Prelude to writing both Epistles to the Thessalonians (Acts 18:1-5)

Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.  

Meanwhile, Emperor Claudius kicked out all the Jews from Rome.  Paul meets a few Jews who left Rome and stayed with them.  

Here, we also find out that Paul is a tentmaker by trade.  He makes tents throughout the week to support himself and on the Sabbath, he preaches in the synagogue to persuade the Jews and Greeks.

Eventually, Timothy and Silas rejoin him.  Paul had left them behind in Macedonia and here, they catch up with him in Corinth.  

Their report about the church in Thessalonica prompts Paul to write two letters.

Paul's Second Missionary Trip, continued (Acts 17)

Paul, Silas, and Timothy continue in Macedonia.

Thessalonica

Paul and company end up in Thessalonica.  Paul preaches in the synagogue in the Sabbath gains converts.  One of whom is Jason, who let's Paul stay at his home.  The local Jews get mad at Paul, but cannot find him.  So, they turn their anger on Jason and a few unnamed others.  The magistrates do not punish Jason and the church requests Paul to leave.

Berea

Paul and company go to Berea.  Jews from Thessalonica hear that Paul went there, so they go to Berea and cause trouble.

Paul sails away to the Greek mainland, but leaves Silas and Timothy behind.  Silas and Timothy later rejoin Paul.  It seems that they also check on the church in Thessalonica before going to Paul because they report some of the concerns that the Thessalonians have, which prompts Paul to write two letters.

The Unknown God of Athens 

This might be the most famous anecdote in all of Paul's church planting trips.

Paul goes to Athens to wait for the arrival of Silas and Timothy.  Meanwhile, he is distressed because Athens if full of idols.  This is something that both his preconversion self Saul of Tarsus and Paul the disciple would have been distressed by.

Meanwhile, he finds an altar with the nebulous inscription "To An Unknown God".  I heard one theory on the origin of this, but I cannot point to any sources.  Years before, Athens was about to be destroyed and in their desperation, they prayed to an "Unknown God".  Athens was spared and they built an altar to the Unknown God afterwards and prayed to this deity just as they would to other deities that they worshipped.

Paul debates with the Greek Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in the marketplace.  He talks about Ressurection of Jesus before they decide to hear him at the Aeropagus.

The Aeroagus translates as the "Hill of Ares" and is a hill overlooking Athens.  At the time, it functioned as a discussion place as well as a court for criminal and civil cases.  So, this could be viewed as a quasi-trial for Paul as the Athenians evaluate his ideas.  According to Wikipedia, it was illegal to preach on foreign deities.

Paul slightly modifies his message and talks about this "Unknown God", Jesus.  Athens is full of idols to worship gods, but Jesus is unknown.  His message also emphasizes the supremacy of God, both in starting human life and that God chose the exact times and locations that people who are to live.

He also mentions something interesting.  While discussing idols, he said that God formerly excused that ignorance, but not anymore.

In short, Paul uses their idolatry to highlight God as unknown to them, says that their gods are below this majestic God, and then condemns their own practice of idolatry.  

Some people sneered, but Paul is allowed to leave.  The text suggests that he did not linger in Athens after giving this sermon.  He did make a few converts based on his speech.  These include Dionysius and Damaris.

Paul's Second Missionary Trip (Acts 16 et seq)

Paul and Silas travel around Galatia and visit some of the cities he went to in his first missionary trip.  Everywhere he goes, he delivers the decision of the Council of Jerusalem.  

Paul meets with Timothy.  Timothy's mother is Jewish, but his father his Greek.  Paul invites Timothy to come, but requires him to be circumcised.  The stated reason is out of concern for the Jews, who knew that Timothy's father was Greek.

Here, despite the Council of Jerusalem's decision and the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul requires Timothy to be circumcised.  In context, the reasoning seems to have nothing to do with the internal management of the church, but so that Timothy can go with Paul into the synagogues.  Paul frequently preaches to the Jews in their own synagogues while they are gathered on the Sabbath.  In order for Timothy to help out, he needs to be circumcised.

Side note, I don't think Paul's preaching on the Sabbath is establishing a Sabbath for the church to recognize.  Rather, at this point, Paul is still encountering a lot of Jews and preaching to them in these other cities.  Jews gathered together on the Sabbath in the synagogues, which made it a perfect place to preach to them.  

The last observance of the Sabbath by any of Jesus' disciples that was mentioned was that the women who witnessed Jesus' death went back home to rest on the Sabbath after Jesus died.  On one hand, this confirms the date of Jesus' death as Friday, but it does not undercut Jesus' teachings about the Sabbath.  Rather, in between the death and resurrection, the "Jesus movement" was at its lowest point and the disciples were trying to keep a low profile and stay alive.  This would mean blending with the rest of the community, I.e., observe the Pharisee's Sabbath.

Back to the story, Paul is traveling around and has a vision of man in Macedonia, requesting help.  The group concludes this is their next destination.

This is also the first point in Acts where the text says "we".  This suggests that the author of Acts (and the Gospel of Luke) is now traveling with them.  The text from here on alternates from "we" to "they".

Philipi

Paul heads to Philipi, which is a Roman colony and a major city of a local district of Macedonia.  The text follows to main anecdotes.  First, he encounters a woman named Lydia who is a believer of God.  He baptizes her.  He first meets her at a place of prayer outside the city.

The main anecdote in Philipi starts when a slave girl follows Paul to the place of prayer.  The slave girl is a fortune teller and connects with evil spirits. She apparently was effective because he brought money in to her owners.

The girl follows Paul and says to those around, "this man will show you how to be saved".  In a lot of ways, this is similar to the demons following Jesus and telling people that he is the Son of God.

Similarly, this agitates Paul, who rebukes her evil spirit.  Then, she is unable to read fortunes and her owners are mad at Paul and Silas.  They drag them before the magistrate who orders them beaten and imprisoned.

That night, Paul and Silas are singing praise songs to God in jail when an earthquake smashes the prison open.  The jailer sees this and wants to kill himself, but Paul shouts from inside that everyone is still in there.  The jailer goes inside, meets with Paul, and this leads to the conversion of the jailer and is family.  The jailer also cleans the wounds of Paul and Silas from their beating.

The next day, the magistrate releases Paul and Silas.  They stay at Lydia's house a bit before heading off.

It is incredible that the rest of prisoners stayed in the jail as well.  We do not know what else Paul and Silas did to encourage them to stay other than that they were singing praise songs.  Perhaps this inspired the prisoners to stay.  We can only speculate, but it seems incredible that they did.

There is no record of Paul complaining to God about the way he is treated in Macedonia.  He did complain to the authorities that he was a Roman citizen and beaten without a trial.  However, there is no record here of him questioning God.  

This is remarkable because he believes that God sent him to Macedonia to help people there.  However, he finds torture and imprisonment and continues on the mission.  This shows his faith and perseverance, but also that people might feel God wants them to go somewhere or do something.  If that is the case, direction from God does not necessarily mean that the path will be free of difficulty.  

Paul will send an Epistle to the church in Philippi.  Here, we meet some of the foundational members:  Lydia, the jailer, and the jailer's family.

Council of Jerusalem, post script (Acts 15:22-35)

Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and Judas Barsabbas escort the Council's letter to Antioch.  Silas and Judas Barsabbas are prophets who encourage the church.

Paul wants to visit the churches that he had planted.  This may have been motivated to see what happened after he had sent the Epistle of Galatians.  He suggests the idea to Barnabas, who thinks it is good, but Barnabas wants to bring John-Mark.  

Paul does not like this idea because John-Mark abandoned Paul and Barnabas during the first missionary trip.  As I mentioned, the conflict with John-Mark may have originally been over the Apostle Paul assuming leadership over that of Barnabas.  Here, we see the rift is strong.  

They cannot agree about John-Mark, so Barnabas and Paul go their separate ways.  Paul takes Silas while Barnabas and John-Mark go to Cyprus.  

Here we internal divisions among the early church.  On a large scale, it was divided on the observance of circumcision and the rest of the law.  The Council of Jerusalem and Epistle of Galatians kept the church together.  Collectively, they were a total repudiation of the necessity of keeping the law of Moses.  However, the Council of Jerusalem adopted a few items that seemed to have been concessions for the greater good of the church.

On a much smaller scale, the conflict over the loyalty of John-Mark could not be reconciled.  As readers, we wonder what exactly happened and if John-Mark could be trusted, or if Paul held too much of a grudge.  As a result, it split up an effective team that had been together since the beginning.  That said, splitting the team into two allowed them to cover more geographical territory.  

As for John-Mark, if he eventually went on author the Gospel of Mark, then we can see he was redeemed and, all-in-all, he stayed loyal to the Kingdom of God.

Paul's Epistle to the Galatians and the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15)

The Gospel spread throughout the Near East and Gentiles were bring welcomed into the Christian faith.  This was the product of such efforts as Paul and Barnabas' first missionary trip throughout Galatia, Philip's evangelism in Samaria, and Peter's visit to Cornelius in Caesarea.  

As Gentiles were brought it, this immediately raised the question of how much Jewish tradition should the Gentiles be expected to practice.  After all, if Christianity is based on the Jewish tradition, does Christianity encompass Jewish traditions.

The issue was divisive and explosive.  External threats remained and many of the church founders eventually face martyrdom.  Here, an internal division could destroy the church just as easily as Roman soldiers.  

This issue is addressed in both the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) and Paul's Epistle to the Galatians.

More details of exact source of the division are specified in Acts 15.  Pharisee converts to Christianity declared that the Gentile converts must both (1) be circumcised and (2) keep the law of Moses.  In Galatians, Paul identifies the same issues in dispute, but does not specify the source of it beyond "some" people.  

In some sense, this perspective is understandable.  For after all, Jesus did say that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.  What does this mean?  The early church was confused about it.

However, in laying the background of the issue, Paul calls the perspective of the Christian Pharisees in very harsh terms - "a perversion of the Gospel".  

Paul is present at the Council of Jerusalem.  So, it is likely that he wrote Galatians on the way to Jerusalem.  Alternatively, he wrote it as a companion peace to the letter that Council of Jerusalem issues.  However, he does not mention the Council of Jerusalem in Galatians, which he probably would have had the Council of Jerusalem occurred before writing Galatians.  

The Council of Jerusalem listens to Paul, Barnabas, and James (the remaining apostle, not the brother of John or brother of Jesus).  They eventually conclude that the Gentile converts do not need to be circumcised or follow any other part of the Law of Moses with the following exceptions:

1.  No eating food offered before idols

2.  No consuming blood

3.  Meat of strangled animals

4.  No sexual immorality.

The letter concludes by saying that "you will be well to avoid these".  This implies that it was advice and not an official theological statement.  That said, advice coming from the apostles of the church, all but one were with Jesus throughout his ministry, this advice is important and know that they reflect theological concerns.

On one hand, it is a strange combination.   However, the food practices likely seem to be a concession to prevent too much division.  These food issues are not later reiterated as important for other churches to follow unless other church brothers find it highly offensive.  The key example of this is food offered to idols.  

Sexual immorality is frequently admonished against in later epistles to the various churches.  We know from other writings that this directly reflects theology, while the food concerns seem to indirectly reflect concerns about divisions.

The letter from the Council does not fully explain the reasoning behind this.  Meanwhile, Paul's letter to the Galatians certainly does.  Here are the highlights that I found in his reasoning:

1.  Paul called Peter out on living like a Gentile, but then requiring the Gentiles become like Jews.  (2:11-21)

2.  The law of Moses is one entire entity that should be taken at all once.  If you believe you should be circumcised, you must follow the rest of the law too.  (3:10; 5:3).  This makes people cursed to the law.  (3:10-12)

3.  Christ redeemed us from the law by becoming cursed.  (3:13)

4.  Requiring obedience to the law for righteousness means Christ's sacrifice was for nothing.  (2:21)

5.  Abraham was counted righteous through grace and a promise of God because the law came 430 years after him.  (3:16-18)

6.  The Gentiles in Galatia received grace and the Spirit of God before doing the law.  

7.  Continuing with the Abraham theme, he analogizes the law versus grace in Christ to Abraham's two children.  One was born of a free woman, the other a slave.  By requiring the law for salvation, we become the slave.  This logic is an attack on one of the necessity of maintaining a Jewish identity, since it implies that law observance forfeits one's inheritance as children of Abraham.

This seems to be the core reasoning about salvation through faith and not law, as outlined in Galatians.  Paul knows he cannot stop there.  He then talks about how good moral character comes out of living by the Spirit.  He specifies various actions of the sinful nature in contrast to the fruits of the Spirit.  Circumcision means nothing, but rather be new creation.

Galatians post-script

At the beginning of Galatians, Paul explains how he became an Apostle and he defends his status of Apostleship.  (1:11-24)  Although he did not know Jesus personally like the other Apostles did (which was the criteria to replace Judas in Acts 1:21-22), Paul was chosen by God to go to the Gentiles.  

Further, Paul also received a revelation directly from Jesus of a Gospel.  Paul mentions that he spent three years in Arabia, which may be the time that this Gospel revelation occurred.  He did not receive the details of the Gospel that was revealed to him from other people.  Finally, Paul meets with Peter and James (brother of Jesus) in Jerusalem and Peter, which means that Peter oversaw Paul and approved of the Gospel that he received.

Paul's first missionary trip (Acts 13-14)

Acts 13-14 records Paul's first missionary trip after his time in Antioch and Jerusalem.  He goes to Cyprus and Galatia.

Cyprus

He goes to Cyprus and lands in Salamis, then travels to Paphos.  There, a proconsul named Sergius Paulus wanted to meet with them.  However, this was opposed by the local sorcerer named Elymas (Barjesus).  Paul rebukes Elymas and curses him with blindness.   Elymas is struck blind and this convinces the proconsul to become a believer.

This anecdote is also the first time that Saul is referred to Paul.

Pisidion Antioch

Paul and friends head to Pisidion Antioch, which was a Roman city in modern-day Turkey.

John-Mark leaves the group en route to Pisidion Antioch.  One possible theory is that Paul has become the leader of the group because now the text puts Paul's name in front of Barnabas.  Following this theory, John-Mark disagreed that Paul should lead and not Barnabas.  Hence, he left.

At Pisidion Antioch, Paul gives a sermon in the synagogue on the Sabbath to both Jews and God-fearing Gentiles.  The text of the sermon is recorded in the chapter and emphasizes that Christ is the fulfillment of the Jewish religion.  The fact that Paul is speaking and not Barnabas shows that Paul has assumed leadership of the group.

After speaking, many people believed in Jesus and they asked him to come back the next Sabbath.  They go back a week later and nearly the entire city turns up to listen to Paul.  The size of the crowd makes the Jewish leaders jealous, so they go to the city's political leaders who have Paul and Barnabas expelled from the city.  

We do not know what the Jewish leaders said to the city leaders, but I suppose it was something along the lines that Paul and Barnabas wanted to start an uprising in the city.

Finally, Paul and Barnabas leave and are filled with joy of the Holy Spirit.

Iconium

Paul and Barnabas go to Iconium.  There, he preaches in the synagogue and converts both Jews and Gentiles alike.  Division arose within the synagogue as hard-line Jews opposed him and tried to turn the Gentiles against Paul.  However, Paul does a number of miraculous signs.

The opposition grows worse and Paul finds about a plot to stone him.  He takes this as a sign to leave the city.

Lystra

Paul and Barnabas go to Lystra.  Paul heals a man who had been crippled from birth.  The crowd then believes that Paul and Barnabas are gods who have descended to earth in human form.  Specifically, they think Paul and Barnabas are Hermes and Zeus, respectively, because Hermes speaks for Zeus.

The crowd tries to start making sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas who tear their clothes.  No!  Don't do that.  

Meanwhile, a group of Jews from Iconium and Antioch arrive and stir the crowd against Paul and Barnabas.  This works and the crowd turns against them.  In fact, they stone Paul and leave him for dead outside the city.  

After the crowd disperses, the disciples check on Paul.  They probably think he is in fact dead, but Paul gets up and they get the hint that it is time to leave Lystra.

Return to Antioch

The text quickly summarizes the rest of Paul's trip.  They go to Derbe and establish a trip there.  They then revisit Lystra and Iconium and other local areas before heading back to Antioch.

Paul's Epistle to the Galatians

The area in modem-day Turkey that Paul visited was the southern portion of the Roman area of Galatia.  The chronological Bible reading list has the next event being Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, which could very well be the churches visited in the first missionary trip.

Persecution continues (Acts 12)

Meanwhile, King Herod starts arresting believers.  He has the Apostle James, the brother of John, executed.  James was quietly a stand out Apostle.  He joined Jesus' ministry early on and witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus, but quietly took a back to seat in the text to Peter and John.  

This fairly early execution date for James also makes it difficult to attribute the Epistle of James to him.  However, there is another James among the original Apostles, plus one of Jesus' (half-)brothers is named James.

Meanwhile, the Jews were pleased with Herod killing James.  So, Herod arrested Peter right before Passover with the intent on having him have a public trial.  This sounds a lot like what happened to Jesus and the similarity was probably not lost on those involved.  

Herod has Peter imprisoned and guarded by 16 soldiers.  Peter is sleeping in a jail cell and chained to several soldiers.  Late at night, an angel wakes him up.  The chains fall off his wrist.  Peter follows the angel out of the jail, thinking the whole thing is a vision or a dream.  Finally, Peter ends up on the street and the angel leaves him.  He then understands that he has been set free.

Peter goes to the house of Mary, mother of John-Mark.  This is the first time that John-Mark is specifically mentioned and people believe that he is the author of the Gospel of Mark.  Later in this chapter, John-Mark starts traveling with Saul and Barnabas,.

Peter meets with other believers, tells them what happened, and they go to another place.  This time, he probably remained in hiding.  The first time that an angel released him from prison, he went back to the temple courts and preached he next day.  Here, people are actively looking to kill him.

The next day, Herod hears of the escape and has the guards executed.

Later, Herod goes to Caesarea where a crowd declares that he is a god.  At this moment, God strikes Herod dead.  It seems that for the Gospel to continue, certain enemies had to go.  Herod die and the church continues to grow.

The chapter concludes with the trip of Barnabas and Saul to Antioch from Jerusalem, bringing with them John-Mark.  This also suggests that John-Mark was present in his mother's house when Peter showed up after his escape.