Caesarea, the voyage and Rome · Ephesians

Acts 28 WEB

¹When we had escaped, then they learned that the island was called Malta. ²The natives showed us uncommon kindness; for they kindled a fire and received us all, because of the present rain and because of the cold. ³But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. ⁴When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped from the sea, yet Justice has not allowed to live.” ⁵However he shook off the creature into the fire, and wasn’t harmed. ⁶But they expected that he would have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, but when they watched for a long time and saw nothing bad happen to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. ⁷Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island, named Publius, who received us and courteously entertained us for three days. ⁸The father of Publius lay sick of fever and dysentery. Paul entered in to him, prayed, and laying his hands on him, healed him. ⁹Then when this was done, the rest also who had diseases in the island came and were cured. ¹⁰They also honored us with many honors; and when we sailed, they put on board the things that we needed. ¹¹After three months, we set sail in a ship of Alexandria which had wintered in the island, whose figurehead was “The Twin Brothers.” ¹²Touching at Syracuse, we stayed there three days. ¹³From there we circled around and arrived at Rhegium. After one day, a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli, ¹⁴where we found brothers, and were entreated to stay with them for seven days. So we came to Rome. ¹⁵From there the brothers, when they heard of us, came to meet us as far as The Market of Appius and The Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. ¹⁶When we entered into Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him. ¹⁷After three days Paul called together those who were the leaders of the Jews. When they had come together, he said to them, “I, brothers, though I had done nothing against the people or the customs of our fathers, still was delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, ¹⁸who, when they had examined me, desired to set me free, because there was no cause of death in me. ¹⁹But when the Jews spoke against it, I was constrained to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything about which to accuse my nation. ²⁰For this cause therefore I asked to see you and to speak with you. For because of the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.” ²¹They said to him, “We neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor did any of the brothers come here and report or speak any evil of you. ²²But we desire to hear from you what you think. For, as concerning this sect, it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against.” ²³When they had appointed him a day, many people came to him at his lodging. He explained to them, testifying about God’s Kingdom, and persuading them concerning Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning until evening. ²⁴Some believed the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. ²⁵When they didn’t agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one message: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, ²⁶saying, ‘Go to this people and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way perceive. ²⁷For this people’s heart has grown callous. Their ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again, then I would heal them.’ ²⁸“Be it known therefore to you that the salvation of God is sent to the nations, and they will listen.” ²⁹When he had said these words, the Jews departed, having a great dispute among themselves. ³⁰Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house and received all who were coming to him, ³¹preaching God’s Kingdom and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, without hindrance.

Ephesians 1–3 WEB

^1:1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus: ²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, ⁵having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, ⁶to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved. ⁷In him we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, ⁹making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him ¹⁰to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him. ¹¹We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will, ¹²to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ. ¹³In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory. ¹⁵For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you and the love which you have toward all the saints, ¹⁶don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, ¹⁷that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, ¹⁸having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might ²⁰which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. ²²He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

^2:1You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, ²in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. ³We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; ⁸for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹not of works, that no one would boast. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them. ¹¹Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands), ¹²that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, ¹⁵having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace, ¹⁶and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it. ¹⁷He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, ²⁰being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; ²¹in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ²²in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

^3:1For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, ²if it is so that you have heard of the administration of that grace of God which was given me toward you, ³how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words, ⁴by which, when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ, ⁵which in other generations was not made known to the children of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit, ⁶that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the Good News, ⁷of which I was made a servant according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power. ⁸To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, ⁹and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ, ¹⁰to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places, ¹¹according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹²In him we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him. ¹³Therefore I ask that you may not lose heart at my troubles for you, which are your glory. ¹⁴For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, ¹⁷that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, ²¹to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.