Angels & Worms - Acts 12

Well Madison, it's crazy that we're wearing the same clothes that we wore last week.

Yes.

I guess it's just we're in a rhythm.

Do we normally film two?

Is that normal?

We were filming one at a time, and then we filmed two.

We filmed two a couple times.

We filmed two a couple times, yeah.

Well we're filming two today, and we just got done filming Acts 11, and now we're on Acts 13, because we're skipping 12.

No! Acts chapter 12.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

Chapter 12.

Can you read it this way?

Yeah, I'd love to.

I'm going New Living Translation.

You're usually uh ESV.

Yes.

Right?

Because you're all fancy.

Why do you why do you say it's fancy?

It's not fancy.

Why why is ESV?

Was that the one you landed on personally?

Uh I got um there's some personal devotional.

I'm like a I I like reading, so I like going into the words and all of that.

There's and NLT is very accessible.

There were a few things in NLT over my time of like using it as my reader Bible that I kind of got like uh it was like a little too informal, or I could tell that the words were like a little bit too much of a illustration of that sentence, and it's a totally fine way to interpret that sentence.

It's just not the way I would say it.

Like I know NLT is in the in the midst right now of like a huge rewrite.

Like in fact, I think 10-year rewrite or some crazy Yeah, no, they are.

In fact, I think uh I know that because I'm pretty sure some of that update has started to happen because Oh really?

Well, because what I what I sent, so I use NLT for for teaching, and I usually copy my scriptures from Bible Gateway and I send that to the team for what they have on the screens, and then like what I had and what they had didn't match on Sunday.

But I know they used NLT, but it's probably that's the new LT.

Propresenter doesn't have the new NLT programmed in, but Bible Gateway does.

And it was slightly different.

Yeah, you know what I mean?

And so I choose the ESV.

Um I was given an ESV Bible when I graduated high school.

I had an NLT too.

Yeah.

Started reading it.

And it's just like a little bit more.

Yeah, I mean it's tough.

Like a great example would be this last week.

Uh sorry, I cut you off my fault.

It's just more formal, but it's like more like the word for word.

Yeah.

Like we've had that in the last episode, the circumcision party.

And yours yours had a footnote that said like uh mine said the the Jewish believers, which is true.

Right.

And then it had a footnote saying those of the circumcision.

Right.

And so it's doing some interpretive work for you and to to allow you to track with normal language.

But sometimes I just prefer the Well, and and to the this is obviously we're not gonna spend a whole lot on on the pros and cons of different translations.

They're all accurate.

Like it is who who are the who is those of the circumcision?

Right.

Well, this is the Jewish believers.

Right.

Um sometimes where a new living translation becomes really helpful is that our brains will connect the dots to other things.

So the circumcision party, well, our language in our current English is like, well, that's gotta be like a political party or right.

That's not true at all.

Um, definitely not like a So sometimes it's doing that to help you actually understand, like it doesn't want you to miss what's being said.

Exactly.

Because your brain's gonna connect.

Oh, in our language, circumcision party is gonna be like, no one's gonna just go, that's gonna seem way formal, like it's this actual, you know, official group of people.

We are the circumcision party, and we say, in free act, it's just know the people who were circumcised.

Yes.

So that's where my official like recommendation for people when they are like, what is the best?

I walk through the different pros and cons.

I think the best for Bible study is multiple.

And that's why I like having the kind of we switch back and forth or we have different ones while we're reading it, because the stuff that that surfaces is really fruitful for conversation and understanding.

And you're gonna do that.

Yeah, and ESV doesn't usually make it into mind, but not because there's anything wrong with it.

It just goes new living and ASB, new management.

And ASB is very like formalized, like exact word for word.

So like we understand We're not changing the order of things, we're just like uh English to Spanish, it's like the red table versus the table red, but it would like retain some of that clunkiness just to be like this is as word for word the Greek to the English as you possibly can without making it more readable, but it preserves that as much as it can, the meaning of the word.

Yep.

Um yeah, I mean, like last week I'm I'm in the message reading where Paul says in Galatians, I was shocked.

You know, I'm shocked.

Well, that's not a word that they're shocked isn't like a Greek.

No, I don't think there is there probably isn't a Greek word for shocked because I don't think they had I mean I guess static electricity existed in that world.

Oh yeah, you know weird.

But I don't know what surprised.

Yeah, but you could translate it astonished, but astonished can have really positive implications too.

Usually in our language, when someone says I'm I was shocked, it has a negative connotation.

Like I was shocked, and that was I was shocked that you acted that way.

Right.

You know, I could be astonished and like a wow.

I was astonished.

It was astonishing.

The Grand Canyon was astonished.

But the Grand Canyon shouldn't be shocking.

Right.

I was shocked.

It's there.

Yeah, so there's the nuances of meaning.

And it's tough.

And our language is, I mean, also our language evolves.

And yeah, so all that to say, if you're a Bible reader, um, there are some ones that I wouldn't recommend out there, like the Passion translation.

I mean, it's it's like legitimately mirror Bible.

Yeah, like that stuff isn't even scholarly.

It's like a dude.

Um and then there's the other ones that like the message version like as a interesting like I wouldn't I wouldn't use it as your Bible study tool.

No, but but I think that there it has value.

You know what I mean?

In terms of it's I wouldn't say it's authoritative.

That's like, but it would be like saying, like, Jesus calling isn't your Bible.

Yeah.

It's like it's serving a different purpose.

Serves a different purpose.

But Eugene Peterson is was a really like, he is a well-respected biblical scholar, and he did he set out to put it in very normal terms.

Um, but it goes further than a thought-for-thought translation like the New Living, uh, which is a whole whole whole teams of people and scholars working together on this versus a guy who's and he's trying to connect with the people of his time and like people he knew and people he hoped that it would connect with.

Absolutely.

And it's like I think that that that is a worthwhile uh creative project, maybe to call it that.

That's what's hard about Bible Gateway, because they're all given equality.

Yeah, they all just alphabetical.

Some of them would be like, Are you sure?

Yeah, it needs to put like nine of them up at the top.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It is because they're all they aren't all equal in terms of their usage and all that kind of thing.

And there's been some drama.

That's been recent drama about that.

So and all of that to say Acts chapter 12, verse one.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

And I'm gonna read the New Living Translation.

That was like its own podcast episode.

That's its own episode.

I think we did an episode on that one time, but it's all good.

Um, about that time, King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church.

He had the apostle James, John's brother, killed with a sword.

When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter.

This took place during the Passover celebration.

Then he imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squads for four soul of four soldiers each.

Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover, but while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.

The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers.

Others stood guard at the prison gate.

Suddenly there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter.

The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, Quick, get up.

He liked kidney punched him.

And the chains fell off his wrist.

Then the angel told him, Get dressed and put on your sandals, and he did.

Now put on your coat and follow me, the angel ordered.

So Peter left the cell following the angel, but all the time he thought it was a vision.

He didn't realize it was actually happening.

They passed the first and second guard post and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself.

So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.

Peter finally came to his senses.

It's really true, he said.

What is your say for Jewish leaders?

Jewish people.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, not all the Jewish people, right?

Like that's my new living, is trying to say, like, hey, the leaders, not not just the whole right.

Not the Jewish people that we were referencing in the Act 11.

Hey, just so you know.

Yeah.

Uh when he realized this, he went home to Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer.

He knocked at the door in the gate, and the servant girl named Rhoda came to open it.

When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed that instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, Peter standing at the door.

You're out of your mind, they said, when she insisted they decided it must be his angel.

Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking.

When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed.

He motioned for them to quiet down and told them how the Lord had led him out of prison.

Tell James and the other brothers what has happened, he said, and then they went to the uh to another place.

By the way, this James that he's referencing here would be the brother of Jesus.

Not James.

Not James, the brother of John.

That James has just been killed.

Got James.

So James, brother, James, the disciple, got killed.

One of the twelve got killed.

And then James, brother of Jesus.

The James that writes Jude, that it's that we're that Jude is named James.

Okay, great.

Yes, yes, yes.

All right, cool.

Um at dawn, there was a great commotion among the soldiers about what happened to Peter.

That's gotta be nuts.

Like he was chained to both of you.

We were all here.

Uh Herod Agrippa ordered a thorough search for him when he couldn't be found.

Herod interrogated the guards and he sentenced them to death.

Afterward, Herod left Judea to stay in Caesarea for a while.

And I'm just gonna go ahead and finish this one.

Yeah.

Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre in Sidon.

Uh so they sent a delegation to make peace with him because their cities were dependent upon Herod's country for food.

The delegates won the support of Blastus, Herod's personal assistant, and an appointment with Herod was granted.

When the day arrived, Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne, and made a speech to them.

The people gave him a great ovation, shouting, It is the voice of a god, not of a man.

Instantly an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he had accepted the people's worship instead of giving glory to God, so he was consumed with worms and died.

Meanwhile, the word of God continued to spread, and there were many new believers.

When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission to Jerusalem, mission to Jerusalem, they returned, taking John Mark with them.

All right.

So the reason I missed the sickness thing is because yours decid decides that that's what's happening.

Or mine, it says he's eaten by worms.

Well, it actually says the Lord struck him down because he did not give glory to God.

Right.

And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

So my when I read that, my brain went to he was eaten by worms when he's buried.

But it's like he's eaten by worms and died.

This is kind of the uh Judas thing where it's like he hung himself and spilled his guts, and it's like, I don't know how to reconcile all of those things, but I think it's pretty safe to say he had a he had he had heart worms.

Yeah, he had a he ate some he ate some bad food.

Yeah.

And uh yeah.

Um he's dead.

Yeah, and this is kind of the end of uh it's the almost the beginning of the end of the whole Herod era, not quite, but you have so Herod the Great, right?

He's the Herod that tries to kill baby Jesus.

Yep.

Okay, so he had six sons of consequence.

The first three he had killed.

In fact, one of them he had killed a week before he died.

Like he had three of his sons killed, and and they were probably plotting against him.

Like truly, they were probably trying to kill.

Just under the wire, you know, just man, almost got him.

And then he has three sons that he kind of his He was a very powerful leader, and he had a lot of trust from from Rome.

Like he would have known Julius Caesar pretty well.

Um so Rome really trusted Herod the Great.

And so when he died, they kind of let him let his plan of how things are gonna fall.

Can I clarify what who is he?

Like, in he's the king of the Jews?

Like Okay, so that's what that's the go back.

Where does he fall in that?

Herod, truthfully, Herod is really Herod the Great would have essentially been the governor of this area whose leadership and authority comes from Rome.

Gotcha.

Okay, but Rome was really wise in how they handled most of that.

Rome's conquering everybody at this time, and when Rome would conquer a place, they would they would almost always prefer to have the people people of that region who were loyal to Rome be the ones who led, because that is the most likely scenario for the people of that area to be comfortable.

Right.

So instead of sending in Romans and having these outsiders, these foreigners, where it'd be really easy to rise against them.

Everyone hates down the road.

Right.

Right.

Like, well, let's let's use the people, let's make sure that we have loyal people to us that we trust, and we'll let them lead.

As long as they're doing our will, what we want, we're kind of okay with them, yeah, worship your gods and do your customs.

Like, we're not trying to make like whatever.

It's like laissez-faire plus taxes.

Yes, plus taxes.

And so um, and there's actually strategy to how Rome did this.

It was pretty brilliant from like an actual leadership perspective, and and it worked for a long time.

And it worked really in most places.

Um Herod the Great had been a military guy.

He actually would have he was Jewish, but not purely.

He's Jewish.

Yep.

Um, and so he ends up um being essentially given a tremendous amount of authority by Rome, and they were even okay with him being called a king.

They were all right with that.

Because, you know, he's keeping things in line, let him be called a king.

And you also have to realize, too, and I'm I know this is a long, this is boring probably, but this is like right before the emperor is the emperor.

Gotcha.

Okay, because like the first true emperor is Augustus, who's active at the time of Jesus, right?

Before that, you had Julius Caesar, who they were about to make emperor essentially.

That's like gonna happen.

He was so popular, and then he's murdered because they're like the people who murdered him have the too much, like have the conviction.

So there hasn't quite been this like one man is seen as the god king of Rome.

That's actually going to happen at the time of Jesus, which is also contemporary with with Herod.

Right.

So is Caesar Augustus, uh, who's actually Octavian, who becomes Caesar Augustus, uh, when he becomes like the Emperor Caesar, King Herod's already been King Herod for a while.

Like that's already been a thing.

You know what I mean?

This is all very like it's just interesting.

It's all happening at the same time.

So Herod the Great dies, he kind of divides up his territory to three sons.

You've got Philip, who gets the territory that's uh east of the Jordan River, so it's kind of be more Greek-speaking and all that.

And we don't see much of him in the New Testament, a little bit, but not much.

Then you've got two others.

There's Herod Agrippa, who we have here.

He's not trusted as much by his dad, probably, because he's given the least important area, which is Galilee, where Jesus would have been active, the northern part of Israel.

And then Herod uh Antipas was, and his name would have just been Antipas, but now he becomes Herod Antipas when he's given authority.

He's given Judea, which is where Jerusalem is.

And that actually he's known for his cruelty, very much like his father, so much so that when Joseph comes back, like Joseph and Mary hear that Herod the Great's dead, that's who is persecuting him.

They move back.

They're like, Well, we're not going back to Bethlehem because that's where that's where Antipas has authority.

He's nuts.

We'll go north, you know, at least avoid him.

And Antipas doesn't last long.

Uh within about a decade, he ends up he's so cruel and he's so hated that Augustus ends up bringing him to Rome, tries him, strips him of his authority, exiles him, and he dies in exile.

There you go.

And that's when Rome replaces him with just a direct Roman person, which is where we get Pontius Pilate.

Gotcha.

So by the time Jesus is in Jerusalem being tried, and replaced with a Roman guy.

We've got to do this directly because this is a nightmare.

But Herod Agrippa, he remains in Galilee, and he does his little thing, and this is where he meets his end.

So I'm sorry that was a really long, drawn-out.

No, it's it's helpful to place myself in the conflict of what's actually happening.

Yep.

And it's funny how much God doesn't jive with people worshiping themselves or allowing themselves to be worshipped.

Yeah, and there is something with Herod very Herod Agrippa has a lot in common with like a uh Saul and maybe Nebuchadnezzar to a certain degree, but but like I was thinking of.

There's a lot there, but Herod very much cares what people think.

And you very much get this from his other stories because like when John the Baptist, this is the same Herod that John the Baptist calls out, calls out.

Yeah.

And we're told in the Gospels that Herod didn't want to kill John the Baptist.

You know what I mean?

The followers of Herod and that's why he was arrested for so long.

Herod Agrippa wanted to be the people's king.

So it even tells us here when when he kills James and he sees how liked the people.

Yeah, the Jewish leaders liked it.

Oh, okay, well, let's get Peter too.

Like if this will win me, he wants to be liked by everyone.

And so here it is, that's like the trap.

And now he has people that come to him and they're just buttering him up because they need him.

That's what it says.

Like they get their food from him.

This is the voice of a god.

And he's like, it's like his dream come true.

Right.

And he receives it.

Such a total trap to be a leader that is also consumed with what people think about you.

Oh man.

Because I don't know, it just it you end up being at the mercy of the of the crowd, and you're not able to make decisions.

Whatever feeds you can starve you.

That's something that Megan says a lot.

And uh it's true.

If if you get fed by, you know, whatever feeds you starves you.

If you need that, it can also be the thing that yeah, yeah.

I don't know.

I uh I'm really grateful.

Like Steve, when we started this church, he when I was like, I think I was 24 at the time, I've been here about a year, he took me out to lunch and he literally just said, Hey, his hands will never be a church where the pastor becomes a celebrity.

We're not gonna be that church.

So if that's something you desire, this won't ever be that.

And he wasn't saying that because I was I mean, I was the youth pastor, but I think he sends to me I'm very outgoing.

Right.

And I and unlike Steve, um, who you got to spend some time with a couple weeks ago, Steve does not enjoy the stage.

No, you know, I don't like yearn for it, I don't need it.

If I had a month off of teaching, I would be like, I wouldn't be like, oh, finally, because it's not a burden for me either, but I would be like, oh great.

You know what I mean?

I wouldn't be like, I miss being on the stage.

But you like it more.

Oh, I have fun doing it.

He like didn't like it.

Yes, he was doing it as like a oh, okay, Lord.

But he was very excited to be done with that.

It's an obedience thing versus this is what God has equipped you for.

Correct.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, but uh, but I'm great, but I think he just sensed some of that in me.

But he's like, look, this won't be the thing.

And so I'm really grateful that at the time that I was becoming a pastor, I was here because we were not a church that was all about social media.

I didn't have a Twitter, I didn't have an Instagram, it wasn't about how many followers you follow me at this.

And I think had I when I was younger, if that would have if I would have been at a church that was very much like that, I think I would have gone, I think I would have gone along with that really willingly, and I probably would have been someone who was very aware of how many people liked my post and how many famous by now.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh man.

You really missed your chance by being here.

Yeah.

I'm like famous in the sense that um I have to be on my best behavior at Walmart because there's probably someone gonna walk by that might know me.

And I think about that sometimes from my being on the announcement videos.

You're local famous.

And I'm like on the trails running, and I'll see someone and they'll be like, And I'm like, did that person recognize me, wave, or it's just like a friendly wave?

What's hard for me is that my there's enough people that go to the church that uh hey, do you know me?

Do you know me?

Where do you know me from?

Well, I've had times where I'm someone will know me and I assume it's from the church because that's 95% of the time.

And but then so I'll but then I learn that it's not as I'm talking to them in a way that doesn't make sense.

Because I just assume come to the men's event?

Yeah, and they're just like, what are you?

I was like, oh, this this is How do you know me?

From Chick-fil-A.

You're here every answer.

I'm sorry, yeah, it's good to see you.

Three days.

Yeah, it's great to see you.

Um but also I think the snowball effect of you know individual worship, I don't know how you feel about this.

It's like it has to be something that plays out in all of your life.

Like you can't let anyone worship you, or you can't require the devotion of any individual because as soon as you're like, well, I need my family to honor me and respect me like I'm a God, I need my wife to honor and respect me like I'm a God, I need my friends to think that I'm the one.

You know, it's like that snowballs so quickly in your perspective so that you have no one in your life who can ever bring anything anything less than God to you, you know what I mean?

And yeah.

I mean, and like as a dad who has, you know, kids that are, you know, at a certain age, like I do want to be respected.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

But like in the basic way of like politeness, I would say.

But I'm sure it ventures into unhealthy ways.

They're just I maybe my point is not that you don't want your kids to it's like you need your kids to respect you as a validation of who you are as a person.

Right.

No, that's my point.

Is it like I yeah, I'm agreeing with you.

So like I have those, but then where does it cross the line into I I need you to make me feel good about myself.

Right, exactly.

And that happens very subtly.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

And it can and you see it all through scripture.

It consumes uh Saul.

That is the pitfall of Saul.

King Saul.

Yeah, King Saul, not the Saul that we have.

Yeah.

It's confusing because he hasn't changed his name to Paul yet.

I was kind of wondering about that, but yeah.

So um anyway, uh Obviously, we've talked a lot about Herod, and he's a major character.

I mean, this is the man that has John the Baptist, this is the man that has John the Baptist beheaded.

His father is who tries to have Jesus killed as a child.

He is the one who Jesus stands silently in front of, uh, and he's he's tried.

He he kind of has a and he won't say anything.

Like Jesus stood before this man, and this man had the ability to nah, don't kill Jesus, but he he doesn't.

I mean, all this stuff.

Like he's a major character in the story, and this is how it ends for him.

And it's after he kills.

Is that gonna make James the first?

This is gonna make him the first of the twelve to die.

Yeah, to die.

And I think the second is gonna be James the brother of Jesus, even though he's not one of the twelve, but he's one of the apostles, the early another another martyr.

Yeah, the the early Stephen's the first martyr, but this is the first of the twelve.

Of the twelve to die.

Judas, but different.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, sorry.

Post yes, exactly.

First of the twelve that yeah.

And it's I think the rest of the chapter I kind of place in this category.

We talked about this with prophecy, but I place in this category of like a fun video game stealth mission of a story where it's like an angel shows up and Peter is like, What in the world?

And he follows him.

And we were talking with the youth about Jacob wrestling with uh God or the the angel.

And while we were talking about it, and this is not where I would like start to process this with middle schoolers, but I kind of started to wonder you know, my first in instinct I'm I'm I believe in the supernatural, like totally.

I believe that God can appear to me.

I believe that he has shown me miraculous and supernatural things before.

But my my categories for like undeniable physical manifestations of supernatural things, I instantly go to think it's demonic.

So like the night, yeah.

If I wake up in the middle of the night and and there is a supernatural being wrestling me, I start to go like I'm having a demon attack me or something like that.

There must be just some understanding or knowing, or well, even Peter says he doesn't know that it's a re it's reality, he thinks it's a vision.

But it's like if I wake up in the middle of the night and there's a dude standing in my doorway and he's like, quick, get up, follow me.

I'm like, No.

Lord Jesus, rescue me.

Like, that's what I that's like where my brain would start to think it's something dark or sinister.

Yeah.

Because I don't really have that like God appearing as a manifested here's an a messenger angel.

So I don't know.

This that's why I put it in that category of like, how do you deal with messenger angels?

The closest thing I've ever experienced to this, and I do think this was a supernatural thing.

I think I've told you the story, but it's not a story I actually tell very often.

Um, when I was in high school, we moved to Atlanta, Georgia from Memphis, Tennessee.

And uh our house, pretty early living here, uh, we had a break-in while my dad was out of out of town.

And we had a couple things that happened there.

There was a guy that was, I think our house was, and I'm gonna, this is where I get hazy.

I believe our house was still being finished working on.

Like there were or or movers, there was like it was a new house.

Yeah, we were the first family that ever lived in it, I'm pretty sure.

Um again, this is high school for me, which the older I get.

Haunted.

Pretty yes.

There's unless it's a neon barrier ground or something.

Correct.

It's got it's a yeah, not many new, yeah, it's poltergeist taunted, not like uh old house.

Yeah.

But either way, um we had some stuff happen pretty hard.

One of the guys that was a mover or something um stole a box of checks from our mailbox and like wrote a bunch of fraudulent checks that killed my parents had to deal with all that.

Well, one day we're some stuff like that had happened, and we're at our house.

My dad's on business, he's out of out of state, and um the alarm goes off, like the the big time alarm, you know.

And this was a nice house.

My dad had I grew up poor.

We we lived in a trailer when I was a kid, and my dad got a bunch of promotions, and then by the time I was in high school, we lived in a nice home with like a security system and we had an intercom system in our house.

Oh, those are that's that's how you know you've made it.

I want to bring that back.

I want one.

Yeah, I didn't probably make those anymore.

I want one in my house.

That'd be awesome.

Yeah.

Well, this was basically uh I think the thing that was hard about the intercom system is you're supposed to just push it and talk normal, but everyone pushes it and like yells, which just comes out the other side of this low quality speaker is static, right?

I'm gonna look into installing this.

Sorry, just as it's a great tool.

I want to do that.

Because we yell at our kids in rooms.

Yes.

We yell.

And our house has like the way my boys' stairs goes, it sound does not penetrate up to their rooms, and I scream at them.

They're like, What?

I'm like, I really wasn't upset.

I just trying to get your attention.

Like, I could have just walked up there, but I didn't want to.

Yep.

Um so anyway, so I'm I'm at the house.

It's late at night, dad's out of town, alarm goes off.

I kind of wake up in a stupor because it's very loud, but my I hear my mom on the intercom saying, Justin, Justin, get downstairs, get downstairs, get downstairs.

You know what I mean?

Um and and it was a legit break-in.

Yeah.

Like police came and all that kind of stuff.

It wasn't a alarm that got tripped.

So I'm coming down the stairs, okay?

And I see my mom at the bottom of the stairs say, Justin, grab my keys that are on the kitchen counter and meet me in the basement.

Okay?

Like that's and I go, I see her.

I come down, there are her keys on the kitchen counter, I grab the keys, I go down, there's another flight of stairs.

It was like three levels, right?

So I come down the first flight of stairs to the main level, I see my mom at the bottom, grab my keys, meet me in the basement.

I grab the keys, then I turn the corner, go to the bottom, which is where my mom and my little brother are, and she's all locked in there waiting on police to come.

Right.

So I get there, and I give my mom her keys, and then like we like police come, it was all this stuff.

Um, and we got and then at some point we went and got in her in her car.

I can't again, this was a long time ago.

But we end up going from there.

I think there was a direct door out to the car.

Basement garage.

So yes, whatever.

So we go to the car.

Anyway, my mom says to me, I'm so glad you had the sense to grab my keys.

I didn't know where they were.

Right?

Like, she grabbed my little brother, uh, who was probably staying with her in her room that night because my dad was out of town, he was really young.

And I was like, she's like, I'm so glad you grabbed the keys.

I didn't know where they were.

And I was she said she was panicking because she didn't have her keys and had no idea, like what if we need to leave?

I don't know how to and I was like, Well, you were at the bottom of the stairs, you told me where they were.

She's like, No, I was already in the basement when I was on the intercom with you.

Oh, you've not told me the story.

This is not?

Yeah.

So like I had a sense now, a high school student, and again, I'm I need to call my mom because I'm probably getting some details of this wrong in terms of the base, but I'm what I'm saying is pretty straightforward, pretty accurate.

Like, she did not know where the keys were.

She was panicked, not knowing where they were.

Anyway, um, and by the way, if you know me, I'm not the guy who knows where your keys are.

Like, I don't know.

I borrowed my father-in-law's uh debit card for something yesterday, and this morning he's like, Hey, did uh do you have that?

And I was like, hmm.

I don't.

I'm probably in my pants pocket at home, but I also don't remember what pants I wore yesterday.

I gotta go home and look.

I gotta go home and look tonight.

So I'm that guy.

I'm the guy that keeps track of my wife's phone.

There you go.

She's like, Where's my phone?

I'm like, Oh, it's on the counter.

Oh, I'm not, I don't know where anything is.

I don't know why I and I I said it's a bad habit because I need to stop telling you.

Because I then I trained myself to go, like, oh, I see Hannah's phone.

Let me place where it is.

Oh, it's by the plant.

And then I just have to keep track of more phones.

Yeah, for sure.

So, anyway, all that to say, um I had a sense immediately, like I knew that that was a God thing and like an angel type situation.

Like I knew that.

Yeah.

In my like, and I was a kid, I I must have been 16.

But it's in my spirit, I guess, I knew like, oh, that was that was God.

Yeah.

Providing that.

Providing that, you know.

And it wasn't even like we needed it to escape the bad guy with the gun.

It was like my mom had peace of mind and she had she felt safe because she had a way out now.

Yeah.

Or something like that.

I mean, I can't remember.

Or also to give you the the Yeah, or maybe it was a show up.

Maybe it was her purse or something.

It was a keys, but uh either way, I need to call her on this because that that happened.

And I had like instantaneous, oh, that was God.

And I've always So there's a knowing.

There was a knowing.

So like with Peter It's like this might be and that might have been a vision, it might have been an angel.

Yeah.

Whatever it was.

Someone would probably say you were just still half asleep.

And I'm like, yeah, well, that's a pretty specific thing to see and helpful information in your subconscious.

Also not knowing what's going on really at all.

No, no.

So yeah, I think that's my closest uh you think it was the guy that broke in also triggered, yeah.

Also triggered the alarm.

It was an angel that broke in, triggered the alarm, and was gonna tell you where the keys were.

Yep, definitely, definitely.

And and uh yeah, my parents uh that was a crazy time.

But it's interesting to see Peter, you know, go by these and even like the the recounting of the story.

It's like goes by the guards, shows up at the house.

They don't believe that it's even him.

That's like what just happened is so impossible, but God has provided in a really cool way.

So do you think it's superstition that they think it's his angel?

Because that's also another weird that's what I was looking up.

I got an I typed a minute ago.

That's what I was typing because um angel also means messenger.

Yep.

And there are some people who argue that when it says it must be his angel, they mean it must be like Peter's messenger.

Like a secretary or something.

Did we have that conversation when it says that Stephen had a face like an angel?

Where it was like that might be a like an idiom of the time saying like Stephen looked like he was about to say something.

It doesn't mean that his face was necessarily shiny or something, but then it's not clear enough that like I'm reading New Living, right?

And it doesn't say messenger, right?

Because it's clearly not confident enough.

It's not making that decision.

That is the yes, you know what I mean?

So there you go.

So it's his angel, angels and worms, angels and worms.

That's a good title for this one.

All right, all right, there you go.

Acts chapter 12.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

It's done.