6/16/2022 DAB Transcript

1 Kings 15:25-17:24, Acts 10:24-48, Psalm 134:1-3, Proverbs 17:9-11

Today is the 16th day of June, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it’s wonderful to be here with you today as we gather and take the next step forward together and that next step will lead us lead us right where we left off yesterday, and that happens to be first Kings chapter 15 verse 25 through 17 verse 24, today.

Commentary:

Okay so, in the book of Acts, as we travel alongside the apostle Peter at the moment, we have something that is so profound that happened in today’s reading, that it changed the church of Jesus, irreversibly and changed the course of history in the process, until today. Like, it’s still changed today, because of what we read in the end the book of Acts today. There will be several times through our journey, through the rest of the year that we’ll have to refer back to this moment and remember this moment, especially through the lens of the apostle Paul and understand what is going on here. In yesterday’s reading, Peter’s on a rooftop in the city of Joppa and he’s praying and he sees a vision and, in this vision, there are a number of animals but they would be unclean animals to eat but the message, the messenger in the vision tells him that he should eat these things and of course he resists that saying, he had never done anything like that before. And then he is told, what God has made clean, is clean. Then, these people show up to collect him and take him to Caesarea to Cornelius. Cornelius, is a Roman centurion by Hebrew standards, he is a Gentile. He is an outsider; he is not to be messed with. But he is also not to be associated with, in terms of hospitality and friendship. The Hebrew people are separate. They have been separated; they are separate to God. They don’t intermingle with anybody; they’re trying to get their ducks in a row. So, the God will see that they’re not mixing anymore, and that God should restore them. That is the common understanding of the Hebrew people who feel like they are being occupied, like this land should be theirs. God should give them their homeland back but instead it’s under Roman control and they just get to, squat there, this is the environment that Jesus came into. And so, Jesus message, the vast majority of the time, was to the Hebrew people, in a Hebrew context. Jesus was known as a Hebrew rabbi or even a Hebrew prophet, the signs and wonders are largely among the Hebrew people, indicating that God is hearing them. The people are flocking to Jesus but they’re Hebrew people. So, this whole thing is happening in Hebrew context after Jesus’ death and resurrection and the birth of the church and the falling of the Holy Spirit upon the people, this is all happening in a Jewish or Hebrew context. The earliest early church was Hebrew people, was made up of Hebrew people, in a Hebrew context. Peter is talking to a non-Hebrew family, a Gentile family, a Roman family and he has been summoned there to tell about Jesus. Cornelius received of visionary communication, that he should send for Peter and Peter received a visionary communication that what God has made clean, is clean and also that he should go with these people back to Caesarea. So Peter is in a Gentile house. Something he definitely, culturally, should not be doing and yet he had just had this disruptive vision about things being made clean that had previously been considered unclean and then he had been told to go with these people into a Gentile home. So, he’s sharing the Gospel and the Holy Spirit falls upon them, as the Holy Spirit had fallen upon the Hebrew people in the upper room, on the day of Pentecost. This is the first time they had ever seen anything like this, this was not a part of their framework for where things were going. Gentiles received the Holy Spirit and the dots were beginning to connect for Peter, because of this vision of things that were unclean, being declared clean, which might even include unclean people. Peter sees that the Holy Spirit has spoken here and they are baptized, the first Gentile people to be welcomed into a brand-new thing God was doing in the world. This is a game changer in the early church and now in the world today the Christian faith is made up almost completely of Gentile disciples, Gentile believers throughout the earth. What began as an exclusively Jewish thing, has become dominantly a Gentile thing. So, what we see today, is one of the biggest flashpoints, or monumental shifts that we can find in the Bible. This changes everything and is still changing things today. We’re going to see that this causes a significant amount of unrest and requires quite a bit of discernment and counsel. We’ll see that. But this is the flashpoint. Cornelius summons Peter and the Holy Spirit responds to Gentile people, filling them and they are baptized in the name of Jesus and welcomed into the community of faith. And this has not been done before, and this is not going to sit well with everybody, but thank goodness. I am a Gentile and I am grateful to be welcomed into the family of God. Most of us have the same story and we can trace those roots back to this moment in Caesarea in Cornelius’s home, among his household. And so, let’s appreciate that. Let’s have a sense of gratitude that this very, very exclusive thing was being transformed into…into an inconclusive thing were all are invited, everyone can come, let’s enjoy that shift, as we read it but let’s also understand that this sets off a chain of events and we will see this as we continue through the book of Acts and through the letters of the apostle Paul and all the way through the rest of the New Testament, but it begins here.

Prayer:

This changes things substantially and we thank You Father for that shift, we thank You for the awareness that began to descend upon the apostles that everyone, everyone is invited. Thank You for Your mercy and kindness so that most of us who are hearing this today, can only be grateful, we shouldn’t have been able to be here and yet You welcomed us, even when we were estranged and even when we weren’t permitted to be involved. You died for us and swung open the doors and invited humanity to participate in the process of restoring our species. Thank You, we love You, may we work with You and not against You. In this we pray in the precious and mighty name of Jesus. 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.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hello, my DAB family, this is __ calling from the UK. I trust we are all doing well by the grace of the Lord almighty. I’m calling today for someone approached me and said she wanted to pray for somebody. I do not know who the young man is but he’s a 24-year-old, his name is Steven. I’ve heard he’s had a really rough life from childhood. He’s lost his mom as a child. And it’s just been going downhill from there. Right now, he’s hooked on drugs and alcohol and he’s supposed to get on a plane, soon, to a rehab rehabilitation, a Christian rehabilitation center. So, the prayer is that he gets on that plane. Because there’s really not much one can do if he decides not to get on that plane. And get on that plane, gets to his destination and stays there. And, by the grace of God, comes out of there a new being, a new creation. I thought to bring it to my family because I know that Scriptures tells us that when two or three are gathered in His name that He’s there. So, I ask you to please, remember Steven in your prayers and ask that the Good Lord, will lead him through the right path and bring him out on the other side. In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Thank you very much for praying with me and may God bless each and every one of us.

Hey DAB family, it is Monday, June 13th and this is your sister Ashley from California and I am humbly coming on here because I want to update you guys and ask you for prayer. The update is, is that, about a week ago, my Grandmommy Jody, who you all have been joining me in prayer, came home from the hospital. She was having problems with her liver enzymes, they were too high and they couldn’t figure, they can’t figure out why, they are like that. So, she, they cannot treat her Leukemia, with that. So, she decided that she wants to come home and there will be no further treatment. So, that’s the update. And what I’m asking for you, to join me in prayer for, is that, after Brian talked today about Solomon and finishing well, that is what came to my heart, what the Lord put on my heart. Guys, I want to ask you to please, help me to pray that my Grandmommy will finish well. That she will be honest about her feelings with the Lord but that she will be like David was and pour out her heart but then turn her eyes upon the Lord. And that she will cling to hope in him, so others will see Jesus and will want to know what helped her to overcome and to be a Proverbs 31 woman. Guys, she is, she is valuable, she is trustworthy, she is a hard worker, she’s well trust, she’s valuable, she’s a treasure. So, please join me in prayer for my Grandmommy. Grandmom, if you listen to this, I love you and we’re gonna get through this a day at a time. I love you DAB family. Bye.

Hello, this is Bob from Arizona. I’m listening to 2nd June podcast today. Right away, a gentleman by the name of John Wimberly, called the exact in Jonathan, was asking for prayer for a drug addiction. And his plea was, affected me, I certainly am not affected by that but I know friends, family, who are. And John, Jonathan, your plea was heard, certainly by me and all the DABers. And we do pray for you, we pray you do exactly what the Lord has called you to do and you’re doing that. You’re giving Him glory, you’re giving Him honor, you’re sharing that with us and building our faith. And I pray that the Holy Spirit will give you strength and power to overcome this addiction. I believe you said you were in training right now, in rehab of some sort. So, I pray that be successful, all glory given to the Lord. And I thank you for your spirit, you had a deep sense of Christ in your life, the Holy Spirit in your life and I’m encouraged by that. So, in Jesus name, just help him Father. Help him to just be confident in his faith and show him Your face. I pray for that in Jesus name. Amen.

Hi, everyone this is __ in Anjure. Calling from Dubai. I was going through and still going through a lot of depression because of some family issues with my wife and my wife’s family and my family. I ask for a humble prayer request to everyone around the world who is listening to the Daily Audio Bible, it will change a lot of things, the way I look at the life, so I ask everyone to ___ prayer to have a unity in the family. To get back the things that were normal to us. And thank you.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Casco Mountain Aaron in New York State. I’m calling for prayers because I was diagnosed this week with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I go in for my last few tests today, which will find whether the cancer is just in one large tumor in my heart and lungs. I say just, or if it has spread through my body. I’m ready to walk whatever path the Lord wants me to run and I’m at peace with this but my greatest fear in life would be not being here for my wife and sons. So, I can’t deny that I have definite fear here. So, I’m just asking for your prayers over that fear, over the diagnosis and that God willing, this has not spread through my body. Thank you all and I love you.