Day 323 (Acts 9-10) - Year 6
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Hey, bible readers, i'm trolly couple and i'm your host for the bible recap.

Yesterday we met soul, a powerful half roman have jewish ferraby in jersey m, due in part to his violent acts against the disciples. Most of them leave the city.

Today he decides to hunt down anyone who belongs to the way, which is what they were calling the early church at that point, probably because of that time he is, said he is, the way saw goes to the high priest to get illegal permission to drag any crimes followers down in extradition, back to jerusalem for punishment. They will not get away from him or so he thinks god as a different plan, one in which soul can't get away from him. A soul heads north out of the city toward damascus, which is in modern day syria, a holy lightning bolt, or something like that, knocks him to the ground.

He and the guys with him all hear a voice from heaven, but don't see anyone. The voice asks, saw, saw, why are you persecuting me? And all asks, who are you? Lord, first of all, this is such a great question.

I want to keep asking this question the rest of my life. I want to to keep getting to know him more and more all the time. But there's also something interesting in the question jesus asks.

Jesus is in heaven at the right hand of the other, so how can still be persecuting him? In this question, jesus makes IT clear that he has united himself with the church. One of the images we see in scratch is that he is the head of the body, and the head is both the wear and impacted when the body hurts.

As the church is persecuted, cheese feels IT. He is compassionate. He enters into the pain of his people.

Jesus identifies himself to sol and tells him, did go into dama asu s and keep listening for instructions. The whole experiences leave soul temporarily blind, so he has to be guided. Meanwhile, guy gives sufficient to a local beliefs named analysts and tells him where to find soul.

N ni is probably like, you're telling me this so I can go kill him, right? But god is like, nope. Still not the plan.

There's one interesting thing in what ananias says in verse thirteen, he says, lord, I have heard from many about this man how much evil he has done, to your sense, in jerusalem? M, aren't since dead people how we saw harming dead people? Actually, scripture repeatedly identified all beliefs as saint date alive.

Nice to meet you. I am sante tari. This idea isn't even exclusive to the new testament. We see IT in the writings of David insolent, most notably sam sixteen.

By the way, this doctor n is called the saint hood of the believer will linked to two articles with more info on this. In the shower notes. God continues explaining the plane to analyze. He says, I have given sol a vision of you. He's expecting you go pray for him to receive his sight.

Why does god do this? Can't god just heal? so? So why give two visions and make analyse, put on santals and walk to a stranger's house, and maybe even put us like at risk? Because this is all the cuter god wants his people to be engaged in his process.

We get the joy of being part of the plan of his redemption. Anne goes in praise. Sol gaines, this site is filled with the spirit, and then he gets baptised and immediately starts declaring jesus as lord.

His preaching causes such an apple in the local centage g that some of the local religious leaders plan to kill him. What a tragedy that would have been. This man wrote two thirds of the new testament souls followers safe in from the plot.

And IT makes me wonder if they'd become crass followers too, saw leaves down and makes the weak long trip back to jerusalem. But the disciples there are skeptical of him too. We'll accept for barnabas.

Remember him. He's the one who sold his land and gave the money to the church and acts for he vaches for soul, who begins preaching locally, but then gets threats from others who aren't buying IT. So the a possible send him back to his hometown of tarsi so things can simmer down.

It's about three hundred and fifty miles north in modern day turkey. Then we hit a verse that really interest me first. Thirty one says the church do are all judie.

And galli in somalia had peace and was being built up and walking in the fear of the lord and in the comfort of the holy spirit in multiply, they're facing persecution and death threats. But even as those things are on the rise, the church experiences increasing peace, comfort and fear of the lord. They seem to be remembering what jesus said.

They're living out the peace and primary focus. He kept trying to get them to focus on, if you were with us in the old testament, you may have expected them to forget quickly, like therefore fathers did. Moses would remind them a million times about something in y'd be like that.

We got IT. We're totally on board. Then, by the time the sun had said they were off the rails, how are things so different?

Now, this is the work of god. The spirit as he in dwells beevers. He is the difference maker. Not only did the disciples live in peace, but they also live in power.

Peter heels people and even raises a woman from the dead in one day, while Peters praying on a roof, waiting for lunch to start. He has a strange vision. A sheet comes down with all kinds of animals on IT.

And a boy tells him to kill and eat these animals, and he's like, so, so god repeats IT for him two more times, because god knows Peter only works in trees. This decision has a meaning and a purpose. The meaning is that god is declaring all foods edible.

Cheese did this in march seven, nineteen. And god repeats at here. This can be confusing because IT feels like that as saying, some of the old testament laws don't matter.

And if that's the case, how do we know which ones to obey, in which ones to disregard? This is a question a lot, if you have. So I hope this will be helpful.

Guy gave three types of laws in the old testament, civil, ceremonial and moral. Civil laws for a stable society in layout punishments for violations. These are horizon onal manto men laws.

Ceremonial laws are about what things are clean or unclean and other things that relate to to the temple, which is about to be destroyed. By the way, moral laws are where god declare things right or wrong according to his unchanging standards. So again, civil, ceremonial and moral civil laws applied to gods unique relationship with the nation state of israel.

So those aren't applicable today. The ceremony laws are no longer applicable because they apply to a tempo that doesn't exist in a sacrifice that has been fulfilled. Jesus is our perfect sacrifice and his blood has purified.

But the moral laws, like the tin commandments, remain intact, willing to an article with more info on this in the show notes, Peter is in the midst of the awkward transition, dies of all this. And he resists what that is telling him. But it's important for him to get IT because there's a greater purpose behind what god is telling him.

And that purpose pertains to the guys who were a bot knock on the front door. A roman century named cornelius had an angle lic vision directing him to sin servants to Peter. And as god's timing would have IT, they arrive right after Peter has this vision, they ask him to come back to meet cornelius, and he agrees.

When they arrive, cornelius falls down and and Peter is like, oh, i'm not got. Don't worship me. That's weird and wicked.

Stand up. Cornelius has a packed house waiting for Peter. And Peter opens by addressing the elephant in the room, tribal ism.

Historically, the jews aren't supposed to associate with foreigners, but Peter confesses that god has been teaching him some things, correcting his thinking. He now sees that there is no tribal divide in the family of god. There's tribal diversity, but not tribal division.

All are welcome in the family of god. Peter preaches the gospel, and everyone in the house believes the holy spirit therapies their conversion. Then after you've received the spirit, their babb us with water and aspired to stick her around for a few days, probably so he can keep teaching them more about the gospel.

Today, my god shot was the absolute sovereignty of god over the salvation of his people. Soul story makes me so happy. It's such an encouragement to know that when god want someone, there is, if you have friends or family members that you've been praying for and sharing the gospel worth and ject IT, or even been hostile toward you, you know, help, helpless, terrifying and heartbreaking, that can feel.

But god has the final word. And we see the sole story that a person doesn't even have to be pursuing god to find him. They can even be actively working out a rebellion against him.

That's what happens to see, as Lewis too, he said out, to prove god did not exist and ended up being bound by the very guidi denied. There is hope for everyone. There is hope for all your friends and family members who have rejected Christ.

All of us who know god have been captured by the king of the universe, adopted in his family and caught up in the greatest redemption story the human heart has ever known. He's found us, and he's where the joy is. I'm so gd, you're here with us.

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