Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Do you expect your state or national government to make room for religious freedom?

Do you know that many Christians and churches in the world today live under the rule of governments that are openly hostile to Christian beliefs and practices?

According to Open Doors USA, an organization that has monitored Christian persecution in the world since 1992, there were nearly 5,000 Christian martyrs in 2021 (most on the continent of Africa, and in particular Nigeria).

In Pakistan a common persecution against Christian women is to force them to marry non-Christians.

In China, Christians can be detained without charges and even imprisoned for holding to certain historical Christian doctrines and practices… an more than 7,000 Christian churches in China have been forcibly closed and disbanded over the last two years.

You can read more statistics like this in the full article: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/january/christian-persecution-2021-countries-open-doors-watch-list.html

To state it bluntly, I am so thankful for the freedoms Christians have had in the western word, and especially in America over the last couple of centuries, but when I read history and current news headlines, I am forced to admit that religious freedom is not the norm… it is the exception.

In fact, I am a bit confused sometimes when I think about how often the New Testament warns Christians to expect persecution and to prepare to endure it.

I think, “This isn’t my experience at all… What gives?”

Brothers and sisters, in many ways religious freedom has been a wonderful blessing… but I wonder if it doesn’t also come with some downside.

How many of us are prepared to face real persecution?

How many of us are able to parse out the differences between our biblical convictions and our cultural preferences?

How many of us already know which hills to die on, which ones to fight for, and which ones to retreat from?

Today, we’re going to read and consider a passage of Scripture that highlights real persecution and God’s preservation.

We will see that God is the true sovereign over all of this, and we will also see where our hope should be as Christians in a fallen (post-Genesis-3) world.

The context is the ongoing expansion of Christianity in the first century.

Beginning in Jerusalem, Christianity has spread as far as Antioch, and there have been threats and opposition at every step of the way.

But the word of God and the kingdom of Christ seems unstoppable, and this (it seems to me) is really getting at the heart of our passage today.

Let’s stand and read together…

Scripture Reading

Acts 12:1–25 (ESV)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Main Point

The word of the true King always prevails, even when it appears to be weak in the world.

Message Outline

State-Sanctioned Persecution

Divine Deliverance

Rescue Reported

The Words of Two Kings

Message

1) State-Sanctioned Persecution

Who was Herod?

In v1 Luke says, “About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.”

This is Herod Agrippa I, king of Judea at that time.

Agrippa’s uncle was Herod Antipas, who governed Galilee for a while.

Herod Antipas both envied and hated John the Baptist, so he had John imprisoned.

And later he had John beheaded at the request of his niece (Matt.

14:1-12).

Agrippa’s grand-dad was Herod the Great, king of Judea at the time of Jesus’ birth.

Herod the Great feared the rise of the one who had been born “King of the Jews,” so he murdered all the boys 2-yrs-old and younger in and around Bethlehem (Matt.

2:16-18).

One can only imagine the heartbreak of such widespread and horrific violence.

Agrippa had come to power by family lineage and also by political cunning, and he had both reclaimed and rebuilt the kingdom his grand-dad once ruled, covering all of Judea.

Incidentally, it seems from this passage that political cunning was the reason for Herod Agrippa’s persecution of the church in Jerusalem, and throughout Judea more broadly.

A new kind of persecution

v1 tells us that “Herod [Agrippa] the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.”

And verses 2 and 3 tell us a couple of details about the “some who belonged to the church” (v1).

This persecution was new because it was coming from the civil government, not only from the Jewish leaders who continued rejecting Jesus as the Christ.

Herod “killed James the brother of John” (v2).

James was a fisherman, who Jesus called to be one of His disciples (Matt.

4:21)… and who was named among the 12 Apostles in Acts 1:13-14.

And Herod “arrested Peter also” (v3).

v3 says that Herod “saw that it [i.e., the murder of James] pleased the Jews,” and that this is what prompted Herod to “proceed” with further persecution.

As I said before, it seems that Herod’s political maneuvering (trying to win favor with the Jews in Judea) was behind his violent persecution.

v3 also tells us that Peter’s arrest was “during the days of Unleavened Bread,” which concluded with “the Passover” (v4).

And in v4 Luke says that Herod’s plan was to hold Peter until that Jewish festival was over… and until then, Peter was “kept in prison” (v5), guarded by “four squads of soldiers” (v4).

It’s worth noting here that Peter’s situation was hopeless, and that’s Luke’s point.

Herod Agrippa is not delaying Peter’s execution because he’s still deciding what to do with him.

No, Herod is waiting for the opportune time… a social and political opportunity to make Peter’s execution a spectacle.

This is clear because Luke says Herod “intended after the Passover to bring [Peter] out to the people” (v4)… and also because Peter was guarded so heavily - 16 soldiers, 4 groups of 4, taking shifts so that no distraction would be possible.

Calvin commented on this passage, “Luke… declared by circumstances that Peter was, as it were, shut up in his grave, so that it might seem that he was quite past hope” (Calvin, v4).

A praying church

v5 says, “So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.”

Luke doesn’t tell us what they prayed for, but it could have been at least a couple of things.

They could have prayed that Peter be released.

Of course, that’s what my prayer would be, if I were Peter… and this is what I’d want others praying for me.

This is what most of us are prone to pray when we are going through the midst of some difficulty… “Lord, please make this stop!”

But they also could have prayed that Peter be resolute (that he would persevere in faith), even as he faced the pain of death.