He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived whose mothaer was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek.
The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.
Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions rfeached by the apostles and elders in jerusalem for the people to oney.
So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
Paul and his companions traveled throughout ther egoion of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.
When theyc ame to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.
Ao 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 visiom, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
From Troas we put out to sea ands ailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis.
From there we traveled to Philipi. a Raoman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer, We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.
On of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord olened her heart to respond to Paul's message,
When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited as to her home."If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she said, :come and stay at my house," And she persuaded us.
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future, She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune -telling.
This girls followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting,"These mena re servants of the Most High God, who are telling you teh way to be saved,"
She kept thism up for many days, Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around ands aid to tjhe spirit,"In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
When the ownmers of the slave girl realized that tehir hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace tof ace the authorifies.
They brought them before the magistrates and said,"These men are Jews, and are throwin g our city into an uproar.
by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice."
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to ne stripped and beaten.
After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them earefully,
Upom receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Abnout midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Suddenly, there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken, At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.
The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul shouted,"Don't harm yourself? We are a;; here!"
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.
He then brought them out and asked." "Sirs, what must i DO TO BE SAVED?"
they replied,"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved- you and your household."
Then they spole the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.
The jailer brought them into his house and set a emal before them, he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God- he and his whole family.
When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order."Release those men,"
The jailer told Paul,"The magistrate have ordered that you and Silas be released, Now you can leave, Go in peace,"
But Paul said to the officers; " They beat us publicly without a trial, even thought we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison, And now do they want to get rid of us quietly> No! Let them come themselves ande scort us out."
The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed.
They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them tp leave the city.
After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them, Then they left.
Acts 17
When they had passed through Amphiponica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.
As his custom was , Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ," he said,
Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.
But the Jews were jealous, so they rounded up some bad characters from the markeplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city, They rushed to Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.
But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before thec ity officials, shouting;"These men who have caused trouble all over teh world have now come here,
and Jason has welcomeed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king one called Jesus."
When they heard this, thec rowed and thec ity officials were thrown into turnoil.
Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there. they went to the Jewish synagogue.
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined teh Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
Many of the Jews believed ,as did also a number of prominebt Greek women and many Greek men,
When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agaitatin g thec rowds and stirring them up.
The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea.
The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with isntructions for SIlas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
While Paul was waiting for them in Athers, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked,"What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked,"He seems to be advocating foreigne gods," They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean."
(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said; "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious,
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altat with this inscription; TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now waht you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands, as if he needed anything , because he himself gives all men life and breath and everytging else.
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit, the whole earth: and hed etermined the times set for them and thee xact plaves where theys hould live.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him. though he is not far from each one of us.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
"For in him we live and move and have our being, As some of yhour own poets have said, We are his offspring,
"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone- an image made by man's design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commamnds all people everywhere to repent.
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he ahjs appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said,"We want to hear you again on this subject."
At that, Paul left the Council.
A few men became followers of Paul and believed.Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
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