Paul Turns to the Gentiles
44 The following week almost the entire city turned out to hear them preach the word of the Lord. 45 But when some of the Jews saw the crowds, they were jealous; so they slandered Paul and argued against whatever he said.
46 Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. 47 For the Lord gave us this command when he said,
‘I have made you a light to the Gentiles,
to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.’[m]”
48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers. 49 So the Lord’s message spread throughout that region.
50 Then the Jews stirred up the influential religious women and the leaders of the city, and they incited a mob against Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town. 51 So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium. 52 And the believers[n] were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
4 comments:
The entire city, that is impressive. I also like the way they shook the dirt off and moved on.
Blessiings
cas
Sometimes we have to do be bold in our convictions and know that God has a better plan for us.
Goes to show that everyone is not willing to accept Jesus... sad!!
-LT
I forget that Paul tried to reach out to the Jews first and then focused on everyone else. Ironically, the people who were hoping to stop this new Jewish religious sect actually helped to spread it throughout the known world due to moving people like Paul and other teachers to other areas due to threats and violence.
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