Youth Story

  13  We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot.   14  When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene.   15  The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Chios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus.   16  Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost. 17  From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.   18  When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia.   19  I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.   20  You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to yo

  20  When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia.   2  He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece,   3  where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia.   4  He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.   5  These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas.   6  But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days. Eutychus Raised From the Dead at Troas 7  On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking un

  About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way.   24  A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there.   25  He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business.   26  And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all.   27  There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.” 28  When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”   29  Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people

  Read Acts 19:1-22 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples   2  and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when [ a ]  you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3  So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. 4  Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”   5  On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.   6  When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues [ b ]  and prophesied.   7  There were about twelve men in all. 8  Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.   9  But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the

 Read Acts 18:18-28 Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken.   19  They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.   20  When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined.   21  But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.   22  When he landed at Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch. 23  After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. 24  Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.   25  He had been

 Read Acts 18:1-17 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.   2  There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,   3  and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.   4  Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. 5  When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.   6  But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 7  Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.   8  Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Pau

  Read Acts 17 When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.   2  As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,   3  explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said.   4  Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. 5  But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. [ a ]   6  But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here,   7 

  Read Acts 16:16-40 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.   17  She 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.”   18  She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. 19  When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.   20  They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar   21  by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” 22  The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the ma

 Read Acts 16:1-15 Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek.   2  The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.   3  Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.   4  As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.   5  So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. 6  Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.   7  When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.   8  So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.   9  During the night Paul had a vision of a ma