The angel said to him, "Gird yourself and put on your sandals." Salvation means that the heart enters into deliverance by grace as a present known public standing in the world. It was enough. So he went to another place.Now, here we have an interesting enigma. This particular Herod was Herod Agrippa I. They were not about to let that happen again. But for some reason, God did not see fit to deliver James, but allowed James to fall prey to Herod's sword. I do not therefore comment upon these additions here: they will remain for their own real and suitable places. Philip acts at once, with alacrity hears the eunuch read the prophet Isaiah, and puts the question whether he understood what was read. Evidently it was power in external display, then so richly manifested, which acted on the fleshly mind of Simon, himself having the reputation of a great one, and before this the vessel of some kind of demoniacal power the miserable power of Satan, with which he dazzled the eyes of men. So from experience we know there is many a man that you cannot doubt to be truly looking to the Lord, yet far from resting in the peace of God. And yet the scripture said, "And when they shall have finished their testimony," then the antichrist has power to put them to death, but not until they have finished their testimony.So obviously God was not yet through with Peter. 12:12-19 When Peter had grasped what had happened, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was surnamed Mark. On this occasion they of the circumcision see that the Gentiles receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for they hear them speak with tongues and magnify God, and they were astonished. In this chapter a new wave of persecution, instigated by King Herod, broke out against the Church, and especially against its leaders. She was a direct descendant of the Maccabeans, which made her a Jewess, but she was married to Herod the Great and so Herod Agrippa I was sort of half Jewish in a sense. Saul of Tarsus was yet breathing out his threats and slaughter when the Lord was pursuing His onward gracious work among the Samaritans and strangers. For it must be remembered that, however far his profession may be from being a true one, every professor of Christianity professes to be a true, not a mere nominal, Christian. There was to be a testimony to an the nations. Acts 7:54-60). Prayer Points 1 Father, I thank you for sending Jesus Christ to us. So when we see that the enemies of godliness, being full of fury, do not commit horrible slaughters, that they may mix and imbrue all things with blood, let us know that we need not thank their moderation and clemency for this; but because, when the Lord doth spare his sheep, he doth not suffer them to do so much hurt as they would. WebThe Lords prayer contains Gods heart and mind in it, what God really wills for us. It was not so with Cornelius. Holy Spirit cause a great confusion among my antagonists today in Jesus name,23:6-10. It was of all moment to keep up the links practically between a work which might have looked to many there, as now, not a little irregular. Perhaps you have heard it said, Never underestimate the power ofprayer. In this exciting drama of Acts chapter 12 you can see the reality of this statement. "All that dwelt in Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord." See Josephus, Antiq., book 19, chapter 5, section 1. "Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of those things which ye have spoken come upon me.". Cornelius, I apprehend, was just in this case. Archclaus, being accused of cruelty, was banished by Augustus to Vienna in Gaul, and Judea was reduced to a province, and united with Syria. From that we learn that this was the headquarters of the Christian Church. How painful must it be to the Spirit of God if the old pride of Samaria were to rise up against Jerusalem! Ordered the census that took Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem (, Jesus earthly ministry conducted during his reign (, Appointed Herod Agrippa I king over Palestine (. It was, no doubt, a Gentile title. Such, I suppose, therefore, was the principle that lay at the bottom of the difference of the divine action on these two occasions. so gross was his darkness even as to the general point of the chapter. He was the grandson of Herod the Great who was the Herod at the time of the birth of Jesus. It was no longer simply a cleaving to a God of goodness who could not deceive and would not disappoint the soul that hoped in His mercy, "but the conscious joy of knowing his sins all one, and himself distinctly put on the ground of accomplished redemption as a known present thing for his own soul in this world. I say, "the church; " for there need be no doubt, I think, that such is the true form* of what is given us in verse 31. One of the chief means was prayer. It may be observed passingly, that thus plainly baptizing is in no way a necessarily ministerial act. Philip is found at Azotus, and passing through he preaches elsewhere. "One visible manifestation, then, of the sanctity of the Church is the holy walk and conversation of individual Christians; but there is another, and more formal, mode in which she professes herself to be holy, and that is, by the exercise of discipline. So about this time, Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. Also help me to bring to my mind some urgentprayerrequests. He began with some of the members of the church, certain of them that were of less note and figure; played first at small game, but afterwards flew at the apostles themselves. Prayers The gospel of Luke also describes what is similar; that is to say, a faith not insincere but human, not wrought of the Spirit but founded on the mind yielding to reasons, proofs, evidences, which are to it overpowering; but there is nothing of God in it: there is no meeting between the soul and God. The end of the chapter shows us the progress of Peter. We know that God could have delivered James by a miracle even as He delivered Peter. He would have His people, where they give, to have a voice. But a moment's reflection will show that the difficulty is only imaginary. Egy eskv, az ifj pr szmra mr relatv korn reggel kezddik. For assuredly he would never have been content with one or two murders, and so have abstained from persecuting the rest, but he would rather have piled up martyrs upon heaps, unless God had set his hand against him, and defended his flock. And if anybody should try to take them, they can call down fire from heaven and consume them. Now, Herod Agrippa I forever enshrines his name in infamy as the one guilty of the blood of the first apostle to be martyred. Surprised by Prayer: Reading Acts 12 Realistically BJU Seminary He caused the chains to fall from his wrists, kept the guards asleep, and opened the iron gates (vv. It is little wonder that this Herod has murderous intentions toward the people of God. At the precise instant when one apostle was already dead, another imprisoned and condemned, and the entire Twelve proscribed by an all-powerful ruler acting as a Jewish deputy in the whole procedure, out of a desire to please his subjects, at that very moment God sent an angel to release Peter and shortly thereafter struck Agrippa dead. a. Herod the king: This was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great, who ruled in the days of Jesus birth ( Matthew 2:1-16 ). Help me torecognise the different audiences that are being addressed in different Bible passages. Thus on the great Gentile occasion, as before on the Jewish at Pentecost, the medium of man completely disappears. Thus we see God had allowed things apparently to take their course. Not that one would deny that a mighty work was then wrought in Cornelius. So then these people succeeded in gaining the ear of Blastus, the king's chamberlain, and in due course a public session was arranged. Could it be otherwise, when, spite of proud unbelief and conceit of distinctive privilege, they were forced to feel that they were none the less the constant resisters of the Holy Ghost like their fathers, who had been guilty themselves, and suffered the consequence of their guilt in their prostration to the Gentiles; to feel now that they themselves were no better, but rather worse; that there was the same unbelief bringing out its effects even more tremendously; that they were guilty of the blood of their own Messiah, who was now risen and exalted in the highest seat of heaven? He would no more have perished, had it pleased God to have taken him away in this state, than any Old Testament saint, whether Jew or Gentile. The Church neither preaches nor teaches, but Christ sends those who evangelize the world and teach the Church. Veszprm a bulik vrosa.. Persze nem csak a partyk, hanem az eskvk is igen npszerek a vrosban. 407-8, for a brief biography of Herod Agrippa I.] That one name, through faith in it, what could it not accomplish? . He made an appearance to his half brother and after that point his half brother James and His half brother Jude became pillars in the early church. God knows exactly the day and the circumstances by which He's going to take me home. .," pp. At the same time scripture shows there might be and often was an interval after the gospel did go forth. How often our words show where we are! What in our Lord's discourses is a matter of anticipation or prophecy, here appears as a matter of fact. Herod the Great had ten wives. They'll find out I'm here], he declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. "Christianity, as it appears in the New Testament, knows nothing of the atomistic theory of modern independentism. Clearly the Jew is meant. There is this difference, no doubt, between such cases now and that of Cornelius then, that, before the mission of Peter, it would have been presumptuous for a Gentile to have pretended to salvation; now it is the fruit of unbelief for a believer to question it. Fergeteges lagzi volt tnyleg, a kemny mag is aktvan tncolt, gondoskodtak a j hangulatrl. This remained; but he preached Him rather in His own personal glory, not as the Son of David, the servant, which was the great burden of Peter's preaching, made Lord and Christ; not that He was the Son of man in heaven, as Stephen witnessed; but that this Jesus, the Christ, is the Son of God, clearly therefore more particularly bound up with the divine nature, or godhead glory of Himself. These chains have fallen off; I'm walking past these guards. They have power to shut up heaven, that it does not rain during this period of their prophecy. How blessed it is to see the free activity of the Holy Ghost without any kind of communication of man! There was indeed the unmistakable action of the Spirit of God on this occasion the power that cast out unclean spirits and healed the sick, as well as the means of spreading joy throughout that city for the souls of men. "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." According to Josephus, Herod came into the theater there in Caesarea. He killed James the brother of John with the sword,Acts 12:2; Acts 12:2. Sok felkrst kapok Gyr vrosbl, rendszerint eskv fnykpezs miatt, de szvesen fotzom ms tmban is. For these reasons he was popular with the people; and it was no doubt in order to achieve further popularity with the orthodox Jews that he decided to attack the Christian Church and its leaders. For it is not maintained that the first Christians, any more than those of our own day, were or could be perfect; and all that can be fairly gathered from what St. Paul says of the Corinthians is, that they were imperfect and inconsistent. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him ( Acts 12:4 ); Now a quaternion was actually four soldiers. However, outside of the council in Jerusalem, this is the last mention of Peter that we have in the book of Acts. A Christian society which should openly profess to dispense with discipline, and tolerate on principle open and notorious evil doers [or still worse heretics, Antichrists, or their abettors] within its pale, would thereby renounce its title to one of the essential attributes of the Church; it would sever all ostensible connection between itself and the true Church [or rather Christ and His sacrifice: see1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 ], of which sanctity is an inseparable property; in short, it would unchurch itself. It must be his spirit. Was it not then God's high priest, God's law? Festus did not have any charges to send with Paul, and so he had asked Herod Agrippa II, the son of this Herod Agrippa I, to hear Paul's case in order that they might develop charges against him to send to Nero when he was sent there. Here the Lord alone gives, alone calls, alone sends forth. . Designed by, INVERSORES! Why so much haste and impatience? Kett darab professzionlis Canon fnykpezvel s nagy fnyerej fix illetve zoom Canon objektvekkel dolgozom. He was also the Herod to whom Pilate sent Jesus for trial ( Luke 23:7 ff.). Though the Spirit of the Lord catches away Philip, so full is his heart of the truth that we may be sure all that occurred confirmed it in his eyes. But it was God's way. And these people depended upon Palestine for their food supplies, and so they were pretty much a vassal to Palestine at this time. Father, I declare that "Suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Undoubtedly the cruelty of this mad man was restrained and bridled by the secret power of God. So says the Spirit to Philip, "Go near and join thyself to this chariot." So he comes to the place where the prayer meeting is being held. Vannak, akik gy gondoljk, hogy ezekben a pillanatokban nem kell a trsasg s plne nem egy idegen fots..(mondjuk nlam biztos nem lesz idegen rzs, inkbb haveri Lteznek, olyan prok, akik TovbbMirt is kell az eskvi fots a kszldsnl? See the notes on Matthew 2:19. ., 2:11:6; Bruce, "Chronological Questions . It was now guilty of resisting unto blood, not merely as their fathers had done, but the heavenly testimony of Jesus. Evidently the authorities remembered the last time Peter had been arrested, and how he had mysteriously escaped from jail. Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. It may be all right and in perfect keeping that one preaching the gospel should baptize; but occasion might well arise where he who preached would avoid it himself. . So Peter came to the house where the prayer meeting was being held. For he appealed to Caesar when he realized that he was getting the royal run-around by Festus, a political pawn, and he appealed to Caesar. But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace [Don't make too bit of a stir, fellows. Surely to shrink from their enquiries is nothing but self on our part. Finally, after the call of Saul of Tarsus, Peter himself (as well for other reasons as in order to cut off the semblance of discord in the various instruments of His grace) is brought in to show the perfect balance of divine truth and the wonderful harmony of His ways. . The gift of the Spirit is not at all the same thing as the gifts. And as he came into the theater, the sun reflected off of this silver cloth. For every particular church is so, called on the supposition of its being a manifestation, more or less true, of the one holy Church the body of Christ. Azt lltjk rlam, sokoldal fots vagyok, s minden helyzetben kiismerem magam Tbb ves hazai s klfldi referencival rendelkezem. quietem, perpetual rest. Then we find Simon struck not so much by an individual's endowment with miraculous power, as by the fact that others received it by the apostles' laying on of hands. Then we learn another important lesson. Thus we see that, while we have the angel of the Lord in certain cases, the Spirit of the Lord expressly in others, we have also simply the holy judgment of the gracious heart. Without pronouncing upon the state of individuals in the sight of God, he assumed the whole body to be what they professed to be a body of real Christians. For courage to witness for Christ (Acts 4:2331) 3. . A fotzs szmomra nem csak egy munka, hanem egy szenvedly, amit csak fnykpezvel tudok csillaptani Szeretem az egyedi elkapott pillanatokat, de nem szeretem az erltetett belltsokat. Peter prayed before he raised Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:3643), 8. He martyred James, seized and imprisoned Peter, planning to execute him publicly after the Passover festivities. And he was highly respected by the Jews. Herod the Great was married ten times. on the Acts, i. pp. To these the Emperor Claudius afterwards added Judea and Samaria; which were nearly all the dominions possessed by his grandfather, Herod the Great. Nevertheless, care was taken to hinder all appearance of independence or indifference to unity. As there was a Job in the Old Testament, independent of the law and perhaps before it, so we find a Cornelius before the glad tidings in the New Testament had been formally sent to the nations. Prayers To Get A Permanent Job 15. When they were up against it, they turned to God. This brought the question to a simple issue; but here again, let it be noticed that the gift of the Holy Ghost belongs to those that believe. Contrariwise, we see that which outwardly looks exceedingly weak; but this was the man that was in another day to say that he gloried in his infirmities. And he said, Go show these things unto James ( Acts 12:16-17 ). In the East it would have been the natural thing for the next brother to take on the work of an elder brother who had been killed; but from the gospels we learn that Jesus' brothers did not believe in him ( John 7:5) and that they actually thought him mad ( Mark 3:21). All these things were pressed home by Stephen; indeed, I have simply touched on a very small part of his most telling address. A nevem Hring Attila, profi fotogrfus vagyok. A soul that now looks to Jesus ought to rest without question on redemption; but we must remember that at this time Jesus was not yet publicly preached to the Gentiles not yet freely and fully proclaimed according to the riches of grace. A body of believers indeed had been by Christ gathered out of the Jewish people to be the first recipients of the Pentecostal effusion; but before that event, this body could not be called distinctively His Church. How not to pray is prayer just for the sake of prayer. Accordingly Peter and John, two of the chiefs among the apostles, come down from Jerusalem. It was of the greatest importance that unity should be kept up practically, not merely that there should be proclaimed the truth that there is unity, but that there should be the maintenance of it in practice. Father, every ungodly power working against church growth be consumed by the fire of Holy Ghost, in Jesus name. (748) Perpetuam. The believers prayed for guidance in making decisions (Acts 1:1526), 2. The tradition that they have in the Romish church, that this James had been before this in Spain, and had planted the gospel there, is altogether groundless; nor is there any certainty of it, or good authority for it. It was their responsibility now as ever to accept the gracious offer of God. And now Paul and Barnabas are returning back to Antioch, and John Mark, who is a nephew to Barnabas, is returning with them. The soldiers who were the guards over Peter were put to death, taking the sentence that was to be placed upon Peter. Acts Chapter 12 Of the fathers, Eusebius among the Greek, and Cassiodorus among the Latins, are in favour of the true; others are in strange conflict, their text having the wrong reading (perhaps through mistaken scribes), and their comment correcting it. All descendants of Herod the Great down to the fourth generation, who were identified with the government of Palestine and are mentioned in the New Testament, are known in history by the surname Herod; Herod Archaelaus, Herod Antipas, Herod Philip II, Herod Agrippa I, and Herod Agrippa II (470). He was assuredly, before Peter went, a converted man. Preaching. The voice that said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" If God had given them the Holy Ghost, as was manifest in sensible results, it was very evident that they must have by God's grace had repentance unto life. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) that word, I say, ye know." ". When Herod had sought for him and did not find him, he examined the guards and ordered them to be led away to execution. (c) Drusilla (see Drousilla G1409) , who was the wife of Felix, the governor before whom Paul was tried ( Acts 24:24). He felt that they were conspiring against them and so he murdered them both.There was a saying during the time of Herod the Great that it was safer to be his pig than his son. Genitive case of hos as adverb; at which place, i.e. Religious persecution is invariably ruthless and blind even to the commonest feelings of humanity. It is, then, nothing but the fact, that the invisible Church, or rather that which in the Church is invisible, preceded that which is visible. This is why the church advanced more dramatically in Gentile territory, as the rest of Acts shows. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, NT Apostles: Acts 12:12 Thinking about that he came to (Acts of the Apostles Ac). The Power of Prayer - Preachers Corner Isn't it interesting how much emphasis we often put on faith. It is the message of life, but it is also the means of peace. "Saul arose and was baptized, and when he had received meat he was strengthened, and remained with the disciples for some time.". Victory Over Stubborn Pursuers 14. Herod would not condemn him till the passover was over, some think, for fear lest he should have such an interest among the people that they should demand the release of him, according to the custom of the feast: or, after the hurry of the feast was over, and the town was empty, he would entertain them with Peter's public trial and execution. When Peter had knocked at the door of the entrance a maidservant called Rhoda came to answer the door. Verb - Present Participle Middle or Passive - Genitive Masculine Singular. Beheading was not ordinarily used among the Jews; but, when kings gave verbal orders for private and sudden executions, this manner of death was used, as most expeditious; and it is probable that this Herod killed James, as the other Herod killed John Baptist, privately in the prison. God has no pleasure in the death of a sinner. No doubt their spiritual condition was defective, and their outward position must have seemed anomalous; but Scripture is decisive that such godly Gentiles there were. And, of course, he wrote his epistles. When he had beheaded James, he proceeded further, he added, to take Peter also. It says Easter there, and that's a King James translation. I will not pretend to say that it cost him little, but am sure it would have been a heavy trial to many a man of God to leave that which was so bright, where He had wrought powerfully in using himself for His own glory.