 But today we're going to Look at this portion here in chapter 12. So let me begin reading at verse 7. I'll read to verse 11 And we'll get into our study acts chapter 12 verse verses 7 through 11 Luke writes now behold an angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the prison And he struck Peter on the side and raised him up saying arise quickly his chains fell off his hands Then the angel said to him gurg yourself and tie on your sandals and so he did And he said to him put on your garment and follow me So he went out and followed him and did not know that what was done by the angel was real I thought he was seeing a vision When they were past the first and the second guard post they came to the iron gate that leads to the city Which opened to them of its own accord and they went out and went down one street and immediately the angel departed from him And when Peter had come to himself he said now I know for certain that the lord has sent his angel And has delivered me From the hand of herod and from all the expectation of the jewish people So let me give to you a little bit of an introduction Context reminder of what is taking place and then we'll pick up at verse seven and move through the verses before us this morning Now as we've been going through the book of acts we've noticed that Though the church began And when it began it was doing very well Very early within the the history of the church persecution Began to to grow and has been growing through the book of of acts as we've been going through it It had started by The Sadducees when they had jailed the apostles peter and john because they had been preaching the gospel remember That at the gate called beautiful. Peter and john had been there. There had been a crippled man who was there at the gate And as he as peter and john were about to enter in during the hour of prayer This crippled man saw them anticipating that that he would receive something from them Peter spoke to him and said look upon us and the man looked up expecting to receive and And that's when the apostle peter said silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I the in the name of Jesus christ They say do you stand to your feet and and walk you remember that that had happened and the man walking leaping and praising god gave the Apostle peter opportunity to preach the gospel Well, they were arrested he was arrested for doing that in the book of acts chapter four verse two It says that As peter had been preaching that those who had arrested him the Sadducees and all who had sent the officers to arrest them Were very greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and they were preaching in Jesus the resurrection from the dead And as you already know, perhaps you don't know at this moment The Sadducees a religious group within the confines of the Jewish religion The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection And so they considered what was being preached to be heresy. They were also agitated by the miracle that had been performed And so as they were speaking amongst themselves in acts 4 16, they said What shall we do to these men for indeed that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem we cannot deny it and so as they were Determining what to do acts 4 17 says that their response was to severely threaten them to no longer teach in the name of Jesus Christ And so they severely threatened them and said no longer teacher preaching his name Now in our day threats like that is all it takes to keep some from preaching the gospel If if somebody tells you not to do it And they're upset and they're threatening you well for many that's that's all it takes and but not for them because after that They continued to minister It says that Peter made it very clear that he would keep preaching acts 4 20 He said we cannot but speak the things which we've seen and heard we're not going to stop speaking Well once again as we've been going through the book of acts they were jailed for preaching the gospel And this time the high priest in in acts 5 28 the high priest told them did we not strictly command you Not to teach in this name and look you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us So at this point the rejection Is no longer simply verbal Because in acts 5 40 they called for the apostles beat them And commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and then they let them go so persecution began with the religious And it began verbally and it began to move into the physical From this point on the threats are no longer simply threats They're now beatings and other things Because in acts chapter 6 We saw how the anger towards the gospel continued to grow Steven who was one of the first deacons had disputed and the bible speaks to us concerned in fact that he spoke with these these fanatical religious jewish people and so They couldn't defeat him So what they did is they induced men to accuse him of Of blasphemy and that led them to casting them out of the city of Jerusalem and actually executing him Now sol who later becomes paul sol was present at the execution and the scripture says and was consenting to stevens death So persecution has grown it's grown from threats and slander to beatings and now death Jesus had forewarned his followers that this would happen. There would be an escalation In matthew 5 11 he said blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake When he said blessed are you when they revile that word revile means to taunt to scream at to insult you to your face Blessed are you when this takes place Now i've already pointed out in chapter 11 that this kind of behavior has already been mainstreamed I shared with you out of ax 1126 how that the disciples were called first christians in antioch I mentioned to you that that was actually A way of of putting them down. It was a nickname the antioch The people of antioch were were quick to give nicknames to people and they would use them as sometimes is used To demean people and so to be called a christian was not something that you were necessarily quote-unquote proud of It was something that was intended to demean you because as i've shared the last couple of times with you Christian is a word that means possessed by or owned by jesus Owned by christ and so to be a slave in the greek society was the lowest thing And for you to say that you were a christian meant that you were owned by him or possessed by him Meaning you were his servant with something they used as a slam a slur. That's how they would speak about it So they began to revile They also were persecuting the word persecutes speaks actually literally persecute means to pursue With the intent to do harm to physically injure. And so jesus had spoken about that He said they're going to revile you they're going to speak these things to your face But they're also Going to pursue you to do you injury to hurt you And then he said they'll say all kinds of evil against you falsely They're going to talk not only to your face, but they're also going to talk behind your back And it's all intended to injure you And so again violence against christians has by now become permissible After steven had been martyred sol had launched a violent attack against christians He gives his testimony more than one time in the book of acts, but in chapter 26 He was speaking in verse 11 And and sol by now called paul Said many a time i went from one synagogue to another to have them punished and i tried to force them to blaspheme I was so obsessed with persecuting them that i even hunted them down to foreign cities And so persecution is escalating from the reviling to pursuing to now to death And initially persecution was religious in nature But now the government has gotten involved in and hered the king had harassed believers He had taken the apostle james and he he had beheaded him Now he had seen that it pleased the jewish religious leaders and when he saw that he went on to arrest the apostle peter Now again, we need to keep in mind that not all jews were against jesus the church was birthed in jr All the original members were jewish Well after pentecost multitudes of jews had become followers of christ So it's not the average jewish person that's becoming violent. It's the religious leaders who are stirring that up The sagacies and the Pharisees who are religious religious sect if you will In particular we're in strong opposition And so hered wanted to please the jews who were in opposition, but especially The leaders and he had beheaded james But he went on to arrest another apostle this time He had arrested the apostle peter. He placed him in prison He had a reinforced detail that was watching him Placed him between two guards and he handcuffed the apostle to them He placed guards in front of the door to prevent an attempt to free him and as we saw peter was sound asleep And peter even though he's there shackled in a cell He is sound asleep because he's trusting in the lord Saw him four verse eight. I will lie down in peace and sleep For you alone. Oh lord make me dwell in safety And so that's what we've seen up to this point. We pick up now at verse seven Where it says behold An angel of the lord stood by him a light shown in the prison He struck peter on the side and raised him up saying arise quickly And his chains fell off his hands Now luke is making it very clear how startling this really is this is completely unexpected The angel is standing there by the apostle light shines in the prison That light the reason it speaks concerning light when it says a light shown in the prison The reason that is speaking of that is it's showing to us that this is an angel that has been sent from god Because angels and scripture often are described in this way remember in luke 24 verse 4 when the women were at the empty tomb It says while they were wondering about this suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood before them And so this is telling us that it's an angel of the lord And it says in verse seven that he struck peter on the side and raised them up saying arise quickly You know how startling would that be? You know to have someone tap you it doesn't say that he punched him it says that He hit him on the side kind of like your wives do when your husband's snoring that kind of thing He said rise quickly when you awoke the chains fell off of him It's been said that chains will never be able to hold anyone whom god is set free And that's what's taking place here He's being set free some 34 verse 7 the angel of the lord encamps about those who fear him And he delivers he rescues He rescues them the angel of the lord encamped about the righteous And deliver with them And that's what's taking place here And as he does so Versaite the angel says to him Gird yourself And tie on your sandals So he did he said to him put on your garment Follow me You know very often in scripture The lord will send his angels to do something on his behalf in this particular case The angel is is preparing peter To be released And as he's speaking to him He's saying to him basically He's saying It's time to get dressed It's time to go You see when peter had gone to sleep he had removed his cloak his belt in his sandals And that's why he's telling him to put these things back on He's saying gird yourself tie on your sandals Put on your garment Follow me As believers We should always be ready to go We should be ready to go At any time We should be ready to move when the lord is moving us We should be walking in the freedom that he's given us And we should be dressed for the occasion if you will We should put on the robe of righteousness like it speaks of in isaias 61 10 Our way should be girded with the belt of truth like it says in Ephesians 6 14 On our feet we are to wear the preparation of the gospel of peace like it says in Ephesians 6 15 We should be ready. We should be prepared because we're going to move out soon The time is coming and it's not that far away anybody who sees the signs of the times Anybody who's reading the bible and aware of the events that are taking place If this has to be something that awakens the church to the moment we're living in The bible tells us that we're to be prepared at any time to leave In 1st Thessalonians 4 16 and 17 the lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with a voice of an archangel With the trumpet of god the dead in christ will rise first We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the lord in the air And thus we shall always be with the lord I didn't know that god was preparing the church to take the church to be with him when i first got saved Nobody had ever told me anything about a rapture. Nobody had ever told me that the time is going to come That he was going to take us but i was taught after getting saved to be prepared because it can happen at any moment The lord's return is soon. We know that we're watching what's taking place We're seeing things line up even prophetically as they are right now And we know that we're we're about to go now when i'm not going to set a time or a date I don't do that, but i know this i'm supposed to be ready to go And when the angel taps him and says get dressed we're going we ought to be ready to go We ought to be holding on to things lightly like we were looking the the other day at the fact that we're to be Just travel travel lightly not to not to be burdened down to the various cares and concerns of the world Not carrying around material things within our mind thinking oh i want to stay a little bit longer I remember a young young woman who approached me on one occasion She said you know i want the rapture to happen, but i don't want it happen soon because i want to get married and have children And i said no you don't That's called the tribulation I want to get married have children and all of that Instead of saying come quickly lord jesus. We're saying take your time lord jesus We have to be careful with that because we can be weighed down with the cares of this world to the point We're of no no good for the kingdom so many times. They say well that person's so heavenly minded They're no earthly good. No, I think people are usually more earthly minded to be of any heavenly good We're so caught up with the cares and concerns of the world To the degree that sometimes we fail to remember the promises of god and god is true to his word and jesus is coming For his church he had to be prepared to leave And he said get up because it's time to go put on your garment Follow me Verse nine so he went out and followed him and did not know That what was done by the angel was real But thought he was seeing a vision When they were past the first and the second guard post They came to the iron gate that leads to the city which opened to them of its own accord Now today we see that and we think of the automatic opening doors that wasn't at that time obviously And they went out and went down one street and immediately the angel departed from him Now you have to picture this for a moment the angel has struck him on the side Get up get prepared get dressed or going He's still half asleep That's how deeply it rest he was So far as he knows at this moment he's seeing a vision. This isn't really taking place He goes between the first it goes through the second guard post and he's undetected and There are guards there, but they don't see him I don't know why the bible doesn't say it's possible. They had been blinded from seeing them their eyes being held back I don't know. Maybe they were in a deep sleep But the final gate is made of a heavy iron It swings open on its own Verse 11 when peter had come to himself He said now I know for certain That the lord has sent his angel in as delivered me from the hand of herod And from all the expectation of the jewish people So when he had considered this he came to the house of mary the mother of john whose surname was mark Where many were gathered together praying And so peter comes to himself He goes and says to himself. I know for certain this is actually happening. I'm in an open street I'm no longer chained I'm free This is happening Now remember god had delivered him before Once again, he delivers him Remember how when the Sadducees had arrested him for preaching he had been put in jail In acts 5 19 says during the night an angel of the lord opened the doors of the jail brought them out This has happened to him before god had delivered him before god delivered him again And this time notice how it said this time it was from the expectation of the people. What does that mean? The expectation of the people was for him to be executed So he delivered him from that expectation. He sees this is no dream. This is no vision I'm free. I better get out of here, which is what he does So in verse 12 when he had considered this he came to the house of mary the mother of john whose surname was mark Where many were gathered together praying. I want to share with you for a few minutes about this here This is something that that you can read and just bypass. I don't want to do that I want to show you something here and make application at this point here It says that he came to the house of mary Let me give you a little bit of a bible study about that mary Is referred to as the mother of mark also known as john John mark many of the jewish people jewish men had two names john mark john mark Is better known to us simply by the name of mark Now peter the apostle refers to him Probably because through the ministry of the apostle peter john had been saved Because in first peter 5 13 peter referred to him as my son mark Now mark was also barnabas's cousin Now later on we're going to see him accompanying paul and barnabas on a mission trip In acts 13 verse 5 it says that he was their assistant Now here's something for you mark wasn't ready for such a journey and what he did Is he abandoned the mission? Acts 13 13 says that he departed from them returning to jerusalem That led to a severe breach of relationship between barnabas and paul And eventually that breach was so severe. They went their separate ways paul began traveling with someone called sylas Barnabas began traveling with mark And as one with a gift of encouragement barnabas helped him to mature Now i'm going to develop this a little further in a moment, but in paul's last letter He obviously had reconciled with mark In second timothy 4 11 he wrote and told timothy Only luke is with me Get mark bring him with you For he is useful to me For ministry Ultimately it was mark who wrote the gospel of mark And it was more than likely dictated to him by the apostle peter Some have referred to the gospel of mark as the gospel according to the apostle peter because mark was his son in the faith And the details that mark received would have been from the apostle peter now here i want to come to a point of application Sometimes you may be in a place Where at one time you had been doing well And then you failed in the case Of john mark John mark was not ready for ministry sometimes people look at ministry And they say that looks easy anybody can do it. What's the big deal? You open up a book you talk from it You know you have seven days in a week On a wednesday you teach a bible study on sunday you teach a bible study and the rest of the week you golf What else do i don't like to golf but What else is there to it right? It looks easy doesn't it All you got to do is stand up and talk All you got to do is just share a few things maybe tell a story And we'll come back next week Ministry isn't easy And if you've been placed into ministry too young or without experience if you choose to go to help and then you You fail in that and you return like he did he he dropped out. He departed. He abandoned them We'll look at that next week. He abandoned the ministry is what he did. He didn't just leave it Was it we'll see you later hugs kisses i'll see you at home He departed he abandoned them and the apostle paul was so upset about it because later on Barnabas whose name is son of encouragement barnabas says i want to bring My cousin with me again and paul says no there's no way he departed from us Why would i want to bring somebody who shows himself to be too immature to do ministry? Why would i do that and and barnabas argued with them you could almost hear the argument now Wait a minute paul when you got saved and nobody believed in you Wasn't it me wasn't it me who went before people and said you can trust this guy and you know that's true because that's what happened They wouldn't receive you you were the one breathing out threatenings You were so upset that you were hailing people to be taken in chains and and and even executed But i showed you the love of christ I was there for you i helped you But now you won't receive him you won't take my cousin Because he had abandoned us because he was too young in experience And and it was so severe that they departed and actually developed two different ministry teams barnabas took off with and ministered to his his cousin mark And paul ended up taking a man named sylas or sylvanas which you see in scripture He became his traveling companion not only that but when you read your bible You're going to notice there's going to be a transition When you're reading your bible you see barnabas and sol barnabas and sol barnabas and sol that was the order Barnabas was in christ prior to to sol prior to paul But eventually you see luke switching that and it becomes paul and barnabas and then you see no more barnabas Barnabas went off did his ministry now. Here's the thing i wanted to share with you You may have started out well, but you didn't finish well You may have been somebody who was at every bible city that you get you could get to you may have been somebody That was very serious about your faith in christ even serving the lord even doing things on his behalf And somewhere along the line You got cold Somewhere along the line You stopped being faithful somewhere along the line You stopped caring and now you feel i can't be used anymore I want to tell you that this man here mark Wasn't prepared, but there was a barnabas who helped them to prepare Thank god for the barnabas is in the church Thank god for the sons of encouragement that will put their armor on your shoulder when you failed and will say God will still use you God can use you I've told this story before so many of you haven't heard it Encouragement goes a long way in somebody's life And when my wife marie and I were newly married We were living in a small apartment in rollin heights We had nothing There's an old saying that we didn't have two nickels to rub together We were just making it week by week I was going to school at biola And I had to quit because I had no money to pay tuition. I couldn't go I was doing A job working a job that was minimum wage Barely making it My wife Had to work and she continued working My wife had to continue working Until the weekend before she had our first child because I couldn't make enough money To pay a hundred and seventy five dollar a month rent I didn't have any money And I lost all hope And one day one night My little pregnant wife was in this Our little kitchen And I was depressed and so I went to the store I said I'll be right back and went and bought some beer I was an alcoholic prior to coming to faith in Christ And I went and bought some beer And I came home and I sat in the front room and I started drinking It wasn't enough So I said I'll be right back And I went and bought some more I came home and drank until I started Feeling the effects of the alcohol Some of you have been in our fellowship for a long time and you know tears come easy to me That's because you didn't know me before Because I never cried I wasn't one who cried For me an excuse to cry was alcohol An excuse to show emotion was alcohol And so I would bottle up my feelings and not say anything And I had done so in this case so I went and drank and I got a little bit high and My wife had never seen me drink. She didn't know me as that. I was her bible study teacher She came to faith in a bible study. I was giving She'd never seen that side of me. She didn't know that side of me And I didn't want her to see me like that So I walked upstairs and I turned off the light in my room I laid down on my bed. We didn't really have a bed. We had a fold-out couch that we used I didn't even have money to buy a bed And I started to cry closed my door And I put a pillow over my mouth and I sobbed Weeping Like my heart would break But my little girl my girl heard me She walked up. I still remember hearing those steps up the up the stairs and The door swinging open and the light shining on me As I had my pillow from my face weeping She came and sat next to me What's wrong? I'm a failure You married the wrong guy You you married the wrong man You deserve So much more than I am I can't afford anything I'm working a job That doesn't provide You're pregnant What am I going to give to my child? What am I giving to you? And I wept and I said I thought I was cold But look at me I've gone back I'm a failure And I just Wept She grabbed me and pulled me over and put my head on her shoulder and rocked me like I was a child She I still remember holding me like this as I wept And she said You're not a failure God will use you I believe in you And I'm standing here right now Because I'm married And encourage it It goes a long way It goes a long way And I thank god for men like Barnabas Paul was rigidly right He's not ready for ministry But Barnabas came alongside And he brought him up so the last word That Paul ever says of him in his last letter Is that he's of use to me. He is useful to me. He said in ministry and it is mark Who wrote the gospel of mark So somebody may be whispering in your ear that you're worthless You're not needed You know good But god doesn't say that god says I forgive every sin I will make you as clean and as white as snow I can give you a new life. I love you and I will forgive you Just come to me. That's how it works in the kingdom of god And so I wanted to do that because I know that there are some sometimes who may be feeling even as I one time Felt in that way and so Well, we were told earlier That there was constant prayer being offered up to god for For the apostle peter who was imprisoned because they knew what was going to take place So as he gets to the house, there's a large amount of believers and they are fervently praying Now here's another aside very very quickly the fact that a large group of people had fit into one house will tell us something It tells us that mary was very wealthy That she had a house that was large enough to hold a lot of people And that she had servants now In the new testament there are wealthy people that did follow christ and you read your bible You know pete james john and andrew were businessmen. They had two homes. They were well off Matthew was a tax collector. He was well off You had nicodemus who was rich. You also had joseph of eramithaea who was rich zakius was rich as well as barnabas Barnabas had a lot of money. He was able to sell a dwelling. He had and he gave the proceeds to the church These people were wealthy and mary was a wealthy follower of christ and that was A bit unusual even though there were others who also were wealthy because people who were financially wealthy didn't necessarily follow him Remember how that mark tells us of that rich young ruler who had come to christ and said how can i inherit eternal life And jesus had said well, you know the commandments keep them and he said in in mark 10 18 He said you shall not murder shall not commit adultery shall not steal shall not give false testimony shall not defraud He said honor your father and your mother and the young men said all these things i have kept from my youth What do i yet lack Mark 10 21 through 23 says that jesus looked at him and loved him one thing you lack He said go sell everything you have give to the poor you will have treasure in heaven then come follow me At this the man's face fell he he went away sad because he had great wealth And jesus looked around and said to his disciples how hard how difficult it is for the rich To enter the kingdom of god. It's not impossible But it truly is hard why because it's easy to trust in money Trusting in wealth is so so common jesus had to warn against it in luke 1215 He said watch out be on your guard against all kinds of greed life doesn't consist in an abundance of possessions Well at this time many believers in jerusalem have become poor. They had been persecuted. They needed help The believers cared for one another and they helped one another We saw that when relief aid was sent to the church in jerusalem and and mary had become a follower of christ And she used her her wealth to bless the church. Well Verse 13 peter was knocking at the door of the gate and a girl named rhoda came to answer When she recognized peter's voice because of her gladness She didn't open the gate But ran in and announced that peter stood before the gate. They said to her you're beside yourself Yes, she kept insisting that it was so so they said It's his angel now peter continued knocking And when they opened the door and saw them they were astonished but motioning to to them with his hand to keep silent He declared to them how the lord had brought him out of prison He said go and tell these things to james and to the brethren and he departed and went to another place And so there he is knocking at the door And rhoda opens the door whilst she didn't open she stands there. She hears his voice And so she's excited and she goes and tells everybody but she leaves peter knocking at the door And she runs and tells a prayer meeting. Hey, guess what? Your prayers have been answered And they say shut up. You're crazy. That's what they're saying here You are beside yourself You're crazy No, no, he said well the bible says calling to me. I will answer these show the great and mighty things Which thou know is not Just call on to me I'll show you these things. Well, they had forgotten that god can do the impossible god had set peter free before Why couldn't he do it a second time? I was sharing with somebody just today that our lessons of faith are normally repeated over our lifetimes We may think that we hear something and know something for sure But there's no doubt we only know a layer of truth and god is going to bring that over and over and over until We become deep in our understanding they had forgotten that god could do the impossible But he's repeating this so that they might learn that he does When they said when they said in verse 15 you're beside yourself You are someone who is not in your right mind, but she kept insisting that it's so so what is their next thing? Well, they get spiritual. Okay, you're not crazy. Then it's his angel So she's arguing with them. No, so they say well, it's his guardian angel now It's interesting that that some believe that every true israelite had what was called a guardian angel They believed that it was assumed the appearance of the one that it protected again in psalm 347 The angel of the lord encampment about the righteous and that was a verse and delivers them That's a verse that they would that they they thought of is that there's an angel of the lord who is encamping about us as a guardian in Matthew 18 verse 10 take heed that you despise not one of these little ones for I say to you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my father, which is in heaven So they believed in a guardian angel. So they said well Then it must be the guardian angel Well, peter continued knocking verse 16 imagine that he's outside there going Let me guys let me in let me in let me in dave's not here. Let me in That's an old thing only old people know what I just said Well says but motioning to them with his hand to keep silent He declared to them how the lord had brought him out of prison Go and tell these things to james and to the brother and he departed and went to another place He did so in order that he might protect them because he's a wanted man Very quickly here There's a difference of opinion concerning which james. This is the new testament. There are three men referred to as james We already saw james the brother of john who had been beheaded But there was another james you see in scripture. His name is james Son of alpheus. He was one of the original apostles then you have a third one named james, and it's james Who is the lord's brother? And you see that in mark chapter 6 verse 3. It seems that the lord's brother had become overseer of the drusselm church John 7 tells us at first he didn't believe in the lord, but later he came to faith in christ because In first quinthians 15 verse 7 the apostle paul said that jesus appeared to james and then to all the apostles james became the overseer of the church in drusselman and paul spoke of him to the galatians in chapter 1 verse 19 When he said i saw none of the other apostles only james the lord's brother In galatians 2 verse 9 he said james syphus and john Those esteemed as pillars gave me and barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me So this would be james the lord's brother Now he wanted james as overseer to know that he was okay and others to be informed and then it says He departed and went to another place to keep them safe and finally Begin in verse 18 and concluding As soon as it was day there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become peter But when herod had searched for him and not found him He examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death And he went down from judea to cesarea and stayed there now Herod had been very angry with the people of tyre and siden But they came to him with one accord having made blasts the king's personal aid their friend They asked for peace because the country was applied with food by the king's country So on a set day herod a raid and royal apparel sat on his throne and gave an aeration to them The people kept shouting the voice of a god not a man Immediately an angel of the lord struck him because he didn't give glory to god. He was eaten by worms and died But the word of god grew and multiplied barnabas and saw returned from jerusalem When they had fulfilled their ministry, they also took with them john whose surname was mark. Let's conclude very briefly here peter's not there. There's no small stir He somehow has escaped paranoid Would be a word you could use to describe herod He thought that there was a conspiracy So he executed the guards That way he was able to say well peter had been allowed to escape And so what he did is herod executed them because he didn't want the faith of christ to gain any traction So as the cruel man that he was he killed the guards so they were guilty of nothing well Later on and as we see in verse 20 and following Herod had been angry at the people of tyrant side and which is to the north in modern lebanon It says that the finician cities were dependent on him for supplies And so they're wanting to find favor with them. So According to verses 21 and 22 herod came before them and he gave a speech and he did so In a place called cesarea, which we go to every time we go to israel. There's an amphitheater there Now the the historian josephus said that herod was wearing a robe made of silver thread And when he entered the amphitheater early in the morning the sun shone on it It was brilliant. The people began to cry out. He's not a man. He's a god And then josephus states that herod neither rebuked them Nor rejected their impious flattery The scripture says an angel of the lord struck him. He didn't give glory to god. He was eaten by worms Oh That may be what is called the dog tape worm Sheep and cattle serve as hosts for this parasite the dog eats infected meat And man gets infected from the dog The disease included the formation of cysts Generally on the liver That may have extended into the abdominal cavity The rupture of a cyst may release as many as two million developing worms Yeah, huh Think of that next I may have a potluck and And he died a painful death History records. That's how he died Scripture simply tells you why he was consumed by worms Cornelius When the apostle peter administered to him attempted to give him honor. That was not his due and peter rejected it But herod accepted it Voice of god and not a man And god says no, there's only one god I will give my glory to no one else And he died What is the result will close the word of god grew and multiplied Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry They also took with them john whose surname was mark the word of god grew and multiplied the enemy may do everything he can to squash The ministry of the word He may use politicians to try and outlaw its preaching He may have people who are standing in front of abortion clinics protesting He may he may the enemy may inspire them to be removed or even arrested He does everything he can to keep the word of god From being proclaimed But always remember this please Persecution does not stamp out the fire It just causes it to to move on to actually spread Affliction and persecution rejection always does that and you're going to have it If you're following the lord and you're open with your faith There are going to be people who will verbally speak to you sometimes they may even strike you that's possible It does happen There's a lot of persecution throughout this world many many of us American Christians may not endure the kind that's really going on everywhere in other places But it does exist And one of the places that I see persecution and i'll close by saying this I see one of the places where it's most open and yet people don't realize it is in in our educational system It's in our educational system where where they're attempting where people are attempting to grab the minds of our children as young as three and four years of age And pouring to them things that are not biblical that are not right that are not moral And they're pouring into them at an early age and then when when christians to end up and say wait a minute That's my child to have the right to educate them You don't have the right to say those things to them Then we're the people who are looked at as being the social terrorists and that's to take we know that that's what's taken place now Your children are being taken from you You send them through school up into college when you get into college I had I I didn't go to only christian colleges I went to to secular college and and one of my particular professors asked us on the first day I was a social science major at cal poly And one of our my professor said how many of you are are born again christians How many of you are I raised my hand along with three or four of the people in the class And he said I feel sorry for you because you follow what is said in this little book. I follow science You follow religious superstition And the very first day in the very opening he put us down and he didn't have a problem doing that I still remember how he said on one occasion. He said there is no there's no proof that smoking cigarettes There's no proof that smoking cigarettes will lead to lung cancer. There's no proof He said I have on my desk studies that confirm that there is no correlation between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer And then later on I heard he died of lung cancer And she said I never was I wasn't intimidated by that You can be why because these guys have phd's these guys got multiple degrees I had one professor had two masters and a phd and you're in that class and and they're not believers And and you're thinking what do I have to say to them and I learned a long time ago Just open your mouth. God will fill it take the opportunity to share and God will give you He'll give you favor and that happens and I saw that either you become quiet or you open your mouth Now me I decided to open my mouth. Why because I said to the lord when I got saved if you said no one send me I'm willing to speak in your name. I'll do what I can and I want all of us to be of that People are going to hell the church needs to speak the truth There are people who are taking your children's mind and brainwashing them But the word of God washes it clean. We need to give them the word of God That's just it just makes sense to me Train up a child in a way he should go when he's old he won't depart from it Give them devotion speak to him about the things of the lord Teach them that athletics and and being on a soccer team and a softball team or a baseball team is not important more important than eternity May they enjoy their sports, but may they not worship it because none hardly any if at all Are ever going to be professionals at that sport, but they're going to live and they're going to die That's a hundred percent. We need to build into them the faith of christ So they know the things of the lord and do not be intimidated Don't go out picking fights Don't stand on street corners yelling at people. Hey, you're going to hell. I want to talk about it. Don't do that But when given the opportunity Open your mouth That's why you're there. You are salt. You are light. You have the word you should preach it And so the word of God grew and multiplied The more the enemy said shut up The more they opened their mouth because we ought to obey god rather than man We will speak when given the opportunity and that's what god has called the church to Never forget that you have been sent by god with a mission Be faithful and watch what god will do