"Write your vision in a book, and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamum and Thyatira and Sardis and Philadelphia and Laodicea."
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed his call to go forth to a place which he would receive as an inheritance; he went forth, although he did not know where he was to go.
Now I would like you to know about the distress which befell me in Asia, brothers. I was crushed, crushed far more than I could stand, so much so that I despaired even of life;
Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock of which the holy Spirit has appointed you guardians; shepherd the church of the Lord which he has purchased with his own blood.
This was because Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, to avoid any loss of time in Asia; he wanted to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.
His company as far as Asia consisted of Sopater of Beroea (the son of Pyrrhus), Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timotheus, and Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia.
Some of those who belonged to the so-called synagogue of the Libyans, the Cyrenians, and the Alexandrians, as well as to that of the Cilicians and Asiatics, started a dispute with Stephen,