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

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.

Day 63 — Herod's Death (Acts 12:20-25) | June 27

Herod put on a silver robe, stepped into the morning sun, and let a crowd call him a god. He didn't correct them. An angel struck him down, and he was eaten by worms. The man who had just been hailed as divine died in agony, consumed from within. Luke's reason is devastating in its simplicity: "because he did not give the glory to God." At the beginning of this chapter, James was dead, Peter was imprisoned, and Herod was powerful. At the end, Peter is free, Herod is dead, and the word of God is flourishing. In this episode, we reach the turning point of Acts. The first half closes, and the gospel is about to go global. No king, no prison, no persecution will be able to stop it.

Day 62 — Peter at Mary's House (Acts 12:12-19) | June 26

Peter showed up at the door of a prayer meeting that had been begging God for his release. And they didn't believe it. A servant girl named Rhoda recognized his voice and was so overjoyed she forgot to open the gate. She ran back to tell everyone, and they told her she was out of her mind. Meanwhile, Peter kept knocking. In this episode, we discover one of the funniest scenes in the New Testament and one of the most honest. The heroes of the early church prayed all night for a miracle, and when the miracle showed up at the door, their first instinct was disbelief. Sometimes the people closest to the ground see what the experts miss. Rhoda believed first.