20240211 Acts 12:1-24 Hints To Suffer Well
The theological concept of the “Already Not Yet” helps us to make sense of the world we live in. The paradigm of the "Already Not Yet" explains the gap between the bold promises of the gospel and our experience. The gospel promises life in abundance, joy that is complete, and power to resist sin (Rom 6:14). Yet, it can feel in our lives at times like Jesus never came. Our suffering is so multi-faceted. Death, sickness, abuse, hostility, and deception are all around. "The Already Not Yet" paradigm teaches us this is not all God has for us. There is more blessing to come with Jesus' second coming.
Our text highlights this period of the “already and not yet.” Christ has conquered death. He is sitting at the Father’s right hand ruling from on high. His kingdom is expanding through the church’s empowered witness. Yet, our text begins with the death of a Christians due to persecution.
Acts 12 has a different feel to the rest of Acts so far. First, it is an insert. Acts 12:25 continues where Acts 11:30 finished. Second, Acts 12 is a transitional chapter. Acts has three large movements: the spreading of the gospel in Jerusalem, then Judea-Samaria, then to the ends of the earth. Acts 12 concludes the second section. The Jerusalem church was the headquarters of the Christian church. In Acts 11:30, Paul and Barnabas brought the money to the “elders” in Judea.
Acts 12 explains the transition in leadership from the Apostles to a new group of leaders in Jerusalem. The Apostle James was killed and Peter was forced to leave. His departure out of Jerusalem to an undisclosed location (Acts 12:17) allows for the transition back to Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13.[i]
Acts 12 is a self-contained unit. King Herod is the thread that holds Acts 12 together. Herod is the one who had James killed. Herod imprisoned Peter. Herod dies at the end of the chapter. Our text teaches about life in the Already-Not-Yet. It teaches us about suffering. God’s goodness does not guarantee safety in this life. Yet, (SIOS) with a good theology of suffering, prayer, angels, and the assurance of God’s justice, God comforts us through hardship.
Tim Keller makes this point. Every worldview has to handle suffering in some way. He says that secular culture is one of the worst worldviews to deal with hardship. It teaches that our happiness is what matters most. Suffering is something that has to be avoided at all costs. When we do suffer, the goal is to end that suffering quickly.
In the Christian worldview, suffering helps us identify with Christ who suffered. Suffering makes us grow in maturity to become more like Jesus. For this reason, authors like Paul, James, and Peter can tell us to rejoice in our suffering! (Rom 5:3, James 1:2, 1 Pet 4:13).
Our text includes two outcomes of persecution. James is killed and God saves Peter. Christians have died throughout history for being Christians. It started in Bible times and continues to this day. God is glorified in rescuing Christians and glorified in the death of Christians. Every time Christians die for their faith, they show that Christ is more worthy than life itself.
Application
This is relevant for us. By way, of application I want to show how God uses suffering in different ways in the church. First, some experience a wonderful deliverance that can be explained only as miraculous interventions from God. This was Peter’s story. Suffering and deliverance can increase our faith.
Second, others go through a great crisis and experience earthly loss. Yet, they remain so radiant with the love of Christ that they are powerful testimonies of God’s sustaining grace. A man shared a story of a man whose house was burned. When he went to check on him, he found that it was the man who lost his house who was the one ministering the peace of Christ to him rather than vice versa.
Third, suffering reveals where people truly stand. Following tragedy, some in the church become bitter and turn their backs on God.
Fourth, God uses suffering to change our priorities. Some who pursue earthly success realize during a tragedy the unreliability of earthly treasures as a means of security. They turned to God for security and found him to be the answer to the void their hearts were aching for.[ii]
This was the first point. We must understand suffering from a Christian perspective. Suffering is not a proof God does not exist. He uses suffering for his purposes.
People often ask why pray if God is sovereign and you cannot change his mind. We pray not because prayer changes God but prayer does change outcomes. God is sovereign and prayer is effective. These are two non-contradictory truths. If your theology leads you to deny one of these two statements you have left biblical Christianity!
Prayer is fellowship with God. God speaks to us through his revelation, special and general. We speak to God about him, ourselves, our relationship with him, and everything that exists and takes place in his creation. God is sovereign and prayer is effective. God ordains food as the means by which hunger is satisfied. So he ordained prayer as a means by which events may come to pass. God is so sovereign that he ordains our prayers themselves, so they are in accord with his eternal counsel. In this way, divine sovereignty affirms our responsibility to pray.
The following are reasons for prayer. We pray because God commands us to. We pray because we are dependent on God we need him and his fellowship. We pray because God controls all things. We ask God to act on our behalf. We pray because prayer is effective (James 5:16). Petitions are our humble acknowledgments that we both need and trust God and that we depend on his sovereign wisdom and goodness. Jesus teaches that we may properly press God with fervent persistence when we bring needs to him (Luke 11:5-13; 18:1-8) and he will answer such prayer in positive terms. We must remember that God knows best and may deny our requests. When God does not give us what we request it is because he has something better for us.[iii]
Therefore, we desire to pray earnestly. We seek God. We remind God of his promises. In the end, when he answers we praise him and acknowledge him for he is a God who answers prayer!
So if we find this account hard to believe, we see that Peter who was present and witnessed the whole thing, also struggled to believe! Following his delivery from prison, and probable death, Peter went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was called Mark. This the author of the Gospel of Mark. The disciples were gathered and praying. When Peter knocks on the door and the servant girls tells everyone it is Peter, they answer that it is his angel in Acts 12:15.
Since we do not know much about angels, I thought I will try to fill in our picture with other NT texts. In our text, people believed that angels could look like people they knew. In Acts, angels direct people (Acts 8:26; 10:3-6). They help in times of trouble (Acts 5:19-20; 12:7-10; 27:23). They act as agents of judgment (Acts 12:23). In Revelation 1-3, angels are assigned as representatives of churches. In Matt 18:10, speaking about children, Jesus said, “Their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father.” Perhaps, the most helpful verse is Heb 1:14, speaking of angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”
The Bible only offers bits and pieces, so it is hard to develop theology of angels. There are enough verses and consistency across different authors to say God's angels act on his behalf. But we can find confidence that in our times of trouble, in addition to having a robust doctrine on suffering and God’s sovereignty, as well as prayer, we are not alone. Angels have a role in helping the saints.[iv]
While an angel of the Lord struck Peter to wake him in prison, he also struck Herod to kill him because he did not give glory to God. In the text, the people praise Herod as a God. After he gave a speech, the people shouted, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”
Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down (Acts 12:22). The reason given is that he did not give God the glory (Acts 12:23).
Application
This is a challenging text for us. It is like Acts 5, with the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira. These texts show the wrath of God. They remind us that God is Holy. He does not share his glory. We read that Herod died for not giving glory to God. We would be right to feel uncomfortable because we are also guilty. In a way, we want to be seen and celebrated. We pursue our own glory.
If we look at the context, we acknowledge that maybe is more warranted than we may think at first. We do not expect people to call us God and accept their praise. In the larger context though, we see that Herod was out for blood. He killed James. He intended to have Peter killed to please the crowd. He was more concerned with pleasing the crowd than God. God frees Peter and gives to Herod, what Herod intended for Peter. An angel of the Lord struck Peter to save him from prison. God's angels protect the innocent and deliver justice for the wicked. An angel strikes Herod dead. A text like this is helpful for us. When we suffer, we need a good theology of suffering, prayer, the comfort of angels, and also we need to know God's justice.
We could easily pick on famous people in history who sought their own glory and perhaps died as miserable people. More down to earth, it is okay to have preferences, it is okay to have fun, it is good to seek our well-being, and we can go too far. We are glory seekers. Everytime I preach, I want God to like it, and I want you to like me.
We may want praise for the titles we hold, the children we raise, the success we have in business, our grades, or sporting achievements.
We often forget that everything we have was given to us. So ultimately, all glory be to God. When we think of the Christian message, it really is humbling. We bring nothing to the equation and God loves us, forgives our sins, and calls us his children. He gives us gifts, abilities, desires, and passions. He works in us so that even when we do good works, we can say God did it in me. The more we remain focused on the gospel and have that as a lens for all of life, we will be quick to say all Glory be to God.
This text is honest about the experience of the church. It offers tools to be in Christ, in a Christian community, and also walk through even the valley of the shadow of death. Suffering will come our way. God offers gifts to prepare us. God teaches us about suffering. He communes with us in prayer and answers our prayers. God has ministering spirits, the angels. Even when all the evidence points the other way, God will enact justice.
We do not suffer well alone. As a community, we commit to having a healthy theology of suffering, to prayer, to considering angels and resting in God’s justice, God will use us in each other's lives to suffer well as we go through the storms of life together, for his glory.
[i] Schnabel, Acts 12 Introduction
[ii] Ajith Fernando, Acts (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998). Acts 12. Contemporary Significance. .
[iii] Pratt, NIV Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible, 1554. .
[iv] Fernando, Acts. Acts 12. Bridging the gap. The Ministry of angels.
Our text highlights this period of the “already and not yet.” Christ has conquered death. He is sitting at the Father’s right hand ruling from on high. His kingdom is expanding through the church’s empowered witness. Yet, our text begins with the death of a Christians due to persecution.
Acts 12 has a different feel to the rest of Acts so far. First, it is an insert. Acts 12:25 continues where Acts 11:30 finished. Second, Acts 12 is a transitional chapter. Acts has three large movements: the spreading of the gospel in Jerusalem, then Judea-Samaria, then to the ends of the earth. Acts 12 concludes the second section. The Jerusalem church was the headquarters of the Christian church. In Acts 11:30, Paul and Barnabas brought the money to the “elders” in Judea.
Acts 12 explains the transition in leadership from the Apostles to a new group of leaders in Jerusalem. The Apostle James was killed and Peter was forced to leave. His departure out of Jerusalem to an undisclosed location (Acts 12:17) allows for the transition back to Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13.[i]
Acts 12 is a self-contained unit. King Herod is the thread that holds Acts 12 together. Herod is the one who had James killed. Herod imprisoned Peter. Herod dies at the end of the chapter. Our text teaches about life in the Already-Not-Yet. It teaches us about suffering. God’s goodness does not guarantee safety in this life. Yet, (SIOS) with a good theology of suffering, prayer, angels, and the assurance of God’s justice, God comforts us through hardship.
First, during a tragedy we must have a Christian understanding of suffering.
We need to know about the Christian problem of Evil and suffering. It is a problem. Suffering is the number one reason given by unbelievers for not believing. It is also given as a reason for leaving the faith. It would be a valid point if suffering did not cover the whole Bible. The Bible addresses suffering so Christians must understand suffering in the Christian perspective.Tim Keller makes this point. Every worldview has to handle suffering in some way. He says that secular culture is one of the worst worldviews to deal with hardship. It teaches that our happiness is what matters most. Suffering is something that has to be avoided at all costs. When we do suffer, the goal is to end that suffering quickly.
In the Christian worldview, suffering helps us identify with Christ who suffered. Suffering makes us grow in maturity to become more like Jesus. For this reason, authors like Paul, James, and Peter can tell us to rejoice in our suffering! (Rom 5:3, James 1:2, 1 Pet 4:13).
Our text includes two outcomes of persecution. James is killed and God saves Peter. Christians have died throughout history for being Christians. It started in Bible times and continues to this day. God is glorified in rescuing Christians and glorified in the death of Christians. Every time Christians die for their faith, they show that Christ is more worthy than life itself.
Application
This is relevant for us. By way, of application I want to show how God uses suffering in different ways in the church. First, some experience a wonderful deliverance that can be explained only as miraculous interventions from God. This was Peter’s story. Suffering and deliverance can increase our faith.
Second, others go through a great crisis and experience earthly loss. Yet, they remain so radiant with the love of Christ that they are powerful testimonies of God’s sustaining grace. A man shared a story of a man whose house was burned. When he went to check on him, he found that it was the man who lost his house who was the one ministering the peace of Christ to him rather than vice versa.
Third, suffering reveals where people truly stand. Following tragedy, some in the church become bitter and turn their backs on God.
Fourth, God uses suffering to change our priorities. Some who pursue earthly success realize during a tragedy the unreliability of earthly treasures as a means of security. They turned to God for security and found him to be the answer to the void their hearts were aching for.[ii]
This was the first point. We must understand suffering from a Christian perspective. Suffering is not a proof God does not exist. He uses suffering for his purposes.
Second, amid tragedy we need to earnestly pray (Acts 12:5).
Peter is in prison and according to Acts 12:5, “earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.” Acts 12:6-10 describes how an angel rescued Peter out of the prison. The church is a community that earnestly prays for things to happen.People often ask why pray if God is sovereign and you cannot change his mind. We pray not because prayer changes God but prayer does change outcomes. God is sovereign and prayer is effective. These are two non-contradictory truths. If your theology leads you to deny one of these two statements you have left biblical Christianity!
Prayer is fellowship with God. God speaks to us through his revelation, special and general. We speak to God about him, ourselves, our relationship with him, and everything that exists and takes place in his creation. God is sovereign and prayer is effective. God ordains food as the means by which hunger is satisfied. So he ordained prayer as a means by which events may come to pass. God is so sovereign that he ordains our prayers themselves, so they are in accord with his eternal counsel. In this way, divine sovereignty affirms our responsibility to pray.
The following are reasons for prayer. We pray because God commands us to. We pray because we are dependent on God we need him and his fellowship. We pray because God controls all things. We ask God to act on our behalf. We pray because prayer is effective (James 5:16). Petitions are our humble acknowledgments that we both need and trust God and that we depend on his sovereign wisdom and goodness. Jesus teaches that we may properly press God with fervent persistence when we bring needs to him (Luke 11:5-13; 18:1-8) and he will answer such prayer in positive terms. We must remember that God knows best and may deny our requests. When God does not give us what we request it is because he has something better for us.[iii]
Therefore, we desire to pray earnestly. We seek God. We remind God of his promises. In the end, when he answers we praise him and acknowledge him for he is a God who answers prayer!
Third, in hardship, we have angels (Acts 12:7, 15)
There are two angels in this text, a real one and Peter who is confused for an angel. In Acts 12:7, the angel of the Lord stands next to Peter, strikes him on the side, and speaks to Peter. In Acts 12:11, Peter is struggling to believe all that is happening and says, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me.”So if we find this account hard to believe, we see that Peter who was present and witnessed the whole thing, also struggled to believe! Following his delivery from prison, and probable death, Peter went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was called Mark. This the author of the Gospel of Mark. The disciples were gathered and praying. When Peter knocks on the door and the servant girls tells everyone it is Peter, they answer that it is his angel in Acts 12:15.
Since we do not know much about angels, I thought I will try to fill in our picture with other NT texts. In our text, people believed that angels could look like people they knew. In Acts, angels direct people (Acts 8:26; 10:3-6). They help in times of trouble (Acts 5:19-20; 12:7-10; 27:23). They act as agents of judgment (Acts 12:23). In Revelation 1-3, angels are assigned as representatives of churches. In Matt 18:10, speaking about children, Jesus said, “Their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father.” Perhaps, the most helpful verse is Heb 1:14, speaking of angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”
The Bible only offers bits and pieces, so it is hard to develop theology of angels. There are enough verses and consistency across different authors to say God's angels act on his behalf. But we can find confidence that in our times of trouble, in addition to having a robust doctrine on suffering and God’s sovereignty, as well as prayer, we are not alone. Angels have a role in helping the saints.[iv]
Fourth, when hardship strikes, we know God is just (Acts 12:22-23)
Herod is the thread that ties this account together. This is Herod Agrippa I. He ruled for 4 years. He was not the Herod who tried to kill Jesus when he was a baby nor the Herod of Jesus execution. In Acts 12, Herod Agrippa has James killed and imprisoned Peter.While an angel of the Lord struck Peter to wake him in prison, he also struck Herod to kill him because he did not give glory to God. In the text, the people praise Herod as a God. After he gave a speech, the people shouted, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”
Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down (Acts 12:22). The reason given is that he did not give God the glory (Acts 12:23).
Application
This is a challenging text for us. It is like Acts 5, with the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira. These texts show the wrath of God. They remind us that God is Holy. He does not share his glory. We read that Herod died for not giving glory to God. We would be right to feel uncomfortable because we are also guilty. In a way, we want to be seen and celebrated. We pursue our own glory.
If we look at the context, we acknowledge that maybe is more warranted than we may think at first. We do not expect people to call us God and accept their praise. In the larger context though, we see that Herod was out for blood. He killed James. He intended to have Peter killed to please the crowd. He was more concerned with pleasing the crowd than God. God frees Peter and gives to Herod, what Herod intended for Peter. An angel of the Lord struck Peter to save him from prison. God's angels protect the innocent and deliver justice for the wicked. An angel strikes Herod dead. A text like this is helpful for us. When we suffer, we need a good theology of suffering, prayer, the comfort of angels, and also we need to know God's justice.
We could easily pick on famous people in history who sought their own glory and perhaps died as miserable people. More down to earth, it is okay to have preferences, it is okay to have fun, it is good to seek our well-being, and we can go too far. We are glory seekers. Everytime I preach, I want God to like it, and I want you to like me.
We may want praise for the titles we hold, the children we raise, the success we have in business, our grades, or sporting achievements.
We often forget that everything we have was given to us. So ultimately, all glory be to God. When we think of the Christian message, it really is humbling. We bring nothing to the equation and God loves us, forgives our sins, and calls us his children. He gives us gifts, abilities, desires, and passions. He works in us so that even when we do good works, we can say God did it in me. The more we remain focused on the gospel and have that as a lens for all of life, we will be quick to say all Glory be to God.
Conclusion
I doubt that if I was to invent a religion I would include a text like this. In some way, it teaches, come join the movement and you may die! James would not have died like that if he was not a disciple of Jesus. Luke includes Acts 12 to teach us all the cost of following Jesus. In a remarkable way, following the events of this text, the church grows some more. Acts 12:24 ends our text with, “the word of God increased and multiplied.”This text is honest about the experience of the church. It offers tools to be in Christ, in a Christian community, and also walk through even the valley of the shadow of death. Suffering will come our way. God offers gifts to prepare us. God teaches us about suffering. He communes with us in prayer and answers our prayers. God has ministering spirits, the angels. Even when all the evidence points the other way, God will enact justice.
We do not suffer well alone. As a community, we commit to having a healthy theology of suffering, to prayer, to considering angels and resting in God’s justice, God will use us in each other's lives to suffer well as we go through the storms of life together, for his glory.
[i] Schnabel, Acts 12 Introduction
[ii] Ajith Fernando, Acts (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998). Acts 12. Contemporary Significance. .
[iii] Pratt, NIV Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible, 1554. .
[iv] Fernando, Acts. Acts 12. Bridging the gap. The Ministry of angels.
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