Acts 11

• Acts 11:21 – They turned to the Lord. Compare Acts 26:17-18; I Thessalonians 1:9. Turning to God involves serving Him (and repenting).
• Acts 11:23 – Barnabas saw the grace of God – how the church was growing and prospering.
• Acts 11:28 – This famine is recorded in history.
• Acts 11:29 – Relief was sent specifically to the needy brethren – not to all people in the region.

Acts 12

• These events took place roughly 44 AD, about 14 years after the events of Acts 2.
• Acts 12:1-2 – Two martyrs are mentioned by name in the first twelve chapters of Acts: Stephen and James. We don’t know how many more Christians were killed by Paul before his conversion.
• Acts 12:3 – Herod imprisoned Christians to please others. We must be careful not to do wrong just to please others.
• Acts 12:11 – Compare Psalms 126.
• Acts 12:13 – Compare Peter’s state in John 18. God has truly brought Peter out of prison. He is a changed man now.
• Acts 12:17 – Catholics sometimes argue that this “other place” is Rome where Peter became the first Pope. But Peter is again in Jerusalem in Acts 15:7 and we have no evidence in the New Testament of Peter taking any sort of position like this. Peter might have left to an undisclosed location as a strategic move because he knew the persecution was pointed at him at this point, so he left to take it away from the other Christians.

Keep the proper reverence for God.

• I Corinthians 4:1
• I Corinthians 1:14-15 – Paul is trying to get them out of the party spirit.
• I Corinthians 1:25
• I Corinthians 1:31; 2:4-5
• I Corinthians 3:19
• I Corinthians 4:19-20 – God has the real power! See I Corinthians 1:18. The power is the gospel.
• I Corinthians 2:1

Be willing to accept admonishment.

• I Corinthians 4:6-8 – Watch out for arrogance! Paul and Apollos submitted to these things, so they should also.
• I Corinthians 8:1 – Don’t let knowledge make you arrogant.
• I Corinthians 4:14, 18, 21 – Paul loved them enough to admonish them.
• II Corinthians 2:6-9
• We must be willing to accept admonishment and accept others back when they repent from sin.

Endure headships for Christ.

• I Corinthians 4:9-21

Genesis 23 – Sarah dies

• Tribute to Sarah. Sarah dies and Abraham buys a burial place. I Peter 3:6; Hebrews 11:11. Sarah was a big deal!

Genesis 24 – Isaac marries

• Genesis 24:1-9 – Abraham asks his servant to get a bride for Isaac from Mesopotamia but not to take Isaac there. Trust God to show you.
• Genesis 24:10-14 – The servant prays for God to direct him.
• Genesis 24:15-27 – The servant asks the first woman he sees, who happens to be beautiful but proves to be a servant. The servant bows and worships.
• Genesis 24:28-61 – The servant repeats what happened at the well to show that God was behind it. Laban and Bethuel cannot argue. The servant wants to go back to Isaac as soon as possible. Rebekah agrees to go.
• Genesis 24:62-67 – Isaac was going out to meditate and meets Rebekah, who covers herself. She became his wife and he loved her.

Genesis 25 – Abraham dies, Jacob and Esau are born

• Genesis 25:1-6 – Abraham has other sons with other women. (Was this right for Abraham to do?) Abraham sends them away to the east.
• Genesis 25:6-11 – Abraham dies and Isaac and Ishmael bury him in the cave he bought to bury Sarah.
• Genesis 25:11-18 – Descendants of Ishmael. Muslims claim they are descendants of Ishmael, thus also children of Abraham.
• Genesis 25:19-21 – Isaac prayed for his wife to be pregnant.
• Genesis 25:22-23 – Her pregnancy was difficult, so she prayed to God. God chose who would be blessed. See Romans 9:11.
• Genesis 25:24-28 – Jacob (supplanter, cheater) and Esau (hairy) were born. Parental partiality caused problems.
• Genesis 25:29-34 – Jacob cheats Esau out of his birthright, but Esau allows himself to be cheated. Esau didn’t view his birthright as important enough (see Hebrews 12:15). As Christians, how many times do we fail to value our birthright of salvation by continuing to sin?

Genesis 26 – Isaac repeats some of the mistakes of Abraham

• Genesis 26:1-6 – There was a famine in the land. God tells Abraham not to go to Egypt but to stay in Canaan and He would bless him.
• Genesis 26:7-11 – Isaac repeats the same mistake that Abraham made to the same guy!

Introduction

• Joshua 6
• Kathleen Kenyon, Digging Up Jericho, p. 262-262
  • In her timeline, no trace of the town walls of Jericho could be found.
• Joshua 6:1-3, 20-27

Fortified walls – just like the Bible says

• Deuteronomy 9:1
• Kathleen Kenyon doesn’t deny that Jericho was a mighty, fortified city.
• The city was built on a hill with a 30-40 foot other wall six fee thick. There was an inner wall that topped out at 70-75 feet above ground level.
• The area inside the inner wall was about six acres. The total area inside the outer wall was about nine acres.
• There were possibly 1200 people inside the inner walls.
• People also lived between the inner and outer walls, but this was likely slums. Rahab would have lived here.

The walls fell flat – just like the Bible says

• Joshua 3:15 – a time of harvest
• Jericho had a spring inside the city, along with massive food storage. They were well prepared for a long siege.
• The walls fell in such a way to provide a siege ramp for the Israelites.
• Joshua 6:20 – Each man went straight ahead because the fallen walls made a siege ramp for him.

Rahab’s home – just like the Bible says

• Joshua 2:15, 12-21
• Joshua 6:17, 22-23
• There was an area of the wall on the north side with a couple of homes attached that did not fall down. This is possibly Rahab’s house. Outside the wall on that side was a convenient place where the spies could have escaped to.

A city destroyed by fire – just like the Bible says

• The city was heavily burnt, but the outer walls fell first.
• Much burned grain in ports was found, which is very unusual. Normally, attackers would steal the grain first because it was very valuable and then burn the city. But God told Israel to turn the city without taking the grain, so that is what they did.
• Joshua 6:18-19
• Hebrews 11:30

Acts 10

• Acts 10:1-2 – Cornelius was a devout man, who had a good reputation (see Acts 10:22).
• Acts 10:3-4 – This is the first of four supernatural events in this chapter.
• Acts 10:9-16 – Peter sees a vision from God. This is the second supernatural event.
• Acts 10:17-23 – God gave Peter the vision, then allowed him some time to meditate on it.
  • Acts 10:23 – Six men accompanied Peter, as we learn from Acts 11:12.
• Acts 10:24 – Cornelius wanted all his friends and relatives to hear the message also.
• Acts 10:25-26 – Peter made it clear that he was not to be worshiped.
• Acts 10:28 – Peter now understood his mission.
• In Acts 8, 9, and 10, the Holy Spirit always worked to bring the sinner and the gospel together. The Holy Spirit didn’t directly tell the sinner what to do to be saved but brought him in contact with a man who could.
• Acts 10:44 – The Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles, showing that the message was for them also. There is nothing in this passage that implies that the Holy Spirit will fall upon all believers.
• Acts 10:47 – Clearly baptism is required for salvation.

Acts 11

• Acts 11:2-3 – Peter gets rebuked for going and eating with uncircumcised people.
• Acts 11:18 – They rejoiced that the Gentiles could now partake of salvation!