Thematic Bible: Ac 13-14

After spending some time there, he departed and went from place to place through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, well versed in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. read more.
And he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, proving by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism." Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all. And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and persuading about the kingdom of God. But when some were stubborn and disbelieved, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them, and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This took place for two years, so that all who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered all of them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. Many also of those who believed now came, confessing and disclosing their practices. And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome." And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. About that time there arose no small disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the workmen of similar trades, and said, "Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made with hands are no gods at all. Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be regarded as worthless and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence." When they heard this, they were enraged and began crying out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" The city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia. Paul wanted to go in among the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Some of the Asiarchs also, who were friends of his, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater. Now some were shouting one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and most of the people did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward. And Alexander motioned with his hand, wishing to make a defense to the people. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all with one voice shouted, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, "Men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from heaven? Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess. If then Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges against one another. But if you want anything further, it shall be settled in the lawful assembly. As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of today's events. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it." After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly. After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and when he had exhorted them and taken his leave of them, he set out for Macedonia. When he had gone through those parts and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. He was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, and by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas. But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days came to them at Troas, where we stayed seven days. On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting in the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep. And as Paul talked on and on, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third story and was picked up dead. But Paul went down and fell on him, and after embracing him, he said, "Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him." When he had gone back up and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak, and then left. They took away the boy alive, and were greatly comforted. But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there; for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mitylene. Sailing from there, we arrived the following day opposite Chios; and the next day we crossed over to Samos; and the day after that we came to Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they came to him, he said to them: "You yourselves know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, bound in the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that all of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will see my face no more. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with the blood of his Own. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night and day to admonish each one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one's silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" When he had said this, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they all wept and embraced Paul and kissed him, grieving most of all over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. When we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. And having found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left we sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unload its cargo. And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. And when our days there were ended, we left and started on our journey, while they all, with wives and children, brought us on our way until we were out of the city. After kneeling down on the beach and praying, we said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home. When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais; and we greeted the brethren and stayed with them for a day. On the next day we left and came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. As we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, "This is what the Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'" When we heard this, we and the people there begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, "What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, "The will of the Lord be done." After these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem.

After some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return and visit the brethren in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are." Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take along one who had deserted them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work. read more.
There arose such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left, being commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. And he came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer; but his father was a Greek, and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted this man to accompany him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions which had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in numbers daily. And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit o Jesus did not allow them; so passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and begging him, and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; and from there to Philippi, which is the leading city of the district of Macedonia, and a Roman colony. We stayed in this city some days; and on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had come together. A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, who was a worshiper of God, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. When she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us. It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination. She brought her owners much profit by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, crying, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way of salvation." She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out at that very moment. But when her owners saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities, and when they had brought them to the magistrates they said, "These men are Jews and they are throwing our city into an uproar. They advocate customs which it is not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice." The crowd joined against them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and ordered them to be beaten with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to guard them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!" And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. He brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. He took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house, and set food before them; and he rejoiced with his whole household that he had believed in God. But when it was day, the magistrates sent their police, saying, "Release those men." And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, "The chief magistrates have sent to release you. Therefore come out now and go in peace." But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us publicly, without trial, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now cast us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out." The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So they came and apologized to them, and they took them out and asked them to leave the city. They went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and for three weeks he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ." And some of them were persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas; as did a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men from the market place, they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; they attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has welcomed them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus." The crowd and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard this. And when they had taken a pledge from Jason and the others, they let them go. The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then the brethren immediately sent Paul out to go as far as the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be there. And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some said, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities,"because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you present? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean." (Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.) So Paul 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 passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.'What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by hands; nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope 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 even some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given proof to all men by raising him from the dead." Now 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." So Paul went out from among them. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. After this he left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them, and they worked, for by trade they were tentmakers. And every Sabbath he was reasoning in the synagogue, and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." Then he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city." And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack upon Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, saying, "This man is persuading men to worship God contrary to the law." But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of wrong or of vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; but since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves; I refuse to be a judge of these things." And he drove them from the judgment seat. And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judgment seat. But Gallio paid no attention to this. After this Paul stayed many days longer, and then took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he had taken a vow. They came to Ephesus, and he left them there. Now he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer time, he declined; but on taking leave of them he said, "I will return to you if God wills," and he set sail from Ephesus. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch.