Viewing the Unseen War – Acts 12:1-11

We have a tendency to think that when we are by ourselves that we are alone.

Yesterday, Judy was gone for most of the day, and I was home by myself, but I was not alone:

There was the dog right under my feet and sometimes needing my attention.

And there was the computer in front of me, with a couple of e-mails coming in during the day.

There was a fan over my head, and another one outside the door, singing their special kind of song.

I had a radio beside me, if I wanted to play it, and there was a TV in the other room.

The fact that we can turn on that radio and instantly have noise, tells us that the noise is already in the air around us.

It’s just that we don’t have ears to hear that noise without special kinds of receivers.

And then my computer has instant access to the internet.

I can check my favorite web-sites, including e-Bay.

And if necessary I can chat with people about just about anything that I’d like.

Besides the humming of the fans, the breathing of the dog, the clicking of my keyboard the house was completely silent, but I was not alone.

Besides these things, I think that the Bible teaches the nearness of other unseen creatures.

I believe in the existence of God’s angels.

And the Bible also teaches the reality of Satan and his demonic angels.

I have no idea how many of those beings are around us at any one time, but I think that representatives of both are near us most of the time.

And then there is the omnipresent God, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

We may think that we are alone, but actually we are never alone.

We are taught in Genesis 3 that there has been a battle going on between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman since just after creation.

Satan has been vying for mastery over Jehovah’s creation,

And the Lord has declared that he’s never going to have it.

But despite God’s prophecy, Satan keeps striving on.

Acts 12 is the description of a day when that battle between Satan and Lord became a bit more visible.

Let’s think about Satan’s ATTACK, Satan’s LIMITATIONS and the Lord’s GLORY.

Consider the DEVIL’S ATTACK.

Satan’s assault on the Kingdom of God is being waged on a great many fronts today, just as it always has.

And I suppose that in some ways those battles have changed down through the years.

The battle against the family has been raging for centuries, but it has taken a different turn recently with the legalization of homosexual “marriages.”

I hear from Bro. Mocholov at least once a week, and judging from his comments it appears

That the Russian media describes this terrible degreneracy as the most dangerous thing in America today, and perhaps it is.

The battle between creation and evolution is a part of Satan’s attack against the authority of God.

If people can be convinced that they didn’t need God to begin their existence, then there is less likelihood that they will need God when their earthly lives are finished.

Pornography and other forms of immorality are Satanically inspired.

Drugs and alcohol are eating away at the hearts and the minds of people today, making them less and less able to commit themselves to God’s side of the war.

Perhaps Bro. Mocholov doesn’t mention this aspect of America’s decadence because his own country has as much if not more of a problem than we have.

The party spirit, national pride, chauvinism, and their resulting hatred are used by Satan in his fight against the Lord.

These, and a hundred more, are serious problems and tools in the hand of the Wicked One,

But if I am reading the Bible properly, Satan is not as interested in these as he is in another area.

Yes, we read of racial and nation bigotry throughout the Book of Acts.

And the Bible is filled with the horrible results of war.

Reading between the lines we can see the problems that slavery and poverty held for those people.

But the Devil’s primary concern since the days of the Apostles has been the church of Christ.

Schools are of great interest to Satan, and he has made a mess of them,

But schools were never designed to preach the gospel to their students.

Schools may help to develop people’s minds but they were never designed to help people with new hearts.

A corrupt teacher can hinder a student in his belief of the truth,

But even the best teacher is usually too busy teaching readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmatic than to teach the Book of Acts.

Politics and political parties have been battle grounds for a long time, but again, the party that is in power isn’t going to have much influence on the spiritual condition of its constituents.

I keep getting e-mail imploring me to fight for more morally upright television and movies,

But to clean up entertainment industry isn’t going to necessarily bring America to its knees before God.

And as a result, I think that Satan’s first concern continues to be the purity of the Lord’s churches.

And it should be our concern as well.

Why did Herod reach out and kill the Apostle James with the sword?

It wasn’t to encourage younger saints to step into James’ shoes as evangelists and pastors.

Why did he arrest Peter, “intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people,” for a public beheading?

It is Satan’s desire to silence every last church of Jesus Christ.

It is his desire to close every church door and every church web-site.

He wants to drive you away from this church and its services, because this is the place where God is glorified.

He wants you to be too busy to come to all the services.

He wants you to be angry with your pastor.

He wants you to doubt the things that he says.

He may have a desire to sit upon the throne of the Lord, but he’s content to take every tiny victory that he had get in the mean time.

But think about SATAN’S LIMITATIONS.

In Satan’s initial attack upon our first mother, remember that he asked, “Yea, hath God said?”

That has ever since been a part of his battle plan.

For example, God has told us that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, availeth much.”

He said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, & ye shall find; knock, & it shall be opened unto you.”

“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”

How important is prayer to the work of the Lord?

I don’t think that anyone on earth can calculate the importance of prayer.

Prayer is somewhat of a mystery to me, especially when put in the light of the omniscience and independence of God.

But I do know that the Lord declares that it is important.

And so our adversary is very interested in keeping us from prayer.

There was the church praying for the deliverance of James, but he wasn’t delivered in the way that they had hoped.

And then Peter was arrested, so the church began to pray for his release.

When it looked like that wasn’t going to happen, they may have begun to pray that Peter would have the Lord’s comfort and strength for his time of greatest trial.

And then, almost surprisingly, the Lord delivered His apostle.

Satan had said, “Yea, hath God said that the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much?”

When James was killed with the sword, it looked like that might have been a step toward silencing the prayers of the church.

Ah, but God got the victory, in Peter’s release.

If the church in Jerusalem had any doubts about the power of prayer, they were forever dispelled with the miraculous deliverance of Peter.

“Rats,” said the Wicked One, “foiled again.”

And then look once again at Peter asleep between his guards.

He wasn’t comatose because he had been beaten unconscious, he was asleep.

If the church was praying that the God of all Comfort, would give the man peace, then their prayers were answered.

Even though Herod, the Sanhedrin, & the Devil wanted this chapter to be a victory for them, it was not.

The church of Jerusalem came out of chapter 12 stronger than they had ever been before.

Satan cannot destroy the peace of a spiritual man.

Peter had the gift of the promises of God.

He knew that he had been sealed by the spirit and that the Lord was closer to him than the guards.

He knew that if he was made to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he had no reason to fear.

And even if the worms and rats of that jail cell destroyed his body, “he knew that in his flesh he would see God.”

I wonder if Peter snored while he slept?

If you were diagnosed with a terrible disease next week, would you be apt to question your spiritual condition?

Would you be prone to think that there must be some terrible sin in your life that prompted the Lord to send this cancer?

Or would you know that despite the death-sentence against you your conscience is clear?

Peter was sleeping like a baby who had no consciousness of sin against the Lord,

And there was nothing that Satan could do about it.

Either there is unconfessed sin in your life, or there is not. It’s just that simple.

Make sure that there isn’t, so that when Satan comes a-tempting you’ll be able to put him to flight.

Get thee hence Satan, my spirit and soul are perfectly fine in the hands of the Lord Jesus.

Satan cannot touch heart of the man who is surrendered to Christ.

And neither can he stop the angel of God.

Once again, we are not told this angel’s name, and I guess that we don’t need it. Michael or Gabriel?

Was it an angel who has served the Lord in the pages of the Bible before?

This could be the angel who stood before Balaam with his sword drawn and ready to strike.

We remember that angels never die, so that is a possibility.

And as I wondered a week ago, was the angel who smote Herod in the belly, the one who smote Peter in the side?

Whoever he was, he was on a mission from the Lord.

I have little doubt that there were demons watching over that prison and over that prisoner, but they couldn’t stop this servant of the Omnipotent.

And I doubt that he bothered to open the big iron gate to let himself into the prison – he just moved right through as if it was a grey puff of steam.

This angel didn’t have to worry about turning on any light switches or carrying any candles.

And once he reached his client, if he wasn’t already there when the arrested Peter in the first place,

When it was time for Peter to be delivered, there was nothing sufficient to stop this angel from the completion of his appointed rounds

The chains fell off, the guards were subdued, the cell door was unlocked,

And the great iron gate swung open of it’s own accord.

There wasn’t another guard in the prison to stop these two as they departed.

There weren’t any other prisoners creating a ruckus trying to get Peter to take them with him.

Daniel 9 not withstanding, Satan has no real power against the angel of God with a job to do for his Lord.

Something else which Satan cannot do is to stop his own frustration.

He is a defeated foe, and I think that he’s well aware of that,

Although he is still fighting it tooth and nail.

Lastly, let’s think very briefly about the GLORY OF GOD.

This is a wonderful chapter, a marvelous story, a miraculous message.

But if we stripped God out of this chapter, there wouldn’t be much of anything left.

There would be Herod’s hatred and pride, and there would have been James’ and Peter’s deaths.

If we stripped the Lord out of this chapter, there wouldn’t be anything for us to cheer about here.

But as I’ve already pointed out there is much to rejoice in.

And every ounce of it belongs to the Lord, to his grace and to his omnipotence.

The delivery of Peter brought and still brings glory of the Lord

And at the end of the chapter where Herod dies in his own pride, the Lord is glorified even in that.

There may be a war going on between the Devil and the Lord,

But there is no doubt about Who will ultimately win.

It’s important for us, to make sure that we do our part to augment the glory of the Saviour.