The sermon, 'How the Word of God Multiplied' by Scott Brown, explores Acts chapter 12, focusing on the persecution of the early church by King Herod and the miraculous escape of Peter from prison. Herod's actions, driven by a desire to please the people, lead to the execution of James and the imprisonment of Peter. Despite Herod's intentions, fervent prayers from the church result in an angelic intervention that frees Peter. The sermon contrasts Herod's self-glorification and subsequent downfall with the triumph of God's Word, which continues to spread. Scott Brown emphasizes the power of prayer, the sovereignty of God in history, the role of angels, and the church's mission to spread the gospel. The narrative includes the humorous and human elements of the church community, such as the young girl Rhoda's reaction to Peter's escape. The sermon concludes with reflections on the providence of God, the importance of prayer, and the call for believers to live with urgency and focus on spreading the Word of God.

Acts chapter 12, and I'll begin reading in verse 1 through the entire chapter. Now about that time, Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. And he had James, the brother of John, put to death with a sword when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of unleavened bread when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.

On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between the two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And, behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared, and a light showed in the cell. And he struck Peter's side and woke him up, saying, Get up quickly! And his chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, Gird yourself and put on your sandals.

And he did so. And he said to him, Wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and continued to follow. And he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought that he was seeing a vision. When they passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself.

And they went out among along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. When Peter came to himself, he said, Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And he knocked at the door of the gate. A servant girl named Rhoda came to answer when she recognized Peter's voice.

Because of her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. And they said to her, You are out of your mind. But she kept insisting as it was so, that it was so. And they kept them saying, It's his angel. But Peter continued knocking and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed.

But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said, Report these things to James and the brethren. And he left and went to another place. Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. When Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution.

Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there. Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and with one accord they came to him, having won over Blastus, the king's chamberlain, and they were asking for peace because their country was fed by the king's country. On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. And the people kept crying out, the voice of God and not a man. And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.

But The word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who is also called Mark. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we pray for wisdom and understanding as we look at this passage of Scripture. Thank you, Heavenly Father, that the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.

In Jesus' name, Amen. When I read this, I can't help but think that the gathering of the people of God pictured here is not something like our gathering here. A group of people going through life, each of them with different things going on, coming together, and yet the major desire of their lives is that the Word of God would spread. And in the midst of it all, you see the mighty hand of God working through the church. This picture here in 12 is so diverse, but you see the mighty hand of God working to spread His Word by His own power.

You see the beautiful life of the church, the church gathered together praying and working together, you see the triumph of God over all things through the power of prayer, through the work of angels, and through terrible consequences that come upon those who refuse to give glory to God. And so you see here as you see all through Scripture, particularly here in Acts, God is the God of history. He's working through real people in real places, with people with real problems and real families and real churches and real threats and real transformation that's necessary and the spreading of the Word of God. And overwhelmingly to me when I look at this passage of Scripture, as I see the the mighty hand of God upon the church, I see the fulfillment of what the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He said, we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not of ourselves.

This is so clear in this passage of Scripture. So we bump into all these fascinating people in this passage of Scripture. We see Herod Agrippa, who is the grandson of Herod the Great, who was ruling at the time of Christ. Herod Agrippa killed, this Herod that we're talking about, father, and through a complex set of circumstances was thrown into prison and then eventually because of friendships, particularly with Caligula, came to power over Judea and Samaria. And so this is the Herod.

There are a number of Herods, as you know, and at some point, we should probably really make that perfectly clear, but I don't want to spend very much time on that this morning. This Herod, like all the other Herods, makes himself an enemy of the church, but yet tries as to please the people in order to continue his power base in the country. We meet Peter, ten years perhaps after denying Christ as the patient and trustful disciple, we meet James, one of the sons of thunder, who is brutally killed by Herod's absolutely uncontrollable desire for the pleasing of people. We meet angels who show up twice. The first time they show up is to save Peter.

The second time they show up is to kill Herod. It's an absolutely amazing story. We encounter four squads of soldiers. We encounter the wise people in the room gathered at Mary's house. John Mark's family in Barnabas, all these people are collected here in this scene.

And Rhoda, that delightful disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. We meet people from Tyre and Sidon and Blastus who becomes a tool of the people to bring more pleasure and more welfare to their area of the country. And God is using this, all of these people and all of these situations for a number of things and I think one of the things that I hope that we'll see for us is that God is refreshing us again with the knowledge of His power and authority over all things. This upwelling of persecution in the church reminds us that we cannot rescue ourselves, but that we must be sent to our knees in the process. We have no recourse, we have no weapons, we have no political power, but we have Christ and Him crucified, and we have our prayers offered up before God.

We also see that all of this happens, all of the trials and tribulations happen for one major purpose, for the most important thing in the world, and that is the spreading of the Word of God. That is the purpose of all of our trials, and we should understand that and never forget it, even though we have to remind ourselves of it every day. We're going to be reminded of again that all of our trials are for one purpose and that is that the Lord Jesus Christ would be glorified through the spreading of His Word. Every trial squeezes us so that the Word would come out, and this is the purpose of it all. And then at the center of this is a praying church gathered together, continually devoting themselves to the things that really matter.

So all of these are the players here just by way of introduction before we dive into the text of God's work to spread His Word. All of us here are here today for one purpose and that is to spread the Word of God. There are people here who come from out of town, they're here for one reason, and that is that somehow this gathering would work for the further spreading of the gospel. All of us have been gathered for really one overwhelming and good purpose, and that is for the fulfillment of the statements that we find at the end of this chapter that the Word of God spread and multiplied. Okay, let's dive into the text.

The period of peace ceased and James was martyred in verses 1 through 4. We see these markers in time, these historical points that are being made. Herod is the king and it's the time of unleavened bread. There are these historical pinpoints here. And remember that the church has just gone through a period of peace.

The persecution stopped for a period of time, and we read about it in Acts 9.31. But now the time of peace is over. God sends us through various times and seasons. Times of peace, times of war, times of hope, times of hopelessness. Children die, bad things happen.

God sends us through these various times. And we should not be discouraged at the times because God is working both in the hard times and the more easy times. And it says here in verse 1 that Herod mistreated those who belonged to the church. And when I read that I thought, well, they did not belong to the world, they belonged to the church, they were members of the church, and this is why Herod was mistreating them. And it happens in history, as I read in a marginal note in the Geneva Bible, it is an old fashion of tyrants to procure the favor of the wicked with the blood of the godly.

And those who belong to the church became the reason for the proclamation of the good news of the good name of Herod. And he used the church to promote his own name. And he, in doing so, killed James. He did it only for one reason. He did it to please his constituency.

Now, James, this James here, was not the writer of the book of James. He was James, one of the first three disciples that were gathered. You hear Peter, James, and John in the Gospels. This is that James. These inseparable brothers, James and John were the sons of thunder.

Wow! These guys, these were, These were God's manly men traveling with the Lord Jesus Christ. They were the sons of Zebedee that we read about in Mark chapter 10. Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus saying, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. They were just like all of us.

We want God to do our will instead of His own. And the Lord said to them, What do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Grant us that we may sit at your right hand, and the other on the left in your glory. But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you ask. And then he said this, Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?" And then later on he says to them, you will drink the cup.

Here in this passage, James drinks the cup that the Lord Jesus spoke to him about. Here, imperfect James, impetuous, desiring his own comforts, his own glory, just like all of us in process of our discipleship. You know, it's interesting, you know, how God works with his people. We are a proud people. We are a selfish, self-centered people, just like James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who went to the Lord Jesus.

But yes, the Lord Jesus is kind and patient. He does reveal our sins to us and we need him to do that so much, but he extends his hand of mercy toward us in the midst of it. Well killing James was so popular that he imprisoned Peter because it would bring him even more praise. There's an interesting entry in Fox's Book of Martyrs about the martyrdom of James. It says that Eusebius, the historian, and another one of the historians, Clement of Alexandria, reported that something happened on the way to James' execution.

The executioner who had brought James before the authorities was with him, and on the way his heart was softened and he repented of his sins with James on the way to execute him. And the executioner turned to James and asked forgiveness for what he had done. And then James reflected upon it, and he turned to the executioner and he said, Peace to you, brother. And he kissed him. And they proceeded on and were both that day beheaded together at 36 AD.

James was killed not because God was unable to save him. James was killed not because of unanswered prayer or because of some lack of passion in someone's heart. James was not killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. James was killed because it would glorify God. James was killed because the Lord Jesus Christ looked at him in his eyes as the two sons of Zebedee and said, you will drink the cup that I drank.

He was executed that day because of the will of his Father in heaven to drink of the same cup of his Lord whom he loved and dedicated his whole life to. It's interesting that you find, again, as we've seen in Acts before, We see two wonderful disciples. One's life is preserved and the other life is snuffed out. We saw it with Stephen who preaches, who Peter preached the same way, but Peter was spared and released from prison while Stephen was stoned on that very day. You know, we're reading this great autobiography of John G.

Payton. The first missionaries that show up in the New Hebrides are killed within just a few minutes of their landing on the beach. John G. Peyton lands and his life is spared and the gospel spreads. All of this is under the sovereign hand of God.

God decides how long we will live. Who is to say how long a person should live? Who is to say how God would glorify Himself in our lives? You know, he's marked out the number of our days. He's marked out the footsteps of our feet.

He's marked out the thoughts of our minds and he knows those thoughts before we even have them and he knows the step before we even take it. And all of us are people who've taken many steps in life, but we need to understand so clearly that this is all for the glory of God. There's a powerful statement in the Second London Baptist Confession on the providence of God, of God's divine, God's oversight in benevolent care. The question reads, what are God's works of providence? Answer, God's works of providence are the holy, wise, and powerful acts which he preserves and governs all his creatures and all of their actions.

Hebrews 1.3 says, He upholds all things by the word of his power. Ephesians 1, 11 says, He works all things according to the counsel of his own will. And this means that there's no such thing as luck, that the lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is from the Lord." I'm so amazed at the words in the Heidelberg Catechism on this same subject. What do you mean by the providence of God? Answer.

The Almighty and everywhere present power of God, whereby His hand He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures, so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, and drink, health and sickness, Riches and poverty, yea, and all things come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand." So we find in this situation of the execution of James as a period of peace ceasing through this martyrdom and yet it is by God's fatherly hand that it takes place. And then next in the text we see verse 5, In the backdrop is the praying church. In the backdrop are the people of God. So Peter was kept in prison but prayer was for him was being made fervently by the Church of God. I love the presence of that word, but.

Peter was in prison, but prayer. This arrangement of words is found all through scripture, but God. Here it's, but prayer. And it should just serve as encouragement to us in the midst of all of our prayers, but prayer. All they could do is pray.

They were powerless. They were at the end of their rope. They had no way of dealing with this situation. Do you have a situation like that? There's no way for you to deal with it.

It's completely out of your hands. You cannot fix it by some act of personal power or influence, But you're completely at the mercy of the sovereign hand of God. This is where the church was. Now there are two qualities of their prayer that I would like to bring out first. It was urgent, straining prayer.

The church was earnestly praying. The translators of the Bibles that we use use words like constant, fervent. It means to stretch and it means to strain. And it's interesting that Luke uses a particular word here that he has used at another place that should give us the the passion that's loaded into this word that he uses. He uses the same word in Luke 22, 44 of Christ's experience in the Garden of Gethsemane and it's the word ectanos.

Being in agony, he was praying fervently, and then he swept blood through this maximum outpouring of passion. And this is the same word that is used here for this prayer. This was not dispassionate, I don't care prayer. It was earnest, urgent, straining kind of prayer. You know some of you who've been to Romania with us know the sound of earnest, urgent prayer.

When they pray, there is a crying out that is so powerful in their prayers. They're almost, they're just tears and urgings that are just beyond what we normally see in our normal experience in the church. And it was also prayer offered to God. These were prayers in the name of the Lord Jesus for his sake, according to his will. They were offered to God.

They were not prayers to one another. They were not prayers that People prayed to sound good before each other, but they were truly heart cry to God. You know how that is sometimes, I find myself wrongly praying. Not to God, but these were prayers to God, and they were urgent, straining prayers. A life of prayer among us is so important.

Ephesians chapter six, we're urged to be praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. There's so much that we could say about prayer. I was tempted just to stop and just spend the whole time on prayer this morning and I guarantee you I have enough notes for it right now, but we won't do that. If we ever lack knowing what to pray for, the Bible tells us what to pray for, for kings and all in authority, for ministers, for the church, for the saints, for all men, for masters, for servants, for children, for friends, for fellow countrymen, for the sick, for persecutors, for enemies among whom we dwell, for those who envy us, for those who forsake us. These are the people we are commanded to pray for so we should never, there are always people like this around so we should never run out of prayers.

And also you see in this praying that we see there among them, you see this quality of their fellowship together. They had a particular quality of fellowship that all churches need, that we need. God forbid that we would just gather in a meaningless way. But life is too short. The kingdom is too wonderful.

The brokenness in the world is too pervasive. We have so many problems that to take our fellowship lightly and to make it a sideline of our lives, and to make it ho-hum, and to just live a shallow, comfortable life together, just enjoying one another. And that's it. We do enjoy one another. But this is not all of it.

There ought to be an urgent straining, offering unto God for one another. You know, hell is too real, hell is too horrible for us just to gather and enjoy one another, even today. And yes, we ought to enjoy one another, but we should not just enjoy one another as we meet together. The church here was not living a shallow life, but they were engaging mightily. And then we see Peter being rescued from prison.

As often happens, the prayers of the saints are quickly answered and fulfilled. Peter was supposed to be a dead man that very night. The answer to this prayer happened the night of his death, okay? He was getting ready to be led away, and God waited until this very dramatic last moment on the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward. That's when this happened.

So who knows how many minutes or how many hours the angels beat Herod to his game. But the angels show up before the ghouls of Herod show up. And they get there just right at the right time. Now Here are just a few observations that I want to make. And first of all was that, what was Peter doing on the last night of his last night on earth?

What would you be doing on your last night? I just assumed that Peter knew that he was minutes away from being dragged before Herod. Of course, we don't know. But what was he doing? Sleeping.

Peter was sleeping on his last night on earth. And Peter was not working for his own release. He was not planning his breakout from the prison, as I'm sure we... I'm sure, hey, the guys in this room would be thinking about how to break out of prison, I think. I think that's probably what we'd be doing.

And let's see, we lost power here. But David, could you come and get that? Thank you. He was not stressing out. Peter was not acting out.

He wasn't pacing the floor, angrily worried, you know, wringing his hands about it. But he was like the Lord Jesus Christ in the big storm, sleeping in the boat, while everybody else is acting out and freaking out. But not Peter. He is sleeping like Christ. He has no need of sedatives.

He does not need drugs or a few sips of wine to calm his nerves. No, not at all. His trust is in the Lord. And So he's a wonderful fulfillment of the words of Solomon. He gives his beloved sleep.

And now also, why was Peter so heavily guarded? Doesn't that strike you as strange? Four squads, four squads of four, 16 guys, three shifts of four soldiers apiece. So there are four with him, each shift all the way through. And I'm just shocked that he would be so heavily guarded, but remember what happened in Acts chapter 5?

The guards maybe sort of were thinking, been there, done that with Peter here in prison, because the angels released him in Acts chapter 5. He had already escaped and walked right out and this was not going to happen again. So this time they put together more military force upon him. Military force upon him. And so the angel comes and the light shines.

The angel then strikes Peter. This is such a great scene. The angel speaks to him. He says, get up. Now I just think the angel whispered it, but who knows.

And the chains fall off and then The angel says, put on your sandals. And his disposition is the disposition of submissiveness. And he is an obedient, trustful follower of these angels. It's typically a good thing to follow angels when they show up. And he did.

Remember, this is Peter. Ten years earlier, he's whacking off the ear of the servant of the high priest. Now, he's sleeping in the prison and he's trustfully following the instructions of the angel. Peter just must have been completely amazed. Here we go again, an angel springs me out of prison again.

It's obvious he cannot wait to tell the story because he waves his hand and he says, I gotta tell you what happened to me when he shows up at Mary's house. But If God, you know, if God can get Peter out of prison this way, he can accomplish anything he wishes in my life. That's the lesson, okay? If you're in a difficult situation and you think you should get out of it, then if God can get Peter out of prison, he's big enough to do anything. This would also be a wonderful opportunity to pause and talk about angels because they appear in a number of places in the book of Acts.

But just to sum it up, he will give his angels charge over thee. Well here are a couple things to glean I think from this section. One is that she is more powerful than the government even though all she has is prayer. And what's revealed? Well, I don't want us to miss what is here regarding the true nature of the church in the world.

The world is deceived about the church and it is deceived about who we are and how God works and the truth here is that the church is invincible before all the nations of the earth. There are no plans of any nations that will overwhelm the works of the Lord. And we need to understand that God has his angels and he has all of nature under his perfect control. He controls every synapse of every mind in the world, every leaf that falls to the ground, every storm that brews its way up. God is in control of all things and in this for this reason we just ought to be the the most peaceful happiest people in the world knowing that God is in control and that he will accomplish what he desires.

Now, we may not understand how he's doing it or why he's doing it, but he does, and that's all that really matters. Okay, so let's just do a quick review of where we've been so far in Acts 12 and then we'll push on After a period of peace Persecution erupts at the hands of Herod He has his own motives But at the same time God proves himself greater than the rulers of the world, and he causes his word to multiply in spite of all the government sanctions. Meanwhile, the people of God are meeting and praying as they should, and God is working through their prayers. So now we go to Peter's arrival at the house where the church is gathered. Now, they were in the home of John Mark.

And it seems that John Mark's family was wealthy enough to have a large house to occupy to hold such a large group of praying people and and it also mentions that they had servants or at least one servant Rhoda So they perhaps had a financial situation that is revealed here. And Peter obviously knew where to go. I mean, the only thing I can surmise from this is that he just knew where they would be meeting and he went there and Peter comes to the door and this young girl Rhoda answers it she leaves Peter at the door you know he there's one thing you don't want to happen if you've just broken out of prison. You don't want to be seen on the street. You do not want to be out in the middle of everything and that's where he is.

So I think Peter, you know, trustful soul that he is, is probably feeling a little bit nervous about this and so he keeps on knocking and and Rhoda explains who's at the door and they say you are out of your mind And so Peter's knocking and Rhoda's saying, no, it's Peter. And they're saying, no, don't bother us. We're going to pray for Peter. Oh, Lord, please release Peter. Peter's knocking at the door.

Oh, Lord, please release Peter. And I love this part of the narrative. It's absolutely not the most, it's not the core of the text. But my favorite line of this part of the text is because of her gladness. This young girl is so happy to see Peter.

She knows the sound of his voice. She is she is a young girl in the church who knows what's going on, who knows Peter. She is so happy. Ah! She's just like one of the little girls in this church or something like that would happen if one of us was going to be killed one night and he's released what joy every little girl in this place would have if if that if that one was knocking at the door the word that's used here indicates a young girl, a younger girl, in the prayer meeting of the church.

She was not sheltered from the difficult issues of the church and she's not to be put off at all. And so I just I love the the different textures that are in this section there's a spirituality the church there's the humanity of the church the relationships the humor of the church there there's the generational integration of the church everybody's there experiencing life together in the early church but there's this very common occurrence here that we also should acknowledge and that is as it was with these people it is with us from time to time we have a slowness to believe that God would actually answer our prayers he answered the prayers in a most wonderful way that nobody can really believe it they're not going to believe that Peter's at the door They say you're out of your mind, even though they've been probably praying praying for his rescue And we are we are very dull of hearing Often God has answered our prayers right in front of our face and we don't even acknowledge it or even know it. You know, a man in our church was telling us, telling me this last week that many years ago he'd been praying for a wife, he was single, and one day he was sitting in a church when the text for the teaching was this text right here.

He's praying for a wife, the pastor is teaching on this text, he's praying fervently on that very day. The pastor brings out the fact that God often has answered our prayers, but we fail to recognize it. And then it hit him that there's this young girl in the church that God just sort of made it clear to him, I have sent your wife and she's right over there. And he hits himself upside the head and says yes she's right here I am praying for wife and God's already sent her and she had been sent from God and was right there in the room and often it is that way that there the prayers have been answered we just don't recognize it quite yet. And that was what was happening with these people in this upper room.

They just didn't get it. And this young girl, fortunately, was persistent enough to keep helping to understand that God had answered their prayers. Then Peter departs and goes to another place. And this is the last time we see Peter until Acts chapter 15 and his sudden disappearance causes a bunch of problems in the prison and the soldiers were executed who let him go. Too bad it wasn't their fault.

Ha! Well life is not fair And they were executed for the work of angels for the Church of God. And then Herod works for his own glory and then loses it all. The people of Tyre and Sidon have been benefiting at this difficult time of famine, and key to it are the favors of Herod, and they want Herod's favors, and so they do whatever they can to gain them and in the midst of their Desiring to gain his favors they're praising him as a god and they say it's the it's the voice of a god and Herod Because he desires to be a god. He is God to himself He accepts the praise.

He's there The historians tell us that he had made for him for that day a Garment of silver was all silver. So in the morning as the sun was shining on he was just a glimmering array of fanciful color to the people. It was just beautiful. There he was, the voice of a God, bright and shining and instead of instead of giving glory to God he exalted himself and and he was destroyed as a result his crime his crime was not it was to refuse to give glory to God that was his crime The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness who suppressed the truth of righteousness for all that they knew God they did not glorify God nor were thankful. This is our problem we do not glorify God This is where regeneration must take place lest we be destroyed.

We are people in our sins without the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Herod was without the blood of Jesus Christ. He let his pride go and go and go until God would kill him for it as God God will destroy the lives of all who do not bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ Everyone's days are numbered all of our friends days are numbered. They will suffer a similar fate We think this is so terrible but God will judge all who do not give glory to him and it just should give us urgency to spread the gospel, to speak of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that we shed for our sins. We should share in detail the facts of creation, the facts of our nature, our sin nature, the facts of redemption and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the requirements of God upon all who are made in his image and here Herod misses it and he loses it all.

It says here that he was eaten by worms. Now let me give you an explanation of why this word is used here by Luke and its significance. The phrase eaten by worms in Greek is skolokabrotos. The root word is skolax means a specific head structure of a tapeworm. Since the word scolax plural scolosis is applied to the head of tapeworms, Herod's death was almost certainly due to the rupture of a cyst formed by a tapeworm.

There are several kinds of tapeworms, but one of the most common ones is found in sheep-growing countries is the dog tape. Echinococcus granulosis. The heaviest infections come from areas where sheep and cattle are raised. Sheep and cattle serve as intermediate hosts to the parasite. The dog eats the infected meat, the man gets the eggs from the dog and usually from fecal contamination here.

The disease is characterized by a formation of cysts generally on the right lobe of the liver. These may extend down to the abdominal cavity. The rupture of such a cyst may release as many as two million scoliosis. The developing worms inside of the cysts are called Scolex because the anterior region constitutes the major part of the development at this stage. When the cyst ruptures, the entrance of the cellular debris along with the Scolexes may cause sudden death.

The use of the word Scolex is not limited to this reference about Herod. The term also appears in Mark 944. A literal translation of the phrase in Mark 944 would read, where their Skollex dieth not, where their worm does not die. He's speaking of hell here. This usage is very interesting because the tapeworm keeps propagating itself.

Each section of the worm is a self-contained unit which has both male and female parts. The posterior part matures and forms hundreds of worm eggs. The word scolax in this text portrays a biological description of permanence, which the text demands for the comparison. This is found in Science in the Bible, the Moody Science, people put that out. So you see This terminology that God uses in Acts chapter 12 relates to something even more important, and that is the theology of hell.

And here depicted before us is a deeper understanding of hell and the torments of hell and the reality of hell and then we see the word of God multiplying in verse 24 out of their fellowship out of their sufferings out of the judgments of God even against the wicked God multiplies his word and there's you know There's nothing more wonderful or delightful than the spreading of the Word of God. You think about the comforts and the help of the Word of God in your life. The spreading of the Word of God is nothing but joy for His people. And so It was a spread of every good thing. The Word of God is sufficient, it is certain, it is infallible, and it is all we need for life and godliness.

So the Word of God multiplies, and then Barnabas and Saul continue the work and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission taking along with them John who is also called Mark more about that later Well, God's intentions cannot be frustrated. Saul and Barnabas complete their journey. God uses Mark, called John, Barnabas's cousin. He would go with them to help with the famine in Jerusalem and then would be the cause of more difficulty later on as we'll read about later. And this passage of scripture just presents before us one of the greatest questions that we can ever ask and that is do we Do we believe that God is greater?

Than all of the governments and all of the circumstances of the world and the answer is yes God is greater than all. Now let me give you some implications that I I think flow from the passage that's here. Notice there are no commands here in this passage but there are many principles and and patterns that we can learn from and the first one is fear not if God can get Peter out of prison by an angel and causing his chains to fall off he's He's capable of accomplishing whatever is necessary in your life. Our trials are the fertilizer for our growth and the spreading of the Word of God. They are simply manipulative pawns in the hand of Almighty God to bring glory to Himself.

Do you see your trials that way today? Be converted if not. Let your view of your trials be converted. Fear not. God has desired to give you the kingdom.

Secondly, see the beauty of surrender. We see the progressive and constant surrender in the life of Peter. He's being tamed under the sweet lordship of Jesus Christ He is in process God is dealing with his sins Would God deal with our sins in the same way that we under the patience of God would be sanctified day by day. We are desiring this year particularly to be more aware of our sins. We're reading John Owens the mortification of sin to help us to be less proud in the next decade than we were in the last but you see the beauty of this kind of surrender in Peter acknowledge let's see acknowledge the angels acknowledge the angels I don't have that one up on the screen for some reason, But the angels are constantly being used of God in scripture.

We should not be like our generation, which does not acknowledge angels. Our generation makes angels into sweet-faced little babies. Well, we love sweet-faced little babies, but boy, that's not the picture in Scripture. They are a flame of fire. They are ministers who are rendering help to those who would be saved they're knocking chains off they're waking men up in prison they're terrifying men in the night saying trust in God so be aware of the angels pay more fervently Pray more fervently than ever for all the saints.

That we would have a life like we see there today in Acts chapter 12. This urgent, serious prayer. You know, that God would give us more prayer. More real prayer, less fake prayer. And then, affirm deep within your heart that God rules.

Why do the nations rage? Well, you know, all those who oppose God will lose. There's no point in raging against Christ, and as Herod did. But one thing we learned from this passage is that those who belittle the Lord Jesus Christ will die and their worm will not die and so affirm that God rules God is in control Remember hell Remember that the worm does not die this passage of scripture gives us a foretaste of hell Perhaps we need to be reminded of that today and people that we know who are bound for hell that our compassion would rise. You know it shocks us here in this passage with the consequences of refusing to bring glory to God and to obsess about your own life's situation.

That was Herod's obsession. Instead of his obsession for God, it was for himself and his own comforts and his own livelihood and his own career. This is always a trap for us. And then pray for the same kind of vibrant life in the church and our church and you have this picture of this passionate church it's a courageous church They were spreading the Word of God It was graced even by an excited young girl named Rhoda Who loves Peter who knows the voice? With gladness in her heart You know one thing I like about this church is this was not an adult church but it was the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ where the kingdom of heaven belonged to such as these.

Well Herod died but the church lived on And here we are today following in their footsteps. And it is to us as it was for the early church that we would not preach ourselves but Christ as Lord and ourselves as bond servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ but we have this treasure in earth and vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves would you pray with me Lord thank you for giving us Peter, James, and John. Thank you for giving us Rhoda. Thank you for giving us Barnabas and Paul and John, Mark and his mother.

Thank you Lord for giving us this warning from the throne of Herod that you rule and reign and now Lord I pray that you would make us into this kind of church would you Lord we cannot do it ourselves we know that so we cry out to you that the power would be of God and not of ourselves. Amen.