Acts chapter 21 quickly follows Paul on his journey back to Jerusalem. On his way back Paul and his group say with a variety of past friends that they had made during their missionary journeys. Paul is being let by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem, but at the same time he receives many warnings that persecution awaits him there. Read the rest of this entry »
Acts Chapter 20 briefly describes Paul’s travels to Macedonia then to Greece, and in Troas, Paul raised a man from the dead, who had fallen from a three story building (verses 7-12). Next Paul feels compelled to go to Jerusalem and so starts his journey. He sends word to the leaders of the Church in Ephesus to meet him along the way. In this final message he will give to these leaders, Paul emphasizes the trials he went through to preach the Gospel, and the importance of receiving the gospel’s message. Read the rest of this entry »
In the second half of Acts 19, Paul had laid out plans to travel to Macedonia, but before he was able to leave some idol makers stirred the whole city up in a chaotic riot. A man named Demetrius, a silversmith, gathered together his fellow craftsmen and started to complain about how Paul’s teaching was having an effect on the sale of idols Read the rest of this entry »
In Acts chapter 19 Paul travels to Ephesus and stays, teaching about Jesus Christ for 2 years. In Ephesus, Paul found some more believers who, like Appollos from chapeter 18, did not know of the Holy spirit, but only of the preaching of John the Baptist. Read the rest of this entry »
In Acts 18 we follow Paul to the city of Corinth. In verses 1 through 4 Paul meets up with a Jewish couple who had come from Rome. There names were Aquila and Priscilla. Paul lived and worked with the couple for a time and used the weekends to preach to the city of Corinth.
Soon Paul’s friends Silas and Timothy joined him at Corinth, apparently to help support Paul financially, because it is then that he devoted every day to preaching the Gospel of Christ. Then the familiar behavior of the Jews began pressing in on Paul. Read the rest of this entry »
In the second half of Acts 17 we see Paul’s distress over the people of Athens because of their many idols and worship of false gods. So he began to reason in the synagogue and marketplace each day. It was then that some philosophers start debating with him and eventually Paul is invited to a “thinking” meeting at the Areopagus. Read the rest of this entry »
In Acts 17 we see Paul and company continue on their missionary journey throughout the Roman empire. In each place they stop, they simply tell the people that God had sent His Son Jesus in order that they might believe and be saved. But in each town, groups of jealous Jews twist Paul’s message and create mobs to run Paul and his companions out of town. Read the rest of this entry »
In the second half of Acts 16 we find Paul and company being harassed by a demon possessed slave girl.
Verses 16-18:
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”
In Acts Chapter 16 Paul has parted ways with Barnabas over a personal dispute. Silas, Timothy, and Luke (notice the text is now in the first person since Acts was written by Luke) join him on his next missionary journey to Macedonia.
Paul met Timothy in Lystra as we can see in verses 1-5: Read the rest of this entry »
In Acts Chapter 15 we read of a dispute in the early Christian church that had to do with which of the Old Testament Laws were to be kept by Gentile believers. The debate starts when some were teaching that circumcision was a prerequisite to salvation. Read the rest of this entry »