Paul and Silas passed through the Cilician Taurus Mountains and went directly to Derbe on the plain beyond. Next was Lystra, the pagan Phrygian town where Jews were too few to have a synagogue, but thanks to Paul, they had a church. By this time a young man named Timothy had risen as a major figure in the church there. His mother was Jewish, but his father was a well-known pagan Gentile. The Jews in that region knew Timothy as a pagan, but to the pagans, he was regarded as a Jew. So to settle the issue, Paul sponsored his full conversion to Judaism with circumcision. This placed him on par with Paul and Silas as far as Jews were concerned, and he joined their company. They continued visiting the church plants in the area.

This trio passed through the church plants from the previous journey of Paul and Barnabas, sharing the letter from the Jerusalem Council. As with Timothy, this gave the churches a much clearer identity that distinguished them from pagans and Jews both. The trio were hoping to plant more churches in Asia Minor, but the Lord restricted them from going either into the southwest or anywhere near the north coast of modern Turkey. They split the difference and ended up in Troas, near the site of ancient Troy. It was there they were joined by Luke, who now includes himself in the narrative as part of "we".

The Lord revealed in a dream that they should head across the Aegean Sea into Macedonia. So the next morning, they sailed at the first opportunity and landed in Neapolis, directly across the bay from the island of Thasos. The land here is mountainous, with few flat areas. Thus, Neapolis (modern Kavala) sat on a narrow shelf near a faint pass through a ridge of mountains that otherwise ran down to the sea all along the coast. Through that pass ran the Egnatian Way, and it crossed one of the few open flat areas, skirting a large swamp. The Roman highway led them mostly northward to Philippi.

Today the ruins of Philippi sit at the southern tip of a great rocky hump of a hill, rather elongated north to south, and connected to some mountains on the north end. Just to the east now stands the City of Krinides, which had been the original name of Philippi. Once the Romans conquered Greece, this ancient city was renamed after one of the emperors. It was made into a Roman colony, populated mostly by Roman army veterans and offering all the privileges of their home city of Rome, with all the officials and Roman habits. Indeed, it was built up to look somewhat like a miniature of Rome.

On both sides of this elongated hump above the city ran a small watercourse. It's impossible to know for sure which is the one Luke refers to as the meeting place of women who had converted to Judaism, but it was only a short walk either direction from the city. As was customary in Jewish synagogue services, Paul sat down to teach. Among the women was one who resided in Philippi selling the expensive purple dyed fabrics produced in her hometown of Thyatira, back over in Asia Minor where the men had just left. A Roman colony like Philippi would require a certain amount of this dyed fabric for official uses, among other things. The city also had plenty of rich folks who would wear that kind of stuff.

Anyone who traded in that purple fabric would be rather well off, too. The woman was named for the region whence she came, Lydia. She was baptized and persuaded the rest of her household family and servants to join her in baptism, confessing Christ. The trio had no good reason to turn away her offer to be their sponsor in the city, and her house became their home base.

I'll insert here a paragraph from my previously published commentary: One young female slave in Philippi was able to cast fortunes by her demon, certainly with sufficient accuracy to bring in quite a big profit to her masters. There's no doubt they knew it was the work of a foul spirit haunting her life. When she began following Paul and Silas around town, she spoke the truth. She used the standard pagan term for the Jewish God and said the men knew the way of spiritual security. The problem is that when demons speak the truth they do so without the power of the Holy Spirit, so it becomes a form of blasphemy, gutting the power of Truth. This grated on Paul's nerves, and he felt compelled to deliver the girl from the demon, if only to end the blasphemy. Sadly, a good thing for her was bad for her masters' business.

The owners of this slave took these men as Jews, whose religion was just barely tolerated under Roman law. They publicly charged these men with interfering in the religion of others, having driven out a pagan spirit from their slave. They added in common complaints about Jews disrupting Roman social order. A mob was stirred up and the local magistrates didn't bother with any kind of hearing, but ordered them stripped and beaten by with the rods normally wrapped around the standard Roman symbolic axes carried by the guards escorting these magistrates. Then the trio were turned over to the jailer, a retired army veteran himself.

Since the custody order included ensuring they would be present for further court action the next day, the jailer put their feet in stocks, which meant a very uncomfortable posture, neither quite sitting nor lying down overnight. Nearing midnight, the trio sang a hymn, which triggered an earthquake. It's for sure any other prisoners would have made that association, and Paul managed to convince them all to stay put when the prison didn't quite collapse, but all the internal fixtures, including the stocks and doors, came open.

For the jailer's superiors, it wouldn't matter the cause. Losing custody of his prisoners would mean a humiliating public execution. The jailer lived in the same building; upon a cursory examination of the facility, he prepared to take his own life to avoid the shame. Paul expected this and called out for him to wait, as none of the prisoners had fled. So he came to where they stood and asked the same question any pagan man would: How does one find the spiritual security all men sought?

Now it became clear why the Lord had allowed Paul, Silas and Timothy to suffer this awful experience in the first place. The man was baptized along with everyone in his household. He treated the three as honored guests, dressing their wounds and feeding them. They passed the rest of the night in teaching and celebration. The jailer could do as he wished with his prisoners, as long as they were still in custody.

At dawn the lictors arrived to call for the trio to be released. Paul objected. His point was not to shame the magistrates, but to impress upon them that they were honorable men as Christians, not trouble-making Jews. This was the best way to gain a permissive attitude, if not respect, from the city government. What they had done in summarily beating these three men was flatly forbidden, as they were Roman citizens. Had Paul wanted to file a complaint with the regional officials, the magistrates would be very lucky if they were only dismissed, turned out of office. They could have been publicly beaten in the same manner, or worse.

They hurried and came to beg the men to leave town quietly, and may have even offered a bribe. But they couldn't order them to leave town, and having gotten their attention, Paul decided to stay just a little longer and depart when it was convenient for them to move on. They left behind a church with a wealthy sponsor and a government official as member.

Apologies for not posting the Wednesday prayer announcement this week. I didn't forget...there was a lot going on that day and I put it off until it was too late. It's happened a few times before, I've noticed, but that's usually why it happens. Thanks for your patience!

In theory, the Covenant of Moses could have worked, had Israel been faithful. But it failed, and not because God didn't invest enough effort. He gave far more than He promised. That covenant died on the Cross; its time on Earth was gone. The New Covenant had come. The Twelve were there in person when Jesus announced it. Still, it was a divine covenant, and that means it had a law code of sorts. That law code reverted to the original, the Code of Noah. The surviving Apostles made it clear that this was the Father's will.

At some point after the First Missionary Journey of Paul and Barnabas, some zealous former Pharisees came to visit from Jerusalem. They surely understood that their Messiah had rejected the Talmud, and taught the Covenant of Moses as it was written by Moses himself. They brought to their new faith the same enthusiasm and drive they once wasted on the Talmud. They insisted that Jesus was the Messiah under the Covenant of Moses, not the Messiah of Gentiles. Thus, anyone claiming to follow Jesus must follow Him back into Moses. Their demands created quite a disturbance in the church at Antioch. The church elders decided they needed to send a delegation back to the Apostles in Jerusalem to see if this was really what they taught.

Paul in particular knew all about Pharisaism. He had also spent time with Jesus in his own wilderness experience, having to completely tear down his Talmudic training and replace it with the gospel. He had joined Barnabas in resisting this new wave of legalism, so these two were sent back as representatives of the Antioch church. On the way, the shared with the churches in Phoenicia and Samaria how the Lord had called the Gentiles into His Kingdom, to much rejoicing. Those churches didn't support the Judaizers.

Thus, Paul and Barnabas arrived to see the Apostles in Jerusalem. Then began the debate. We get the sense it would have gone on forever had not Peter rose up for is last recorded act in Luke's account here. We have no idea where he had been hiding, but he came back for this council meeting. He recounted his experience on the tanner's rooftop several years before and the visit with Cornelius and his folks. If God still wanted people under the Law of Moses, why did He grant His Spirit to these Gentiles? At their best, the nation of Israel was never able to live up to that Covenant after they got it first hand from Jehovah at Mount Sinai, with miracles aplenty. Why would He require it of Gentiles who had never known any of those miracles, nor had they any of the advantages of a long history with it?

No, it was not the Covenant code that saved souls. Even Jews needed the grace of the Messiah to see redemption, and that is what saved Gentiles, too. As the folks present went silent, Paul and Barnabas added their testimony of the miracles -- miracles previously noted only under the Covenant -- now granted to Gentiles as Gentiles, under the New Covenant of the Messiah.

When they finished, James rose to speak. As the oldest surviving brother of Jesus, he had already several years been the senior elder of the Christian community in Jerusalem. He noted the testimony of Peter. This was precisely what the prophet Amos foretold (Amos 9:11-12). Israel would abandon His revelation and leave it in ruins. God would rebuild that testimony using Gentiles "called by His name" -- an expression referring to His glorious reputation going out into the whole world. Not with the testimony of a renewed or larger Israel, but He would use Gentiles as Gentiles. This was what Jehovah had planned before Creation.

Instead of harassing Gentiles about conforming to Moses, it was enough if they just kept the simpler requirements of Noah. This had always been appropriate for Gentiles since before there was a Nation of Israel. We note that James didn't recite the whole code, only those commandments not already included under the civil laws everyone obeyed under Rome. Gentiles would likely be unfamiliar with the items he listed. If anyone wanted a Jewish identity, it was easy enough to find a synagogue and convert. His words implied it had not done anyone much good; the Lord still had to send His Messiah to accomplish what Israel had refused to do.

The whole church got the message. The only thing left to do was appoint a delegation from the Apostles to return with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch with a signed letter declaring this answer. They appointed Judas Barsabbas ("Son of Longing") and Silas to carry the letter, but we can be sure there was an entourage supporting them. The text rebuked the Judaizers as doing their own thing without commission from the Apostles. It praised Paul and Barnabas as heroes of the gospel, and mentioned the delegates by name. Then the commandments unique to Noah were listed briefly to avoid being defiled in God's eyes, issues that Jesus Himself had taught: abstain from buying surplus pagan ritual offerings (thus funding pagan temples), avoid blood or strangled animals as food, and avoid sexual immorality.

Silas and Judas presented the letter and the church leaders rejoiced that this controversy was dead. The delegates were also prophets and offered words of encouragement. The entourage eventually headed back to Jerusalem, but Silas decided to stay. That was a good move, because when Paul felt moved to return to the churches they had planted, Barnabas insisted on taking along John Mark, who had bailed out on them. The disagreement between Paul and Barnabas was intractable, so Barnabas took John with him to Cyprus, and Paul took Silas overland to visit the churches on the mainland.

We note historically that by this time, the independent kings of western Cilicia had been corralled under a Roman procurator, and so it was now safe for Paul and Silas to pass through the Cilician Gates to the churches in Asia Minor.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

While it was certain the Gentiles would respond more strongly, Paul and Barnabas continued the same standard approach in each city, when possible. They would start with the Jewish synagogue and offer the gospel message to Jews first. So they did at Iconium.

As usual, the message that welcomed Gentiles without having to convert to Judaism first caused trouble, but it took a while in Iconium. Meanwhile, there were plenty of signs and miracles to support the message. Those Jews who still rejected the gospel eventually stirred up a mob against Paul and Barnabas. This time, the city itself was just about evenly divided between those who hated the missionaries and those who favored them. When the haters had a firm plan to stone the two, the plot leaked and the two left town.

This time they headed south and a bit west over rolling hills to Lystra. It would have been about a day's hike. The unexcavated mound today stands among farm fields to the west outside the village of Hatunsaray, in the Meram District of Turkey. Here I'll quote a couple of paragraphs from my previous commentary:

This was a distinctly Phrygian city, with almost no Jews, so no synagogue. The preaching took place in the public forum, probably the city square just inside the main gates. While preaching, Paul realized that a man born crippled had gained complete trust in Christ, sufficient to be healed. Paul directed the man to stand, which the man did with great enthusiasm. The problem was the context. These folks had a pagan temple outside the city gates, and at some point had simply renamed it as a temple of Zeus/Jupiter, the closest from the Greek/Roman pantheon to their ancient deity. There had been some legends about Zeus, with his spokesman Hermes, visiting the area and performing miracles. The locals seized upon this association, and began chattering excitedly in their native dialect, which Paul and Barnabas didn’t understand. Since Paul was younger and speaking, they assumed he was Hermes the Messenger, while the older Barnabas was Zeus, the King of gods. A few went off to fetch the temple priests and a sacrifice fit for their patron deity. When Paul and Barnabas realized what was happening, they reacted as typical Jews, tearing their garments to symbolize distress over blasphemy.

The approach Paul used was tailored to those lacking knowledge of Jewish religion. They first protested that they were mere men. The whole point of their message was to turn them away from useless animal sacrifices to dead gods, and to embrace the One True Living God. He is described as the one who made all things, who tolerated the nations wandering from the true revelation. We note in passing God’s tolerance was in part due to the failure of Israel to get the message out. Meanwhile, He made sure nature testified of Him, by having regular seasons and predictable crops. This hearkens back to the Covenant of Noah, which remained in force among all Gentile nations. It was still difficult to dissuade the local priests from leading a sacrificial celebration for the city residents, as Paul surely taught them that Christ had become the final and eternal sacrifice under all covenants.

The two stayed for some time, but eventually the Jewish troublemakers from Antioch and Iconium caught up with them. Taking advantage of the residual tension from the misunderstanding with the local priests, these agitators stirred up a mob to stone Paul and drag him out of the city. As Barnabas and some Christians gathered around what they thought was Paul's dead body, he simply rose to his feet and went back into the city.

The next day they traveled several days toward the border of the Roman province of Cilicia. They would have passed an extinct volcano, a ring of snow-capped peaks with a high bowl valley nestled in the middle. East of there was the city of Derbe, whose ruins have been partially excavated. The mound stands today just below the Cilician mountain range that separated Paul from his homeland and the city of Tarsus. In Derbe there was no drama, and they stayed quite some time.

This has now been at least a couple of months since the two left the church at Antioch. There was no way they could have traveled on the main road through the Cilician Gates (a narrow pass, the only way through the range). At that time, western Cilicia was ruled by local kings who had vigorously guarded their pagan religions under Roman protection. It seems Jews did not travel that route, and just passing through would have been pretty risky for Christian preachers. So they retraced their journey, stopping to encourage the new churches they had planted along the way and ordaining elders.

As was typical of the church in Jerusalem, elders were administrative leaders, rather like heads of households. Each church was organized like a synagogue under one or more elders, and the members were taught to regard each other as one family. Eventually they would have added men playing a priestly role, and called them pastors, but that came later. It was critical to encourage the churches to become strong family units to face the persecution that was just getting started.

Thus, Luke tells us how they eventually made their way back to the home church of Antioch. When they delivered their report, it brought considerable rejoicing over the strong response from among Gentiles. The two missionaries stayed home for at least a year.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

Took these yesterday morning, maybe 10 minutes apart, before heading to the gym. Sure enough, it's snowing here today.

After returning to Antioch, there came a time when prophets praying got the word to send out Paul and Barnabas on a missionary journey. They took John Mark along. The first headed to Barnabas's home territory, the Island of Cyprus. It was there they had the encounter with Bar-jesus, the Jewish sorcerer and false prophet, who tried to keep them from sharing the gospel with the local proconsul, Sergius Paulus. Paul cursed him with temporary blindness, to bring a literal match to the fog of his moral blindness.

From there, the headed to the Turkish coast and walked inland to Perga, whose ruins today stand in the modern Turkish town of Aksu. There was a large Jewish community here. For some reason, John Mark bailed out on them and returned home to Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the intrepid pair hiked a very difficult route through the Taurus Mountains northward along the Kestros River (AKA Cestrus), along the shore of Lake Limnai, and up to edge of the hills where another Antioch stood in the district of Pisidia. This city also had a large Jewish community and a synagogue.

It was common for synagogues to ask Jewish visitors to address the congregation with any worthwhile message. Paul obliged, citing enough history of Israel to emphasize how Jehovah had remained faithful despite the whining and moral wandering of the nation. Everyone thought of King David's reign as the golden age for Israel. And it was King David who prophesied so clearly of a Messiah who would take up his role. Paul mentioned specifically that the Messiah would not rot in His grave, but would rise back to life.

The only person who qualified under this prophecy was Jesus. Paul notes that John the Baptist identified Him as the Messiah. But the Jewish leadership didn't recognize Him, and had Him executed. This did not hinder Jesus, but He rose from death and was seen by dozens of people for over a month afterward.

Then Paul relates how Jesus fulfilled the Covenant of Moses and opened His own new covenant. In this, He offers redemption on a level Moses could not have offered. He quotes from Malachi, warning them not to reject their Messiah.

Every synagogue had Gentiles who attended the services. As everyone filed out of this meeting, the Gentile visitors asked Paul and Barnabas to come back and teach some more of this message the next Sabbath. Moreover, some of the Jews joined these folks in following Paul and Barnabas around, marveling at this powerful teaching. So, when the next Sabbath rolled around, the curious Gentiles had packed the synagogue house.

This didn't sit well with the Jewish members. Whatever was going on here, it wasn't for them, but these two were using their synagogue to promote something they decided was too easy. As soon as they realized that the peculiarities of the Law were no longer required under this Messiah, they began stirring up trouble, blaspheming the name of Jesus.

Paul and Barnabas made it clear that, since Jews were rejecting their own Messiah, they could quite literally go to Hell. Meanwhile, the missionaries were going to the Gentiles to offer them the eternal life the Jews refused to embrace. Paul quotes from Isaiah 49:6 regarding God's original intent to reach all of humanity with His truth. This brought celebration from the Gentiles. Luke is careful to note that those who were Elect embraced the gospel message.

The nascent Gentile church exploded there. Meanwhile, the embarrassed Jews managed to politick among the civic leaders to get these two missionaries expelled. Out at the edge of the city, the two men took of their sandals and shook off the dust. It was an ancient Hebrew ritual to condemn the sins of the Jews who provoked this situation. The dust of the ground itself was a defiling presence.

Paul and Barnabas headed east along the foot of the hills above Antioch to a city named Iconium (modern Konya). Apparently any work with Jews had become just a sideline, as the message drew a massive number of Gentiles. They rejoiced that God had fulfilled His original plan of reaching out to bring redemption to the whole world.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

The previous chapter takes us up to about AD 46. Once again, Luke pulls back in time to catch up some more background. What had happened in Jerusalem after Paul left?
 
Back in AD 41, there was finally a Herodian on the throne of Judea and Galilee again. Herod Agrippa I (AKA Marcus Julius Agrippa) had spent time in Rome with the household of Emperor Tiberius. At some point he made friends with Caligula, who later became emperor. At first, Caligula granted him bits and pieces of the old Jewish kingdom. Being a very clever diplomat, Herod Agrippa managed to finagle his way up the ladder until the Emperor made plans to grant him the whole thing. But before things were officially set, Caligula was assassinated. Herod Agrippa wisely supported Claudius in the disputed imperial succession. Because the latter came out the winner, he rewarded the Jewish royal with the entire kingdom of his grandfather, Herod the Great.

Our text refers to him simply as Herod. He was clever enough to work at restoring the cooperation between Jews and Rome, in part by playing the role of a faithful Jew himself. Thus, he began oppressing the Christians in Jerusalem. He arrested James the Son of Zebedee and executed him. This really played well with the Sanhedrin, so he also had his troops hunt down Peter and arrest him. It was exceedingly rare for any court cases or sentencing during Passover and Unleavened Bread, so Peter sat in prison a whole week. He was held in the custody of four squads of four soldiers each, sixteen in total. They would rotate their three-hour shifts during the twelve hours of night. Two sat awake while the prisoner slept chained between them. Another guarded the door to the chamber, and yet another stood at the door to hallway.

The church prayed mightily in their own round-the-clock rotation the whole time Peter languished in this situation.

This was the royal prison, which we believe was part of the Herodian Palace, standing off on the western hillside of the expanded city. The night before Peter was to be executed, he slept soundly -- so much so that the angel had to play rough to awaken him. The place was lit up like the day, and the guards never noticed a thing. The angel told Peter to get dressed for departure. Peter thought for sure he was dreaming. Exiting the next two doors, the guards again never seemed to notice. At the outer gate onto the street, it swung open by itself. They strolled along the main street. As soon as they turned the corner, Peter found himself alone and realized that it was not a dream.

So he made his way back to Bethesda Quarter in the shadow of the Roman fortress and the Temple Plaza. Standing there was the large home of Mary, mother of John Mark, likely the place of the Upper Room. Peter knocked at the outer gate to the courtyard of the home. He got the attention of a servant named Rhoda. When she recognized Peter's voice, she completely forgot to open the gate, and ran inside to tell those who were on the night rotation for prayer. They were praying for Peter's safety, but couldn't imagine that he was actually out of jail. Eventually, they concluded it was his angel and they had better see what he wanted.

When the gate was opened, they all surely had a million questions and Peter had to silence them so he could slip inside quietly. He told them what happened, and ordered them to report it all to James, the brother of Jesus, and the rest of the church leadership. The whole point here is that Peter was passing the baton, and James was now the senior apostle on duty among the Hebrew Christians. Peter then went underground. We know that he ended up at Rome sometime later, but it's unlikely he went there immediately.

Meanwhile, back at the jail, the next shift rotation came on duty and discovered there was no one in the chains. This set off a panic. After checking the make sure none of the other troops garrisoned there had pulled a prank, Herod gave the sixteen the sentence due their prisoner. That was how it worked in the royal Jewish military. Herod then left and headed to his retreat on the coast, which happens to be the same place Cornelius was serving: Caesarea.

Herod reigned only three years. His diplomacy began to fail. He earned the enmity of the Roman Legate for the region, and managed to alienate some minor officials, as well, who offended him in turn. At some point he was hosting some games in honor of the Roman Emperor. It was during these festivities that he had been showing off, dressing in the most sumptuous robes. One of the groups who had offended him was the Sidonians, and he cut them off from food shipments. They grew precious little of their own, and imports from farther afield were more expensive. So they bribed Herod's chamberlain (manager of the royal household), who then got them an audience with Herod while he was preening in public. On that day he wore a robe of woven silver threads, and gave a fancy diplomatic speech to receive them.

They played to his vanity and kept remarking just loud enough to be heard that this must be the words of a deity. This was consistent with their pagan religion, but it was wholly improper for a man claiming to be a Jew. Since he didn't correct their extravagant praise of him and warning them to give glory to his God, the Lord struck him down. Nobody knows exactly what kind of malady it was, but it involved worms eating through his organs until he died.

His son was too young, so the throne was vacated yet again. Once again, the Christians in Judea were relatively safe, and the churches grew and prospered. It was during this time of growth that Paul and Barnabas came down from Antioch with the relief funds. After some fellowship, they left, taking John Mark with them back to Antioch.