Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts Series #21

Back to the Beginning: When Church Was Church

*Power in the Hand of God*

*Acts 12:19-25*

Let me tell you about an interesting man.

He was the grandson of Herod the Great.

He was born about 10 BC and sent to Rome when he was 6 years old.

He was given the best Roman education.

He was a classmate of the Emperor's Son and another notable young man named Claudius.

Herod Agrippa, also liked to call himself "Julius" Agrippa, also became good friends with another young politician named Gaius, later to be known as Caligula.

Growing up around those kinds of friends, Agrippa learned to like and live in Luxury and Extravagance.

Well this was a problem as spent money he didn't have and constantly was rich then poor, borrowing money, etc.  His Uncle Herod Antipas gave him a little money and put him in a Political Position in Tiberias but they argued and Agrippa ended up going back to Rome.

Agrippa had another problem, a big mouth, and his smart remarks about how Tiberius shouldn't be Emperor anymore and Caligula should, got him thrown in prison by Tiberius.

For 6 months.

Tiberius died, Caligula became King.

Caligula deposed Antipas and gave Agrippa territories to rule that Antipas had, then after Caligula was assassinated, the new Emperor, Claudius, old school friend, gave Agrippa Judea and Samaria as well so now he was Emperor over the entire area of Herod the Great!

Agrippa was very pious in his Jewish observances and very Roman at the same time, and had won over the Pharisees.

So, That is WHY he persecuted the Early church, to keep face with the Jewish Leadership, the Pharisees

 

So,   that brings us up to Chapter 12 again

 

*Let's Read 12:1-3; 19-25*

* *

There is something that we can see in the midst of all of this, and that is the Power in the Hand of God.

We tend to only notice God's hand when it's heavy.

But God's hand, like his voice, can come in many forms.

When God spoke to Elijah in 1 Ki 19 his voice wasn't in the wind, in the earthquake, or in the Fire, but after the fire God came in the unexpected place, in a Gentle Whisper … So we need to see God's hand …

 

… First we must see God's Hand as …

 

 

*1.

A Hand of Invitation*

 

*  A.

Invitation to Herod*

 

    1.

The household of Herod had received God's invitation over and over

 

    2.

They were no stranger to the invitation of God through Jesus.

Herod's family of rulers had received God's invitation through the wise men from the East that came because of Prophesy and the Star and came looking for the King of the Jews born in Bethlehem

Herod The Great's Response was - "kill every baby under the age of 2 living in Bethlehem"

 

    3.

God's invitation came to the house of Herod when another Herod took the throne, stealing his brother's wife and John the Baptist preached for repentance and invitation to change his ways

Herod Antipas' response was "off with the head of John the Baptist"

 

    4.

God's invitation came to the family of Herod through Jesus Christ himself in the midst of a false trial brought to Herod.

Herod found in him no guilt but all he wanted was Sport, entertainment, tricks

Herod Antipas' Response - Mocked him and said "send him back, get him out of my sight,"

 

    5.

The life of James was an invitation to Herod from God.

We don't have much recorded about the Apostle James but you can be sure that Herod was selecting the Apostle that he felt would most negatively affect the church.

James was a great man of faith.

By the way remember that James and John and their mother had asked Jesus for the opportunity to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus.

And Jesus responded, "are you prepared to drink from the same cup as I will drink?"

They said they were, and Jesus prophesied, "you will".

Well James became the First Apostle to die for his Faith and took his seat at the Right Hand of Jesus and his brother John was the LAST and thus if you will took the Left Hand seat of Jesus.

The life of James was an invitation for Herod to recognize who he was and come to Christ.

Herod Agrippa Responded "Off with his Head"

    6.

The Life of Peter, the miraculous escape of Peter was an invitation to Herod

 

 

    7.

The Lives of God's people committed and following him living in a fallen world are God's hand of invitation to those looking at the glory of God's grace in our lives

 

    8.

It is a challenge to make a choice to continue in the road they have chosen or consider the road we have taken, the road less traveled

 

 

  *B.

The Hand of Invitation always precedes a hand of judgment or deliverance*

    1.

Noah preached to the people of his day for over 100 years as he built the ark, but non responded

    2.

Moses told the Pharaoh, "let my people go or the Lord will bring plaques upon you"

    3.

Jonah proclaimed Judgment on Nineveh "40 days and Nineveh will be overturned" and they repented and were spared

    4.

David Told Goliath "/you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down …/" Goliath was being invited to surrender to God … not to David

 

The Powerful hand of God always offers an invitation

 

Romans 2:4 says /"his Kindness leads us to repentance"/

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Christian who died in Prison in Nazi Germany said that the Call to Follow Christ is a Call to "Come and Die"

 

That is a call to die to self, to die to pride, to die to all the ways we have known … whether to physically die or not, it is a call to come and die

 

The Invitation is an invitation to FOLLOW ME … Wherever that may be -

For James Follow me meant, follow me to the Gallows

For Peter/ /Follow Me meant follow me today out of this jail but even Peter eventually Followed Christ to the gallows

 

But the invitation to follow me is always an invitation to experience the ….

 

*2.

Hand of Freedom*

 

John 8:31,32 / … if you hold to my teaching, you are really my teaching, you are really my disciples.

32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free/

 

Jesus IS the Truth and Truth will set you free, the invitation of God, when received always leads to the hand of freedom.

Gal 5:1 /it is FOR freedom that Christ has set you free.

Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery/

 

Romans 8:1,2 /there is now no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death./

Responding to God's hand of invitation gives us the opportunity to live in the FREEDOM that is the nature of the Law of the Spirit of Life that is now at work in us

 

*Read* with me from Romans 8 for a minute beginning in verse 7 - 21

 

What happens to a physical body when it is DEAD … it Decays … but those forces that cause decay are all around us even now, so what keeps us from decaying now, The FORCE of LIFE that is coursing through our veins.

So what keeps our spiritual lives from the decay of sin all around us?  It is the FORCE of Spiritual Life that is at work within us

 

That is why Galatians says IT IS FOR FREEDOM that you have been set FREE

 

Just as the Angel invited Peter to Freedom and he knew the freedom to be able to sleep in prison before physically set free, so The Spirit of God within us invites us to LIVE in Freedom instead of being bound under the tyranny of sin's control on our lives

 

God's response to our bondage is to always offer the hand of freedom

 

Will you respond to his invitation and take the hand of freedom?

When we say "no" to the hand of invitation, and thus miss the hand of freedom then we may be subject to …

 

*3.

A Hand of Judgment*

 

*  A.

Judgment at the Hand of God*

    1.

Judgment is NEVER God's desire

 

    2.

Judgment is NEVER God's fault

 

    3.

How can a Loving GOD Judge someone?

      a.

Because he is a JUST God. 

      b. he is EQUALLY Loving and Just because they are part of his nature and Character

    4.

a Loving God does NOT send a person to hell, they choose their destination by rejecting God's provision of Mercy and Grace

 

    5.

Judgment happens when we FORCE God's hand with our REJECTION of his Grace and Mercy and his invitation to Freedom in Christ

 

    6.

Judgment is always the result of OUR choices NOT of God's anger

When God pronounced judgment of displeasure on Cain in Gen 4 Cain becomes angry and God says

      a.

Gen 4:6,7 /Why are you angry?  … If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?

But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it" /

      b.

The only way to "Master sin" is to surrender to God

 

*  B.

Judgment on Herod*