WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.780 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:20.760 that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:24.920 by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:31.520 for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:37.939 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really, 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:42.579 I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible, 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:48.760 they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:54.560 do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:59.340 non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:04.680 hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:07.760 types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:18.560 But today, when we look at the text, Jason read part of it. We're looking at a text in Acts chapter 12, 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:28.180 and in this text, one man is delivered from death, and six men die. And it's a text about, 00:01:28.340 --> 00:01:34.780 a little bit about the mystery of why some die and why some live. It's a text about miracles and 00:01:34.780 --> 00:01:41.439 providence. It's a text about salvation and judgment. It has one of the terrifying, in our culture, 00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:48.840 terrifying stories of God putting somebody to death. And for many people, it's a hard text. 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:55.019 One of the things we do as a church is we preach through books of the Bible. And so this is really 00:01:55.019 --> 00:02:01.060 a very wonderful, powerful place where we can share and look at these very hard issues together and see 00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:07.979 what it is that the Word of God has to say. So get your Bibles. Turn to Acts chapter 12. If you don't 00:02:07.980 --> 00:02:11.980 have your Bibles with you, the words will be on the screen. But I just want to encourage you, 00:02:12.020 --> 00:02:17.039 there is something about having your own Bible and being able to make notes. And it helps you to 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:22.060 listen. And it's also really good for you to have your own Bible because in case I don't get 00:02:22.060 --> 00:02:28.379 something right, I don't mind being told later that I sort of took something out of context or 00:02:28.379 --> 00:02:33.659 anything like that. So let's look at this story. What's just happened is in the past couple of 00:02:33.659 --> 00:02:41.060 stories. We've been told about how this huge leap is made from Jews who've become Christians to 00:02:41.060 --> 00:02:46.519 pagans being Christians. And we've just been introduced to this group of pagans and Jews 00:02:46.519 --> 00:02:51.219 who become Christians in a city called Antioch, which is going to become really important for the 00:02:51.219 --> 00:02:54.519 spread of the Christian faith to the rest of the world. And that's what's just happened. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.719 And we get sort of this in-between story because it has some very important things to teach us. 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:03.020 And that's where we are. So chapter 12, verse 1, here's how it goes. 00:03:04.340 --> 00:03:11.659 About that time, Herod the king, and by the way, this is Herod is the grandson of the Herod that tries 00:03:11.659 --> 00:03:22.300 to have, that is alive when Jesus is born. So about that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some 00:03:22.300 --> 00:03:29.280 who belong to the church. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And when he saw that it 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:37.219 pleased the Jewish elites, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread. 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:46.240 Now just sort of pause here for a second. James is the older brother of John. So if you're familiar 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:51.840 with the Bible, Peter, James, and John were the three disciples that were closest to Jesus, 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:59.120 his closest companions. James' younger brother, John, is the person who wrote what we now call the 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:04.680 gospel of John, the book of Revelation, and first and second and third John. So James is precious to 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:12.480 Jesus, and he dies. And what sends he dies with the sword. It means he was beheaded by Herod. He's not 00:04:12.480 --> 00:04:17.459 guilty of anything. He's inconvenient. 00:04:17.459 --> 00:04:28.259 And a threat. So he's put to death. And you can very well imagine that he prayed like crazy, and the church 00:04:28.259 --> 00:04:36.079 prayed like crazy, but still he died. And then he arrests Peter. Now just notice again, verse three, 00:04:36.159 --> 00:04:40.839 last little bit, it says, this was during the days of the unleavened bread. And then continuing in verse four, 00:04:40.839 --> 00:04:48.519 and when Herod had seized Peter, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:55.939 to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. Now just pause here for a 00:04:55.939 --> 00:05:03.399 second. There's something here which is very, very important for you to notice. I tell my skeptical 00:05:03.399 --> 00:05:09.620 friends who are critical of religion, or I tell people when I meet them, if I get a chance after I've just 00:05:09.620 --> 00:05:15.240 listened to them, who will tell me maybe about how profoundly some things in religion or spirituality 00:05:15.240 --> 00:05:20.579 have wounded them, and they've walked away from any type of belief in anything of spiritual or religious, 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:26.600 or especially Christianity. If I have an opportunity, after listening to them, I say there is no greater 00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:33.720 critique of religion than the Bible, which always surprises them. And you can see this profound critique of 00:05:33.720 --> 00:05:38.120 religion here in this text, and these subtle little words. It's one of the reasons why it's important, if 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:42.759 possible, to slow down when you're reading Scripture and notice the details, because the details can 00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:48.920 matter a lot. And what it does is it reveals the heart. So what do I mean by that? Just think about 00:05:48.920 --> 00:05:49.800 what they've just said. 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:24.860 ...heal it. And part of the reason that religion and spirituality is completely and utterly 00:06:24.860 --> 00:06:28.060 worthless 00:06:28.060 --> 00:06:38.139 is because doing prayers and doing ceremonies doesn't change the human heart. Unless God does 00:06:38.139 --> 00:06:43.680 something to change the human heart, my actions that flow from the human heart aren't going to change 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:48.519 my human heart. I can't leave myself to fix myself. 00:06:48.519 --> 00:06:55.819 And so we have here just this very little window, and we're going to see another little window of the 00:06:55.819 --> 00:06:59.719 human heart, which we'll talk about at the very end, and then we'll talk about what the Bible has 00:06:59.719 --> 00:07:05.799 to say about how we're helped with the problem of the human heart. And so let's continue. So how does 00:07:05.799 --> 00:07:13.539 the story develop? Well, verse 5. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God 00:07:13.540 --> 00:07:21.060 by the church. Now when Herod was about to bring Peter out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping 00:07:21.060 --> 00:07:28.620 between two soldiers bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 00:07:28.900 --> 00:07:33.280 So I just want to pause here for a second. I just want to get the image. Peter's in a jail, 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:41.020 and in the jail he's in a cell, and in the cell he's sleeping, and beside him he's chained, and he's 00:07:41.019 --> 00:07:46.740 chained to two Roman soldiers, one on each side of them, and at the door to the cell there are two 00:07:46.740 --> 00:07:51.959 other Roman soldiers. And earlier on when it said that there were four squads, what that means is that 00:07:51.959 --> 00:07:58.779 when it comes to night time, every three hours those guards would change. So at six to nine, 00:07:59.019 --> 00:08:03.240 some people would, two soldiers there, two soldiers at the front, nine o'clock comes, they'd go off, 00:08:03.299 --> 00:08:07.579 go to bed, or whatever. The next shift, the next shift, and the next shift. And as we're going to see by the 00:08:07.579 --> 00:08:12.939 end of it, it's very obvious that this is the final shift, that what's about to happen takes place. 00:08:13.359 --> 00:08:18.359 So sometime shortly after four o'clock in the morning, these events are going to take place. 00:08:18.419 --> 00:08:24.639 And one of the things you need to notice here is that Luke is selling the miracle. This is something 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:31.680 which is really important. You know, there are no miracles in Buddhism, and Hinduism, and Islam, 00:08:31.860 --> 00:08:37.000 and of course there are none in atheism or agnosticism. But if you take miracles out of Christianity, 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:42.679 you don't have Christianity left. Miracles are absolutely essential to Christianity, 00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:48.100 which I'll talk about a bit more in a moment. And it's very, like, those of you heard last week's 00:08:48.100 --> 00:08:52.679 sermon, I talked about how Luke is writing an eyewitness-based history, when eyewitnesses are 00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:57.559 still alive, about the first 30 or so years of the Christian movement. So it's very interesting 00:08:57.559 --> 00:09:02.240 that the play, it looks like the play that we're in, the Yotowal Little Theatre, and it looks 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:05.639 like it's a newsroom. That's what it looks like. So it's actually sort of a very interesting 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:10.319 thing for the first couple of weeks for the book of Acts. He's giving you the news. Luke 00:09:10.319 --> 00:09:14.399 is giving you the news. And Luke, rather than trying to just be a little bit embarrassed 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:20.399 about the miracle, he's emphasizing that what's about to happen is a miracle. But that's the 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:24.279 only explanation for what happened. So look what happens. Look what he says, verse 7. 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:31.759 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to Peter, and a light shone in the cell. 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:38.159 The angel struck Peter on the side. And in the original language, it's like a bit of a punch, 00:09:38.259 --> 00:09:42.959 because Peter was deeply asleep. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:52.180 get up quickly. And then the angel, the chains fell off of Peter's hands. And the angel said to Peter, 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:59.360 dress yourself and put on your sandals. And Peter did so. And then Peter said, and then the angel said 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:07.560 to Peter, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And Peter went out and followed the angel. 00:10:07.559 --> 00:10:15.659 Peter did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:21.619 Now, just pause here. This is really important. See, one of the things, you know, if you go on 00:10:21.619 --> 00:10:28.279 YouTube, you go on TikTok, you go on Instagram, and you'll see lots of videos of people who are 00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:34.779 agnostics or atheists or apotheists or ex-Christians. And they'll talk a lot about how one of the reasons 00:10:34.779 --> 00:10:39.439 they've left the Christian faith is they understand, you know, that the Bible is filled with errors. 00:10:39.899 --> 00:10:43.819 And, you know, these genres are not saying these things really happened. And, you know, 00:10:43.860 --> 00:10:48.199 scholars don't believe they all happened and all of that type of stuff. So here's the thing, 00:10:48.259 --> 00:10:52.980 which is so important about this piece of evidence and witness of Luke and Peter. 00:10:54.419 --> 00:10:59.399 Luke and Peter, just like a modern TikToker, knows the difference between a vision and what's real. 00:10:59.399 --> 00:11:06.840 That's what he just showed. He knows the difference between the two things. I love saying this line. 00:11:07.059 --> 00:11:14.639 I got this line, by the way, from the movie Black Hawk Down, where the salesman for the warlord is 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:21.679 smoking a cigar and said, just because I grew up without indoor plumbing using an outdoor toilet 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:27.579 doesn't mean that I'm ignorant of history. It's a wonderful scene. And a lot of people in our 00:11:27.580 --> 00:11:32.400 culture think that just because these guys didn't know how to do TikTok that somehow they're dumb. 00:11:32.680 --> 00:11:35.879 They're not dumb. They understand the difference between visions and what's real. 00:11:36.700 --> 00:11:41.320 So the—and here's the other thing. By the way, if you've been following along and listening to me, 00:11:41.340 --> 00:11:45.540 you'll notice that I say different words than you see on the screen. I'm seeing the word Peter 00:11:45.540 --> 00:11:54.280 rather than he, and I'm seeing the angel rather than he. 95, 98 percent of all the errors in quotation 00:11:54.279 --> 00:11:59.179 marks in the Bible are just where a scribe, rather than saying he, he, he, he, he, he, 00:11:59.179 --> 00:12:05.579 is put in Jesus or Peter in its place. They're completely non—they're not errors at all. They're 00:12:05.579 --> 00:12:09.919 doing exactly what I do every Sunday, and every Bible reader does. If you're reading the Bible to 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:14.500 your kids and you want to make sure they understand it, you replace the he's with the names just so 00:12:14.500 --> 00:12:19.639 they can follow along. That's all that's going on here. So here we have a very, very clear claim 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:25.179 that this happened. Now, you might say, well, Luke lied. Okay, well, that's fine. Now we can have a 00:12:25.179 --> 00:12:30.360 conversation about that. What we can't say is that Luke was writing a metaphor. He was writing mythology. 00:12:30.679 --> 00:12:36.059 He was writing other stuff. He wrote this. Eyewitnesses were alive. This is what he's claiming happened. 00:12:36.059 --> 00:12:42.299 And now the miracle continues. Verse 10. When they, that is, Peter and the angel had passed the first 00:12:42.299 --> 00:12:47.259 and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city, and it opened for them of its own 00:12:47.259 --> 00:12:53.860 accord. And Peter and the angel went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left 00:12:53.860 --> 00:13:02.399 him. When Peter came to himself, he said, now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel to rescue me 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:07.720 from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people, the Jewish elite, were expecting. 00:13:08.939 --> 00:13:15.220 Now, just a couple of things here about this. I believe it all happened. 00:13:17.259 --> 00:13:22.620 And I think there's good reasons to believe it happened. And here's a little bit about how I 00:13:22.620 --> 00:13:27.319 would talk about it if I was in a coffee shop and I had some opportunities to talk about it. We could 00:13:27.319 --> 00:13:33.220 have a charitable conversation. The first thing I always say is this. The resurrection of Jesus from 00:13:33.220 --> 00:13:41.639 the dead changes everything. If Jesus, if in fact, and there's lots of, there's just a brand new book, 00:13:41.799 --> 00:13:46.379 two books that have just come out over the last two years by, oh gosh, I should have written his name 00:13:46.379 --> 00:13:54.360 down. He's sort of the world's leading scholar on the historical evidence for the resurrection of 00:13:54.360 --> 00:14:01.039 Jesus. And he just wrote, his first volume came out. It's like, he's now in his early seventies. It's a 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:09.840 culmination of 40, 50 years of work. And his name, it's Habermas, Dr. Habermas. And his first volume 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:15.019 is evident, a positive evidence for why the resurrection happened. And it's 1100 pages long. 00:14:15.920 --> 00:14:20.980 Not making that up. And he just released his second volume and it's 900 pages long. And the 00:14:20.980 --> 00:14:26.300 second volume goes through all the objections to the positive evidence. There is evidence that in 00:14:26.300 --> 00:14:31.720 fact, Jesus really did die on a cross outside of Jerusalem, either in the spring of 33 or the spring 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:39.240 of 30, he died. He actually was buried. And then on the third day, the grave clothes are in the, in the 00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:46.740 tomb. The body is not in the tomb. And later on, Jesus appears over that day and the next 40 days 00:14:46.740 --> 00:14:54.720 to many, many people in many different occasions, proving that he was alive, that he had defeated death. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:15:00.220 And we now know that he can't defeat death without also defeating sin, which I'll talk about more in a 00:15:00.220 --> 00:15:10.720 moment. And Jesus rose. And if that happened, that changes everything. Other miracles, these are easy. 00:15:11.220 --> 00:15:16.279 These are easy miracles. If that big miracle happened, these other miracles are easy to get our minds 00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:21.160 around. And the second thing about it, and this is, I apologize here. So I'm going to put a couple of 00:15:21.159 --> 00:15:26.159 you to sleep for about three minutes. So maybe I'll set a timer. I'm going to put some of you to sleep for 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:31.240 three minutes, because I'm going to have an apologetics geek moment. Normally I have grammar geek moments. 00:15:31.339 --> 00:15:37.539 This is an apologetics geek moment. What just happens here is something that happens to every people, 00:15:37.860 --> 00:15:43.519 every one of us. It's happened to every one of us right now. Okay, actually, here's a simple thing. 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:49.600 Could all of you just raise your left hand for a moment? Okay, very good. We all managed that. We all just did 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:58.080 something similar to what the angel just did. What? What? We all just did something to what the angel 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:02.840 just did. One of the very first attacks on my Christian faith were by people who said, listen, 00:16:02.980 --> 00:16:07.000 you know, George, just everything is a process of cause and effect. I have lots of people tell me 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:10.940 there's cause and effect, cause and effect, cause and effect, cause and effect. You know, there's no, 00:16:11.340 --> 00:16:15.639 and that just explains everything. And I just say, you know, they don't actually believe that when they 00:16:15.639 --> 00:16:19.840 say that, and that's using your mind to prove that your mind doesn't exist and that your mind 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:23.819 can't know anything, which of course makes no sense. They just don't even think about it. 00:16:23.819 --> 00:16:27.600 But you see, the fact of the matter is, is that God, because of the doctrine of creation, 00:16:27.799 --> 00:16:35.000 God made human beings to both be a physical being, a body, and also to be a soul. Every human being is an 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:43.120 enfleshed soul, where another way to look at it is an ensouled body. We cannot be reduced to chemicals. 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:50.360 We cannot be reduced to cause and effect. There is a part of us that is key to being a human being, 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:57.639 that is outside the flow of cause and effect, and can cause our bodies to move and to do things, 00:16:57.700 --> 00:17:06.859 like we all just by raising our left hand. And if our soul can cause our body to raise its hand, 00:17:06.859 --> 00:17:16.099 an angel can cause the chains to fall off. It's the same issue. We do it all the time. We just don't 00:17:16.099 --> 00:17:30.319 make the connection. Apologetic moment all over. Here's the main thing about this. God is able to do 00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:35.240 miracles. In fact, actually, if you could put up the big point right now, that would be very helpful. 00:17:36.019 --> 00:17:41.539 One of the things, if I had to have an overarching point for this whole sermon today, it would be this. 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:51.399 Christian, pray to Almighty God, mindful of his wise sovereignty over life and death, judgment and 00:17:51.399 --> 00:17:57.919 salvation, miracle and providence. That's the big point of Acts chapter 12. I mean, there's maybe several 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:03.400 other ways you can put it, but there's a direct message to Christians. This is going to be a text 00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:09.140 that's going to encourage us to pray, and it's going to encourage us to pray to God because God 00:18:09.140 --> 00:18:16.880 is almighty. He is almighty, and it wants us to pray to all God, mindful that he is not only almighty, 00:18:17.380 --> 00:18:26.759 but that he is wise and loving, and he is sovereign. He rules over life and death. He is the God of 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:34.519 judgment and of salvation. He is the God of miracle and providence, and so we can pray, and so we should 00:18:34.519 --> 00:18:43.640 pray. We'll talk more about prayer in a moment. But what happens after Peter gets out of jail? Well, 00:18:43.720 --> 00:18:51.140 let's continue on. Verse 13. When Peter realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, 00:18:51.220 --> 00:18:56.240 whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. They're praying for his 00:18:56.240 --> 00:19:02.519 release. I mean, part of the mystery of this text is I'm sure they were praying for James, but James died. 00:19:04.380 --> 00:19:09.400 But they didn't say, oh, well, James died. I guess we're going to stop praying. They're praying for Peter. 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:17.380 They're acting like Christians. Sometimes God says no to our prayers, brothers and sisters. He always 00:19:17.380 --> 00:19:23.180 hears them, but sometimes he just says no. Sometimes he says not yet. Sometimes he says yes. 00:19:23.180 --> 00:19:29.480 And in heaven, I'm sure, maybe one of the things that God will do for you Christian in heaven is 00:19:29.480 --> 00:19:35.519 he'll say, by the way, George, I kept track of all your prayers. Like to go in a room, you want to 00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:39.720 bring some people for a bit of a laugh? Remember when you prayed that you would, you know, have this 00:19:39.720 --> 00:19:48.080 for the rest of your life? You know, and now you realize I was really right to just say no to that, 00:19:48.140 --> 00:19:51.840 right? And all those other dumb things that we pray for and everything. And he'll probably, 00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:55.399 and he'll show the different ways that he said no and why he said no. And when he said, yeah, 00:19:55.439 --> 00:19:59.359 you might forget about this, George, you know, you prayed for this. And then you forget all about it 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:03.799 that five years later I answered it and you never remembered, right? And that's the thing. That's 00:20:03.799 --> 00:20:09.199 what we're going to find out in heaven. God answers our prayers, but he often says no. So they're still 00:20:09.199 --> 00:20:16.799 praying. It's like a wonderful thing here. So verse 13, they're gathered together praying. It's just a 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:21.139 little bit after four o'clock in the morning, maybe 4.30 in the morning. And verse 13, 00:20:21.240 --> 00:20:26.859 and when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. And I 00:20:26.859 --> 00:20:30.399 just want to pause here for a second. One of the problems we have when we read the Bible is we don't 00:20:30.399 --> 00:20:39.599 read it as if it's a human account of human beings like us. What do I mean? What do we expect to happen 00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:47.919 if our door was knocked on at four o'clock in the morning? Would any of us expect good news at 4.30 00:20:47.919 --> 00:20:53.699 in the morning if somebody knocked on our door? If the phone wakes you up from sleep at 4.30 in the 00:20:53.699 --> 00:21:00.539 morning, how many are expecting it to be somebody to tell you that you got $10 million? We expect the 00:21:00.539 --> 00:21:09.240 worst. Some of us are familiar with history and some of us are from cultures where we know that the 00:21:09.240 --> 00:21:14.620 knock on the door at 4.30 in the morning is the police, the secret police or the army coming to 00:21:14.620 --> 00:21:25.220 disappear you. That's what Rhoda is living with. James has been killed. People are in jail. The 00:21:25.220 --> 00:21:30.180 state is after Christians. It's 4.30 in the morning. The door is getting knocked on. 00:21:34.680 --> 00:21:38.880 Boy, I mean, if you're doing a movie of this, you could just imagine the hushed conversations about 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:43.740 what you're going to do about this. But Rhoda is the one who goes down to answer the door. 00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:48.120 You can just imagine the shaking that she would be having. 00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:55.440 I mean, people make fun of Rhoda for about what's about to happen next, but she's a brave woman 00:21:55.440 --> 00:22:03.700 to answer a door at 4.30 in the morning that's being knocked on. Verse 14, recognizing Peter's voice, 00:22:03.700 --> 00:22:10.559 inner joy. She did not open the gate, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 00:22:11.360 --> 00:22:17.259 They said to her, the people in there praying, you're out of your mind. But she kept insisting 00:22:17.259 --> 00:22:21.539 that it was so, and they kept saying it as angel. There's a cultural belief of Jewish people at that 00:22:21.539 --> 00:22:25.580 time that there were people, everybody had a guardian angel and that the guardian angel would look and 00:22:25.580 --> 00:22:29.160 sound like you if it ever was to appear. But Peter continued knocking. 00:22:29.160 --> 00:22:36.680 And when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, 00:22:36.800 --> 00:22:41.820 he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, tell these things 00:22:41.820 --> 00:22:48.420 to James, that's James, the half-brother of Jesus, and to the brothers, that's other people who are in 00:22:48.420 --> 00:22:52.480 leadership. Then he departed and went to another place. I just want to pause here. Brothers and sisters, 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:59.579 this is a profound encouragement for us to pray. This is a profound encouragement for us to pray. 00:23:00.660 --> 00:23:06.779 Like, here they are. So first of all, how many of us would even get up at 4 30 in the morning to pray? 00:23:07.819 --> 00:23:11.980 These people are really praying. And I don't, who knows, they don't tell you what they're praying, 00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:18.160 but just imagine, what would we be praying if all of a sudden, me and Steve Griffin and Daniel Avitan 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:24.320 are all put in jail for being Christians. And it's just a couple of hours before we're going to be 00:23:24.320 --> 00:23:28.259 released and we're going to be beheaded. And you're all praying for me. What are you going to be praying 00:23:28.259 --> 00:23:33.259 for me for? Well, some of you are going to probably be praying that there would be a change in Herod's 00:23:33.259 --> 00:23:39.759 heart and that he would let us go. Some of you are probably praying that I would have some peace and 00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:45.880 calm in the midst of my imminent death. Some of you would be praying that I would have the courage to not 00:23:45.880 --> 00:23:51.080 deny the faith, but to bear witness to Jesus in and of my death. Some of you would be praying for 00:23:51.080 --> 00:23:55.220 Louise and for my kids, hoping that they would be comforted. Right? Isn't that what you'd be praying 00:23:55.220 --> 00:24:00.140 for? That after George is dead, that they'll be comforted, you know? And we'll probably be praying 00:24:00.140 --> 00:24:04.240 that God would change Herod's heart so that the persecution would stop. Those are all the things. 00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:07.780 How many people do you think were praying that God would send an angel to rescue Peter? 00:24:09.820 --> 00:24:14.840 Like, none of them. And here, their prayers for deliverance are answered and they don't believe it 00:24:14.839 --> 00:24:22.579 happened. This should encourage you and me to pray. If God depended for you and me to get our prayers 00:24:22.579 --> 00:24:28.980 really precise, well, gosh, nothing would happen. Like, I mean, that's just, we just, they just poured 00:24:28.980 --> 00:24:32.759 out their heart. They're pouring out their heart for Peter. They're pouring out their heart for Peter's 00:24:32.759 --> 00:24:37.439 wife. They don't mention that, but Peter, other places, you know, Peter had a wife, probably had kids. 00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:42.019 They're praying for Peter, his wife, his kids. They're praying for themselves. They're praying out of fear. 00:24:42.019 --> 00:24:49.639 And God answers their prayer with a miracle. Amen. Praise God. And they didn't think it was going to 00:24:49.639 --> 00:24:54.079 happen. Brothers and sisters, this is such a profound encouragement for you and me to pray. 00:24:54.220 --> 00:25:00.680 Remember what I said. This is a message for us to pray, remembering that God is almighty. And how did I 00:25:00.680 --> 00:25:09.379 word it? That God is almighty. And that mindful of his wise sovereignty over life and death, judgment and 00:25:09.380 --> 00:25:16.180 salvation, miracle, and providence. And God wants us to pray. And it's not just that God does miracles. 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:22.080 Because look at what happens in the very, oh, actually, what happens right here is another 00:25:22.080 --> 00:25:26.160 little thing. When it says, then he departed. Oh, no, we'll continue reading. And I'll explain how. 00:25:26.260 --> 00:25:30.800 It's not just miracles. Look what happens next. Now, when the day came, verse 18, 00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:38.200 there was no little disturbance amongst the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And Herod searched for him 00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:43.579 and did not find him. He examined the sentries in order that they should be put to death. 00:25:44.919 --> 00:25:52.740 Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea to spend time there. One death of James, now four deaths of soldiers, 00:25:52.740 --> 00:26:01.599 and Peter is released unharmed. Now, a couple of things here about this. The first thing, if you could 00:26:01.599 --> 00:26:08.099 put up that second point, Claire, that would be very helpful. It doesn't say that God did a whole pile of 00:26:08.099 --> 00:26:14.160 miracles so that Peter couldn't be found. But it's very interesting in the providence of God, the feast 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:19.180 of Passover, that the city would have been swollen two, three, four, five, six times the number of residents, 00:26:19.180 --> 00:26:24.360 eight times the number of residents. And as soon as daylight came, after the whole festival was over, 00:26:24.420 --> 00:26:31.360 a large number of them would have left. And Peter obviously uses his thinking to figure out how to 00:26:31.360 --> 00:26:36.740 leave with the pilgrims. And a lot of scholars, by the way, figure out that's how he ends up in Joppa, 00:26:36.820 --> 00:26:42.320 where he's going to get the vision to go and share the gospel with the Gentiles, which is a whole other 00:26:42.320 --> 00:26:48.940 thing. But he thinks. So here's the point about prayer and thinking. Prayer should leaven 00:26:48.940 --> 00:26:56.220 leaven thinking. And thinking should leaven prayer. And both should leaven action. 00:26:57.220 --> 00:27:01.299 See, the problem that many of us have is that we think, well, you have a choice. You can either 00:27:01.299 --> 00:27:07.160 think or pray, right? And one of the stereotypes that people outside the faith have about Christians 00:27:07.160 --> 00:27:11.700 is that what we're like, you know? You know, we can't think anymore, so we pray. Or we stop thinking 00:27:11.700 --> 00:27:15.820 and we pray instead. And unfortunately, when they think that about Christians, that's often the case. 00:27:15.819 --> 00:27:19.399 I think and think and think and think. And when I can't think of a solution, then I pray. 00:27:19.720 --> 00:27:24.179 But the Bible wants us to think about this whole thing very, very differently. God wants you to 00:27:24.179 --> 00:27:31.759 think. He wants you to think well. He wants you to think wisely and well and deeply. And he wants 00:27:31.759 --> 00:27:37.500 you to pray. And there's no contradiction between thinking and praying. He wants you to pray as you 00:27:37.500 --> 00:27:44.500 think and to think as you pray. To have your thinking leaven permeate your prayer. And have your 00:27:44.500 --> 00:27:52.119 prayer permeate your thinking. And have both permeate how you take action. That's what we see here in this 00:27:52.119 --> 00:27:59.279 text in the contours of the story. But now we come to a dark time. And the last thing about the human 00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:04.259 heart and something which would make us feel very uncomfortable about sharing this story with 00:28:04.259 --> 00:28:09.779 friends who are outside the Christian faith. But it actually points to something very profound 00:28:09.779 --> 00:28:16.059 that gives us, helps us to understand why we can pray in confidence that God is sovereign over life 00:28:16.059 --> 00:28:22.799 and death. Look what happens in verse 20. Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. 00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:28.680 And they came to him with one accord. And having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, 00:28:28.680 --> 00:28:33.779 they asked for peace because their country depended on the king's country for food. 00:28:34.600 --> 00:28:40.560 On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an 00:28:40.560 --> 00:28:47.279 oration to them. Just pause. This whole story is also recounted by Josephus, a Jewish historian. 00:28:48.279 --> 00:28:54.200 He has obviously different explanations, but Josephus does say that there was an oration. He does say 00:28:54.200 --> 00:29:01.100 that before the oration was finished that Herod was struck down with pain. Josephus does reveal that 00:29:01.100 --> 00:29:07.160 within five days of this, after he's rushed off the stage, Herod will die. But Josephus, and Josephus 00:29:07.160 --> 00:29:13.080 actually also says that it happens because of Herod's pride. But he makes it the, you know, the, 00:29:13.299 --> 00:29:16.759 some gods and omens and everything that happened. But the same thing is actually recorded 00:29:16.759 --> 00:29:19.960 in history outside of the Bible. Verse 22, 00:29:19.960 --> 00:29:25.200 Verse 23, 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:30.460 Listen to this. 00:29:30.460 --> 00:29:34.279 Because he did not give God the glory. 00:29:38.100 --> 00:29:42.960 And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of the God, that's the gospel, 00:29:43.120 --> 00:29:45.539 increased and multiplied. Now what's going on here? 00:29:45.539 --> 00:29:53.839 He said, you can very well see that many of us would not like to have this text read to 00:29:53.839 --> 00:29:57.579 our friends who are outside the faith. We'd be very uncomfortable with it. But it's actually 00:29:57.579 --> 00:30:01.920 really, well, what would they say? They'd say amongst other things, your God kills people? And 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:09.779 they might say, George, you know, if it's said that God killed Herod because Herod had killed 00:30:09.779 --> 00:30:18.019 James and persecuted Christians. Well, maybe I could get my mind around that. But George, 00:30:18.639 --> 00:30:23.680 George, George, George, it says, look at that in verse 23 again, 00:30:24.519 --> 00:30:30.180 because he did not give God the glory. Doesn't that sound petty? 00:30:30.180 --> 00:30:44.299 Friends, earlier I said that one of the problems with the human heart is that we at many, many times 00:30:44.299 --> 00:30:51.200 want to do evil, but we always want to look good. The other aspect of the human heart is that we 00:30:51.200 --> 00:30:59.759 want the glory. There's this very beautiful song called Of the Father's Love Begotten. It was written 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:06.960 around the year 400, still sung today in places. We sing it sometimes, often in Advent, written by a 00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:11.559 fellow by the name of Aurelius Pretentius. I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name, and it's Of the 00:31:11.559 --> 00:31:18.240 Father's Love Begotten. And in it, there's this wonderful line where Pretentius says in 400, 00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:29.339 referring to Jesus, he the source, he the ending be. In other words, all glory, everything which is 00:31:29.339 --> 00:31:36.099 worthy of glory ultimately comes from Jesus. And the praise for what has been done, which is good, 00:31:36.159 --> 00:31:42.619 should go back to Jesus. He the source, he the ending be. What does my heart say? Me the source. 00:31:45.159 --> 00:31:51.019 Good things come from me. Me the ending be. I want the praise. That's what the human heart says. 00:31:51.019 --> 00:31:59.839 See, rather than making this text sound very terrible, it actually is very sobering for us. 00:32:00.920 --> 00:32:06.480 The eight o'clock service, we had a missionary, a Baptist pastor, another Anglican pastor in me. It's 00:32:06.480 --> 00:32:10.240 not the beginning of a joke. And I asked each one of them. At this service, to my knowledge, 00:32:10.299 --> 00:32:13.420 it was just the same Baptist pastor who was here. And I said, I want to put you on the spot, 00:32:13.559 --> 00:32:17.259 brother. I think he was sitting in that chair right over there, maybe where you're sitting right now. 00:32:17.259 --> 00:32:20.920 I don't want to put you on the spot, brother. But what goes through your mind when you think 00:32:20.920 --> 00:32:27.640 you've done a really good sermon? I want the praise. I want the glory. 00:32:30.879 --> 00:32:37.279 That's the human heart. Boy, I was really smart coming up with that. No wonder people give me 00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:45.759 some compliments. It's not just pastors. You do a real act of kindness for your neighbor. 00:32:45.759 --> 00:32:51.640 And they're really thankful later. And you say, ah, it came from me. I'm glad to get the glory. 00:32:53.240 --> 00:32:57.980 It gives a piece of wisdom to your boss that changes maybe the course of your department or 00:32:57.980 --> 00:33:01.319 your government. That came from me. I'm glad I got the praise. 00:33:03.740 --> 00:33:07.779 So, George, what's the hope? Well, you see, that's the problem. There is no hope. The only hope for the 00:33:07.779 --> 00:33:14.839 human heart is... Actually, if you could put up the third point that I missed that. Your heart wants to do 00:33:14.839 --> 00:33:19.579 evil and appear righteous. And it wants to receive glory for itself. But here's the Christian hope. 00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:26.159 See, the point of this story is, on one hand, we can take real confidence when we see that those 00:33:26.159 --> 00:33:33.659 early Christians actually prayed and believed but sort of didn't believe. We can take courage that we 00:33:33.659 --> 00:33:40.439 can pray. And the other thing that we need to see in this story is that I'm Herod. 00:33:40.440 --> 00:33:48.039 See, what is the Christian hope? If you could put up the fourth thing, there's a beautiful hymn 00:33:48.039 --> 00:33:58.940 called... What's it called again? It's called... I can't remember what it's called. It's written by 00:33:58.940 --> 00:34:05.580 Philip Bliss at the 1875. But it has this wonderful hymn, In My Place Condemned He Stood. That's the 00:34:05.579 --> 00:34:13.319 Christian hope. Christian hope is this. I can't change my heart. I can do rituals. I can take 00:34:13.319 --> 00:34:18.500 therapy. I can't change my heart. I mean, part of the whole problem is even when we really grow in 00:34:18.500 --> 00:34:22.980 holiness, all of a sudden, even as we're growing in holiness, it slips into our mind and our heart 00:34:22.980 --> 00:34:28.799 that it was me who did it. And I deserve the praise. And I can't fix myself. I need someone who 00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:34.480 loves me, who's also human, but more than human, that can fix me. And that's the wonderful news of 00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:42.160 the gospel is that Jesus died in my place. My only hope in life and death is that in my place condemned, 00:34:42.380 --> 00:34:47.480 Jesus stood for me. That's the only hope I have. It's the ground for my prayer. It's the confidence 00:34:47.480 --> 00:34:53.519 that I can have that when I pray, that I'm praying to Almighty God, mindful of His wise sovereignty over 00:34:53.519 --> 00:34:59.320 life and death, judgment and salvation, miracle and providence, because it's a complete and utter act 00:34:59.320 --> 00:35:14.960 of grace. I am not better than Herod. And the wonder of the gospel is that God loved you so much that 00:35:14.960 --> 00:35:19.759 He sent His one and only Son to the end that all that believe in Him will not perish but have 00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:27.480 eternal life. And now we pray to our Father in heaven, knowing that He is the Almighty God. 00:35:28.440 --> 00:35:34.880 The Bible doesn't tell me or us why is it that James died and Peter lived. The Bible doesn't tell us 00:35:34.880 --> 00:35:42.800 why. But we can trust that God is a God of love and that when we appear before Him face to face in 00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:49.340 heaven, the reasons will be good. He is sovereign over life and death. He is sovereign over judgment and 00:35:49.340 --> 00:35:54.559 salvation. He is sovereign over salvation. He is sovereign over providence and miracle. So Christian, let's pray. 00:35:55.380 --> 00:35:56.360 I invite you to stand. 00:36:03.039 --> 00:36:09.180 I just want to say as I bring this, I'm going to just say a closing prayer and then I'm not sure who 00:36:09.180 --> 00:36:18.460 comes up to lead some intercession after this. But if you consider yourself to be outside of the 00:36:18.460 --> 00:36:24.500 Christian faith and your heart is strangely warmed or drawn by this, there is no better time than right 00:36:24.500 --> 00:36:33.860 now to say, Jesus be my Savior. And He's alive and He hears and He'll save you. He will. 00:36:35.940 --> 00:36:37.139 Let's bow our heads in prayer. 00:36:40.500 --> 00:36:45.240 Father, we give you thanks and praise for stories like this. We give you thanks and praise that some of 00:36:45.239 --> 00:36:50.699 even the scariest stories, the ones that we want to turn from or pretend aren't there. In fact, 00:36:50.819 --> 00:36:58.739 Father, these are windows into the wonders of grace, the wonders of the gospel. And so, Father, 00:36:58.799 --> 00:37:05.859 we give you thanks and praise that Jesus died in our stead out of love for us. We give you thanks and 00:37:05.859 --> 00:37:12.199 praise that by faith in Him and in corporation into Him, more and more into Him and Him more and more 00:37:12.199 --> 00:37:18.219 into us. Father, we ask that you would form us to be men and women, people, a congregation of prayer. 00:37:18.879 --> 00:37:23.839 It pours out our heart to you in prayer, knowing that whether it's through providence or miracle, 00:37:24.379 --> 00:37:29.619 that you will wisely and sovereignly answer, that you are sovereign over life and death, 00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:36.339 that you hold us in the hollow of your hands and you care for us and you love us. Father, 00:37:36.340 --> 00:37:41.079 help us to grow in our knowledge of that and help it to be the form of our prayer. Father, 00:37:41.160 --> 00:37:45.480 help us to be praying for those who do not yet know Jesus, that they will come to know Him as 00:37:45.480 --> 00:37:49.940 their Savior and their Lord. And all things, Father, help us to know that you are sovereign, 00:37:50.120 --> 00:37:55.820 you are wise, you are almighty, you are good, and we should pray and that we should think and pray and 00:37:55.820 --> 00:38:00.920 pray and think and act and that that is, Father, what you would have us do. And we ask all these 00:38:00.920 --> 00:38:06.280 things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. And all God's people said, Amen.