Acts
Chapter 16
1 He went to Derbe and Lystra. There, he met a follower named Timothy, whose mother was a Jewish believer, but whose father was Greek.
2 He had a good reputation among the believers in Lystra and Iconium.
3 Paul wanted him to travel with him, so he circumcised him because of the Jews in that area, since they all knew his father was Greek.
4 As they traveled through the towns, they gave out the rules to follow that the apostles and elders in Jerusalem had decided on.
5 The churches were strengthened in their faith and grew in number every day.
6 After they traveled through Phrygia and Galatia, the Holy Spirit did not allow them to preach the word in Asia.
7 After they arrived in Mysia, they tried to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit did not allow them.
8 They went through Mysia and came to Troas.
9 Paul had a vision at night; a Macedonian man stood there, asking him, “Please come to Macedonia and help us.”
10 After seeing the vision, we immediately tried to go to Macedonia, confident that God had called us to share the good news with them.
11 So we sailed away from Troas and went directly to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis.
12 From there we went to Philippi, the main city of that part of Macedonia and a colony. We stayed in that city for several days.
13 On the Sabbath, we left the city to a riverside where people often prayed; we sat down and talked with the women who came there.
14 A woman named Lydia, who sold purple cloth and lived in Thyatira, worshipped God and listened to us because God opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul said.
15 After she and her family were baptized, she asked us, “If you think I am loyal to God, please come to my home and stay.” And she insisted we go.
16 As we were going to pray, we met a girl with a spirit of telling the future, who made a lot of money for her owners by predicting things.
17 She followed Paul and us, shouting, “These men are servants of the most high God, who show us how to be saved.”
18 She did this for many days. But Paul, upset, turned and told the spirit, “I order you in Jesus Christ’s name to leave her.” And it left her that hour.
19 When her owners realized they could no longer make money from her, they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them to the authorities in the public square.
20 They brought them to the officials, saying, “These men are Jews and are causing a lot of trouble in our city.”
21 They teach practices that we, as Romans, cannot accept or follow.
22 The crowd stood up together against them. The officials tore their clothes and ordered them to be beaten.
23 After they whipped them many times, they threw them into jail and told the jailer to watch them carefully.
24 The guard, given this order, put them into the innermost cell and clamped their feet in wooden blocks.
25 At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang songs to God, and the other prisoners listened to them.
26 Suddenly, there was a big earthquake that shook the prison’s foundations: right away, all the doors opened, and everyone’s chains came loose.
27 When the prison guard woke up and saw the doors open, he took out his sword to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.
28 Paul shouted loudly, “Don’t hurt yourself; we are all still here.”
29 He asked for a light, jumped in, shook with fear, and knelt before Paul and Silas.
30 He led them out and asked, “Sirs, what should I do to be saved?”
31 They said, “Trust in Jesus Christ, and you and your family will be saved.”
32 They told him and everyone in his house what God had said.
33 He took them at night, cleaned their wounds, and he and everyone with him were immediately baptized.
34 When he brought them into his home, he gave them food, and was very happy, trusting in God with everyone in his home.
35 When daylight came, the officers told the guards, “Release those men.”
36 The prison guard told Paul, “The officials have sent word to release you: so now you can leave and go peacefully.”
37 But Paul said to them, “They beat us in public without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens. They threw us in jail, and now they want to send us away secretly? No, certainly not. Let them come and take us out themselves.”
38 The officers reported these things to the officials, and they became afraid when they learned that the men were Romans.
39 They came and asked them, then led them out, and asked them to leave the city.
40 They left the prison, went to Lydia’s home, saw the other believers, cheered them up, and then left.