04-26-2026 - WHEN EXPECTATIONS DIM - Acts 12:1-18 -

 MESSAGE BY PASTOR ROB INRIG

 FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC.

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I invite you to pray together: O Father of mercies and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need: We humbly beseech thee to behold, visit, and relieve thy sick servants for whom our prayers are desired. Look upon them with the eyes of thy mercy ( Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G, Liz N, Stevie A, Socrates D, Sara's mom H, Margarita G,   Rosy Ch, Patricia L. Lina J.  Magda- Laci M.  Gloria F, Miguel A H. Silvia H, Manuel D, Brianda M, Alejandro M, Natalia M, Oscar ND, Juan Carlos .   Comfort them with a sense of thy goodness; preserve them from the temptations of the enemy; and give them patience under his affliction. In thy good time, restore them to health, and enable them to lead the residue of their life in thy fear, and to thy glory; and grant that finally they may dwell with thee in life everlasting; And for those who have departed and are in eternal sleep, waiting for you to come, and with joy they will live eternal life with you. 

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

You can add names from family and friends who need prayer

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This morning’s passage is one of the great stories in Scripture serving as reminder of the incredible power given to believers who seek Him in prayer.  In actual fact, it’s two stories: the first a short account – details surprisingly sparse, the questions raised from it challenging.  Why does God act on behalf of one and then not act in a situation equally as dire?  

The second story is a much longer account of an amazing intervention of God that we would so like to see in our lives but in truth our experience is so far removed from that, we wonder if such a thing is even possible.  

So with that, let’s read Acts 12  

The story surrounding James’ execution is almost non-existent. His death acknowledged and then forgotten – barely a footnote.  When you think of who James was, that is surprising.  He, one of the sons of thunder, James and John, passionate followers of Christ Mk 3:17.  It was James, with his brother John, who asked about having a special place beside Christ in His kingdom. And James who with Peter and John, often going with Jesus for important times. 

And now James is dead, beheaded in ISIS like fashion, John is mourning and Peter is on death row.  Hardly a word spoken of James while Peter will be spectacularly set free in a heaven-sent rescue.  One spared and one sacrificed. And no explanation given for the difference. 

James’ story brings us face to face with the difficult questions about God.  Where is He?   Surely a loving and all powerful God could have intervened.  Surely, James could have been spared, the way Peter was spared.  But he wasn’t.  So, what am I to take from this about God?  That He plays favourites - caring for one and not another?  What sort of God promises His presence but then seems to act as an observer rather than an deliverer? 

There are times when we’ll be asking the same questions: when hardships come; when tragedy strikes; when dreams aren’t fulfilled.  Because that’s not how we think a life of following God should go. Some would have us believe that following God means a trouble-free, rich reward life.  Just believe for it and it’s yours.  But this side of heaven, following Jesus doesn’t mean that.  Sickness isn’t always healed.  Difficulties often not removed.  Pain and suffering don’t always vanish.

Because as long as evil exists and sin continues to stain our world, the life we long for is still to come, God’s kingdom is NOT now.  

Shades of it are but God’s kingdom as it will be, is NOT YET.  For now the mess and the pain but in these, God’s promise, Nothing can ever separate us from Christ’s love.  Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever  separate us from God’s love. Rom 8:34-37.

The totality of what His kingdom will be is summed up in this – A GLORIFIED VICTORIOUS JESUS IS PRESENT.  His presence not restricted to a place or a people.  He present for us all.  It’s His glorified presence, His rule on earth that ensures that all evil is gone.  His presence why pain is no more, why sickness cannot come.  His presence when finally a time will come when no more enemy can appear.  But until then, an enemy.  Until then, a world waiting to be put right.  Until then, suffering and pain.  Until then death and separation.  

And in our until then reality, a James’ life is taken. Not loved less but loved the same, only used differently - Peter still needed to carry out God’s purposes.  He set free while James is carried immediately into the presence of Jesus who loved Him.  How could being removed from the life we know here signify loved less when he’s now embraced by Jesus who tells us it’s time to be forever with Him?  Yes, our losses suffered are hard, the emptiness great.  But not for the one gone - like James.  Our difficulty is our unknown - we not seeing what God is doing.

In the meantime our response isn’t to sit passively waiting for a time when all things will be made right.  Our until then time has been given for us to act - to live as light in a world of darkness; to live hope so others will be drawn to hope; to live joy so others will see that life is far more than pursuits and temporary escape illusions. 

We called to live with purpose now, knowing that the King will take His throne.  Evil will be swept away at His appearing.  A new heaven and a new earth will be given.  Our hope because of what Jesus said, I will come again and take you to Myself, that where I am, there will you be also.  Jn 14:3 .

In the meantime being people who pray – not as last resort when all else fails but as first priority - as people of hope.  We living with the awareness that everything we have is from Him.  That He alone is our Salvation.  That He alone is our Strength.  That He alone is our Rock.  To be people who pray for God to work in power so many are brought to saving faith in Christ.  Praying that we will be parents who stand true in God’s truth and as followers of Jesus, show His reality of Jesus to our kids. That as employees we will live out our faith even when it is hard.  Might that mean James’ times?  It could.    

Doing what Jesus calls us to do often not answering all the questions we ask.  Not providing all the right answers, the right endings we seek.  Instead, taking us to a deeper place where even in the hard, in the mess, in the uncertainties we acknowledge Him as King. That He is Sovereign, Lord over ALL and as Lord He doing what’s best even though it is far beyond our understanding.

When life is good, that’s easy to say, but when life turns hard, that’s another story.  No one knew that better than these early followers of Jesus.  Of all the disciples, James and John were the young ones.  By all rights, James should have had many more years to live.  But God did not have that for him.   

Those who teach that it is always God’s will to deliver us from sickness, tragedy and death are teaching what we want to believe NOT what God has told us to believe

Deliverance from trial is not ours simply by claiming it by faith.  I assure you, I’d love a life of 100% delivery from suffering and pain. Where our kids never go wayward.  Where bad news never comes.  Where illness doesn’t strike.  I’d love to tell you – ‘just believe Jesus and all will be well’.  But it won’t.  Not now.  Not here with life as we now know it.    

Jesus himself is quick to remind His followers as Christians, we aren’t immune to things that surround, In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world  Jn 16:33. So too, Hebrews 11 celebrates men and women of faith who definitely were not spared from evil. Describing his own life Paul says, We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed 2 Cor 4:8–9. 

A James is struck down.  A child is taken from us.  A marriage does rip in two.  Destructive things.  Evil things.  Satanic things.  Why? Because right now, there still is an enemy Jesus refers to, as the ruler of this world Jn 12:31. Paul calls him, the prince of the power of the air and the god of this world Eph 2:2, 2 Cor 4:4. John makes a further distinction when he says: We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one 1 Jn 5:19. 

With this Jesus reminding, In this world you will have trouble …  That tells me something incredibly important – that ultimately, I am not made for this world. To be here, yes.  FULLY here, yes. To enjoy the gifts we have been given. To accomplish, to contribute, to impact.  But made for another.  That’s why He calls us to trust in His sovereignty and to rest in His love even in those times we don’t understand, those times He seems not to care, His thoughts not our thoughts neither are His ways our ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts  Is 55:8,9.

That the story which by every evidence seems written for our destruction is being rewritten for the purposes of God’s glory, written in God’s hand of love.  What Jesus promised is true, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly Jn 10:10 but what we need to understand is our abundant life is not about having more stuff, it’s about having Jesus not for the momentary but for eternity.  Abundance doesn’t mean we won’t experience the hard.  As Jesus reminds, Rain falls on the just and the unjust Mtt 5:45  

In the Old Testament, Job, overwhelmed by all his problems, doubts God’s wisdom.  As far as he is concerned, God is unjust Job 41:11. In response, God rebukes Job for assuming  something he did not possess - an understanding of what God was doing.  In response, Job admits he did not have capacity to understand God, Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that You can do all things and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?  Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.  I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You; therefore I retract and I repent in dust and ashes Job 42:1-6.

Which brings us to the second story we read of in Acts - a story of the miraculous where we are reminded, Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?  Jer 32:27  Nothing too hard because YOU are GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE before Whom we come, before Whom we bow.    To know Him regardless how He chooses to act in our every day.  Trusting Him as the first place we turn not the place we finally go when all else has failed.  To Come boldly to the throne of grace  Heb 4:16.  To ask the God who never sleeps and gives good gifts to His children Lk 11, to persistently make our needs known, like the widow in Luke 18.  We told, You have not because you ask not Jam 4:2

My requirement is to ask, His to determine the answer that is best.   And again and again, I come back to the place of admitting, I am such a slow learner.       That’s why He brings us back to this part of the story we are considering today.  That when we are hemmed in, we have a God who reminds, If God is for us, who can stand against us. Rom 8:31.

To better understand the severity surrounding this second story, we come to one of its central figures, Herod - one of the many ‘Herods’ in the Bible. These, all horrible men, descendants of Esau, Semites but not Jews. This Herod is a grandson of Herod the Great, the one who slaughtered all the infants in Bethlehem and also killed his son, this Herod’s father.  

The murder of his father sent a loud message that no price is too great if you wanted to stay on the right side of power.  In his early days, he was a playboy who fled Rome to escape from his creditors. He spent time in prison but was released by Caligula and then assigned as king of the provinces of Palestine. 

In Palestine, he lived as a Jew, observing the feasts and using his influence to keep Caligula from erecting his statue in the Temple. He also knew that keeping Rome happy, meant keeping the Jews happy and as he saw it, Christians put that at risk.  So, he had James beheaded and when he saw the favorable response, he planned to repeat the process with Peter.  

Now, it’s Passover, only days after James’ execution and Peter is in prison, awaiting trial, guarded by four squads of four soldiers.  The verdict is already determined - execution.  Peter is bound between two, Herod’s way of ensuring there is no similar miraculous jail break we saw in Acts 5. Outside the cell door, two more guards. In other words, Peter wasn’t going anywhere until Herod decided otherwise.  

In response, the church does the only thing it can do: They earnestly pray:5.

 Luke must have shaken his head as he wrote that phrase, earnestly prayed.  No wonder.  Talk about a disconnect between what he just wrote and what he’s about to write – earnest prayers – begging, asking, pleading - yet unsuspecting hearts.

And what do we see next?  - inside a locked door, people praying, pounding on heaven’s door pleading for God to act and on the outside of that door, Peter pounding away seeking entrance, they still asking God to do what He’d already done.  But when presented with evidence that that their prayers had already been answered, they responded, That’s impossible.

Their prayers were earnest - their expectations were not.

I have to admit, I think this may be how I tend to pray - loud in request, whisper quiet in belief.  Asking for the miraculous but waiting for the James’ result.  

Sounds like a prayer meeting we might hold, doesn't it?  Coming together to pray because that’s what we’ve been told to do but our expectations low.  Because we’ve seen too many times when our prayers didn’t get answered as we hoped.  The cancer didn’t get stopped in its tracks.  The spouse didn’t repent and change course.  The injustice didn’t get resolved the way we deserved.    

But Hebrews 11 tells us, The one who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  We called to walk a tightrope - praying for the things we want to see but with a yielding heart that says, Your ‘will’ be done.  Praying for His name to be glorified.  Praying in the power of His name - asking and believing prayer that comes with open handed submission to His will.  It’s a rather an unusual relationship we’ve been called into.

Does God need us to pray in order for Him to work?  Did He need Elijah to pray before he could pour fires down from heaven?  Did He need Moses to stretch his staff across a sea to make it divide?  Did He need the sound of trumpets to tear down a city’s walls?  Why would the Creator of heaven and earth need anything from us but He chooses to act when we partner with Him as He has asked us to do We ask in faith and He responds according to what He knows is best.  Frequently, not in ways we understand.  Sometimes not in ways we want.  But always in ways that He knows are best for what He is wanting to do. We called to bow to the sovereignty of His love.  

We are to ask for the miraculous.  Asking that the God who loves us and gave Himself for us, will do far more than we can ask or think.  Asking large.  Asking bold.  Asking earnestly and asking often.  Asking despite we seeing the impossible. 

Asking - pushing past where our faith may tempt us to stop. 

Lord open prison doors.  Loose the things that bind us. 

Place us on the road You wish us to walk.  Establish

Your kingdom in us and through us that You may be glorified. 

Lord, do the miraculous.

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