Contents ▼▲
Front Matter The Story of a Beautiful Garden The First Baby in the World and His Brother The Great Ship That Saved Eight People The Tower That Was Never Finished The Story of a Long Journey How Abram's Choice Brought Blessing The Angel by the Well The Rain of Fire That Fell on a City The Boy Who Became an Archer How an Angel's Voice Saved a Boy's Life The Story of a Journey after a Wife How Jacob Stole His Brother's Blessing Jacob's Wonderful Dream A Midnight Wrestling Match The Rich Man's Son Who Was Sold as a Slave From the Prison to the Palace How Joseph's Dream Came True A Lost Brother Found From the Land of Famine to the Land of Plenty The Beautiful Baby Who Was Found in a River The Voice from the Burning Bush The River That Ran Blood The Night When a Nation Was Born How the Sea Became Dry Land and the Sky Rained Bre The Mountain That Smoked and Words That Were Spoke How Aaron Made a Golden Calf and What Became of It The Tent Where God Lived Among His People How They Worshipped God in the Tabernacle What Strong Drink Brought to Aaron's Sons The Scapegoat in the Wilderness The Cluster of Grapes from the Land of Canaan How the Long Journey of the Israelites Came to an What a Wise Man Learned from an Ass How Moses Looked upon the Promised Land The Story of Job The Story of a Scarlet Cord How the River Jordan Became Dry The Story of a Wedge of Gold How Joshua Conquered the Land of Canaan The Old Man Who Fought Against the Giants The Avenger of Blook and the Cities of Refuge The Story of an Altar Beside the River The Presnt That Ehud Brought to King Eglon How a Woman Won a Great Victory Gideon and His Brave Three Hundred Jephthah's Rash Promise and What Came from It The Strong Man: How He Lived and How He Died The Idol Temple at Dan and Its Priest How Ruth Gleaned in the Field of Boaz The Little Boy with a Linen Coat How the Idol Fell Down Before the Ark The Last of the Judges The Tall Man Who Was Chosen King How Saul Saved the Eyes of the Men of Jabesh The Brave Young Prince Saul's Great Sin and His Great Loss The Shepherd Boy of Bethlehem The Shepherd Boy's Fight with the Giant The Little Boy Looking for the Arrows Where David Found the Giant's Sword How David Spared Saul's Life The Last Days of King Saul The Shepherd Boy Becomes a King The Sound in the Treetops The Cripple at the King's Table The Prophet's Story of the Little Lamb David's Handsome Son and How He Stole the Kingdom Absalom in the Wood; David on the Throne The Angel with the Drawn Sword on Mount Moriah Solomon on This Father's Throne The Wise Young King The House of God on Mount Moriah The Last Days of Solomon's Reign The Breaking Up of a Great Kingdom The King Who Led Israel to Sin The Prophet Who Raised a Boy to Life The Prayer That Was Answered in Fire The Voice That Spoke to Elijah in the Mount The Wounded Prophet and His Story What Ahab Paid for His Vineyard The Arrow That Killed a King Elijah's Chariot of Fire A Spring Sweetened by Salt The Pot of Oil and the Pot of Poison The Little Boy at Shunem How a Little Girl Helped to Cure a Leper The Chariots of Fire around Elisha What the Lepers Found in the Camp Jehu, the Furious Driver of His Chariot Elisha and the Bow; Jonah and Nineveh How the Ten Tribes Were Lost The First Four Kings of Judah The Little Boy Who Was Crowned King Three Kings and a Great Prophet The Good King Hezekiah The Lost Book Found in the Temple The Last Four Kings of Judah and the Weeping Proph What Ezekiel Saw in the Valley The Jewish Captives in the Court of the King The Golden Image and the Fiery Furnace The Tree That Was Cut Down and Grew Again The Writing upon the Wall Daniel in the Den of Lions The Story of a Joyous Journey The New Temple on Mount Moriah The Beautiful Queen of Persia The Scribe Who Wrote the Old Testament The Nobleman Who Built the Wall of Jerusalem Ezra's Great Bible Class in Jerusalem The Angel by the Altar The Manger of Bethlehem The Star and the Wise Men The Boy in his Father's House The Prophet in the Wilderness Jesus in the Desert, and beside the River The Water Jars at the Wedding Feast The Stranger at the Well The Story of a Boy in Capernaum and a Riot A Net Full of Fishes The Leper and the Man Let Down through the Roof The Cripple at the Pool and the Withered Hand The Twelve Disciples and the Sermon on the Mount The Captain's Servant, the Widow's Son, and a Sinn Some Stories Jesus Told by the Sea "Peace, Be Still" The Little Girl Who Was Raised to Life A Dancing Girl and What Was Given Her The Feast beside the Sea and What Followed It The Answer to a Mother's Prayer The Glory of Jesus on the Mountain The Little Child in the Arms of Jesus At the Feast of Tabernacles The Man with Clay on His Face The Good Shepherd and the Good Samaritan Lazarus Raised to Life Some Parables in Perea The Poor Rich Man and the Rich Poor Man Jesus at Jericho Palm Sunday The Last Vistis of Jesus to the Temple The Parables on the Mount of Olives The Last Supper The Olive Orchard and the High Priests Hall The Crown of Thorns The Darkest Day of All the World The Brightest Day of All the World The Stranger on the Shore The Church of the First Days The Man at the Beautiful Gate The Right Way to Give, and the Wrong Way Stephen with the Shining Face The Man Reading in the Chariot The Voice That Spoke to Saul What Peter Saw by the Sea How the Iron Gate Was Opened The Earliest Missionaries The Song in the Prison Paul's Speech on the Hill Paul at Corinth Paul at Ephesus Paul's Last Journey to Jerusalem The Speech on the Stairs Two Years in Prison The Story That Paul Told to the King Paul in the Storm How Paul Came to Rome and How He Lived There The Throne of God The City of God

Story of the Bible Told for Young and Old - Jesse Hurlbut




Paul's Last Journey to Jerusalem


After his three years at Ephesus in Asia Minor, Paul sailed across the Ægean Sea to Macedonia. There he visited again the churches in Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea. Then he went southward into Greece, and saw again the church at Corinth, to which shortly before he had written two long letters. While Paul was visiting these churches he told them of the believers in Christ among the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea; that many of these were very poor, and since they had become disciples of Christ the other Jews would not help them. Therefore Paul asked the Gentile churches everywhere to send gifts to these poor people. He said in his letters:

"These people have sent the word of Christ to you; now send to them your gifts to show that you love them, and to show that you thank God for the gift of his Son who saves you from your sins."

From each of the churches men were chosen to go with Paul to Jerusalem and to carry these gifts. From Berea, the place where so many had studied the Scriptures, as we read in Story Eleven, went a man named Sopater. From Thessalonica went Aristarchus and Secundus. From Derbe in Asia Minor, Gaius and Timothy were sent; and from the other churches in Asia Minor, Tychicus and Trophimus. All these went on before, and waited for Paul at Troas, on the shore of the Ægean Sea. Paul's friend Luke the doctor joined him again at Philippi, and they sailed together to Troas. There the other disciples met them, and they stayed for a week.

On the evening of the first day of the week, a farewell meeting was held at Troas, for Paul and his party, who on the next day were to start on their journey to Jerusalem. The meeting was in a large upper room on the third story of a house, and it was filled with people who had come to hear Paul. While Paul was speaking, one young man, named Eutychus, who was sitting in a window, dropped asleep, and in his sleep fell out of the window upon the ground, two stories below. He was taken up dead; but Paul went down, and fell on him, and placed his arms around him saying, "Do not weep for him, for his life is still in him."

Then Paul went up again, and broke the bread with the believers and held with them the Lord's Supper; and then he talked again for a long time, even until the break of day. And they brought the young man living, at which they were very happy.

All the rest of the party going to Jerusalem except Paul, went on board the ship at Troas. But as the ship was to stop on the way at a place called Assos, Paul chose to go to the place on foot. At Assos, they took Paul on board, and sailed for some days among the islands of the Ægean Sea, and stopped at Miletus, which was not far from Ephesus. Paul did not wish to go to Ephesus, but he sent to the elders of the church, asking them to come and meet him at Miletus. They came, and Paul said to them:

"You know from the first day that I set foot in this part of Asia, after what manner I was with you all the time, serving the Lord with a lowly mind, and with tears, and with many troubles which came upon me from the plots of the Jews. You know, too how faithfully I spoke to you, teaching you in public and from house to house, to repent of your sins, and to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ.

"And now, bound in my spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what shall come upon me there, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in every place that chains and troubles will meet me. But I do not hold my life of any account, as dear to me; so that I may run out my race in Christ, and may do the work given me by the Lord Jesus, to preach the good news of God's grace. And now, I know that you all, among whom I went preaching the kingdom, shall see my face no more.

"Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock which the Holy Spirit has placed in your care, as shepherds to feed the church, which the Lord Jesus bought with his own blood. I know that after I go away, enemies, like savage wolves, shall come among you, not sparing the flock, and also among yourselves men shall rise up speaking false things and leading away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease warning you, night and day, with tears.

"And now, I leave you with God, and with the word of his grace. Which is able to build you up and to make you fit to dwell among his holy ones. I have not sought among you gold, or silver, or fine clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have worked for my own living, and to help those who were with me. I have tried to show you by my own life how that you should in the same way help those who are weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' "

When Paul had said this, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they all wept, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him; for they felt very sad at his words, that they should see his face no more. They went with him to the ship, and saw him sail away from them.

Paul and his company sailed among the islands and toward the land of Judea, and went ashore at Tyre. There they found disciples, and stayed with them a week. Some of these spoke to Paul in the Spirit of God, and told him not to go into Jerusalem. But Paul had set his face toward that city; and when he found a ship going from Tyre to Judea, all the disciples, with their wives and their children, went with him out of the city; and all knelt down together on the beach and prayed, before they parted from each other. Paul's party left the ship at a place called Ptolemais, from which they walked down the shore to Caesarea. This was the place where years before Peter had given the gospel to the Roman centurion Cornelius, as we read in Story Seven. And there Paul found Philip, the man who had preached to the Samaritans and to the nobleman from Ethiopia, of whom we read in Story Five. In those old days, Paul then Saul, had been Philip's enemy, and had driven him out of Jerusalem. Now they met as friends, and Paul stayed as a guest at Philip's house.

While they were at Caesarea, an old man named Agabus, came down from Jerusalem. He was a prophet, to whom God had shown some things that were to come to pass. We have read of a prophecy by this man before, in Story Nine. This man came to Paul, and took off Paul's girdle, and with it bound his own feet and hands, and he said:

"Thus saith the Spirit of God, 'So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owns this girdle, and shall give him into the hands of the Gentiles.' "

When they heard this, all Paul's friends, and Philip, and the disciples of Caesarea, pleaded with Paul and begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. But Paul answered:

"What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus!"

When they saw that Paul could not be moved from his purpose, they ceased trying to persuade him, saying, "The will of the Lord be done."

After some days in Caesarea, Paul and his friends, with some of the believers from Caesarea, went up the mountains to Jerusalem. So Paul was once more, and now for the last time, in the city of his people.