Week Seven - Day 1
Today's Reading
Acts 20:3b to Acts 22:30
It is the spring of 58 A.D., and Paul has completed his writing of his letter to the Romans while staying in southern Greece, most probably in the city of Corinth. Paul is anxious to return to Jerusalem and makes plans to leave accompanied by seven converts to the faith that Paul has picked up from the various places visited and preached the gospel. Learning of a plot against him he travels by land to Philippi while the others sail across to Troas in Turkey. When Paul catches up with them a week later it was "the first day of the week," a day for the Christians to meet and break break and to listen to preaching. Paul, never one at a loss for words, preached well into the night until a young man, overcome with sleep, fell out a three-story window. Presumed dead, Paul ministers to him and restores him to life. Paul then went back upstairs and picked up where he left off and didn't stop talking until sunrise!
Paul then sets sail for Jerusalem, stopping in a number of port cities along the way, making his longest layover in Miletus which was close enough to Ephesus to ask the elders of the church in that city to come and meet with him. Paul may not have wanted to go to Ephesus for two reasons: he left the city after a near riot against the Christians, and he didn't want to further delay his return to Jerusalem. When the elders arrive he delivers a farewell speech seemingly knowing that he will never see them again. They send him off with prayers and tears as Paul then sets sail for Syria, and then makes the final overland trip to Jerusalem.
Paul is a controversial figure because of his extended mission among the gentiles, and being in Jerusalem, a place of pilgrimage for Jews from all over the Roman Empire, it was certain that some of his opponents from other lands would spot him somewhere in the city, most probably at the Temple. When some Jews from Asia make a charge against him of defiling the temple, a charge that is false, the city is aroused and the people seize Paul, drag him out of the Temple and begin to beat him. Paul is saved by Roman guard and locked up. Appealing to address the people because he is a Jew by birth, Paul gives an account of his conversion while on the road to Damascus, which only makes the crowd angry again. When a centurion orders that he be flogged, Paul pulls out his credentials that he is also a Roman citizen by birth. He has certain rights as a citizen that must be respected, and so he is freed by the Romans but must still answer to the religious authorities.
Tomorrow, we will hear what he had to say.
Paul then sets sail for Jerusalem, stopping in a number of port cities along the way, making his longest layover in Miletus which was close enough to Ephesus to ask the elders of the church in that city to come and meet with him. Paul may not have wanted to go to Ephesus for two reasons: he left the city after a near riot against the Christians, and he didn't want to further delay his return to Jerusalem. When the elders arrive he delivers a farewell speech seemingly knowing that he will never see them again. They send him off with prayers and tears as Paul then sets sail for Syria, and then makes the final overland trip to Jerusalem.
Paul is a controversial figure because of his extended mission among the gentiles, and being in Jerusalem, a place of pilgrimage for Jews from all over the Roman Empire, it was certain that some of his opponents from other lands would spot him somewhere in the city, most probably at the Temple. When some Jews from Asia make a charge against him of defiling the temple, a charge that is false, the city is aroused and the people seize Paul, drag him out of the Temple and begin to beat him. Paul is saved by Roman guard and locked up. Appealing to address the people because he is a Jew by birth, Paul gives an account of his conversion while on the road to Damascus, which only makes the crowd angry again. When a centurion orders that he be flogged, Paul pulls out his credentials that he is also a Roman citizen by birth. He has certain rights as a citizen that must be respected, and so he is freed by the Romans but must still answer to the religious authorities.
Tomorrow, we will hear what he had to say.
No comments:
Post a Comment