PAUL’S THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY

• FOR THE THIRD TIME IN ABOUT EIGHT YEARS, HE WAS WALKING WEST ON THE CARAVAN TRAIL.
PAUL WAS NOW IN HIS FIFTIES. HE STAYED IN EPHESUS, THE CAPITAL OF THE ROMAN PROVINCE OF
ASIA, FOR ALMOST THREE YEARS PROBABLY BECAUSE OF THE CITY’S IMPORTANCE.
• PAUL’S PREACHING AT EPHESUS MADE A STRONG IMPRESSION ON THE WHOLE PROVINCE OF ASIA
BE CE HIS WORDS WOULD BE SPREAD BY THE MANY TRAVELERS COMING TO AND GOING FROM
THE CITY.
• MANY CITIZENS BEGAN TO ABANDON THE WORSHIP OF DIANA, GODDESS OF FERTILITY. THE
SILVERSMITHS WHO MADE A GOOD LIVING BY MAKING STATUES OF THE GODDESS, HELD AN
ANGRY PROTEST MEETING AGAINST PAUL (ACTS 19:23-41).
• SADLY HE HAD TO LEAVE THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY OF EPHESUS AND HEAD OFF FOR
MACEDONIA. WHILE IN EPHESUS, HE WROTE TWO VERY IMPORTANT LETTERS TO THE
CORINTHIANS, AND ONE LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY IN GALATIA.
• About this time, Paul was told that the Christian community at Corinth was becoming
split into several factions. He wrote to the Corinthians perhaps his most eloquent letter
about love and the Lord’s Supper.
• Paul then traveled to Corinth personally. The troublemakers rejected his help, so he left.
Then he sent Titus, one of his young co- workers, to Corinth. Shortly. Titus reported that
the community had settled down and that they were ready to listen to Paul again.
• After visiting different communition in Macedonia, Paul stayed some days in Troas ttrok-
asi One incident in Troas shows that even Saint Paul’s sermons went on far too long.
• In this third journey, Paul observed groups of Jewish Christians who were agitating for
the observance of the Jewish Law by all Jewish Christians. The Gentiles had been freed
from Mosaic Law by the earlier Council of Jeru salem.
• Paul journeyed to Jerusalem to help resolve both this matter and one other,
Paul had pledged that the Christian communities would help one another-
indeed, thin was an essential part of the Way. The people of Jerusalem were
now once again suffering from famine. Christian Gentiles in Greece and Asia
Minor contributed generously to a fund for the com munity in Jerusalem. Thus,
accompanied by Gentile representatives from various com munities and
carrying the contributions, he set. Sail.
THE CHURCH AND JUDAISM
• Jesus was a Jew. While he was growing up. his parents taught him to speak the language
(Aramaic) used by the Jewish people, to read the Jewish Scriptures, and to say Jewish
prayers. He was at home in the great Temple in Jerusalem. The professional Jewish teach-
ers admired him for his learning. Though he criticized hypocrites and those overly strict
about keeping religious rules, he himself kept the Jewish Law, the Torah.
• Separation between Jewish Christians and the majority of the population in Jerusalem
began in the year 62 when James, the leader of the Christians there, was arrested by the
high priest for blasphemy, thrown from the roof of the Temple, and then stoned to death.
• In AD 66 an official act of rebellion was committed in the Temple when the daily s rifice
for Nero, the Roman emperor, was discontinued.
• Before the revolt against the Romans there was a variety of ways in which Jews coul
practice their religion. As we have seen, ther were Pharisees, Sadducees, and priests, but
there were also some groups who were monks.
• Within a few years after the fall of Jeruss lem, Christians were no longer welcome in the
synagogues. The Jewish Christians who had followed the Law all their lives were hurt and
angered by this rejection.
• In excluding the Christians from Jewish communities, the Jews were trying to maintain
their identity as a people. As the number of Christians increased, some of them began to
think that the Jews were no longer God’s people.