Humble Response to an Arrogant World-Part II

Humility is very essential to the Christian life. In fact true humility is being submissive to God the Father in all things and in all ways. Humility comes from an understanding of God's sovereignty, understanding He is in control of all things and in complete control of your life. Humility is fully expressed when you submit to Him because He is in control of all things. This is something that should be a constant in the life of the believer but do you know when we find out who is truly humble and who isn't, when tough times come. Whether the tough times are personal or toward the church as a whole. As we have seen in Acts 12 last week there was a very dark time that overshadowed the church. Herod Agrippa has been commissioned by his buddy Claudius to be king over the Jews. Herod was a horrible man just like his grandfather Herod the Great, Herod Agrippa wanted to be in good graces with the powers that be in the nation of Isreal and so he was very close to the religious leaders. Being close to the religious leaders means that their enemies were his enemies and so Herod had a strong hatred for the church. We find in verse 1 and 2 that Herod mistreated the church and even put James to death. Apparently James wasn't the only one who was arrested by Herod, there were others too and they more then likely suffered the same fate but James is the most prominent one of these men. He is the first apostle to be martyred and Luke is making a point of mentioning that in the passed ten years as the church has expanded and spread across the known world the apostles have been for the most part untouchable. Yeah, they have been arrested, and tried but the religious leaders couldn't put the apostles to death. Now Herod comes along and he takes out an apostle and this pleased the Jews.

James was only the beginning for Herod. Since murdering James was pleasing to the Jews, and Herod's ego was stroked he decided to go after Peter who was the spokesman for the apostles and in many cases still for the church. As we saw in verse 3 Herod was able to lay his hands on Peter and have Peter arrested. Herod knew Peter was a challenge to keep in prison but Herod, he was determined, he believed he had the upper hand. He made sure to put 4 squads of soldiers on guard, made sure Peter was in the deepest prison cell, four gates between Peter and freedom along with Peter being chained to the guards. With this much security and with this many precautions there was no way Peter was getting out and Peter was, as far as Herod was concerned doomed to die a horrible death. Well that might have been true if God wasn't involved and if this didn't turn into a battle of an earthly kind verses the King of the Universe, and that is exactly what transpired. King Herod and his ego went up against God and His church and God rescued His church from the hands of an arrogant fool. Peter being rescued from prison wasn't for Peter's sake, it was for the gospel's sake and it was for the encouragement of the church as a whole.

How often do you pray?

What brings you to times in prayer?

This came about through the humility of the church, we see this humility expressed first and foremost in the fervent prayer of the church. Verse 5, "So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church of God." It is funny people think they are their strongest when their eyes are looking straight ahead and pushing forward. Not so in the church, the church is at its strongest when the church has its head bowed and on its knees. I said last week there are different postures for prayer but only one direction the prayer is aimed, prayer is to be to God. Even in corporate prayer, the best thing to do is forget you are around other people. So often when people are around others in prayer it becomes, oh what do I say and what if I say the wrong thing. Seriously if we are praying together, you aren't talking to me you are talking to God. So often when I pray here at church I have to continuously think about saying we, because I am going to the throne of grace and I am talking to my God and Father, to my Lord and Savior. And I am sorry if I have forgotten about you when I am praying but prayer is about God not you, and it is about recognizing His sovereignty, His ultimate control over my life. As I said nothing against you but I am submitting to Him. Forgetting people are around when you pray makes it feel more personal. It helps to just be yourself before God and others and it helps to be a bit more genuine.

The church in dark times goes to it's knees and comes to the throne of Grace and leans fully and complete on the mercy and will of God. The church did this for Peter and continued to do so. Then we have Peter who demonstrates to us an important quality in humility, Humility is expressed in prayer and it is being fully reliant on God’s leading.

Reliance

Do you ever find yourself relying on God’s leading even when it seems confusing?

The account of Peter being freed from prison, for the third time, is incredible. God sends an angel and this angle strikes Peter who is sound asleep in a dark damp cell. Commands him to get up and get ready to run essentially. The angel is all a glow, Peter's chains fall off and the angel directs Peter through the prison passed the two other squads of guards out the big heavy gate in to the city street and Peter groggy and delirious from just being woken up thinks this whole time he is dreaming. That is until the angel vanishes from thin air and Peter is left standing in the middle of a Jerusalem street in the middle of the night. That is when he realizes that what had just happened to him was not just a wonderful and pleasant dream but a reality. If prayer is the greatest expression of humility then the second greatest is by far our reliance on God to get us through any situation and believing He is in control. Look for Peter in this instance it turned out he left alive. Maybe he didn't want to continue to live maybe he wanted to go and be with the Father and with the Lord Jesus Christ. Look there are time we want something to happen and we try to make it happen. True humility is relying on God no matter what the outcome is. It is not about what you can get out of the relationship it is about who you serve and it is about leaning on God's sovereignty.

In this situation the church as a whole is scared, they are not just going up against religious zealots anymore but going up against the government who is attacking and killing them just because they profess and proclaim Jesus as Messiah. They have seen one of the apostles murdered by the government and now another is on deaths door. So when they are asking for Peter's release or rescue it is because they are fully relying on God to get Peter out of this situation. Now in God's sovereignty Peter didn't have to live but for what ever reason God rescued Peter from prison. I believe it was for the purpose of encouraging the church more so then rescuing Peter. True humility realizes it is not all about me, God has bigger plans in mind then my own pathetic life. I am to be like Paul who says calls himself a slave of Jesus Christ.

Look with me at this in his intro to his letter to the Roman church.

Romans 1:1 NASB95

1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

Paul calls himself a bond-servant of Christ Jesus in his other letters also but there is something unique about this greeting here. He is writing to the Romans who would never consider themselves servants to a king, but here is Paul demonstrating perfect humility by identifying himself as Jesus Christ's slave. Paul's life is all about serving Jesus Christ and going anywhere he is called by Jesus to go and it is through full and complete reliance on Jesus Christ and the one to supply him with everything he needs in this life, from food, clothing, shelter. Even if he doesn't receive any of those things so be it. He has learned to be content with much and with little. That is humility, that is relying of God, and it is not for himself. He was called as an apostle, one who is sent out, and he has been set apart for what purpose, to make his own name great right. To be the best he can be. To make a lot of money and to have the utmost power in the universe. No, set apart for the gospel of God. Our lives are not about us, when we have been called by God we have been called to serve Him and that means giving up our desire to be grand in this world, because this world is not all there is. It means we serve Him and our only job our shared mission is to give the gospel, not our own gospel but the true gospel of God that calls for repentance and obedience. Paul understood this, Peter understood this and they were humble, not because they were weak, not even because they asked for it but because they understood their own depraved, sinful condition, and acknowledged God's complete and total control over their lives and they submitted to Him, they obeyed Him with arguing.

Do you find yourself seeing your life as being dedicated to God as his slave? If yes give a testimony of how you are His slave. If not, why?

This is humility, you don't go looking for humility, you become humble. It is not weakness either, true humility becomes your greatest strength as a follower of Jesus Christ.

As Peter has been led out of the prison and has demonstrated his total reliance on God the scene now turns to the church once again. In verse 12, "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." Notice the church is still in prayer. In the same way Peter was relying on God's angel leading him to safety the church also was still praying God would lead Peter to safety. Humility is expressed through genuine prayer and genuine prayer is an expression of reliance on God just as much as Peter moving by the direction of the angel. I want to remind you the rescue of Peter happened in the middle of the night, more then likely after midnight and before six in the morning which is when the guards would have changed out. Peter was sound asleep but the church on the other hand is not. They are up, they are together at the house of Mary, John Mark's mother, and they are praying for the rescue of Peter. John Mark is also known as just plain old Mark. Many of you are familiar with this name because of the second gospel, the gospel of Mark. It is named after this man who was a disciple of Peter's and Mark's gospel is believed to have been Peter's eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life.

So there was a close relationship with Peter and John Mark and so when Peter was rescued from prison that was the first place Peter thought to go. This doesn't mean Peter knew the church was there praying for him he just knew it was a safe haven for him because of his relationship with John Mark. As this account continues we find that God does seem to have a sense of humor, look at what happens in verses 13-14. "When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. Notice she is a servant-girl, this would have been a part of her duties but notice it is one of humble means who comes to answer. Verse 14 points to a proof Peter spent a lot of time at this house, "When she recognized Peter's voice." She didn't need to see his face because she had heard him speak so many times before. She had heard the teachings he had taught on being Christlike, recounting the adventures he had with Jesus, his discourses on how God has worked in Jerusalem and even brought the gospel to the gentiles. These would have been daily teachings not just an hour on Sunday and she knew his voice, the tone, and the pitch and when she heard it she was convinced it was Peter and the flood of emotion rushed through her. Her adrenaline spiked and instead of opening the gate for him she wanted to tell those who were there praying the good news. They were not as excited as she was.

Verses 15, "They said to her, "You are out of your mind!" But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, "It is his angel." They didn't believe it could be Peter. They thought the young girl was hysterical, anticipating his release so much so that they thought she believed she heard his voice. She wouldn't take their brush off but continued to insist that the voice she heard was Peter. Now here is the ting, the easiest way to have fixed this problem would have been to just go to the gate and open it up. Instead they stood their in unbelief. Do you know some commentators like to say that they were praying without believing it would happen? When I first read that I thought there is no way that is true. The church was praying fervently for the release of Peter so how could they have been praying fervently for the release of Peter and yet not believe it. Can God answer people who pray with doubt, not according to James.

James 1:5–8 NASB95

5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Relying on God’s leading in your life means you believe God is in control. Do you believe He has everything under control even when things ‘look’ hopeless? (Explain your answer)

Do tough times shake your reliance on God’s leading? (Explain your answer)

This seems pretty clear to me that when you pray and if you are praying fervently then there is no doubt and God would answer a doubtful prayer because a doubtful prayer is not a prayer that realize on God. So if it is not a doubtful prayer, why don't they believe Rhoda that Peter is at the door. Because they are finite and God is infinite. They, like any one of us, were probably think, Herod would let him go in the morning, not in the middle of the night. They were probably thinking God would change Herod's heart or maybe Herod would get saved or the religious leaders would have a change of heart. Not one of them thought an angel was going to go to the cell Peter is in and walk him right out the front gate. The fact that they think it might be his angel adds to this. The are not saying Peter is dead and has turned to an angel, that doesn't happen. The Jewish people believe and we are going to dig into to it in a few weeks, they have guardian angels, which I believe there is sufficient evidence for this as well in Scripture which we will look at in a few weeks as well. For now we are focusing on our position before God which is one of humility. So they think it is Peter's guardian angel who has come may be to tell them when he will be released or maybe to tell them he is going to die or he has died, it was just a part of their not believing that they way God was going to act was with Peter's supernatural release from prison. I'm sure they knew the about the heavy security detail and they were just not thinking he would be released at night. Especially this late at night. They only way this could have happened outside of a supernatural event would be for the Herod to have a change of heart at night and call for the guards to let him free. Another way this would happen is if the guards themselves let Peter escape, neither of which would have gone over well for Herod or the guards. So I can understand why they didn't believe Rhoda, and they still believed God could save him but they were confused at the timing.

Is that always the way. God's timing in answering a faithful prayer is always perfect even when we are confused at the how, when, where and why He answered it. We still need to be reliant on Him, and we still need to be reliant even when it confuses us. When they answered the gate, when they finally went to investigate Rhoda's claim that Peter was at the gate, they were amazed. There was this shock of seeing Peter at the gate. Their prayers have been answered and in an amazing way. In the middle of the night. This of course caused all kinds of commotion. I mean seriously would you have just looked and said oh hey and then gone about your business, of course not. Everyone started to speaking and ask how could this be how did your get out. An Peter turned around and told them the truth. I love how Luke writes this in verse 17, "But motioning to them with his hand be silent," so there was quite an uproar, " he described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison." God gets all the glory, not His servants. This is what humility brings, this is true humility, praising God for what He is doing.

So Humility is expressed through prayer and through reliance on God,

Humility finally is through Praise

Glorifying God

When should God get the glory in a situation, Before it, through it or after it?

God has been at work through every step of what has happened to Peter and the church. God is never absent from anything. When we recognize His work in our lives we need to bring Him the glory for what He has done. The problem is all to often people are not focused on who God is and His control of their lives and when God is working in your life you tend not to give Him the credit. Other times people give God the credit in a false humility, meaning they know it sounds good to say but it doesn't seem as though they truly believe it. When humility is genuine and you are recognizing God's control over your life, then God gets the credit and God gets the glory. This extended to the fact that Peter wanted the church council to know what had happened as well. "Report these things to James and the brethren." This is the elders of the church. They need to know what God is doing for the church as well. When God is working in a miraculous way we need to bring Him praise and glory.

Ezra 3:11 NASB95

11 They sang, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His lovingkindness is upon Israel forever.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.

Colossians 3:16–17 NASB95

16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

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