Adventures in Odyssey

Focus on the Family: Hi, this is Chris. We're just about to have a time of wonder, adventure, and excitement. Would you like to join us? Then get ready, because you never know what'll happen when you have an adventure in Odyssey.

Saul: At last, a victim.

Rodney: Hey, let me out of here! Open the door!

Saul: Do you hear his blasphemy?

Sam: If only Rodney had kept his mouth shut.

Rodney: I'll be Ricky Ricardo if you want!

Saul: Throw the stone!

Sam: It's the same old Imagination Station, isn't it, Jason?

Jason: Of course it is, Sam. Eugene and I have just made a few programming modifications, that's all. I think you'll really like them.

Sam: What kind of modifications?

Jason: Well, for one thing, when you go back for this adventure, you fit right in. You're a character in the adventure.

Sam: A character?

Jason: Uh-huh, and not a main character. I mean, after all, the purpose is still to experience history. But now, you'll experience it as someone who's supposed to be there.

Sam: I don't think I get it.

Jason: Well, for instance, this program's about the first-century church in Jerusalem.

Sam: Oh yeah, we're supposed to read about that in our Bible school class next Sunday.

Jason: Well, instead of going back as Sam Johnson, you'll go back as Samuel, a disciple in the church. Everyone will already know who you are and you'll know them, see?

Sam: Yeah, that's great!

Eugene: All right, where are you? I know you're here somewhere. Reveal yourself at once!

Jason: Eugene?

Eugene: Oh, pardon me, gentlemen. I didn't mean to interrupt, but did either of you see Rodney Rathbone run by here a few moments ago?

Jason: Rodney? No.

Sam: Why? What's he done now?

Eugene: Merely ruined an experiment upon which I've been laboring these past three weeks.

Jason: Oh no.

Eugene: Oh yes.

Sam: Sounds like Rodney all right.

Eugene: As will Rodney be once I locate him. Aha!

Sam: What?

Eugene: The Noah's Ark display. Tiny the elephant's trunk just moved. To borrow from the police vernacular, I think I have my man. If you'll pardon me.

Jason: So, what do you say, Sam? You want to try the program?

Sam: Yeah, sure. Great!

Saul: At last, a victim.

Sam: What?

Jason: Just kidding. Here, hop inside. You've got the partition up. Oh yeah, since you're the only one going back, I didn't think we'd need a two-seater. I can take it down if you want, give you room to stretch out.

Sam: No, that's okay.

Jason: Whatever you say. All set?

Sam: Uh-huh.

Jason: Okay, I'm going to close the door. Everything all right, Sam?

Sam: Yeah, only none of the buttons or levers work.

Jason: We disabled them while we were programming. I'll handle everything from the master control booth in the other room. Now sit tight and I'll have you on your way in just a minute, okay?

Sam: Okay.

Rodney: Pssst! Johnson!

Sam: Rodney!

Rodney: So this is where you were hiding. You've got to get out of here.

Sam: That's what I'm trying to do, but the door won't open.

Rodney: Try the handle.

Sam: It's stuck! Hey, what's that? What's going on?

Jason: We have ignition. Proceeding with countdown. Ten. Character assimilation online. Takeoff in five.

Rodney: Hey, let me out of here! Open the door!

Jason: Two, one.

Sam: Hang on!

Jason: System engaged!

Sam and Rodney: Whoa!

Guest (Male): Defending truth, justice, and lots more truth. It's Captain Absolutely, and now you can read the revised and expanded comic series with 20 pages of new storylines. Join Captain Absolutely as he battles Dr. Relative. Get your copy at adventuresinodyssey.com.

Guest (Male): And the word of God kept spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and miracles among the people. Character assimilation complete.

Sam and Rodney: Aah!

Sam: Where am I? Whoa! A camel!

Guest (Male): What are you doing in the middle of the road, temple guard? Get out of the way!

Sam: Yeah, yeah! Why don't you learn to drive that thing? This is weird. This is very weird. Why is everybody dressed in bedsheets? Wait a minute. How'd I get dressed like this?

Guest (Male): Food! They're giving out food again up the street!

Sam: Hey, wait a minute. Watch it now! Hey! Hey, wait a minute. Slow down! Whoa!

Stephen: Here you go. There's plenty to eat. There's food for everyone. Here, have some more.

Sam: Sam!

Rodney: Rodney! I was wondering if you were going to be here. Hey, cool uniform. What have you done to me, Johnson? Where am I?

Sam: You're in Jerusalem in the first century.

Rodney: What? I don't believe it.

Sam: Take a look around.

Rodney: But how'd I get here?

Sam: In the Imagination Station.

Rodney: Imagination Station? That thing I got in back at Whit's End?

Sam: Yeah.

Rodney: So now I'm here with you?

Sam: Uh-huh. And you're also not hiding from Eugene anymore.

Rodney: Ha, ha, very funny. Hey! Now tell me how to get back before I knock the funny right out of you!

Barnabas: Samuel!

Stephen: Stephen, Barnabas!

Barnabas: Is everything all right?

Sam: Yeah, this is...

Barnabas: A temple guard, we know. That is why we came over.

Stephen: Wait, I've seen you at the synagogue. You are Ruben.

Rodney: Ruben?

Stephen: Yes, Ruben. Welcome, Ruben.

Barnabas: Welcome! Have you come to join us? Are you a believer?

Rodney: Believer? Believer in what?

Stephen: The Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rodney: Oh no, not here too. It's bad enough that I've got to put up with that stuff in Odyssey.

Barnabas: Odyssey? You are Greek.

Rodney: No, I ain't Greek! I ain't a believer! And I don't want to hear nothing about Jesus, all right? I just want to go home. And you'd better show me how to because keeping me here is against the law!

Sam: Rod... Ruben, calm down.

Rodney: It's against the law, you hear? Against the law!

Saul: He is right, Stephen. What you are doing is against the law.

Rodney: Yeah, see?

Stephen: Is it against the law to feed the poor and heal the sick? To spread the light of truth among the people?

Saul: People of Israel, listen to me! Do not be so easily persuaded. Do not follow your stomachs, but your heads and your hearts. What this man and others like him teach goes against who and what we are, against the law of Moses and God!

Stephen: I respect the law of Moses, but one who is greater than Moses has come.

Saul: Greater than Moses? You would place this Nazarene, this Jesus, above the law of God?

Stephen: He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God!

Saul: Blasphemy! Do you hear his blasphemy? Speaking against Moses and the law, claiming Jesus is greater than Moses.

Rodney: Yeah, and keeping me here against my will!

Sam: Rodney, be quiet!

Guest (Male): But he has healed us and fed us!

Saul: Yes, with the food of a blasphemer! Condemned food, prepared with idolatrous hands! Will you continue to eat it?

Stephen: People of Israel, could the great signs and wonders you have seen come from anyone other than God?

Saul: The law states, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." He performs these signs and wonders in the name of Jesus. Will you bring down the wrath of the Lord Jehovah upon yourselves? Will you rid yourselves of this blasphemer and take him to the ruling council?

Rodney: Yeah, take him away! Take him away!

Sam: No, let him go! Barnabas, stay back.

Sam: But Stephen didn't do anything. We just can't let them take him.

Barnabas: We cannot stop them. Come, we must tell Peter and the brethren.

Sam: But...

Barnabas: Come!

Rodney: Ha, ha! That was great. I'm starting to like it here, Sammy. Sam? Hey Sam, where'd you go?

Saul: He went with the other one, Barnabas.

Rodney: Without me? That little twirp. He knows I don't know my way around here.

Saul: Do not fear. We will find him.

Rodney: Then let's go!

Saul: In time. First, you must come back to the council.

Rodney: What? Why?

Saul: You're a temple guard and a witness. You must give testimony against Stephen.

Rodney: Testimony? You mean in a court? I don't know.

Saul: There is a reward.

Rodney: Reward?

Saul: 50 denarii.

Rodney: Is that money?

Saul: It is 50 days' wages.

Rodney: No kidding. This place is getting better all the time.

Saul: Then we're agreed, Ruben?

Rodney: For 50 days' wages, I'll be Ricky Ricardo if you want.

Saul: Then let us go.

Rodney: Hey, what's your name?

Saul: I am Saul from Tarsus.

Rodney: Well, Saul from Tarsus, take me to the council.

Sam: Then they dragged him off to face the Sanhedrin, Peter.

Peter: Barnabas, who was that?

Barnabas: Men from the Synagogue of the Freedmen, the ones Stephen has reasoned with in the temple. I also saw men from Cyrene, Alexandria, and Cilicia, and that man from Tarsus, Saul. He was the most forceful.

Sam: Will Stephen be all right?

Barnabas: I do not know, Samuel. But surely they can do no more to him than they did to you and John—flog him and let him go. Rome has taken away their power to sentence people to death.

Peter: True. But do you really think an appeal to Rome will help us? We are not citizens. We are subjects. A nuisance. Rome will not interfere so long as we are kept in line. And if some of us die in the process, well...

Sam: If only Rodney had kept his mouth shut.

Peter: Rodney?

Sam: I mean Ruben, a temple guard. He sort of started this whole thing.

Peter: No. There is a greater power at work here. It is the hand of Jesus.

Barnabas: Peter, have you received a prophecy about this?

Peter: No. It is just a feeling. I believe the Lord Jesus is controlling this and will use it to spread his word in ways we cannot even begin to imagine.

Sam: Isn't there anything we can do?

Peter: Oh yes. We can do the very best thing. We can pray.

Saul: Did you hear the man Stephen make blasphemous statements against Moses and against God?

Rodney: Yes, I did.

Saul: Is there anything else?

Rodney: Oh, right. Yeah. I heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the temple and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.

Saul: Lord High Priest, Stephen's speeches have been one long attack against this holy land, this holy place, and the law of God.

High Priest: Stephen, you have heard the charges against you. Are they true?

Stephen: My brothers, you say that I have attacked this holy land. But Judea is not the only place the Lord God has chosen to reveal himself to his people. He also spoke to Abraham in Mesopotamia and to Moses in Egypt.

You say I have desecrated the temple, but the Most High does not live in man-made houses. The prophet wrote, "Heaven is my throne and the earth a footstool for my feet. What manner of house will you build me?" says the Lord.

Saul: You do not need to quote the prophets to this council. We are well aware of what they said and have written.

Stephen: You are aware, but you do not listen. You're a stubborn, stiff-necked people, heathen in your thinking, heathen in the way you're listening to me now. It's always the same. You never fail to resist the Holy Spirit.

Saul: You dare to accuse this council?

Stephen: Can you name a single prophet your fathers did not persecute? They killed the men who foretold the coming of the Messiah, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the men who have received the law of God by the hand of angels, and you are the men who have failed to keep it.

Saul: Silence! You will be silenced! We will hear no more. Your guilt is obvious.

Stephen: The heavens are opened. I can see the Son of Man standing at God's right hand.

Saul: Silence! Blasphemy! What's going on? What's happening? His blasphemy has gone too far. The law is clear. He must be taken outside the city and stoned.

Rodney: Stoned? You mean like with rocks?

Saul: Yes. Come. Throw him into the stone pit! Remove your cloaks. Lay them here at my feet. And now, Ruben. It is up to you.

Rodney: What? What are you talking about?

Saul: As chief witness, you must throw the first stone.

Rodney: Me? Why me?

Saul: It is the law.

Rodney: I don't want to.

Saul: Will you go against the law? Or perhaps you are a sympathizer with Stephen?

Rodney: No!

Saul: Then throw it! Throw the stone!

Rodney: All right, all right, all right! There! Are you happy?

Saul: You missed. No matter. Stone the prisoner! Stone him!

Timon: Peter! Barnabas!

Barnabas: Timon, you bring us news from the trial?

Timon: Yes. Stephen... Stephen...

Barnabas: Hold yourself, Timon. Tell us what has happened.

Timon: Stephen is dead.

Sam: Dead? But how?

Timon: The man Saul brought false witnesses against him. The temple guard, Ruben, for one.

Sam: Ruben. Rodney.

Timon: As Stephen gave his defense, the council became an enraged mob. They grabbed him and dragged him from the temple and out of the city where they stoned him. As the rocks came down, he cried out in a loud voice, "Jesus, receive my spirit!"

This angered the mob even more and they rained down stones upon him. But Stephen looked up to heaven. His face was like an angel. And he said, "Lord, forgive them for this sin." And then, he fell asleep.

Peter: Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into thy rest.

Barnabas: But how could the council do this thing? They have no authority.

Peter: They are a mob. They do not need authority.

Timon: There is more. When the stoning was complete, Saul yelled out to the mob a vow to destroy us. He is leading them on a house-to-house search for believers. They are dragging men and women out of their homes and throwing them in prison, and the council is condemning them to death.

Barnabas: They cannot do this without trials and appeals.

Peter: They are doing it. Yes, yes, of course. Jesus warned us of this at our last supper together. He said, "If the world persecutes me, they will persecute you. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you on my account."

Timon: We cannot stay in the city. They will be here soon. We must leave.

Peter: Yes, and quickly. Go.

Sam: Go where?

Peter: We will go to Damascus. There are many brothers there. We can stay with Ananias. And you'll go with us, of course, Peter?

Peter: No. The other apostles and I must stay here.

Sam: Stay? But they'll come and get you.

Peter: We have been charged by Jesus not to leave Jerusalem. Our ministry is here. But the word must spread. That is your ministry. Go. Take the gospel to other cities and towns.

And as you do, remember the words of our Lord: "In the world, you will have many trials and sorrows. But be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world."

Focus on the Family: Want to contact us about the episode you're hearing? Visit our website at adventuresinodyssey.com or talk to someone at Focus on the Family. Call 1-800-A-FAMILY, with a parent's permission, of course. We always love hearing from you.

Rodney: Hey Saul, what's the name of this place we're going to again?

Saul: Damascus.

Rodney: Oh yeah. And how much further is it?

Saul: We'll be there within the hour. Why?

Rodney: Oh, some of the other temple guards were wondering if we could, you know, stop.

Saul: The other temple guards, eh?

Rodney: Well, me too. I mean, it's hot.

Saul: We are in the desert at noon. What did you expect?

Rodney: I don't know. Hot, I guess. So can we stop or what?

Saul: We will continue on. You can stop when we arrive at Judas' house in the city.

Rodney: Oh man. I had a feeling this wasn't going to be as much fun as Jerusalem.

Saul: Fun? You thought Jerusalem was fun?

Rodney: Yeah. Didn't you?

Saul: No. Breaking up homes and throwing people into prison is not fun.

Rodney: Well then, why'd you do it?

Saul: You have been with me this long and still you do not know? The law demanded it. Those who pervert the law must be done away with.

Rodney: What about the Romans around here? They don't follow the law.

Saul: No, and I pray one day we will be out from under their scourge. But Rome only holds the land, does not attack our synagogues or our beliefs. Those who follow Jesus do, and that is why their movement must be driven off or destroyed.

Rodney: Yeah, yeah. Which is why we're going to... what's the name of this town again?

Saul: For the last time, the city is called... aah!

Rodney: Aah! The sun! It's blinding me!

Saul: It is not the sun. It is a light from heaven. On your knees! Saul! Saul! Do you hear that? A voice calling my name.

Rodney: Voice? I don't hear no voice, just a noise! Aah!

Guest (Male): Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Saul: Who are you, Lord?

Guest (Male): I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Now arise and go into the city. There you will be told what you must do.

Rodney: They're gone. The light and the noise are gone. Saul, are you all right? You still hear a voice?

Saul: No. He too has gone.

Rodney: He? He who?

Saul: Jesus.

Rodney: What?

Saul: He spoke to me, told me to go into the city. Give me your hand. You will have to lead me there.

Rodney: Lead you? Why?

Saul: I am blind.

Sam: I don't know if I've ever said it, but thanks for letting us stay here at your house, Ananias.

Ananias: You are welcome, Brother Samuel.

Barnabas: I regret we didn't come under better circumstances, my friend.

Ananias: It is all right, Barnabas. You are still thinking about Stephen?

Barnabas: Yes. I am sorry, my friend. I know how close you were.

Ananias: He was a holy man, powerful in the spirit. Our Lord told us to love our enemies, but I must confess, at times it is difficult not to hate.

Barnabas: Perhaps we should follow the rest of his words and pray for those who persecute us.

Ananias: Yes, yes. We need you, Barnabas. Damascus has many believers, but we need your leadership to spread the gospel and build the church.

Sam: Hopefully Saul won't follow us here. The last thing we heard before leaving was that the Sanhedrin had given him authority to arrest believers anywhere he found them.

Barnabas: If he comes, we shall pray all the more fervently. But I think Damascus is too far from Jerusalem to be within his... Lord?

Sam: Lord? No, it's me, Samuel.

Barnabas: Ananias, is everything all right?

Ananias: I am here, Lord.

Sam: What's the matter with you?

Barnabas: No, do not touch him. He is having a vision. Saul? Saul? Lord, I have heard from many about this man and how much harm he has done to your people in Jerusalem. Even now, he holds powers from the chief priests to arrest all who call upon your name. Yes, Lord.

Sam: Ananias!

Barnabas: Catch him. Easy, my friend.

Ananias: Thank you. I am all right. The Lord has spoken to me.

Sam: What did he say?

Ananias: He wants me to...

Barnabas: What is it, Ananias? What did he tell you?

Ananias: I am to go to the persecutor. He wants me to go to Saul.

Focus on the Family: Sounds like Ananias may be in for a rough time. If you want to find out what happens to him, there are two ways to do it: read Acts chapter 9 and keep listening.

Meanwhile, if you were in Ananias's place, what would you do? Would you face your most hated enemy, or would you keep safe and stay away from him? Write to me and let me know, okay? The address is Adventures in Odyssey, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80995.

Or in Canada, write to Box 9800, Vancouver, BC, V6B 4G3. And when you do, ask about how you can get your own copy of today's episode. It's called "Saint Paul: The Man from Tarsus."

That address again is Adventures in Odyssey, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80995. Adventures in Odyssey is a presentation of Focus on the Family. "Saint Paul: The Man from Tarsus" was written and directed by Phil Lollar.

Our production engineer was Bob Luttrell, with music by John Campbell. Our executive producer is Chuck Bolte and I'm Chris, hoping you'll join us again next time for more Adventures in Odyssey.