Paul traveled far and wide, preaching the Good News, and bringing many people to Jesus. God worked such amazing miracles through Paul that the handkerchiefs or aprons which had touched him were taken to the sick, and they were cured of their sickness, and the evil spirits came out of them.
One evening the disciples met to hear Paul, who was due to leave the next day. He talked and talked, on into the middle of the night. Many lamps were burning in the room up on the third floor where they were, and as Paul went on and on one young boy sitting on the windowsill grew drowsy. He finally fell asleep, and fell out the window. They picked him up dead. Paul went down and stooped to hug him tightly to himself. 'Don't worry," he said, "there is still life in him." Then he went back upstairs, and they ate. Paul still talked on until he left at dawn.
They took the boy away very much alive, and all of them were much comforted.
Back in Jerusalem, there were by now thousands of Jews who had become Christian and wanted to put all Christians under the Law. Even though Paul knew well that these people would do all in their power to get rid of him, his mind was set on going back there. "After I have been there," he told his friends, "I must go on to Rome as well."
+ Paul is Arrested and Sent to Rome +
Once he was in Jerusalem, it did not take long for those who opposed Paul to catch sight of him in the Temple. They stirred up the crowd and seized him, shouting, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who preaches to everyone against our people, against the Law, and against this Holy Place."
This roused the whole city. People came running from all sides. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the Temple, and the gates were closed behind them. They would have killed him if a report had not reached the Roman tribune that there was rioting all over Jerusalem. He immediately called out soldiers and charged on the crowd, who stopped beating Paul when they saw the Roman tribune and the soldiers. When the tribune came up he arrested Paul, had him bound with two chains and asked who he was and what he had done. People in the crowd called out different things, and since the noise made it impossible for him to get any straight information, the tribune ordered Paul taken into the fortress. When Paul reached the steps, the crowd became so violent that he had to be carried by the soldiers. Indeed the whole mob was after them, shouting, "Kill him!"
Just as Paul was being taken into the fortress, he asked the tribune if he could have a word with him. "You speak Greek, then?" the tribune noted. "I am a Jew and a citizen of the city of Tarsus," Paul answered. "Please give me permission to speak to the people." He gave his consent, and Paul, standing at the top of the steps, motioned with his hand to the people.
When there came a great hush, he began to speak to them in Hebrew. "My brothers, my fathers, listen to what I have to say in my defense." When they realized he was speaking in Hebrew, the silence was even greater. Paul told his story, how he had studied with Gamaliel, persecuted the Way, was baptized by Ananias. Then he went on: "Once, after I got back to Jerusalem, when I was praying in the Temple, I was in an ecstasy and saw Him as He said to me, 'Hurry and leave Jerusalem at once; they will not accept the testimony you are giving about Me.' 'Lord,' I answered, 'it is because they know I used to persecute those who believed in You.' Then He said to me, ‘Go! I am sending you out to the pagans far away.’”
So far they had listened to him, but at these words they began to shout, "Rid the earth of the man! He is not fit to live!" They were yelling, waving their cloaks, and throwing dust into the air. So the tribune had him brought into the fortress and ordered him to be examined under the lash, to find out the reason for the outcry against him. But when they had strapped him down Paul said to the soldier on duty, "Is it legal for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and has not been brought to trial?" When he heard this, the soldier went and told the tribune. "Do you realize what you are doing?” he asked. "This man is a Roman citizen." So the tribune came and asked of him, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "I am," said Paul. The tribune said in wonder, "It cost me a large sum of money to acquire this citizenship." "But I was born to it," said Paul. Then those who were about to examine him left in a hurry. The tribune himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put a Roman citizen in chains.
While Paul was being held, the Lord appeared to him and said, "Courage! You have borne witness for me in Jerusalem, now you must do the same in Rome." All along, Paul preached first to the Jews, and then, when they rejected him, he preached the Good News to pagans.
The Roman authorities sent Paul to Rome, and from there he preached the Good News of Jesus Christ to many, many people.
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