Recent decisions on the part of the government, not only in America, but also in various other countries, have amounted to nothing less than an attack on the church. And I believe that this is just the beginning of a wholesale attack on the church which will continue to get worse and worse as we go forward. The Bible makes it clear that in the last days, perilous times will come.
Paul described such days as this in 2Tim. 3:1-5 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”
Difficult times are coming for the church. We stand on the authority of God’s word, and as such are in opposition to those types of people, who want not only to be allowed to continue in their rebellion against God, but want to make us agree with their rebellion and redefine morality so that what they do is no longer considered sinful. It’s not enough for us to allow them their immorality, the church must be forced to condone it and even celebrate it in order for them to be satisfied.
So I believe that these are the beginning of perilous times for the church in America, especially. It is a difficult time for the church because we live in a country with a representative form of government that is managed by a peculiar type of leader called a politician. And a lot of politicians are willing to cater to whatever crowd will keep them elected. Many politicians seem to be willing to embrace anything that will endear them to enough people to guarantee their reelection.
But as I alluded to last week, I would encourage you not to be dismayed and give up hope. Over the last 2000 years, nations and governments and political despots have risen and fallen, and yet God’s church still stands. Jesus promised Peter, “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” The church will survive until Jesus returns one day to reclaim it as His bride and there is nothing the world can do to stop it.
But that doesn’t mean that there will not be persecution of the church. I believe wholeheartedly that the church will endure persecution in the last days. I do not subscribe to the post millennial doctrine that things are going to get better and better until the whole world is saved. Neither do I subscribe to the pre-millennial view that the church will escape unscathed by a secret rapture. I believe that the church will go through the tribulation, and it has already started and will continue to escalate and will consummate with the second coming of Christ.
As Jesus Himself prophesied in Mar 13, saying, “And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days. … For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect… But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, … And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.”
Persecution is coming, but we should not be alarmed by it. Rather we should understand that God uses all things for good, even persecution, for them that love God, and to them that are called according to His purposes. (Rom.8:28) God uses even the death of His saints for His purposes and to build His church. As Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
The problem is that we value too much this present world, and value too little the next. We should remember that in Christ we have already died to the world, and if they should take our life, then so much the better for we will be present with the Lord. “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
In chapter 12 today we see a perfect illustration of the principle that God will preserve His church against the attacks of the enemy. What I want to show you from this passage is three principles that we can be assured of as the church endures persecution from governments or any organization used by Satan to attack the church. The first is the persecution of the saints. The second is the protection of the saints. And the third is the judgment upon the wicked.
So first let’s look at the persecution of the saints. In this chapter we see persecution against the church ramps up from merely religious persecution by the Sanhedrin, to political or government persecution against the church. And yet, God illustrates through this passage that He is on the throne and in control. This passage illustrates that rulers and politicians are granted their power from above, for such a time as God sees fit. And when God decides that their time is finished, He can remove them from power.
Jesus told us in John 16:33 that we should expect tribulation; “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
As I mentioned, persecution at this stage takes the form of government persecution. It comes in the person of King Agrippa the 1st. He was the grandson of Herod the Great who had all the babies under 2 years old killed at the time of Christ’s birth. And like father like son, the Herod’s were an immoral, murderous lot that only were concerned about acquiring power and keeping power. His jurisdiction was practically all of Israel, which he had acquired in piecemeal through cronyism with Roman leaders. Furthermore, he was not a pure Jew by birth. He was an Edomite who had been circumcised and thus was considered part of Judaism, but never really accepted by the strict Jews.
If you remember though, in the last chapter Herod had intervened for the Jews with the Emperor Caligula to keep him from erecting his statue in the temple, which would have desecrated the temple. And the Jews were appreciative of his efforts. So when he saw that he was appeasing the Jews, he sought to further ingratiate himself to them by attacking the church. Because the church now was accepting Gentiles, and as such were even more odious to the Jews. So as it says in vs. 1 and 2, Herod began to attack the Christians in Jerusalem, and one of the most famous ones was James, one of the sons of Zebedee, the brother of John. And to please the Jews, Herod had him beheaded.
And then when Herod saw that it pleased the Jews, he arrested Peter as well. He obviously intended to put Peter to the death also. And I just want to emphasize here that Herod had no legal grounds to arrest these men or have them killed. He just did it for political expediency. It was the politically correct thing to do.
I’m afraid we live in a culture today when it is politically correct to try to silence the church as we know it. The world has always been an enemy of the gospel, but in the past it was somewhat more discreet, today it is out in the open. There is a downright animosity, hatred even towards Christianity today that is unbelievable. The internet in particular seems to be a breeding ground for this hatred.
But as much as I am dismayed to see this today, I am reminded that Jesus foretold this 2000 years ago. Look again at Mark 13:12-13 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”
Now I want to show you an important principle here regarding trials and persecutions. God did not deliver James from death, but He did deliver Peter. And if you are like me you cannot help but ask why? Why would God allow Peter to be delivered but not James? They were both apostles. They both were a part of the inner circle of Christ.
And here is the first part of that answer, the second will be given in the next point. Why did God allow James to die while Peter was delivered? The answer; it was the sovereign will of God. It wasn’t a lack of faith or prayer or any effort of man. It was the will of God. Remember when Jesus prayed to be delivered from this cup in the Garden of Eden He prayed “Not my will but your will be done.” And it was the will of God that Jesus suffered and died on the cross. It was the will of God that virtually all the apostles and close disciples of Jesus would eventually die as martyrs. I don’t claim to know the mind of God or all the purposes of God. I have to trust His wisdom. But I can tell you this, James was immediately with the Lord, and as Paul would say later, that is very much the better. And I believe these men understood that better than anyone. They knew the reality of the resurrection. They knew that Jesus said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” They believed that from the bottom of their hearts, and that is why I think they were so bold in their commitment to Christ and willing to die for Christ.
I wish that more of the church had that kind of assurance today. The fact is that if we have truly died to the world to follow Christ, then there is nothing that the world can really do to us. Rom 6:8-11 “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” That’s the secret to enduring persecution, to know that we will never die if we are Christ’s.
Then the second point we see in this passage is the protection of the saints. Peter is arrested at the beginning of the Passover Feast which lasted for 8 days. And during this time he is chained to a guard on either side, with two others guarding the cell. And there are four such squads of soldiers guarding him 24 hours a day. Undoubtedly, Herod had heard that Peter had escaped from jail before and so he wanted to be sure that he kept him locked up until after the Passover, when he expected to have Peter executed.
But on the night before Herod was going to bring Peter out to be killed, an angel of God appears to Peter. And Peter is sound asleep. So soundly asleep that the angel has to smack him on his side to wake him up. I would suggest that is not due to Peter’s sleepiness so much as it must have been that the entire guardhouse was put into a deep sleep by the angel in order to effect Peter’s deliverance.
So back to our question, why does God deliver Peter and yet He did not deliver James? The first part of that answer was the sovereignty of God. It was His will that James would become the first martyr of the apostles, and it was His will that Peter would live for several more years.
But I think I can add something to that answer by saying this; I think God rarely works to bring about a personal miracle unless it serves the greater good of the kingdom. And in Peter’s case God wasn’t finished with him yet. After this chapter, Peter sort of disappears from the book of Acts for the most part. The emphasis turns to Paul and his ministry. But God was still going to use Peter. Peter would go on to write two epistles, 1st and 2nd Peter, and he would also mentor a young man that is introduced in this chapter, vs.12, John Mark. John Mark would eventually just be known as Mark, and he would be Peter’s interpreter as Peter continues his ministry to the Gentiles. But even more importantly, Peter teaches this young man the words of Christ which eventually are written into the Gospel of Mark, one of the four gospels. So Peter’s deliverance illustrates my principle which is that God rarely works to bring about a personal miracle unless it serves the greater good of the kingdom. And the greater good that God wanted to accomplish through Peter is the furtherance of the gospel through the written word of God.
We see that principle in the Old Testament as Joseph was delivered from prison after 17 years as a slave and prisoner and elevated to the second in command of Egypt. God performed a miracle in Joseph’s life because he was going to be the deliver for the children of Israel. He preserved the kingdom of God through his position. But that principle is also illustrated when John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod Antipas, and he was beheaded because his ministry was finished. His ministry was to herald and prepare the way for the ministry of Christ. As he himself would say concerning Christ, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” His ministry was completed, so God took him home to glory. So much the better.
But there is another reason suggested by the text for Peter’s deliverance. And that is the prayers of the church. The church that was meeting at Mary’s house (who was the mother of John Mark) had been engaging in a week long prayer vigil for Peter. They knew that James had been beheaded by Herod, and so they were under no illusions about Peter’s destiny. So they earnestly were gathered together praying.
The church in Mary’s house had been praying for a solid week. I think that kind of prayer comes as the result of persecution. I’m afraid that kind of prayer is lacking today in the church for the most part. Yet we are commanded to pray like that. 1Thess. 5:17 says, “pray without ceasing.” Jesus told a parable in Luke 18 about a woman that petitioned a king and wouldn’t give up, to teach that we should pray at all times and not lose heart. Rom. 12 says be devoted to prayer. Eph. 6:18 says “pray at all times.” Peter says in 1Pet. 4:7 “The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.” And James says in chapter 5 that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
Jesus was a man of prayer. He prayed all night on a mountain top alone many times. I asked the Wednesday night group last week the question, “When was the last time you prayed all night for your children or loved ones?” Jesus did it. This church in Mary’s house did it. I would estimate that it was after midnight at least when Peter came knocking on their door. That may have been why they didn’t think it could have been Peter outside. Maybe it wasn’t so much that they didn’t believe God could deliver him as much as they didn’t think it would happen in the middle of the night.
Jesus rebuked the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane because they could not pray with Him for one hour. How about you? Have you ever prayed for one hour- much less all night, how about one solid hour of prayer? If not, why not? Jesus prayed so fervently in the Garden that He sweated drops of blood. Can you imagine that? Lord, if the church would get an urgency about prayer then I think we could still turn our communities, if not the world upside down. Prayer is one of the only two weapons that we have at our disposal according to Ephesians 6. The word of God and prayer. And most church members avoid both of them like the plague. No wonder we are in the mess we are in today. I would suggest that the mess we have in America is a mess of our own doing. We have neglected our duty and our responsibility, due to our romantic entanglement with the world.
Listen, God gave a promise about prayer in 2Chron. 7:14 which we would do well to remember is a promise given to the church! “If MY people, which are called by MY name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” We don’t need to worry about the pagans and the atheists becoming more sinful, ladies and gentlemen. We need to consider our own sins. The church needs to get on our knees before God Almighty and repent from our wickedness and call upon the Lord to hear us and heal us, and then He will heal our land.
Jesus said we are the salt of the earth. The church is what is supposed to stave off corruption in the world. But if the salt loses it’s saltiness, then Jesus said it is worthless and should be thrown into the road to be trampled underfoot. We need to humble ourselves and pray, ladies and gentlemen. As long as God is on His throne we need to pray.
There is one more reason I can think of why God did not allow Peter to be killed. And that is because of the promise of Christ. Jesus had promised that Peter would live to an old age. Jesus said to Peter in John 21:18 “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.”
I would suggest that is another reason that Peter is sleeping so soundly. He knows that Jesus predicted his death, and it would be when he was old. Peter wasn’t old at this point, it being only about 10 years since Jesus’ resurrection. Listen, that teaches an important principle. Our faith is not founded in wishful thinking. Some preachers teach that if you just believe hard enough you can get whatever you pray for. That is not taught in the Bible. The church in Mary’s house shows their lack of faith and yet God answers their prayers. But when we pray according to the will of God we pray the promises of God. If God said it, then I can trust Him to perform His word. But God is not some genie that responds to our incantations and mutterings. No God is sovereign, and I am His servant and so therefore I can trust Him to protect me as long as He needs me here.
Finally, the last point that the passage makes about the attack on the church is the judgment of the wicked. And we see the judgment of the Lord upon the wicked illustrated in the life of Herod. Herod was a wicked man, like his grandfather before him. He has imprisoned Christians and killed James for no reason other than political gain. And after Peter is delivered, Herod shows once again his ruthlessness by having the guards put to death. Very likely, that meant all 16 guards were executed for something that was obviously a miracle of God. This miracle should have been a reason for Herod to repent of his wickedness when he realized that he was working against God. But instead he hardens his heart and puts the guards to death.
But soon afterwards Herod leaves Jerusalem and goes to spend time in Caesarea. And while he was there the people of Tyre and Sidon try to appeal to his vanity in order to gain food for their cities. So to gain an audience with Herod they bribe his chamberlain, named Blastus, and he arranges for Herod to address the people.
Now Josephus, the Jewish historian tells us some additional details which Luke does not. Josephus said that Herod dressed in his royal attire which was made of silver threads, and when he came out into the sunlight to address them from the rostrum, the sun shining on his garment made a dazzling spectacle. And the people seeing this dazzling light emanating from Herod, and hearing his oratory, began shouting praises to Herod, calling out that he was a god and not a man. And it pleased Herod’s vanity. He accepted their praises, and he did not give glory to the true God of Israel, but accepted their praise. And the Bible says that the angel of God smote Herod with worms and he died. Josephus adds that he immediately fell down and was taken out in the middle of the ceremony, and then died a horrible death four days later.
Listen, the church needs to be assured that the judgment of God upon the wicked is a certainty. The word of the Lord assures His church that He will reward the iniquity of the wicked. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay.
Psalms 2:2-6 declares that “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” Do you understand what David is saying? He says the kings of the earth don’t want the constraints of God’s law upon them. They cast away the cords of restraint that God establishes in His word. They want to do what they think is right in their own eyes. They want to do as they please. They think that they are autonomous. And they forget that it is Jesus Christ the Soveriegn King that grants them any authority that they have, and Jesus can and will remove all authority that opposes His will when He sees fit.
You remember when Pilate told Jesus that he had the authority to put Him to death, Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above.” It would behoove our elected officials to remember this statement, that God gives them their authority, especially in light of recent events. But even more in light of what happened to Herod. God delivered Peter, but he judged Herod, not only in his flesh eaten by worms, but for eternity in hell where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched. And the Bible teaches that there are degrees of punishment in hell. We aren’t given specifics as to how that works, but if the statement concerning teachers is that we are under greater judgment because we are teachers of the gospel, then it must be equally true concerning governors and officers of the state that they are also under a greater judgment and will be held to a higher standard for what they have done with the responsibility that God gave them. “To him who has been given much, much shall be required.”
Oh church, do not be dismayed because the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing. Peter wrote in 2Pet. 3:9, “The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” Christ came the first time in mercy, but He comes the second time in judgment to vindicate His church and execute revenge for the death of the saints.
John, the brother of the martyred James says in Rev. 19:11 says “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
O Church, do not be dismayed at the persecution that has come upon you. Peter writes in 1Peter 4:12-13 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” He goes on to say in vs. 17 “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER?”
Jesus is coming again as the Judge of the whole earth. Kings and princes will bow down to Him. Every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord of all. Judgment is coming. But our job as the church is to preach the gospel, the good news that Jesus has made it possible for man to be reconciled to God, for man to be saved from the judgment to come if they will just repent of their wickedness and believe on the name of Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
And that is what we see described in vs. 24 “But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.” The church continued to grow and spread the gospel and people were being saved in spite of the attacks against the church. That is the purpose of the church. And the gates of hell will not stop the word of God from going forth and accomplishing it’s goal. Let us not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which has come upon us. But let us be about the Lord’s business of spreading the gospel. Let us be men and women of fervent prayer. Let us be citizens of a higher kingdom, servants of a greater King. The Lord is coming soon. As we see these things going on in the world, as we see the persecution against the church ramping up, let us keep looking up. Jesus is coming soon.