Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we open in the church at Antioch, in modern-day Turkey. There's a group of prophets and teachers

leading the church, including two who have sketchy pasts. There's Saul, of course, the former persecutor of Christians, but there's also a group of prophets and teachers leading the church, including two who have sketchy pasts.

There's Saul, of course, the former persecutor of Christians, but there's also a guy named

Menean who used to work for the King Herod who killed JTB. So here are these Christians,

working alongside and being led by people who at one point killed their leaders and friends.

This is what the gospel looks like. It not only reaches

past nationalism, but it reaches past pain and hurt as well. Together, they're worshiping God and

fasting, and in the midst of it all, they get some direction from the Holy Spirit. Remember how Jesus

said the Spirit would be their guide? We're continuing to see that in the ways he's directing

Peter's steps to go see Cornelius, and in the ways he's directing Peter's steps to go see

Cornelius, and in the way he's telling them to appoint Barnabas and Saul as missionaries,

and the church obeys the spirit's promptings. They lay hands on them and pray for them and

anoint them with oil, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. And they're off. First stop, Cyrus,

and John Mark comes along too. While they're preaching

their way across the island, the governor hears about it and summons them. He's hanging out with a

false prophet slash magician who relies on the power of the enemy. As the disciples preach the

gospel, the governor is starting to come around, so the magician tries to dissuade him. Then Saul calls him out. He calls

him a son of the devil, actually, and he speaks temporary blindness over him. Saul had experienced this

himself, so he knows what it's like. I wonder if any part of him hoped this temporary blindness

would end in spiritual sight, like his did. The governor sees all this happen and he's sold on Jesus

because he was already astonished based on the teaching alone.

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