Acts 12_18-25 The Folly of Fighting God

Read Acts 12:18-25 – We love that “God is love” (I Jn 4:8b). We’re not so keen that “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). Yet we should love that just as much. Why? Bc that’s what guarantees paradise. God consuming evil! We’ve minimized God’s judgment to the point of irrelevance. Since we do not see bolts of lightning regularly lighting up the landscape our tendency is to think it will never happen. That is a dangerous mistake. The times it does happen are a solemn warning against the folly of fighting God.

In a genealogy study a few years ago, I identified a woman I’d never heard of, Rebecca Jones Case as my great, great grandmother. She married Henry Case on April 4, 1856 in Bethel, NY – right in the middle of Woodstock! When Henry returned from the CW, they farmed in Iowa, MN and NE. Eventually, while researching records in Wayne County, NE, I was shocked to find this newspaper account of in the Wayne Herald, dated June 29, 1903: “A frightful accident caused the death of Mrs. Case last Friday at the home of her daughter. She was starting the fire with kerosene preparatory to getting supper, when the can exploded, spreading the oil over her clothing and setting it on fire. The daughter couldn’t extinguish the flames as her mother fought her away. The doctor could do nothing when he arrived. The woman lingered in intense suffering from 6:00 Friday until 2:00 am Saturday when she died.” That was sobering. Fire is frightening even at 100 years distance.

My grandmother, with whom I was close, was 12 at that time, living near her grandmother. Yet, she never once talked about it, having either erased it from her mind, or finding it too horrible to mention. God calls Himself a consuming fire for a reason – to warn against ignoring or fighting Him.

Yet some here this morning are fighting God. You neglect His commands as tho they did not matter, reject His cross as irrelevant, and pit your will against His daily. You hope a couple of hours in church will placate Him; it won’t! He does not want your attendance until He has your heart. Until then you are at war -- a war you cannot win. To reject God’s salvation is to plot a future you do not want. Look where it took Herod.

Impotent Determination

Herod was a determined man. He found he could win over the Jew by killing Xns. It worked beautifully with Jas. So he set out to get Peter next. But, this time, he failed badly. He’d run into divine intervention. And he was no match for God. His enhanced security operations went up in smoke when the soldiers miraculously slept; the chain miraculously fell off and the prison gates miraculously opened. He’d been one-upped by God before whom he was impotent! He ended killing more of his own soldiers than Xns!

The lesson is you can’t beat God. Herod thought he could. After Jas’ death, he was sure of it. But God said, “This far; no further.” That’s the folly of fighting God. In the end, He calls all the shots, even the ones that seem to go against Him. Prov 16:33: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” He gives people just enough rope to hang themselves.

At the tower of Babel He said, “You can build this high, but no higher.” To Pharaoh: “You can hold out this long, but no longer.” To the Egyptians chasing the Israelis: “You can go in the Red Sea, but no further.” To Satan who persecuted Job: “This far, but no further.” To Belshazzar in Dan 5 using Israel’s temple implements for an in-your-face pagan orgy: “This far, but no further.” To Pilate who thought he had all authority over Jesus: “This far, but no further.” Pilate signed Jesus’ death warrant; God unsigned it and raised Him up again. Get the pix? God always has the last word.

History’s strongest men, from Pharaoh to Neb to Caesar to Hitler to Stalin all found themselves impotent when God said, “This far; no further.” Every atheist who ever shook his fist in the face of God is impotent before Him. Like Voltaire, who bragged that while Xnty was centuries old, “I’ll show you how just one Frenchman can destroy it within 50 years.” Fifty years on, his home was HQ for the British Bible Society. His last word: “I wish I’d never been born.” Or Friedrich Nietzsche who pronounced God dead then spent the final 10 years of his short life certifiably insane. A piece of graffiti scrawled in NY announced, “God is dead. Nietzsche.” Underneath someone added, “Nietzsche is dead’. God”. When God says, “This far and no further,” that’s it!

No one can stand against God and win. It is folly. Whether you are an unbeliever, an apathetic believer, or a true believer refusing to obey God’s commands, you are on a fool’s errand. Payday is coming! We may have words of excuse, denial, contorted explanations or outright rebellion, but God will have the last word. He always wins: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” We’re all impotent before Him.

II. Imprudent Deification

With Peter’s disappearance, Herod’s ego took an enormous hit. It was an opportunity for humility and repentance. Herod does just the opposite. He launches a self-deification campaign. His wounded self-image needs repair. First, he has the guards executed. Shows power! Then he decides that, having not delivered on his promise to the Jews, it might be a good move to leave Jerusalem for a time. So off he goes to Caesarea until things could blow over.

Caesarea was the Roman capital of Israel, built by Agrippa’s grandfather in honor of Augustus – a beautiful city. There Herod massaged his ego back to full throttle. First, reps from Tyre and Sidon come begging his pardon. They had offended Him, and he imposed sanctions by refusing to sell wheat to them. In desperation, they came to Blastus, Herod’s aid, probably bribed him, and sued for peace. That didn’t hurt Herod’s ego at all.

So, he invites them to the games – so says Josephus’. Every 5 years, a series of athletic events were held in Caesar’s honor. Luke says, 21 “On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.” His wounded ego is back in full bloom.

As Herod spoke, Lu says, 22) And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Josephus adds detail: “[Herod] put on a garment made wholly of silver [which was] illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun upon it. It shone in a surprising manner. Straightway his flatterers raised their voices, addressing him as a god. ‘May you be gracious to us,’ they added, ‘and if we have hitherto feared you as a man, yet henceforth we agree you are more than mortal.’ Herod loved it.

Don’t we do the same? Not that crowds are declaring us as gods, but any time we find our identity other than in Christ, we are playing God. When we suffer setback or humiliation, we want a way to “feel good about ourselves”, but when we find that identity other than in Christ, we have taken the place only God should have in our lives. In thinking first of self, we are playing God.

The whole idea that life is our own is a self-deification exercise. Proper self-love becomes prideful self-centering love. Niebuhr states bluntly, “In an ultimate sense the self never knows anything against itself.” We are by nature self-righteous spin doctors who displace God’s rightful place. Sartre says: “To be man means to reach toward being God,” Satan’s pitch in Eden.

A new senator was being shown around DC by an old-timer. As they watched the Potomac, a rotten log floated past. The old man said, “This city is like that log.” The newby said, “How’s that?” The senator replied, “"Well, there are probably over 100,000 grubs, ants, and critters on that log as it floats down the river. And every one of them thinks he's steering." Herod sure did. His glory was restored as he soaked in the applause while stealing God’s glory.

III. Ignominious Degradation

But at the pinnacle of Herod’s glory-stealing performance, God goes into action. 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.” This is a gory end. It is not clear how Herod died, but God was the effective cause. “Eaten by worms” could be a tapeworm. Dr. Jean Slot Morton suggests: “Herod’s death was almost certainly due to the rupture of a cyst formed by a tapeworm.” Perhaps. Others suggest his appendix burst. In any case, it was ugly and painful. Josephus says as Herod reveled in the flattery of his audience, “he was seized with a sever pain in his bowels, which quickly increased in intensity. He was hastily carried into the palace, and after he suffered continuously for five days he died.” It was a dreadful end.

The lesson is simple. Take God’s glory as your own and sooner or later, payday is coming. We get lulled into a false sense of security because judgment isn’t immediate. Remember the first time you stole a cookie? I expected a bolt of lightning any minute. When it didn’t happen, it was a lot easier the 2nd time. Herod got away with it as well – for a time. He got James killed, and almost got Peter. But he never escaped the eye of the Lord. He ran afoul of God’s warning in Rom 2:4: “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath [making a negative investment] for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” When we feel good about getting away with it, all we’ve done is trample God’s patience and stored up even greater penalty for ourselves against that day.

Herod thought he was doing fine. So did Pharaoh, and Nero and Hitler and Stalin. But the day of reckoning eventually came. When this chapter starts with Herod killing James, but ends with Herod being killed by an angel of the Lord, it’s a neon sign saying, “Be warned. You cannot fight God and win. You cannot steal His glory and get away with it. You cannot live for self and not pay the price.” Condemnation awaits all who refuse the gift of eternal life paid for by Jesus on the cross. James was killed yes, but he was immediately in the presence of God. Herod found himself face to face with “him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt 10:28b). This passage is fair warning for all who arrogantly reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Will Rogers once sent a pix postcard of Venus de Milo to his young niece. He wrote: “See what happens if you keep biting your fingernails.” Here God is saying, see what happens if you do not surrender your way to God thru Christ. His yoke is easy – but His judgment is hard, Beloved.

Prior to becoming a Xn, C. S. Lewis called the God he didn’t believe in the Great Interferer. He said, “What mattered most to me was my deep-seated hatred of authority, my monstrous individualism, my lawlessness. No word in my vocabulary expressed deeper hatred than the word interference.” He wanted a region deep in his soul that he could “surround with a barbed wire fence and guard with the notice, ‘No Admittance.’” He wanted to say to God, “This is my business and mine alone.” But it dawned on him that a day of accountability was coming and he must either say to God, “Thy will be done” or God would on that day say to him, “Thy will be done.” The end result of stealing God’s glory is to be forever alone. That was Herod’s fate.

IV. Irresistible Domination

Meantime: 24 “But the word of God increased and multiplied. 25 And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.” You can’t miss the contrast, can you? Agrippa dies a dreadful death “because he did not give God the glory” – would not bow to His royal omnipotence. But the Word of God marches on. Isa 55:11: “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Even as Herod was dying, the Word was increasing and the disciples multiplying. The folly of fighting God is simple – you can’t win. Jesus says in Mt 16:18b: “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” For 2,000 years that’s exactly what He’s been doing. The only choice any of us really have is to join where He is going, or be left in the fire of eternal separation from Him.

Conc – An old farmer hated “religious” things. He worked hard thru the week and on Sunday, too – mocking those who missed a chance to get ahead. Come October, he had the finest crop he’d ever had – best in the county. So, he placed an ad in the paper belittling Xns and near the end of his diatribe he wrote: “Faith in God must not mean much if someone like me can prosper.” He felt pretty good about himself – until the next edition of the paper which included a small ad that read: “God doesn’t settle His accounts in October.” That’s the point. We’re all living on borrowed time. We must presume on God’s forbearance. It is meant for one purpose – to lead us to repentance. There was a song a few years ago that said, “I fought the law, and the law won.” Fight God and you have lost before you begin. But surrender to Him and eternal life is yours. Let’s pray.

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