Why the One and Not the Other

SERMON: 2013-07-07--ac13101--why-the-one-and-not-the-other SOURCE DURATION: 00:30:07.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with the introduction of a biblical passage (Acts chapter 12) and continues through theological exposition and pastoral application until the final segment provided. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:00:00.000; remove through 00:00:04.640] [CUT] (air whooshing) [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:00:04.640; resume after this marked segment] Acts chapter 12 introduces us to what are the most perplexing questions that we all face when we are confronted by disasters, whether they be natural or manmade. And that question that we face in times of difficulty is this, why the one and not the other? Or in the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 24, why is one taken and the other left? I was thinking of that this past week in connection with the story out of Arizona, where the 19 professional firefighters got caught in a change of wind and all perished together. It was an incredible tragedy. Not as well known is that one of their team survived. And the reason that he survived was because he had been elected to move the company truck. And so he was out of the area and he escaped. One is taken, the other is left. Same thing happens in this particular passage that we read together here in Acts chapter 12. The apostle James gets his head chopped off under Herod's cruel rule. Peter, on the other hand, gets miraculously rescued by the angel of God. And you look at a story like that and you say, why the one and not the other? And that's what I wanna talk about just a little bit with you this morning. We'll see how far we can get in the time that we have allotted. But I wanna try to touch on three reasons why the one and not the other. And understand that none of those three reasons will fully answer all our questions, but hopefully it will help us move in the right direction as we consider the complexities of life. Why is the one taken and not the other? Well, the first reason that scripture gives is the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God, as the old hymn says, means that though the wrong is oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. That is to say, ultimately, at the end of the day, God is in control of everything that happens. Now, that is subject to a lot of misinterpretation. It doesn't mean that everything that happens in the world is God's will. Sometimes people talk that way. Somebody will have a bad tragedy and they will say, well, it must be God's will. Now, there's a lot of things that happen in the world that are definitely not God's will. God limits himself to the fallenness and to the brokenness of the world, but the sovereignty of God does mean that nothing can happen unless God allows it. At the end of the day, if God decides it isn't going to happen, nobody can overrule God. And so Jesus, he's on trial before Pontius Pilate for his life, and he says to Pontius Pilate, you would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. In other words, you couldn't do a thing to me if God the Father in heaven had not ordained this calvary road that I am launching on. And likewise, earlier to his disciples, when he sends them out, Matthew 10, 28 to 31, do not be afraid of those who killed the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father, and even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows. God is sovereign, and in his sovereignty, he decides that James is going to die, but Peter is going to live, which of course immediately then asks the question, why James and not Peter? We can only speculate, but I can think of two reasons why James and not Peter. Number one, James's journey is finished. Peter's was not. That is to say, James had accomplished in life what God had purposed for him to accomplish. The Apostle Paul, writing to young Timothy towards the end of his life in 2 Timothy chapter four, the verses seven and eight puts it this way. He says, "I have fought the good fight. "I have finished the race. "I have kept the faith." And then he goes on to say, "Now there is in store for me "the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, "the righteous judge will award to me on that day, "and not only to me, but also to all "who have longed for his appearing." He says, "I have fought the good fight. "I have finished the race. "I believe with all my heart "that God has for each of his children "a race that is to be run, "a journey that is to be traveled, "a race and a journey for which we have been uniquely created, "for which we have been uniquely redeemed, "for which we have been uniquely called." Sometimes that is very clear, sometimes we stumble along, but until we have finished that race and accomplished God's purposes for us in our generation, there is nothing that anybody can do to stop us from completing that journey. James's journey was done. And while that represents a tragic loss, I would think for James's family and for his friends, and certainly for the early church, for James himself, that wasn't so bad at all. Because James, of course, is translated into glory. In the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 1, 21, and 23, Paul says, "For me to live is Christ, "and to die is gain. "I am torn between the two. "I desire to depart and be with Christ, "for that is far better." To quote the verse earlier from 2 Timothy 4, 8, there is now for James laid up the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And we read in the Book of Revelation, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. "They will rest from their labor, "for the deeds will follow them." James leaves behind all the complexity and all the turmoil of life, and he graduates into the very presence of God where every tear is wiped away, every broken heart is mended. That's why Christian funerals are always so different from non-Christian funerals, because while we grieve, we do not grieve as the world does. Death for the believer is like a commencement exercise. It is leaving behind one realm of life, and it's moving into the next, which according to scripture will be far better than anything that we have experienced in the here and now. James leaves this life to be with the Lord. And for the early church, this was such a powerful reality. The church leaders had to go on record telling people not to try to court martyrdom simply for the sake of entering into glory. Compare that with how much we are in love with the here and now, and how heaven is the place everybody wants to go, but nobody's in a hurry to get there, and you understand how much God has to do in our lives to get us in tune with biblical spirituality. So one reason is that James's journey is finished, but there's another reason. Why in the sovereignty of God, James dies at the hands of Herod, and that's not one that we think of so readily, but is very, very important biblically, and that is the fact that it sets the stage for Herod's judgment. Now as we'll see, Lord willing, as we go on in this particular chapter in the Book of Acts, and if you read on, you discover that Herod comes to a pretty miserable end. Who knows how Herod dies? He gets eaten by the worms because an angel of God strikes him because he is too arrogant and he is too proud. But not only that, even if judgment doesn't come in the here and now, as is so often the case for those who ball their fists over against God, the fact remains, come the end of time, we're all going to give account before God, and Herod will be judged for what he has done in the persecution and the destruction of James's life. We read in 2 Corinthians 5, 10, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. There is coming a day, and a lot of people don't understand this, but there is coming a day, according to scripture, when everybody that has ever lived is going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. I was listening the other day to a professor, John Lennox, who is a professor of mathematics, either at Oxford in England or at Cambridge. He was participating in one of these faith versus unbelief debates, and he made a very interesting point towards the end of his presentation, maybe I'll play you that clip sometime, as to why he believes in the God of scripture and in the person of Jesus, and he says this, and I was struck by it. He says one of the most compelling reasons for faith in God, as opposed to atheism, is that most people that have ever lived die without experiencing appropriate justice for the wrongs that have been done to them. Wouldn't you agree? And what keeps Christians moving forward is the realization there is coming a day of judgment when every thought of every heart is going to be revealed, and God is going to even the score, and all evildoers will receive punishment according to their evil, and all the righteous in Christ will receive the reward of what they have done. Now here's an interesting question. When judgment happens on that final day of judgment, what do you think is the criteria by which God is going to judge the nations? The temptation is to say, well, did they live right? Did they live wrong? And on and on we go, and undoubtedly, that's all part of the formula. But there's a very interesting emphasis in scripture that at the end of the day, we are, of course, going to be judged by what we have done with the person of Jesus, because the person of Jesus is the representation of the true and the living God. But our take on Jesus is determined not simply by what we think we believe about Jesus. Now listen to this carefully, because this is a very important biblical teaching. It is determined by how we have treated those who represent Jesus. Let me give you a couple of scriptures just to drive that home. First of all, the words of Jesus, Matthew 10 verse 40, this is when he is preparing to send his disciples out to become apostles, and he says to them, he who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. In other words, I represent the Father, you represent me. How they treat you, who represent me, is how they treat me, who represents God the Father. So come the day of judgment, we're not just judged in vague abstraction, we're judged particularly by how we have treated those who represent the Lord Jesus in bringing the message to us. And I don't have a lot of time to talk about that this morning, but if you read the passage in Matthew 25, and most of us will know that passage, it's the picture of the final day when all the nations of the world are gathered before the throne of judgment, and he separates them as sheep from the goats. You remember that story? Do you remember the criteria by which he separates them? Well, he separates them by what they have done to the least of these, his brethren. Let me read you those two verses for a moment. Matthew 25, 40, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. And then in verse 45, I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. And the context there is, did you give food and clothing and shelter to the least of these? And most people read that passage, and they think he's talking about how we treat the poor. And how we treat the poor is indeed very important. But how we treat the poor is not the criteria, I believe, that he is talking about in Matthew 25. When he is talking about the least of these, and you can read it in its context, he is talking about his emissaries who come to the nations of the world. And as his apostles get sent out and they preach the gospel, there are nations who bow before God and who embrace the good news of the gospel, and there are nations who want nothing to do with the good news of the gospel, and they kill and they persecute the prophets whom God has sent to them. And on the final day of judgment, what God will judge them by is whether or not they have received favorably the emissaries who represent Jesus. He who receives you, receives me. He who rejects you, rejects me. Now keep that in mind because what happens here then is when Herod kills James in order to please the Jewish folks, that illustrates where his heart is at, and it sets him up for judgment. Because when the day of judgment comes around and he stands before the Lord Jesus and he says, "Well, you know, I try to do all these good things "for the Jewish people." What's going to count is what he has done against Jesus. He has destroyed one of the representatives of Jesus. You understand what I'm trying to say? You do good to one of the Lord's prophets, you receive a prophet's reward. You reject one of the Lord's prophets, you get the judgment that comes with rejecting God. And so, in the sovereignty of God, God allows Herod to kill James because in killing James, his true heart is being revealed. He is anti-Jesus, he is anti-God, and for that reason, come the day of judgment, he will be without excuse. Did you know that by the time the day of judgment comes around, nobody will have an excuse because everything that has ever lived inside will have been demonstrated on the outside? And if you understand that, you'll understand a whole lot why God allows persecution in the history of the church, He allows it to refine the church so that we become more like Christ. They always say you can't love your enemies or learn to love your enemies unless you've got enemies to love. And most of us discover pretty quickly it doesn't come very naturally, does it? And the world will demonstrate their antipathy towards God by their actions towards the Christian church. That's why the wheat and the weeds always grow side by side until it is time for the harvest. That's a foundational kingdom principle that we often lose sight of, particularly in the midst of conflict or confusion. So, first there is the sovereignty of God, and then there is the strategy of Satan. The strategy of Satan. Why is Herod particularly interested in arresting James and Peter and hoping to put both of them to death? Well, because he understands that they are the leaders of this new movement. Peter and James, together with John, who was James's brother, are in the words of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians, the pillars of the early Testament church. You have the 12 apostles, you have Peter, James, and John, who were the closest to Jesus, and then you have John, who was the beloved disciple. So there is that kind of grouping happening. And Satan understands the words of Zechariah, chapter 13, verse seven, that talks about strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. He knows that leadership in the body of Christ serves as ligaments, that is to say, it ties different parts of the body together. The body of Christ is incredibly diverse. You have people from different languages, people from different cultures, people from different backgrounds, people with different agendas, people with different ideas. And what keeps a nation or an organization from fragmenting is the gift of leadership that serves as a ligament. Person A may not like person B, but if person A and person B both relate well to person C who is in a leadership position, then you have the body bound together. And so Satan's strategy is strike the shepherd, scatter the sheep, cut off the head, and hopefully this burgeoning church that continues to cause turmoil and conflict in the land will end up disappearing. And that strategy often works. Gamaliel back in Acts chapter five, trying to convince the Sanhedrin not to go so hard on the apostles when they have been arrested, argues that same point from history when he says in Acts chapter five, 36 and 37, some time ago, Thetis appeared claiming to be somebody and about 400 men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. And then he goes on, after him Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the senses and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed and all his followers were scattered. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. So often that works. Sometimes though, and I think the war on terror in our own day and age has illustrated the fact, sometimes this backfires. Because for every head you cut off, there are 10 new heads that emerge. And that's been true in the history of the Christian church, the blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the church. And I was very much reminded of that some years ago when my friend Wiba and I had the opportunity of visiting China. Some of you will remember this picture perhaps. These three young people were leaders of one of the house churches in Wenqiao that we had the privilege of visiting. And the lady there on the right is a professor at an underground seminary. And the two young men are in charge of the whole Sunday school program. And this particular church is an unregistered church in the city of Wenqiao, but they have almost unlimited freedom. And when we asked them why they had as much freedom as they did and why this whole outfit was run by young people, they told us the story. During the Cultural Revolution, the church in that city was tremendously persecuted. And many of the believers, particularly their leaders, were driven out of the city and had to go underground in the hills. And most of them died under that kind of persecution because it was extremely severe. And to the communist rulers, it would have looked as if the church was being wiped out. But remember what I said about the blood of the martyrs being the seat of the church. Because what happened next is that a whole new generation rose up. And with all their leaders gone, they had a start from scratch. They stepped into the place. God poured out his spirit. And as many of you know, the underground church in China today totals the estimate is somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 to 100 million people. And this has happened during the most intense persecution. And even now in recent years, I have been reading news stories how the government has again been cracking down on house churches because they constitute a threat to the fabric of the Chinese society. But the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church. And so even in persecuting the church and killing James, it backfires something fierce and the church will continue to grow. All right, very quickly I'm gonna wind up. Third observation that I wanna make is what this does is it shocks the church into action. We read in verse five, Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. Why do people have questions about the relationship between the sovereignty of God and human responsibility? If God is sovereign, then why pray? If God is sovereign, does anything we do make a difference? It's a false dichotomy because the sovereignty of God includes our involvement. And many of the things that God does, he does with a view of engaging us in his work. And I believe that one of the reasons they are so intense in prayer here is because James's death took them by surprise. Remember, except for Stephen, who was martyred much earlier in the book of Acts, the apostles have not suffered persecution. They managed to escape. Other people might have died, but their leadership had been safe. Now all of a sudden, under Herod Agrippa I, he arrests James because he wants to make an impact on the Jewish people, and he summarily executes him. And I think it shocks the church into action. And it gives them time to pray. Why? Because you see, even the circumstances of life are under the control of God. Because remember now, this is the feast of Passover coming up. It is now the feast of unleavened bread. And it would never do now, would it? To violate the Old Testament law and put Peter to death during a holy season. You gotta wait until the season is over. And so that gives opportunity then for the church to earnestly seek God's face in prayer. And as we'll see, Lord willing, next time when we come back to this, all heaven begins to move in power to accomplish another one of those miraculous redemptions. And so on the one hand, you have James, who is being executed, but on the other hand, you have Peter, who gets miraculously delivered to carry on the work of ministry. And the church is tremendously encouraged because they experience once again the power of God. you