"Intro to Acts Twelve"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/31/2018 10:13 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Intro to Acts Twelve

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 12:1-25

            Message of the verses:  “Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. 2 And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. 3 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people.

    5 So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. 6 On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, "Get up quickly." And his chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, "Gird 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 continued to follow, and 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 second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting." 12 And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. 15 They said to her, "You are out of your mind!" But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, "It is his angel." 16 But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, 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 led him out of the prison. And he said, "Report these things to James and the brethren." Then he left and went to another place. 18 Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. 19 When Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.

    20 Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; and with one accord they came to him, and having won over Blastus the king’s chamberlain, they were asking for peace, because their country was fed by the king’s country. 21 On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. 22 The people kept crying out, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" 23 And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died. 24 But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied. 25 And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.”

            In John MacArthur’s last chapter in his first volume on the book of Acts he entitles the chapter “The Folly of Fighting God,” and as one reads through this chapter they can understand why he chose this title of Acts chapter twelve. 

            True to the title that John MacArthur give this chapter he writes in his introduction to Acts twelve about how fighting against began with angels and with men and then goes on to talk about different men who fought against God and of course lost.  We know from the study of Scripture that the angelic fight against God began when Lucifer who was the highest of all created beings rebelled against God.  In both Isaiah and Ezekiel we see part of the story of how Lucifer began his battle against God by rebelling against Him and then one third of the angelic realm followed him as seen in Rev. chapter 12 and verse 4 “And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.”  Man’s rebellion against God began in the Garden of Eden when the forbidden fruit was eaten by both Adam and Eve which caused every person who was born of the seed of man to be born with a sinful nature and thus the fight was on and is still on to this day.  Solomon writes about the hopelessness of fighting against God in Proverbs 21:30 “There is no wisdom and no understanding And no counsel against the LORD.”  How foolish it is for man who is impotent to battle against God who is omnipotence, it is like throwing eggs against a wall as all will crushed and broken.

            In his introductory commentary MacArthur mentions men like Friedrich Nietzsche, Sinclair Lewis, and Ernest Hemingway, who all hated Christianity thus hating God and all wrote against Christianity in their books and all died either by taking their own lives or being a drunkard or went insane.

            We know the story of Pharaoh in the book of Exodus and how he fought against God and caused Egypt to fall from any significant power even losing their entire first born through the last plague that God put against them.

            John MacArthur writes “In the New Testament era one family of rulers stands out in the battle against God:  the Herods.  The patriarch of the family was known in all modesty as Herod the Great.  He ruled Judea from 47 B. C. to 37 B. C.  Then, having been dubbed ‘King of the Jews’ by Antony Octavius, and the Roman Senate, he ruled all of Palestine from 37 B. C. until his death shortly after Christ’s birth (Matt. 2:15).”

            He goes on to write about how Herod the Great killed his wives, his mother and three of his sons, and the last son he killed five days before he died.  Now the Herod in this chapter was Herod Agrippa I and he reined from A. D. 37 to A. D. 44, and he was the grandson of Herod the Great.

            The Herod in this section of Acts 12 was on shaky ground with the Romans and one of the ways to find favor with the Jews was to kill some of the leaders of those who were Christians the hated sect of the Jews.  Herod killed James who was the brother of John and was about to kill Peter.  Herod’s ploy was successful in killing James as it did please the Jews.  This was done “during the days of Unleavened Bread” which was the weekly feast following Passover.  We see that Peter was in prison and was to be killed after the feast and while in prison he was guarded by “four squads of soldiers.”  If we go back to Acts 5:19 we read “But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the gates of the prison, and taking them out,” this speaks of the Apostles who were also let loose from prison.

            Now if we go back to the 21^st chapter of John we see a promise that Jesus gave to Peter on how he would die for the cause of Christ and it was by crucifixion and so I think that because of that promise that Peter was able to sleep the night before he was to be executed by Herod.

            Now before I quote the last paragraph from MacArthur’s introduction, something that I usually do to show the direction the chapter goes, I want to remind you once again that we live in a world where conflict goes on continually.  Paul writes “12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).”  Our battle is something that goes on as soon as you become a believer in Jesus Christ, so I have found that there are especially two things that all believers should know about.  The first one is to know the attributes of God so that you can know who the God you worship, the God who saved you really is.  Next we are to know our enemy and what he is trying to do to all believers and what we can do according to Ephesians chapter six to be protected against these battles we go through.  You have to realize that you are in a battle first of all and then realize what to do about it.

            John MacArthur writes “Three reasons for not fighting God stand out in Acts 12:  God’s power cannot be contested, His punishment cannot be avoided, and His purposes cannot be frustrated.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Moses” (Exodus 17:11-14).

Today’s Bible question:  “What happened when Paul and Silas were in prison?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/31/2018 11:33 AM