city of Philippi.

Now let’s go to Philemon. In verse 22 Paul tells Philemon,

“22 But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.”

Once again, Paul expects to be released and tells Philemon to prepare him a lodging for Paul intends to go see him and stay with him. From the previous verses we covered we saw that Philemon lives in Laodicea, so while Paul is still imprisoned he makes plans to go to the cities of Philippi and Laodicea when he is released.

Now before we get into the harder things, let’s cover some easy stuff first. Paul was released and while he is released he wrote the books of 1st Timothy and Titus. If you take a quick read through these books you will not find anywhere that Paul is bound, but rather that he is moving about.

In Titus 3, Paul tells Titus,

“12 When I shall send Artemas unto thee, or Tychicus, be diligent to come unto me to Nicopolis: for I have determined there to winter.”

Here Paul tells Titus that he has determined to spend the winter in Nicopolis.

In Titus 1 he tells him,

“5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:”

For Paul to LEAVE him at Crete, Paul had to be there also, if Paul wasn’t there then he would have just sent him to Crete but the scripture says he left him in Crete.

Now in 2nd Timothy Paul is back in prison and he knows he is about to die, once again he indicates that he is bound. In chapter 2 he says,

“9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.”

But even though Paul is bound, he tells us of the places he has been. In chapter 4 he says,

“20 Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.”

So once again Paul tells us here where he had been by telling us he left Trophimus at Miletum.

These were some of the easy places to see where Paul went on his 4th missionary journey, now let’s get even deeper into the holy scriptures and see some of the other places he went.

Back in 1st Timothy 1 Paul told Timothy,

“3 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,”

Now this one is an event. Paul said,

“3 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia,…”

The event here is that Timothy stayed in Ephesus as Paul went into Macedonia. Let’s look at this on a map:

http://www.gracebiblestudy.net/images/Charts/TimothyStays.jpg

What we have to do here is to prove that this event did not take place on any of his 3 missionary journeys in the book of Acts.

Well, it is easy to see that this event did not take place on his first missionary journey for Timothy was not with him yet neither did Paul go into Macedonia.

On Paul’s second journey it could not have happened either, for when he left Ephesus he went to Caesarea, not Macedonia.

On Paul’s third journey when he was in Ephesus he sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia and Paul stayed in Asia. In Acts 19 it says,

“22 So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season.”

So this event on his third journey is exactly opposite of what he says in 1st Timothy which says that he told Timothy to abide in Ephesus as he went into Macedonia but on his third journey it says that Paul stayed in Ephesus as Timothy went into Macedonia. Exactly opposite.

So this event in 1st Timothy 1:3 did not happen on his first, second or third journeys. This even happened on his 4th missionary journey after he was released from prison.

So it looks like Paul was in Ephesus and went into Macedonia on his 4th journey.

Here is yet another. In 2nd Timothy 4 Paul tells Timothy,

“13 The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.”

Now this one takes even more thought. The last time it is recorded that Paul was in Troas was in Acts chapter 20 before he went to Rome.

After Paul was captured in Jerusalem he was imprisoned in Caesarea for two years. In Acts 24 it says,

“27 But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix' room: and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.”

Sometime after this Paul went to Rome and in Acts 28 we see Paul waiting another two years in Rome. In Acts 28 it says,

“30 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,”

So what we have here is a very minimum of 4 years between the time Paul left Troas and was released from prison. When he writes 2nd Timothy it had to be at least 1 or 2 years after he was released with as many cities he traveled to.

Now here is the question:

Why would Paul need a cloak that he left at a city more than 5 years ago? And what about the books and the parchments?

He dwelt in Nicopolis for the winter while he was released, don’t you think he would have gotten a new cloak by then? And what about the books and the parchments? Why would they be so important now if he was without them for over 5 years?

Conclusion:

Paul was in Troas on his 4th missionary journey. The cloak, books and parchments were recently left in Troas.

It is very possible that Troas was the place that Paul was recaptured and he was taken so suddenly that he could not gather his stuff.

So what we have done so far is taken what Paul has told us of the places he had planned to go and of the places that he said he went to. Here’s the list:

Philippi
Laodicea
Nicopolis
Crete
Miletum
Ephesus
Troas

Now let’s mark all these places on a map.

http://www.gracebiblestudy.net/images/Charts/4thJourney.jpg

Even though it is not listed in the book of Acts, by digging deep into Paul’s latter epistles we can clearly see that he was released from prison and had a 4th missionary journey.

Paul was released from prison for a very specific reason. His ministry was not finished. When he got to Rome Paul received that which is perfect, the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. It was revealed unto the apostle Paul God’s eternal purpose that he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, that we could know the love of Christ and be filled with all the fullness of God.

The Lord allowed the apostle Paul to finish his ministry and make the preaching fully known by Paul’s own mouth rather than his companions in the ministry. In 2nd Timothy 4 Paul said,

“16 At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.

17 Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”

Now whether you want to call the mouth of the lion, Paul escaping the death penalty and being released from prison or whatever else you think it might be, the main point here is that Paul said,

“…that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear:”

It wasn’t by Timothy or Titus or any of his other fellow laborers in Christ Jesus. It was by the apostle Paul that the preaching was made fully known, that the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ was delivered unto the Gentiles by the apostle Paul himself by the Lord allowing him one last journey.

When you see Paul’s 4th missionary journey, you can see it is not possible for that which is perfect to be the completion of the holy scriptures. When Paul got to Rome he received that which is perfect, that we could know the love of Christ and that this was God’s eternal purpose that he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is when tongues ceased along with all of those other miraculous powers.

After Paul received this, he wrote about it and told us about it in the book of Ephesians. So he received it before he wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon.

Then he was released from prison and went on another journey and while he was on this journey he wrote 1st Timothy and Titus.

And then Paul was put back in prison and before he died he wrote 2nd Timothy.

The apostle Paul received that which is perfect before he ever wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, 1st Timothy, Titus or 2nd Timothy. Once again, he tells us about it in the book of Ephesians.

There is simply no possible way for “that which is perfect” to be the completion of scripture. Paul lost his power to heal before he ever went on his 4th journey.

Before he got to Rome he could heal Barbarians on an island. In Acts 28 it says,

“1 And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita.

2 And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.”

And as we skip down to verse 8,

“8 And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him.

9 So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed:”

So before Paul got to Rome he could heal barbarians on an island. Now you have to understand that these were not bible believing Christians on this island, they were barbarians, but yet Paul could heal them.

But when Paul writes Philippians he says in chapter 2,

“25 Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.

26 For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.

27 For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.”

Here we have a servant of the Lord, Epaphroditus, that became very ill and almost died. Now Paul said the Lord had mercy on him and he recovered but it does not say that Paul healed him. I realize that this is not very convincing but other scriptures to follow are more solid.

In 1st Timothy 5 Paul told Timothy,

“23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.”

Timothy had some kind of a stomach ailment and was sick quite often.

Why didn’t Paul just heal him? Because Paul could not because he did not have the power to do so anymore and neither did any of his fellowlaborers in Christ.

In 2nd Timothy 4 Paul said,

“20 Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.”

Once again, Paul has a fellowservant that was so sick that he had to quit traveling and Paul left him at Miletum. This happened on Paul’s 4th journey before he wrote 2nd Timothy.

Why didn’t Paul just lay his hands on Trophimus and heal him? Couldn’t Paul heal barbarians? Why couldn’t he heal a servant of the Lord? Because Paul no longer had the power to do so. Paul said,

“10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”

Paul lost the power to heal right after he got to Rome and received that which is perfect. Paul teaches us about, “that which is perfect, which is the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ, which is the fellowship of the mystery, which is God’s eternal purpose, which is the manifold wisdom of God, which is to know the love of Christ,” when he writes the book of Ephesians.

After Paul received that which is perfect and lost the power to speak in tongues, heal, do miracles and such, he wrote his latter epistles, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, 1st Timothy, Titus, and 2nd Timothy.

Let’s look at this on a chart:

http://www.gracebiblestudy.net/images/Charts/ThatWhichIsPerfect.jpg

There is absolutely no way that, “that which is perfect” is the completed canon of scripture. Paul wrote 7 epistles after he received that which is perfect and tongues ceased.

In conclusion:

We can easily see by the scriptures from this study that Paul did indeed have a 4th missionary journey after he was released from prison and he preached the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Paul made the preaching fully known. Once again in 2nd Timothy 4,

“17 Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”