Bible Reading Plan – Day 306

₁Paul travelled on to Derbe and Lystra, where a Christian named Timothy lived. His mother, who was also a Christian, was Jewish, but his father was a Greek. ₂All the believers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of Timothy. ₃Paul wanted to take Timothy along with him, so he circumcised him. He did so because all the Jews who lived in those places knew that Timothy's father was Greek. ₄As they went through the towns, they delivered to the believers the rules decided upon by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, and told them to obey those rules. ₅So the churches were made stronger in the faith and grew in numbers every day.

₆They travelled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit did not let them preach the message in the province of Asia. ₇When they reached the border of Mysia, they tried to go into the province of Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. ₈So they travelled right on through Mysia and went to Troas. ₉That night Paul had a vision in which he saw a Macedonian standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” ₁₀As soon as Paul had this vision, we got ready to leave for Macedonia, because we decided that God had called us to preach the Good News to the people there.

₁₁We left by ship from Troas and sailed straight across to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis. ₁₂From there we went inland to Philippi, a city of the first district of Macedonia; it is also a Roman colony. We spent several days there. ₁₃On the Sabbath we went out of the city to the riverside, where we thought there would be a place where Jews gathered for prayer. We sat down and talked to the women who gathered there. ₁₄One of those who heard us was Lydia from Thyatira, who was a dealer in purple cloth. She was a woman who worshipped God, and the Lord opened her mind to pay attention to what Paul was saying. ₁₅After she and the people of her house had been baptized, she invited us, “Come and stay in my house if you have decided that I am a true believer in the Lord.” And she persuaded us to go.

₁₆One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a young servant woman who had an evil spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She earned a lot of money for her owners by telling fortunes. ₁₇She followed Paul and us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God! They announce to you how you can be saved!” ₁₈She did this for many days, until Paul became so upset that he turned round and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her!” The spirit went out of her that very moment.

₁₉When her owners realized that their chance of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the authorities in the public square. ₂₀They brought them before the Roman officials and said, “These men are Jews, and they are causing trouble in our city. ₂₁They are teaching customs that are against our law; we are Roman citizens, and we cannot accept these customs or practise them.” ₂₂And the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas.

Then the officials tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered them to be whipped. ₂₃After a severe beating, they were thrown into jail, and the jailer was ordered to lock them up tight. ₂₄Upon receiving this order, the jailer threw them into the inner cell and fastened their feet between heavy blocks of wood.

₂₅About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ₂₆Suddenly there was a violent earthquake, which shook the prison to its foundations. At once all the doors opened, and the chains fell off all the prisoners. ₂₇The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he thought that the prisoners had escaped; so he pulled out his sword and was about to kill himself. ₂₈But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, “Don't harm yourself! We are all here!”

₂₉The jailer called for a light, rushed in, and fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas. ₃₀Then he led them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

₃₁They answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your family.” ₃₂Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. ₃₃At that very hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; and he and all his family were baptized at once. ₃₄Then he took Paul and Silas up into his house and gave them some food to eat. He and his family were filled with joy, because they now believed in God.

₃₅The next morning the Roman authorities sent police officers with the order, “Let those men go.”

₃₆So the jailer told Paul, “The officials have sent an order for you and Silas to be released. You may leave, then, and go in peace.”

₃₇But Paul said to the police officers, “We were not found guilty of any crime, yet they whipped us in public — and we are Roman citizens! Then they threw us in prison. And now they want to send us away secretly. Not likely! The Roman officials themselves must come here and let us out.”

₃₈The police officers reported these words to the Roman officials; and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were afraid. ₃₉So they went and apologized to them; then they led them out of the prison and asked them to leave the city. ₄₀Paul and Silas left the prison and went to Lydia's house. There they met the believers, spoke words of encouragement to them, and left.

₁Paul and Silas travelled on through Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue. ₂According to his usual habit Paul went to the synagogue. There during three Sabbaths he held discussions with the people, quoting ₃and explaining the Scriptures and proving from them that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from death. “This Jesus whom I announce to you,” Paul said, “is the Messiah.” ₄Some of them were convinced and joined Paul and Silas; so did many of the leading women and a large group of Greeks who worshipped God.

₅But some Jews were jealous and gathered worthless loafers from the streets and formed a mob. They set the whole city in an uproar and attacked the home of a man called Jason, in an attempt to find Paul and Silas and bring them out to the people. ₆But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city authorities and shouted, “These men have caused trouble everywhere! Now they have come to our city, ₇and Jason has kept them in his house. They are all breaking the laws of the Emperor, saying that there is another king, whose name is Jesus.” ₈With these words they threw the crowd and the city authorities into an uproar. ₉The authorities made Jason and the others pay the required amount of money to be released, and then let them go.

₁₀As soon as night came, the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the synagogue. ₁₁The people there were more open-minded than the people in Thessalonica. They listened to the message with great eagerness, and every day they studied the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was really true. ₁₂Many of them believed; and many Greek women of high social standing and many Greek men also believed. ₁₃But when the Jews in Thessalonica heard that Paul had preached the word of God in Berea also, they came there and started exciting and stirring up the mob. ₁₄At once the believers sent Paul away to the coast; but both Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea. ₁₅The men who were taking Paul went with him as far as Athens and then returned to Berea with instructions from Paul that Silas and Timothy should join him as soon as possible.

₁₆While Paul was waiting in Athens for Silas and Timothy, he was greatly upset when he noticed how full of idols the city was. ₁₇So he held discussions in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentiles who worshipped God, and also in the public square every day with the people who happened to pass by. ₁₈Certain Epicurean and Stoic teachers also debated with him. Some of them asked, “What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?”

Others answered, “He seems to be talking about foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching about Jesus and the resurrection. ₁₉So they took Paul, brought him before the city council, the Areopagus, and said, “We would like to know what this new teaching is that you are talking about. ₂₀Some of the things we hear you say sound strange to us, and we would like to know what they mean.” ₂₁(For all the citizens of Athens and the foreigners who lived there liked to spend all their time telling and hearing the latest new thing.)

₂₂Paul stood up in front of the city council and said, “I see that in every way you Athenians are very religious. ₂₃For as I walked through your city and looked at the places where you worship, I found an altar on which is written, ‘To an Unknown God’. That which you worship, then, even though you do not know it, is what I now proclaim to you. ₂₄God, who made the world and everything in it, is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. ₂₅Nor does he need anything that we can supply by working for him, since it is he himself who gives life and breath and everything else to everyone. ₂₆From one human being he created all races on earth and made them live throughout the whole earth. He himself fixed beforehand the exact times and the limits of the places where they would live. ₂₇He did this so that they would look for him, and perhaps find him as they felt about for him. Yet God is actually not far from any one of us; ₂₈as someone has said,

₃₂When they heard Paul speak about a raising from death, some of them made fun of him, but others said, “We want to hear you speak about this again.” ₃₃And so Paul left the meeting. ₃₄Some men joined him and believed, among whom was Dionysius, a member of the council; there was also a woman named Damaris, and some other people.

₁After this, Paul left Athens and went on to Corinth. ₂There he met a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, for the Emperor Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, ₃and stayed and worked with them, because he earned his living by making tents, just as they did. ₄He held discussions in the synagogue every Sabbath, trying to convince both Jews and Greeks.

₅When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul gave his whole time to preaching the message, testifying to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah. ₆When they opposed him and said evil things about him, he protested by shaking the dust from his clothes and saying to them, “If you are lost, you yourselves must take the blame for it! I am not responsible. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” ₇So he left them and went to live in the house of a Gentile named Titius Justus, who worshipped God; his house was next to the synagogue. ₈Crispus, who was the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his family; and many other people in Corinth heard the message, believed, and were baptized.

₉One night Paul had a vision in which the Lord said to him, “Do not be afraid, but keep on speaking and do not give up, ₁₀for I am with you. No one will be able to harm you, for many in this city are my people.” ₁₁So Paul stayed there for a year and a half, teaching the people the word of God.

₁₂When Gallio was made the Roman governor of Achaia, Jews there got together, seized Paul, and took him into court. ₁₃“This man,” they said, “is trying to persuade people to worship God in a way that is against the law!”

₁₄Paul was about to speak when Gallio said to the Jews, “If this were a matter of some evil crime or wrong that has been committed, it would be reasonable for me to be patient with you Jews. ₁₅But since it is an argument about words and names and your own law, you yourselves must settle it. I will not be the judge of such things!” ₁₆And he drove them out of the court. ₁₇They all seized Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the court. But that did not bother Gallio a bit.

₁₈Paul stayed on with the believers in Corinth for many days, then left them and sailed off with Priscilla and Aquila for Syria. Before sailing from Cenchreae he had his head shaved because of a vow he had taken. ₁₉They arrived in Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He went into the synagogue and held discussions with the Jews. ₂₀The people asked him to stay longer, but he would not consent. ₂₁Instead, he told them as he left, “If it is the will of God, I will come back to you.” And so he sailed from Ephesus.

₂₂When he arrived at Caesarea, he went to Jerusalem and greeted the church, and then went to Antioch. ₂₃After spending some time there, he left and went through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the believers.