This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day four of week three of our study through the book of
Acts. That means we're in chapter 12, and as we start reading in chapter 12, I
want to read you two very different stories of what happens in the lives of two
of Jesus' disciples. Two of the twelve that followed him all those years, and
now we're spreading the message of the good news in this new church.

I want to tell you the story of James and then the story of Peter. First listen
to what happens to James, Acts chapter 12 verses 1 to 3. "It was about this time
that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute
them.

He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that
this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during
the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

" So James is the second martyr that we know of for the faith, the first
disciple to give his life for his faith. That's the story in this chapter of
what happens in the life of James. Now the life of Peter.

Peter's been arrested also. Verses 6 to 11, "The night before Herod was to bring
Peter to trial, he was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and
sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and
a light shone in the cell.

He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. 'Quick, get up,' he said, and the
chains fell off Peter's wrists. Then the angel said to him, 'Put on your clothes
and sandals.

' And Peter did so. 'Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,' the angel told
him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea what the angel was
doing was really happening.

He thought that he was seeing a vision. Then Peter came to himself in verse 11
and he said, 'Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent this angel and
rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were
anticipating. '" That's the story of James and the story of Peter.

The question is about how God works in our lives. Why is James killed and Peter
set free? One gets a miracle and the other becomes a martyr.

Why do things happen the way they do in this world? Because obviously, if God
could send an angel to make the chains fall off of Peter's wrists, He could have
somehow stopped that sword from connecting with James' neck. So what happened?

As I read the reality of what happens in our lives as believers in the world
today, and I don't only look at James and Peter, I look at what I might go
through in America and the suffering I do not have to face for my faith. And
then I look at some other countries where people, brothers and sisters in
Christ, are undergoing horrendous suffering for their faith, even giving their
life for their faith. It brings questions.

How do you answer those questions? Let me just remind you of five things. Number
one, God is in control.

God is in control all throughout this, obviously. He's able to get Peter out of
that prison. So when God seems silent, in the case of James, and when God is
acting in a miracle, in the case of Peter, in both cases, God is in control.

God is at work. The truth of God's sovereignty is all throughout scripture.
That's the beginning place of faith, is that God is in control.

God is in control enough that He invaded human history and the person of Jesus
Christ and gave His life for us on the cross, was resurrected. God is in control
enough that death itself has been defeated, and that we're going to spend all
eternity with Him in heaven. So He is in control.

There's no doubt about that in scripture. He is holding the universe together
even now. I hold on to that truth, but that's just the first of these five
truths.

The second truth is, I have unanswered questions. A lot of people are
uncomfortable with that. If God is in control, they feel like they can't have
unanswered questions, and my question is why?

I'm not God. God's the one who's in control, not me. God's the one who's in
power, not me.

God is in control, and yet in this world, I have unanswered questions. It may
even be true in heaven that I have unanswered questions. There won't be any pain
in heaven.

Those questions won't be about pain, but I may even have unanswered questions
there, but I'll be at peace with it because God is greater than I am. I have
unanswered questions about this passage. Why didn't God rescue James?

I don't know. That is a question that I cannot answer. I can make up answers, I
could say this or say that, this is how he wanted to work in his life, James may
have had struggles later, God wanted to use him as an example, his faith as an
example, but I'm just making that up in my mind.

The truth of the matter is, I have unanswered questions. When you get to the
point where you can hold in one hand the truth that God is in control and the
truth in the other hand that you have unanswered questions, you come to a place
that you can only get to through a personal relationship with God and Jesus
Christ. If your relationship with God is just a philosophy, if it's just
impersonal, you will never get to that place.

I have unanswered questions. God is in control. There's a third truth.

The truth is, I will not always understand. There are many who feel that God
owes them an explanation as if we're to understand everything in this world. We
will not.

I will not always understand. Because we want to always understand, we try to
always bring understanding to something. I could teach this passage and tell you
the reason that God allowed James to be killed was because of the witness that
was going to come through the life of James.

On the back of this martyrdom of James is built in many ways the faith of many
who were going to come to Jesus Christ. I know that that's true, but that
doesn't tell the whole truth. Although that might be a good answer, it is not
the whole answer.

Even worse than that, I've seen so many times, because we don't understand,
people build terrible answers on just their thought. A child dies and goes
before his or her parents to be in heaven, and you hear somebody saying, because
they don't understand, they come up with a phrase like, "Well, maybe God needed
them more than you did. " What an awful idea.

What a terrible idea that God would somehow take a child away because he needed
them more than a parent did. There's no truth in that at all. The idea that we
always have to come to understanding sometimes causes me, causes you to say the
most foolish things.

Sometimes it's necessary to admit, "I will not always understand. " There's a
fourth truth in this passage. God's in control.

I have unanswered questions. God's answer is, "I will not always understand. "
Then a fourth truth.

God's answers often surprise us. Peter's arrested. James has just been killed.

I would think, well, now he's going to lose his life for his faith, but he does
not. God surprises him. God surprises even Peter.

Peter doesn't even know what's going on. While he's having this experience of
being set free from the jail, he thinks it's a vision. How could this be
happening?

All of a sudden, he's outside on the streets and he wakes up and he thinks, "God
worked a miracle. " God's answers often surprise us. Just when I think I have
God figured out, oh, that's when I think I have God figured out.

That's when he does miracles. Oh, now I understand. That's when he saves people
and that's when he does it.

Now I understand. He does it for people that are in this country and not in this
country. He does it for people that are at this stage of their growth, not at
this stage of their growth.

Just when I think I have an answer, his answer surprises me. If you feel like
you have to have all the answers and God's surprise makes you feel like you
can't trust him, the reason you feel like you can't trust him is not because of
what he's done. The reason you feel that you can't trust him is because you've
tried to figure out what he's going to do.

God's answers often surprise us. My prayer in this is, "Lord, keep me always
surpriseable. Keep me always open to what you want to do.

" Five truths I said at the beginning. Truth one, God is in control. Number two,
I have unanswered questions.

Number three, I will not understand. Number four, God's answers often surprise
us. And number five, God is in control.

Let's go back to that one. Number five, I hold on to the fact that God is in
control. And I do hold on, when I don't understand, I hold on to the truth of
eternity, that what's happening in this world, that what's happening in this
world is only for such a brief time.

And so of course I don't understand because I don't see eternity as yet. And
that many things will be set right in eternity, God has promised that, that are
not set right on this earth. Now, as you think about God setting things right,
sometimes he does set them right on this earth.

There's a humorous story in this chapter after Peter gets set free of him going
to a prayer meeting where they're praying for him to be set free, he knocks on
the door and they don't let him in because the girl who goes to open the door is
so surprised she leaves him at the door and goes in and says, "It's Peter at the
door. " And the people who are praying for Peter to be set free say, "No, it
can't be Peter. " They all go out and there he is, they're surprised at God's
answer.

But then after that happens, we see God's justice being done. Herod, who had
James killed because of his pride, because of his pride he loses his own life.
His pride causes him to accept worship as if he were God.

So in verses 21 to 23, on the appointed day, a day of celebration, Herod,
wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the
people. They shouted, "This is the voice of a God, not of a man. " Immediately,
because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down
and he was eaten by worms and died.

God is in control. And here we see Herod facing suffering for his sin, facing
suffering for what he did to James and for his pride that he would think he was
God even on this earth. It's an example to us that there are so many things that
are going to happen in heaven, in eternity, and as we head towards heaven, in
which God will set things right, God's justice will be done.

When I say God is in control, that does not mean that I fear the actions of God.
It means I trust the character of God. He is trustworthy.

Even when I don't understand it, even when I don't have the answers, even when
He surprises God is trustworthy. Our Father, help us to trust You today, to
trust You with that thing that's happening in our lives that we do not
understand, that question that we cannot get answered. And Lord, whether we ever
understand it on this earth or not, whether we ever get that question answered
on this earth or not, help us to realize that You are greater and that You can
be trusted.

You are in control. Lord, surprise us even today with a burst of joy in our
hearts, even as we go through a difficult time. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Tomorrow we're going to see together the missions adventure with Paul and
Barnabas begins.