Word of Salvation – Vol. 47 No. 02 – January 2002
God and Herod
Sermon by Rev. J. De Hoog on Acts 12
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 6:10-20
Suggested Hymns: BoW: 2; 438; 186:1,3; 468
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts chapter 12 is about God and Herod. The chapter chronicles a dramatic reversal of fortunes. It opens up with James dead, Peter in prison and Herod triumphing. It closes with Herod dead, Peter free and the word of God triumphing. Human plans that are hostile to God may have their day and may seem to succeed for a time, but God will triumph, and that should be an encouragement to us to remain faithful.
Let’s see how the story unfolds. First, let’s be clear who this Herod is. He is Herod Agrippa I. The Herods can be a bit confusing for Bible readers, because there are a number of them. We actually meet six Herods in the New Testament, four of whom are significant in New Testament history. First there was Herod the Great, who was king when Jesus was born and who ordered the killing of the baby boys in Bethlehem. Then we meet Herod the Great’s son, Herod Antipas, who arrested and killed John the Baptist, and who knew Jesus and who put him on trial. Herod Agrippa I, the Herod here in Acts 12, is Herod the Great’s grandson, and Herod Antipas’ nephew. Finally in Acts 25 we meet Herod Agrippa II, this Herod’s son, before whom Paul appears.
The Herod in this story had been brought up in Rome and was made king in Judea by the Roman emperor. With good reason, the masses in Judea hated his family, so he tried to win their affection. History records that when in Rome he lived as a cosmopolitan Roman, but when in Jerusalem, he acted the part of a faithful Jew, carefully observing and obeying Jewish traditions. His policy was the pax Romana, the policy of the Roman Empire. This meant supporting the majority in any particular area and ruthlessly suppressing any minorities who might become disruptive.
So it was that Herod Agrippa I came to arrest some Christians, and put James the apostle to death. Verse 3 says “When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.” Herod’s ruthless persecution of the Christians was purely pragmatic – here was a way to curry favour with the Jews and so further secure his reign as king. But Herod has not only taken on the church, he has taken on the God of the church! And so a worm, or someone even weaker than a worm it turns out, has taken on a lion – the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
You could say it was a crisis situation for the church. James, the brother of John, son of Zebedee, has been put to death. Now Peter has been arrested, and it’s obvious that Herod will kill him also as soon as he gets the chance. It would be like us meeting this morning with the news that [insert an elder’s name here] was roused out of his bed at one in the morning last Thursday and put to death by the State government, and that the police have raided the [insert a workplace] and have arrested [insert another elder’s name], who faces death as well after what will be just a show trial. Imagine it! Impossible really, under our legal system; almost impossible to imagine. But what if it happened! How would we react?
The church in Jerusalem reacts with the only weapon it has – prayer! Herod has Roman authority, the power of the sword and the security of a prison as his weapons. But the church has prayer to a powerful God. Verse 5 sets the scene and is pregnant with possibilities. “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.” Think of what possibilities this statement opens up.
The church knows that Peter has already been in prison twice. We read about those occasions in Acts 4 and 5. In the second imprisonment, in Acts 5, you might remember that an angel of the Lord came during the night and opened the doors of the jail and brought the apostles out, and they went straight back to their preaching in the temple courts. If God did it once, maybe He will do it again. Maybe an angel of the Lord will again intervene.
Only, now you must remember that just a few days earlier James has been put to death in prison. And that must surely have been on the church’s mind as they were praying to God. Surely when James was arrested, earnest prayer to God had been said for James also! But James had been killed! Now what will happen to Peter?
Well, we know from the story that God rescues Peter from Herod in such an amazing way that not even the church can believe it at first. But it does raise the question, doesn’t it! Why was Peter saved in such an amazing way, but not James? What can we learn from that fact?
Surely we should learn that when James was arrested and martyred just days before, it was not because somehow God was caught off guard, or because God couldn’t save him, or because for a while Herod had the better of God. No, for the sense of the whole chapter is God demonstrating his sovereignty and rule over a human king who thinks he can oppose God and even take the place of God in people’s affections. No, it is rather part of the mystery of God’s providence why James was killed and Peter was spared for the time being.
Think back to Mark 10. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approach Jesus and ask to be seated one at His right and one at His left when He comes into His glory. Jesus replies that they do not know what they are asking, but promises them that they will drink the cup He drinks and be baptised with the baptism He is baptised with. He means the cup of suffering, and the baptism of fire. He promises James and John that they will suffer as He suffered.
For James that meant an early death, as recorded here in Acts 12. For John that meant a lonely exile on the island of Patmos, as we discover in Revelation 1. Peter is spared here in Acts 12, but later he also faced a violent death – there is very good evidence that he was crucified upside-down. We don’t know why God works this way, sparing some from suffering and a martyr’s death, and not sparing others. The beauty is that we do not need to know these things, for God remains in charge.
We should remember this when we pray. Some Christians today preach a philosophy of prayer that puts all the emphasis on the faith of the person praying. If you don’t receive what you pray for, your faith has not been sufficient. If you do receive what you pray for, more credit to you, for your faith has worked a miracle. Well done! The logic of this point of view is that when the church was praying for James, their faith wasn’t strong enough and so James was killed; but when they prayed for Peter, so strongly did they believe what they were praying for that the outcome was a certainty.
Now surely it is very clear that this is not at all what happened. Just think of what happens when Peter turns up at John Mark’s house. A group of Christians has gathered. Verse 12 tells us that “many people had gathered and were praying”. Then Rhoda, the servant girl, bursts into their prayer meeting to tell them that their prayer has been answered! And they call her mad! Verse 15 says, “You’re out of your mind,’ they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, ‘It must be his angel.’ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.”
There’s lots of humour in this story, and I’m sure it was told and retold to great hilarity many times. But do you see the point about prayer? They were praying, but it wasn’t some triumphalistic prayer of which they were absolutely certain and which was answered because of the strength of their faith – just as they knew it would be because they believed it so strongly. No, they could scarcely believe it was true. After all, James had been killed; what could they expect for Peter?
We need to think clearly about our prayer life, especially in the face of crisis. Prayer is more about submitting in faith to God’s will than it is about telling God what He should do in any given situation. Don’t think you have to be able to work yourself up to a frenzy of certainty before you can pray effectively. Don’t think you have to envisage the outcome in detail, to almost work it out for God, before you can bring a problem to Him. That’s the teaching of some today. But this passage certainly does not bear that out.
So what is the point of this passage? To understand that, see how it begins and ends. It begins and ends with Herod. It begins with his apparent success against the church, it ends with his utter failure before God.
Herod’s great desire is for self-exaltation. He craved and loved the praises of men. It is unlikely that he is particularly concerned about the religious and truth claims of the Christian community; he doesn’t arrest and kill James and then arrest Peter because he particularly hates the Christians. It’s just another way for him to receive the applause of men, to be in favour with the majority in Judea. His great desire is for self-exaltation. But to pursue that desire is to put yourself on a collision course with God. This becomes crystal clear at the end of the chapter, in verses 20-23.
Tyre and Sidon were two coastal cities to the north of Judea; great ports, but not great food-growing areas. They relied on the bread- baskets of Galilee, which were under the control of Herod. Tyre and Sidon had somehow angered Herod, and their food supply was in jeopardy. So now representatives from these cities seek an audience with Herod. Here was an opportunity for Herod to parade his greatness before people who would doubtless bow and scrape before him. And Herod would not pass up such an opportunity.
Verse 21 says, “On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people.” Josephus, the Jewish historian, also records this event, and said that Herod’s robe was woven out of silver thread, so that the sun caught it and it flashed with light before the people. Verse 22 says, “They shouted, ‘This is the voice of a god, not of a man.’ Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.”
An angel of the Lord appears twice in this passage. First, to free Peter from Herod’s clutches. Second, to strike Herod down at the height of his pride, self-centredness and self-exaltation. So much for Herod’s desires.
Here is the point of this chapter for us today. To set yourself up against God is utterly futile. God turns Herod’s desires into futility in three ways. First, he whisks Herod’s prize prisoner away from under Herod’s nose. It seems that Herod has taken special precautions with Peter. Normally it was considered enough for a prisoner to be handcuffed to one soldier. But in Peter’s case there is a soldier either side, and both his wrists are manacled. Furthermore, outside the cell another two soldiers are on duty. Liberation seems impossible; Herod has done everything humanly possible to prevent it, perhaps because he has heard of Peter’s previous escape from prison. Imagine the consternation when those soldiers woke up to find they were manacled to thin air, and that even though the gates were locked Peter had disappeared! The first thing God does to put Herod in his place is to take his prize prisoner right from under his nose.
The second thing God does is to take away Herod’s life. Right in the middle of his lavish display of self-exaltation, God strikes him down. God, and not Herod, is to be exalted and honoured and glorified. If you lift yourself up against God, you may well have some short-term, earthly success. But in fact you will become, as Herod was, weaker than a worm.
There is a third blow that God strikes against Herod. Perhaps you think that there was nothing more God could do after Herod’s death, at least not on this earth. But God turns the tables entirely on Herod by causing the Word of God to grow and multiply. Verse 24 says, “But the word of God continued to increase and spread”. What Herod tried to crush, grows instead. Whose reputation spread as a result? Herod’s? Perhaps, but not in any positive sense. No, it was the gospel of Jesus Christ that continued to spread and grow.
Brothers and sisters, in the contest between Herod and God, there can, of course, be only one winner. It is so obvious when you put it that way. But do you see that the contest between Herod and God is going on all around us all the time?
Be encouraged by this chapter of Acts. Don’t be impressed by temporary worldly triumphs over the church and over the gospel. Don’t be discouraged even by what may seem to be severe setbacks, even something as severe as the death of James. Rather, be encouraged to persevere in spreading the word of God, and leave the outcome to God.
Amen.