The Death of Kings and Growth of the Kingdom - Acts 12 - The Kingdom of God is Bigger Than Us part 7 (conclusion)

(Click here to read Acts 12)  
(please see the introduction to Acts 6-12)

Acts 12:21-24 (ESV)

21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. 22 And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

  24 But the word of God increased and multiplied.

The Kingdom of God has been rapidly spreading like weeds along the countryside. The empire of Rome itself is soon to take notice of these resistance communities of free and just citizens, generously sharing equally and without coercion. The name of Jesus is on their lips, he who was executed by the empire as an insurrectionist only a scant few years before. All boundaries to enter this Kingdom have now been transcended, and anyone regardless of gender, ethnicity, or religion is welcome to freely enjoy the benefits of Kingdom life.

The cost of citizenship is one's own power and privilege. In the Kingdom, no one holds control or rank over another. All come to the table as equals, rich an poor, citizens of all nations. For the poor, this is good news. For those who hold power in this age, it is also good news, for the power of the world is corruption, and the only authority with any value is that which is submitted to Jesus, the chosen one, the King of kings.

In Acts 10, Peter the Jesus Follower is led to share this Good News with an unlikely audience, the household of a wealthy and high ranking Centurian of the Roman army. Upon entering the Roman's house, this backwoods, undereducated, former fisherman gets a surprise welcome.

Acts 10:25-26 (ESV)

Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.”

In the Kingdom, all honour and glory and praise goes directly to the one who is the source of all life, God alone. We are united in our common humanity, each of us made equally in God's image, each of us rescued from the violent empires of the world and the empires within by Jesus our only true King. Peter had no need to receive praise or use such adoration for his own gain. As a child of God, his eternal value had already been affirmed, and his authority came from Jesus, not human acclaim.

But in the world's system, power and authority must be earned. Once acquired, it must be kept by violent force or manipulation. This is a it was for Herod, the tetrarch and puppet-authority of Rome who had presided over one of Jesus' trials on the day of his execution.

Herod had rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, a political act intended to impress and appease the people who were being oppressed Rome. It was the courtyard of this impressive fifteen story building that Jesus and the crowds had occupied in the week before his execution (see Occupy the Temple in Luke 19). It was near this courtyard that Peter had preached his first sermon, on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) when 3000 heard the news of the Just Kingdom and received Jesus as their King. Now, Herod is tracking down the most influential of these new communities, and commanding them arrested and killed. Like the temple he built, he does so to impress, appease, and control the people.

The first to die by Herod's hand is James. He is the first of the original twelve Jesus Followers to be officially executed. Next he arrests Peter. Herod had a high opinion of his own power, but Peter sleeps in prison on the night before he is likely to be executed. The community prays for his release from prison, though they had just lost a brother the same way very recently. Their confidence is in the hand of God's will, to whom they appeal, not Herod's authority.

Peter is miraculously freed from prison as he slept and returns to the praying community.

Herod responds in the only way he knows how, the violence and control of empire. He has Peter's guards killed.

Shortly after, Herod dies as he responds to worship in exactly the opposite way to which Peter had responded in Acts 10. When called a god, he has no argument. The only true authority, the one that breaks chains, removes walls, and builds his temple in the hearts of the poor, struck Herod down dead.

Such is it in the Kingdom of God. While rebels who deign to call themselves kings plot to kill the righteous, those righteous sleep soundly as God works justice for them. While the world appeals to earthly authorities to act on their behalf, God's community recognizes the work of the one true authority in the world, and participates in the justice and peace of the coming Kingdom. We resist the rebels of the world, no matter what title or rank they may give themselves. God's Kingdom and will shall be done on earth, no matter how the corrupt nations may plot and strive.

May all glory and honour go to the only wise King. Amen.

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Acts 6-12 series intro
Acts 11 - Part 6 - The Gentile Controversy

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v2 – First recorded death of a disciple (the 12)

v7 – Peter was set free from prison, but later Paul was not. To each God acted according to his own design and purpose.

vv14-16 – Funny

v24 – No matter the circumstance within or outside in the main culture, the gospel continued to move.

v24 – Barnabas and Paul return WITH JOHN MARK, after a year of ministry

 (Click here to read Acts 12)  

The Kingdom of God is Bigger Than Us – series intro - Acts 6-12

The Kingdom of God is bigger than us. In fact, the story of the message, demonstration, and growth of the gospel in Luke and Acts is one of explosive power that simply cannot be contained to one people group or region, whatever the consequences. The good news is that the Good News is for everyone. Our lives are lived out for the justice and love of others, a community facing outward to neighbours, strangers, and even enemies.

It is hard to be inclusive. It is hard to invite someone new into your family. Adoption is emotionally complicated. In-laws are sometimes cause awkward relationships. Our communities and families have histories - shared memories both good and bad. With those we are closest we have experienced the same joys and the same sorrows.

When Jesus spoke to his neighbours and comrades about loving their enemies, he spoke to people whose very identity was formed as a people rescued from slavery. Their nation as a nation was birthed from deliverance out of an oppressive empire that had held them enslaved.

The history of Jesus and all the Jewish people was one of wrestling. They wrestled with God as their forefather Jacob had wrestled with the angel of the Lord until he'd been blessed. His name was changed to Israel that night, which means the one who contends with God.

These Israelites, the God-wrestlers, knew what it meant to follow and honour their deliverer. Yahweh had delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and then clearly defined their relationship by his covenant law. When Israel disobeyed that covenant, they would become enslaved by empire, the Babylonians or the Persians. But then they would repent, and God would deliver them again.

Jesus now spoke to these people, with this rich history, under oppressive and violent occupation by Rome, the new empire and world power. This was a people who knew well who their enemies were. Their enemies had power. They had armies and kings and land upon land. They saw their enemies in uniforms. They were forced by their enemies to carry heavy loads without pay. They were taxed and abused.

It is no surprise that the Pharisees would emerge, this sect of religious people that taught the people to obey every aspect of the law code to the finest detail. They believed that God would rescue them from their enemies, as he had many times before, when Israel would just show their repentance and turn back to their faith, as they had many times before.

The sort of inclusion and universality of love that Jesus preached was so far beyond anything his people had ever imagined, even his disciples did not fully understand until long after Jesus was gone. When Jesus said they should love their enemies, he was including Romans. He was including forgiveness for all those who had ever done them wrong.

The Gospel, the good news of the New Kingdom wasn't only good news for the oppressed and the poor. If they would receive it, the Gospel was also for the oppressor. The good news was that they no longer needed to oppress. They could leave the empire. The good news meant that the rich didn't have to be rich anymore. The uncertain and transient foundation of wealth could be traded for the sure foundation of true, God-empowered life in the Eternal Kingdom. The Great Reversal was good news for any who would receive it, no matter what it cost them. Their power and riches were nothing.

Jesus died an innocent man, betrayed and accused of insurrection, executed unjustly by an oppressive empire like all the ones that had oppressed his people before them. And from the cross, he forgave them. He forgave those agents of the old empire that put him up there on the cross, beat and mocked him, the agents that had refused his message of love.

No injustice had ever been more severe than the one that was incurred by Jesus that day. In forgiving these outsiders, these enemies, Jesus opened the door for every one of those enemies and nations that had come before them. He opened the door to all who would come after.

He recognized the machine. He condemned the machine. He even raged against it. But he forgave the machinists.

This must have been unimaginably difficult for the early Jewish believers to accept. Even on the night of his betrayal and arrest, the followers of Jesus had shared Passover with him. They remembered vividly that they were a people who had been many times oppressed by other nations. Their history, their memory, their everyday experience, their very law code all told them that they must be exclusive to survive.

But Luke, the Greek doctor, writes his letters to the ranking Roman official, Theophilus, because from the first stroke of his pen, the story had already become universal. The code wasn't restricted to the words on stone carried from the mountain by Moses. Moses' first five books, the Torah, the Pentateuch, the Law, were celebrated every year at Pentecost. These boundaries defined in these books made it clear exactly who was in and who was out. They gave foundation for a history that bound families together tightly. But God's story was bigger than one people's history or one ethnicity or one country or piece of land.

This is the radical story of that great expansion of the boundaries of God's covenant. This is the last days, and the Holy Spirit is being poured out on all flesh (Acts 2). The new Pentecost is the law written on the hearts of humankind. The Holy Spirit is the living presence of God that could now speak directly to all people, without priests or veils or temples required. There is now only one mediator necessary, and no other human being or tradition can come between Jesus and those who put their trust in him.

We must never forget as Christians that the revolutionary and even offensively difficult challenge of radically inclusive love is the foundation of our faith. The early church in Acts was continuously challenged with how they may change to include others. They consistently denounced as heretics any who would place traditions or legal restrictions on people who would come to Jesus. The pattern of Luke through Acts is arms opened wider and wider, not boundaries strictly drawn.

Let us never forget how good our Good News is. Let us never forget the spirit in which our faith was planted. God's is a love big enough to include even his enemies. That includes us. The early church were challenged and rejoiced when they realized how wide the saving grace of God was. Let us do the same, welcoming and rejoicing when challenged with God's love for our enemies.

Who is beyond salvation? Who is beyond the love of God? 

Where are the limits of our own love?

I believe the challenge for each of us, and for us as a body is to ask this of ourselves. Is it a people group? A nation with which our empire is at war? Is it a certain people we've judged as especially sinful? Is it the ruling class? The military? The poor? Perhaps our challenge is the same as these early Christians. Let us rejoice to know that freedom from judgment and oppression and fear and even death has been offered as freely to those who we would call our enemies as to us.

Let us find ourselves among tax collectors and sinners and outcasts. Let us share our healing and our love with soldiers as much as widows. Let us live contrary to empire, and see it crumble from the roots of God's love through us. 

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part 1 - Acts 6 - The Hellenist Controversy
part 2 - Acts 7 - Stephen's Witness of a God who Loves Outsiders 
part 3  - Acts 8 - The Gospel to Samaritans 
part 4 - Acts 9 - Saul the Murderer Meets Jesus
**part 5 - Acts 10 - The Gospel to Gentiles. The Last Boundary Imaginable.**
part 6 - Acts 11 - The Gentile Controversy
part 7 - Acts 12 - The Authority of the Kingdom vs Powers of the Empire

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The Kingdom of God is Bigger Than Us
I'll be posting all this week on challenges of inclusivity in community growth and outreach, diversity, and the Gospel as a personal or corporate experience.
Acts 6-12

New entries in this seven-part series will be posted each day this week at 8am.