Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Measureless (Acts 12:1-19)
53 Plays3 years ago
Measureless (Acts 12:1-19)
Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Growing in Grace'
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milan Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
Sermon on Acts 12
00:00:43
Speaker
Hey, welcome to Growing in Grace. Glad you're here with us today. We're gonna be looking at Acts chapter 12, verses one through 19. I wanna introduce you to some things that I feel are absolutely measureless. I don't know if you've ever come across anything that's measureless, but myself, I love to look up into the night sky and check out the stars. Have you ever counted all those stars? How many did you count?
00:01:10
Speaker
You know, they don't really know how many stars are out there. I read one article that said, oh, we're fairly sure. We can't be certain, but we're fairly sure there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy. But then another article said, no, it's probably closer to 200 billion stars are in our galaxy.
00:01:32
Speaker
And then I read across one that was saying, well, of course there are 10 billion galaxies besides our own galaxy. But then I ran across another one that said, oh no, it's closer to 2 trillion galaxies. That's what the Hubble telescope discovered.
00:01:50
Speaker
And then someone was saying, well, let's say there are 10 trillion galaxies. That would be the equivalent if all of those galaxies had X number of stars. Their best guess was there are 1 septillion stars out there.
00:02:07
Speaker
I haven't measured a septillion, so I can't tell you exactly what we're talking about there, but that's my point.
Power of Prayer
00:02:14
Speaker
Some things in life seem measureless. If I were to try to tell you something that's measureless, man, I'd start with the love of Christ. Man, His love, I just have never found the end of it, to be honest, but also the power of God.
00:02:30
Speaker
which brings me to the whole issue of prayer. I think when we pray, incredible things can happen. That's what this text is about today in Acts chapter 12. So I want us to look at it together. I've been sort of debating what's the best way to go through this passage and I think I'm gonna do it just a little bit at a time. So bear with me. Acts chapter 12 verse one begins this way.
00:02:58
Speaker
About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. You know I was thinking about measuring violence, measuring evil and so forth and I thought you know
00:03:16
Speaker
All my life, I've been told there are just evil people during this age when I was in my teen years, one of my young adult, oh, there's evil people then. And then now that I'm growing even older, they're still saying, oh, there's bad people out there. You know, I just got to thinking, there are malicious people in this life. It's just that way because of sin.
00:03:41
Speaker
This passage later is going to tell us the time period. The time period here was around the Passover. The Passover season, remember, is when Jesus suffered and when he died. You know, they laid violent hands on our Savior. He was innocent. He hadn't done anything wrong.
00:04:01
Speaker
Yet here we come 12 years later, and we're going to see that here's another man who's going to be
Herod's Violence and Historical Comparison
00:04:08
Speaker
violent. His name was Herod, and so he died at 54 years of age. Historians can document when this particular Herod Agrippa passed away. He passed away in AD 49.
00:04:23
Speaker
But before he did, he was just, well, mean. So I got to thinking about this, laid violent hands. I thought about how there was a really godly deacon named Stephen, and he was stoned to death. Then I thought about how
00:04:40
Speaker
Saul, who later became the Apostle Paul, before he became a Christian, he was a dangerous man. Sometimes check out Acts chapter 8 verse 3 and Acts chapter 9 verse 1. He was dragging Christians into prison and so forth.
00:04:59
Speaker
So I just wanted you to just accept this reality that no matter where you live, no matter what season of life you're in, no matter what time period it is on the face of the earth, because of sin, there are always gonna be people like, well, the Old Testament guy, Haman. There's always gonna be an Abimelech. There's always gonna be a Cain, Herod the Great.
00:05:25
Speaker
Ramses, remember Pharaoh? There's always going to be Satan himself. So let's just accept this first thing, that it's really going to be hard to ever completely measure evil and people that are bad and malicious.
Providence and Human Suffering
00:05:43
Speaker
But that's not what I want to focus on. I want to move to a second thing that also I'm going to call it not malicious. Oh, no way.
00:05:51
Speaker
I'm going to call it mysterious. It's mysterious, but it's a good kind of mystery. Mysterious providence over human liberty.
00:06:02
Speaker
Have you ever struggled with how if God is in control, why do some things happen for good people that are good and then some things happen that are bad to people that are good? It's really hard to factor in how can the freedom of men and the providence of God both be true, but they are. I wanna introduce you to verses two through four.
The Church's Earnest Prayer
00:06:29
Speaker
Let me read through those as well.
00:06:32
Speaker
It says that Herod killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, can you imagine that pleasing anyone?
00:06:44
Speaker
But he did, when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to bring him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. Hmm.
00:07:09
Speaker
So here's an interesting thing. How is it that James suffers and he dies? And Peter, he suffers, but he doesn't die. Why is it that Herod was allowed to take James' life? And then you think, okay, how come Peter was given the freedom to live and Herod didn't get to take Peter's life?
00:07:35
Speaker
You know, back in Acts 5, verses 17-26, all of the apostles, not just James, not just Peter, I mean all of them were placed in a prison. But you know what happened? God miraculously led them out. That is so cool.
00:07:55
Speaker
The church in Jerusalem, I wonder if they assumed that's okay. You can put our boys in prison, but God's gonna get them out. Maybe that's what they were thinking.
00:08:07
Speaker
But can you imagine when they receive word, hey, this is not good news. We've got some very tragic news to share with you. James, our brother, James the Apostle, he was just put to death by Herod. Can you imagine the shock? Can you imagine what they felt when they also heard not only that, but now they've arrested Peter and he's in prison. They're saying that as soon as the Passover's over, they're going to take him out there and he will be publicly executed.
00:08:37
Speaker
Wow, why would that happen? You remember James and John, these two brothers,
00:08:45
Speaker
Remember they were talking to Jesus and the mom was helping them with this conversation. And Mark 10, 38 through 39 is interesting because they're saying, we wanna sit at your left hand and your right hand in glory. And he said, are you able to drink the cup that I am able to drink of? And they said, yes, we are. And he said, you will drink of the cup that I will drink of.
00:09:13
Speaker
But it is not my place to tell you you can sit at the right or to the left. Wow. You know, I just thought to myself, isn't it amazing that Jesus saw that this was going to happen before it happened? Couldn't he stop it? Couldn't God have stopped this whole thing? I mean, here they are. Verse four tells us they're intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So it wouldn't be good.
00:09:43
Speaker
But I'm still thinking about how wise God is and how in control. I am very comfortable with the providence of God. God just is so in control. He sits upon his throne. He's working out his plans.
00:09:59
Speaker
But personally, I don't always understand his plans. Do you? I'm not saying that everything that takes place in life is his plan, but all I'm saying is he can certainly interrupt things at any point. Which brings me to the main point that I wanted to talk about. The matchless prayer. Matchless prayer when we talk to the Lord.
00:10:25
Speaker
You see, verse five is gonna tell us something. Now keep in mind the historical context. Even though Peter was chained up in prison, I want you to listen to what the church was choosing to do in regards to Peter being in prison. Let me read verse five. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Hmm.
00:10:54
Speaker
Why would Peter have such heavy security detail around him? I mean, these words here, what they mean is he's got 16 soldiers who are watching him. 16 soldiers watching one man. I wonder if Herod was afraid if he thought something may take place.
00:11:15
Speaker
You see, whenever we pray, we're bringing God's matchless power. We're asking the one who is mysterious in his providence, we're asking him, would you please, please intervene on behalf of this one that we're praying for. What does it mean to pray for somebody earnestly? I think of the word passion.
00:11:44
Speaker
Do you ever pray with great fervor and passion? The Greek word here is ektenos. Ek means out, but tenos is the word we get when we're talking about tension, tension. And so it means to stretch. So ektenos means to stretch out. And so this church was stretching out in prayer and they were saying, oh, please God,
00:12:13
Speaker
This is what we're praying. And the verb tense here is they were offering this to God over and over and over again. Just like in Matthew seven, seven and eight, where he says, if you want something, you have to ask, you have to seek, you have to knock. But the verb there is the same thing. It's a present imperative. It means keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.
00:12:42
Speaker
I think sometimes, I'm going to be honest, sometimes I pray about something once, and I'm thinking that ought to be good. It's almost like I'm going through a drive-through window for fast food, and I'm saying, God, I would like one blessing to go, please. But I think that God, He wants us to enjoy His presence and to hang out with Him, and so He may not grant our prayer right away.
00:13:07
Speaker
And that's why I think that not only passion in our praying is important, but persistence in our praying is also, I think, important. But what about this whole idea of why do I have to pray with other people? Why can't I just pray by myself? And that's it. Well, he says here, Ernest's prayer for him was made to God by the church.
00:13:30
Speaker
You see, I have the blessing of being a part of a church and we pray for so many people all the time. Just last night, for example, we were praying for people. Some are going through the loss of a loved one. Some are going through sicknesses or some kind of surgeries. But the idea is we're praying for them together. I like that. And I think it matches scripture. And whenever we line up this way,
00:14:00
Speaker
I think get ready because prayer, I read a book one time that said, prayer is life's limitless reach because
00:14:12
Speaker
What's the, how far is prayer going to, what's it gonna accomplish? How far will it be able to reach? Well, because we're talking to God, his reach is limitless. So really, prayer is matchless. Hey, you don't understand, they've got Peter surrounded by 16 soldiers. You don't understand, he's in a locked up jail cell. That's okay, because whatever,
00:14:39
Speaker
is the problem, God's power, God's sufficiency, God's provision, God's interventions.
00:14:46
Speaker
It can be beyond whatever that is. That's why I'm saying it's matchless. So whatever your problem is, when you factor in God, he's way bigger. So just remember that whenever you face a challenge like this. But I wanna read on because I want you to understand the miraculous power beneath the load, no matter how much that we load on our plate when it comes to praying, it's okay. God's power can pull it.
00:15:16
Speaker
miraculous power beneath the
Peter's Miraculous Escape
00:15:18
Speaker
load. Let me read verses six through 11. Now when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night,
00:15:25
Speaker
Keep in mind, this is the night before his execution. Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. Could you sleep the night before you were going to be executed? Peter was down to sleep. I wonder if he had peace that surpasses all comprehension. But let me read on. It says, bound with two chains and centuries before the door regarding the prison.
00:15:47
Speaker
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him saying, get up quickly. And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, dress yourself, put on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me.
00:16:12
Speaker
And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord. And they went out and went along one street and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said,
00:16:40
Speaker
Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod,
00:16:49
Speaker
and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. Wow, what an incredible display of God's miraculous mighty power. You see, his power's never late. Verse six says, it was the night before. I mean, we're talking the 11th hour here in this whole scenario. He's just about to be executed when morning comes.
00:17:14
Speaker
But here comes God, He's never late. His power is also never locked out. Remember, He is locked up in prison. So what an incredible thing that that's not a problem for God. You know, there are some people, maybe you have a son or a daughter, perhaps a grandson, granddaughter, maybe a friend or coworker, and they're in an addiction. There's something that has them locked up.
00:17:39
Speaker
Is there any power? Is there any way that they could ever go out of that dark place where they are? Maybe it's depression. Yes, I want you to know that His power can bring them out. God, He's never locked out and He's never late. But whenever He shows up, we're ready to leave. He helps us to leave and He leads us out.
00:18:05
Speaker
You know, I thought that was interesting in verse 10, didn't you? When the city gate opens by itself, the word there is automatos. It's the word we get whenever we come up with automatic. So the door just automatically opens by itself. That's incredible.
00:18:23
Speaker
And then his power always brings liberty, doesn't it? I like the way that Peter, when he finally realizes that it wasn't a dream, wasn't a vision, he says, now I'm sure that the Lord has sent his angel. And what verb does he use? He rescued me.
00:18:39
Speaker
He rescued me. It means to remove you out of something, to remove or seize out of it. Man, God's power can definitely help us in whatever's got us locked up and in its clutches. Well, let me move to verses 12 through 17. There's another thing here. I want you to consider God's marvelous provision that goes beyond logic.
00:19:08
Speaker
You see, Peter couldn't believe this. I mean, he couldn't believe it, and he's actually the one this is all taking place for. But what about the church over there? What are they doing? You won't believe what they're doing. Let me read it, verses 12 to 17. When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.
00:19:34
Speaker
And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice in her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, you're out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was Saul. And they kept saying, it is his angel.
00:20:02
Speaker
but Peter continued knocking. And when they opened, they saw him and were amazed, but motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, tell these things to James and to the brothers. And then he departed and went to another place.
00:20:27
Speaker
What a marvelous provision. They couldn't even believe it. I mean, logically, this didn't make sense, right? How could this be happening? We're in here praying our hearts out because Peter's locked up in a jail cell. He can't be outside knocking at the door. This doesn't make sense.
00:20:46
Speaker
But I want to give them credit where credit is due. At least they were unshakable. You know, it's amazing, verse 12 says, they were gathered together and were praying. I mean, we're already into the nighttime, right? Because Peter's sleeping. And as soon as the dawn is there, man, he's history. They're going to take him out and they're going to execute him. But even at this late moment,
00:21:09
Speaker
These people, this church was saying, you know what, it's never too late for God. And so they were unshakable in their commitment to praying. I believe they were convinced of the truth that's described for us in Ephesians 3, 20 and 21. He can do exceedingly, abundantly beyond all that we ask or can even think of.
00:21:32
Speaker
Speaking of thinking, I think this went beyond their thinking. It was unthinkable. That's why this Rhoda, this little servant girl that goes to answer the door, she must have been the one that they said, if anybody knocks at the door, we're not going to get up from praying. We're going to keep praying. So you answer the door, Rhoda, OK? Yes, I will. She goes and answers the door. It's Peter.
00:21:58
Speaker
She's not opening that door. Man, she is so excited. This is Peter. They're in there praying for him. So it's unthinkable, but it's true. It's real. It's unbelievable because this group says, what do you mean Peter's out there? You must be out of your mind, Rhoda.
00:22:17
Speaker
Look, it's his angel. I mean, does that make sense? It's his angel? Really? I mean, the angel just went into a locked jail, so I don't think you have to open the door for an angel. I could be mistaken, but I'm thinking, what in the world? But the whole thing is unacceptable for one person. Peter, he's left out there in the street. They won't open the door. It's he keeps knocking. And so I wonder for Peter, it's like, this is unacceptable, guys. Why aren't you letting me in the house?
00:22:46
Speaker
But then when they come, they were so amazed. I mean, here it's undebatable. It's undebatable. There he stands. This is Peter. This is not Rhoda being out of her mind. This is not the angel of Peter.
00:23:03
Speaker
This is Peter. God just answered their prayer. You know, God may surprise you at some point in your life. Perhaps he's already done it. He's answered prayers that you never thought possible. He's definitely done that for me.
00:23:18
Speaker
I wanna go to something else that I wanted to end with verses 18 and 19.
Herod's Reaction and Senseless Actions
00:23:24
Speaker
It's not quite as exciting and as happy to think about as God's provisions, as God's power, as prayer, as God's providence and all of that, but it's real. And that is the meaningless punishment over loyalty. You know, it says in verse 18, now when day came,
00:23:44
Speaker
There was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.
00:23:51
Speaker
He disappeared. I mean, he was there. The two guys that were chained, I mean, he had two guys he was chained to. One on his right, one on his left. There's guys outside the prison door. So how in the world did this happen? It says, Herod searched for him and did not find him. Can you imagine Jerusalem? Man, they were turning over. They were opening every door, turning over every box, every rock. They were looking. He's gotta be here somewhere.
00:24:19
Speaker
But you know what it says? They did not find him. So I wonder if Herod was just discouraged about the whole thing. So what does he do? He looks for somebody he's got to blame. So he examined the centuries and ordered that they should be put to death. Isn't that sad? Isn't that sad? How meaningless. I mean, these guys, it wasn't their fault. There they were guarding Peter. He was there.
00:24:44
Speaker
And now he's not there, and they don't have an answer for it because I guess God wasn't on their radar, but he didn't stop God. It says, then Herod went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. Hmm. Sometimes I think people just disengage.
00:25:04
Speaker
When they just, I mean, God is so real. Sometimes we're like Peter and it's like, this doesn't make sense. I don't understand God. And yet, there it is. It's like, undebatable. This really took place. This really happened.
Conclusion and Reflection on God's Nature
00:25:21
Speaker
You know, just because you've never experienced God, don't write him off. He's very real. And all we have to do is to bow our hearts and our heads and invite him into our lives, into our situation, into whatever problem it is that's got you trapped. So let me lead us in a prayer in closing. And I just want to remind you that when it comes to God,
00:25:45
Speaker
He's absolutely measureless. It comes to his providence. We don't always understand when it comes to his provisions, his power, when it comes to him giving us the opportunity to simply pray. Why don't we do that now?
00:26:01
Speaker
Lord, thank you so much for passages of scripture like this one that verify, they substantiate for us, prayer really does get us connected with a limitless God. There's no way, humanly speaking, that these disciples could have gotten Peter out of that jail cell. And so I'm just so thankful that you got him out of there and that he was able to minister and to care, to share the good news and so forth.
00:26:30
Speaker
But Lord, we still come back to that same thing. Well, you did that for Peter, but what about James? Why not James? Lord, help us to realize that in this life, we're just not going to understand everything. There's free will of man, and sometimes men use their free will to do terrible things that are very bad.
00:26:51
Speaker
And then sometimes you just step in. And it's incredible how something that looks so impending, something that was going to happen, and yet somehow you make all the difference and you pull the plug on that plan. Anyway, I'm just thankful that you're running things and we can trust you.
00:27:10
Speaker
I'm so glad that you didn't make me a robot or puppet, that I do have freedom. But my freedom is also accountable to your sovereignty. And so help us realize that, Lord, we can talk to you at any point about any problem, anything that's weighing us down. So take care of my friends. Lord, give them the lift of knowing that when it comes to God, you're measureless. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
00:27:37
Speaker
Well, you have a great week. Thanks again for being with us today and growing in grace. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.