Pauls Missionary Journeys - Essay Example

According to the Acts, the Holy Spirit directed the Antioch Church to send out a missionary team, comprising of Barnabas and Paul (Act 13: 1-3) to preach the Gospel to the Jewish community and the Gentiles.    

The First Journey

It was around the 48AD that Paul and Barnabas led a commission from Antioch, Seleucia, and traveled to the island of Cypress (Calmet 1832, p731). The group made various stops along the way in villages and settlements to preach the Gospel. As indicated in the map (Fig 1), the team made the way through Salomis and traveled through the area of Paphos. It was here that they met the Jewish sorcerer and false prophet with the name of Bar-Jesus. He was an attendant to the Gover Sergius Paulus. Paulus was an intelligent logical man and was interested in seeking the truth. When he summoned for Barnabas and Saul, Elymas the sorcerer intercepted and tried to steer Paulus away from them. Paul, with the power of the Holy Spirit, unveiled the truth about Elymas’s deceit and lies and stated that he would turn blind because of them. Paulus, hence, converted to Christianity.

From Paphos and Cypress, the mission continued onwards to Perga in Pamphylia. This is where John left them to head for Jerusalem. Preaching and spreading the message of God, the mission traveled to the city of Antioch of Pisidia and covered the towns of Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, further East (Acts 13:13-14:20). In Iconium, Paul went to the Jewish synagogue to an assembly of Jews and Gentiles and was so articulate in a speech that a great many of the listeners converted; however, the Jews were specifically hostile and the evangelical strategy to preach in synagogues proved to be more cumbersome. Along the way, Paul and Barnabas faced life threats and stoning was confused as the human form of God and had to persistently explain their message to people. They moved on towards the Lycaonian towns of Lystra and Derbe, going to the homes and meeting places of the Jews and Gentiles. Taking the route along Attalia, the mission made its way back to Antioch of Syria. (Act 14) This journey was especially successful for gentiles and marked the time when ethnic and religious differences began to manifest between the Jewish and the Gentiles within the Church.

Figure 1: Paul's First & Second Missionary Journeys, Source: Biblical Foundations for Freedom

The Second Journey

In the 51AD, Paul suggested to Barnabas to revisit the areas that they had visited earlier for evangelism. A disagreement between the two ensued when the decision as to whether John, who had previously abandoned the duo’s mission at Prega, should be allowed to travel with them. Following the rift, Paul proceeded to take Silas on the second missionary journey, while Barnabas went on to Cypress.

As can be seen in the map (Fig 1), Paul traveled to Tarsus, Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch, all the way strengthening the Church's message. At Lystra, a devout disciple called Timothy joined the mission. Through the regions of Phrygia and Galatia, they traveled and delivered the decisions by the apostles in Jerusalem and instructed the people that they must obey. When they were at Troas, Paul had a vision at night that a man called him to Macedonia. Taking it as an omen, the mission took the route to Macedonia (Act 16: 9-10). Sailing through Samothrace into Neapolis, the mission traveled on to Phillipi, Thessalonica - the capital of the district of Macedonia and Berea. During their stays, Paul and his team faced many hardships, including being thrown into prison and getting severely flogged but they continued the work of Jesus. They made churches for the peoples of faith wherever they could but at Berea, they faced a lot of resistance from the Jewish synagogue.

From Berea, Paul took the mission south to Athens, Greece, the center of Western Society intellect, and then to Corinth, a major seaport and presumably the capital of Achaia. He was joined later by Silas and Timothy from Macedonia. Here Paul is supposed to have written the 1 and 2 Thessalonians and continued writing more letters. They reportedly spent 18 months in the city of Corinth, before journeying back.

The Third Journey

On the third trip, Paul was dispatched by Antioch to Ephesus. (Acts 19:1).  Ephesus was deemed to be the fourth largest city in the empire, along with being the center of trade and politics, and had a huge population of Greeks and Jews. It also hosted the pilgrimage of umpteen pilgrims to the Temple of Artemis and thus was central to paganism as well. Paul spent all his time there for the next couple of years and in 57AD wrote 1 Corinthians and evangelized neighboring cities of Smyrna, Sardis, and Laodicea. Here too he faced threats and hardships from the locals and pagan worshippers. Upon leaving Ephesus, Paul traveled to Miletus and Philippi where he presumably wrote II Corinthians. From there he traveled to Corinth and then back. It was around 58AD when he traveled again with the intent of going to Jerusalem by Pentecost.