Scripture referenced 5 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Acts 11:29-30 believers in Antioch sending relief to brothers and sisters in Judea through Barnabas and Saul
29 As any of the disciples had plenty, each determined to send relief to the brothers who lived in Judea;
30 which they also did, sending it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
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Keep this verse
Acts 12:1-24
main text of the sermon covering Herod's persecution, Peter's imprisonment and deliverance, and Herod's death
1 Now about that time, King Herod stretched out his hands to oppress some of the assembly.
2 He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.
3 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread.
4 When he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover.
5 Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but constant prayer was made by the assembly to God for him.
6 The same night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in front of the door kept the prison.
7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side, and woke him up, saying, “Stand up quickly!” His chains fell off from his hands.
8 The angel said to him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” He did so. He said to him, “Put on your cloak, and follow me.”
9 And he went out and followed him. He didn’t know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he saw a vision.
10 When they were past the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went out, and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.
11 When Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I truly know that the Lord has sent out his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from everything the Jewish people were expecting.”
12 Thinking about that, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.
13 When Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer.
14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she didn’t open the gate for joy, but ran in, and reported that Peter was standing in front of the gate.
15 They said to her, “You are crazy!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.”
16 But Peter continued knocking. When they had opened, they saw him, and were amazed.
17 But he, beckoning to them with his hand to be silent, declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. He said, “Tell these things to James, and to the brothers.” Then he departed, and went to another place.
18 Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter.
19 When Herod had sought for him, and didn’t find him, he examined the guards, and commanded that they should be put to death. He went down from Judea to Caesarea, and stayed there.
20 Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus, the king’s personal aide, their friend, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food.
21 On an appointed day, Herod dressed himself in royal clothing, sat on the throne, and gave a speech to them.
22 The people shouted, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”
23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.
24 But the word of God grew and multiplied.
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Acts 12:25
closing verse of chapter 12, Barnabas and Saul returning to Antioch with John Mark
25 Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their service, also taking with them John who was called Mark.
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Psalm 86
mentioned as the text Dustin preached on the previous week
1 Hear, Yahweh, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my soul, for I am godly. You, my God, save your servant who trusts in you.
3 Be merciful to me, Lord, for I call to you all day long.
4 Bring joy to the soul of your servant, for to you, Lord, do I lift up my soul.
5 For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive; abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
6 Hear, Yahweh, my prayer. Listen to the voice of my petitions.
7 In the day of my trouble I will call on you, for you will answer me.
8 There is no one like you among the gods, Lord, nor any deeds like your deeds.
9 All nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord. They shall glorify your name.
10 For you are great, and do wondrous things. You are God alone.
11 Teach me your way, Yahweh. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name.
12 I will praise you, Lord my God, with my whole heart. I will glorify your name forever more.
13 For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
14 God, the proud have risen up against me. A company of violent men have sought after my soul, and they don’t hold regard for you before them.
15 But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
16 Turn to me, and have mercy on me! Give your strength to your servant. Save the son of your servant.
17 Show me a sign of your goodness, that those who hate me may see it, and be shamed, because you, Yahweh, have helped me, and comforted me.
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Ephesians 3:20-21
spoken as the benediction, referencing God doing far more than we ask or think
20 Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
21 to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
The pastor returned from a six-week trip through South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya to preach through Acts 12, a chapter he described as framed on both ends by death and held together in the middle by a scene of divine deliverance. He drew a straight line between what the early church faced under Herod Agrippa and what the church is always facing: the question of who is actually in charge of the advance of the gospel.
What was said
The chapter opens with Herod Agrippa the first, grandson of Herod the Great, who ruled from 41 to 44 AD. His motive for targeting the church was simple and political: killing James pleased his Jewish base, so he moved next to arrest Peter. The pastor placed this in its historical moment, noting it happened during the days of unleavened bread, the same season when Jesus had been crucified, which made the atmosphere in Jerusalem politically charged in every direction.
Peter sits in maximum security prison the night before his presumed execution, chained to two soldiers with two more at the door and fourteen others distributed across four guard squads. The detail that Peter was asleep when the angel arrived was not lost on the pastor. He compared it to Jesus sleeping in the boat during the storm, reading it as a picture of contentment and trust rather than obliviousness.
The angel's arrival, the light, the strike on Peter's side, the chains falling, the gates swinging open on their own, all of it happens while Peter thinks he is seeing a vision. He only comes to himself once he is standing free on the street. The pastor noted that the word used for how the angel woke Peter, and later for how God struck Herod, is the same Greek word, which he found worth pausing on.
When Peter makes his way to the prayer meeting at Mary's house, the mother of John Mark, the scene turns almost comic. The servant girl Rhoda recognizes his voice, is so overcome with joy that she forgets to open the gate, and runs back to tell the group, who promptly tell her she is out of her mind. The pastor said he thought this scene is in the text on purpose, to show that what God did here was beyond what anyone in that room had actually expected, and that genuine, fervent prayer can still fall short of imagining what God is actually willing to do.
The contrast with Herod's end is sharp. The pastor brought in Josephus, the Jewish historian, whose account of Herod's death in Antiquities of the Jews lines up closely with Luke's account, adding the detail of the silver garment, the theater setting, the flattery of the crowd calling Herod a god, and Herod's failure to rebuke them. Luke says he was struck by an angel because he did not give glory to God. Josephus says he was eaten by worms over five days and knew, in his own words, that it was because of his pride. The pastor read the two accounts alongside each other, treating the extra-biblical source as corroboration rather than replacement.
The chapter closes with a summary that the pastor said is the real point the whole structure has been building toward: the word of the Lord continued to grow and multiply. James died, Peter was delivered, Herod died, and the word kept moving. He connected this to a promise Jesus made to James directly, that James would indeed drink the same cup, and said that James's death was therefore not an accident or a failure but the will of God, just as Peter's deliverance was. Both outcomes belong to the same sovereign.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- The pastor described coming back from Africa and seeing churches in Uganda and Kenya where 'God's truth abideth still' even in difficult circumstances, but he also described seeing the prosperity gospel cause real harm. What do you think makes a local church resilient against teachings that distort the gospel?
- The chapter opens with James being executed and Peter being miraculously delivered, and the pastor said both outcomes were within God's sovereign will. How do you personally wrestle with the reality that God sometimes delivers and sometimes does not, and what does that mean for how we pray?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 8,995 words
Speaker 1Turn this thing on. Am I on now? Hey, good morning, everybody. I am glad to be back and I'm glad to see all of y'all here. My brain will probably catch up at some point.
We have crossed so many time zones, and we have heard so many languages in the past five, six weeks, and so many different accents because I drove from here to Georgia. That's a complete change. And then getting there and flying out, we went South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, and then back to the Southeast, flew into Atlanta earlier this week and I drove home from there. Tanya is spending Paschal's birthday with her. Today is Paschal's nineteenth birthday and so we're back and I'm thankful.
I won't be reporting on Africa without Tanya here but we'll be in the next few weeks doing this. I I kind of part of the reason for that is in the first service, we did a commissioning service for some missionaries that were going out. Y'all heard from them a couple of weeks ago but they're leaving this week, Anders and Brooke. And so rather than talk about, hey, this is what happened while we were there. We did a little bit a commissioning for them in the first service.
So, would you stand with me? And we've got some powerful music this morning. When you start right out of the gate with a mighty fortress is our God. Every word of every one of these songs, I think backs up bolsters the scripture that is going to be presented today and our God is just flat amazing. He's worldwide.
The sun never sets on what he's doing in the world. It's pretty awesome. So, would you sing with me like you mean it? A mighty fortress is our God.
Speaker 2Of craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate. On earth is not win the battle. And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us,
Speaker 1Amen. Amen. And amen. Wow. What a powerful song.
I'm kind of full this morning. Just filled with a lot but the spirit of the living God will sing about in a few minutes and the mighty fortress that is God that his truth abideth still is just amazing to be after this tour of church's languages all over. I preached last week, the last two song services until this morning that I was a part of were in Swahili. Yeah. And so, I'm I'm I'm awash with all these different kinds of words but the glory of God is like the the glory of the Lord is so evident in churches that will lift up Christ and proclaim his word and we saw in every good place where that is Christ is lifted up and his word is proclaimed.
We see that God's truth abideth still and it is advancing and everywhere where we saw an aberration, it's because they weren't paying attention to what it says, right? It's it's kind of easy in The US. We have exported the prosperity gospel all over the place. It's not good and then, Uganda, it's just taken taken off like crazy and it's really hard to watch an aberrant version of it but you know what? Everywhere we went, his truth abideth still and there is a not just a remnant but there's a solid capital c church that's advancing the gospel in the midst of difficulty.
So, anyway, here we are together. Let's sing sing another one. I'll fly away. I've been saying a lot lately. Sing it like you mean it.
This is a good one to sing it like you mean it. You know, you put your your citizenship is in heaven. Your trust is in God and content with whatever comes is a good way to live life. Here we go.
Speaker 2Sung glad morning I'll fly away. When the shadows of this life have gone out, fly away Just a few more weary days and then I'll fly away. To a land where joy shall never end,
Speaker 1fly Amen. I have a few announcements, y'all can have a seat. I seriously got here Friday evening to this land. The only person I talked to before the service this morning was Tim because he's the property and grounds guy and he's always here. So, when I was here looking at slides yesterday, I got to give my first little report to Tim, but I don't know what's going on.
So here it is. No one of this week. There's no school this week, so the no one of this week. Spring break, when I got here this morning, I didn't know whether it was gonna be just enough to do this at the Virginian around the tables but y'all came anyway. Thank you for being here and the first service was absolutely full.
The mission's moment today, Paco and Didi Quintero. Paco and Didi Quintero, they're actually in Bemibre, Spain is they are going through it right now. They're missionaries. They are filled to the brim with God's love and they're saturated with God's word and they are great carriers of the gospel. Didi is suffering physically right now and that's hard on a husband when his wife is suffering physically.
We we know that that's true and I just ask if y'all would be praying for them, it would be very helpful. What they're praying for is soft hearts that people around them would come to Jesus. What we're praying for them to God is that he would heal their bodies and take care of the instruments of his grace. So Lord, would you do that? We trust you to do that and we know that you're the great physician, that you're seeking to heal eternally, but you're also seeking to heal temporally.
So, would you take care of Didi and then all the doctor visits and all that's going on. Lord, I want for these missionaries to be encouraged to carry your good gospel to their surrounding areas. In Jesus name, amen. Well, I don't know what this is about. There's a QR code.
If you take out your phone, you'll find out what it's about. I think it's gonna take you to our website and you'll know what other events are happening and I saw that Carl tried to abolish the announcements and I'll just say, I'm in favor. Would you stand with me? Would you stand with me? We're going to get back to the song service and I am glad to be back but I really appreciated everybody that spoke in my absence.
Carl and Brad and Brad the second time and then Anders and Brooke that spoke a couple of weeks ago, sending them out this morning. It's great to see a church that just continues and they're not dependent upon one guy or the personality or anything like that. I don't ever think that way but it's really good to just see that it just keeps on happening. It's really good and last week, I was blown away by Dustin's message. Psalm 86 was wonderful.
So, would you join with me in this one? If you don't, if you do know it, sing loud. If you don't know it, sing loud the second verse, okay? Alright.
Speaker 2Hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at thy my unbelief. Savior, savior, hear my humble than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside thee?
Whom in heaven but thee?
Speaker 1Amen. I think of that and it mentions it in the song. It's it's about salvation. Yeah, don't pass me by but it's also about our sanctification and our our progressive understanding of what it is that God requires of us. What it is that God wants from us and just kind of a surrendered spirit not allowing for the moment to pass by, not allowing for the maker to pass us by but to be a part of what it is that he's doing in the world.
Spirit of the living God. This is how he does it. Spirit of the living God. Amen. Y'all can have a seat.
I'm gonna invite the ushers to come forward. And would y'all pray with me? Right there, would you open yourselves up to what it is that God would say back, but also would you as Dustin said last week, just let him know your neediness at all times, but right now, when we're asking his blessing on this, Lord God Almighty, I pray that you would bless this offering with everything that we place in the plates, the resources that we recognize you've given us. Lord, let us be hilarious about giving back to see your gospel go forward but lord, I also pray that we'd also give to you all of our cares and our anxieties and our needs that we would put those in there too, lord, that we would acknowledge our neediness before you. If we are not filled with the spirit of God, lord, we are inadimate.
We're like a glove without a hand. Lord God almighty, would you put on this glove and would you move and do what it is that you want done in this community, in this service, in this community, in this state, nation, and lord, ultimately to the very uttermost part. I thank you for the glimpses that we see of how your kingdom is advancing and how the kingdoms of this world are simply falling short. In Jesus name, may our citizenship be primarily in heaven and may we view everything from that lens. In Jesus name, we want it.
Amen. Amen. Thank you, Judy. So, this morning, Judy played in the first service and I led the music in the first service with Maria Coulter was helping along and we sang the same song service that we sang just now because Carl's out of town. Carl is now taking spring break and he's in Alabama and and Ryan was is wherever Ryan is and nobody everybody's spread out for spring break and normally, I play the bass in the first service so as not to get nervous before the sermon.
It's not because I'm a great bass player. Actually, I listen online. The bass player that filled in was much better than I am but it helps to not have to think about the sermon and when I'm playing bass, I can't think about anything except for playing bass. Leading the song service, I'm we're saturating ourselves in scripture and in good theology hopefully and and we're working through that and I was just overwhelmed by the sound coming back this morning and the reverberations of the praise of God. He inhabits the praise of his people, right?
And of his word being proclaimed and Christ being lifted up and I'm so thankful that that message is still happening all over the place. I said, I'm not going to report on what happened but it might come up here and there, right? For the next few weeks. I've got, I'm just falling right back in to where we left off, right? When I left, I had finished half of chapter 11 and then Carl finished out chapter 11 and I'm going to start in the last two verses where he left off but I'm mainly covering chapter 12.
It's an interesting thing to do because of the the things involved just to tend to parallel. If we're paying close attention to scripture, humble before it, I think God speaks to us in our present circumstances through the timeless truth but this one is uncanny. We're we were sending out missionaries this morning. This is the last thing that Carl presented and it bookends nicely with the end of chapter 12. So, I'm going to share it because I really, if I had had a chance, I would have put chapter 12 starts right here.
But this up to the end of chapter 12 is nice, a nice section. So, the believers in Antioch, the small local church in Antioch of the capital C church. So, the believers in Antioch decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters in Judea. Everyone in Antioch was given as much as they could to help those who were unfortunately stuck in Jerusalem during a time of famine and difficulty. So, the believers in one place where there was plenty were shared with the believers in another place where there was not plenty and this they did and they entrusted their gifts to Barnabas and to Saul to take to the elders of the church in Jerusalem and in a way, this is what y'all did for us sending us to Africa and helping out with several ministries that we have already established contact with and we know what's going on and we're sending some help.
Y'all did that to Tigone Baptist. You did it to the Emma Girls. You did it to Crossroads through us and trusting us. So, that's kind of cool. The believers in Antioch together praying prayerfully, they decided that they would send relief.
It was God's will. That's what they decided to do. That's good. That's cool. Nice start.
So, 11 ends with a missionary commissioning and 12 ends with that mission being completed and coming home. The main section of 12 starts and ends with death like that's what's happening today. Death and death at the ends, both ends and then in the middle, there's a section of divine deliverance in the middle. So, properly presented and properly understood. It's just an amazing chapter that I don't think of anything in here being a memory verse but I'm I'm changing my mind on that and I'm trying to keep this ever present in my mind.
What you see is when you oppose the will of God in the advance of the gospel, you lose and when you humbly put yourself in God's service, you gain. That might sound crazy considering the next few verses but it's not. When we get up to verse 24, we'll see that God is working in every single aspect of this. This also chapter 12 sort of closes off the section of Acts that's primarily concerned with Peter and his movements about and in chapter 13, well, missionary journey of Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark and then it'll follow Paul for most of the rest of the book. Now, about that time, when was that time?
As I read the scriptures, if I'm going through it and I've read book of Acts and I've seen there's a lot happening but it there aren't time signifiers where I know this happened in this year very often. About that time and it says, who was king? Herod, the king. That's Herod, Agrippa the first. Herod, Agrippa the first is the grandson of Herod the great.
In the New Testament, we see five different Herods. It's a Herodian dynasty. We see five different guys. So, anytime you see Herod, look up who it is. This is Herod Agrippa the first.
He was a ruler from '41 to '44. So, three years in there, four, three, four years in there. From '41 to forty four AD and the blue area is his area. He is the grandson of Herod the Great. Herod the Great is the one that had all the babies around Bethlehem killed.
That guy, pretty severe savage guy. Herod Antipas was one of his sons and Herod Antipas is the one who killed John the Baptist, had him killed the old Salome situation. He's the one who was involved in the kangaroo court that met and he was kind of, I don't want to deal with that. You deal with that. Pilate eventually dealt with it, declared him innocent seven times, and crucified him anyway.
The blue area is this Herod Agrippa the first. He is the most powerful and after Herod the great, he's the one who covered the most territory and his kingdom looks a lot like Herod the great's kingdom. He doesn't control the areas that are in red. That'll become pretty important before the end of this day. There are a couple of things in this little isthmus down here that are that are Tyre and Sidon are two city states that we'll mention towards the end of this.
He does not control those but his land is the breadbasket for that region and that comes to be important. So, he ruled '41 to '44. So, we can say with pretty absolute certainty that this happened in the year forty four AD. We know when it happened. We have extra biblical sources that say it.
We know when he reigned and it's just good to have a when you're going along. It's like, I wonder how long that took. Well, it's been about eleven years since crucifixion, resurrection. So, there we are. At about this time, Herod the king laid hands and it says, he laid hands on some who belong to the church to do them harm and some of your translations will say, he laid violent hands on some who were involved with the church.
To do them harm, there was no doubt about why he did it. He is a client king over the Jews and over that area that I showed you this area but under Rome, he had been brought up with Romans. He knew the ways of Rome. He understood the Roman Empire, how things worked, and he ingratiated himself to be in the power that he had. He got it through political means.
Though he is supposed to be the king of the Jews, the reason that his grandfather had killed all those babies is because he didn't want anybody else to be the king of the Jews. He passes down his dynasty to Herod Antipas, Herod the Tetrarch also known as Herod the Tetrarch and then Herod Agrippa the first grandson of Herod the Great has this power and we'll see a picture of who he is. He had James, the brother of John, son of Zebedee, sons of thunder. Herod the king had James, the brother of John executed with a sword, probably beheaded. By tradition, it's beheaded but he's executed with a sword.
That's the normal way. Why did he do that? When he saw that it pleased the Jews. So the Jews, it's been eleven years since the crucifixion whether you believe it in the resurrection or not like Herod is trying to hold on to power, right? And he knows his base politically speaking is the Jewish people.
He knows and actually it goes on to say, he saw that it pleased the Jews and so he proceeded to arrest Peter as well. Popular when he took James who is one of Jesus' inner circle. Peter, James, and John, right? They're the three that he had at the transfiguration. They're the three that he often called away.
They're the three that went with him in the garden. That's Jesus' inner circle, not just one of the 12 but one of those three. He took James, had him killed, and it made the Jewish people there happy in Jerusalem and so when he saw that it pleased him, he arrested Peter as well. Now, he's got two thirds of that inner circle. Now, these were the days of unleavened bread.
This is an anniversary situation going on too. Everybody remembers what happened. The weekend of the triumphal entry which we're about to get up to celebration Palm Sunday and Easter, the crucifixion of Jesus whether they were willing to admit to themselves the importance of the resurrection or not. Everybody remembered it and so, that also, if you're looking at the gospels and you see that the Pharisees were fussing about this happening on the Passover. We don't want this to happen on the Passover and it was still a time when Rome doesn't want to riot.
The Pharisees don't want to lose power. The sadducees don't want resurrection. There are all kinds of things that were working together and Jesus is crucified on the Passover. He is the Passover lamb. Against all of what they wanted to happen, it turns over to Rome and it happens on the day when they said, I don't want that to happen on that day.
They're still of the same mindset. They don't want for the Passover to be the time when somebody's executed. So, they're going wait until after Passover is over to execute him. Are you with me? You understand?
The political situation is hot. Very very hot. When Herod saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter as well. Now, these were the days of unleavened bread. So, when he arrested him, he put him in prison.
It's not the small little jail. It's prison. It's pretty heavily guarded. We might say maximum security. Behind at least three iron gates locked.
He put him in prison. He turns him over to four squads of soldiers. A squad is four soldiers. So, 16 people. 16 people.
Now, Peter's been arrested before and Peter has escaped before. So, he's an escape risk. They put 16 people with him. It's up to them. Under Roman law, if you're guarding a prisoner and you lose that prisoner, you are subject to whatever the prisoner was subject to.
If he's being tried and execution is the punishment, then, you can be executed. Everybody knows that going in. So, 16 guys who know their life depends on keeping this guy. When he had him resting, put him in prison, turned him over four squads of soldiers to guard him and intending only after the Passover to bring him before the people. The people were the Jewish people who were absolutely ecstatic that James had been killed, shut those people up.
We don't want to keep on hearing from those followers of the way. They're going to bring Peter forward and the law, we take for granted that the law is you're innocent till proven guilty. That's not the way that the law was then. You were guilty until you proved yourself innocent. So, he stands knowing that he's been charged with a capital crime that he is going to die for.
So, Peter was kept in the prison but prayer for him was being made to God intensely by the church. Fervent prayer was made for Peter to God by the church and that's the way it ought to be, right? Anders and Brooke, we sent them out this morning and I'm prayed for him before we left. I pray that all of us would be praying for him. Deb has a son and a daughter-in-law who are in ministry.
We should all be praying for them to God intensely or fervently. That's the way it ought to be. We have a missions committee that's constantly keeping up with our missionaries to know what's going on with them so that we can be petitioning the Lord. It aligns our heart with his to just be in constant contact with him about what's going on. So, for Peter to God by the church, now the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward.
So, this is the the eve of his execution the next day. Sure, there'll be trial between but hey, we know what's going to happen. On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. He's asleep. Content.
Whatever lot be his, he's content. He's happy. It reminds me of Jesus in the boat, right? During the storm and Peter was not worried. He was fine.
He was asleep between the two soldiers. He's bound with two chains. That makes sleeping kind of uncomfortable. He's chained to two guards. In front of the door, there are more guards watching over the prison.
And behold, an angel of the Lord. Angel means messenger but an angel of the Lord suddenly stood near Peter, doesn't say how he got in, doesn't say supernatural. He's an angel. Suddenly stood near Peter and a light shown in the cell. We can see the resplendent beauty of the glory of God on this angel and he struck Peter's side and woke him up.
Potato is the word. He struck him. He hit him and woke him up and I don't know how y'all wake up. I'm an I'm a waker upper like this. Like, says, the alarm goes I'm already up before the I I hit it on the first Tanya is not that way.
Tanya and Peter are alike. So, the angel punches it, strikes him, potazzo strikes him in the side and wakes him up and says, get up, get up quickly, come on. Yeah, come on now. Get up quickly and his chains fell off of his hands. And the angel said to him, put on your belt, strap on your sandals, come on, come on, come on, no, take off your pajamas before before you put on your pants.
Anybody who has kids has probably experienced that sort of. You wake em up and then you gotta kind of coax them into everything else. Angel said, get up. Come on. Quickly.
Put on your belt. Put on your strap. Put on your sandals and he did so And he said to him, wrap your cloak. Come on, put on your outside clothes too. Wrap your cloak around you.
Follow me. And he went out and he continued to follow. But it says, he yet, he did not know what was happening was really real. He's still not in that headspace of understanding that this is happening. He's waking up from apparently a deep sleep on the night before he's presumes he's gonna be executed.
They'd already killed James. Hit one of his best friends. Yeah. It's hard. It's hard news, Connor.
Yet, he didn't know what was happening, what was being done by the angel was actually real. He thought he was seeing a vision. He'd seen visions before. He knows how that goes. We saw him have a vision at Cornelius' house and he didn't understand at the time but it became clear and I I think he's probably trusting that God would make it clear what's going to happen.
Now, when they passed the first and the second guard, they came to an iron gate that leads into the city. So, this is the last gate and it says, it just opened of its own accord by itself. Just swings open. He was walking free and they went out and they went along one street. I think that probably a bet maybe a better translation.
One street and 1st Street. I think it's probably 1st Street. It it's saying specifically where the gate was, you know, and they went out and they went along 1st Street and immediately, after he's in the free or clean, free or free open, the angel departs from him having accomplished his mission and when Peter came to himself, finally, comes around groggy. He says, and now I know for sure, here I am. I'm outside the prison.
I'm outside on the street. I'm sure that the Lord has sent forth his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod. When we saw Peter and John before in chapter four, we saw them and they were delivered and it said, go and carry my word back into the temple. They were just wide open where they were going to be. So, he is under the sentence of execution just waiting for it to happen, delivered, and now he's coming around.
Now, I know. Well, where do I where do I go from here? I've been delivered from the hand of Herod who I know is an evil man who only does things to ingratiate himself to the base to make himself look good. And from all that the Jewish people were expecting. Wow.
When he realized this, he went on to the house of Mary. There's so many Marys in the New Testament. This Mary was the mother of John who's also called Mark. Mark, John Mark is gonna be a pretty important guy in the next few chapters. The first missionary journey goes with him.
He causes a little bit of an argument. The second one, but John Mark is the guy who would eventually write the gospel of Mark. It's really Peter's story but Mark is his writer downer. He's a scribe. When he realized this, he thought, well, I guess I'll go to Mary's house.
John Mark's mom, where many were gathered together and they were praying it. We already know they're praying because it said and the church was praying intensely or fervently or earnestly to God for Peter. Now, when he knocked at the door of the gate, a slave woman or a servant gal or a maid depending on your translation, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. Now, when she it's funny. It this is a comical scene.
If you if you if you don't know what's coming, this is this is just kind of, he just was set free miraculously and there's a whole group of people praying for him behind closed doors because who's next? Who's next? Now, when she recognized Peter's voice, knock knock, come on, it's me. It's Peter. Because of her joy, she didn't even open the gate but she ran back in.
This is apparently a big house that has a gate outside, a courtyard, and another house. She runs from the gate back to the courtyard into the house and she ran in and announced that Peter standing in front of the outside gate and what do you think they did actually? Let me back up. What do you think they did? They've been sitting there fervently, intently praying to God for Peter presumably that he would not be killed, that he'd be delivered.
Now, maybe the same group had gotten together and prayed for James. I I would think they probably did. I don't know. It doesn't give us a time frame or exact circumstances but I don't think that they would have missed opportunity to pray for James, you know. They definitely were praying for Peter and they knew they had a limited time of unleavened bread and then, he's certainly gonna be executed once while people are still in town but after the religious ceremonies and significance of the day of Passover.
Of Passover when they are celebrating the deliverance of God from his people in bondage. Because of her joy, she didn't even open the gate. She just ran back in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate to the prayer meeting that's praying for him to be delivered and they said to her, you're out of your mind. How many of y'all ever prayed for something and when answered the prayer exactly like you wanted or beyond what you thought? You just go, that's not true.
That's crazy. You're out of your mind. You gotta be out of your mind. Why would Peter be out there? He's going to be killed in the morning.
He's been delivered. They said to him, you're out of your mind. They're praying for Peter to God. They know he's almighty and they are the church. They are the ones who are endowed with his spirit and they know how to pray and they're praying for and yet they still don't get it.
I I actually I probably shouldn't mention it in the first oath. I'm mentioning this one too. Why not? Have you all ever been around a situation where somebody is praying for something and they're praying to be seen or they're praying to get the credit for when God does something miraculous? I have seen that happen a time or two.
I'll use a different example here. There was a gal that died south of here quite a bit south of here and there was a gathering of believers that were meeting together for a Bible study and a child died outside drowned and that gathering of believers had a real hard time with the finality of what had come to pass and so they were doing a resurrection service in a day or two and they believe that that girl was gonna be resurrected from the dead, that that was God. That's how he's gonna be glorified in this situation. The truth is the girl drowned and and she was dead and so they had this resurrection service and they prayed intently and earnestly for this girl to be resurrected from the dead and God to get all the glory and then when that didn't happen because the girl's dead, right? I believe in the resurrection.
I don't believe that God is beholden to us when we call on him and say, you're going to do this this way but they turned their everybody agreed that we've been praying so intently and there's somebody here who doesn't believe and it's your lack of faith. That's dangerous. That's dangerous. We should pray for more than we can do. We should pray for sovereign God to do whatever it is that he will do for his glory, for our good.
That's great but we can't blame him and we can't blame each other for a lack of faith as being the limiting factor on what God can do. I think the story is actually here so that we see this. They said to her, you're out of your mind. We're praying for him to be delivered but now that he has, that's crazy. They were praying for something that was more than they thought or more than they could imagine and she kept saying, but it is him.
I recognize his voice. I looked through the crack. I saw it looks like him. She kept insisting, it's Peter and they said, must be his angel. They came up with a theologically ridiculous idea that that this must be his angel.
That's crazy. That's the crazy thing. You're out of your mind. Angel, they're praying for Peter. They're praying to God.
It's beyond what they can do and when it happens, they still don't even believe it. It, I think that this is here to say, it's not just pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of faith that gets stuff done. Yeah, the fervent prayer of a righteous person does avail much but it's still up to God. James died and Peter was delivered. Both of those are God's will.
It's his domain. He's the one who says, who lives and who dies. We'll see that by the end of this chapter without any doubt. For Peter to God by the church but Peter continued knocking. I I didn't look up the reference but y'all know it.
Ask, seek, knock. Keep on knocking, continue knocking. He he says, he kept on knocking and when they had opened the door, they saw that it was actually him and they were amazed. Amazed comes up a lot in the book of Acts. People are constantly amazed by what God is doing.
I think the acts of the apostles is a misnomer. I think it is the acts of the Holy Spirit as experienced by the apostles. They were amazed by it but he was motioning to them with his hand. Y'all keep it down for crying out loud. It's the middle of the night and I got delivered.
Those guys are probably right behind me. And here we are having a joyous celebration, raucous even, motion of them. Keep it down. Keep it down. Keep it down.
He described to them how the Lord had led him out of prison in his slumber state and he said, report all these things to James. That James is James the brother of half brother of Jesus who will eventually write the book of James because we know Peter even knew that the other James had been killed. So he says, now y'all report these things to James and to the other brothers and sisters and then he left and he went to another place and the way it says another place, it looks like an undisclosed location. He went to a place where nobody know where he was. First place they're going to look is John Mark's mama's house because that's a common place where they met for prayer and so they're gonna be looking for him.
So he goes to another undisclosed place. Now, when daybreak came, there was no small disturbance. That is the understatement of the millennia right there. There was no small among the 16 soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. What happened?
We're we're we're right here chained to him. And at least half of them would have been probably probably three quarters of them, but at least half of them would have been awake having to be awake. Peter's asleep between them but they're supposed to be awake. Now, what happened? They're arguing among themselves.
There's no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become a Peter because all of them stand now with his sentence hanging over their head. Now, when Herod had searched for Peter and had not found him, he examined all of those guards looking for was it were they bribed? Was there some human way that he got out of here? Because the everything's got a good explanation. He knows how things work.
When Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined that the guards and he ordered that they be led away to their execution. So 16 guys are now dying. And then, he, that's Herod, went down from Judea to Caesarea and he was spending time there. You all know where Caesarea is. It is it is along the coast, Caesarea maritime.
I'll get to a map in a couple more slides, but now, it says, Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon and if you look in the Bible about Herod, most of what it says about him is he's angry. He's either angry or he's ingratiating himself to the base. He is a man pleaser and he is a Christ hater and he's an apostle killer. He sets himself up against God and what he's known for is his anger and so, as the leader of this land and just outside of his territory, these two city states, Tyre and Sidon and they need him. They need him because they don't have the food that they need in their area.
The breadbasket for Tyre and Sidon is within the the domain of Herod Agrippa the first. So, with one mind, Tyre and Sidon are two different places. They're not far away from each other. North of Caesarea on the Mediterranean and we see them in various places throughout the gospels but Tyre and Sidon are coming in one voice, in one mind. They came to Herod and having one over blast us.
That kind of sounds like they bribed blast us. It's political wrangling that they get to hear, to have an audience with Herod. So, Blastus is a guy's name. He's the king's chamberlain. He's the one who sets the schedule and having won over blast as the king's chamberlain.
They're asking peace, please, bring peace. We are in a famine. We're in a difficult situation. It's interesting that this is found right in between the sending off of Barnabas and Saul with relief for the people of Jerusalem from Antioch which is north of Tyre and Sidon quite a bit and they're sending relief to Jerusalem and during the same time, Tyre and Sidon are in a famine and they need help and they're having to bow before Herod, Agrippa the first. Having won over blast as the king's chamberlain.
They're asking for peace because their country was supported with grain from the king's country. So, it's about the economy, stupid. Okay. That's that's what it was about. That's what this is about.
So in this area, we look and see Jerusalem, you got Egypt down here, Jerusalem right here, and Joppa is still stuck on there. I don't know why I did that. Caesarea is the yellow pen, but then Tyre and Sidon are north. Antioch's all the way up there, that other yellow pen. And we see Tyre and Sidon are just outside of his domain and he probably wanted to make them a part of his domain.
He had been gathering power slowly throughout time. Now, on an appointed day, after putting on his royal apparel, Luke says, I'm going to switch away from Luke for just a minute. It's fun when we have extra biblical sources that corroborate biblical testimony. This is trustworthy. Any kind of extra biblical sources, they're fun.
Their history, they're fun. Josephus is a Jewish historian. He's a Jewish historian that records around this time. He has given us a lot of information about the times. He has said that there were followers of Christ that did these things in this way and he's our extra biblical source for a lot of the way the early church operated.
In his volume nine chapter 19 of antiquities of the Jews, he has the same story that Luke's telling here and he's telling it in a more detailed fashion. It's it's much longer. But let's go with this. On an appointed day, after putting on his royal apparel, Herod took his seat on the rostrum and he began delivering an address to them. Let's go over to antiquities of the Jews, Josephus says, now, when Agrippa had reigned for three years, '41, '42, '43, it's 44 now.
He's they they count after the first year, '42, '43, '44. He came to the city of Caesarea, which was formerly called Stratos Tower. And there, he exhibited shows in honor of Caesar. Wait a second. He's the king of the Jews.
Why is he exhibiting shows in honor of Caesar? Because he is a political man. He's always trying to make himself look better to the people above him and to the people below him, and he is all about glorifying self. And so, he is exhibiting shows in honor of Caesar upon his being informed that there was a certain festival that was celebrated to make vows for his own safety at which festival a great multitude was gotten together of the principal persons and such of them were as dignity through his province and on the second day of that, this is the appointed day that Luke gives us. On the second day of that, he put on a garment that was made holy out of actual silver.
So, gold lame, it's a silver lame outfit. Holy of silver. It was of a contexture truly wonderful, Josephus says. He came into the theater of operations early in the morning at which time the silver of his garment was being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays upon it. He had set the time, he had set the place, he had dressed up to make himself look amazing, and then the sun shining through the windows was making everything glisten and looking like a million bucks.
Shown his the suns were rays were shining upon it. They shone out after a surprising manner and they were so resplendent as to spread horror over those who looked intently upon him. And presently, all of his flatterers cried out, one from one place and one from another as though with one voice, like he said, they were crying out with one mind. Presently, his flutters cried out one from one place, one from another that he was a god. What does that say?
Now, the people repeatedly cried out, the voice of a god and not of a man. The the CGI on the situation was pretty amazing. He had done all he could to look amazing and sound amazing and they were in agreement. The voice of a god and not of a man. This is quite the spectacle.
They said that he was a god and they added, be thou merciful to us. For although we have hitherto reverenced you only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to all other mortal nature. Upon this, the king did not rebuke them. They called him a god and not a man and immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him. It's the same word, Potazo.
The the angel that struck Peter to wake him up, God struck this guy, same word. Struck him because he did not give glory to God. It says, he did not rebuke them. Upon this, the king did not rebuke them nor reject their impious flattery but as he presently afterward looked up, he saw an owl. Now, like I said, the Bible is the Bible and we can say this is true.
This is Jewish historian Josephus' opinion. He says, that Herod looked up and saw an owl, a bad omen. Seated sitting on a certain rope over his head and immediately he understood that this bird was a messenger of ill tidings and it had once been a messenger of good tidings for him and he fell into the deepest sorrow. Now, he had already been struck as Luke Luke says it at this point but upon being struck, something twisted within him. Severe pain also arose in his belly.
Luke says, and he was eaten by worms and died. Now, reading that in English may we might think, oh, you bury people and then the worms eat them. Maybe he meant died and was eaten by worms. But no, he had it right. Lewis Luke, the the doctor didn't go into the same detail as Josephus but he says, he therefore looked upon his friends after he had already had the consequence.
It had already happened in his guts. He began in a most violent manner and he therefore looked upon his friends and said, I whom you call to God and commanded presently to I am commanded presently to depart from this life. While providence, he doesn't actually say God's, thus, reproves the lying words that you just now said to me. This is not Bible but it's Josephus and he says, he recognized that the turmoil in his guts that his imminent death was because of his pride. I'm bound to accept what providence lots as it as it pleases God.
For we have no, by no means, lived ill but I'm a splendid and happy manner when he said this is pain became even more violent because he was saying good things about himself again. Accordingly, he was carried into the palace. The rumor went abroad everywhere. He would certainly die in a little time but the multitude presently sat in sackcloth with their wives and children after the law of their country and besought God for the king's recovery in all places. We're also full of mourning and lamentation.
This is I think contrasting with that church, right? That's they're praying to God for Peter and this is they're doing everything they can but this guy's pride was his downfall. This guy wanting his own glory was his downfall. Peter was asleep thinking he'd be killed the next day. He's content.
All the places were full of mourning and lamentation. The king rested in his high chamber and he saw them below lying plasterated on the ground and he couldn't himself for bear weeping. He cried his way into it and he when he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life being in the 50 of his age and in the seventh year of his reign. That other reign counts some other stuff but he was eaten by worms and died. Now, that's not the end of the chapter.
We still got a couple of verses to go. This goes right into a summary statement. We've seen about five summary statements so far and this is the gist of all of them. There's a lot going on in the book of Acts. All of the circumstances, James' death, Peter's deliverance, Herod's death, but the word of the Lord continued.
It grew and it multiplied because that's what it's gonna do. Jesus had said to James, I I don't think I mentioned this earlier. James of James and John, you know, James is and John's mama said, y'all ought to have the right hand and left hand of Jesus. Go to him and ask him for it and so, when you come into your kingdom, Jesus, James says, can one of us sit on your right, one of us on the left, and we'll argue about who gets what later but can one of us be have each of your each of your ears? Can we be right next to you?
And Jesus said, you don't even know what it is you're praying for, James. You don't even know what it is you're asking for. Can you drink the cup that I'm going to drink? Can you be baptized with the baptism I'm gonna be baptized with? He said, you don't know what it is you're asking for but you are gonna get it.
And so the death of James was an answer to the prophecy of Jesus and it was in accordance with the will of God so that this would happen. The word of the Lord continued to grow. James's death and Peter's deliverance, both of em are sovereign God's domain. The word of the Lord continue to grow and to be multiplied and then, the closing verse of chapter 12 is this, and Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch. They were in Jerusalem.
They returned to Antioch when they had fulfilled their mission to Jerusalem. The and they also took along with them John who's called Mark. John's name has been introduced a couple times now and we're going to see him become a part of the narrative going forward but I think it's cool that we sent off missionaries this morning on the front side of their mission not really knowing exactly what it is that God will have em do. When Tanya and I went off on a mission, I went I went off on a mission twenty five years ago. Really didn't have any idea.
I'd be right here twenty five years later. We'll get into chapter 13 next week which is about the first missionary journey which is this long series and I think that that'll parallel nicely with maybe a report from Africa but this is cool because it says, not only are we sending people out but when they've completed their mission, they come back. You know, they they went out on a short term mission trip before they went on a lifelong mission trip. I think that's cool. So, from a mighty fortress is our God and looking back over this whole text, I think that pride and humility are in every single passage.
Even if it's subtext, they're always there. In this chapter, it makes it very very evident that those who call upon the name of the Lord have to do so in humility. When you start proclaiming that, you get to say what happens because you're the the man, the king, you're in a certain political position or you're in a certain strategic position that God can't do this without me and I get to say what goes. Boy, be careful, lest you fall. Right?
Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Peter would later write. So that he may exalt you, so that he may deliver you at the right time. Would you stand with me and we're going to center our hearts and our minds and our voices on the church's one foundation which is Jesus Christ our lord. And pray for Brooke and Anders.
This is where we kinda sent them out this morning but let's sing this out. Church is one foundation. I love that mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is one. That's James. It's actually Peter two.
Right? He's delivered. He still dies on a cross upside down, right? Later but God's deliverance and God's precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints, right? God's will be done.
I'm gonna present the benediction here from Ephesians three twenty and twenty one. Now, to him who is able and this is what happened in Peter's deliverance. We're praying for it. Lord, we're praying for it but to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask. All that we even think is possible.
According to the power that is already at work within us to God, him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever and ever. Amen. Lord Jesus, would you do your will and your way among us through us this week? Would you accompany us? Would you show us your way forward out of our bondage and out through the gates and into the street and lord, show us where would you have us go next.
Amen.
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