Bible Study: August 4, 2021

Okay, we will begin tonight in Acts 12. And as we do that, let me just remind you a little bit of where we were in Acts 11 last week, just to bring us up to speed and remind us of the flow of the story that we have, the accounts here in Acts of the New Testament Church. And as God opens his calling to the Gentile areas, you remember in chapter 11, we had Paul and the Jewish Christians learn a big lesson that God was calling Gentiles as well.

And they had a lot that they had to unlearn, a lot of attitudes that they were going to have to look at in themselves as they realized that God was going to be calling Gentiles. And these people that they used to look down on and think as inferior to themselves, they had to understand, no, God created all men to be called. Jesus Christ died for all mankind to have the opportunity of salvation. So as they come to that realization, as we came to the end of chapter 11, you'll recall that there was famines that were being predicted by a prophet who came to Jerusalem by the name of Agabus, the famine that was coming. And in response to that, the Gentile churches and the Christians in those areas determined to take up a collection for the people in Judea to go down there and to be taken down there to relieve that famine. It had to be a little bit of an eye-opener for the people in Judea to realize that the people they so looked down on before was now part of their family. They were actually sending aid to them to help them through a difficult time. But a very good example for them to see how God binds us together and to develop that agape love that he wants us all to have as it was beginning to be shown as people were called, people responded to God's call, received his Holy Spirit, and began to feel that oneness, that oneness and brotherhood that he wanted them to feel. So as we came to the end of chapter 11, you know, Barnabas and Saul were on their way to Jerusalem to take this collection, if you will, to Judea. When we enter chapter 12, we learn more, or we go back to the story of Peter in Jerusalem a little bit. And chapter 12 will mark an end of part, kind of an end, if you will, in the book of Acts, because when we're done with chapter 12, the story is going to shift more to Paul and the conversion of the Gentile churches. But in chapter 12, we're going to see, you know, some dramatic things that happened to Peter and in Judea, kind of a harbinger to us of how quickly things can change and what the power of government is, and the power of people in government, and their preference, if you will, if we're doing or people are doing what they don't like to hear. Let's pick it up in chapter 12 and verse 1. Barnabas and Saul, and this is in the, I think the time frame here we talked last week was in the 47 to 49 A.D. era.

Now we'll see that later as we look at Paul's missionary journey and the times that they, the scholars say that this took place. But we're here about 17 years, 15, 16, 17 years after that, they have Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was first given to the church. So chapter 12, verse 1, it was about that time it says, the heir of the king stretched out his hand to harass some of the church, or harass some from the church. And the church in Jerusalem, you know, it has been persecuted before at the time of Stephen's death. There was a time of peace where the church would grow, but now Herod decides he's going to harass some from the church. We're going to see in verse 3 exactly why he does this. In verse 2, he does something dramatic. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. Doesn't tell us why, doesn't give us any of the events or any of the conversation or whatever that led up to the martyrdom of James. But here we have Herod the king deciding to kill one of the apostles. Had to take the church by surprise, you know, in a way to see this happen. Had to be alarming to them to see that God would allow, you know, the apostle James, the brother of John, to be killed just at the whim of the king, it appears. Sure, he did not break any law. You know, we learn from Roman times and things that we begin to see in our lifetimes now that, you know, while laws are on the books, and while there are many things that are written, people that are in power, you know, can pretty much do what they want. And that's what happens here with James and Herod. The king wanted him dead, and the king had a reason that he wanted him dead. We learned that in verse 3. Here it says, because Herod did it because he saw that it pleased the Jews. So here, you know, here we go again. Now we don't know. We don't know if Herod was having a problem with the Jews, if he wanted to have peace with them, if they were maybe visiting him all the time, complaining about these Christians who were, you know, there in Jerusalem wanting him to do something. They were a powerful group, and the kings and the, you know, the curators of Judea, you know, they just wanted to keep peace. They didn't want a lot of problems. They didn't want to deal with a lot of things that were going on. So Herod decided, you know what, if it pleased the Jews, fine, let's go ahead and kill James. Maybe that will calm them down a little bit.

It could well be that what it did was whet the Jews appetite. You know, if he was willing to kill James, perhaps we can have Peter dispose of Peter as well. He's the outspoken, out-front apostle, if you will. So in verse 3, you know, he says, because Herod saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread.

Now you notice the word during there is in italics, and if you look at the original translation, it just says now it was the days of Unleavened Bread. Could have been during the days of Unleavened Bread, could have been in the season of Unleavened Bread. You know, sometimes as we approach Passover the days of Unleavened Bread, it's the season that we're in, and we know the days of Unleavened Bread are coming up. Whatever it is, it's in that season, the springtime of the year. It might be, and this is me just speculating a bit, that Herod, you know, wanting to win the favor of the Jews, looked back to 15, 16, 17 years ago when Pilate, Pilate, you know, wanted to calm down the Jews.

He wanted peace, and he offered Christ to them. You know, he could find no fault in Christ. He wanted to release them, but he wanted, you know, but he offered the Jews. Remember, he said, I'll give you Christ, I'll release him to you, or you can have Barabbas the murderer. And they chose Barabbas. And Pilate yielded to the crowd. He yielded to what the mob wanted, and he had Christ scourged and put to death. And here's Herod, who may be planning the same thing as we look at the days of Unleavened Bread, or a specific time here in this holy day season, the spring holy day season, to do the same thing again. So he seizes Peter. It was in the days of Unleavened Bread. In verse 4, it says, and when he arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him intending to bring him before the people after Passover. So that gives us the clue that it's like, okay, I'm going to offer you Peter, I'll offer you him. It will, if that, you know, that will satisfy you, or you'll have a choice, or whatever it is he's going to do. He wanted Peter, and we learn in verse 4 to just what extent Herod was willing to go to make sure that Peter wasn't going to escape by any means. Now, perhaps, and maybe it's a little more than perhaps, Herod, who was well aware of what was going on with the Jews, the Jews who weren't Christians, were well aware of what went on with these Christians, and there were things that they couldn't explain that happened with the Christians, and they likely thought back to what we talked about in Acts 5 when the Sanhedrin, if you recall, they threw Peter and the apostles into jail, and during the night, God miraculously delivered them. The guards, no one knew they had even left the prison, but then in the morning when they went to get them, there was Peter and the apostles out preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ on the street. They could never, you know, the Sanhedrin couldn't understand it. They knew, they had to know that was of God, that deliverance of Peter and the apostles, but they denied it, they rejected it, and probably Herod heard the same thing. Perhaps the Jews even let him know, you know, back whenever there was an escape, we still don't understand how Peter and his comrades were released from prison, but make sure they can't get away.

And so Herod goes to extremes here to see that Peter cannot, to see that Peter isn't going to escape. When it says there were four, you know, four squads of soldiers, that's 16, you know, according to the commentaries, that would have been like 16 soldiers, you know, four, four at least around the clock watching over Peter. And there's more than that, right? So it's like, there was not going to be any chance of collusion here. There wasn't going to be anyone, you know, doing something to allow Peter to escape or whatever. Herod was going to make sure this guy who had committed no crimes, the only crime that he had committed in Herod's eyes was he was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which the Jews did not want to hear. That's the reason Peter is in maximum security and in prison, waiting to be presented to the people and maybe sacrificed to them the next day.

So we have this extreme, you know, this extreme protection around Peter. In verse 5 it tells us, Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the Church.

So the Church there understood they were under attack again. They were under persecution again.

Herod was siding with the Jews. He was trying to win their favor. They were the enemies. They were the enemies and Herod was willing to do whatever he needed to do in order to to satisfy them.

So the Church, just as we would today, they were praying for Peter. You know, just as we would send prayer requests out like we do today if someone is sick or if there was a time in the future when someone is in prison because all they did was preach the gospel or tell the truth. You know, didn't break any laws, didn't do anything wrong, didn't, no reason for prison except that the powers that be just didn't like what he was saying, didn't like the message that he was giving, it was upsetting people and put him in prison. The Church would pray. We do the same thing today.

So, you know, we're praying for those that we've mentioned before the Bible study started that are sick, that are ill, you know, that that we've recently heard about as well and others that we know of. That's what the Church was doing. They were praying for Peter and praying for God's will to be done. Now the Church would have also remembered that event in Acts 5 that God miraculously delivered. God miraculously delivered Peter and the apostles before. So they had some, as they prayed, they had some, I don't want to say real, but it was real, real faith. They knew that God could and had delivered Peter in the most unlikely of circumstances before. And even though they may have known just what the maximum security was there that was around Peter, they knew that God can do the impossible. He is not limited by any amount of security, any type of things that man can do. God can do it all. Indeed, God was going to show them again. Faith in him, faith in him is what it takes. Things that we can't imagine God can deliver from, and he's about to do that with Peter here. So we're in verse 6. Acts 12, and when Herod was about to bring him out, okay, so very next morning, it was when Herod had planned to parade Peter out before the people, you know, when Herod was about to bring him out that night, Peter was sleeping. And again, besides these four squadrons of soldiers that are there guarding the prison, look at what Peter had done. A man who had broken no laws but just was in prison because of what they didn't like what he was saying, Peter was sleeping bound with two chains between two soldiers, and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. So when you look at the entire situation for Peter, it's hopeless. I mean, if he had any thought that he could break out of prison, talk to anyone, and talk them into letting him go, or anything, there was no human way Peter was going to escape prison. It was this was maximum security to the nth degree. But the phrase that's interesting, you know, to me, and in verse 6, is that Peter was sleeping. Peter was sleeping. Now if it was you or me, knowing that I, you know, we were in prison, knowing that James had already been killed, simply to please the Jews, knowing the history of what, you know, the the the tetrarchs, the curators of Judea would do, knowing the Jews wanted me dead, and knowing I was going to be presented the next day before the people, for whatever intention there was, and I'm sure Peter knew exactly what the intention was, I might not be sleeping so well that night. I might be quite stressed over what was going to happen the next day. I might find myself, like Jesus Christ was, you know, just praying to God, you know, and whatever. Not that Jesus Christ didn't trust in God or anything, but Peter was sleeping. Tells us that Peter was perfectly at peace what was going on. He had a trust and a faith in God that transcended the most stressful situations that we can imagine.

He had seen God's hands and deliverance before. He had faith in God. I mean, Peter had, you know, healed the sick as God gave him the power to do that. Peter, you know, had, you know, even resurrected, you know, brought people back to someone back to life. He had absolute faith in God and trust in him, and he wasn't worried. He believed that whatever God's will was, that was the right thing for him. No one was going to fool God, and if it was his time to die, I think that Peter had complete comfort in the fact that he knew he would live again, that he would die, and the very next moment of his consciousness, eternity would begin, and he would be resurrected to eternal life. Mr. Shabib? Yes, sir. Yeah, I think that translated into Peter's epistles, you know, don't worry about the fiery trial that's going to be set to, he'd been through it, so he really encouraged others who would face the same things.

Yes, yeah, very good. You know, often in the epistles, you know, good point, they always see, we see some of the things that they later wrote, and you can look back at this and say, yes, yeah, he, you know, Peter had complete faith. It's something for us, you know, to contemplate and to be working on, that we would have the complete faith and trust in God, you know, certainly between now and the return of Jesus Christ. There may be occasions that we will, we will have that, have to have that, that faith in God as well, and just be comfortable with whatever his will is. It's okay, but that we would not turn against him, and if it's God's will to deliver us, that's fine. It's God's will for us to die at that point. It's fine, and to be comfortable with the fact that whatever his will is, we're okay. We're okay with, you know. Mr. Shabib? Yes, yeah, Dave. Oh, I was going to say, to me, it reminded me of the incident, the when Christ was asleep on the boat, and the waves were all around, you know, the rough and everything was going on, and they were like, what are you doing sleeping? How can you sleep at a time like this? You know, and he's like, well, you know, he wasn't worried about it, and it seems like to me it shows how Peter learned that lesson with that confidence of seeing and learning that faith, because here it is these years later, this time later, and here now he is, he's able to sleep, like you said, and I think that shows how far he came faith-wise. Yeah, very good. Yeah, I think you're right. I think Peter thought back to those things and thought the storms are raging all around me, but you know what? I'm at peace because God is in charge, and I know God is right here. God is right here with me. Very good.

You know, the faith, and then we can look back at faith. I mean, Peter's in a perilous position here, so were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, right? So were Daniel. So were some other people who were facing death, and you don't see them panicking. You don't see them scurrying around, seeing what they can do to get themselves out of a situation. They are just perfectly at peace, but they have complete faith and trust in God. You know, Jesus Christ said back in Matthew 11 about casting your cares on him, and he will give you rest, and I think this is where this is what Peter did. This is in your hands. You know what's going on. I'm just going to rest.

Okay, so, you know, as we go through this, kind of picture yourself in Peter's situation here.

He's asleep, and then in the next verse here, we see that, you know, this angel is going to appear.

Now, Peter is sound asleep, right? He's not just kind of dozing and in and out like, you know, we might be sometimes. Verse 7 here, it says, Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison, and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Arise quickly, and his chains fell off his hands. So, here we have Peter, you know, he's asleep.

Now, we've probably all been to this situation where sound is asleep. Someone comes in, whether it's one of our children, and all of a sudden, someone waking you up, right? You're kind of in the daze as you wake up because you've been sound asleep, and your head is kind of foggy, and whatever. But here's Peter. He's sound asleep. The angel comes in. He, you know, I mean, strike.

I don't know that he struck him. He probably just, you know, just kind of like, wake up, Peter, wake up, Peter. And Peter is kind of like waking up out of a deep sleep, knows that something is going on. It's interesting that, you know, God includes in this account here that there was a bright light, you know, a light that shone with the angel that was here. And, you know, angel comes from the same word of messenger, but I think we can all agree in this case it was an angel. It wasn't some another messenger that found this way into the prison. This was an angel that God sent, you know, a spirit being here that came in that was going to, you know, enable Peter to escape.

But the angel comes in, and the light shone in the prison. Now the guards, those who are sitting right next to him, remember Peter is in chains, he's got a guard on each side of him, really they saw nothing, right? They saw nothing as this was happening, but this light showed. Now it's interesting when you see these things and these little phrases to go back in and contemplate them a little time, a little bit, and I'll go to, you know, some commentaries and just see what they have to say, to see what insight there might be. Why, you know, why would God include that? And I don't know why he included it, there's something we would learn, but Peter, you know, maybe as he saw that light, the commentaries suggest, he knew it was of God, because an angel of God would appear in light.

And that may well be the case. Light, you know, Jesus Christ brings light to the world when Paul was, when Paul was stopped on the road to Damascus, there was a bright light that was shown around him.

Here it is as well. And so we could always think that there was a bright light, if it's a light, you know, an angel of light, it is of God. But, you know, if we keep your finger there in Acts 12 and move over to 2 Corinthians, we see that not all angels of light are necessarily of God.

Fall here recounts this in 2 Corinthians 11. We'll pick up in verse 13.

And he's talking about false prophets. He says, such are false prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. They look like apostles, they talk like apostles, they seem to have the truth. In verse 14 he says, and no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. So sometimes when there's an angel of light and something sounds so right and someone sounds so good, you know, you and I, we need to be very aware of what God's word says. We need to understand it implicitly. We have to be growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. We have to be grounded in his word so that no matter how sweet and how light the word sounds, we have to know that it's the word of God. Right? We talked about a couple of Sabbaths ago when we did the Zoom Sabbath, you know, about knowing God. That's only Jesus Christ who leads us to our great shepherd, who leads us to green pasture, who leads us into the still, you know, beside the still waters. We have to know who our shepherd is. We need to know his voice and not be fooled by the voices of men. You know, follow those who have the voice of Jesus Christ. That is, they're grounded in the Bible. You know, Paul would have told the people over and over again, believe the scriptures, you know, in the church. Mr. Armstrong, for those of you know who he is, he would say over and over, don't believe me, believe the scriptures. We would all say that today. Believe the scriptures, but we need to know the scriptures, so we're not fooled because Satan will do anything he can. If he can just get us to leave, get off on a little twig here, doubt, compromise, think that we know more than God, put ourselves above even what, you know, the word of God says, and we're some special case where God is working with. We can be fooled, and all Satan wants is for us to depart from God even just a little bit, even just a little bit. So, oh, and you know, oh, you're in 2 Corinthians, I turned back, but go to Galatians, Galatians 1, in verse 8, mentioned what Paul had said. He says that here in Galatians 1.8, you know, 2 Corinthians 11.14, Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of life. He looks the part. Verse 8 of Galatians 1 says, but even if we, Paul is talking of himself, right, or the people who accompany him, but even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Know the Bible. Know what has been preached. If I come to you a year later and say, well, you know what, that's not true. We don't have to do that. God's okay if we lighten up in this area or we do this or that or whatever. Know the truth and stick with it. God doesn't change his plan. God doesn't change his principles of life. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Know the Bible and follow it. And those that would, you know, those that God would have lead you that should be absolutely following God's lead in anything that they that they preach and it should be based in the Bible.

Okay. Again, if you have any comments anywhere along the line, you can tune in. But let's go back to Acts 12, then.

So we have Peter. Okay, we're in here and here's Peter, you know, arise quickly, verse 7.

And as Peter's kind of waking up out of a deep sleep, the chains literally fall off of his hands.

Remember, this is all happening with two guards, two guards, you know, one on each side of him.

Chains on both hands, the chains just fall off. And verse 8 says, and the angel said to him, Gird yourself, tie on your sandals, and so he did. And he said to him, Put on your garment and follow me.

Peter is in, Peter is in the mode of, he's just learning to follow. He learns to obey. He knows at some level that this is of God. He's still not fully awake, still not fully cognizant of what's going on, but he's obeying. And he's not saying, Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. This doesn't make sense. Do you want me? I mean, can we wait? Can I, you know, do this or that or whatever? Put on your garment and follow me. It reminds us of the times of then when when Jesus Christ talks about the end time in Matthew 24, he says, You know, when you're told it's time to go, don't go back into your house and say, I got to pack this, I need a suitcase or this whatever, just go.

Just go. Be in the habit of listening to God and ready to go when he says. And Peter does this.

He's just following instructions that the angel gives him here. Put on your garment and follow me.

So verse nine, he went out and he followed him and didn't know, didn't know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. As we can imagine, you know, you and I would probably be the same way, just kind of like, okay, I'm just kind of following you here. These things are happening. You know, as I'm waking up, did I really just did that really just happen? Did I really just walk out of prison? Did I just did we really just leave these guards behind that when I fell asleep, I was literally changed to them. First time when they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate, at least the city, which opened to them of its own accord. Didn't have to push any button, didn't have to find the key to unlock it. It just sort of wide open, you know, for them to walk through, which opened to them of its own accord. They went out, they went down one street, and then immediately the angel departed from them.

Miraculously, Peter finds himself completely delivered from prison. No human explanation.

Absolutely no one on earth would ever believe that this, you know, that this could have happened, that that someone could escape from that prison that's here and has so thoroughly, had so thoroughly guarded. Again, it's a lesson to us. And as I was, you know, going through this and looking at the magnitude of it, you know, sometimes I will tell God how, you know, it would have been so nice to be able to walk with Jesus Christ when he was on earth, to see what he did, to see his manner, to see his method, to learn from him, to be able to say, you're not looking at this right, your attitude's awful over here, you need to change this, you need to change that. And seeing the miracles, seeing him heal people, seeing demons cast out, seeing the miracles he did, how could you not develop some complete and total faith in God because you see it happening?

And so the apostles, absolutely, they believed in God. But you know, it struck me as I read this, we have the same opportunity, we have the Word of God, we know this is true. And as we look at these miracles that happened, the same God who did this back then can do it today. He hasn't done it, he can. And when the time is right, he can. And we should never doubt that God can heal, that God does heal, we should never doubt that God can deliver. The Israelites, if you look back at Egypt, you know, they had their backs up against the Red Sea. There wasn't a living one among them, at that point they could say, they just thought they were done, man, that they, you know, their backs are up the Red Sea, Pharaoh's army is breathing down their necks, they just thought they were all going to be, you know, killed or taken back to Egypt or killed or whatever Pharaoh had in mind. Not one of them thought that Red Sea is going to open and we're going to walk through it safely. Peter, you know, that night had had no idea that this was going to happen. You know, he had to shake himself when it happened. Like, did that just really happen? God can deliver us in miraculous ways. And when we put ourselves completely in our hands, Him is our only God, and our trust only in Him, there is nothing impossible. And we learned it over and over and over in the Bible, and need to be learning it more and more in our life and having complete trust in Him. So here we have Peter. Here he is, you know, now he's out in the streets. He's totally out of prison and he finds himself alone. The angel has disappeared. He has no doubt this is an angel from God. He's been delivered from prison. And in verse 11, you know, again, as he shakes the fog off of his head, it's like when Peter had come to himself, he said, now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people. He's delivered me from Herod and he's delivered me from all the expectation of the Jewish people. I think Peter was aware that the next day he was going to be a living sacrifice, that he was going to be offered up to the Jews to make them happy and to win some favor, that Herod could win some favor from them by doing it. He knew what his fate was, and he saw that God had delivered him from that. And then, you know, Peter, I'm sure, was, you know, very, very thankful. How could he be anything but? I mean, I'm sure right there he praised and glorified God.

You know, your margin probably there says Psalm 34.7. Let's, you know, let's go back to Psalm 34, because, you know, some of those references are very telling, and when we see them and see the events that happen in the New Testament, like what has just happened to Peter, then we go back to David's writings, and he is, you know, singing praise to God and writing praise to God. And we can see these things that David said really coming to life. Peter would have been well aware of the words we're going to read here in Psalm 34 verses 4 through 7. You know, we need to remember these words, too. They need to live in our hearts, and we need to, you know, we need to know them as well, you know, for now, and when trials and whatever come our way, but also for times in the future to arm ourselves with these things and have the trust in God. Psalm 34 verse, verse 4.

I sought the Lord, you know David writes, I sought the eternal, and he heard me. He delivered me from all my fears. They looked to him, and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.

This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all of his troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps around all those who fear him, and delivers them.

It's a beautiful, beautiful four verses. Peter lived it. You know, God's will, whatever it is for us, we need to be comfortable in, but, you know, look at those four things. Now, God says he will do it, and David says God will deliver us. But notice who it is that God delivers.

You know, verse 7, the angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him. Remember, we've talked about it a couple times in Acts when we were talking about the marks of Christians.

They fear God. They pray. They work works of righteousness. They obey Him. Fear of God has to be before our eyes. The fear of God, the real fear of God, the real awe, respect, and love of Him that we need to have, renders us to be obedient to Him in every way, shape, and form, to yield our will to Him, to yield our wants to His wants, and to conform to His way of life and allow His Holy Spirit to guide us, even when it's not what we want, but to know that we have to, you know, as Paul says, offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Give up ourselves. Christ uses the term deny ourselves and do what He wants. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him.

You know, He promises deliverance, but we have our part in that as well.

You know, in verse 5, their faces were not ashamed. They were up front. We believe in God. We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe and we do the things that He says. You know, last week, last week, we talked about some verses and Sabbath. You know, Christ says, if you're ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed of you. You know, maybe a point where we find ourselves when it's extremely unpopular, and a group of people who can't stand the message of God, who can't stand the gospel, to say, I believe in God. I believe in Jesus Christ. I work. I live by the Bible, and that's what I stand by.

Not to be ashamed. You know, we don't want Christ to be ashamed of us, but it's our part to do what God said and understand what He wants to do. Those are the ones He delivers. You know, there's a key there in answered prayer as well, what God wants us who we need to be, and close to Him, you know, that He hears and He responds. Now, let's go back to Acts 12 and continue here.

You know, Peter, again, remember, you know, that Peter probably came to his mind. He was very, very well versed in the Old Testament, probably memorized it. These verses would come back to him, and he saw them fulfilled in his life. When we see those things in our lives, they can be inspiration. They give us energy. They give us zeal. They draw us closer to God. We have to look for God in our lives and see what He is doing, you know, in that, and not just chalk it up to, you know, whatever we chalk it up to, but to see God working in our lives.

Okay, so verse 12. Notice it says, so when He had considered this, you know, when He thought about what had just happened to them, what He had just been delivered from. When He had considered this, He came to the house of Mary. It's not Mary the mother of Jesus, it's told. Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark. That would be the man who would write the Gospel of Mark, in all probability, unless there was another one who had the same name, but Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.

Now, it was still nighttime, but we have some of the people in the church, if you will, if we can use that term, that are gathered together, and they're praying about this whole situation with Peter, and the attacks that they're under now from the Jews, the Jews and Herod, because the Christians are in the sight of those people. Persecution has come back again, and they're looking to God for security, deliverance, God's will to be done, you know.

And again, if you look at the commentary, some of them say, well, this is probably a holy day.

They were gathered together at church. But it doesn't say that in this verse. It doesn't say they were all together in one accord in one place. In fact, the next few verses indicate that this was just the evening, and there were people together that were together. They wanted to be a people of like mind. They happened to be praying about the situation, and that's where Paul went. He went where he knew some people would be gathered together. So he goes to this house of Mary, where there are some Christians together praying. And in verse 13, it says, he knocked at the door of the gate. As he knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer.

Mr. Shaby. Yes, sir. Yeah, didn't we talk about that this was during the seasons of the days of Unleavened Bread? So they may have been together, you know, for that purpose. Yeah, but this doesn't look like it was a commanded assembly day, right? Because later on, we see Peter said some of them, the next verse, we see Peter said, don't tell James this, don't tell the other brother this, and then Peter apart goes to another house. So it may have been a holy day, they may have been going later on to the place that they were going to gather together. But right now, right now, it wasn't the commanded assembly, if you will, that they were all together at. Okay, that was the point I was trying to make. And again, I yeah, it may well have been the holy day.

Although Herod probably wouldn't have put Peter forth on a holy day, just like Pilate didn't want to do that either. But you know, whatever it is, the people are together and we're in that season.

Okay. So as we look at the next kind of few verses there, I mean, if you're a Hollywood producer, you would love this, right? You can just see this girl Rhoda and the acting that she does as she goes to the door, here she is in the house, she sees the people talking about Peter, they're praying, they're, you know, they're receiving God for, you know, deliverance, etc, etc, where they're preaching God for, she goes to the door, there's knock the door, and Peter is at the door. And she recognized Peter's voice. And because she's so happy, she doesn't bother letting him in, she runs back and tells everyone that Peter is there. You know, so you can kind of see that, it's like, whoa, Peter, Peter is at the door. Verse 15, they don't think to go to the door, what they say, no, it can't be Peter, you're beside yourself, you're hearing things, you're seeing things, da da da da da, whatever. So it's kind of one of these things. Meanwhile, Peter, we see in verse 16, he's just outside knocking, well, will someone come and just let me in? I'm standing out here in the street, I've been delivered, I'd like to get off of the street, if anyone's looking for me, and into the house here. But they tell her in, you know, verse 15, the people inside the house, you're beside yourself. Yet she kept insisting that it was.

So they said, it's his angel. That's an interesting thing for the Jews to say, it's his angel. And it's another one of those little phrases that you stop and think, well, you know, what does that mean? It's his angel. Is it an angel that, you know, is it an angel that is coming there to tell him to tell them to do that or whatever? And again, the commentaries may shed some light on this.

They do, some of them talk about how the Jews believed in those days that every single person had their own personal guardian angel, and that that guardian angel could sound like them and look like them. And so some of them there may have thought, oh no, Peter has already been killed, and so this guardian angel is coming to us to let us know Peter has already, you know, died.

So the Bible doesn't say, you know, the Bible is silent on that. And we, you know, don't believe there's a guardian angel that looks like us and talks like us and everything like that. And it may be that God has put this in here that, you know, no, that isn't it. You know, we go back to the time when Jesus Christ was talking about the resurrection and they were asking him, you know, well, what about this and what about that? And you know, and Christ answers, well, angels are not given in marriage and they don't marry in the resurrection. And so that it wouldn't would be that way for the spirit beings as well. And he's dispersing a myth at that time that angels can marry, you know, can marry humans and and and appropriate and all these things, a belief that the Jews had at that time. So it may be that this is in the Bible so that it would disperse kind of a widespread. Yes, sir.

Somebody wants to say something. Oh, yeah. It's just the Jews had many fables like a lot of the religions of the world. And Paul, later on, Christ inspires him to condemn the fables of the Jews as well as genealogies and all those stuff that people like to grab onto and and stroke like a like a peeve, something that makes you feel superior. You have some special knowledge or so. And and this is one where God says no. Yeah. And he chose that they still hang on to a few of those little things in their mind that they later later on, obviously, you know, I need to repent of that. Yeah, that's one of those things we would look at and say, well, that's a silly thing. But you know, maybe some of us still hold some things from our past religions and think, oh, we haven't let go of that yet. Right. We think this this is okay, or that's okay. Or don't let go of it. This is what the Jews did. They had to learn something here as well. You know, pure religion, pure religion and follow what the Bible says. So that's could well be why that that verse is there in the Bible, as again, they're being taught a lesson. Let me look at my notes here for a second.

Okay, so in verse 16, we see then that Peter, you know, Peter, he's still standing outside on the street. He's knocking like, can someone come to the door? Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished, like, as you can well imagine. Whoa, we've just been praying about this now. Peter is standing at our door, but motioning to them with his hands to keep silent. Again, let's not let's not draw attention to ourselves here. I've got his release me from prison. He's brought me here. Let's not draw attention to everything, but motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he says, go, go, tell these things to James and to the brethren. And so, you know, he's telling some, okay, there's other people here that are gathered together in a house with James.

Now, you know, we have just seen earlier in the chapter that the Apostle James, the brother of John, has been martyred. So, you know, who's this James? That Peter says, you go tell James. He didn't say go tell John. He didn't say go tell Matthew or anyone else. Go tell James. When we get to Acts 15, we're going to see James again, who appears to be almost the leader of the Apostles at that point. And as Peter, who we often think of as the leader, you know, he says, go tell James, go tell James, is what is going on here. You know, that I'm out of prison and whatever.

So, I don't know that we know who this James is. Again, as you look through the commentaries, some, you know, I'd say they're probably equally split, and most of them will say we just absolutely do not know. Some will say it is James the Less. Remember, there were two Jameses among the original 12 Apostles, James the brother of John, and then James the son of Alpheus, who Christ calls in Mark 15 verse 40, James the Less. That, you know, maybe he, maybe he, you know, God used him or God brought him into a position where he was the one who was in this, you know, in this that over the last 14, 15 years here has come into, you know, his own, as God has led him and, you know, bolded him into who he wants him to be. Maybe it was that James, maybe it was James the brother of Jesus. We know that later on he was called. He became a believer. We know that he wrote a book of the Bible, it's included in the New Testament. We don't absolutely know. I think looking at this and the way it is, you know, my own speculation would be that it's probably James the Apostle that was there, but I don't know. I think it's one of those things that we're probably going to have to wait, you know, until Jesus Christ returns and have him tell us which James it is. Well, we're going to see James again in Acts 15 as we come to that, you know, pivotal and and interesting chapter, you know, that we're moving forward to. So anyway, we know that all, it's not a holy day. It's not all at a commanded assembly. Peter says, you go tell James, go tell James this, go tell the brother, and then Peter leaves. He departed and went to another place.

So it's before daybreak. Before daybreak on this day that Peter is to be presented before the people, because in verse 18 it says, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. Now you can imagine, if you're a soldier, if you're one of the guards at the prison, you've been entrusted here, it is put in this maximum security thing, that there is no way this man Peter can escape, and you wake up in the morning and he's gone.

I mean, they knew what their fate was. There was no way they were getting out of this alive. They were all, I'm sure, asking each other, did you see anything? What happened? How did this, you know, how could this possibly have been? Because they knew. They knew they were going to get blamed for it. And certainly, if our lives were on the line, as they knew theirs were, there would be no small stir around us when there's absolutely nothing, nothing that they did wrong. It simply was a miracle of God that they were not, that could not be explained in any human reason.

But Herod, Herod is not going to see it that way. Herod, who should, you know, who probably, if truth was known, probably, well, should have thought, you know, this has to be of the God of Peter. This has to be his God who delivered him. This is the same thing that happened to the San Gedron. Here, this guy the second time gets out of prison. There's no way, all 16 of these people, that the two guards sitting next to him would have let him go. There's no way it could happen.

It was like as if God had witnessed himself to Herod, but Herod wasn't going to have any of it, we see. Verse 19, when Herod had searched for Peter and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death. That's what kings do. Someone has to be blamed.

You guys, whatever happened, you were put in charge of keeping him there. He's not there.

They died. Well, with Peter's escape, you know, also when Herod's opportunity or whatever he was going to do with the Jews, there was a problem for Herod because the Jews, he was looking to please the Jews, and now there is no Peter to present to the Jews. There is no way to satisfy them. The Jews would accuse him of not being careful enough with people, with Peter and everything. So what does Herod do? He leaves Judea and he goes to Caesarea and he stays there.

And, you know, so he ran away. Probably thought, well, that didn't work out well. I guess we just need to go down to Caesarea and be there. So he wasn't even going to bother facing the Jews, I guess, of what went on. And the rest of the chapter here of 12 tells us the demise of Herod. And it's interesting what God puts in here as he tells us of these events that lead to Herod's death, that Herod comes face to face, if you will, with God. There is no denying.

You know, shouldn't have been any denying to Herod.

Peter's God is so far superior to any God that I have ever worshiped. Right? Kind of like Pharaoh, who sees the Red Sea opened and sees the God of Israel deliver them through the Red Sea.

And yet he, too, will simply will not acknowledge the fact that God is so superior to him and to his other gods. And Herod, you know, Herod does the same thing. He rejects God. He rejects it and kind of steals his mind against it and isn't going to deal with it. So in verse 20, you know, we find this interlude and it leads us into the Tyre and Sidon that we can look at here for a moment. In verse 20, it says, Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. And so, as he's on to this area, and if you may, I'll put up a map this week because we get into chapter 13, we're going to see a lot of cities as Paul and Barnabas are, you know, sent out on their journey with the churches. And you'll see where Tyre and Sidon is. But here at Tyre and Sidon, there are two little cities that are right on the coast of the Mediterranean. Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre, had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. But they came to him with one accord. And having the blastus, the king's personal aid, their friend, they asked for peace.

Notice, because their country was supplied with food by the king's country. So Tyre and Sidon are in an interesting situation. Herod is upset with them for some reason, but Tyre and Sidon are dependent on Herod for food. So they have no choice, if you will, but to make peace with Herod.

Their existence is at stake here if for some reason Herod would cut off their food supply.

And so, you know, it's interesting that Tyre and Sidon are brought up in here because we see Tyre, you know, throughout the Bible. We remember Jesus Christ talking about Tyre and Sidon. He said, if the works that were done in New Jerusalem was done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. You know, and we know there's a history of Israel with Tyre, if we go back to the Old Testament. Before you go in here, Brother Shibi, Tyre and Sidon seems to remind me of the Bahamas. Ah, okay.

You know, because I know a lot of people, they bring perishables and things like that from states to the Bahamas. And they don't have their land. They don't really, they don't grow anything.

They don't rear anything. So they're kind of dependent on the United States. We were mad at we were mad at Bahamas. They would be saying, how do we make the United States happy again? Okay, good analogy. Okay, happens in the world around us today. Let's go back to 1 Kings 5 and verse 10.

And we see this history, if you will, a little bit of history between Tyre and Sidon and Israel.

And you remember at the time of Solomon, you know, there were sea explorers and Hiram, you know, Hiram, you know, worked with Solomon. And in verse 10 and 11 of 1 Kings 5, we see kind of what the relationship is. 1 Kings 5 verse 10. Hiram gave Solomon cedar and cypress logs according to all his desire. So Tyre and Sidon, we know have these goods, not food, but they have these cedar logs, cypress logs that are very valuable. What did Israel give to Hiram in return?

Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cores of wheat, asked food for his household, and 20 cores of pressed oil. Thus, Solomon gave to Hiram year by year. So here, you know, here we have Hiram's got these logs. Israel will give us food. Israel will give us food. In Ezekiel 27, you know, we have Tyre and Sidon, and God has this lamentation for Tyre as he introduces, or as, you know, he has Ezekiel give us this, and so it'll take up a lamentation for Tyre.

Now, you remember Ezekiel 27? It leads us into Ezekiel 28, and Ezekiel 28 is where God compares the spirit of the king of Tyre, you know, to Satan. What he's telling us is the spirit in Tyre is the spirit of Satan, and chapter 28, he goes through what Satan was like, that spirit, and that spirit was in the king.

But let's read through most of Ezekiel 27 here, and just see what the lamentation against Tyre is. Verse 2, son of man Ezekiel 27, son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre and say to Tyre, you who are situated at the entrance of the sea, merchants of the peoples on many coastlands, thus says the Lord God, O Tyre, you have said, I am perfect in beauty, your borders are in the midst of the seas, your builders have perfected your beauty, they made all your planks of fir trees from senior, they took a cedar from Lebanon to make you a mast, of oaks from Vatian, they made your oars, the company of Asherites have inlaid your planks with ivory from the coasts of Cyprus, fine embroidered linen from Egypt was what you spread for your sail, blue and purple from the coasts of Elisha was what covered you.

So we see this picture, a beautiful picture. Tyre has all these things, if you will, they have all these material things that are just beautiful. When you look at the outside dressing of what Tyre is like, it's beautiful, it's perfectly adorned. And it's appealing to the eyes. People would look at it and say, what a beautiful area you look at all the things that you have and all these physical things that adorn you.

We drop down to verse 10. Those from Persia, Lydia and Libya were in your army as men of war. They hung shield and helmet in you. They gave splendor to you. Men of Arvad with your army were on your walls all around, and the men of Gambit were in your towers.

They hung their shields on your walls all around. They made your beauty perfect. All the outward glamour, all the outward adornment. Tarshish was your merchant because of your many luxury goods. They gave you silver, iron, tin, and lead for your goods. Javen, Tubal, and Meshach were your traders. They bartered human lives and vessels of bronze for your merchandise. Those from the House of Togorma traded for your wares with horses, steeds, and mules. The men of Dedan were your traders. Many isles were the markets of your hand.

They brought you ivory tusks and ebony as paint. You've got all these beautiful things, but one thing Tyre couldn't do for itself. They couldn't produce food. All the beauty in the world but they couldn't produce and they reliant on someone else for food. All the beauty in the world and all the outward adornment mean nothing. It's what you eat and what sustains you. Thank God is giving us a spiritual lesson here, too. You know, we talk about our good shepherd, our great shepherd, who leads us to green pasture, who leads us beside the still waters. All the glamour and all the glitz that all the outward things are very nice, but without that food, without that drink, we're nothing.

We're absolutely nothing. And Tyre is that way. And Satan is that very that way. He attracts with everything that can be really pretty, the outward adornment, but what really matters and what can sustain. And that's where he comes down to in, you know, down in verse 17. Look what they got from Israel, the people of God. Judah and the land of Israel were your traders. They traded for your merchandise wheat of minith, millet, honey, oil, and balm.

All the other places gave them things. And Tyre would look at their outside and say, look how beautiful I am. But their sustenance and what they relied on was something they got from the people of God. You know, from God's people. And here, many generations later, as we look at Acts, 12, we see Tyre in the very same position. They, you know, they're a wealthy nation. They're traders. People look to them for their wares and the beauty that they have, but they can't feed themselves. They're dependent on someone else. As we look at Acts 12, as we look at Acts 12, and as we read in verse 20, you know, their country, their country was supplied with food by the king's country. They had to make peace. They had to ally with Herod and please him. Because if he cut them off, they had they had some tough days, some tough days ahead.

So verse 21, if we go back to Acts 12. Acts 12 verse 21.

Acts 12.21. So on a set day, Herod, a raided royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. So they come, they made friends with Blastus, they come, and Herod is going to sit there and he's going to give all these mighty and wonderful words to them, and they had no choice but to listen to him. Now this is politics, politics and flattery at its best. It's almost sickening when you, you know, when you read it. So here's Herod. He comes up, he's got all this audience, he's got Tyre, you know, the people from Tyre inside who were listening there. He goes on and on. Now how do the people respond? Verse 22. The people kept shouting, the voice of a god and not of a man. I mean, come on, right? But they have to do it. They have to please the king. They know what Herod wants. He wants to be glorified. He wants, you know, his pride is beyond himself.

He's got this big head and he loves the acclimation, and the people are giving it to him in a way that, you know, most of us would be embarrassed if someone even thought those things, much less the whole group of people was sitting there saying it, you know, to you, the voice of a god and not of a man. Now God responds very quickly when he sees pride that's out of control. Now we can remember Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar was another one who came face to face with God. He knew who God was, but, you know, he kind of rejected him as well and forgot about him. And now one day when he was out, you know, talking about how great he was, you know, God said, Nebuchadnezzar, you know, the only reason you have this kingdom is because of me. Herod, you know, did the same thing. The pride swelled up in him. He's receiving all this adulation that just is something that he's, you know, that he thrives on. In verse 23, immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he didn't give glory to God. You know, humility with God, knowing, you know, knowing and recognizing what God has given us and never looking at ourselves that anything that we do is because of anything, anything good we do is always, you know, always be because of God. I mean, he's, you know, Paul said one time, there is no good that dwells in me except God. And that's the truth. What's good in us is God's spirit. The rest of it is, the rest of us is, you know, deserves to be buried permanently the way, you know, the way that God, you know, says, and we should, we should do things as we're baptized.

So Herod, this is how he dies. This is the end of his life. He's come face to face with God, you know, with Peter and knowing that there's no human explanation for Peter's escape.

And yet, you know, and then he sits there and he receives this adulation. And there comes a point where God says enough is enough. I know this man is never going to humble himself. This man is never going to yield to me. He can die. And so the, you know, he struck. God strikes him because he didn't give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. You know, someone this afternoon looked up in the commentary and said that, I guess it was Josephus, they said that, you know, he died an agonizing death, Josephus says, over the course of five days. As you can imagine, just seeing, seeing how God describes his death there. So Herod, you know, Herod is, is gone. You know, Herod is gone. In verse 24, but the word of God grew and multiplied. You know, Herod was there.

He wanted to stop the word of God. He was the enemy of the word of God. He was the enemy of Christianity. Herod dies. The word of God go, grows. More people are called. More people are added to the church. And the church, you know, the church then, you know, Barnabas and Saul, we see in the last verse of chapter 12 here, Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they have fulfilled their ministry. And they also took with them John, whose name was Mark. So we kind of closed the chapter for a little bit on Peter and Jerusalem. And from chapter 13 on, we're going to be talking more about Paul and Barnabas and Mark and Silas and the growth of the church in the Gentile areas.

You know, we're headed to chapter 15, which is a pivotal chapter in the Bible. It's, you know, a couple years down the road from where we are in Acts 13 that, you know, that we're going to have this conflict between what the Jews and what the Gentiles do. And, you know, we'll get to that. And that'll be a very interesting study for us. But before we go into chapter 13, I'm just going to get through the first five verses of chapter 13 and leave it there. And then we'll pick it up in a couple weeks. But are there any comments or anything on chapter 12 before we leave it?

Yeah, Mr. Shaby. Yes, sir. Something that I think is, you know, I've been thinking a lot about how lately, you know, how the parallels between the first century church there, the beginning church, and how things are today. And it seems like, you know, Satan, you know, he never changes. He'll use the world against us. He'll use governments against God's people and everything he's trying to do, he does, to try to thwart the plane of God and thwart the church of preaching the gospel. And, you know, I look at just recently with all the sickness, you know, and people with COVID and other sicknesses, and even with Gary Petty, you know, in one sense, that was like a direct blow against the preaching of the gospel, because he was one of the presenters. And, you know, I look at that, and I see how he's very active in trying to thwart the church and trying to thwart the preaching of the gospel. But, you know, God has a way of turning things around, and he always has a way of making whatever seems to be a dire situation to turn it for the good for the church, for the preaching of the gospel. So I pray, not just for Mr. Petty, but for everyone that's sick and hurt, and, you know, it seems like I pray for everyone, and it seems like we need to make sure we're continually focused on that, on the work of the church, and what we're here for, because it seems like Satan will do whatever he can to try to thwart us. And I see, you know, these examples in the early church, and how Satan used the government, and he used all kinds of things against the early church, but God was able to turn those things around for the furtherance of the preaching of the gospel. Yeah. Good point! Our purpose, the reason we're here, is to preach the gospels of the whole world, to let God develop us, and do His will. Absolutely, and Satan will do whatever he can to thwart that purpose. So we'll see more of those things, right? And our job, just like what the church did there, is to pray. You know, pray to God when we see these happen, that His will will be done. And you know, Gary Petty, now let's think about him. He will have learned a lot from this.

Sometimes, well, everything we go through, God wants us to learn some lessons. Gary is learning some real lessons, you know, from this that he's going through, just as you and I would do if we have a problem over here, trouble in here. Remember, God comforts us that we can learn to comfort others, and as we go through trials, we can help others who go through a similar trial, because we've been through it. We can speak to it. And Gary, you know, Gary will learn a lot, and it will be helpful to many people. You know, this Delta variant isn't the end of COVID. It might go by another name, but this is just the beginning of the very many trials that are going to come on this Earth, you know, and health and other situations. So, okay. Mr. Shavey, I was just thinking also, we need, of course, to pray for leaders. Like, here, he was so blinded, so deceived, he couldn't see what was really going on, he could have met the physical, not the spiritual. But, yeah, it's really important for us to remember, of course, to pray for the leaders, even though they're really on the rock track, or even when we're being persecuted. We still need to pray for them, as assassin Timothy of the Epitites. Yep. Good point, you know, and some are going to just set their heart against God. And, you know, we probably live in, what we see in today, we live in an age we're going to kind of see the same thing, that no matter what God does, people are going to reject him. So, but still, we pray. So, okay. Chapter... Yes, thank you. Okay, let's move into chapter 13. I'm just looking at something up there, looking at the clock and making sure we're not out of time here.

Chapter 13. Okay, so now, you know, remember last week we talked about, you know, prophets, you know, in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is for us, you know, apostles, prophets, teachers, right on down the list of, I guess, offices or positions in the church, you know, that God has established.

And we talked about Agabus, who was a prophet, and what prophets, you know, prophets did. And here now, in Antioch, now we're shifting to the church in Antioch that was up there on the, you know, the north-west corner of the Mediterranean. We'll get up with that map up here in a minute. You know what?

Let me just put that map up here, because we got several cities that are mentioned here in chapter verse 1 here. You know, up there, as you see, as you see the red circle in the Mediterranean up there in the upper-northwest quadrant of it, you know, off to the right, you see Seleucia and Antioch. So that's where we are in that Antioch. There is another Antioch in Pisidia that's up there on the, you know, above Atelier up in that area right there. We'll get to that. We'll get to that Antioch later on. But right now we're in Antioch, and you kind of see where Paul is going to go, and some of these cities that we've been talking about where they are in relation to Jerusalem.

You remember Caesarea, because we talked about that's where Herod was and where he died. You see Tyre and Seydin, they're nestled right there along the coast. They're city-states and traders. That's what they did. You see Damascus and you see Antioch. You're going to see here a couple other things here as you reach through the first five verses. So I'll just leave that up there for a while if you want to see kind of how the gospel is spreading and how the knowledge of Jesus Christ is spreading throughout the area as God opens up his calling to the Gentiles. It says in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers. We talked about those last week.

There was Barnabas. We know who he is. There was Simeon, who is called Niger. We don't know anything else about Simeon. He's not mentioned anywhere else in the scriptures, but he was a prophet, then teacher, or prophet or teacher. We have Lucius of Cyrene. Now on the map that's up on you, you see the Mediterranean Sea down on the southern border all the way to the left. You see Cyra Cyrenaica. See down there? That's Cyrene. So you can see how far Cyrene is from Antioch. So you know we've seen Cyrene in another verse of the Bible a couple weeks ago, that the gospel was spread out there. I think that's modern day. I think Libyus is what I remember it being, but I'd have to check that out and make sure. So we have Barnabas. We have Simeon, who is called Niger. We have Lucius from Cyrene, Manaean, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. So we have a group of prophets and teachers in Antioch, and this church that is growing that has a variety of prophets and teachers. Not all just people from Jerusalem. Agabus, we talked about him last week. He was up there. He was from Jerusalem.

And they sent other prophets as well, but then we have this group of people. Antioch has become, we might turn to kind of like the melting pot. God has opened up his calling to the Gentiles.

And so we have Antioch. He has all this group of people in there. We have Simeon from Niger, we have Manaean, who is probably of the upper class, if you will, because he was raised and brought up with Herod the Tetrarch. We have Saul, who hated Christians, but now is the apostle to the Gentiles. And you know, as Peter would look at this, and as Peter would write later in 1 Peter 2, 9, when he talks about, you are royal people, a chosen generation. We were once not a people, but now we are the people of God. He would have looked at a place like Antioch and thought, who would have ever seen 15 years ago that there would be people bound by God's Holy Spirit that our family that are from every walk of life, you know, different backgrounds, different countries, some from, you know, some from Herod's family, others that are poor, people who used to hate Christians. I mean, this is who God brings together. And Antioch, as God was opening up the gospel to everyone of every background, is where we are today. That we are, you know, we are a people. We look at ourselves and we think, well, you know, we know we wouldn't have known each other if God hadn't called us in. We wouldn't have become part of the family we are.

We wouldn't know each other if it wasn't, you know, today, many of us, if it wasn't for Zoom, and we got and brought us all together, you know, on this Bible study. God creates the people. He was creating a people here that was far different than the Jews, you know, foresaw, or even the Gentiles back at the time of that day of Pentecost. But God had a plan in mind, and it shows us His plan is for all of mankind. So you have this happening in Antioch. It's a unique thing in the development of the New Testament church. And they ministered, it says in verse 2, they ministered to the Lord. They served Him, and they fasted. You know, we're seeking God's will.

And certainly, as those men were there in Antioch, they were looking to God. Show us what you want, Don. Show us how we do this. Teach us what we don't know. Teach us what we should ask for. Teach us how to please you. You know, they were fasting. And oftentimes, when we are seeking God's will, we need to fast. We need to sacrifice to God ourselves in our own comforts and just say, show us what to do. What is your will? As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit put it into their minds. Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. You know, so this pairing that we met a couple chapters ago, and Paul went to Jerusalem and was rebuffed by the apostles, and Barnabas, the son of encouragement, came by his side, stood by him and said, look what God has done. Look what happened to this man on the way to Damascus. He was preaching about Jesus Christ being the Messiah in Damascus.

And then, you know, he was able to do that in Jerusalem as well. This team that God had put together back then, God is now saying, I had a purpose. I was preparing them for something, just like he's preparing you and me for something. We may not know exactly what it is yet, but we just keep going, and in one day we'll know exactly what it is. We don't all have the same calling, and God's not all for not preparing us for all the same thing, but he certainly got something in mind for us to do. We just need to yield to him and let him do it. Separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So the church fasted and they prayed, and as the church does, the symbolic laying on hands of them. Hebrews 6, one of the elementary doctrines of the church is the laying on of hands. We do that at baptism. We do that when people are sick.

We do that when we're ordaining people here as the church. God is doing it through the church, laying hands on them, and they sent them away. So Barnabas and Saul are on their way now to Antioch, and for the mission that they're going to be on, the red circle that you have there on that map, that's what they're going to be doing over the next couple years and over the next couple chapters that we look at. So first four being sent out by the Holy Spirit. It was God's will. He led the churches to what to do. Being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleutia. You see that on your map there, right by Antioch. From there they sailed to Cyprus, that little island there and not in the middle, but in the Mediterranean Sea. They went down to Seleutia. From there they sailed to Cyprus, and when they arrived in Salamis, the little city that's right there on Cyprus, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had John as their assistant.

So they went and they took John Mark with them. So we have now, you know, and we'll wait till next time to get into the the sorcerer or the magician that they encounter there as we get into that.

But let me just end there, and we'll pick it up in, well, I guess in three weeks. So August 25th, we'll pick it up in the Bible study there. But let's leave it there now. And then, you know, so we have Barnabas Paul and John Mark out now doing, you know, now doing what God has sent them out to do. So let me leave it there for any discussion, comments, or anything.

I'll pull down the pull that down.

Mr. Chevy? Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Yeah, Joe fell yesterday, and he has the concussion, but they did a CT and there is no damage to his brain. It's like just a skin, you know, damage. Okay. A few stitches or staples. Staples, okay. He didn't re-injure his hip or anything like that then? No, he has a little bit of a crack at the end of his spine, they said, but they think that may have been there for a long time because they have to build around, but there is a little crack, they said. I don't know, last time they, for the hip, they took a lot of x-rays too.

But it's very funny how he fell. We just came in in the car. I was looking for remnants of things in the car, and he was coming in. He has come in through the garage many times, but he went with the walker backwards, and until I heard him moaning, I had no idea how he fell, you know, and he bled a lot for a little while, but then one of the neighbors is the nerves, and I not even called him. I went to the lady across the street, and when he saw that she was running, he came in, and he immediately took over and cleaned him out, and you know, make sure it was sanitized, and so until this morning, I went to the hospital, but it's okay. He's here. He just probably has a little headache now. Okay, well yeah, I heard about it this afternoon on the Bible study, Berta. So yeah, we'll be keeping Joe in our prayers as we have that, so I'm glad everything's okay, though. So yeah, no break or anything. His legs, they say he has a lot of arthritis everywhere, too, and I guess the medicines, he gets very easily, you know, moving back and forth, so even with the walker, the walker fell on top of him. So it's, yeah, only God knows when the day will come, but he's holding him there. Okay, okay. Well, God was with you and protected him, it sounds like, because it could have been much worse. That angel was there, because I, honest, I, you know, I just went inside the car and he was walking and all of a sudden he's on the floor. As I came out of the car, I see him and it's, I know my daughter thinks that I am not paying attention, but I says, you know, I cannot have my eyes on looking at him. It's very hard. Well, yeah, you can't be watching him every second of every day, right? So yeah, it's not easy.

Okay. Well, we're gone. Continue. Okay, very good. So, yeah. Okay. Anything else, anyone?

Okay, well, I thank you for being here tonight. It's been great to be with all of you. I'll miss seeing you next Wednesday, so we'll look forward to the 25th when we're together again. There will be a brand new link when we get back together again. I've used up my 13 times with the same link that I've been giving you, so look for that link on that Tuesday the 24th. It'll be a brand new one.

Try to use the one we've used today in the last three months, you know, we won't be able to do that, but I'll have, I'll get that out to you. So, okay, I will see. Yes. This is Linda Richie.

The doctor just came in that he's still waiting on the, uh, spinal, the spinal specialist.

So come in and check everything out. He says he's hoping that it's not osteomyelitis.

No. Okay. I don't want osteomyelitis. I've seen what it's done to my sister.

Your sister Juanita?

Okay, well we're praying about that, Linda. Okay. Osteomyelitis is a bone disease. Okay.

You're praying about that. I know Linda, Linda's been in the hospital a lot lately, so, um, yeah, keep her in your prayers as she continues to battle, battle with that, that whole situation that's been going on for several years here. So. Have you seen Dee? I have not seen Dee. They had COVID restrictions in there. I have talked to Dee. I mentioned that beginning of the Bible study.

She's still in rehab. In fact, I need to call her tomorrow. When I called her, when I talked to her a couple days ago, she was just saying how tough everything was and that, that the pain was much worse than with her knee replacement. So, but you know Dee, she's, she's doing everything they say.

So I have no doubt she will, you know, she'll follow through and she'll, she'll be back home as soon as soon as she can be. So she had no idea how long she would be in there then. So.

We keep praying for them. Yeah.

What about service for the next South? South. Well, Orlando, we, being God willing, everything looks like we will have services in Orlando at 130 the South. That's the plan right now. So, count on that. I'm, I'm, I'm sure God is going to let us be there. 137th, right? And if anyone from Jacksonville tuned in late, we're going to have, we won't have live services in Jacksonville this week. We'll have you join in on the webcast with Orlando this week. Just for a variety of reason, a variety of reasons, I think it'll be better for Jacksonville to, to, to be, to join us by web this week. So, okay. So, 130, 130 in Orlando. Hey, Rick, it's Linda again. The doctor did, he's the