Acts 12:1-5

Father in heaven, open your word for us today and allow it. To find entrance into our hearts, take your word and mold and shape us and transform us. Father, would you renew our minds today according to your truth as the washing of the water by the word pours over us? Give us ears to hear and eyes to see. Give us expectant hearts for what you are doing in us and in the world around us. Make us a people bold and courageous to give witness to you in the midst of the darkness. That those who dwell in darkness would see the light and find the hope they need. The hope found only in Jesus. We ask this that your name would be glorified in Jesus' name, Amen. I'm not going to read all of Acts 12 today, but we're going to begin our journey through Acts 12. But I do want to give kind of a breakdown of Acts 12. Our text today is going to be Acts 12 verses 1 through 5. But as we go through Acts 12, you're going to notice four things. In Acts 12 verses 1 through 5, we see persecution of the church by the Jewish state. In Acts 12 verses 16 or verses 6 through 19, we see the Lord's intervention on behalf of the church. Then in Acts 12, 23, 23, we see God's judgment fall upon the head of the Jewish state, which was Herod Agrippa. And finally in Acts 12, 24 through 25, we see a report that God's Word grew and multiplied. As Barnabas and Saul took John Mark with them from Jerusalem back to Antioch. And so in Acts 12, we're continuing on with Luke's narrative here of what was happening in the early days of the church. Today, our text will be Acts 12 verses 1 through 5. So let us read and let us hear the Word of the Lord. Acts 12, 1 through 5, now about that time Herod, the king, stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the days of unleavened bread. So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. This is the Word of the Lord. So we see here in the first five verses of Acts 12, persecution and rising again. Now there has been constant opposition taking place. The Jews who had rejected Jesus do not now embrace him. They are still rejecting him. They are still opposing the church. Herod Agrippa was the grandson of Herod the Great. This is not the same Herod who had the babies murdered at the birth of Jesus. That was Herod the Great. This is his grandson, but we see a long history of the Herod's opposing God. And it's no different here. Verse 1 says now about that time, Herod the King stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Luke's marker here about that time indicates that this was taking place during the time of famine that was mentioned back in chapter 11 at the end of chapter 11. And so all of the things that we're going to look at here in chapter 12 that Luke records for us are taking place during the famine that's already been mentioned. This is why Saul and Barnabas were in Jerusalem. They were delivering relief to the believers in Jerusalem and Judea. And the reason they were needing relief is because part of the persecution was a shunning. So if you can imagine being raised in a Jewish home and you all of a sudden profess faith in Jesus as your Messiah, those Jews who killed Jesus now will excommunicate you from the synagogue and you'll be shunned and treated like a heathen. So many of those Jews who were believers in Jerusalem and Judea had been shunned by the greater population, which means many times they couldn't buy, they couldn't sell, they couldn't trade. It was difficult for them to make a living to sustain themselves. And in a time of famine it became even more difficult. This is why the church in other areas, for instance in Antioch, sent relief to the believers there in Jerusalem. And that's why Saul and Barnabas were there to deliver that relief. So at the same time of the famine taking place, Herod the King stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. So besides famine we have state-sponsored persecution and all of this in the midst of the ongoing resistance of the Jews, their resistance to the gospel of Christ, to that message. And now that resistance is ramped up even more because Word has come back to Jerusalem that the Word of God has been given to the Gentiles. So you had Peter who took the Word to the Gentiles in Cessaria, you now have Paul and Barnabas who are in Antioch preaching to the Gentiles. The Jews in Jerusalem are getting word of this and so they're even more opposed to the gospel because the gospel has now gone to the nations. The Gentiles had received the Word of God. These were dark times in Jerusalem with famine, with persecution, with resistance. All of this was no less than Satan attempting to shut down the church by assailing it from every direction with intense spiritual warfare. Sometimes we think that the circumstances that take place in our life, the circumstances that come against us are just coincidental or accidental. I want you to think more deeply about the things that you have to deal with on a daily basis. I don't want you to be a person who finds a devil behind every bush, but I also don't want you to be ignorant of the schemes of the enemy. We have an enemy who opposes us, who opposes the gospel of Christ, who from the very beginning of creation was working to thwart the purposes of the Word of God. If you go back to creation, what was the purpose of God? In the garden he created man in his image and he told man to do what? To go forth, to multiply and to fill the earth, fill it with what? Not just fill it with people, but fill it with the image of God. This is what the prophet says, the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. This is the mandate from the very beginning, the same mandate Jesus gave his church in what we call the Great Commission. The command to go and to disciple the nations is the command to go and multiply his image and his glory and his knowledge throughout the earth. The enemy has opposed that from the very beginning and he still opposes it today. So don't be ignorant of how the enemy works. Don't be ignorant that God is greater than your enemy, that God has already won the victory. So these were dark times in Jerusalem with intense spiritual warfare taking place. We need to understand that we too are engaged in similar spiritual warfare today. The circumstances may be different, but they are no less dangerous, no less deadly. Yet Christ is no less in control as He rules and reigns His kingdom and the nations He received as His inheritance. He is Lord and King of all. Verse 2, then He killed James the brother of John with the sword. This state-sponsored opposition to the church at Jerusalem resulted in the sword being used to bring about the death of James, the brother of John. Remember James and John the sons of Thunder, that's who these brothers were. And now James has been killed. James was one of the three disciples closest to Jesus. Peter, James and John are often found with Jesus apart from the rest of the apostles. We're not told much about James outside the gospels, but we know from both Matthew 20, 22 and Mark 10, 38 that James was told by Jesus that he was dead. But indeed, drink the cup that Jesus would drink and receive the baptism that Jesus would receive. Now James and John wanting a position next to Jesus and Jesus asked them, are you prepared to drink the cup? I'm going to drink. And are you prepared to receive the baptism? I'm going to receive. And they said, yes, Lord, we are. Now did they understand fully at that time what they were affirming that they wanted to receive? No, they did not. But yet James did drink the cup and James did receive the same baptism in that James was martyred for his faith in Jesus. James drank the cup, received the baptism of martyrdom. James said he could drink that cup, he could receive that baptism. And so he was, he did when Herod had him beheaded. That's how James died. He was beheaded. The Jews considered beheading a shameful way to die. It's why the wife of Herod asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. She wanted to disrespect John and disrespect those who followed him. She wanted to shame him. And so this is why James was beheaded. It was a shameful way to die according to the Jews. And so it was the last act of disrespect inflicted upon James at his death. Herod Agrippa was the grandson of Herod the Great. He stretched out his hand to harass the church in Jerusalem to the delight of the Jews who opposed Christ and the message of the gospel, in particular the message of the resurrection. It pleased the Jews that Herod had James killed. And we see in this conflict an exodus theme with Herod and the church, a parallel, a Pharaoh and the children of Israel. Herod the Great opposed the infant Jesus, as Pharaoh opposed the Hebrew infants of Egypt. The family of Herod as earthly kings of the Jews would oppose the true and heavenly king, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was true for Herod the Great, the birth of Jesus. It's true now for his grandson who is still opposing the gospel of Christ, the message of Jesus, the good news. And just as Pharaoh sought to use the sword to eliminate the children of Israel, so Herod thought that he could use the sword to cut the hat off the church in Jerusalem. His next target would be Peter. Verse 3. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the days of unleavened bread. The days of unleavened bread is the time of the Passover. Here's another parallel of the Exodus in Egypt. Here it was the days of unleavened bread. The first Passover was observed in Egypt at the time of the Exodus. And look and forms us that it was during the days of unleavened bread or the time of Passover that Herod had Peter arrested. And because Herod saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter with the intent to kill him just as he had killed James. Like many men today, there was no fear of God in Herod a grippa. There was only an unquenchable thirst for power and approval. So much so that murder was just another means to an end. He had no conscience, only that which fed his ego and fed his authority. If killing Peter would give him greater influence and approval among the Jews and there was no question that Peter would be arrested, tried in a kangaroo court and murdered. There was a demonic alliance among these earthly powers to stop the growth and the multiplication of the word of God and the church and the gospel of the kingdom. Herod, the Jews and the Romans all wanted their own political goals to be met. Herod saw Peter as the next one who must be eliminated in pursuit of his political and personal agenda. The family of Herod had already been involved in the death of John the Baptist, the death of Jesus and the death of James. And now Herod would seek to have Peter kill to satisfy the Jews and his own lust for power. The growth of the church and the gospel was creating a dynamic that was not conducive to Herod's lifestyle nor his political goals. Herod saw himself as having a God-like status. But there was only one God worthy of worship and it was not Herod a grippa. Verse 4. So when he had arrested him he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him intending to bring him before the people after the Passover. Herod had Peter arrested and put in prison. Peter was delivered to 16 soldiers, four squads of four soldiers to keep him secure in the prison until after Passover. Our faith in Christ, nor our position with Christ necessarily protects us from the consequences of the spiritual warfare we are engaged in. There is such a thing as collateral damage. Peter was not immune to persecution because he was one of the three closest disciples to Jesus. He was in prison knowing his life was at stake while knowing who commanded his destiny. The words of the Him and Christ alone convey this truth. Verse 3. No guilt in life, no fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand till he returns or calls me home here in the power of Christ. I'll stand. Now Peter never sang those words but he knew that truth. He knew the truth of them well. Peter knew it was not Herod who commanded his destiny. Peter knew it was Jesus alone who was his master and his commander. He did not fear prison, he did not fear death. For he knew he would live or die according to the will of God in Jesus Christ. We all must know that. I think of Peter and the transformation that happened in his life. If you remember, Peter denied Jesus three times, the night Jesus was arrested and taken to ultimately be crucified. Just as Jesus had told him, you will deny me three times before the cockroaches and Peter did. And then Peter is brought to Jesus as he's outfishing and Jesus is on the shore and they run to the shore and there is Jesus having prepared breakfast for them. And Peter is brought to Jesus and Jesus requires Peter to affirm his love for him three times just like he had denied him three times. And you think of Peter and the Apostles hiding for their very lives after the crucifixion of Jesus. They witness Jesus die, the most brutal death on the cross. They witnessed his death and believed that all their hopes and all their dreams were over. And they encounter the resurrected Christ, they wait in Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit is bored out and it is Peter who comes down from the upper room with the other 120 disciples. It is Peter who preaches a message that sees 3,000 men added to the church as a result of his preaching that day, that morning. The same Peter who was hiding out for his life preaches that message. Now he is in prison knowing that his dear brother and friend James had been beheaded and the same king that murdered James now has Peter in a prison surrounded by 16 soldiers and Peter knows that it is just a matter of time before Herod does the very same thing to him. But I submit to you that Peter was not fearful because Peter knew who commanded his destiny. And Peter knew that he would either live or die according to the will of God. Christian, you must know that as well. You must trust that. We live in a world where anything may happen at any moment without warning. That is not a new reality. That has always been the case. We all live in a culture and a society that is very predictable in many ways. Compared to much of the world, compared to much of human history, we live in exceptional peace, prosperity and security. Thanks to the gospel of Jesus Christ. That has transformed our world and continues to transform it in a positive way. Don't buy the lie that things are getting worse. They're not. Yes, there are ups and downs. Yes, there are dark times and light times. But the gospel has done its work just as Christ promised. You can just go back 2,000 years and look at the course of human history. We are trajectory is up, not down. The gospel is transforming the world. We're not waiting for some great escape. That is a myth. That is not Bible. It's not in the Bible. I challenge you to show me where God is going to cause all of us to escape just before things descend into hell. That is not what the Bible teaches. No where. No where does it teach that? The government is upon his shoulder and of the increase of his government in peace. There shall be no end. And it has not stopped increasing since that baby was born. And it will not stop increasing until he comes again as the conquering king. And he will come again. And he will come as a conquering king. The gospel has transformed our world and is continuing to transform it. It is upon the foundation of the gospel that our society has built. The values of the gospel are woven into the very fabric of our civilization. Beginning with its laws and governing documents all the way to the common curses of the golden rule. Treat others the way you want to be treated. It is not man but God who ultimately governs the morals of a society and a nation. Reject God and you reject all of the things that bring the peace, the prosperity and the security. We so often take for granted embrace God and His Son and you will experience His blessings. Just as we have for many centuries. This is the warning and it is also the promise of Psalm 2. Man's fallen nature makes him resist being accountable to any but himself and certainly not God. And this is why we need a savior. Herod, like so many today, was too full of himself to see the truth. All he could see was himself, his own power, his own goals, as wicked and as perverse as they were. Verse 5 Peter was therefore kept in prison but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. Prayer rooted in the Word of God is the greatest weapon we can yield in the spiritual warfare we are engaged in. Peter was kept in prison but constant prayer was offered up to God for him by the church. Church, we are commanded to pray, to be a praying people. Prayer must be an integral part of our warfare. We will not experience the full measure of Christ's victory without it. Christ has already won the victory. That is not in question. Prayer does not secure the victory. Prayer brings us in alignment with the victory. Christ is victorious but you and I can live defeated lives if we choose to. But you don't have to if you are in Christ. More than anything, prayer moves us into conformity with his will and with his purpose. Through prayer we can be moved from a place of defeat to a place of victory without our circumstances changing. Did you hear me? We define our victory or our defeat based on our circumstances. That is not how the Bible defines victory and defeat. It is why Paul and Silas will read later on as we go through the book of Acts. It is why Paul and Silas were chained inside of a prison and they were singing praises to God. They were not defeated because they were chained in a prison. They were not defeated because of their circumstances. They were victorious in Christ. The prison was just their circumstance. It had nothing to do with their victory or their defeat. Your circumstances have nothing to do with your victory or your defeat. Christ is what determines your victory or your defeat. If you are in Christ, you are victorious. You cannot be defeated. You may not believe that but it's the truth. Christ is victorious. We can live defeated. More than anything, prayer moves us into conformity with his will, with his purpose. Prayer helps us understand, get the revelation that in Christ we are more than conquerors. Through prayer we can be moved from a place of defeat to a place of victory. Our victory in Christ is not dependent upon our circumstance. Peter knew this. I believe the church knew this. Yet the church prayed for God to move and to change Peter's circumstance. And you know what? God did. He answered that prayer and changed the circumstance. It doesn't always happen that way. That's why we put our trust in God in his will for our life. The prayers of the church, corporately and personally, are more powerful than we realize. Our enemy knows the power of prayer and that is why he worked so hard to discourage believers from engaging in prayer. Especially effective, fervent prayer. James writes in his letter, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. James 516, your prayers are powerful. Prayer effectively, pray effectively, pray earnestly, pray fervently. Do this and know that your prayers avail much. Pray to the Father in Jesus name. You don't need a mediator. You have one. His name is Jesus and he said, don't pray to me. Pray directly to the Father in my name. That's why we don't pray to saints. That's why we don't pray to Mary. We pray directly to the Father because Jesus made a new and living way for us to come to the very throne of grace. Pray prayers based on the Word of God. That is the most effective thing we can pray. God's own word. Christ has made a new and living way by His blood to the very throne of grace. And when we approach the throne of grace with the Word of God on our lips, there is no more effective prayer we may pray. When we approach believing that Word, knowing it is the sword of the Spirit and that it is powerful to say that it is powerful to vanquish our enemy, we wield a power greater than we know. God ordained the constant prayers of the saints to be the means that moved him to sin his angel to secure Peter's release. God ordains the prayers of the saints to bring about his will in the earth as it is in heaven. This is what Jesus taught us to pray. Pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God has ordained prayer as a means for that to take place. We may be tempted to think prayer or no prayer the angel would have released Peter. We don't know that. What we do know is that God ordains prayer as a means by which His people secure the answers and directions and actions they need from His throne. I believe prayer is our most underutilized weapon in the arsenal of our warfare. Yet we possess no weapon more powerful. We must not think our prayers do not matter. The sovereignty of God does not mean prayer does not matter. It does not because our prayers shape God's providence but because our prayers shape us in God's providence. God uses prayer to move us into a line our will with His. God works through our prayers the same way He works through our preaching the gospel. He has ordained prayer to bring His will to pass just as He has ordained the preaching of the gospel to bring men to salvation. Constant prayer was offered up for Peter and that prayer prevailed as God sent His angel to release Peter from His chains. It was not Peter's time to die. God still had work for him to do. You and I will not go anywhere until God calls us home and that won't happen until our work is done. Only then will we leave this life. No matter your circumstance good bad or ugly. Jesus commands your destiny and we must never forget that. Now we live in strange times and the warfare is real and things may get more strange before they get less strange. If you haven't noticed we're living in strange unfamiliar and dynamically changing times. I believe we're on the cusp of a monumental shift and change that is historic from the AI revolution to the release of long secret alien files of all things. We're living in times unlike any other in our history. It's important to know that these times have been ordained by God just like all other times in human history. Future generations will mark this time in history for many reasons. I pray not the least of which will be the revival and the reformation God sends for it is sorely needed. I believe God is moving in profound ways as He does He is firmly in control of all things, all things church. His plans and purposes have continued since before creation and the midst of so much uncertainty and change. You and I may be certain of one thing that Jesus is still Lord of all. He still rules the cosmos, the cosmos. You know what the cosmos is? That is the universe. That's as far and farther than we can see with any telescope we've put out in outer space. The cosmos is all of creation. He rules it and everything in it. He created it and everything in it. For without Him nothing was made, that was made. Therefore be rooted and grounded in the truth and do not be swayed from it for his promises, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church and I promise you they have not and they will not. Since the beginning the enemy has constantly been working to draw man's attention and obedience away from God and unto himself or anything else other than God and other than his word. From a single command you shall not eat from the tree in the midst of the garden to now possessing the entire canon of scripture. The enemy takes advantage of us where he can constantly seeking to draw us away from God through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Satan can no longer deceive the nations for the gospel of the kingdom goes forth to set men free as Christ has inherited the nations in his victory in the cross as Psalm 2 has promised. That does not though mean that there is no longer a deceiver in his minions out there seeking whom they may devour. Do not think it is impossible for you to be deceived, for you certainly could be except for the grace of God. It's not you, it's not your knowledge, it's not your mental prowess that keeps you from being deceived. It's the grace of God and that's it. Same for me. The greatest threat of us being deceived is by our own lusts and desires. Thus we must continually go to the Word of God to wash and to renew our minds so that we are no longer being conformed to this world but being continually transformed into his glorious image. Now more than ever we need ongoing transformation and renewal through the washing of the water by the Word. Now more than ever the lie is being perpetuated all around us to the degree that even what we see must be questioned. Seeing never was but especially now seeing is not believing. To borrow a popular phrase there is fake news everywhere. However listen the good news is not fake news. We can rely on God's Word, we can rely on the gospel of Christ and His kingdom when nothing else is certain. There is an intense and technically advanced propaganda campaign going on to capture the hearts and minds of people. One way to do that is through fear. Fear is being generated through the manipulation of information and technology and out of fear people make impulsive decisions about all sorts of things. How many of you get those ads? If you don't buy now it's going to be gone. The cell ends in 30 minutes. The cell ends in 30 seconds. Order now or you'll never get this price again. You know what that is that's fear. That's to manipulate you to believe. If you don't buy it now you'll never get it at that price. I'm afraid I'm going to have to pay more if I don't order it now. When in reality you just got manipulated out of fear. You could have just not bought it at all and saved all that money. But you just define your mind that somehow you saved money by spending however 1995, 39, 95, 59, 95, 129, 95. Now if you wouldn't have left fear motivate you you wouldn't have even had to spend 19 or 39 or 59 or 129. You could have just saved all that money. But fear made you believe you were going to lose an opportunity you wouldn't have again. Out of fear people make impulsive decisions about all sorts of things. From simple impulse purchasing to life altering decisions. Fear is a powerful motivator. God does not want us operating out of fear. We are to walk by faith, not fear. If we know His perfect glove we have no reason to fear anything fear makes people do things they would not normally do. The Bible tells us to fear not in Christ we have no reason to fear. Jesus instructed us not to even fear those who have power over our bodies. I mean the worst thing they can do is kill us. James said the worst thing here it can do is cut my head off. Who cares? Physical death is the worst they can do. It's called the first death in the Bible. And we're not to fear the first death because it is powerless over us. It is the second death that we should fear. The second death is the one who has power to cast your soul into hell. Not only to take your physical life but to cast your soul into hell and that is God. And that's what Jesus said. Don't fear those who have power over your physical body. Fear God who has the power to cast your soul into hell. But for those in Christ the second death also has no power. And this is why Jesus told His disciples not to fear those who had the power to kill their bodies. Rather fear God. In Christ death the first or the second has no power over you. God has revealed His perfect glove for us in His Son. His perfect glove cast out all fear first John 418. The enemy wants to torment you with fear in all sorts of ways. Do not allow fear to torment you. Look to God's word. Look to God's love. Look to the Father in heaven who loves you so completely that He gave His only begotten Son to take upon Himself the wrath of God that you and I deserve. But we're not going to get what we deserve. He died for you. He was raised for you. He gives to you His very life to present you blameless before the Father. We have no reason to fear no matter what the world no matter what the enemy may do or put before us. Jesus is Lord of all and we need to make that known now more than ever. God is moving and we must move with Him in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Here's your charge. Church, you do not know what life holds or what might be revealed in the future. Peter did not. But he knew who held his future and so should you. Whatever may come, whatever may be revealed, you know who is already revealed and that is Jesus Christ the Lord of glory. You are indeed living in strange times. Not long ago, you could not have dreamed a man could possess the level of technology now available at our Beckin call. Hey Siri. Or see she answered me. Or that a former and sitting president would admit that aliens are real even if they do not know what they are. Christian, you know what they are. I remind you again what the word of God says in John 1, 3 through 5. All things were made through him and without him nothing was made. That was made in him was life. And the life was the light of men and the life shined in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. Science has become a God to many men in darkness would rather believe in alien life and alien lights rather than acknowledge the life and the light who is God. The Lord made the host of heaven angels in various forms and spiritual phenomenon as real and as solid as the technology we possess today. His angelic coast served his purpose. We are in the spiritual battle whether men know that or not does not make it less true. Men in darkness would rather trust what they falsely think they can explain. Rather than fall on the rock and trust their creator who created the heavens and the earth. And all that is in them your creator made away where there was no way for man to be saved from his self inflicted nature of sin and death. Your salvation requires you trust your Savior and creator. To trust him is to obey him and that is a stretch too far for some men. Therefore men would rather look to galaxies farther away than their imaginations can travel. They look instead to technologies or aliens or random chance rather than the most high God and creator who sits above all the host of heaven both light and dark. The nation still rage against the Lord and against his Christ. You must not do not be deceived. Jesus Christ is Lord of all and amen.

Acts 12:1–5 Acts 12:1–5 Acts 12:16 Acts 12:1–5