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Zechariah cares for the oppressed Judeans using two staffs: one is called Favor and the other Union. He then dismisses the inadequate leaders and renounces his commission to allow the people to receive the fate awaiting them. Finally, he breaks the two staffs, signifying that God will temporarily remove His favor from the people and will not unify Judah and Israel for a while. 

The LORD commanded Zechariah to care for His covenant people because, like sheep destined for slaughter, they are at the mercy of dishonest merchants and shepherds. The LORD will punish the people, causing strife within the community. 

Zechariah urges the leaders of Lebanon and Bashan to lament the destruction of their forested land because the LORD will come to them with judgment. 

Matthew summarizes Jesus’s third, and official, religious trial. He says it took place in the morning and tells us that it resulted in condemning Jesus to death. After the predetermined trial concluded, Jesus was immediately brought to Pilate, the Roman governor. This event is known as Jesus’s Sunrise Trial.

Having reached their guilty verdict, the priests mock and physically abuse Jesus. 

The cohort of priests conduct their trial of Jesus. It consists of false and conflicting testimonies. Jesus does not answer their accusatory questions, to their frustration. But when the high priest demands to know if He is the Messiah and the Son of God, Jesus affirms that He is. Ignoring the truth of His claim, they use this as evidence to condemn Him to death. This event is known as Jesus’s Night—Time Trial in the Home of Caiaphas

Jesus is brought to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest, for His Night—Time Trial in this narrative transition from the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter secretly follows from a distance to see the outcome and waits in the courtyard of the high priest’s home.

The Sanhedrin Council convenes in their temple courtroom to officially try Jesus at dawn. They expeditiously follow the same line of arguments that Caiaphas employed to condemn Jesus of blasphemy in Jesus’s second religious trial a short while earlier. As soon as Jesus confirms He is the Christ and Son of God, the Council is ready to convict and condemn Him without any further testimony. This event is known as Jesus’s Sunrise Trial 

Paul affirms his integrity by calling upon God as his witness and naming the Corinthians as his ministry partners. 

Paul gives reason for his change of travel plans to return to Corinth. He defends his integrity and character as his basis for what he does to follow Christ. His foundation is Christ, Who is the Amen and the Yes of God. All believers can share in this by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Paul declares that his confidence comes through a clear conscience. He defends his actions to the Corinthians, that he was not acting by the wisdom of man, but by the grace of God.

Paul specifies that he and Timothy suffered persecution in the province of Asia, to the point where they thought they were going to die. But God delivered them from death. God will ultimately deliver all believers from death by resurrecting us. Paul thanks the Corinthians for praying for him.

Paul writes his second letter to the church at Corinth. He greets the believers there with blessings of grace and peace. He shares some of his own sufferings for the sake of the gospel, but declares that we have a God of mercies who will comfort us in the measure of our sufferings. We will be delivered in these sufferings by a God who raises the dead.

The good news about Christ Jesus’s death and resurrection continues to spread. More and more people believe in it. Barnabas and Saul (Paul) leave Jerusalem and take Barnabas’ cousin, John Mark, with them.

The next day, Herod and his men cannot find Peter. The king orders Peter’s guards to be executed. Herod departs Jerusalem for Caesarea. Later, while standing before a crowd in his kingliest clothing, the people shout that he is a god. Herod welcomes their praise. God sends an angel to strike Herod dead soon after.

Peter goes to a woman named Mary’s house, where a prayer meeting is taking place. Believers have stayed awake praying for him all night. Peter knocks at the gate and a servant-girl hears his voice.

While in prison, Peter is chained to two guards and has many more standing watch over him in his cell. While he is sleeping, an angel arrives in the cell and wakes him. The chains fall from Peter’s wrists and the angel leads him out of the prison. Peter thinks he is dreaming, until he finds that he is genuinely free and standing in the street.

Herod Agrippa I begins persecuting the believers in Jerusalem. He executes James, one of the twelve Apostles. This violence makes the Pharisees and Sadducees happy, so Herod arrests Peter with the intention of executing him after Passover. The believers pray for Peter diligently.

The Charity of the Gentile Believers: Prophets from Jerusalem visit Antioch, and one named Agabus prophesies a global famine during Claudius Caesar’s reign. Moved by this warning, the Antiochian disciples decide to send relief money in preparation for the famine to their Judean brethren, according to their wealth. Barnabas and Saul are entrusted to deliver these contributions to the Judean elders.

Gentiles in Antioch Believe in Jesus: At the murder of Stephen years prior, a persecution against the church began. Due to the persecution, believing Jews spread out to regions like Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, initially preaching about Jesus only to Jews. However, some began preaching to Greeks in Antioch. A significant number of Greeks believed in Jesus. Hearing this, the Jerusalem church sends Barnabas to Antioch, who, seeing God at work among the Antiochians, further encourages the believers in their faith. Barnabas then seeks Saul (Paul) to join him in teaching the rapidly growing community. Paul ministers there for a year.