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The Mystery of
Acts
12
Here we meet the first
blonde in the Bible, Rhoda!
[explain]
There’s a very interesting
triangle in Acts 12…there’s a hostile world attacking, a persecuted church
praying, and a hearing God intervening!
Allow me to summarize the
chapter and draw a couple of things out of it.
It begins w/ Herod arresting James and putting him to death…
v. 1-2 Herod was a blood-thirsty man who
came by it honestly. His
g’father was Herod the Great, who ordered all male babies under the age of 2
in
This Herod in ch. 12 in
Herod Agrippa I. He is despised
by the Jews because they resented having the Romans ruling over them.
So, to win the Jews over to himself, he began persecuting the
So, he said, I’ll go all
out and give them something they’ll really like, and had Peter arrested and
made plans to execute him. And
God’s people went to praying, God heard, dispatched an angel, prison doors
flung open, Peter walked right out!
Then later in the chapter,
Herod was giving a speech, and the people shouted and said, you’re not a
man, you’re a god! And Herod
accepted their praise and gave not God the glory, and v. 23 tells us God
smote him and he was immediately consumed of worms and died!
2 lessons in this chapter:
·
The
Mystery of
I’ve been saved 27 years,
and yet there’s so many things I don’t understand about God.
Our finite minds can’t comprehend the mysteries of our wonderful,
mighty God!
1.
God’s
There are 2 apostles in
this chapter…James and Peter.
Herod decided they would die, and one of them did die…yet one was
miraculously delivered. One
died, and one lived. I have no
doubt that the church prayed for James just as much as they did for Peter.
Yet, in God’s providence,
one died and one lived. This
tells us that God deals
separately and individually in the lives of His people.
God’s will for Peter was a long full life of ministry, and for James,
a young Martyr’s death…what’s imp’t is not how long a life we live, but how
we live what God gives to us.
“Only 1 life, ‘twill soon
be past, only what’s done for
And even if we live to 100,
it’s very short compared to eternity.
Yet we ask, why does one
live and one die? The answer:
we don’t know!
The Sovereign will of
God is a mystery. We cannot
understand it, but we must trust it.
Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. [9] For as
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
My God is so big, so strong
and so mighty…! Aren’t you glad
you have a God bigger than you could understand?!
If you could figure your God out, then why should He be your God?
Romans 11:33
O the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out!
It’s time we decide to
accept our God for who He is, and to say, I’m glad it’s that way!
And when we don’t know the
“Why”, we can trust the “Who”!
We can know He’s good and
loving, and that regardless of the circumstances, He makes no mistakes!
The mystery of the providence of God…it’s
personal…
2.
God’s
You can see this as you
look at Herod…
v. 21-23
God let Herod go a long way, but eventually, God read his meter, and
sent him the bill! He probably
laughed when James’ head rolled, and felt proud at his banquets and rising
to give speeches like this one, hearing the people’s applause.
But the Bible says,
Numbers 32:23
…behold, ye have sinned
against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.
“The
wheels of God’s judgment may sometimes grind slowly, but mark it
down, they grind surely”
1 Tim. 5:24
Some men's sins are
open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.
“God sometimes allows a
charge account, but He always collects His debts”
Ch. 12 begins w/ Herod
ruling from a throne, and it ends w/ Herod being ruled from God’s throne on
high!
It begins w/ Herod saying,
I’m gonna kill James and Peter, and it ends w/ James and Peter’s God killing
Herod!
And in humbling fashion, by
worms!
Joke—teacher trying to show
class evils of alcohol, dropped a little worm into a bottle of alcohol, it
swam around, then died. Next, a
bigger worm, then a big old night crawler, all same results.
“Now class, what does this
teach you?” Little boy said,
“drink alcohol and you won’t get worms!”
The word translated worms
here means tapeworms…he was eaten up from the inside out!
The historian, Josephus, wrote of this event saying that Herod rolled
around, moaning in agony, for 5 days before he died.
God’s providence is personal, and it’s
patient…
3.
God’s
v. 24 In spite of James’
death…the Word of God grew and multiplied.
Imprisonment of Peter/arrogance of Herod…
You can’t hold back God’s
Word. We talk about defending
the Word of God, and we should, but I like what Spurgeon said,
“The Word of God is like a
roaring lion: turn it loose and
let it defend itself”.
2 Tim. 2:9
… the word of God
is not bound.
Isaiah 55:11
So shall my word be
that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it
shall accomplish that which I please…
We don’t always understand,
but we can trust our God…God’s
ways are mysterious, but they will always result in our good and His
glory!
As a little boy I sat at my
g’ma’s feet while she crocheted, and I would ask her what she was doing,
because from my angle, it looked like she didn’t know what she was doing!
She’d put in some bright threads, but then some dark threads…I’d ask
what she was doing…and she’d say to me, just wait, when I’m done, I’ll set
you on my knee and show you the finished picture.
And one day our God will do
the same…until then, we must trust Him!
My life is but a weaving, between
my God and me. I do not choose the colors, He worketh steadily.
Oftimes he weaveth sorrow and I , in foolish pride, forget He sees the upper
and I the underside. Not till the loom is silent and shuttles cease to
fly will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why the dark threads
are as needful in the skillful weaver's hand as the threads of gold and
silver in the pattern He has planned.
Anonymous
We may not like it when we
see some dark threads poke thru, but every trial is for a grander purpose!
And one day God will wipe away all tears…until then, we have to
trust. Good news is:
He’s trust-worthy!
Looking at ch. 12, God’s
·
The
Majesty of Peace
v. 3-4 Peter is arrested.
He was a simple fisherman turned preacher…but when they arrested him
you’d think they had caught UBL!
He’s in the maximum security security, guarded by 16 soldiers, and he’s
chained to 2 of them! “All of
this for me?!”
What would you do in this
situation, and your execution was scheduled for tomorrow AM?
What did Peter do? Throw
a cussing fit? Demanding a
lawyer? Crying all nite, begging
for his life or at least for his mommy?
v. 6 Sleeping?
What’s he doing sleeping?
Well, he was a sleepy-head!
Every time he sat down he fell asleep…like Bro. Gary!
Remember?
OK, so he was prone to do
so, but in this case, it wasn’t at all ridiculous…it was the Peace of God!
There’s no fear, no anxiety, no nervousness…he had a peace in his
spirit and was sound asleep!
How
could he sleep?
-He
was saved by God’s Power.
Before saved, he was a
rough, burly, hardcore fisherman…but he got saved!
And he must’ve figured,
“if I can trust Him with
my soul for all eternity,
then I can trust Him
with my life”!
Our soul is the most
valuable thing we have.
Mark
For what shall it
profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Yet, many of us live like
our life is more important than our soul…treating our salvation just like a
fire insurance policy!
Do something different,
give God both your soul AND your life!
Make Him your priority not only in eternity, not only in the sweet by
and by, but in the nasty now and now!
How can we trust Him for
something as big as our soul’s eternal state, and not trust Him w/ our life,
and give Him not only our trust, but our time, our talents, and our
treasures!
He was saved by God’s Power…
-He
was secure in God’s Promise.
I don’t think Peter thought
for 1 second that he would die.
He had a promise from Jesus…wanna see it?
John 21:18-19
Verily, verily, I
say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst
whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth
thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest
not. [19] This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God.
This is the last time Jesus
ever talked to Peter, and He told him that he would die by crucifixion, and
you’re gonna be an old man when it happens.
Indeed, history records Peter’s death by crucifixion, upside down!
Peter’s still a young man
in Acts 12, and he’s secure in God’s promise!
Psalm 121:4
Behold, he that
keepeth
Peter knew that verse, and
may have said, Lord, your Word says you never sleep…ain’t no sense in both
of us being awake! [snore!]
Psalm 4:8
I will both lay me
down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.
G. W. Truett told the
story of the going away of the wife of an honored
And then she said: "Dear,
don't you see that face? Don't you hear that music?
You can have that kind of
peace…it only comes thru knowing
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