Acts 12 - The Unstoppable gospel
Hello! I hope you’ve been enjoying the summer despite the heatwaves. I’ve taken a two-month break. Which means we haven’t seen each other since the World Cup. I’m not going to rub salt into the wound by mentioning England’s 6–4 victory over France in the third-place play-off.
In fact, at every tournament I ask myself the same question… is it worth supporting England this year?
Sixty years without a trophy. That makes you Frenchies laugh. So many disappointments, missed opportunities, heartache. Is it worth backing them if the chances of winning are so slim?
The start of the new term is a time when so many things get back into full swing.
Perhaps you’ve been a Christian for a long time. Perhaps you’ve been part of this church for years. Perhaps you’re here for the first time this morning. Perhaps you’re not even quite sure yet what you think of Jesus.
So I’d like to start with a very simple question: is it worth taking Jesus’ side this year?”
Perhaps you’re not sure what you think about Jesus; you’re here to explore the question. Why would it be worth taking his side?
In other words, to follow and serve him.
For Connexion Church, this is a special start to the new term. In a year’s time, God willing, there will be three churches!
A year ago, we planted a new small church, the Oberkampf Church, which meets just across from Place de la République.
In a few weeks’ time, they will be officially sent out and established as a church meeting every Sunday.
In a year’s time, we aim to have another new church in eastern Paris.
Thank you, Lord, for these plans, but there will be many challenges; the workload will be heavier if people leave, we’ll need more people to serve, and there are still many unforeseen circumstances.
So I’d like us to ask ourselves: why is it worth taking Jesus’ side and serving him this year?
Here is this morning’s message:
King Jesus is in control. He causes his word to triumph. So let us stand on his side.
We’ll be studying the Book of Acts throughout September.
We’ll return to 1 Corinthians in October.
Before returning to the passages in 1 Corinthians that deal with our activities in the church, we wanted to reflect on Jesus and His work in the world.
The Book of Acts tells us some very important things for the start of this year.
It is the second volume of the Gospel of Luke.
Luke says at the beginning of his Gospel that he is writing to give us the assurance … that we are not wasting our time by following and serving Jesus.
The Acts of the Apostles pursues the same aim: to show us that it is truly worthwhile.
The first thing to note this morning is that often …
We are weak and the opposition is strong (vv. 1–5)
If we sometimes feel as though we’re completely fragile or even on the losing side as Christians, welcome to the club!
We’re in Acts 12.
A famine has struck Jerusalem. The Christians in the city of Antioch send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to bring aid.
At the end of this chapter, Paul and Barnabas will return to Antioch, from where, in Acts 13, they will be sent on the very first missionary journey to non-Jewish lands. A grand, ambitious and unprecedented undertaking.
Whilst they are in Jerusalem, King Herod launches an attack.
Acts 12:1
‘At that time, King Herod began to persecute members of the Church, and he had James, the brother of John, put to death by the sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he had Peter arrested as well. – This was during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. – After having him arrested and thrown into prison, he placed him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each; he intended to bring him before the people after the Passover. Peter was therefore being held in prison, and the Church was offering fervent prayers to God on his behalf.”
It’s obvious who seems to be on the winning side and who’s on the losing side!
This Herod is the grandson of the man who had the boys killed at the time of Jesus’ birth, and the nephew of the man who had John the Baptist killed.
He is continuing the family tradition. James dies on his orders.
He realises this is boosting his popularity ratings. He thinks to himself, ‘Great. Let’s target the boss, Peter. That’ll go down a treat in the polls and it’ll quieten those little Christians down.
He pulls out all the stops: four squads of four soldiers each.
Perhaps he remembered that in Acts 5, Peter had already been freed from prison by an angel.
‘If I opt for a high-security prison, no angel will be able to get through.’
Faced with Herod’s apparent omnipotence, the Christians, feeling helpless, can ‘only’ pray.
In the service of Jesus, we often feel helpless in the face of obstacles.
What might be the equivalents of this opposition for us today?
Perhaps politicians, intellectuals or influencers who seek to discredit the Christian faith.
We may fear that this could undermine our faith.
Imagine that the Oberkampf church was growing and looking for larger premises… but rumours quickly began to circulate in the 11th arrondissement that people should be wary of this intolerant evangelical church with its backward customs that had set up in the neighbourhood.
A campaign begins on social media: ‘Beware of this cult!’
And no one wants to let them hire a hall.
It’s incredibly unsettling. Is it worth persevering with the project?
Even when we’re not being persecuted, we constantly come up against things that remind us of our own insignificance.
Many of us would call ourselves Christians today. Perhaps not all of us.
There’s one thing we all have in common, whether we’re Christian or not: we don’t have much control over life.
our health
what others think of us
how our careers or relationships develop
what happens to our family
what happens in politics
and even how long we’ll live
For my part, I often feel powerless and overwhelmed by life’s circumstances.
I am weak, fallible and a sinner – I often do things that displease God. When I try to live for Jesus, the obstacles often seem insurmountable.
It’s easy to get the impression that the forces which determine the course of our lives are not forces that have our best interests at heart.
***
But Luke wants to encourage us.
We are weak and the opposition is strong, but …
The true King opens doors (vv. 6–17)
Often in ways and at times that are completely unexpected… King Jesus opens doors so that his word may spread!
Let’s savour the humour in this story.
I love how the Lord Jesus sets Peter free on the evening before his trial, just to spoil Herod’s party!
Did you spot that in verse 6?
He’ll get up in the morning and knock on the door of his cell: ‘Peter!’
‘Peter…’
“Peter… …”
I love how obstacles are nothing to the Lord!
Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers; sentries posted at the door were guarding the prison.
The angel arrives. “Come on, Peter, let’s go! Get up. Put on your sandals.”
The gate swings open like the automatic doors at the supermarket.
I love how all the Christians in the passage find what’s happening too good to be true!
Verse 9
Peter went out and followed him, not realising that what the angel was doing was real: he thought he was having a vision. They passed the first guard post, then the second, and came to the iron gate leading into the city. The gate opened of its own accord before them; they went out and walked down a street.
Peter goes out thinking: I know this is a dream … [he pinches himself] but when am I going to wake up!
I would have loved so much to have been there when he arrived at the house where people were praying!
Look at verse 13
The servant girl Rhode sees him and leaves him standing at the door. She can’t believe her eyes.
And just imagine that prayer meeting.
Rhode arrives: “… !?#% It’s… him!”
“Rhode, we’re in the middle of praying here. Go and make some herbal tea.”
“No, but … really … I promise you … it’s … him”
“Rhode, Rhode … it must be … his guardian angel.”
Too good to be true … when God opens doors.
Infinitely more than anything we ask for or imagine.
It’s not as though, if Jason or Romuald were to be locked up, we could expect the same miraculous release.
Even though … Jesus promises that all things will work together for their good and that, in the eternal sense, no one can do them the slightest harm.
Yet James did not escape Herod’s sword; tradition tells us that Peter and Paul were eventually executed, and many Christians around the world today spend years behind bars – in Iran or North Korea.
What Luke wants to show is that, however much harm is done to the messengers, the message itself cannot be imprisoned.
Look at verse 24 at the end of the passage. It is the refrain that structures the Book of Acts. It appears in chapter 6, here in chapter 12, and again in chapter 19.
As for the word of God, …
… it continued to spread more and more.
King Jesus opens doors for his word with ease and often against all odds!
In the 1950s, the communists in China expelled all the missionaries in order to wipe out the small Chinese Christian church.
Fast forward to the 21st century, and after decades of persecution, there are perhaps 100 million Chinese Christians
King Jesus had, against all expectations, opened doors for his word.
Jesus is doing the same thing amongst us today.
He is unleashing his power, not to spare us all suffering, but so that his word may advance … first within us … and then through us.
This is Jesus’ great plan today: to open doors so that his word may advance within us and through us.
First within us.
His number one priority is that his word should transform us, and he opens doors so that this can happen.
Perhaps you have already experienced moments of great vulnerability.
A bereavement, an illness, a period of unemployment or stress.
Horrible times! But times which, in Jesus’ hands, become open doors for his word to take root within us.
Jesus teaches us lessons we could never have learnt otherwise.
In my family, we’ve had to face illness. Jesus turned it into an open door to teach us that as long as we have him, we have everything.
Perhaps some of you are going through one of these moments of vulnerability right now.
Without wishing to minimise the suffering, these are doors opened by Jesus so that his word may take root within us.
That is our number one priority.
If you’ve just joined Connexion, this is what drives us! May the word of Jesus take root within us.
A great way to experience this would be to join one of our community groups, where we listen to Jesus in the Bible week after week.
***
But he wants his word not only to take root within us, but also to flow through us to others.
Here too, he opens doors!
My wife Anne-Sophie and I left the 9th arrondissement five years ago, feeling discouraged because we’d been trying to share our faith with neighbours and other parents, but nobody seemed interested.
Today, God is opening doors in our neighbourhood in ways we didn’t expect. We’ll see where this leads.
Perhaps there is a group of people – colleagues, friends – amongst whom you would like to see the word of Jesus make a breakthrough.
Perhaps it seems unlikely. But the measure of our ambition should not be the size of the obstacles, but the power of the King who opens doors for his Word!
A few years ago, Connexion tried to buy premises. So far, God has kept that door closed. But he is opening others in the 11th arrondissement and in eastern Paris.
We’ll see where this leads us, but we can move forward with confidence.
The end of the text shows us why.
Why we are certain we are on the winning team when we commit ourselves to the word of Jesus.
Jesus is the only true King
He always has the final say
We are weak and the opposition is strong, but the true King opens doors and …
The true King prevails (vv. 18–25)
One can imagine Herod, after this setback, wanting to restore his reputation.
There’s no question of dwelling on a defeat. I’m going to show everyone who’s boss!
Herod rules over the Jews but also over the non-Jewish regions of Tyre and Sidon in Lebanon.
He is in conflict with them, but he knows they depend on him for food.
So he convenes a large gathering so that they might come and publicly beg him to grant them peace. That way, everyone will see that he is the king of the Jews, of the non-Jews – of everyone.
Notice how Luke describes Herod’s efforts to show that he is the king, in verse 21.
He arrives with great pomp, dressed in his royal robes.
The historian Flavius Josephus, who recounts this same event, says that this robe was made entirely of silver and that it was so dazzling that it instilled a sort of dread in those who gazed at it intently.
He sits on his throne, delivers a grand, bombastic speech, and the people shout: ‘The voice of a god, not of a human being!’
It’s just like North Korea!
Who’s in charge?
Herod’s problem wasn’t just that he was a bad leader. His problem was that he wanted the position that belongs to Jesus alone.
The place of supreme leader.
What makes Herod a bit uncomfortable is that sometimes we humans are a bit like him.
Not because we want to kill Christians or pass ourselves off as gods! But because, like him, we quite naturally like to be in control.
If you’re like me, we like to make decisions. We like to know where we’re going. We like to build our lives as we see fit, to see things go according to plan.
That might be one of the reasons why you came to Paris. We’ve got plans: studies, work, friends, perhaps a relationship, a fresh start. And it’s a good thing to have plans.
But there’s a small question underlying all this that leads us to a choice we all have to make: who’s really in charge?
Who has the final say?
Me or Jesus?
This passage makes it crystal clear who is really in charge.
Look at verse 23
An angel of the Lord struck him down immediately because he had not given glory to God. He died, eaten by worms.
Notice how easily Jesus deals with him.
[Snap of the fingers]
Herod dies … eaten by worms.
Enjoy your meal!
The King who opens doors without difficulty is also the King who triumphs without difficulty over all those who oppose him.
It’s not that Jesus immediately wipes out anyone who harms Christians.
There are plenty of examples in the world that prove the opposite.
What this story shows us is that Jesus is the only one … who reigns.
Jesus is the only true king.
All other kings, however powerful they may seem, are mere figureheads.
They have only the power that he allows them to have, for as long as he allows them to have it.
To oppose him, to seek a leader for oneself, is always to put oneself on the losing side in the end.
So we all face a choice. To seek to be like Herod: to build our own kingdom, to control our lives, to gain admiration, to ensure that others recognise our importance.
Or to recognise that we are not kings, that we were never meant to be, and to submit ourselves to Jesus, the true King.
If we choose this second option, we discover that Jesus is not only the only King but the best King!
_____
For many of us, we have already made this choice to have Jesus as our King. But it has very practical and potentially radical implications.
If we acknowledge that Jesus is King, it fills us with courage to attempt things that will resonate for all eternity.
I said that all this takes place whilst Paul and Barnabas are in Jerusalem.
They are mentioned again in verse 25. They witnessed Peter’s deliverance.
Why is this important?
Because they are about to set out on a mission. The first mission outside Israel.
There will be many obstacles. Many doors will seem closed. They will be summoned before the authorities. They will certainly wonder whether it is worth it.
Luke wants to show that yes, it is worth it, because if Jesus reigns, if he opens the doors, if he prevails, then verse 24 will always be true
Let’s read it again – ‘As for the word of God, it continued to spread.’
Opposition is inevitable, but the word of King Jesus is unstoppable. The team of God’s word is the winning team.
At the start of this new year, Jesus wants to show us the same thing.
Yes, it is worth taking his side, following him and serving him, because King Jesus is in control. He ensures that his word triumphs.
It is worth telling those around us about Jesus, seeking to make him known where he is not known, and planting new churches, even if there are obstacles … because King Jesus is in control. He ensures that his word prevails.
The way we live always depends on our convictions about who is in charge of the world.
If I believe the world is governed by the forces of chance, I would live as though everything depended on my ability to anticipate chance.
If I believe it is ruled by a god who is not really on my side, I would live as though everything depended on my ability to win that god’s favour.
Much of our anxiety in life and in Christian service stems from the fact that we do not truly believe that Jesus reigns.
Is it a coincidence that a society like ours, which seeks autonomy at all costs – putting oneself on the throne – is also deeply anxious?
I am naturally anxious.
That is why I have recently changed my daily Bible reading and prayer routine to start each day by reminding myself that Jesus reigns!
Nothing happens that He has not permitted.
Everything that happens, happens because He has allowed it.
In all things, He acts for the glory of His name, the good of His people and the advancement of His word.
When we grasp this, there is peace.
It also brings perspectives, priorities and plans infinitely better than anything the world can offer us.
***
It’s the start of the new term.
Perhaps you’ve just arrived in Paris. Welcome to the most beautiful of cities.
Don’t just ask: ‘What am I going to build in Paris?’
Ask: ‘How am I going to build my life on the word of Jesus here?’”
***
Perhaps you’re a student or just starting out in your career.
Your work or studies are not just a temporary interlude before your real Christian life.
This is precisely where Jesus reigns and where he wants his word to bear fruit in you and around you.
***
Perhaps you have been a Christian for a long time.
Jesus is the great King seated on the throne of heaven, but when he looks down on us from heaven and decides how to exercise his almighty power in our lives, he does not say to himself: ‘How can I give him the easiest and most pleasant circumstances possible?
He says to himself: ‘I will do everything I can to ensure that my word spreads more and more within him and around him.’
***
Or perhaps you wouldn’t call yourself a Christian just yet, but you’re giving it some thought.
You don’t need to pretend to be convinced. But I invite you to give serious thought to this statement from Acts 12: Jesus is the true King. If that’s true, then it’s the most important thing you could discover this year
With the World Cup, nobody could have known who was going to win before the final whistle.
I honestly thought it would be France. (Michael Olisé is clearly English and we need him back!)
Jesus leaves us in no doubt as to the ultimate outcome of his word. It will unfailingly fulfil the purpose intended for it.
The progress of Jesus’ word, led by King Jesus, is a bit like the rising tide.
We went to the beach several times during the holidays.
When the tide comes in, you can’t tell just by watching for two minutes.
The waves ebb and flow…
In some places, it advances more quickly; in others, there are obstacles, such as rocks.
But… the trend is unstoppable and irresistible.
When I used to go to the beach as a kid, we’d try to build sand barriers to stop the tide from coming in.
It was madness.
The spread of the word of King Jesus is just like that. You wouldn’t guess, just by looking at a single moment in time, that it’s advancing.
But the trend is unstoppable and irresistible.
We don’t know what this year has in store for us. There’s one thing we can be sure of: King Jesus is in control. He ensures that his word prevails. He invites us to be part of the team that wins in the end.
I’ll leave you with three questions.
“Who is the King of our lives?” Jesus or someone else?
Secondly: “Do we truly believe that Jesus is in control, and that the first thing He wants to do is to advance His word within us?”
Thirdly: “If Jesus is in control and He ensures His Word prevails, what does it mean for us to make His priorities our priorities?”