Acts 12

CHAPTER 12THEME: Death of James; arrest of PeterIn this chapter persecution strikes through Herod Agrippa I. James is executed and Peter is imprisonedbut is miraculously delivered. Herod dies by a judgment of God. Although persecution comes, the church grows and the Word of God is multiplied.

Acts 12:1

DEATH OF JAMES"Herod the king" is Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great (who attempted to put the Lord Jesus to death at the time of His birth). There never was a family more at enmity against God. As far as we know, not a single member of the Herod family ever really turned to God. You will recall that up to this point the persecution against the church had been largely from the religious rulers, the Sadducees in particular. Now it moves into the realm of government. Persecution swings from religion to politics. Perhaps Herod did this to gain favor with certain influential groups. We know that he stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. The word vexed is hardly adequate to describe what he did. He carried on a brutal, unfeeling persecution of the church.

Acts 12:2

The fact is stated so bluntlyhe killed James with the sword. James becomes another martyr in the church. He is the second martyr who is named. I am of the opinion that there had been many others who had already died for the name of the Lord Jesus.

Acts 12:3

James is slain, but Peter will be miraculously preserved in all of this. Here we find an example of the sovereign will of God moving in the church. I’m sure there were many who asked, “Why in the world was James put to death and Peter permitted to live? Why would God do that?” Many ask that same question today. The answer is that this is the sovereign will of God. He still moves like this in the contemporary church.

I have been in the ministry for many years, and I have seen the Lord reach in and take certain wonderful members out of the church by death. And then there are others whom He has left. Why would He do that? If He had asked me, from my viewpoint as the pastor, I would say that He took the wrong one and He left the wrong one! But life and death are in the hands of a sovereign God. When you and I rebel against His decision, it is simply too bad for us.

This is His universe, not ours. It is God’s church, not ours. The hand of a sovereign God moves in the church. James apparently was one of the heads of the church in Jerusalem. God permits Herod to slay him. Peter must have been a leader too. God permits him to live.

Acts 12:4

The word Easter should be “Passover.” Actually, they are at the same time because you remember that Jesus ate the meal with His disciples just before He was crucified. However, the Jews in Jerusalem at this time would have been celebrating the Passover and not Easter. He really put Peter under guard here. The guard is strengthened and enlarged. Four quaternions of soldiers to keep this man! Wouldn’t you say that he suspected someone would try to deliver Peter?

Acts 12:5

PETER’S DELIVERANCEAnother translation would be “but prayer was made earnestly of the church unto God for him.” They didn’t come before God with a kind of grocery-list prayer. They went before God and earnestly prayed that this man Simon Peter be delivered. Their hearts were in their prayers.

Acts 12:6

How could Simon Peter sleep between two soldiers? Remember that he went to sleep also in the Garden of Gethsemane. I would say that Simon Peter was not troubled with insomnia. He didn’t have any difficulty sleeping. It seems he could sleep just about any place and any time. What a wonderful confidence he must have had in God to be able to sleep between these two soldiers!

Acts 12:7

The angel tells him to do a very reasonable thingget dressed. There was nothing in the way of alarm, just sensible directions. Peter thought the whole thing was a dream, and he would have walked out of there without his shoes!

Acts 12:10

They certainly had enough guards to keep Peter in prison. I really think that they expected something like this. You remember that the Lord Jesus had come forth from the grave. That was a source of real embarrassment to them. They do not intend to let something like that happen to them again. So they more than doubled the guard. Remember that the church in Jerusalem is praying for Simon Peter while this is happening. As soon as Peter is out of danger, the angel lets Peter go on his own. Let me call attention to the fact that the translation in verse Act_12:7 should be an angel of the Lord and not the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord in the Old Testament referred to the preincarnate Christ. Jesus Christ is now at God’s right hand in His glorified body. It was not the Lord Jesus who came down to deliver Peter. It was an angel whom the Lord Jesus had sent. The prayers of the church are definitely answered.

Acts 12:11

Peter immediately recognizes that God has delivered him.

Acts 12:12

The church at this particular time, and for about a hundred and fifty years after this, did not have church buildings. Today, when we talk of a church, we usually mean a building. We say, “The First So-and-So church is on the corner of Main and So-and-So.” Actually, that is not a church at all; it is a building in which the church meets. The church is the body of believers. At the beginning the church never met in a public building. They had none. They met in homes. Now Mary, the mother of John Mark, apparently was a woman of means and had a home large enough for the church to meet there. They were gathered together praying for Simon Peter to be delivered.

Acts 12:13

“To hearken” means that she came to the door to listen. These were days of persecution. It was important to know who was knocking. Rhoda means “rose”; she was probably a servant girl.

Acts 12:14

She forgot all about opening the gate, you see. She was so excited that she just left him standing there at the gate while she rushed back to the people who were praying.

Acts 12:15

When she tells them Peter is at the gate, they tell her she is crazy. “No,” she tells them, “Peter is at the gate.” “Well, did you see him?” “No, I didn’t open the gate, but I heard him and I know his voice.” “Oh,” they say, “it’s his spirit.” The word angel is pneuma, which really means “spirit” rather than angel. They are not saying that he has a guardian angel. They think it is his spirit. In other words, they think Peter is dead, that he has been slain by Herod. It is interesting that while the church is praying for Simon Peter to be delivered, he is delivered; but when it happens, they don’t believe it. They think he has been slain, and it is his spirit which has appeared. It is a great comfort to me that the early church, with all of its tremendous spiritual power, did not believe that their prayers had been answered on this occasion. They didn’t believe that Simon Peter had actually been delivered. Isn’t that same thing true of us so many times? When we do have an answer to our prayer, we rejoice and talk about it as if we are really surprised. And we are surprisedto be honest, we really didn’t expect an answer. Yet God heard and answered our prayer. How gracious He is! “But Peter continued knocking.” That’s just like Peter. Nobody’s opening the gate because they don’t believe their prayers have been answeredthey are in there arguing whether it is Peter or whether it is his spirit. Peter wants in and he is about to knock that gate down!

Acts 12:16

They just couldn’t believe their eyes. They just couldn’t believe that their prayers had been answered. Now Peter got out of town. Since God had miraculously delivered him, couldn’t God have miraculously kept him safe in Jerusalem? Shouldn’t Peter have said, “I’m just going to stick around. God has delivered me out of prison, and I know He can keep me”? Of course, God could keep him. But God expects us to use our common sense. Sometimes what looks like a tremendous faith in God is actually tempting God. Even after God has done some wonderful or miraculous thing for you and for me, He still expects us to use our common sense.

Acts 12:18

Notice that Dr. Luke uses the diminutive"no small stir." When he says there was no small stir, believe me, he means there was a mighty big stir. Also in chapter 15 of Acts, when Judaism came into the church, Dr. Luke says they had “no small dissension.” He means they had a regular knock-down-drag-out. They had a real fight, a regular donnybrook. But Dr. Luke always uses that very gracious and gentle diminutive"no small stir" and “no small dissension.” When the soldiers found what had happened and realized that Simon Peter was gone, I think they called out half the army. They must have made a house-to-house search. Maybe they threw a guard around the city to prevent his escape. There was no small stir according to Dr. Luke. I’ll say not! There was a mighty big stir.

Acts 12:19

Herod is cold-blooded and he is hardhearted. He has no regard for human life. By executing the guards, he is saying to the world that he does not believe Peter’s escape was an act of God. He is holding his men responsible. He executes all the soldiers who were guarding Peter. Then he goes down to Caesarea, which is a resort area on the Mediterranean. Pilate enjoyed it down there, and many of the Roman rulers stayed down there. Actually, it was the Roman headquarters. Romans, like Pilate, didn’t care for Jerusalem. They certainly didn’t love Jerusalem as King David had. So now Herod beats it down to Caesarea to have a little vacation.

Acts 12:20

DEATH OF HERODNow we will see that God holds Herod responsible for the light He has given him. Tyre and Sidon did business with Herod and when he was displeased, this hurt the economy of Tyre and Sidon. So they came down to make an overture to Herod.

Acts 12:21

Herod was pompous and lifted up by pride. He was also a pleasing speaker. He was the kind of politician who would have been elected no matter what party he would run for. Herod is one of the men who is a miniature of Antichrist. John tells us this in 1Jn_2:18: “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” The people hail him as a deity.

Acts 12:22

Friend, God will not share His glory with anyone. “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images” (Isa_42:8). Herod refused to glorify God through the miracle of Peter’s escape from prison. And now he is willing to let the people deify him! God judges him. God is jealous of His glory. What a lesson we have here! Now one would think that with all this persecution taking place the poor church would be destroyed and disappear.

Acts 12:24

Persecution didn’t hurt the church at all.

Acts 12:25

John Mark goes back to Antioch with Barnabas and Saul. Remember that they had been down in Jerusalem with the gift to the church there. We have come now to the end of the second period of the Book of Acts. The gospel has gone into Judea and Samaria. Beginning with the next chapter we will see the movement of the gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. We are still in that movement today. I hope that you and I are both involved in it.