Day 40: The Message Expands outward, with opposition

There's a shift coming here -- in chapter 12, it is the preaching and message of Peter which still take precedence, but shortly the apostle Paul and his exploits will take center stage.  Though right away we can tell that the church is growing, and that the opposition is growing too.

James, John's brother is martyred, Peter is put in prison, and the church is under duress.  It is not explicitly stated, but the implication is that Peter is about to be martyred.  But an angel leads him through locked prison doors, until he is comes to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark.  (this is where the believers often met.)  He knocks on the door, and a little servant girl named Rhoda answers the door.  She is so excited to see him that she forgets to let him in!

Also, just inside, many disciples are sitting in a circle and praying for Peter.  Imagine their surprise when the answer to their prayers is suddenly standing among them.

Perhaps it felt as if Jesus had been resurrected again.

Answers to prayer are not always (or even usually) so dramatic or immediate.  But this gives you an idea of  how the Spirit directed the early believers.

So the Spirit sends them out from Antioch, even farther out.  Paul, Barnabas and John Mark head down to Seleucia, to Cyprus,  and to Paphos and Perga, preaching in the synagogues and then going out to tell the Gentiles as well.

Paul preaches a sermon telling the basic story about Jesus.  He meets with success at first, but later on, some of the other Jewish leader come in with questions, and their success is diminished.  This is the pattern wherever he goes, whenever Paul goes out into the world; he always goes to the synagogue first, and then later on, they go out to the Gentiles.

Even when Paul meets with success, there are complications.  Paul heals a man in Lystra, and then has to deal with the problem that the people there think they are gods, like Zeus and Hermes.  They are too popular for their own good.  Even so, it appears that the crowds of believers are easily swayed, and later on Paul is stoned and left for dead.

Crowds are fickle.  It is ever so.

And even success bring complications, for the early church, and for us.