Who Wins?
WHO WINS? Trinity
Acts chapter 12 20.10.19
The Book of Acts is a wonderful story. The gospel is on the move, and the world is being turned upside down, as thousands and thousands of people repent to Jesus and churches are formed all over the place.
It’s not all positive. We read in 12:1-3 “About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.”
Beatings, torture, imprisonment, beheading. This King Herod is so much like his grandfather who had ordered the slaughter of all those baby boys 45 years earlier. And like his uncle who had John the Baptist beheaded. All of them: ruthless, unprincipled and paranoid.
This week an Indian Christian man would not bow down to a Hindu idol. A small crowd stomped on his head and fractured his skull. His wife is now trying to sell one of her kidneys to pay for her husband’s surgery.
How many stories there are of ugly hatred of Christians in Nigeria, most of sub-Saharan Africa, in China, North Korea – the list is so long? Why so much hatred against people who love their neighbours and do good in their communities?
Why is the church in Jerusalem so hated, and James beheaded, with Peter imprisoned to be killed after breakfast, and James’ brother John soon to be exiled on the Island of Patmos?
- THIS WORLD IS AT WAR WITH JESUS
There is a world of difference between what others face, and what we face. I hope nothing I say today will trivialise the profoundly evil and heart-breaking suffering of many today, for the name of Jesus. But it is all part of the same war.
The war is against anyone who says there is any king other that the ones we see. Some other truth other than the truths we invent. Any other kingdom other than the kingdoms men build.
It’s a war that is bigger than a war against Christianity. In China up to one million Muslim Uighurs (Wee-gurs) are imprisoned in re-education camps. It’s partly ethnic, but it’s also because they say there is a god, and that it is not the Communist Party of China. They live as though there is a voice that is superior to President Xi’s.
That war will be even hotter against Christians, because they say that there is a kingdom that is not of this world, and that there is a King who over Xi, Mohammed, and every other pretend king.
The kingdoms of men say what you see, what you think, what you do is all that is real. The kingdom of Jesus is a supernatural kingdom; Jesus says there more than you can see and think, and there is a truth that is over and above all your truth. War is inevitable.
The more supernatural, the greater the claims of any god out there, the hotter the antagonism.
This week at the Sydney Anglican synod, Glenn Davies, the archbishop spoke to the pressure coming from some other Anglican dioceses, for changes to marriage practice, to allow same-sex marriages.
He said “if people wish to change the doctrine of our Church, they should start a new church or join a church more aligned with their views – but do not ruin the Anglican Church by abandoning the plain teaching of Scripture. Please leave us. We have far too much work to do in evangelising Australia to be distracted by the constant pressure to change our doctrine in order to satisfy the lusts and pleasures of the world.”
How do you think that went down in the kingdom of man? Enter its spokesman, the Sydney Morning Herald. How divisive, unloving and judgmental, it said. Will Glenn Davies now burn at the stake those who differ from him? it asked.
Did it realise how judgmental it was being, and how intolerant not allow Glenn Davies his view in his church?
Robyn Whittaker from the Uniting Church says that Glenn’s view is “terrifying and must be utterly rejected. Christianity has always tolerated a range of views. What is being advocated by Archbishop Davies is a fundamentalist cult.”
In the kingdom of man there is such hatred for any supernatural truth with which it disagrees, that it must be called out.
If we, as a church, want to be faithful to the king, and this world stood against him, do you think the kingdoms men build will not also stand against us?
This is not the same as being beheaded, or seeing your wife killed in front of you, of course. But it is the same war: bore down to what is at the hearts of the kingdom of man, and you see it cannot and will not tolerate any other voice.
- This world is at war with Jesus – and therefore with us.
- IT’S A WAR WHERE VICTORY IS CERTAIN
After 18 years of war in Afghanistan many American and allied military leaders are saying that the war is unwinnable; they are working out which defeat option is preferable.
What does that mean for soldiers still there? Why fight, if it is unwinnable? And for those who have lost a family member in that war? “What was the point?” many are asking.
What if the war against the kingdom of God is unwinnable from our side?
Back to Acts 12. Peter is imprisoned and guarded by “four squads of soldiers” (v4). Probably 4 in each squad on 4-6 hour shifts. Two of them are one each side of Peter, chained to each of his arms. Two are outside the cell guarding the door.
What a dangerous man Herod must consider Peter to be! What makes him such a threat, do you think?
If a prison cell and 16 soldiers are all that the kingdom of man can muster, it’s not enough. In the supernatural kingdom of Jesus there are angels, and Luke tells us in verse 7 that one of them appears out of nowhere in Peter’s locked cell, in bright light.
Supernaturally, the chains around Peter’s arms fall off … supernaturally they walk past the inside guards and the outside guards without being seen … supernaturally, as they got to the iron gate that opened into the city, it “opened of its own accord” (v10).
Which side wins? The “soldiers-is-all-you-have” kingdom of man? Or the supernatural kingdom of Jesus?
And if that is not enough to answer the question, take a look at the end of the chapter. The people at the seaside towns of Tyre and Sidon have done something to make King Herod angry. They now put together a deal to try to get in his good books.
The Jewish historian Josephus says that when the day came for them to settle, Herod appeared on a raised stage in the most magnificent silver cloak. When the sun caught it, it looked like Herod himself was dazzlingly bright. And the people, Josephus says, all fell down as if he were God himself.
If you think you are the king, you love it when people tell you are, and that you are right, and every other view is wrong. You love the awards and rewards and all the accolades. And Herod did!
Luke says he immediately fell ill. And Josephus says that 5 days later he died a miserable death, his insides eaten out by worms. I imagine Herod would have been willing to die on the battlefield, a noble death for a great king. But eaten out by worms? What ignominy! What a comedown for a god!
The chapter starts with Peter in prison and Herod on his throne. It ends with Peter free, and Herod dead, facing the judgment of the real king. Who wins? Because Jesus has already won!
When Julian was emperor of Rome nearly 300 years after this, he killed many Christians. A soldier mockingly asked one of them “What’s your carpenter doing now?” He answered “Making a coffin for your emperor.” Who wins this war do you think?
Must Jesus always win? Yes, because he takes himself seriously: “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols” (Isaiah 42:8)
And he must win, because he is committed to those who like James and millions of others suffer for the name of Jesus. “God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you … when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thess 1:6-8)
So many in dark places call out “How long, O Lord”? And he answers: “Not long now”. And on that day it will be crystal clear to every person and every pretend king that Jesus has won. And because he has won, every despised, derided, opposed servant of Jesus will also win – and win forever.
- This world is at war with Jesus – and therefore with us.
- It is a war where victory is certain
- IT IS A WAR WE FIGHT SUPERNATURALLY
If Jesus’ kingdom is “not of this world”, then it would not make sense to fight like Herod fights. With swords and prison cells. Or with the other weapons that are common in the kingdom of men like hateful words, compromise or manipulation.
What, then, are our weapons in this war? Luke tells us that while Peter is in prison, the church was praying. Praying what? We’re not told. I don’t think the focus of their prayer was “Lord, please get Peter out of prison”. If we take the prayer when Peter was last in prison, their concern was bigger than that.
In 4:24 they all began their prayer: “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them”. … God is king, and not Pilate or Herod or anyone else … when Jesus suffered and died, it was no accident or simply down to the evil of men … it was “whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place”.
What did they then ask the Lord for? “Confound their politics; frustrate their knavish tricks” as we used to sing in “God save the Queen”? No. Acts 4:29 “Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.”
While they may have wished for Peter’s rescue from execution, the big concern of their prayer was that the gospel of the King would be told whether in life or in death, in freedom or in prison.
Friends they prayed, and they preached. These are the weapons of the kingdom. This is the way that the kingdom of Jesus grows in this world, and in the hearts of men and women and boys and girls. We pray and we talk about Jesus. We pray and we talk about Jesus. We pray and we talk about Jesus.
Being good friends to people is so important. Being lovely parents is so important. Being a welcoming church is so important. But our primary weapons are always prayer and gospel-telling. Without them, nothing else matters.
And what happens when it is like that? Luke says in 12:24 that despite all of King Herod’s evil, and despite the damage done by him to the lives of precious saints of God, and despite his outrageous acceptance of praise that belonged to God alone … despite of all that “the word of God increased and multiplied”.
That’s Luke’s way of saying that more and more people believed the gospel and converted to Jesus. And why wou
ldn’t they, once you know who wins.
When Martin Luther was praised for what he had done as a Reformer, he replied “Philip [Melancthon] and I just drank our beer; the Word of God did it all.” Not quite true, but you get the point.
There is a choice for each of us here. Here is Herod, unstable, vicious, man-pleasing, so paranoid he kills the soldiers who had been guarding Peter but who had done nothing wrong. Here is Herod, his stomach hollowed out by worms, dying a miserable death. It’s a classic picture of what the kingdom where man is king is really like.
On this side is Peter. Chained to two Roman soldiers, knowing that after breakfast he’ll be beheaded. What’s he doing? He’s asleep. So deeply asleep the rescuing angel had to kick him in the side to wake him. How can he do that? Because he knows who has already won this war – Jesus in his mighty death and glorious resurrection.
The kingdom of man … the kingdom of Jesus. Herod or Peter. Where is it right to be and safest to be?
If it is with Peter, and with Jesus, then others will make war on you: “water it down, mix your beliefs with ours, be more tolerant, give up praying and telling your gospel.”
Doesn’t this chapter help you be more than ever committed to using supernatural weapons as you stand for a supernatural kingdom? It does me. Praying and telling Jesus. That, more than any other way, is how we fight through to the end.