Week 42   Day 7

The second half of Acts is about Paul 

            his travels

            the people he worked with

            those he met 

            his message and hardships 

            his arrest and long drawn-out trial

The lengthy nature of his trial

gave him precious opportunity

            to witness to those in Rome 

            to write to the Churches he had established

                        on his missionary journeys

We do not know what finally happened to Paul.

Those letters he wrote from prison

in Rome and elsewhere

comprise the next section of the Bible. 

The book of Acts began in Jerusalem with 120 believers. 

Thirty years later the book ends with Paul in Rome

            the "uttermost part of the world" 

Christianity had spread

            from the Middle East

            to Africa

            Asia

            and Europe!

                        ROME, THE CITY OF THE CAESARS

Paul's story ends in Rome but the Holy Spirit's work goes on.

                                 Acts 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 & 28

    31Soldiers took Paul to Caesarea. 1After five days the elders
gave evidence to the governor against Paul.  10And Paul answered
them.  22When Felix heard these things, he adjourned. 23He
commanded the centurion to keep Paul and let him have liberty,
and told him not to forbid his friends to visit him. 

    24After some days, Felix and his wife who was Jewish, sent for

Paul and heard him concerning faith in Christ.  27But after two

years Festus succeeded Felix; and Felix, wanting to do the Jews
a favor, left Paul bound,  9and said, "Are you willing to be judged
in Jerusalem?"  11So Paul said,  "If I am an offender, I do not
object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which men
accuse me, no one can deliver me to them.  I appeal to Caesar."

    13King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea,14and when
they had been there many days,  Festus laid Paul's case before
the king.  22Then Agrippa said, "I also would like to hear the man
myself."  23Next day, when Agrippa and Bernice entered the
auditorium with the prominent people of the city, Paul was brought
in.  1Agrippa said to Paul, You are permitted to speak." 
    24While he thus made his defense, Festus said, "Paul, you are
beside yourself!  Much learning is driving you mad!"  25But he
said, "I am not mad, noble Festus, but speak the words of truth
and reason.  25The king knows these things.  27King Agrippa,
do you believe the prophets?  I know you do believe."  28Then
Agrippa said, "You almost persuade me to become a Christian." 
29And Paul said, "I would to God that not only you, but also all
who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether
such as I am, except for these chains."

    1We sailed to Italy 7with difficulty.  14A tempestuous head

wind arose; 20when neither sun nor stars appeared for many
days, all hope that we would be saved was given up.  41They
ran the ship aground; the prow stuck fast but the stern was being
broken up by the violence of the waves.  43The centurion
commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard
first, and the rest, on boards and parts of the ship, all escaped
safely to land.

    16When we came to Rome, Paul was permitted to dwell by

himself with the soldier who guarded him.  30Paul lived two

years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him,

preaching the kingdom of God and teaching things concerning

the Lord Jesus with all confidence, no one forbidding him.

               _{This Bible passage was condensed from the NKJV}

                     < prev page                                          next page >