Through The Bible - Acts 11-12 - Part 3

Brett Meador: History, by the way, is filled with stories of men who thought they could fight against God and succeed. And sadly, it's a sad, ugly story for so many of them. Herod fought against the Lord and fought against Peter, and the Lord said, "I'm not going to allow that."
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reminds us faith is the victory that overcomes the world.
Brett Meador: On and on we could go. Fighting against God does not work. You should be one who repents of your sins and accepts Christ as your Savior who saves us from all of our sins.
Guest (Male): We see the gospel spreading rapidly in the book of Acts. Yet, the explosion of Christianity sparks persecution from Herod the king, killing James and imprisoning Peter. Yet, in today's word, we see that God is in control as Peter is miraculously freed through the power of prayer while Herod meets his ghastly demise. Picking up our story, here is Pastor Brett Meador.
Brett Meador: Acts chapter 11. We have the Jewish Christians accepting the Gentiles in the first part of the chapter. Number two, in 19 through 26, we see where they are evangelizing the Gentiles, evangelism for the Gentiles. Now, in this last part of this chapter, we're going to see them receive help from the Gentiles. The Christian Jews in Jerusalem are going to receive help from the Gentiles, and we pick it up in verse 27. It says, "And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem to Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the spirit that there should be great dearth," or literally famine, "throughout all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul." Now, I was reading James Montgomery Boice's commentary on this, and he said this: "As far as I know, this is the first charitable act of this nature in all recorded history, one race of people collecting money to help another people." No wonder they were first called Christians at Antioch. I love that. I love how Christians are the ones who are often the first ones to help throughout history. As the church grew, it was the Christian church that started helping the needy more than anybody else. Now we are going to go to Acts chapter 12. It says here in verse 1, "Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church." Some of you think, "I thought Herod died." He did, but that was Herod the Great. This is Herod Agrippa. Herod Agrippa was Herod the Great's grandson, just for you that are wondering. But verse 2 says, "And he," Herod the king, "killed James the brother of John with the sword." "And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. And then were the days of unleavened bread." Okay, so what's going on during the unleavened bread feast? Well, this is how the James ends. The last we hear of James is he's killed with a sword. Which James is this? This is James, remember James and John, the sons of thunder, the sons of Zebedee, one of the disciples. Now he is dead. This is the second big martyr in the Bible. We had Stephen in Acts chapter 7. Now we have James. He is killed with the sword, and now he puts Peter in prison and he is going to do the same because he realized the Jews love this stuff. Herod Agrippa was constantly trying to gain favor with the Jews. And when he found out that he killed James and the non-Christian Jews were saying, "Whoopee! James is dead," so he thought, "I'm taking Peter, too." That is what is going on here. Verse 4, it says, "And when he had apprehended him," Peter, "he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and the keepers before the door kept the prison." Wow. So what's going on? The first thing I have to say is, you guys know me, I love the King James, but this is really a bad translation where it says that it was Easter there in verse 4. What does your newer Bible say? Passover. That is correct. Easter was a pagan celebration. It had nothing to do with these people. In 1611, there was a bias of the translators that was superimposed upon this, just FYI. So you might want to cross that word "Easter" out and put "Passover" there. So Herod plots to kill Peter on the Passover. That is kind of what he's wanting to do. James was killed. Now Peter's in prison and about to be killed. When did the church start praying passionately? It was when James was killed. Then the church started praying. What would have happened if the church was praying before James was killed? I just wonder. We cannot know for sure. But I wonder if sometimes I've noticed as a church, we start praying fervently when things really bad happen. But wouldn't it be great if we learned that lesson to pray before we have need? Remember the disciples could not cast out certain demons and they said, "Jesus, how did you cast them when we couldn't?" In Mark chapter 9, verses 28 and 29, Jesus, after being asked that, "Why couldn't we cast them out?" Jesus said, "This one comes out particularly by prayer and fasting." So to be praying. Wouldn't it be great if you and I were passionately praying before you were sick, or before you're broke, or before you need direction? What is Peter doing at this time? Well, that is interesting. The church is praying. In fact, the Greek word here for praying is this very fervent prayer. It is something you get from the original language. You kind of miss a little bit in the English here. But what is Peter doing? Sleeping. I think that is hilarious. It says, "But Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and the keepers before the door." How could he be sleeping at a time like this? You might say that's not responsible, but it kind of reminds me what Peter said himself in First Peter chapter 3, verse 12. He said, "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, His ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." Peter is the guy who wrote this. Peter knew that he could trust. Jesus was sleeping during the storm. I wonder if Peter is like, "I think I'm just going to be like Jesus, go and lay down." That is what I say when I go take a nap. "I'm just being like Jesus." I'm not quite as good as Jesus on those things, not even close. But Peter can rest because he is trusting in the Lord. Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6 says the same thing: "Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, lean not on your own understanding, and in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." When you feel yourself stressing, full of anxiety, when you should be sleeping. How can you sleep at a time like this? Proverbs 3, verses 21 through 24: "My son, let not them depart from thy eyes, keep sound wisdom and discretion. So they shall be life unto thy soul, grace to thy neck. Then thou shalt walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid. Yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet." Whenever you find yourself putting your head on your pillow and you are wide awake and your brain's just going buzz, buzz, buzz and you cannot go to sleep, maybe it is time to pray. Maybe it is time for you to just get up out of bed. Have you ever just wasted time in bed? "Sleep, go to sleep. Come on, I gotta work tomorrow. Go to sleep, sleep, sleep." And the harder you try, the more frustrated you are. Maybe if you can't beat it, join it. Get up, make some hot tea, and go find a little corner in your house and just pray and seek the Lord. That can be really helpful. And prayer is where you find that nice, sweet sleep. So if you are having trouble sleeping, that is something to think about. Well anyway, back to Acts 12 here. Peter thought, "I'm just going to go to sleep." But check out what he does. Verse 7, "Behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and light shined in the prison. And he smote Peter on the side." What does that look like? Did he kind of give him a kick? "Hey, Peter, wake up." He smote him on the side. That is an interesting word, "smote." I wonder if the angels are like, "Oh, this is my chance. I'm supposed to wake up here. Hey, Peter." This is funny. So he smote him on the side and raised him up, saying, "Arise quickly." And his chains fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, "Gird thyself and bind thy sandals." And so he did. And he saith unto him, "Cast thy garment about thee and follow me." And he went out and followed him and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision. He is kind of half asleep. He wakes up and he sees this angel of the Lord and tells him to get dressed and get up and the chains falling off. Peter's in that space, "Am I dreaming right now? Is this for real?" You gotta laugh at this story. This is comedy right here. Peter is just kind of walking out of the prison and he is like, "Is this for real, or am I just seeing a vision?" He just saw a vision in chapter 10. So maybe he is like, "Oh, here is another one of those visions." But verse 10, "When they were past the first and the second ward, they came to the iron gate that leadeth unto the city, which opened to them of its own accord." The gate just opens. That is a miraculous deal. "And when they went out and passed through on one street and forthwith the angel departed from him. And when Peter was come to himself, he said, 'Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent His angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.' And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying." Okay, so Peter has this miraculous deliverance from prison. He just gets up, puts on his shoes, and then the angel ushers him out through the gate, through all the locked doors. And the group gets together now and they are all praying. What are they praying about? Well, we know. We know from earlier the church, they were praying passionately about the release of Peter, which is wonderful. And so what happens? Well, verse 13. As Peter knocked at the door of the gate, of the door where the church was praying, a damsel came to harken named Rhoda. Rhoda means Rose, by the way. So little Miss Rose comes and answers the door. And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the door or the gate for gladness, but ran in and told how Peter stood at the door. Now, this is great, verse 15. It says, "And they said unto her, 'Thou art mad.'" "But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then they said, 'It is his angel.' But Peter continued knocking. And when they had opened the door and saw him, they were astonished." This is one of those comedic stories in the Bible. I just crack up at this. You're all praying, "Oh Lord, we have faith, we believe in the name of Jesus, release Peter." Rhoda, would you go see who's at the door? Anyway, Lord, save Peter, deliver. The thesaurus prayer by this time. "Deliver, redeem, save, open, loose the chain." And they are praying passionately. All of a sudden Rhoda says, "It's Peter outside the door!" "No, it's not. You're whacko. Save Peter, Lord, save him." This is a funny story. And Rhoda's like, "No, it really is Peter!" And then they say, "Oh, it's his angel." Now, if you are praying there, wouldn't you be curious to see his angel? I would be at least curious to get up and say, "Hey, if it's not Peter, let's just go see his angel. This is great." Now, by the way, this gives that implication that the Bible gives often where it seems like these people thought that people had an angel, like a guardian angel. This is one of the passages where we get that. There's a few passages in the Bible that do sort of imply that we have a guardian angel. Some people say those are only for children, but this implies that maybe Peter has one as well here. And if I have a guardian angel, I've got questions for him when I get to heaven. "Where were you when I was on my dirt bike?" Anyway, so they say, "It's just his angel," but they're not even curious. I think they still think Rhoda's just lost her marbles. But they say, "It's his angel," and then when they finally go and Peter's still out there, he continues knocking. And finally they come and they are all astonished. This is a miracle of God. Now verse 17, "But he beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison." "And he said, 'Go show these things to James and to the brethren.' And he departed and went to another place. Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers that was become of Peter." Boy, I guess. The soldiers guarding the prison. So what's going on? You know, this is the angel that delivered Peter and the faithfulness of God. Don't you love God's faithfulness to deliver Peter? Now one of the things we've noticed, when a Roman soldier shirks his duties. We talked about the tomb of Jesus and what would happen to soldiers if they didn't carry out their guard duty correctly. They would be put to death. That's why it's one of the dumbest arguments, that the soldiers just weren't watching very well and Jesus escaped from the tomb. Remember that discussion on the reasons we believe, one of the many, that the resurrection is actually true and powerful? But in this case, we're going to see that where it says there was no small stir. So verse 19, "When Herod had sought for him," for Peter, "and found him not, he examined the keepers and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and there abode." So Herod is now at Caesarea. We see that the Lord protected Peter from Herod. Remember Peter's scripture there again, First Peter 3:12: "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous," that's Peter, "and His ears are open unto their prayers," that's the church, "but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." So what's going to happen to Herod for wanting to kill Peter? Those that hate the Lord, those that do evil against God's people, the Lord is against them. So you better hang on, Herod, things are going to get ugly for you. But what an amazing deliverance. We have to admire what happened here, the rescue of Peter by the angel of the Lord from the prison. And we're going to see more miracles like this as the New Testament rolls along. But now, what happens to Herod, the enemy of the church, the guy who's going to kill Peter? Because you think Peter's going to die anyway because he's the king, he can just recapture Peter. Well, not if you keep reading. Verse 20, it says, "And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon, but they came with one accord to him, and having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, desired peace because their country was nourished by the king's country." So Caesarea Maritima is in Israel today, just north of Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean Sea. The men of Tyre and Sidon up in the north, which is more like Lebanon, they were coming down and having peace agreements and deals with Herod. And Herod was there in his glory, sitting on his throne at the hippodrome there in Caesarea Maritima. They were on Herod's sort of bad side, and then Tyre and Sidon sort of made buddies with one of Herod's trusted advisors named Blastus and wanted to get an audience with Herod so that they would sort of win him over. By the way, Josephus again talks about this time where Herod is there and tells the same story the Bible does. Josephus was not a Bible-believing Christian. He was a historian of the first century. So I love that all these stories of the New Testament are collaborated by a secular historian, which is kind of interesting. You won't hear that in your college or university, although you should. So what happens to Herod? He's sitting there in his royal apparel, verse 21. "And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne and made oration unto them," speaking with fancy words. Verse 22: "And the people gave a shout, saying, 'It is the voice of a god and not a man.'" Uh-oh, is that a good idea? Especially if you just wanted to off Peter just yesterday and now you're saying this big speech and these people, the reason they are probably saying this is they want to align with Herod and make on his good side. So Herod gives this speech. He is wearing this fancy clothing. Josephus talks about how his clothing shined with brightness, like it was almost the way he talks about like a mirror, his sparkly clothing. And so they are saying, "He is a god and not a man." And verse 23: "Immediately the angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory, and was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost." Now there is a story you didn't color in Sunday school. You didn't color this just like you didn't color Lot and his daughters and all those other stories. But you say, "What's this all about?" Well, this is what the Bible teaches. Remember: pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. And Herod is the poster child of that. But the reason God strikes him dead. And by the way, Josephus says that he was smitten with worms as he was sitting there. He fell over holding his stomach, writhing in pain, and it took him about a week to die. That is what Josephus says. You say, "Well, it says the Lord smote him here." Well, it seems that maybe He smote him with worms to die, but it was a slow and brutal death. He ends up eventually dying. Horrible, grotesque story, but part of this is because God is saying, "It is not Peter's time." It is appointed once for a man to die, and it was not Peter's time to die. And so Herod is the one who kicks the bucket. He does this. Remember this kind of almost happened to Nebuchadnezzar, only not death. Remember in Daniel chapter 4, verse 37: "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth and His ways are judgment, and those who walk in pride He is able to abase." Nebuchadnezzar was a king who said, "Who is God that He'll deliver you from my hand?" And God says, "Oh, you want to see?" And God turned him into a cow. Do you remember that story? He's out there chewing the cud with cattle. People riding by in their chariot going, "That used to be the King of Babylon," and he's out there. That'd be embarrassing for Nebby. It seems that he was like a cow for seven years, the Bible said. By the way, there is a condition where people turn into animals. It is called boanthropy. If you look it up, it's kind of a shocking condition where people grow claws and their hair kind of turns feathery. It is a little weird deal. But some people believe that's what happened to Nebby. But he said, "Those who walk in pride He is able to abase." So King Nebby had to learn that, but fortunately he comes around and sounds like the Apostle Paul in this verse. But Herod never comes around, and so he dies a brutal death. Now one of the things we also saw here is in verse 12, where it said they were praying in Mary, the mother of John's house, whose surname was John Mark. So this is John Mark of the Bible. We were just introduced to him there in verse 12. But look at verse 24: "But the word of God grew and multiplied." Remember, whenever people grow, it's not there's more people, it is the word of God, and then people were multiplied. And verse 25: "Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry and took with them John whose surname was Mark." Who was this John Mark? You've already met him in our through-the-Bible study all the way back in Mark chapter 14. And you may not have known that you were meeting him when you read that. It says in Mark 14:50, "And they all forsook him and fled." This is at the Garden of Gethsemane where all the disciples left Jesus. They forsook him and fled. "And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body, and the young men laid hold on him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked." What a crazy story. So this little kid is running around the Garden of Gethsemane with a towel around himself and they go and chase him. "Hey, get that kid!" And they grab the kid's cloth and the kid wiggles out of the cloth and runs off naked. You just met John Mark of the Bible. There he is. He was just a kid. Now he is in his 20s by this time. And John Mark is going to be a character we're going to see. He's going to be rejected by Paul but nursed back to health by Barnabas. And we're going to see that, and that's going to be a cool part of the Bible story. John Mark is a major part of our Bible, but Herod, the Lord took care of Herod. Herod fought against the Lord and fought against Peter, and the Lord said, "I'm not going to allow that." He killed James, but he didn't defeat God's plan. History, by the way, is filled with stories of men who thought they could fight against God and succeed. And sadly, it is a sad, ugly story for so many of them. Maybe you are familiar with some of those: Friedrich Nietzsche. He was a guy who fought against God. He was the philosopher who coined the idea that God was dead. And a lot of people followed his philosophical ways and believed him. But he said God is dead and that Christianity was despised and a religion of weaklings. That was Nietzsche's big thing. But fighting God ultimately drove him insane. He spent his last several years of life just totally insane. Sad story there. Sinclair Lewis, maybe you know, won the Nobel Prize for Literature. But he fought against God in his book "Elmer Gantry." The book was about an evangelist who was also an alcoholic and would sleep with any woman he could. Sinclair Lewis was trying to bash evangelism and Christianity, and he died a hopeless alcoholic himself in a clinic near Rome. Writer Ernest Hemingway lived a life of adventure but also sin against God, seemingly without consequences, shaking his fist at God, living contrary to God until he shot himself in the head with a shotgun. I mean, on and on we could go. Fighting against God does not work. You should be one who repents of your sins and accepts Christ as your Savior who saves us from all of our sins. We are going to see that as it continues in the story of the book of Acts.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador drawing a verse-by-verse look into Acts chapter 12 to a close by illustrating that despite man's best efforts to hinder the work of God, the will of the Lord prevails. And Pastor Brett will be offering a closing prayer in just a moment, so I hope you will stick around for that. But first, let me tell you a little bit more about Brett Meador. He is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Brett has been the pastor of Athey Creek for 30 years. We invite you to listen each day for more. If you missed any portion of our study, you will find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. You can also watch full video messages from him by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have other locations in the Portland, Oregon area. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations." Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations." Well, with just enough time for a brief word of prayer, here again is Pastor Brett Meador.
Brett Meador: Lord, we are thankful to be going through Your word, but as we often pray, would Your word just go through us? I pray, Lord, that as we go, Your word would just settle in our heart and stay there and be in our minds and that we would remember these stories and even the miracle of Peter, that we would remember that You are the God of miracles and that we should not sell short what are possible things that You do in our lives. So give us faith as faith comes by hearing and hearing by Your word. Bless these Your people in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will describe the Apostle Paul's first sermon where he made a powerful declaration about forgiveness and salvation. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.