484 : A Person Is Healed And Paul And Barnabus Try To Stop The Crowd
Now there was a certain man of Lystra who, being a cripple from birth, had never walked.
He heard Paul speak, and Paul, looking at' him and seeing that he had the faith to be healed,
said in a loud voice, "Stand up on your feet."
And he leaped up and walked.
When the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in their own tongue, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men."
They called Barnabas jupiter and Paul mercury, because he was the chief speaker.
Then the priest of jupiter, whose temple stood in front of the city,
brought oxen and garlands to the gates, to offer a sacrifice with the people.
And when the apostles, Paul and Barnabas, heard of this,
they tore their clothes and ran among the people,crying out, "Sirs, why do you do these things?
We are only human beings, with feelings like you, and are preaching to you that you should turn
from these vain worships to the living God, who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things in them.
"In times past he let all peoples walk in their own ways,
but he did not leave us without reminders of himself, in that he did good,
and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."
Even with those words, they barely restrained the people from offering sacrifices to them.
But there came there certain men from Antioch and Iconium who swayed the people.
They stoned Paul and put him out of the city, thinking he was dead.
However, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up and came into the city.
The next day, he departed with Barnabas to Derbe,
and when they had preached the gospel to that city,
they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch.
And after they had passed throughout Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia.
And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia,
and from there sailed to Antioch in Cilicia.
And there they stayed a long time with the disciples.
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