The Foolishness of Fighting God - The Progress of the Church

Let's take our Bible. Let's turn to Acts chapter 12. Acts chapter 12, we will be back in verses one to 25 tonight. Now, last week we covered a good part of verses one to 25. If you remember the title of that message, I called it the persecution of the church, the foolishness of fighting God. Last Wednesday night's message was all about the persecution of the church, the foolishness of fighting God. And like we've seen before in our study of Acts, in verses one to five, we saw how Satan unleashed persecution against the church. King Herod killed the apostle James.

And when he saw that that pleased the Jews and that his execution gained him more favor with the Jews, he arrested the apostle Peter. And we saw that he intended to have Peter killed as well, but we saw that God had other plans. God had other plans. And as we will see tonight, Herod paid the ultimate price for the foolishness of fighting God by persecuting the church, by persecuting God's people, by persecuting the plans and the work of God on earth, he was actually persecuting God. And he ultimately read what he sowed, if we know the rest of the story.

Now, I will not go back over all of the introductory material that I taught us last week, but I do wanna make sure we have one thing in our minds before we get back into the verses in the message. Remember that we are in between two very, very positive and productive times in the life of the church. In chapter 10, we saw the Gentiles coming to faith in Christ and coming into the kingdom. And in chapter 11, we saw the birth of the Gentile church and two things happened as a result. First, the mother church, I call it the Jerusalem church. They affirm the inclusion of the Gentiles into the church and the Gentile church there at Antioch.

And then second, this wonderful and very unifying partnership was formed between the church in Jerusalem and the church at Antioch. And in chapter 13, we will see how God used the church in Antioch and away like never before. Luke tells us that God used the church at Antioch to take a giant history making, history changing step in the growth of the church. They, that's the church in Antioch, sent out Barnabas and Paul on what became known as the first missionary journey. And their journey and work took the saving power of the gospel and the work of the church all over the Gentile world.

So look at how positive and encouraging those chapters are. In chapters 10 and 11, in chapters 13 and following, lots of very positive and encouraging things going on in the church. I think that's obvious. But notice what sandwiched tucked in between those positive events. Chapter 12 and what took place during that time in the life of the church can seem like this major setback. The apostle James was killed, the apostle Peter was arrested, and it definitely looked like he would be next. So it looks like the church took three or four steps forward in chapter 10 and 11, but two or three steps backwards in chapter 12.

Then three or four steps forward again in chapter 13. Do you see what I'm aiming at? But remember what we learned last week. At times it can seem like the gates of hell are prevailing against the church. At times it can feel like Satan and his demonic attacks and the people that Satan uses are prevailing against the church. And that can lead us to feel, especially if we're in those circumstances, like Satan is winning. But that's not the case because the devil is God's little devil. And when God allowed Herod to kill James and arrest Peter, those things were a part of God's will and plan for the growth of his church.

Now that's hard for us to get our minds around, but that was the case. And we must see that we will have times where it seems that we are taking two or three steps backwards as well, but that's not the case. That's not the case. Remember that John Stott taught us that this is normal. I like his language. I think it's helpful. Stott in his commentary on Acts points out that throughout church history, we see the pendulum swing back and forth, back and forth between the expansion of the church and Satan's opposition to the church and the growth of the church.

We see the pendulum swing back and forth between the shrinkage of the church at times and the growth and the expansion of the church. But remember folks, the devil is God's little devil and his satanic attacks are actually a part of God's means and plan to grow his church. Now I don't know about you, but when I study stuff like that, it's comforting. It's helpful. It's even faith increasing because it shows us that God is working. We're comforted. It's helpful. It helps us understand what's happening and it increases our faith if we can get past our emotions. But let me point out something.

We still have a responsibility to do the work of the church right. Even though we can see these things and say, "Well, God's still working, "although the enemy is attacking," we still have a responsibility to do the work of the church right. Remember, the seven churches in the book of Revelation, our Lord said if they did not respond positively, as he said, responsibly in obedience, he would remove their lampstand. So we can blow it is what I'm aiming at. Now tonight I wanna pick up right where we left off. But remember, I said that in titling this message tonight, it's gonna be a little different.

Really, it's a part one and a part two, but I'm turning the message title around. Last week was all about the persecution of the church, the foolishness of fighting God. Tonight it's all about the foolishness of fighting God, the progress of the church, the progress of the church. Now, this is a good portion of scripture, but I do want us to read the verses again. Starting in verse one, chapter 12. About the time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with a sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.

This was during the days of Unleavened Bread, and when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, tending after the Passover to bring him out to the people, obviously for execution. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer, fervent prayer for him was made to God by the church. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, between bound with two chains, and centuries before the door regarding the prison.

Behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in his cell, and he struck Peter on the side and woke him saying, "Get up quickly." The chains fell off his hands, and the angel said to him, "Dress yourself and put on your sandals," and he did so, and he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you "and follow me," and he went out and followed him, and he did not know what was being done. By the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city.

It opened for them on its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel "and rescued me from the hand of Herod, "and from all that the Jewish people were expecting." When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer, recognizing Peter's voice in her joy.

She did not open the gate, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, "You are out of your mind," but she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, "It is an angel," or, "It is his angel." But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison, and he said, "Tell these things to James and to the brothers." Then he departed and he went to another place. Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.

And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries in order that they should be put to death, and he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sedan, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace because their country depended on the king's country for food. On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.

And the people were shouting, "The voice of a God and not of a man." Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark, and that is, of course, John Mark. Now last week we covered Herod's plan to destroy the church and the believers and the Christians, verses one to four.

Then we covered Herod's defeat in verses five to 19, and then we looked at the church's victory in verses five to 19. Now tonight I will revisit the church's victory, and then we will look at Herod's death, verses 20 to 23, and last, the progress, the victory, the progress, the growth of the church in verses 24 to 25. Now we'll continue with the same outline. So number three, the church's victory. We see this in verses five to 19. Now last week we covered a good bit of these verses. We saw that the church reacted to this great trial by having a prayer meeting, and as a result Peter was delivered.

Then we saw Peter's reaction to being delivered and the church's reaction, and last we see Peter's report. But tonight I wanna expound on what we have here. Honestly, last week I just didn't have time to cover all that I thought we needed to see. I like what Jim Boyce says here in his commentary. One of his headings reads, "Just a prayer meeting." And I thought, that's a little sarcastic. Just a prayer meeting. Well, this was not just a prayer meeting. But notice church, this was not just a prayer meeting. This was not some ordinary routine prayer meeting.

Now I wanna ask a question, and I'm gonna move on real quick, but I want you to ponder it. Have we ever been in a good prayer meeting? You might say, "Pastor, what's a good one versus a bad one?" I mean a good prayer meeting. We will begin to see what a good prayer meeting looks like in these verses. One of the things that we will address after the holidays is some better prayer meetings. I'm gonna revisit that as well. Now let's get into our verses. I wanna point out a few more observations here. First, the Christians and the church were praying. Now this seems obvious, but they were praying.

But notice this also tells us what they were not doing. They were not organizing, they were not networking, they were not lobbying, they were not doing those things that Americans and American Christians in churches are so prone to do. They were also not doing what all are tempted to do. They were not lamenting, they were not complaining, they were not asking questions like why, why God, why is this happening? Why did James have to die? Why is Peter next? They were not doing what all are tempted to do, which is to react in their emotions or in their humanistic reasoning, you see?

So we see that these Christians were praying, they were not reacting in their emotions in their own reasonings like American Christians can do and like many Christians are prone to do. Second, the Christians were praying together. A few rhetorical questions. Are prayer chains good? Are prayer networks good? Is it okay or good to have a prayer network over social media and through something like text messaging? Are things like that good? I think those things are good, but they can be a distraction from the one thing that is most needed. Those things can even be a substitute for the one thing that is most needed. Now, what is most needed?

Individual believers, believing husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, even teenagers and children in one church, one local body, all together praying, all praying together. These believers were together, unified in prayer together. What kind of together prayer do we need? Do we have together prayer where we gather together to pray together? I think our Wednesday night needs to be better. I think our prayer on Wednesday nights needs to be better. I think our prayer in small group needs to be better. I think many are getting together to study the word of God together individually.

That's good, but I think some need to get together to pray together. Third, the Christians were praying earnestly, fervently. Now we know these circumstances, James had been killed, Peter was about to be killed, you may say, Pastor Chris, if one of our elders was killed for the faith and you were arrested and about to be executed, we would pray earnestly too. Two things I'll say right here. First, I am not saying I'm Peter and our other elders are like James. I was simply making a comparison for teaching purposes. But the second thing, and this is more serious, what's worse?

James being killed and going to heaven and Peter facing death and going to heaven are your mother, your brother, or spouse or child dying without Christ and going to hell. And others we know dying without Christ. You see? What's worse, James being killed and going to heaven, Peter facing death and going to heaven, or our mother, our brother, our spouse, our child, our loved ones dying without Christ and going to hell, others we know dying without Christ. We need earnest prayer. We need to be together in prayer, praying together, earnestly praying. Fourth, the Christians were praying specifically.

Notice the progression of these events in this prayer meeting and how they prayed. First, they prayed. They prayed together and were together in prayer and they prayed earnestly, fervently. And now we see that they prayed specifically. Verse five says they prayed to God, specifically for Peter. You may say, "Pastor, that makes sense. "He was about to be executed. "He was about to die. "One had already died. "Again, we have loved ones who are lost and going to hell. "Do we pray specifically for their salvation? "Do we pray specifically out loud for their salvation?" Do you think they prayed out loud for Peter?

Or do we just pray for them generally, vaguely, cautiously? Do we pray for our loved ones who are going to hell, specifically, fervently, even out loud? Or do we pray for them generally, vaguely, cautiously? This church prayed for Peter by name and we need to be praying by name, fervently, earnestly, together in prayer, praying together for our lost loved ones. So look at what we have here in verses five to 19. Here's defeat, Peter's release. The church's victory. God answered their prayer. Peter was released. But a question or two to ponder over.

If Peter had not been released and he had been executed, would the church have been defeated or would they have still gained the victory? They gained a victory even though James was executed. Look, church, there certainly was a victory in Peter's release, but they would have been just as victorious if Peter had been executed. I believe the greater victory was this. Together, the church was together in prayer together, earnestly, to God for his will in these circumstances. And they're praying together like we see here, led them to discover him personally, his will, and his purpose in all of these things.

They came out of that prayer meeting understanding that James' death was a part of his plan. Peter's release was a part of his plan. And I think we desperately need to do what we see here. And what we need to do is seen in four words. We need prayer. We need prayer together. We need to be together in prayer together. We need an earnestness, a fervency, a recklessness in our prayer, a specific prayer, praying specifically for our lost loved ones. Isn't that what they did? I wanna challenge you this holiday season to make a list of your lost loved ones. We're gonna use it publicly after the holiday. They prayed specifically for Peter out loud.

And if he would have died, he would have gone to heaven. We've got a lot of folks in our families around us, children in our church, who did, if they die, they're not going to heaven. Let's begin to make a list. And folks, one of the things, one, there are many. One of the things the Lord's been teaching me during the difficult season we've been in for several months is I have not led us to pray like we should, like we see here, like we prayed to get to where we are here today. I think I've taken some things for granted. Now, let's get into the other verses. Herod's death, Herod's death. I'm not gonna read those verses for the sake of time.

Now, there is a bit of background information that we need to see here, and this will help us understand all that took place on that day. First off, a good bit of time had gone by since Peter had been released. In other words, a good bit of time had gone by since verse 19 and verse 20. And scholars tell us that the events here with Herod's death happened a few months after Peter had escaped Herod. But here we find Herod back in a political situation. He always was in a jam politically.

For some reason, unnamed reason, Herod had become angry with the people of Tyre and Sedan, and scholars tell us that this region and these people were outside of Herod's normal administration and responsibility and authority. But since Old Testament times, the people of the region had been fed by Herod's family. So what happened is simple. When Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sedan, all of the leaders got together, the leaders of the region, and they went before Herod asking for peace between them because they depended on Herod for food. So verse 20 was about this political situation.

But notice how things progressed are digressed. On the appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, the text says, and he took a seat upon the throne, and he delivered a speech to the people. But I wanna take the time to paint the fuller picture of what was going on here on that day. A well-known, respected Jewish historian Josephus wrote about these events. In his historic account gives us a fuller understanding of this day. Josephus wrote that this feast was in honor of Herod's great guest, the Roman emperor Claudius.

And they were meeting in a grand amphitheater that was built by Herod the Great's, that was built by Herod the Great, a grip that was built by Herod the Great, a grip his grandfather. And Josephus actually described things in detail. He said that Herod had this outer garment on like a robe, and it was made of or woven with silver. And he wrote that this was a grand event, and when Herod came into the theater in the morning sunlight, his robe was shining like the sun because the sun was being reflected on the silver that was in his robe. And then finally, Herod shined in a brilliant way in his silver robe before the people.

Well, what happened? Verse 22 says that the people cried out that they were hearing the voice of a God, not a man. Of course, this makes sense. These were polytheistic pagan people. They even worshiped the Roman emperor. They worshiped all kinds of gods. And pragmatically, these people needed Herod's favor in food. Well, what did Herod say? What did he do? He was silent, but Josephus records that Herod did not rebuke or correct him, and the Scriptures clearly say the same thing because of what happened. But verse 23 says that an angel of God struck him down for not giving glory to God and accepting earthly worship that was meant for God.

According to Josephus' account, Herod lingered for five days in terrible pain. One interesting detail that I ran across. I think this was in some John MacArthur material. He's pointing to another scholar. But the scholar says this phrase, eaten by worms in the original, it literally means eaten by worms, and the root of this word means a specific head structure of a tapeworm. Now, what does that tell us? God could have judged Herod supernaturally, or God could have judged Herod naturally through tapeworms. So whether he died from a tapeworm infestation or from some kind of supernatural event, whereby he was killed, he was killed by God.

So Herod's death, he was defeated in his attempt to destroy Christianity in the church. He was defeated in his attempt to receive worship from man, and he was judged by God. When those people cried out in worship to him, he should have stepped back and given glory to God, but he did not. Like I said last week, it is a dangerous thing to fight against God. When a person fights against God's people, which is what Herod did, against God's plan, which is what Herod did, they're in a bad place.

And in my limited experience, and in my limited time, the ones that I have seen fight against God's people, in God's plan, God's church, it usually doesn't work out for them in life. I'm not saying God's gonna strike them down with worms, no. But it usually does it work out for them very well. Last, the church's growth, the church's victory and growth. Verses 24 to 25, I do wanna read those verses. But the Lord of God increased, excuse me, but the word of God increased and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

We know that's John Mark. Now here we have one of the most beautiful words in all the Bible. Do you know what it is? The word, but. Verses 24 says, but the word of God increased and multiplied. You see, Satan energized Herod to kill James and to try and kill Peter, but God. Satan energized Herod to attempt to destroy God's people and God's work, but God. Again, this reminder is right here. No one can stop God. Satan cannot stop God. Satan cannot even hinder God and his plans. The devil is God's little devil. But notice we see two types of growth. First, the growth, the increase of God's word. This is simple.

God stopped the persecution and God gave his word great success, but notice one detail. Who God gave success? Those preaching and declaring God's word were given success to declare his word and success in the growth. This means evangelistic success. This means sanctifying success. The church and these Christians had the God-given ability to reach the loss with the gospel. They're preaching the gospel. And the church had the God-given ability to teach the saved. You see? The verse says the word of God increased and multiplied. And notice what we see here.

Just in this short verse, from time to time, Luke pauses and gives the short and powerful summary reports. Warren Wiersby calls this a progress report. Now, when I saw that term, I kind of had flashbacks to my school days. Wiersby gives this progress report, and that's what it was and is. So we have this short summary, this progress report telling us how the church was doing. You notice? All of this persecution but God. Warren Wiersby goes on to say, and I'm quoting, "Luke is accomplishing the purpose of his book "and showing us how the church spread "throughout the Roman world "from its small beginnings in Jerusalem.

"What an encouragement for us or to us today." And look at the challenge for us today. Look at what we should strive for and desire. We need God to enable us to go out in gospel success to reach the lost, preaching the word to the lost like them. We need God to help us reach the lost like them, and we need God to help us to grow the saints after God saves them, just like them. I think with me here. These are rhetorical questions meant to stimulate our spiritual imagination. What would our individual lives and families look like if the word of God increased and multiplied in our families?

What would our church look like if the word of God increased and multiplied in our families? Look, folks, if we reached our lost loved ones, we would run out of room. What would our community look like if the word of God increased and multiplied in our families and in our church? What would it look like? Use your imagination here a little bit. Again, Wiersby says, "What an encouragement to us today." But for me, I kind of say this is convicting because we are not where we should be, but with God's help, we can be. Second, I want us to see the growth and increase of God's ministry.

Here, Luke goes right back to the ministry partnership between the church in Jerusalem and the newly born Gentile church in Antioch. Do you notice that? Luke tells us that Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem. Obviously, they had finished the work of taking the famine relief to the Jerusalem church. Chapter 11, verse 30 says that the church at Antioch sent their famine relief offering to the elders in Jerusalem by and through Barnabas and Saul. But notice there is more to this growth in ministry. Luke says they returned with John Mark. And Colossians 4.10 says that John Mark was the cousin of Barnabas.

And even though John Mark did have a struggle, he abandoned Paul, he did become ultimately a great help for the apostle Paul in his ministry. So we see the church's victory and growth. John MacArthur says that God's purposes cannot be frustrated, that's true. And on top of that, God's purposes are victorious. The church was victorious in that the word of God increased and their ministry team grew. But let me pause here. They were just as victorious in verse 24 as when they were in their prayer meeting and hiding. They were victorious because they were obedient to the circumstances that God had put them in.

Look church, God gives us our specific prayer right here. We should pray for first that we would have great gospel success reaching the lost. Second, that we would have great word of God success in sanctifying the saints with the word of God and that our ministry and ministry would grow. Is it wrong to ask that our ministries grow? No. Is it wrong to ask for more people? No. We don't want more people and more ministries for people and ministry's sake. We want it for soul's sake and ultimately for the glory of God. Now in closing, look at what we've studied here in chapter 12. Quite a lot, but I think it can be overlooked.

We see the persecution of the church, it was no accident. That was a part of God's sovereign plan for his church. We see the foolishness of fighting God and the ultimate end of the foolishness of fighting God. We see the progress and the victory of the church. They were just as victorious starting in chapter, they were just as victorious from verse five to verse 19 in that prayer meeting as they were in verse 24 and 25 because they were obedient to God. And we can have progress and victory if we are obedient to all God wants us to be. And when we come back from our Christmas break, our New Year's break, we will get started in chapter 13.

But in some of the things facing us for the new year, I will reference some of this teaching. So hold on to it. Maybe go revisit it because there are some lessons here, some corrections here, some encouragement here that I've needed and I think we all need.