Acts 12:1 to 25

and welcome back Robert breaker here we are continuing our verse-by-verse Bible study through the book of Acts and we've gone all the way up now to chapter 12 so we'll start chapter 12 today I've gotten several emails from people that are saying brother breaker I'm all cut up uh-huh what are you gonna put out a new one and I said well you gotta wait every week I put out a new one and there's people so I wanted all now I wish I could do the entire book of Acts like that and have it all done but we're doing this verse by verse study every week we have already done the 14 epistles of Paul so if you haven't seen those please do that verse-by-verse Bible study and then hopefully by that time when you get through those then we'll have finished the book of Acts but every week I'm doing a new video on the book of Acts as we continue our verse-by-verse Bible study so today we're going to start chapter 12 of the book of Acts this chapter chapter 12 introduces a new character we have a guy here named Herod here it is a political figure so we're gonna see a little bit of a change here from a religion and speaking about the religion and religious people that the early apostles are trying to deal with and when to the Lord and talk to and and unfortunately are rejecting the message of God we're going to come now to a man who is a secular person so the Bible goes from religion and history to politics so today we're going to talk about secular politics now we've already seen the religious politics how religious leaders tried to stop the preaching and teaching of the early apostles and what did they do well they tried to kill them and they tried to shut him up by putting them in jail and they called the council together and told them in the council no you can't speak in the name of Jesus don't talk about him anymore and what did the early apostles do they said phooey on you God told us to do it so we're gonna do what God said and it didn't work it did not work the religious politics as the religious leaders tried to stop the preaching and teaching of the Apostles so now we see the devil because he hates the message of God going to the secular authorities and trying to get this secular world the secular government involved to stop this movement of God of the early apostles going out and preaching and teaching and again it doesn't work if anything God shows who's in charge and it's him God and they do some of the same exact things that the religious leaders did same way do they try to stop it by putting them in prison and verse four and five when we find Peter in prison now Acts chapter 12 is mostly about Peter almost the entire chapter is Peter except for the very last verse which mentions salt so as we're going through the book of Acts I've shown you that we see that Matthew Mark Luke and John Matthew through John is all until Jesus dies and then a little bit of those books to talk about after he rises from the dead but Matthew through John are all back here then Jesus dies and Jesus sends out Peter and the other apostles then we started out the book we see Peter and we see John now as we continue this book we see a lot of Peter and then around about chapter 7 up shows Stephen so Stephen is showing up in chapter 7 but we also see saul who is also paul and paul shows up in chapter 7 as well as a matter of fact we find paul in 7:58 then we saw a fine chapter 8 is about a guy named Philip and so this guy Philip is mentioned but Paul is mentioned is chapter 8 verses 1 through 3 chapter 9 is the conversion of Saul or Paul so that's all his conversion now chapters 10 and 11 are all about Peter again and how Peter goes and he wins some Gentiles to the Lord but guess what Saul is mentioned in Chapter 11 and solo shows up in 1125 and verse 30 then chapter 12 is all about Peter so I'll just put 12 there also but he has to mention him in 1225 so notice how Paul is not being left out the writer of Acts wanted you to know from as as soon as possible that there's this guy named Paul and a lot of the book is going to be about him so I'm going to keep inserting him in even when I talk about chapters about other people I'm gonna remind you now if the soul was doing this at that time and then soul which is Paul was doing this and then Paul was doing this and so while Peter was doing this Paul was doing so I want you to get this Paul is in the book of Acts more than Peter as we continue we'll see once we get to chapter 15 actually chapter 13 all of chapter 13 is about Paul all of chapter 13 chapter 15 Peter is mentioned but it's more about Paul and then from then on 16 17 18 all the way out to chapter 28 it's all the Ministry of Paul because Paul is the central figure of the book of Acts because he is the apostle to the Gentiles he is the guy that God calls to replace Peter and the early apostles and he's the one that God says this is what I'm gonna do I'm gonna reveal to Paul certain mysteries and these are the mysteries that are gonna be for the church and the church is going to be mostly made up of Gentiles so chapters 10 and 11 are about the first Gentiles getting saved and that's wonderful and Peter was the one that led him to the Lord we looked at that last time and how were they saved they were saved by faith by believing go back to Acts chapter 10 Acts chapter 10 verse 43 and verse 44 to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins well Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell and all them which heard the word shall we have salvation by faith this is Gentiles getting safe so the Gentiles get saved first here in chapter 10 and by the way 10 is the number of the Gentiles which is wonderful so Gentiles get saved in Chapter ten that's the first time first time Gentiles are saved now with that said as you continue reading this you look at this and you go now what what's going on because after the gentiles get saved in Chapter ten and then Peter tells all about it over again in Chapter eleven Peter doesn't go out and continue preaching to them rather Peter goes back to the Jews only in Chapter twelve is Peter with the Jews suffering persecution in and around Jerusalem and what he's doing is he's just like oh well that's great Gentiles got saved okay now back to my people so even though God showed them hey Gentiles can get saved they don't go out of their way to try to get them saved after that they just look at that like oh well that's interesting if so it's not until chapter 15 that we get more into the Gentiles getting saved and what they're supposed to do and now what is God telling Jim tell he should be like during this time period and so we'll see more about the Gentiles but I want you to see that Peter and we've looked at this in the book of Galatians Paul said he had to literally withstand him to the face Paul had to go to Peter and say you're wrong because you're not preaching to the Gentiles and you're not fellowshiping with them like you should they can get saved - don't just concern yourself and care only about your own people in your own race everyone gets saved now so treat all men alike so Peter was was uh rebuked basically by Paul and so we see here as we continue Acts chapter 10 and chapter 11 clearly Peter winning Gentiles to the Lord but now Peter goes back to his own people and just kind of forgets about the Gentiles and so as we get here we begin here reading about a man named Herod a Gentile a leader of the the country at the time the Romans had taken over all the land of what they call today Palestine which is really the Land of Israel and they had taken over this land so now these Hillar authorities at the time were Rome and when in charge was a man named Herod now we will start there here in one second but before we do I want you to remember Paul you say why are you starting this out talking about Paul when the whole chapter about the study doesn't mention Paul well because of this yeah it does mention him in verse 25 why am I doing this okay because after we read this chapter chapter 12 then we go to 13 chapter 13 is Paul sent out as a missionary going to people to preach and he goes only to Jews acts 14 is Paul going to more Gentiles acts 15 the question of Gentiles shows up again and we see in Acts chapter 15 all of the Jewish believers getting together and asking about this question of what we do with Gentiles that get saved and what we do with this guy named Paul because Paul is preaching something different than what has been preached up until this point now you've got to remember what was it that Peter preached first the first thing that Peter preached right in the early book of Acts was acts 2:38 repent and be baptized in water for the remission of sins so the water was being preached here at the beginning get baptized in water why was that being preached because it was for the Jews so the Jews were being baptized in water now these Gentiles got saved and they got baptized in water too but the water was after they received the Holy Spirit you see they had to be baptized in water here to get the holy spirit now you get the holy spirit by believing or by faith okay so I want you to get a hold of that it's by faith alone that we're saving at a bad marker there and as we continue this book of Acts this is so important that you get a hold of this God begins to reveal some things to Paul and Paul begins to preach a little bit more than what has been preached and begins to add to the message and you go to listen you go wow I'm starting to see it I'm starting to see Paul's gospel why God chose Paul what did Paul preach that was a little bit different let's go to Acts chapter 13 Acts chapter 13 which will be our study next time Lord willing if we get through this chapter Acts chapter 13 look at what Paul preaches in verse 38 and 39 Paul preaches be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses so Paul's message what Paul begins to preach is justified are just the justification by faith faith in white well we know what Paul preached a lot in his ministry faith in the blood so it's the blood atonement of Christ that saves us and Paul is very adamant when he's teaching in saying not the law so it's not the law that saves us so when we get to chapter 15 that's the question chapter 15 of the book of Acts the question is arising the question comes up is what is the place of the law for salvation are we saved by keeping the law are we justified by the works of the law and the answer is no no so the question arises in acts 15 well let's look at quickly acts 15 verse 1 and 2 in certain man which came down from Judea taught the brother and said except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses you cannot be saved so you can't be saved unless you keep the law because circumcision is saying this is a token that I'm getting under the law verse 2 when therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute ation with them they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the Apostles and elders about this question so the question is are we saved by the law acts 13 38 and 39 paul says not the law you're justified by grace through faith without the deeds of the law without the works of the law so the question arose are the Jews under the law our Gentiles who have believed in Jesus now under the law the answer is a resounding no no we're no longer under the law now remember also what we've been looking at the WHO versus what remember the early book of Acts when they go around preaching their preaching HUJI Jesus is but what Paul brings is a message of what and Paul's message is believing in what Jesus did for you so no longer is it just hey believe who Jesus is that he's the Messiah you've got to trust in what Jesus did to be saved so you've got all that coming together and so we're starting to get into the really good parts of the book of Acts remember the book of Acts is and I'm going to say it again like I try to remember to say every teaching Acts is a transitional book we're seeing a change from Jews to Gentiles from Israel to the church from Peter to Paul from water baptism to be saved by giving the Holy Spirit through baptism in water to getting the whole spirit by faith and being sealed with the Holy Spirit by trusting in the blood atonement of Christ from trusting and who Jesus is to trusting in what Jesus did for you so the book of Acts is a transition book and we're seeing that transition and we'll get into that a little bit later and really focus in on acts 13 the new message that Paul is preaching now verse 1 Acts chapter 12 now about the time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church now Herod was and what I hate to get into the Herod's there's so many Herod's there's so many people named Herod that it's confusing but this guy is found in Acts chapter 4 he's mentioned before acts 4:27 look what it says here in acts 4:27 4 of truth against I Holy Child Jesus whom thou has anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles of the people of Israel were better gathered together so Herod was the one that that Jesus stood before Jesus stood before Herod and Pontius Pilate so this would be that same Herod I believe he's a leader in Jerusalem he would be a king over that region pointed by Rome and so this is taking place in Jerusalem now says the church the church now if you're a hyper dispensationalist you don't believe the church starts until way out here with paul and many hyper dispensationalists that i've met say there's no jews in the body of christ the body of christ is the church the church is the body of christ well right here in Acts chapter 12 when it says the church it is only speaking of people who are Jews who have been saved by trusting in who Jesus so the church must have Jews in it because what we're going to read here not a single Gentile is anywhere near here at all if you remember I think it was in Joppa that he went to Cornelius and Courtney of East the Gentile got sent then he comes back to Jerusalem there's no Gentiles that are saved in the church in what we're reading here in Chapter 12 so remember the church is made up of Jew and Gentile anybody that's gotten the Holy Spirit after Jesus dies is a part of the church which is called the body of Christ and God reveals later to Paul what the body of Christ is and how it's made up of both Jew and Gentile so Herod wanted to stretch forth his hands to to do bad things to those that claim to be Christians why because they were stirring up the Jews they were telling the Jews no your religion is false you need Jesus you can't get back under the law it's not the law that saves anymore it's Jesus Christ the Messiah who came and fulfilled the law now trust in your Messiah now verse 2 says and he killed James the brother of John with the sword James now you remember John Peter James and John Peter John and then this guy James worm almost always together as you read Matthew Mark Luke and John when Jesus is praying Peter James and John were there well Herod comes along and Herod kills James so Herod kills this guy and Herod kills James and he doesn't kill James the brother of Jesus now Jesus had a half-brother named James we'll see him in Acts chapter 15 he kills one of the Apostles Peter James and John it's that James the brother of John I believe that would be weren't their last names Zebedee I believe he was Zebedee and so on those because his a surname if you will so he kills this guy named James so he was definitely one of the the chief apostles and he wrote the book of James now the book of James if you read the book of James it is heavily I mean heavily Jews about the tribulation I personally believe that the entire book of James applies to the tribulation more than anything else a lot of people said well the book of James is written for the church today that's hard to believe that's very hard to gather let's go to the book of James really quickly and let me show you how it starts out I get this question probably more than any other question of all the questions that I received via email or phone calls and everything else people say brother breaker I don't understand the book of James it makes no sense to me it says in James you know that you can be saved by works and and I don't know what to do with James and I said do one thing for me just do me one favor read the very first verse of the book of James and then tell me if you're one of them and they usually go oh thank you brother breaker now I completely understand look at what the book of James says it just it says James a servant of God this is verse 1 and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad greeting so the book of James wrote an epistle to the 12 tribes scattered abroad and he writes to them about Jesus their Messiah but if you read the book of James he's he's writing to them and and what he's writing sounds like he's trying to prepare them for the Tribulation Period because he knows that they've rejected their Messiah and that God's done with the nation of Israel now he's starting to deal with Jews so now the Jews as a whole need to realize we've rejected our Messiah and so much of the book of James applies to the tribulation there's so much in the book of James I don't have time to go there but there are some places in the book of James where he starts to talk about Elijah and how he made it not rain for three and a half years well Elijah would be one of the two witnesses that shows up for you know three and a half years so what we got here we got the book of James many people today think the book of James applies to the church today well that must have been written back here if in chapter 13 James dies so James dies in chapter 13 so I'll write James right here and I'll put 13 and I'll put a little X in him because he was killed so all the doctrine that James knew was what happened before from here to here and he probably wrote that letter way before that if he was killed here so let's say he wrote it way back over here at the time of Stephen that would still have been in the thinking of the tribulation still coming and that the kingdom can still be back here so once you get a hold of that you look at the book of James and you said follow the book of James dr. Lee applies more to the tribulation it's not something that we can literally apply to the church today that makes a lot of sense a lot of sense because as you read the book of Acts and you understand the book of Acts you understand that all of this is Paul and you get most of the doctrine for the church today here because this is all changing this is all transitional this is changing slowly from Jews to Gentiles so when you rightly divide the word of truth rightly divide the Bible the word of truth man what a blessing to help you understand so Acts chapter 2 and 12 and verse 2 and he killed James the brother John with a sword so they used a sword what would they do will they probably beheaded him cut his head off which is interesting because what do they do to people that don't take the mark of the beast in the tribulation they behead them it says in the book of Revelation I think that's interesting now verse 3 because he saw it pleased the Jews he proceeded further to take Peter also why well because those that were the closest to Jesus were Peter James and John so we saw John in the early book of Acts with Peter everywhere he went I don't know why he wasn't going with Peter anymore but Peter James and John were the major hit list for the Jews to try to shut up the teaching of Jesus Christ and so Herod caught James beheaded him and then tried to get Peter and then it says and because he saw it pleased the Jews he proceeded further to take Peter also then were the days of unleavened bread now verse 4 says and when they had apprehended him he put him in prison and delivered him to four quatrain Turney ins of soldiers to keep him intending after easter to bring him forth to the people so for quaternions some people say a quaternion was for soldiers if that's the case and there would have been 16 soldiers they are guarding Peter now why did they want to arrest Peter for a crime that you committed no Peter committed no crime but it was to please the people again verse three because he saw it please the Jews you see the Jews were happy when the Apostles died because they didn't want to hear about Jesus so what you have is you have this nation Rome that's that's the secular government ruling and what were they doing they weren't ruling it was mob rule it was not a republic where laws govern Peter just like Jesus was put in jail and he was innocent Peter was not put in jail for any crime he was put in jail because the people demanded shut him up put him in jail but yet he did no sin he was an innocent man going to jail they did the same thing to Jesus why did they kill Jesus why they put Jesus in in jail not for some crime that he did but to please the people the people said crucify him so the secular government had a long history of persecuting and and killing people who were innocent so here the secular government is putting people arresting people and putting in jail when they weren't even criminals they did it to Jesus then they tried to do it to Peter innocent men going to jail and all throughout history you've seen that when evil people get in power they will take people that are innocent put them in jail now we see that all the time now jails are full of people that are guilty too but what I hate and what is sad to me God says he hates those that pervert judgment is to see someone who's innocent that doesn't done anything wrong but they're persecuted whether it be for their faith or for something else and they're put in jail and they're persecuted and they're whipped and they're mocked it even killed when they've done nothing wrong that is the saddest thing and yet that's what Jesus went through he was the innocent suffering for us the guilty now when did this take place verse three then were the days of unleavened bread so verse 3 tells us that this is the days of unleavened bread my Bible note says here that this is probably taking place around 44 AD so what we're reading here in Chapter 12 where we are today is taking place around 44 ad all right Jesus dies in 33 AD now people say well there is no zero so there's no zero so it's really 34 ad or something like that they say the calendar is a year off or something like that so 10 to 11 years after the death of Christ now Stephen was about a year later so about 9 to 10 years after Stephen so 90 year 10 years had passed and so we're in about 44 ad now here's something interesting if you look at Paul the Bible tells us feasts and we can count knowing that the Jews have a feast every year we can count the dates in the Bible and it's amazing Paul says in Galatians 1:17 that he spent three years in Arabia he says in Galatians 2 114 years later he sees the Apostles in Jerusalem well Paul is saved in 34 80 so Paul is saved in 34 ad let me put this up here Paul saved in 34 ad about a year after all right you add three years in Arabia three three to that then you add the 14 years that he said and you add that up that's what 41 ad 51 let's make sure I got that right yeah 51 see I hate math so 51 ad it would be the time when he comes and he meets with the Jewish people in Acts chapter 15 so I accept for 15 takes place around 51 ad so you can you can get all these dates in the Bible and get in your mind an idea how long it takes between this happening and that happened 44 ad is where we are now acts 15 it'd be 51 ad so that's quite a few years later and it's amazing that you get all these dates because then we can start to add together the different times that things take place so the Bible is true was historical in archaeologically true it is a historical document not only is it truth because it comes from God the Holy Spirit speaking but also because historically things literally happen so why do I give you these numbers and dates why do I add this up well you go to secular history and guess what it says it says King Herod died in about 44 ad according to historical records and when you look at this you find out oh well yeah that jives that matches that matches 44 we're here we are now in Acts chapter 12 that's about 44 or 45 AD so where does Herod die he dies at the end of this book Acts chapter 12 next chapter 12 and look at verse 21 and upon a set day here a raven royal apparel set upon his throne and made an oration on to them and the people gave a shout saying it is the voice of a God and not of a man and immediately the angel the Lord smote him because he gave not glory God the glory and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost now there's a guy named Josephus that lived during this time and he writes all about this and he tells how Herod's death took place and how he died from being eaten up by worms exactly like the Bible says side of the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established you see the Bible is true it's a historically accurate book and you go back and you look at the historical writings of others you see how you matches it matches why do they then take out the Bible out of schools you go to secular College the first thing they do is make fun of the Bible but the Bible is a historical book it's true and as we study the Bible we look at dates we look at things we say you know this this all matches this all matches so in well I love more dates that I could go into there but we'll go into that probably in another class but I just want you to know that it's amazing how you can look at the dates in the Bible and and some people ask me brother breaker I want your Bible because your Bible and every page has a date of what's taking place well I wish you could get it my Bible was made by world publishers and Iowa Falls and they're out of business so some I think Scofield I'm not sure I haven't really used a Scofield Bible Scofield might also have the dates and it's nice for reference to have the dates right there on each page of what's taking place so this is taking place around 44 ad and historically that's when this guy here had died so just like the Bible says is what Josephus and others say now we get to verse 4 verse 4 when he had apprehended him he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people now there are people out there that hate the King James Bible and they will tell you the King James Bible is a horrible translation that's a lie from the pits of hell the best translation of the Bible is the King James Bible but this will be the first thing that they'll tell you the King James Bible is a lousy translation because it translates Easter and it shouldn't be Easter and that's what they'll tell you and if you don't know your Bible and if you don't know Greek then you can't combat that and yet say well I guess you're right because you said so but if you actually know something I went to Bible school I learned Hebrew I learned Greek and I actually read the Bible I believe the King James Bible is it I believe it is the infallible inerrant inspired Word of God I believe that every word of the King James Bible is what God wants us to have so I believe that Easter is the correct translation now they say well no though it can be because the word here in Greek is Pascua okay Pascua well that sounds part Posca well that sounds a lot like we would say pascua that sounds a lot like Passover in fact Pascua the Pascua in spanish is the word for Passover and so they say what it should be here is it should say Passover oh should it now when you're translating a Bible there is a law of translation called the law of contexts you must translate the words as closely as possible I believe in a literal not a dynamic equivalence but a literal equivalence of translating verbatim as much as possible but I also believe in the context look at verse three and because they saw it please the Jews he proceeded further to take Peter also then were the days of unleavened bread so you have the author of this book acts which would be who Luke writing the book of Acts and he says while all this is taking place it was during the days plural S on the end of unleavened bread so there is a feast called the feast of unleavened bread unleavened bread is a feast it's a feast that comes after Passover the Passover comes first on the fourteenth day of the month then the fifteenth day of the month seven days so you've got a seven-day feast are the days of unleavened bread so Passover starts on the 14th and the 15th starts the days of unleavened bread well verse 3 says they were in the days of unleavened bread so the Passover must have passed all right look at what says there so what did Heron do here apprehended him verse for intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people so here it was intending till after a certain day to bring him out all right if they were already in the days of unleavened bread how could you translate that as Passover you would have to wait another year for him to bring him out into the people was Herod putting him in jail for an entire year so that he could then wait till the next year on Passover to bring him out no so I believe the King James translators translated this correctly they saw the context and they said now it's talking about a man named Herod Herod was a Jew hater he hated the Jews he did whatever he did and could do that was necessary to appease them so that they would not ride in the streets like killing James but he didn't believe in God or the Bible he didn't believe in in the law this guy was a pagan so what this guy did this fella Herod he celebrated Easter or the festival of Ishtar it was the worship of Astarte that's where the word Easter comes from each star are Astarte it's a pagan festival so the King James translators looked at this and they said we can't translate pasqua into Passover because if we did then the Bible has an error in a mistake in it and there's no errors or mistakes so obviously when this was translated into Greek he used the word Pasqua in the Greek but that also must have meant in the Greek all of this or something but it won't work in English if we translate Passover because then he would have had to wait a whole year because it was in these days here it was during these days now I'm not going to read to you this but I will give you the references leviticus 23 verses 5 through 6 numbers 911 and numbers 28 17 tells us clearly in the Old Testament law that the Passover started on the fourteenth and that the days of unleavened bread begin the day after the Passover on the fifteenth so sixteen seventy well I guess you count the 15 so 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 so to the 21st so the 15th to the 21st are the days of unleavened bread and the Bible can't have an error or mistake so it must be that in context Herod was waiting till Easter was over he was going to go celebrate his pagan feast and when his pagan feast was over didn't even go back to the Jews and then he would deliver them up and kill Peter now people say oh I don't believe that we know what every other version on the market besides the King James Bible says Passover and by so doing they've perverted the Word of God because they were already in the days of unleavened bread Passover has passed so Herod is gonna wait until pass over to the to kill Peter he was gonna wait a whole year does that make the only way that that's not a mistake is to follow the King James Bible and Easter is correct and so I don't believe that we you can believe whatever you want I believe that God gave us the King James Bible and he did it correctly so I believe it's a correct translation Easter you don't believe that then help yourself it's up to you to decide what you believe but I believe that Easter is the right train and is not an error I believe it's talking about Herod and the festival that he would have celebrated and I believe it that's what some people call an advanced revelation in the King James Bible I believe this is an advanced revelation of King James Bible so the days of unleavened bread come after Passover let me give you another example Daniel chapter 3 and verse 25 in Daniel chapter 3 verse 25 Nebuchadnezzar is looking in at meshach Shadrach and Abednego and he says there's three men in the fire but then he says but there's a fourth man in the fire now in the Hebrew it says the fourth man was likened to and you could translate from Hebrew the son of the gods because the word is plural in Hebrew but that is not what Nebuchadnezzar said notice it azor says and I saw the fourth man like unto the Son of God all new versions of the Bible translate from Ebru in the English this this pagan king saying I saw the son of the gods but the context is these three men standing up against this King saying you have false gods we have the true god and our true God will protect us and so when Nebuchadnezzar looks in and he sees four minutes to the three he says that fourth man is the true God that they spoke about that is the Son of God and that is the correct translation and the King James got it right the King James Bible says the Son of God and all other versions are perversions of the scriptures when they translate the son of the gods that's another example where the context mandates how it's translated so the King James Bible is so far superior to anything else even more superior than the original autographs if you will Hebrew or the Greek because the hero of the Greek makes it hard to understand but English makes it easier so I thank God for the King James Bible I do not believe that the word Easter is a mistake in the King James Bible I believe that's the translation that is correct and by looking at the passage itself it couldn't have been pop talking about Passover because it already passed they're already in the feast of unleavened bread so I believe the King James is right what does it matter you know it's not a issue of salvation it's just someone says I prefer this better okay whatever but you know what when you go to the new versions of the Bible other than the King James it is an issue of salvation do you know how many times new versions of the Bible change or take out verses that do deal with salvation this is not a Salvation issue this verse here where it's translates Easter but you go to a new version of the Bible they take out acts 8:37 that's a doctrinal thing they take out other they pervert other verses you know they say you can grow unto salvation no you don't you don't suddenly grow into being saved you either get saved or you don't I believe that's 1st Peter 2:2 that you may grow thereby new versions of the Bible say that you may grow thereby into salvation so there are verses in the Bible affected by translation and it's not the King James the King James is not translating incorrectly verses so that a person will have a false understanding of salvation it's the new versions of the Bible that translated incorrectly in key passages that deal with the deity of Christ and salvation so stick with the King James Bible and you'll never go wrong well I probably made some enemies there but that's fine King James is right when you get to heaven God's gonna tell you I wanted that translated as Easter because that was the context so if you want to argue argue with God when you get to heaven if you don't like the translation of Easter here in verse 4 now verse 5 Peter therefore was kept in prison but prayer was made without ceasing up the church unto God for him so verse 5 is telling us that while he was put in prison illegally I might add because of mob rule because the guy in charge was afraid of the mob he put this guy in jail that hasn't done anything all the church came together and began to pray for him verse 6 who inherit would have brought him forth the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and the keepers before the door kept the prison so Peter is sitting in the prison and he's chained on either side by a soldier now don't you think that snakes so these soldiers hadn't done anything but now they're in jail too they probably didn't want to be there so perverting of judgment affects the lives of innocent people these two poor innocent soldiers wouldn't find out here in a minute they were killed these soldiers and they didn't do anything it's so sad when the government abuses its power and murders the innocent but that's what happens so they're praying for Peter Peters locked up let's continue here in verse six or verse seven we just read verse six verse seven and behold the angel the Lord came upon him and light shined in the prison and he smoked Peter on the side and raised him up saying rise up quickly and his chains fell from off his hands so it tells us where he was chained he's chained on his hands so probably here on his wrists and people say well that's a wrong translation the Bible says hands but you don't ever change somebody in the hand you chained them in the wrist well in the Bible the hand includes the wrist Jesus Christ was nailed in his hands if you nail a person right here and you hang on across their body weight will rip out because there's nothing there to hold it so Jesus must have had a nail in his wrist and in the Bible a wrist is a part of the hand people say there's trend mistranslations in the King James Bible no you're a mistranslation you don't read the text you can't read the Bible without seeing all the time they're talking about a hand it says they put a bracelet on her hand where does the bracelet go on your wrist so obviously if you're wearing a bracelet on your hand the wrist is part of your hand there's so many people out there that hate the Bible and they think I can do it better translation than that will help yourself but I do not want to stand in judgment of the Bible I read the Bible and I believe how about when I go by what it says and I believe the King James Bible is God's Word and God's Word says that the wrist is part of your hand so he had chains on his hand and so the age of a Lord came and smote upon the side rise up quickly and his chains fell off from his hands and the angel said up to him okay the angel said unto Him gird thyself and bind on my sandal so he did and he said they damn cast like garment about the and follow me almost sounds like put on the whole armor of God you know but he says now follow me so he's laying there probably asleep he had his shoes off probably took off his his coat or whatever and the Lords tell them to get dressed and follow me all right now verse nine and he went out and followed him and wished not that it was true which was done by the angel but thought he saw a vision this must have been really late at night you know probably three four in the morning and he must have been sawing logs and he does what he's told he's sitting there thinking is this a dream you ever do that you ever get up late at night and you do things and you're still like am I really doing this or am I still sleep just dreamin doing this sometimes that happens now verse nine he went out and followed him and was not that it was true which is done by the angel but thought it was a vision he saw a vision on verse 10 when they were past the first in a second Ward that came into the iron gate that leadeth into the city which opened to them of his own accord and they went out and passed on through one Street and forth with the angel departed from him so he went out to the second Ward so he comes out of his original gate of whatever prison cell he was in past in one Ward than the second Ward and then the jail prison so four different gates it looks like at least the angel Lord led him out so how did that work out for this secular guy named Herod not too well the secular Authority said we're gonna put this guy in jail and God says no you're not and he got out and that verse alone says and when Peter was come up to himself he said now I know of a surety that the Lord has sent his angel and had delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews so God delivered him from the secular Authority who was not following the law he was giving in to mob rule and God saved him from the people of the Jews from the all the non believing Jews the religious mom so God saved him from those people now what happens verse 12 and when he had considered the thing he came to the house of Mary the mother of John whose surname was mark where many other gathered together pray now this guy's name is Mark or John we would call him John Mark so this is a new guy john mark now john mark is mentioned a lot more and he he goes by the name of mark now once or twice he's called john but more he goes by the name of mark many people think this is who wrote the book of mark matthew mark and it could very well be but this guy mark hooks up with paul and barnabas so we see this guy mark mark gets together with paul and barnabas and goes on a missionary journey with them in the next chapter but what else does he do he ends up leaving and because of that there's some bitterness and subscribe' between barnabas and paul and they separate but at the end of his ministry Paul says now mark I want mark to come back so Paul forgives mark let me show you quickly this Acts chapter 15 verse 36 X 1536 and some days after Paul said in a Barnabas let us go again and visit our brother in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they do and Barnabas determined to take with them John whose surname was mark but Paul thought not good take him with him who departed from them from Pam Fillion went not with him to the work and the contention was so sharp between them verse 39 that they departed asunder one from another or from the other and so Barnabas took mark and sailed in the Cyprus and Paul chose silas in departed being recommended by the Brethren unto the grace of God so you have here the first church split I guess your will I don't know that's what people have tried to call it you have here Paul saying this guy John mark I don't like him I don't like him I don't want to go with me I don't have anything to do with them I don't think he loves the Lord I don't something wrong with him Paul and Barnabas took a journey in chapter 13 and John Mark went with them but John Mark left and Paul says you don't leave like that and so Paul says I want nothing more to do with this kid well before he dies 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 11 look at this look what Paul says before he dies second Timothy 4:11 only Luke is with me Luke is the author of the Book of Luke Matthew Mark Luke and also the author of Acts only Lucas with me take mark and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the ministry so at the end of his ministry Paul says you know that mark guy and I misjudged him he's alright break him and I want to work with him again so that's interesting so we can see him mentioned here and where did you start out he started out in the Church of Jerusalem in a prayer meeting now where are we we're uh verse twelve and when he had considered the thing he came to the house of Mary the mother of John whose surname was mark where many were gathered together Frank so this would be a church meeting in a house in the Bible that was met in Homs and they were having a prayer meeting for who for Peter they were praying for Peter verse 13 as Peter knocked at the door of the gate a damsel came to hearken named Rhoda and when she knew Peters voice she opened up the gate for gladness but ran in and told how Peter stood before the gate so she's like guys guys we're praying that God will help Peter he's right there at the door he answered our prayer what did the people pray and do verse 15 and they said unto her thou art mad but she constantly affirmed that it was even so then said they it is his angel angel is used here for a ghost it is his his spirit or so I mean he's appearing in his in his soul he's dead because we know that they were going to kill him that that's another thing to show you that it wasn't gonna wait a whole year that he had planned on a certain day probably the day of Easter which is very close to the Passover to kill yeah and they just couldn't believe it they just could not believe that Peter was free they knew it took four days to get in and out how can he get out of that now verse 16 but Peter continued knocking and when they had opened the door and saw him they were astonished but he beckoning unto them with the hand so to hold their peace declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison and he said go show these things unto James and to the brother and he departed and went into another place now look who he says show these things unto James not this James not the James that was killed at the beginning of the chapter there is another James this other James is James the Lord's brother so there are two James here they were James and John the sons of Zebedee this was the John James that was killed Peter James and John that James was killed when he died it looks like the early church said well we want this other guy named James who would have been the half-brother of Jesus to be the head of the church in in Acts chapter 15 and I won't go there for sake of time it looks like he is the one who is the head of the church he is the first pastor well not the first I guess he'd be the second but he is the one in charge of the meaning of Acts chapter 15 so there's two James so it says show these things into James the other James the Lord's brother and to the brother and he departed went into another place now verse 18 now as soon as it was day there was no small stir among the soldiers what had was become of Peter yeah yeah thank me sitting here in the middle of two guys chained to him with at least four locked gates and all soldiers wake up in the morning they're like where is he and how come all the gates are open I wonder how many other prisoners left probably none but here we read and we continue here in verse 19 and when Herod had sought for him and found him not he examined the keepers and commanded that they should be put to death and he went down from Judea acessory in their abode so what happens the men that were in charge of watching Peter they blew it they didn't do their job Peter got out and so the secular government Herod held them accountable and said you got to die and he killed how sad they didn't do anything wrong they couldn't have fought against angel the Lord there's nothing they could have done but they were killed when a government is in charge and becomes out of control and becomes bloodthirsty while they don't rest until they have blood till they taste blood so these poor innocent soldiers were killed because of an evil person Herod who wanted to kill somebody just so it would please the mob mob rule is so evil so evil well let me show you another example of this they say let's go to Acts chapter 16 they say that the custom in those days or the law was that if you were in charge of a prison and someone escaped from the prison then you the head of the prison had to die your life for the life of someone else so if you would have been the head of a prison you would never want to see someone escape you would do everything you possibly could to keep someone from escaping otherwise it was your neck like you know four different gates but in Acts chapter 16 we see the same thing when Paul is put in prison Acts chapter 16 verse 24 we'll read down to verse 31 well let's read verse 25 and at midnight Paul and Silas Pride and Saint presence under God and the prisoners heard that verse 24 they're in jail in stocks now verse 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that there the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loosed and the keeper of the President waking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open he drew out his sword and would have killed himself supposing that the prisoners had been fled alright so here's another example here's the guy that's in charge and he says look if these prisoners are gone they're gonna kill me because that was the law in those days if people escaped then you that were supposed to be in charge of them you died so it wasn't a game it was don't ever let them escape but not only were Paul and his companion in hid their change taken away but everyone in the entire jail their chains were just popped off and not one of them got up and walked away and all the doors were open they just said they're right this is odd and Paul's told him look let's let's don't leave but Paul cried with a loud voice saying do myself no harm for we are all here then he called for a light and springy and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said sirs what must I do to be saved and they said believe o Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved , and thy house instead of San you ating that their house as well all the people in his house should do the same believe on the Lord Jesus Christ so that's an example so if you were a guy in charge of a prison back then that's not a job that I would want because if someone did escape you got you got it in the neck for them escaping now let's go back to Acts chapter 12 and we got all the way down here to verse 19 and he went down from Judah to Caesarea and their abode verse 20 and Herod was highly displeased with them of tyre and sidon but he came with one Accord to them and having made Blastoise the Kings Chamberlain their friend is our peace because their country was nourished by the Kings country so here we have some peace being made now you can go to history and study history there was a king named King artists a Nabataean King who invaded pariah there was trouble at the border there was what appeared to be a coming war and there were some things taking place historically at this time and they all line up with the Bible this is just completely and they made peace and because of that well Herod faked King tie various if I remember correctly emperor tiberius had died during this time and so Herod was the one that was able to to get peace and because of that the people were so thankful the people begin to worship Herod as a god and that's what we see next is that people begin to say to Herod Herod you're just amazing you're just great we just love you while you're a god and look what happens verse 21 upon a set day here to reign and royal appear apparel said upon his throne and made an oration unto them an oration is a speech so he went there to speak to the people dressed in his best Sunday best you know nicest tie best suit and the people gave a shout saying it is the voice of a god and not of a man they said this isn't a man this is a god now who would the people be that said that this is what bothers me the people in that area were the Jews Herod was the King of the Jews because he was set there by Rome to to be the secular leader over the conquered people of Israel the Jews so the people there that were screaming that were people that were Jews that only believed in one God because they rejected the true God Jesus Christ the God of the Bible in the law light rejected becomes when you reject truth God lets you have a reprobate mind in the Jews who only believed in one God said hey this guy here it's so great we'll just call him a god they have pasta sized they were apostates they wanted to believe that and so they cried out said oh he's so great he's so great he's a God didn't Jesus say you you reject me but he will come in his own name and you'll accept him or something like that remember that well Herod came in his own name Herod and here they are trying to tell Herod you're a god you're a god Herod you're a god no he wasn't so it says to him verse 22 and people gave a shout saying is it is the voice of a god and not of man now verse 23 says and immediately the angel the Lord smote him because he gave not glory of God the glory and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost now give up the ghost means he died so the age of the Lord Jesus Christ smote him with worms now there's a guy named Josephus who writes about this Josephus was a historian a juicy story and around this time he lived during this time and he writes of this and he tells about how Herod if I remember right I'd have to look it up again I think only five days he lasted and then he died and when he died there were just all these worms inside of him there's today there's all these different theories of what he had some people think it was maggots and so the worms were the maggots others think it was something else that he had I just believe what the Bible says it was worse there were some sort of worm literally eating him from the inside out and he died within five days I have a note here my Bible says two weeks but I think other sources I read it was within five days it was fast enough to where people would say man that was that was really quick and it was on their mind that's the guy we said was a God look he's dead now I could have read you Josephus but you look it up you can look it up I was gonna thinking about reading what Josephus said about that but you can look it up so he died just like the Bible says well how do you like that here is the King of the Jews a secular king who will not follow the law he's arresting innocent people killing innocent soldiers and he's going around thinking that he's so great trying to stop those that are preaching what God said to preach and what does God do he says you ain't nothing and he allows people to call him God now if he if he would have said oh I'm not God I don't think the Lord would have smote him but he kind of sat there and going yeah I kind of like that maybe I am a god and god in heaven said no you ain't OOP and he was smoke and he was dead so he lasted anywhere between five days to two weeks eaten up completely of worms and he died some God some God he was but verse 24 says but the Word of God grew and multiplied so this whole chapter is about how Herod and the secular government in Rome the Roman Empire you know the the biggest greatest empire in the entire world that had the greatest empire ever with the possible exception of you know England Britannia rules the waves and Sun never sets on the British Empire with the exception of in England the greatest most biggest most powerful kingdom in the world and this guy was put as the King of the Jews hey God killed them because he thought he was a god and the Word of God multiplied even though he tried to squelch it out and to stop the preaching of the truth by killing those that were preaching it James and Peter now verse 25 and here's Saul or Paul and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry took with them John whose surname was mark so here's mark mentioned again so here's mark here's Paul and Paul's name is really salt we're gonna find out in chapter 13 there's a name change why Saul changes his name to Paul and Scott changed his name or is his name change it could have been that it's both of his names but I'll talk a little bit more about that next time so this is Acts chapter 12 I hope it's been a blessing to you not much to it a lot of history to it but also a lot of important things there and it shows you that God is more powerful than any secular government now yes secular governments can have victories they kill James but God can also stand up on the behalf of believers against a second and do miracles and sometimes he does so you you know a lot of people think wow you know I'm gonna fight the world government I'm gonna fight the secular government I'm gonna win there's no guarantee it's just all depends on if God wants you to or not it's so you might you might not but pick your fights choose your fights don't even fight the secular government just just occupy yourself and serving the Lord and winning souls that's the most important thing and not getting in fights with the secular government because they're not important what's important is winning souls to Jesus Christ I don't want to be someone who's a what do you call those people that are anti-government I don't want to be that I don't want to devote my time and my energy to going against the government although you know they are corrupt it's never wrong to point out corruption but the most important thing is winning people to Jesus and if you're going to suffer from a secular government make sure you're suffering for preaching the gospel that should be the most important thing well there it is there's Acts chapter 12 thank you for watching we'll see you next time god bless

Channel: Robert Breaker

Views: 9,310

Rating: 4.873817 out of 5

Keywords: Acts, Bible Study, Acts of the Apostles, Verse by Verse Bible Study, King James Bible

Id: 0SNA3y4lAQc

Length: 61min 4sec (3664 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 06 2018