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.
ACTS 19 NLT
1 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul
traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where
he found several believers.
2“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you
believed?” he asked them. “No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there
is a Holy Spirit.”
3 “Then what baptism did you experience?”
he asked. And they replied, “The baptism of John.”
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism called for
repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who
would come later, meaning Jesus.”
5 As soon as they heard this, they were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 Then when Paul laid his hands on them,
the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and
prophesied.
7 There were about twelve men in
all.
8 Then Paul went to the synagogue and
preached boldly for the next three months, arguing persuasively about the
Kingdom of God.
9 But some became stubborn, rejecting his
message and publicly speaking against the Way. So Paul left the synagogue and
took the believers with him. Then he held daily discussions at the lecture hall
of Tyrannus.
10This went on for the next two years, so that
people throughout the province of Asia—both Jews and Greeks—heard the word of
the Lord.
11 God gave Paul the power to perform
unusual miracles.
12 When handkerchiefs or aprons that had
merely touched his skin were placed on sick people, they were healed of their
diseases, and evil spirits were expelled.
13 A group of Jews was traveling from town
to town casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus
in their incantation, saying, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul
preaches, to come out!”
14 Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest,
were doing this.
15 But one time when they tried it, the
evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?”
16 Then the man with the evil spirit leaped
on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled
from the house, naked and battered.
17 The story of what happened spread
quickly all through Ephesus, to Jews and Greeks alike. A solemn fear descended
on the city, and the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly honored.
18 Many who became believers confessed
their sinful practices.
19 A number of them who had been practicing
sorcery brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire.
The value of the books was several million dollars.
20 So the message about the Lord spread
widely and had a powerful effect.
21 Afterward Paul felt compelled by the
Spirit to go over to Macedonia and Achaia before going to Jerusalem. “And after
that,” he said, “I must go on to Rome!”
22 He sent his two assistants, Timothy and
Erastus, ahead to Macedonia while he stayed awhile longer in the province of
Asia.
23 About that time, serious trouble
developed in Ephesus concerning the Way.
24 It began with Demetrius, a silversmith
who had a large business manufacturing silver shrines of the Greek goddess
Artemis. He kept many craftsmen busy.
25 He called them together, along with
others employed in similar trades, and addressed them as follows: “Gentlemen,
you know that our wealth comes from this business.
26 But as you have seen and heard, this man
Paul has persuaded many people that handmade gods aren’t really gods at all.
And he’s done this not only here in Ephesus but throughout the entire
province!
27 Of course, I’m not just talking about
the loss of public respect for our business. I’m also concerned that the temple
of the great goddess Artemis will lose its influence and that Artemis—this
magnificent goddess worshiped throughout the province of Asia and all around the
world—will be robbed of her great prestige!”
28 At this their anger boiled, and they
began shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
29 Soon the whole city was filled with
confusion. Everyone rushed to the amphitheater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus,
who were Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia.
30 Paul wanted to go in, too, but the
believers wouldn’t let him.
31 Some of the officials of the province,
friends of Paul, also sent a message to him, begging him not to risk his life
by entering the amphitheater.
32 Inside, the people were all shouting,
some one thing and some another. Everything was in confusion. In fact, most of
them didn’t even know why they were there.
33 The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander
forward and told him to explain the situation. He motioned for silence and
tried to speak.
34 But when the crowd realized he was a
Jew, they started shouting again and kept it up for about two hours: “Great is
Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 At last the mayor was able to quiet them
down enough to speak. “Citizens of Ephesus,” he said. “Everyone knows that
Ephesus is the official guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, whose
image fell down to us from heaven.
36 Since this is an undeniable fact, you
should stay calm and not do anything rash.
37 You have brought these men here, but
they have stolen nothing from the temple and have not spoken against our
goddess.
38 “If Demetrius and the craftsmen have a
case against them, the courts are in session and the officials can hear the
case at once. Let them make formal charges.
39 And if there are complaints about other
matters, they can be settled in a legal assembly.
40 I am afraid we are in danger of being
charged with rioting by the Roman government, since there is no cause for all
this commotion. And if Rome demands an explanation, we won’t know what to
say.”
41 Then he dismissed them, and they
dispersed.
ACTS 20 NLT
1 When the uproar was over, Paul sent for
the believers and encouraged them. Then he said good-bye and left for
Macedonia.
2 While there, he encouraged the believers
in all the towns he passed through. Then he traveled down to Greece,
3 where he stayed for three months. He was
preparing to sail back to Syria when he discovered a plot by some Jews against
his life, so he decided to return through Macedonia.
4 Several men were traveling with him.
They were Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea; Aristarchus and Secundus from
Thessalonica; Gaius from Derbe; Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus from the
province of Asia.
5 They went on ahead and waited for us at
Troas.
6 After the Passover ended, we boarded a
ship at Philippi in Macedonia and five days later joined them in Troas, where
we stayed a week.
7 On the first day of the week, we
gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper. Paul was
preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until
midnight.
8 The upstairs room where we met was
lighted with many flickering lamps.
9 As Paul spoke on and on, a young man
named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell
sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below.
10 Paul went down, bent over him, and took
him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s alive!”
11 Then they all went back upstairs, shared
in the Lord’s Supper, and ate together. Paul continued talking to them until
dawn, and then he left.
12 Meanwhile, the young man was taken home
alive and well, and everyone was greatly relieved.
13 Paul went by land to Assos, where he had
arranged for us to join him, while we traveled by ship.
14 He joined us there, and we sailed
together to Mitylene.
15 The next day we sailed past the island
of Kios. The following day we crossed to the island of Samos, and a day later
we arrived at Miletus.
16Paul had decided to sail on past Ephesus, for
he didn’t want to spend any more time in the province of Asia. He was hurrying
to get to Jerusalem, if possible, in time for the Festival of Pentecost.
17 But when we landed at Miletus, he sent a
message to the elders of the church at Ephesus, asking them to come and meet
him.
18 When they arrived he declared, “You know
that from the day I set foot in the province of Asia until now
19 I have done the Lord’s work humbly and
with many tears. I have endured the trials that came to me from the plots of
the Jews.
20 I never shrank back from telling you
what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes.
21 I have had one message for Jews and
Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of
having faith in our Lord Jesus.
22 “And now I am bound by the Spirit to go
to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me,
23except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city
after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.
24 But my life is worth nothing to me
unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work
of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.
25 “And now I know that none of you to whom
I have preached the Kingdom will ever see me again.
26 I declare today that I have been
faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault,
27 for I didn’t shrink from declaring all
that God wants you to know.
28 “So guard yourselves and God’s people.
Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood —over
which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders.
29 I know that false teachers, like vicious
wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock.
30 Even some men from your own group will
rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following.
31 Watch out! Remember the three years I
was with you—my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many
tears for you.
32 “And now I entrust you to God and the
message of his grace that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance
with all those he has set apart for himself.
33 “I have never coveted anyone’s silver or
gold or fine clothes.
34You know that these hands of mine have worked
to supply my own needs and even the needs of those who were with me.
35 And I have been a constant example of
how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words
of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
36 When he had finished speaking, he knelt
and prayed with them.
37 They all cried as they embraced and
kissed him good-bye.
38 They were sad most of all because he had
said that they would never see him again. Then they escorted him down to the
ship.
ACTS 21 NLT
1 After saying farewell to the Ephesian
elders, we sailed straight to the island of Cos. The next day we reached Rhodes
and then went to Patara.
2 There we boarded a ship sailing for
Phoenicia.
3 We sighted the island of Cyprus, passed
it on our left, and landed at the harbor of Tyre, in Syria, where the ship was
to unload its cargo.
4 We went ashore, found the local
believers, and stayed with them a week. These believers prophesied through the
Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem.
5 When we returned to the ship at the end
of the week, the entire congregation, including women and children, left the
city and came down to the shore with us. There we knelt, prayed,
6and said our farewells. Then we went aboard,
and they returned home.
7 The next stop after leaving Tyre was
Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed for one
day.
8 The next day we went on to Caesarea and
stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven men who had been
chosen to distribute food.
9 He had four unmarried daughters who had
the gift of prophecy.
10 Several days later a man named Agabus,
who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea.
11 He came over, took Paul’s belt, and
bound his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit declares,
‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem
and turned over to the Gentiles.’”
12 When we heard this, we and the local
believers all begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
13 But he said, “Why all this weeping? You
are breaking my heart! I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but even
to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.”
14When it was clear that we couldn’t persuade
him, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
15 After this we packed our things and left
for Jerusalem.
16 Some believers from Caesarea accompanied
us, and they took us to the home of Mnason, a man originally from Cyprus and
one of the early believers.
