Paul (apostle to the gentiles)

At the age of 6, Saul (Paul) was schooled at the book of Torah and he also lived then in the midst of the Pagans. At the age of 14, he was sent to continue his studies in Jerusalem. His leader was worshiping their own god and whoever fight it was blasphemy. When he grown up, he had a mission which is to eliminate the name of Jesus in the earth and to persecute Christians. The he met Stephen, who is bravely preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Saul was the author of the assassination of Stephen which made Stephen the first martyr of Christianity. Many Christians were afraid for their lives so they spread to different places like Antioch, Damascus and Cyprus.

Paul was converted

He went to Galilee and while he is walking, he was thinking over Stephen whom he killed. it plays to his mind thinking how would Stephen forgive him for the things he have done like the holy spirit is convicting him. A light came in make him blind. Suddenly God spoke to him and commanded him to go to Damascus. There, he met Ananias who has one of the disciple of Jesus in Damascus. Saul  begged Ananias to baptize him and when Ananias laid his hands on Saul, a scale dropped from his eyes and his sight came back.Saul said, Saul the persecutor was dead and he was reborn as Paul.

Paul's journey

He went to Arabia and preached the gospel but he was rejected by them. Paul headed to Jerusalem to apologize for those he had persecuted. Barnabas welcome Paul but the other people whom he persecuted rejected him. He retired from his task as a persecutor and worked for his father for nine years but he never forget what God called him for. Peter and Barnabas went to Cyprus to preach the gospel. At the island of Paphos he met Elymas or sorcerer Bar-jesus and he shouted at him "you will be blind" and will not able to see the sun for a while and and the governor turned to be a Christian. At Antioch, he preached the gospel but they rejected saying "how could a man raised from the dead?". Then headed towards the Gentiles and this open the Christianity into a world religion.


Paul preached to the Gentiles
 (non-Christian people)

Paul and Barnabas went to Lystra where he perform another miracle that he make a lame man walk. They saw that the people were worshiping Zeus and Hermes and Paul and Barnabas told the people to turn away from idols but they were stoned away and they survived. After that journey, Barnabas went back to Jerusalem and Paul remained in Asia minor and wrote a letter of inspiration to his newly converted gentiles "remember that before, you gentiles were separated from Christ, you don,t have hope. You are no longer strangers but a members of households of God". One day Paul dreamed  of a man from Macedonia calling him . He realized that God is calling him to Europe. 

His first stop was at Philippi capital of Rome where all religions are tolerated. In staying there, Paul felt that the mind of the people were open for a new religion. The first person who embraced the faith was Lydia she took him to his house to be baptized and her family was first christian household in Europe. Paul was joined by Cylas and when they were going to the place of prayer, a female slave met them who is possessed by a spirit. She followed them for many days shouting "These men are servants of the most high God, who are telling you how to be saved". When Paul was annoyed, he turned around and cast out the spirit from the women and he said "In the name of Jesus Christ i am commanding you to come out of her". When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the Marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar  by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”. Because of what happened Paul talk to the jail guard and baptized him to become a christian. When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer to release them. The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left. 



Paul went to many places around the world


When Paul was released from the prison, they went to many places such as Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Priscilla, Aquila, Apollos and Ephesus.


This is taken from Acts 19:8-22:

8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.

11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesuswhom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

21 After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” 22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.

Paul went to Jerusalem for the last time


Then after that Paul went to Greece to still preach the gospel and he went to Jerusalem for the last time. He was met by Agabus and he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”. When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him. They shouted "This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place!". Paul took his followers to the temple , his followers tried to save him. The commander came up and arrested him. As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?”. Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.” After being permitted by the commander, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic.


This is taken From Acts 22:1-28

1 “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”

2 When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.

Then Paul said: 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealousfor God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

6 “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’

8 “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.

“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.

10 “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.

“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.

12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.

14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptizedand wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

17 “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’

19 “‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. 20 And when the blood of your martyr[a] Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’

21 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”

22 The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”

23 As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 25 As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.”

27 The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”

“Yes, I am,” he answered.

28 Then the commander said, “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.”

“But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.

Paul's death

Paul was arrested after this. But even if they are arrested, He continue to preach the gospel. He and Peter baptized the newly converted Christians. After years, Emperor Nero burned the city for 7 days and seven nights. They put the blame to the Christians and they were persecuted at that time. Peter was killed through an inverted cross as he requested because he said he is not worthy to die the way Jesus died. And Paul wrote his last letter "i am ready to be sacrificed, and my time of departure is at hand, i have fight a good fight, i have finished my course and i have kept the faith". Romans came for him , he was brought out of the city and beheaded. Paul died as a martyr of Christian faith. And after 200 years Romans finally embrace the word of God.

Lesson:

Whatever our past is, it does not determine our future. Even how bad you are in the eyes of other people, we have a chance in the eyes of God. Whatever challenges or criticism we face, don't stop because you never know what God is planning for you. Its never too late to repent.