Verse 18, in the morning there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. They now joined together and sought an audience with him. After securing the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace because they depended on the king's country for their food supply. On the appointed day, 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. But the word of God continued to spread and flourish. Father, I pray that you would bless your word, that you would illuminate our hearts and our minds so that we could understand it. We know that without your spirit doing his work, it's just words on a page. I pray God that he would along with the preaching of your word, enliven it in our hearts and our lives. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Beware of the Ides of March. It's one of the most famous quotes from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Now, the meaning of the Ides of March is March 15th, and it's a day on which Julius Caesar was assassinated, both in reality and in Shakespeare's rendition of the real situation. Prior to the assassination of Caesar, in Act, yeah, I'm getting mixed up with Acts, In act one, scene two of the play, the audience sees Julius Caesar's triumph after his military defeat of his once friend, now defeated rival, Pompey. During Caesar's triumph, a fortune teller warns him to beware of the Ides of March. Now Caesar, coming off of his victory, he's unconcerned and he dismisses the fortune teller's warning. He's a new dictator of the Roman Republic. What could ever befall him? Unbeknownst to Caesar, Cassius is already plotting his assassination. And he's trying to convince Brutus to participate in the plot against Caesar in the very same scene. They eventually agree, though for different reasons. Julius Caesar must be stopped, lest his lust for power tear apart the fabric of the Roman Empire before it even becomes an empire. On the fateful day, prophesied by the fortune teller in the play, the Senate rises up against Caesar and stabs him how many times? Anyone know? 23. A little excessive. 23 times. Okay, ask another question. You didn't think you'd get some Shakespearean trivia today, did you? What famous question escapes Caesar's dying lips? Et tu, Brute? Translation? You also, Brutus, or you too, Brutus, even you? And then he dies. Beware of the Ides of March. There's something ominous about that, what we would call an imperative, of the word beware. Whenever you read or see it or hear the words beware, you immediately perk up. Now, before that moment, when you were hiking on the trail, you may have been half attentive. But then you see a big sign that says, beware, bear den. You're probably going to think twice, or at least stand up a little bit straighter, look around, or reach for your holster just in case. Beware, be aware, be wary, be cautious, be concerned, or look out. The short passage at the tail end of Acts 12 should be a big blinking beware sign for us because it warns us of three pits each of us can trip into if we aren't on guard. God wants us to be on guard. How do we guard ourselves? Well, a little context for the passage. For those of you who are more historical history buffs, I guess, there's a question of chronology. When exactly did this happen? Because at this point, we don't just have to rely on the biblical witness, though that should be enough. We also have the writings of a first century historian, Jewish Roman historian named Josephus. And he records this situation as well, which we'll get to in a moment. But the chronology in question, it makes us wonder when Agrippa made his oration in Caesarea, because there's two possible opportunities when he made it. It was either at the games held in Caesarea every five years, which would have been in March, interestingly enough, AD 44, when Agrippa was struck dead. So it was either in March, AD 44, in which case, Peter would have escaped from prison by the hand of an angel the year previous, so in AD 43. Or this situation where Agrippa is struck down by an angel, it occurs later in AD 44, which would have been during what would have been the birthday of Caesar at that time. So it's unclear exactly when it was. It could have been in March. of 44, or it could have been essentially in August of 44. Regardless, we know that there was a big festival that happened in honor of Caesar on this day. And to put it in context of when Jesus was crucified, this is anywhere between 10 and 13 years after the crucifixion. So the church has already been established, as we've seen thus far in Acts. Now it's fascinating to read this account in the works of Flavius Josephus. And I have his complete works right here. He was a first century Roman Jewish historian. Now when I was studying my undergraduate degree, I went to a local Barnes and Noble. And in a discount bin, I found this book for like 10 bucks. Now imagine your entire life work being for sale for 10 bucks in a discount bin. But there's also two ways of looking at the situation. This was written about 2,000 years ago. So you can see it as, OK, discount bin, $10. Or 2,000 years later, a 20-year-old undergraduate student picks up your book in a Barnes & Noble that exists halfway across the world. Two ways of looking at it. If you're a glass half-full kind of guy, you're looking at it that way. If you're a glass half-empty kind of guy, well, you're stuck with the first, discount bin, $10. Anyways, this is his entire life's works. And in his section, In the book that he has called the Antiquities of the Jews, it would have been book 19, chapter 8, and then section 2, this is what he records. And listen to how similar some of it is to what we just read in Acts. Now, when Agrippa had reigned three years over all Judea, he came to the city of Caesarea, which was formerly called Stratos Tower. And there he exhibited shows in honor of Caesar, upon his being informed that there was a certain festival celebrated to make vows for his safety. At which festival, a great multitude was gotten together of the principal persons, and such as were of dignity through his province. On the second day of which shows, he put on a second day He put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of a contexture truly wonderful, and came into the theater early in the morning, at which time the silver of his garment, being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays upon it, shone out after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent, or glorious, as to spread, or horror, and that's old usage of it, an amazement over those that looked intently upon him. And presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place and another from another, that he was a god. And they added, be thou merciful to us, for although we have hitherto revered thee as only a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature. Upon this, The king did neither rebuke them nor reject their impious flattery. Josephus goes on to record in more detail what became of Herod. He goes on to say, then looking up, Herod saw an owl. On an earlier occasion, when imprisoned in Rome, the tradition tells that Herod had seen a vision of an owl. And a fellow prisoner said, be of good cheer. This owl is a good omen. It means that fate has smiled upon you. And shortly thereafter, Herod was released, and then he became the king over this known region. But the prisoner had also told him, if you see this owl again, it will not be a good omen, but a bad one. And so Herod upon seeing that owl remembered what that prisoner had told him when he was in prison in Rome and he realized, oh no, I have made a big mistake. And at that point Josephus adds that he was immediately stricken with pain and carried to his bedchamber and died exactly five days later. It's kind of neat to see Scripture paralleled by a first century Jewish Roman historian who was not a Christian and did not think kindly toward Christians as well. And they're different enough to show that the author of Acts, Luke, didn't just simply take it from Josephus, or Josephus didn't just take it from Acts, but they both knew of what had happened and they recorded it. Although Luke adds the reason for it in being that God judged him because he did not offer praise to God. Herod Agrippa died in that manner, and here are the warnings for us today. Number one, beware of flattery. Proverbs 26, 28 tells us, a lying tongue hates those it hurts, and a flattering mouth works ruin. Psalm 12 verses 1 through 2 reads, Help Lord, for no one is faithful anymore. Those who are loyal have vanished from the human race. Everyone lies to their neighbor. They flatter with their lips, but harbor deceit in their hearts. you have Herod enter this great amphitheater, which still exists today. It's massive. If you look it up, look up theater in Caesarea Maritime. Look that up on Google Images or whatever, and you'll see this massive theater, which was able to be unearthed because, you know, 2,000 years kind of wreaks havoc, but they were able to unearth it, and you see how massive it is, and the picture is that Herod gets there early in the morning, and because he's wearing such a brilliant robe, When the sun strikes him, he's glowing, and all the people see him in his radiance, and they flatter him with their lips, and they call him a god, something that no Jew, Herod was a Jew, something that no Jew should have accepted. And Herod said, I'll take it. I mean, I might as well be. Flattery. All that comes from the flatterer, to quote a Puritan, is as softness to the touch, sweetness to the taste, and prettiness to the eye, and harmony to the ear. Sounds great. Only hardiness and sincerity are lacking. And the whole is framed in hypocrisy and designed to ensnare or deceive. If we think about it, flattery really finds its origin in the evil one himself. Think about Genesis chapter 3 where it records the fall of Adam and Eve. The serpent comes to them and says, listen to this, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. You will be like God. You will be like God. How cool is that? Just take and eat. Some of you know that I like to enjoy reading epic poetry. It's something that, it's been a cultivated enjoyment. No one starts out enjoying epic poetry. It has to be something you work toward, learning to love. But once you start to realize, OK, this was written at a different time, this was written a different style, I have to just enjoy the ride. It can actually become quite enjoyable. And I was so blessed to have taken a class last year over Dante's Divine Comedy. I think out of all of the non-biblical classes that I've taken, ones that kind of either like theology proper, things like that, which aren't derived strictly from God's Word, I think it has affected me the most just because of how we were so inundated with the work of Dante Alighieri. And I think it would be fun, and I may get some backlash from this, but I think it would be fun to lead a study through it. Not in church, obviously, but it would be fun to work through it as a church because we can learn from the writings of Christians who've existed before us as they've wrestled through God's word and they've tried to create allegories in understanding it. And although, no, I don't believe in purgatory, I think there's a sense in which we can look at it as Protestants as the process of sanctification. So anyways, I think that would be a lot of fun. And maybe you're like, yeah, I'm not signing up for that. I am not going anywhere near that. Just indulge me in the next few seconds. Many of you are probably most familiar with Dante's Inferno, which is the pilgrim's descent through the realms of hell. It's an allegory. It's designed to be an element of fictitious, although allegory sought is a little bit more than that. And when he approaches the 8th circle, being led by his trusty guide Virgil, he enters this section that are called the Malgorgias. And all that means is they are these ravines. And in these ravines, he sees different people suffering for the sins that they were most known for in their lives. And in one of these ravines, in the eighth circle of hell, so we're already down really far in Dante's thinking. Things are getting bad. And, you know, some people read Dante's Inferno just to be like, ooh, this is grotesque, this is gross, whoa, because he gets graphic at points. And in the eighth circle of hell, in this ravine, he places the flatterer. And he places them in a pool of their own excrement. Do you see the picture? In life, this person stunk. And in death, they continue to stink. To the well-trained nose, a flatterer smells like filth. Someone commenting on this, who is not a Christian, made the comment that flattery diminishes the trust on which the social order is based, and it ultimately threatens this order. But as Christians, we know that worse than simply disrupting the social order, flattery displeases our Lord, who says, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything more of that comes from the evil one. Christ Jesus refused flattery. He refused praise. when a person came to him and said, good teacher. And Jesus cuts him off and says, why do you call me good? Now, people have ruined that verse by saying, well, see, Jesus is claiming not to be God. He's meeting the person where they are. This person doesn't accept Jesus as God. And so Jesus says, wait, why are you calling me good? Because you don't believe I'm God and only God is good. Even Jesus didn't accept flattery, so if he didn't accept it, why in the world should we? Beware of flattery. Second, beware of pride. We see this very clearly in Herod not directing the glory to God as he should have done. It's for that reason why the angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and died. Now that phrase, eaten by worms, it was a what could be called like a metaphor for any number of ailments afflicting the abdominal region. People have tried to speculate, like, oh, it was an appendicitis. Oh, it was a cyst. Oh, it was this. Oh, it was that. We don't have enough information to gather exactly how and what it was, how he died and what it was. All we know is it was a horrifically painful death, mainly from Josephus, who said that he suffered for five days under the ailment in excruciating pain. Beware of Pride. James 4, 6 tells us that God resists the proud. You think about that. There are very few things that God is actively resisting, and yet if you're a prideful person, God is actively resisting you. That should terrify you, that the creator of all things is standing against you. If you want to go toe-to-toe against God himself, embrace pride. Proverbs 6.16, there are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him, starting with a proud look. Richard Baxter, another writer in the 1700s, wrote, it is for want of self-acquaintance that any man is proud. Hear that? If you're proud, it's because you don't know yourself well enough. That's what he's saying. Did men considerately know what they are? How quickly would it bring them low? And here's where it gets good. Would corruptible flesh that must shortly turn to loathsome rottenness be stout and lordly and look so high and set forth itself in gaudy ornaments if men did not forget themselves? Would that rulers behave themselves as those that are subjects to the Lord of all and have the greatest need to fear his judgment and prepare for their account and remember that they must speedily be leveled with the lowest and their dust be mixed with the common earth. If they lived this way, what an alteration would it make in their demeanor and affairs. Strong words. But it's that reminder, that quote from the Dead Pollock Society. Soon you'll be, what is it, food for daffodils, kid. Now ultimately, that is what will become of the greatest world leader today. Spurgeon said, be not proud of race, face, place, or grace. Beware of pride. But the beauty is that God has promised to give grace to the humble. First part of that verse, God resists the proud. But James doesn't stop there. He says, but God gives grace to the humble. What does Peter say? Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. You see, when you humble yourself under God, he will lift you higher than pride could ever get you in this life. Beware of pride. And third, beware of withholding praise from God. You and I were made to reflect God's glory. But if we don't purpose in our hearts to do this on a daily basis, we'll inevitably withhold his glory and we'll begin reflecting only our own. In verse 23, which we've read a number of times now, Herod is struck dead because he did not give praise to God. He accepted the glory that was rightfully owed to God. He accepted it instead of reflecting it. You and I were not meant to reflect ourselves. We were meant to reflect our God. Now, I was reminded, Warren and I, when we were at the youth group camping trip this past summer, I was reminded of a book and I had to go back to it because I was reminded how great it was. And that is a Paralandra by C.S. Lewis, published in 1943. In it, C.S. Lewis, he paints a fantastical what-if scenario regarding really the Garden of Eden. In it, the protagonist, Ransom, he ventures to Venus. in his little space vessel. And don't read it for accuracy of astronomy. It is not. I mean, this was pre-the exploration, pre-orbiting the moon, and everything. So yeah, 1943, read it for the metaphor and because it's just a great story. But Ransom, the protagonist, he ventures to Venus, and he's quickly followed by the antagonist named Weston. Venus is revealed to be somewhat of a virginal planet, newly created. It's created by its god, Meleldil. Now Ransom is introduced to the planet's queen, who tells him that Meleldil has given her and her partner, the king, everything to enjoy on the island. Everything to enjoy except one thing. They mustn't go to the mainland and sleep on it. You see where this is going. Well, Weston, the antagonist, he arrives on Venus shortly after Ransom and gives himself over to be possessed by a demon who then proceeds to tempt the queen while her king is away. So it's almost like a mirror image of what happens in the Garden of Eden. And then Ransom feels as though it is his duty to prevent the fate of what happened on earth to prevent that fate from occurring on Venus. It's a great story. But at one point, Weston, the antagonist, he gets the queen to examine herself briefly in a reflection in the water. She examines herself, but she turns away after a moment, guiltily. Guilty for having scrutinized herself instead of looking intently at her god and her creator. She recognized that it was in her maker's image which she was made. And thus to look upon herself and her reflection was to stop short of reflecting the glory back to her God. Now I'm not saying to now go home and take a baseball bat to your vanity. You can if you want and get a video of it. It'd be pretty funny. We'll show it next week. But Lewis is using a fictional story to point us toward a spiritual truth that we are meant and we are designed, we are created to look toward God. not toward ourselves. One of the problems plaguing humanity is its insatiable desire to turn inward in the pursuit of meaning, of hope, of satisfaction, of purpose. Look inward, look inward, look inward, look at yourself. But the longer we stare inwardly at ourselves, the darker we realize we really are. Our hearts are wicked. By turning inward toward our hearts, we're inevitably turning ourselves more inward toward darkness. The world says, turn inward until you find the answers. God says, look upward toward me, the one who holds all solutions to every problem you face. When we look upward toward the fount of all truth, beauty, and purpose, his glory reflects on our faces. And like Moses, our countenance will be changed. Listen to Paul. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. And we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory. which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. By reading God's word, this is what Paul's getting at, by reading God's word, by basking in, we are beholding the unveiled face of our God. And just like Moses' face shone after he came down from the mountain and had a glimpse of God, our faces, our lives, our countenance will be that much changed by beholding God without the veil, without the being thrown into the cleft of the rock. Because in Christ Jesus, we see our God. Beware of withholding praise from God. All of those bewares, but there's the last point which drives all of these cautions Well, it's a solution to all of these cautions, and that is to behold our God. If you were to join me on one of my biannual excursions to my seminary in Oviedo, Florida, and if you were to walk with me under the covered portico, and we were to go to the chapel building, we'd, upon entering the building, or before entering the building, in big letterings off on the right-hand side, you see the question, how big is your God? Is your God big enough to create the universe in a moment with nothing but his word causing its existence? Is your God big enough to understand and comprehend all reality, both actual and potential, while having also foreordained all things that come to pass? Is your God big enough to create sentient beings able to express volition, desire, emotions, and thought? Is your God big enough to order all things by the working of his great power, all things in such a way that even the evils, the heartbreaks, the pain, the suffering, and the losses we experience are ultimately working for our good? Is your God big enough to create the grandest order from the most horrendous chaos? Let me ask the question a different way. Has God brought to pass something glorious by and through the cross? Has God created life for us in and through the death of his son? As Christians, we can acknowledge that that is the greatest evil that has ever been committed by human hands. The death of God. And yet God was able and he did make something glorious and good from it, not just in the abstract, but for you. If God can do that with the greatest evil ever, can he do it with anything in your life as well? If you think that something in your life has made you unusable to the author of life, your God is too small. Behold your God. who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the heavens with a span, and closed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance, who has measured the spirit of the Lord, or what man can show him his counsel, whom did he consult, and who made him understand, who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding, behold, Standing on, be amazed. Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales. Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. All the nations are as nothing before him. they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?" Christian, behold your God. See him as he is, not as how you'd like him to be, or not even as how you've been taught he is. See him as he truly is. He is the one who raises up and casts down the rulers of this world. He is the one who in whom all kings and queens, emperors and empresses, presidents and senators, representatives, judges and citizens will one day have to give an account for their rulings. He is the one to whom you will one day answer for your life. On that day, when the books are open and your life is laid bare before the Almighty Holy God, what will you plead? There is only one plea. that permits you entrance into eternal rest with your Lord. There is only one plea that permits me entrance into eternal rest with my Lord. I plead the blood of Christ. I plead the blood of Christ, the son of God, who was sent to save me from my sins. And this is the gospel. That is the good news. It is good news for everyone who receives it, and that is the word that grew and flourished. At the end of chapter 12, it grew and flourished as Herod crumpled and perished. And that is the word, though flouted by some today, will condemn or justify all someday very soon. Christian, behold your God. God wants us to be on guard. He wants us to guard ourselves against flattery, against pride, and against withholding praise from him. And the way we heed these warnings is by beholding our God, seeing him as he is, because when we start with God and work our way down to us, only then will we get a right understanding of his freeness and our slavery to sin and our need for freedom found only in him. Are you beholding your God or have you turned inward to gaze on yourself? What better time to give again your life to Christ than this moment when we eat and drink the supper of our faith? Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are God and there is none like you. You raise up rulers of this earth and like dust, you blow them away and they're gone. God, we recognize that in our nation we have been blessed to have a say in the way things are run. I pray, God, you would give us wisdom in stewarding that responsibility. You would guide our thoughts. We would be informed. But ultimately, we would recognize that you raise up, you cast down, you are the great sovereign over all. I pray we bow before you in your will, not just for life in the big scale, but life for our own, but for our own lives. Help us to heed these warnings in your word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.