Had he not read or heard those words in the prophets? We see such in the gospels. Certainly the Ethiopian received the truth; but verse 37 had better be passed by in your minds, at least in this connection. Luke seems to have wanted to close his portrayals of the Christian mission within the Jewish world (Acts 2:42 to Acts 12:24) with two vignettes having to do with Gods continued activity on behalf of the Jerusalem church." Those to whom they addressed themselves were really Gentiles. And so we have the story of Ananias, and the ways of the Lord, not of some great apostle, nor even of Philip, but a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, to whom the Lord spoke in a vision. 2 And he had James the brother of John put to Herod the Great left three sons, between whom his kingdom was divided - Archelaus, Philip, and Antipas. In fact, it tells us much about prayer. There were four such squads because the day and the night were divided into four watches each of three hours duration; and each squad was on duty for three hours at a time. "That word ye know," says Peter, "which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him . . It is of interest to see, and should be better known, that among the Gentiles were not wanting such as worshipped no idols but served the true and living God. Prayer Points - Rebirthrwc . There are just a lot of Herods in the Bible and it is a little difficult to keep them all straight. (a) To call (name) by a supplementary (additional, alternative) name, (b) mid: To call upon, appeal to, address. Thus the church would still retain its substantial character, and the testimony of God still bear the same common likeness, while room was left for whatever speciality of form God might be pleased to give the truth, and the unfolding of the ways in which God might employ one or another. One of the chief means was prayer. The gospel goes forth elsewhere; it is in no way bound to Jerusalem. WebPrayer. Did he not feel so much the more settled in Jesus as there was no other object now before his soul? 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." According to Josephus, Herod came into the theater there in Caesarea. They were praying. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. It seems to have been the working of divine grace in their souls, and nothing else. 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. They were not about to let that happen again. . Not a ray of the light of Christ had entered the heart of Simon, and so Peter at once detects the false heart. It was a public privilege he was warranted to confer on the Gentiles thus baptized of the Spirit. The governor at that time, Herod Agrippa I (a grandson of Herod the Great), knew it was not wise to let the Jews become too excited. Was it not then God's high priest, God's law? Mivel a nap gy pirtott, mintha nyrsra hztak volna minket, gy kerestk az rnykos helyeket. But "as for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and dragging off men and women, committed them to prison." During this time the church has enjoyed relative peace, but now severe persecution again raises its ugly head. But what I want to press for our profit, beloved brethren, is that at any rate he who is the object of grace can afford to be gracious. Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Note what the Christians were doing. It is needless now to dwell on the scene, more than just to point out that which is familiar, no doubt, to many that are here the manner in which the Lord judged the apostate; for Herod owned shortly after by the people whom he had sought to please, disappointed in one place, but exalted in another was hailed as a god; and at that moment the angel of the Lord deals with his pride, and he is devoured of worms a sad image of the awful judgment of God that will fall upon one who will sit "in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.". In earnest - emphasizing the seriousness of prayer. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church: Herod, not unlike politicians of today, must have been checking the popularity polls when he learns it will make him politically popular to oppress the Christians (verse 3); therefore, he takes it upon himself to bring a violent attack upon the Lords church. 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. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) Precautions could go no further. For courage to witness for Christ (Acts 4:2331), 3. At the same time scripture shows there might be and often was an interval after the gospel did go forth. 378.) Continually he tried to encourage his fellow Jews to be more tolerant of others (Acts 15:13,Acts 15:19). O LORD, Where Is My Future Partner 19. The facts were notorious; but of this we may be sure, that never had they been put together before the mind of the Ethiopian as then, never connected with the living Word and His grace. Let us see briefly the various ramifications of the family of the Herods in their New Testament connections. Correct, good students! He would meet them in grace, stopping complaints, and showing that He honours and confides in their suitable choice. I mean, they woke up and here Peter was gone, and you can imagine the stir that this must have created among these guards to find Peter gone. This scene does show the stranger discovering the predicted Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah suffering, no doubt, but accomplishing atonement. * Thenceforth the Church becomes a matter of history; and its history is nothing less than that of the vicissitudes, prosperous and adverse, which the kingdom of God upon earth has in the lapse of ages passed through. "He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. F terleteim:eskv fotzs, csald , portr , glamour , s reklmfotzs. It was, no doubt, a Gentile title. In fact, it tells us much aboutprayer. Acts 16:40 And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed. Thus Cornelius was aware that God had sent the gospel to the Jews; but there was precisely where he necessarily stopped short. Stephen prayed as he was being stoned (Acts 7:5560) 5. He was a staunch friend of the Jews and was no doubt influenced by them to make the move to destroy Christianity. When he saw that this gave pleasure to the Jews he went to arrest Peter too. And he was highly respected by the Jews. "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." If he must have meant something more than this; if his own faith and his own sanctity were living and real, the effect of the Holy Spirit's operation; then, inasmuch as he makes no distinction as regards this point between himself and those whom he addresses, we must suppose that he looked upon them also as real saints and believers. 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. . The language of the inspired writers of the New Testament is the expression of that Christian experience, or conscious participation in the blessings vouchsafed through Christ, which the Holy Ghost had shed abroad in their hearts: their idea therefore of a saint, or a believer, being derived from their own spiritual consciousness, must have been the highest of which the words will admit. "About that time" probably harks back to the famine visit of Barnabas and Saul mentioned in Acts 11:30. So Peter came to the house where the prayer meeting was being held. All who are informed in these matters are aware that the best authorities reject the entire verse. How confirmatory it must have been to the apostle's heart to learn that Ananias was now sent by the same Lord Jesus, without the slightest intimation from without, whether of Saul himself or any other man! Herod may have won the appreciation of the Jews, but he has lost any respect he may have had in the eyes of God. Here is an account of Peter's imprisonment (Acts 12:4; Acts 12:4): When he had laid hands on him, and, it is likely, examined him, he put him in prison, into the inner prison; some say, into the same prison into which he and the other apostles were cast some years before, and were rescued out of it by an angel, Acts 5:18; Acts 5:18. Mvsz belltottsg s egyben riport jelleg kpekkel gazdagthatlak benneteket. We must not limit, as ignorant people do, the operation of the Holy Spirit to the new birth. There were two exceptional occasions on which one or more of the apostles so acted, but at times of more general interest and importance nothing of the sort was heard of. The very same people had done it who had so lately received with the utmost favour (not the truth, nor the grace of God, which is inseparable from His truth, but), at any rate, the mighty impress of the grace as well as of the truth which had produced unwonted largeness of heart, unselfishness of spirit, and joy and liberty, that struck the minds of the Jews accustomed to the coldness of death in their own system. There followed also such signs, or outward powers; but the Holy Ghost was given Himself, according to the Lord's word the promise of the Father, a promise which, as all know, was in the first instance assured to those who were already believers, and which was made good to them because they were believers, not to make them so. Munkm sorn kett fnykpezvel s tbb TovbbEskv fotzs Pr fontos krds eskv szervezs idejn 2. rsz. But the moment I have accomplished that purpose of God and plan for my life, then God's going to take me home.In the book of Revelation, chapter 11, we read concerning the two witnesses that come to bare witness during the tribulation period upon the earth. But because Easter takes place during Passover season, because Jesus was crucified at the time of the Passover, He also rose again three days later. A vltozatossg varzsolja szness a vilgunkat, s ettl olyan klnleges nlam egy fotzs. Looked at another way, this section confirms Israels rejection of her Messiah. was from Jesus. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea, and he stayed there. The final result of what took place when God sent an angel to destroy Herod Agrippa was realized some 20 years later when Titus and Vespasian destroyed Jerusalem. It was no longer a question of Jerusalem only even for Peter, but without being called to the same largeness of work practically as the apostle Paul, he nevertheless passes throughout "all quarters" of Palestine, and comes down to the saints at Lydda, and is seen by those of Saron. "Nor is there any weight in the objection that many of these primitive Churches were very defective in doctrine or in, practice, or in both; that St. Paul speaks of the Corinthians as being, on account of their divisions, 'carnal,' and not 'spiritual,' as 'babes in Christ,' and sharply reproves them for their laxity of discipline in the case of the incestuous person, and their want of discipline in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. It is not only that God uses one and another: this He does and we may bless Him that so He does; but the God who employs means is also above them, and He needs now only to draw out by circumstances the souls of some simple Christian men who had faith and love to seek the Gentiles without requiring the same vigorous and extraordinary means, under His mighty hand, as even the apostle did. The apostles then, after preaching in the various villages of the Samaritans, return to Jerusalem. Such was the emphatic and characteristic presentation of His person assigned to the apostle, and this at once. Clearly they were not Christians; but God has all hearts in His keeping. And they said, "You're crazy!" He was made king by the Emperor Caligula, and was put in possession of all the territories formerly held by his uncle Philip and by Lysanias; viz. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God." stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church; Beza's ancient copy adds, "in Judea": it seems to be the church at Jerusalem; perhaps some of the principal members of them; and so the Ethiopic version renders it, the rulers of the house of God. 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. He martyred James, seized and imprisoned Peter, planning to execute him publicly after the Passover festivities. Herod the Great was married ten times. This, to me, is quite fascinating. He had before this delivered Saul from the effects of undue anxiety and distrust in the minds of the disciples. II. In verse five we read thatprayerwas made: 2. This can't be real; it's just a dream. From oikos; properly, residence, but usually an abode; by implication, a family. What a revolution this word caused in that mighty heart! He is a nephew to the Herod who had John the Baptist slain. 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). My object, of course, is simply to give a sketch of the important book now before us, endeavouring to connect (as, indeed, evidently the chapter does connect) what was coming with what was past. 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. He had no confidence in the Lord for himself not a particle; for just as those who have confidence in the Lord have not an atom in man, his sole hope of blessing for his soul lay in the influence of another man, not in Christ's grace. So that the attempts of tyrants notwithstanding, God maketh choice of sweet-smelling sacrifices to establish the faith of his gospel. They had not those powers only, but this divine person given to them. "The Church of Christ was not properly in existence before the day of Pentecost; much less did she, before that era, go forth on her mission to evangelize* the world. They are, indeed, a sign to unbelievers, and that such is the result we find shown us by the Spirit of God in the chapter before us. Take, as the most solemn moment of all, the day of Pentecost. How all-important for our souls that we should have Christ before us, and that we should have no desire but for His glory! As far as God was concerned, it was James' time to come home; it wasn't Peter's time yet. But there was another reason too. IMPRISONMENT AND DELIVERANCE ( Acts 12:1-11 ), 12:1-11 About this time Herod the king began to take hostile action to inflict injury on certain men of the Church. WebVerse 12. "And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people. But Peter waited there knocking. Cornelius, I apprehend, was just in this case. Szabadtri eskvk esetn: Van tet a fejnk felett, lehetsg es esetre? With the apostles becoming more involved with matters outside Jerusalem, James the brother of Jesus was now the most prominent leader in the Jerusalem church (Acts 12:17; Acts 15:13; Galatians 1:18-19; Galatians 2:9,Galatians 2:12). Observe here, 1. . "But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews that dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ." If men profess themselves not to be able to do so, they simply profess that they have neither consciences nor moral sense." As the Jews watched the gates to kill him, the disciples took him by night and let him down the wall in a basket. Iturea, Trachonitis, Abilene, with Gaulonitis, Batanaea, and Penias. To vex - To injure, to do evil to - kakosai. But not so in the ministry of the word or testimony of the Lord. The next chapter (Acts 11:1-30) shows us Peter having to give an account of himself before those who had not witnessed the effects of the mighty power of God in the house of Cornelius. Religious persecution is invariably ruthless and blind even to the commonest feelings of humanity. When Herod had sought for him and did not find him, he examined the guards and ordered them to be led away to execution. That monarch had succeeded in putting together the whole domain of his grandfather Herod the Great, and had also been given the title of king by Claudius. Prayer: The Partnership of Prayer (Text: Acts 12:1-5, 7, 12-17, 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. Thus we must carefully remember that the gospel brings more than conversion to God. In the portion which follows we shall see the manner of the Spirit of God's working by the great apostle of the Gentiles. 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. Victory Over Stubborn Pursuers 14. But just as the great apostle of the Gentiles was the one that wrote the final word of testimony to the Christian Jews in the epistle to the Hebrews, so the great apostle of the Jews was the one sent to fling open the door to the Gentile.
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