Study Desk

"For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was buried among his fathers and experienced decay [in the grave];

So Paul and Barnabas stayed for a long time, speaking boldly and confidently for the Lord, who continued to testify to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders (attesting miracles) be done by them.

Now at Lystra a man sat who was unable to use his feet, for he was crippled from birth and had never walked.

"Simeon (Simon Peter) has described how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name [to honor Him and be identified with Him].

Now Barnabas wanted to take [his cousin] John, who was called Mark, along with them.

But Paul chose Silas [who was again in Antioch] and set out [on his second journey], commended by the brothers to the grace and favor of the Lord.

Now Paul traveled to Derbe and also to Lystra. A disciple named Timothy was there, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer [in Christ], however, his father was a Greek.

Paul wanted Timothy to go with him [as a missionary]; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, since they all knew that his father was a Greek.

She continued doing this for several days. Then Paul, being greatly annoyed and worn out, turned and said to the spirit [inside her], "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ [as His representative] to come out of her!" And it came out at that very moment.

When the jailer, shaken out of sleep, saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped.

And they spoke the word of the Lord [concerning eternal salvation through faith in Christ] to him and to all who were in his house.

And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their bloody wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.

Then he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, since he had believed in God with his entire family [accepting with joy what had been made known to them about the Christ].

And Paul entered the synagogue, as was his custom, and for three Sabbaths he engaged in discussion and friendly debate with them from the Scriptures,

and Jason has welcomed them [into his house and protected them]! And they all are saying things contrary to the decrees of Caesar, [actually] claiming that there is another king, Jesus."

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was greatly angered when he saw that the city was full of idols.

And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to engage in conversation with him. And some said, "What could this idle babbler [with his eclectic, scrap-heap learning] have in mind to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities"—because he was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

"For in Him we live and move and exist [that is, in Him we actually have our being], as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'

There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, because [the Roman Emperor] Claudius had issued an edict that all the Jews were to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,

But since the Jews kept resisting and opposing him, and blaspheming [God], he shook out his robe and said to them, "Your blood (damnation) be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."