Acts 20: Paul's farewell

Nero became Caesar in 54 AD. Paul was in Ephesus and stayed there for three years. Acts 20 happens around 58 AD when the "peaceful years" of Nero’s reign were starting to fray. Paul was in his 3rd mission trip. He was heading Jerusalem but wanted to say goodbye to his friends of Ephesus. He went to Miletus, a city next to Ephesus and called his friends and church leaders from Ephesus to meet him there. It was the last time they were seeing each other because Paul would face a persecution and finally die in Rome for the gospel. There he said:

25-27 “And so this is good-bye. You’re not going to see me again, nor I you, you whom I have gone among for so long proclaiming the news of God’s inaugurated kingdom. I’ve done my best for you, given you my all, held back nothing of God’s will for you.

28 “Now it’s up to you. Be on your toes—both for yourselves and your congregation of sheep. The Holy Spirit has put you in charge of these people —God’s people they are— to guard and protect them. God himself thought they were worth dying for.

The Church is like a chain of love: Jesus, Peter, Paul, leaders in Ephesus, the congregation, etc. In his farewell, Paul asks them to take of the Ephesus congregation because God himself thought they were worth dying for. I must always remember that God himself thought I were worth dying for, despite being a sinner.

Acts 19: Who is great in Ephesus?

Ephesus was a great city with the great temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the world. In his third mission trip, Paul taught first in a synagogue but he was not welcomed; so he decided to teach daily in the School of Tyrannus to gentiles. The Lord opened the eyes of the city to the point that Demetrius goddess sales plummeted. For him, the gospel preached by Paul was destroying the city, was destroying the great Artemis, but who was great in Ephesus? Certainly, Jesus, although not using strength. That is why Paul had to flee from Ephesus.

Acts 18: Paul was afraid in Corinth.

 Corinth was worse than Las Vegas:
AI: Corinth was the "Sin City" of the ancient world. It was a place of extreme wealth, intense idol worship (the Temple of Aphrodite had 1,000 ritual prostitutes), and litigious, aggressive people. It was an intimidating environment for a small group of tent makers.
Paul came from Athens, where he was mocked by the intellectual elite.
Paul had been already experienced persecution in many cities.

9 And the Lord said to Paul by a vision at night, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” 11 And he settled there for a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

Imagine the joy to listen from Jesus: "I am with you". Besides, Jesus told him there were many Christians in Corinth. Paul was certainly not alone.
Jesus kept Paul on the way, strengthening him.

Acts 17: Paul in Athens

Paul was used to preach first in synagogues, but in Acts 17 he is preaching in the marketplace where gentiles could listen to him.

18 And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?

The Greeks were like scholars of today: they are very curious, they like to ask questions, to learn new things, and they look to themselves as smart and rational people. The reaction of the philosophers resemble the reaction in a university.

AI: The primary goal of an Epicurean was not "wild partying" (a common misconception), but Ataraxia — a state of tranquil calm (as in nirvana?). Because the gods were in a state of perfect ataraxia, they would never "pollute" their peace by listening to human prayers, judging sins, or managing the universe. When Paul spoke of a God who "commands all men everywhere to repent" because He has "appointed a day on which He will judge the world" (Acts 17:30-31), he was attacking the very core of Epicurean peace. To an Epicurean, a body coming back to life was scientifically impossible and philosophically disgusting. The goal was to be free of the body, not to have it restored. They called Paul a spermológos ("seed-picker" or "babbler"). To these sophisticated philosophers, Paul sounded like a street-peddler selling "superstition" (Greek: deisidaimonia).


AI: The Stoics were the "Moralists". The Stoic did not seek "pleasure" like the Epicurean; they sought Virtue (aretē). They believed the universe was a rational, orderly system. To be happy, one must align their will with the "Providence" of the universe. They taught that you cannot control external events (sickness, war, poverty), but you can control your reaction to them. Stoics were Pantheists. They believed God was not a person outside the universe, but the "Soul of the World"—a divine, rational fire that permeated everything. They used "Logus" to describe the "Reason" that holds the stars in place and gives humans logic. It resembles Christianity but: Paul’s God was a Creator who made the world, not just a force that was the world. This God has a will and can be grieved. Stoics were famously proud of their self-sufficiency. Paul’s message was that humans are sinners who cannot save themselves and must repent. To a Stoic, "repentance" looked like weakness. Stoics believed in the "Great Conflagration"—that the universe is periodically destroyed by fire and starts over. They believed the soul might survive for a while but eventually merged back into the "Divine Fire." The idea of an individual, physical body rising from the dead was illogical to them.

Even though the stoics seemed more Christians, they thought that through reasoning (and their superior way to look things) they could get the answer for a better life. In Christianity, it is different: the Creator moves to his creatures, show love and call them to repentance and acceptance through Jesus.

Acts 16: Πίστευσον

In Acts 16, Paul , Silas, Timothy, Luke are in Philippi. Paul and Silas were put in jail, but at night, there was a great earthquake that set them free. The jailer was responsible for them and he thought that they had feed from prison (as any normal man). Then, he decided to take his own life because he was afraid of the Roman punishment. When he was about to kill himself, Paul shouted at him, claiming not do that. The jailer asked what he should do to be saved (from the Roman punishment). 

31 They said, “Believe/Πίστευσον in the Lord/Κύριον Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of God to him together with all who were in his house. 33 And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. 34 And he brought them into his house and set [j]food before them, and was overjoyed, since he had become a believer in God together with his whole household.

It is very interesting that the jailer was afraid of the Romans, but this was the process that guide him and his family to Jesus. The Lord has his ways to call people to him.

Acts 15: what is necessary to be saved?

After many gentiles have believed in Jesus, Christian-Jews were saying that they should be circumcised in order to be saved. If I were living at that moment, I think that  would want to be circumcised due to the way I treat my health. When I don´t know exactly what to do in order to get something, I am careful -  so in order to have more assurance, I would agree on being circumcised. But, according to Paul, it would be an error. This kind of thought shows lack of trust that the blood of Christ is enough for me to be ok with the Lord.
However, I suppose that things are quite more complex.
James, the brother of Jesus, said:

19-21 “So here is my decision: We’re not going to unnecessarily burden non-Jewish people who turn to the Master. We’ll write them a letter and tell them, ‘Be careful to not get involved in activities connected with idols, to guard the morality of sex and marriage, to not serve food offensive to Jewish Christians—blood, for instance.’ This is basic wisdom from Moses, preached and honored for centuries now in city after city as we have met and kept the Sabbath.”

A Christian is one who belongs to Christ, who loves the Lord and loves other human beings. In doing so, his own body belongs to the Lord and he is to be in harmony with others. James was looking to how the Lord made a covenant with all the humanity and set it to all non Jews.

Acts 14: Lystra

In the first mission trip, Paul and Barnabas went to Lystra. They healed a cripled man from birth. The crowd was amazed and saw Paul and Barnabas as gods (Hermes/Paul and Zeus/Barnabas) due to the legend of Philemon and Baucis. In this legend, the two gods (Hermes,Zeus) came tot earth disguised as mortal men to test human hospitality. An elderly couple (Philemon and Baucis) welcomed them, so they were rewarded with a gold temple while the wicked city was destroyed by a flood. When the city saw the healed men, they associated Paul and Barnabas with these two gods and they were about to worship them but Paul and Barnabas forbade them to do so. They gave them this message:

15 and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men, of the same nature as you, preaching the gospel to you, to turn from these useless things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything that is in them. 16 In past generations He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; 17 yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” 18 And even by saying these things, only with difficulty did they restrain the crowds from offering sacrifices to them.

These "useless things" (ματαίων) refers to Hermes and Zeus. Thus, this message was somehow offensive too. They correctly refused to be praised and they also showed that their believes were wrong. Besides, the influence of their opponents made the crowd stone Paul.
It is very likely that Timothy from Lystra saw this, but not only that. After some time, Paul and Barnabas came back (return from the 1st mission trip) to organize the believers in a stronger community.