Through the Bible

Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 10. We finished up last week with Cornelius and the Gentiles in Cornelius' house coming to Christ and being baptized, filled with the Spirit. And so in chapter 11, following that, the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him,

saying, You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them. One of the things that we're seeing in the book of Acts, and especially in these chapters, is that God always does things in a way that we don't expect Him to do it. We may think we have God figured out, and it's just when we think we do that He turns a corner that we hadn't anticipated. But in those corners, His grace is always greater and His mercy is always greater than we are.

His grace is always greater than the grace that we would offer. God is a righteous God and a just God, and He hates sin and He judges sin. But those things are at the end of His name that He declares to Moses in Exodus. And He puts Moses in the cleft of the rock and puts His hand over his face so that he can't see the face of God and be consumed. If he did, he'd be consumed.

He declares His name as He passes by, and His name is a long name. It's the Lord, the Lord, the merciful God, abounding in love and mercy and forgiveness and compassion. That's first. When God declares His name to Moses in the name of the Lord, His love and His mercy and His grace, abounding, is always at the beginning of His name. That's always first to the Lord.

At the end of His name, He declares who judges the sinner, who brings judgment to the sinner and takes care of those on down to the third and the fourth generation. The idea is that sin does not escape the judgment of God. But somehow we turn that around. We get it turned around in our own focus and our own thinking and think of God as this God that's just ready to whack you for anything that you do wrong and forget that He is abounding in love and mercy and compassion.

So He's more gracious than we are.

They had been circumcised, they had been kosher, they kept the feast days, they kept all the ordinances of the law. And so it was natural to them for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon them. But the idea that the Holy Spirit was going to be poured out on others kind of frosted them because after all, what had they done? Were the ones been obedient to the law and all this stuff all these years?

And so they were upset. They were, they took, it says in New American Standard, they took issue with Him. They were upset that He would, you went to an uncircumcised, into uncircumcised men and ate with them? That was a violation of the law. They were not pure according to the laws of Moses. But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence.

Now that's something in New American Standard you just read over. And I can't remember what it says in the other translations, I read it and I thought it was funny because it's easy to read over because that's not Peter. Peter's not much orderly in anything as a disciple in the Gospels. But here, it implies that he had an eloquence to what he did. He laid it out in order.

He brought it forth in order, in an understandable order, and he just rehearses for the brethren there in Judea and Jerusalem what happened to him when he saw the vision.

But a voice from heaven answered a second time, What God has cleansed no longer consider unholy. And this happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into the sky. And behold, at that moment three men appeared at the house in which we were eating, or in which we were staying, having been sent to me from Caesarea. And the Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings, and these six brethren also went with me, and we entered the man's house.

And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here, and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household. And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. And then Peter shares this. This is what he was thinking.

We didn't hear this in chapter 10 when this was all happening, but it's one of those things when it happened, this is what came to Peter's mind. I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And that's a correct application of that scripture. That's a correct application of John, John's gospel.

Therefore, if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us, also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way? And when they had heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also that repentance, that repentance that leads to life. To me, this verifies one of the reasons that God evidences in the book of Acts, the pouring out of His Spirit the way that He did. The four different groupings of individuals, the Jews, the Samaritans, the followers of Moses, the Old Testament believers, and the Gentiles, they all, when they heard the word and when the hands were laid on them, in the one case, received the Holy Spirit with this

evidence of speaking in tongues, because it verified the bringing in of the different groups that, according to the Jew, was alienated from them. They weren't as good as the Samaritans, of course. Jews and Samaritans had hated each other ever since the dispersion by the Babylonians and the Assyrians. The Gentiles, there's nothing, there's no good Gentile. I mean, yeah, we read where there were good centurions who helped the Jews and all, but

still in the Jewish mind, they were less than. There was no way they were going to heaven. They weren't Jewish. Even the Jewish proselytes, those who proselyted to Judaism, the Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius had become a believer and prayed. I mean, he obviously was identifying himself with Yahweh. Still in the Jewish mind, he would have been less than the Jew, because they were entrusted,

they were called by God, they were entrusted with the law of God, with the ordinances of God, with the requirements to keep the feasts of God. No other nation was, no other people group was. So the way the Holy Spirit is given and manifested in the book of Acts is done in such a way that it brings all the different groups together. And like Peter said, it happened to them like it happened to us.

Who was I to stand in God's way? And they affirmed that, well, I guess God's granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. It was evident. So from that point on, much as they may not like it, the Gentiles are a part of the church as well. Now there's still some disputing. And when we get to chapter 15, the Jerusalem Council, we'll see that some things were resolved

by that council. By no means is it just automatically, wow, accepted and a good deal, you know, with all of the Jews that the Gentiles are part of the church or that the Samaritans are part of the church. So as much as we'd like to say, boy, I'd really like to be like the first century church. Why can't we be like the first century church? In essence, we are.

But we have all the infightings and the disputes and all of that stuff. Well, read 1 Corinthians. I mean, they did too. They had, we have the same kinds of things that they do. And more often than not, it's because we box up God. We restrict Him to moving in our ways, how we perceive that He ought to move instead of going back to the Word and being reminded again of how He does move, like here in the

book of Acts. Okay, that's just one evidence in the chapters tonight that God's moving in a different way than the men were perceiving. So verse 19, and if you have a study Bible, there's a little bold header between verse 18 and 19. It just shows a location break. Keep the same thought that I just mentioned as far as God moving in different ways to unite the people for the one purpose.

So then those, verse 19, who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen, made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. They were dispersed. At the stoning of Stephen, that's when Saul really started stepping up the persecution. Stephen was stoned, Saul started stepping up the persecution against these believers.

They were Jews who had gone after the Messiah, who had said the Messiah has come, our long-expected Messiah has come, Jesus is Him, and the hardline Jews were trying to eradicate that. That's when the Jews that were in Jerusalem were dispersed, and they went out to all of

And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number, who believed, turned to the Lord. And several things you could note, the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number, you could circle that, who believed, turned to the Lord. They were wanting to keep it us four, no more, shut the door. Our group, that's it, let's quit, you know? And God's wanting to spread it to the undesirables.

Again, a cool vision for us, I think, you know, as carcass pickers. We're the carcass pickers. We're the ones who go and take the leftovers, the people nobody else wants. The down-and-outers, the burned-out ones, the downtrodden, the broken ones, the one who's been burned from churchianity and all of this, that kind of restrictiveness. And then here comes Calvary Chapelites along, and just kind of put your arm around them

and say, hey, God loves you. Oh, well, who are you guys? Well, we're just Calvary Chapel. What denomination is that? Well, it really isn't, you know? It is now, kind of, but it isn't. Well, how do you define it? Well, we just love the Lord, and we study His word. And it's something that's, it's odd. It's not a part of main line. We're not charismatic in the sense that we're, you know, hyper with the demonstration of

the manifestation of the gifts at every service, but we believe in the gifts for today. All of the gifts. All the gifts are in operation today. It's just God operates them. And so the emphasis that He has in His word is His word, and the gifts follow. So that's what we do. We focus on the word, and the gifts follow. So we're not charismatic or hyper-charismatic.

We're not main line denomination in the sense that we follow some, you know, rigid liturgy in order of service. My goodness, look at this, you know? This is not main line. But the emphasis is on the word of God. So we're moving in a way that's outside the box, even though there are those today that are further outside the box even than we are. That's the idea here.

And the emphasis is on the word. These guys came up from Cyprus and Cyrene who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord. They knew that Jesus and the gospel belonged to everybody. Everybody needs to hear this, not just our little group, those that are just like us. Everybody needs to hear Jesus. The prostitutes and the pimps and the gangbangers and, you know, those in prison, the alcoholics,

the drug users, all of them need to hear that Jesus loves them. The compassion of the Lord. They've heard about the God of vengeance and righteousness and wrath who judges sin. They've heard that, trying to scare them into heaven. And they've run from that because the people that have proclaimed it have condemned them. Just like the Jews were condemning Peter and the idea of Cornelius and the idea of the

Greeks. But they needed to see the compassion of the Lord, that God loves you, that God has given his life for you. And so they began to proclaim the Lord to the Greeks also, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. And the news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem. And they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. Now, Barnabas, remember Barnabas, back when the church was first born.

He was one who was so excited and sold things that he had and brought the money to the apostles' feet, laid it there so that they could be dispersed to help with the needs of those that were coming to Christ in great numbers. His name means the Son of Encouragement. And he was the encourager, and he was still the encourager. And so they sent him off from Jerusalem to Antioch to go and verify what was going on.

Verse 23, when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God. That's the evidence, is God's grace and God's mercy and God's love working in the people. That's what he was looking for. He saw God's grace. It doesn't say that he went and he saw immediate fantastic obedience and, you know, great book burning and all of these mystical arts, although we'll see that in one of the places in Acts

in chapter 19. He saw the grace. He saw the people. He saw the different variety of peoples, primarily the Greeks who were considered barbarians by the Jews, obviously filled with the Spirit and the love of God. And he saw that the grace of God had been bestowed on even those. He saw the grace of God. He rejoiced and he began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to

the Lord. He began to encourage them, stay true. Now why would he need to encourage them to stay true? Well, for one thing, they were not only going to get persecution that was going to be coming from the empire, it hadn't really been coming that way yet, but they're going to get whammed from the Jews because the ones that had come up there first were declaring it just to the

And so Barnabas encourages them to stay strong, remain true to the Lord. For he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit, Barnabas was, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. The people need to hear these last days, that we're in the last days, that Jesus is coming and He's coming soon. But they need to continue to hear about the great grace of the Lord and be encouraged to draw up on that great grace, God's wonderful grace, to draw them along. I'm taking my high school kids through

the book of Revelation. We're in chapter 16. We've just had the seventh bowl poured out. And it's like I've told them the last several days we've been in this. Well, ever since actually the first seal was broken in chapter 5, it's been, you know, one thing after another, one calamity after another. And they increase from the seals to the trumpets and now to the bowls. And I said, I really

hate to go through this stuff, you know. We spend an hour in it and we get through. And of course the seven bowls are, you know, the first bowl is poured out on the earth and great boils come over all the people. And the second bowl is poured out on the sea and the sea turns to blood. Third bowl is poured out on all the fresh water in the springs and they all turn to blood and

everything in them dies. And then the next bowl is poured out on the sun and it scorches people. And the next bowl is this darkness, you know. And I say, you know, I hate to go through all this and say, God bless you, have a nice day, you know, after we've been through all this. And so I tell them, you know, we're going through this. And it's interesting because in chapter 16, there's a verse

stuck in the middle there. Well, let me show it to you. Turn to Revelation real quick because it fits. It fits with what we're going through here. Revelation 16.

So you have all the...starting with verse 1, you have all of the bowls or the vials being poured out on the earth. Bowls of the wrath of God and all these different vials. And verse 13, and I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs for their spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for war at the great day of God Almighty. And, you know, we're talking about the different plagues that are happening and how these plagues really coincide quite a bit with the plagues of Moses. I mean, there's the water turning to blood, there's darkness, there's the

frogs, we talked about all of these things, and then ultimately the hail down at the end. Several of the plagues only on steroids in Revelation are the same type of plagues as Moses. And so we're going through all this and all of a sudden, and in your Bible it may even be in parenthesis, verse 15, Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that we will not walk about naked and men will not see his...see his shame. And that's totally out of place for this. Verse 16, And they gathered them

together at the place in Hebrew which is called Armageddon. What's verse 15? Well, verse 15, I told him, I think it's God, you know, this was overwhelming for John. Imagine, you're the guy got to write all this down. Okay, I'm gonna show you all this stuff's gonna happen, and you write it down so you can tell everybody else. And you're writing down seals and trumpets and plagues, oh my. Seals and

trumpets and bolts, oh my. And all of these, and all of these, and it's just going to be overwhelming to you because, in a sense, he's getting to see the devastation, the numbers of people that are going to die as a result of this. And over and over and over down, well, if you go even clear to the end of the section there in Revelation, it's over and over in there. And they still refuse.

They refused. They cursed God, and they refused to turn from their wickedness. They cursed God, and they refused to turn from their sin. What God is doing here is reminding John, and John reminds the reader who's going to be overwhelmed at this time, you don't want to be here. So, the rapture is coming. And that's a, that is a rapture verse. And it's not talking about the rapture coming during the

middle of the tribulation, but it's a reminder to be ready. Behold, I'm coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so they will not walk about naked, and men will not see his shame. As this is happening here, you want to be, and he's actually referencing back towards the virgins in Matthew's gospel. Be ready. Stay awake. Be ready. Have your

stuff ready. Be ready to go. So you're going to be taken out of here, so you don't have to go through this. That's grace. He's talking grace in the midst of all of this judgment. That's, that's what happened, that's what's happening back in the book of Acts. Now get the back, back to the book of Acts, is grace. Barnabas comes, and great grace. He sees the great grace that's there, and he pours out more

grace. He encourages him, stay strong. And as he encourages him to stay strong, even more come to Christ. And so he sees the numbers that are coming, and he knows that that church needs help. There's all these Gentiles coming in who know absolutely nothing about Jew, about Judaism. And so they don't understand the foundation that was laid for this gospel that's now being presented. And they're

going to need help. They're going to need all kinds of help in coming about, talking to them about the background, as well as keeping the Jews that are there, that are believers in line, so that they don't, you know, hold it over these guys. And so what does he do? He goes, in verse 25, he left for Tarsus to look for Saul. And God's moving him to do this. Saul, who is Paul, who becomes Paul in this section, has

been spending time in Tarsus just with the Lord, and God's sending Barnabas to bring him down to Antioch, because there's work that needs to be done. When he'd found him, verse 26, he brought him to Antioch, and for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Little Christs. Little Christs. Christian

means little Christ. They're just like the big one. They're just like the real one. They're little Christ. You guys are following. You're just like him. What a compliment. You know, you're just like, just like Jesus. Jesusites. You know, they call them Christians. Messiah. Messiahites. Followers of Messiah. First called that in Antioch. Now at this time some of the prophets came down from Jerusalem to

Antioch, and one of them named Agabus. He's going to show up later in the book of Acts when Paul's on his way back to Jerusalem to die. Agabus came and he stood up and he began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. And this took place in the reign of Claudius. And Claudius, when Claudius was the Caesar and he was reigning, that particular

famine took place that Agabus was talking about. And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea. And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders. A couple things I want you to notice. It's the brothers determined to do that. And I don't know that Saul and

Barnabas spearheaded it, although I imagine that the people were seeing the goodness again of Barnabas like they saw in Jerusalem at the birth of the church when Barnabas was dispersing goods to help the people. I'm sure they saw that in Barnabas. And one of the things that happened when Agabus says there's going to be this great need, and they were talking, they would have been talking, it was going to happen all over the world. It was going to be something that would happen all over the world. But part of what they were understanding was

the Jews in Jerusalem who had become Christians were now being, they were so persecuted they were being ostracized from any contact much with the Jewish community. They were still allowed to go to the temple. But as far as, you know, a lot of the merchants, according to Josephus, were refusing to sell to them or take any of their goods in trade. And so they were having a tough time with the famine coming on. These brothers who are now a Jewish-Gentile mix in Antioch

are moved by the Spirit to give, to help meet the need of those in Jerusalem. These are the ones who were upset because Gentiles were coming in. These are the ones who, when they came to Antioch and Cyprus and all, they preached only to the Jews first. But now the church is setting those things aside and saying, these are brothers that are in need, let's help them out.

Grace. Overlooking the faults, the wrongs, the injustices that have been done to them, and returning grace. That's what Peter talks about. We're getting to that in our study of 1 Peter. We've gotten to some of it. We just got to some of it this last time when I talked about the example that Christ gave. When he reviled, he reviled not again. He didn't offer, you know, but he became

like a lamb. And in a couple of, well, further down in chapter 3 and 4 in 1 Peter, we'll see where, when we are reviled that way, we're to pour out this kind of grace on those who revile us. Because people are used to retaliation. You know, hit me with your fist, I bring a bat. Hit me with a bat, I bring a gun. Come with a gun, I get a bigger gun. Mutually assured destruction. Mad. We have

more missiles than Russia has, so they better not fire one at us or we'll totally blow them off. We'll make a big ditch over, you know, in Moscow. So when somebody comes against and they're shown grace and love, people don't know how to respond to that. Now granted, a lot of people have been overwhelmed and overrun with that, but ultimately the grace of God wins and people come to Christ as a result. Look at Saul. He was overrunning them and

dragging them back to die. Killing some of them, as is indicated in Galatians. He called himself the chief of sinners because of things that he'd done in his past. And yet he understood the grace of God. God's grace had been bestowed upon him. And that's what he was wanting to tell the people about. I mean, he could connect all the letters and dot all the I's and cross all the T's. He could take you

from the book of Genesis all the way up to the Gospels and show you how Jesus fit in every page and every paragraph. But what he wanted to tell the people about was the grace of God. How God's grace had found him and lifted him up and wiped him off and cleaned him up. And the love of God had sustained him and would continue to sustain him and he can sustain you. And that's what Paul was

wanting to tell them. And that's what's happening here. As a result of them, Paul and Barnabas ministering to this church for a year, when they hear about the people that are having need, in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea. They did that. And they said, well, who better to send

that with than let's send it with Barnabas and Saul to the elders. Now that's big to watch because things are going to happen in the next couple of chapters. Chapter 13, it actually happens. But this is the first missionary adventure of Barnabas and Saul. I mean, they're just couriers right now taking this financial relief to the brothers in Jerusalem, to the church in

Jerusalem. But it's God working already to send Barnabas and Saul. They're the first two that are sent out from Antioch in chapter 13 on a missionary journey. Why? Again, because they're already functioning in that area. You know, don't be sitting around wondering, when is the Spirit of God going to move on me? I'm going to do whatever wonderful things God wants me to do. No, you see a

need, you begin to move to meet it. Period. We're to be other-centered anyhow. We're to be doing things for others, to helping others. Coming out of graves yesterday, we stopped into graves to get some fresh bandages for Ann's dressing and stuff. And I was real concerned with her being out on the ice and all. She can't get hurt, she can't get sick. You know, we can't afford that.

Not money-wise, we can't afford it. She can't afford it health-wise. And so I'm making sure we're walking along the ice, and as we're walking, the car next to us, there's a little older lady. I mean, we're little old people. There was a little older lady than us in the car trying to back away from the curve, and she couldn't. She was just spinning. And I told Ann, stay, don't go anywhere.

We're going to that car, but just stay right here. And I went, and I pushed her back out, you know, just pushed around the street. And she smiled, and she went. She was just really frustrated. She couldn't get away from the curve. And I just pushed her out. Always other-centered, always looking for ways we can minister. That's what we do. Don't wait to get tapped and say, hey, would you do

this or would you do that? You see a need, you move to meet it. And while you're seeing the need and moving to meet it, God raises up a ministry. That's what He's doing with Barnabas and Saul. They saw a need. They said, hey, let's send this to Jerusalem with Saul and Barnabas. And a ministry is being developed. Missionaries are being developed to be sent out to evangelize the entire world.

Chapter 12, now about the same time, about that time, same thing's going on, Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. James and John, the sons of thunder. He gets James, and he puts him to death. Right off. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, and remember the Jews

are the ruling Jews, the elders, the Sanhedrin. It pleased, that's what they were wanting to do. That's what Saul was supposed to have been doing until he lost his mind on the road to Damascus and became one of them. So when Herod does that, when he kills James, and he sees that it pleases the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Wow, I got the big dog. Got some of the big dogs

here. He was going to do the same thing to him. That's interesting. Luke tells us here, he did this. This all happened not coincidentally, but by design, by God's design. This happened during the Days of Unleavened Bread. It's Passover, seven-day feast. Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover coincide. They're all part of the same feast. When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to

four squads of soldiers to guard him. Four soldiers to a squad, four squads. Each squad takes a watch during the night, during the four watches of the night. So nobody's asleep. Everybody's awake. These are four squads. Same kind of setup, was sent to guard the tomb. And we know what happened there. So you guys, remember those guys. And nothing happens to Peter. Nobody gets in, and he doesn't get out.

Four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. So he's gonna, he has him in custody. Yay! You know, people, yay! All right, Peter, I got Peter now. But he's gonna not desecrate the feast by killing him during the feast, like they made that mistake with Jesus. So let's wait until after the feast, then we'll kill him. To bring him out before the

people. So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. So the church is engaged in massive prayer because Peter's been arrested. Wow! I mean, we know they were praying anyhow, probably because of the famine that was going on. But now Peter's been arrested, and so they are praying fervently. Fervent prayer is being made by the church to God. Isn't it

interesting? Why did God have Peter put in prison? Well, God had numerous reasons for it. One of them is so that the church would get on the stick and really pray. Why? Because God's going to do a miracle as a result of their fervent prayer that's going to bless the church even more, make the church stronger. Again, here's God moving in a way that we're not, you know. I mean, it just doesn't seem

right, Lord. Why? Peter's a big dog. They've already killed James. Why let Peter get arrested? They're obviously going to try and kill him, too. Why are you going to do that? They must have been thinking. But it caused them to pray fervently. Why does God allow some of these things to happen in our lives that are just overwhelming? And it's just, God, haven't we been serving you? They've been serving the

Lord. I mean, they've been standing strong in the midst of the persecution, in the midst of the famine. Why, God, are you adding insult to injury? By now, Peter's arrested, and they're obviously going to try and kill him because they want you to pray fervently. So why is that happening to us? Why are the different things happening to us? Why do the different things break? Why do the relationships we

have have conflict? Why, all of a sudden, do we have financial crises in our lives? So that we will fervently pray. Oh, we get frustrated, and we get mad, and we throw temper tantrums, and we swear, and we do all those things until we exhaust ourselves, and then we start to pray. Now, the church did that, and God keeps allowing these things so that our time between tantrum and fervent prayer

diminishes to where tantrum leaves, and the minute crisis hits, I'm on my knees. The minute crisis hits, I am fervently praying because I know God's in control ultimately. I can't see it or understand it, but I believe from His Word that He's in ultimate control, and so I begin to just pray, and ask Him, and beseech Him, and ask Him for strength, ask Him for wisdom, ask Him to free Peter, you know, ask Him whatever. God, answer my financial need, answer my relational need, answer my physical need, whatever it is, but God give me strength, and in the midst give me grace. Let me be your vessel in the midst, praying fervently.

That's what they needed to be doing. And on the very night, literally the night before Herod was about to bring Peter out, bring him to the people, and then kill him, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in the front of the door were watching over the prison. Nobody was sleeping but Peter. These guys are awake. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared, and a

light shone in the cell, and he struck Peter's side, and woke him up, saying, Now, anytime it seems like we see angels in Scripture, they're moving fast. I got to go. You know, Gabriel came to Daniel. Daniel, I'm here. You know, I'm going to tell you about the seventieth week, and all these things that you're talking about here, but then I got to go, because I got fighting off the guy, the king of

Persia, the prince of Persia, and I was having trouble getting here, and Michael had to come and take over so I could come, and then I got to go back, and then we're going to battle him, and he goes on that. He's in a hurry. They've got to go. And I kind of think, other than in the book of Revelation, there's times that John sees the angels, and he falls at their feet, and they go, hey, no, get up, we're just like you.

You know, don't worship God. Worship the Lord, not us. I think that's one of the reasons that when angels appear in Scripture, they move quick so that we can't worship them, so that the people couldn't worship them. Peter, wax him on the side, wax him on the side, you know, so much for the gentleness of an angel. Peter, get up. Touched by an angel. Get up quickly, and his chains fell off his hands, and the angel said to him, gird yourself

and put on your sandals, and he did so, and he said to him, wrap your cloak around and follow me. He said, gird yourself, you know, it means pull up your robe and stuff it in your belt because we're going to move. We're going to move fast. Gird up your loins. It means to get ready to fight, get ready to move, and then put your cloak on. It's going to be chilly.

Get ready, and let's go, and follow me. And he went out, and he continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but he thought he was seeing a vision. Why? Because you've got four guards. You've got guards on either side of you that are awake, and you've got two guards watching the cell that are awake. This is happening, and these guys are awake.

So Peter's thinking, this has to be a dream, you know. This can't be real. I mean, it doesn't say that he thumbed his nose at the guards when they walked by, but I wouldn't be surprised, you know, if he's kind of going, this has to be a dream. It can't be real. Verse 10, and when they'd passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself.

And they went out and went along one street, and immediately, there he goes, the angel departed from him. That's all the angel was there for, to get him out of there. That's all he was sent to do, was just get him out of there. Now how he did it, and how he moved them by the guards when the guards were awake, that's the Lord. That's God moving. Possibly moved Peter into the other dimension, and the angels didn't see it.

It could have happened in the blink of an eye, as far as it all, you know. They weren't aware that it was, the guards weren't aware that it was happening. I don't know how they did it. It's just a God thing. It is a miracle. Peter comes to himself, it says in verse 11. When Peter came to himself, he realizes this is not a dream. He says, now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth his angel and rescued me from

Jesus, the Passover, celebrated the Passover feast with Jesus, the night that he was arrested. And that's where he went, because that's where he knew that they were, a lot of believers gathered together. Many were gathered together there and were praying. It's Barnabas' nephew too, is that John Mark. And they were praying, and when he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant girl named

Rhoda, whose name means Rose, Rose came to answer. And she recognized Peter's voice. She probably said, who is it? And he said, it's Peter. She didn't open the door. She said, who is it? Recognized Peter's voice. Because of her joy, she did not open the gate. But she ran and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. And they said to her, you are nuts, you're out of your mind.

But she kept insisting that it was so. Here's the evidence of excitement. The natural mind, when the first one would say, you're nuts, would be to what? Go open the door. When somebody says, you're nuts, it's not Peter, rather than standing there trying to argue for your sanity, just go open the door. Go get the evidence. But she's standing there arguing with him.

You're out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was so. And they kept saying, it's his angel. Peter kept knocking. And when they finally came and opened the door, they thought it was him. They were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had let him out of the prison. And he said, report these things to James and the brethren.

This is James, the brother of Jesus, because the other James had already been martyred. And then he left and he went to another place. And we don't know where he went, but they were looking for him. So he went into hiding. We don't know where. Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. When Herod searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and he ordered

that they be led away to execution. Remember, that's the rules. You guard the prisoner, the prisoner gets away, you suffer the consequences of the prisoner, the prisoner's sentence. That's why when Paul and Silas are in prison in Philippi and there's an earthquake and their chains fall off and their stocks fly open, the jailer's ready to kill himself. As all the doors fly open, the stocks fall off of Paul and Silas, and he realizes, I'm

going to die for all of them, might as well kill myself now because they'll kill me in a painful way. And Paul says, no, you know, don't harm yourself, we're all still here. And the guard's going, okay, I got to know why. What's the deal? And what an open opportunity for the gospel because of the circumstances. Same thing here. Because of the circumstances, it happened contrary to a way we would think an opportunity,

a door is open to share the gospel and share the miracle of what God is doing. Anne and I have been able to share with people we wouldn't normally be talking to because of her ALS. Because of what we are going through. And people are constantly saying, I don't know how you do it. I couldn't do it. And we get to talk to them about the Lord. It's a door. It's an opportunity.

So the things that happen that are seemingly catastrophic are just God moving in ways of his great grace because somebody's going to be reached. Somebody's going to get to hear the gospel. He doesn't want them to perish. He wants them to know how much he loves them. How much he wants to draw them to him and forgive them and cleanse them and nurture them and nourish them and raise them up in him and bless them with all the heavenly blessings,

all the spiritual blessings in heavenly places. And God uses these difficult circumstances in our lives to accomplish that. So as these difficult things begin to happen, and they're going to happen more and more between now and the time the Lord comes, may we not be soon shaken as they do. I mean, it's hard. It's hard not to focus on the pain or the condition of the circumstance because it's

right there. I mean, it's right in front of you. But it's to come back to the word and be reminded, God, you're doing this for a reason. Your grace is sufficient. Your grace will sustain me. Your mercy will sustain me. And through this, you're wanting to reach somebody else. You're wanting my life to touch somebody else's life. You're wanting me to talk to them about the grace that I've received.

So may God stimulate us all where that grace is concerned. If we're, if we're, if we've forgotten that, may God renew that in our hearts tonight. His grace, his wonderful abounding grace, abounding love and mercy. Because he's moving to touch others who, who need to know Jesus. So Herod has all of these guards executed and then he goes down from Judea to Caesarea

and he's spending time there. Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. Those are coastal cities, Phoenician cities. With one accord, they came to him though and having won over Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they were asking for peace because their country was fed by the king's country. So there was an economic crisis. And there's an appeal to Israel, to King Herod, for assistance.

Let's have peace. We'll help each other out during these difficult times, during the famine that's going on. And so on an appointed day, Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. Now this is all politics. This is politics. We're being given a glimpse into politics, the political realm. And Herod is there.

He's in Tyre and Sidon. He's addressing the Phoenicians about how they're going to live together mutually and we're going to have this mutual assistance pact and all, and what we can do for one another. And as he's addressing them, the people kept crying out, this is the voice of a god and not of a man. Sound familiar? Like today? Well, what does President-elect Obama have to say about the car situation?

What does President-elect Obama have to say about the governor of Illinois being arrested for trying to sell the Senate seat of Illinois? What does President-elect Obama have to say? Because when President-elect Obama speaks, people listen. Remember E.F. Hutton? It's almost this way. It's almost like, whatever he says, you know, he's, I mean, Jesse Jackson called him the

Messiah. He's our Messiah. He's the Messiah that's come. People kept crying out, the voice of a god and not a man. And immediately, an angel of the Lord struck Herod because he did not give God the glory. He didn't say, no, I'm just a man. I'm just, I'm a king. You know, I'm appointed, elected, or, you know, appointed, and it's in my family. We're all Herods.

You know, we're all part of the Herodian dynasty. And it's just by God. It's what I've heard. It's, you know, I mean, a line God's raising. He's in his regal garments. He's in his great robes, his great royal apparel, and he's basking in it. I think it's Josephus, I remember reading in the commentary, said that the gold and the silver that was on his garment reflected in the sun, and from the podium it looked

like just a brilliant light was shining forth as he spoke. So he has this presence and countenance and the voice of a god, and he doesn't contradict that. And so God smites him. God sent an angel of the Lord and struck him down because he didn't give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms, and he died. Not a fun way to go, you know. Being run over by a chariot would have been a lot easier than being eaten by worms.

Being run through with a sword. But he's eaten by worms, and he died. Why? Because his heart was rotten on the inside. Yuck. May we learn from that one, too, and as God appoints us and brings us into positions of authority, may we be quick to say, yes, Lord, strengthen me, God, let me have your wisdom to deal with these particular situations. You get the glory, not me.

Keep my heart soft. Don't let me think myself greater than I really am. All of these things that are in his word in each of the epistles, those things that we need to be reminded of daily in these positions of authority. So Herod smote James, and God said, okay, this is for James. Don't mess with my people. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, and when they had fulfilled their mission,

well, lo and behold, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark, they went back to Antioch, Paul, and Barnabas, and John Mark. Gee, that's the first missionary journey that happens in chapter 13. We'll get to that next time. But again, they were just doing it. There was a need. They did it. They saw the need. They were available.

Not waiting for a program, or a title, or an office, or whatever, but help us to see the needs and begin to move, and then let you put the identifiers on it. Father, let us be quick again when the difficult times come to affirm that we're in a difficult

to be fun, going along those things, getting out of prison like Peter got out of prison, having you manifest yourself in mighty ways for your glory's sake. Lord, we want to be a part of that in these last days, and we give you thanks and praise in Jesus' name, amen, amen.