The missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas
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📚✭Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch✭, and Saul. 2 📚✭As they were engaged in ministry for the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called them to do”. 3 📚✭And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.On the island of Cyprus
4 📚✭So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went to Seleucia, and from there sailed to Cyprus✭. 5 📚✭And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the Jewish synagogues✭. And they had John as their assistant.
6 📚✭And when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they met a certain sorcerer and false prophet who was a Jew named Bar-Jesus. 7 📚He was with the proconsul✭ of the country, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God. 8 📚✭But Elymas the sorcerer (for this is his name by translation) opposed them, trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 📚✭Then Saul (who is also called Paul), filled with the Holy Spirit✭, fixed his eyes on him, 10 📚✭and said, “You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery, you child of the devil✭, you enemy of all righteousness! Will you not stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11 📚✭And now, look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind, not seeing sunlight for a time”. And immediately a mist and darkness fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
12 📚When the proconsul saw what had been done, he believed, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
In Antioch of Psidia
13 📚✭Now when Paul and his companions sailed from Paphos they went on to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem. 14 📚✭And when they left Perga they came to Antioch in Pisidia. There they went into the synagogue✭ on the Sabbath day and sat down. 15 📚✭And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent word to them which said: “Men, brethren, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, speak”.
16 📚Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand, said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God✭, listen. 17 📚✭The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm brought them out of it. 18 📚And for about forty years he endured their behaviour in the wilderness. 19 📚And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land to them through the casting of lots.
20 📚✭“And after that he gave them judges✭ for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. 21 📚And afterwards they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin. He ruled for forty years. 22 📚✭And when he removed him, he raised up for them David as their king. He also gave testimony about him, saying, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all I want.’
23 📚✭“From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise, has raised up for Israel a Saviour, Jesus. 24 📚Before his coming, John first preached the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 📚And when John was finishing his course, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not the one. But, see, someone is coming after me and I am not worthy to take the sandals off his feet.’
26 📚✭“Men, brethren, children of the family of Abraham, and whoever fears God among you, to you this message of salvation has been sent. 27 📚✭For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not recognize him or even the voices of the prophets who are read every Sabbath day, have fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 📚And though they found in him no cause for death, still they asked Pilate to have him killed. 29 📚And when they had fulfilled all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 📚But God raised him from the dead. 31 📚And he was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are his witnesses to the people.
32 📚✭“And we declare to you the glad tidings that the promise which was made to the fathers, 33 📚God has fulfilled for us their children by raising up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm,
You are my Son,
this day I have begotten you.
34 📚And concerning the fact that he raised him from the dead, never to return to corruption, he spoke like this:
I will give you the sure mercies of David✭.
35 📚Therefore he said also in another psalm,
You will not allow your Holy One
to see corruption.
36 📚“For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep✭, was buried near his fathers, and saw corruption. 37 📚But he whom God raised up, saw no corruption.
38 📚“Therefore, be it known to you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins✭, 39 📚✭and in him all who believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. 40 📚✭Beware, therefore, that this which is spoken about in the Prophets does not come on you:
41 📚Look, you despisers, and wonder,
and perish, for I do a work in your days,
a work that you will not at all believe,
though a man declares it to you”.
42 📚And when the Jews had gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these things might be preached to them the next Sabbath. 43 📚Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas who spoke with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God✭.
44 📚✭And the next Sabbath day almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. 45 📚✭But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with envy and, contradicting and blaspheming, opposed the things Paul was saying.
46 📚 Then Paul and Barnabas became bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you. But seeing that you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life✭, see, we turn to the Gentiles. 47 📚✭For thus the Lord commanded us:
I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
that you would be the source of salvation
to the ends of the earth”.
48 📚✭And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed to eternal life believed.
49 📚And the word of the Lord spread throughout all that region. 50 📚But the Jews stirred up the devout✭ and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their borders. 51 📚✭But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and went to Iconium. 52 📚✭And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.