The second missionary journey of Paul
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📚✭Then he came to Derbe and Lystra, and saw a disciple who was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who believed. but his father was a Greek. 2 📚Timothy was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. 3 📚✭Paul wanted him to go with him, and took and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those regions, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 📚And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the regulations to keep that had been decided on by the apostles and elders who were at Jerusalem. 5 📚✭And so the churches were established in the faith, and increased in number daily.In Troas
6 📚✭Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in the province of Asia, 7 📚✭after they had come to Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them to do so. 8 📚✭And they, passing by Mysia, came down to Troas. 9 📚And a vision✭ appeared to Paul in the night: A man of Macedonia standing and asking him, “Come over to Macedonia, and help us”.
10 📚And after he had seen the vision, immediately we tried to go to Macedonia, concluding that the God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
In Philippi
11 📚✭Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis, 12 📚and from there to Philippi, which is the principal city of that part of Macedonia, and a Roman colony. And we stayed in that city for some days.
13 📚✭And on the Sabbath we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was usually made, and we sat down and spoke to the women who assembled there. 14 📚✭And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God✭, heard us. The Lord opened her heart so that she seized on what was spoken by Paul. 15 📚✭And when she and her household were baptized, she made a request to us, saying, “If you consider me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house, and stay there”. And she persuaded us.
16 📚✭And it came about as we were going to prayer that we were met by a certain slave girl possessed by a spirit of fortune-telling, who brought her masters much profit by predicting the future. 17 📚✭This girl followed Paul and us and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the most high God, who make known to us the way of salvation”. 18 📚And this she did for many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her”. And he came out that very moment.
19 📚✭And when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them to the marketplace to the authorities, 20 📚and brought them to the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews and are greatly troubling our city, 21 📚teaching customs which are not lawful for us Romans to receive or observe”.
22 📚And the crowd all together rose up against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and gave a command to beat them. 23 📚And when they had given them many lashes, they threw them into prison, and commanded the jailer to keep them safely. 24 📚Having received such a command, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks✭.
The conversion of the jailer
25 📚✭And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard them. 26 📚✭And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors opened, and everyone’s chains became loose. 27 📚And the jailer, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had run away. 28 📚✭But Paul cried out with a loud voice and said, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here”.
29 📚✭Then the jailer called for a light and ran in, and trembling fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 📚And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 📚✭And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household”. 32 📚✭And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 📚✭And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately was baptized, he and all his family. 34 📚And when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his household.
35 📚✭And when it was daylight, the magistrates sent officers to say, “Let those men go”. 36 📚And the jailer reported these words to Paul: “The magistrates have sent orders to let you go. So now leave, and go in peace”.
37 📚✭But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly without trial, Roman citizens that we are, and have thrown us into prison. And now will they send us off secretly? Absolutely not! Let them come themselves and lead us out”.
38 📚✭And the officers reported these words to the magistrates, and when they heard that they were Roman citizens they were afraid. 39 📚And they came and pled with them, and led them out and asked them to leave the city. 40 📚And they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and left.