Sermon Tone Analysis

The Folly of Fighting God

(Acts 12:1-17)

June 26, 2022

Read Acts 12:18-25 – We love that “God is love” (I Jn 4:8b).

We’re not so keen that “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29).

Yet we should love that just as much.

Why? Bc that’s what guarantees paradise.

God consuming evil!

We’ve minimized God’s judgment to the point of irrelevance.

Since we do not see bolts of lightning regularly lighting up the landscape our tendency is to think it will never happen.

That is a dangerous mistake.

The times it does happen are a solemn warning against the folly of fighting God.

In a genealogy study a few years ago, I identified a woman I’d never heard of, Rebecca Jones Case as my great, great grandmother.

She married Henry Case on April 4, 1856 in Bethel, NY – right in the middle of Woodstock!

When Henry returned from the CW, they farmed in Iowa, MN and NE.

Eventually, while researching records in Wayne County, NE, I was shocked to find this newspaper account of in the Wayne Herald, dated June 29, 1903: “A frightful accident caused the death of Mrs. Case last Friday at the home of her daughter.

She was starting the fire with kerosene preparatory to getting supper, when the can exploded, spreading the oil over her clothing and setting it on fire.

The daughter couldn’t extinguish the flames as her mother fought her away.

The doctor could do nothing when he arrived.

The woman lingered in intense suffering from 6:00 Friday until 2:00 am Saturday when she died.”

That was sobering.

Fire is frightening even at 100 years distance.

My grandmother, with whom I was close, was 12 at that time, living near her grandmother.

Yet, she never once talked about it, having either erased it from her mind, or finding it too horrible to mention.

God calls Himself a consuming fire for a reason – to warn against ignoring or fighting Him.

Yet some here this morning are fighting God.

You neglect His commands as tho they did not matter, reject His cross as irrelevant, and pit your will against His daily.

You hope a couple of hours in church will placate Him; it won’t!

He does not want your attendance until He has your heart.

Until then you are at war -- a war you cannot win.

To reject God’s salvation is to plot a future you do not want.

Look where it took Herod.

Impotent Determination

Herod was a determined man.

He found he could win over the Jew by killing Xns.

It worked beautifully with Jas.

So he set out to get Peter next.

But, this time, he failed badly.

He’d run into divine intervention.

And he was no match for God.

His enhanced security operations went up in smoke when the soldiers miraculously slept; the chain miraculously fell off and the prison gates miraculously opened.

He’d been one-upped by God before whom he was impotent!

He ended killing more of his own soldiers than Xns!

The lesson is you can’t beat God.

Herod thought he could.

After Jas’ death, he was sure of it.

But God said, “This far; no further.”

That’s the folly of fighting God.

In the end, He calls all the shots, even the ones that seem to go against Him.

Prov 16:33: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

He gives people just enough rope to hang themselves.

At the tower of Babel He said, “You can build this high, but no higher.”

To Pharaoh: “You can hold out this long, but no longer.”

To the Egyptians chasing the Israelis: “You can go in the Red Sea, but no further.”

To Satan who persecuted Job: “This far, but no further.”

To Belshazzar in Dan 5 using Israel’s temple implements for an in-your-face pagan orgy: “This far, but no further.”

To Pilate who thought he had all authority over Jesus: “This far, but no further.”

Pilate signed Jesus’ death warrant; God unsigned it and raised Him up again.

Get the pix?

God always has the last word.

History’s strongest men, from Pharaoh to Neb to Caesar to Hitler to Stalin all found themselves impotent when God said, “This far; no further.”

Every atheist who ever shook his fist in the face of God is impotent before Him.

Like Voltaire, who bragged that while Xnty was centuries old, “I’ll show you how just one Frenchman can destroy it within 50 years.”

Fifty years on, his home was HQ for the British Bible Society.

His last word: “I wish I’d never been born.”

Or Friedrich Nietzsche who pronounced God dead then spent the final 10 years of his short life certifiably insane.

A piece of graffiti scrawled in NY announced, “God is dead.

Nietzsche.”

Underneath someone added, “Nietzsche is dead’.

God”.

When God says, “This far and no further,” that’s it!

No one can stand against God and win.

It is folly.

Whether you are an unbeliever, an apathetic believer, or a true believer refusing to obey God’s commands, you are on a fool’s errand.

Payday is coming!

We may have words of excuse, denial, contorted explanations or outright rebellion, but God will have the last word.

He always wins: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

We’re all impotent before Him.

II.

Imprudent Deification

With Peter’s disappearance, Herod’s ego took an enormous hit.

It was an opportunity for humility and repentance.

Herod does just the opposite.

He launches a self-deification campaign.

His wounded self-image needs repair.

First, he has the guards executed.

Shows power!

Then he decides that, having not delivered on his promise to the Jews, it might be a good move to leave Jerusalem for a time.

So off he goes to Caesarea until things could blow over.

Caesarea was the Roman capital of Israel, built by Agrippa’s grandfather in honor of Augustus – a beautiful city.

There Herod massaged his ego back to full throttle.

First, reps from Tyre and Sidon come begging his pardon.

They had offended Him, and he imposed sanctions by refusing to sell wheat to them.

In desperation, they came to Blastus, Herod’s aid, probably bribed him, and sued for peace.

That didn’t hurt Herod’s ego at all.

So, he invites them to the games – so says Josephus’.

Every 5 years, a series of athletic events were held in Caesar’s honor.

Luke says, 21 “On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.”

His wounded ego is back in full bloom.

As Herod spoke, Lu says, 22) And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Josephus adds detail: “[Herod] put on a garment made wholly of silver [which was] illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun upon it.