God,
Not Man or Methods, Protects, Promotes, Provides for the Church. Acts 12:1-23
At the end of chapter eleven we saw God’s
expansion of the church. One message that comes across all through Acts is that
it is Christ who is building the church through the Holy Spirit. This takes us
back to a couple of different events in the teaching of our Lord in the
Gospels. The two we focus on are in Matthew 18 where Jesus asked Peter, “Who do
men say that I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the Son of God.” Jesus
then comments that it is on this rock that I will build my church,” a
recognition of that statement that it is on that faith perception that Jesus is
the Messiah that Christ is going to build the church. Christ said: “I will
build the church.” In the 21st chapter
of John Jesus shows up on the beach of the Sea of Galilee and the disciples are out fishing and haven’t had any
luck. Jesus tells them to throw out the net on the other side of the boat,
which they do, and receive a load that is too heavy for them to pull into the
boat. About that time it begins to dawn on them who it is that is on the beach.
After they had eaten the Lord begins to drill Peter to see if he has learned
anything over the past few days in relation to all that the Lord had taught him
about love and forgiveness prior to the cross, and Peter’s betrayal of the Lord
the night that Jesus was arrested, and now the Lord says to Peter, “Do you love
me?” There is this interchange that takes place where three times the Lord asks
Peter, “Do you love me.” Peter says, “Yes Lord, I love you.” As a result the
Lord gives three commands, Basically, feed the little lambs; feed the old ewes;
feed the sheep. And that is the purpose for the pastor and the apostle: it is
to feed the sheep. Jesus said: “I will build my church; you feed the sheep.”
What we have today is an environment in
American Christianity which we are exporting around the world where for some
reason it is the pastor who is a sort of a manager, leader, motivator, but he
is not the teacher. In many churches there is more of a superficial message on
Sunday morning and sadly many of these pastors don’t realise how superficial
they’ve become, because that is all they’ve heard. With many their heart is
right, they think they are doing well but they haven’t ever been exposed to any
in depth biblical teaching, and they don’t have any deep level of training. So
they think they are teaching the Word when they are really just presenting
pablum. They are at a nursery school, pre-school level in whatever it is that
they are teaching on Sunday morning, and biblical instruction is sort of left
to the non-professional, the untrained who are teaching in Sunday school. And
the pastor’s job is to build the church; he needs to understand all the different
methods that are out there for developing church growth, the things that come
out of the Rick Warren type ministries and several others that give a blueprint
for how to build the church.
But the blueprint of the Scripture is that if
the pastor and the congregation do what God says to do in their spiritual life,
and in the exercise of their spiritual gifts, numerical growth of the church,
the protection and oversight of that congregation is the Lord’s responsibility.
What happens is, we get these things confused and people try to take over and
anybody in the power of the flesh who is a good business man and a hard worker
can build a large organisation and the Holy Spirit had nothing whatsoever to do
with it.
All through the book of Acts what we see is
this continuous emphasis on God the Holy Spirit growing the church; God
protecting the church. But that protection of the church does not mean that
horrible things didn’t happen. There was persecution and opposition. There was
the assault on Stephen and he was martyred, and in this chapter we see that
James, the brother of John, is going to be arrested by Herod Agrippa I and
beheaded. Then Peter is going to be arrested. So the fact that God is
protecting you doesn’t mean that you are without adversity. Because God is
watching over us doesn’t mean that things are going to go well. In fact, God
may watch over us and put us in what we think are some pretty horrendous,
horrible circumstances. But we don’t see the big picture, and so within the
framework of where God has placed us we need to be faithful and focus on the
fact that we have a crucial role to play in that arena where God has placed us
and we don’t have any idea how that is going to play out.
We see an example of God’s protection,
provision and promotion here in Acts chapter twelve. We’ve seen this with the
expansion of the church north to Antioch and it would become a major focus of missionary
activity and spiritual growth for the next four centuries. The point of this
section is that God, not men or methods, protects, promotes and provides for
the church. It is not based on methods and it is not based on men or
personalities. Yet as human beings that seems to be what we gravitate to in the
flesh. If we just had the right method; if we just had the right technique; if
we just had the right pastor with the right personality, then we could build a
great church. But then you’re building is not on the bassi of the Word of God
and positive volition to truth, you are building the church on the basis of human
personality and human skill.
When we come to chapter twelve se see
opposition to the church arise again in Jerusalem. This time it is not from the Jews and their
hostility to the Christian that have come out from their midst, it is now
coming down officially from the government powers, specifically Herod the king.
Acts 12:1 NASB “Now about that
time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to
mistreat them. [2] And he had James the brother of John put to death with a
sword. [3] When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter
also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread.” The days of Unleavened
Bread is used as a synonym for Passover. It is a week-long festival that begins
with the day of Passover. This is the same time of year as the crucifixion and
so the early church would be observing an remembrance of the crucifixion and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is at that time when they are
celebrating Passover that Herod seeks to curry favour with the people.
We need to see who this Herod is. Reading about the Herods makes modern-day soap opera seem
rather mild. These people would have made the Chicago political machine look pristine and innocent. They
were backstabbers and paranoid, they were killing off one wife to marry a
sister and all kinds of things. We need to go through a little history here to
understand why this Herod is so significant. This is actually Herod Arippa I
and he had messianic pretensions. That is one of the reasons this is put in
here, although that is not really brought out too overtly in the text but it is
clearly present in the text. So the patriarch of this clan is referred to as
Antipater, the father of Herod the Great. He was an Edomite (these were the
descendants of Esau). The Edomites were distant cousins to the Jews but there
was a lot of suspicion and hostility.
Antipater had curried favor with the Romans
and had elevated to a position of power, and so there was a lot of fighting
going on at this time in history between the Romans who were expanding westward
and were running up against another empire to the east, the Parthians. Today we
call then Iranians, Persians, the same general group of people that are coming
out of Iran which is modern Persia, and they were pushing west. So this was always a
problem for Herod. In 40 BC the Parthians gained control of Jerusalem and established Antigonus who was a Jewish leader as
a puppet in Jerusalem. They captured Herod's brother and were going to
torture him and kill him but he committed suicide. This put great fear into
Herod's heart. He knew he would be next and so he managed to escape, first to Egypt and then to Rome. When he went to Egypt he was taken care of by Cleopatra. Then she gave him
money to get to Rome. She helped him plan his strategy as to how he would
go back and reclaim his throne and power in Judea
and defeat the Parthians.
What he did during this time was protect his
family. He sent them to Masada, a fortress on a small flat top down by the Dead Sea that was extremely difficult to reach. He had sent up some supplies
there so that they could be protected and isolated from the Parthians. He goes
to Rome and meets there with Caesar and Mark Anthony. Mark
Anthony made the promise that he would be made the king of Judea
and he supported him in the Roman Senate.
Herod was also very close at this time to
Octavius, Julius Caesars nephew, and would soon be Caesar Augustus. When
Augustus became emperor at that time his second in command was a man by the
name of Agrippa. That is where the name Herod Agrippa comes from: his close
friendship and relationship with Caesar's number two man, Agrippa. It was said
that in Augustus's affection Herod was second only to Agrippa and in Agrippa's
affection he was only second to Augustus. So he was very close to the most
powerful people in the Roman
empire and they are going to
back him with all the strength that they have to put him back on the throne in Judea
to protect their eastern flank from the Parthians.
The first thing he does is go down to Masada
to liberate his family who are hiding there. Then he launched an assault from Galilee. A couple of years later he captures Jerusalem and in doing so slaughtered thousands of Jews. That
didn't make him popular among the Jews. He captured Antigonus and sends him to Rome where Mark Anthony executed him.
As Herod grew older, maybe from disease, he
became quite paranoid and was quite concerned that his sons were trying to
steal the kingdom from him. That fact was that they were. They were getting
tired of him hanging around so long and they wanted their taste of power while
they were young enough to enjoy it. Two of his sons, Alexander and Aristobulus,
committed treason and were arrested. Aristobulus is important because he is the
father of Agrippa I. He was executed by strangulation at Samaria. That made Antipater the sole heir. But he became
impatient. Herod has two sons he has executed, the inheritance is now going to
go to Antipater, but he became impatient and tried to poison Herod. The plot
failed when Herod's brother drank the poison by mistake and died. So Herod put
Antipas in prison and reported the matter to the emperor. This was 5 BC, about the
time that Jesus was born and the Magi showed up. We know this because in the
spring of 4 BC Herod died. At this time Herod comes down with a
disease that eventually would kill him. We are not sure what it was but it was
an extremely miserable and painful death. He died in 4 BC and in the process of
time he ended up with about six different wills going to different ones of his
sons. His kingdom was split between Archelaus who became the ethnarch (a term
for a lower level ruler) of Judea (4 BC to AD 6); Antipas who was a good ruler at the time of
Christ, the Herod who sends Jesus back to Pilate on the night He was arrested.
He was the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea; then Philip who was the tetrarch in the
north eastern part in Galilee.
Herod the Great was the one who was king at
the time of the birth of Jesus. When the Magi (Medians) showed up Herod is
paranoid that the Parthians are going to invade again and take the kingdom from
him. They are looking for the king of the Jews and it is not him. His paranoia
went into overdrive and this is why he sent troops to kill all of the infants
because it threatened the succession. By this time he is seriously in dementia
less than a year from his death.
Herod Archelaus was given Judea
by the Romans. He is the older son through Herod's Samaritan wife, and he is
arguably the worst of Herod's sons. Before he became the ruler he was involved
in a massacre of more than 3000 Jews who had revolted against his father
because Herod had killed a number of Jews. He is constantly vicious. He kills,
executes and imprisons. He had to leave for a while. Rome sent him back in 4 BC and he only rules for about 10
years before he is kicked out. He was so brutal that he was not really
replaced, but Judea was then given to his brother Herod Antipas, his
younger brother (same mother). He was given the name “tetrarch” which literally
means a ruler of one fourth, so he got a quarter of Herod's empire. He is the
Herod who imprisoned and executed John the Baptist, the Herod Jesus called the
fox in Luke 13:31. He was, like his father Herod the Great, a gifted
administrator and architect. He built the city of Tiberius on the Sea
of Galilee, named it for the
emperor. His family life and marriage is so confusing because of all the
marriages and intrigue that we won't even go into it. He was the uncle of Herod
Agrippa; Aristobulus was his father.
Then we come to Herod Agrippa I who became
king in 39 AD. He is very popular. He knew just how to work the
people to get everybody behind him. When he was four years of age his father
had been executed so the family shipped him off to Rome for protection and he grew up in the household of
Caesar. He was very close to Gaius who later became known as Caligula. He loved
to gamble and incurred a number of debts. When Antipas died he was exiled
because of his failures and he convinced Caligula to appoint him as the king of
Judea. And he continued to curry favor with everybody. He
was just well loved but he had an ego that was getting larger and larger
because he didn't seem to have any failures. Every couple of years Rome gave him more of what had originally been a part of
Herod's kingdom. Nobody since Herod had died had ruled all of that territory
but it was all going to come back to Herod Agrippa I.
In 37 Caligula made him king and gave him the
territories in the north-eastern section and then in 39 gave him Galilee and Perea. Then when Claudius became emperor he was still currying
such favor that Claudius didn't limit in any way, but gave him Judea
and Samaria in 41. In 44 Herod is at the top of his popularity.
He has increased his power base and he can do no wrong. Now he really wants to
curry favor with the Jewish population. He decides that the best way to do that
is to start arresting the leaders in the Jewish church. By now the Jewish
leaders were in opposition to those who were followers of Jesus, especially as
they were letting Gentiles come into their homes and they were breaking down
barriers between the Jews and Gentiles. This completely offended the
sensibilities of the leaders of the Jewish Pharisees and in the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. So this was a time when Herod can really curry
favor. He has James arrested, the brother of John. They were the sons of
Zebedee. We are told in Matthew 27:56 that Zebedee's wife was Salome. It is
indicated in John 19:25 that Salome was a sister to Mary the mother of our
Lord. That is interesting, because if that connection is right then John and
James are first cousins to the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. It shows that
this is a real family affair and that they are close to one another and this is
one reason, too, that they would be in the inner circle. John the Baptist is
also a cousin. It is interesting that they are cousins but are not too
knowledgable about their cousin Jesus. They don't live in the same area so they
don't see Him that much until He is ready to reveal Himself as the Messiah.
James' background was like his brother John,
they were fishermen on the Sea
of Galilee. They were among
the first to be called as disciples of Jesus and were part of His inner
circle—James and John as well as Peter. James became the leader of the church
in Jerusalem. Peter is going out and taking the gospel around.
James was executed. There were three different ways in which a person could be
executed and decapitation was, according to the Mishna, the one with the least
amount of pain. It is clearly pointed out in the Mishna that this death would
be due to apostasy. So like the Lord Jesus Christ he was being executed for
blasphemy or apostasy, and this pleases the Jews. Her proceeded further to
arrest Peter and he was going to execute him. Acts 12:4 “When he had seized
him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard
him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people.” There
would be two guards shackled to Peter and there would be another two outside
the door. They want to be sure he is not going to disappear again like back in
Acts chapter four when they were miraculously released from prison.
Acts 12:5 “So Peter was kept in the prison,
but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.” They are
focused on the fact that God can deliver him, but they don't really believe
that God can deliver Peter. Their faith is weak and there is almost a comic
element in the description in the next few verses. They ran an ongoing prayer
meeting, it was a continual thing, and this prayer meeting was located in the
home of Mary, the mother of John Mark.
Acts 12:6 “On the very night when Herod was
about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with
two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. [7]
And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the
cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, 'Get up quickly.' And
his chains fell off his hands.” Peter is sleeping so deeply that he has to be
struck by the angel to wake him up. [8] “And the angel said to him, 'Gird
yourself and put on your sandals.' And he did so. And he said to him, 'Wrap
your cloak around you and follow me.' [9] And he went out and continued to
follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but
thought he was seeing a vision.” He thinks he is in a dream. When he gets out
into the night air he finally realises what is going on. [10] “When they had
passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into
the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one
street, and immediately the angel departed from him.”
When this happens Peter realises what has
happened and that the Lord has sent His angel and delivered him. Acts 12:11 “When Peter came to himself, he said, 'Now I know for
sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of
Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.' [12] And when he realized {this,} he went to the house of
Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered
together and were praying.”
Peter comes up to the house. The home that he
comes to seems to be rather large, there are so many people there. This was a
home where they had an upper room and this would be the room where they were
meeting for prayer. There was a courtyard and Peter would be knocking on the
outer door. Acts 12:13 “When he
knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer.
[14] When she recognized Peter’s voice,
because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that
Peter was standing in front of the gate.” They don't believe her.
Acts 12:15 They
said to her, 'You are out of your mind!' But she kept insisting that it was so.
They kept saying, 'It is his angel.'” They don't believe that God answers their
prayers. [16] “But Peter continued
knocking; and when they had opened {the door,} they saw him and were amazed.
[17] But motioning to them with his hand
to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison.
And he said, 'Report these things to James and the brethren.' Then he left and
went to another place.”
Acts 12:18
“Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers {as to}
what could have become of Peter. [19] When
Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and
ordered that they be led away {to execution.} Then he went down from Judea to
Caesarea and was spending time there.” He had moved his palace
down there.
Acts 12:20
“Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; and with one accord they came to him, and having won
over Blastus the king’s chamberlain, they were asking for peace, because their
country was fed by the king’s country. [21] On
an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the
rostrum and {began} delivering an address to them.” We are told by Josephus
that he dressed in silver, a silver robe and silver head gear, so that as the
sun came up—if he was speaking down in front he would be facing east—behind the
seats it would hit him and reflect off the silver so that people could just see
this bright reflection down in front. Very theatrical. [22] “The people kept crying out, 'The voice of a god and
not of a man!'” He is playing the role. His ego had become so large he thinks
he is a god, he has these messianic pretensions. He comes under the sin unto
death. [23] “And immediately an angel of
the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by
worms and died.”
Then we get another report. This is
miraculous: Peter is released from prison, Herod is struck down by God because
of his arrogance ad his pretensions to be God. And we are told Acts 12:24 “But
the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.”
When we look at how the church is growing it
is obvious they are not using any modern techniques. No salesmanship
techniques, no purpose driven church; people are just excited about serving the
Lord, doing what the Scripture says to do and telling people about it. They are
obedient and are excited about learning the Word.
This brings to a conclusion the second
division in Acts.
The last verse brings in Barnabas and Saul.
Acts 12:25 “And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along
with {them} John, who was also called Mark.”
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