Before Happily Ever After (Acts 12:1-24, Jeff Kliewer)

One of the reasons that I am wholeheartedly sold out, fully committed to expository preaching is that the text of the

Bible gets to set the agenda for what the author is saying. With topical messages, sometimes the error can be to grab a passage of scripture and use it for a purpose that you've already established.

But when you go through a book of the Bible, then the author gets to set the agenda of what he's talking about.

And when you do that, you begin to see some patterns emerge in the scripture that make clear what the passage is that you're studying for that day.

I think today that's especially the case. We're in Acts chapter 12. But before we dive into that text,

I wanted to take a minute to review where we've been in the previous 11 chapters and focus on a pattern that is very important for understanding the book of Acts.

That pattern is this. God will, by his

Holy Spirit, empower Christians to witness. And as that witness goes forward, there is power behind that because it's the work of the

Holy Spirit. But wherever you see a positive movement forward in the kingdom of God, there will be a reaction from the enemy.

There will be resistance to that. And the demons that are unseen will inspire human beings to stand against that gospel.

And so the pattern that you see is gospel advance met with resistance, but that's not the end of the story.

Each time that the devil resists the forward motion of the gospel, God then turns around and uses that to further the gospel greater still.

The victory is always belonging to the Lord. So I want to show this pattern also by way of review because we're now 11 chapters in to the book of Acts.

And it's important for us to really begin to see the flow of the book and what Luke is trying to do and what he's trying to teach us.

So in chapter 1, verse 8, it's easier if you have a Bible with you because then you can flip quicker than you can click.

But if you don't, then at least take out the cell phone or whatever device you have to follow along electronically.

But we're going to be moving quick for this review portion. So it might be easier to flip along.

And we do have Bibles in the back if anybody ever needs them. The thesis statement of the book of Acts, of course, is chapter 1, verse 8.

They're waiting for this promise of the Father. And in verse 8, it says, but you will receive power when the

Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all

Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. So when the Holy Spirit comes upon believers, he will empower them to witness.

And the book of Acts unfolds according to this thesis statement, this main idea.

The gospel begins in Jerusalem. First in Jerusalem, for the first seven chapters of the book, the location is

Jerusalem. And the gospel is beginning to take root in the city of Zion, of the holy city.

But it doesn't stop there. When you get to chapter 8, it moves beyond Jerusalem to where?

Look at Acts 1, 8, Judea and Samaria. So the eighth chapter of Acts is the witness that is now expanding beyond Jerusalem to the country of Judea and even to the half -Jews, which are the

Samaritans. And finally, to the end of the earth. In order to go to the end of the earth, the division between Jew and Gentile has to be torn down.

That happens in Acts chapter 10 and 11. And then moving forward the rest of the book, the gospel now goes to the end of the earth, which is why we have missionaries that go to places like Portugal to preach the gospel.

The gospel has gone to the end of the earth. Now that's the flow of the book of Acts, but let's see this pattern.

In Acts chapter 2 and 3, the Holy Spirit comes, empowers the believers on the first day of preaching.

There are 3 ,000 converts. Not long after that, Peter and John are going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, and there's a crippled man who's sitting at the gate called

Beautiful. Peter and John approach him. He asks them for money.

Peter and John say, what, silver and gold have we not, but what we have we give you in the name of Jesus Christ.

Stand and walk. And immediately his ankles are made strong and walking and leaping and praising

God. He goes into Solomon's portico. All the people gather to see that this lame man is now healed.

Peter preaches the gospel, and that brings us to the end of chapter 3. Now the first demonic resistance to the advance of the gospel.

Acts chapter 4, verse 1. And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the

Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead, and they arrested them and put them in custody.

They're thrown in jail for preaching the gospel. Of course, we know that God is using this for good, and those amazing words in Acts chapter 4, verse 12 happen in response to this persecution.

There's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. They will continue to preach the gospel, and we see in chapter 4, verse 33, after they are released, well, an angel lets them out of prison, and then the people who are resisting them come and take them in custody again in chapter 4, and finally at the end of chapter 4, they have to be let free, and with great power, verse 33, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the

Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. So that's a pattern.

Powerful gospel witness, strong resistance, even imprisonment and threats of death, but that only spurs them on to greater gospel witness, and great grace is upon them all.

In chapter 5, while everything is going well, but a man named

Ananias, and you know the story. Here you have resistance coming actually from within the church. Ananias and Sapphira rise up, and lying to the

Holy Spirit, they have an unfortunate end. In chapter 5, verse 12, though, many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles, and they were all together in Solomon's portico.

Now, chapter 5 is really interesting for this theme. Look at the transitions in chapter 5, verse 17.

Everything's going well. Look at verse 17. But the high priest rose up. What's wrong with him?

He's filled with jealousy, we're told. So it looks like this high priest is gonna be able to stop what they're doing.

He's the high priest after all. He has all the authority, but no. Look at verse 19, but. The but God is always stronger than the but of men, which come against the work of the

Spirit. Now, but God, verse 19, during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, go, stand in the temple and speak.

We see again in chapter 5, verse 26, the captain brought them out, not by force.

If you look at verse 35, we see what the intention of these who are resisting the gospel are intending to do.

Look at chapter 5, verse 35. What's their intention? To kill them.

But Gamaliel speaks up. And by God's grace, they're set free. God is victorious again.

Chapter 5, verse 40 and 42. Amazingly, when they are let out, having been beaten now for preaching the gospel, their reaction is to rejoice.

And they're praising God, because they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

And now from house to house, they're spurred on to preach even more. They do not cease teaching and preaching that the

Christ is Jesus. Chapter 6, we get a complaint. The Hebraic Jews are complaining that the other

Jews, I mean, the non -Hebraic Jews are complaining that the Hebraic Jews are receiving favoritism.

The church appoints kind of a proto -deacon force to come in and solve that problem.

And as a result, moving forward, they are advancing and things are better than before.

Stephen, chapter 6, verse 8, is full of grace and power, but we know what happens to him.

Chapter 7 is his testimony. And at the end of chapter 7, he's put to death.

The first Christian martyr. Demonic opposition to the preaching of the gospel.

And in chapter 8, it looks like things are just gonna go from bad to worse, doesn't it? Chapter 8, verse 1,

Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution, mark that, against the church in Jerusalem.

And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Remember Acts 1, 8?

Except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.

Verse 3, but Saul was ravaging the church. And entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Here again is a repetition of this theme. Gospel advance is happening. The devil brings forces against that to try to stop it.

8, 4, now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

Under that persecution, everybody flees from Jerusalem, but it causes them to go out preaching the word.

Taking the gospel to the next phase of Acts 1, 8. Judea and Samaria.

Of course, we know in chapter 9, verse 1, as this gospel has gone to Judea and Samaria, Paul now looks for an opportunity to chase them down.

He actually gets letters so he could leave Jerusalem and go as far as Damascus to take

Christians captive and bring them back and throw them in prison. He's raging against the church.

But a light shines from heaven on that road to Damascus and Paul is converted.

Saul becomes a witness rather than a persecutor. And in verse 22, he's proving that Jesus was the

Christ. So do you see the pattern? Gospel preaching met with resistance, but God then turns that around, converts the persecutor in this case, and sends him out to preach the gospel even farther into the ends of the earth.

Chapter 11, verse 19 now, we have the gospel going to the ends of the earth.

In chapter 10 and 11, they have to get over this problem. Peter needs to see a vision. Peter needs to understand that God intends the gospel to go to Gentiles as well as to Jews.

So don't call anyone unclean because God welcomes the Gentiles by faith just like the

Jews. Chapter 11 though, verse 19, those who were scattered because of what?

The persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.

But from that point on, they begin to preach not just to Jews, but also to Gentiles and the church springs up in Antioch.

So here we are at the end of chapter 11 and things are looking great. The gospel is going forward.

The power of God is manifest. So understanding what the text has shown us so far, look with me now at Acts chapter 12.

And today we're gonna go through Acts chapter 12, but understanding what we've already seen.

Understanding that when the gospel is moving forward in power to the ends of the earth, Satan will go and meet those flashpoints with resistance.

He will rise up to oppose the gospel. And that's what we have. We'll take the first four verses and then talk about it and move on through the text.

Acts 12, one to four. About that time,

Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belong to the church.

He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And when he saw that it pleased the

Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread.

And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the

Passover to bring him out to the people. His intent here is murderous.

He commits them according to the code of Justinian to four squads of soldiers, each one composed of four.

So the way they would do this is they would have a rotation of three hours each. Four soldiers would be on duty.

One or two outside of the prison, two of them inside the prison with the prisoner chained to him.

These four would be on duty for three hours and they would rotate just to make sure that no one gets tired. The point being, this is a high profile prisoner.

This is someone that they are committing troops to to make sure that nothing happens to get him out.

He's under guard by four squads of soldiers. The ploys of man in the resistance of God.

We'll see what comes of that. But notice before we get there, just in that second verse, he killed

James, the brother of John, with the sword.

Here again is a martyrdom. The first apostle is martyred. James, the son of thunder.

Remember John and James and Peter. This is the inner circle of Jesus. We don't understand why would

God allow James to be killed. Evidently he has purposes in this suffering.

And the final deliverance here for James is actually heaven. Although he is most likely beheaded, he is with the

Lord in glory. Who is this Herod? Who is this man that would do this?

What is motivating him? His motivation is seen in verse three. When he saw that it pleased the

Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This is a man who is hungry for power, for glory, for self -exaltation.

He wants to be known and recognized as powerful. And he delights in the applause of men.

He delights that the Jews liked it when he did this, and so he's ready to give them more of what they want.

Now this Herod is two generations removed from the Herod that tried to kill

Jesus when he was a baby. Remember the story? Herod the Great was the one who rebuilt the temple and he built

Masada and rebuilt Jericho. He was called the Great not because of moral character, but because he was a great builder and he was a great leader.

He was the ruler, the king, that was appointed by the Roman emperor. So he was known as Herod the

Great. But everybody knew that he also had a murderous, violent spirit.

In fact, before he died, as death was approaching, he talked to his son and his daughter who were to succeed him in four different regions that were called a tetrarchy.

And he told them that when he dies, they were to bring some prominent men to Jericho and have them slaughtered, just so that at his death, people would be mourning.

He knew nobody would mourn his death. So he meant to kill some innocent people just so that the city of Jericho would cry when he died.

That's the character of Herod. And here, his grandson has the same murderous, violent spirit.

Not surprising because of the book of Obadiah. You say, what? The book of Obadiah.

What is the book of Obadiah? I looked on Bible Gateway and Bible Gateway says the book of Obadiah is the least read book in the

Bible. Evidently, nobody says, mommy, tell me the bedtime story of the final destruction of Esau and what comes of his lineage.

Not a lot of people read the book of Obadiah. It's only 21 verses long, just one chapter.

But it is the story of how Esau, the descendants of Esau, saw the

Assyrian army coming in upon their brother, Jacob, the descendants of Jacob, the

Israelites, ready for destruction and rather coming to their aid, instead, they laughed and they scoffed and they watched from on high in the cliffs above and did nothing to help their brother.

And God says to them in the book of Obadiah, because you delighted in the destruction of Jacob, there will be an end to you.

There will be a final judgment. They delighted in violence and they were not their brother's keeper.

Herod is an Edomite, one of the last remaining Edomite. His father was from Edom and he has that violent murderous spirit that was prophesied and talked about in the book of Obadiah.

So that's who this Herod is. Verse three, it's during the days of unleavened bread.

So Pilate now, I'm sorry, Herod now, is going to wait for the end of the festival and bring

Peter out and execute him the same way that James was executed.

Aren't you thankful that you live in America, the land of the free?

Here I stand preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and the ordinary course of the world is that violent oppressors would try to put an end to this.

But what we have in this country is actually quite unique in the history of the world.

A constitution with an amendment that guarantees the first amendment, the right to free speech.

And there are not rulers right now that would try to put me to death or put you to death for free. We're gathering in the name of Jesus.

This is not the ordinary course. And when you see someone like James put to death by the sword, and we're gonna see

Peter released, the question of course comes to mind, is this the battle of good versus evil the way we see in Star Wars?

There's the force of evil and there's the force of good. And sometimes the evil gets the upper hand overpowering the forces of good.

At other times you see the force of good conquering the forces of evil. Is that what you see in the text?

I mean, after all, James is dead. Evil has triumphed, it sure looks like. Not the case at all.

What we learn from the scriptures is that God is sovereign and has a plan even for the suffering of his people.

There's a reason why James dies. In fact, in his dying, he glorifies the

Lord Jesus Christ. And by the killing of his body, he says that Jesus is a treasure to him more valuable than his own lifeblood.

Christ is even glorified in the killing of James. It's not that God was overpowered by the devil.

It's that God allowed the killing of one and the escape of the other for his own purpose and glory.

And this is what we need to understand. According to 2 Thessalonians 2, God's Holy Spirit is a restrainer of evil.

There are wicked people in this country that would see the violent oppression of Christianity.

No doubt about it. They are restrained by the restrainer. 2

Thessalonians 2, verse 7. The restrainer has seen fit at this time in history that we would not face this kind of violent persecution.

And we thank God for that. It's all within the sovereign plan of God.

Enduring persecutions glorifies God. I want you to turn with me to a scripture real quick and we'll get back into 2

Thessalonians. But here, the first chapter, verse 4 and 5. Guys, a lot of times the

Lord, in his sovereign plan, will allow us to suffer. You will face trouble. You may not understand it at the time.

But there is a reason for your suffering. And even in the violent oppression of the gospel,

I want you to see that Jesus is glorified. 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 4 and 5.

Paul is giving thanks for the Thessalonian Christians and he says this. Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.

The steadfastness, the endurance of a Christian in the midst of trouble, in the midst of suffering, brings glory to God.

We don't understand the things that he allows to bring into our lives, but recognize, this is the boast of Paul about the

Thessalonians. Even in suffering, they endure. And that is what we are called to do as well.

In this world, you will face trouble, says Jesus. Paul tells

Timothy, everyone who desires to live godly will be persecuted.

But our part is to endure, to continue to trust God and that he is good, that he has a good plan, that he's working together, to continue to trust him in the midst of suffering.

I don't know what each of us are going through, but I know that each of us will be called to carry a cross, that the

Christian life is not all sunshine and roses. And this, I think, is where we err.

We have been so sheltered in this country, we have had so much abundance relative to the rest of the world, and especially relative to the rest of the world throughout history, that sometimes we fall asleep.

We begin to think that this Christian life should be easy, when in fact, the scriptures teach the opposite.

Recognize that there will be hard times, but endure. Continue to set your eyes on Jesus Christ and recognize he has a plan in this suffering.

So we move on now, back to Acts chapter 12, verse five, and here is what you are to do. When persecuted, when in times of trouble, learn from this verse.

I struggle with this verse personally, because my bent, the way

I'm built, is to try to work things out, to try to be self -reliant, to try to work harder to overcome whatever trial comes my way.

And I think many of us are like that. But notice verse five. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

The first thing we saw is that we will be persecuted. The second thing, though, we will need to pray.

Prayer will be needed. The writer, I think his name is

John Newton, right? The former slave ship operator who was converted to Christianity.

He writes, through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come.

That song is called Amazing Grace. When we go through these toils and snares, the purpose, one of the purposes of them is to force dependence upon Jesus Christ, to make us no longer self -reliant, but to turn our eyes to Jesus.

While everything is going well, we do have a tendency to become self -reliant, to begin to depend on ourselves.

But when adversity hits, we turn our eyes upwards. Notice they do that in a group. The church is gathered in verse five.

By the church, they're maybe gathering in small groups. We'll actually find that out later in the chapter. Places like John Mark's mom's house.

They're all there praying for Peter. Prayer will be needed.

You need to pray because our war is really against demons. When the disciples saw a young man who was thrown down, sometimes into the fire, he would convulse, have seizures, foam at the mouth.

They tried to cast the demon out, but they couldn't. Jesus came along and rebuked them for their lack of faith, and he reminded them at the end of that section in Mark chapter nine, this kind comes only out by prayer.

They needed to be praying more. They needed to stay in that mode of prayer until the deliverance happened.

Some translations say prayer and fasting. Fasting is a kind of prayer. Sometimes we rely so much on ourselves, we don't recognize how desperately we need

God. But when trials come, we begin to pray.

Now, the fun part of the story. Verse six and following. Not only will we be persecuted and prayer will be needed, but we will be rescued.

What's that name Jesus mean? Yahweh is salvation.

And all of us who are here this morning as born again Christians, we know that we have been rescued from our own sin and the penalty of death that was hanging over us.

But the blood of Jesus was offered to take that sin away. We have been rescued, we're saved.

But here's what I've learned. It's not just the plan of God to save us from sin and bring us directly to heaven.

We remain in this earth and we will need to be rescued again and again and again.

Once and only once for the salvation of our souls. There's one time when we are born again and that's eternal, it never leaves us.

But in the trials of this life, we are going to have to turn to God again and again and again.

And we will find him to be our rescuer. Every time we cry to him, he delights to answer.

That's the kind of God that we have. Whatever you're going through now, the point of it is at least this, that you would turn your eyes to God and he would show himself to be your savior, your strong rescuer.

Let's see how he does it for Peter. Verse six and following. Now, when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night,

Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and centuries before the door were guarding the prison.

You see the wisdom of man here in their self -reliance and their scheming. It seems impossible from a human point of view.

Soldiers right there, you cannot get this guy out. Verse seven, and behold, an angel of the

Lord stood next to him and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him saying, get up quickly.

And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, dress yourself and put on your sandals.

And he did so and he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. It's kind of hard to rouse

Peter from his sleep. I love that about Peter, by the way. He is facing death. He will probably die in the morning and he's just sleeping.

There's a man who's resting in the sovereignty of God. He understands that God is in control.

All right, I go to see my savior tomorrow. He's probably having good dreams. The angel's like, get up, get up.

And verse nine, he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord.

And they went out and went along one street and immediately the angel left him. I love how slow

Peter is presented in the gospels in the book of Acts. When Peter came to himself, he said, now

I'm sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me. Yeah, it's real, man. From the hand of Herod and from all that the

Jewish people were expecting. You know what this says to me? There's nothing that God cannot do.

This is not Star Wars, the force versus the force. This is God in his sovereignty doing as he pleases.

That Assyrian army that was coming against Jerusalem, God sent an angel and in one night that angel slew 185 ,000 soldiers.

One angel. What can man do to God? There is no danger from God's point of view.

The dangers come from our point of view. But trust that God is able to rescue us and anything that he allows into our lives is just that.

It's what he allows. It's not that he's being overpowered by evil. Verse 13, and when he knocked, this is a fun story right here.

He knocked at the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer.

Recognizing Peter's voice in her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate.

They said to her, you are out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was so and they kept saying, it is his angel.

Now that's a Jewish tradition that the guardian angel of a person in trouble could assume the form of that person and even speak like that person or look like that person.

So they're not even believing it's really Peter. You know, I think the angel had more difficulty getting him into this house than getting him out of the prison.

I love that about this story because it shows that even though their prayer was not the powerful, faith -filled, expectant prayer that we're all called to do, it was just that humankind that doubted at times and wasn't even expecting an answer so that when the answer came, they were surprised that God actually answered their prayer.

There is real humanness in this story. You don't have to be a perfect Christian. In fact, the prayer that God loves is not the guy who's mastered how to say it just right so he could stand in a pulpit and be the most articulate or be the best spoken prayer.

No, he loves the faith of a child. He loves to hear genuineness from the heart.

That's what delights him. He delights to hear childlike faith. And you see that humanness among these.

They're praying, they're calling on God, but they haven't got it all figured out. There's weakness in this.

And yet, God is still happy to answer. How much faith does it take?

A huge amount that can move a mountain or maybe just faith the size of a mustard seed.

Just pray. If you don't have much faith that God's gonna answer, that he's gonna heal somebody that you've been praying for for a long time, that he's still able to do miracles, if you're doubting that he's hearing your prayers, just keep praying and say,

Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Look what he does.

He answers this prayer until finally they open the door. Verse 16, he's continuing to knock.

When they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the

Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, tell these things to James and to the brothers. Then he departed and went to another place.

Now, some have said he wasn't aware that James is dead. I think that's very unlikely.

I think he definitely had heard or he saw that happen before or when he was arrested. This is probably the other

James, the brother of Jesus, who then by Acts chapter 15 becomes the leader of the church, kind of the most prominent person.

So he's probably referring to the brother of Jesus who writes the book of James in our New Testament. He departs and goes to another place.

Now, if the story ended there, we would be glad. But there's another part of the story and I think we can delight in it too, just not in the same way.

We do not delight to see the death of the wicked, but we do love to see the honor of God. God is glorified even in judgment like he is in the rescuing of his people.

And this is something that this culture in America hates about God. In fact, they get tattoos that says what?

Only God can judge me as if that's better than if I were to judge you. And I don't want to judge anybody, but the judgment of God is a terrifying thing.

In that second Thessalonians chapter one passage, we see the rescue of the righteous. But in verse six, we see that God is also glorified in judging those who afflict

Christians. He will afflict those who afflict Christians. And so what you see, the reason

I took this whole chapter as one instead of breaking it into two parts, which I was tempted to do, is because the beginning of the chapter is now brought to resolution at the end of the chapter.

Much of this story is about Herod. This is Herod Agrippa, the grandson of the

Herod that tried to kill the baby Jesus. He has that Edomite spirit. And now we see how

God will deal with him. And not only him, the soldiers that are working under his charge.

Verse 18 and following. Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.

And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the centuries and ordered that they should be put to death.

Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. Because Peter's crime was a capital crime and he was to be put to death, the rule in Rome was that if these soldiers lost that prisoner, they experienced the punishment that was owed to him.

So that's why they all have to die. Verse 20. Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon.

And they came to him with one accord and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace because their country depended on the king's country for food.

I think that Herod loved the fact that the Syrian towns, Tyre and Sidon, depended on him.

That made him important. That made him big and powerful. And that's what

Herod loved. You see it here in how he struts around. On an appointed day,

Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne and delivered an oration to them.

He had them moves like Jagger. He's strutting around. The people are shouting the voice of a

God and not of a man. We actually learned from Josephus that he had put on this shining linen and at the break of dawn, as the sun came up, it actually was blinding to look at him.

He was reflecting the light of the sun so brightly that the people could hardly look at him. And they're saying, the voice of a

God and not a man. He is just soaking in the rays. He's loving this.

And he's not giving glory to God. Verse 22, the people are shouting the voice of a

God. Oh boy, you better put that down quick. But he doesn't. He welcomes that praise of man.

Verse 23, immediately an angel of the Lord. I have a suspicion that's the same guy that just took Peter out.

The same angel. Struck him down because he did not give glory to God.

And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. Why eaten by worms?

Mark 9, verse 48, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

I think this is a foretaste of the final judgment of an eternal fire where his intestinal worms that did plague

Herod Agrippa, which are written about by secular historians, they never die in hell.

He's tormented forever where the worm does not die. We see a foretaste of that.

Why? As a warning, when you stand against God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, you lose.

That's what Herod teaches us. When you stand for God and with him, he wins.

And you ride in the train of that, in his triumphal procession from place to place, second Corinthians, spreading everywhere the aroma of Christ.

It's a victory march for the Christian, even though it's painful. But Herod lose, and then verse 24, again, we see the final result.

Remember the theme we talked about today? You have the preaching of the gospel, which is powerful, but then that will be met with resistance from the evil one, and yet God will overpower that and use that then for the gospel to move forward.

Verse 24, but the word of God increased and multiplied. God is overcoming and vanquishing his enemies, and even using them as pawns in his plan and in his ultimate victory.

And that's our inheritance. That's what we have in Christ. So to apply this, do not think it's strange when fiery trials come upon you, as Peter says.

Expect that before we get to happily ever after, which is coming, before we get there in this life, it's a war.

You're not on a cruise ship, you're on a warship. Expect opposition, but practice meeting adversity with earnest prayer until earnest prayer becomes reflexive.

And do that in community, as a church. Be a part of a small group.

Join a small group where week in and week out you learn to pray together. And share your troubles, share the pain of this life, and go together before God, and you'll find him to be one who answers prayer.

You'll find him to be a rescuer time and again. Understand that God's answers to our prayers are not always easy to understand.

Here at the end of chapter 12, James is dead, and Peter is alive and free.

We won't always understand the sufferings that we go through. It won't always feel like victory, even while we're on this victory march.

But remember that the end of all things is near, and the eternal destinies of the righteous and the wicked are to come.

Listen, guys, Jesus Christ identified with us in blood.

He says, I have a baptism to undergo that you don't know about. And by that, he was referring to his death.

He calls us not to identify with him in blood, but to identify in water. The spirit, the water, and the blood give testimony.

The blood of Jesus washes away our sin. We identify him in public baptism to say that we are with him.

But if you have been baptized with him, recognize you were buried with him in baptism, and raised to walk in newness of life.

And that burial and baptism implies that you are willing to walk with him, even unto death.

If it means martyrdom, like James, which is actually very rare in the history of Christianity.

Compared to the billions of Christians there have been, the apostles all died by martyrdom. There were 10 waves of Roman persecution.

And now in the world today, there is an outbreak of martyrdom, especially in Muslim -controlled countries.

And people are martyred for the faith. The odds are very slim that you or I would suffer martyrdom.

But would you be willing to identify with him in blood if it came to that?

James was. Peter was. The good news is, no matter what trial he's bringing into your life or allowing, he is your rescuer.

Begin to pray and call on him from the depths of your heart. Join a small group. Pray together.

He will rescue us. He will win in the end. And the wicked will be punished. Let's close with a word of prayer.