They sailed from Troas to Samothrace, then Neapolis. (Verse 11 says 'we' so I assume that Luke is present with Paul, as a witness to his ministry.) From there they went to Philippi. On the Sabbath day they went to the riverside hoping to find Jews gathered for prayer. The Lord opened the mind of one of them named Lydia. She and the people in her house were baptized and she invited Paul and his group to stay in her house. So they did. One day on their way to the place of prayer, they met a slave girl who had an evil spirit in her and she could predict the future. She followed Paul around and shouted that they were servants of God and they would tell people how they could be saved. She kept on at this until Paul got upset and rebuked the evil spirit. The owners of the girl were angry because they had expected her to keep making money for telling fortunes and they took Paul and Silas to the authorities and accused them of being a nuisance. The stripped Paul and Silas, whipped them, chained them and put them in jail. In the night while Paul and Silas were praying and singing, a violent earthquake shook the prison so hard their chains fell off and the doors opened. The jailer woke in a panic thinking the prisoners had escaped and was ready to kill himself when Paul yelled to him not to harm himself because they were all there. The jailer fell on his knees and asked Paul and Silas what he needed to do to be saved. They were happy to share this news with him and all the other prisoners. The jailer washed their wounds and then he and his family were baptized. They went to the jailer's house to stay with him. The next day the release order was delivered by the police and the jailer told Paul and Silas they could leave. But Paul refused because they had been treated so badly, he wanted a personal apology first. So the Roman officials apologized, and asked them to leave. They went to Lydia's and shared the gospel.
They left Philippi and traveled to Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica and spoke in the synagoge. During 3 Sabbaths they taught and explained Scriptures and proved that Jesus is the Messiah. Many believed. As usual, some of the Jews became jealous and started a ruckus. As soon as night came the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. They taught in the synagogue and had much success because the people were eager to learn and understand. Word got back to the people in Thessalonica and some of the rowdy ones traveled to Berea and started the same trouble there as they had earlier. The believers sent Paul away, but Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea. When the men returned from Athens, where they had taken Paul, they gave Silas and Timothy instructions from Paul to join him there ASAP. While in Athens, Paul noticed how full of idols it was. Paul preached about Jesus and the resurrection. They brought him to the city council because they wanted to know what he was talking about. So Paul told them about God and resurrection. Some scoffed, but others wanted more and joined him.
Paul was a tent maker by trade. He went to Corinth and stayed with some Jews who made tents too. Paul held discussions in the synagogue. Silas and Timothy arrived and then Paul spent all his time preaching. The Jews rejected what he said, so they went to the Gentiles. Many people heard and were baptized. Not everyone was happy, one night they seized Paul and dragged him before the governor. But the governor wasn't interested and he threw them all out. Paul stayed with the believers in Corinth for a while and then sailed for Syria. The tent makers went too. (Someone shaved their head before sailing it just says 'he', I wondered if this was part of the Nazirite vow as in Numbers 6 -Feb 12) They traveled around some more. A believer named Apollo was enthusiastically preaching about the gospel, but he didn't have all the information about Jesus. So some believers there taught him what he needed to know and they sent him to Achaia and sent him with a letter of introduction to help him get started there. He proved in debates that Jesus is the Messiah.
Tomorrow read Acts 19-20
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