The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Word Made Plain 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 1 through 4.

Tony Clark: God bless you, Calvary Chapel family. This is Pastor Tony Clark. As you can see, I'm out of town. We had a death in the family. You've heard me talking about my mother-in-law's husband, who was in hospice. He fought a good fight and finished his race. Please keep us in your prayers.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. We’re so thankful to have you here today. We definitely want to meet you when we return. We definitely want to see how the Word of God has ministered into your life, and we just want to meet you when we return. So God bless you, welcome to Calvary Chapel. We're thrilled to have you here. God is doing great things in our midst and we're excited to have you here.

But we still have the Word of God. We’ve got the Word of God. We’ve got to teach this word. So turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 12 as we continue our verse-by-verse study of the Word of God. For those of you who are new here, this is how we go through the Bible: chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and book by book. We're in the New Testament on Sunday mornings in chapter 12 of the book of Acts. On Wednesdays, we are in the book of Judges, studying the great life of Samson. We're in chapters 13 through 16 in those chapters. So we're just going through the Word of God.

Let's open up in prayer. Father, thank you again that you've brought us to this place, the table of your Word, for us to feast upon. Dear God, I just pray, do a work in our hearts through the teaching of the word. May your Spirit reveal the secrets of our hearts. We pray, God, that your Word would minister to the hearts of your people. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Acts chapter 12, looking at verses 1 through 4. The title of this message is "God's Ways Aren't Man's Ways." I have to say that again: God's ways aren't man's ways. This is part one of this message. God tells us this himself in Isaiah 55 in verses 8 and 9 where he says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."

In other words, there is a whole different level that God thinks on and operates by that is so often so different than ours. To give you another verse to confirm this fact, in Romans chapter 11 and verse 33, it says, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!"

In other words, Paul is saying there are some ways about God that are past finding out, that they are unsearchable. So don't even try to figure them out or search for answers because they will so often be beyond our comprehension if he were to tell us. Now, I bring all of this to our attention because we're going to have a lot of questions about the ways of God in this chapter. And there will not be answers to many of these questions that we have.

Look what it says there in verses 1 through 4. It says, "Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover."

Verse 1 gives us the time frame of these events in this chapter, in chapter 12 here. It says, "Now about that time." What time is he referring to? The time that a great famine hit around the world, which happened in the days of Claudius Caesar, according to Acts chapter 11 and verse 28. We know from history that this great event hit Judea around the years of AD 45 to 46.

The great Jewish historian Josephus records this in his writings as well. Many Roman historians like Tacitus and others also record it in their writings because it was a famine that affected the world. So during this time, Herod the king decided to stretch out his hand to harass some from the church in Jerusalem.

First of all, who is Herod? This is Herod Agrippa I. He was the grandson of Herod the Great, who ruled around 37 BC until shortly after the birth of Christ. So he was the one, Herod the Great was the one who was the king and in charge during the days of the birth of Jesus. This was his grandson, Herod Agrippa I.

He married the Hasmonean Queen Mariamne, who gave him a son named Aristobulus. He was one of 15 sons that Herod killed in 7 BC. But before he died, he had a son named Herod Agrippa. His mother realized that a lot of people ended up being killed by Herod, so she shipped Herod Agrippa off to Rome when he was four years old, where he became friends with Claudius and Gaius Caligula.

You might remember him from history. We know that Caligula was a very wicked and perverted man. But when Claudius became emperor in AD 41 after the assassination of Caligula, he then wanted to put his buddy in power. So he put him on the throne in Jerusalem. He reigned from 37 AD until 44 AD.

This is the Herod whom we are reading about here in this chapter, Herod Agrippa I. He wanted to gain favor with the Jewish authorities by persecuting the hated Christians and the apostles who were their leaders. So Herod stretched out his hand to harass some from the church.

This is not on the screen for you students of Scripture. The Greek word for harass is kakaoo. It’s spelled K-A-K-O-O, and it’s pronounced kakaoo. It means to vex, to exasperate, or to harass. It also carries the idea to hurt. To prove this point, verse 2 says then Herod killed James the brother of John with the sword.

This is James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were in the fishing business with Peter and his brother Andrew, according to Luke 5 and verse 7. Seeing that they beheaded him instead of crucifying him suggests that his charges were more of leading the people astray after false gods, according to Deuteronomy 13 and verses 12 through 15, which you can see were Jewish charges against him.

Seeing that Herod wanted the favor of the Jewish people, he killed James by beheading him because it was more of a merciful way of putting someone to death, whereas crucifixion was definitely too severe for such a crime. James was the first martyr of the church among the original 12 that is recorded for us in the New Testament.

Through his death, James fulfilled the words Jesus said to him in Matthew 20 and verse 23, that he would drink the cup of death, of suffering and death this way. So he fulfilled the very words of Jesus. I just wonder as we pause right here, I wonder if Jesus were to say to us that we were going to die in such a way, if we would have continued to follow him or would we have bailed out on Christianity?

Maybe you would not have bailed out, or maybe, maybe you would have followed Jesus at a distance like Peter did just before he denied the Lord. The Bible makes very clear in Matthew 26, verse 58, right before he denied the Lord, it said that Peter was following him at a distance. You can still see Jesus up there, but he's at a distance.

No longer are you close to him. No longer are you following hard after him. Now you're following at a distance. Would that have been you if Jesus told you you were going to die such a horrible death? Would you have continued to press into the things of God or would you have bailed out altogether? Or maybe you would not have bailed out altogether, but maybe you would have followed the Lord at a distance. Not James, not James.

The ancient Christian historian Eusebius relates a story from Clement of Alexandria, who says that the soldier who guarded James before the judge was so affected by his witness that he declared himself a Christian also and was willingly executed for Jesus alongside James. The writings of Eusebius’ Church History, book 2, chapter 9, paragraphs 2 and 3.

I want to pause again, I have to, and bring something to your attention. I want you to notice how Herod the Great killed all of his sons. And before Aristobulus died, he had Herod Agrippa. This Herod Agrippa killed James, and we know Herod Agrippa II is the one who had the apostle Paul killed.

My point is, Herod the Great left a legacy of murder that was carried throughout his family. What legacy are you leaving behind for your children's children's children to walk in? I was just thinking about this. Maybe you're an angry person. Maybe your dad was angry, you're angry, and you see your little boy, he's angry too. What legacy are you leaving behind?

Maybe you're a womanizer, and your son is one, and your sons will be one as well if someone doesn't cry out to God to stop the madness. Are you leaving the legacy of getting a bunch of women pregnant and you walking out on them? Your sons will do the same thing. You have a bunch of children by different men, you've got different baby daddies. Your girls will grow up and do the same thing looking for love.

This is not some false teaching called generational curse. Any curse is always broken at the cross of Jesus Christ. This is a bad behavior that you injected into your family line that your descendants are unfortunately following, too, trying to be like you, be like my dad. What an incredible sad legacy Herod the Great left, and here in these verses his grandson is murdering, too. What a legacy.

What legacy are you leaving behind? Look at your behavior right now. Stare at yourself in the mirror and look at your legacy, what you're leaving behind. That's what your children and children's children will potentially walk in. But you can stop the madness now. You can stop it at the foot of Jesus Christ. You can stop the madness. You can stop it today.

To make matters worse, verse 3 says because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. See, up until this point, the persecution of the church had been against everyone else except the apostles. It was almost like they were exempt. Maybe they thought that they were under God's divine protection, but from these verses, no one was exempt.

Now Herod went after Peter, whom they perceived as the leader of the Christians. He also arrested Peter because he saw that the murder of James—don't miss this—pleased the Jews, which is a term that relates to the Jewish leaders and not to the Jewish race as a whole. Have you become like these Jewish leaders who were pleased when James was murdered and Peter was arrested?

I know you're saying, "What do you mean?" You have not participated in the murder of someone's good name on the job, or how a coworker was arrested, called into the boss's office, or fired, but you were pleased when you saw it happen. See, God's Word reveals our motives and the secrets of our hearts.

No, you didn't do these things to people or family members, but you were pleased when you saw it happen. This is what was going on with the Jewish leaders. They didn't physically behead James, nor did they arrest Peter, but they were pleased when Herod did it. They were just as guilty as Herod because Herod did it to please them.

It’s like the crime lords or the gang leaders who get others to do their dirty work for them. The Jewish leaders got Herod Agrippa to do their dirty work. They manipulated the Romans to crucify Jesus earlier, and they are now manipulating Herod Agrippa to get rid of these pesky Christians.

So they didn't pull the trigger. They didn't take the sword out and behead James. But they were pleased when it happened. Is that in your heart today? Are you pleased when someone on the job gets fired? Were you pleased at that? Or were you pleased when a family member got in trouble?

They always gave you a hard time, and now that they got in trouble, you didn't get them in trouble, but you were pleased when they did. See, this is the kind of stuff that God reveals that's deep in our hearts. No, you didn't pull the trigger. But when somebody else did, secretly in your heart, you were pleased.

Herod actually did these things during the Days of Unleavened Bread, which was the weekly feast following Passover. Passover was the time that the Jews celebrated their liberation from the Egyptian slavery. Why would he want to do it at this time? So he could have the maximum amount of people to show off for.

Because all the Jews came to Jerusalem for Passover. So if he wanted to please the Jews—the Jewish people, the Jewish leaders—when was it that the maximum amount of Jews would be in the area? During Passover. So he said, "I'll do it then." All of this—think about it—all of this just to get the Jews to like him.

Look at what Herod went through to get the Jews to like him. What are you willing to go through to get people to like you? You might be thinking, "No, no, my children go through that peer pressure stuff, not me." Adults go through these things as well. They go through these things as well.

Maybe you've been compromising your Christian convictions to fit in at work or to get people to like you in your new position. Compromising your Christian beliefs to move up in rank or the corporate ladder. Maybe you're here and you feel like the apostles, and you have Herod Agrippa as a boss. Take comfort because they are not fighting against you.

They're ultimately fighting against God, and God will deal with them. Finally, when they arrested Peter, verse 4 says they put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.

Because he knew that the people would be too busy during this particular time, and he wanted the maximum amount of people to be there for him to show off, for him to showboat in front of all the people. So Peter remained in prison, guarded by four squads of soldiers, which consisted of four soldiers each rotating the watch on Peter every six hours.

Two were in the cell with him, chained to him, and two were stationed at the door of the cell. This was considered maximum security during these particular days. One question that you may have—and I know I have and had, should I say—is what was the church's response?

All this stuff happening to their leaders. It’s one thing to have it happen to them, but now to have it happen to their leaders, what was the church's response when James was beheaded and Peter was arrested? Well, you’ve got to wait until next week. You’ve got to wait until I come back.

And you'll see what they did in response to this persecution by Herod Agrippa, because it is something that we as a church must do because this persecution is not far from knocking on our doors here in America. Let me conclude with this: God's ways aren't man's ways.

We saw that Herod stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Why? Just to get the Jewish leaders to like him. Don't lower your standards, dear people, or compromise your Christian beliefs just to get people to like you. Stand firm, and God will see you through. Teach this to your children as well.

And we saw that no one is exempt from unfortunate things happening to them. No one is exempt. No one is exempt, dear people. Like we saw with James, he was killed by the sword for his faith. And one day, it may come seriously to our shores that people will try to kill us for our faith as well.

Will you stand? Will you be able to stand, or will you compromise your beliefs when it comes down to it? We also saw that we may not be Herod doing the killing, but are we pleased when we see it happening, like the Jews were? If so, then we need to repent because we may not pull the trigger, but we're pleased when it's done.

And it is in our hearts and God is searching our hearts. He's saying, "I see that in your heart," and we need to repent of such things. And we seem to get a little more prideful when these things begin to happen and in our heart, it's like, "No, I didn't pull the trigger, but I'm glad he's gone. I'm glad he's out of here. I'm glad he got fired. I'm glad he got demoted." That kind of stuff God doesn't want in our hearts.

It’s no different than these Jewish leaders here. No different. They didn't crucify Jesus; the Romans did. But here's the thing: they manipulated Rome and they were happy when Jesus was gone. And when James was killed, no, they didn't behead James themselves, but guess what? They were pleased when it was done.

See, God is searching our hearts and he's saying this kind of stuff is not right. Finally, what kind of legacy are you leaving behind for your children? What kind of legacy? See, we teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are.

You can teach all of the Christian values and bring them to church and teach them Scripture. We teach what we know, but watch this: but we reproduce who we really are. If we're teaching one thing and fooling around doing something different, our kids will do the different.

You say, "No, no, but I'm teaching them the right way." Yeah, yeah, yeah, you are teaching. We teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are. What we're doing is what our kids are going to follow. You say, "No, they should follow what we teach." I wish it was like that.

But the point is for us to practice what we're preaching. Because they will see our action; they'll hear what's coming out of our lips, but they'll see our action and that's what they would do. So look at the legacy. Maybe you're leaving a legacy of being a man or woman of God. Praise the Lord. Maybe you are practicing what you're preaching and your children will follow that.

Dear God, I just pray that you would draw people to this altar, Lord, to get right with you. I pray for those who've never repented of their sin and accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. Lord, I pray that today would be the day of salvation for many people today. Lord, we've fallen short, and Lord, may we call upon your name today. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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