April 5, 2009: “The Triumph of God’s Glory” from Acts 12:1-24

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Acts 12 presents a momentary pause in the progress toward the fulfillment of Acts 1:8: the unstoppable gospel has advanced through Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and now it will advance to the remotest parts of the earth. But before it does, God wants us to know that he will not be robbed of his glory.

The Herod mentioned in this narrative, Herod Agrippa I, was a regional king whose grip on his kingdom was somewhat tenuous. Seeking to lend credibility to his reign, he craves both approval and adoration. In persecuting the church, Herod finds that he gains traction with the Jews; he plots to execute Peter but is foiled when an angel delivers Peter from prison. Herod then travels to the provincial capital of Caesarea, where he glorifies himself before the people of Tyre and Sidon and accepts their acclaim as a deity. God strikes him down.

In our blindness to our own spiritual blindness, we often identify ourselves with the “good guys” in Bible stories. But we, like Herod, have voracious cravings for human approval and adoration. Why are we not struck down and eaten by worms, as Herod was? Only because Christ, who deserved glory, instead received wrath in our place.