Give it up for Chris, Jonah, Elijah, and Lydia. Wonderful music set. I can tell you how good and relaxing it feels to be here with you at Cume Lake this week, along with my amazing family hanging out. Now out of curiosity, how many of you recognize the name Nabil Kureshi?
Nice to hear your hands Nabil Kureshi. Okay, put your hands down. Nabil Kureshi is a former Muslim who is challenged by a Christian apologist to consider the claims of Christ. Even though he cost him with his family, ended up becoming a believer in Jesus Christ.
He was working on his third master's degree, his PhD, had his MD, arguably the leading Christian apologist of Muslims. Died in 2017 at 34 years old to stomach cancer. About a decade ago around this time, I remember asking my dad who at that time in his mid-70s had about five decades of being an apologist in evangelist. I said, why do you think God would allow somebody like Nabil to die?
And all I remember is he goes, I don't know, son, why wouldn't he take me? Why God protects some and not others is kind of a sub-question of the larger question of evil and suffering. It's an abstract question that can be personal. Some of you sitting here this morning might be thinking, why God allows me to lose my job?
Why do God allow my uncle or my friend to get cancer? Where is God when I hurt? I'm not a Christian because I can answer every question about why God allows evil and suffering. But I'm a Christian largely because I think Christianity offers the best response to evil and suffering in the world.
Now this morning we're looking at Acts 12. And Acts 12, we're confronted with a similar question. God allows James one of his 12 to die. But he protects Peter.
Why one and not the other? Looking at this passage more closely, well, it helps to make sense in that question. And maybe encourage us when we see brokenness and pain around us and experience it in our lives. So if you want to open up your bibles and turn them to me to Acts 12, we can dive in.
You can't find it, it's right after Acts 11. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Acts. When no one lasts at that, I'm like, it's going to be a long morning for the record. Let's read the first three verses, Acts 12.
It says, about that time, Herod the King laid violent hands on some who belong to the church. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And we saw that at pleased to Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now there's multiple James in the Bible.
This is not James, son of Alpheus, not James, the brother of Jesus. This is James, the brother of John, the son of Zebedee in the inner circle amongst the 12. Now this is probably AD 42, a decade into the church. Can you imagine how that news landed?
The church is growing, God is healing, it's moving, it's expanding, things are positive. And all of a sudden you hear the news, Herod killed James. One of Jesus' closest friends, one of the 12, he's gone and he's not coming back. Shocked, disturbed, unsettled, concerned.
Luke doesn't give us details, he just drops it in the story and he moves on. Now what is interesting about this, the apologists in me has to pause because I did my doctoral work on the deaths of the apostles. I spent a decade studying this and there's something really interesting about the story here with the death of James. Now there's multiple Herod's in the Bible.
Perhaps the most well known and infamous is Herod the Great. When we were in Israel about six years ago, we asked our Jewish guide what he thought of Herod the Great. He said basically as a way we see it, before Hitler, Herod was the ultimate bad guy at Herod the Great. Massive builder but was just vicious, vicious against the Jews at that time.
But Herod a group of who rained from about 41 to 44 actually lived in Jerusalem for much of his life and he practiced the Jewish, some of the rituals. He was actually, he tried to please the Jews. There's a writer by name of Josephus who writes the end of the first century and he describes that Herod a gripper in this story actually was one who tried to please the Jews. Now the Bible says that settles it, I trust it, but this little incidental comment in Acts that says he did it because it pleased the Jews matches what we know of Herod of that time and helps confirm the account.
Let's keep going. Verse four. Now, so I read this passage, one thing I do is I ask questions a lot when I'm reading, by the way, you know in Gospels and Acts Jesus asked 340 questions and he answered about eight. Questions, questions, questions.
So I read this one question was like, wait a minute, here's Peter and prison. James had just been killed by Herod, he's trying to please the Jews, put some back on trial and Herod and Peter actually sleeps. How did Peter sleep? No one he was going on trial and likely going to be executed the next day.
Now, how about you? Think of like, I don't know what it would be, the day that you most dreaded it was coming up next. Like can you picture that in your mind? You know tomorrow is a day, probably not as bad as likely being executed, but a bad day is coming up.
How well did you sleep the night before that? This is the participatory part of the program. Probably not well. Now keep in mind, it's not like Peter's in prison, they're like Peter, hey, is the temperature okay?
Can I get you any melatonin? Do you need a nicer pillow? This is cold and it's dark and it's loud and it's uncomfortable and he sleeps so well that we'll see as the passage continues and angel shows up next to him and there's a light and the angel has to like shake him to wake him up. How do you possibly sleep through this?
One of the things my mom taught me, I think of a lot, she said when you're in a moment in life where you're not sure what God is doing, you're confused, you have doubts, pull out your history book. Remember the things that God has done in your life to encourage you in the present. Well, can you imagine Peter's history book? Yeah, I saw Jesus walk on water.
I saw him heal the blind. I saw him heal the leper. I also had words from Jesus which we have recorded in John 21 which says Peter will be the shepherd but he will die when he's old, in other words, Peter's not old yet, he's going to survive this. I think Peter knew the character of God and he has the word of Jesus and that's what gave him peace.
I think that's the kind of peace that Christ can offer us amidst the storms of life. Now the story goes on, I have another question about this. What were they praying for? Peter in prison.
Now quickly you think, well, John, that's obvious. You're praying for him to get out and to survive. And I say, are you sure? Because it doesn't say that.
So we're in Acts 12. I went back and I looked at all the prayers and you're like, how do you know that you got all the prayers? I asked Chachi P.T. It must be true.
I said, list all the prayers and acts and then of course I went back and read in the context. I was like, what do we have record of the people praying for before this time? Well, in Acts 1, the apostles prayed to reveal the candidates who replaced Judas amongst the 12th. Acts chapter 4, they pray for boldness in speaking God's word.
Acts chapter 6, they pray for the seven who were chosen to serve. Acts chapter 7, this one is amazing. Stephen prays while they're stoning them to receive his spirit and not hold his killer sins against them. And then in Acts 8, Peter and John pray for the spirits and believers to receive the Holy Spirit.
Guess what is conspicuous by its absence? Any prayer in the early chapters of Acts when they're being threatened, beaten, thrown in prison for individual protection. None. Zilch.
Not. Now is it wrong to pray for individual protection? There's other prayers like that in the Bible. It's not my point.
But our automatic assumption is he's in prison. They're praying for his protection. Maybe they had different priorities. Maybe they had different values that we often import into the Scriptures.
I read this, I thought, what are my prayers about? Are they instantly for myself and my kingdom? Are they focused on God and his kingdom? And what and who do you pray for?
Now the story goes on. I think there's one of the best stories in Acts. The drama here, you can just feel it coming off the pages. But it says this, now in Herod we're in verse 6.
Now in Herod was about to bring him out on that very night. Peter was sleeping between the two soldiers, bound the two chains and centuries before the door guarding the prison. And behold, an angel the Lord stood next to him and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up.
In other words, he's sleeping through an angel and a light has got to strike him suddenly. He said, get him quickly. And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, dress yourself and put in your sandals.
And he did so. And he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real.
But thought he was seeing a vision. Like this is so sudden, people's like, am I awake? Am I dreaming this is a vision? What's happening?
And it says, when they had passed the first in Stengard, they came to Iron Gate and leave the gate open for them of its own accord. And then they went out along one street and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, after all this, he finally gathers himself. He said, now I am sure the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from the Jewish people that the Jewish people were expecting.
Now humanly speaking, Peter's plight was hopeless. It was impossible. So there's four squads, two chains, Roman guard and execution likely tomorrow. Humanly speaking, Peter is done.
But what does it say? Angel Lord stood next to him. And there was a sudden supernatural intervention. Now I don't have a testimony of being in prison like an angel for him.
There's times I'm like, God, just show me something supernatural like this. But then the other part of him is like, but I really don't want to be in prison to start with. Maybe you can't have one without the other at times. This is clearly supernatural.
It's clearly supernatural. A light, an angel, chains fall off, doors open, angel disappears. Now probably most of us in here have not had that level of dramatic encounter with an angel. Where Hebrews 13, 2 tells us, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.
Now the story goes on, I think it's even better. In verse 12 it says, when you realize this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark. I was like, you notice all the details that are given here? Why?
That's because this is I wouldn't account. These are real people who were known. This isn't a fictional story in another land. Given a specific names and specific details.
And notice where many were gathered together and they were praying. So all this happens while they're in the house actually praying likely for Peter. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named wrote, it gives her a specific name to him to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice.
She thought he's been in prison. I ought to bring him inside. She opens up the door and brings him inside immediately. Actually like, wait a minute, that's not what it says.
That would be the obvious thing to do. But that's not what happened. She recognized her voice and in her joy she did not open the gate. Now that doesn't connect for me.
In her joy of seeing Peter, she doesn't let him in. Ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said her, you are out of your mind. Now let that sink in.
Already there's miracles that Peter and the apostles done, the early chapters of Acts, they know the story of Jesus. They're praying and they don't believe that Jesus had actually done a miracle for them. Friends, we do the same thing today. I'm convinced that near-death experiences really happen.
And people come back. You know what we say to them? They go, yeah, you're out of your mind. I'm convinced they got the supernatural miracles today.
And we report it and even some Christians go, yeah, you're out of your mind. We were in Mozambique earlier and early this summer. I heard so many stories that people had demons cast out supernatural miracles. And you know what people in the West sometimes say?
You're out of your mind. We have the same response. We don't believe that God is acting and working and doing miracles. The same God is in this story right here.
But then they kept saying, it's his angel. So now that I can't, maybe it's supernatural, but it's still an angel. They don't actually believe God is doing this. But Peter continued knocking.
Now I wish it said how long, you knocked, is this 90 seconds? Is he knocking for half an hour? I kind of wish he gave us those details. When they opened, they saw him and were amazed.
But motioned them with his hand to be silent. He described them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, tell these things to James. Now by the way, which James?
Not James' son is Ebony. Now this is James, the brother of Jesus. Then he departed and went to another place. Now I have two questions from this text.
Number one, there's the Bible teach that we have a guardian angel. Do you have a guardian angel? I won't have you raise your hand. But how many of you believe you have a guardian angel?
I did for a long time because I remember this 1983 song called Angels From. Great. Two of you are over 50. How many of you recognize the name Amy Grant?
Joe Hans. Oh, quite a few of you. If you go back to like 80s and 90s, she was the largest well-known Christian artist on the planet. She was kind of in a sphere of her own.
I remember when I first heard on a radio station, like, I don't know, B100 in San Diego in the 90s, was like, oh my goodness, we're in Amy Grant's on a Christian radio station. What's your own song? Really 80s called Angels. And it's rooted in Acts 12 about how Peter is set free from prison and his angel protected him.
And then the song shifts and says, basically, we also have angels protected us all the time. And so because I, as a kid, got my theology from Christian music sometimes, believed we had a guardian angel. Until I actually read the passage and started thinking about it. Do you have a guardian angel that always keep us from harm?
Well, then why did Peter have one, but not James? Why don't we do a Christian song about James? I think maybe we want to believe in guardian angels because it gives us a sense of control, gives us a sense of comfort. Maybe God won't let me suffer if I just follow him, which, by the way, can become a way of using God rather than loving and serving God.
Now my only question is, what does the passage teach? All this passage teaches is they're knocking on the door. Peter is. They don't believe it's Peter.
And what do they say? It's his angel. All we have is those first Christians saying that they think this might be his angel. Doesn't follow that all Christians have angels that are watching over them.
No, that doesn't follow. We have to be careful taking what the Bible reports versus what the Bible affirms. At least minimally, this passage, I don't think, teaches we have a guardian angel. Now let's keep going.
And that's more interesting question, I think. Why doesn't the Bible report where Peter went? All it says is he gets out of prison, knocks. There's a report that James, and he went where?
To another place. Does the writer not know? Is it not important? And actually, I think as I read this passage, it's less important where Peter goes than Peter actually leaves.
Now if you've studied the book of Acts, you know the theme of Acts is found in Acts chapter 1 8. That would be filled with the spirit. And it'll be his witnesses to where? Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
We're in Acts 12. And where are they still existing? Jerusalem, a decade out. And they're still not expanding in the way they were encouraged to and told to in the beginning of Acts.
I think it's less important where Peter goes than finally the apostles kind of get their act together and go out and actually start ministering in the way Christ had called them to. Now this seems to bring us back to our question why God allows evil and suffering. And I think maybe, let me suggest one thing. One purpose God accomplishes through suffering is drawing us into deeper obedience and reliance upon him so we can be witnesses to advance the gospel.
Maybe one reason God allows suffering and pain is to draw us into deeper obedience and reliance upon him so he can use us in a sense as witnesses to advance the gospel. I'm not saying God causes it. I'm saying maybe God allows it. Maybe.
Maybe you might think, oh, this is Peter. What about the suffering I've gone through? I don't have a simple answer for you. If you come up to me after this and say, Sean, I've got a lot of this to happen.
I'm not going to have a simple answer for you. I don't know. But here's what I think the key question is. When we hurt, when we have pain, when we suffer, do we ask the question, how do I honor God through this pain?
That's really the question. About three years ago, my family remember this. I went through three months of the worst pain in my life. I dropped down.
I lost about 15 pounds to about 135 pounds. And for about three or four hours a week, I would just lie on my back a breath at a time, my body hurts so badly for a while. Now, remember, I kind of hit a point. I was like, God, I don't understand it.
Why are you not taking this away? All I can ask is that you'll help me understand it at some point and see the good in it, and help me just honor you through this. That's all I could pray for. I think maybe God allows pain and suffering, because it humbles us.
It causes into reliance upon him, and it challenges us out of our comfort zones to be obedient towards him. Let's keep going on the story. It's said, when the day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become a Peter. After Herod searched for him, he did not find him.
He examined the centuries in order that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. Now, there's a lot of death in this chapter. There's the death of James.
There's the death of the guards. And we're about to read about the death of Herod. I actually think maybe death and suffering around us is a common grace from God to not rely upon things that are temporal, but to rely upon things that are eternal. It's a common grace of God not to rely upon things that are temporary and to rely upon things that are permanent.
It's just about two weeks ago, I was having lunch at Chipotle with a friend. I think he's probably in his mid-80s. And he was telling me about his brother, who served as a mechanic, his older brother, in World War II. And he was not following the Lord.
And the one day he got sick and couldn't work on the machine. The machine exploded and killed the guy who stepped in for him. And he said, that woke my brother up to get his life right with God. I think maybe when we see death and pain and suffering around us, it's God's common grace to look to things that are eternal, rather than the things that are temporary.
Ironically, God had common grace for Herod. If Herod had any brains, he would have said, I'm fighting against these early Christians. I'm throwing Peter in prison, an angel freedom from prison. Maybe I'm on the wrong side here.
But he's too arrogant as we see in the next story, and doesn't listen. Verse 20, he says, now, Herod was angry with the people of Tyron side, and they came to him with one court. And having persuaded blastness, the king of the chamberlain, they asked for peace because their country depended on the king's country for food. On the point of the day, Herod put on the royal robes, took his seat upon the throne and delivered a relation to them.
And the people were shouting, the voice of a god and not of a man. Immediately, an angel Lord struck him down because he did not give glory to God, he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. Now let me ask you an obvious question. What happens in the Bible when someone positions themselves in opposition to God?
Answer, it never ends well. Goliath lost, Pharaoh lost, Sennacherib lost, Nebuchadnezzar lost. To our question, why is God allowed even suffering? Another piece of this is God is sovereign.
He, his will, will be done. Evil will not reign, no matter how strong it seems. Nebuchadnezzar seemed unbeatable. Pharaoh seemed unbeatable.
Goliath seemed unbeatable. In fact, like Biola's football team, they were undefeated. You realize we've never lost a football game? Now we don't actually have a football team, but that's only details.
That's secondary, we're undefeated, we've never lost. Now kidding aside, from a human perspective, again, Nebuchadnezzar, Sennacherib, Pharaoh, all of them seemed absolutely unconquerable and they all lost. Evil will not reign. God is sovereign and he is eternal and his will is going to be done and we can trust him through that.
God has the last word. But there's a second question as I read this. I'd be curious what you thought of it if you'd sit down and have coffee. Why does the Bible have to tell us that Herod was eaten by worms?
I mean, when you read that, it was their part of you. It's like, wait a minute, this is like the holy word of God. Why is it describing being eaten by worms? Why do we need that detail?
And actually think it's important and I'm glad it's in there. Why? I think many times in the Bible, we learn about somebody's character by how they die. So Joseph lived to 110 years old.
Why? Did anybody know why? Yes, he was faithful, but in Egypt at that time, 110 was considered the perfect life that was lived. Joseph lives to 110.
That number represents his faithfulness. Now if we go to the game of Acts, who's death do we have that similar to Herod's? On the flip side, we have Judas's death. What happened?
He's hung any falls and his guts like burst open, his intestines burst open. Why are we telling this? Because it's the opposite of the death of say, Joseph. That is a life of faithfulness and goodness.
Judas betrayed Jesus. This physical suffering depicts the evil of what he had done. So Herod stands up and said to accept this praise from the audience, this is not a man, he's a God, he's reveling in this. So the Bible wants to make sure we know that if you're gonna call yourself God, it's not gonna end well and we're gonna depict it for you so you understand the gruesomeness of that death.
Now that raised another question then, who died the most gruesome death in the Bible? Jesus did. So if your death exemplifies the kind of life that you lived and both Judas and Herod died miserable deaths that are explained, Jesus is crucified, what does that tell us? When I was reading this, it hit me.
It hit me that Jesus, who was sinless, Hebrews 4, like us in every way, yet without sin. In John 8, Jesus says, which if you can convict me of sin, the crucifixion of Jesus was not to depict his sin, but to depict what? Our sin. That's what the graphic nature of the cross portrays.
I don't know about you, I'd rather be hung and died the way Judas did, I'd rather be eaten by worms than be crucified. So if we look at Herod and think, man, he was so arrogant, I can't believe he'd save that to God, he deserved that death, friends, we are missing the point. Rather than look within at our own sin than what Jesus did for us. Acts 12, 24 then says, I love this.
After this grisly death of Herod, it says that the word of God increased and multiplied. The guards tried to stop it, Herod tries to stop it, but the word of God increased and multiplied. You see, we get to be a part of God's story, but we don't get to choose the role that we get to play. We get to choose God's sovereign plan in a sense for our lives.
So if I were to bring a full circle and ask the question, why did God allow James to die but protect Peter? By the way, when everybody asks a why question about God, the only way we know and answer is if God tells us. You're asking us to probe the mind of God. So I'm just going to do my best to piece together, maybe why God did this, emphasis on maybe.
I think one reason it might be that if God protected only his faithful followers, guess what would happen? People would sign up for this Christian faith because of what they get out of it, namely protection, rather than sign up because of awareness of their sin and desire to know God and love and serve him. People came to the teachers of Jesus, and in part he's like eat my flesh and drink my blood, trying to say some of you are here to get food and for the show, how many of you really want to follow me? I think that could be one reason why.
But second, the older I get and I turn 50 this year, I mean none of you appreciate that. I feel like it, thank you. You must be at least 50. I'm not that you look that way, but I'm just assuming to have appreciation for that.
I think I want to walk that one back, by the way. I turn 50, a buddy called me on the day. He goes, welcome to the decade that your body falls apart. I said, happy birthday to you too.
You know I think maybe God allowed Peter to suffer. I'm sorry, James to die and Peter to be protected. Since I'm actually convinced that one of our greatest witnesses to the world is when we suffer well, when we suffer with hope, when we suffer with dare I say it, joy, when we suffer with love, and we suffer with faith. Anybody can virtue signal today, but when it costs us something and we suffer and still find joy, that gets the world's attention.
That's in part why Peter in chapter three says, it may be God's will that you suffer. You know, ironically, we look at this and go, well, God, you know, he protected Peter, but not James, but James went immediately to God's presence. They'd have to suffer anymore. Peter suffered for a few more decades, actually.
Probably a couple more, roughly. And by the way, what happened to Peter? He died as a martyr. Peter died as a martyr, John 21, first Clement V and eight other sources in the second century.
Peter died as a martyr. I'm not sure that Peter got the better deal than James. Let me bring it full circle and just kind of land this plan since by asking you some questions for reflection. Three questions.
One, and this is questions when we suffer and we hear, and some of you, I know there's a lot of young people here and there's some bio students. Look, here's the reality. If you're like, I haven't suffered yet, it's only a matter of time. It's coming.
That's reality. That's the broken world we live in and the broken bodies that we have affected by sin. The question's not will we suffer. It's when, how we suffer and how will we respond?
That's a question. And whether you're suffering now in the future, you're allowing God to draw you into deeper reliance upon him. Are you allowing God to draw you into deeper obedience? Second, are you trusting God in his sovereign plan, even if it doesn't make sense?
And finally, do you really believe that God is good? Do you believe that? Saying sanitation of the Bible is not God doesn't exist. He twisted his word and questioned the character of God.
We're in Acts 12. Go two chapters later. And notice the Paul writes, I love this in Acts 14 verse 16. It says, in past generations he allowed all nations to walk in their own ways.
Yet he did not leave himself without a witness, a testimony, for he had good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. If there's anywhere on the planet, we can be thankful to God's goodness, it's here. Friends, we live in a broken world. Some of you are hurting right now.
If not hurting and pain is coming. We follow the God who spoke the world into existence. Part of the Red Sea heals the blind, heals lepers, fulfilled prophecy. And for reasons we're not told, allow James, one of his followers to be killed at the hands of Herod.
The question is, will we choose to see the goodness of God around us and believe that? Beautiful weather, incredible sequituries. All of those are God's good grace to us. Let's enjoy it this week.
Let's minister and love the people. Cause I'm telling you, there's a lot of people coming up this week who are bringing hurt and pain and brokenness with them. May we be present and love them through this. That's the kind of ministry I think God would wanna do through us, amen.
Let's pray. Father, thank you that we can be up here this week and just enjoy your beauty. May amidst the hurt and brokenness that probably many of us see and experience. May we just trust in your goodness and look to you and give us the strength to follow you and be your light.
Especially those coming up to camp this week. Can we know we're bringing some hurt and brokenness with them? May we see with your eyes and just touch with your compassionate touch. And we praise in your name, amen.
Amen.