Who’s Really Calling the Shots?
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
“WHO’S REALLY CALLING THE SHOTS?”
Acts 12:1-23
OPENING
“There are moments when life makes you ask questions you would never ask in easy seasons. You sit in a hospital room. You stand at a graveside. You hear news you cannot change. You pray, but the door does not open. And somewhere deep in your soul, the question rises: ‘Lord, are You still in control?’”
My pastor Adrian Rogers used to say that God never makes a mistake and never wrings His hands wondering what to do next. Also, it is important to remember that God is never caught off guard nor is God ever in heaven wondering why at will happen next. God is sovereign. over all that we face in this world.
Acts 12 serves as a reminder that God is sovereign over all situations. Whether you are faced with a terminal diagnoses or find your self-celebrating God’s providence in your situation, you this morning can trust God to rule over your situation.
This morning, I want to spend some time showing you how you can trust God no matter the outcome.
1. God permits.
1. God permits.
1 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.
2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword,
3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread.
4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.
EXEGETICAL EXPLANATION
The phrase 'About that time' (κατ' ἐκεῖνον δὲ τὸν καιρόν) immediately roots this account in the wider narrative of Acts — the church is thriving, the gospel is spreading, and Herod makes his lethal move precisely in the context of kingdom advance. This is no accident. The sovereignty of God is not threatened by the agendas of kings; it is often most visibly displayed through them.
Herod Agrippa I (41–44 AD) was not a villain in the mold of Caligula — he was shrewd, politically sophisticated, and deliberately courted Jewish favor. Luke's spare, devastating account of James' execution is notable for what it does not say. There is no rescue. No angel. No earthquake. No miraculous deliverance. James — the son of thunder, one of the inner three, present at the Transfiguration — is simply killed. This is the first apostolic martyrdom in Acts, and God permitted it.
The word 'earnest' (ἐκτενής) in verse 5 — 'earnest prayer was made to God by the church' — carries the sense of stretched-out, fervent, persevering intercession. The church prayed. But James still died. This is the first and most difficult doctrinal truth of this text:
God is sovereign over suffering. He permits what He does not cause, and He ordains what He does not celebrate. The martyrdom of James was not outside God's decree — it was within it. Jesus Himself had told James and John that they would drink His cup (Mark 10:39). The cup James drank was the cup of martyrdom — and God had ordained it before the foundation of the world.
Four squads of soldiers — sixteen men in rotation — guarded Peter. Rome was determined. Herod was certain. And yet Luke places these verses alongside the church at prayer. The juxtaposition is deliberate: on one side, the full military force of the most powerful empire on earth; on the other side, a congregation on her knees. Luke is asking: which of these is the greater power?
DOCTRINAL
God can permit what He hates in order to accomplish what He wills.
Christian sovereignty says, “Whatever happens is under the rule of a wise, holy, just, and good God.”
Herod is responsible for his sin.
The crowd is responsible for its approval.
The soldiers are responsible for their actions.
But none of them have escaped the rule of God.
The mystery of providence is this: human beings make real choices, evil people commit real evil, suffering brings real pain, and yet God remains truly sovereign over all of it.
Illustration
Think about a child sitting in the back seat of a car during a long trip at night.
The child cannot see the road. He cannot read the map. He does not know why the car slowed down, why it turned, why it stopped, or why it took a road he did not expect.
From the back seat, every delay feels like a mistake.
But the father behind the wheel sees what the child cannot see. He sees the road. He knows the destination. He knows when to slow down, when to turn, when to stop, and when to keep driving through the darkness.
That is not a perfect picture, but it helps us.
There are seasons when we are in the back seat of providence. We do not see the map. We do not understand the turn. We do not know why God permitted this pain, this loss, this delay, or this disappointment.
APPLICATION
Has God permitted something in your life that you cannot explain — a loss, a diagnosis, an unanswered prayer? The sovereignty of God over suffering is not a cold theological abstraction. It is the anchor of your soul. God's permission is not God's abandonment. He permitted the death of His own Son. Trust that He who did not spare His Son will use even this for your ultimate good and His eternal glory (Romans 8:28, 32).
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Stop demanding that God explain Himself before you trust Him. James trusted. Pray the way the church prayed — earnestly, persistently, and in surrender to a God who is wiser than your fears.
2. God Protects
2. God Protects
6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison.
7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands.
8 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.”
9 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.
10 When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him.
11 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.”
12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.
13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer.
14 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.
15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!”
16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed.
17 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 went to another place.
18 Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.
19 And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.
EXEGETICAL EXPLANATION
What amazes me is how God acts in protecting Peter, it says he rescues Peter “on that very night.” He acted at the precise, predetermined moment of His own choosing. This is the sovereignty of God over human ideal timing.
Peter was sleeping. This detail is theologically magnificent. A man sleeping soundly — bound between two soldiers, on the eve of his probable execution — is not a man whose peace depends on his circumstances. The peace of Peter was the peace of a man whose soul was in the hands of God. He was either so exhausted he crashed, or — more likely — his unshakeable trust in Christ produced a rest that baffled his Roman guards. This is the sleep of a man who knew that whether he lived or died, he was the Lord's (Romans 14:8).
The angel had to strike Peter to wake him — this is almost comic in its tenderness. The angel does not stroll Peter through invisible walls. He tells him to dress himself, put on his sandals, wrap his cloak. Every ordinary, mundane detail is preserved. God is sovereign not only over miracles — He is sovereign over the precise sequence of sandals and cloaks. The 'iron gate' that 'opened of its own accord' (αὐτομάτη) — the Greek word from which we get 'automatic' — underscores that the obstacle human beings believed to be insurmountable was, to God, a trivial inconvenience.
The scene at Mary's house (vv. 12–16) is warm with irony and humanity. The church is praying for Peter's deliverance — and when God actually delivers him, they initially refuse to believe it. Rhoda knows Peter's voice; she is so overjoyed she forgets to open the gate. The church, in their theological certainty that Peter was probably dead, insists it must be 'his angel.' God answered their prayer more literally than their faith had dared to believe. This should arrest every praying heart: God is capable of exceeding our most earnest requests
Doctrinal Focus: Divine Agency
God uses supernatural means (the angel) and natural means (the church praying) to accomplish His protective will. Notice the church’s "sovereign irony": they were praying for Peter’s release, yet they didn't believe it when he showed up! God’s sovereignty is greater than even our small faith.
Illustration: Imagine a man standing in front of a locked bank vault. The steel is thick. The bolts are secure. The alarm is set. From the outside, it looks impossible to enter. But then the owner walks up with the master code. What was impossible to everyone else opens in a moment to the one with authority.
APPLICATION
Are you facing a situation that looks like a locked iron gate — a circumstance so fixed, so fortified, so humanly impossible, that you have quietly given up believing God could change it? The same God who opened that gate by His own decree can open yours. But notice: Peter still had to get up, put on his sandals, and walk. Sovereign protection does not call you to passive resignation — it calls you to obedient action paired with radical trust. Pray earnestly. Act faithfully. Leave the iron gates to God. And when He answers beyond what you dared to believe, don't be so committed to your own low expectations that you leave Him knocking at the door.
3. God prevails
3. God prevails
20 Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, 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.
21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.
22 And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”
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.
Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, corroborates this account in remarkable detail. He records that Herod appeared in a garment woven entirely of silver thread that shimmered brilliantly in the morning sun. The crowds shouted that his voice was divine — and Herod, drunk on flattery, did not rebuke them. This is the sin that sealed his doom: he did not give God the glory (οὐκ ἔδωκεν τὴν δόξαν τῷ Θεῷ).
The Greek word translated 'struck him down' (ἐπάταξεν) is the same word used in the Septuagint for divine judgment — it carries the full weight of God's immediate, decisive intervention in human affairs. The man who wielded the sword against James — the man who held Peter's life in his hand — is now himself struck down by the same angel who rescued Peter from his chains. Luke's literary structure here is deliberate and devastating: the angel who opened a prison now closes a life.
Josephus records that Herod lingered in agony for five days before dying. The Greek word Luke uses — σκωληκόβρωτος (skōlēkóbrōtos) — 'eaten by worms' — appears nowhere else in the New Testament. It is a word of deliberate, precise humiliation. The man who sat on a throne in silver robes being hailed as a god died being consumed from the inside out. There is no dignity in the judgment of God upon those who steal His glory.
24 But the word of God increased and multiplied.
Verse 24 — which immediately follows Herod's death — is the interpretive key Luke gives us: 'But the word of God increased and multiplied.' The king is dead. The Word marches on. This is the theological verdict of the entire chapter: earthly power is temporary; divine purpose is permanent. Herod was not a threat to God's kingdom — he was an unwitting instrument in its advance. His persecution scattered the church. His death liberated it. His entire reign was bracketed by the sovereignty of the God he defied.
God’s sovereignty includes His victory.
God is patient, but He is not passive.
There are seasons when proud people rise. There are seasons when evil seems rewarded. There are seasons when the enemies of God’s people look untouchable.
But Acts 12 reminds us: no one steals God’s glory and gets away with it forever.
God may delay judgment, but He does not deny justice.
This fits beautifully with the SBC understanding of the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom includes His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over those who acknowledge Him as King. Christians are called to pray and labor for His Kingdom until Christ returns and brings the full consummation of that Kingdom.
So we do not panic when Herod has a throne.
We know another King is coming.
Illustration:
A man can stand on the beach and write his name in the sand in big letters.
He can make it bold.
He can underline it.
He can decorate it.
He can stand back and admire it.
For a moment, it looks impressive.
But then the tide comes in.
One wave reaches the edge.
Another wave washes through the middle.
Another wave comes behind it.
And before long, the name is gone.
The man wrote his name in the sand, but he did not rule the sea.
That is Herod.
He put on the robe.
He sat on the throne.
He gave the speech.
He received the praise.
But then the tide of God’s judgment rolled in.
Herod found out what every proud sinner will one day learn: you may write your name in the sand, but God rules the ocean.
APPLICATION
We live in a world where the Herods of our age are loud, powerful, and seemingly unstoppable. Governments pass laws that defy God's Word. Culture celebrates what Scripture condemns. Institutions that once honored Christian principles now actively oppose them. And we are tempted to panic — as if the King of kings has been outmaneuvered by a politician, a platform, or a policy. He has not. Acts 12 ends with a dead king and a living Word. That is always how the story ends. Your call is not to despair at the size of the opposition. Your call is to refuse to give the glory that belongs to God to any earthly power — and to faithfully advance the Word of God in your generation, trusting that He who prevailed over Herod will prevail over every enemy of His church.
CLOSING
Acts 12 opens with a dead apostle, a chained prisoner, and a triumphant tyrant. It closes with a liberated apostle, a dead tyrant, and a triumphant Word. Nothing went wrong. God permitted what He purposed. He protected whom He pleased. And He prevailed — as He always does, as He always will.
The grandmaster never lost control of the board. Not when James died. Not when Peter was chained. Not when Herod took his throne in silver robes. And He has not lost control of your situation either. Not today. Not ever.
19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
Who is really calling the shots? JESUS is. He always has been. He always will be. And that — church — is your unshakeable, irrevocable, sovereign peace.
Have you trusted Christ in your circumstance?
Have you trusted him with your life?
GOSPEL: HEROD faced God’s judgement. SO will you unless you repent and turn to Jesus. Will you surrender all to him this morning?
