Cry for help

A very simple observation: help = preach the gospel.

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:9-10)

There are a lot of very interesting things about this incident but I just want to highlight this one - that Paul and his companions (to whom he presumably relates the vision) conclude not only that this is God's means of calling them to Macedonia but also that the help which is being called for is preaching the gospel.

It is not as if this is the only help possible. In Acts 6 there are food parcels for the widows in the Jerusalem church. Tabitha has also been clothing widows (Acts 9). Paul makes a special point of impressing on the Ephesian elders his modelling of this sort of personal practical assistance of the vulnerable (Acts 20). When they hear of an impending famine the disciples take preemptive action and send relief from Antioch to the Judean churches (Acts 11). Paul risks his life to take that financial aid package (Acts 21). So practical help of the vulnerable is really important. And responding to crisis in practical ways is really important.

But when it comes to the vision of the man of Macedonia, Paul and his co-workers don't conclude that northern Greece needs financial aid or medical assistance.

The word for help in Acts 16:9 is a relatively unusual one meaning to run to someone's aid. It's the word that you would shout if you were being mugged in the street. Help!!
Paul hears that cry and his conclusion: Europe desperately needs the gospel preached to them.
There are echoes of Jesus:

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. (Mark 6:34)
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:36-38)

What our world urgently needs more than anything else (even though it largely doesn't know it) is the gospel of Jesus Christ:

• the good news that there is victory over death, forgiveness from sins, refuge from wrath, adoption for rebels;
• the news that there is a true good Samaritan who finds us battered and dying and defiled on the side of the road and lifts us up and takes us and heals us and returns for us;
• the news that God has become man and taken all the death and shame and punishment that we deserve and cried out Help! and was abandoned in his hour of need, going through the hell of utter desertion so that we would never be abandoned - so that everyone who cries out to the Lord will be heard and saved.

To have that news - to have that Man - is to have true help.