ACTS | A King Against the Kingdom | Acts 12:1-25

Would remain standing and turn now to a copy of the scriptures we are in Acts chapter 12.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

I'll begin in verse one and read through the entirety of the chapter. Acts chapter 12, one through 25. Let's go to Lord in prayer.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

Our Father, we thank you for giving us your word. It is sharper than any two edged sword, and Lord, it is indeed going to go out this morning and it is going to cut deep into our hearts. And we will either respond in faith or we will respond in hardness of hearts and rejection. Lord, I do pray that by the power of your Spirit, that you would break hardened hearts. You would break our hearts and humble us, that we might submit ourselves by faith to the true and living God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, open up our blind eyes and stop our deaf ears and let us see and behold and embrace Jesus Christ by faith. And it's in Jesus's name we pray. Amen.

People of God, hear God's word this morning from Acts chapter 12, beginning in verse one, about that time, Herod the king, laid violent hands on some who belong to the church. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

This was during the Days of Unleavened Bread, and when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter went in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made by God to God by the church. Now, when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and centuries before the door, were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him and a light shown in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, Get up quickly. And the chains fell off his hands, and the angel said to him, dress yourself and put on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And they went out and followed him.

He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

When they had passed the first and the second guard. They came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them on its own accord, and they went out and went along one street.

And immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.

When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer, recognizing Peter's voice in in her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, You are out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was so. And so they kept saying, it isn't it his angel. But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed, but motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison, and he said, Tell these things to James and to the brothers. Then he departed and went to another place. Now, when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.

And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the centuries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. Now, Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded blastus, the king's Chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's the king's country for food on an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne and delivered an oration to them, and the people were shouting the voice of a God and not a man.

Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give glory. Give God the glory, and was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied.

And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark, He who has ears, let him hear the Word of God. Please be seated and There once was a man who ruled an empire so vast that millions trembled at the sound of his name, Joseph Stalin, for nearly nearly three decades, he reigned over the Soviet Union with absolute power. His portrait hung in about every home. His name was spoken with reverence and fear. Children learned to thank Joseph Stalin for their daily bread.

To many, he was not just a ruler, he was a god.

And yet, in one night, the man who demanded worship met the true and living God. After an evening of laughter and drinking with his inner circle, Stalin retired to his private quarters, and the next morning, he didn't emerge. Hours passed before the guards even dared to enter, and when they did, they found him collapsed on the floor, paralyzed, unable to speak, and lying in his own filth. As his bells had emptied, he had a massive stroke, the man who some worshiped as a god was now absolutely helpless, gasping for breath, and within a couple days, he was dead.

This is the same story The world keeps repeating.

The powerful rise up, boasting of their control and their might, and then they fall, sometimes suddenly, sometimes slowly, sometimes humiliatingly, but always completely. And behind every one of those stories like Stalin is Psalm two that reminds us the kings of earth set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed, but he who sits on the heavens laughs, Acts 12. Is a chapter about really two kings, King Herod and King Jesus and Luke tells us which Kingdom will last, and hopefully that's clear to you which one it is. But we'll work through the text here in verse one, we find about that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belong to the church. Now, if you recall, it's been about a decade since Stephen, a beloved Deacon, was put to death in Jerusalem, and there was initial persecution greatly in the church of Jerusalem. So it's scattered the church around.

But we looked at last week too.

Was God over that event?

Absolutely he was in control of every single stone, every single breath. God was ordaining that, and even would use the death of Stephen now that we have this thriving church in Antioch, the church goes out, and it's reaching out. It's forced out of Jerusalem because of Stephen's death, and it reaches Antioch.

The church there that had Jews and Gentiles, they cast those titles aside, and they're united under one banner, not Jew, not Gentile, but Christ. Christians.

We want more Christ. Give us more Christ. That's who we are.

We are Christians. Those who follow Christ and Antioch becomes this gospel hub and a mission hub from which missionaries will be sent out now to the known world. But just as things seem to be going well, as we looked last week at the end of chapter 11, another great wave of persecution now erupts, Herod Agrippa, the first, who is the grandson of Herod the Great.

Herod the Great was was ruling when Jesus was born. He's the one that said, kill all those little babies that are going to threaten my rule.

There's also Herod Agrippa, the first is the nephew of Herod Antipas, who was the one who executed John the Baptist and also put Jesus on trial. And so you have this family of the Herods who are consistent in their violence and the persecution of Christ in His Church. And we are told that Herod Agrippa now stretches out to lay violent hands on those Christians. And if you also remember from last week, the word hand is a reference to power. He's using his power to grasp these Christians, to persecute them, to.

A violence upon them. Chapter 11, verse 21 talked about the hand of the Lord, the power of the Lord. And so, you know, we have these chapter breaks, but if you imagine they weren't there, you've had these themes.

You have now that the hand of God, verse Now the hand of Herod, these two powers are a seemingly conflicting in our text. In verse two, Herod uses his power and he kills James. That's the brother of John. James would have only been about 30 years old, and when you think about people who would have been close to Jesus, James has to come to mind. You had the 12. But then within the 12 you, you had the three.

Wherever Jesus went, there was Peter James and John, only three went up to the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter James and John, only three were allowed to come in when Jairus daughter had died, and Jesus said, Little Girl arise, and it was Peter James and John who saw it.

James is the older brother of John, and together they were nicknamed the Sons of Thunder.

And just think what a strike this would have been for the church. James is now dead.

What I think is interesting in this text is that we're told that he's dead, but it's kind of recorded in a matter of fact way. I would assume, if I, if I, if that was me, I would write, James is dead, and what are we going to do now? He's killing one of the apostles. One of the apostles is gone.

They're supposed to be the foundation, and he's taken them away. How are we going to survive? Those are our leaders.

What are we going to do now? But it's recorded in this matter of fact way now. It doesn't say, after the church, the church doesn't know what to do with itself. It just kind of happens.

And the text moves on. Why?

I mean, I would, why? Lord, why do you allow this to happen?

Doesn't the church need James, it's growing. It's it's thriving. He's young. He's full of passion and zeal and potential. Jesus. Why would you spend so many years training and molding James to now just take him away so early in the apostles work that, I mean, the early church is just kicking off. Why take him now? Why take such a gifted man who could be used? Why don't you stop it?

Lord, like you, we'll see you.

They'll stop with Peter, right?

God couldn't have God done that.

Or was God helpless? Did God not love James like Peter? Why wouldn't have God stopped this for James?

Jesus, you know, if you're truly alive and reigning and even worth trusting, why would you let something so terrible happen?

And maybe you've wrestled with questions like that in your own life, maybe someone beloved has passed.

Now, I'm not God, and I don't always know the why and the timing of things, except that God does things for His own glory.

And I think as a church here in the first century, would be important to be sad, even to be angry at death, because death is not natural and it's an intruder in God's good creation.

But I want to just share something that's important here that I think relates to what we find here about James is that Jesus didn't come into the world to give us longer lives. He came into this world to give us eternal life.

If Jesus raises James like he does? Lazarus, what does that do? What does that fix? What difference does that make? Lazarus, disappointingly rises, but then he dies again. Where's Lazarus today? He's died. He's not here.

You might have a quick death, you might have a slow death, you might have a long life, you might have a short life. You might be able to delay death for a time, but you will not stop it. You will die.

You and I are helpless. We can't fight against it. There's nothing we can do.

But death doesn't have the final word, and neither do you, but Jesus does.

Jesus has the power to say, arise and to rise to all who believe, even as he just did back in chapter nine, to Tabitha. And it's all just like Lazarus with Tabitha. It is a picture of things to come that Jesus is a resurrection. Is the.

First fruit of all who believe for Christ and now for James, it's not defeat, but victory.

James gets to be set free from sin and be at peace. James actually receives a deliverance that is infinitely better than the deliverance that Peter receives.

In our text, James gets to go home, no longer warring against his flesh, the world and the devil and God is gracious and kind to take James, and the church isn't dependent on James. The church is dependent upon Christ.

There's a hymn it says, Jesus lives, and so shall I. It goes, Jesus lives and death is now but my entrance into glory, courage, then my soul, for thou hast a crown of life before thee, thou shalt find thy hopes were just. Jesus is the Christian's trust.

Sometimes we can look back in history and we can see exactly how God works in different ways, maybe not exactly. We'll always learn more, even when we get to heaven, the church in Antioch becomes as it is, because of Stephen's death and even death James's death here actually, then propels, as we turn to chapter 13 next week, it propels the mission work of Paul and Barnabas throughout the known world God when He allows his servants to come home, it's never wasted. It's never in vain. And so I think that's one reason that this text is just recorded in a matter of fact way. Because the death of James is not really to worry us. It's not to bring us anxiety or fear, James is brought home. James the First apostle who dies. He he galvanizes the the other disciples in the church to boldness, and that should also be what he does to us as well.

What can the world do to us but take us home?

And I think it encourages the other apostles. And you know, Peter had struggled with persecution and being under persecution. Remember, it was Peter who a little girl, came up to him and put a little bit of pressure on him, and he said, I don't know the man, but now, as we'll see, Peter is arrested, and he is scheduled to have the same fate of James, who is killed by a sword that is by beheading. And what is Peter doing?

Is he anxious? Is he worried? He can't sleep. He's in a deep sleep. He is sleeping. He has matured in his faith. It reminds me of this, the account back in Mark chapter four, when there's a giant storm approaching and the apostles wake Jesus up and says, Jesus, don't you care that we are perishing. And what was Jesus doing? He was sleeping.

But now Peter is sleeping, even when the storm of death is approaching him, because his faith is resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the words of Jesus, peace be still are echoing in his mind.

So Herod, he kills James. He sees that it pleased the Jews, and we're told he arrests Peter.

Herod is a people pleaser. He is afraid, like many rulers and politicians, of just losing his power. He's not a person of conviction. He's like, Well, what do they like? Let's do that.

We're told that there are four squads who then arrest Peter and surround him. Each squad would have about four soldiers in it, 16 men to guard, one person.

There are two who are assigned in the cell with Peter. Most likely he had Peter had one guard who's chained to his left, the other chained to his right.

There are two guards at the door. They're also guards at the gates.

Also, if you look at verse four, he's intending not to bring peter out till after Passover.

And I think that's actually interesting, because if you remember what Herod is actually trying to what he was doing is, I'm going to make a big deal of it, you know, just like Jesus was put to death, I'm going to put your Peter to death. And let's see who believes in the resurrection now, but he's actually going to do it after the Passover. Because you remember, what was the tradition at the Passover, a prisoner might be brought out, and the people might say, you know, let's let him go, just as they brought Jesus out. And the people said, No, we want Barabbas.

Not Jesus, but Herod is not going to risk the people letting Peter go the hair Peter is Herod's prized possession now, and he's not going to risk that.

So he's going to take him out after Passover. So you just the the Texas is drawing this picture for us. There's a real hopelessness here, a real impossibility here, 16 guards, a prison, swords.

What's the church going to do?

Herod has all of this and what does the church have? It doesn't have political leverage. The Church doesn't have a military that it can storm the castle.

They have no earthly hope. They are weak, but yet the church has prayer, and it gives them access to the throne of God.

Verse five, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Prayer is indeed a great weapon.

We are weak, but God is not.

Prayer doesn't always our Weapon of Prayer doesn't always do exactly what we want it to, but God always does what he wants it to.

And often people talk about people needing ministers, even if we look back in Cornelius, Cornelius needed a minister of Peter to come and bring him the word. What's important here that the people or the ministers need the people of God.

People of God need ministers to bring the Word. Ministers need the people of God to bring prayer. For us, we need prayer.

So this is an encouragement to make sure you're praying for your ministers, that they are praying for him.

And behold, as they are praying, verse seven, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shown in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, Get up quickly. And the chains fell off his hands. He gets up. He follows the angel right past guard and another guard and another guard. And then the gates just open by themselves on their own accord, and they walk out. Verse 11, Peter realizes this isn't a dream or a vision.

He's just standing now out in the street. And verse 12, he goes to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark. That is the gospel writer, John Mark. There were many gathered together, and what were they doing again? They were praying corporately, praying together. Another example for us as a church, not just individually praying. They are gathering together to pray, and now we have this somewhat comical interaction. Maybe Peter didn't think it was very funny at the time, but I bet he's able to look back and laugh at it now. But Peter knocks at the door, and a little girl named Rhoda recognizes his voice, and she leaps of excitement, doesn't open the door, leaves Peter outside, and she goes and runs and tells everyone Peter is here. They don't believe her.

They say, you're out of your mind, Rhoda, it's probably, you know, his angel, you know they probably already killed him, or something like that. She insists. And Peter keeps knocking outside. They finally open the door and they're amazed. It's Peter, and you can imagine the scene. Everyone in their excitement begins asking questions. Well, Peter, what about the chain chains? How did you get the chains off? What about the guards? Didn't they stop you? What did they do? What happened? Peter? Hey, let the guy talk. Well, what did he say about the angel? How did you get through the gates? And you can just imagine everyone is asking these questions as this chaotic scene. Peter puts up his hands, you know, motions be silent, we're told. He tells them how the Lord brought him out of the prison, and that's kind of like us that this church is we are praying, sometimes praying very earnestly, and then when God answers our prayers, we're slow to believe it. God actually heard us. We ask God to move, and when he does, it kind of surprises us that he actually that he heard us. But we need to be ready. We need to be ready to move, to act. When we pray Your kingdom come. We need to be ready, just like God told the Israelites in the Exodus. We need to have our robes on, our shoes on. We need to be prepared if we're asking God things according to his will that we find in the Word, we need to have every expectation God's going to answer our prayers, and we need to be looking for that.

Give us opportunities to witness. We need to be looking for that, looking for God to hear our prayers. Because he does.

Now, he goes and says, Tell these things to James and to the brothers. This is now James, the brother, half brother of Jesus, who is now leading the church in Jerusalem. And then he departed and went to another place, because certainly Herod is going to be on the lookout for him.

Now morning comes, and it's not a little stir. I like that phrasing. It's a great stir. The guards are terrified because Peter.

Is gone. Herod hears of what happens, and he just says, this is a mighty work of God. And he repents, isn't that wonderful?

No, he's humiliated, and he executes the guards in his anger, they receive the very sentence that what Peter was going to get. You can't keep Peter. Well, guess what? You're going to get it now, instead of repenting, he actually then doubles down in his pride. And as the Proverbs remind us, Pride goes before destruction or the fall, he travels to Caesarea, where there's a dispute, gives him a stage and opportunity to show off his glory and power.

Again, it hasn't so much work with Peter, but I'm going to try to double down again. Show his strength, show his power. There are those we're told in the text that are depending on him and his rule for food. The first century, historian Josephus tells us, on this day that Herod Agrippa, he dresses himself in silver robes that the morning light would shimmer off of it to give this god like appearance as he sat on his throne to address the crowds that were so needy and dependent on it. And he loved it. He loved it.

And after good delivering, then that oration to the people, we are told, the people shouted the voice of a God and not of a man.

They're worshiping Him.

And then verse 23 immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last suddenly, wasn't it?

Humiliatingly, worms ate him in from the inside out, most likely is what they say. Certainly, completely he's dead.

The chapter that begins with Herod on the throne and Peter in chains, ends with Herod in the grave. And what happens at the end of this chapter? The Word of God is flourishing. It's growing.

And even if you might peak just in the chapter 13, I'll allow you to look at verse one. It even says that there are members. There's a member of Herod's court that is now part of the church. Herod is losing his kingdom. He's lost his kingdom. And that's really the whole point of this passage. If you oppose Christ, you lose. But if you belong to Christ, you never will lose.

And I'll end just with this kind of interesting symmetric symmetry. In this passage, there are, are two men who are each struck by an angel in this passage. I don't know if you caught that as we read it, the an angel of the Lord strikes Peter and wakes him up to salvation, to deliverance.

The same angel of the Lord strikes Herod to destruction, to judgment, the same divine, powerful hand of God, much more powerful than Herod, but the hand of God, one time is bringing mercy and the other bringing judgment. Now, when the Word of God comes as it has to you, it always strikes.

The Word of God does not return void. The word of God has struck your ears and into your heart this day, you will not leave now this church neutral before God, you never have been anyway, the word of God has come to you, and it has struck you sometimes, which I hope that It has happened today. It has struck you to life in Christ, salvation in Christ. But sometimes it could be, and it could be to you too, exposing your hardened heart against the Lord and against his anointed.

And if you are asleep in sin like Peter, chained by fear or pride or unbelief, then wake up. This is the call of the passage.

Christ has come to set captives free. His light shines in the darkness. His grace opens up prison doors. So wake up.

Worship the one who was struck for your salvation on the cross, so that you might never be struck down in judgment. That's why Christ came to the cross to take all of your sin upon himself, that you might never be struck down.

He was bruised for our iniquities.

If you are resisting Christ like Herod.

This day, if you're here, you're proud, you're self sufficient, refusing to give God all the glory. Beware.

The text also gives us a warning that no matter how high your throne might be, Christ will bring you down to your knees, as Psalm two, again, reminds us, when he comes, he will break you with his rod of iron, as if you are a piece of pottery, he will smash you to a million pieces and judge you in your sin, both Peter and Herod meet the power of God and so will you.

One finds Mercy, the other finds judgment.

Which one are you this morning?

Will you find mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for all of your sins, or will you remain hard hearted? And will you be judged in your sins if you die? Hear these words again from Psalm 2, Now therefore, oh kings, be wise. Be warned. O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling, Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer, Our Father, I pray that you will help us to be wise this morning, to not think of ourselves too great, but to remind ourselves we are weak.

We are nothing before a true and living God. We are a drop of water before a blast furnace, and our only hope is found in Christ, who came to take all of our sins upon himself and give us his righteousness that is our only hope. Outside of it, we will receive the same fate as Herod.

We will not only die in this life, but the one to come where there is a worm that will never be satisfied, that will continue to eat and eat and eat at us, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, Lord, I pray that you will help us to take serious the holiness of God this morning, to remember that there is judgment, and Lord, I pray that you will not only stir our hearts now to embrace Christ now, but stir our hearts to love our neighbors well enough that we will speak of Christ to them lest they perish. Lord, let us be your witnesses. Be merciful we pray in Jesus's name, Amen.