The Mystery of Providence and the Majesty of Peace Acts 12:1-25
They say there’s two side to every story but my baby sister will tell you there’s three. There is your side, my side and the truth.
When we look at Acts chapter 12 there seems to be 3 sides to this story as well.
What we find when we examine this chapter is the church, on one side, under attack by a hostile world. On another side we see this persecuted church NOT in hiding but in prayer, and on the 3rd side we see a Holy and Mighty God who not only listens but has no problem intervening!
Chapter 12 begins with Herod arresting James and putting him to death… let me walk you through this chapter, for a moment.
In verses 1-2 we see this Herod (Agrippa I) was a blood-thirsty man. It seems to run in the family. You see his grandfather was Herod the Great. You may recall that Herod the Great was the guy who ordered all male babies under the age of 2 in Bethlehem slaughtered. Remember, he did that to get rid of the Christ-child.
This Herod is despised by the Jews because they resented having the Romans ruling over them. So, in order to win the Jews over, he began persecuting the Christians.
He knew the Jews hated the Christians…so he had the Apostle James executed, and the Jews loved it!
So, he said, if they liked that they’ll love my next trick!
For his next trick he had Peter arrested and set the stage for Peter’s execution.
But while Herod was playing, God’s people were praying.
God heard their prayers, sent an angel to unlock the chains/doors and Peter walked out!
Then later in chapter 12, as Herod was giving a speech, the people shouted and said, you’re not a man, you’re a god! Herod accepted their praise and refused to give God the glory so verse 23 tells us God struck him and he was consumed by worms and died!
There are 2 things in this chapter I want us to see:
•The first is The mystery of God’s Wisdom.
I’ve been saved for 33+ years and even earned a degree from Liberty University, and yet there’s so many things I don’t understand about God. I can’t seem to wrap my little finite mind around the mysteries of our wonderful and mighty God!
I tell Suzanne sometimes, “I don’t know everything but I do some things.”
Here’s some of those things I do know.
1. God’s Wisdom is Personal.
There are 2 apostles in this chapter…James and Peter.
Herod decided they would both die, yet, James died and Peter lived.
I have no doubt that the church prayed for James just as much as for Peter.
Yet, in God’s infinite wisdom one died and one lived.
This tells us that God deals individually in the lives of His people.
God’s will for Peter was a long full life of ministry, and for James, He chose a young Martyr’s death.
I think we need to understand something here. What’s important is NOT how long we live, but how we live the life that God gives us. (the –between the dates)
The Sovereign will of God is a mystery that we will never fully understand.
But we must learn to trust it.
[Isa 55:8-9 NIV] 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Aren’t you glad you have a God bigger than your understanding?!
If you can figure your God out, he has no business being your God!
[Rom 11:33 NIV] “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”
It’s time we decide to accept our God for who He is, and be glad it’s that way!
And when we don’t know the “Why”, we can trust the “Who”!
We can know He’s good and loving, regardless the circumstances.
God makes no mistakes!
The mystery of the wisdom of God…it’s personal…
2. God’s Wisdom is also Patient.
You can see His patience by looking at Herod…In verses 21-23
God let Herod get away with an awful lot before stepping in and doing something.
Herod may have laughed when James’ head rolled. Maybe he felt proud as he gave those speeches.
He was basking in his own glory, instead of giving glory to God, when he heard the people’s applause.
But the Bible says,
[Num 32:23 NIV] "But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.
Someone said, “The wheels of God’s judgment may sometimes grind slowly, but mark it down, they grind surely”
[1Ti 5:24 NIV] “The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them.”
Look around the world and you’ll see Christians being slaughtered in the name of someone’s god. I want to tell you they may think they’ve set up a charge account with God, you may think you’re getting away with something but understand…
God ALWAYS collects His debts! He HAS NOT closed His eyes!
Ch. 12 begins with Herod ruling from his throne, and it ends with Herod being ruled from God’s mighty throne.
It begins with Herod saying, I’ll kill James and Peter’s God by killing them, and it ends with James and Peter’s God killing Herod, with worms!
The word translated worms here means tapeworms. So he was eaten from the inside out! He was literally eaten alive ‘
The historian, Josephus, wrote of this event saying that Herod rolled around, moaning in agony, for 5 days before he died, at the age of 54.
Things in our world may look bleak but rest assured, child of the Most High… God’s wisdom is personal, God’s wisdom is patient… He is not asleep!
3. God’s Wisdom is Perfect. Look at verse 24.
In spite of James’ death…the Imprisonment of Peter and the arrogance of Herod the Word of God grew and multiplied…
You can’t hold back God’s Word.
Some call it defending the Word of God, when they get into arguments about the Bible.
We should be willing to defend, not fight over the Word but I like what Spurgeon said, “The Word of God is like a roaring lion: turn it loose and let it defend itself”
[2Ti 2:9 NIV] “for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained.”
God says in [Isa 55:11 NIV] “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
We don’t always understand God but we can ALWAYS trust Him…
God’s ways may be mysterious, but they will always result in our good and His glory!
Have you ever watched someone doing needle work from the backside?
(Show the backside of a piece of needle work)
Watching from the backside it looks like they don’t know what they’re doing!
Well God’s Wisdom is sometimes like that needlework.
From the backside it looks like a mess of disorderly threads.
But when they reveal the other side we see the masterpiece and the wisdom of the one holding the needle.
And one day our God will show us the other side but until then, we must trust Him!
Looking at Ch. 12, God’s Wisdom leaps off of the page. And then we are able to also see:
• The second thing I want you to get which is The Majesty of God’s Peace.
In verses 3-4 Peter is arrested.
Now Peter was a simple fisherman turned preacher…but when they arrested him you’d think they had caught the world’s most wanted criminal!
He’s in a maximum security cell, guarded by 16 soldiers, and he’s chained to 2 of them!
What would you do in this situation?
What would you do if your execution was scheduled for first thing tomorrow morning? Would you do what Peter did?
What didn’t Peter do? He didn’t throw a cussing fit. He didn’t demand a lawyer or cry all night, begging for his life.
According to verse 6 Peter spent the night sleeping!
How in the world could he sleep at a time like this!? The answer is simple.
It was the Peace of God that exceeds all understanding! There’s no fear, no anxiety, no nervousness…he had a peace in his spirit and was sound asleep!
I remember another who slept in the midst of a terrible storm…
He could sleep because he was saved by God’s Power. And he must’ve figured, “if I can trust God with my soul for all eternity, then I can trust Him with my life, in the here and now”!
Our soul is the most valuable thing we have.
[Mar 8:36 NIV] “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
Yet, many of us live like our life is more important than our soul.
We sometimes treat our salvation more like a fire insurance policy!
Why not try something different? Try giving God both your soul AND your life!
Why not make Him your priority, not only in the sweet by and by, but in the horrible here and now?
How can we trust Him for something as big as our soul’s eternal state, and not trust Him with our daily life?
We need to not only give Him our trust, but our time, our talents, and our treasures!
Peter was saved by God’s Power…and he was secure in God’s Promise.
I don’t think Peter thought for 1 second that he would die because he had a promise from Jesus…
How do I know this?
[John 21:18-19 NIV] “18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!”
This is the last time Jesus talked to Peter, and He told him that he would die by crucifixion, and he would be an old man when it happens.
We find as, history records, Peter’s death was definitely by crucifixion. He hung upside down but crucified just the same!
Peter’s still a young man in Acts 12, and he’s secure in God’s promise!
Peter stood on the promise of God’s Word, which says in: [Psa 121:4 NIV] “indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
He also understood this verse in: [Psa 4:8 NIV] “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.”
G. W. Truett told the story of the passing of the wife of an honored Texas judge. She had said to him again and again that she greatly feared she was not a Christian, and her fear came because all her lifetime she was in bondage through fear of death. She never went to a funeral, or into a death chamber, if she could avoid it. She had that unspeakable fear of death which is described in that Scripture which says: [Heb 2:15 NKJV] 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Truett said “I said to her again and again: "Mrs. So-and-so, if you are trusting Christ" - and she would say: "If I am trusting Him?" And then I said, "If you are trusting Him, when the day comes for you to go, His Grace will be sufficient, and if you are conscious that day, you will know that it is sufficient."
And the day did come, and the nurse and the doctor were there, and she turned her lustrous eyes to the doctor, and said: "Doctor, what is this?" And he did not reply. He was a very dear friend of the family. And she said again: "Tell me frankly, doctor, is this death?" He said: "Yes, Mrs. So-and-so, it is death." And then she turned to her husband, and she said: "Oh, dear husband, you know this is the hour that for thirty years I have dreaded. This is the hour of all hours I have shrunk from."
And then she said: "Dear, don’t you see that face? Don’t you hear that music? Christ is here. I have never known such rapture of light and peace and joy." And in a very flood of celestial glory the timid wife went out into the night.
She found that God’s Grace was sufficient.
You can have that kind of peace today.
But the reality is that it only comes through knowing Christ Jesus in a real and personal way.
Through a personal relationship with Jesus you too can know the peace that will, not only, help you face eternity but a peace that will help you face today. You may not understand the why but you can begin to trust the Who.
Maybe you feel surrounded. You’ve experienced the attack of the enemy on one side.
There are believers on another side praying for you and a Holy and Mighty God who not only listens but has no problem intervening!
Invitation:
