Well, I want to invite you to take your copies of scripture and turn to Acts chapter 12. This morning we're in Acts chapter 12, and we're going to look at verses 1 to 24. And as usual, I know that you'll find it a great help to have your own Bibles open and to be reading along with me as we read Acts chapter 12, verses 1 to 24. But before we do read, let's go to God, showing our dependence on him, sending the Spirit, showing our dependence on him for the Spirit that illuminates our hearts and minds and enables us to receive his word with faith and love. Let's pray. Father, we look to you as children look to their father. We come because we have nothing. We come because we are hungry and thirsty. We come to be instructed. We come because you have commanded us, and we know that it is good and right for us to hear your word. We pray that we would not be hearers only, but that you would make us doers of your word, that you would remove from us that formality of listening and going and doing nothing. We pray, Lord Jesus, that you would give us faith. We pray that the word would be mixed with faith this morning. We pray that we would receive it with love and joy and light up in our hearts that we might not stand against you. We pray that you would till the soil of our hearts that the seed of your word might fall and bear fruit 30, 60, even 100 fold. Lord Jesus, we implore you and beg you to come and remove from us dullness and dryness and complacency and indifference and bless us with the power of the preaching of the gospel. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Acts chapter 12, beginning in verse 1. 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. Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers. And the guards before the door were keeping the prison. Now, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison. And he struck Peter on the side and raised him up and said, arise quickly. His chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, gird yourself and tie on your sandals. And so he did. And he said to him, put on your garments and follow me. So he went out and followed him and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they were past the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads out to the city, which opened to them of its own accord. And they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. And when Peter had come to himself, he said, Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectations of the Jewish people. So when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary. the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter's voice, because of her gladness, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. And they said to her, you are beside yourself. Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, it is his angel. Now, Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go tell these things to James and to the brethren. He departed and went to another place. Then as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, He examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, but they came to him with one accord and having made Blastus the king's personal aide, their friend, they asked for peace because their country was supplied with food by the king's country. So on a set day, Herod arrayed in royal apparel sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting the voice of a God and not of a man. 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. But the word of God grew and multiplied. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God endures forever. Well, in July 2007, the media began covering a story about 23 South Korean Christians who had been taken hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Perhaps you remember it. I remember it vividly. They had been there as aid workers, volunteer aid workers, and the Taliban had taken them prisoner simply because they were Christians and simply because they were on their territory. And by all stretch of the imagination, it seemed Like these 23 Christians would surely perish at the hand of the Taliban. And I remember my heart being broken for them and thinking, what if that were me and what if that were the church that I was in? And I began to pray for those Christians fervently. And I know that I was not alone. I know Christians all around the world were praying for the release. of those South Korean Presbyterians who had gone to Afghanistan and were taken hostage and were now prisoner there. Well, as I checked the news every day and it began to unfold the story of what was happening, the first thing that came back was that two women had been released. And there was perhaps a glimmer of hope. They had let some go. Maybe they would let more go. But as talks between South Korea and the Taliban continued, it was evident they were not interested in letting the rest go. They didn't want money. Everything seemed to be failing. And the other prisoners seemed to be in a hopeless condition. And then news came that one young man, the youth minister of this congregation, had been put to death by the Taliban because he would not convert to Islam. He would not pray to Allah. the God of Islam, the false God of Islam, and he was put to death. And then things seemed very bleak. But I know that worldwide, as people were praying and more and more news was covering this, suddenly God intervened and the remainder of the people were let go. And the Taliban let all of them, they all went home safely, they all went home to their families. And that was the end of the situation. And God had indeed answered prayers. Now, my first reaction And if I'm honest with you, oftentimes our first reaction would have been, and mine was, God did not answer my prayers to deliver every one of those South Korean Christians from the hand of the Taliban. He had let this one youth minister perish. He had not answered prayers. And though the rest of them had gotten out, he had not heard and he had not answered prayers, when in fact God had answered prayers miraculously. And yet it's exactly things like this that we see in scripture that God doesn't have to release anyone. God doesn't have to do anything that we tell him to do. And yet he had answered prayer, but he had in a very different way taken that one man home. He had taken that one man home. He had taken that youth minister to be with him for all of eternity. Right now, that young youth minister is with Jesus Christ, worshiping him with all the holy angels right now, joining in our worship. That man is in heaven. God had indeed answered prayer and in his acting, He had taken that man home and he had released those other 18 to go back because he had more work for them to do. Well, it's interesting because here in Acts 12, we see two deaths. We see two persecutions of saints and two persecutions of apostles. One dies and one is set free from prison. James, we read at the beginning of the chapter, was killed by Herod. He is the first apostle to be martyred. Peter was released. And the question might be why? Why was James killed? Why was Peter released? What is the point of Luke recording this whole account? There's hardly any details about James. And the one thing we don't want to conclude is that the church was not praying for James. We can be sure that the church was praying for James in as much as they were praying for Peter, but that the Lord, who was united to Peter and James by faith, had two different plans and that he took James home to glory and that he released Peter in his sovereign work of redemption for the work that he would have for him what we're going to see three things this morning first we're going to see the death of the Christian and Then second we're going to see the deliverance of the Christian and then finally we're going to see the death of the Christians enemy the death of the Christian the deliverance of the Christian and the death of the Christians enemy and Well, note the link between what goes before in chapter 11. It was there in Antioch that the Christians were first, where the believers were first called Christians. And last week we talked about some of the reality of that. Let me let me take you a little further into this. At this point, the gospel is going to Gentiles. So the Jews and Gentiles are like are coming together in Christ Jesus into one new body. They are the new Israel. The scripture is very clear about that. God is taking Jews and Gentiles and he is creating a new covenant community He is creating a community of those believing and trusting in the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, who had been promised to Adam in the garden in Genesis 3.15, now a new community. And in a sense, because they had to be distinguished from the old covenant community, they were given the name Christians. The new Israel was given the name Christians. And yet, it was a demeaning title. It was a title of scorn and reproach. It was a title that the world would mock with. We saw that last week. Notice the inexorable link between the name Christian and what the world does to Christians now in chapter 12 verse 1. Now, about that time, Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Now, Herod, let me give you some background. Herod was king of Israel. He was king of Israel like David was king of Israel. Many people don't think of Herod that way because of The Roman rule over Israel at this time, but Herod was the grandson of that great Herod, the first Herod. Herod, who had ordered that all the baby boys in Israel be killed because he wanted to stomp out the Messiah. And that was the grandfather. And then there was the father, Herod, and he was the one that had John the Baptist killed. And then he was the one that wanted to see Jesus on trial. Now, this is the grandson. This is Herod, the king, Herod Antipas I. This is a different Herod. And yet, in every way, he is like his father and his grandfather, isn't he? In every way, the Herods are a dynasty marked out by ruthless, cruel hatred toward Jesus and his kingdom. And Luke is interested in showing us in this book this tension between these two powers. We're going to see at the end of this chapter that God is going to triumph over the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of Satan represented by Herod. But here at the beginning, at the introduction, we're told that Herod stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Now, the question is why? What was Herod's vested interest? He was an Edomite. He wasn't a full-blooded Jew. He wasn't Jewish by birth. He had some Jewish lineage in him. And he was a ruler of the Jews. But he was not concerned with the Jewish convictions that brought a lot of the Jews at this time to persecute their Jewish brethren that became Christians. He was more interested in pleasing a people that he had to rule over. And you see that, don't you? You see it? In verse two, we're told that he began to harass the church. And if that wasn't enough and it wasn't enough, he thought to himself, well, the church and giving the church a heart, the lay people is not good enough. I'm going to go after one of their leaders. I'm going to go after someone influential and significant. And so he goes after an apostle. And so there's this heightened sense of opposition. And now here it is going against one of the leaders of the new Israel, one of the leaders of the Christian Church. And he takes James and we're told he takes James, the brother of John. This is James that's everywhere with Jesus, part of the inner circle. One of the sons of Zebedee. He's everywhere special where Jesus goes at the Mount of Transfiguration. He's there in the room when Jesus raises a little girl. He's in the garden when Jesus separates with the three, when he leaves the eight behind and takes Peter, James and John. And now this James is taken by the hand of Herod. and he is treated cruelly and he is killed. And now notice what Luke tells us in verse three, because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. You see, Herod's motivation was nothing other than people-pleasing, man-pleasing. He wanted to have a happy rule. And he saw something happening. He saw after the Spirit of God comes down on the people of God, and the church is making great headway throughout the whole world, and a kingdom, as Daniel had prophesied, a kingdom that would become greater than all the earth and filled the earth like a tree, was growing. That mustard seed that began with Jesus and twelve disciples, it was growing. It was becoming a great tree. And so Herod was intent on stopping that because he would lose his power. He would lose his influence. The Jews already were unhappy with him as a ruler. He was a cruel ruler. And so he had to do something to appease them. And so he goes after James and he kills James. And then he goes after Peter. Now let me say this. All day long, the Bible says we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. All day long, David said this, King David, Jewish King David and the Apostle Paul, all day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. That's what we are. That's if you were a Christian, You are accounted all day long as a sheep for the slaughter. And we see that time and time again through the scriptures. We see that time and time again. And death seems like such a horrible thing. It seems horrible that you would want to serve the living and true God and do good to people and bless others. And then you yourself would become the object of all the world's hatred and opposition. And yet that's exactly, that's exactly what Christians get. That's exactly what we ought to expect. And if we're not expecting that, if you're not expecting that, when it comes, you're going to buckle under it, and you're not going to be able to stand, and you very well likely walk away from your profession as so many have done in Christianity under times of persecution. You know, one of the things that struck me about the Korean Christians, was that I had no sooner learned that that youth minister died because he would not convert to Islam, would not denounce the faith. I immediately began to think, well, did the others compromise? Did the others compromise? And that's why they would let go. But the testimony one by one is that none of them would, and that his death actually propelled them to have a more firm grasp on their own profession of faith and to stand against ruthless men like the Taliban and to profess Jesus as their Lord and Savior and not to bow their knee to an idol. And that's precisely what's happening here. The death of James, the death of James actually emboldens Peter. Let me point this out. Peter's taken. We'll come to this in a minute. Verse five and six. What is Peter doing in prison? He's in prison waiting his death sentence. Peter is there going to die the very next day before God delivers him, and Peter is sleeping. Peter is sleeping. He is resting peacefully. He is laid out between two soldiers, and he's taking a good, long, deep REM sleep, because he has seen how God has dealt with James. He has been encouraged. This is Peter who doesn't want persecution. This is Peter that doesn't like opposition. This is Peter that denied the Lord outside of the high priest's courtyard. And now he is in the dungeon, and he's sleeping when the next day he's going to be executed. And so James's death became an encouragement. It became a source of strength for those that were going to endure persecution. You know what? It was also a blessing for James. And you may not see this on the surface. James was taken home to be with Christ when he was killed. He was taken home to glory. He was redeemed. He was delivered. He was delivered out. The Christian's death is entrance now, as the hymn writer says. Death is now, but my entrance into glory. Death is now, but my entrance into glory. And so did God deliver James? Yes. Yes, he delivered James. Isaiah says, In chapter 59, one, I believe that the righteous perish and no one take it to heart. The godly are taken away and no one noticed it. And yet they're taken away from evil. They're taken away from hardship. Yesterday, I was reminded of Andrew Gray, one of my favorite theologians. He died at 22. Andrew Gray was a Scottish minister who had a more fruitful ministry than most men who lived to their 50s or 60s, died at 22 years old. And he had prayed that the Lord would take him away before his 23rd birthday. And take him away from all the misery and sin and wickedness of the world. And God answered that prayer. And Andrew Gray died and the Lord took him to heaven before his 23rd birthday. Now, that is that is the Christian's hope. The Christian's hope is that this is not our home. This is not our world. And death is not ultimately a defeat. Death is a victory. Death is a deliverance. Death is a great exodus out of this world. Now, we need to be prepared. Thomas Watson once said, if thou, my Lord, could die for me, can I not die for thee? If thou, my Lord, shouldst die for me, can I not die for thee? If Christ could lay down his life for you and bleed to death for you, the eternal God, can you not be willing to lay down your life for him? James bore that testimony. He will forever be remembered as the first apostle to be martyred for the name of Jesus Christ. Remember, this is James 2. that asked Jesus if he could sit with his brother on the left and on the right. And Jesus said, you don't know what you ask. Can you drink the cup I'm about to drink? Can you be baptized with the baptism of the cross that I am about to be baptized with? And they said, we're able. And Jesus said, you will drink the cup. You will be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with. And we see here in Acts 12 that James, the brother of John, drank that cup. He drank the cup of his Lord. He took up his cross. He followed him. That's what it means. Now, let me say this. You may not be martyred. You may not be put to death for the name of Christ. Not all are. In fact, probably an equal amount are than aren't in the Christian world. And yet we are called to die daily. The apostle Paul said in the manner of men, I speak, I die daily. Daily we die to this world. Daily we are to die to self, our own interests. We are to die to all the things that we want, all the nice luxuries and pleasures, living for ourselves, doing what we want to do. We are to die to self and to live to Christ. And so the death of the Christian doesn't begin As he breathes his last breath, the death of the Christian begins when we're converted and we begin dying. We begin dying to self. All day long, Paul says, death is working in us, life in you. And so God is orchestrating even the death of the Christian, and it is entrance into glory for every believer that is killed for Christ. Now, secondly, let's consider the deliverance. of the Christian, you'll notice there that Peter is now taking captive. The whole text really centers on Peter. The focus of this passage is really on Peter in prison and his escape. It's not on James. It's not even exclusively on Herod that the focus is on Peter. And Peter seems like he's going to die. This seems like it's it for Peter. Remember, Peter was also told by Jesus When you were young, you walked where you wanted. But when you're old, another, you will stretch out your hands and another will carry you where you don't want to go. He was saying Peter was going to be crucified. When you were young, you did what you wanted. You walked where you wanted. But Jesus said, as you get older and your life progresses, he predicted his death. You will stretch out your hands. You'll be crucified and another will carry you. The spirit would carry Peter through his sufferings. And it seems like Peter's about to meet his inevitable death. Now, look at this. Notice the details that Luke gives us. We are first told that Peter's taken during the days of unleavened bread and that he is intended to be brought out before the people after Passover. Now, this is crucial to your understanding of this text. The Day of Unleavened Bread with that 8-Day Feast that accompanied Passover, it goes back to those first days when God was going to redeem Israel out of the hand of Egypt. And remember, our Lord Jesus is crucified during Passover. He is the Passover Lamb. Not one of his bones were broken. He is the one, according to Luke, that brings the new exodus, the true exodus, his death and his resurrection. He leads his people out of bondage, out of the bondage of Satan and sin and death and into new life, into the promised land that awaits them. He is the Passover lamb and he is the new Moses, the true Moses, the one that brings the greater exodus. And that's the testimony of scripture everywhere. The exodus out of Egypt, that one time event pointed forward to the true exodus when Jesus would redeem his people. Now, Peter is on trial at the same time as Jesus was on trial before the son of one of the ones that Jesus was on trial before. There is an identity with Christ's sufferings. But notice the difference. We're told that it was during the days of unleavened bread. And when Peter was arrested, he was put in prison. He was delivered to basically 16 soldiers and he was to be kept before the people and brought before the people after Passover. Now that may seem insignificant except for the fact that at Passover there was a custom that of the prisoners who were brought out, they would be set before the people at the Passover and the people would let one of those prisoners go. And you remember the story with Christ. Is it Jesus or is it Barabbas? Is it Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of the Father, or is it Barabbas, a son of a father? That's what his name means. And they were set before the people and the people said, not this man, crucify him, crucify him. And they let a murderer go. Now, you might think that Peter being a prisoner would have that same option, that he would be brought out at Passover, that he would be set before the people and maybe he would be able to escape. But we are told by Luke, that Herod had devised that he would keep Peter in prison until after the Passover, that Peter would not have any opportunity of escaping. This is utter bondage for Peter, just like it was for Israel and Egypt. Herod, a type of pharaoh, A picture of a modern Pharaoh is keeping Peter in bondage and there's no hope of Passover. There's no hope of deliverance. He is securely bound. Look, he has 16 soldiers and he's sleeping between two soldiers and he's bound with chains, verse six, and he is going to die. He's going to die. There's no way Peter's getting out of this. That's the point. Luke wants you to know the impossibility of Peter's escape. He wants you to know the inevitable impossibility. But notice what Luke says. Notice what he says in verse 5. Peter was kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. Now, in the Greek, it's actually on the one hand, Peter was kept in prison, but on the other, constant prayer was offered for him by the church. That is the central verse. On the one hand, Peter was in prison, doomed to die. On the other hand, the church was praying for him constantly. And the focus is now on the covenant people praying, caring for their leader. Caring for this one that God had appointed to care for them who had done so much for them now He is helpless now. He is in bondage and they are praying for his deliverance They feel his chains as if they were his own in a sense The people of God are now ministering to the minister who administered to them and you see this mutual love and care and that is the very heart of Christianity that if the minister of God who is ministered is suffering and the people don't pray for him How does the love of God abide Calvin actually says that they deny Christ if they don't And Paul himself had said, pray for me, pray for me that I may open my mouth and boldly make known the mysteries. He ministers need the people as much as the people need the minister. And that's what we see here that the church is praying. Now, let me just make a very. fundamental application. The church that never prays together is never going to see mighty things. God could do them. He's sovereign. He can do them. But I think what we're learning in this text is that Peter's deliverance is occasioned by and accompanied by the constant prayers of the church. They met together. They didn't just say, well, we'll go pray. They prayed together. They were constantly together, maybe for weeks, coming together, crying out, asking God, praying the prayer of faith, praying in faith that God would act and release Peter from prison. They were trusting God. They knew that God could do it, and they trusted Him. And that is the very fabric of a life of a church. It's not just preaching. It's not just reading your Bible. It's not just socializing. It is praying and exercising faith. That is the life of a Christian church. And we've so lost this. We've lost this. You know, Charles Spurgeon was asked What would be the last thing that he would let fall apart in the church? What's the very last meeting that he would let fall out of the church and pass away? And he said the prayer meeting. Now, that's an overstatement. Obviously, Spurgeon was the prince of preachers. I went to a church of a thousand people. Eight people came every week to pray. Eight for years. My wife and I were two of eight. who came to pray out of a thousand people on Wednesdays. There's a fundamental deficiency in the American church. Listen, as your pastor, I am pleading with you to take seriously what we're reading in this. The church was together constantly praying, trusting God, praying, praying for the things that they needed, recognizing they did not have the resources. May God give us grace to be a church like that. Now look with me that as Peter is in bondage, there are a number of progressions. The angel comes and strikes him on the side and he tells him to rise, put his garments on, put his sandals on and come with him. There's a fascinating parallel between what Peter's experiencing and what Israel experienced in Egypt. If you went back to the Passover, one of the things that was said in Exodus 12, 11 was, you shall eat the Passover with haste. You shall eat it with your garments ready, your belt tightened, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand. Basically, you better be ready to go because I'm going to deliver you. And that was the great architectonic picture of deliverance. There is no greater picture of deliverance in the Old Testament. That is the prime picture of deliverance. in the Old Testament. And it's sort of a test case for every other act of deliverance. And here it's remarkable, the language and the similarities that Peter is being told the same thing Israel was told before they were delivered. And an angel came and struck him on the side and struck Herod with a plague. And there is all these similarities. And then Herod's going to die, just like Pharaoh and the soldiers died. There are these amazing, amazing, perhaps coincidental, but amazing similarities between the Exodus account and Peter's deliverance from prison. I think what we learn from it is that the Lord, having heard his people cry out in Egypt, that's how it began. He heard their bondage, heard their prayers, heard their cries. He raised up a deliverer and he redeemed them. He has already raised up a deliverer for Peter. Peter's prison escape is built upon the work of Jesus. God doesn't promise to deliver everybody the way he delivered Peter. He doesn't promise. He let James die. He took James home. He let that youth minister die. He took him home. But any deliverance that the church has in this life is built upon the work of Jesus Christ. and that exodus that he does in his death and in his resurrection and bringing us out and setting us free and making us his people and uniting us to him. And so any deliverances bring us back to that saving work and remind us why is he delivering Peter? Why Peter? He doesn't have to deliver anybody. Peter is his apostle. Peter is commissioned to preach the gospel that the Son of God was crucified for sinners. He is commissioned to preach the cross. He is commissioned to preach the true exodus. And so he experiences that. And it helps him in his mind understand God's deliverance better. Look at this. Look in verse 11. When Peter had come to himself, he said, Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod. The last time that word delivered used in Book of Acts, it's used by Stephen in his dying testimony. The Lord delivered Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. And now Peter's saying to himself, surely the Lord has delivered me from the hand of Herod. And then he's going to go back. He's saying that to himself. And then he's going to say to them, notice back in verse 17, when he is there before that house that didn't even believe that God had answered their prayers. He motions to them and tells them that the Lord had brought him out. And that word also is used of the redemption from Egypt, that he was brought out of prison. And so Peter's deliverance is a reminder of God's power and faithfulness. He is a God who answers prayer. He is a God whose plans are not thwarted by anything. He will not be thwarted by America or Afghanistan or Iraq or North Korea or China. God is not going to be thwarted by anything. And none of these people should fear. We should pray. We should pray for deliverance. We should pray for great escapes from death. We should pray for restoration of people in sickness. We should pray for spiritual life for the people of God. We should be praying for one another. But then notice we should also be expecting, we should be expecting God to work. You know, I think if you're anything like me, you pray, you may pray for a couple of days about something, and then you kind of give up. And you don't expect God to have answered that prayer. You've prayed, you've committed it to him, but then you go away and think, well, he's probably not going to answer that. And deep in your mind, there's a seed of doubt and unbelief. And then he does answer it. And it may take you a while to realize he's answered it. Peter has come to this house, knocked on the door. A girl named Rhoda opens the door, doesn't believe God has answered the prayer and closes it so that Peter stands knocking. They have been praying for probably weeks. God has answered their prayer miraculously, but they don't believe that he's answered their prayer. So there's the two parts. We need to be a people of prayer. We need to be a people that expect answers to prayer. We need to pray in faith. And then we need to look for those answers. We need to look for God to intervene. It's according to his will, not for selfish gain, like James says, not because we want a bigger house or because we want nice things or because we want our kids to get into some great college, but because it's according to his will. They were praying for their minister so that the church would prosper. Well, let me just close with the third point, and that is the destruction of the Christian's enemies. As I said, there's that striking parallel between Herod and Pharaoh. And remember at the end of the Exodus account, God drowned all of the army that had oppressed Israel and Pharaoh in the sea, the very place where he had delivered his people. So the very place that was a place of salvation became to them a place of judgment. Now here, Herod goes looking for the soldiers and notice this in verse 19. Herod searched for Peter. He couldn't find him. He talked to the guards. They were obviously afraid to tell him what actually happened, and he commanded to put them to death. So Herod is used by God to kill the very soldiers that were keeping Peter in bondage. And then Herod is out trying to please more of Israel, tyrant side, and giving them food, trying to be a people pleaser. And they like what he's doing. And they say, the voice of a God and not of a man. And he says, yes, that's right. The voice of a God and not of a man. And God strikes him with worms and he dies. Interesting, that word strike, same word used of the angel striking Peter's side and telling him to come out is now used of God striking Herod with plagues, striking him with a plague, destroying him. What's the point of this? Well, as I've already said, God is not a weak God. Let me just say this. Everybody in this room, myself included, believes God is weaker than he is. We do. That's our problem. We're unbelieving by nature. We don't believe God is able to do everything. That's why Jesus said, with God, nothing is impossible, because we needed to be told nothing is impossible, because we forget that nothing is impossible. And while all of Satan and his kingdoms and his rule with wicked men like Herod are raging against the church of Jesus, God is not thwarted by that, as the psalmist says, he who sits in the heavens laughs. You know God only laughs twice in the scripture, and both times it's at the wicked. He sits in the heavens and he laughs, and he holds them in derision, and he speaks in his wrath, and he distresses them with his deepest pleasure, and he strikes Herod down with some worms. He kills a man who took glory for himself that should have gone to God with a tiny little worm. Maybe a disease, maybe a microscopic worm, we don't know. Exactly. But this great man, Herod, God kills with some little tiny worms. God is going to destroy all of his enemies. If he's not going to do it in this life, he's going to do it in the life to come. He delivered Peter. He delivers us. He doesn't promise to always deliver us. But even if we die, even if we die, we are going to glory. And that must be our hope and it must be our ambition. It must be our focus. And we must pray and trust Him. We must trust this God who is bringing us to glory. We must put all of our prayers and confidence in Him. Listen, I cannot emphasize to you enough how important it is that we put into practice as a New Covenant Presbyterian Church what we see this church doing. We must become a praying church. We must. Otherwise, we will not see God doing any great things. And that is very serious. And I want you to take that seriously. I want you to be encouraged that you belong to Christ. You've been delivered through Him, that He hears your prayers, that you're accepted in Him, that He's your Savior, that He oftentimes delivers us like Peter. But I want us to take seriously that we must, as that early church, pray. We must be a praying church. And then we will see God deliver and do great, great works of redemption. Well, let Him who has ears to hear, let Him hear what the Spirit says to the church. Let's pray. Father, we confess to you our sin of prayerlessness. Little we pray and how much we trust in ourselves and do what we want. And Lord, I confess my own sinful weaknesses in this area and pray that you would make us a praying church, that you would pour out upon us a spirit of prayer and supplication. Father, we pray that this week would be a week of us trusting you and praying together for the needs of the people here, for our military men who are in harm's way, that you would keep them and bring them home safely. that you would make us to expect great things from your hand and to look to you as an almighty Father. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would give us comfort that even in death you are delivering us and you will call us home to be with Christ. We pray that that would be our hope and our joy, our crown of rejoicing, that we would be together in glory and not just having everything we want here. Father, thank you for this wonderful portion of scripture. Write it on our hearts. Make us obedient to it, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.