New Testament in a Year
Timothy travels with Paul and Silas
16 Paul travelled to Derbe and then he arrived in Lystra. A man called Timothy lived in Lystra. He was a believer. His mother was a Jew who had become a believer in Jesus. But Timothy's father was a Gentile who came from Greece. 2 All the believers in Lystra and Iconium said good things about Timothy. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to travel with him to different places. All the Jews in that region knew that Timothy's father was a Gentile. So Paul circumcised Timothy, so that the Jews would accept him.[a]
4 Paul, Silas and Timothy travelled through many towns. In each place, they told the believers the things that the apostles and the other leaders in Jerusalem had decided. They told the believers to obey those rules. 5 In this way, the groups of believers in those towns became stronger. They trusted Jesus more. More and more people joined the groups of believers every day.
Paul has a vision
6 Paul and his friends wanted to go to the region of Asia to speak God's message. But the Holy Spirit stopped them from doing this. So they travelled through the regions of Phrygia and Galatia. 7 Then they arrived at the edge of the region of Mysia. They wanted to go from there into the region of Bithynia. But the Holy Spirit of Jesus stopped them from going there too. 8 So they went quickly through Mysia and they arrived at the city of Troas, on the coast.
9 During that night, Paul had a vision. In the vision, he saw a man from the region called Macedonia. The man stood there and he said to Paul, ‘Please, please come across the sea to Macedonia and help us.’ 10 After Paul's vision, we immediately prepared ourselves for the journey to Macedonia.[b] We decided that God was telling us to go there. He wanted us to tell the people there the good news about Jesus.
Lydia becomes a believer
11 We got in a ship at Troas and we sailed across the sea. We went across to an island called Samothrace. The next day, we continued our journey to a port called Neapolis. 12 We then travelled across the land to Philippi, the most important city in the region of Macedonia. The Romans ruled Philippi and many Roman people lived there. We stayed there for a few days.
13 On the Jewish day of rest, we went out of the city gate. We went down to the edge of the river. We thought that the Jews might have a special meeting place there. We thought that they would meet there to pray. We found a group of women who were meeting there. So we sat down and we talked to them.[c]
14 One of the women who listened to us was called Lydia. She was from the city of Thyatira. She bought and sold expensive dark red cloth. She was a Gentile woman who now worshipped God. The Lord helped her to understand Paul's message. So she believed the things that he said.
15 Then Paul and Silas baptized Lydia and the other people who lived in her house. After this, Lydia asked us to go to her house. She said to us, ‘If you think that I really believe in the Lord Jesus, then please stay in my house.’ We agreed to go and to stay there.
The Roman rulers put Paul and Silas in prison
16 One day, we were going to the place where people prayed to God. On the way there, we met a slave girl. A bad spirit was living inside her. This spirit told her what would happen soon. People gave her masters a lot of money when she told them about these future things. 17 She followed Paul and all of us. She was shouting, ‘These men are servants of the powerful God who is over all! They are telling you how God can save you!’
18 The slave girl continued to do this for many days. After some time, Paul became angry. So he turned round and he said to the bad spirit, ‘I am using the authority of Jesus Christ! I command you to leave this woman!’ When Paul said that, the spirit left her immediately.
19 Her masters now knew that the girl could not get money for them any more. So they took hold of Paul and Silas and they pulled them to the market place of the city. They took them to stand in front of the leaders of the city. 20 They asked the important officers to judge them. They said, ‘These men are Jews. They are causing much trouble in our city. 21 They are teaching people to obey strange ideas. We are Roman people. We cannot agree with these laws. They are not right for us to do.’
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