His Truth Abideth Still

In one paragraph

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...

Read together

1. Acts 11:29-30 believers in Antioch sending relief to brothers and sisters in Judea through Barnabas and Saul
2. Acts 12:1-24 main text of the sermon covering Herod's persecution, Peter's imprisonment and deliverance, and Herod's death
3. Acts 12:25 closing verse of chapter 12, Barnabas and Saul returning to Antioch with John Mark
4. Psalm 86 mentioned as the text Dustin preached on the previous week
5. Ephesians 3:20-21 spoken as the benediction, referencing God doing far more than we ask or think

Talk about it

1. 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?
2. 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?
3. The prayer meeting at Mary's house was praying intensely for Peter, yet when Rhoda announced he was at the gate, they told her she was out of her mind. The pastor said this passage shows it is not 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps faith that gets stuff done' but that it is still up to God. What does that say about the relationship between earnest prayer and our expectations of how God will answer?
4. The pastor contrasted Peter, who was asleep and content on the night before his expected execution, with Herod, who staged an elaborate spectacle to receive glory for himself and was struck down for it. Where in your own life do you find it hardest to hold that contrast, choosing contentment and humility over the need to control or be recognized?
5. The chapter closes with the word of the Lord continuing to grow and multiply through all of these events, including a death, a miraculous escape, and a king's judgment, and then with Barnabas and Saul simply returning home after completing their mission. What does it look like practically for you to be faithful in your part of that ongoing mission without needing to see the full picture of what God is doing?