Oct 12
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Christ as King and Sovereign from Acts, chapter 12
ChristianGovernance eletter – October 6, 2012
If you need to be reinvigorated with a vision of Christ as King and Victor over His world, your life and the future, you need to return to the Acts of the Apostles, and read it with your eyes wide open. Account after account testifies to the gracious sovereignty of God and the defeat of His and our enemies.
Chapter 12 of Acts is one of those sections which bears witness to the power of God over His people and over His enemies. It begins with yet another jailbreak experience for the Apostle Peter.
You could perhaps forgive Peter for starting to take for granted that God would break him out of jail every time he got arrested! But he and God’s people apparently didn’t take this for granted because we are told that the Church earnestly prayed for him while he was imprisoned. We also have the rather humorous report of the girl who went to the door to receive the escaped Peter, and was so surprised that she rushed back to tell the others he was there without first opening the door to let Peter in.
Of course, we are told that just prior to Peter’s imprisonment here that James, the brother of John, had been executed by King Herod. These believers possessed a powerful vision of Christ as King, and an expanding Kingdom of God. They had seen God’s deliverance. But they had also experienced persecution, and they weren’t afraid of death because they had seen their Saviour-King pass through that gate victoriously. They were humble, yet bold, trusting in the providence of God.
One is struck by the single-mindedness of Peter in his Kingdom work. He got out of jail and went immediately to some who were praying for him, but the Scriptures say he didn’t stay there. It seems he was there just long enough to give God glory by sharing his testimony of escape, and then we was gone (v. 17). What a contrast to so many of our lives today with the way we prioritize rest and vacation. Peter was the New Testament Church’s first “Energizer Bunny.” He had a vision for God’s Kingdom and God’s glory, and he was on it…
Go back and read Acts 12. Luke goes into great detail with this prison break to show God’s power as well as his fatherly care for Peter. He doesn’t just pop open the doors of the jail and tell Peter, “There’s the door. Get out of here.” He sends an angel to Peter. And what does that angel do? Well, he makes sure Peter takes his clothes with him. Peter at first thinks it’s a vision. Even if he didn’t, he’d probably be so surprised that he wouldn’t think about much beyond getting out. So the angel looks out for him.
The angel then takes Peter out of the jail. This may have been a larger jail. There were two sets of guards to pass, and then an iron gate beyond them: “It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.” God rules. He is King. But, unlike the evil false gods of so many other religions, He is remarkably personal, devoted to His people and their well-being. Nothing in our lives escapes His watchful care.
As exciting as Peter’s jailbreak is, there’s one more report in this chapter that is just as inspiring and comforting for God’s people: God turned King Herod into worm-food! Many Christians today wouldn’t put that report in the Bible because we’ve adopted a feminized religion in place of the true Gospel. God did have Luke include that report. It demonstrates God’s gracious and providential care over His people. God’s not a relativist. He makes distinctions between good and evil, friends and enemies, the righteous and the unrighteous. This is not how many Christians fraudulently portray God. Many Christians would prefer this account to be in the Old Testament. It doesn’t fit their neat and tidy caricature of the New Testament God.
The explicit reason given for why God killed Herod was the man’s overt idolatry and blasphemy. He was receiving praise and devotion from people who were attributing divinity to him. It seems from the account that they weren’t doing this because they really believed him to be a god. Rather, they were in fear of Herod because he was a despicable and cruel tyrant; an oppressor, who had the power to starve them to death (v. 20).
At the beginning of chapter 12, we also read that he was persecuting the Christians. He was the one who had James killed and Peter imprisoned. He was over-reaching big time, and had declared war on Christ and His Church. God took a personal interest in King Herod, but to his death, not his salvation.
God is a glorious God who protects and preserves His people in the battlefield of this world, destroying his, and our, enemies, as He builds His Church and advances His Kingdom. God turned Herod – a king – into worm-food – for His own glory and the blessed protection of His people.
But He broke Peter out of jail, sending him an angel to walk with him; to help him successfully escape.