Summary:

Pretty much all we know about these leaders (v.1) is that they are all Jews, for those are Jewish names. One might even have been kin to Paul (Rom.16:21). This reminds us that the church in Antioch was started by Jews who preached the Word “to none but the Jews only” (Acts 11:19-26). They preached the word of the kingdom gospel (Lu.9:2), the kingdom of heaven on earth (Dan.2:44), the gospel the Lord Himself preached by saying it was “at hand” (Mark 1:14,15).

The kingdom didn’t begin, however, because the Jews rejected their kingdom when they rejected their King and stoned His prophet, and God put the kingdom on hold and sent Paul to preach the gospel of grace instead (Acts 20:24). People who believed that gospel will be raptured to heaven, not live in the kingdom on earth. And since Paul preached that gospel in Antioch for a year, we know there were Body saints in Antioch as well as kingdom saints.

We know the leaders were all kingdom saints though, for they “ministered to the Lord” (Acts 13:2), which usually means they brought Him sacrifices (Ezek.43:19). But sacrifices could only be offered by priests in Jerusalem, not by elders in Antioch, so we know those leaders were ministering to the Lord by praying instead (cf.Ps.141:2). And as they were praying, the Spirit said to separate Saul and Barnabas from themselves (Acts 13:2).

Paul was separated from the warm, comfortable “womb” of apostate Judaism when he got saved (Gal.1:13-16), but God also wanted him separated from the true Judaism of these kingdom saints (Acts 13:2). That’s because Judaism was a religion for one nation, the nation Israel, while God sent Paul to preach “grace” to “all” nations (Rom.1:1,5). Paul had been preaching grace to all nations for years, but he had been doing it alongside kingdom saints. Here, God was separating him to this ministry. It’s only men who mix them!

This was Paul’s ordination (cf.ITim.2:7). The leaders in Acts 13:1 are probably mentioned by name because they were witnesses to his ordination who signed his ordination certificate. We know Paul had one, because he was angry with the Corinthians for insisting on seeing it (IICor.3:1). When Acts 14:25 calls what happened here a recommendation, that tells us that that’s all an ordination is, a letter saying a church recommends a man for the ministry. We “com-mend” a man by putting him in God’s hands by prayer (Lu.23:46; Acts 14:23), then we recommend him to others.

Barnabas was a kingdom saint (Acts 4:36), but he was ordained with Paul to remind people we have a connection to the kingdom church. Paul’s gospel was a mystery (Col.1: 25,26), but it has a connection to the kingdom message (cf. Rom.1;1,2). So God had Paul ordained by a church filled with Body and kingdom saints, then sent him to preach grace with a kingdom saint.

The Jews “fasted” (Acts 13:3) to show God they were serious about something (cf.IISam.12:13-18). Fasting is also associated with solemnity (Joel1:14), and Paul’s ordination was a solemn occasion. The laying on of hands (Acts 13:3) spoke of associating yourself with someone or something, as when the priest associated Israel’s sins with that goat (Lev.4:15). Ever after Paul’s ordination, he was associated with the leaders in Antioch. That church became his base of operations in Acts. In Bible days, the laying on of hands could also impart the Spirit to men (Acts 8:17, and the power to heal (Mark 16:18). But in the dispensation of grace, we can only impart a recommendation to a man by laying hands on him.

Acts 13:3 says that those leaders sent Paul away, while verse 4 says the Spirit sent him away. That’s because that’s how the Spirit works in the dispensation of grace, through the local church (ICor.5:4). Today, God works through the power found “in us” (Eph.3:20), i.e., us members of the Body.

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “The Separation of Paul and Barnabas” Acts 13:1-5

Summary:

Soldiers in ancient times were responsible for their prisoners with their lives (IKings20:39; Acts16:26,27), so there was “no small stir” when they learned Peter escaped (v.18). They were right to be stirred, for Herod “examined” them (v.9) by scourging them (cf.Acts 22:24), and a Roman scourge would leave a man bloodied beyond belief.

Herod is a type of the antichrist. He too will try to please unsaved Jews by killing the followers of Christ. Knowing that Herod is a type of Antichrist explains why Luke tells us how people tried to stay on Herod’s good side (Acts 12:19), as people will try to stay on Antichrist’s good. Tyre and Sidon were “nourished, or enriched, by Herod, as people will be enriched by the beast.

Herod made a speech that made people call him a god (Acts 12:21,22). Antichrist will also (Dn.11:36cf.IIThes.2:3,4). And don’t forget, Satan got Herod to kill James because he represented the voice of God. The Lord called him a son of thunder (Mark 3:14-17), and thunder is associated with God’s voice (IISam.22:14). James and John were about to become the voice of God, because they were about to write some books of the Bible. When James died, God used another James to write the epistle that bears his name. But when Herold silenced the voice of God in James, and then pretended to be the voice of God here, that’s a picture of how Antichrist will claim to be the voice of God, and tell people to forget about how the voice of God in the New Testament says that Jesus of Nazareth was Israel’s Christ, not him. I know it says the people said Herod was a god, but they were just saying what he was thinking. He was the king of Tyre (Acts 12:19), and Antichrist is called the prince of Tyrus in Ezekiel 28:2-6, where we learn he’ll think he’s God.

As a rich king, Herod was the type of king those unsaved Jews liked. The Lord predicted unsaved Jews will like Antichrist as well (Jo.5:43). They’ll like him so much they’ll call him a god. They killed a poorman who claimed to be God (Jo.10:31-33). But saved Jews won’t be hoodwinked by the beast’s voice, for they’ll know the Lord’s voice, since His words are recorded in Scripture (Jo.10:3-5).

Herod “gave not God the glory” (Acts 12:23) when he didn’t refuse their worship like Peter (10:25,26). So an angel made him give up the ghost, or die (12:23cf.Job3:11). But usually men die and then are “eaten of worms” in the grave (Job.21:25,26). When Herod was eaten and then died, he was a type of the beast, who’ll be cast alive into hell (Rev.19:20).

But he won’t miss out on the worms! He’ll die and go to hell, where he’ll be covered by worms (Isa.14:4-11)—the maggoty kind of worms found in hell (Mark 9:43), i.e., unsaved men (Isa.566:23,24). Hell reduces a man to a worm. And when those worms in hell see Antichrist has become weak like them, they’ll cover him, and make him wish he’d never oppressed them, as Isaiah 14 describes.

I know Herod becomes worm food “immediately” after he claims he’s God, and Antichrist won’t be fed to the worms until 3 ½ years later. But this type is only concerned with the first half of the Tribulation, when the beast will be busy making money and pleasing unsaved Jews. So the type skips over the last half of the Tribulation. And from now on, the types in Acts will focus on what God is doing today.

As the word of God through Paul grew (Acts 12:24), Paul fulfilled his ministry of taking “relief” to Jerusalem (11:27-30). The saints there knew no lack at Pentecost (Acts 2:4,44,45; 4:34), but when God began to shut down the kingdom program, He took away the filling of the Spirit, and those saints became “poor” (Rom.15:26). Paul collected even more relief from Gentiles for them, for they owed it to the Jews to minister to them in carnal things like money, since they partook of their spiritual things (Rom.15:25-27).

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “The Result of Peters Jailbreak” Acts 12:18-25

Summary:

How far the Jews had fallen, spiritually speaking! In the beginning of the New Testament, they were eagerly expecting their Messiah (Lu.3:15). Here, they were eagerly expecting the execution of their Messiah’s chief apostle, Peter (v.11).

It’s significant that Peter went to Mark’s house (v.12). The Lord must have eaten the last supper with the 12 there, for Mark says He “cometh with the 12” (Mark14:17,18), i.e., cometh to his house. When they left, Mark must the one who woke up to investigate the noise of the Lord’s arrest in his bedsheet (Mark 14:26,51,52), for he’s the only one who records that story. His house was one of the few with an up-per room large enough for 13 men to sit at one table, so they observed Pentecost in that room as well (Acts 1:13,14). That is how Peter knew where his friends would gather to pray for him. It was the only place big enough to hold them all!

But there’s also a symbolic reason Peter went there. God was shutting down His kingdom program for Israel with the 12 apostles, and starting up His grace program for us with the Apostle Paul. We just saw the kingdom program go forward from the last supper, where it started at Mark’s house, through Pentecost at Mark’s house. Now, it’s starting to go backward, as Peter returned to Mark’s house.

What’s happening here is also symbolic of what God expected His kingdom saints to do now that their program was shutting down. The last supper was all about the cross, and God expected them to cling to the cross in the wake of the shutdown of their program. When your life begins to shut down, clinging to the cross is a good idea for you too.

Knocking at the door of Mark’s gate (Acts 12:13) is a type of Luke 13:23-25. That’s about an unsaved man knocking on the door of the kingdom, but getting turned away. Peter was saved, but was part of “the commonwealth of Israel.” That means when the unsaved nation rejected the kingdom, Peter shared their lot in common and was also turned away.

The disciples were shocked Peter was alive and free (Acts 12:15), showing they hadn’t been praying he’d be released from prison. They were praying his faith wouldn’t fail (cf. Lu.22:31). We know that’s what the Lord prays for us too (Ro.8: 34), for we don’t live in an age where God will deliver us from our troubles if we obey Him, as Israel did. Our apostle promises we must go through tribulations (Acts 14:22), as they did back then (IThes.3:4). Your faith is the only thing that will get you through them, so grow it (Rom.10:17).

They thought Peter’s “angel” was knocking at their door be-cause each Jew had his own angel who represented him in heaven (Mt.18:10)—and not just children. The Lord called His disciples “little children” (Jo.13:31). Jews would pray, and God would send an angel to answer—sometimes audibly (Dan.10:12). A Jew’s angel would report to God when he died. They thought Peter’s angel might be reporting to them because they represented God on earth (cf. Ex.4:10,11). It took Peter a while to get into Mark’s house (Acts 12:16), a type of how it will take him a while to get into the kingdom.

The “James” that Peter told them to tell he was free couldn’t have been the one killed in Acts 12:2. It was “James the Lord’s brother” (Gal.1:19). He didn’t believe on Him (Jo.7: 5) till after He rose from the dead, then became the leader of the 12 in Peter’s place. James calls Peter “Simeon” (Acts15: 13,14), the Hebrew form of Peter’s name “Simon,” which can mean wavering. Peter was a wavering man! He stopped wavering when filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4), but started up again after He was withdrawn (Gal.2:11,12). The disciples needed an unwavering leader, so James took his place.

The name “Rhoda” (Acts 12:13) means rose. That’s why she was the doorkeeper of a house that represented the kingdom (cf. Isa.35:1,3,4). Aren’t God’s types amazing?

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “Peter Finally Wakes Up” Acts 12:11-17

Summary:

Peter was sure he was about to be killed like James (v.2), but he was able to sleep (v.6), because he was comforted by verses like Psalm 3:2-5; 4:6-8. But just knowing your Bible doesn’t bring peace automatically. You have to learn to stay your mind on the Lord as well (Isa.26:3).

Peter must be in a deep sleep, for the light of that shiny angel didn’t wake him up. Angels aren’t described in the Old Testament, but they are in the New Testament, for the New Testament was the dawn of a new day for Israel (IIPe.1:19).

In verse 8, we’re not told what happened to the 2 soldiers Peter was sleeping between, but they probably fainted (cf. Mt.28:4). But Peter is free, thinking he saw “a vision” (Acts 12:9). That is, he thought he dreamed it (cf. Job 20:8).

We’re not told how the angel marched Peter through 16 soldiers (cf. Acts 12:4), but it was probably similar to how the Lord passed through the midst of men trying to kill Him (Jo. 8:59). And the “iron gate” (v.10) opened “of its own accord.”

But notice the angel doesn’t give Peter any instructions after he frees Peter (v.10,11). The first time an angel freed Peter from jail, he told him to go speak the words of eternal life to people (Acts 5:19,20), but not here. That’s because God was discontinuing His kingdom program through the 12 apostles, and starting up the grace program through the Apostle Paul. Paul was now in charge of speaking the words of eternal life, so the angel doesn’t recommission Peter to do so.

But why did God spare Peter, but allow James to be killed? There’s two answers. First, when the 12 were deciding whether Paul’s new ministry to the Gentiles was legit, Peter had to stand up and testify for him (Acts 15:7-11). But God allowed James to die because He wanted to make James and Peter types of the Lord’s resurrection, like the birds that lived and died (Lev.14:4-7), and the goats (Lev.16:3-10).

The Lord predicted James would be killed (Mark 10:35-40). The “cup” there was the Lord’s death (cf.Mt.26:39), as was the “baptism” (Lu.12:50). The word “baptism” in the Bible means identification. In the Bible’s first baptism, Pharaoh’s army was closing in on the Jews, so they said, as it were, “We’re with Moses,” and followed him into the Red Sea (ICor.10:1,2). They didn’t get wet (Ex.14:22). They were identified with Moses in the sea. And when James was killed he was baptized—or identified with—the Lord in His death.

James and Peter were types of Tribulation saints, some of whom will be killed, and some of whom won’t. But all Tribulation saints will be able to sleep in their cells, for they’ll know that they’ll someday safely enter the kingdom (Ps.4:8).

You too can sleep in your darkest hour, because you too have been identified with the Lord in His death when you believed (Rom.6:4), and so you can have the peace of knowing you’ll be identified with Him in His resurrection (Rom.6:5).

But God won’t break you out of jail. That doesn’t mean He doesn’t care about you. He just shows His care in a different way—a way you can see develop in Acts. He opened Paul’s prison door and released his chains like He did for Peter in Acts 16:26, but later He let Paul rot in jail two whole years (28:30). But He showed He cared by allowing “all” who wanted to visit him to come and minister to him (Phil.4:10, 18). Paul was “content” with that (Phil.4:11). Are you content when God doesn’t save you from your difficult circumstances, but ministers to you through His saints instead?

God told the Jews that someday their iron gate would open (Isa.45:1-3) and they’d rejoice in His riches. That first part happened when they were released from Babylon, but the second part won’t happen until the kingdom. Then they’ll think they’re dreaming (Ps.126:1-3) and sing God’s praises. And so will you someday when all your prisons are past!

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “Peter and The Jailbreaker” Acts 12:5-11

Summary:

The Roman Empire was experiencing a famine (11:27-30), and pagans like Herod thought the gods caused famines, so he naturally blamed the God of the Jews, and took it out on them (12:1). The Jewish church seemed immune to the famine because of the relief Paul sent them (11:30), but charity like that was unheard of in Rome, so Herod thought they were immune to the famine because God was favoring them.

Of course, Satan was behind this persecution. He used to use unsaved Jews to persecute them, but he lost the leader of that persecution when God saved Saul. When religion stopped persecuting the saints, that gave the churches “rest” (9:31), so Satan sicced the government on them instead.

We know why he went after James first (12:2). He was one of the 12! But why is his death described in only one verse after Stephen’s death took 60 verses to describe, and he wasn’t even one of the 12? The answer is: when those unsaved Jews killed Stephen, that was their way of rejecting the kingdom God was offering them, so God put the kingdom program on hold. That’s when the focus of the Book of Acts began to move away from the 12 apostles and the kingdom program to the Apostle Paul and God’s new program of grace. So James’ death gets mentioned only in passing.

We see more proof God wasn’t continuing the kingdom pro-gram when the 12 didn’t replace James, as they replaced Judas. Sadly, pastors and Bible teachers today continue to focus on the 12 and their kingdom program, rather than following God’s lead and looking to Paul. And not knowing who your apostle is will make a mess of your spiritual life!

Satan wanted James dead first because he knew James was supposed to write a New Testament epistle. His name is the Greek translation of Jacob, or Israel (Gen.32:28), and God spoke through Israel when He used them to write the Old Testament (Rom.3:1,2). God was about to use James, the New Testament version of Jacob, to write some of the New Testament. The Lord named him and John “the sons of thunder” (Mark3:7-17), and thunder is associated with the voice of God (Ps.29:3-9). When James died, God used another Jew named James to express God’s voice in a Bible book.

Satan went after Peter next (Acts 12:3) because he too was about to write a New Testament epistle. But Herod wouldn’t kill him on the feast day of unleavened bread lest it cause an uproar (cf.Mt.26:5). Instead, he planned to “bring him forth” to the Jews (Acts 12:3) as Pilate brought the Lord forth (Jo. 19:1) to get them to condemn Peter, as they did Christ (Mt.27:15-22), so his blood would be on their hands, not his.

One quarternion of soldiers was four men (cf.Jo.19:23), but Peter was guarded by four quarternions (Acts 12:4) because Herod had heard of the jailbreak of Acts 5:17-19.

Christians criticize the KJV, saying “Easter” doesn’t belong in the Bible because it is a pagan celebration, so Acts 12:4 should read “passover” instead. But if they were in the days of unleavened bread, passover was past (Lev.23:4-8).

The reason Herod was eager to “please” those unsaved Jews (Acts 12:3) is that they were wealthy. They had a God-given ability to make money (Deut.8:18), and they’d had it for 1500 years. And they had gained more wealth recently when they heard that believing Jews had to sell their lands and houses to be saved (Lu.18:18,22 cf. Acts 4:34,35), and they bought their possessions on the cheap, vastly increasing their net worth. That explains why Herod and every other civic leader in Acts was so eager to please the Jews (24:27; 25:9).

Men with money can still influence civic leaders to persecute God’s people, so stay on their good side by doing what your apostle Paul says to do: obey rulers, pray for them, and pay your taxes, without railing on them, as many Christians do.

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “Who’s To Blame For This Famine?” Acts 12:1-4