INTRODUCTION

When we began this series, we said that Acts is the continuing adventures of Jesus, that Acts is a book of action and adventure driven by the Spirit of God, and here we see that point in high relief. Walking with God is the greatest adventure.

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” (Acts 12:1-25).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

After killing James (one of the sons of thunder), Herod arrested Peter and put him under close guard, intending to put him to death after Easter (Passover) (Acts 12:1-4). The whole church was praying to God for Peter, and if this is referring to the Jewish Passover, and if Herod was planning to kill Peter the very next day, then that “same night” would be the Saturday of our Christian Easter, the day Jesus rose from the dead (Acts 12:5-6).

Guarded by four soldiers and chains, an angel of the Lord appeared in the prison, struck Peter on the side (presumably to wake him up), and the chains fell from his hands and following the angel’s instructions, he was led out of the prison, with the iron gate of the city opening by itself (Acts 12:7-10). Thinking it was a vision, when Peter was fully awake, he realized he had been delivered from Herod and the Jews and went to one of the houses where he knew they would be praying (Acts 12:11-12). Knocking at the gate, a young lady named Rhoda recognized Peter’s voice and told the disciples but they didn’t believe her, saying it was merely Peter’s angel (Acts 12:13-15). After knocking some more, they finally opened the door, were astonished, and heard his story, before he disappeared, and the next day there was a fierce commotion at the prison (Acts 12:16-19). 

This episode closes with pagan politics, manipulation and flattery among the people of Tyre and Sidon, which ends with the people calling Herod a god and the angel of the Lord shows up once more to strike him with worms that kill him (Acts 12:20-23). And the word of God continued to multiply and Saul and Barnabas returned to Antioch with John Mark (Acts 12:24-25).

A BRIEF THEOLOGY OF ANGELS

God may have created angels when He said let there be light, or since there is a close connection between stars and angels in Scripture (Jdg. 5:20, Lk. 2:13), maybe they were made on the fourth day with the other heavenly lights, but regardless, they sang for joy as God created the world (Job 38:7). 

Cherubim are sphinx-like creatures, having some sort of beastly body with different faces (lion, eagle, ox, man), having arms like men and large wings (Ez. 1, 10). They guarded the entrance of the garden (Gen. 3:24) and their carved forms were over the Ark of the Covenant (Ex. 37:7). 

Seraphim are dragon-like creatures with six wings and famously cleansed Isaiah’s mouth with a burning coal (Is. 6), and their name means “burning ones.” In Numbers 21, God sent “fiery serpents” (literally “seraphim serpents”) to bite the people and many died. When the people pray for deliverance, God instructs Moses to make a bronze “seraph” and pierce it on a pole, and all who look upon it are healed (Num. 21:7-9).  

The only other kind of angels appear as shining men (e.g. Gabriel, Michael, armies), and the “Angel of the Lord” is God Himself, the second person of the Trinity (e.g. Gen. 18, 32:24ff, Ex. 3:2ff, Josh. 5:13, Dan. 3:25). The angels of God are described as being “ministers of flame” (Ps. 104:4) whom God gives assignments to guard and protect His people (Ps. 91, sometimes incognito, e.g. Heb. 13:2), particularly the weak and vulnerable (Gen. 16, Mt. 18:10). The Bible also describes the spirits of people as having a similar appearance to their bodies (e.g. Samuel, 1 Sam. 28:14). And it may be that this is what the disciples are referring to when they heard Rhoda’s report that Peter is at the door. 

SUPERNATURAL WORLD

Related to the fact that angels really do exist: we live in a magical world. God created the world in six days by His spoken word, and He upholds all things by the word of His power (Gen. 1, Heb. 1). This means we live in God’s personal world, not an impersonal machine. This doesn’t negate the ordinary order of creation, but sometimes God suspends His usual patterns and donkeys talk, men ride into heaven in fiery whirlwinds, the sun stands still, men survive fiery furnaces, a man may walk on water, and sometimes chains fall apart and gates open by themselves, and men are supernaturally struck with worms (Acts 12:7, 23).

CONCLUSION: DELIVERED OUT OF THEM ALL

According to tradition, Peter was eventually crucified upside down in Rome under Nero, but here he disappears from the pages of Scripture a wanted man, with his letters as the only other evidence of his ongoing ministry. But Peter is clearly presented here as a type of the resurrection life that all believers are promised in Christ: sealed and guarded in a prison as good as a tomb, struck on the side, and broken out by God’s miraculous power. As Paul says at the end of his life: “Persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution… And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom…” (2 Tim. 3:11-12, 4:17).

Stories disciple our imaginations and faith. Immerse yourself in the stories of the Bible but also stories that stoke biblical imagination: Dante (Divine Comedy), Edmund Spenser (Fairy Queen), John Bunyan (Pilgrim’s Progress), C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia, Ransom Trilogy), J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings), John Buchan (Richard Hannay series), P.G. Wodehouse, N.D. Wilson, etc. 

By faith, we conquer armies and endure great hardships (Heb. 11). Some are murdered by the sword; others are delivered from the sword. Some go to glory devoured by lions; some tame them. Jesus has the keys to death and Hades (Rev. 1) and His angels guard our every step (Ps. 91). He is the captain of the Lord’s Hosts, and this is how the Church and the Kingdom grow (Acts 12:24). Walking in the light is walking with God and His angels. And all will be well.  

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INTRODUCTION

After the resurrection, Jesus said that since all authority had been given to Him, the apostles were to “therefore, go” disciple all the nations of the world. The center and most essential point of this mission is the regeneration of individual hearts. But the Bible teaches that this ordinarily happens through public and private, national and individual, external and internal means, all of which is not neat and tidy. The story of Peter and Cornelius demonstrates this, as does the controversy following. Jesus is at work by His Spirit ruling through the challenges and opportunities of making a new people and saving the nations of the world. 

The Text: “And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea 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…” (Acts 11:1-30). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Those Jewish believers who thought that Gentiles must be circumcised to fully join the people of God contended with Peter when he came back to Jerusalem, questioning him specifically about eating with Cornelius (Acts 11:1-3). Peter responded by retelling the story of his vision of the animals in the sheet, and God’s instruction not to call them common or unclean (Acts 11:4-10). Then Peter recalls the Spirit’s instructions to go with the men from Cornelius, and Cornelius’s own testimony of the angel’s instructions to call for Peter, to learn how his household might be saved (Acts 11:11-14). Peter said he just started preaching when the Spirit fell upon them, and he recalled Jesus promising the baptism of the Holy Spirit and concluded it was from God – and the Jewish believers agreed and glorified God (Acts 11:15-18).

Meanwhile, when the believers had been scattered after the death of Stephen, some landed in Antioch, and many Jews and Gentiles believed (Acts 11:19-21). So the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to encourage them, who did so, and who then also invited Saul to join him in that work (Acts 11:22-26). It was there in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians, and it was in those days that the Spirit indicated that there would be a severe famine and so an offering was collected for the saints and delivered by Saul and Barnabas (Acts 11:27-30). 

FIRST CALLED CHRISTIANS IN ANTIOCH

Beginning with the contention of the Jewish believers “of the circumcision” and Peter’s explanation of what happened with Cornelius and then continuing north, in Antioch, both Jews and Gentiles were turning to the Lord, and they were all coming to be called “Christians” (Acts 11:26). This new name highlights the Jewish roots but also the new people being formed. The word “Christ” means “anointed” and could also be translated as Messiah or King. So to be “Christian” is to be associated with the King, or the King’s people. The word “Christian” is only used two other places in the New Testament: when King Agrippa says that Paul almost persuaded him to become a Christian (Acts 26:28) and when Peter encourages believers not to be ashamed if they suffer as Christians (1 Pet. 4:16). 

OUTWARD & INWARD

The thing to notice is that in all three instances, the name is an objective, public title. It was not used in the first instance as an exact description of those going to heaven. And this corresponds to how the name Israelite/Jew also functioned. The objective, public sense of the name referred to all who were covenantally connected to the family of Abraham through circumcision, but that outward sign was always meant to be a call to believe in the promises of God and so be circumcised in the heart (Dt. 10:16, 30:6, Jer. 4:4). A true Jew is one who is circumcised in his heart (Rom. 2:29); so not all Israelites were really Israelites (Rom. 9:6). In the same way, we might say, not all Christians are really Christians, and a true Christian is one whose heart is baptized. In Romans 3, Paul immediately asks, then what advantage is the outward, covenantal connection, and he says: “much in every way” because God is still faithful and works through His public people, even if some do not believe (Rom. 3:1-4). Christ rules through His covenant. 

APPLICATIONS

The New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant in quality (fullness of Christ), quantity (fullness of forgiveness and the Spirit), and extent (for the whole world) (Heb. 8-10). But the New Covenant is not made out of stainless steel. Jesus says He is a vine, and we are the branches (Jn. 15). Likewise, the covenant is an Olive Tree, which unbelieving Israel has been cut out of and Gentiles have been grafted into (Rom. 11). Old Israel had baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Christ in the wilderness, but they lusted for evil things, served idols, and complained – and the Spirit wrote those things as warnings for us (1 Cor. 10:1-11).

A married man who commits serial adultery is not at all acting as a husband, but he is a husband by covenant – that’s what makes his crime so hideous. Likewise, we live in a land full of baptized unbelievers or unbelieving covenant Christians, which is what makes our situation far worse. Many have trampled the blood of the covenant (Heb. 10:29 cf. 2 Pet. 2:20-21). 

Matthew Henry’s father is remembered as saying that whenever his children misbehaved, he would “grab them by their baptism.” The point is that in baptism God says something objectively about us, putting His name on us, and that covenantal reality must be part of our appeal to our children, one another, other churches, and many of our neighbors. When Israel was worshipping idols and committing abominations, they were still God’s people and that only made it worse. We do not confuse the covenantal and eternal realities: John (and other ministers) baptize with covenantal water, but Jesus is the only One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit who seals us forever (Lk. 3:16, Acts 11:16). And His fruit is unmistakable (Gal. 5). 

It was hard for faithful Jews to accept Gentiles as full members of the covenant (e.g. Lk. 15:28, Jonah, Habakkuk), and it is often easy to resent how God works in the covenant, with believers and unbelievers, strong and weak, wise and foolish, even heroes and scoundrels. There are plenty of opportunities for envy, resentment, bitterness, or despair. But notice how Barnabas was glad and served the new Christians in Antioch and then promoted Saul (Acts 11:23-26). And notice how the new Christians in Antioch gave freely to the needs in Jerusalem (Acts 11:27-30). Our job is not to sort it all out (Mt. 13). This is the King’s mission. He rules. We obey and glorify Him as we see Him work. We are the King’s people. We are Christians.

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