Acts - Lesson 20

As I mentioned last week, Roman law provided that if a prisoner escaped then the guard was subject to the punishment that the prisoner would have had. So the soldiers who lost Peter were ordered to be killed. It can be a little confusing to keep all the Herod’s straight. There are 5 characters named Herod.

Herod the Great (34 to 4 B.C.) - Controlled Palestine at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.  This Herod ordered the murder of the babies of Bethlehem (Matt. 2:2).

Herod Archelaus (4 B.C. to A.D. 6) - Herod the Great was succeeded by his son Archelaus. Archelaus was so bad that the Jews complained to the emperor and he was removed from office in A.D. 6 (Matt. 2:22).

Herod Antipas (A.D. 6 to 39) - After Archelaus, Judea was governed for a time by Roman procurators. But the line of Herod the Great continued through Herod Antipas until he was banished to Gaul in A.D. 39. This Herod killed John the Baptist and was mentioned at the trial of Jesus Christ.

Herod Agrippa I (tetrarch of Trachonitis from A.D. 39 and then as king of Judea from A.D. 41–44) - He was the son of Aristobulus, Herod the Great’s son by his second wife, Mariamne. This is the Herod who appears in Acts 12.

Herod Agrippa II (reigned over various territories from A.D. 50 to 100) - This Herod was a son of Herod Agrippa I and was seventeen when his father’s death. The emperor Claudius did not to give him his father’s kingdom because of his age. In time, Agrippa II was given other territories. This Herod spoke with Paul years later (Acts 25-26).

Herod Agrippa I was apparently so frustrated that he left Jerusalem went to the beach (Acts 12:19).

Acts 12:20-23 … Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

Herod was at the port city of Caesarea and these two port cities to the north (Tyre and Sidon) came to ask for a normalization of trade relations so they import needed food from further south. I’m not sure when flattery was invented but it is obvious that it was before the time of Herod and these folks attempted to oil the wheels of commerce by saying that Herod’s speech was so good that it was “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Herod should have ducked and covered at this blasphemous praise. Josephus tells us that Herod was known as Agrippa the Great in his time. Rather than back away from the praise in humility before God, he accepted the praise from these people and was struck down.

The Jewish historian Josephus says that Herod Agrippa 1^st had heart and stomach pains and died after 5 days in A.D. 44 (the 4^th year of Claudius Caesar). So with the report of Josephus and Luke taken together we can assume that he was immediately in great pain, suffered for 5 days, and then died or perhaps had some pain over 5 days and died as soon as he received the blasphemous praise. Luke, being a doctor, may have known someone who let him know that parasites were part of the problem. It may have been a disease process known as Fournier gangrene. This same process may have also killed his grandfather Herod the Great but his father was murdered. This is a very tough bacterial infection and even today mortality rates are high. The worms were likely maggots as a result of necrotic surface tissue. That may be more than you wanted to know but I feel sure that Dr. Luke would want me to share that additional information.

Acts 12:24-25 … But the word of God increased and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

Luke sets the death of Herod against the strength and growth of the Word of God. God was continuing to work and Barnabas and Saul were back in Antioch after delivering the collection of money for the Christians in Jerusalem as suggested by Agabus. They also brought John Mark the author of The Gospel According to Mark for ministry with them for a while.

Acts 13:1-3 … Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

The narrative switches back to Antioch here. Remember that Barnabas was sent to Antioch by the Apostles and found he needed Paul to help disciple the believers. The Church was blessed and grew and now they have “prophets and teachers” in addition to Barnabas and Saul to keep growing the Church. Simeon who was called Niger or “Black” in Latin may have been the one who helped with the Cross of Jesus (Luke 23:26) and was the father of Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21 and Romans 16:13). These two were active in the Church at Rome. Cyrene referred to the province of Cyrenaica in what is now Libya.

Notice that they laid hands on them believing that the Holy Spirit was going to work through Barnabas and Saul but this was in response to what the Holy Spirit had directed. They invented missions work but they didn’t invent missions work apart from the Holy Spirit. They bathed every aspect of the missions program in prayer asking God what they should do. It is very important for us to try to do what God says rather than to ask God to bless what we think would be good. This brings us back to the “fear and trembling” attitude that we need in our Christian walk.

Philippians 2:12-13 … Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

The brethren at Antioch were careful to get direction from prayer and fasting and to act in obedience with prayer and fasting. We are commanded to exercise care and diligence in seeking God’s will for the details of our lives. God is able to make His will known and we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to walk out our lives. Our lives are “Coram Deo” (Psalm 139).

In walking out this missionary trip, Barnabas and Saul (along with John Mark) first went to the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean.

Acts 13:4-6 … So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.

Paphos is on the western end of the island and Salamis is on the eastern end of the island. The cities are mostly on the coastline so they preached from east to west in some organized pattern either running north or south around the island. The Holy Spirit isn’t opposed to organized plans and here we see a methodical approach to evangelizing the island of Cyprus.

They were still often focused on efforts in the synagogues. That would have been the likely place to start because the Hellenistic Jews would have a background for understanding the Gospel.

Here they met Bar-Jesus and he was a magician. We saw the problem that the Church had with Simon Magus earlier in the Book of Acts and here we have Magus Bar-Jesus. Jesus was a fairly common name so we don’t know if he was adopting this name to seem powerful (like Jesus) or if it truly reflecting that he was the son of a man named Jesus or Joshua. In either case, like Simon Magus, he was adopting magic and assuming a position of spiritual authority that was forbidden by his Judaism.

We must not let similar religious beliefs to have any place in our lives because Scripture tells us not to seek any spiritual authority or power apart from what God gives in Scripture. We don’t do astrology, we don’t do water witching, we don’t do séances, we don’t look for ghosts, and we don’t incorporate eastern religious traditions just to give a few examples. Bar-Jesus was being syncretistic in his religion and that step is the step that we rationalize as we begin to depart from following Christ. This is old history. Someone will say, I did one of those sorts of activity and it worked so what can I say other than it worked? Well there are two possibilities. First, it may simply be a deception or a lie. In that case we abandon it because it is a lie. Secondly, it may have actually worked. That is far more serious and we abandon it in that case because it is demonic knowing it is not God because He said that He would not honor that sort of behavior. The idolatry of Israel in the Old Testament and the fashionable idolatry of superstitious Christians today both lead away from Scripture. Bar-Jesus was in a position of Power and his position was threatened by Barnabas and Saul.

Acts 13:7-12 … He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

Sergius Paulus was a proconsul because he answered to the Roman Senate and not the Emperor. This was the way Cyprus had been governed since 22 BC. Saul looks at this man whose name means Son of Jesus and calls him the son of the devil. Elymus or Bar-Jesus was at heart an enemy of righteousness. He had rejected and bent the Law of God and now he was opposing the Grace of God. He was continuing to make crooked the straight paths of the Lord. Paul knew something about having a little blind time and so he (under the anointing of the Holy Spirit) sent darkness on Bar-Jesus. The combination of this sign at the expense of Bar-Jesus and the teaching of grace resulted in the salvation of the proconsul.