Some people start with illustrations before you give a talk.

I think today is good for a disclaimer, a bit different than the usual.

But we're going to be talking about 2 topics that may evoke different feelings in different people, such as trusting authority and facing suffering.

So if this is your first time at Rosemount, welcome.

I cannot pretend to be the expert on either of those, but we are all works in progress with a progressing understanding.

Let this be a beginning of the discussion of a tough topic that can be continued, whether in small groups, one-on-one, or with someone you trust.

And so, let's just pray before we get going.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are

We thank you that you are Lord, you reign, and that there is no surprise in this universe for you, for you know all things you see all things you are in control of all things you call each star by name you know us by name you've called us here I pray Lord that even as I speak and we listen, that we would ultimately be listening to You that our hearts would be open to your word.

Lord I thank you that you are the 1 who speaks to hearts that by your Holy Spirit we are convicted and we are transformed.

Lord we need you And we thank you that you love us and that you are with us now.

So, we've been going through the Book of Acts, and we've been through the structure and big idea of the Book of Acts a few times, and if you've been here, this is repetition, but if you're here for the first time, it's new.

So, chapter 1, we have Jesus' send-off of his disciples.

He's told them about the kingdom of God that they are about to go and establish, and So there's the send-off.

In chapters 2 to 7, we talked about the coming of the Holy Spirit, the birth of the Church in Jerusalem.

Then after the stoning of Stephen in chapter 7, there's a greater persecution of the Christian Church, which leads to the spread in chapters 8 to 12 of the Word of God to Judea and Samaria.

And then next week, chapter 13 begins with the Word of God spreading to the rest of the world.

So in chapter 12 we find royal opposition to the followers of King Jesus.

The followers of Jesus had so far faced oppositions from the chief priests and Sadducees, a young Pharisee named Saul.

Now finally Herod, king of Judea and Samaria, begins to attack the leaders of the church at that time and this chapter happens in Jerusalem.

So Ultimately this pits Herod the King versus the true King, who is Jesus.

So the main idea of the chapter today that we will focus on is that we can trust the true King no matter our circumstances.

And to be able to trust any king, you have to know that he has full authority and that his purposes and plans are good.

So the big idea of Acts, as you can see this fits into it, is that we see that King Jesus is establishing his kingdom, we see the coming of the Holy Spirit enabling and assisting Jesus's followers to embrace the Father's mandate, which is to testify to Jews and non-Jews from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth about Jesus' salvation through his death and resurrection.

And as part of his rule as king, Jesus is making sure that the spread of this good news of his salvation will come to pass according to his will.

And he does this through the Holy Spirit.

So trusting in the King means to trust that he is in control, to trust that his purposes are good and will come to pass even when we don't understand them.

So chapter 11 that Glenn Smith spoke to us about ends with a prophecy that there'd be a great famine, a huge famine, and the Christians in Antioch get together some food and they send Barnabas and Paul to Jerusalem for famine relief, which is where our story takes place in chapter 12.

So I've said already there's this royal rumble, a face-off between the kings, And so I've divided the chapter into 3 scenes which we'll be going through and titled them according to what Jesus the true king is doing.

The true king hears, the true king rescues, the true king dethrones.

So we'll read Acts chapter 12, 1 to 5, and I'm reading from the ESV.

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 4 squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.

So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

So we see in this short scene King Herod's bid, his violent bid for more power and more approval.

You've probably heard the name Herod a whole bunch of times so far if you've read the New Testament.

The first 1 who was called the King of the Jews was actually his grandfather, who is Herod the Great.

Herod the Great you might recognize, well, perhaps from the story of that Herod killing all the innocent little boys in Bethlehem around the time of Jesus' birth.

And then you have Herod Antipas, who is his uncle, this Herod's uncle, who had Jesus on trial.

So You have quite the family, pretty violent, so not really surprising that we have some violence from this Herod.

He was reigning over a territory which was mostly Jewish people, so he wanted to keep the favor of the Jews.

He was working for the Romans, so he wanted to say, yeah, I'm taking care of the political action here.

Kill him by the sword, that means that he wants the Romans to think, yeah, I'm taking care of a political rebellion.

That's what it means to kill with the sword at that time.

So he's trying to get more power, more approval.

So Luke mentions out of the blue the festival of the oven-leavened bread.

So this festival seemed to be too risky a time for edgy political moves among the Jews.

So Herod imprisons Peter as the safer move during the festival to avoid an uproar and plans to execute him after the festival.

Kind of the same thing happened 12 years prior when they said that when the chief priest didn't want to arrest Jesus during this festival, lest there be an uproar among the people.

Speaking of which, This is just after Passover and this was when Jesus was arrested and put on trial and crucified.

So this is the context of the early church who was surely thinking about this particular time period 12 years before.

So we have mention of 4 squads of 4 soldiers keeping watch over 1 man, Peter.

There seem to be pretty high stakes for Herod, and I'm speculating, but it seems that if you put 16 people in charge of 1 man, that's a terrible lot ratio of how to like keep all the prisoners in check.

You have a huge armory for the people in prison.

So this was high stakes where Herod had imprisoned Peter and if he kills him, major win.

The Jews are gonna love him, and then the Romans are gonna say, wow, he's powerful, he's doing a good job, that's Herod, that's our man.

But then if he loses Peter, then he seems weak.

So why would you think Peter would get out of jail?

Perhaps he knew about the first time that Peter was in jail in Acts 5 and somehow he got out the next day.

So maybe Herod is ramping up the forces, making sure this guy is not going to get out this time.

I don't know what happened last time, but 16 guys should be enough.

So we have Peter's grief, then imprisonment.

These were 3 disciples of Jesus that Jesus invited into special unique experiences with Jesus.

There was the raising of Jairus' daughter.

There was the transfiguration where Jesus shone as white as lightning on the mountain, showing his glory to these 3.

And then there was the Garden of Gethsemane, where he asked them to come closer with him in his agony.

So this was a special place that Peter and James shared, and James just died like that.

James was also the first apostle to be killed for the sake of the gospel, with whom he had served shoulder to shoulder since the beginning of the church and had spent probably most days together with for 3 years during Jesus' ministry.

So Peter was grieving even though it's a quick bit, 10 words at the beginning of this chapter.

James was killed with the sword, we have Peter grieving.

And Peter was imprisoned, he was grieving, He was alone in jail, alone with 16 other soldiers, and he was facing the possibility of imminent death.

What kind of questions might he be asking in jail?

And we have in verse 5, here we have the church's prayers.

It says the church was praying earnestly, earnest prayers to God were made by the church.

They too had lost a friend, they had lost a leader, they had lost a teacher, maybe a mentor.

But we see the church praying earnestly despite the recent disappointment.

Surely they had prayed when he was arrested before his execution.

So, surprise, corrupt power-hungry state leaders have always existed.

We are thankful that for now in Canada we experience far more religious freedom than many countries in the world.

Being a follower of King Jesus involves suffering as we see in the death of James and in the imprisonment of Peter, and sometimes, yeah, involves physical suffering in death.

Most of us know very little about suffering physically for Jesus.

We've heard Doug Virgin talk about violence against Christians even in Quebec just a few decades ago.

Dave Bredin in his overseas work regularly speaks with Christians who don't even know if they'll be alive tomorrow.

So this is the reality of many Christians in this world and might be the reality for us 1 day.

What the way that I follow King Jesus change if suffering for him was my daily reality?

And how does our ultimate reality as Jesus followers enable us to follow Jesus no matter our circumstances?

How does our ultimate reality as Jesus followers enable us to follow Jesus no matter our circumstances?

And finally, we see the church in chapter 12 earnestly praying for Peter and Jay after the murder, how is my prayer life after major disappointment or loss?

Lies about the goodness or love of God or about the power of God can creep into our prayer lives and discourage us from trusting the true King or praying to him.

We will soon see that the true King had heard the prayers of the church.

Now when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night, Peter was sleeping between 2 soldiers bound with 2 chains and centuries before the door were guarding the prison.

He's sleeping despite all of his hardships and now he's facing imminent death.

He could have been lying there awake thinking, church needs me, I'm not done on earth yet, I have so many projects, I had so many plans for retirement, like no, no, it's not even, it's sort of amusing even to think about Peter in retirement, like it's not what we think about in terms of the early church, but Peter is in a deep sleep trusting in his king.

Let's go on and read in verse 7, and behold an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell.

So he strikes Peter on the side and wakes him.

You gotta know it's not just an angel being aggressive here.

He knows what he's doing, and God would tell him what to do.

And then Peter's in a deep sleep, a bit of a smack, saying, get up quickly, and the chains fall off his hands.

And the angel said to him, dress yourself, put on your sandals.

He said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me.

That's a lot of instructions, which only leads me to think, Peter is really like in a daze.

And he went out and followed him and he did not know what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

Give Peter a break, he just saw a sheet being brought down from heaven with animals on it like 2 chapters ago.

So he's just, you know, it's kind of tough.

How is he able to sleep so deeply in his difficult circumstances?

When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city, and it opened for them on its own accord.

And they went out and went along 1 street, and immediately the angel left him.

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.

Finally wakes up, realizes that God had saved him.

So, you know, he kind of got saved in his sleep.

Doors flying open, Okay, so now he's going, he realizes this, I got to check in.

He's gonna check in with the church, he knows where to go.

He goes to the house of Mary with good news.

She's the mother of John, whose name is also Mark.

Where many were gathered together and were praying it says in verse 12.

To tell them that your prayers have been answered.

King Herod's defenses were no match for the King of Kings.

So he goes to the door, knocks at the door of the gateway, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer.

Recognizing Peter's voice, Yes, in her joy, she did not open the gate, no, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate.

Can you just imagine Peter being left at the door being like, the 16 guards, are they behind me?

All the other doors were so easy, this is a harder door.

Notice how Rhoda is actually the only 1 in the whole house who's named, whose house it wasn't.

Rhoda gets the spotlight, and I wonder if it's because, As we'll see, she's the only 1 who believed right away.

She believed the miracle that Peter was at the door.

So she goes over and says, Peter's at the gate.

It's a strange dialogue that they're having.

And all the while, it was his angel, right?

It's hilarious in this crisis situation that the praying church has their prayer meeting interrupted by the answer to their prayers.

There seem to be Jewish beliefs about people having heavenly counterparts that look just like them, sounded like them.

Now Luke merely cites their belief, but doesn't necessarily say that he agrees with it.

But you know as we'll see that even even Peter not too many chapters before was still in an evolution of his understanding and a progression and God was working in him to for him to fully understand right doctrine and how to live.

So the church's faith was ready for prayer, but not ready for a miracle.

Perhaps they were protecting their hearts from further disappointments.

So how is this the church's faltering faith comforting?

This is very honest storytelling by Luke.

These Christians who had seen miracles were still figuring out trusting God as well, especially in the midst of hardship.

And God was still working in them as we've said.

But the most comforting thing about their faltering faith is that it was sufficient for God to act.

I'm going to read from Luke 17, verses 5 to

And my dear wife will pass around something for most of you, if not all of you.

And we'll just say to take just 1 per couple, just because there's a lot of Ziploc bags in there, we're trying to protect the environment.

So the apostle said to the Lord, increase our faith.

And the Lord said, if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.

I don't know if you've read that 1 before, but that always puzzled me.

And then on looking into it, we see that by referring to that tiny mustard seed, after being asked by the disciples, increase our faith, Jesus deflects the attention away from the quantity or size of the faith and toward the object of their faith.

God had the power sufficient to break Peter out of jail.

The crucial issue in advancing the kingdom of God is not the quantity of our faith but the power of God.

So God accepted the mustard seed-sized faith of this church, and with his limitless power, miraculously freed Peter from jail.

Now you may now have a mustard seed in your hands as a reminder of the faith that can move mulberry trees and advance the kingdom of God.

And that as a reminder that trusting in the true King begins with faith the size of a mustard seed.

But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, He described to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison, and he said to them, tell these things to James and to the brothers.

And he departed and went to another place.

Peter knows he's a wanted man, and he needs to go into hiding.

Other than briefly in Acts 12, Acts 15, sorry, that's the last that we will see Peter in the book of Acts.

It is possible that specifically mentioning James here, the brother of Jesus, let him know, it will be received as a nod for James to take on more important role as a leader of the church, as that is exactly what James then does in the chapters that follow.

Now when day came there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.

There's no little disturbance among the soldiers.

Imagine waking up as those soldiers after a good night's sleep of nothing happening.

And after Herod had searched for him and did not find him, he must be in here somewhere.

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.

So Herod's defeat and shame ends with more violence.

His show of force was turned to weakness before the true king.

So Herod fails in his bid for more power and approval from the Jews, blames all the guards, has them killed, leaves in shame and defeat for Caesarea, which is where his headquarters were as Roman governor, just by the sea.

And that's where the next scene takes place.

But before we go to the next scene, let's have some reflections on scene 2.

How is Peter able to sleep so deeply despite his circumstances?

How can Peter trust in the true king's rule even though his suffering, even through his suffering imprisonment and potential imminent death?

Peter looked to his king's suffering for him.

In fact, it's an interesting thing that Peter, 1 Peter is the letter that he wrote that is a whole lot about suffering.

So you can read that to supplement this morning.

And in 1st Peter chapter 2 and 3 he mentions to look to Jesus as an example of suffering but to look to Jesus, Peter had seen Jesus, his king, wear a crown of thorns for him.

Peter had seen his king have his hands and feet pierced by nails for him.

Peter had understood that he was so flawed that his king needed to die for him, but so loved that his king was willing to die for him.

And if Jesus willingly endured such suffering and death for him, then the falsest thing about Peter's suffering and imminent death was that God didn't care about it, or had somehow lost control of the situation.

Our God is a God who has suffered and so can help those who suffer.

King Jesus willingly endured the most unjust suffering out of love for Peter.

Now Peter would be able to endure suffering for his king.

So first, Peter looked to his king's suffering for him.

And second, Peter lived in the reality of the victory of the resurrection.

His King had already conquered sin and death and hell and so no enemy could take away his eternal hope.

Back to 1st Peter in chapter 1 verses 3 and 4.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope, a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.

So he has a hope and an inheritance that no 1 can take from him.

Do you trust the true King in every circumstance?

Have suffering, hardship, or unanswered prayers deceived you into thinking that His love for you is less than infinite?

That his authority is less than absolute.

Will you follow him wherever he leads you, even if it means suffering and death?

Live in the reality of the victory of resurrection.

Meditate on the unshakable hope that Christ alone offers.

Take hold of the truth that our last breath here will be replaced and followed by unspeakable joy in the presence of the King of Kings.

I might not be where I am right now, but how do we get to that place, that faith, that trust, that transformation?

Well, I can tell you, what I've seen and experienced, it's not instant, But it is daily.

Daily spending time with Jesus in prayer, reading his word, choosing to obey him, choosing to trust him.

In that space, God will make us more like Jesus through His power.

This is not a man-made self-improvement project.

This is we put ourselves into relationship.

We make an effort towards relationship, and the Holy Spirit is the 1 who does his work.

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