Sunday, November 12, 2023 AM

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us together in this place at this time, for providing for us thus far. You have helped us. You have so much that we can be thankful for.

You have given us your Son, and with him you freely give us all things. All that we need is those who are called according to your purpose. You work all things together for our good. You have given us great assurance in your Word, great assurance by your actions of your love, of your love for us.

We ask that you would increase our faith, that you would build us up in our most holy faith, that you would encourage us, that you would use us to be a blessing to each other, that we would encourage each other in your Word and your truth, that you would grace us to love one another as Christ has loved us.

We ask this morning that you would give us a clear view of your Son in your Word, that we would look like him in this world, that you would so bring your Word to our hearts, that there would be a warm and eager amen in our lives as we go forth from this place.

We ask all of these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 12, Book of Acts chapter 12. We'll be reading verses 1 through 4 in a moment.

Christ's Authority in Acts 12

Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. He is the Son of the living God. Raised from the dead the third day, ascended to the right hand of the Father, He is King of kings and Lord of lords. The title Lord is one we find over 100 times in the Book of Acts, which tells the history of a time in the ancient Near East where thousands of times a day it was said that Caesar is Lord.

But in fact there is another king, not Caesar, and his name is Jesus of Nazareth. We are to consider Christ's authority in our passage today. I invite you to stand with me as I read God's Holy Word, beginning in Acts 12 verse 1.

These are the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit through His servant Luke. Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some of 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.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. The phrase Six Semper Tyrannis has had an interesting and checkered history. The motto of the Commonwealth of Virginia, it has served as the rallying cry during the American War for Independence and of the Confederacy during the war between the states.

Translated from the Latin, thus always to tyrants, it was thought that it was first said by, does anybody know? Lucius Junius Brutus. You know the phrase, et te Brute. It was thought it was first said by Lucius Junius Brutus, one of the prominent assassins of Julius Caesar.

And it was one Junius Brutus Booth who propelled his three sons into Shakespearean stage acting. Edwin was the best. There was also Junius Junior and, of course, John Wilkes Booth. Five months after a failed showing of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar by the family acting troupe, John mortally wounded President Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theater.

And before his capture, John wrote in his diary that he had yelled, sic semper tyrannis, after he had shot Lincoln. And he also wrote, after being hunted like a dog last night, I am here in despair. And why?

For doing what Brutus was honored for. More close to home here in Oklahoma. Sic semper tyrannis was written over the picture of Abraham Lincoln on the shirt of Timothy McVeigh when he was arrested because of the Murrah bombing.

Some take up the phrase to christen a just and legal course of action. Some take it up to justify an immoral and unrighteous course of action. But Christians may take comfort from the promises and the patterns of Scripture that tyrants will never succeed.

But all will fall before the advance of Christ's kingdom. How we hear the news, how we pray, how we plan, and how we take action all matter. And they are helped, I think, by a reading of Acts chapter 12.

Tyrants wither. Tyrants fade. But the word of our God stands forever. First observation about tyrants is that they wield the crowd. The simple magistrate is to wield the sword, Romans 13 says, but tyrants, you see, they wield the crowd.

Look at verses 1 through 4 again, if you will. Now, about that time, what time was that? Well, Acts chapter 11 tells us of a time of great unrest, of famine, of a passage between one emperor, namely Caligula, and the next, Claudius.

It was a time we studied the background of Acts chapter 11 about civil unrest, tens of thousands of Jewish soldiers marching on Antioch and killing Gentiles, famine in the land. And in a time of civil unrest and public panic, what do tyrants do?

Wield the crowd, find someone to blame, gain power. Now, about that time, Herod the king stretched out his hand, that would be his royal hand, his power, all those who serve him. He stretched out his hand to harass some from the church.

That seems like a very light term when we read what happened. To kill James with the sword, a cold and brutal act to slaughter him. In public viewing, for the cheering crowds, seems a little stronger than to harass, but the original word is the same used by Stephen as he was preaching his last sermon before he was stoned to death, and he described the treatment of the Jews by Pharaoh, by the very same word, a word that means to harm, a word that means to oppress, a word that means to injure and afflict.

Herod sees that it pleases the Jews. He wants to keep power. He wants to increase power. He wants his power to continue, and so he doesn't control all the crowds the same. He controls by use of a crowd, and the most useful crowd to him are the Sanhedrin and all of those who are zealously agitating against this new group called the Way.

Called Christians up in Antioch. Oh, it's during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. What a perfect timing to kill James and arrest Peter. As the perspective of the caretakers of that temple up on the hill, they believe that God is upset with them, and they'd be right, but they view the outlook something like this.

We're not pure enough. We're not holy enough. We're not zealous enough for God's word. This is the mindset of Second Temple Judaism in the days of Christ and the church. They understood that something drastic must take place if we are ever going to be freed from our Gentile oppressors.

Once we're pure enough, once we're pure enough, God will give us the power to throw off our Gentile oppressors, and we will enter into the golden era. That's what they expected. They were willing to do anything.

Wasn't it during Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread they murdered Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace? Is it now also during the Days of Unleavened Bread, as all the parents are teaching the children about the need to remove all sin from the community, get the leaven, get the yeast out of the house, or make it into a game?

What were the rabbis teaching? What were they zealously saying in the streets? We must rid ourselves of all impurities, not least of which is this cult that claims that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah.

A perfect timing. Herod knows his crowd. He murders James, the son of Zebedee. He wields the sword, which is the official instrument of the state for vengeance against evildoers. But in this case, Herod is the evildoer, and he has blasphemously betrayed his calling, according to Romans 13.

We live in a day of tyrants. Our presidents post-Lincoln wield power comparable or in excess to that of the kings of old. Any study of medieval history will tell you that the kings wielded less power than presidents do today.

We live in something equivalent to a technocratic feudalism of lesser lords in cooperation with the federal and state governments to do whatever they want to do, to control some crowds and to use some crowds for control.

Tyranny is nothing new. It is present in our world today. How do we think about it? How do we pray about it? How do we respond to it as Christians? Our first observation is that tyrants wield the crowd, but the second observation, thus always to tyrants, is that tyrants get plundered.

Tyrants Get Plundered by Christ

Tyrants get plundered. Verses 5 through 11. Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. Peter was kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.

Oh, Herod. Herod is strong. He's got some power. Herod has Peter locked up in prison. Prison in those days is not something you go to prison for decades. Prison is a temporary holding cell till your execution.

That's what prison was in those days. Herod has a prison. Herod has a platoon of guards. Herod has a plan. We're going to kill Peter like we did James and make the Jews even more happy with me than before.

Herod has popularity with the Sanhedrin now. Herod has the power, but the church has prayer. What a contrast. The church has prayer. We have our court of higher appeal. A throne that is higher than any other before which we bow.

We have a king with greater reach and a stronger right hand than any other ruler. We have the aid of heaven's angels and a cloud of witnesses testifying to the faithfulness of God in every generation.

We have our Lord, and our Lord has us. The church offered to God constant prayers for Peter. Well, what happened? Verse 6,. And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night, the night before, there Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers, and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.

Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison, and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Arise quickly. And his chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, Gird yourself and tie on your sandals.

So he did. He said to him, Put on your garment and follow me. So he went out and followed him and did not know that what was done by the angel was real. The body was seeing a vision. When they were past the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord.

And they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. And when Peter had come to himself, he said, Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.

Which is a long way of saying, Now I know that Jesus just busted me out of prison. Thought I was seeing things. Thought I was dreaming things. And Peter has had some vivid visions, but this one was real.

This one was real. Herod is evil, isn't he? Herod's not Satan. He's just owned by Satan and runs his errands. Such are all tyrants. Herod is up against somebody he doesn't understand, he doesn't know, doesn't even recognize, even though he should, and he should fear him.

Herod is no big deal compared to Satan, and Christ has already bested Satan. Despite the tyrannical king, despite the execution schedule, despite the angry Jews, despite the cold chains, despite the platoon of soldiers and the prison doors and the iron gate, and even Peter's own sleepy unbelief, the hand of the Lord is not so short that He cannot reach down and deliver Peter from the hand of Herod and the hate of the Jews.

No fiery furnace, no den of lions, and no manipulative tyrant can succeed where God has determined that they fail. Herod was strong, Christ was stronger, and Christ plundered the strongman. Jesus said in Mark 3, 27, no one can enter a strongman's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman, and then he will plunder his house.

And Jesus said this by way of explanation of how he cast out demons and bested Satan every which way he turned. Christ plunders all the strongmen. Christ plundered Jashurin, who could not kick hard enough to keep millions of Jews from turning to the true Messiah.

Christ plundered Plato, and the Greeks came to trust in the word become flesh. Christ plunders Muhammad, and Muslims trust in the better prophet. Christ plunders Brahman and Buddha, and the idolaters are reborn into the image of the invisible God.

Christ plunders the Pope, and Roman Catholics find in Christ the sacrifice once for all made for their salvation. Christ plunders Karl Marx, and socialists are adopted into the family of God's beloved son.

Christ plunders Alfred Kinsey, and the sexually defiled are made clean and brought into the bride of Christ. Christ plunders all such servants of Satan and rescues us from the likes of the dominion of darkness and brings us into the light of his kingdom.

So we ought not be troubled by tyrants. We ought to pray. We ought to pray. There are moments when we learn how to pray more than we ever did before, and in general, those are not happy moments. This was not a great moment for the church.

James cut down by the sword, Peter facing a mourning where he would be dying in a pool of his own blood, the church gathering in secret, begging God to deliver them from this moment. This is not a happy moment for the church.

This is a difficult moment. How much I prayed when James Coates and Tim Stevens were arrested, thrown in prison for preaching the gospel. We learn to pray in difficult times. It's not a bad thing. It's one of the ways that God teaches us.

Christ will reign until all of the strong men are made a footstool for his feet. The wicked may flex in the now, but it's only because they're terrified of the kingdom which will never be shaken. And persecution turns out simply to be God's tool for building the church.

So we've already read in Acts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11. Third observation, tyrants forge saints. Tyrants forge saints. Verse 12, so when he had considered this, when Peter had thought about what just happened, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, or John Mark, Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark, where many were gathered together praying.

And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter's voice, because of her gladness, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate, because this is just too happy for her to see it all by herself.

She wants everybody to see it. Rhoda gets to see it, but everybody ought to see this, and so she runs to tell the whole group. Makes sense. Oh, and they're praying. And they said to her, You are beside yourself.

You are beside yourself. That is a polite English affectation covering the original Greek. You're a lunatic. Can't you see we're in here praying for Peter to be released? He's probably already dead. This is his angel looking for a second job.

Oh, ye of little faith. They said to her, You are beside yourself. Yet she kept on insisting that it was so, so they said it is his angel. Now Peter continued knocking. I've got to think that Peter is chuckling to himself by now, but he's also a little scared, because, I mean, he's saying, Let me in.

He's probably looking down the street this way and this way. Are the guards coming for me? What was it that Jesus taught him about prayer? Keep knocking until the door is opened unto you. So he does. And they finally opened the door and saw him.

And they were astonished. Astonished. Incoherently excited. But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go tell these things to James, the brother of Jesus, who was a key figure there in the church in Jerusalem.

Go tell these things to James and to the brethren. And he departed and went to another place. So when Peter had considered this, Okay, Jesus Christ just sprung me from jail. King and council want me to die to please the population.

It made all their arrangements. I'm to die come morning. But God has gotten me out of jail. He has rescued me. He has delivered me. What should Peter do? You know, same situation given our present context.

Some very sincere and well-meaning brother in Christ today would have probably took Peter aside to rebuke him and say, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. You're a prisoner. Submit yourself to the governing authorities.

What are you doing out of jail? Go back. Go back and stay. You know, Peter does not submit to the governing authorities because there was a governing authority greater who said, Get out of jail. And when push comes to shove, as we've already seen in the book of Acts, when the commands of men contradict the commands of God, the question is simply asked, Must we obey man or must we obey God?

What seems to be the course of action that we ought to take? And so Peter obeys his Lord, and he goes to the church and they were praying. We're not told what they were praying exactly, but constant prayers for Peter were being offered up.

Certainly, they were wanting him to be delivered. Certainly, they wanted to see him escape death. How were they praying? Maybe they prayed Psalm 129, verses 5 through 7, Let all those who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back.

Hebrews 12 says, Those who come to Christ are Zion. Let all those who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back. Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up. Do you have any grass growing in your gutters?

Don't tell me. But let it wither before it grows up, with which the reaper does not fill his hand, nor he who binds the sheaves his arms. The church is praying, praying, praying, praying for a supernatural deliverance beyond explanation, and God answered their prayers, and Rhoda, a little girl, was the only one there to meet the answer.

Rhoda says, Who is it? The answer comes back, It's me, Peter, let me in. She believes, she rejoices, she wants everybody to know, and so she goes and tells them, and they say, Be quiet, you foolish little girl.

Can't you see we're praying for Peter's release? Jesus, when he was asked to teach his disciples how to pray, whenever he taught about prayer, he always put it into the context of little children. If children know to ask their fathers, and their fathers who are depraved, who are sinful, will give them good gifts, how much more should we expect that our heavenly perfect father will give us good gifts?

Pray as little children to a heavenly father who knows your needs before you even ask. Pray as little children. Jesus keeps on saying to us and teaching us when it comes to prayer, be persistent. You know how little children are persistent and asking for the same thing over and over and over again.

Pray like little children, impetuously, importunately, asking God for what we need, and if we are taught to pray as little children, ought we not expect answers like little children? Too often we pray like theologians and expect answers like cynics.

I was rebuked by that years ago when I was an intern at Southwood's Baptist Church. In not a long period of time, there were two little babies who died very soon after being born. And two little white coffins at the front of the church which is enough to get everybody's attention.

And there was a third situation developing. Young mother, young baby, things were not looking good. All the reports were bad. And there was a little prayer group of young men who were gathering together in the conference room to pray before every service, and we knew we were supposed to do that, you know, but we were still praying like theologians.

How would the Puritans have prayed? How would the systematic theologians pray? Everything qualified, everything so careful that we might not ever ask anything too big or too out of bounds so that we would pray somehow, always in agreement with God's secret will, which we had not a hope of knowing.

And I just got so tired of it. You know, pray like a little child, and we began to pray differently. I don't have to say, If only it be thy will. I'm just going to pray, God, save that little child. Why?

Because he told me to pray that way. Right? He told me to pray that way, to ask him for that which I believe is needful. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I trust my father nonetheless. Right? The church knows to pray for deliverance, for God's supernatural intervention, but do we know how to expect it?

Do we know how to look for it? Do we know how to meet it? In other words, do we know how to pray with faith, as James says, expecting the generous bestowment of our Heavenly Father? Peter says, spread the news.

God has answered the prayer. Encourage the whole church. Isn't that great? And we get to share with one another when God answers our prayers. Encourage each other and increase one another's faith. Well, James is dead.

And Peter is delivered. And Christ is still on the throne. And everything give thanks. In the name of Christ, we thank God for the years 2020, 2021, and so on. And thank you, Lord, for fear-mongering, liberty-hating, law-breaking, lie-spreading civil magistrates who shill for Satan because they just pump the bellows of the forge of Christ.

How much dross is taken away. How much strength is infused. How much sharper the edge of the sword in the name of the Lord. So, thank God. And pray for deliverance. Pray for God's vengeance. When you're explicitly said, beloved, do not take vengeance.

Do not take vengeance. Do not take justice into your own hands. Leave room for wrath. This is God's business. He will repay. Pray for the fall of tyrants and the rise of the righteous magistrate. Pray also for God to strengthen our faith, to shape our expectations, to anticipate His goodness.

Tyrants Rot Away Like Grass

And the fourth observation about tyrants, thus always to tyrants, is this, tyrants rot away. Tyrants rot away. Verses 18 through verse 24. Then as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter.

But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death. Classic Herod move. To search for one and not find him and kill all manner of people who had nothing to do with it.

And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, but they came to him with one accord and having made Blastus the king's personal aide, their friend, they asked for peace because their country was supplied with food by the king's country.

So on a set day, Herod arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, the voice of a God and not of a man. Tyrants are into crowd control. He's dangling them over the barrel of starvation.

Oh, now they'll do whatever I want them to do. And they've gotten the advice of Blastus, the aide of the king, who tells them, stroke his ego. It's not hard. Just butter him up. That's all you got to do.

That's all he wants. So they begin to yell, the voice of a God and not of a man. That's what you say of kings in the ancient Near East and this Roman Empire. He's not Caesar, a God. Does he not also call himself Savior and Lord?

He does. The Roman Emperor calls himself Savior and Lord. So Ter and Curios, I'll bring you salvation. I'll take care of all your problems. Since forth his Euangelion, his gospel, but every three months, here's the next good news, next good policy.

I'm going to save everything and take care of everything. But here in the book of Acts, we know that there is a different Lord, and His name is Jesus. And His gospel doesn't change from season to season.

The Lord does not respond well to Herod's reception of this flattery, this praise, this idolatry. The people yell out, the voice of a God and not of a man. And Herod welcomes it. Ah, give me more. The Lord strikes him down.

The King of Kings, that's the title of Christ, the King of Kings, the one to whom all the nations have been given, the King of Kings, who inherits all things, the King of Kings, to whom all authority has been given in heaven and on earth, the King of Kings, capital K King, singular, of lowercase k, kings, plural, judges those kings.

The Lord of Lords, capital L, Lord of Lords, lowercase l, plural, will hold those lords accountable. The nations have been given to Christ as His inheritance. And He will save those who take refuge in Him, and He will smash the rest as one would take a steel rod to a clay pot.

He gives safe haven and He judges. And as for Herod, he is immediately horrifically melted from the inside by ravenous worms and he died. To put it in Old Testament metaphor, he was made chaff and blown away with the wind.

But notice, the Word of God grew and multiplied, verse 24. The Word of God grew and multiplied. How does that work? Well, it wasn't that the scrolls and parchments got bigger, and it really wasn't about them making several copies of the scriptures to share, although they did that.

The Word of God, in this case, is speaking about the message of the gospel, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the living God, that for us and for our salvation, God sent forth His Son to take upon human flesh and die upon the cross, having lived a righteous life as God's Lamb.

Oh, it's Passover. Oh, it's the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Well, Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and God is fully satisfied in His Son, Jesus Christ. Are you satisfied in Jesus Christ?

Is He your Lamb? Or is it Jesus plus something else? Or Jesus or alternate something else? The Word of God grew and multiplied. Herod was eaten by worms and died, but the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, grew and multiplied and amplified and resounded throughout the whole area.

Herod is dead. Long live Jesus Christ. The tyrant is dead. Long live Jesus Christ. Well, it's Sunday morning. How about some cartoons? Isaiah chapter 14, one of my favorite, most favorite cartoons in all of the Bible.

You know the Bible has cartoons? Proverbs is full of wonderful cartoons. I love Book of Proverbs. Isaiah has a lot, too. In Isaiah chapter 14, very clearly states at the beginning that this is a word of the Lord by the prophet Isaiah against the king of Babylon.

Against the king of Babylon. For context's sake, Babylon was a big deal. Superpower. World dominion. Superpower. And this is a word against the king of Babylon. Most powerful man on the planet. The word against him.

So, kind of a political cartoon, right? How all the powerful men are mocked. How they have funny-shaped heads and do silly things. But this is more serious. Verse 4, Isaiah 14, how the oppressor has ceased.

The golden city ceased. The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers. He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke. He who ruled the nations in anger is persecuted and no one hinders.

What's the result? Well, the whole earth is at rest and quiet. And they break forth into singing when that tyrant gets the whip of the Lord at his back. Verse 8, indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you and the cedars of Lebanon saying, since you were cut down, no woodsman has come up against us.

And in verse 9, we start something that Gary Larson in the far side could never even begin to imitate. It's far better. Hell from beneath is excited about you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you.

There's going to be a welcoming committee for the king of Babylon when he goes to hell. All the chief ones of the earth. It is raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nation. They shall all speak and say to you, here comes the king of Babylon straight through the center of hell.

And here are all the other powerful ones who got sent there first. And they are at his welcoming committee. What do they say? Have you become as weak as we? Have you become like us? Your pomp is brought down to Sheol and the sound of your stringed instruments.

The maggot is spread under you. Oh, wow. Instead of the red carpet, he gets maggots. And worms cover you. No more royal robes, sorry. You're wearing worms. How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.

Oh, hang on a second. Are we talking about Satan or are we talking about the king of Babylon? Oh, remember, tyrants are owned by Satan and run his errands. So, a little of both. How you are cut down to the ground.

You weakened the nations. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit in the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. And yet you shall be brought down to Sheol. To the lowest depths of the pit. Those who see you will gaze at you and consider you saying, is this the man who made the earth tremble?

Who shook kingdoms? Who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities? Who did not open the house of his prisoners? 6 Semper Tyrannis. Isaiah 40, verses 6 through 8 gives us a different metaphor.

All flesh is grass. All its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers. The flower fades. Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers.

The flower fades. But the Word of our God stands forever. Which applied means what? All tyrants are grass. And all their policies are like the flower of the field. The tyrant withers. The tyrant fades.

Because the breath of God blows upon them. Surely the people, remember their crowds that they get whipped up into an angry zeal in order for them to gain more power. Surely the people are grass. The tyrant withers.

The tyrant fades. But the Word of our God stands forever. On the one hand, we have the temporary nature of tyrants. And on the other side, we have Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word from Acts 12. A story to encourage your church and to remind us...