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Serious Gentile Territory (Acts of the Apostles #28) (Christ Church)
Christ Church on May 14, 2025
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Struck by an Angel (Acts of the Apostles #27)

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INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, we should notice a few introductions, and a notable contrast. We are introduced to John Mark, the author of the second gospel, in which he served as Peter’s “secretary.” We are also introduced, obliquely, to James the Lord’s brother. And the contrast is between how the angel of the Lord treated Peter over against Herod.

THE TEXT

“Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him . . .” (Acts 12:1-25).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

So Herod decided to harass the church (v. 1), with the result that James the apostle was martyred (v. 2). Herod saw that this scored some points for him with the Jews, so he arrested Peter (v. 3). This was again the time of Passover. Peter was turned over to four squads of soldiers, with the intent that he would be brought out before the people after Passover (v. 4). So Peter was in jail, with the church praying earnestly for him (v. 5). So the night before he was to be brought out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with 2 chains, and with guards at the gate (v. 6). An angel of the Lord appeared, and a bright light, and the angel struck Peter on the side, telling him to get up quickly (v. 7), which he did, the chains having fallen off. The angel told him to put on his sandals and cloak, and to follow (v. 8). Peter did what he was told, thinking it a vision (v. 9). They passed two guard posts, and then came to an iron gate to the city, which opened by itself. They went out, down one street, and the angel disappeared (v. 10). Peter realized what had happened—an angel had delivered him from Herod, and the bloodlust of the Jews (v. 11). He thought about it, and went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where there was a prayer meeting going on (v. 12). Peter knocked at the gate, and a slave girl named Rhoda answered (v. 13). She recognized Peter’s voice, and without opening up, ran in and told everybody (v. 14). They all said she was crazy, but she insisted, and so they said it must be some kind of angelic doppelganger (v. 15). Peter kept knocking and they finally opened the door, they were astounded (v. 16). He quieted them by gesticulating, told them the story, and told them to get the word to (a different) James, and the brothers, and then he disappeared (v. 17). In the morning, there was a commotion at the prison over the missing prisoner (v. 18). Herod inquired, and ordered the guards to be executed (v. 19), and then left for Caesarea.

In the meantime, there had been a political quarrel between Herod and the cities of Tyre and Sidon (v. 20). But they wanted to make peace because they were dependent upon imports from Herod, negotiating through an official of Herod’s named Blastus (v. 20). So Herod came out to make a speech, in royal apparel (v. 21). The people were enthusiastic—“the voice of a god, not a man” (v. 22). Because he did not give God glory, the angel of the Lord struck him, and he was consumed by worms and died (v. 23). The Word of God, however, continued to thrive (v. 24). And when Barnabas and Saul completed their famine relief ministry, they left Jerusalem for Antioch, taking John Mark with them (v. 25).

JAMES, THE LORD’S BROTHER

The chapter begins with James, the brother of John, getting executed. He was half of the “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17), a son of Zebedee. He was one of the Twelve, and the first apostle to die. But notice that Peter tells the people at John Mark’s house to get to the word to “James and to the brethren.” This is James, the Lord’s brother, and author of the book of James. When Jesus was alive, James was not a believer (John 7:5), but we know that Jesus appeared to him after the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:7). And by this point in Acts, he already has a position of some prominence (v. 17). By the Jerusalem Council, in Acts 15, he presides over the Council.

AND JOHN MARK

This is the place where John Mark is introduced by name. But it is at least possible that we have seen him before. Take note of the fact that he lives in a house in Jerusalem big enough to host a prayer meeting, and it is a house with at least one domestic slave, Rhoda. John Mark is wealthy, in other words. And in the account of the rich young ruler, which occurs in three gospels (Matt. 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30), the gospel of Mark is suggestive in that it is the only one where it says Jesus looked on him and “loved him” (Mark 10:21). And in one other tantalizing possibility, with an incident unique to Mark, a young man ran off naked the night of the Lord’s arrest (Mark 14:51-52). It is hard for me to understand what on earth that detail might be there for, if not for Mark making a point of including it.

STRUCK BY THE ANGEL

Josephus has an account of Herod Agrippa’s death in his Antiquities (19.8.2). While being hailed as a god, he was struck with severe abdominal pain, was carried to the palace, and died five days later.

So in this chapter, two men are struck (patasso), Peter for blessing and Herod for cursing. For Peter, that striking results in deliverance from death. For Herod, the striking results in an agonizing death. In both cases, the striking is performed by the angel of the Lord. And it appears from the nature of Herod’s affliction that they were both struck in the middle of the body.

What may we take from this? God’s providential dealings with us are frequently inscrutable, and we often do not know what is going on. Peter thought his deliverance was a vision. The people at John Mark’s thought it was more likely that they were being visited by Peter’s angel than that Peter had been delivered by an angel. In a contrasting way, Herod was slow to read his impending judgment. We need to be more quick-eyed in seeing God’s kindness to us. Our deliverance does not always look or feel like deliverance. And the judgment of God might be arriving in the roar of the crowd’s approval. When the angel of the Lord strikes you, what kind of striking shall it be?

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Not Incredible at All | Easter Sunday

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INTRODUCTION

The philosopher Leibniz put the problem into a nutshell when he asked “why is there something rather than nothing at all?” That is one of the fundamental questions, is it not? But for the believer, because God is the eternal I AM, the idea that there could ever be nothing is nonsensical. It could have been the case that there was no created thing, but an absolute vacuity is absurd. God is the living God, and He is the answer to all our questions.

THE TEXT

“And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope’s sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” (Acts 26:6–8).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The apostle Paul had been arrested, and was being kept as a political prisoner because of pressure from his enemies in Jerusalem. His imprisonment was in Caesarea, down on the coast of the Mediterranean. The governor was a man named Festus and he had arranged for the visiting king, Agrippa, to hear what Paul had to say for himself. His puzzle was how to frame his letter to Caesar because Paul had appealed his case to Caesar, and Festus did not know what to say about it (Acts 25:25-26).

In the course of his defense before Agrippa, Paul uttered the words of our text. Paul said that he was being judged for the hope of the promise that God had made to his Jewish fathers (v. 6). God had promised resurrection to the Israelite nation, for the fulfillment of which they looked in hope (v. 7). It was because of that hope as fulfilled in Christ, Paul said, that he was under these accusations. He then asks a very pointed question—why should we consider it incredible that God should raise the dead (v. 8)? This is a question we really ought to consider more carefully than we do.

THE ASSUMPTIONS OF AUTONOMY

What the autonomous unbeliever and skeptic wants to do is raise doubts and questions about every platform except the one on which he is standing.

Let me illustrate it this way. Suppose there is a small tribe living on a small island in the midst of a vast ocean, and they have lived there time out of mind. Now suppose one of them one day invents a telescope and he sees, off in the distance, another island with people walking around on it. When he announces his discovery to the tribe, their tribal skeptic scoffs and says that it is impossible for people to survive on an isolated island like that—such a stupid idea shouldn’t be entertained for a minute. But then an astute teenager asks, “What about us then?”

Christopher Hitchens and I were once on Joy Behar’s television show, and all the infidels were making fun of me, the fundamentalist, for believing the Bible. In the Bible, they scoffed, animals talk—serpent in the garden, Balaam’s donkey, ho ho ho. But then I said, “We are animals. And we talk.”

Materialistic atheists like to mock believers because we believe that the dead can live again. We believe that life can come from death. My point here is that so do they. They believe that there was an inexplicable instant when inorganic matter suddenly became organic matter—life from death. Christians are the ones who believe that it can happen twice. Everyone thinks it happened once.

We believe in magic, and so do they. The thing that distinguishes us is that we believe in a magician. They think the tricks know how to do themselves.

BACK TO THE FAITH OF PAUL

The promise to the fathers was that God would raise the dead at the end of human history. The message of the gospel is that He determined to give us an earnest payment on that resurrection, right in the middle of human history. God gave us a preview of the end, and He did this two thousand years ago. We know that it will happen, and we know this for the excellent reason that it has happened. And what has happened can happen again. Because God has promised it, it will happen again.

“Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:22–23).

Christ’s resurrection was not a stand-alone affair. He descended into the grave, and then reached under human history to take hold of the Last Day, and He pulled it up behind Him when He rose from the dead. The conquest of death that was to happen at the end of all things has already occurred.

Because it has already occurred, we can walk in the reality of Christ’s life, what Paul calls newness of life. We are born again and justified through our participation in the resurrection that has happened, and because of that we look forward to the resurrection that necessarily will happen. This is a glorious already/not yet.

SEE FOR YOURSELF

So this is not incredible at all. The Scriptures teach us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). We were dead in our transgressions and sins (Eph. 2:1), and it is the raised Christ who transforms us from that condition of death. Just a few verses down—“Even when we were dead in sins, [He] hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” (Eph. 2:5). It is easy to say that we would believe if we had been there at the empty tomb two thousand years ago. But the proclamation of the empty tomb is powerful. The tombs of sin and death are still emptying. Believe, and yours will be one of them.

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A Crown by Faith (Christ Church)

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INTRODUCTION

In the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem, we see that the cross is very much in view. At the same time, it is still appropriate to call it a triumphal entry because the resurrection is equally central. We might even say that the death of Christ is surrounded by resurrection.

THE TEXT

“On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt. These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him” (John 12:12–19).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

In the previous chapter, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (11:44). This caused many to believe in Him, and His enemies began plotting His death (11:49-53). But six days before the Passover, Jesus had come back to visit the man He had raised (12:1-3). This caused an enormous stir, and a big crowd gathered in order to see Jesus—not to mention Lazarus (v. 9). The chief priests were so worked up by this that they even started plotting on how they could kill Lazarus (v. 10). But many believed in Jesus, and dispersed (v. 11). This is what created the huge crowd that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem (vv. 12-13). There is no indication in the Scriptures that this was a fickle crowd, easily turned. This is not the same crowd that a short time later was calling for Christ to be crucified. It was no weather vane church. This was the true church in embryo.

PALM BRANCHES 

Psalm 118 is rich in messianic allusion, and these people picked a really appropriate psalm. It is a triumphant declaration of life— “I shall not die, but live . . . he has not given men over to death” (vv. 17-18). Jesus was entering Jerusalem, and the psalm says, “open to me the gates of righteousness . . . this gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter” (vv. 19-20). Then comes the passage about the stone the builders rejected, which of course refers to Christ (1 Pet. 2:7; Acts 4:11; Luke 20:17; Mk. 12:10-11; Matt. 21:42). Then there is the cry, “Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord” (v. 25), which is what Hosanna means. Then comes the verse which the crowd cried out—“Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” The psalm explains a great deal, including the palm branches. According to at least three translations, v. 27 speaks of the festal procession as carrying branches to the altar.

ANSWERING THE PSALM 

Jesus answers the crowd’s appeal to Psalm 118 with a reference to Zechariah (9:9-11). The rejoicing that met Jesus there was righteous and appropriate. Rejoice greatly, the prophet had said. Jesus identifies with this by bringing salvation into Jerusalem, and He does so as a lowly

King. But His humility does not diminish the glory of His kingdom, because His dominion will be from the river to the ends of the earth (v.10).

The central thing here is that Jesus is entering Jerusalem by faith. He is receiving the garland before the race. He is crowned before the conquest. He comes in a great act of faith, and liberates prisoners from the waterless pit, and He does so by means of the blood of the covenant (v.11).

LATER ON….

The disciples did not understand how important all this was at the time. But later on, after Jesus had been glorified, it all came together for them. They recalled what the Scriptures said, and they recalled what the multitude had done (v. 16). Who testifies that Palm Sunday happened this way? Who is qualified to speak to it?

John says something fascinating here. “The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record” (v. 17). And this is the reason why the crowd was there in the first place—they had heard about Lazarus. “For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle” (v. 18).

Everyone there was involved in that glorious event because of a raising from the dead. This was a great testimony—by faith—to the reality of resurrection.

THE WHOLE WORLD HAS GONE AFTER HIM 

The impact of this entry into Jerusalem was profound. Moreover, the triumph was not imaginary, or illusory. The events that the next few days would manifest are the means that God chose to bring salvation, not only to Jerusalem, but also from the river to the ends of the earth. The crucifixion of the Christ was an apparent defeat only; this is how God chose to overcome the wickedness of our grubby little world. What a glorious reversal!

And this is why the Pharisees, just like Caiaphas in the previous chapter, spoke far more wisely than they knew. “The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him” (v. 19).

And glory to God, why yes . . . yes, it has.

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The Primitive Gospel (Acts of the Apostles #26) (Christ Church)

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INTRODUCTION

As we continue to work our way through the book of Acts, we are not going to spend very much time on the retelling in verses 4-14. But we are not setting this repetition aside as unimportant because Luke obviously intends to emphasize it. He wants us to note it. He tells the story in chapter 10, and then repeats it in detail in chapter 11. Then there is a strong reference to this episode at the Jerusalem Council later (Acts 15:7-11). This incident was a significant event.

We can note a few additional details we learn in this recounting. We learn that six Jews accompanied Peter from Joppa (v. 12). We learn that the angel told Cornelius that the message that Peter would bring would be words of salvation (v. 14). And Peter tells us here that the Spirit fell on them near the beginning of his talk (v. 15). So we will begin our exposition at verse 16.

THE TEXT

“And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying .. .” (Acts 11:1–30).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

So the apostles and brothers of Judea heard that the Gentiles had received the Word of God (v. 1). So when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the circumcision party there challenged him (v. 2). The charge was that Peter had gone in with Gentiles, and had shared table fellowship (v. 3). The eating appears to have been the central problem. So Peter tells the story over again (vv. 7-15), including the fact that “these” six men here saw it all.

Peter remembered the Lord’s statement that John baptized with water, but that His followers would be baptized with the Holy Spirit (v. 16). So if God gave Gentiles the Spirit in the same way that He had done for the Jews on Pentecost, who was Peter to fight God (v. 17)? Now this satisfied them and they glorified God (v. 18), saying that God had granted Gentiles repentance unto life. But this resolution was only temporary.

Those who had scattered because of the persecution after Stephen’s death preached the word to Jews only, but doing so in Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Cyrene (v. 19). Phoenicia was along the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus was an island about sixty miles out, and Cyrene was in modern day Libya, on the north coast of Africa. Some of these men from Cyprus and Cyrene came to (Syrian) Antioch and began preaching the Lord Jesus to Greeks (v. 20). The hand of the Lord was with them, and many believed and turned to the Lord (v. 21). The church at Jerusalem heard about this, and so they sent Barnabas to Antioch to check it out (v. 22). He got there, saw the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them to cling to the Lord with resolute and steadfast hearts (v. 23). He was a good man, full of the Spirit and faith, and many more people were converted (v. 24). So Barnabas went to Tarsus to enlist the help of Saul (v. 25). This was about 80 miles away, as the crow flies. They came back to Antioch and taught a lot of people there for a year (v. 26). The name Christian was first applied to believers there in that city (v. 26).

During that time, prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch (v. 27), and one of them named Agabus prophesied that there would be a great famine throughout the empire (oikoumene), which then happened during the reign of Claudius Caesar (v. 28). Claudius reigned from 41 A.D. to 54 A.D. The believers there in Antioch, each according to capacity, decided to send a famine relief gift to Judea (v. 29). They did this, and sent it to the elders there by the hands of Saul and Barnabas (v. 30).

THE FIRST PAULINE EPISTLE

One of the things we should want to do is integrate the timeline of the epistles into the history of Acts. Our first opportunity to do this comes with Galatians, which I take to be Paul’s earliest letter in the canon. But to do this we have to answer the question, “Who were the Galatians exactly?” There was ethnic Galatia up north—think rural Celtic tribes—and there was the Roman province of Galatia down south. Think of the difference between the Dakota Indian tribe, and South Dakota.

If Paul is writing to the Galatians of the Roman province, then this places his book in the chronology of Acts. If he is writing to the ethnic Galatians up north, then we don’t quite know how and when Paul got acquainted with them. This is important for several reasons. One is that the “south Galatian” understanding gives us an early date for Galatians, and a mature statement of justification by faith alone very early on in the history of the church. It was not a late “add on,” not a Pauline afterthought. Second, the details in Galatians blend very nicely with Acts on this view. For example, the “famine relief visit” (Acts 11:28-29) is the visit that was in response to a revelation (Gal. 2:2). And third, it explains why Paul didn’t appeal to the decision of the Jerusalem council in a letter dedicated to the very same controversy. He didn’t appeal to it because it had not yet happened. It also explains the heat of Galatians.

The mission to the province of Galatia happened in the neighborhood of 47-48 A.D. and the Jerusalem Council somewhere near 48-49 A.D. Thus the best date for the writing of Galatians would be right before the Council, probably in 48 A.D., during the reign of Claudius.

THE GOSPEL AT GROUND ZERO

In the book of Galatians, we see a fully-formed and robust articulation of justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law. With an early date for Galatians, we can see just exactly how Paul was instructing the early Christians—what he was teaching them. We also see how this proclaimed gospel was causing an inchoate church to form, making the gospel the seed of the church, and not the other way around. We also see how this plain gospel was senior to the church, and to her officers, and senior to angelic messengers. If we or an angel from heaven, preach a different gospel than the one that was first preached to you, then let that messenger be accursed and damned (Gal. 1:8).

And what is that gospel? That Christ, the eternal Son of God, was made man for our sakes. He lived a perfect, sinless life, was crucified, buried, raised, and ascended, and all of His perfections are imputed, gratis, to anyone who looks to Him in faith. That is the Word that establishes the church, and that is the Word that builds a new world.

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