Thank you, church. Please turn with me to Acts chapter 12. Our passage today is verses 20 through 25, and I'll actually begin in the middle of verse 19, just to catch that. Actually, let's start at the beginning of verse 19. After Herod searched for him, that is Peter, and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food. On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, the voice of a God and not of a man. Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give God the glory. And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark. Father, I will lift up my prayer to you as well, that your word would inform us today, that you would penetrate our hearts and minds that you would reveal to us our sin, that you would reveal to us even more your grace through Jesus Christ, and I pray that you would not only inform us, Lord, but transform our hearts as well so that we could be living, Lord, united with you. In Jesus' name, amen. Last week we saw the incident of Herod arresting Peter, but the Lord miraculously rescuing Peter by sending him an angel to release him from prison. And just to recap the more detailed info I provided last time about the dynasty of Herod the Great, the Herod we're talking about here in chapter 12 is Herod Agrippa I, a grandson of Herod the Great, and the father of Herod Agrippa II, the king who was called Agrippa later in chapters 25 and 26 of the Books of Acts. And this is a good moment, I think, to clarify some of the chronology in this account. If you recall, When we were in the end of chapter 11, I mentioned that the famine that was foretold by the prophet Agabus in verse 28, that Luke then explains happened in the days of Claudius, that famine is understood to have taken place in the year AD 47. However, the death of Herod that we're reading about in our passage today at the end of chapter 12 actually took place in 44, approximately three years earlier. So, what's going on here? A simple reality is that ancient writers and ancient readers didn't feel the same compulsion to tell every account strictly chronologically. Luke has chosen to end chapter 11 regarding the church in Antioch in its early days by referencing how that church responded to the ministry they'd received from Jerusalem and Judea that initially began because the apostles sent Barnabas to them. Their gratefulness for that ministry, that ministry that they received, poured over into generosity in giving financial assistance because of that predicted famine that we did know occurred. Luke wants to wrap up this account of the early days of the Antioch Church by showing that grateful response, even if the events indicated at the end of chapter 11 might fit better chronologically at the end of chapter 14. So now, having wrapped up that part of the account, he can then tell these two narratives in chapter 12 regarding God's miraculous interventions at the end of Herod's life, one on behalf of Peter and the other for Herod himself, in a much darker sense, before Luke completely moves the focus away from Peter and onto Paul and the mission to the Gentiles. There's really nothing nefarious here, just a wise writer crafting an account truthfully, but also in a way that makes sense regarding the individual circumstances he wants to highlight. I bring this up most specifically because there are several popular English translations, some of you may be using them, that translate verse 25 as Barnabas and Saul returning to Jerusalem. rather than from Jerusalem. And there's two culprits for the confusion in that translation of verse 25. One, the out-of-order chronology that I'm just describing here. And secondly, the fact that many prepositions in the Greek language have multiple meanings. The preposition that's used here can mean both to and from and other things as well. I don't want to spend any more time that deep in the weeds on that issue, so I'll move on. And I'll just remind you that even in a historical narrative, not everything is intended to be read in strict chronological fashion. I will say just one more thing before getting to the heart of the message. Verse 24 is yet another summary statement by Luke, this one brief, as he often puts at the end of the major sections in this account. the word of God increased and multiplied. We've seen a few occasions of the word of God increasing and multiplying because of persecution. And here we're seeing the word of God increase and multiply because of the death of one who was persecuting the church. This is similar to when the church grew and prospered after Saul's conversion, as well as as they scattered and spread the gospel when he was persecuting them. And for us, this serves as a reminder that we don't need either prosperity or persecution to see the Word of God prosper. Each one can lead to the Word of God spreading or being hidden under a bushel. It depends on a combination of our diligence and on God's sovereignty. Friends, let's not focus too much on our circumstances, either of prosperity or persecution, to determine how much we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel has its own power above and beyond circumstances. Therefore, let's remain diligent in our boldness with the gospel, both in good times and in bad." Now, we see in our passage here some clear contrasts again presented by Luke. Some of these points are points I've already made in previous sermons. The first contrast I'll mention today is of Herod, the human ruler, who, like most of his ruling relations before him, had a highly over-inflated sense of his own importance. And Herod is contrasted with the one true King and Lord, Jesus Christ, who truly is all-powerful and all-deserving of worship. Herod had taken the legitimate legal authority he had to put people to death, but had ruthlessly abused it, not only against the general population he ruled over, as history attests, but also against the apostles of the church. Having executed James the apostle for his own plan to curry favor with the Jews, and then executing the sentries who, through honestly no true fault of their own, had been on duty when the Lord miraculously rescued Peter from that same fate as James. In this instance, Herod was persuaded to meet with the people of Tyre and Sidon, which were Gentile cities north of Israel. These people were angry with Herod, but they were asking him for peace because they depended on his territories for food. Herod's territories included Jerusalem and Judea. So this is another indication that these events here in chapter 12 occurred before that famine occurred, because those territories would not have been supplying anyone with food during the famine. Anyway, that shows us another minor contrast. Herod, the self-aggrandizing ruler, lorded the abundance of food in his territories over other lands who were looking for his assistance. while the believers, as we saw at the end of chapter 11 and just spoke about, those believers collected funds to share with their needy brothers and sisters. This arrogance of Herod toward his fellow man and toward God himself was his ultimate undoing. We actually have a surviving independent account of Herod's death through the Jewish historian of this same period named Josephus. And Josephus writes that on that day, the royal robes that Herod adorned himself with were made of silver thread and they caught the sunlight in such dazzling fashion that the robes, combined with Herod's skill as an orator, as Luke describes, led the people to shout, the voice of a god and not of a man. But in that day and age of the Roman Empire, that kind of flattery of rulers was actually considered common, and to be perfectly honest, was not usually even intended to be sincere. Nearly everyone in the Roman Empire outside of the Jews did this for their rulers, and every ruler aside from the emperor himself was expected to deflect that kind of admiration. And we know from other historical accounts that nearby Gentiles, they celebrated Herod's death not long after. So that's another piece of evidence that this flattery was not altogether sincere. As we heard last week, Herod, like his ancestors before him, though he tried to curry favor with the Jews, really wasn't a Jew himself, not quite ethnically and certainly not morally. No honestly aware Jew would ever accept this kind of adulation. And here's another contrast Luke is presenting in this passage. Peter, a godly Jew, in chapter 10, when he entered the house of Cornelius, refused to allow Cornelius to worship him, but instead told him to stand. He physically stood him up and said he was only a man. In chapter 14, we're also going to see Paul and Barnabas, a couple of other godly Jews, reject the worship of the people of Lystra. We even see godly angels in the book of Revelation rejecting the worship of men, both in chapter 19, verse 10, and in chapter 22, verses 8 and 9. Yet Herod, instead of rejecting this worship like a good Jew, instead of deflecting this flattery like any other Roman ruler outside of the emperor, Herod accepted this glory for himself. Who else do you know in scripture who appropriated for himself or tried to appropriate for himself the worship due only to God? Well, first of all, earlier we heard about another ruler, King Nebuchadnezzar, as Alex read for us. Even though he was warned through a dream and the interpretation given through Daniel, even though he was warned to acknowledge God's rightful rule over him, he still tried to appropriate for himself the glory and majesty that is due only to God. Now Nebuchadnezzar was not struck dead, but he was driven from his throne and driven out of his mind for seven years. until he praised and extolled and honored the King of heaven, the Most High God. Who else do we see in Scripture who tried to appropriate for himself the worship due only to God? Well, we heard that in the other passage that Alex read for us, when Satan tempted Jesus with all the kingdoms of the world, if only Jesus would worship him. Jesus, of course, rightly rejected that offer, quoting the verse that undergirds the entire point behind today's passage. You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. So on the one hand, we see godly Jews and godly angels rejecting the worship of others, And on the other hand, we see an ungodly ruler and an unholy angel, Satan, the very personification of unholiness, trying to take for themselves what God himself alone deserves, the worship of people. And this practice becomes Herod's downfall. Verse 23 says, immediately an angel struck him down because he did not give God the glory. Here's another contrast with last week's passage. An angel of the Lord struck the godly Peter in order to wake him up, to rescue him. But here an angel of the Lord, maybe the same one, not sure, struck Herod to kill him in judgment. And this phrase at the end of verse 23, that Herod breathed his last, this phrase is only ever used in the scriptures for people who die under judgment. We actually saw one key example of this not long ago in chapter five, when Luke reports in verse five, and again in verse 10, that Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, each fell down and breathed his or her last. They were judged for lying to the Holy Spirit. Herod was judged for trying to lie to the people about who deserved glory and adulation, himself or God. And we read in Josephus that Herod's death wasn't instantaneous, but that he died after five days of excruciating pain from intestinal worms. Again, I don't think we see any discrepancy here between these accounts. Herod could very well have been immediately struck by these worms, and as Luke says, was eaten by them and then breathed his last. This kind of death by intestinal worms, frankly, wasn't terribly uncommon in the ancient world, but it was extremely agonizing. And some historians have written that that slow, agonizing, painful death seems to have often been granted to many who richly deserved it. Herod could easily fall into that camp. And if intestinal worms were the means God used to strike down Herod and kill him, why should that surprise us? God uses means. God uses means to save people. God uses means even to execute people under judgment. God uses means to answer prayer. To say that God uses means does not make him any less God. Unlike Herod and Pontius Pilate along with him, who thought they held the power of life and death in their own hands, and from a limited human legal perspective they did, the true power of life and death resides with God. And scripture tells us that not only does God hold the power of life and death in his hands, but he also has the power to cast into hell. Therefore, as Jesus explained to us, he is the one to be feared. The prophet Isaiah explained more or less the same thing. The Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear and let him be your dread. I'd like to pause and share with you a story. A story that took place 24 years ago. I expect you're not necessarily the most sports-minded group of people, and of the sports fans in here, probably even fewer of you care about car racing. But NASCAR, one type of car racing, for a few decades was one of the most popular sports in our nation, especially in the South. And some of the NASCAR drivers were even more household names than many of the celebrities and celebrity athletes of today. One such household name was Dale Earnhardt Sr. I imagine several of you who are not racing fans or even sports fans may recall having heard that name at some point. And even if you're only in your 20s and 30s, the name might still ring a bell because his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. followed in his footsteps and was almost just as popular as his father. But Dale Earnhardt Sr. was a legend in the racing community. He was also known as The Intimidator because of his aggressive style of racing. The most prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar is the Daytona 500, which every year is held in February. 24 years ago, in February 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr. was driving in yet another Daytona 500, his 27th appearance in that prestigious race, but he had only won once in that 27-year career. It's called the Daytona 500 because it takes place in Daytona, Florida, and also because the race is 500 miles long, 200 laps around a two and a half mile oval track. And it takes about three and a half hours to complete, with the drivers consistently maintaining speeds of around 200 miles an hour. Well, on February 18th, 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr., the intimidator, was driving on the 200th lap, the very last lap of this 500 mile race, in a position to probably win or even just possibly win that race after three and a half hours of driving. And he crashed into the retaining wall of the racetrack after colliding with two other racers. On that very last lap, the intimidator died of a skull fracture sustained in that crash. And several years later, his son, Dale Jr., revealed that his father had had plans of retiring not long after that race, not long after that racing season. Instead, he was permanently and involuntarily retired. Why am I telling you all this? At the time, I was working for a popular parachurch ministry, and a significant part of my job was to go through all kinds of news, religious news, scientific news, news in the culture, and to dig out information and statements and studies that might be of use to the speakers for that ministry and their presentations. This was also the earliest days of the Google search engine. Yes, youngsters, I am older than Google. At that time, People did not get all their news off the internet the way most of us do today. But it was starting to become a little bit more of a common practice. So I happen to be reading a sports journalist's reflections on Dale Senior's career, and especially the reflections on that deadly weekend. And that journalist wrote something I've never ever forgotten because it floored me when it read it. I wish I still had the article. I wish I'd had the sense to print it out and keep it. Because of course after 24 years it can't be found again and I don't even remember who wrote it. But here's what this sports journalist wrote. He was describing the atmosphere the day before the race. and because I don't have the article, and because I'm not really a NASCAR fan myself, I've never been to a race, I really don't know much about the sport except some of the most basic information. I can't really describe where this particular incident occurred. There's apparently an area, a preparation area, where the racing crews are making their final preparations on their vehicles for the next day's race. And the spectators are allowed through this area, to a certain degree. And at one point, Dale was walking through this area. The sports journalist wrote in his reflections the day after the race where Earnhardt had died, he wrote this, in all seriousness, describing the atmosphere of the fans. And even if you're not a sports fan, you probably still have an idea what kind of adulation takes place in our society around celebrities, sports celebrities and other celebrities in general. So apparently this kind of cheering and pressing in of fans occurred as Dale Sr. was walking through this area and a fan shouted out, it's like he's a god. It's like he's a god. And it was clear from his reaction that he had heard that person. And the reaction that I recall, it was some kind of sort, you know, smiling, waving, warm glow, basking in the crowd's adulation. I hope you see where I'm going with this. 24 years ago, I was reading this article in horror by that point. The very next day after that fan's declaration of Dale Earnhardt Sr.' 's divinity and after Dale's reaction to it, before the race started, he's reported to have told a fellow racer, I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. And for seven years, up to and including that last race, the wife of another fellow racer, Daryl Waltrip's wife, Stevie Waltrip, she would put a Bible verse in Dale's car before the race. That day, the verse she had put in Dale's car was Proverbs 18, verse 10. The Lord is like a strong tower where the righteous can go and be safe. This man, this human legend, star athlete, one of the biggest names and personalities ever in this sport, appears to have accepted the worship that is only rightly due to God. And the next day he paid with his life, just as Herod did. Friends, God is a jealous God. Exodus 34 verse 14 says, you shall worship no other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. He's jealous for his own glory. Isaiah 42 verse 8 says, I am the Lord, that is my name, my glory I give to no other. No one on earth has the right to steal glory from God. I don't, you don't. Your favorite internet preacher doesn't, your favorite podcaster doesn't, no politician has the right, no rank pagan has that right. No one. God is jealous for his own glory. And this is just another reminder, God is not just the God of the Jews. He's not just the God of the city of Jerusalem or the area and region of Judea or Palestine. This is the creator God of heaven and earth. He's the Lord over all. And he's jealous for his own glory. Now, some of you might be a little confused. Isn't jealousy a sin? Isn't it wrong? How can God call himself jealous, identify himself with being jealous? And if you try to go to a dictionary and look up some definitions of the word jealous, for a while you might just be hit with definitions that are just giving near synonyms, near synonyms like envious or desirous. And those don't really seem to be helping us understand how God can be jealous. And then you might come across the near synonym Covetous. Covetous. Well, now we've got a real problem, apparently, because we know covetousness is bad. It's right there at the end of the Ten Commandments. You shall not covet. We saw that in our catechism within the past few weeks. But here's the difference. To be covetous is to desire something, to envy something that belongs to someone else. When we are covetous, when we are jealous of something that belongs to something else, that is indeed sin. We have no claim on something that belongs to someone else. But you see, in being jealous, God cannot be covetous because everything belongs to him. And most especially, his own glory belongs to no one else. There is no one and no thing in all of creation that deserves the glory that God deserves. God is the only one who is holy, holy, holy. He's the only one who is good. He's the only one who is righteous. He's the only one who is wise. It's like the hymn says, we didn't sing it today, but immortal, invisible, God only wise. He's in a class entirely by himself. Father, Son, and Spirit, three in one. He's jealous for our worship because worship belongs to no one else and nothing else in this universe. God is the only being who deserves to have his own glory magnified. Now, does God always strike dead people who blaspheme him and try to steal his glory? No. And the reason he doesn't is because of something he declared to Moses that's recorded for us just a few verses earlier in Exodus 34 than when he told Moses his name is jealous. Exodus 34 verses six and seven. The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. Why doesn't the Lord immediately strike dead everyone who tries to steal his glory? Because he is slow to anger. He has long suffering toward us, as Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3 verse 9. He's not willing that any of his people should perish, but that all should come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Probably many, if not all of us, should have been struck dead at one point or another in our lives. At the very least, the very least, we know that we are all guilty of iniquity. We all deserve death because of our sin. Romans 3.23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death. But as we just heard, the Lord is merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin for all those who repent and put all of their trust in Jesus Christ. If you've never done that, if you've never repented and put all of your faith and trust in Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation, I exhort you to do that right now. Christ is the only rock we can stand on. Any other ground we might try to rely on for our salvation is like unstable sand, not suitable for building anything lasting. Repent and trust in Christ and you'll be saved. If you already do trust in Christ with your eternal soul, that I hope that this message of the Lord's all-consuming power and His activity for the sake of His own glory and the magnification of His own glory, I hope that this brings you comfort. I hope it causes a welling up inside of you of sheer gratitude. Yes, we are to fear and dread the Lord because he holds in his hands, not only the power of life and death, but the power to cast our soul into hell. And if you have a saving faith, then he has been merciful and gracious towards you, slow to anger. I hope that causes gratitude to well up in you. that Christ would call you his own for no other reason than the magnification of his own glory. Friends, let's pray. Father, you are great and awesome. You are like no one else and nothing else. We're taught that you're holy and that you're just and righteous. but that you're also good and that you do good. And as we saw here, that you are merciful and gracious and slow to anger and patient, long-suffering. You suffer long with your people and you suffer long over the sin of the whole earth. Lord, in our state of living in these bodies of flesh that are affected by the curse, the curse from sin, we so often feel that it's unfair, that we're burdened by the sin of Adam and Eve. But really, Lord, if it were fair, If you were only fair and just and righteous, none of us would be saved. And so we thank you, Father. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your grace. And we thank you for Jesus Christ, who took the wrath against sin, against our sin, the wrath that we deserved, and experienced it himself so that he might be, as the scripture says, the firstborn of many brothers and sisters, that we might be adopted into your family. And we know that he was justified because you raised him from the dead and then you brought him into heaven again to reign with you in glory. Father, help us to see enough of your glory to feel that gratitude, Lord. We know that too much of your glory would kill us. That's why you only allowed Moses to see a bit of your backside. But help us to see enough to overpower our desires for sin overpower our desires for ourself and to seek to love and honor you and serve you all our days. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Well, let us celebrate together that ordinance that declares among us and declares to the world around us that Jesus died for us, his body was broken for us, his blood was poured out for us. but that he also rose again, and that even more so, he's coming again.