In Life or Death, I Belong to the Lord
Download MP3If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Acts chapter 12. Acts 12. I love preaching the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Everybody is so alert after having traveled and eaten so much. I hope you did have a Thanksgiving, got to spend good time with your family.
Joel Brooks:I went to Atlanta, and we got to spend a lot of family time. Family and extended extended family all came, and the good news was we didn't talk about politics. We did talk about religion. And it is about as diverse of a group of people as you can imagine. I have got in my family, atheist.
Joel Brooks:I have Unitarian Universalist, who either believe in everything or nothing, depending on your interpretation. I've got those who've dropped out of church, although they wouldn't say they dropped out of church, they just haven't been in the last 3 or 4 years. And, and then we have me in there and so we're talking, you know, and and they wanted to ask a lot of questions about faith for some reason. I was kinda surprised about that. And and we, you know, they asked me what did I think was essential in church and I was like, well, the physical resurrection of Jesus is kind of a non negotiable and, and they all disagreed with me on that, which was interesting.
Joel Brooks:And then finally one of my aunts said, well, you know that you can't read the Bible and like tell people what it means. It's up to a person's own interpretation, everybody in the Bible, but nobody ever knows what the Bible really means. And I was like, that's literally my job. Actually, that's what I do is I, I read the Bible and then I study it and tell people what it means. And, so she just completely, thought my job was worthless.
Joel Brooks:And then, at one point, one of my aunts said, you you know what the the problem is with you and Lauren? They didn't say it quite that harsh. But they said, y'all think of your church as your family. I was like, that's a problem? They're like, I mean, I mean, blood is family, but y'all, you could just tell by the way y'all talk that you talk about your church as if it's family.
Joel Brooks:And I did get to say it was because our church is family. It's because our church is family. It's through the blood of Jesus and through his Holy Spirit that unites us together. And I was actually really thankful that that's one of the things that my family and extended family walked away from, was just how much this place means to Lauren and I. And also, I came back with a renewed appreciation of how we're a group of people shaped by the word of God.
Joel Brooks:That we do look to the word of God and we're like, speak Lord, through your word and use it to shape us. And that's what I'm hoping that happens this morning through his spirit. And so we're gonna read acts chapter 12. I'll begin reading in verse 1. About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belong to the church.
Joel Brooks: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 to God by the church.
Joel Brooks: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. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him and a light shown 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.
Joel Brooks:And he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and followed him. He did not know 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.
Joel Brooks: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. 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.
Joel Brooks:But she kept insisting that it was so and they kept saying, it is his angel. But Peter continuing 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 prison. And he said, 'Tell these things to James and to the brothers.' Then he departed and went to another place. Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.
Joel Brooks: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 to Caesarea and spent time there. This is the word of the Lord. If you would pray with me. Father, we ask that you would open up your words and that you would write them on our hearts.
Joel Brooks:Lord, that you would breathe life into this text. Breathe life in it through your spirit. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. So what we see here in this story is Christianity has been exploding in growth,
Jeffrey Heine:And not
Joel Brooks:just in Jerusalem now, now it's spread outside of Jerusalem, it's gone to Antioch, it's been going to other cities, and so it's it's caught the attention of the Roman Empire, and likely pressure is being put on Herod to put an end to it. And so Herod decides he's gonna go after the leaders of the church. He's gonna take on the apostles. Now when we read this, those first couple of verses, they they kinda come to us like a slap in the face. I mean, look at verse 2.
Joel Brooks:He killed James, the brother of John with a sword. That's it. That's the description of the great apostle James's death. It's short. It it's terse even.
Joel Brooks:There there's no long martyrdom story here. Not anything like what we found with Stephen. The description of the death here is is short. Matter of fact, it's just one brief sentence that Luke gives to record it. He simply says, James was killed by the sword.
Joel Brooks:This had to come as an enormous blow to the church That one of the apostles could be killed like this. I mean, this is this is an apostle we're talking about. The the great powerful apostles, they were, they were supposed to be untouchable. We've already seen in acts how at the word of an apostle, 2 people could just drop dead. Or at the word of an of an apostle in acts chapter 9, somebody could be brought back to life.
Joel Brooks:So literally, life and death came from the word of an apostle. But here, one just drops dead or one is just killed with a sword. Hardly any description mentioned at all. I mean, it's not supposed to be this way. The apostles, once again, they were they were the ones that everybody looked to for strength.
Joel Brooks:You know, after Stephen was killed, it said, the rest of the church scattered and fled, but the apostles remained. Because they were strong. They were courageous. They were the pillars of the church, yet James was killed by the sword. And it it's it's not even so much that he died.
Joel Brooks:It was such an inglorious death. That's what bothers me. It's it's a death that seems to serve no purpose. I mean, Luke couldn't really even say much about it. Just simply record that he died.
Joel Brooks:Now it's easier to see why somebody like Stephen died. I mean, Stephen died in the way it was told. You get the longest speech in the book of acts. It's this powerful sermon. Then you have the Apostle Paul.
Joel Brooks:He's not an apostle yet, but he's he's watching as this happens and he's deeply impacted by what he sees. And then the Lord uses the death of Stephen to scatter the church abroad, to send missionaries to all the other cities. And so it's easy when you're looking at Stephen's death to see how the Lord used it to spread His name. But here, we actually don't see anything positive that happens from the death of James. The gospel does not spread.
Joel Brooks:No one is saved. There's there's no Paul looking on, being impacted by this. He just simply dies. And when you read this, you certainly seem to think his death served no purpose. And I would have to say that if James was trying to die for some cause, you would have to say that he threw away his life.
Joel Brooks:You'd have to say it. Even if it was a good cause, like a cause like love or forgiveness or freedom from oppression. If if that was his cause, you would have to say that his death was worthless because you don't see any positive outcome happening after it. But what we see here is James didn't live or die for cause. He lived or died for a person, Jesus.
Joel Brooks:He belonged to a person, and Jesus was free to do with his life whatever Jesus saw fit. I I feel like I I need to mention this because I have found, certainly in Christian circles, that when anything bad happens, we are so quick to try to find the silver lining in it. We're so quick to say God causes all things to work together for good. Not what you really wanna hear when something bad happens and and then you have to try to find, you know, the rainbow behind the clouds. You've you've got to find the little silver lining there.
Joel Brooks:And so when something bad happens to us, you know, maybe we lose our job or we are transferred Or maybe we get some kind of unexpected bill. You know, our car breaks down and we gotta buy a new car or AC breaks down and it's gonna cost 1,000 of dollars. Or maybe we have a relationship breakup. Whatever it is, we immediately, in order to find comfort, we try to find the silver lining. We feel this need to find this hidden good that somehow makes that bad thing not so bad.
Joel Brooks:And so we think, you know, oh yeah, I mean, I know that my job transferred me and, yeah, I don't wanna move from this place, but, I mean, really, it's it's a good thing. You know, instead of being 6 hours away from home, now I'm only gonna be 5 hours. Or you know, I know this breakup. Yes, my heart's broken, but ultimately, it's a good thing. It's humbled me and and the pain lets me know I'm alive.
Joel Brooks:You know, or if you your body breaks down and you have to have a surgery, you know, maybe a knee surgery, like, no, ultimately it's a good thing. Yes, it's excruciatingly painful, but you know, it's forced me to slow down, catch up on my reading. And so we try to paint this picture. We try to find this silver lining. We feel this need to do that in every bad situation.
Joel Brooks:And we feel like if we don't do this, we can't find comfort. But let me ask you this, what happens when there's no silver lining? When there's no rainbow behind the clouds there? When all you see is a sword falling, where is your comfort then? I love what the Heidelberg Catechism has as its very first question.
Joel Brooks:It's appropriate for the first question. What is thy only comfort in life and death? Answer that I am not my own, but with body and soul, both in life and death, belong to my faithful savior Jesus Christ, Who has fully paid for my sins and has set me free from all the power of the devil. And he so preserves my life in such a way that apart from the will of my father in heaven, not a single hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.
Joel Brooks:Therefore, by His holy spirit, He assures me of eternal life, and He gives me heartiness, a heartily willingness and readiness to follow him from now on. What is your only comfort in life and death? It's that you are not your own, but you belong to Jesus. James was comforted and James glorified Jesus Jesus not because of his last words, not because of a great speech he gave, or that his death resulted in something. He glorified Jesus simply by demonstrating that his life and his death belonged completely to his savior Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And if you call yourself a Christian, that's what you are saying. You're saying that Jesus has bought me. He has bought all of me by his blood, and that through my life and my death, I'll glorify him however he sees fit. I've used this illustration before, but it's worth repeating. Elizabeth Elliott, when her husband, Jim Elliot, died trying to reach the Auca Indians, he and his friends died.
Joel Brooks:People kept trying to make sense of his death and so they would go to Elizabeth and they would say, you know, I know it's hard, but if just one Auca Indian came to know the Lord, then it was all worth it. And she was always quick to respond, no, it was worth it anyway. It was worth it anyway. We don't look for the silver lining. In life and death, we belong to Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Alright. Now after James is killed, Peter gets arrested. And so we are expecting now the same thing to happen to Peter. I mean, Peter, the rock of the church, is now thrown into prison, and this time, he's chained up, with next to 2 guards. He has got 16 guards now guarding him.
Joel Brooks:Remember, he's escaped before in Acts, and so basically they send him to a maximum security prison here to make sure this doesn't happen again. Now Peter is very likely just about to be killed, but I want you to notice first thing as we look at this is just how calm Peter is. Look at verse 6. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, and we're assuming they're to bring him out to kill him, On that very night, Peter was sleeping between 2 soldiers. I mean, Peter's here chained up to guards.
Joel Brooks:He's awaiting his execution and he's he's sleeping like a baby Or sleeping like a husband. Babies don't sleep, but the husband say, could sleep through it all. But but but he is asleep. I mean, it's such a trust in the sovereignty of God here that God indeed, not a hair can fall from his head apart from the express will of his father in heaven. You see that here.
Joel Brooks:I'm reminded of Psalm. Psalm 4 verse 8, in which we read, in peace I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, oh lord, make me dwell in safety. Any of you have a hard time sleeping at night? Any of you?
Joel Brooks:Like, you you lay down and you want to sleep, you're so tired, but all of a sudden, your brain clicks on and it just starts churning and churning, and you begin to worry and be anxious about so many things. When when Lauren and I, we had our first child, we had Caroline. We had a hard time sleeping, and and that wasn't just because, you know, you have a baby and it's it's hard to sleep when you have an infant. It was hard to sleep even when Caroline was sleeping. Because, you know, especially this was true for Lauren.
Joel Brooks:She was hypersensitive to every whimper, every little cry, every little rustling you would hear in the crib. And the only thing that was worse than hearing those things was not hearing those things. And then you begin to panic. Oh my gosh. You know, what's what's happening to my child?
Joel Brooks:And and so Lauren had a very hard time turning off her mind and stop worrying about these things. And then she came across Psalm 121, and she read these words, and and the Lord just immediately pressed these in her heart. She read, I lift my eyes up to the hills. From where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
Joel Brooks:He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber, but he who keeps Israel will neither slumber or sleep. And Lauren began to realize, it's like, it's okay for me to go to sleep because I have a heavenly father who never sleeps or slumbers, and he watches over me and he's gonna watch over Caroline as I sleep. And then she was given this peace. I mean, could one thing here change?
Joel Brooks:I mean, could worrying here change anything about Peter's condition? I mean, if he has stayed up at night just just worrying, would it have dropped a single chain? Would it have changed Herod's mind? We we worry about the things we can't control. Worrying would not have changed one thing about the situation, but when he realized that, I'm in God's hands, peace came upon him and he slept.
Joel Brooks:And I would encourage, for those of you who have a hard time sleeping at night and your mind just it just keeps churning, I I'd encourage you to do a couple of things. First is this, instead of last thing that you watch or you read, is something on Netflix or whatever that's probably gonna keep you up, read a psalm. Just read through a psalm. Take 1 minute to do that, and then take time to pray, and then go to sleep. You know when Jesus was on the cross, one of the last things that he prayed was, father, into thy hands, I commit my spirit.
Joel Brooks:That was actually part of a a Jewish prayer that children said before they went to bed. Father, in thy hands, I commit my spirit. We we would say something similar. We taught our children to do that. You remember?
Joel Brooks:Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, and if I die before I wake, I pray my God my soul to take. It's a very similar prayer there, but there's something about as we close our eyes, we entrust to God. Lord, I'm gonna go to sleep because I know you do not sleep, you do not slumber, and you have my entire life in your hands. Now while Peter is sleeping, we find that the church is not. The church is up, and they are praying on behalf of him.
Joel Brooks:I find it interesting that the church is still praying even after what happened to James. So the Lord obviously didn't answer their prayers concerning James, but yet they're still praying, for Peter. They haven't given up on prayer. Matter of fact, in verse 5, we read, but earnest prayer for Peter was being made to God by the church. And this word earnestly here, it literally means stretched out.
Joel Brooks:It is stretched out prayer. It's a great image of them stretching out towards God in this prayer. How many of you grew up in a church where you had Wednesday night prayer service? Any of you? A few of you did.
Joel Brooks:Okay. And by, you know, Wednesday night prayer service, I mean, you know, you didn't actually pray. It was, you got together, there was a 15 minute devotional. Then there was the 40 minutes of prayer request, also known as gossip hour, in which people would say things like, you know, we really just need to pray for old Jim. I heard he's filing for bankruptcy tomorrow and they're not taking it well.
Joel Brooks:We just really need to cover them in prayer. You know, it's just it became a way where people could just share all the juicy news or became the time where you could brag without bragging. You know, pray for my wife and I as, as we're going on a cruise tomorrow. It's it's it's gonna be we just need traveling mercies, traveling mercies. It's gonna be a long cruise to many islands.
Joel Brooks:And, like, I mean, I prayed. I prayed for seasickness, storms. I, like, I prayed for it all, but when I hear those things but that's the kind of prayer services that I grew up in, and what would happen is after the little devotion, after the prayer request, every time it ended like this, well let's take time to, oh gosh, we don't have the time. I'm just gonna say a quick prayer for all of us. And there's like the 1 or 2 minute prayer and then we say goodbye.
Joel Brooks:That's not what this is. They're stretching themselves out. This is heartfelt, honest, gut wrenching prayer before the Lord. So verse 5 tells us that the church is praying for Peter. Now no names are given here.
Joel Brooks:We don't read that the were praying for Peter, the deacons were praying for Peter. This is just the average Christians in church gathering together to pray. And we know at this time that there were thousands of Christians in Jerusalem, so they couldn't all gather in one place. So what we're seeing is the church is gathering together in people's homes. Spontaneously, people are getting in people's homes, gathering around for the express purpose of prayer, because prayer is what Christians do.
Joel Brooks:It's what they did in Antioch. It's what they did in Jerusalem. It's what they do here. It's what we find over and over again in Acts, as they gather together to pray. And hear me.
Joel Brooks:Let let me put a a point on this. Satan couldn't care less about you coming to church as long as your worship is prayerless. He couldn't care less about your time in God's word as long as you read it without prayer. He couldn't care less about your acts of service as you're serving away just as long as you don't pray, because those things lack any power apart from prayer. You you go through all the awakenings that have happened or revivals that have happened in church history, and what you're gonna find at the heart of them all is people gathering together for the express purpose of prayer.
Joel Brooks:Prayer is at the heart of those things and God moves in power when his people pray. That's what Satan's scared of. He's scared that we would actually become a prayerful people. Alright. Let's go back to the story.
Joel Brooks:The Lord sends an angel to Peter who first wakes him up. Now the way this is written, it's it's a brilliant story and it's actually, pretty comical, the way that this is written. The word here that says the angel struck him is actually a really heavy blow. And the only way we know this is if Peter shared this. Okay?
Joel Brooks:Because there was nobody else there. So what we're doing is we're hearing basically how Peter retold the story and it has these great details, like a great light shown on in there. So basically, angel comes in, turns on the lights, kicks Peter, tells him to get up and get dressed. If you have teenagers, you understand what's happening here. Alright?
Joel Brooks:Yeah. This is exactly It's like, get up get up and then get up and you need to get out the door. And so Peter's led out the doors. He's kinda like putting on clothes and things are opening in front of him, and and all along, he thinks it's a vision. He's he's had some pretty amazing visions as we've already looked at in acts, and he just thinks this is another one of them.
Joel Brooks:And it isn't until he he gets outside and he's going down one of the streets, and this angel disappears that he finally realizes, wait, this is real? Like, this is actually happening. And and then it dawns on him that he's now an escaped convict. And so he runs, and he goes to the first place he could think of, which is someone's home, where a home group essentially is meeting. He knows that some of the church is meeting there, and so he goes there, and he begins knocking on the door.
Joel Brooks:And and I love this. It's it's worth reading. Go go to verse 12. When Peter realized this, basically that he's not dreaming, he went to the 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.
Joel Brooks:Recognizing Peter's voice in her joy, she did not open the gate. She ran and she 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. Meanwhile, Peter continues knocking. It's just it's comical.
Joel Brooks:I love how this is reported here. Peter is actually knocking on the door trying to get in. People won't answer because they're too busy praying for his deliverance. And he's just he's pounding away, and then finally, Rhoda, this this servant girl, she goes there. She's like, who is it?
Joel Brooks:He's like, it's Peter. And she's like, it does sound like Peter, but she doesn't open the door. And she literally runs back while Peter is still knocking. And she runs back and she reports, it's Peter. He's at the door.
Joel Brooks:They don't believe her. And she still doesn't go and let him in and say, I told you. She just keeps trying to convince him. No. I promise you it's actually Peter.
Joel Brooks:And get this, they say, no, it's his angel. Maybe meaning it's his guardian angel or maybe meaning it's his ghost. We're not really sure. But let this set in. He they actually believe it is more likely that it is Peter's angel or Peter's ghost outside the door than Peter himself.
Joel Brooks:That's how much they believed their prayer was working. This is not a prayer that's being made in confidence, and this is really surprising. Because up to this point in Acts, the church's prayers are full of boldness. They're filled with extraordinary faith, but but not anymore because James' death had rocked them as a church, and they no longer were expectant in their prayers. I mean, Peter is delivered from prison, and the church refused to believe it.
Joel Brooks:They'd seen cripples walk. They'd seen blind people see. They've even said seen dead people come back to life, but then James gets killed. And now they don't believe God answers prayer anymore. Their prayers were not answered last time so they didn't expect for them to be answered now.
Joel Brooks:Yet, please hear this, church. They still prayed. They still prayed. So there's still some level of faith there. The good news here is that the church still prayed because that's what Christians do.
Joel Brooks:They pray. And ironically, God had actually already answered their prayers, and they just had refused to open the door to it. There's an entire sermon you could do right there that I'm not going to. All throughout the book of acts, so far, we have seen in the church nothing but faith, nothing but power. This is the first time we come across disbelief, and I am so thankful for it.
Joel Brooks:Don't you find it comforting, like, when you actually read about these, like, super Christians back in acts having periods of doubt and disbelief? And I want you to notice how God responds to their prayers that are done in weak faith. He still answers them in power. Still answers them in power. The story reminds me of the gospel of Mark chapter 9.
Joel Brooks:It's a familiar story. If you remember, Jesus, he is approached by a desperate father who wants Jesus to heal his son. And Jesus says, do you believe I could do this? And the father in desperation says, yes, I believe. Help my unbelief.
Joel Brooks:Isn't that a great prayer? Yes. I believe, help my unbelief. Have you ever prayed like that where you've just poured out your heart to God and be like, I know you can do this. Would you help me to know that you could do this?
Joel Brooks:It's a good honest prayer because God already knows you're thinking these things anyway. You might as well acknowledge it. Lord, I do believe that you are these things and that you could do these things now. Would you help me believe them? Would you help me believe what I've already expressed that I believe?
Joel Brooks:The important thing here is that you keep coming to the Lord, whether you're strong or whether you are weak, whether you have faith or whether you have doubts. You keep coming to him in prayer. Martin Luther, he he once said this, A weak faith saves as long as it is faith in Jesus. A weak faith saves as long as it is faith in Jesus. We know this quote by contemporary theologian Tim Keller, who would say, it's not the, strength of our faith that matters, but the object of our faith is what matters.
Joel Brooks:The Luther said it first. A weak faith saves if it is faith in Jesus Christ. The church here had weak faith after what they saw happening to James, yet they still prayed. Because once again, that's what Christians do. Christians pray.
Joel Brooks:Because all prayer, no matter how weak it is, no matter how pathetic it is, all prayer is an acknowledgement that we do believe that Jesus is God and that He alone saves. And so we go to Him. You would join me in in going to the father now in prayer. Our father, we do come to you, and some of us here have strong faith and some of us have weak faith. But, Jesus, regardless of all that, we come to you.
Joel Brooks:And our coming to you is an acknowledgment that we do believe that you're safe. We do believe that you hear us, and, Lord, help our unbelief. Lord, there's gonna be times in our life where the sword falls and there's no silver lining, and there's been times in our life where you hear prayers and you deliver. And what we say now in this moment is that our life and our death, in all things, we are yours. That is our comfort is that we belong, heart, soul, mind, to you.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in your strong name, Jesus. Amen.
