Contemplate these questions as you dwell in Acts 12:1-19:

1. In this passage, we witness the persecution intensifying with the martyrdom of James, the son of Zebedee. How does Herod's response to James' execution demonstrate his strategy to gain favor among the Jewish population? How does this further escalate the situation for the early Christians?

2. The miraculous rescue of Peter from prison is a well-known event in Christian tradition. How does this account underscore the theme of God's sovereignty and protection over His chosen servants, even in the face of intense persecution? What does Peter's initial disbelief reveal about the miraculous nature of his escape?

3. As the narrative progresses, we encounter James, the brother of Jesus, emerging as a leader in the early church. How does James' transformation from a skeptic to a prominent figure in the Christian community demonstrate the profound impact of the resurrection of Jesus? How does his role contribute to the spreading of the gospel message?

Transcript:

 As the book of Acts continues, we're starting to see this continued story of the persecution that is going on near Jerusalem. Well, we start out learning that James, the son of Zebedee, the brother of John, is killed by Herod. Now, Herod  sees that this was popular. The Jews liked the fact that, well, that this persecution was happening, that these people that they did not agree with were being taken care of by Herod.

 And so, Peter, who's a bigger name in the church than Peter, so let's arrest him, let's do this to him, and then we will have a serious, serious amount of happiness. With the Jewish people right  the religious leaders were after all of them And so now they have the roman government on their side  Taking care of business for lack of a better way of putting it.

So, we know this story from Sunday school I can remember this one. This was a highlight, you know, peter is in jail The angel comes the chains fall off the doors open He goes to the house. People don't believe that he's there.  The whole thing is just a classic story that we have heard, and we know.

A significant thing here that we have to remember is that this persecution is continuing to build. This persecution is a gathering problem. It's been a problem, but it's gathering more and more force and here, you know, we know that Stephen was killed, but now we're seeing that they're going after the actual apostles, the actual disciples of Jesus.

So, James is martyred. Peter is in trouble.  What is going to happen to the story of the gospel? Who is in charge here? Is man going to thwart the work of God or is God going to prevail? And that's the story. That's what God does here. He, he lets the people know. He lets Peter know that he is going to protect him.

Now Peter, he was eventually martyred. But the advancement of the gospel is going to take place and God is going to set the day on which Peter is finally martyred. It happens in his timing, not in the timing of man.  God is going to prevail, not people. And so, Peter has his chains fall off. I love the part of the story here where he isn't sure that this is really happening.

He's thinking he's having a vision. He's... You know, this is, this is what he wants in life and he's seeing it played out in a dream or in a vision, but then he realizes he comes to himself and so he goes to the, the home of his mother-in-law, Mary. And so, he comes to the comes to the door, comes to the gate.

They don't believe it's him. All this happens. Eventually he comes in and tells the story about how God is protecting.  So, we see that he tells, um, he tells the people to tell these things to James and the brothers. Now when this James, this isn't James the son of Zebedee who was martyred. This is James, the brother of Jesus, who came to faith after the resurrection and who is emerging as a leader in the church.

We're going to see him again. This is the James who wrote the book of James.  Right before or right after the book of Hebrews in our New Testament. This is showing us sort of where the leadership in the leadership in the church is going and how the message is continuing to spread but notice that we see here that Herod has the people who were guarding  Peter killed now This would have been normal practice those who were guarding a prisoner if the prisoner escaped Your life was basically forfeited.

This would have been a very scary thing for them. Herod is not happy and he's going to want to find peter. He is opposing the church He is a man opposing the work of god That's the big thing that we are meant to see here that Herod is opposing the work of god He's opposing the apostles  and so we're going to see in our next story that we're going to look at Next week, as you can see in the headings if you're watching this on video, the next heading for the next section of the passage is the death of Herod.

We're seeing who is in control here. Is it God or is it man? And we're going to find out that God is the one who is in control. But again, there is persecution in Jerusalem. This is causing the church to spread, and we're going to continue to see this theme as we go forward, the spread of the church. Now, as we think about what this means for us, it's important that we remember to have patience and to do thing, do, to allow God to do things in his time.

Peter, uh, we don't know what his thoughts were, how nervous he was. Being arrested, but God took care of him because God had something in mind for what was going to happen. We need to ensure that we are trusting God and not trusting men because things will happen in God's time, not in ours. We see that all throughout scripture.

Look at what happens. When we take things into our own hands, think back to the story of, uh, Abraham and Sarah waiting for Isaac to come. They took things in their own hands and Ishmael was born. Now, while Ishmael was a blessing, uh, it has caused strife because Abraham and Sarah were not patient. They didn't wait for God.

Remember, we want to do things in God's timing, be patient, pray, consult scripture, and may we be a people of God who are patient, who are allowing God to work, and that we trust His will because He is the sovereign Lord of our lives and the sovereign Lord of history.