If the equation of Galatians and Acts is correct, Paul and Barnabas, having been sent by the Antioch church with aid for stricken believers of Jerusalem, then took the opportunity to hold a private discussion with James, Peter and John on the issues of the nature of the Gospel, the validity of a mission to Gentiles, and the relation of Gentile converts to the law. They also took along Titus, an uncircumcised Gentile Christian, whose presence might have been intended as something of a test case.

He may, however, have been included with no thought other than the help he would be on the mission—and, perhaps, with some failure to appreciate fully the pressures that could be brought to bear because of him.

Whether the pseudo-brethren were Jewish spies sent to see what treachery the Christians were planning with Gentiles or whether they were angry Jewish Christian disputants who threatened to publish what was happening at Antioch unless Titus were circumcised, we cannot say. But the extremely important point to note is that, despite mounting pressures and possibly some uncertainties, the Jerusalem apostles agreed with Paul on the substance of the Gospel and the validity of a mission to Gentiles, though, admittedly, they felt themselves committed to a different sphere of ministry than his.

Moreover, they made no demands as to the necessity of Gentile believers being circumcised. As yet, however, the issue of a direct approach to Gentiles apart from the ministrations of the synagogue did not come to the fore. That was to be raised on the first missionary journey, and would be the occasion for resurrecting the whole complex of issues again at the Jerusalem Council.

The course of the mission. While Paul and Barnabas were ministering at Antioch in Syria, the Holy Spirit directed that they be released from their duties in the church there and sent out to minister more widely Acts , 3. At Paphos, however, the proconsul Sergius Paulus requested that they present their message before him.

The meeting may have been intended only as an inquisition into the nature of their preaching so that the proconsul might be in a position to head off any features which could cause disturbance within the Jewish community on the island.

Here was something quite unexpected, for the Rom. Here was a situation which could hardly have appeared otherwise to the apostles than the counterpart of the conversion of the Rom.

At this point in the record, significantly, he begins to be called by his Rom. No account of a ministry in Perga at this time is given, though on their return visit they preached there Acts The usual explanation for this bypassing of Perga and moving on to Antioch of Pisidia is that Paul prob.

While this may be true, it can as readily be postulated that the ignoring of Perga at this time was largely because of uncertainty within the missionary party itself regarding the validity of a direct approach to Gentiles. It was at this time, the account in Acts tells us, that John Mark left the group and returned to Jerusalem.

While Paul saw in the Paphos experience the explication of his original commission, John Mark may well have felt concerned for the effect such news of a direct Christian ministry to Gentiles would have in Jerusalem and upon the Jerusalem church—and wanted no part in it himself.

Here the typical pattern of the Pauline mission was established: an initial proclamation to Jews and Gentile adherents to Judaism, whether full proselytes or more loosely associated, and then, being refused further audience in the synagogue, a direct ministry among Gentiles.

This pattern was followed in every city with a Jewish population visited by Paul. We know this from Acts, with the exception of Athens. Also at Pisidian Antioch the pattern of opposition to Paul was established Acts The Jews found occasion to reject his message on the grounds that he was willing to approach Gentiles apart from the institutions of the ancestral faith.

As Paul saw it, Jewish obstinacy made such action necessary if Gentiles were to hear the Gospel and be brought to the one true God. But as they viewed it, this disproved the claim that in Jesus of Nazareth the promises to the fathers have been brought to fulfillment.

While Christianity sought legitimacy in the eyes of Rome by nestling under the wings of Judaism, its mode of approach proved that it was really an invasion requiring active repulsion. And that pattern was often reproduced throughout the Pauline missionary journeys. The research of William M. Ramsay, however, has shown that in the period between a. The fact that Lystra and Derbe were cities under a different jurisdiction than Iconium was therefore a matter of real importance to Paul and Barnabas, for in crossing the regional border they were able to elude the Phrygian authorities.

Lystra and Derbe proved to be fruitful areas for the sowing of the Gospel Acts , though not without their difficulties. One convert at Lystra on this first journey was Timothy Acts ; , whom Paul later included as a member of his missionary team.

On the one hand, having witnessed the cripple healed at the command of Paul, they were ready to worship the apostles as the gods Zeus the Rom.

Then the apostles were hard-pressed to quiet the mob, speaking impassionately in an attempt to redirect their adoration Acts Yet, on the other hand, they seem to have been easily persuaded that if these men were not gods, they were prob.

The initial and wildly emotional response of the people is understandable to some extent in light of an ancient legend which the poet Ovid retells, and which prob. But though they asked at a thousand homes, they were not accepted into any. Finally, asking at a humble and small home built only of straw and reeds, they were received by an elderly couple, Philemon and his wife Baucis, who provided them with a banquet which strained their poor resources, but which was offered willingly.

In appreciation, the gods transformed their cottage into a temple with a golden roof and marble columns. They also appointed Philemon and Baucis to be the priest and priestess of the temple; and instead of eventually dying, they were transformed into an oak tree and a linden. However, in vengeance on the people who showed no hospitality, the gods destroyed their houses.

They wanted to pay the proper homage rather than suffer the consequences. The first missionary journey prob. Having spent about two years evangelizing Cyprus and southern Asia Minor, the apostles revisited the churches which they had planted—instructing the believers further in the doctrine of Christ, exhorting them to remain faithful to the Lord despite opposition, and appointing elders for the continuance of the ministry Acts Then after preaching in Perga, they returned to Antioch in Syria.

The significance of the mission. That Gentiles are to be included in the blessings of Israel is a recurring theme in the OT e. It was the underlying presupposition in all Jewish proselytizing Matt ; Pirke Aboth , and it was implicit in the sermons of Peter at Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius Acts ; Though Paul had earlier discussed with the leaders of the Jerusalem church the commission which he had received to minister to Gentiles, evidently at the time both he and they had in mind an outreach that would be conducted through the synagogues exclusively.

The practice inaugurated by Paul on his first missionary journey, however, went far beyond these expectations. The conversion of Sergius Paulus apart from any previous connection with the synagogue had become for Paul that which the conversion of Cornelius had not become for the Jerusalem apostles, for in it he saw God providentialy explicating more fully what was involved in a mission to Gentiles.

Furthermore, God had wonderfully stamped His approval on such a methodology by the increasing number of Gentiles whose hearts He had touched. While the synagogue was the appropriate place to begin his ministry in each city, offering as it did an audience of both Jews and Gentiles that had every reason to be spiritually sensitive and theologically alert, it was not the only sphere wherein his ministry could be carried out.

Jew and Gentile stood on an equal footing before God Rom , and with differing backgrounds and sensibilities, they could be appealed to separately and in a different manner. It was not a difference in content, but a distinction in the pattern of redemptive logistics. By revelation, the nature of his ministry had been indicated; by circumstances providentially controlled, specifics of that call had been explicated.

Jewish responses to the mission. The fact that Paul felt obliged to give an explanation of his visit to Jerusalem implies that his adversaries in Galatia had been using one or both of those visits in some manner detrimental to his position and authority.

And that Paul should take up a discussion of his contacts with the Jerusalem leaders, and for one reason or another fail to mention the decision reached at the Council accepting for the moment both the veracity of Acts 15 and a late date for the composition of Galatians , is entirely inconceivable.

Either Paul did not know of such a decision when he wrote to the Galatians because that decision as recorded in Acts 15 has no basis in fact, or he did not know of it because he wrote to the Galatians before it had been reached.

And while it often is asserted otherwise, one need not conclude that the only recourse is to skepticism of the account in Acts. The inclusion of such an incident at a time before the Council is understandable.

But to use it in support of his argument after the Council leaves some doubt regarding the logical ability of the apostle. Admittedly, there are difficulties of detail with an early dating of the letter, but the problems confronted in accepting the later date are damaging to any high view of the rationality of Paul or the veracity of Acts. Accepting, then, the theory that Galatians was written to converts living in the southern part of the Rom.

Important for consideration here, therefore, is the fact that the letter to the Galatians seems to reflect the responses toward Paul and his Gentile mission of three types of Jews: 1 the unbelieving Jews of Jerusalem; 2 the apostolic leaders in the Jerusalem church; and 3 the Judaizers.

But while Luke uses this phrase in Acts and for Jewish Christians, it is never so employed by Paul. In view of the Jewish reaction at home, the Christian apostles of Jerusalem were faced with the practical necessity of minimizing the unnecessary conflicts that might arise between Judaism and the Christian mission. Therefore one should prob. Paul, it must be noticed, did not accuse Peter of having wrong principles, but of being untrue to the principles he professed Gal ff.

Considerations of expediency, however, gave way in certain quarters to conclusions justified on principle. And as so often happens with the increase of pressure, emotional responses and pragmatically sanctioned procedures tended by some to become buttressed theologically.

That behind these Judaizers stood James and Peter is a fiction which finds no support in historical fact; for while the Jerusalem apostles were vitally interested in reducing tensions between Judaism and Jewish Christianity wherever possible, they were not prepared to sacrifice the principles of the Gospel for the sake of expediency when they became aware of the implications involved.

The Judaizers, on the other hand, while prob. According to 1 Thessalonians , Paul regarded unbelieving Jews as the ultimate source of opposition to the Gentile mission. Undoubtedly the Judaizers thought of themselves as acting conscientiously.

The practice inaugurated by Paul on his first missionary journey of appealing directly to Gentiles was a matter of far-reaching concern at Jerusalem.

In the Gentile churches, as well, issues needed to be clarified, esp. It was at the Council of Jerusalem, prob. The issues involved. As the true Israel and faithful remnant within the nation, the Jerusalem church naturally expected the Christian mission to proceed along lines laid out of old by God. And in its pragmatic polemic, it could point to the fact that, with very few exceptions, commitment to Jesus did not make Jews less Jewish.

In some cases, as a matter of fact, it even brought Gentiles who had been loosely associated with the synagogue into greater conformity to Jewish ethical ideals.

At any rate, Christianity had always asserted its essential relation to the religion of Israel and to the nation, even though that relation might be variously defined within the movement and contain elements of unresolved ambiguity. After considerable debate between Paul and Barnabas on the one side and the Judaizers who claimed the backing of the Jerusalem apostles on the other Acts , 2 , and realizing that this same debate was going on in the newly founded churches of southern Asia Minor, the Antioch church sent a delegation headed by Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to clarify matters with the apostles and elders there.

The Jerusalem believers, for their part, were concerned that the implications involved in a direct approach to Gentiles receive a thorough airing, and that Paul and Barnabas be directly confronted with the impasse created for Christians in Jerusalem by their recently inaugurated policy. The issues, while closely related, seem to have boiled down to two: 1 the legitimacy of a direct ministry to Gentiles; and 2 the relation of a policy based on expediency to one founded on principle in the continued observance of the Mosaic law.

The broader questions regarding the validity of a mission to Gentiles generally and the necessity for Jewish Christians to retain their relation to Jewish customs and institutions as a way of life seem to have been assumed as basically settled earlier, though, of course, there were undoubtedly some who felt that these issues had been thrown open to reevaluation. For the leaders at the Council, however, matters now concerned the explication of these commitments in the light of recent developments.

The course of the debate. In the debate that ensued within the Council, contributions to the discussion are recorded on the part of four groups or individuals. Barnabas and Paul then told of their witness to Gentiles on that first missionary journey, dealing esp. Undoubtedly they also drew the parallel between the cases of Cornelius and Sergius Paulus.

It is interesting to note that here the Acts account lists Barnabas first in naming the two apostles, since it was Barnabas who prob. On the practical matter of the effect of the Pauline mission on the Christian witness in Jerusalem, and with some fear that Gentile converts might flaunt their liberty in disregard for the scruples of Jewish believers, he suggested that Gentile Christians be asked to keep themselves from 1 whatever is associated with idolatry; 2 immorality in all its forms; 3 the eating of animals killed by strangulation; and 4 the eating of blood Acts The nature of the decision.

This was the type of decision consistent with the character and commitments of James and the Jerusalem apostles as portrayed elsewhere in Acts and Galatians.

They could hardly have officially commended the Pauline policies. To do so would have meant for them the same fate as that suffered by the Hellenists. But neither could they be found resisting the general teaching of Scripture or the evident acceptance of the Gentiles by God expressed in miraculous and providential fashion. On the other hand, they could not overlook the practical demands involved in a ministry to Israel. Therefore, while they could not clasp the Gentile mission to their bosom or condone certain excesses which were rumored among the Jews to be prevalent in the Gentile world, they did disassociate themselves from the disruptive preaching of the Judaizers.

And that was of immense importance to Paul and the furtherance of the Gentile mission. When one considers the situation of the Jerusalem church in a. While still attempting to minister exclusively to the nation, they refused to impede the progress of that other branch of the Christian mission whose every success meant further oppression for them. All they asked was that in view of Jewish fears and sensibilities, the Gentile converts be instructed to abstain from certain practices which have been traditionally classified as the heinous vices of heathenism cf.

To such a decree Paul seems to have been happy to concede, since it stemmed from practical considerations of Jewish-Christian relationships and was not proposed as a basis of righteousness. The effect of the decision made at Jerusalem was far-reaching. In the first place, it freed the Gospel from any necessary entanglement with Judaism and the institutions of Israel, though without renouncing the legitimacy of a continued Christian expression and mission within those confines.

Thus, the Gentile and Jewish missions of the church were able to progress side by side in the decade to follow without any essential conflict. Second, reactions to Paul within the Jerusalem church were clarified. It is possible that some of the Jewish believers were even more fixed in their enmity than before.

But others of the Christian community at Jerusalem came to have more positive attitudes toward him, as seems to have been the case with John Mark see discussion below.

And some felt themselves happier in a Gentile ministry than at Jerusalem because of the deliberations of the Council, as was evidently true of Silas Acts , 32 , 34 , Third, the decision made at the Council had the effect of permanently antagonizing the Jews. From this time forward, the Christian mission within the nation—and esp. A further geographical advance in the proclamation of the Gospel occurred on the second missionary journey of Paul, for, although expecting at its inception to carry on the Gentile mission within the confines of Asia Minor, the apostle was directed into Macedonia and Achaia, regions of southeastern Europe.

The account is given in Acts , with the journey spanning the years of approximately a. Two missionary teams. After the disruption caused by the Judaizers had been settled at Antioch, Paul desired to revisit the churches which had been founded on the first missionary journey. With this proposal Barnabas agreed. The Jerusalem Council prob. But Paul did not care to have him along.

Perhaps it was because of the report Mark gave when he returned to the congregation at Jerusalem that the Judaizing activity was stirred up against the mission originally. For Paul, however, the wound was too deep and the scars yet too tender to permit close association with one who had possibly, even though unwittingly, been a contributing factor in the original conflict.

And while Mark may have experienced a real change of heart and mind, renouncing all Judaizing tendencies and professing to be solidly in support of the apostolic proclamation, Paul seems to have taken the position that the issues were too great and the welfare of the churches too important for them to risk his vacillations or to be reminded of earlier dissent within the party itself by his presence.

Thus, Barn abas went with Mark back to Cyprus, where the mission had originated and where Mark would be most effective, and Paul selected Silas as his new colleague, returning to the fields in Asia Minor Acts Contention among Christians is never pleasant nor praiseworthy; and although the argument of Paul and Barnabas is described, there is no word condoning it or suggesting it as normative.

On his third missionary journey Paul alluded to Barnabas in a letter to the Corinthians, classing him with himself as an apostle of highest rank 1 Cor Evidently even earnest and godly men of the highest order can differ, requiring a separation of ways; and while such a separation is never commended, neither does Scripture place a stigma upon either party when they separate apart from personal invective and attitudes of vindictiveness.

In this case, of course, God used the difference to send out two missionary teams instead of one. To judge by the later references of Paul to these two men, Barnabas and Mark evidently did excellent work in Cyprus. In the first place, of course, he was a leading Jerusalemite Christian able to represent sentiment as it existed in the church at Jerusalem Acts , In addition, he was a Rom.

As such, he fitted into and nicely complemented the mission of Paul. This easy association of Silas first with the Jerusalem apostles, then with Paul on the second and third missionary journeys, and finally with Peter again 1 Pet , is both an indication and an expression of the basic unity which existed between the two sections of early Christianity and their respective leaders.

The ministry in Asia Minor. Believers in these areas prob. Then traveling through the mountain passes forming the Cilician Gates, they came to Derbe and Lystra, and from there went on to the other churches of southern Asia Minor founded on the first missionary journey Acts , 4. In all of the churches they announced the decision reached at the Jerusalem Council and gave instruction regarding the decrees formulated to relieve tensions between Jewish and Gentile believers, thereby strengthening the churches in the Christian faith.

They also continued the proclamation of the Gospel, and many more were converted to Jesus Christ Acts , 5. At Lystra, Paul found the young man Timothy, a convert of the first journey, and asked that he join Silas and himself in their travels and ministry.

Since Timothy was a converted half-Jew, raised by his devout Jewish mother and grandmother and therefore would undoubtedly be considered a Jewish Christian by man, Paul had him circumcised so as not to offend the Jews unduly Acts While arguing strongly against the circumcision of Gentile converts, Paul never disputed the right—even the practical necessity in view of circumstances—for Jewish Christians to continue the practice of circumcision.

Many commentators have viewed Acts as indicating that after revisiting the churches of southern Asia Minor, Paul and Silas went directly to the northern part of the province of Galatia and there established the churches to which the letter to the Galatians was later addressed. This theory grew up in the early patristic period at a time when the political boundaries of Galatia had been altered to conform to the ethnological grouping of Gauls living principally in the N.

Thus they excluded the southern territory in which Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe were located, so that it did not occur to the fathers that the Galatian letter could have been written to churches in the S. The wording of Acts in the Gr. At the inception of the second journey, Paul seems to have intended extending the Gentile mission into the rich Rom. Having therefore strengthened the churches founded during his previous missionary endeavor, he sought to continue westward. He then decided to make for the large Rom.

Not knowing precisely where they should minister, though aware that God had called them to move forward in the evangelization of the Gentiles the missionary party turned toward Troas, located on the coast of the Aegean Sea. Accepting this as direction from God, the apostles set their sights on the possibilities for evangelism in the cities beyond the Aegean to the W Acts The advance into Europe. The mission to Macedonia began at Philippi, the leading city of the province and a Rom. The city seems to have been devoid of any sizable Jewish population, for Paul had to seek out the devout worshipers of God on the sabbath day and found only women gathered by a river.

Jewish law prescribes that wherever ten men who are heads of households reside, there a meeting place synagogue for the study of the law should be built; otherwise the study of the law in public session and corporate worship should take place in some clear area, a riverside being eminently appropriate.

Here God opened the heart of Lydia, a seller of dyes and dyed cloth, to the Gospel; and after her baptism and the baptism of those in her household, she invited the missionary party to make her home their headquarters in the city Acts From this small beginning sprang the church at Philippi, whose members seem to have given Paul the most satisfaction and the least anxiety of all the churches in his care.

The ministry at Philippi was interrupted, however, at the cure of a clairvoyant slave girl, whose owners charged the apostles with interfering in what was for them a very profitable business. In the melee which followed, they were beaten and thrown into a dungeon under lock and key. In the morning the local authorities ordered the police to release the apostles. But Paul and Silas demanded their rights to a public release as befitting Rom.

Luke may well have remained behind at Philippi, for the personal pronoun in the narrative returns to the third person after this episode with the slave girl and its aftermath. Coming to Thessalonica via Amphipolis and Apollonia, Paul and Silas were able to preach for three weeks in the synagogue with considerable success before the Jews incited a riot against them and their host, Jason Acts Their preaching focused on the death and resurrection of the Messiah according to prophecy and the identification of Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah Acts ; cf.

However, the charges laid against them were those of disturbing the peace and treason against the state Acts , 7. Realizing the danger of the situation before the crisis reached its peak, the new converts of the city sent the missionary party away by night to Beroea Acts Paul accepted their intervention and aid. But from his first letter to them a few months later, we gather that he left with real fears for their personal safety and their steadfastness in the faith 1 Thess Thus they gave him audience while they examined the Biblical prophecies in the light of his proclamation.

And, as a result, many Jews and Gentiles were converted to Christ Acts But the Jews of Thessalonica came to Beroea and stirred up the mobs against him, with the result that Paul was again forced to flee. The opposition seems to have been only partially successful, however, since the Beroean Jews themselves took little active part in the persecution, and Silas and Timothy were able to remain to carry on the ministry in the city Acts But as he awaited the coming of Silas and Timothy from the N, he was stirred by the rampant idolatry of the city, and soon found himself compelled to present the claims of Christ in the synagogue to Jews and God-fearing Gentiles and in the market place to whosoever would listen Acts , Soon, however, certain adherents to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophies led him off, prob.

The Council of the Areopagus in Rom. It was before this council that Paul was asked to speak, though the occasion was more an inquisition than an impartial inquiry. Many have attributed this address to the ingenuity of Luke, asserting that all of the speeches of Acts—and this one esp. On the contrary, it seems that Luke has here recorded but another instance of where Paul began on common ground with his hearers and attempted to lead them on to the person of Jesus Christ.

However, in this instance the Pauline polemic is expressed in a different setting than previously presented. Most of the members of the Areopagus Council either mocked or remained noncommittal; though Dionysius, one of their number, believed. Also Damaris, who was a prominent woman of the city, and some others were converted Acts But no church seems to have been established at Athens.

Many have suggested that Paul was plunged into despondency over the meager results, and that as he later reevaluated his attempt to speak philosophically to an educated audience, he forswore this strategy in favor of a simple pronouncement of the Gospel 1 Cor Now it is certainly probable that the apostle felt some discouragement over the fact that so few at Athens had come to Christ as a result of his ministry. But it must not be forgotten that some did respond! When Christianity emerged, it was often thought of as a Jewish sect—it built on Jewish teachings and beliefs, and because most Christians were also Jewish, many still followed Jewish customs and rituals established in the Law of Moses.

For Paul, the apostles, and the early Christians, the Law and specifically, circumcision was one of the greatest theological issues of their day. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.

Instead, they essentially instructed Gentiles be culturally sensitive to their Jewish brothers and sisters, because the Law was respected and observed by Jews everywhere. After he received a vision Acts —16 , Peter was one of the first apostles to specifically advocate for sharing the gospel with Gentiles. But as the Gentiles joined the church, Paul noticed that Peter still treated Gentile Christians differently in order to save face with those who still valued the law.

For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. And as he explained earlier in his epistle to the Galatians, Peter, James, and John already agreed with him: the Gentiles did not need to follow the Law of Moses, and Jewish Christians were not better or superior than Gentile Christians because they did follow the Law.

Some scholars argue there was a fourth missionary journey as well. In each of these, Paul and his companions set out to bring the gospel to Gentiles, and they establish the churches Paul wrote to in his epistles as well as many others. In some cases, Paul spent well over a year in the cities he preached to, living with the believers there and modeling a lifestyle of imitating Christ.

Over the course of his life, Paul likely traveled well over 10, miles to spread the gospel. He left the church with Barnabas and a man named John also called Mark, believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark , and together they sailed to Cyprus , an island in the Mediterranean.

Here Paul performed his first miracle, perhaps inspired by his own conversion on the road to Damascus: he blinded a sorcerer who opposed their attempts to evangelize a proconsul Acts — Then they sailed to Perga in Pamphylia , where John Mark parted ways with Paul and Barnabas this became a point of tension between Paul and Barnabas later. They were invited to come speak on the following Sabbath, and when they did, most of the city attended.

Many of the Jews in attendance grew angry and tried to stop them, but the Gentiles were receptive to their message. Paul and Barnabas ultimately left Psidion Antioch due to persecution, and traveled to another Turkish city called Iconium. Those who opposed Paul and Barnabas started a plot to stone them, but they caught wind of it and fled to the Lycaonian city of Lystra. There, Paul performed another miracle: he healed a man who had been lame since birth Acts The people who saw this thought Paul and Barnabas were gods, and attempted to make sacrifices to them even as Paul and Barnabas tried to convince them not to.

Some of the people who opposed them in Psidion Antioch and Iconium followed them to Lystra , and they stirred up the crowd against them. They stoned Paul and left him for dead outside the city. Then he got up and went back in. Paul and Silas travelled through Derbe and then Lystra , where they picked up a believer named Timothy this is the Timothy Paul writes to in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy.

Together they traveled from town to town and told people what the apostles had decided at the Council of Jerusalem where James told Gentile Christians not to worry about circumcision, which was pretty ironic, because Paul had just circumcised Timothy Acts The Holy Spirit kept Paul and his companions from preaching in the province of Asia , so they went to Phrygia and Galatia where they planted the church Paul would later write to in Galatians , eventually making their way to Troas.

They wound their way through several provinces to arrive in Philippi , the main city in Macedonia. Here they met with a group of women, including a wealthy cloth dealer named Lydia.

After they baptized Lydia and her household, she invited them to stay at her house. These were the first members of the church Paul writes to in Philippians.

During their time in Philippi , a spirit that possessed a local slave girl was bothering Paul, so he cast it out of her Acts They got everyone riled up against Paul and Silas and managed to convince the local authorities to have them beaten and imprisoned.

For three Sabbaths, Paul taught in the synagogues and established the group of believers that he would later write to in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. He gained many followers, but those who opposed him started a riot and threatened his supporters, so the believers sent him on to Berea. Unfortunately, some of those who opposed Paul and his companions in Thessalonica heard he was in Berea , so they came and started causing trouble.

Paul left to Athens. Silas and Timothy stayed behind, but would catch up later. Some of his listeners became believers, and then he left for Corinth. Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, preaching in the synagogues and gaining both Jewish and Gentile followers from a range of social statuses, forming the group of believers he would later write to in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. He stayed with two named Aquila and Priscilla, who were tentmakers, like him. Silas and Timothy rejoined him here.

Paul left with Priscilla and Aquila and journeyed to Ephesus. In Ephesus , Paul went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews and promised to return if he could. Then he made his way back to Jerusalem and Antioch, where his second journey ended. Paul remained in Ephesus for more than two years, and during that time he transitioned from teaching in the synagogue to discussing the gospel in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. During this time, Paul did many miracles, and even things he touched were reported to have healed people Acts After a dangerous evil spirit claimed to know Jesus and Paul, people flocked to Paul and his followers and the church grew quickly.

Around this time, Paul decided to head to Jerusalem , so he journeyed through Macedonia and Achaia , and made plans to stop in Rome. The city was on the brink of rioting, and Paul wanted to return to help his companions, but the city clerk managed to de-escalate the situation without him.

Paul spent three months in Greece , then returned to Macedonia to avoid some people who were plotting against him. In Troas a city in Macedonia , Paul was teaching in an upper room when a young man fell asleep and tumbled out the window, falling to his death. Paul revived him, then left. In a rush to reach Jerusalem , Paul bounced from Troas to Assos , Mitylene , Chios , and finally Miletus , where he asked the elders from Ephesus to meet him.

After encouraging them, he boarded a ship and returned to Jerusalem , even after numerous Christians warned him not to go there. Some argue that Paul made a fourth missionary journey as well, since some of his letters refer to events and visits that may not be accounted for in Acts.

This largely depends on whether Paul was imprisoned in Rome once, or twice, which his letters are ambiguous about. Paul suggested he would travel to Spain Romans , but he provides no record of this journey in his letters. However, early church fathers claimed Paul did, in fact, travel to Spain. In his second letter to the Corinthians, which was likely written before his final trip to Jerusalem, Paul claims he was shipwrecked three times:. Once I was stoned. The soldiers took drastic measures, but an angel spoke to Paul, and he encouraged and advised them along the way.

During his ministry, Paul made a lot of people mad. On six occasions in Acts, Jews and Gentiles alike made plans to murder him—and one of those times, they stoned him and left him for dead. Only counting the times the Bible explicitly says they planned to kill him, not just attack or harm him, here they in sequential order. Just after his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul began preaching in the synagogues. After several days, people began planning to kill him, and they watched the city gates day and night.

His followers smuggled him in and out of the city in a basket Acts — When Paul left Damascus, he went to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples there. He began debating with Hellenistic Jews, and they tried to kill him, so the Christians took him to Caesarea an sent him home to Tarsus Acts — Paul and Barnabas spent a long time in Iconium, and the city was divided: some people supported them, and others hated them.

Jews and Gentiles alike plotted to stone them, and when Paul and Barnabas found out, they fled to Lystra Acts —6.

After Paul healed a man in Lystra, people thought he and Barnabas were the gods, Zeus and Hermes, and attempted to sacrifice to them. But then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and convinced this crowd to actually stone Paul. They thought they killed him, so they left him outside the city gate. He was still alive. Then he and Barnabas left Acts — After Paul insulted the high priest and sparked an intense theological debate between the Sadducees and Pharisees, a group of more than 40 men took a vow not to eat or drink until they killed Paul Acts — Their plan was to have a centurion send Paul to the Sanhedrin for questioning, and then kill him on the way.

But someone warned the centurion of the plan, and instead, he rounded up nearly soldiers to take Paul to the governor in Caesarea. Paul became famous and he worked with the Jewish authorities who had him actively pursue and persecute members of a news sect that confessed Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the messiah. It is on one such trip to persecute this sect on the road to Damascus that St.

Paul had a supernatural encounter and was converted to the same Christian sect he was persecuting! Paul was struck blind and was to fast for three days. He regained his sight after a Christian, Ananias prayed for him. He then got baptized. Paul moved from persecuting Christians to converting non- Christians to Christianity. The ultimate degree change. He had been educated in Jerusalem under the famous Jewish teacher Gamaliel. He, therefore, could connect with both Jews and Christians and be known by many.

Paul was born in Tarsus. His birthplace was a major city in eastern Cilicia, a region that was turned over to be part of the Roman province of Syria.

On the other hand, he had Greek-speaking Jewish roots. He, therefore, was able to penetrate areas with the gospel, which might have been difficult for other people otherwise.

Jesus and his disciples- by Dorotheum- Wikimedia Commons. With his fervor with the Christian gospel, it may be assumed that St. Paul was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus. Paul, however, was not a disciple nor did he meet Jesus. Paul is said to have persecuted some of these very disciples! Wall in Damascus- by Heretiq- Wikimedia Commons. Soon after his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul became quite a sensation.

He became more powerful and baffled the Jews in Damascus by proving that Jesus was Christ.