Jesus Proclaimed from Thessalonica to Ephesus

Acts 17

17:1Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.

17:2Paul, as was his custom, went in to them; and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

17:3explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

17:4Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas: of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and not a few of the chief women.

17:5But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people.

17:6When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

17:7whom Jason has received. These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus!”

17:8The multitude and the rulers of the city were troubled when they heard these things.

17:9When they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

17:10The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.

17:11Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

17:12Many of them therefore believed; also of the prominent Greek women, and not a few men.

17:13But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes.

17:14Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there.

17:15But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him very quickly, they departed.

17:16Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.

17:17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him.

17:18Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign deities,” because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

17:19They took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which you are speaking about?

17:20For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean.”

17:21Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

17:22Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.

17:23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you.

17:24The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands.

17:25He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.

17:26He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwellings,

17:27that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

17:28‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’

17:29Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.

17:30The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,

17:31because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”

17:32Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.”

17:33Thus Paul went out from among them.

17:34But certain men joined with him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Acts 18

18:1After these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth.

18:2He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,

18:3and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.

18:4He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded Jews and Greeks.

18:5When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.

18:6When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!”

18:7He departed there and went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

18:8Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.

18:9The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent;

18:10for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”

18:11He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

18:12But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat,

18:13saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”

18:14But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you;

18:15but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don’t want to be a judge of these matters.”

18:16So he drove them from the judgment seat.

18:17Then all the Greeks seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio didn’t care about any of these things.

18:18Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow.

18:19He came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

18:20When they asked him to stay with them a longer time, he declined;

18:21but taking his leave of them, he said, “I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you if God wills.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.

18:22When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the assembly, and went down to Antioch.

18:23Having spent some time there, he departed and went through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples.

18:24Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures.

18:25This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.

18:26He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

18:27When he had determined to pass over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him; and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he had come, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace;

18:28for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

Acts 19

19:1While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus and found certain disciples.

19:2He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They said to him, “No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

19:3He said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.”

19:4Paul said, “John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Christ Jesus.”

19:5When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

19:6When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke with other languages and prophesied.

19:7They were about twelve men in all.

19:8He entered into the synagogue and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning God’s Kingdom.

19:9But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

19:10This continued for two years, so that all those who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

19:11God worked special miracles by the hands of Paul,

19:12so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out.

19:13But some of the itinerant Jews, exorcists, took on themselves to invoke over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.”

19:14There were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did this.

19:15The evil spirit answered, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?”

19:16The man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

19:17This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived at Ephesus. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

19:18Many also of those who had believed came, confessing and declaring their deeds.

19:19Many of those who practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. They counted their price, and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

19:20So the word of the Lord was growing and becoming mighty.