Text: Acts 12:18-25, Title: Stealing God’s Most Valued Commodity, Date/Place: NRBC, 4/6/08, AM
Opening illustration: Blog Entry on Glory to God or self
A. Background to passage: The guards were executed for their failure, but there has been some time pass in between the deliverance of Peter and this next incident that Luke records for us. But anyway, Herod has been in some sort of political/military with the cities of Tyre and Sidon. And after having won over his chief of staff, the two cities reached some sort of agreement, and Herod made some sort of speech in commemoration of it in Caesarea. By the way, this account is corroborated by the early Jewish and Roman historian Josephus in his book called Antiquities. In fact it is recounted exactly what like Luke wrote it.
B. Main thought: In the text, we will see the one greatest sin that cuts against the very grain upon which we were made, and is the catalyst for this immediate outpouring of the wrath God.
A. The Case for a God-centered God
1. The first thing that I want to do today is make a case for the truth that God’s number one agenda in all things is to make much of His name. Define one’s name, glory of God. Show the scriptures that show His commitment to His Own Name. His purpose in all things that He does is to put on display the inestimable value, infinite worth, unimaginable beauty, absolute sufficiency, unexplainable power, incomparable depth, height, and breadth, and unfathomable faithfulness, love, joy, and peace; so that all peoples could, would, and should rejoice and find their deepest longings satisfied in Him alone. Explain why this is not self-centeredness, but for everyone’s good.
2. Illustration: catechism questions: highest and best of all beings, chief end of man, We don’t want to do things that make the devil glad, makes the Holy Spirit sad, or dooms our brother or sister to feeling bad. Rather, we want to make the devil run, magnify the Son, and learn to live as one. In 246BC, when 14year old Ying Zheng ascended the throne of the Chin provence of China and took for himself the title first emperor, he made his plans clear. And he proceeded to war against his neighbouring states until he had united China and made himself it’s emperor. But his plans did not stop there, for he wanted to be similarly prepared for life after death. So he began the construction of his tomb, and around the site where his body would be buried he built a series of halls to house a large standing army, complete with soldiers weapons, horses, and chariots. There are no written records left of how big the whole complex is, but so far excavations have revealed over 7,000 life sized terracotta clay figures that were part of this army. Each figure has a unique face, appropriate clothing for their rank, and real weapons. Clearly Ying had eternal ambitions for the fame of his name. During his reign as Emperor of China, Ying unified the country, the currency and the written language. But he also gained a significant reputation as a tyrant, removing any opposition and forcing people to work as virtual slaves on his grand building projects. So much so, that when he died his son’s reign as emperor was soon overthrown by revolt. In the process Ying’s tomb was smashed and burnt, so that many of the terracotta figures found today are not intact. The judgment of the Chinese people themselves was that they wanted no more of this emperor in any life.
3. I said all that to say that the glorification of God is the most important thing to God, else He would be an idolater by placing the highest value upon something that was not the highest value. This is crucial to our understanding of this text. But this is way bigger than that! If we understand that God’s reputation and fame are foremost on his agenda then education isn’t about knowledge and tests but about godliness (not that they are mutually exclusive), marriage is about picturing Christ and his church, not about happiness (again, not that they are mutually exclusive), work is about putting on display the attribute of Christ and bearing his shame and sharing the gospel, sex becomes a demonstration of the desire Christ has for us, rather than a means of personal gratification, worship more about exaltation of Christ than of preferences or even evangelism. It would cause us to pray different, think different, act different, if all we desired was to make much of the name and reputation of Jesus. This mindset can transform your entire life—thoughts, attitudes, speech, parenting, vehicles, finances—realize that all these things are means to the end of making much of God, so that the whole world can find their satisfaction in the water of life! If God is this committed to his glory, shouldn’t we be!
B. The Heinous Nature of Robbing Glory
1. There are a lot of things that we can do to offend an infinitely holy God. But there are none worse that stealing the fame that He alone deserves. In fact, this is the very essence of sin. Focus on Rom 1:21, 23, 3:23, trampling the glory of God. Luke and Josephus imply that not only did he enjoy the praise, he did nothing to stop it, and may have even though of himself as divine. But the results of stealing the glory of God was immediate judgment. Explain the infection of scolices.
2. Dan 4:30-37, Ps 115:1, Acts 10:25, 14:15, Philip 2:13, Rom 9:22-23,
3. Illustration: everyone telling me about what a great service the Good Friday Service was, but of course the real glory goes to God for speaking to Les about it, Finally the farmer couldn’t take it anymore. “Reverend,” he said, “I wish you could have seen this place when the Lord was doing it by himself.” John III Sobieski, king of Poland in the late 17th century, is best remembered as the man who saved central Europe from invading armies of Turks in 1683. With the Turks at the walls of Vienna, Sobieski led a charge that broke the siege. His rescue of Vienna is considered one of the decisive battles in European history. In announcing his great victory the king paraphrased the famous words of Caesar by saying simply, “I came; I saw; God conquered.” the nail gun cannot stand up and say, “Look I have made myself, and this roof…”
4. I realize that all sin is infinitely offensive to an infinite God, thus the reason for an eternal hell. But there are some things that truly need to be reevaluated in light of the importance they hold to the Creator. For the creature to rise up and throw off the realization of his creatureliness and claim credit for doing things that only God does is not only BAD BAD, but it is high treason. It is worse than the spouse who gives away their fidelity to another. When you and I steal glory for ourselves, we treacherously set ourselves up as gods and thumb our noses at the Lord of Glory and the Giver of all things. And we sometimes are so deceived that we really do think that we have done it all. When it is God who called us, opened our eyes, gave us faith, upholds us, gives us the ideas, the ability, the strength, and then works within us to do his will. And trust me, God will get what He designs. If He does not get glory from you in health, He will get it in sickness. If He doesn’t get glory from you in life, then He will in death. If He does not get glory from you in heaven, He will get it in hell as a display of His perfect wrath and hatred against sin! So the question for every one of us here today is: are we stealing glory from God? Are we attributing to Him every good thing in our lives, every good gift that we have, every ability or talent that we possess, every good deed that we do? Does the world know that you live, exist, and breathe for the opportunity to point them to Jesus Christ as the greatest, highest, and most valuable treasure in the universe? Do you make much of Jesus or much of yourself? Do you work to honor Christ? Does your marriage exalt Christ? Does your temper honor Christ? Does your home glorify Christ? Reflect the glory of Christ and point others to Him, so that they might find the satisfaction of their deepest longings and further honor the God that you love.
A. Closing illustration: Can you imagine a great quarterback winning the Super Bowl or some award and in his speech beginning to talk about how great he is, and about how he has had to overcome shoddy coaching, poor teammate performance, lack of support from anybody, etc.? Tim Tebow’s acceptance speech of the Heisman Trophy Award
B. Recap
C. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
