Acts 13

₁There were prophets and teachers in the church in the city of Antioch. They were Barnabas and Simeon, whose other name was Niger, and Lucius from Cyrene, Manaen and Saul. Manaen had been a friend of King Herod Antipas when they were children. ₂One day when the believers were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy_Spirit said to them: ‘I have chosen Barnabas and Saul to do special work for Me. You must send them to go and do this work.’

₃After the believers had fasted and prayed, they put their hands on Barnabas and Saul and they sent them to go and do this work.

₄The Holy_Spirit sent Barnabas and Saul to go and preach and they went to the town of Seleucia next to the sea. They got into a boat and sailed to the Island of Cyprus. ₅When they came to the town of Salamis, they went to the synagogues of the Jews and they preached the message of God. John, whose other name was Mark, went with Barnabas and Saul to help them with their work. ₆They went to the other side of the island to the town of Paphos, next to the sea. There they met a man whose name was Bar-Jesus. He was a Jewish magician and a false_prophet. ₇Bar-Jesus worked for the governor of the island. His name was Sergius Paulus. He was a wise man. The governor asked Barnabas and Saul to come and talk to him because he wanted to listen to the message of God. ₈In the Greek language the name of the magician Bar-Jesus was Elymas. He did not want the governor to believe in Jesus and he tried to stop Barnabas and Saul. ₉But Saul, whose other name was Paul, was filled with the Holy_Spirit. He looked into the eyes of Elymas, the magician, ₁₀and then Paul said to him: ‘You are a child of the devil. You lie to people and you do things that are wrong. You do not love things that are right. You must stop changing the truth and the things that the Lord says. ₁₁The Lord will punish you now and you will be blind. You will not see the sun for some time.’

Immediately Elymas could not see. It was like a black cloud that came over him. He looked for someone to take his hand to lead him. ₁₂When the governor saw what had happened, he started to believe in Jesus and he was amazed about all the things that Barnabas and Saul taught him about the Lord.

₁₃Paul and his friends sailed from the town of Paphos and they came to Perga in the province of Pamphylia. Then John went away from them. He went back to Jerusalem. ₁₄But Paul and his friends went from Perga to the city of Antioch in the province of Pisidia. On the Sabbath day they went to the synagogue and they sat down. ₁₅After someone had read a part of the laws of Moses and from the books of the prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent someone to tell Paul and his friends: ‘If you can say something to encourage the people, you are welcome to talk.’

₁₆Then Paul got up and he put up his hand to show the people that they must not talk, but must be quiet. He said: ‘People of Israel and all other people who worship God, you must listen to what I say. ₁₇The God of Israel chose our forefathers to be his people, and when they were strangers in the land of Egypt, He was good to them and they became a big nation. God showed how strong He is and He led them out of Egypt. ₁₈God was very patient with them in the desert for about 40 years. ₁₉God destroyed 7 nations in the land of Canaan and He gave this land to the Israelites to live in.

₂₀Then after about 450 years God gave his people judges to lead them until the prophet Samuel came. ₂₁And when the Israelites asked to have a king, God gave Saul to them to be king. Saul was the son of Kish from the Benjamin tribe. Saul was king for 40 years. ₂₂After Saul, God chose David to be king over Israel. God said: “I have seen that David, son of Jesse, lives as I want. He will do everything that I want him to do.”

₂₃God promised that the Saviour would come from David's family. God said He would come to save the Israelites. And this person is Jesus. ₂₄Before Jesus started his work, John the Baptist told all the Israelites to turn their lives to God and to live as He wants, and John baptised them. ₂₅Before John finished his work, he said: “Who do you think I am? Do you think I am the One that God has promised? No, that One will come when I am gone. I am not important enough to untie his sandals.”

₂₆Now listen, you who are the children_of_Abraham and the other people with you who worship God. God gave us this message about how He will save people. ₂₇The people of Jerusalem and their leaders did not understand who Jesus was. When they judged and killed Jesus, they did what the prophets had said, in the words that the Jews read every Sabbath day.

₂₈The people of Jerusalem and their leaders wanted Jesus to die, but they could not say what He had done wrong. They then asked Pilate to tell the soldiers to kill Jesus. ₂₉The Jews and their leaders did everything that is written in the Old_Testament about Jesus. Then they took his body from the cross and they buried Him in a tomb. ₃₀But God raised Jesus from the dead, and He started to live again. ₃₁Jesus appeared lots of times to the people who went with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem and they are telling the Israelites about Jesus now.

₃₂And we bring you the Good_News about the things that God promised our forefathers. ₃₃God has done what He promised. He did it for us, who are the children of our forefathers. God did it when He raised Jesus after He had died, as it is written in the 2nd Psalm. It says:

₃₄We want to give you the Good_News that God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus is alive and He will never die again. This is what God said in the Old_Testament when He said:

₃₅That is why David said in another Psalm:

₃₆While David was alive, he served God and when he died, they buried him with his forefathers and his body has become dust. There is nothing left of him. ₃₇But God raised Jesus from the dead, He is alive and his body has not become dust.

₃₈Friends, you must know that the laws of Moses can not take away your sins, but God forgives all our sins because Jesus has taken them away and that is why we can preach to you that God forgives sins. ₃₉Yes, God forgives everyone who believes in Jesus. ₄₀Now you must be careful that the things which the prophets have said do not happen to you. They said:

₄₂When Paul and Barnabas went out of the synagogue, the people asked them to come again and to tell them more on the next Sabbath day. ₄₃When the meeting in the synagogue had finished, a lot of people went with Paul and Barnabas. There were Jews and a lot of Gentiles who worshipped God. Paul and Barnabas asked them to continue to worship God and to believe in the message of God's grace. ₄₄The next Sabbath day almost all the people of the city came together to listen to the message of the Lord. ₄₅When the Jews saw how many people there were, they became very jealous. They said bad things about Paul and they kept on arguing with him. ₄₆But Paul and Barnabas were not afraid and they said: ‘It is right that we started to preach the message of God to you. But you do not believe it. You show that you are not good enough to have eternal_life. That is why we will go to the Gentiles now. ₄₇Because the Lord said in the Old_Testament:

₄₈When the Gentiles heard what Paul and Barnabas said, they were very happy and they praised the Lord for his message to them. God has chosen people to receive eternal_life and all those people started to believe in Him. ₄₉More and more people in and around the city of Antioch in Pisidia heard the message of the Lord. ₅₀But the Jewish_leaders went to the religious and important women and men in the city and they said bad things about Paul and Barnabas. Then the people of the city became angry and they chased Paul and Barnabas away from that city. ₅₁Paul and Barnabas cleaned the dust off their feet. They did this to warn the people in that city because they did not want to listen to God. Paul and Barnabas then went to the town of Iconium. ₅₂But the believers continued to rejoice and they were filled with the Holy_Spirit.