The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain, playing with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 12, verses 20 through 25.

Tony Clark: Nothing is worse than the people of Tyre and Sidon. In these verses, they seek to make peace. "Well, Pastor Tony, it wasn't my fault." I don't care. The Bible says as much as it depends upon you to live peaceably with all men. You don't want regrets if it's a parent and they're getting older. You don't know around what corner death is. "Well, see, you know, they were the ones that left the family." I don't care.

As much as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all men. God is speaking to some folks today because you don't want to do it all because you're hurt and in your feelings. As much as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all men. This is what the representatives of the people of Tyre and Sidon did for King Herod. What happened next?

Look at verse 21. "So on a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them." I want to draw your attention to the phrase "on a set day." According to the Jewish historian Josephus, he said that this set day was a feast in honor of the Emperor Claudius Caesar in 44 AD. It was believed to have been his birthday.

So King Herod put on his royal apparel or his garments and sat on his throne and gave an oration or speech to the people. It's obvious that he was a very gifted orator as we're going to see, referring to the people of Tyre and Sidon that he's giving this speech to. Now, we know that they met in an amphitheater built by Herod the Great.

Josephus describes this scene in his own words. I quote, "Herod put on a garment made wholly of silver and of a contexture truly wonderful. He came into the theater early in the morning, at which time the silver of his garment being illumined by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays upon it, shone out after a surprising manner." This is the Antiquities, section 19, volume seven, and page two that he talks about this.

The people of Tyre and Sidon were so overwhelmed by the sight and his speech, no doubt to flatter him, they shouted in verse 22, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" Now, "the voice of a god and not of a man." Josephus describes also in the same volume that Herod did neither rebuke them nor reject their impious flattery. And God's judgment was swift.

Look what it says there in verse 23. "Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died." God didn't waste any time. He didn't waste any time because this verse says, "then immediately." An angel struck him. Maybe it was the same angel that delivered Peter from prison, we don't know.

But why did God strike Herod like this? Because the last part of this verse says, "because he did not give glory to God." I have to ask us: Who gets the glory when you do things? Is it you or is it God? Matthew 5:16 says, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

The Greek word for glorify is *doxazo*, and it means to honor, to praise, or to glorify. It is where we get our English word "doxology" from. It is what is traditionally done at the end of a religious service where we praise, thank, and speak well of God. So once again, who gets the glory when you do things well? Is it you or is it God? Do people speak well of you or do they speak well of God?

Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and *doxazo*, glorify, honor, and speak well of God and not of us." Now, there is nothing wrong with appreciating or thanking someone for doing something that blessed you, but the issue here, don't miss this, the issue is motive. Why are you doing that? Why are you doing something?

Are you doing things to be seen of men, to get the pats on the back so that people can speak well of you, so people can *doxazo* you? See, this is about motives. It's your motive that we're after. Are you doing things to glorify God, to make sure God is honored, to make sure God is glorified? Let me bring it closer to home. Ladies, why are you wearing that shiny outfit? To be seen by men? Literally?

This is what Herod was doing by wearing this shining outfit Josephus describes. He wanted to be seen as a god. And this is why he planned the meeting with the people of Tyre and Sidon to be in the early morning so he could go outside right when the sun was coming over the amphitheater so he could be seen shining, glistening as some kind of god.

And many women are the same way. You plan to wear a certain outfit when the sun comes out so everyone can see how hard you've been working all winter. Men, we're no different, wearing the muscle shirts so you can show that you're a descendant of Hercules. And once again, what is your motive? What is your motive?

So Herod was struck by the angel of the Lord, and the last part of verse 23 says that he was eaten by worms. Now, the phrase "eaten by worms" in the Greek is *skolekobrotos*. It's an amazing Greek word. The root form of that word is *skolex*, and it described a specific head structure of a tapeworm. Herod's death was almost certainly due to the rupture of a cyst formed by a tapeworm.

According to Dr. Jean Morton, the rupture of such a cyst can release as many as two million of these little tapeworms into the body. Josephus described when they did an autopsy on him that his body was full of worms. And he lingered, Josephus tells us, for about five days in terrible pain. And so ends the reign of a life of a man who dared to touch two of God's apostles, James and Peter, and refused to give glory to God.

I just wonder how many ministries have been eaten by worms and have died because pastors and leaders, people of my ilk, refuse to give glory to God, taking the credit, taking the attention away from God and putting it on them, making it about them. I've seen many, and I cringe every time I'm in these kinds of circles and I hear pastors talk about, "Yes, my church," and, "At my church," and, "My people."

And I cringe and I'm very quiet. I don't say anything because this is not my church and you're definitely not my people. Trust me. I didn't die for any of you. I don't have a heaven nor a hell to put you in. You are God's people. Thank the Lord for that. God tried to do that mess with Moses and God said, "Moses, your people." Moses said, "These are not my people, they're yours."

And so too, you belong to the Lord. You don't belong to me. I have a tough enough time trying to keep me. Then I'm going to try to keep you too? No way. No way. And I just wonder, I just wonder, how many things we have done for the Lord died because when God started to bless it, we refused to give glory to him? God is using us not because we're so great but because he is so great.

First Corinthians 1, verses 26 through 29 tells us why God has chosen us. And it was not because we were so great; it's just the opposite. He said that not many wise or mighty or noble are called. Instead, God has chosen the foolish things of the world, the weak things, the base things, the things that are despised of this world. Why did he do such a thing? Verse 29 says, "so no flesh will glory in his presence."

This is why God has chosen to use us, so all of the glory will go to him. So beware when you begin to think that you are so special or that you're hot stuff and you refuse to give glory to God. I don't know what cyst will rupture in your life or what worms will eat at you. And can I pause and say: What's eating at you today?

Whenever something is eating at us, it shows that something is going on on the inside. It shows that something we're taking credit for, something we're doing that our conscience is eating at us, worms so to speak are eating at us from the inside. Something is bothering you. For some, you need to get right with God and you know you need to, and that's why it seems like something is bothering you, something is eating at you.

Because something isn't right on the inside. You know what's eating at you; you need to go and get something right with somebody you've got beef with. That's eating at you. You're not right with God. You need to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior. You keep coming to church and say, "Okay, maybe this week I'll do it." It's eating at you.

Worms will eat at us, and when something is eating at us, it shows that something isn't right. I'm blown away. People having beef at church. I'm blown away, not talking, passing each other in the hall, not talking. At a church that's teaching the Word of God, teaching us how to live? And it's eating at you and you know it is. And you can see it on your face.

I can come to you and I can tell you what's eating at you. Something's not right. And you keep coming week after week as if you hope it'll just go away. It doesn't go away. The worms will keep eating at you until you get it right, whatever that is, with someone. I hear the stories all the time. Birdies talk to me all the time and I hear about the beef.

I hear about it all the time. Folks, you know, we try to go to them and they're like, "Get out of my face." And I'm like, are you serious? At church? Church? At least we can fake it here. I can see you say "get out of my face" at a restaurant or at the gym, but at church? I'm shocked. "Well, you don't know, Pastor Tony, this has been going on for a long time." That makes it worse.

How long you going to hold? How long you going to allow the worms to eat at you? I'm just amazed. What happened next? Look at verses 24 and 25. "But the word of God grew and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark."

In these verses, we see that Luke the author keeps us on track with the growth of the early church. Despite this incident with Herod trying to destroy the church by killing James and arresting Peter, verse 24 says, "But the word of God grew and multiplied." Notice when the word of God grew and multiplied is when Herod was eaten by worms and died. When we kill the beef, when we kill the worms eating at us, the church will grow and multiply.

Not until then. I'm telling you, we hinder a lot of what God wants to do because of beef, some mess we're holding onto, and it hinders the church. Because the church is a body. And if we've got cancer in one part of our body, it's going to eventually spread. And if we've got some worms in one part of our body, those worms are going to spread. And it hinders what God wants to do.

I've got an idea what God wants to do here in our church, but we're too busy fighting and fooling around over dumb stuff. As my mom said, "That was just dumb." Dumb stuff. And we just fool around like that instead of getting it right. We'd rather hold onto beef and let worms eat us up instead of getting things right, just say, "You know what? I'm sorry, I was wrong." "Well, I don't feel I was wrong."

Now you've got pride, you need to repent now because you're prideful. You were wrong, it takes two. You're wrong. Just say you were wrong. Maybe the other person's prideful and then you just say you were wrong. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the beef between us. I'm tired of being eaten by these worms. They're spreading and they're creepy and they're crawling all on me. I'm tired of it." And just get it right.

Notice when he got eaten by worms and died, the church grew and multiplied, showing us God's purposes cannot be stopped either. That's something else we've got to see. They cannot be stopped. Then Luke tells us in verse 25 that Barnabas and Saul returned from bringing financial relief to the brothers and sisters in Jerusalem who were going through a famine that hit them severely, according to Acts 11 and verse 28.

They also brought back with them a young man named John Mark. He's going to be very instrumental. We were introduced to him earlier on in this chapter. So when they returned from bringing financial relief to the believers in Jerusalem, they returned back to Antioch. John Mark, who was in Jerusalem at the time, wanted to hang out with them. They brought him back and he's going to be going on a journey, their first missionary journey with them, that we will see when we get into chapter 13.

Now, let me conclude with this because we need to search our hearts during this time. This is a time we need to get our hearts right. We talked about giving God the glory. Just remember this week with everything that we do, ask yourself: If I say this, do this, go there, who will get the glory? God or me? Remember we're talking about motives.

Ask yourself: If I wear this, post myself wearing this, will it bring glory to God or will it bring glory to me? This is how you get dewormed, by giving God the glory, seeking to give God the glory. When you don't give God the glory, the worms will eat at you. But the way you solve that, the way you become dewormed, you give glory to God and you ask yourself the question: If I do this, say this, go there, post this, who's going to get the glory?

Where are the fingers going to be pointing to? Are they going to be pointing to me or are they going to be pointing to God? Point people to the Lord. Some folks will have to get off social media by asking themselves this question because it is all about them. Some folks, you don't even know they're married because you never see a picture of their husband or their children. All you see is them, and it's all about them.

Social media has been just a nightmare for narcissism because it's all about folks. You know Narcissus in Greek mythology looked at himself in a reflection in the water and fell in love with himself. Good grief. And social media has afforded people to do just that, fall in love with... the reflection in the water is social media and they can fall in love with them.

Ask yourself this week before you post anything, wear anything, who people going to look at? Are they going to focus on me or are they going to focus on the Lord? We also talked about if you had a King Herod in your life that is angry with you for some reason, if it is possible, as much as depends upon you, try to live peaceably with them. Try going to them like the people of Tyre and Sidon did to apologize and to make peace.

I'm not telling you something I haven't had to do. I've done this several times with pastors and other leaders and stuff that, you know, there was some kind of beef or something, and I just said, "You know what? I just want to say I'm sorry, forgive me. I'm sorry for the way this came out or the way that happened or the way that was said. I didn't mean to hurt you. I was trying to point to this, but it hurt you, and I'm sorry that it did."

I've had to do it. I'm not asking you to do something I haven't had to do. I have had to do it several times before. Say I'm sorry because God has opened up the door for me nationwide, certain things I say is not just kept to little old Calvary Chapel Newport News. Now this thing goes out worldwide. And therefore, you know, folks get all twisted up in feelings and, "You said this, you talking about me," and blah blah blah.

And I have to go and just say, "No, no, I'm sorry, that's not the case. That's not the case." So you may have to do this. And finally, keep in mind when God starts to use you, give the glory to him because if you don't, I don't know what worm God will send your way to eat at you. And some of you are being eaten by worms today, and it's a sign that something isn't right and you need to come and get that right with God.

Come and get it right with him. You don't want to keep going around feeling like something is crawling on you. You know how you go outside and you've been out in the grass somewhere and you just feel like something's crawling on you? Can you imagine feeling like that at all times, like on the inside that something is bothering you?

Now some of you are doing this, "No, it's not bothering me." See, now you're trying to stiffen yourself, but it's still crawling. And you're trying to... stop and get it right. Get it right with folks. There was one pastor who had been in ministry over 60 years. He said, "Do you know what's hindering revival today?" He said, "The failure of believers getting right interpersonal relationships." He said that's what's hindering revival today.

We fail to get right little relationships like this. And here I am trying to pray for revival, and we've got folks fooling around mad at each other over nothing. A whole lot of nothing. A whole lot of nothing. It's funny how many of us who grew up my age and older, we talk about, "It takes a community to raise children." That's a lie now because as soon as you mamas took the power of the community away because "you're going to say something to my baby," the community that it took to raise that kid, that's over now.

That's over now because of you. You mamas, you, you took it away. My generation, I got in trouble, Mr. Williams, Ms. Boyd, they would give me a chewing and then they'd call my parents and tell me, "Yeah, he was out there and he was throwing rocks, and I got after him for that." Today, "What you say to my baby? He wanted to throw a rock, he's practicing for baseball."

You all need to stop. Stop. You need to get right these relationships and stop fooling around. Because I'm praying for revival and you're going against my prayers by holding grudges and holding mess over nothing. Come on, really? Think about it, over nothing. Your baby giving you the fits, and so we say something to them, now you all in your feelings. Your baby been giving you fits for years, all through high school, and we say something, now you all in your feelings. Stop.

Get right these relationships so we can see revival, so we can see God move. And now some of you all in your feelings and feeling a certain way and... I don't care. You remember, I don't care. I'm going to tell you what's right and what the Word of God says. As much as depends upon you, live peaceably with all men.

Father, thank you so much for this time in your Word. We pray that your Spirit will move upon us, Lord. Lord, help us to get right with you. Forgive us for these grudges and these little petty things we hold onto and we think we're right. Lord, forgive us. Lord, worms are eating at us because we're not right; something isn't right on the inside.

Forgive us, Lord. Have mercy upon us. Draw us to you by your Holy Spirit, we pray. Lord, I pray for those who've never repented of their sin and accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. May today be the day of salvation for them. Some have drifted and they need to come home. Lord, I pray that they would see you as having open arms ready to receive them today. In Jesus' name, amen.

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