Isn’t it funny how we get surprised by things that shouldn’t surprise us at all?
[Gaining weight, speeding ticket, pregnancy examples.]
Isn’t it funny how we get surprised by things that shouldn’t surprise us at all?
Especially when it comes to God-things. Sometimes the Lord does something for us and it catches us off guard. “Wow! Look at what the Lord did!” Even things that we’ve prayed about!
[My graduation from TTU.]
Now, we should be appreciative when the Lord answers our prayers. But we shouldn’t be surprised that He answered them. I mean, God is God. If we’re praying by faith according to His will He answers us. Our faith should cause us to [2] expect God to be God.
Now some people don’t have any problems with this. Their faith is alive and vibrant and they live every moment of the day expecting God to be God in their lives.
But some people have allowed their faith to become too sophisticated, complicated and cold so when God does something amazing they’re not only surprised but might not even believe it was God. We see both of these kinds of people in this morning’s passage. As we go through the text, try and see which kind of person you are. Are you surprised when God moves, or do expect God to be God?
Go with me to Acts chapter twelve where we’ll see how we should [3] expect God to be God through the trials we go through.
[Read Acts 12:1-4.]
Persecution was rampant in the days of the early church. We’ve already seen Stephen killed for the faith, the disciples thrown into prison, the disciples beaten, and now James is killed as well. History shows us that King Herod loved the praise of men so he sought to please the Jewish community that he ruled over by killing the hated Christians. After he had James killed he realized how much it helped him politically so he arrested Peter, the leader of the early church, and planned on publicly executing him as well. But the Jews had this thing about killing people during their religious feasts so he decided to wait until after the days of Unleavened Bread were over to kill Peter.
Now this was a regular occurrence during the early church. The Christians back then received heavy persecution on a regular basis. Something that Jesus said would happen.
[Read John 15:18-19.]
The early Christians understood that their lives at times would be extremely difficult because of their faith. But they still believed that God was God and that He would even work through the persecution for His glory. And as we have seen and will continue to see, the more oppressed the believers were, the more the gospel spread. Let’s take a sneak peak at how this story ends.
[Read Acts 12:24-25.]
Even through the trials of life, we can expect God to be God. God uses the difficult things we go through to grow us and to grow His kingdom. We can expect God to be God through trials.
We can also [4] expect God to be God for deliverance from the trials of life.
Now let’s understand just what kind of predicament Peter’s in. He’s been thrown into prison for being a Christian and Herod has put four squads of soldiers in place to guard him. That means that there were four four-man teams who would take turns guarding him 24 hours a day. Peter would have two men chained to him sitting inside his locked cell, and two men posted outside the cell to stand guard. He’s been in jail for a few days and it’s the night before he’s going to be executed. Let’s see what happened.
[Read Acts 12:5-12.]
You know what I think? I think Peter expected God to be God and to somehow deliver him from this situation. How else would he have been able to sleep so soundly the night before he was to be executed? He’s chained up to a couple of soldiers, he’s scheduled to die in the morning, and he’s so sound asleep that the angel has to give him a good elbow to the ribs just to get him up! (The bright angel-light wasn’t enough to wake him up.) Peter was able to sleep well because he expected God to be God and deliver him from prison.
After all, the last time he was in prison the Lord miraculously delivered him in the middle of the night, (Acts 5). And in John 21:18 the Lord implied to him that he would live to be an old man. So Peter looked at his situation and said, “God can handle this. I’ll get a little shut-eye while I wait for Him to show up.”
God will take care of us and will deliver us from the trials of life in one way or another. We can trust God and expect God to be God no matter what we’re going through.
Now it did take Peter a little while to realize that what he was going through was more than a dream. (He was obviously not a morning person.) But once he did, he headed straight for the prayer meeting he knew would be going on for him. Peter went to the place where the people would be [5] expecting God to be God when praying.
[Read Acts 12:13-19.]
Now this is one dramatic passage. Peter shows up at the prayer meeting and knocks at the door. The servant-girl Rhoda went to the door and asked who it was. Recognizing Peter’s voice she got so excited that she ran back to tell the others and left Peter standing outside! Of course the others didn’t believe her and even said that it might be his guardian angel. (There was an old Jewish superstition that thought your guardian angel could take on your form.) But Peter kept banging on the door so the others went to see what was going on and saw for themselves that it in fact was Peter standing before them.
Now why didn’t they believe Rhoda when she first said Peter was at the door? Why didn’t they believe that God could deliver him from prison in a miraculous way again? Maybe they were praying ‘safe’ prayers like, “Lord, please move Herod to release Peter.” Or, “Lord, please help Peter talk his way out of this one.” So when their prayers were answered differently, they didn’t believe it.
But Rhoda did. I think Rhoda was expecting God to be God when she prayed for Peter. So when she heard that knock at the door in the middle of the night she ran to the door hoping to see Peter there. And she did! Then she was so excited to let the others know that God was being God again that she left Peter standing there outside the door.
Rhoda expected God to be God when praying, but the others didn’t.
And you know what, Herod also didn’t expect God to be God in Peter’s life. He blamed his soldiers for loosing their prisoner Peter and had all sixteen of them executed. Didn’t he remember how God delivered Peter last time he was in prison? Isn’t that why he put the extra guards on him in the first place? The evidence of the reality of God was right in front of his face – yet he refused to believe and punished his soldiers.
We can expect God to be God in the lives of His people. We can also [6] expect God to be God in judgment.
[Read Acts 12:19b-23.]
When the historian Josephus recounts this event he said that Herod put on a royal robe made out of pure silver to address the people. As he spoke the people thought he was a god and made their views known. Mid-speech he fell to his knees in pain, left the stage and died four days later. Refusing to give God glory for his life, he was humbled and judged by our holy God. It seems that Herod foolishly didn’t regard God as his judge. We should expect God to be God in judgment.
So often we forget that we will all stand before God Almighty and give an account for our lives. Non-believers will stand in judgment and be punished for refusing to believe in Jesus Christ – the One who died for our sins. Believers in Jesus Christ will receive eternal life, but will still stand and give an account of the life they lived for the Lord. We will all stand before Holy God and we should expect God to be God in judgment.
Do you? [7] Do you live expecting God to be God in your life?
Throughout these events we saw some people who did expect God to be God and we saw some people who didn’t really expect God to be God in their lives. How can we know which side of the line we fall on?
Now like I said before, some people don’t have a problem with this. Their faith is alive and vibrant and they live every moment of the day expecting God to be God in their lives.
[8] But some people have allowed their faith to get stale and have quit expecting God to show up in their lives in a real way. And you know what? It can happen to any of us!
[9] We know it’s happened when the trials we go through make us bitter instead of better. When deliverance that comes our way makes us prideful instead of thankful. When our prayers become small and manageable. And when we become indifferent to the judgment of God. We just don’t care that we will stand before God one day.
These attitudes have crept into our lives and we don’t expect God to be God in and through us anymore. We just go through the motions and our faith is ordinary.
If you find yourself needing a revival. If you find your faith needing a boost. If you find yourself wanting more. The only one way to get fixed – is to get broken. [10] Lord, break me. Break me down Lord. Help me die to self so I can really live in You! Help me see You for who You really are and help me see myself for who I really am. Lord, break me!
The minute we let pride sit down in our house is the same minute we stop hearing God knocking at our door. Lord, break me. [11]
[Read Isaiah 57:15.]
If you want to live a life where expecting God to be God every day then you must be humble and broken before Him. Who are we to stand before the creator of the universe in our own strength? Lord, break me.
If you want an exciting faith. If you want a vibrant, active, real relationship with God. It all starts with being broken before Him. Listen as I read Psalm 34 which shows what life can be like for the humble believer in Jesus Christ. Listen and see if this is what you want.
[Read Psalm 34, (moving off the stage and to the floor).]
Lord, break me…
[Read Isaiah 57:15.]
