THE UNCHAINABLE GOSPEL

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 7, 2022 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: December 7, 2022 from Acts 12:1-19

Theme: When God sends His gospel out into the world, it cannot be confined by men.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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The apostle Paul once wrote a final letter to his younger friend and fellow worker in the gospel, Pastor Timothy. Paul was, at the time, locked in a Roman prison cell. He was about to lay down his life for his faithful preaching of the gospel. And so, he wrote to encourage Timothy to persevere in the same gospel ministry that was costing Paul his freedom—and soon, his life.

In 2 Timothy 2:8-9, Paul told Timothy;

Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains … (2 Timothy 2:8-9a).

And then, he added this bold affirmation:

“… but the word of God is not chained” v. 9b).

What a victorious affirmation that was. Ungodly men may try to chain the message of the gospel. They may try to confine it in such a way as to keep it from interfering with their own wicked beliefs and practices. They may lock up and slay its preachers—as they were doing with Paul. But when God sends His gospel forth into the world, that gospel cannot be confined by men. It goes forth victoriously to accomplish everything that God purposes for it to accomplish—bringing the message of salvation through Jesus Christ to the lost and dying people that He calls to Himself, and transforming their lives.

In our study of the first 11 chapters of the Book of Acts, we’ve been shown how this was so. Jesus had promised that “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). It would go everywhere He said it would. And this wonderful book has shown us how that promise began to be kept. No sooner had the gospel begun to be preached than it began also to be fiercely opposed. Ungodly men—under the influence of the devil—sought to silence it by locking away or slaying its preachers. Ungodly men still do so. And yet, the promise of Jesus is still being kept today.

When we get to Chapter 13 and beyond, we will begin to see the story of the expansion of the gospel to the furthest reaches of the world. But before we come to that chapter, the Holy Spirit saw fit to tell us a story of how impossible it is for men to confine what God has commanded to be declared. Men may chain the preachers; but the gospel cannot be chained.

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The main character of this story is the apostle Peter. In the first half of the Book of Acts, he had been highlighted as the instrument by which the gospel was being spread. The events described in Acts 12:1-19 concern his ministry in Jerusalem—and the opposition it received.

First, notice that …

1. A WICKED KING SOUGHT TO CHAIN THE GOSPEL (vv. 1-4).

When we had left off in our study in Chapter 11, we saw how the gospel had come to the Gentiles. The Greeks in Antioch believed. They even gathered support together to help their believing Jewish brethren in Jerusalem. The church was growing; and the gospel was changing lives.

And in verse 1 of Chapter 12, we’re told,

“Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church (v. 1).

In the New Testament, there were five kings who went by the name ‘Herod’ as a part of the Herodian dynasty. It might help to keep the ‘Herods’ in order:

• The first was Herod the Great. He who reigned from 37 to 4 B.C. He was the Herod who sought to slay the Lord Jesus shortly after His birth.
• The second was Herod’s son Archelaus. He reigned from 4 B.C. to 6 A.D. He is mentioned only briefly as the king whose coming to the throne made it necessary for Joseph to move his family to Nazareth.
• The third was Herod the Great’s other son Herod Antipas. He reigned from 4 B.C. To 39 A.D. We know him as the king who reigned during the earthly ministry of our Lord. He’s the one who put John the Baptist to death. He’s also the king that dressed our Lord in a purple robe and mocked Him.
• The fourth was Herod Agrippa I. He was the grandson of Herod the Great; and he reigned from 37 to 44 A.D.
• And the fifth and final one was his son Herod Agrippa II. He reigned from 50 to 66 A.D. He was the king before whom Paul will give his testimony in Acts 26.

The fourth of those kings, King Herod Agrippa I, is the king that we are reading about in verse 1. He was not fully Jewish. He was of Iudomean descent—that is to say, he was of the people of Edom. For that reason, he may have been trying hard to bring himself into the favor of the Jewish people. That might be why he “stretched out his hand” to persecute the church. (It wouldn’t be the only time that rulers and monarchs persecuted the church for the political advantages it might give them.)

Verses 2-3 tell us;

Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also (vv. 2-3a).

The ‘James’ that he murdered was the brother of the apostle John. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were in the closest circle of the apostles to the Lord Jesus. We’re told that Herod’s murder of James “pleased” the unbelieving Jewish people and their leaders who opposed the message of the gospel. And so, in order to make further gains with the people, he also arrested Peter with the intention of killing him publicly.

The timing of this arrest—and the intended date of the public execution—is important to notice. Verses 3-4 tell us;

Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover (vv. 3b-4).

If you were to look in the King James Version, you might be surprised to read that Herod intended to keep him until after ‘Easter’. The event of our Lord’s resurrection occurred immediately after Passover; so you can understand why those translators stated it that way. But the original wording of the passage refers to Passover. And Herod didn’t want to cause a disturbance among the people by executing Peter at the time of the feast that prepared people for Passover—just as the Jewish leaders had planned earlier to arrest Jesus after that holy day.

And do you notice that Peter was kept by “four squads of soldier”? They took shifts in guarding Peter continually. Perhaps word had gotten to Herod of how Peter had, on another occasion, been miraculously released from prison (Acts 5:17-21). The king didn’t want to take any chances of missing out on the “public relations” opportunity of executing one of Jesus’ closest apostles … and of thus silencing the gospel.

But the gospel cannot be silenced. As we read on, we see how …

2. GOD SET THE PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL FREE (vv. 5-17).

In verse 5, we read;

Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church (v. 5).

In Hebrews 13:2, we’re told, “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.” And it must be that the church took that seriously with respect to Peter. The greatest thing we can do for our brothers and sisters who are suffering persecution and imprisonment for the faith is to pray for them. Our almighty God hears those prayers!

Just how much God hears those prayers is shown to us in what follows:

And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison (v. 6).

Imagine sleeping in such a situation! How could Peter have had such peace? One possibility was that the prayers of God’s people were being answered by the way God gave Peter peace. Another possibility is that the Lord had told Peter that his hands would not be ‘stretched out’ in death (that is, in crucifixion) until ‘when he is old’ (John 21:18). Peter knew that until the Lord’s appointed time for him, it would be impossible to kill him. But however it came to him, Peter had enough peace and confidence before God to sleep while surrounded by Herod’s guards.

Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.” So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him (vv. 7-10).

This was the second time an angel came and released Peter from a prison cell in Jerusalem. During the first time—in Acts 5:19-20—the angel told him, “Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.” It is yet another dramatic demonstration of how the word of the gospel that God has sent out into the world cannot be confined by men.

This had all seemed like a dream to Peter; but as verse 11 tells us;

And when Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people” (v. 11).

This time, however, Peter was not told to go back out into public and preach to the Jews. Instead, we find him making his way immediately to the saints who had been praying for him.

So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. But they said to her, “You are beside yourself!” Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, “It is his angel” (vv. 12-15).

Some have suggested that the mistaken believers were referring to Peter’s “guardian angel”—an angel that they believed appeared when one of God’s precious saints died (although there’s no biblical support for such a belief … and even if there was, it wasn’t a very good endorsement for one’s guardian angel!). Others suggest that it is a reference to a person’s spirit that then goes to be with the Lord. But whatever it was that they meant by saying that it was Peter’s angel, they were wrong—both in what they thought was standing at the door, and that Peter was dead. (Isn’t it sad that we pray so hard for something sometimes—and are then surprised that our prayer was answered?)

Now; Peter needed them to respond and open the door to him. He was, after all, an escaped prisoner. He was in a bit of a hurry.

Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Go, tell these things to James and to the brethren.” And he departed and went to another place (vv. 16-17).

Perhaps he was not commanded to go back and preach in Jerusalem because that phase of the expansion of the gospel was completed. It had been rejected by the Jewish leaders; and now it was going out to the regions of the Gentile world. What Peter needed to do instead was to send word to James—the half-brother of the Lord Jesus, who was now the lead pastor of the church in Jerusalem—and the rest of the apostles and church leaders.

But the point is clear. As we go on to read, we see plainly that …

3. THE PLANS TO PUT THE GOSPEL IN CHAINS WERE DEFEATED (vv. 18-19).

We’re told in verse 19;

Then, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter (v. 18).

Apparently, the angel’s appearance was hidden from the guards. They only knew that the chains and the guards were all there … but the prisoner was gone. This would have been infuriating to Herod. He must have felt a desperate need to execute Peter in order to secure the favor of the Jewish leaders. Verse 19 tells us;

But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea, and stayed there (v. 19).

Why it was that Peter was kept alive while John’s brother James was murdered—or for that matter, why it is that the soldiers had to die for this—isn’t told us. But it isn’t for us to judge the ways of God.

The next time that we read of Peter will be when he appeared before the church council in Acts 15 to testify of the ongoing grace of God to the Gentiles. Peter was set free from prison for a time; and as a result, the work of the gospel went on. Eventually Peter—like Paul—laid down his life for the gospel. All we can say is that God’s ways are right … and the word of His gospel cannot be confined.

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God’s gospel preachers might be confined for a time—or even be called upon to lay down their lives for the message. But no matter what, God’s gospel absolutely cannot be confined. We should remember this whenever we are confined by wicked men—and commanded to stop proclaiming what our Lord commanded us to proclaim.

Let’s remember—with confident obedience—what Jesus Himself has said about the matter;

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).AE