Date: 08/12/07

Text:   Acts 12:1-25

Title:   The Story of Two Kingdoms

Theme: Since Jesus is given all authority over heaven and earth, we can take part in the advancement of his kingdom on earth.

Introduction:

  If you were in this country in the 50's, you may remember that during the Christmas season, there were Christmas songs about the birth of Jesus in schools. But not anymore. There was a time, may be as recently as 10 or 15 years ago, we were greeted with Merry Christmas, but now it is happy holidays. Today, you cannot find any display of Jesus' birth in government or public properties.

There are Christians in some countries not free to worship wherever and whenever they want. I think of a certain Bible school having to change its location very two or three months. For some churches, there is no guarantee that you will be worshipping in the same place next week. There is always one or two backup places they can go to. Or in some countries, open worship is out of the question.

Whether we live in the east or west, there are moments that we all feel the mighty power of the State. Before it, we feel very helpless. There are certainly moments in personal lives that we feel helpless and powerless. Hearing from the doctor that we have cancer and the prognosis is not good at all. Or out of the blue, your spouse decided to leave you for another person. We feel as if the sky has caved in. Not only do we feel helpless, but we also ask: where is God, where is His mighty power?

In today's scripture lesson, we learn that the early church was in a situation where God's power appeared to be absent. So what happened?

I •  The constant conflict between God's kingdom and Satan's kingdom.

  In vs.1, Luke set the stage for the rest of this chapter, “ About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.” He arrested and killed James, brother of John. Since this pleased the Jews, so he proceeded to arrest Peter. He had also planned to kill Peter.

  Luke made a note that Peter's arrest occurred during the Passover season. There was this irony. You see, Passover is a celebration of how God delivered the Israelites from slavery, their bondage in Egypt. Yet Herod chose this time to arrest Peter, to put him in imprison, in bondage. He was undoing what God did in the Jewish history.

  The first century readers of this book heard that it was not just Herod against the church, but it was really a conflict, a battle between God and Satan. It was a battle of two kingdoms. This is what was prophesied and promised back in Genesis. We remember that at the beginning of human history, God commanded men to multiply, fill and rule the earth. Beside the literal meaning of physically populating the earth, it is also pointing to man's responsibility to bring people on earth into God's kingdom, a kingdom of love and holiness. However because of sin, men failed. And in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” God was saying that Satan would continue to detour and sabotage God's redemptive plan. There would be constant battle between God's children and Satan. But one child of God, would eventually fatally defeat Satan. We see how this unfolded in the OT history.

  With the coming of Jesus, this conflict between Jesus and Satan, between God's kingdom and Satan's kingdom became even more pronounced. At Jesus' resurrection, Satan was dealt with a fatal blow. Satan has no more power over God's people, but he can still exert influence over them. The apostles Paul and Peter both warned us that we are still in a spiritual battle, we are to watch out so that we will not be devoured by Satan.

  This is something we 21 st century believers need to keep in mind. When we see the church being persecuted, or when the Bible is banned in public, it is not just a matter of a country's religious policy or building a more tolerant society. Behind such a policy and its implementation is a battle between God's kingdom and the devil's kingdom. A proper biblical worldview is that behind what we see is a spiritual world. This spiritual world is just as real as the physical world. Yes, there is God's kingdom, yet the devil, Satan is constantly at war with Him. Yes, there are times we may feel discouraged and disillusioned when we face the mighty power of the State. But don't forget, it is also a spiritual battle between God and the devil.

II.    God's sovereignty in the conflict between God's kingdom and Satan's kingdoms.

  As Herod laid a violent hand against the church, he killed James and arrested Peter. It was one of the darkest hours before the young church. However, within a short time of his arrest, Peter was miraculously delivered from the prison. In other words, God allowed James to be killed but rescued Peter. Why?

  There was no explanation to this. We may try to explain this by saying that God rescued Peter because God wanted to use him in a special way. This is something we are very familiar with, right? God spared your life because he wants to use you in a very special way. Luke gave us no indication of this. You see, after Peter's rescue from the prison, we don't hear about him anymore in the book of Acts.

  We can only attribute this to God's sovereignty. It's like in some countries, some believers can openly and regularly worship at the same place. Their facilities sometimes are even larger than what we have here. Then there are churches that have to meet in secret without a regular place. In different countries, some believers are arrested then released, others are executed. We think of the 23 Korean short term mission team members taken hostage. Two were killed. We don't know why, and may never know its reason. The same is true in our personal lives. One is healed miraculously, and the other dies of the same sickness. We do not know why.

  In situations like this, we have to acknowledge that God has the final say. We are to recognize and submit ourselves to His sovereignty. When God is silent, we are to learn to accept his silence and try not to explain on his behalf or defend Him. Let Him be God.

III.    Church's power in the conflict between God's kingdom and Satan's kingdom .

  In vs.1-5a we see the helplessness of the church before the mighty power of the State. What did the early church do? What would we do in such situations? Those of us in the west would tend to fight the State. We want to exercise our constitutional rights and organize the various groups together. We want to use the power of votes to change the State. In the east, we most likely will resign to fate. There is the saying that in America, if you don't like the government, you just wait 4 years. If you don't like the government in China, the Chinese will wait for 400 years.

  Certainly, there are many things we can do when faced with the mighty State. But what did the early church do when facing the violent hands of Herod? They prayed. Vs.5, “So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.” Yes, Peter was kept in prison by the mighty State, but the church prayed. And then in the next section of this chapter, from vs6 to 19, is about how God rescued Peter. I would like to share with you several observations:

  First, the church's power is prayer. Herod's power was brute force. The church's power is not how many lawyers we have, how much money we have, or whom we know in the government, but prayer to God Himself.

  Second, the church's power is earnest prayer to God. In this and other passages in Acts we read about earnest and united prayers. It is about the quality of prayer. The church came together in earnest and united in mind, prayed to God. They prayed for Peter's rescue. In the west we are often influenced by quantity. We think the more people pray, the more power is to the prayer. So we send out prayer letters, we organize round the clock prayer groups. Please hear me out. I am not saying that they are not important, but the question is where do we put the emphasis. Do we mean that the more people pray that the prayer will be more effective? James Boice points out that such thinking is very pagan. This was what the Baal worshippers did. More people prayed and more louder the prayer. But here, Luke's focus is on the quality of prayer. We are to pray with a united mind and in earnest.

  Third, the power of prayer. if God is sovereign, why pray? I think this must bother many of us. I have to admit that I don't have a perfect answer to this question. We need to recognize that in the Bible, we know God's revealed will. But none of us will know God's hidden, unrevealed will for us individually or for this and that church. However, we can know with certainty that God is sovereign and no one can change his unrevealed plan for us. Yet at the same time, we can say with certainty that the scriptures, God's word, clearly command us to pray for all things and at all times. On the one hand, we can't change God's plan. On the other, God wants us to pray to him, for he wants to use our prayers to accomplish his will. Because of this, it is wrong for us to pray and then proclaim that this will happen. None of us knows God's hidden will for us. For us to say that since I have prayed for your healing, I now believe that you will be healed and therefore proclaim that you are healed, is really saying that I know it is God's will that you will be healed. This is wrong. No one can know God's hidden and unrevealed will. Therefore for someone to say that through prayer I am able to know 80 or 90% of God's hidden or unrevealed will is really preposterous.

  When we face the mighty power of state or the physical realm, such as sickness, we come to God to pray. We pray for the freedom of worship. We pray that God will heal us. We pray for the safety of our short-term mission teams. We prayed for the release of the hostages in Afghanistan. Yet even as we pray, we have to admit that we do not know what God's hidden and unrevealed will is for this. God may say Yes or No to our prayers. But one thing we believe is that God invites us to pray and he wants to use our prayers to accomplish his will.

  In recent years, we see many Christian men and women of all ages going to China to work, to teach English and doing other projects. This is something unheard of in the 50's and 60's. I remember during the period of 50's to late 70's, one thing that was regularly on overseas Chinese churches' and fellowship groups' prayer agenda was that God would open the door of china that the gospel message may go in more freely. We prayed that the believers would have easy access to the Bible and other books. What do we see now? We learned that during the darkest hour of Chinese church history (from 1949 to 1980), when the door to the west was shut tight, there was at least a two to three fold increase of Christians. When I was in China this time, I noticed some of the Bible the believers had. It was of good quality and had the size that I wanted. I would have liked to buy one in China. This was unthinkable in the 50's and 60's. God certainly answered our prayers and used these prayers to accomplish his will.

  A proper understanding of God's sovereignty will only encourage us to pray consistently and boldly.

  In vs.6-19 we read of the church's response to Peter's deliverance from prison. Peter did not believe it at first. Then when he showed up at the disciples' place of gathering, where they were praying. You know what, they would not believe what they saw and heard. They prayed for Peter and his release. When God answered their prayer, they thought it was impossible. We do that a lot, right? We pray during certain crisis situations, and when it is over, we forgot all about our prayers. We gave credit to our resources instead of to God.

IV.    God's victory in the conflict between God's kingdom and Satan's kingdom .

  Luke ends this chapter in a very special way. Herod was at a gathering. When he spoke, the audience shouted that his voice sounded like God's. Herod would not give credit to God, he would not give God the glory, and the Lord struck him down and he died. The Jewish historian, Josephus, wrote that the armor Herod wore was reflecting the sunlight and consequently the crowd claimed it was from God. No matter what, Herod died because he would not give God the glory. He wanted to claim the divine status for himself, he wanted to be God, but God struck him and he died. The Herod that laid a violent hand against the church, died rather violently.

What did we read in vs.24? “But the word of God increased and multiplied.” Herod wanted to get rid of the disciples, he wanted to get rid of the Word. However, in the end, he died, but the Word increased and multiplied.

That the word of God increased and multiplied, is really a fulfillment of the command that began in Genesis, continued on through the OT history, further affirmed by the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. That the word of God increased and multiplied, is a continual fulfillment of the command Jesus gave to his disciples just before his ascension. This book of Acts shows us how the word had increased and multiplied first in Jerusalem, then in Judea, Samaria, and then to Antioch. Yes, with the end of chapter 12, Peter disappeared from Luke's record. From now on, the focus is on Paul. Showing how Paul and others brought the word, the gospel message to Asia minor and eventually to Rome.

The fulfillment of this mandate continued to this day. Between 1895 to 1949, Taiwan was under the Japanese rule. The government strictly prohibited the preaching of the gospel to the Aborigines living in the mountain. And you know what, that was the period when there was a great revival among the Aborigines. The same is true in China. During the period when the church was severely persecuted, it also grew many fold. The word increased and multiplied.

Not only this, this Word continued to increase and multiply. It has reached you and me. It will not stop at us, for we will continue to bring the word to those around us. It will keep on going until the day when our Lord returns and when all his chosen people will gather before Him.

God's truth, his words, his grace and love continues to move to wherever he wants. Nothing can stop him. He is the Victor. What an encouragement to us in knowing that we are following the Christ who was given all the authority in heaven and earth.

Conclusion:

  This passage reminds us the reality of God's kingdom and Satan's kingdom. There are times, Satan can be ferocious and intimidating. He could manifest his power through government and the natural realm. He could make us feel powerless and helpless. But Luke also vividly reminds us not to be intimidated by this. For God's power is so much greater than Satan's. Yes, Satan can influence us, trying to pull us away from God, but he has lost that power to win us over.

  Last Sunday we discussed the mighty Yellow River in China. As it travels downstream, it collects sediments and deposits at different places. It cuts through land creating canyons, it rises about the sea level. When it overflows, it spreads out like a fan. Its force can cause it to change course. It flows where it wants to. There is the saying that the water in Yellow River is from ?? ; it is from God. It is a river no one can stop.

  This is like God's kingdom. It is a river of grace. It carries with it God's love, grace and holiness. It delivers us from God's wrath and the bondage of sin. Wherever it goes it touches individuals' hearts and lives are changed. It is a river no one can stop. Anyone trying to stop this river, will only find himself being swallowed or pushed aside by it. Even more amazing is that this river of grace, the kingdom of God, invites us to join and to flow with him.

  Following Christ is a very personal decision. However, it never stops at personal salvation. Having come to know Christ, we're also invited by him, the victorious God, to go where he wants us to go. So that, through us, in us and even above us, His river of grace will continue to flow from us to touch other lives.