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Paul and Barnabas told people about Jesus, in Iconium and Listra
1-4 The same thing happened in the town called Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish meeting house, and they talked strongly about Jesus to the people there. They told them that God is very good to people. And a big mob of people believed in Jesus. Some of them were Jews, and some of them were not Jews. But there were other Jewish people that didn’t believe in Jesus, and they talked to the other people that were not Jews, and they got them to hate the Christians. So the people of Iconium split up into 2 mobs. One mob reckoned that Paul and Barnabas were right, but the other mob reckoned those Jewish people were right. Paul and Barnabas stayed in Iconium a long time, and they kept on telling people about Jesus, and they were not frightened of anyone. And God helped Paul and Barnabas do powerful things, to show that they were telling the true story about Jesus.
5 Then some of those people that didn’t believe in Jesus, and their leaders, they made a plan to hurt Paul and Barnabas, and to kill them with stones. Some of that mob were Jews, and some of them were not Jews.
6 But somebody told Paul and Barnabas that those people wanted to kill them, so Paul and Barnabas ran away to the country called Lyconia. They went to the towns called Listra and Derbi, and to the country around those towns,
7 and they told people there the good news about Jesus.
In Listra Paul got Jesus to make a crippled man better
8 In Listra there was a man that was crippled. He was born crippled. He never walked in his life.
9 As Paul was talking to the people there, that crippled man was sitting there listening to him. Paul looked straight at him, and when he saw that man’s face, he knew that the man believed that Jesus can make him better.
10 So Paul said real loud, “Stand up on your feet.” And the man jumped up and started to walk around.
11 A big mob of people saw Paul do that, and they yelled out in their own Lyconian language, “The gods turned themselves into men, and they came here to us.”
12 And those people reckoned Barnabas was their boss god called Zeus, and they reckoned Paul was their messenger god called Hermes, because Paul did all the talking.
13 There was a house for Zeus just outside the town, and there was a man there that looked after the ceremonies for Zeus. That man and all the people got some bulls and some flowers, and they took them to the gates of the town. They wanted to show respect to Paul and Barnabas, just like they always showed respect to their gods. They were going to kill those bulls for them, and they were going to give them the flowers too.
14 But somebody told Paul and Barnabas what those people wanted to do, and then Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes to show them they were upset, and they ran into the crowd of people, and they shouted,
15 “What are you doing? Why are you doing this? Don’t do it. We are just men, like you. We are telling you good news, and we are saying that you have to stop showing respect to things that are not the true God. You have to turn around and follow the God that is alive. He made the sky, and the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.
16 He let the people in every country go their own way, up until now,
17 but he still shows them that he is the only real God. He always did good things for them, and he does good things for you too. He gives you rain, and he makes your food grow, so that you can be happy.”
18 Paul and Barnabas kept on talking to the people like that. The people still wanted to kill the bulls for them, but in the end, they listened to Paul and Barnabas, and they didn’t kill those bulls.
People threw big stones at Paul
19 After that, some Jewish people came to that place from the towns called Antioch and Iconium, and they talked to the Listra people, and they made them get angry with Paul. Then those Jewish people threw big stones at Paul. They hit him with those stones until they thought he was dead. Then they dragged him outside the town and left him there.
20 Then the Christians stood around Paul. They thought he was dead too, but then he got up, and he went back into the town.
Paul and Barnabas told the Derbi people about Jesus
The next day, Paul and Barnabas left that place and went to the town called Derbi.
21 Paul and Barnabas told the people there the good news about Jesus, and a lot of people believed in him.
Paul and Barnabas helped the new churches in each town
After that, Paul and Barnabas went back to Listra, and Iconium, and Antioch in Pisidia country.
22 In each of those towns they talked to the Christians and said, “Keep on believing in Jesus, and don’t turn away from him. Some people will keep on making big trouble for all of us Christians, but don’t worry, Jesus is with us. We are in God’s family now.”
23 Then, in each town, Paul and Barnabas picked leaders for the Christians in the church there. After that, they stopped eating for a while, and they prayed for those leaders. They prayed, “Jesus, our leader, these men believe in you now, so we ask you to look after them all the time.”
24 Then Paul and Barnabas left that place, and they went through Pisidia country, and they came to the country called Pamfilia.
25 In a town called Perga, they talked to the people about Jesus. Then they went to the town called Attalia, near the sea.
Paul and Barnabas went back to Antioch
26 Paul and Barnabas got on a ship at Attalia, and they went back to Antioch, in Syria country. Antioch was the city where they started from, some time before. It was those Antioch Christians that asked God to look after Paul and Barnabas and be good to them, and then they sent them out to tell people about Jesus. That is the reason why Paul and Barnabas went back to Antioch after they finished that work.
27 Paul and Barnabas got all the Christians in Antioch to come together, and they told them all about the things God helped them do. They said, “We told the people that are not Jews about Jesus, and God let them believe in him.”
28 And Paul and Barnabas stayed there a long time, with the Christians at Antioch.