Day 9 - Matthew 9 and Acts 17-18
Matthew 9
9:1 He entered into a boat, and crossed over, and came into his own city.
9:2 Behold, they brought to him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a bed. Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, "Son, cheer up! Your sins are forgiven you."
9:3 Behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man blasphemes."
9:4 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?
9:5 For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven;' or to say, 'Get up, and walk?'
9:6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins..." (then he said to the paralytic), "Get up, and take up your mat, and go up to your house."
9:7 He arose and departed to his house.
9:8 But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
9:9 As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, "Follow me." He got up and followed him.
9:10 It happened as he sat in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples.
9:11 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
9:12 When Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.
9:13 But you go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
9:14 Then John's disciples came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don't fast?"
9:15 Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
9:16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch would tear away from the garment, and a worse hole is made.
9:17 Neither do people put new wine into old wineskins, or else the skins would burst, and the wine be spilled, and the skins ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."
9:18 While he told these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live."
9:19 Jesus got up and followed him, as did his disciples.
9:20 Behold, a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years came behind him, and touched the fringe of his garment;
9:21 for she said within herself, "If I just touch his garment, I will be made well."
9:22 But Jesus, turning around and seeing her, said, "Daughter, cheer up! Your faith has made you well." And the woman was made well from that hour.
9:23 When Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd in noisy disorder,
9:24 he said to them, "Make room, because the girl isn't dead, but sleeping." They were ridiculing him.
9:25 But when the crowd was put out, he entered in, took her by the hand, and the girl arose.
9:26 The report of this went out into all that land.
9:27 As Jesus passed by from there, two blind men followed him, calling out and saying, "Have mercy on us, son of David!"
9:28 When he had come into the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They told him, "Yes, Lord."
9:29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith be it done to you."
9:30 Their eyes were opened. Jesus strictly commanded them, saying, "See that no one knows about this."
9:31 But they went out and spread abroad his fame in all that land.
9:32 As they went out, behold, a mute man who was demon possessed was brought to him.
9:33 When the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke. The multitudes marveled, saying, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!"
9:34 But the Pharisees said, "By the prince of the demons, he casts out demons."
9:35 Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.
9:36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.
9:37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
9:38 Pray therefore that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest."
Acts 17
17:1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.
17:2 Paul, as was his custom, went into them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
17:3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ."
17:4 Some of them were persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas, of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and not a few of the chief women.
17:5 But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people.
17:6 When they didn't find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here also,
17:7 whom Jason has received. These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus!"
17:8 The multitude and the rulers of the city were troubled when they heard these things.
17:9 When they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
17:10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
17:11 Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
17:12 Many of them therefore believed; also of the prominent Greek women, and not a few men.
17:13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes.
17:14 Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there.
17:15 But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him very quickly, they departed.
17:16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.
17:17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him.
17:18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be advocating foreign deities," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
17:19 They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you?
17:20 For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean."
17:21 Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
17:22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, "You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.
17:23 For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.
17:24 The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn't dwell in temples made with hands,
17:25 neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.
17:26 He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,
17:27 that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
17:28 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'
17:29 Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.
17:30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
17:31 because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead."
17:32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, "We want to hear you again concerning this."
17:33 Thus Paul went out from among them.
17:34 But certain men joined with him, and believed, among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Acts 18
18:1 After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.
18:2 He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,
18:3 and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.
18:4 He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.
18:5 But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
18:6 When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!"
18:7 He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.
18:8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.
18:9 The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, "Don't be afraid, but speak and don't be silent;
18:10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city."
18:11 He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
18:12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat,
18:13 saying, "This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law."
18:14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you;
18:15 but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don't want to be a judge of these matters."
18:16 He drove them from the judgment seat.
18:17 Then all the Greeks laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio didn't care about any of these things.
18:18 Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow.
18:19 He came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.
18:20 When they asked him to stay with them a longer time, he declined;
18:21 but taking his leave of them, and saying, "I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you if God wills," he set sail from Ephesus.
18:22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the assembly, and went down to Antioch.
18:23 Having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples.
18:24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures.
18:25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.
18:26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
18:27 When he had determined to pass over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he had come, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace;
18:28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
