Will prevail through hardship

Back in 2004, I think it was around about then, I made an application on behalf of my previous church to the New South Wales Department of Commerce in order for us as a church to access government contract rates on a number of different purchases.

The process was painful, to say the least, in terms of the paperwork going backwards and forwards and the amount of time it took.

It took weeks and weeks and weeks.

Eventually, after not hearing anything for some time, I rang them up and spoke to the person dealing with our case.

He said to me, it's been sitting there and I've been holding on to it because I don't know what to do with it.

He asked me, in the course of that conversation, to finish this deal, if you like.

What I need to do is I need a copy of your business's constitution.

I wasn't sure such a thing existed.

I said to him, we're a church.

He said, well, yeah, but any organisation and institution has a constitution.

I pushed it a little bit harder.

What is it that you want from this constitution?

He said, well, basically, I need a wind-up clause.

He said, so if the church or when the church ceases to exist, what happens?

So I'm kind of a little bit testy at this point.

And I said, I wasn't quite sure what to say.

And so I said the first thing that came into my mouth, which is always, not always the best idea.

But I said to him, well, we've been operating since the day of Pentecost.

I'm not sure exactly when that was, but it was probably something like 1,700 years before New South Wales government even came to exist, let alone the New South Wales Department of Commerce.

There's around 2 billion members worldwide.

And I think our wind-up clause, whatever that is, kicks in when Jesus comes back.

And I can't give you the date for that.

That didn't seem to satisfy him.

And so I sent him a copy of the Australian government's Anglican Church Constitution Act of 1902, which has got no wind-up clause in it, but seemed to satisfy him.

And then eventually, after a number of weeks, I got a piece of paper.

You see, we were operating on two different worldviews.

His worldview is that the church is just like any other institution, and it will come to an end.

And that is the tide of the culture in which we exist now in our country.

The church has had its day.

In fact, more specifically, God has had his day amongst us.

We are now living in enlightened and technological advanced times that don't need God.

My worldview, driven by the scriptures, says that God was the living God when the universe banged into existence.

He was the living God when James Cook put his foot on Australian soil for the first time.

He was the living God in 1966 when Time magazine put a title on its front cover saying,

Is God dead?

And so, I'm not thinking of a wind-up clause in terms of God and his purposes.

No thing, no person will prevail against him and his purposes.

No matter how big the head of state is right now, no matter how powerful a person might be,

Tony Abbott, Barack Obama, whoever it might be,

there is not a single head of state in all the world right now who will be ruling in 100 years.

They'll be gone.

All of them.

The turnover is 100%.

And in a brief 120 years, this planet will be populated with, apparently, around 10 billion new people.

That means all the 6, 7 billion, whatever it is right now,

that currently have got their feet planted on the earth,

will be all vanished and gone.

You and me, gone.

Dead.

Dead.

But God will still be alive and ruling and his purposes still being worked out.

And so, the main thrust of today's passage is,

try as you will, as powerful as you may be,

you stand against this God and you lose.

It's that simple.

There is no wind-up clause to his purposes.

That's the reality here.

So, open up your Bible to Acts 12.

So far, Acts 1 to 11.

It's an incredible account of the fulfillment of Acts 1, verse 8,

Acts 1:8

which is the key verse in understanding Acts.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The word of God and the message of forgiveness of sins, new life in Jesus Christ,

has spread rapidly in chapters 1 to 8.

And it is simply saying that in chapters 1 to 8, it's simply saying Jesus reigns.

He is doing what he said he would do.

He is alive and he is active in this world.

And so, in the first 11 chapters of Acts, all in all, it's been a pretty good start.

They've had a few hiccups along the way, a few little issues.

And, you know, Stephen was killed in chapter 7 and things like that.

But all in all, vision 8050 or whatever it is that they had, it's had a pretty good start.

But when you get into Acts 12, the days couldn't be much darker for this church in Jerusalem

and certainly for the early church.

Have a look at it there, verse 1.

It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who were belonging to the church,

intending to persecute them.

He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.

And when he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.

This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

After arresting him, he put him in prison.

Now, that is a major blow for this early church.

Major blow.

So imagine here for us at St. Paul's.

If Chris was just beheaded down at the concourse because he was proclaiming Jesus just before Christmas,

and Brian's arrested, he's in Chatswood lockup, or Hornsby lockup,

and awaiting the same thing as soon as Christmas and Boxing Day is over.

They'll bring him out to the concourse and do the same thing for him.

Can you imagine what we would feel at that point?

It would be an unthinkable tragedy.

It would be an enormous blow for us as we consider, God, you've given us this mission.

Things have been going fantastic.

And all of a sudden, this has happened to our key leaders.

It would gut us in many ways.

And so here in Acts 12, we see that Herod is the main enemy.

This is Herod I.

He is grandson of Herod the Great, even though he wasn't the first Herod.

He was entitled Herod I.

He was grandson of Herod the Great, the Herod the Great who hoped to kill Jesus himself

by getting rid of all the infant boys around Bethlehem and around the time Jesus was born.

Herod I was sent to Rome to be educated after his grandfather killed his father.

Close family, this one.

And then he grew up in Rome as a friend and of the imperial family.

He became something of a playboy.

And in AD 23, he fled Rome to Palestine to escape his creditors.

He spent time in prison.

And at times he lived in pretty humble, destitute circumstances.

However, that all shifted for him when a few of his boyhood mates rose to power in Rome and appointed him to be ruler of Judea and Samaria under their rule.

This is the sort of story that magazines sell for, you know, this is incredible.

For example, Herod I was preeminently a politician.

When amongst the Romans, he would act like a Roman.

When amongst the Jews, he would act like a Jew because that was his heritage.

He was won by heritage, not by conviction.

And so he would do anything to maintain his popularity with the Jewish people who were his main constituents.

He saw Jewish Christians as divisive and believed their activities would disturb the population.

And so with the sudden word here, James was gone.

Just one verse, gone.

Put to death by the sword.

And as soon as the Feast of Unleavened Bread was over,

because you weren't allowed to do executions during the Passover,

you had to kind of wait for church to be over so you'd go and kill people,

there would undoubtedly be a mock trial and Peter would join James in death.

And so the Jerusalem church here would have felt overwhelmed and powerless in this scenario.

And there was nothing they could do except verse 5 says,

the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

The word translated earnestly comes originally from a word that means to stretch or to strain.

They were straining in prayer, or as one person puts it,

they were praying with agony for Peter.

Does anything look more ridiculous to oppressors than a ragtag,

harried group of believers praying for God's help in the midst of oppressive darkness?

To those outside the family of God, this looks like terminal weakness.

Getting around to pray?

You know, one of you leaves is dead, another one's on the way,

and the best you can come up with is pray?

It would have been much more sensible to organise a petition.

Picket the prison or the palace or something like that, a few placards, release Peter.

Plan a reprisal attack, that'll do it.

Car bomb, not that they had them back in those days.

Camel bomb, outside the palace.

Or a kidnapping, sorry to camels.

Or a kidnapping, one of Herod's close confidants or a family member.

Show some strength, put political power against political power.

The opponents here must have thought, what fools?

Herod's power is irresistible.

The sword had fallen once, and it would fall on the helpless neck of another of their leaders.

Even verse 11 indicates that everyone in Jerusalem figured that Peter was done for.

And so, zero hours at hand, Passover was complete,

and now Herod and his staff could come out of church and kill Peter.

The victim of a kangaroo court.

Verse 6 begins the description of this final night.

It says,

The night before Herod was to bring him out to trial,

Peter was sleeping between two soldiers,

bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.

Peter was sleeping.

In fact, quite soundly asleep.

It says that an angel a little bit later had to nudge him to wake him up.

But his restfulness on this night simply means that he was at peace with himself.

He was at peace with God, and he was at peace with these circumstances in which he found himself.

It's quite possible that he shared Christ as best he could with his captors,

had a time of prayer, fell asleep, resting in Jesus,

and on the shoulder of one of the soldiers.

It tells us, verse 4,

that Peter was guarded by four squads of four soldiers each.

Herod wanted to make sure that this really dangerous prisoner that he's caught was not going to escape.

These are extraordinary precautions.

Normally, they only chained a prisoner to one soldier,

and he's got chains on both sides of him.

And to make it even more so,

there's two soldiers standing outside his cell door to keep guard of him.

It's pretty hopeless,

and then all of a sudden,

there's an unexpected turn of events.

Verse 7,

Suddenly,

an angel of the Lord appeared,

and a light shone,

shined in the cell.

Boom, brightness.

He struck Peter on the side,

and woke him up,

quick,

come on, get up.

And the chains fell off Peter's wrists.

Now, Peter's been in a deep sleep here.

He must have been groggy,

because the angel had to tell him in verse 8 to get dressed.

Put on your clothes and your sandals,

wrap your cloak around you,

and follow me.

Just imagine,

early in the morning,

Peter obeyed,

probably in disarray.

Sandals are on the wrong feet.

Cloak sort of hanging loosely,

his hair's all over the place,

grabbing for his long back and his baraka

to try and kickstart the morning.

He's dazed,

he's bewildered like a sleepwalker,

not quite sure where he's going,

or even why he's going.

And verse 9,

it says,

Peter followed him,

that is the angel out of the prison,

but he had no idea that what the angel was doing

was really happening.

He thought he was seeing a vision.

He was confused.

But there was a dawning awareness,

a reality,

and as he rubbed his eyes,

the reality must have staggered him.

Verse 10,

they passed the first and second guards,

came to the iron gate leading to the city,

and it opened for them by itself,

and they went through it.

And when they had walked the length of one street,

suddenly,

the angel left.

And then Peter came to himself.

His chains fell off.

He walked right on out by the two guards,

which were chained to him.

He walked right past the two sentries,

and then the gates of the city just swung open.

The word translated by itself in verse 10

is automatae.

The gates opened automatically.

I mean, these gates are more reliable

than the one we've got out the front here.

It opens a close of his own mind.

Sleepy or not,

he's wandered out there in the streets in Jerusalem,

and he must have felt the goose bumps

and the adrenaline,

and the angel's gone.

Stood on the streets of Jerusalem,

the middle of the night,

he's rubbing his wrists,

rubbing his eyes,

holding back a yawner thinking,

rightio then.

You can just imagine the experience.

Do you get the picture?

Those ragtag, beleaguered, weak Christians

knew a God with greater power

than Herod's armies and his prisons.

The legions of Rome barred the door,

but it only took one of God's agents

to liberate the captive.

And what happened here

is that Peter's experience

re-equated the embattled church in Jerusalem

with the true nature of its strength.

No matter how grim,

perplexing,

and difficult our situation is,

God and his angels are present to minister to us.

He can deliver at any time,

anywhere,

in any place.

There is nothing too hard for him.

Having said that,

let me just take a short diversion

and raise one big question

that these verses pose.

why was Peter preserved,

but James wasn't?

James got it,

head cut off,

Peter didn't.

James died by the sword,

Peter was marvelously preserved.

Why is one saint rescued

and another not?

Why are we sitting here tonight

in complete freedom,

with no fear for our life

whatsoever,

under any kind of threat

whatsoever?

We've got it pretty cozy and comfy

and yet 100 million Christians

around the world today

will do this sort of thing

under great threat of their life.

And in fact,

some will give their life for doing this.

Why is that?

What's the difference?

Let me start with the stupid answer.

The stupid answer is,

well, because the church didn't pray for James.

As if by our praying,

we order God to act in certain ways.

Our prayers ought to be informed by humility

because they have been taught

by God's mystery.

We don't always get God's ways.

His understanding is unsearchable.

It is infinite wisdom and understanding,

but it is unsearchable.

And at the very least,

the example of James here tells us

that the cross of Christ

hangs over the existence

of every Christian life.

And sometimes we are called

to suffer for Christ's name.

And yet on the other hand,

the example of Peter

tells us that the power of Christ

hangs over every Christian life.

And sometimes our Lord delights

to show us how thrilled He is

to rescue us from any danger.

So on the one hand,

we must not forget Philippians 1.29,

for it has been granted to you

on behalf of Christ,

not only to believe on Him,

but also to suffer for Him.

And yet to hold that together

with Psalm 116, verse 8,

Psalms 116:8

for you, O Lord,

have delivered my soul from death,

my eyes from tears,

and my feet from stumbling.

To keep those together.

We need to recognize the mystery

of God's providence

and rest in that mystery.

We need to understand with clarity

that God's greater purpose

than our safety and comfort

in this earth,

in this world,

is His glory

through the fulfillment of His plans.

God will always act

to glorify His name

and advance His gospel.

Now that does not mean

that we are simply tools

in His hands or pawns

to be thrown around

wherever we like.

God's providence

is always perfect.

And He is a careful shepherd

of His sheep.

I just quoted from Psalm 116

just a moment ago,

verse 8,

where it says,

For you, O Lord,

have delivered my soul from death,

my eyes from tears,

and my feet from stumbling.

Psalm 116, verse 15,

Psalms 116:15

seven verses later,

says,

Precious in the sight of the Lord

is the death of His saints.

Reflecting on this verse,

the great Charles Spurgeon wrote,

They shall not die prematurely,

referring to the saints,

they shall not die prematurely,

they shall be immortal

till the work is done.

And when their time comes to die,

then their deaths shall be precious.

The Lord watches over their dying beds,

He smooths their pillows,

He sustains their hearts,

and He receives their soul.

Do you recognize your perfect safety

until your work is done

for the Lord Jesus?

This God is to be trusted,

no matter how dark things appear.

Calm, secure trust in Him

must be our response

in all situations.

This Peter who slept soundly

in the prison cell

had just seen one of his mates,

heads cut off,

and he knew what the outcome

was likely to be for him,

and he rested in God's purposes

and providence

in between two Roman soldiers.

I don't think he expected

to get out of it,

but God was delighted

to demonstrate His power,

not just to Peter,

but to the church,

and to Herod and to everyone else,

and to bring him out of prison.

And so there he is,

standing in the streets in Jerusalem,

probably asking just as many questions

that we have about the mystery of God

and why.

And then finally dawns on him

what God has done for him,

and so he went to the house of Mary

where many people had gathered for prayer,

and he knocks on the door.

What follows is a story

of confusion and joyful humour.

A servant girl named Rhoda

came to answer the door

that Peter was knocking on,

and she became so befuddled

at Peter's voice

that she ran to announce his arrival

without even opening the door for him.

She excitedly busts in

to the prayer meeting

and says,

Peter's at the door.

And the response

of the prayer meeting,

the church that's gathered

is now famous.

Verse 15,

you're out of your mind.

You're crazy, Rhoda.

And when she kept insisting,

no, I'm not crazy,

he's at the door.

No, it must be his angel.

But Peter kept on knocking,

and when they opened the door

and saw him,

they were like,

Peter's here.

At first they thought she was mad,

then they switched the story

to that she was just,

you know,

Peter's angel or spirit.

You just imagine it.

The church is there,

agonising in prayer for Peter.

Rhoda comes busting in.

Peter's at the door.

And they're,

shh,

quiet Rhoda.

Can't you see we're praying in agony.

Don't bother us

with the answer to our prayers.

It's not a very idealistic picture

of the church here,

is it?

But is this not a picture of ourselves?

Sometimes we go through the motions

and even the earnestness of prayer

and when God answers those prayers,

we are just taken by surprise

that God would answer our prayers.

We pray fervently for the conversion of relative

and when it happens,

it's like,

that was unexpected.

Dude,

amazing.

What is amazing here

is our slowness to believe God's ability

and his willingness to answer our prayers.

This section is a humorous rebuke

for this church in Jerusalem

as it is for us.

Can it be the case

that even in our most earnest prayers,

we sometimes find

that we're almost going through the motions

without actually expecting

that God will hear us

or that he will act.

It's almost a throwaway line,

oh, I'll pray for you.

A throwaway line,

I'll pray for you

hoping that we can potentially

stop this conversation happening further.

I'll just pray for you

and then forget about it altogether.

Some of us have been reciting

for years,

creeds,

singing songs,

reading the Bible

that declare that God is creator,

that he sustains everything,

that he is almighty

over all that is in this world.

And when he answers a prayer,

we're like,

that's surprising.

it's like we weren't expecting him

to be listening.

Or maybe we weren't expecting

him to be able to do anything.

Or maybe we weren't expecting him

to actually want to do anything.

I think that when we go through

the motions in this way,

we tend to treat prayer

like a technique

forgetting what we want

rather than seeing

that prayer is a relationship.

The really encouraging thing here

is that God is not bound

by our imperfections.

Apparently in this passage,

God answered unbelieving prayer.

We may say things incorrectly

or say things without sufficient belief,

but God just loves

to hear his people pray.

And he is well able

to do immeasurably more

than we can ask or imagine.

My friends,

prayer,

one of our core values

is to devotion to prayer.

Prayer ought to be

a constant statement to God,

to our world,

to us as a church here,

St. Paul's,

to our own consciences

that we exist

to do things

that we cannot do

without the supernatural grace of God.

That's what happens

when we pray.

We can rattle off the creed

about who we believe as a God,

but we actually demonstrate

that we believe

what we just said

in prayer.

That's how we truly believe it.

is when we pray,

this God,

is a God who is not just

in relationship with me

and wanting to hear my prayers,

but he is able to act

and wanting to act.

St. Paul's exists mainly

to do the humanly impossible,

everything good

and worthwhile

and eternal

and God glorifying

that we want to do

as a church

we cannot do

without the supernatural power

and grace of God.

It is pride

and it is arrogance

to think that we can build a church

that we can see

ministry flourish

and people come to Christ

just by putting in

right strategies

and having the right language

and the programs

into place.

We must be devoted to prayer.

And so,

we now come to the end

of the passage

because the rescue of Peter

isn't the end of it.

God hasn't finished

with Herod

just yet.

Verse 20

and 24

tell us what happens next.

He,

Herod,

had been quarreling

with the people

of Tyre and Sidon.

They now joined together

and sought an audience

with him.

Having secured

the support of Blastus,

a trusted personal servant

of the king,

they asked for peace

because they depended

on the king's country

for their food supply.

On the appointed day,

Herod,

wearing his royal robe,

sat on his throne

and delivered a public address

to the people

and they shouted,

this is the voice

of a God,

not of a man.

And immediately,

immediately,

because Herod

did not give praise

to God,

an angel of the Lord

struck him down

and he was eaten

by worms

and died.

And so what happened was

Herod presents himself

to the theatre

in Caesarea

to make a speech.

The historian Josephus

said that

he wore

a very impressive

royal ornament,

a gown

that was woven

out of silver

and so that

as he walked

in the sunshine,

the reflection

blinded the people

can you see

the

divine

poetry here

as the

angel

went into

the cell

with Peter

and

made bright

the cell.

The crowd

heard him speak

and they shouted

the voice

of a God

and not of a man.

And this

incredibly

twisted king

received

their worship

in verse 23

he was

immediately

struck

by an angel

and again

we have

the divine

poetry here

because the

same word

was used

when the

angel

struck Peter

to arouse

him from

his sleep

in verse 7

and possibly

it's the same

angel

here striking

Herod

though the

results

are very

different.

The historian

Josephus

says that

immediately

upon giving

his speech

Herod hit

the ground

in excruciating

pain

in the

abdomen

area.

They

carted him

from the

Caesarea

theatre

and five

days later

he died

having suffered

for five

days of

excruciating

agony.

Immediately

he was struck

down by the

angel.

The one

thing Herod

didn't realise

when he went

for his

diplomatic

journey

was that

God

hadn't

closed

the

case.

He

thought

he had

executed

the

soldiers

but the

blood of

James

still cried

out to

God

from the

earth

and Herod

was going

to learn

what Isaiah

Isaiah 40:23–25

40 verses

23 to

25 means

when it

says

he brings

princes to

naught and

reduces the

rulers of

the earth

to nothing.

No sooner

are they

planted,

no sooner

are they

sown,

no sooner

do they

take root

in the

ground,

then he

blows on

them and

they

wither and

a whirlwind

swips them

away like

chaff.

To whom

will you

compare me

or who

is my

equal

says the

Holy One.

Acts chapter

Acts 12 · chapter mention

12 is all

about God

and Herod.

This chapter

begins with

Herod killing

James

and it

ends with

the angel

of the

Lord

killing

Herod.

The main

point of

this chapter

is very

plain.

If you

oppose

Jesus,

you lose.

He has

no equal.

You

cannot

stop

his

purposes.

Luke put

this chapter

together in

such a way to

make it plain

for this church

in Jerusalem

in its

dark day.

you may

feel small

and insignificant

in the

Roman Empire.

You may

think that

you are

overpowered

when your

best leaders

are killed

on a

political

whim.

But the

truth is

that if you

stay with

Jesus and

stand firm

with him,

you win.

And if you

oppose him,

you lose.

God

here

turned

the tables

entirely on

everything that

Herod was

trying to do

in squashing

the church.

He turned

it around

so that in

verse 24,

Herod is

dead,

but the

word of

God grew

and multiplied.

God

exalted

God and

not Herod.

He made

the reputation

of Jesus

spread,

not Herod's.

And this

is the goal

of all that

God does,

to magnify

his wisdom

and his

power and

spread the

fame of

his son

who saved

sinners.

So be

encouraged.

We're not

facing what

the Jerusalem

church faced,

but we have

our own

issues in

this country

and for us

as a church.

Do not be

impressed or

discouraged by

temporary worldly

triumphs over

the gospel.

Be bold and

courageous to

spread the

word of God

and leave the

outcome to

God.

God will

bury the

messengers

of his

message,

but he

will not

bury his

message.

His

messages will

come and

go and

they will

enter their

eternal reward,

but God's

gospel of the

Lord Jesus

Christ continues

to move on

to the ends

of the earth.

It will not

stop.

God's gospel of the

gospel of the

Lord Jesus.

And in this

commitment series,

I am calling

you to commit

your life to

the unstoppable

God and

seeing his

unstoppable

purposes being

fulfilled through

us here as a

church at

St.

Paul's.

will you

give yourself

to this

God and

move with

Jesus rather

than stand

opposed to

him?

Amen.

Finally,

if you

can

come and

you

will

take

seu

plain to

a

Christ

will you

and

will you

be

and

will you

Give

open

Your

withdrawals

and

see you