1 Kings 2:1-3:2, Acts 5:1-42, Psalms 125:1-5, Proverbs 16:25
Today is the 7th day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today, really great. Glad as always that we have a place to gather around the Global Campfire as we take another step forward together in the Scriptures. And yesterday we began the book of first Kings, and we talked a little bit about the territory that we are moving in or into. And yesterday we saw the next king sitting on the throne. It didn’t happen without drama, but David’s son Solomon is now King Solomon and that is where we pick up the story. King David is…well…his health is failing. He is about to pass, and he has some instructions for his son. First Kings chapter 2 verse 1 through 3 verse 2.
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we are continuing our journey into the book of Acts and into the church era and what happened after Jesus’ ascension back to the Father, we’re largely following alongside the apostle Peter as we look at the earliest church. And what we should be able to see is that a great amount of joy and a great amount of generosity and a great amount of community is happening among the believers in Jesus and these are Jewish people. This is where it all begins. The odd thing is that the Christian faith now is almost completely Gentile. But at the beginning here it is completely Hebrew. And that is the context in which Peter is at this point ministering to people. They’re in the temple, they’re teaching at the temple. Like everything is in a Hebrew context and their getting in trouble by their fellow Hebrews. The Romans aren’t out to get Peter at least at this point. It’s the Jewish religious leadership that wants the name of Jesus to disappear and instead of disappearing, which they had hoped for when they got him killed it seems to be spreading. So, even in today’s reading they are incarcerated briefly for a couple of times, and they are freed, and they go back into the temple, and they have been warned on a couple of occasions in today’s readings not to do any more teachings in the name of Jesus, and they threatened them. And the apostles with really a completely different kind of boldness than we experience them having in the Gospels. Like Peter is transformed at this point. He’s like a different person after the coming of the Holy Spirit and with boldness he says, you guys, look we have to obey God and not man. And the religious authority in the end are like, something has to be done. They would like to do away with these apostles as well and let this go away. And that’s when a council happens that we’re able to kinda sit in on. And amending Gamaliel…and this is interesting actually because we haven’t met Saul the person who’s going to become the apostle Paul yet but when we do, we’re going to find out that when he was trained in Jerusalem, he was trained by someone named Gamaliel. And Saul was a devout Pharisee. But a person named Gamaliel was in the Council speaks to the Council basically saying, look this kind of stuff has happened before. We’ve seen people rise up and claim to be something and gather a following and maybe even getting a little bit of a sizable following, but those people have been killed and when they are killed, then their followers disperse and the whole thing goes away. So, he’s basically saying look, let it play its course. If we intervene, if we do something we could cause humongous problems. But it’s even bigger than that. If God is not in this, it will fail. But if God is in this, nothing we can do will stop it and we could quickly find ourselves opposing God. And the Council listened. So, what we’re seeing is a great amount of joy in community and a great amount of opposition. And this is all happening within a Jewish context at this point. In fact, at this point in the early church no one was thinking that this would be anything but for the Jews, the children of Israel, the chosen ones, the set apart ones. It’s to the Jews that Jesus came and it’s a Hebrew Messiah that they were looking for. Everything is happening within this context at this point. So, if we notice that then as we continue to go forward, we will understand that a rift will develop because of this. Gentiles will come into the kingdom, and that will completely force the Jewish believers to completely rethink a lot of things. And, so, we get the idea that the early church was just a remarkably peaceful wonderful time when it was actually a very tumultuous time where really against the odds, the gospel flourishes.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for these stories that we are able to immerse ourselves in and put ourselves in those positions and walk along with the apostles as they are walking along by the guiding of Your Holy Spirit. They’re not referring to any New Testament Scriptures. There isn’t a New Testament. They’re following Your leadership. And now we have the New Testament to read about this. And we thank You that it is the same Spirit, that it is the same spirit of truth, leading and guiding us that is still available to us as it was to them. Come Holy Spirit. We’re listening and we’re seeing of Your works and we open ourselves to Your work in our lives and we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
I recently just finished treatment for addictions. God has been a part of my life for many years however I battled with addictions. I’m in the recovery process right now. God is front and center of my recovery and I just ask for prayer. I’m fortunate to have God in my life and I’m very very thankful for His patience and forgiveness. I lost a brother through addictions, and I just want to do this right. I want to be a witness of God and do good. My name is Jonathan Riplick. Thank you.
Hello, my DAB family this is Chicago Peg and I want to lift up prayer for a couple of DAB family. And Jerry from Wyoming I hear…I hear you. I heard you crying even as you…oh…you have this grieving and for your sister and brother-in-law who are in Arizona and you’re in Wyoming and you’re sad because you can’t be with them and they’re both going through such a horrible time. And I’ve been praying for you and want to encourage you now over the airwaves with prayer. And oh, it’s so good to hear prayer out loud and shame the devil and cry out in the name of Jesus whom we trust. And Jerry I’ve been praying for you that you would be encouraged and strengthened. I know your heart is breaking for your sister and brother-in-law in Arizona. I’m praying that the Lord will be with them, that He will take care of them. And we believe and know that God will. And I’m praying with you Jerry that it may be the Lord’s will to heal both of them in the powerful healing name of Jesus. And that whatever is the Lords will, oh Father I pray that You would keep our focus on You, let Your praise always be on our lips in the mighty name of Jesus. And real quick if I have time, also Lisa the Encourager, I’m praying for you and for your mom that has terminal cancer and I just…I love you all and praying for you. Amen and Amen and Amen.
Hello everyone, this is broken man of God and I’m calling in to pray for Jonathan from Denver. You had a prayer request on the 2nd of June. Lord, I pray for Jonathan that no matter what he’s going through, no matter what trials tribulations, folly, no matter how deep the waters that he’s treading through are, Lord I pray You shower him with Your grace Your mercy and Your strength. I pray that You help him find godly people, men and women that he can surround himself with and just help lift him lift him up, that he can be vulnerable with to confess whatever’s going on with his life and that they can help lift him up and guide him back on the path that You have planned for his life Lord. You tell us that You won’t rescue us necessarily from trials and difficult situations, but You will guide us through them because in the fire that’s where iron is hardened. And just as iron sharpens iron, I pray that one man can sharpen another. In Your holy name I pray. Amen. Jonathan man if you hear this, we’ve all had some pretty terrible times in our lives. And I pray that you find some godly men and some godly women that can help you through this time. Don’t be a stranger. Put up those prayer requests. We’re all here rooting for you bud. Take care.
Hello, my wonderful DAB family this is Rosie AKA Great to be Free in Jesus. I was calling in for the lady who called in a few days ago because her husband had died, and her daughter is angry with her because she wasn’t there. I went through a similar situation 30 years ago. We went to church. It was on a Wednesday night. And my husband didn’t want to go to church but, you know, we had just made a covenant with each other to go to church every time the doors were open. And, so, we went and, on the way, home we were in a terrible accident. I got thrown from the car with my seat belt on broke my ribs and punctured my lung. My oldest daughter broke her hip in three places. My youngest daughter broke her hip and her leg. My son didn’t have any broken bones, but he was bruised up pretty bad and my husband broke his neck. And my husband was in the hospital for nine months…well…six months he got to come home for a month and then he went back in the hospital for three months and he died. And my youngest daughter was very angry with me for pressing the issue to go to church and that he would still be alive. And of course, I was blaming myself as well. I will…
Hi this is Cindy from California. I was introduced to Daily Audio Bible by my angel, my daughter Kathy. I have reflex sympathetic dystrophy. It’s a horrible condition that there’s no cure. Right now, I am hiding in the closet with the pain, burning sensation that feels like my whole body is on fire. I had two __ injection 2 weeks ago on my back which my condition they’re three times worse. I’m asking everyone to please pray. I know the doctor says there’s no cure for this condition but God has the final word. Please, pray for me. __. And God I know you’re the doctor. Even if they say no, I know you’re only giving me this because I’m strong and I am going to do it, but I just want to have this burning pain go away. Thank you, Brian for this amazing podcast. I’m so blessed my angel introduced me to it. God bless all of you and with God everything is better. He’s our doctor, our hero, our savior. God bless all of you. Cindy from California.