Saturday, May 22, 2027

^9:20Immediately in the synagogues he proclaimed the Christ, that he is the Son of God. ²¹All who heard him were amazed, and said, “Isn’t this he who in Jerusalem made havoc of those who called on this name? And he had come here intending to bring them bound before the chief priests!” ²²But Saul increased more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ. ²³When many days were fulfilled, the Jews conspired together to kill him, ²⁴but their plot became known to Saul. They watched the gates both day and night that they might kill him, ²⁵but his disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket. ²⁶When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. ²⁷But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. ²⁸He was with them entering into Jerusalem, ²⁹preaching boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. He spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him. ³⁰When the brothers knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. ³¹So the assemblies throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were built up. They were multiplied, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

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^15:17“I command these things to you, that you may love one another. ¹⁸If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. ²¹But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me. ²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³He who hates me, hates my Father also. ²⁴If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father. ²⁵But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’ ²⁶“When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. ²⁷You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. ^16:1“I have said these things to you so that you wouldn’t be caused to stumble. ²They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.

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