Latest Commentaries

Paul begins this letter by greeting the faithful believers in Ephesus and asks God to give them favor and peace.

God asks Jonah if it is proper to be angry over a plant. Jonah affirms he has every reason to be angry, even to death. God rebukes him for having more sympathy for a plant he neither planted nor cultivated than for the souls of the Ninevites.

While Jonah sits under his shelter outside of Nineveh, God appoints a plant to provide extra shade for him, making him very happy. But when God assigns a worm to destroy the plant and a scorching east wind to cause the sun to beat down on Jonah’s head, he grows faint and wishes to die.

Jonah becomes angry because the LORD spares the Ninevites. He asks the LORD to take his life. The LORD responds to Jonah with a question to urge him to evaluate his anger.

When God sees the people’s genuine response, He responds with compassion and spares them from the announced judgment.

The king and the people of Nineveh respond positively to Jonah’s message. They abandon their evil behavior and turn to God.

The LORD commissions Jonah again to go to Nineveh. This time Jonah obeys the LORD. He goes through the city and proclaims a message of judgment to the Ninevites, as the LORD has commanded him.

The LORD commands the fish to bring Jonah to shore and deposit him safely there.

The LORD delivers Jonah from the sea when Jonah prayed to Him. Now Jonah gives a testimony of his deliverance and promises to pay the vows he made.

The prophet Jonah describes his distressful experience in the waters. As he is on the verge of death, he cries out to the LORD for deliverance.

Jonah prays to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish.

The Council heeds Gamaliel’s advice to not kill the apostles. But they have them whipped all the same, then forbid them again from teaching about Jesus. When released, the apostles praise God that He found them worthy of persecution. They go right back to preaching that Jesus is the Messiah, in the temple and at people’s homes.

Many in the Council are enraged by the apostles’ defense. They wish to kill them. But Gamaliel, a Pharisee, advises the other religious leaders to leave the apostles alone. He reminds the Council of two other men from the past who pretended to be sent by God, but when they died, their followers gave up their cause. If the apostles are not from God, their ministry will fail. If they are from God, then nothing can stop them, nor would the Council want to oppose God’s will.

The high priest interrogates the apostles. He asks them why they are teaching in Jesus’s name throughout Jerusalem. He reminds them that he had already threatened Peter and John to stop this. He also asks why the apostles keep accusing them of being responsible for Jesus’s death. The apostles reply that they obey God, not men. They speak their message to the Council, that God resurrected Jesus, and exalted Him as Prince and Savior to sit at the right hand of God’s throne. The apostles testify that they have witnessed these acts of God, and that the Holy Spirit is with them.

The Council of Pharisees and Sadducees send for their prisoners, the apostles. But the temple soldiers discover the apostles are not in the jail, despite the doors being locked and the guards standing at their posts. A messenger informs the Council that the apostles are back at the temple, teaching just as before. The guards arrest the apostles again, peacefully, to avoid conflict with the crowds of people there.

The Sadducees are angered by the apostles’ ministry in the temple and have them arrested. An angel frees the apostles during the night and tells them to return to the temple and continue teaching. The apostles obey.

The apostles continue to heal the Jewish people in the walkway of the temple, preaching that Jesus is the Christ. Crowds gather, even from the suburbs of Jerusalem. Sick and afflicted people pour in daily, experiencing healing. Many repent and believe, joining the growing church.

Sapphira, the wife of Ananias, goes before the apostles, not knowing that her husband is dead. Peter tests her by asking if the money they donated was the full price of the property sale. She lies and says "Yes." Peter wonders why she and her husband conspired to lie to God. She too is struck dead by God, and is buried. A sobering, instructive fear spreads among the believers when they hear this.

Two believers, Ananias and his wife Sapphira, sell property just as other believers have been doing. However, they plot to keep some of the money for themselves, and lie to the apostles that they are donating the full sale to the church. Peter confronts Ananias for lying to God. God strikes Ananias dead and he is buried.

With aid of Psalm 110, Jesus asks the Pharisees a series of questions about how the Messiah is both the Lord of David and his son? The Pharisees have no response, and Jesus’s enemies are afraid to publicly confront Him.