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October 18 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
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Today's we will be reading the Book of Acts Chapters 11 and 12.
Today we will read about the Jewish believers giving Peter a hard time for sharing the Good News with someone who wasn't Jewish. We will read about Peter explaining how God desired for this to happen and then the Jewish believers, seeing how it was God's Will, rejoiced. We will then read about God saving Peter from jail by sending an angel to the jail to free Peter.
In our discussion for daily application we will talk about God's perfect timing, the importance of praying for God's Will rather than our own and obedience to God's will. We will talk about how Peter obeyed both when God told him to go to Cornelius' house as well as when the angel gave Peter directions after waking him from a sound sleep. Waiting for God's deliverance can be hard, but as we see today and in other examples from the Bible, God often delivers at "the eleventh hour" so that we know that it is HIM who has delivered us, not anyone else. We need to keep believing in God to know His divine plan for us and the timing for everything, even though we may not understand it or be able to see it. We need to keep trusting in God's goodness even when it can look like He did not answer our prayers, as in the case of James being killed by Herod but saving Peter. Eventually everyone transitions from the physical body to eternal life in our spiritual body and no one knows the day or time but God. But we can remember that we have seen over and over again that God's timing is always perfect and He always has plans working to further His kingdom, even if we cannot see those plans in the present. Once again I will remind us of Ruth and Boaz marrying, which would not have been possible if Naomi had not lost both her sons, one of which was Ruth's husband, as well as her own husband, causing her to return to Israel without any male heir. God ALWAYS has good plans going on. We just need to have faith and trust in Him.
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Transcript
Cornelius' Faith Causes a Stir
00:00:02
Speaker
So our first section for chapter 11 is called The Same Gift. Now it wasn't long before the other apostles and followers heard about Cornelius.
00:00:15
Speaker
And they heard that people who weren't Jews believed in Jesus. And the Jewish followers busted Peter when he came to Jerusalem. Cornelius and his family aren't Jews, they said.
00:00:28
Speaker
But you went into their house.
Peter's Vision and Encounter with Cornelius
00:00:32
Speaker
Then Peter told them everything. He told them about his prayer. He told them about the picture in his mind, the vision.
00:00:42
Speaker
it was the picture of a sheet with animals. It had come down from heaven. And he told the men about he told about the men that Cornelius had sent to him. And he told them about his visit with Cornelius and his family.
00:00:57
Speaker
And he told how the Holy Spirit had come to them. God gave them the same gift he gave to us, said Peter.
00:01:08
Speaker
So how could I stand in God's way? Then the Jews who believed in Jesus cheered for God. God is even saving people who aren't Jews, they said.
Gospel Spreads to Greeks in Antioch
00:01:21
Speaker
Now Jesus' followers had moved to cities here and there, and they had moved after Stephen was killed. They had told the good news about Jesus in many places, but they had been telling it only to Jews.
00:01:37
Speaker
Then some of Jesus' followers went to Antioch, and they started telling the good news to Greek people, Gentiles. And now many of the Greek people believed in Jesus.
00:01:51
Speaker
Now Jesus' followers in Jerusalem heard about this. So the church there sent Barnabas to Antioch. Now Barnabas saw that it was true.
00:02:02
Speaker
God's kind love was going to the Greeks. And Barnabas was so glad. he told them to keep believing with their whole hearts.
00:02:14
Speaker
What a great encouraging message, don't you think? Keep believing with your whole heart. Now Barnabas was a good man. He was full of God's Holy Spirit.
00:02:27
Speaker
And he was full of faith. Now Barnabas went to look for Saul, who remember had gone to Tarsus. And Barnabas found Saul, and he brought him to Antioch.
00:02:40
Speaker
And together, Barnabas and Saul stayed in Antioch for a year. They taught lots of people about Jesus. And there, people in Antioch started calling Jesus' followers Christians.
00:02:53
Speaker
And that's where that name first came about. In Hebrew, it translates to meaning Messianics, because Christ means Messiah.
Famine Prediction and Relief Efforts
00:03:05
Speaker
So some prophets came to Antioch from Jerusalem. One of them was named Agabus. And he stood up. The Holy Spirit was working in him.
00:03:16
Speaker
He told what was going to happen. This was a prophecy. He said that bad times were coming and no food would grow. There would be a famine. And this came true when Claudius was ruling over the Roman kings.
00:03:32
Speaker
So Jesus' followers thought that they would help God's people in Judea. And they got together some relief, a gift. They sent the gift of relief to Judea along with Barnabas and Saul.
00:03:48
Speaker
Isn't that wonderful? God told them ahead of time so that they could be helpful and send provision for them.
Peter's Miraculous Escape from Prison
00:03:58
Speaker
Acts chapter 12, the angel in the jail. Now, King Herod put some of Jesus's followers in jail, and he had planned to give Jesus's followers lots of trouble.
00:04:11
Speaker
He even had James killed with a sword. This was the James who was John's brother. Remember, they were the brothers of Zebedee. And he had been one of Jesus's 12 apostles.
00:04:25
Speaker
The Jewish people were glad that James was killed. So Herod took Peter too. He put Peter in jail. Now it was time for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
00:04:36
Speaker
So Herod sent four groups of guards to watch over Peter and each man each group had four men in it. Herod's plan was to judge Peter after the entire Passover holiday.
00:04:50
Speaker
So he kept Peter in jail. But Jesus' followers were praying hard for Peter. Never underestimate the power of prayer. One night Peter was sleeping in jail, and the next day Herod was going to judge over him.
00:05:07
Speaker
One guard was sleeping beside Peter on his right, and another guard was sleeping beside Peter on his left, and Peter was chained between the two of them. And there were also guards at the door.
00:05:21
Speaker
All of a sudden an angel was there, and a light shone into the jail room. The angel tapped Peter's side and woke him up. Hurry, said the angel, get up.
00:05:36
Speaker
And Peter's chains fell off. Put your clothes on, said the angel. Put your shoes on. So Peter did. Put your coat around you and then follow me, said the angel.
00:05:51
Speaker
ah Peter followed the angel out of the jail, but Peter thought he was dreaming, that he was having a vision. He didn't know that it was really happening at the time. They walked past the first guard, and they walked past the second guard.
00:06:07
Speaker
They came to an iron gate that led to the city, and it opened by itself. They walked right through, and they walked down one street, and then the angel left.
00:06:22
Speaker
Now Peter saw that he wasn't dreaming. The Lord sent his angel, said Peter. He saved me from Herod, and he saved me from everything the Jewish people were planning.
00:06:35
Speaker
So Peter went to the house where John Mark's mother lived. they That's where a lot of people were praying that night. Now Peter tapped on the door, and a servant girl came to the door.
00:06:48
Speaker
Her name was Rhoda. She heard Peter's voice and knew it was him, but she was so happy that she forgot to open the door. Rhoda ran back to the others and said, Peter is at the door.
00:07:01
Speaker
You're crazy, they told her. But Rhoda promised it was Peter. Maybe it's his angel, they said.
00:07:12
Speaker
Peter kept tapping at the door. At last, they opened the door. And they saw that it really was Peter. They were very surprised.
00:07:24
Speaker
Peter held up his hand to show them that they needed should that they should be quiet. And he told them how God had saved him. Go tell Jesus' brother James about this, he said, and tell the others too.
00:07:37
Speaker
And then he left the house and he stayed somewhere else that night.
Herod's Arrogance and its Consequences
00:07:42
Speaker
The next morning, there was trouble at the jail. No one knew what had happened to Peter. And Herod made everybody look carefully for him.
00:07:52
Speaker
But no one could find him. So Herod asked the guards what had happened. And then he gave orders for the guards to be killed. Now Herod went to Caesarea and he stayed there for a while.
00:08:06
Speaker
He had been fussing with people from Sidon and Tyre. So people from these cities got together and they went to go see Herod. They were going to ask Herod for peace.
00:08:18
Speaker
They needed food from Herod's country. So the day of the meeting came and Herod put on his kingly robes. He sat upon his throne and then he talked to the people who had come.
00:08:33
Speaker
They shouted, his voice is the voice of a God. And Herod let them praise him. And he did not give the praise to God.
00:08:44
Speaker
So at once, an angel from God made him sick. And then worms began to eat him up, and he died.
00:08:55
Speaker
Now God's word was being told everywhere. And Barnabas and Saul finished their job in Jerusalem.
Reflections on God's Timing and Prayer
00:09:02
Speaker
And then they went back to Antioch, and they took John Mark, who was ah also just called Mark, with them.
00:09:11
Speaker
And that is the end of our reading today. Wow. That was so cool. God sent his angel to save Peter.
00:09:23
Speaker
Wow. I love how Peter was sleeping still. And he had to be directed by the angel. He just, he was woken up in the middle of the night. He didn't even see when the angel arrived. he They were all just sleeping.
00:09:36
Speaker
And the angel pokes him in the side and says, wake up. So he wakes up and he says, hurry, get up. and And apparently Peter, he's just standing there, just obeying directions.
00:09:49
Speaker
And he says, put your clothes on, put your shoes on. So yes, the angel has to tell Peter what to do. So Peter did it. And then Peter still hadn't put his coat on yet. He just had done exactly what the angel had told him to do.
00:10:04
Speaker
And then he said, put your coat around you. Then follow me. So Peter followed the angel, but Peter thought he was dreaming. So let's look at that. First of all, God's timing.
00:10:17
Speaker
This was during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So this was during the Feast of Passover. This was over the Passover holiday. So we have the Passover and we have the Feast of First Fruits.
00:10:28
Speaker
And then we have the Feast of Matzo, which is seven days of unleavened bread. and ah And starting in there, it also begins the count up to Shavuot. But he was waiting for the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
00:10:41
Speaker
So at some point during this seven-day period of time, Peter was taken into jail. And the very night that would have been the next day that Peter was going to be summoned by Herod, that it is when God rescued him.
00:10:58
Speaker
He didn't do it the first night or the second night, however many nights Peter was in jail. We don't know. But we do know that he did not save Peter until the night before.
00:11:09
Speaker
So sometimes we might call this the 11th hour when we're waiting for something to happen. And God waits until the very last second to show us his glory. We need to remember that while we would like for God to answer our prayers well ahead of time so that we don't have to worry and stress about things, God wants us to have faith.
00:11:29
Speaker
And notice that the believers were praying. ah Let's see, how did they word it? They were praying hard for Peter. So let's not underestimate the power of prayer.
00:11:42
Speaker
Jesus's friends were praying for their other friends, Peter. And we know that this time that Herod had already killed John's brother, James.
00:11:53
Speaker
So he had gone. And so they were worried that this would be probable for Peter as well. Now, we know that jane that Jesus also told Peter that when he was to be killed, that it would be by putting being put on a cross and crucified like Jesus as well.
00:12:10
Speaker
And so we don't know if that was the plan for Herod, but we do know that that's when he was planning to kill him. So our first daily application there is to ah look at God's timing and just wait.
00:12:23
Speaker
we may It may seem like things are impossible, but nothing is impossible for God. And he shows us in the most incredible ways that there is no other way that our saving could have come about but through him.
00:12:37
Speaker
So if things happen sometimes well ahead of time, then we can think, oh, we did it, or we give the credit to someone else. But when it happens right at the very last second, that's when we know that it is God and we are meant to give God the glory for that so that we can see it.
00:12:53
Speaker
And we are being God's witnesses then. And we need to testify about that. Our next thing that we want to talk about and see is that Peter obeyed. He didn't question.
00:13:04
Speaker
Everything he is told to do, he is doing. Yesterday, we saw Peter with the vision ah where God had spoken to him. And he says, these these men have come to look for you.
00:13:15
Speaker
And God told him, go with them without hesitation. Because I have sent them myself. So God gave him the direction and Peter obeyed.
00:13:27
Speaker
And here we see that when the angel is telling him what to do, he just does it. He doesn't do anything else. He only does exactly what he is told. What a great example.
00:13:37
Speaker
We can think that we need to do something else. We need to help things along, like how Abraham and Sarah lied to try to protect themselves when they were traveling way back there in the Old Covenant.
00:13:50
Speaker
And ah that was one of our first examples of of saying that we don't need to help God out. God is going to look out for us. It may seem like we are the ones who are protecting ourselves, but it turned out that even though they had lied, Sarah had still been taken to be somebody else's wife.
00:14:10
Speaker
But God took care of protecting her virtue. And we see here as well but that it is God who was taking care of Peter. I love that. And God takes care of us as well.
00:14:23
Speaker
Throughout the entire Bible, we see that God takes care of his people. Sometimes we know that there is to be suffering for Jesus's name. We do know that ah James was killed.
00:14:35
Speaker
We know that Peter will eventually be killed. But the time was not yet right. So we have to trust that even though it may look like God has not answered our prayers, that He knows the number of days that we have.
00:14:49
Speaker
And that can be hard for us too, because it can just seem like God did not answer our prayer. But even when it looks like God does not answer our prayer, we have to remember that God's timing is perfect.
00:15:01
Speaker
And there is our time when our body transition needs to occur to the spirit, where our time here on earth is finished. Eventually, that will be the case for all of us. We don't know when that will be, but that is why Jesus taught us to pray that not our will, but his will be done, that God's will be done.
00:15:21
Speaker
And then we know that whatever it is that has occurred, it has aligned with God's timing and God's planning, even though it may not look like it. We saw it with Ruth and Boaz, I always use that as as my prime example, that things didn't look good when Ruth's husband and Naomi's husband and her two sons had been killed while she was in the other land. I believe it was the Moabites. They were in Moab.
00:15:46
Speaker
And it didn't look like it was good. But those things needed to occur in order for the timing to happen. So I just want to always tie these things together, not to be repetitive, but to show that God's plans are always right where he needs them to be, even though we don't understand them.
00:16:05
Speaker
We don't want to give up on prayer, but we want to remember to pray for God's will to be done. And that when God often comes through, it isn't until the last minute.
00:16:16
Speaker
We just need to keep having faith to know that whatever it is, God's is in control. That can be a hard lesson. But no matter what happens, God is in control.
00:16:27
Speaker
And we can be his witnesses to the things that he allows us to witness and to share things with others because it will help others to believe in him. And that's always the goal is to spread belief in Jesus, to teach others how to be his followers all over the world.
00:16:43
Speaker
And we see that that's exactly what ended up happening. They spread out. And that's our next thing that we want to look at is that because of all of this perfect timing,
00:16:55
Speaker
then it it allowed ah people to be grouped together. So now because of the prophecy that Agrabas had brought to the people there in Antioch, that they had sent Saul and Barnabas back to Judea in order to bring relief for the for the food famine that was going on.
00:17:15
Speaker
And then we see at the very end who went with them when they left. John, who was also called Mark. This is not John the brother of James, who was killed by Herod with the sword, but this is the one who wrote the book of mark And so he's often referred to as either John Mark or sometimes just Mark.
00:17:35
Speaker
But this is the Mark we are talking about. So I just want us to be aware of who we are seeing in the story because Mark will also come up ah later in in our readings as well in the in the letters.
00:17:47
Speaker
So now we know that Mark is traveling with Saul and Barnabas. And that will conclude our reading today. i hope you found understanding as well as daily application and getting a bigger picture of God's word, that you understand the big story of what is going on.
00:18:07
Speaker
Man, I love reading a chronological Bible. I don't think I will want to ever go back to just reading a traditional Bible. Bible, I always want to, I think, maybe for reference for finding verses easy, but I usually just tend to look that up.
00:18:22
Speaker
When I'm looking for something specific, I will look it up on the internet and then go to my big Bible to read it, whatever it is I'm looking for. But ah For just general reading, for keeping and reading the word on a regular basis, it just really helps my understanding to read this in a chronological order.
00:18:42
Speaker
And i don't know when we started doing this, but man, I am just so thankful that God has led in his spirit people to put the Bible in a chronological order so that we can have this greater understanding.
00:18:55
Speaker
God's Holy Spirit is really helping us understand his word this year, huh?
Closing Blessings and Invitation
00:19:00
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for joining me. i pray that you have a very blessed day, whatever day you get around to watching or listening this October 18th daily reading out of our day by day kids Bible. And I hope that you are hungry for more of God's word and will join me again for tomorrow as we continue to read the Bible this year.
00:19:17
Speaker
And until then, have a wonderful day.