Jesus 4 Everybody: Peter's Escape and Herod's Fate

Good morning, everybody. It is a great joy for me to be able to spend this time with you. And for those whom I don't know or haven't met, if you are interested in learning about the ministry that we're involved in—in which you as a church are partnered with us in Nagoya, Japan—there's a little tent outside the front door. We have some information and some prayer cards. If you're interested in getting our email newsletter, there's an area there where you can sign up, and some other things to acquaint you with the gospel ministry in Japan.

So I just want to start off by saying thank you to you all as a church. CTK is one of our partner churches in sending us out and enabling us to labor there on behalf of the Lord Jesus and for the sake of his good news. We're very grateful for you. I bring greetings from our brothers and sisters in Japan to you. They're grateful as well. So thank you for that.

Acts 12: Peter's Escape and Herod's Fate

The passage we're looking at—we're going to be continuing on in the Acts series that you guys are going through here. This morning, we're going to be looking at Acts chapter 12 in its entirety. Let's go ahead and read this text of God's word together beginning in verse one.

About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belong to the church. He killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread. 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. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

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. 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. 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." 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. When they had passed the first and 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.

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." 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. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 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. 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." But Peter continued knocking. And when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. 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.

Now when the day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 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. 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.

On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, "The voice of a god and not of a man." 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. But the word of God increased and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark. — Acts 12:1-24

Let us pray. Our Lord, we praise you as the one only true and living God. We thank you that you are gracious and compassionate.

We thank you that you are faithful to us and we thank you that you have communicated to us by your word. So, Lord, we pray now as we turn our attention to this text that you would help us to understand it, that you would use it to conform our hearts more and more into the likeness of your Son, Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Well, as James mentioned, my wife, Caroline, and I, we have five children. They were here in the first service. They've long since gone. They know better than to sit through two of my sermons consecutively.

One of the exciting things about being a parent is watching your child grow and particularly watching them do new things. When children are infants, for example, it's very exciting, and we've done this every single time. When they're an infant and they first learn how to control their hand just well enough to grab and touch that toy on the overhanging mobile thing, we cheer like they have just hit a home run at the World Series. You did it! And it's very exciting. The next stage is when they begin to crawl and move around. And then, for me, much less exciting, I have to go through my house and baby proof every single cabinet known to man. And then, of course, it's also very exciting when they begin to walk and to explore and to learn about the world around them.

Well, in my experience, one of the most interesting stages in a child's development is when they are learning to talk. When children begin walking around and learning to talk as they observe the world around them, one of the things that children do is they observe contrasts. They say: up, down, big, little, in, out, hot, cold, good, bad, light, dark, day, night. You name something, and a child who is learning all these things will immediately pop out the contrast. They'll tell you what contrasts with it.

And really, this recognition of contrast is a primary means by which all of us experience the world around us. We only know what light is because we can contrast it with dark. If it was never dark, we would have no context for understanding the concept of light. Or take the adjectives big and little. We only know what a big house is because we have something to contrast it with—a little house. So in all these cases, we need to observe the contrast in order for the concept to make sense. And this is what small children observe even from a very young age as they're beginning to learn about the world.

Well, just as contrast provides a framework for us to understand the world around us, so does Luke, the author of Acts here, use contrasts throughout this passage in order to teach us the concepts that he wants us to understand in this story. So it's by looking at these contrasts, seeing how he has framed this story, that we can make sense of what concepts he wants us to learn.

And as is the case with most biblical stories, this one is laid out in a very structured, very organized manner. And really the structure and observing the contrasts in the structure clues us in as to how we should interpret and apply this text.

So, at the very outskirts of this passage, bracketing it at the very beginning and the end, are two notices about Barnabas and Saul taking a relief fund to the Jerusalem church. We see this in the last two verses of chapter 11 just before this passage and then in the very last verse of chapter 12. These notices here at the beginning and the end establish the time frame within which this narrative action is taking place. We see in verse one, "it was about that time."

Well, between these two brackets, then, the story itself comprises three visible contrasts.

At the beginning, in verses one and two, the church is being persecuted and James is killed. This contrasts with what we see at the very end of the story in verse 24, where the church grows as the word of God increases and multiplies. That's the outside.

If we move one step inside, we see in verses 3-11 how Peter is delivered by the angel of the Lord. And this is contrasted then with the second step toward the end in verses 18-23 where Herod is killed by the angel of the Lord.

And then lastly, if we move to the center of the story, in verses 12-17, we see another contrast. We see Rhoda's faith in God's deliverance of Peter contrasted with the other people in the house and their unbelief, their lack of faith that Peter has been delivered.

And so this morning, we're going to seek to interpret and apply this story by looking at each of these three contrasts. And then we're going to begin at the outskirts, at the outside, and we'll work our way into the middle.

The First Contrast: Contrasting Directions of Church Growth

So, the first contrast we see is contrasting directions of church growth. So, again, let's look at verses one and two.

It says, beginning in verse one, "Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belong to the church" and then it says that he "killed James, the brother of John, with a sword." — Acts 12:1-2

Now, the Herod who is mentioned here is Herod Agrippa the First. By the time the Roman emperor Claudius had come to the throne—this emperor is mentioned at the end of chapter 11—successive Roman emperors over several years had given Herod Agrippa rulership over Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and the Decapolis. And so if you know your first century Jewish geography, that means that Herod is ruling over all the territory of the Jews at this point.

But that also meant something else. Because Herod received this rule from the Romans, he didn't have natural support from his Jewish subjects. And so he was looking for various ways at different times to gain allegiance from the Jewish populace. That's why, as verse three says, he was seeking ways to please the Jews. He's trying to consolidate his political power. And so what we see here in verses one to two is a political attempt to stifle the church's growth.

It says that Herod laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. Now, this terminology does not necessarily mean a mass killing or anything like that—a literal reduction of church growth. But it definitely describes a church oppression, a stifling of the people of God through persecution. And it definitely involved some deaths. We see here that it explicitly involved the execution of James, and we see that they were intending to execute Peter.

The Church Stifled and the Word Increased

Well, this initial situation of a stifled church at the beginning is then contrasted by the situation at the end of the story. So after Peter is freed and Herod himself is killed, verse 24 says:

But the word of God increased and multiplied. — Acts 12:24

Now, these two verbs here—increase and multiply—they're very significant. These are an allusion to Genesis chapter one, verse 28. So if you remember the creation account, in the beginning God creates the heavens and the earth. He creates all things through the span of six days, and on the sixth day, he creates humanity as the pinnacle of his creation. And how does he create us? It says:

Let us make humanity in our image, after our likeness. — Genesis 1:27

Now, what does this mean? Well, in the ancient world, an image was something that represented the reign and authority of a king. When kings would have realms, they would erect and distribute images of themselves to mark the extent of their territory. So when God says, "Let us make humans in our image," He is saying that we are designed to be living representatives of the great King of this world.

And then what does God say to humanity? His first reported speech. In Genesis one, verse 28, it says:

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply." — Genesis 1:28

We could translate that "increase and multiply"—the same two verbs that we see in Acts 12:24. Now, in Genesis, this meant that human beings were to increase, multiply, and then fill the earth, as He says. And what this means is that God has decreed that the entirety of this earth—this entire planet—is the realm of His kingdom, and His mission for us is to fill the earth, to spread to the ends of the earth, to represent His divine kingship.

Well, as I expect we all know, humanity doesn't get very far before they fail to do this faithfully. In chapter three of Genesis, we rebel against God's kingship. We reject His authority. We sin against Him and we fall. And because we don't recognize His kingship as fallen sinners, we can't very well represent it. We don't function properly as God's images.

Well, in the book of Acts, on multiple occasions, this language of increase and multiply is used to describe the spread of the word of God. And this really makes sense. After the fall, and by the time we get to the Tower of Babel, humanity has been sinful and rebellious. And what does God do at Babel? He confuses their language and scatters them across the face of the earth.

So after Genesis 11, humanity has, in a sense, filled the earth. But we have filled the earth as rebels, haven't we? As those who reject God's kingship over us. And so then, when God calls Abraham in the very next chapter and promises that through him and through his offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed, God is saying that through Abraham's lineage and ultimately—we know through Jesus—all these scattered peoples are going to be blessed. That is, these rebellious images are going to turn back to God.

And so when someone hears the word of God—that God is King, that redemption is found in Him—and they repent and trust, their function as God's image is restored. And so it makes sense that this creation mandate language is applied to the word of God, to the spread of the Gospel in Acts, because that's how the church grows and that's how we as God's people fulfill our original mission, even going back to our creation. And that's what's happening here in this passage as well.

This passage starts off with a church stifled and persecuted by political powers, those who reject God's kingship. But it ends with God's people increasing and multiplying as the word of God increases and multiplies. People are beginning to represent God's kingship through the proclamation of the good news, and of course, the New Testament consistently refers to it as the good news of the kingdom.

This should be a great encouragement to us here this morning. We too live in a situation in which both political and social powers are often seeking to stifle the church. Now, by God's grace, they don't do it by laying violent hands on us or by killing us, at least not with regularity and not systematically—not yet. However, many people in political power today, in ways that please the masses just like Herod in this passage, they do oppress the values and the rights and the beliefs of Christians.

I'm a missionary in Japan, and I've been in Japan for the last four years. There's a lot that's been going on here in my beloved homeland over the last four years, but I haven't been here for it. I've been on the other side of the globe. We hear things, we read things, but I've had a very different experience. And yet in some ways, I can see something perhaps in a different way from the outside. It's been rather heartbreaking for me.

I would say that the clearest example in my estimation, in recent history, of something that parallels what's going on in this text—of political power seeking to stifle the church's growth—is the surge of gender ideology that has completely overrun our cultural landscape here. And to be honest, it's beginning to lap up on the shores of Japan as well. When society and political powers begin to assert that a man can be a woman and a woman can become a man, they are presuming to speak in a way that the people of Tyre and Sidon are saying that Herod is speaking here. They are presuming to speak with the voice of a god and not a man.

When God creates us male and female, but then society says, "No, we ourselves can decide who is male and who is female," brothers and sisters, trouble is coming. And particularly, we in the church who hold to the word of God and not to the word of man, we should brace ourselves for trouble. Now, trouble might be coming societally, but there's a different trouble coming ultimately for those who would presume to stand in the place of God in this way. And this should give us chills.

But what the contrast in this passage shows us is that despite this situation, we should not lose heart. Even amidst a more aggravated and violent stifling here in this passage, the early church increased and multiplied. The gospel will not be stopped by political powers. Now, we can certainly pray and lobby and long for a more righteous nation, but even if that doesn't come anytime soon, the church need not despair. Jesus is the one who builds his church, and as this passage shows us, he does so even despite political and social opposition.

What we need to do as God's people is what the remaining two contrasts in this story illustrate for us. We need to recognize God's sovereignty and live by faith in that sovereignty.

Two Demonstrations of Divine Sovereignty

The second contrast is contrasting demonstrations of divine sovereignty. Verses three to eleven emphasize God's sovereignty in delivering Peter from death. And then verses eighteen to twenty-three emphasize God's sovereignty in judging Herod unto death. It's very clear that these two sections are being explicitly contrasted with one another.

If you look at verse seven, it says that an angel of the Lord was God's instrument for delivering Peter. And there in verse twenty-three, similarly, an angel of the Lord was God's instrument for killing Herod. These are the only two places where the angel of the Lord shows up here in this passage. Just as the angel struck Peter on the side in verse seven in order to wake him up and deliver him, so the angel struck Herod in verse twenty-three—but he struck him unto his death. These two verses use the same verb to strike, and with only one other exception, these are the only two places in the whole book of Acts where this verb occurs. So it's very clear that these two parts of the story are being explicitly compared and contrasted with one another.

God's sovereignty in Peter's escape is depicted for us in multiple ways. Luke almost awkwardly overemphasizes how much Peter was locked up. It's almost like he thinks we're kind of slow-witted the way that he describes him being guarded in prison. But he does this in order to highlight the improbability—or really, humanly speaking, the impossibility—of Peter escaping.

Listen to all this description. Verse three mentions that Peter was arrested.

Then verse four repeats that Herod had seized him and then it says that he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him. Now, in first century Roman Empire, there were four soldiers to a squad. So that's 16 soldiers for one guy. That's a lot of soldiers. I mean, I like to think of myself as somewhat of a capable, normal human man. I don't think I could be held down by like one or two, definitely two. You don't need 16. And then verse five reminds us, yet again, in case we forgot, so Peter was in prison and then verse six describes Peter sleeping between two soldiers. That sounds real cozy. Bound with two chains, and then Luke notes that there were centuries before the door guarding the prison. So what Luke is saying here is that basically Houdini couldn't even get out of this predicament here. But this then highlights God's role in Peter's escape.

God's Sovereignty in Peter's Escape

Well, secondly, Luke emphasizes God's sovereignty in this escape by depicting Peter as doing nothing more than simply following the angel's orders. You see, if you wanted to get the point across that Peter was saved, Luke could've just summarized this whole thing and said an angel came and freed Peter from prison. Period. But instead, he paints a vivid picture that highlights the divine agency in Peter's escape. So in verses seven to nine, the angel gives Peter a series of very specific commands and after each one, Peter is like, okay, I'll do the next thing. Boom, boom, boom. Peter is just obeying. And then in verse 10, they get to the city gate and this might be my favorite line in the whole story:

It opened for them of its own accord. — Acts 12:10

Now, literally in Greek, it says it opened for them automatically. Now, in lots of places these days, even in our seminary in Japan, once my office staff gets in and they do the little click on our little glass sliding door, you could walk into the door and it opens up automatically. They were a few years behind that technology in the first century. So no doors opened automatically. And this is the point in the story where Luke, the writer, he's giving us what I like to call a little theological wink. Like, Peter has just escaped from a heavily guarded prison having been freed from two chains while waking up between two soldiers and then passing through two sets of guards and then the gate automatically opened. Right. Quite obviously, this description is intended to highlight God's great sovereignty. God superintending this deliverance of Peter from his impending death. And this is then confirmed by Peter's rather obvious conclusion in verse 11:

Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me. — Acts 12:11

God's Judgment Upon Herod

This picture is then contrasted with God's sovereignty in judging Herod. So verses 18 to 21 depict Herod functioning like a sovereign human king would've in the ancient world. He puts the centuries to death, those who let Peter escape as far as he could tell. He then is exercising political power over the foreign cities of Tyre and Sidon by controlling their food supply. And then verse 21 mentions him wearing his royal robes, sitting on his royal throne, and then giving a kingly royal oration. This is what kings did in antiquity. They exercised power and they spoke with authority. And the people's response in verse 22, it reflects a common ancient belief about human kings, namely that they were divine. But then verse 23, it quickly shoots this idea to shreds:

Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give God the glory. — Acts 12:23

That is Herod did not recognize who the true sovereign king of this world is. Herod, even Herod was created as God's image. Even Herod was designed to represent the kingship of the one true God, not to take that authority unto himself. And so God made a very clear demonstration here who the true sovereign king of this world is by bringing sovereign judgment upon him. And so in Peter's escape, we see a demonstration of divine deliverance. And in Herod's fate, we see a demonstration of divine judgment. And these two contrasts, they shed great light on situations that you and I face today.

Application: God's Sovereignty in Our Circumstances

So the Christian, like Peter, there are going to be times in life when things are not going terribly well for you. And in a room like this with as many people as are in here, there are some of you in here right now who are going through a very difficult time. There will be times when we face great pain and difficulty and there are times when we feel we might even say imprisoned in our circumstances. But what this passage shows us is that even in the midst of such turmoil, our God is sovereign. And remembering God's sovereignty in such circumstances should do at least two things for us.

Number one, it should remind us that God can deliver us from such circumstances. God brought Peter out of a situation which was, humanly speaking, impossible.

So no one's situation, what you have done in your past, perhaps, none of that is hopeless or beyond God's power to reach. Now, having said this, we also need to recognize, we need to be honest and say that God does not always choose to deliver us from our earthly troubles. Remember that right before Peter was arrested in verse two, James was killed. God did not choose to deliver James from death the way that he delivered Peter. And so we shouldn't put our ultimate hope in deliverance from our earthly troubles.

But this then points us to the second thing that remembering God's sovereignty in the midst of trials should do for us. It should remind us of our ultimate hope. The sovereign deliverance that God has graciously provided through Jesus. Amen.

So, I find verse six of this passage remarkably interesting. It says, "Now when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night, Peter was sleeping." Now, I don't know about you but if it was the very night before my execution, I think I might have some trouble sleeping. But here is Peter snoozing the night away.

Now, I don't want to read anything into the story that's not there, but it seems to me that Peter was able to sleep here on the eve of his own execution because he did not fear his own death. He knew who the true sovereign King of Kings is. He knew that Jesus had delivered him from the penalty of his sin and therefore, he had peace. He had nothing to fear.

Later in First Peter chapter one, this very same apostle will write this:

In God's great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. Kept in heaven. In this, you greatly rejoice though now for a little while. You may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. — 1 Peter 1

You see, we will face trials in this life. We will face grief. But on the span of eternity, as Peter says here, this is just for a little while. And for those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus, we have a living hope into an inheritance that can never perish. And this is an inheritance that no political or social power can ever take away. God has graciously promised a wonderful inheritance for those who have put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. And by remembering God's sovereignty, we are assured by his grace that by his power, we will attain that victory.

Now, if you're here today and you are not a Christian, first of all, we want to express a deep welcome to you. Thank you so much for coming here. We're delighted that you're spending your morning with us. But I would not be loving if I didn't try to communicate what truth God's word says. That for those who are outside of fellowship and relationship with Jesus, who have not received forgiveness by trusting in him like God did with Herod, there will come a time when God shows forth his sovereignty and judgment upon those who do not submit to his kingship.

In love, I encourage you this morning to learn from Herod. Herod did not give glory to God and recognize God's kingship and therefore, he was destroyed. And when we die—and all of us one day will die—we will all stand before God and if you have not submitted yourself to the Lord Jesus as king and receive forgiveness by putting your faith in him like Herod, you too will perish. And I don't want that. This church does not want that for you. Although at that point, punishment will not simply be physical death like Herod received. The punishment will be eternal suffering. And so I ask you, I urge you to turn to Jesus this morning in repentance and faith if you have not yet. Receive that eternal inheritance and that hope that never goes away.

Contrasting Responses of Faith

In this topic of faith, it leads us quite naturally into the third and final contrast that we see in this passage: contrasting responses of human faith. So after the angel frees Peter from prison, as verse 12 says, he goes to the house of Mary. Now, at this point, Luke, the writer, notes that this was the place where many were gathered together and were praying. And this recalls verse five which also says that Peter was in prison while earnest prayer for him was being made to God by the church. And so what we have here is Peter delivered from prison by God, showing up to the very house where they're praying for him to be delivered from prison by God.

And interestingly, when Peter shows up and he knocks on the door, we see two contrasting responses. The first is from a servant girl named Rhoda, who merely by hearing the sound of Peter's voice—she doesn't even see him; gates back then were not like the gates you can see through, it was a door—merely by hearing the sound of Peter's voice, she believes that God has answered their prayers and delivered them. She's so excited. She leaves poor Peter outside and goes to tell the others.

This is contrasted then with the response of the other people in the house—those who were inside praying for Peter—who find it unbelievable that Peter had actually been delivered. The response to Rhoda in verse 15 is to call her crazy. "You're out of your mind, girl." Yet Rhoda kept insisting that it was so. As verse 15 says, like my daughter Chloe, my fourth born—she has her mind set on something. This is her life verse. She keeps insisting that it is so. That's Rhoda too. And this further depicts Rhoda as believing, as trusting in God's deliverance of Peter, again despite not even seeing him, not even having at least eyesight evidence.

Well, then to this, the others conclude that it must be his angel. Now, the implication here is they think that Peter has been executed. In the ancient world, it was believed that when a person died, their angel would appear. So what we have here is a group of people praying for Peter, yet refusing to believe that God would actually really truly answer their prayers. But as we know and as they soon found out, God did answer their prayers.

Faith in God's Sovereignty

These contrasting responses of human faith teach us something about faith in the Christian life. You see, in as much as the previous section emphasized God's sovereignty, this section emphasizes our need to have faith in God's sovereignty despite the circumstances that we might find ourselves in. Even though Peter was locked up to the nth degree, humanly speaking, that guy was not getting out of there. Rhoda believed that God had freed him, while the others systematically doubted.

The question for all of us this morning is: with whom do we identify in this story? When we are faced with difficulty, when we are faced with dire situations, do we trust God's sovereignty? Do we believe that he can act in this world despite circumstances that might even seem hopeless from our standpoint? Because if we believe that he can act, we will never lose hope that his purposes will be accomplished, and we will then recognize—we will have eyes to see—when he actually does act. Or to take Rhoda, maybe we'll have ears to hear.

Now, as we noted earlier, sometimes God chooses not to deliver us from difficult circumstances. So I'm not saying that everything's always going to be wonderful and easy. Life in the Christian life is not always rainbows and roses. And in fact, this very apostle Peter will later say that we should expect the very opposite. He says:

We should not be surprised when we face trials of various kinds as if something odd were happening to us.

We should expect it. But there is a significant difference between, on the one hand, believing that God can act while understanding that he might not, and refusing to believe that he will act. The first leads to an appropriate hope in life, while the second leads, at best, to a sort of pious resignation, and at worst, it will lead to despair. These people in the house were praying. That's good. That was pious. But they were doing so with little real hope that God would actually answer.

So what about you here this morning? Have you lost hope that God will answer you? I think sometimes we can lose hope to the point that we stop even asking. Our charge is to approach our various situations in life like Rhoda, this unassuming servant girl. Even when we can't see what's on the other side of the door, we are called to have faith in God's power and in his sovereignty. And then we are called to have hope in his goodness and trust in his plan. And then we're called to follow him by faith, no matter what difficulties we may face, knowing that our ultimate hope has been secured by Jesus on our behalf, by his grace. Let us be that kind of people as we seek to follow him.

Let's pray.