God

So he left them and went into the home of a “God-fearer” named Titius Justus, whose house was right next door to the synagogue.

So Sha’ul stayed there for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

saying, “This man is trying to persuade people to worship God in ways that violate the Torah.”

however, in his farewell he said, “God willing, I will come back to you.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.

He began to speak out boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the Way of God in fuller detail.

Sha’ul went into the synagogue; and for three months he spoke out boldly, engaging in dialogue and trying to persuade people about the Kingdom of God.

God did extraordinary miracles through Sha’ul.

Thus the message about the Lord continued in a powerful way to grow in influence.

declaring with utmost seriousness the same message to Jews and Greeks alike: turn from sin to God; and put your trust in our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah.

But I consider my own life of no importance to me whatsoever, as long as I can finish the course ahead of me, the task I received from the Lord Yeshua — to declare in depth the Good News of God’s love and kindness.

“Now, listen! I know that none of you people among whom I have gone about proclaiming the Kingdom will ever see me again.

For I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the whole plan of God.

“Watch out for yourselves, and for all the flock in which the Ruach HaKodesh has placed you as leaders, to shepherd God’s Messianic community, which he won for himself at the cost of his own Son’s blood.

“And now I entrust you to the care of the Lord and to the message of his love and kindness, for it can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who have been set apart for God.

After greeting them, Sha’ul described in detail each of the things God had done among the Gentiles through his efforts.

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city and trained at the feet of Gamli’el in every detail of the Torah of our forefathers. I was a zealot for God, as all of you are today.

He said, ‘The God of our fathers determined in advance that you should know his will, see the Tzaddik and hear his voice;

Sha’ul looked straight at them and said, “Brothers, I have been discharging my obligations to God with a perfectly clear conscience, right up until today.”

Then Sha’ul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Will you sit there judging me according to the Torah, yet in violation of the Torah order me to be struck?”

The men nearby said, “This is the cohen hagadol of God that you’re insulting!”

So there was a great uproar, with some of the Torah-teachers who were on the side of the P’rushim standing up and joining in — “We don’t find anything wrong with this man; and if a spirit or an angel spoke to him, what of it?”

“But this I do admit to you: I worship the God of our fathers in accordance with the Way (which they call a sect). I continue to believe everything that accords with the Torah and everything written in the Prophets.

And I continue to have a hope in God — which they too accept — that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

Indeed, it is because of this that I make a point of always having a clear conscience in the sight of both God and man.

How ironic it is that I stand on trial here because of my hope in the promise made to our fathers!