We're going to be turning to the word of the Lord again and have it ministered to us. We turn to Acts chapter 12 again. I say again because if you weren't with us this morning that's where we were also. We're there again and we're picking up at verse 19. It's kind of an overlap here as we go from the rescue of Peter to the death of Herod Agrippa I. And as I mentioned this morning a couple times, I guess, it's two sides of the coin here. We see especially the deliverance, the mercy of God on the one hand. We see on the flip side, the judgment of God against those who oppose him. And reminding us again then, it's not good to be on the wrong side of the Lord, but to find ourselves on the Lord's side in Jesus Christ. So we take up verse 19, read through to verse 24. of this chapter. Here's what God's Word says to us. And after Herod searched for him, speaking about Peter, and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. And we really start picking up here. 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 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. That's our reading of God's word for tonight and pray that it may indeed, as we did, that its ministry to us would be a blessing unto us and unto God's glory. Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, often we speak about how the God, the gospel I should say, will bring change to people's lives like we did this morning. We heard This morning's passage where prison doors are open for the captives. God by his Christ is able to bring peace to his people. And he's able to bring freedom for his people. He can give life where there was death, exaltation where there was but humiliation. But God also turns the tables, doesn't he? He can do the exact opposite as this passage is showing us. And really what's happening here, at least to an extent, is that we're getting a real life example of what the Song of Mary was all about way back in Luke chapter 1. You remember with Mary's song at the beginning of Luke. He says that not only does God exalt his humble servants, not only can the mighty one do great things for me, as he says, in turning my life around in Christ, but, Mary says, he also scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. and he has brought the mighty ones down from their thrones. That's really an example of what we have here, isn't it? We have God bringing down, toppling the mighty from his throne. God is toppling the mighty. He is bringing the proud down. He's making the wicked low. And so those who were first are shown to be last. And here's why we're not to put confidence in princes like the psalmist in Psalm 146 would tell us. Because to dust they shall return and their purposes shall end. And it also teaches us why that our trust and our confidence and praise should be focused in the true Prince of Peace that Jesus Christ is. The one who's Lord of all, who's exalted always. And so our passage is teaching us here that the Almighty God is toppling one that we deem here in accordance with this text, with accordance with this passage. He's really toppling a false Prince of Peace. And that false Prince of Peace is one whose peace is insufficient for the nations. whose glory before the nations is temporary, and whose word to the nations is fading. And so we're gonna look at those three points here tonight. So, you know, why is it that we're calling Herod the false prince of peace and saying that in our first point that his peace is insufficient for the nations? Well, Herod's playing two different roles here. He's playing one that's counter to Peter, on the one hand, And he's playing the role of an anti-Christ. He's playing in the role of opposing Christ, which we can see that, right? And just the fact that he's imprisoning the Christians. He's imprisoning the Apostle. He put to death one of them. But in doing all of this, he's providing, in accordance with our passage, an inferior brand of peace. And he's doing it for the Jews as well as for the Greeks. we're finding that Herod is playing counter-opposite to Peter. You say, well, how could that be? Well, we can see it in different ways. We read in our passage about something that seems rather incidental, that Herod, after he put to death his sentries, or saw to it that they were put to death, that he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. Now, that doesn't seem like a very big deal. That seems like kind of just a transitional kind of verse. It might not seem like a big deal as we transition from the release of Peter to the death of Herod. But the thing is, is that Peter had once gone to Caesarea himself. And he hadn't done that that long before this, back in chapter 10, verse 24. It mentions there that on the following day, Peter being among these, he entered Caesarea, where Cornelius was expecting him. Now, Caesarea was grandfather Herod the Great's town. And he gave that town, he was given that town by Caesar Augustus himself. And it was a town that Agrippa's grandfather built up strongly and beautifully, and then he named it after Augustus, Caesarea. Now when Peter went to Caesarea, he went there to proclaim the message of peace in Jesus Christ. And we hear about that. in verse 36 of chapter 10 when he's in Caesarea. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. You yourselves know what happened through all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John claimed. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. But Peter is opening his mouth and mentioning that the word that God sent to Israel was the preaching of good news of peace through Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. But when Agrippa goes there, in our passage, it's concluding, we get this context of a two-part attempt of peace that comes to an end. When he gets there, we see in this passage, I mean, why do we have to hear about all this stuff? Well, Peter, Gentile people came to broker, we read, peace with Herod. Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him together with one accord, and having persuaded Blastas, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace. because their country depended on the king's country for food. So when he goes there, you got these Gentile people brokering peace with him through blastas. Now earlier in the chapter, Agrippa finds that he's gaining peace, he's scoring points, he's making a kind of peace with the Jews, isn't he? I mean, you go back when he had killed James the brother of John with the sword, he saw that it pleased the Jews. He had scored political points with them, you see. So Herod seeks to make political peace with the Jews over a religious matter or a spiritual matter by killing off James, imprisoning Peter. But here in our passage, Herod is called upon to make political peace with the Gentiles. And it's over a physical matter. It's over the matter of food, isn't it? because their country, the Sidonians and the Tyrians, are dependent on the king's country for food. Now, the matter of food, interestingly, hands its roots back when Sidon helped out Solomon, of all things, whose name, of course, we know means peace. And Sidon helped out Solomon, whose name means peace, in building the temple in exchange for food. 1 Kings 5, 1 through 12. And so what you got going on here is history repeating itself to an extent. To an extent as there's this deal of peace that is being reached between this ruler of Israel, in the person of Herod who grew up with the first, and the Tyrians and the Sidonians over the matter of food. Now, why does that all matter? Why does that all matter? Well, the reason it matters is that whether we see Herod brokering peace with the Jews religiously or with the Gentiles physically, both of those episodes end up in defeat for Herod, doesn't it? Because he loses Peter. And of course we see in this passage that Herod's situation's gonna end in death. But Herod is looking, he has this look about him because he's dealing with the Jews and he's dealing with the Gentiles, he has this look about him of being a prince of peace. He's pleasing to Jews and he's brokering a peace with the Gentiles. And so he looks a lot like the Messiah. That was to come to bring peace to the Jews and the Gentiles. Which is where Peter had come. When he went to Caesarea, he came to the Gentiles. It's this peace, this year of the Lord's favor, the true Sabbath, the true rest, the true life, the true freedom, the true satisfaction. He's looking a bit like that, but he's not. Because here is the pretender. He's of Edom anyway, he's not of Israel. But he's the pretender, he's the false Christ, he's the false prince. And he's in a lofty place. And he doesn't belong there. because he cannot provide the superlative peace to the Jews and Gentiles as Lord of all that only Jesus Christ can and that Peter proclaimed when he was in Caesarea. Peter proclaimed the message of peace in Jesus Christ who is truly Lord of all. Christ is the one who truly grants what the angels in Luke chapter 2 had promised. Peace among men in whom God is well pleased. As God receives the glory in heaven for that grace, for that mercy, for that peace. Only one Lord of all, Christ alone, can bring superior and lasting peace for us. That's the spirit of the Reformation, isn't it? Peace between us and God, peace between us and others, who may look different than we do, who may have a different nationality than we do, who may be older than we are, or younger than we are, or who are of a different color or ethnicity, or might be in our own homes. Peace between us and God, peace between us and others, peace within ourselves. the one Lord Jesus Christ, the true Prince of Peace, the true Son of David, the true Solomon. And there isn't anybody else that can provide that kind of harmony, that kind of reconciliation, that kind of an accord, that kind of peace. Harmony is found in the home where the Prince of Peace is the Lord of that home. Isn't that true? When people of various ages and male and female and classes and races and vocations find themselves following and trusting the same Prince of Peace, that's where you find harmony. When you and I are more concerned about pleasing the Prince of Peace than about pleasing ourselves, then true harmony is found at its core. God topples the pride of the powerful and he scuttles the pursuit for satisfaction anywhere else but in him. Because Jesus Christ is Lord of all. The Almighty God topples the one who is but a temporary glory too. We especially see here how Herod is the opposite of Peter. And we see it in a couple of ways. We've seen it already when we said, hey, they both came to Caesarea. But besides that, when Peter went to Caesarea, Cornelius the Gentile, remember that? Remember he bows in worship to Peter. And how does Peter react to that? How does he react to that? I mean, it didn't make any sense for Cornelius to do that at all. He was a God-fearer. But then idolatry never makes any sense at all. But right away, right away, Peter tells him, you remember what he said, he said, stand up, I too am a man. Remember that from Acts 10, 25 and 26. Now Herod's in Caesarea. And what does he hear? He hears Gentiles speaking to him too. And they cry out, the voice of God, and not a man. And Herod loves it. Herod loves it. And so Herod's countering Peter, but he's also countering Jesus. We read in our passage that he had on what's called royal robes, right? Royal robes, verse 21. Back in Luke 23, 11, Jesus is wearing, we hear, royal robes before Agrippa's uncle. And the only other time that we ever hear about the word being used by Luke, it speaks about the glorious apparel of angels in the first chapter of Acts, when Jesus goes to heaven, and of all things, in the Cornelius story in Acts chapter 10 verse 30. And what happens here, which is really remarkable too, is that the Gentiles are shouting in a similar way that the Jews did back in Luke 23, 21. Which is in the time when Jesus is wearing these phony, these masquerading kind of royal robes. Only in Luke 23, of course, the Jews, the Jews are shouting, crucify. While here they're shouting the voice of a God and not of a man. You see the contrast there. So Herod is getting treated with undeserved human exaltation. While Jesus got treated with undeserved human humiliation. I mean, you can't have anything more broadly opposed. So diametrically opposed. And of course in the end, Herod gets treated with divine humiliation, doesn't he? Chewed up by worms. And Jesus with divine exaltation, resurrection. Ascension. The Lord of all. Not only that, but we see how differently things turn out between Herod and Peter. Two times, two times, that's it. In the New Testament, the word struck, like used in the 10th plague, when the angel of the Lord came about during Passover and struck down the firstborn, Only twice in the New Testament does the word struck get used. And both of those times are here in Acts 12. Once when the angel, you remember, strikes Peter to rise. It's kind of like resurrection. Tells him to rise. And once when the angel of the Lord strikes Herod to death by worms. We're never gonna be gods. And yet sin, rebellion, and unbelief are a belief, not only that there is no supreme God, this is the crazy thing about sin after all anyway, isn't it? On the one hand, we don't say, no, no, no, there's no supreme God, and yet we wanna lap it up. And in our disobedience, in our unbelief, we're saying, no, we're gods in God's place. No, there's no God, but we're God. Can't have it both ways. It's very tempting for many superlative athletes that we may like to watch because they can do things that we can't, to act like they're gods, right? They'll go around, I can't do it, because I don't have those kind of arms, you know, but they'll, you know, they'll do this. Ministers don't have those kind of arms, I guess. But, you know, they'll go around like this, and it's like, oh, would you quit? Would you quit? Because 30 years from now, when you try to do that, it's going to hurt. And people will treat them like that. You know, back in biblical days and even in our day, if politicians could convince the masses that they were worth following like gods or that they were gifts from the divine that way, they could draw a loyal following. And even if they couldn't draw them, that didn't matter because they would just wield their power abusively as if they were gods, at least they thought they were. But both in this life and the life to come, such sowing doesn't come without its reaping. Psalm 146, we're gonna sing it in a moment. Put no confidence in princes. Blessed are they whose trust is in the Lord, who sees the nations as but a drop in the bucket. Happy is he whose help is in the God of Jacob, who gives food to the hungry. the Lord who preserves the strangers. He relieves the fatherless and the widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down. Unlike Herod of old and powers of today, the Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, unto all generations. That's why we're here tonight. Not praising the politicians per se or politicians of past days. We're here to praise the Lord and his everlasting kingdom. It's easy to forget our call to be humble, to remember that we're just people. We're just people. We're just boys and girls, we're just men and women. And we're sinful like those around us. And to forget that what our real calling is to be gracious and to praise the Lord as those who have come to know grace in their lives. That we've come to know peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So that we can gather like we do in praise and serve wherever we can, wherever God sends us. When we forget those things and when our glory and our pride and our way is all we can think of, then we really aren't much better than the Herod who lapped up to praise of a God. Man, how thankful we can be when by grace we confess that it is Christ who took our humiliation upon himself. So that we don't have to die the eternal curse of worms. We can now serve the Exalted One at the right hand of God. The One we're to confess is the One who has guided us now as we're living our lives right now in the paths of peace. Peace with God and the peace of God. So I have one other thing, and that is before we wrap this up, finally we're seeing the fading word of the false prince. The fading word. Because here are these Gentiles shouting out the words of a God and not of a man, and yet suddenly his words fall silent, don't they? But you notice in our passage that doesn't happen with the Word of God, does it? The Word of God does not grow silent. The Word of the Lord stands forever, it endures forever, it lives forever. It's no wonder that we say sola Scriptura, we live by Scripture alone. Because that's the Word to follow and to trust. It endures outwardly, it endures inwardly in the hearts of those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ. It's the word to follow and to trust. It is that covenant word of God on which we can depend. It is the word of a new creation in Jesus Christ. Where we read in this passage in verse 24, we read the word of God increased and multiplied. Very interesting words that are used to describe the flourishing of God's word. Because that combination is first used in what we know as the cultural mandate. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth to those who are called to the image of God as created human beings, male and female. And then Noah, we remember right after the flood, where you have a sense of new creation that's occurred. What's he called to do? He's called to be fruitful and multiply. And these are the words that are used in the covenant of grace that God makes with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And you can read about these in Genesis 17-2, Genesis 22-7, Genesis 26-4, Genesis 35-11. You know, whereas the word and glory of sinful man is like the flower of a field, but for a moment, the word of the Lord lasts forever. And that's why we can always count on it and see it as lamp and light. Peter's going to say later in his first epistle to believers in that that this new creation that we know, this new life, this new birth that's come our way, that doesn't fade away, that rests in our hearts, comes to us through the word of the Lord and not that of man that lasts but for a time. And like with Herod, our outward beauty is but for a time. But the inward beauty of the word of the gospel in our hearts is everlasting. It continues to go forth in the world as well. There's always people who are coming to faith. Isn't that a blessed thing to know until Christ returns? There's always people to whom the word is entering hearts as reborn people. There's always people whose lives are changing from what was dead to a new order, to a new creation. People who are sick and tired of following the wisdom of the world that gets them nowhere. A voice that claims to be divine and offers so much but just ends in death and curse and chaos. That's all they get. Now the world has its fads and its fancies and its followers but for everybody who follows them, and everyone who seeks a worldly following, they all end up the same. They all end up in chaos and in death, and with a word that withers on the worm-eaten vine. But that can't be said about the person Who knows and follows and trusts the gospel of Jesus Christ, can it? Because with them, they're following a word that's giving them life. And it's a life that'll last. There's a fruitfulness about it that will endure far beyond the time that we live here on this planet. And it's a life. that brings peace, that the chaotic word of the world and of man can never bring. And we know that life's hard as a believer. We know it can be hard to raise your children. We know it can be hard to get to work every day and take care of things that way. And sometimes you feel sandwiched by it all. But can you imagine Can you imagine if you had to go through all that and you didn't know the Prince of Peace to steer you through? Because then your life is really a mess. Such a life and such a peace is never gonna be toppled. You may be having trouble with stuff, no doubt, we do. But you'll never be toppled by anything if you're planted by the God whose word endures forever in Jesus Christ in your heart. Yeah, so be warned. God brings the mighty down from their throne, but also be encouraged. Because how much better for us to profess not our might, not our pride, not our endurance, because there's way too many times in our lives where we're not so mighty, and we're not so worthy of our pride. But there is one who's worthy. of our pride. There is one who's mighty. There is one who's gracious. How much better for us to profess not our might, not our pride, but the exaltation of God our Savior and Jesus Christ. Then we'll make it. He's the one that we're called to confess is mighty. and that he's done great things for us, and he will do great things for us, for which we are glad. Holy is his name. Amen. Let's respond in prayer, shall we? Our Heavenly Father, we've read a portion of your word that reminds us about who truly the Mighty One is, who truly is the Prince of Peace, Who is the one that can provide us lasting satisfaction? Whose word will truly endure? Who it is that we ought to be trusting? Even when life can be tough, it's by following and believing and trusting that you'll work everything out for us, that you have established a peace with us Through you, the Lord Jesus Christ, you enable us to have a bond with other Christian people. And you remind us by your spirit in our hearts that though Satan would buffet and trials would come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for our souls, that it is well with our souls, thanks to the Prince of Peace that Jesus Christ is. Father, I do also want to be in prayer for Brianna Koiman and Brett Slayton, who were united in marriage on Friday. Give guidance to them as they establish their new home together in Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.