Preparing for Persecution | Acts 12:1-23
Luke’s account of persecution in the early church prepares us with a four-step plan: (1) recognize the danger; (2) rely on prayer; (3) refuse to doubt; and (4) respect God’s wrath. This sermon is part 5 of “Spreading the Faith,” Bryan Craddock’s verse-by-verse sermon series on Acts 8-20.
We used to have a smoke alarm in our home that was hypersensitive. Slightly burnt toast would set it off. It would start wailing if we turned up the stove above medium heat. We could not even turn on the oven without hearing its piercing sound.
A hypersensitive alarm is a serious problem. The first few times it goes off, you take it seriously, then you get irritated, and after a while you begin to ignore it. When I heard it from another room, I just assumed that it was no big deal. So, if there ever was a real fire in the kitchen, I would be slow to react. All those false alarms make you complacent.
It seems to me that some Christians are hypersensitive about persecution. They are quick to sound the alarm over what they perceive as overt hostility in our society. I encountered believers like this early in my Christian life, thirty-five years ago, and even then, I thought that their fears were overblown. I came from an unchurched background, and it seemed to me that most people outside the church did not care at all about Christianity. They just did not want to be hassled.
In the social media age, that alarmist tendency has only grown. The most extreme headlines get the clicks, and once people latch onto those ideas, they are often unwilling to consider other perspectives. Plus, a lot of people isolate themselves from those who are not like them. So, for believers those dynamics can tempt us to live in fear and even hatred.
Now Christians around the world do face serious persecution. But just like with my smoke alarm, being exposed to constant false alarms from hypersensitive people stokes our fears and then leaves us combative or complacent. We need to find the right balance, and Luke points us toward it in Acts 12. His overarching purpose in Acts 8-20 is to equip future generations to spread the faith. So, in chapter 12, his account of a time of persecution in the early church prepares us with a balanced four-step plan.
Recognize the Possibility
Meteorologists have lots of high-tech tools for weather forecasting. For a long time, they relied upon what they could observe in their location: temperature, wind speed, and changes in pressure. Now they have radar, satellite imagery, and complex computer models that use data from sites around the world. But conditions can change quickly. We are still surprised by storms that they did not predict. So, it’s smart to prepare yourself by carrying an umbrella.
We must recognize the possibility that persecution can hit the church in the same unexpected way. Luke gives us an example in Acts 12:1-4. He says,
About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.
It is easy to confuse the different Herodian kings in the New Testament. They all serve as puppets of the Roman Empire, but they have distinct personalities. Herod the Great was the brutal tyrant who ruled Judea at the time of Jesus’ birth. He ruthlessly eliminated anyone who threatened his power. His indulgent son, Herod Antipas, was known for his immoral relationship with his brother’s wife. He executed John the Baptist and mocked Jesus before his crucifixion.
The Herod here in Acts 12, however, is Agrippa I, a grandson of Herod the Great, who was known as a chameleon, a people-pleasing politician. He was raised in Rome from the age of six and was able to forge political ties with two future emperors, one of whom appointed him king over all of Palestine in AD 41. In Jerusalem, he played the part of a faithful Jew. He probably had no personal hatred of Christians, but he launched this persecution to please the Jewish council.
We have seen in Acts that the disciples in Jerusalem experienced intense hostility from the council. They arrested Peter and John and had them beaten. At the urging of zealous Hellenistic Jews, they stoned Stephen. But the execution of the Apostle James here in Acts 12 is the first instance of government persecution of the church.
An experience like this might lead someone to distrust all government authorities. The church could have gone underground to meet in secret. But that is not how Peter responds. Later in 1 Peter 2:13-17 he tells other believers,
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
He probably wrote those words from Rome on the eve of another instance of government persecution initiated by a selfish, opportunistic ruler. After a great fire swept through the city, Nero blamed it on Christians. He crucified some. Others were torn apart by wild animals for entertainment. Some were even burned as torches at a dinner party.
So, we must strike a balance in our view of government. God established it for our good. So, rather than living in constant fear of persecution, we should honor and submit to those in authority. But we should not entirely trust government either. We must recognize the possibility that it can change unexpectedly.
So, how should we respond to that awareness? Our next step tells us.
Rely upon Prayer
Kneeling in prayer seems weak in the world’s eyes. They see it as a last-ditch effort after you have exhausted all your resources in every other possible plan. It’s the posture that people take when they surrender to defeat. It’s how someone grovels before a king.
That view of prayer is not entirely wrong. Genuine prayer is an act of surrender, submission, and dependence. The Lord’s prayer reflects those ideas. But it’s so familiar to us that we may not notice them. Take a look. Matthew 6:9-13 tells us that Jesus said,
Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
In genuine prayer, we bow before our Father and honor his holy name. We ask him to enforce his reign throughout the world as we submit our hearts to his will. We express our reliance upon him to provide, to forgive, to direct us and deliver us. This is more than a list of requests. It is the essential mindset and disposition of being a Christian. In blessing, hardship, or persecution, we must humbly draw near to the Lord and rely upon him in prayer.
The church in Jerusalem responds to Herod’s persecution by praying, and God chooses to intervene in a miraculous way. Acts 12:5-10 tells us,
So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, "Dress yourself and put on 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. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him.
Vigilant guards are put to sleep, tightly bound chains simply fall off, and locked gates open on their own. Such things are not difficult for God and his angelic servants. In the Exodus, he parted the Red Sea and provided manna from heaven (Ex 14, 16). He made the sun stand still for Joshua (Josh 10). He protected Daniel in the lions’ den and preserved his three friends in the fiery furnace (Dan 6, 3).
So, rather than being our last resort, prayer should be our first response and our constant habit. We must believe that God is absolutely powerful, wise, and loving. According to Matthew 7:7-11, Jesus says,
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Are we ready to trust God through persecution? I suspect that a lot of us would be more inclined to skip praying to fight back. If prayer seems too weak, perhaps we are trusting our own strength more than God’s. We need to train ourselves now in consistently relying upon God in prayer. Pray for peace and safety. Pray for wisdom and boldness. Pray for the persecution of Christians in other parts of the world to stop and for those believers to experience God’s comfort and strength. As we do, we must keep another step in mind.
Refuse to Doubt
A story is told about a woman who would always slice the ends off her pot roast before cooking it. When asked why, she said that her mother always did it. When her mother was asked why, she said that her mother always did it. When the grandmother was asked why, she said that it was the only way to fit it into the small pot that she had.
Sometimes the reason for doing something gets lost, and that can happen with prayer. We might do it ritualistically, because it seems like the right thing to do. As good as it is to develop a habit of praying, we must not lose the heart behind it. We must believe that God hears and that he can grant our request and do what seems impossible. We must refuse to doubt, particularly in the face of hardship and persecution.
Luke gives us a funny example of doubt in this story, and it starts with Peter himself. Acts 12:11 tells us,
When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."
Back up in verse 9, Luke says that Peter thought that his miraculous rescue was some kind of vision. He is not sure that it is real until he is standing outside. He probably prayed for it to happen, but to some degree he doubted that it would. Of course, he had been asleep. So, perhaps he was just groggy. But that does not explain what happens next. Verses 12-15 say,
When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, "You are out of your mind." But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, "It is his angel!"
Rhoda is so excited that she forgets to invite Peter in. He has just been rescued from jail, and he is left standing out in the street. Meanwhile, the rest of the believers who devoted themselves to praying through the night doubt Rhoda’s announcement. They dismiss her as being out of her mind. They even say that it is his angel, as if an angel would take on Peter’s voice and appearance.
Before judging these believers, however, we should remember what they had experienced. They almost certainly prayed for James to be rescued. But the Lord did not intervene in that case. James had been part of Jesus’ inner circle along with Peter and John. But he was killed with the sword, probably by being beheaded. The death of this eminent apostle probably left them traumatized.
How can any of us avoid doubt in times like that? We must believe in the sovereign purpose of God. In his wisdom, he uses evil deeds to accomplish good. Genesis 50:20 tells us that long after the sons of Jacob sold their brother Joseph into slavery, he was able to say,
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
This truth does not erase the pain and grief of losing someone you love. But it does enable us to refuse doubt and keep trusting the Lord. We are not told what he accomplished through the martyrdom of James. But we can trust that he knows what he is doing, and that when it serves his purpose, he will work in miraculous ways.
The believers in Acts 12 finally come to this realization. Verses 16-17 say,
But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, "Tell these things to James and to the brothers." Then he departed and went to another place.
The James mentioned here is probably the brother of Jesus. In Galatians 1:19, Paul mentions that he had become a leader in the Jerusalem church, and we will hear more about his leadership in Acts 15. The church was large enough that they could not all meet in one home. They may have had several gathering places around the city. Perhaps the one at John Mark’s home was Peter’s normal group. But everyone else needed to hear what God had done, and we need a similar reminder.
Don’t let yourself doubt that God answers prayer and that he can do so in miraculous ways. That leads us to one more step in preparing for persecution.
Respect God’s Wrath
A scale is often used as a symbol of justice. When a crime is committed against someone, we expect the offender to face consequences equal to the harm or loss that they inflicted upon the victim. But the best human attempts at enforcing this fall far short of that standard. Many people, particularly those with wealth or positions of authority, seem to escape without any consequences.
But the Bible teaches us that justice reaches beyond this life. Revelation 20:12 says that every person will be resurrected to stand before God’s throne and be judged according to what they have done. So, to prepare ourselves for persecution, we must learn to respect God’s wrath. We can trust that he sees and will fully address every wrong in eternity.
In the case of the martyrdom of James and the imprisonment of Peter, the Lord does not wait long to display his justice. There are both natural consequences and supernatural ones. He starts with the soldiers. Acts 12:18-19 says,
Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.
Were these soldiers innocent men who were just following orders? We do not know. They may have had some responsibility for how James and Peter were treated. On the other hand, their execution may be another unjust act committed by Herod. So, what becomes of him? Verses 20-23 tell us,
Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food. On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, "The voice of a god, and not of a man!" Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
Herod was 53 years old and had only reigned over Judea for three years. Even secular historians acknowledge his sudden death. They speculate that he was poisoned by the Romans for his political ambitions. But Josephus, a Jewish historian, says that Herod held on for a few days before he finally died and scolded those who had flattered him as if it was their fault. He alone was to blame. In his arrogance, he martyred one of the Lord’s servants and then gloried in worldly exaltation.
So, the story of Herod stands as a reminder of God’s wrath. He seldom pours it out in such an immediate way, but it will eventually come. He will bring true justice, and that assurance gives believers comfort when we suffer wrong. In Romans 12:17-19, Paul says,
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."
The wrath of God does not give Christians a reason to gloat. We only escape his wrath because of the forgiveness that we receive in Christ when we repent and believe in him. Our mission is to spread the news of that forgiveness so that everyone has an opportunity to receive it. Paul himself was a persecutor of the church who was saved. But respect for God’s wrath is what enables us to turn the other cheek and show grace to those who oppose us. Are you prepared to do that?
__________
We must prepare ourselves to face persecution. We should not be alarmist, but we must recognize the possibility. We must learn to humbly rely upon God in prayer, refusing to doubt his power and good purpose in hard times. We must respect God’s wrath, so that we look beyond people’s hostility to show compassion and grace in holding forth the gospel.
We live in a society where it is relatively easy to call yourself a Christian. A lot of people do so without ever considering the possibility that they might face this kind of opposition. Are you willing to accept the risk? It’s not a matter of personal strength or boldness. It’s all about trusting God and following Jesus. So, if you’ve never done so, I encourage you to start genuinely trusting him. If you want to learn more about trusting God through persecution, I encourage you to read 1 Peter 2.
If you are trusting God, do you need to change how you pray? Have you given up? Has it become a ritual? Do you believe that God can answer? Are you willing to accept his answer even when it is not what you want to see? How do you relate to people who show some hostility toward Christ? Are you fearful or ready to fight? Neither response is right. We must show grace. Would you strive to do that?
May we walk by faith in our gracious, sovereign Lord!
Reflect
How would you describe your thinking about persecution prior to looking at this passage? Fearful? Angry? Trusting? How did you arrive at that view?
How does this passage change your outlook? Which step is most challenging for you? Why?
From whom do you face opposition for your faith? How could you show grace to that person?