Day 68 — Paul's Sermon: Jesus' Resurrection (Acts 13:26-37) | July 2

Day 68 — Paul's Sermon: Jesus' Resurrection (Acts 13:26-37) | July 2

"But God." Two words that shift the entire narrative. The people of Jerusalem killed Jesus. But God raised him from the dead. Paul stacked eyewitness testimony alongside three Old Testament texts to build an airtight case: David died and decayed. Everyone can walk to his tomb. But the one God raised up did not decay. The resurrection isn't a feel-good epilogue to a story already written. It's the load-bearing wall of the entire gospel. In this episode, Paul drives home the claim that changes everything: if God really raised Jesus, then every promise God ever made is trustworthy. Every single one.

Day 67 — Paul's Sermon: Israel's History (Acts 13:17-25) | July 1

aul opened his first recorded missionary sermon not with Jesus but with Abraham. He walked the synagogue through centuries of Israel's story with one unmistakable emphasis: God is the subject of every verb. God chose. God led. God raised up. God gave. Eleven different actions, and God is behind all of them. Then Paul funneled the entire narrative from David straight to Jesus, skipping everything in between, and used John the Baptist as a bridge his audience already trusted. In this episode, we hear a master communicator find common ground before making his case, letting the weight of Scripture build until the arrival of Jesus felt like the most natural conclusion in the world.

Day 66 — Arrival in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:13-16) | June 30

John Mark went home. The journey ahead meant crossing the Taurus mountains, a treacherous stretch known for bandits and brutal conditions. Whatever drove Mark's decision, the team was now smaller. Paul and Barnabas pressed on to Pisidian Antioch, walked into a synagogue on the Sabbath, and waited. When the leaders offered the standard invitation for a visiting rabbi to speak, they had no idea what they were handing the microphone to. In this episode, we watch a leadership shift, a team loss, and a wide-open door. Paul stood up to preach, and everything he'd been prepared for, the training, the Damascus road, the years in obscurity, had led to this moment.

Day 65 — Cyprus: Elymas the Sorcerer (Acts 13:4-12) | June 29

Barnabas and Saul crossed to Cyprus and preached their way across the island with nothing dramatic to show for it. Then they reached Paphos and walked into a spiritual showdown. A sorcerer named Elymas tried to block the Roman governor from hearing the gospel. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, called him exactly what he was and pronounced blindness on him. The governor believed. In this episode, we see Saul become Paul, the Gentile mission officially launches, and the gospel reaches into the halls of Roman power for the first time through Paul's ministry. Opposition to God's work doesn't always come roaring. Sometimes it comes advising.

Day 64 — Set Apart for Mission (Acts 13:1-3) | June 28

Five leaders in Antioch: a Cypriot landowner, an African, a North African, a man raised in Herod's palace, and a reformed religious terrorist. They were worshiping and fasting when the Holy Spirit spoke: "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul." For twelve chapters, the gospel had been spreading reactively, pushed outward by persecution. Now, for the first time, the church sent missionaries on purpose. And they sent their two best leaders. In this episode, we witness one of the hinges of history. The third movement of Jesus' commission in Acts 1:8 begins. The gospel is heading to the ends of the earth, launched by ordinary people listening to the Spirit and saying yes.