Acts 12 – Knowing the God of our gospel

Greetings

Good morning, brothers and sisters, I'm very glad to be opening God’s word with you this morning.

But as we do, let us pray.

Heavenly Father, please speak to us today by your word so that we may know you better. Help us to hold fast to the hope that we have in Jesus and that we may proclaim your gospel with boldness and clarity no matter the season. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Introduction

A little while ago I saw a short video on YouTube, it was a video of a lecture given by a Yale quantum mechanics professor.

It was the first lecture of the semester, and so the professor began by saying how quantum mechanics is very difficult to understand. So much so that even the professor himself does not understand it, even though he is teaching it to the class.

As he introduces the subject, he tells his student his goal for the semester.

He says to his class, “Right now, I’m the only one who doesn’t understand quantum mechanics. In about seven days, all of you will be unable to understand quantum mechanics. Then you can go back and spread your ignorance everywhere else.”

At that point, I thought Wow, that is exactly the opposite of what we do as Christians.

When we first hear the gospel, we spend time understanding it, investigating it. And, hopefully, by God’s grace, we respond to it by putting our trust in Jesus.

And after that, we spread the gospel and our understanding of the good news to everyone everywhere. We don’t spread ignorance, but the concrete, tangible love of God.

However, we often find this challenging, don’t we, at least I find it so myself.

And so, instead of proclaiming a good and clear gospel, we might have unknowingly preached ignorance ourselves.

Now, this is less of an issue when things are going well; a little bit of ignorance on our part and for others might not cause much harm.

However, when we or others are experiencing significant pain and loss, it is only a clear and deeply rooted knowledge of the gospel that will give us hope and sustain us as we persevere in the footsteps of Jesus.

And this knowledge, these roots, must bring us back to the God of our gospel.

Because none of us can do God’s work without knowing who God really is.

And this is true for us today, just as it was true for the early church in the book of Acts.

Because, like the first followers of Jesus, we are still living in a world of suffering and injustice.

And so, the question for us today is: Who is God that I should trust him?

And I think our passage today helps us answer that question because it shows us who our God is and why we can confidently place our trust in Him and continue to trust in Him.

And so, this morning, I want to draw your attention to three things as we learn about the God of our gospel:

1)    Our God is sovereign

2)    Our God is personal

3)    Our God deserves all the glory

And these are the three points for our talk this morning.

Our God is sovereign

So let’s begin with our first point and see how our God is sovereign.

As we journey through Acts, we can see that the gospel is about to burst out of Judea and into all the nations.

Back in chapter 9, we see the conversion of Saul and how God has set him apart to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

Then, in the last few weeks, as we looked at chapters 10 and 11, we saw how Peter has continued to learn about God and his mission.

He was humbly reminded by God that what God had made clean, no one can declare unclean. And that by faith in Christ, anyone can be made clean. Whether they are Jews or Gentiles.

And so, things are going great!

The apostles are all on the same page; they know that the gospel is both for their own people as well as the nations.

Peter will look after the Jewish community and Saul will bring the gospel to the gentile community.

Things are great!

However, the next thing that we find in Acts is not the mission to the Gentiles, for that, we will have to wait until next week when we look at Acts 13.

Instead, here in Acts 12, we are greeted with the death of James.

Look with me at verse 1:

1 About that time King Herod violently attacked some who belonged to the church,

2 and he executed James, John’s brother, with the sword.

Instead of seeing King Jesus advancing his kingdom on earth with his word, we see King Herod killing Jesus’ beloved disciple with the sword.

From the Gospels, we know that Jesus had twelve disciples.

And of the twelve disciples, Peter, James and John were especially close to Jesus.

Only these three disciples witnessed the transfiguration, the raising of Jairus’ daughter, and were invited to pray with Jesus at Gethsemane.

James would be a prominent leader and pastor in the early Christian church, alongside Peter and John.

And so, the execution of James marks the first death amongst the twelve disciples and the first death amongst the early church leaders.

To make matters worse, it wasn’t the Pharisees who killed James; it was King Herod who killed James.

This detail is important because the killing of Stephen in Acts chapter 8 was not sanctioned by the Roman government.

Whereas the killing of James marks the first time and the beginning of the Roman government’s persecution of Christians.

So, what we have here is the loss of a key leader in the early church, which marks the beginning of organised, systematised, government-sanctioned persecution.

It is indeed a very grim day for the church.

And as we turn to our Bibles, you will find that Peter was then put to prison.

In verses 3 and 4, Luke tells us that Peter was arrested during the Passover, and King Herod assigned four squads of four soldiers to guard his cell to prevent Peter from escaping.

Now, I assume that each of the four-soldier squads had a 6-hour shift, and so Peter was guarded by four trained armed men 24/7. So that King Herod can bring him out after the Passover festival, and perhaps have Peter executed, just like James. Because that is just what the Jews want, as we see in verse 3.

Now, moments like these often make their way to the movies. You know, like James Bond or Ethan Hunt, escaping from prisons and strongholds. Against all odds, they defeat the guards, overcoming them with high-tech gadgets and weaponry.

Well, Peter will not be getting out of prison with any high-tech spears or rocket sandals; instead, he will be escorted out of prison by the mighty hand of God through the help of an angel.

Nothing demonstrates God’s sovereignty more clearly than God rescuing his people from the hands of death into the hands of God.

And that’s what we find in verses 6 to 10.

Even though Peter was hopelessly awaiting his execution, the angel of the Lord came to Peter, released his chains and led him out of the prison.

Although we cannot always see it, the sovereign hand of God is always at work for the good of His people.

Through the highs and lows, through our joys and sufferings, through our confidence and anxiety, our God is sovereign.

If anything, God is reminding Peter that he is in control of all things.

And it is just as important for us today to behold once again the sovereign hand of God.

However, as we move to our second point, we will find that our God is not only sovereign, but he is also personal.

Our God is personal

As we begin our second point, I think it is helpful to define what I mean by our God being personal.

By personal, I mean that our God is a relational God, and he desires to relate with us, and he is always encouraging us in our faith.

Our God is not a father who has too many children that he doesn’t have time for them.

Our God is a God who knows each of us by name, and he matures us by His Spirit.

As a father myself, I don’t think I have too many children, just two, but I still find it a challenge to set aside time for them.

I don’t want to be a father who only loves them from a distance, but I want to be personal with them. I want to hear about their time with Mom or with their friends. But more than that, I want to read the Bible with them, to pray with them and to encourage them in their faith.

However, if you are a parent or have experience disciplining others, then you would know that sometimes it’s really hard to encourage someone in their faith.

But because our God is a sovereign and personal God, it means that he knows exactly how to strengthen our faith, and he will always succeed.

Hear what Paul says in Philippians 1:6:

 I am sure of this, that he(that is, God) who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

And here we see God’s commitment to save in action as he deals with Peter and the early church.

If we turn to our Bibles and look at verses 7 to 10, we see that the rescue was truly remarkable.

We see that an angel suddenly appears to wake Peter up.

Then in verse 7, the chains fell off by themselves, and then in verse 10, the iron gate that leads to the city opened ‘by itself’

By the way, as a fun fact, this is the first ‘automatic’ door in recorded history. The word ‘automatic’ comes from the Greek word for ‘by itself’. So next time you go through an automatic door, you can remind yourself of God’s rescue of Peter.

Anyways, after Peter is freed, the angel suddenly disappears.

But why did God rescue Peter in such a miraculous way?

Well, I think that God wants to strengthen Peter’s faith and prepare him for the ministry that God has called him to.

Peter’s ministry, like most ministries, will be difficult and filled with challenges.

But God has once again assured Peter that he is personally known by God and that God is with him till wherever he is, and no matter what he is going through.

And so after he is rescued, in verse 11 Peter says: “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from all that the Jewish people expected.”

I love how Peter does not call King Herod King Herod; instead, he just calls him Herod. But more importantly, I love how Peter is personally reminded once again that God is sovereign and that his life is completely in the hands of God.

For Peter, this Passover will be a memorable one, because with the help of God and his angel, Peter experienced in a very concrete way how only God can help us pass over death and into life.

And after Peter is freed, in verse 12, we are told that he immediately went to the church, which was praying for him.

Just as God was personal with Peter, God was also personal to the church. That is, God knows that the church also needed encouragement so that their faith might be strengthened.

And I think it will become very evident why God did this as we turn to verses 12 to 16.

If you turn to those verses in your Bibles, you will find that Peter went to the church in verse 12, then he knocked, and a servant named Rhoda came to the door.

She then tells the church Peter is at the door in verse 14, but then this is their reply in verse 15:

15“You’re out of your mind!” they told her. But she(Rhoda) kept insisting that it was true, and they said, “It’s his angel.”

When I read this, two things immediately stood out.

Firstly, even though they were praying fervently for Peter’s safety in verse 5, they didn’t actually believe that God would save Peter.

Secondly, even though their prayers were not perfect, God still answered them.

Friends, if our God is only sovereign, we don’t need to pray to him.

We pray, because our God is sovereign and personal.

In other words, our God is all-powerful and utterly loving.

Many believe that if God is in control of all things, then what is the point of us praying to God?

Well, if you asked Peter’s church, they would say that because God loved them.

As Christians, we pray not to control God or to control our circumstances; we pray because we have a personal relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ.

We pray because God first loved us through his son.

And we know for certain that God will hear our prayers, even if our spirit is weary or our words are faltering, because Jesus says in Matthew 6:8 that our Father knows the things we need even before we ask.

The God of our gospel is not just sovereign, but he is personal. This is why the good news is good.

We have a God who is not only able to save, but he also desires to save.

Our God can rescue us from our afflictions and sins, and He has invited us to draw near to Him through His Son.

But before we finish, there is still one more thing about God that this passage teaches us.

And that is our third point, Our God deserves all the glory.

Our God deserves all the glory

Back in my high school days, I was a member of the drama club.

You might think I was an actor, but nope, I was invited to help with the lighting and backstage and have been doing that throughout high school.

One year, we participated in an inter-school drama competition, and after the judges gave their comments, they asked us if we had any questions.

So, I put my hand up and asked them what they thought about the lighting, because they had made no comments about it, and I wanted a bit of glory for myself, knowing that I had done a good job.

However, the judges said that there shouldn’t be any comments on the lighting if it were done well.

What it meant was that my role was to ensure that the actors received all the glory on stage.

And I think a similar principle applies to Peter, to the early church and to us today.

Our role as Christians is to make sure that God receives all the glory.

The apostle Peter can boast about being in prison for God, and the early church can boast about their prayerfulness, but no, all glory must be to God and God alone.

King Herod’s death should serve as a warning to everyone, whether Christian or not, that glory belongs to God alone.

In verses 20, we were told of a food supply problem that bothered King Herod and in verse 21, King Herod put on his royal robes and delivered a speech to them.

Now, we might be a bit confused as to why in verse 22, the people said, “it’s the voice of a god and not of a man.”

But the ancient historian Josephus tells us that King Herod’s royal robes were made of silver throughout, and they shone and glittered under the sun.

This is not the best metaphor, but he is like a walking disco ball in broad daylight.

And in those days, the king’s people would often flatter the king, and they would do that by ascribing to him the status of a divinity.

And so, they exclaim that it’s not King Herod speaking, but god.

Now, most certainly King Herod received the blasphemous compliment because in verse 21 it says:

“At once an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.”

The punishment for claiming God’s glory for us is death.

God deserves all the glory because there is only one true God.

However, this also means that the death of King Herod is not only a warning but also an encouragement as well.

It is an encouragement to all of us because we can be sure that the gospel of our God is the only true gospel.

We can have full assurance that our trust in God is not in vain, and that we have not put our trust in a wrong god or idol.

And in the context of Acts 12, this is certainly a pleasant turn of events, because even though the chapter began with the death of James. It finishes with the death of King Herod.

Once again, reminding the early church and us today that God is the King of kings, and that he is our King.

And as a result, we read in verse 24: “the word of God spread and multiplied.”

While King Herod is no more, King Jesus continues to reign victorious.

Conclusion

And so as we finish, I want to conclude by answering the question at the start: Who is God that I should trust him?

Well, I hope that from today’s passage, you can see how God is sovereign over all things, both our present life and our eternal destiny.

But praise God, our God is not an absolute monarch so removed from the world. Instead, he is a personal God who knows us personally. He knows perfectly how to mature us in our faith, and he helps us remain in him.

And so we can have full assurance that this is the God we should trust, not only because He can save and desires to save, but also because He is the only God who can save. Therefore, he alone deserves all the glory.

Friends, if you already trust in Jesus, I hope you are once again refreshed in your Spirit by knowing how great the God of our gospel is. Being reminded of his power to save, and his desire to keep you in his love.

And for those of you who have yet to put your trust in Jesus, I hope that you have the assurance you need to take the next step towards following Jesus.

May the word of God continue to spread and multiply in our hearts and in our communities. May our lives proclaim a clear and concrete gospel, rooted in the knowledge and the love of God, and may all glory be to Christ. Amen.