Don’s Daily Devotions

Acts chapter 12:20-24:

V20-21:  Herod, ever the tyrant, has an unspecified dispute with ” the people of Tyre and Sidon”. They seek to make peace with him,through the intercession of one of his officials, being it seems dependent on his realm economically.

V22:  Herod decides to address them in the full pomp of his office. In flattery, they call his speech ” the voice of a god and not of a ( mere) man.” They seek to give this godless king the glory that belongs to God alone.

V23:  And solemnly, God – through an angel – strikes Herod down for his blasphemous willingness to accept this. The rest of the verse may suggest an established internal disease, but it is a clear act of judgement which brings it to a head at this point. ” God is not mocked” – Galatians 6:7.)  Let us pray for those who govern us in the spirit of 1 Timothy 2:1-2, and that God will show them His mercy and grace.

V24:  But against this solemn background of God’s judgement on sin, we learn of His grace at work too, as He blesses His Word, and the church continues to grow.

Acts chapter 12:16-19:

V16:  Peter persists in knocking ( just as we should persist in prayer – Matthew 7:7-8.)  Finally they open to him, and are amazed to see him safe and well. Again, we are reminded how we can pray sincerely, believing in God’s power, yet not truly expect or anticipate the answer we ask for!

V17:  Peter hushes their excited voices, tells them all that has happened, that they are to tell James ( the brother of Jesus, now the recognised leader of the Jerusalem church, it seems, and the author of the NT letter which bears his name ) and the other believers. There are of course so many believers in Jerusalem now that clearly only a selection of them could meet in any one home. Then Peter takes his leave, and goes to a place unspecified, probably knowing a search will be made for him and not wishing to endanger others – and to be free to continue the work the Lord has for him.

V18-19:  When Peter’s disappearance from prison is discovered, Herod does indeed instigate a search, which does not find him. So in characteristic brutality, he has the hapless guards put to death. Then we are told he goes to Caesarea for some time. Why this seemingly incidental detail? Presumably to lead in to the next verses.

Acts chapter 12:11-15:

V11:  Peter comes to himself and finally realises that the Lord has acted to deliver him, and that this is real. The Lord still has work for him to do!

V12:  He knows where the believers will be gathered, as indeed they are, praying for him, in the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, here introduced into the record for the first time. This young man will have a rather chequered career in coming days, but will ultimately become the writer of the gospel which bears his name – tradition says with Peter as his main source.

V13-14:  He knocks at the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda comes out, but hearing and recognising Peter’s voice she is so overjoyed she runs in to tell the gathering, and forgets to let Peter in!

V15:  The others do not believe her – they say she’s out of her mind – or if not, it can’t be the ” real Peter”, it’s his ” angel” ( His ” guardian angel” ? His spirit? ) They don’t believe this is the answer to the very prayers they are gathered to make! Do we at times fail to realise God’s answers to our prayers? Or do we even pray not truly anticipating an answer?

Acts chapter 12:6-10:

V6:  Peter is in prison, chained to 2 soldiers with others outside his cell door, yet peacefully asleep – surely the “peace which surpasses all ( human ) understanding.” ( Philippians 4:7.) Herod intends to bring him out, no doubt for execution, the next day.

A hopeless situation? No, Peter is safe in the Lord’s hands, whatever the outcome.

V7:  A light shines in his cell, and an angel wakes Peter, telling him to get up – and his chains fall off. God works in Sovereign ways – in a similar situation in ch 16 He will send an earthquake to loosen Paul’s and Silas’ chains. Let us learn not to limit God in our thinking, or try to ” fit Him in” to a pattern.

V8-9:  The angel tells Peter to get ( fully ) dressed, put on his sandals, wrap his cloak around him, and follow him. Note how God is the God of the practical as well as the miraculous – he expects us to act sensibly, as He  deals with us. Peter does as he is bidden, but does not think this is ” real “, taking it to be a vision from God. Do we always recognise what the Lord is doing with us?

V10:  The angel leads Peter past the guards ( presumably in a deep sleep ) and the prison gate opens before them, after which the angel leaves Peter. In all this, we see the Lord’s mastery of any situation.

Acts chapter 12:1-5:

V1:  We learn of further persecution of the believers in Judea, instigated by King Herod. This is Herod Agrippa 1, the nephew of the Herod who murdered John the Baptist and consented to the death of Christ. He was characteristic of the whole corrupt Herodian line.

V2:  He has James, the brother of John, put to the sword – the first of the Apostles to die for his faith. Is this part of the Lord’s foretelling of how the sons of Zebedee would share in His sufferings? ( Mark 10:39.)

V3-4: When Herod sees this pleases the Jews, he has Peter arrested too. ( He was always trying to win the favour/support of the people, who actually despised his family, who were not Jews at all, puppet Kings under Rome, and of course notoriously cruel and corrupt.) The reference to ” the days of unleavened bread” – the whole period around the Passover – explains why ( humanly) he did not have Peter executed at once, so as not to offend Jewish ” scruples” ( which the Jewish leaders themselves had over-ridden in the trial and death of Jesus.)

V5:  So, Peter is kept in prison, perhaps expecting his own death, but knowing he is in God’s hand. Meanwhile, the church are in earnest prayer for him. Why should James be put to death and Peter not? We can only bow to the Sovereign will of God, who still has work for Peter to do, but has taken James home to Himself. Let us all realise, our times are in His hand.

Acts chapter 11:27-30:

V27:  The NT speaks of the gift of prophecy in the early church. Sometimes the term refers to declaring God’s Word with God-given Authority, in Holy Spirit power, but sometimes, as here a God-given revelation of things to come. In this sense, we would hold, with many Bible teachers, that the gift was for the immediate NT period, the Apostolic age, like some other gifts found in the NT.

V28:  One such prophet, Agabus foretells a great famine throughout the Roman world – Luke, the careful historian, records that this happened when Claudius was Emperor – not in fact long after this chapter.

V29:  The Antioch church at once decide to send a gift, each contributing what they could, for the relief of the Jewish believers in Judea.This was a gracious and loving gesture from this largely Gentile church to Jewish believers they did not know.

V30:  Barnabas and Saul ( as he still is at this stage ) are chosen to take the gift up to the Elders in the Jerusalem church. Similar gifts from Gentile churches to their Jewish brothers remained a significant part of Paul’s later dealings with the churches, and his concern to foster love between Gentile and Jewish Christians. ( See for example 2 Corinthians 8:1-5.)

Acts chapter 11:22-26:

V22:  The report of this reaches Jerusalem. It is not completely clear if this is after Peter’s statement in the earlier verses, perhaps, but the Apostles send a trusted man to Antioch, to see what is happening there and if it is indeed of God. Surely it is significant that the man sent is Barnabas, the ” great encourager “, suggesting that this is not a ” hostile ” investigation but a genuine desire to discern if this is indeed God’s hand at work.

V23-24:  His response is characteristic of him. He who listened to Saul and accepted what God had done in his life, when no one else would ( ch 9 v 26-27. ) also recognises God’s work here, and rejoices in it. He encourages the new Gentile believers in their faith, and calls them to faithfulness in their own walk with the Lord. V24 is Scripture’s remarkable testimony to the Christ-like life and witness of this choice believer! And  surely, the ” many more” added to the Lord here were the fruits of his own ministry there in Antioch.

V25-26:  Then, surely at the Lord’s direction, he goes to Tarsus ( relatively near to Antioch, in fact ) to seek out Saul ( ch9 v30.) He brings Saul back to Antioch, where they continue together teaching the new church for a full year. Seemingly, Barnabas was God’s instrument in involving the soon-to-be Apostle to the Gentiles in regular ministry in this , the first largely Gentile church.  We are told that it was here at Antioch that the believers were first called “Christians”. Some think this was originally a sarcastic term, but surely it speaks of the clarity of their testimony and their lives for the Lord – they were ” Christ’s people “, always talking of Him, pointing others to Him, witnessing for Him.

Acts chapter 11:19-21:

V19:  The record now returns to how God so remarkably brought about the wider spread of the gospel, as believers who were scattered from Jerusalem and Judea by the persecution after Stephen’s death took the message wherever they went. ( See ch8 v4.) Even in ” Gentile territory”, to start with they still address only Jews, probably in established synagogues.

V20:  But then some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, Jews from the dispersion throughout the Roman Empire at this time, coming to Antioch start speaking to ” Hellenists“. Though at times this speaks of Greek-speaking Jews ( as in ch 6 v1 ) the context here makes it clear these were Gentiles from the Greek culture of those days. The believers in question preach ” the Lord Jesus” to these non-Jews.

V21:  And God seals this with His blessing, and a large number of these Gentiles truly come to Christ as Saviour. Acts 1:8 is being further fulfilled, under the Lord’s sovereign hand! What remarkable outcomes God can bring from persecutions!

Acts chapter 11:11-18:

V11-12:  Continuing his account, Peter tells them how the men from Cornelius arrived at such a significant time, and how the Holy Spirit directed him to go with them without any doubts – for God was  clearly removing the old distinction between Jew and Gentile. ( See Ephesians 2:14-16.) Also, how Jewish believers from Joppa were witnesses to what happened.

V13-14:  He tells how God sent the vision of the angel to Cornelius, to prepare him for the gospel he would hear through Peter,

giving the further detail that Cornelius had been told he would hear from Peter ” a message by which you will be saved”.

V15:  And how, as he spoke, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as previously upon the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost. This repetition of so much detail from ch 10 shows us how important what happened there is – the seal of God upon the inclusion in the church of Jew and Gentile, on equal terms.

V16:  So, Peter remembers Jesus saying that the baptism of the Holy Spirit would come upon believers, as God’s grace brought them to faith ( not a “second” or further experience, as the record clearly shows) and now this has clearly happened to non-Jews in the same way.While the outward signs were for that Apostolis period, remember the words of Acts 2:39.

V17-18:  Since this was God’s own work, who was Peter to resist it? Here is the answer to all the doubts and reservations of the Jewish believers he is addressing, and indeed as Peter speaks of this, they recognise God’s work of grace for what it is, and give Him the glory. ( Yet not all Jewish doubts were banished at once, as ch 15 will show us, and many references in Paul’s letters.)

Acts chapter 11:1-10:

V1:  The news of what has happened to Cornelius and his Gentile household reaches the Apostles and the Jewish believers in Jerusalem/Judea.

V2-3:  When Peter returns to them, he is immediately criticised by ” the circumcision party”. Are these true believers, or Jews on the fringes of the church? Probably here believers who nonetheless cling to their “Jewishness”, but later Paul’s ministry was dogged for years by those called “Judaisers”, who were clearly not real Christians at all. ( See Philippians 3:2-3; Galatians 5:2-3,6.)

V4-10:  So Peter relates in full detail his experience in chapter 10, and how God has taught him he must not call what God has made clean “common” or unclean – in other words, how the Lord prepared him to recognise and accept how saving grace was given to Cornelius and other Gentiles he had gathered together. To the doubtful Jewish Christians , Peter is saying ” this was clearly God’s work, God’s purpose – Salvation is for Gentiles too, if they put their trust in Christ.”