The Word of the Lord Continued to Grow

In one paragraph

Pastor Jonathan was back from a month of ministry travel through South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya, and he preached through Acts 12 on the Sunday the church was commissioning Anders and Brooke to go to Livingston, Zambia. The chapter moves through the execution of James, the miraculous release of Peter, and the gruesome death of Herod Agrippa I, and it closes with a line he kept returning to: 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 12:1-2 Herod laying violent hands on the church and executing James with the sword
3. Mark 10 James asking Jesus for a place on his right and left in the kingdom, and Jesus saying they don't know what they are asking
4. Acts 12:3-4 Herod arresting Peter during days of unleavened bread and assigning sixteen soldiers to guard him
5. Acts 12:5 the church praying earnestly to God for Peter while he was in prison
6. Acts 12:6-10 the angel striking Peter awake, chains falling off, and the iron gate opening by itself
7. Acts 12:11 Peter coming to himself and recognizing the Lord had sent his angel to rescue him from Herod
8. Acts 12:12-16 Peter going to Mary's house, Rhoda recognizing his voice, and the gathered church not believing he was really there
9. Acts 12:17 Peter describing his deliverance and telling them to report to James and the brothers before leaving to another place
10. Acts 12:18-19 no small disturbance among the soldiers and Herod ordering the guards led away to execution
11. Acts 12:20-22 Herod going to Caesarea, the people of Tyre and Sidon calling out that his was the voice of a god and not a man
12. Acts 12:23 an angel of the Lord striking Herod because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died
13. Acts 12:24 summary statement that the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied
14. Acts 12:25 Barnabas and Saul returning from Jerusalem to Antioch and taking John Mark with them
15. Ephesians 3:20-21 benediction about God being able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us

Talk about it

1. The pastor mentioned that the churches in South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya that were steadily growing were the ones paying attention to the word of God and lifting up Christ. What do you think that kind of attention actually looks like in a local church day to day?
2. James is executed and Peter is delivered, and the pastor says both are God's will. How do you sit with that? Where do you land when you try to hold those two things together?
3. The church was praying earnestly for Peter, and then when Rhoda said he was at the door, they told her she was out of her mind. Have you ever prayed for something and then been caught off guard when God actually did it? What happened?
4. The pastor pointed out that Peter was asleep the night before his likely execution, content whatever his lot was. What do you think produced that kind of peace in Peter, and where do you think you are in relation to it?
5. Herod spent his life living to be seen by people rather than giving glory to God, and it caught up with him. What are the smaller, everyday versions of that same pull that you notice in your own life?