Bible

In the Bible room today, we continue reading the book of Acts with Session 8, the summaries of chapters 16 and 17.

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Acts

Session 8

Chapter 16. Earthquake

Through Derbe, then to Lystra where Paul will meet a young disciple:

• Timothy’s mother is a believing Jew, his father is Greek;
• He has a good reputation around the region;
• Paul wants him to join with him on his preaching tour;
• So, for the Jews to accept Timothy’s witness,
• Paul has him circumcised, because he has a Greek father;
• They travel to all the cities, building up the churches;
• But they stay out of the Roman province of Asia,
• As the Holy Spirit directs them not to go there;
• Passing by Bithynia and Mysia, they go on down to Troas;
• One night, Paul has a vision of a man talking to him:
• He asks Paul to come over to Macedonia to help them;
• Paul hears the Lord calling him to preach the gospel there;
• So, they sail from Troas, a two-day trip to Neapolis;
• From there, they go to Philippi, the leading city in the region;
• They will stay there for several days;
• There is a custom among the women to gather for prayer,
• On the Sabbath day, at the riverside;
• The disciples decide to go there to speak to the women;
• A Godly woman named Lydia of Thyatira, who sells purple,
• Hears Paul speaking and becomes a believer,
• She, and her entire family, are baptized;
• Then, she insists Paul come stay at her house;
• There is a slave girl in town who has a spirit of divination:
• This spirit makes money for her owner by telling the future;
• She begins following behind Paul and his men, yelling loudly,
• Saying: This man of God is preaching the way of salvation;
• After several days of this, Paul becomes greatly annoyed;
• So, he commands the spirit to come out of her in the name
• Of Jesus Christ, and immediately the spirit comes out;
• Her masters have lost their money maker;
• So, they arrest Paul and Silas, drag them up to the magistrate;
• The crowd tells the magistrate these Jews are troublemakers;
• They are preaching about Jewish customs to us Romans
• Which are not lawful, that we do not accept or observe;
• The magistrate has them stripped of their clothing, then
• Beaten with rods, taken to the inner prison, put in stocks;
• At midnight, Paul and Silas are praying, and singing hymns;
• The other prisoners are listening to them;
• Suddenly, an earthquake shakes the prison, opens the doors;
• Chains fall off, but the prisoners all remain;
• The prison guard wakes up, finds the doors open;
• Distraught, he is about to kill himself when Paul calls him;
• Tells him not to harm himself, the prisoners have not left;
• Trembling, the guard escorts Paul and Silas out of the prison;
• He asks them what he must do to be saved;
• They answer: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ;
• So, the guard is saved and baptized and everyone in his house;
• He cleans the wounds on the backs of Paul and Silas,
• He takes them to his home and feeds them;
• The next day the magistrate orders the prisoners be released;
• The guard tells them they can go, but they will not leave;
• They say they have been beaten in public by the Romans,
• And they are not going to leave the prison in secret;
• They tell the guard to have the magistrate come to the prison;
• He must tell them openly, in public, that they are released;
• So, the officers ask Paul and Silas, politely, to leave the prison;
• Which they do, and then go to the house of Lydia;
• After they have encouraged the brethren, they leave the city.

Chapter 17. Unknown

Paul and Silas pass through Amphipolis and Apollonia, get to Thessalonica:

• Where there is a Jewish synagogue;
• For three Sabbaths he studies the scriptures with them;
• His primary message to them: Jesus is the Christ;
• Some are converted, along with many Greeks, and women;
• But the Jews gather a mob, attack the house of Jason;
• Not finding the disciples, they drag out Jason before the leaders;
• They say: These men who have turned the world upside down,
• Have come here too, and Jason has given them a safe place;
• They are teaching against the laws of Caesar, saying
• There is another king named Jesus;
• The crowd is angry but they let Jason go home;
• By night, the brethren help Paul and Silas escape to Berea;
• There, they go straight to the synagogue;
• The people in Berea are more open-minded to hear the word;
• After searching the scriptures, many are converted,
• Including many Greeks and prominent women;
• The Jews in Thessalonica hear that Paul is preaching in Berea,
• And they come there to stir up the crowd;
• So, the brethren send Paul away by sea, Silas and Timothy stay;
• Paul is escorted to Athens, sends word for Silas and Timothy;
• In Athens he discovers the city is dominated by idols;
• Daily, he holds teaching sessions for devout Jews and Gentiles;
• He also teaches in the market place for whoever will listen;
• The philosophers in Athens are called Stoics and Epicureans;
• When they encounter Paul, they are curious of his teaching;
• He is teaching about Jesus and his resurrection;
• So, they say he must be talking about some foreign gods;
• They take him to Mars Hill where they begin their questions;
• They want to know more about this new doctrine;
• It is something new to them, they have never heard about it;
• Everyone in Athens is listening and talking about it;
• So, Paul stands at the center of Mars Hill, addresses the people;
• He begins by noting that Athens is a very religious city;
• They even have an altar dedicated ‘To The Unknown God;’
• Paul says this is the One whom he will tell them about;
• God made the earth and everything in it, He is Lord of
• Heaven and earth, does not live in man-made temples;
• He is not worshipped with human hands, needs nothing;
• He has made all men with the same blood;
• He has established their times and locations on the earth;
• And planned for them to seek the Lord and find Him,
• Though He is not far from any of us;
• In Him we have life, as your poets say: We are His offspring;
• Since we are His offspring, we should not think of Him as
• Being made of various forms of artwork like gold, silver, stone;
• In times past, He overlooked man’s ignorance of this fact,
• But now, He is calling for everyone, everywhere to repent;
• Because one day He will judge the world by the righteous
• Man whom He has ordained by raising Him from the dead;
• Hearing about One being raised from the dead causes a stir;
• Some are mocking, but others say they want to know more;
• Paul leaves, followed by Dionysius, and Damaris, a woman;
• And several others, all become believers.

End of Session 8 of the book of Acts.

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