The Hand of God
Speaker: Chris Jones
Date: 6th March 2010
Passage: Acts 12:1-25
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 ...ground on the island of Malta.
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05 The locals put on a bonfire to welcome the visitor.
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 It's a bit like a country bonfire.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 You light the fire everybody gathers around it.
00:00:10 --> 00:00:12 And the Apostle Paul's there and he's picking up sticks
00:00:12 --> 00:00:14 and he's throwing them onto the fire.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 He picks up a stick which turns out to be a poisonous viper.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:21 It sinks its teeth into his hands and there it is hanging off his hand.
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 And the locals watch this creature hanging off his hand.
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 And what is really interesting is their response.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 Nobody goes for first aid.
00:00:32 --> 00:00:34 Nobody tries a compression bandage.
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 They just sit there waiting for him to die.
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 And they say to themselves, he must be a murderer.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:47 He's escaped the sea but justice has caught up with him on the land.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 And then he doesn't die.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:56 And they say, he must be a god.
00:00:58 --> 00:01:02 It's a variation on karma.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:09 Bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people.
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 Karma's in our churches.
00:01:15 --> 00:01:23 I was in a church in January and I encountered a terrible variation of this.
00:01:24 --> 00:01:30 A person got up and led the prayer time and they prayed about the earthquake in Haiti,
00:01:31 --> 00:01:32 as we all were.
00:01:33 --> 00:01:40 And she prayed that God would forgive those people for their superstition and their witchcraft.
00:01:40 --> 00:01:45 Now that's an okay prayer to pray normally.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 But the problem is she linked it to the earthquake.
00:01:49 --> 00:01:56 And so her prayer linked the wickedness, their wickedness, to this earthquake which had befallen them.
00:01:57 --> 00:02:01 She didn't say it, but 200 people died in this pagan nation.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 Bad things happen to bad people.
00:02:04 --> 00:02:34 Bad things happen to bad people.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:34 Bad things happen to bad people.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 Bad things happen to bad people.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:44 In Luke chapter 13, Jesus commented on the local tragedy that had happened at Siloam where a building had collapsed and 18 people had died.
00:02:45 --> 00:02:51 And Jesus' question was, do you think that they were more guilty than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem?
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 I tell you, no.
00:02:54 --> 00:02:58 And unless you repent, you too will all perish.
00:02:58 --> 00:03:11 When somebody dies, when something bad happens to someone, we rush to ask God the unanswerable question, why?
00:03:11 --> 00:03:20 And too often we slip into seeing it as judgment or karma and we're very, very quiet about it sometimes.
00:03:21 --> 00:03:25 And we do it because we have a distorted understanding of God.
00:03:25 --> 00:03:28 We fail to see our own desperate need of him.
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 We fail to understand his purposes.
00:03:31 --> 00:03:40 Acts chapter 12 begins with death and disaster for the early church.
00:03:40 --> 00:03:41 I hope you've got your Bibles open.
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 I'm going to keep referring to the passage.
00:03:43 --> 00:03:44 Acts chapter 12, verse 1.
00:03:45 --> 00:03:49 One of the leaders has been put to death with the sword, possibly beheaded.
00:03:51 --> 00:03:52 Another is heading the same way.
00:03:52 --> 00:03:56 You might even quietly and cruelly ask what they've done to bring it upon themselves.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:01 Verse 1 says,
00:04:01 --> 00:04:09 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church intending to persecute them.
00:04:10 --> 00:04:14 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
00:04:14 --> 00:04:18 And when he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.
00:04:20 --> 00:04:21 Herod's the king in Palestine.
00:04:21 --> 00:04:25 History says that he's Herod Agrippa I.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:31 He's the grandson of Herod the Great in Jerusalem who was killing babies when Jesus was born.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:40 He's the nephew of Herod who executed John the Baptist and who Jesus refused to answer when he was on trial.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:45 And he becomes the latest threat to the growth of God's church.
00:04:45 --> 00:04:55 He is a persecuting, try-hard despot wanting to carry favour with the Jews by having James executed.
00:04:57 --> 00:04:58 James is one of the twelve apostles.
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 He's the brother of John.
00:05:01 --> 00:05:04 Together they were nicknamed the sons of thunder.
00:05:05 --> 00:05:06 They had a reputation.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:14 I have in my mind that if they were alive today they'd be riding Harley Davidsons and doing burnouts out on the Pacific highways at night when nobody was watching.
00:05:14 --> 00:05:15 Or maybe when everybody's watching.
00:05:17 --> 00:05:21 But what's going on here is Herod lashes out at the leadership of the church.
00:05:21 --> 00:05:27 He executes James and makes a serious play to follow through in the same way with Peter.
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 The church is in great danger.
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 Their leadership is being eliminated one at a time.
00:05:36 --> 00:05:37 Peter is arrested.
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 He's under very heavy security.
00:05:39 --> 00:05:39 Verse 4.
00:05:40 --> 00:05:41 Four squads of four soldiers.
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 Verse 6.
00:05:45 --> 00:05:46 He's bound with two chains.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:52 He's sleeping between two soldiers and two more are standing outside the door of his cell.
00:05:52 --> 00:05:56 He is being treated like a very serious criminal.
00:05:59 --> 00:06:00 Herod's determined.
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 Seriously heavy security.
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 The intention of having a show trial after Passover.
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 He knows the outcome he wants already.
00:06:10 --> 00:06:13 He's on track to doing away with Peter.
00:06:15 --> 00:06:16 Story moves on.
00:06:16 --> 00:06:17 Peter's asleep.
00:06:17 --> 00:06:18 Chained between two soldiers.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:20 Quite amazing really.
00:06:20 --> 00:06:26 He's snoring his head off when he had every reason to be fretting about his impending execution.
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 And verse 7 tells us the cell lights up.
00:06:33 --> 00:06:34 Angel whacks him in the side.
00:06:35 --> 00:06:35 Wake up Peter.
00:06:35 --> 00:06:36 Wake up Peter.
00:06:38 --> 00:06:39 Chains fall off.
00:06:39 --> 00:06:40 Put your dacks on.
00:06:40 --> 00:06:40 Follow me.
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 He's got no idea what's going on.
00:06:44 --> 00:06:45 He thinks he's seeing a vision.
00:06:45 --> 00:06:47 They walk past two lots of guards.
00:06:47 --> 00:06:50 The iron gate of the city opens by itself.
00:06:50 --> 00:06:53 They walk the length of a whole street and the angel disappears.
00:06:53 --> 00:06:53 Poof.
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 And a lot had happened before he even knew it had happened.
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 And verse 11.
00:07:01 --> 00:07:02 Peter came to himself and he said,
00:07:02 --> 00:07:09 Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 He experienced the unexpected.
00:07:16 --> 00:07:19 And so did the rest of the church.
00:07:19 --> 00:07:27 When Peter realises what's happened, he goes to John Mark's mum's place where a whole lot of the believers were gathered and they were holed up together and they were praying.
00:07:29 --> 00:07:30 Knocks on the door.
00:07:30 --> 00:07:30 Servant girl.
00:07:32 --> 00:07:33 Servant girl.
00:07:33 --> 00:07:33 Named Rhoda.
00:07:33 --> 00:07:34 She answers.
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 She hasn't got one of those spy holes.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 I said at 8.30, we've got a spy hole in our door at Rain Street.
00:07:40 --> 00:07:41 It's fantastic.
00:07:41 --> 00:07:42 I've never had one before.
00:07:43 --> 00:07:47 So if you come along and I don't want to see you, I can just look through and decide not to open the door.
00:07:47 --> 00:07:48 It's wonderful.
00:07:48 --> 00:07:51 But she hasn't got one of those.
00:07:52 --> 00:07:58 But she recognises Peter's voice and she's so overjoyed she just forgets to open the door.
00:07:58 --> 00:07:59 She goes back to the others.
00:08:00 --> 00:08:03 They think she's crazy or maybe it's Peter's angel, whatever that is.
00:08:07 --> 00:08:08 Verse 16.
00:08:09 --> 00:08:12 Knocks on the door again and they are astonished.
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16 They experience the unexpected.
00:08:16 --> 00:08:18 Verse 17.
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 He tells them how the Lord has brought him out of the prison.
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 And Peter's place in the story right here just finishes.
00:08:27 --> 00:08:28 He goes to another place.
00:08:28 --> 00:08:31 Presumably he doesn't hang around to be re-arrested.
00:08:31 --> 00:08:35 He hung around in chapter 3 or 4 but this time he's out of there.
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 Then the story gets really good.
00:08:46 --> 00:08:52 The soldiers are executed for dereliction of duty.
00:08:54 --> 00:08:55 How fair is that?
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 Were they ready on that day to meet their maker?
00:09:05 --> 00:09:08 Herod, he goes on holidays to Avoka.
00:09:09 --> 00:09:09 I mean the coast.
00:09:09 --> 00:09:10 He goes to Caesarea.
00:09:10 --> 00:09:22 And the people of Tyre and Sidon come crawling to Herod and he comes out in his royal robes and the people scream like it's at a rock concert.
00:09:22 --> 00:09:23 The voice of a God.
00:09:24 --> 00:09:24 The voice of a God.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:26 Not of a man.
00:09:27 --> 00:09:28 And Herod didn't honour God.
00:09:28 --> 00:09:29 And verse 23.
00:09:29 --> 00:09:30 Fantastic.
00:09:40 --> 00:09:40 Don't you love it?
00:09:44 --> 00:09:45 God judges.
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 And we're glad he judges.
00:09:50 --> 00:09:54 Lethal weapon 5.
00:09:54 --> 00:09:55 Herod bites the dust.
00:09:58 --> 00:09:59 And then the end.
00:09:59 --> 00:10:00 Big picture again.
00:10:00 --> 00:10:01 Verse 24.
00:10:03 --> 00:10:06 The word of God continued to increase and spread.
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 See the picture?
00:10:10 --> 00:10:11 Right at the beginning.
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 The chapter starts with real threat.
00:10:13 --> 00:10:14 James is dead.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:16 Peter's heading the same way.
00:10:16 --> 00:10:21 What's going to happen to God's church?
00:10:23 --> 00:10:32 Last week I told the story for anybody here about getting some advice from Brian King who was my bishop in Parramatta about dealing with difficult people in church.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:36 And he told me about three people that he had strife with at Manly.
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 I can tell you because there's no problems at Chatswood.
00:10:39 --> 00:10:44 And he told me about three people at Manly who caused him grief.
00:10:44 --> 00:10:45 And he said he prayed.
00:10:45 --> 00:10:46 One left.
00:10:46 --> 00:10:46 One got converted.
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 And one died.
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 And last week we were in Acts chapter 9.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:53 We saw Paul persecuting the church.
00:10:53 --> 00:10:57 And God did the most astonishing thing in bringing him to faith.
00:10:58 --> 00:10:59 He was converted.
00:11:00 --> 00:11:01 In Acts chapter 12.
00:11:01 --> 00:11:03 Herod is persecuting the church.
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 And God takes him out.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:07 He's dead.
00:11:11 --> 00:11:16 God removes the threats to his purposes in whatever way.
00:11:16 --> 00:11:17 He chooses.
00:11:17 --> 00:11:24 What do you do with a passage like this?
00:11:24 --> 00:11:29 He talked about it with Brian Tung the other day.
00:11:29 --> 00:11:33 And he said that the big lesson probably is don't cross the church leaders or you die.
00:11:33 --> 00:11:34 You'll be like Herod.
00:11:36 --> 00:11:37 Staff thought that was fantastic.
00:11:39 --> 00:11:40 Maybe not true.
00:11:40 --> 00:11:48 I want to look at what's going on here from a human point of view first.
00:11:48 --> 00:11:53 And then I want to think about it from a heavenly point of view second.
00:11:53 --> 00:11:58 From a human point of view.
00:11:58 --> 00:12:04 The situation is desperate and it is tragic for believers.
00:12:04 --> 00:12:08 James' death is gruesome.
00:12:10 --> 00:12:14 And Peter's situation appears hopeless.
00:12:16 --> 00:12:25 If it happened here in Sydney and our archbishop was executed by the government and then other church leaders were being targeted for the same,
00:12:25 --> 00:12:29 I think we would have a lot less people in church.
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 Big negative church growth.
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40 I hope we wouldn't, but I think we might.
00:12:40 --> 00:12:51 And if all of a sudden having your bottom on a seat in church might cost you your job or your life as it does in numbers of countries in the world,
00:12:52 --> 00:12:57 we would have to think deep and hard about what we believe and why we are here.
00:13:00 --> 00:13:07 Would we still be prepared to nail our colours to Christ's mast?
00:13:07 --> 00:13:15 See there are all sorts of unanswerable questions here.
00:13:17 --> 00:13:21 Why did God allow a leader like James to die?
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 Surely the believers were praying for him too.
00:13:29 --> 00:13:30 Did he bring it on himself?
00:13:32 --> 00:13:33 Was he too outspoken?
00:13:34 --> 00:13:37 We all know what sort of a reputation he had.
00:13:37 --> 00:13:38 He was one of the sons of thunder.
00:13:38 --> 00:13:39 Did he still have a hot temper?
00:13:40 --> 00:13:43 Should he have gone a bit more softly, softly with Herod?
00:13:44 --> 00:13:46 That's when we rationalise, don't we?
00:13:46 --> 00:13:47 I do it.
00:13:47 --> 00:13:47 Do you do it?
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 Perhaps he deserved it in some way.
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 And that is when we really overstep the mark.
00:13:56 --> 00:14:02 And what about Peter?
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 His situation just appears hopeless.
00:14:08 --> 00:14:09 The security is huge.
00:14:09 --> 00:14:10 The believers are powerless.
00:14:10 --> 00:14:11 The security is huge.
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 The believers are powerless.
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 They are not an advocacy group.
00:14:17 --> 00:14:20 They don't have political connection and clout.
00:14:21 --> 00:14:22 They are not a military group.
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 They don't operate with violence like a guerrilla movement.
00:14:27 --> 00:14:29 They've pulled back together.
00:14:29 --> 00:14:34 They are powerless in terms of the world.
00:14:34 --> 00:14:40 They have gone into their homes and they are doing the only thing that they know to do.
00:14:41 --> 00:14:42 They pray.
00:14:44 --> 00:14:45 Verse 5.
00:14:46 --> 00:14:52 Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55 Verse 12.
00:14:56 --> 00:14:59 Many people had gathered and were praying.
00:15:04 --> 00:15:10 So humanly speaking, the situation was both grave and hopeless.
00:15:10 --> 00:15:22 Wonderfully, the people of God were on their shaking knees calling upon the Lord in fear and in faith.
00:15:23 --> 00:15:27 They were depending upon all that they had to lean on.
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38 There's a heavenly perspective which you can bring to this passage.
00:15:40 --> 00:15:47 James' death is tragic, but he's not lost.
00:15:49 --> 00:15:50 He's a believer.
00:15:52 --> 00:15:53 He was with the Lord.
00:15:56 --> 00:16:01 And so you don't even need to begin to punish yourself with the unanswerable question,
00:16:01 --> 00:16:03 what did he do to deserve death?
00:16:03 --> 00:16:10 As tragic as the circumstances were for him and for his family and for his Christian family,
00:16:10 --> 00:16:11 he was safe.
00:16:11 --> 00:16:12 He was okay.
00:16:15 --> 00:16:21 And the church would have easily been able to give thanks for his life and for his safety with the Lord.
00:16:21 --> 00:16:25 They could have been deeply comforted that he was with the Lord.
00:16:25 --> 00:16:29 From heaven's perspective, he was safe.
00:16:35 --> 00:16:37 God can see the threat to his church.
00:16:39 --> 00:16:40 He's not blind.
00:16:40 --> 00:16:41 He's not dead.
00:16:41 --> 00:16:48 And it's not explicit, but you presume that he hears the prayers of his people.
00:16:50 --> 00:16:54 And God intervenes to rescue Peter in an astonishing way.
00:16:56 --> 00:16:58 Peter has to pinch himself to believe it.
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 And the church is blown away too.
00:17:00 --> 00:17:02 They experience the unexpected.
00:17:02 --> 00:17:07 God saves Peter's life and he doesn't do it for James.
00:17:09 --> 00:17:10 God thwarts Herod.
00:17:11 --> 00:17:13 Herod has one thing in mind.
00:17:13 --> 00:17:14 God has another.
00:17:15 --> 00:17:17 Death is on Herod's mind for the church leaders.
00:17:17 --> 00:17:19 Death is on God's mind for Herod.
00:17:22 --> 00:17:23 Drop dead, Herod.
00:17:24 --> 00:17:26 And the church must have been ecstatic.
00:17:26 --> 00:17:40 So God intervenes in just the right way and at just the right time to preserve his church and to preserve his mission.
00:17:41 --> 00:17:49 Herod, the great, wealthy, powerful, well-connected despot, dies.
00:17:49 --> 00:17:57 And in verse 24, the word of God continued to increase and spread.
00:18:02 --> 00:18:04 God's people could see the threat.
00:18:04 --> 00:18:05 They could feel the threat.
00:18:06 --> 00:18:08 They were experiencing the threat.
00:18:10 --> 00:18:13 Be encouraged because God could see the threat as well.
00:18:13 --> 00:18:20 And he had the power and the will to deal with it in his way.
00:18:22 --> 00:18:26 So from heaven's perspective, James is safe.
00:18:27 --> 00:18:29 Peter's safe.
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 God's people are safe.
00:18:32 --> 00:18:36 The word of God continues to increase and it spreads.
00:18:37 --> 00:18:42 Presumably numbers are growing even though people can see that some believers are losing their lives
00:18:42 --> 00:18:44 for what they believe.
00:18:45 --> 00:18:46 Quite remarkable.
00:18:50 --> 00:18:52 God rules his church.
00:18:53 --> 00:18:55 God protects his people.
00:18:57 --> 00:19:01 If our church is going to grow, it will be because God grows it.
00:19:05 --> 00:19:10 In Acts chapter 12, God's people, humanly speaking, were in a state of powerlessness.
00:19:10 --> 00:19:13 They didn't have reputation.
00:19:14 --> 00:19:15 They didn't have wealth.
00:19:16 --> 00:19:17 They didn't have prestige.
00:19:18 --> 00:19:20 They didn't have power.
00:19:20 --> 00:19:24 The political leadership of the nation despised them.
00:19:26 --> 00:19:28 But they did have Christ.
00:19:30 --> 00:19:34 And in their powerlessness, they were on their knees before him.
00:19:37 --> 00:19:38 Harm happened.
00:19:38 --> 00:19:42 James' life was lost.
00:19:44 --> 00:19:45 He was safe.
00:19:46 --> 00:19:52 And in the goodness of God, he removed the threat to his people and his mission.
00:19:56 --> 00:20:01 We must see that our power does not come from whom we are in the world.
00:20:01 --> 00:20:06 Our security comes from Christ.
00:20:08 --> 00:20:16 There is nothing better than for us to be on our knees before Christ, reduced to helplessness,
00:20:16 --> 00:20:25 so that we might see that he is the one who lifts us up and guards and protects us
00:20:25 --> 00:20:30 and allows us to participate in his glorious purposes.
00:20:30 --> 00:20:42 Please, Lord Jesus, grow your church in this place, not by our cleverness and power.
00:20:44 --> 00:20:50 Grow us by your power as we humbly depend on you.
00:20:50 --> 00:20:54 All glory be to you.
00:20:54 --> 00:20:55 Amen.