36 After some time Paul said to Barnabas,
“Let’s go back and visit each city where we previously preached the word of the
Lord, to see how the new believers are doing.”
37 Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along
John Mark.
38 But Paul disagreed strongly, since John
Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their
work.
39 Their disagreement was so sharp that
they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus.
40 Paul chose Silas, and as he left, the
believers entrusted him to the Lord’s gracious care.
41 Then he traveled throughout Syria and
Cilicia, strengthening the churches there.
Acts 16 NLT
1 Paul went first to Derbe and then to
Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish
believer, but his father was a Greek.
2 Timothy was well thought of by the
believers in Lystra and Iconium,
3 so Paul wanted him to join them on their
journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be
circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a
Greek.
4 Then they went from town to town,
instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the apostles and
elders in Jerusalem.
5 So the churches were strengthened in
their faith and grew larger every day.
6 Next Paul and Silas traveled through the
area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from
preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time.
7 Then coming to the borders of Mysia,
they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus
did not allow them to go there.
8 So instead, they went on through Mysia
to the seaport of Troas.
9 That night Paul had a vision: A man from
Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over
to Macedonia and help us!”
10 So we decided to leave for Macedonia at
once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News
there.
11 We boarded a boat at Troas and sailed
straight across to the island of Samothrace, and the next day we landed at
Neapolis.
12 From there we reached Philippi, a major
city of that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. And we stayed there
several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went a little way
outside the city to a riverbank, where we thought people would be meeting for
prayer, and we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there.
14 One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a
merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God. As she listened to us,
the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying.
15 She and her household were baptized, and
she asked us to be her guests. “If you agree that I am a true believer in the
Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my home.” And she urged us until we
agreed.
16 One day as we were going down to the
place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit that enabled her to tell
the future. She earned a lot of money for her masters by telling
fortunes.
17 She followed Paul and the rest of us,
shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to
tell you how to be saved.”
18 This went on day after day until Paul
got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command
you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left
her.
19 Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now
shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the
authorities at the marketplace.
20 “The whole city is in an uproar because
of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials.
21“They are teaching customs that are illegal for
us Romans to practice.”
22 A mob quickly formed against Paul and
Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden
rods.
23 They were severely beaten, and then they
were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t
escape.
24 So the jailer put them into the inner
dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.
25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were
praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.
26 Suddenly, there was a massive
earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors
immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!
27 The jailer woke up to see the prison
doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to
kill himself.
28But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill
yourself! We are all here!”
29 The jailer called for lights and ran to
the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 Then he brought them out and asked,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus
and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”
32 And they shared the word of the Lord
with him and with all who lived in his household.
33 Even at that hour of the night, the jailer
cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household
were immediately baptized.
34 He brought them into his house and set a
meal before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced because they all
believed in God.
35 The next morning the city officials sent
the police to tell the jailer, “Let those men go!”
36 So the jailer told Paul, “The city
officials have said you and Silas are free to leave. Go in peace.”
37 But Paul replied, “They have publicly
beaten us without a trial and put us in prison—and we are Roman citizens. So
now they want us to leave secretly? Certainly not! Let them come themselves to
release us!”
38When the police reported this, the city
officials were alarmed to learn that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.
39 So they came to the jail and apologized
to them. Then they brought them out and begged them to leave the city.
40When Paul and Silas left the prison, they
returned to the home of Lydia. There they met with the believers and encouraged
them once more. Then they left town.
ACTS 17 NLT
1 Paul and Silas then traveled through the
towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a
Jewish synagogue.
2 As was Paul’s custom, he went to the
synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to
reason with the people.
3 He explained the prophecies and proved
that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m
telling you about is the Messiah.”
4 Some of the Jews who listened were
persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek men and
quite a few prominent women.
5 But some of the Jews were jealous, so
they gathered some troublemakers from the marketplace to form a mob and start a
riot. They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas so they
could drag them out to the crowd.
6 Not finding them there, they dragged out
Jason and some of the other believers instead and took them before the city
council. “Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world,” they shouted,
“and now they are here disturbing our city, too.
7 And Jason has welcomed them into his
home. They are all guilty of treason against Caesar, for they profess
allegiance to another king, named Jesus.”
8 The people of the city, as well as the
city council, were thrown into turmoil by these reports.
9 So the officials forced Jason and the
other believers to post bond, and then they released them.
10 That very night the believers sent Paul
and Silas to Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the Jewish
synagogue.
11 And the people of Berea were more
open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s
message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas
were teaching the truth.
12 As a result, many Jews believed, as did
many of the prominent Greek women and men.
13 But when some Jews in Thessalonica
learned that Paul was preaching the word of God in Berea, they went there and
stirred up trouble.
14 The believers acted at once, sending
Paul on to the coast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind.
15 Those escorting Paul went with him all
the way to Athens; then they returned to Berea with instructions for Silas and
Timothy to hurry and join him.
16 While Paul was waiting for them in
Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the
city.
17 He went to the synagogue to reason with
the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square
to all who happened to be there.
18 He also had a debate with some of the
Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his
resurrection, they said, “What’s this babbler trying to say with these strange
ideas he’s picked up?” Others said, “He seems to be preaching about some
foreign gods.”
19 Then they took him to the high council
of the city. “Come and tell us about this new teaching,” they said.
20 “You are saying some rather strange
things, and we want to know what it’s all about.”
21 (It should be explained that all the
Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time
discussing the latest ideas.)
22 So Paul, standing before the council,
addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious
in every way,
23 for as I was walking along I saw your
many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown
God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you
about.
24 “He is the God who made the world and
everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in
man-made temples,
25 and human hands can’t serve his
needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and
he satisfies every need.
26 From one man he created all the nations
throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and
fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek
after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not
far from any one of us.
28 For in him we live and move and exist.
As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t
think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or
stone.
30“God overlooked people’s ignorance about these
things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of
their sins and turn to him.
31 For he has set a day for judging the
world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who
this is by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard Paul speak about the
resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want
to hear more about this later.”
33 That ended Paul’s discussion with
them,
34 but some joined him and became
believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the council, a woman named
Damaris, and others with them.
ACTS 18 NLT
1 Then Paul left Athens and went to
Corinth.
2 There he became acquainted with a Jew
named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his
wife, Priscilla. They had left Italy when Claudius Caesar deported all Jews
from Rome.
3 Paul lived and worked with them, for
they were tentmakers just as he was.
4 Each Sabbath found Paul at the
synagogue, trying to convince the Jews and Greeks alike.
5 And after Silas and Timothy came down
from Macedonia, Paul spent all his time preaching the word. He testified to the
Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.
6 But when they opposed and insulted him,
Paul shook the dust from his clothes and said, “Your blood is upon your own
heads—I am innocent. From now on I will go preach to the Gentiles.”
7 Then he left and went to the home of
Titius Justus, a Gentile who worshiped God and lived next door to the
synagogue.
8 Crispus, the leader of the synagogue,
and everyone in his household believed in the Lord. Many others in Corinth also
heard Paul, became believers, and were baptized.
9One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision
and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent!
10 For I am with you, and no one will
attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me.”
11 So Paul stayed there for the next year
and a half, teaching the word of God.
12 But when Gallio became governor of
Achaia, some Jews rose up together against Paul and brought him before the
governor for judgment.
13 They accused Paul of “persuading people
to worship God in ways that are contrary to our law.”
14But just as Paul started to make his defense,
Gallio turned to Paul’s accusers and said, “Listen, you Jews, if this were a
case involving some wrongdoing or a serious crime, I would have a reason to
accept your case.
15 But since it is merely a question of
words and names and your Jewish law, take care of it yourselves. I refuse to
judge such matters.”
16 And he threw them out of the
courtroom.
17 The crowd then grabbed Sosthenes, the
leader of the synagogue, and beat him right there in the courtroom. But Gallio
paid no attention.
18 Paul stayed in Corinth for some time
after that, then said good-bye to the brothers and sisters and went to nearby
Cenchrea. There he shaved his head according to Jewish custom, marking the end
of a vow. Then he set sail for Syria, taking Priscilla and Aquila with
him.
19 They stopped first at the port of
Ephesus, where Paul left the others behind. While he was there, he went to the
synagogue to reason with the Jews.
20 They asked him to stay longer, but he
declined.
21 As he left, however, he said, “I will
come back later, God willing.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.
22 The next stop was at the port of
Caesarea. From there he went up and visited the church at Jerusalem and then
went back to Antioch.
23 After spending some time in Antioch,
Paul went back through Galatia and Phrygia, visiting and strengthening all the
believers.
24 Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an
eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from
Alexandria in Egypt.
25 He had been taught the way of the Lord,
and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy.
However, he knew only about John’s baptism.
26 When Priscilla and Aquila heard him
preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of
God even more accurately.
27 Apollos had been thinking about going to
Achaia, and the brothers and sisters in Ephesus encouraged him to go. They
wrote to the believers in Achaia, asking them to welcome him. When he arrived
there, he proved to be of great benefit to those who, by God’s grace, had
believed.
28 He refuted the Jews with powerful
arguments in public debate. Using the Scriptures, he explained to them that
Jesus was the Messiah.
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