Read Acts 17-28.

The remainder of Acts of the Apostles relates the continuing ministry of Paul, who teaches, casts out spirits, and heals in cities throughout Asia Minor, Macedonia, and southern Europe. Paul is attacked, arrested, and beaten, but he also finds followers. In Thessalonica Paul teaches in the synagogue, quoting from scripture to "show that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead." Acts tells us that some of the Jews were convinced, as were "a great number of god-fearing Gentiles and a good many influential women." When "the Jews in their jealousy" stir up a mob against Paul, Silas and Timothy, the three flee to Beroea.

There, Acts tells us, the Jews "were more fair-minded" and many of them, after studying the scriptures, "became believers" as did "a fair number of Gentiles" including "women of standing as well as men." We begin to see the importance of Gentile women in the life of the early church, women who have special status and own property. When the Jews from Thessalonica learn of the success of Paul's preaching in Beroea, they travel to Beroea and once again arouse a crowd against the three apostles, who are forced to flee.

In Athens Paul is "outraged to see the city so full of idols." Therefore, he argues "in the synagogue with the Jews and Gentile worshippers, and also in the city square every day with casual passers-by." He encounters in Athens some of "the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers," reminding us that the author of the gospel of Luke and Acts is aware of Greek philosophical literature. He may have heard of Plato and Socrates, because he pictures Paul in the city square in dialogue with citizens of Athens much as Plato described Socrates. Paul urges Greeks to repent, arguing in the Areopagus that the God who created heaven and earth has raised Jesus from the dead in order to appoint him to render judgment on the last day. Acts reports that some were convinced, including Dionysius, a member of the Council of the Areopagus, and also a woman named Damaris.

In Corinth Paul stays with a Jew named Aquila and his wife, Priscilla, and begins once more to present his arguments from scripture in the synagogue, "trying to convince both Jews and Gentiles." When "the Jews" oppose him, Paul shakes out the folds of his cloak and declares, "Your blood be on your own heads! My conscience is clear! From now on I shall go to the Gentiles." Paul then moves to stay with a Gentile worshipper in the synagogue, Titus Justus, who lives next door to the synagogue. Despite Paul's rejection of the Jews in Corinth, Acts tells us that he is successful in converting Crispus, the president of the synagogue.

When Paul leaves Corinth, Priscilla and Aquila accompany him. At Ephesus, Paul again goes first to the synagogue and has "a discussion with the Jews." From there Paul travels to Caesarea and Antioch and then to Galatia. In Ephesus, an eloquent Greek-speaking Jew from Alexandria, Apollos, who has been baptized in the tradition of John the Baptist, is convinced by Priscilla and Aquila to join their ministry. Apollos proves very helpful in confronting "the Jews" and "demonstrating publicly from the scriptures that the Messiah is Jesus."

In Ephesus, Paul encounters "disciples" who, like Apollos, have received only the baptism of repentance in the name of John the Baptist. Paul tells them that John told the people "to put their trust in one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus." He baptizes them "into the name of the Lord Jesus" by laying his hands on them. Then "the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues of ecstasy and prophesied." The author of Acts makes sure that the baptism of Paul has the same power and authority as the earlier baptism conducted by Peter and John in Caesarea.

After three months of speaking "about the kingdom of God" in Ephesus, Paul is apparently forced to leave the synagogue. Acts tells us that he withdrew, "taking the disciples with him, and continued to hold discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus." Acts asserts that during the next two years "the whole population of the province of Asia [Minor], both Jews and Gentiles, heard the word of the Lord." At Ephesus, Acts also tells us, "God worked extraordinary miracles through Paul." Even handkerchiefs and scarves that he touched were effective in curing diseases and casting out evil spirits.

During Paul's ministry he encounters other teachers, healers, exorcists, and magicians, but his power is always greater. In Ephesus Jewish exorcists try unsuccessfully to use the name of the Lord Jesus in casting out spirits. Also in Ephesus the silversmiths who make shrines of the local goddess, Artemis protest against Paul, fearing that his preaching will undercut their sales. The town clerk of Ephesus, however, defends Paul and his companions by arguing that they "have committed no sacrilege and uttered no blasphemy against our goddess." If that is true, Paul was certainly very clever in presenting the gospel message in these Roman cities.

After Paul travels through Macedonia and Greece, he attempts to go to Syria. But a plot against him "by the Jews" forces him to return through Macedonia to Philippi and, after the Passover season, he sails to Troas. It appears that Paul kept the Passover in Philippi and delayed his travels in order to do so. Then, we read in Acts, on the night of the sabbath (which Acts refers to in a Gentile way as "Saturday night") when the people "were gathered for the breaking of the bread," Paul preached to the congregation until midnight. A young man fell asleep during this long sermon and fell out of the third story window to the ground. He seemed to be dead but, Acts reports, Paul "threw himself upon him, and clasped him in his arms," saying, "he is alive." Not surprisingly, the young man recovers.

Paul then travels to Jerusalem to confront once more the apostles of the first church. He bypasses Ephesus, where apparently he is no longer welcome, although he summons the elders of the church and tells them that he expects "imprisonment and hardships" in Jerusalem and that none of them will see him again. With "Jews and Gentiles," he says, "I insisted on repentance before God and faith in our Lord Jesus." Paul says he has "gone about proclaiming the kingdom," but he predicts that others from among them will "distort the truth in order to get the disciples to break away and follow them."

Paul goes by ship to Cyprus and on to Tyre and Ptolemais. Traveling by land, he journeys to Caesarea, where he stays with Philip, one of the seven Greek-speaking Jews who were appointed in Jerusalem to care for the distribution. At Philip's home a prophet named Agabus binds Paul's feet and hands and prophesies, in the name of the Holy Spirit: "Thus will the Jews in Jerusalem bind the man to whom this belt belongs, and hand him over to the Gentiles." When his disciples hear this dreadful prophecy, they beg Paul to give up his visit to Jerusalem. But he answers, "I am ready, not merely to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

In Jerusalem, Paul speaks with the apostles James in the presence of the elders and explains in detail all that God has done among the Gentiles. Acts tells us that the elders in Jerusalem give praise to God for the success of Paul's ministry but warn him that the "thousands of converts" among the church in Jerusalem are all "staunch upholders of the law" and believe that Paul and his disciples teach "all the Jews in the Gentile world to turn their backs on Moses, and tell them not to circumcise their children or follow our way of life." By referring to the Jewish law as "our way of life," the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, in the account in Acts, reveal that the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem are keeping Jewish law.

The elders advise Paul to go through a ritual of purification, so everyone in Jerusalem will know that he keeps the Jewish law. Paul agrees and submits to the ritual, but several days later he is seized in the temple by "the Jews from the province of Asia" who assert that he has attacked Jewish law in their cities. When Roman centurions come to deal with the riot, Paul asks their commander if, as a Roman citizen, he might speak to the crowd.

Acts then has Paul explain to the crowd that he is a Jew of Tarsus, who was a student of Gamaliel in Jerusalem. Paul describes his blinding on the road to Damascus, the voice he heard, and a vision he had during a trance while praying in the temple in Jerusalem, in which Jesus of Nazareth instructed him to go to the Gentiles. When the crowd is enraged by Paul's claims, the centurions take Paul into the barracks to flog him. But after Paul informs the centurions of his Roman citizenship, he is brought before the Jewish Council for a hearing. Knowing that the Council contains both Sadducees and Pharisees, Paul asserts that he is a Pharisee and that he is being persecuted because he preaches the resurrection of the dead. As the Sadducees denied the resurrection of the dead, the Council is thrown into an uproar, with the Pharisees taking the side of Paul against the Sadduces who oppose him.

For his own protection Paul is taken back into the barracks of the centurions. The next day, Acts reports, more than forty of "the Jews banded together and took an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul." They share their plan with the chief priests and elders and ask that the Council members have Paul brought before them once again, so that they might capture him and put him to death. The son of Paul's sister, however, learns of this plot. (In his letters Paul says nothing about his family.)  After this young man informs the Roman commander of the plot to kill Paul, arrangements are made for centurions to escort Paul to Caesarea to see Felix, the Roman Governor.

Five days later the high priest, Ananias, and some of the elders come from Jerusalem to Caesarea, to accuse Paul, as "a pest, a fomenter of discord among the Jews all over the world, a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes," and of trying to profane the temple. In response to these charges Paul replies that he has done nothing to profane the temple but had gone "to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage." Acts reports, however, that Paul admits: "I am a follower of the new way (the 'sect' they speak of), and it is in that manner that I worship the God of our fathers; for I believe all that is written in the law and the prophets, and in reliance on God I hold the hope, which my accusers too accept, that there is to be a resurrection of good and wicked alike. Accordingly I, no less than they, train myself to keep at all times a clear conscience before God and man."

Felix, who we learn is married to a Jew named Drusilla, meets with Paul on several occasions but keeps him in custody to curry favor with the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem. Two years later, after Festus replaces Felix as Governor, Paul is given a second hearing in Caesarea. In what seems to be an attempt to ingratiate himself with the Jewish leadership, Festus tries to persuade Paul to be tried in Jerusalem. But Paul appeals to Caesar.

Before he is sent to Rome, however, Paul is brought before King Agrippa and his wife, Bernice. Once again, Paul speaks in his own defense. He affirms that from his youth he was a Pharisee and sought to punish the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, until on the road to Damascus he was blinded and heard the voice of Jesus telling him to go to the Gentiles: "You are to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, from the dominion of Satan to God, so that they may obtain forgiveness of sins and a place among those whom God has made his own through faith in me."

Paul testifies before King Agrippa that he asserts "nothing beyond what was foretold by the prophets and by Moses: that the Messiah would suffer and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would announce the dawn both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles." Festus and King Agrippa agree that Paul has done nothing deserving death or imprisonment but, as he has appealed to the emperor, he must be sent to Rome for trial. Paul is taken by ship to Sidon and then Cyprus and Crete. Paul warns the centurion to winter there, but his advice is rejected.  The ship sets sail and is caught in stormy seas for two weeks, until it runs aground off the island of Malta.

In Malta Paul is bitten by a poisonous snake but suffers no harm. He heals the sick and is treated very well until three months later they are able to sail to Italy. Once in Rome Paul is allowed to live under house arrest. He first meets with Jewish leaders in Rome to assure them that he has done nothing against "our people or against the customs of our forefathers." It is, Paul claims in the last chapter of Acts, "for loyalty to the hope of Israel that I am in these chains." He speaks "urgently of the kingdom of God," but only some are convinced by his arguments from the law of Moses and the prophets. Therefore, Paul concludes, as Stephen did earlier in Acts, that his own people have closed their minds and their eyes. For this reason the "salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles" who will listen.

For the two years of his stay in Rome, Paul proclaims the "kingdom of God" and teaches "the facts about the Lord Jesus Christ." The strength of the church in Rome shortly thereafter suggests that Paul was successful in convincing a number of Gentiles in Rome to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

With the gospel of Luke, the Acts of the Apostles completes the story of God's saving initiative through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the founding of the church in Jerusalem, and the call of Paul to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. The story that begins in Jerusalem, the center of Jewish saving history, ends in Rome, the capital city of the Roman Empire. The ministries of Jesus and Paul are both understood as the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 49:6 of a "servant" who will be "a light to the nations" (Gentiles) so that the salvation of God may reach earth's farthest bounds."

Written after the death of Paul, the account of Acts softens the conflict between Paul and Peter and gives credit to both apostles for founding the church among the Gentiles. It is, however, the story of Paul's ministry that dominates the Acts of the Apostles. Like Jesus, he is rejected by his own people and brought to trial by the Romans. Unlike Jesus, however, Paul is a Roman citizen. The Romans recognize Paul's rights, and they generally treat him well up to the time of his execution. Acts does not contain an account of Paul's death in Rome, most likely because the author wants to emphasize that the Christians are not a threat to the Roman Empire and should, therefore, be protected by law against persecution by the Jews.

Questions:

1) Does it change the way we read the gospel of Luke, when we recall that the author of the gospel also wrote the Acts of the Apostles?

2) Can we see that the gospel of Luke points to its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, in the way it presents Jesus as the savior of Gentiles as well as Jews?

3) Do we accept, as the author of Acts does, that Paul's understanding of what the church should be was verified, as God's will, through the events of history?