Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / One Believer Dies, Another Lives: On Reading Providence

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One Believer Dies, Another Lives: On Reading Providence · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Interesting question for you today, Pastor John, on how to
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  Speaker 1: read Providence in Acts twelve, which we encounter together tomorrow
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  Speaker 1: in our Bible reading. The question comes from an anonymous
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  Speaker 1: listener to the podcast who writes this, Pastor John, Hello,
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  Speaker 1: and thank you for the continued encouragement I receive from
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  Speaker 1: my soul through ask Pastor John. I have a Bible
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  Speaker 1: question for you today because I admit that I have
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  Speaker 1: a hard time reading and understanding Providence in Acts twelve.
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  Speaker 1: There we are given a long and detailed account of
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  Speaker 1: the divine intervention that came to Peter's rescue to save
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  Speaker 1: his life in Acts twelve verses six to eleven. But
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  Speaker 1: just above this dramatic and detailed deliverance, in the same chapter,
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  Speaker 1: we're told that James matter of factly was murdered by
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  Speaker 1: the King's sword. That's in Acts twelve verses one and two.
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  Speaker 1: What are we to make of the differences here in
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  Speaker 1: level of protection and in how elaborately ordered not each
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  Speaker 1: story is told. Why the difference and what lessons do
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  Speaker 1: we learn about reading Providence in the lives of each
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  Speaker 1: follower of Christ.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm tempted to say, don't read Providence, read the Bible.
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  Speaker 2: But that's not fair. That's an inadequate response to the question, because,
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  Speaker 2: on the one hand, while it's true that most of
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  Speaker 2: God's providential acts in the world do not communicate all
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  Speaker 2: of his thousands of particular designs in that providence, there
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  Speaker 2: are circumstances in this world that Providence has designed in
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  Speaker 2: such a way that we ought to be understanding what
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  Speaker 2: they mean. Jesus got very upset that people in his
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  Speaker 2: day could quote read the weather but couldn't read the
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  Speaker 2: signs of the times Matthew sixteen to three. On the
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  Speaker 2: other hand, to say that we should read our Bibles
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  Speaker 2: does not make matters completely simple, right, Because here in
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  Speaker 2: Acts chapter twelve, the question remains, why does the death
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  Speaker 2: of James get two verses and the rescue of Peter
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  Speaker 2: get twelve verses? And I think the answer ought to
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  Speaker 2: be sought in a careful reading of the chapter, not
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  Speaker 2: simply by asking questions about providence. We learn about providence
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  Speaker 2: by a careful reading of biblical text, not the other
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  Speaker 2: way around. So Acts chapter twelve begins about that time
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  Speaker 2: Herod the King laid violent hands on some who belonged
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  Speaker 2: to the church. He killed James, the brother of John
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  Speaker 2: with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased
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  Speaker 2: the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter. Also. Then for
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  Speaker 2: the next twelve verses you get this amazing story about
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  Speaker 2: how God rescued Peter miraculously and saved his life. So providentially,
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  Speaker 2: God gave up James to death and rescued Peter. So
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  Speaker 2: what's going on in this chapter? What's the point of
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  Speaker 2: Acts Chapter twelve? I think the point of this chapter
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  Speaker 2: has more to do with Herod and Peter than with
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  Speaker 2: James and Peter. This chapter begins by Herod killing James
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  Speaker 2: and the chapter ends by God killing Herod. James is
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  Speaker 2: mentioned twice in this chapter. Herod is mentioned six times.
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  Speaker 2: So here's what I think is going on. Herod is
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  Speaker 2: the first person introduced in the chapter and is portrayed
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  Speaker 2: as anti Christian and as arrogantly presumptuous against God's people.
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  Speaker 2: And it is precisely herod presumption and his pride that
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  Speaker 2: begins the chapter and that will bring him to ruin
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  Speaker 2: at the end of the chapter. I think the overall
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  Speaker 2: point of the chapter is while God may allow arrogant
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  Speaker 2: man to have some temporary triumphs over his people, hence
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  Speaker 2: the death of James. Nevertheless, God reigns over arrogant kings,
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  Speaker 2: governors and brings them to ruin in his time and
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  Speaker 2: puts them to shame. Now lest we think of the
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  Speaker 2: death of James as somehow a fluke or an occasion
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  Speaker 2: for Herod to think he's in charge, remember Matthew twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty three. James' mother asks Jesus if James and John
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  Speaker 2: her sons could sit at his right hand in his kingdom,
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  Speaker 2: and Jesus said, you don't know what you are asking.
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  Speaker 2: He turns to them and he says, are you able
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  Speaker 2: to drink the cup that I will drink? And they
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  Speaker 2: said yes, And he said ominously, you will drink it,
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  Speaker 2: and James drank it. In the second verse of Acts twelve,
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  Speaker 2: Herod was not in charge. God was fulfilling his word.
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  Speaker 2: Herod wasn't ruling when he beheaded James. God was ruling. Oh,
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  Speaker 2: how careful we need to be in reading Providence. But
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  Speaker 2: then Luke describes the imprisonment of Peter in such a
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  Speaker 2: way as to make Herod look presumptuous and silly. First,
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  Speaker 2: Luke highlights that Herod fully intended to bring Peter out
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  Speaker 2: of prison. The next day and do to him what
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  Speaker 2: he did to James. That was his futile plan. Then,
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  Speaker 2: to show how helpless Herod was, Luke tells us that
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  Speaker 2: on the very night before Herod planned to bring Peter out,
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  Speaker 2: he made sure Herod made totally sure right that he
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  Speaker 2: was being safely guarded. He had him in chains, he
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  Speaker 2: had him between two guards on either side of him.
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  Speaker 2: He had two sentries behind locked gates. The whole emphasis
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  Speaker 2: falls on Herod's sense of power. I've got him, I'm
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  Speaker 2: holding him, and all of it totally futile because when
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  Speaker 2: God's Angel shows up, the chain simply fall off. They
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  Speaker 2: just fall off. The guards don't know what's going on.
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  Speaker 2: They're totally oblivious. The gate is described as opening as
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  Speaker 2: if it had a will to do it all by itself.
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  Speaker 2: It just opens, and Peter comes out to a praying fellowship,
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  Speaker 2: and then he goes on his way. And when Peter
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  Speaker 2: realizes what's happening, he says, now, I am sure that
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  Speaker 2: the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from
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  Speaker 2: the hand of Herod. He didn't just say rescued him
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  Speaker 2: from prison, but from the hand of this presumptuous king
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  Speaker 2: Herod and the story of Herod and Peter could have
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  Speaker 2: ended right there with the triumph of God over this
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  Speaker 2: man who thought he could do anything he pleased with
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  Speaker 2: God's people. But the story doesn't end there because the
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  Speaker 2: story really is about Herod as much as about Peter.
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  Speaker 2: What does Herod do? He does what every tyrant does,
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  Speaker 2: who is frustrated that he doesn't have all the power
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  Speaker 2: he thinks he has and he's about to be mocked
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  Speaker 2: for Peter's escape. He kills the soldiers who failed to
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  Speaker 2: guard Peter. Of course he does. That's what tyrants do, futile.
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  Speaker 2: And then to bring the story to a climax, the
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  Speaker 2: chapter ends with Herod on an appointed day with his
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  Speaker 2: royal robes, taking a seat on the throne, delivering an oration,
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  Speaker 2: and being claimed by the people the voice of a god,
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  Speaker 2: the voice of a God and not of a man.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, his presumption reaches a crescendo in this chapter,
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  Speaker 2: and verse twenty three says, immediately an angel of the
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  Speaker 2: Lord struck him down because he did not give glory
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  Speaker 2: to the Lord, and he was eaten with worms and
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  Speaker 2: breathed his last. So the message of this chapter, and
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  Speaker 2: in a sense, the providence behind it.
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  Speaker 1: Is that.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, God's faithful servants will sometimes drink the cup that
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  Speaker 2: Jesus drank in martyrdom. But beware, kings of the earth.
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  Speaker 2: Don't think that you have ultimate power over God's people.
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  Speaker 2: Beware of pride and presumption. Beware of not giving God
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  Speaker 2: glory and thanks of the Lord in all your suffering.
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  Speaker 2: Know this God reigns over the earth. He reigns over
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  Speaker 2: the kings of the earth. So press on with the
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  Speaker 2: business of spreading the Gospel, whether you live or whether
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  Speaker 2: you die.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Herod was not in charge. God was fulfilling his
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  Speaker 1: word through Herod, pointed connection to Matthew twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John for this and thanks for joining
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  Speaker 1: us today. If you want more on Providence, well, Pastor
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  Speaker 1: John wrote the book on Providence, one of his great books,
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  Speaker 1: simply titled Providence. If you haven't read it, be sure
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  Speaker 1: you get it and read it. It's essential reading, I
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  Speaker 1: would call it. There's nothing else like it. And speaking
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  Speaker 1: of learning to apply the Bible stories to our own life,
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  Speaker 1: how do we do that when those stories often seem
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  Speaker 1: so old and foreign and disconnected from our own lives? Today,
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  Speaker 1: applying old Bible stories to my life today, that's up next.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Ranky, See you on Thursday.