TIMOTHY ENTERS THE MINISTRY 1-3. God gave Paul Timothy at Lystra, where they stoned him, a memorable fact, as Timothy was his favorite preacher throughout all his ministry, and, of course, God's greatest blessing to him, though received at the place where they stoned him, thus reminding us that cala... [ Continue Reading ]
In their evangelistic peregrinations, to the unutterable delight and edification of the Gentile converts, they everywhere read to the churches the apostolical decrees, liberating them from all the burdens of ecclesiasticism and conferring on them all the privileges of free grace anticipatory of heav... [ Continue Reading ]
This proclamation of universal Gentile freedom from all burdens of Jewish ritualism, gives a universal impetus to the gospel church throughout the Gentile world. PAUL'S CALL TO EUROPE We Americans are all of European extraction. Hence this was really the evangelization of our ancestors.... [ Continue Reading ]
We find here Paul again travels through Galatia and Phrygia, where he had preached the gospel about A. D. 35-38, during his stay at Tarsus, whither he was sent by the brethren at Jerusalem to save his life. _“Being forbidden by the Holy Ghost to speak the word in Asia.”_ This was from the simple rea... [ Continue Reading ]
Here we see the tardiness of the human will to respond to the Holy Ghost, and at the same time a reluctance on the part of Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke to leave Asia, their nativity, and embark on the sea for a country they had never seen. Bithynia is back towards the interior, hence we see their i... [ Continue Reading ]
Mysia borders the Aegean Sea, lying between Asia and Europe, Troas, the capital on the sea-shore, occupying the site of old Troy, so memorable in Homer's “Iliad.”... [ Continue Reading ]
Here God settles all controversy as to leaving Asia by giving Paul a night vision, in which he saw a Macedonian man standing on a European mountain far away beyond the western sea, and heard him calling, _“Having come over into Macedonia, help us.”_... [ Continue Reading ]
This clear and unmistakable open vision, both seen and heard, sweeps away all defalcation as to their evangelistic call to preach the gospel in Europe. For this reason, Christian Europe and America are the spiritual children of Paul. No sooner is the vision seen, and the Macedonian voice heard ringi... [ Continue Reading ]
Samothracia is a large island far up near the northern coast of the Aegean Sea, while Neapolis is in Thrace on the European shore, whither the evangelistic quarto disembark.... [ Continue Reading ]
Traveling on foot twelve miles to Philippi, the capital and metropolis of Macedonia, the most northern province in Greece. It is a Roman colony and a free city, ruled by Roman magistrates.... [ Continue Reading ]
These four Asiatic strangers, in their Oriental costume, quite a spectacle in a European city, render themselves still more conspicuous preaching daily on the street. Being native Jews both by race and religion, they everywhere hunt their consanguinity, finding a small synagogue down on the bank of... [ Continue Reading ]
Lydia, who worshipped God, a pious Jewess, preaching in that synagogue, is converted to the Christhood of Jesus. All the facts of this brief history involve the conclusion that she was a saved woman, knowing experimentally the God of Abraham and Moses, and there faithfully preaching the gospel in th... [ Continue Reading ]
Hence Lydia the preacher and her family, having joyfully confessed Jesus their Savior in baptism, open wide their doors and welcome these four evangelists to make their house their home.... [ Continue Reading ]
A fortune-telling female slave, who brought much money to her owners by her Satanic incantations, continues to follow these evangelists day by day, incessantly crying after them, _“These men are servants of the most high God, who proclaim unto us the way of salvation!”_ Of course, her incessant clam... [ Continue Reading ]
After the demon has evacuated the damsel, she has no more power to tell fortunes and practice divination than any other person. Consequently, her owners, seeing that they can get no more money for her fortune-telling, fly with an awful rage against Paul, arouse the rabble, stirring up their European... [ Continue Reading ]
To put a final quietus to all the trouble, they cast Paul and Silas into the deep, dark dungeon of their cruel, filthy old prison, with their lacerated, bleeding backs down on the cold, stone floor, and their feet raised up and wedged fast in great blocks of wood, thus precluding all possibility of... [ Continue Reading ]
The awakened and panic-stricken jailer, knowing that cruel Roman law will require his life as substitute for the fugitive prisoner, in the absence of Bible light on suicide, and with the noble examples of Cicero, the prince of Roman authors, and Cato, the champion Roman statesman, and many other mig... [ Continue Reading ]
_“And leading them into his house he placed a table by them and rejoiced all over the house, believing in God.”_ Here we see that the jailer, having received a glorious old-style jumping conversion, leaped round all over the house, shouting uproariously, while Paul and Silas sat at the table enjoyin... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul and Silas now come to the house of Lydia, where they find Timothy and Luke, who, along with the few disciples converted in the woman's meeting, have spent a night of agonizing prayer and solitude, and now are much delighted to receive them and hear all the good news.... [ Continue Reading ]