Acts 12-13

Herod takes center stage and starts to do a bunch of bad things. First he kills James with the sword. After he sees that this pleases the Jews, he arrests Peter. Peter is in prison and Herod had planned to bring him out one night. I'm assuming this means that Herod had planned to take him from the prison to have him killed or something like that. However, he is set free by an angel, even though he is under heavy surveillance by a number of guards. After Peter has been set free by the angel, he goes to the house of Mary, who is the mother of John Mark. The door is answered by Rhoda, a servant girl, who is so excited that it is Peter that she forgets to open the door for him. She tells the rest of the people that Peter is at the door, but they don't believe her until they finally come and see and open the door for Peter. He tells them what happened and soon leaves.

This next scene we see the people have a dispute with Herod. So Herod addresses the people and pleases them somehow by delivering to them an "oration" as it says in ESV. The people were apparently so pleased that they were saying that Herod has the voice of a god and not of man. Herod is immediately killed by an angel of the Lord because he didn't give God the glory. Herod should have immediately corrected them, saying that he is not a god. However, he didn't, and simply accepted this praise that came from these people. Later on in chapter 14, crowds of people desire to make offerings to Paul and Barnabas in Lystra. When Paul and Barnabas hear of this, they tear their garments telling the crowd that they men just like everyone else and not gods. Herod should have acted like Paul and Barnabas, who wouldn't dare take offering and praise that belong to God.

It even says that worms eat Herod, which is quite a terrible way to die or have your body dealt with. Barnabas and Saul return from Jerusalem and they have with them John Mark.

At the church in Antioch, Barnabas and Saul are told by the word of the Holy Spirit to be set apart for work for which the Holy Spirit has called them to. So they begin their journey taking along with them John Mark who assists them. They go to Cyprus where they are summoned to speak to a number of respected people. A magician named Elymas oppose them, but Paul speaks boldly against Elymas who by the hand of the Lord causes Elymas to be blind for a period of time. At this the people seeing this believe the words of Saul and Barnabas.

One interesting thing about this section is how Saul is now introduced as Paul. Paul is his Greek name and he is from now on introduced as Paul instead of Saul.

Now they go to Paphos and we find that John Mark leaves them. At Paphos they go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and when the Jews ask for a word of exhortation, Paul stands up and starts talking. Similar to Stephen's speech, Paul begins from the Old Testament. He talks about judges and Samuel and Saul and eventually tells them about Jesus. Paul and Barnabas are invited back to the synagogue to speak to them on the next Sabbath. On the next Sabbath, the whole city gathers to hear them speak. The Jews become jealous and start trying to contradict what Paul and Barnabas are saying. Paul and Barnabas answer the Jews, saying that they came to the Jews first and now they are speaking to the Gentiles, according to what the Lord has instructed them to do. The Gentiles were happy about this and the word of the Lord spread through the region. However, the Jews stir up trouble to kick Paul and Barnabas out, so they shake the dust off their feet and went to Iconium.