How Shall the YoungSecure their Hearts?

Psalms 119:9

SERIES OF LESSONS O’Neal church of ChristAthens, Al. Summer 2014

Learn : When God is withyou, who can be against you?• We all need each other. Our families, our

loved ones, friends and neighbors….

• But we need God!. With Him, we are more than conqurerors. Rom. 8:37

• Without Him, we fail. Our lives are ruined!

When God is with you,WHO can be against you?

• Romans 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Acts 12:1-5

• Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. 2 And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)

• 4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. 5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

James Is Martyred, Peter Is Set Free

• Herod killed James the brother of John,• With the sword. Acts 12:2

• What he did pleased the people….Acts 12:3

• So he proceeds further to take Peter.

• Herod made Peter secure ..Double safe!.

• 4 Quaterniuons of soldiers ( A quaternion was • 4 Here 4x4 – 16 )

• Acts 12:6 Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains!

• There were keepers at the door keeping watch.

• Herod had the prison, the guards, the• Chains, the earthly authority…

• but Peter had God! Cf. I John 2:15-17

• 1. v.7 a light shined in the prison• He smote Peter on the side• He raised him up and told him to arise quickly!• Chains fell off his hands• Told to Gird thyself; bind on your sandals• Cast thy garment about thee,and follow me.• Peter obeyed…but he thought it was a vision.

• V. 10 .They passed the lst and the 2nd ward, and came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city.

• The gate opened unto them of its own accord…and they went out.

• They passed through one street…and

• Forthwith, immediately the Angel departed from him.

Peter knew something!

• When he came to himself…• ..I know the Lord hath sent his angel, and

delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from the expectation of the Jews. Acts 12:11

• Prodigal Son: When he came to himself..• Luke 15:17 We all should awaken to

ourselves!

When He considered the thing. V.12

• 1. He came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. They were praying for Peter!

• 2. It was harder to get into the house of Mary, than it had been to get out of prison!

Herod Agrippa I

• 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).

• Herod Agrippa I was also the nephew of Herod Antipas, who had a role in the trial of Jesus (Luke 23:7-12).

Stretched out his hand to vex (harass) some from the church: Acts 12:1

• God’s people have just about always• Been persecuted in some form.• Matt. 5:10-12 Blessed are they which are

persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Peter is put in prison

God judges a blaspheming Herod and blesses an obedient church.

•  • Herod gives a speech to the people of Tyre and Sidon,

who are anxious to please Herod.

• Acts 12:20-21•  • Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre

and Sidon; but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus the king’s personal aide their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food by the king’s country. So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them.

And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!”Acts 12:22-23

• Herod receives the overstated praise of the people of Tyre and Sidon,

• and he receives the judgment of the God he refused to glorify.

•  • And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” Then

immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.

•  • a. The voice of a god and not of a man! It is in human nature to look for

political deliverers and messiahs, and the people of Tyre and Sidon seemed to praise Herod as if he were a god. For his part, Herod enjoyed it, taking the glory unto himself (he did not give glory to God).

•  

What happened to Herod?• He was eaten by worms and died:• The manner of Herod’s death was appropriate to his spiritual state; he

corrupted from the inside out.• The ancient Jewish historian Josephus – writing to the Roman world

– also described the death of Herod in gory detail (Antiquities, XIX.8.2).•  • “He put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of a contexture

truly wonderful, and came into the theatre early in the morning; at which time the silver of his garment, being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun’s rays upon it, shone out after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those that looked intently upon him; and presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another (though not for his good), that he was a god…

• A severe pain also arose in his belly, and began in a most violent manner…when he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life.

Fighting against God just doesn’t work!

• . Herod fought against God.

• He killed James but didn’t defeat God’s plan.

• He arrested Peter, but the earnestly praying church saw God rescue Peter and the apostle’s work continue.

•  

Where is the man who said:“God Is Dead”! …

• Friedrich Nietsche was the philosopher who coined the idea that God was dead, and that Christianity was a despised religion of weaklings. Fighting God drove him insane, and he spent the last several years of his life in that condition.

Nobel Prize WinnerSinclair Lewis

• 2. Sinclair Lewis won the Nobel Prize for literature, and fought against God in his book Elmer Gantry. The book was about an evangelist who was also an alcoholic and would sleep with any woman he could. Sinclair Lewis died a hopeless alcoholic in a clinic near Rome.

Sad End of WriterErnest Hemingway!

• Writer Ernest Hemingway lived his life of adventure and sin against God seemingly without consequences - until he shot himself in the head with a shotgun. Fighting against God just doesn’t work.