By this time Saul had changed his name to Paul, which means humble. In Antioch, he was praying with the other believers, including a young gentile named Titus, when they heard the holy spirit say, “Barnabas and Paul should be sent out to do the work I have for them.” So with their blessing, the two soon sailed to Cyprus, bringing John Mark with them.
They traveled across the island sharing the story of Jesus in the synagogues. In the town of Paphos they met a sorcerer and false prophet named Elymas, who was an advisor to a local official. The official was an intelligent man and he sent for Barnabas and Paul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas opposed them and tried to turn the official against them.
Then Paul looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of Satan and an enemy of the truth. You are full of tricks and lies. Now God’s is against you and you will go blind for a time.” Immediately darkness came over him. When the official saw this, he believed, amazed at their teachings about Jesus.
Leaving Cyprus, they traveled on, though John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. In one synagogue he was asked to speak so he said, “God chose our ancestors. He made them prosper in Egypt and with mighty power led them out of that country. For 40 years he endured their unfaithfulness and complaining. He overthrew the nations of Canaan and gave their land to the Jews as their inheritance.
After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. Then the people asked for a king and he gave them Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin. After removing Saul, he made David king. God said about David, ‘he is a man after my own heart.’ From the line of David came our savior, Jesus, as God promised. Before Jesus, John the Baptist preached repentance to everyone in Israel. John would tell people. ‘I’m not the one you are looking for. The one who comes after me I’m not worthy to be his lowest servant.’
It is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. Those who condemned him, did not recognize him, and yet they fulfilled the words of the prophets. Though he was an innocent man they asked Pilate to have him killed. Then they buried him, but God brought him back to life and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him. They are witnesses that this is all true.
When David died, he was buried and his body decayed, but Jesus was brought back to life and his body will never decay. I want you to know that it is because of Jesus that your sins can be forgiven. Through him, everyone who believes is set free from every sin, something that was impossible under the law of Moses.”
As Paul and Barnabas were leaving, the people invited them to speak further the following week. Many people followed them out and continued to talk with them and encourage them to continue spreading this story.
The next week, almost the whole city had gathered to hear the story of Jesus. When the Jews saw the crowds they were jealous and began contradicting what Paul was saying and insulted him. But Paul and Barnabas said, “We shared the story of Jesus with you first, but you rejected it. So now we have turned to the gentiles because this is what God has commanded.”
The story of Jesus spread through the whole region, but the Jewish leaders stirred up rebellion against Paul and Barnabas and they were soon thrown out.
Paul and Barnabas then returned to Asia Minor and travelled inland to Iconium to spread the story of Jesus. They were so effective that many people, Jews and Greeks, believed. But the Jews who refused to believe turned anyone they could against the men. But still they spent a long time there and through the power of the Holy Spirit performed many miracles. The city became divided between those who sided with Paul and Barnabas and those who didn’t. Those who opposed the men hatched a plan to kill them so when they found out they fled south to the nearby city of Lystra where they continued to spread the word.
In Lystra there was a man who had come to hear Paul speak that had never been able to walk. As he listened, suddenly, Paul looked at him and seeing that he had faith to be healed called out, “Stand up on your feet” and the man jumped up and began to walk.
When the crowds saw what Paul had done they shouted in Greek, “the gods have come down to us in human form!” Barnabas, they called Zeus and Paul, Hermes, because he was the main speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths because they wanted to make a sacrifice to the men.
But when Barnabas and Paul found out about this they ran into the crowd, shouting, “Friends, why are you doing this? We are as human as you. We are bringing you the news of salvation through Jesus if you turn from these false gods and worship the one true God who made everything. In the past he let each nation go its own way, but even then he didn’t abandon you. He sent you rain and made your crops grow, he keeps you fed and allows your hearts to feel joy.” But even after saying this they had trouble keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.
Then some of the Jews from Antioch and Iconium who were opposed to them caused the crowd to turn on them. They tried to kill Paul by throwing rocks at him and then they dragged him out of the city and left him for dead. But some other followers came to him and he got up and went back into the city before collecting Barnabas and heading east to Derbe.
They told the story of Jesus to the people there and gained many more followers before traveling back through Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch to encourage all the young believers there to remain true to the teachings of Jesus. The community of believers in each town were called churches, and Paul and Barnabas appointed leaders for them in each town they went to. Paul concluded his first journey by returning to Antioch and telling the believers there everything that had happened on their two-year mission.
Some believers from Jerusalem came to Antioch and told the believers there, “unless you put the mark on your bodies that God showed to Abraham you cannot be saved.” This was greatly concerning to gentiles like Titus, and Paul and Barnabas strongly disagreed with this mandate so they traveled back to Jerusalem, along with Titus, to discuss this issue with the other apostles. When they arrived they joyfully told them about all the gentiles who were now believers. But some believers who had previously been pharisees looked at Titus and said, “these gentiles need to obey the law of Moses and also get the mark of Abraham.”
They discussed this for a long time and then Peter said, “You know that a while ago God showed us that gentiles should be told the story of Jesus directly. God accepted them by giving the same Holy Spirit to them as to us. There is no difference between them and us in the eyes of God. So why are you trying to test God by putting the burden of the law on them when neither we nor our ancestors have been able to keep it? We believe it is through Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection only that we can be saved, just like them.”
Everyone silently listened to Paul and Barnabas speak about all the amazing things God had done with the gentiles. When they finished, James the brother of Jesus, said, “Based on what Peter said and what the prophets have written it is my opinion that we should not put any unnecessary requirements on the gentiles.” So the apostles decided to send two leaders, Barsabbas and Silas, with Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch to deliver this news to the gentile believers there.
The people of Antioch appreciated the message and Barsabbas and Silas spent time encouraging them. After a time they returned to Jerusalem, but Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch to continue working with the church there.
Three years after concluding his first journey, Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back to all the towns where we shared the story of Jesus and see how the believers there are doing.” Barnabas wanted to bring John Mark with them again, but Paul didn’t think it was a good idea because he felt that he had abandoned them on their previous trip. They disagreed about it so much that they decided to go their separate ways. Barnabas took John Mark and headed for the island of Cyprus, while Paul decided to travel with Silas.
Paul and Silas first went to Derbe, then to Lystra, where they met a respected believer named Timothy and decided to invite him along on their journey. As they traveled from town to town they told everyone the decisions that the apostles had made, and the churches continued to grow daily.
One night as they continued their travels through the regions of Phrygia and Galatia in Asia Minor, Paul had a dream of a man from the land of Macedonia, west of Asia Minor across the Aegean Sea. He was standing up and begging, “Come and help us.” After Paul saw this vision he prepared to leave for Macedonia right away to share the story of Jesus.
They sailed to the island of Samothrace, then to the Grecian city of Neapolis before arriving in the Macedonian city of Philippi, named for the father of Alexander the Great. One day, they went outside the city to the river to pray. But when they saw that there were some women there as well, they started talking to them about Jesus. A woman named Lydia became a follower of Jesus that day and had her entire family baptized. She invited Paul and his friends to her house, saying, “If you consider me a follower of Jesus, come and stay at my house.”
Another day, they met a slave woman who was able to predict the future because of a demon’s influence on her. She made her owners a lot of money with this skill. She followed Paul and his friends shouting, “These men are servants of God and are telling you how to be saved.”
She did this for days until Paul became so annoyed he turned around and said to the demon, “In the name of Jesus our savior I order you to come out of her.”
When her owners realized they would no longer be able to make money off of her fortune telling, they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them to the local authorities. They said, “These Jews are bringing chaos into our city by telling us to do things that are illegal for us under Roman law. The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas and so the authorities ordered that they be beaten. Then they were chained up in the deepest part of the prison and guarded carefully.
About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing to God while the other prisoners listened. Suddenly there was a violent earthquake that shook the foundations of the prison, causing all the doors to fly open and the chains to fall off the prisoners. The jailer woke up and when he saw what had happened he was going to kill himself because he thought everyone had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t hurt yourself! We’re all here!”
When he got a light and saw that they had chosen not to escape he brought them out and asked, “What do I need to do to be saved?”
They replied, “Believe in the story of Jesus.” Then he had them tell his entire family the story and they all believed and were baptized.
The next day the officials told the jailer to release Paul and Silas. But Paul said to them, “They beat us without a trial even though we are Roman citizens and threw us in prison. And now they want us to quietly leave town? I don’t think so. They can come here and escort us out themselves.”
When the officials learned Paul and Silas were Roman citizens they were alarmed. They came to politely ask them to leave town. They went back to Lydia’s house to encourage the believers there before they left town.
Paul and his companions traveled Southwest into Greece through Amphipolis and Apollonia, eventually arriving in the town of Thessalonica where they stayed with a man named Jason. Paul went to the synagogue for three straight sabbaths to convince the Jews there that Jesus was their savior and that he had to die and be brought back to life. Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas along with many Greeks.
But other Jews were jealous so they formed a mob and started a riot. They went to Jason’s house, but when they didn’t find Paul, Silas, or Timothy, they dragged the homeowner and some other believers before the town officials shouting, “Men who are causing trouble all over the world have come here and this man has welcomed them into his house. They are breaking Roman law saying that there is another king besides Caesar who is called Jesus.
That night Paul and his companions left town and headed west to the town of Berea where they went to speak at the synagogue. The Berean Jews were much more open to believing the story of Jesus. They carefully examined the words of the prophets every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many became believers as did many Greeks in that town. But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that Paul was speaking in Berea some of them went there to turn the people against them. The new believers sent Paul to Athens far to the south, while Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea.
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens he was very upset to see the city was full of idols. So he spoke both in the synagogue and the marketplace every day with anyone who was nearby. Some local scholars started arguing with him, saying, “Is he suggesting we worship the gods of another country?” But they were still open to what he had say, adding, “Tell us about this new teaching that you’re talking about. It’s very strange to us and we want to know what you mean.”
So Paul said, “Athenians, I see that you are very religious. I look around at all these gods you worship and I even found that you have a place to worship what you call ‘the unknown god.’ You don’t even know what it is you are worshipping, but I’ll tell you. The God who made everything does not live in buildings made by humans and does not need anything. Instead, God gives everyone life and everything they have. From one man God made all nations to cover the earth and decided when and where they would live. This was so the people would hopefully look for and find God, though God is never far from us. We are God’s children and so we shouldn’t think that God is like a gold or silver or stone sculpture made by a skilled craftsman. In the past, God overlooked your ignorance, but now everyone is commanded to repent of their sins. God has chosen the time when the world will be judged by Jesus, who is worthy of this role because he was brought back to life.
When they heard about being brought back to life some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you talk again later about this.” So some Athenians became believers in Jesus.
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