Glory Belongs To God

So before I actually get started, I do just want to say how thankful I am for Clear Note Church, for all of you, for the elders, for Pastor Dave, that you would send me to Pastor's College to get training, to prepare me for what I believe the Lord has called me to do. And that even as I say that, I get training at New Geneva, but I get a lot more training here. And I am thankful for it. And I'm thankful for the opportunity to preach this morning. This morning we're going to be in Acts 12, verses 20 through 25. As we study our text this morning, what I primarily want us to see is that God does not share his glory with anyone. That the wickedness...

of Herod's pride and self-glory, his desire to lift himself above his own station. And even the evil of the people of Tyre and Sidon, as they flatter him to get what they want, and they heap this praise and this worship on him, they seek to glory, to glorify him. I want us to see the evil wickedness that that is. I want us to see how evil and wicked that is. and that God is jealous for his glory, and that ultimately we should do the opposite of what the people here do and what Herod does, and we should seek to give God glory, not seek our own glory. So our text says, Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and with one accord they came to him, and having won over Blastus the king's chamberlain, they were asking for peace.

Because their country was fed by the king's country. On an appointed day, Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. The people kept crying out, the voice of a God and not of a man. And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory. And he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would give me the words to say, that your word would be preached, that the words of my mouth and the meditation of each of our hearts would be pleasing and acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so...

This passage is a really obscure passage. I just read you verses 20 through 25, and you're like, I don't know what the context is, what's happening here. And so it's an obscure passage. So I want to give you a bit of the context so you understand Herod's address and why we got here, or how Luke got here in this chapter. So Acts is some of the earliest piece of church history that we have. I mean, it's the beginnings of the church. It's the church's growth. It's the foundation. And Acts is the history of the gospel spreading out to all the nations. So that's your broad context of where we are in the book, okay? So that you understand what Acts is about. It's about the gospel going forth and going into the nations.

And then next, we need the immediate context to understand what's going on here. So earlier on in chapter 12, Luke tells us that Herod desires to mistreat the church. That's Herod's desire. He is attacking the church. Herod has James, the son of Zebedee, brother of John, killed. He imprisons him and then executes him. And then Luke tells us that James' death actually pleases the Jews, that the Jews are happy to see someone mistreating this, what they would have thought was some religious sect of Judaism, right? They would have thought that Christianity was some weird, you're kind of like us, but you're not us because you worship Jesus. And so it pleased the Jews that Herod put James to death. And so Herod, in his arrogance, imprisons Peter and plans to put him to death. And then what we see is Luke tells us that God's people pray fervently, that they pray fervently for Peter to be rescued, to be brought out of the hand of Herod. And more than likely, they're also praying because Herod is persecuting the church. And so they know he's going after their leaders and they'll be next. And then God, in a miraculous way, I don't know,

I don't want to go into too much detail, but as I was reading this text, I realized just how miraculous Peter's escape from prison is. Because he's literally, I'll go ahead and tell you. He's literally chained to two guards in his cell. And then he has two guards placed outside of his cell door. And then there are guards outside, beyond that. And an angel of the Lord appears. The chains fall off and a deep sleep falls on all the guards to the point that they don't even remember what happened the night before. And the angel leads Peter out and rescues him. And when Peter returns to the people, they can't even really believe that he's been set free. And it's just a miraculous account. And so God rescues Peter from his imprisonment. And then...

You see how wicked Herod is. This was fairly common at the time, though. But he does have the soldiers that he tasked with guarding Peter executed. He's ruthless. And then he goes down to Caesarea. I think that's how you say that. I have no idea. I probably said that wrong. But he goes down to Caesarea, and this is where our text picks up the narrative. And so what we see here first is after he goes to Caesarea, Luke tells us about Tyre and Sidon. He tells us, that Herod's angry with Tyre and Sidon. So we need to talk a little bit about the people of Tyre and Sidon. And we need to talk about them because they're just as much a part of this story as Herod is, as his pride is. We can't ignore their sin. And so in order to understand the people of Tyre and Sidon, we also have to understand their background and their intentions and then their actions. And so Tyre and Sidon is actually referred to several times throughout the Old Testament.

And most notably, God pronounces judgment on them in Isaiah chapter 23 and in Ezekiel chapter 28. God pronounces judgment on them. And I'll read just briefly what he says to the people of Tyre. The word of the Lord again came to me saying, Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre, thus says the Lord God, because your heart is lifted up and you have said, I am a God. I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas. Yet you are a man and not God, although you make your heart like the heart of a god. Behold, you are wiser than Daniel. There is no secret that is a match for you. By your wisdom and understanding, you've acquired riches for yourself and have acquired gold and silver for your treasuries. By your great wisdom, by your trade, you've increased your riches and your heart is lifted up because of your riches. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you've made your heart like the heart of God.

And so what we gather is that the people of Tyre and Sidon are not without their own pride, are not without their own desire for greatness. They thought themselves to be a great people, and yet God pronounced judgment on them and told them they'd be ruled by others outside of them. And so in their pride, In their judgment, we can think about Herod as part of that judgment. Herod is not their ruler per se, but he's coming from outside, and he's affecting them. He is because their country was fed by the king's country. He's withholding their daily needs. They need food to survive. And so they're outside of his province, and he's not their king, but it affects them.

And Scripture doesn't really tell us why, but it tells us that Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. And it tells us here that their entire livelihood is affected by Herod's anger. Now, the address that Herod makes, history tells us that Herod's address took place in an amphitheater. So it's this big place where they have shows and games, plays, and parties. I mean, that's what it is. It's a place for there to be a party. And so this is a big deal. Herod is doing, he is giving them the very best. And they're enjoying the very best that he has to give them in this address. And then Herod addresses the people. And they cried, the voice of a God and not of a man. They attribute or acknowledge glory to someone other than God. To please Herod. To flatter Herod. Because they want deliverance. They want peace. They want food. They want sustenance. And they don't have it. So they appeal to Herod. They get his chamberlain, someone in his court, they get him on their side and they say, they essentially have him set up this address, please talk to us, feed us. And then when he comes and addresses them, they are willing to do whatever it takes to be in his good graces and to be fed.

And so they worship him. They glorify him. And they do exactly what Paul condemns in Romans 1. And I'm going to turn there really quick just to read this passage. Romans 1, verses 20 through 21 and 25. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. And verse 25, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. And so I'm going to draw this out a little bit more, I think, because if God is the creator, if God is the maker, if God...

is the one who provides our daily bread, as Jesus tells us in Matthew 6, then everything that Tyre and Sidon does here is evil. Because they do not see that God is worthy of glory. They do not see that God can actually help them, that God can actually supply their needs. And instead, they look to Herod, and they think that Herod, that this evil, wicked king, They think that if they can appeal to him, if they can flatter him, if they can make him feel good, that that's how they'll get food. And they do whatever it takes. And so they worship. I mean, essentially worship. They idolize him. You will deliver us, King Herod, the voice of a God and not of a man. They give Herod glory. Glory meant for God. I want us to see that we're prone to the same sins as Tyre and Sidon.

Their false humility, their flattery, their pride. This is pride. We can't starve. We're Tyre and Sidon. We were great. Tyre and Sidon are Phoenician. And so if you know anything about the Phoenicians in ancient history, the Phoenicians, they were known for their sea trade, their ship development. They were great. They were an amazing... ancient civilization. We can't starve. We can't be without food or smartphones or internet. And I say that jokingly, but these are the sins that we are tempted. Like this is a way that we're tempted. That we would think ourselves so great that we cannot go without. And to think ourselves so great that we would be willing to do whatever it took.

to get what we want. More importantly, their appeal to Herod, it's a rejection of God's lordship. It's a rejection of his lordship and his glory. Essentially, they hate God. That's why they don't appeal to him. They hate him. They aren't willing to give him glory. They'd rather flatter Herod and give him some kind of glory and make him feel like he's... higher than his station actually is than actually go to the one who does deserve glory. Think about the church earlier in this chapter when I gave you the context. The church prayed to God to free Peter. What do God's people do? We go to God. We go to the one who can deliver us. We go to the one who's worthy of glory. If you think about...

There are multiple Psalms in the Old Testament that David is appealing to God, please help me, please help me, please help me, for your name's sake. It is for God's glory that David seeks him. It is for God's glory that the church seek God. They sought God to meet their needs. We don't see them going, Luke doesn't tell us that the church lined up at Herod's door begging for Peter to be released. The church trusted God. And they pleaded with him for Peter's safety. And then we see that the Lord actually answered their prayer. That the Lord actually did deliver them from their affliction. And even more so we see, and I'm getting ahead of myself, but even more so we see it because he kills Herod. He delivers them from persecution. Whereas the church prayed to God, we see Tyre and Sidon praying in essence to Herod, attributing to him adoration and praise, attributing to him glory.

seeking their needs in places they shouldn't, just as we ourselves are tempted to do often. We typically seek this in ourselves, I think. Or maybe if it's needs, if it's to provide, it's your work or your boss. We're tempted, just like Tyre and Sidon, to reject God's lordship. And we need to consider how often we actually do think about our needs apart from God's providence, apart from his provision. How often we seek to do things ourselves without first going to the one who provides all things. We ought to live as those who trust the Lord for our daily bread. We ought to live as those dependent on God to meet our needs. We ought to live as those who glorify God because he's the one who can provide all things. So there's one other aspect of this that I would like to touch on. And it's that...

Tyre and Sidon attribute to Herod some kind of hero status, some kind of idolatry. They're seeking for him to deliver them, right? What they're asking is, save us. You withhold food, save us. Be our hero. Be our champion. And isn't it true for us that we also have heroes in our lives? We also are prone and tempted to idolatry of others or jealousy. And what we do is we put those heroes on pedestals. And so what I'm actually thinking about is I recently did a paper on John Knox for Pastors College. And if you know anything about John Knox, he's essentially the founder of Presbyterianism and the founder of Puritanism. And John Knox is typically attacked for his—most people think he's abrasive.

or that he's a jerk, or that he's willing, or some even say that he's a violent revolutionary. That was kind of new to me. But they say that he was willing to do whatever it took for the Reformation if that meant, you know, just cutting anyone down in his path. And what I found in my research was that that wasn't really the case, but that there was some truth to John Knox not quite being prudent in the way that he went about things. He had two queens on the throne, one in England and one in Scotland, and he wrote the first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women, that's quite a title, where he just obliterates any idea of female leadership, right? And there are two queens on the throne. Maybe not the smartest thing to do at the time, and John Calvin even thought so.

And I remember talking about this in pastor's college and just saying that I just thought John Knox was the best thing since sliced bread. And one of the other students said, yeah, but you can't divorce that from his flaws. He is a man. He does have flaws. He did commit sin. And we argued a bit back and forth for a little while. But eventually I realized that My friend was right that I can't just write this paper about Knox and act like he was the best thing ever. I have to acknowledge that he was human, okay? And I have to acknowledge that he has flaws, even though he's a hero. He's a hero of the faith, okay? We're talking about Herod and heroes of the faith, okay? There's a bridge here, but not all of our heroes are Herod.

Right? We're not talking about, I'm talking about John Knox, not someone who was evil. But we do what Tyre and Sidon do with Herod here with our heroes. We put them on pedestals. We think they're the greatest things ever. At least that's our temptation. And I think that's even worse today with social media because now they have their own rostrums. I mean, social media is just your own throne. It's your own place where you can say what you want and people will follow you. And so I think that even as God's people who have heroes in our faith, we are tempted in the same way. Tyre and Sidon are tempted to treat Herod as more than he actually is, to treat our heroes as more than they actually are. We ignore their shortcomings and only ever talk about their quality traits. Not all of our heroes are trying to glorify themselves, though there are some. There are some who seek only to glory themselves.

And they do it under the guise of Christianity. I think about what Paul said in Philippians when he talks about those that preach from vain glory, that they do not preach for the Lord's name. They do not preach for God's sake, but they preach for their own sake. And then he's thankful because he says, well, at least the word of God is preached. And so there are people like that. And so we need to... I think we need to be aware of our ability to treat our heroes as if they were like Christ, as if they were perfect, to think of them as sinless or without fault. And we need to keep in mind and have reasonable expectations for people and hope in God, not man. Hope in God that even though our heroes are sinful, God has forgiven them. God has given his grace to them, and they've actually lived for his glory, even though they also were not perfect.

And isn't this what Paul does when he says, imitate me as I imitate Christ? Because he says, follow me. Do what I do, but do it as I point you to Christ. And now I want to take a moment to talk about Herod's glory. So we've talked about the people of Tyre and Sidon and their wrongful attribution of glory to Herod. And I want to talk about Herod's glory. Because I think the focal point of this passage is in verse 23. We need to keep in mind that Herod's an enemy of God first and foremost. That he's an enemy of God's people. That he hates God. That he hates Christians. That he's an evil king. And we need to consider that this is the same Herod that was there before Christ's crucifixion. And so this is the same Herod that if you read in Luke, that Pilate, so Luke gives an account that Pilate actually sends the Lord away.

to Herod, let Herod deal with this. I don't want to deal with this, is essentially what Pilate says. And Herod receives our Lord and mocks and ridicules him, asking him to do miracles and questioning him with the Pharisees there, and Jesus just doesn't answer them. And so Herod mocked Jesus and sent him back to Pilate. And then the rest of the crucifixion story takes place. And then consider his treatment of the church in chapter 12. He is prideful. And he is, I don't want to say unaware, because Romans tells us that God's creation tells us that we're all aware. But he's completely blind. He's blinded by his own lust for power and greed and pride and his own self-glory. And we see this desire for self-glory and this...

boastfulness in his apparel. Luke makes it a priority to note that Herod put on his royal apparel before he got to the throne, before he made his address. So Josephus, an ancient historian, tells us a little bit more about this account and this address. And he tells us that Herod put on a silver, shiny, it's almost like tissue paper. but it's silver and shiny, so that when he steps out amongst the people, so the way the throne or the rostrum would be set up is that he would stand at it, and the people would actually be circled around him. That's the way these were set up. And he would essentially shine and glisten in the sunlight. That's what Josephus says.

that he wanted to wear apparel in such a way that it looked like he was radiating the sun. I mean, he's already at the center, and he wants, you just can't ignore me. You just can't ignore me. He wanted to appear higher than what he was. Some people look at this text and they say, well, Herod doesn't outright, you know, he doesn't just accept there. He's just kind of neutral about the... people of Tyre and Sidon saying the voice of a God and not of man, right? He's just kind of neutral about it. I don't think that's true. I think he wants it. I think he basked in it. Why else would you dress like that? I mean, why would Luke note that? Why would Josephus tell us that he put on something that shined in the sun so that you just could not ignore it? Who does that? Someone who wants to be noticed. Someone who wants to be given glory. For the record, we do it.

but I'm getting ahead of myself. Herod is wanting this response from them. He knows that they want peace with him. They've put the ball in his court. They've gone to his chamberlain. They've gone to men in his court. And he wants to milk this for all it's worth. Think about Jesus gives a warning to his disciples in Matthew chapter 23. And what he does is he warns them about the Pharisees. lengthening their robes or their tassels, okay? So apparently these tassels and these robes were a point of pride for the Pharisees, but they lengthened them so that they, they lengthened them and they call each other rabbi in the streets so that they would have honor to glorify themselves, to make themselves look better than they actually are. And he warns his disciples, don't be like the Pharisees.

Because the only reason that they lengthen their tassels and that they wear those robes and that they say rabbi in the streets is because they want honor that's not theirs. And Herod is just like them. He loves to be loved and revered by the people. The throne and leadership isn't a weighty thing to him. It's a point of power and glory. It's glory that he's striving for. And the people, as we saw, gave Herod exactly what he wanted. But just like Herod, don't we do the same thing today? Don't we present ourselves in public a certain way? So this semester, I'm going to give you a lot of stories and illustrations from Pastors College because that's my life right now. But this semester when we started, one of our students...

posted a picture of the books we were reading for Systematic Theology. And it was kind of funny because he posted this picture about these great books that we're reading, and they are really great books. And all of us students, we went and liked his picture, and he had his coffee in the picture, and he's just so excited to go to New Geneva. And the first, so Systematic Theology is all online, so it's pre-recorded lectures. The very first systematic theology lesson, the professor gets up there, and at one point, because we're talking about revelation, God's revelation, and he's talking about, he ends up talking about pride, but he ends up saying, I just cannot stand these seminary students that post pictures of the books they're reading for class. And they're just, it's so boastful and prideful and arrogant and self-glorifying.

That was funny to me when I listened to that lecture. And that student came into class. He said, well, I don't know if I should take the picture down or if I should just comment that this was a mistake. But we had a good laugh about it. And he did realize that it was a point of pride for him. And he saw it. And he repented. And we do similar things. We boast about ourselves. We puff ourselves up. We make ourselves out to be better than we actually are. We do this on social media. We do this when we come here. So I've picked on one of my friends, so I'll pick on myself now. One of the things someone told me as I was actually preparing for pastor's college, one of the pastors told me, we were actually discussing my sins, my besetting sins.

And so anger got brought up. If you've spent any time with me, I'm pretty fiery, and I can get loud real quick. And that's been a point that as I was being interviewed, I told them I am worried about this. I don't want to just always be angry and aggressive. One of the things they said was, you just have to remember who you are. This is the most helpful thing to me. He said, you just have to remember who you are. Who you are is the man in the car who gets cut off in traffic, not the man who goes to church. That's who you are. And that's the man that you need to work on. And so I'm persuaded that we're tempted to make our lives seem and appear different than what they actually are.

But the real you is the you at home. It's the you with your wife or your husband. It's the you with your kids. It's not the you when you have people over or when you're here. We're all guilty of trying to present ourselves better in public than we actually are in private. And we do it so that we look good. We do it for our own glory. Because, I mean, I can't be the only one that struggles with the desire to always get praise. to always get a pat on my back. You did a good job today, Timmy. I can't be the only one. And so what I would say as a point of application here is just be careful of how we try to present ourselves. I think particularly online, but even here. Can we be honest? Can we say when we mess up? Can we say when we sin? Can we ask for forgiveness? Can we have the faith to do that? I need more faith to do that.

Those are things that we need to do. We need to be honest about our lives with each other. So the people of Tyre and Sidon attribute glory and praise to Herod. And Herod's job is actually to refuse that glory. Herod's job is actually to refuse the glory that the people are attributing to him. But he doesn't do that. And as I was going over this and thinking about Herod not refusing their praise and their glory of him, right, I actually thought about what Paul and Barnabas do later in Acts chapter 14. It's not that far after. It's during their first missionary journey. And the people of Lystra, they hear their proclamations and they start worshiping them. They call Barnabas Zeus and they call Paul Hermes because Paul's the primary speaker.

That's what Luke tells us. And they start worshiping them as gods. They say the gods have come down and have dwelt among us as man. That's what they say. And anyone want to take a shot in the dark at what Paul and Barnabas did? They tore their clothes, and they wept, and they cried. They cried out to the people, stop referring to us as gods. We are not gods. We are flesh just like you. We are human just like you. We are mere mortals. Do not call us God or gods. They redirected the glory to God because this actually leads, Paul goes in to preach the gospel to them immediately after. And so when we're tempted to glory ourselves or when we're tempted to accept glory that someone else gives us, we should redirect that glory to God. We should say, we should thank God for what he's done for us. And we should redirect the people that...

glory us or praise us, we should redirect them to glory and praise God. My last point this morning is about God's glory. Most of my points have been about God's glory, but more directly, my last point is about how God alone is worthy of glory. And this is why I said that verse 23 is the focal point in our passage, because why does God kill Herod? It doesn't say because he was prideful. It doesn't say because he was evil. Though, I mean, those are true. But it actually says that God strikes Herod because he did not give God glory. That God strikes Herod because Herod didn't rebuke the people. He actually took that glory for himself. God judges Herod swiftly for taking honor which was due to God. And I'm going to mention Josephus here because one of the points that I want to make is that God brings Herod low, and some of that is kind of literally. So Luke tells us that God struck him and he was eaten by worms and died. And Josephus tells us in similar fashion that during his address, he was overcome with abdominal pain while he was at his throne. And I couldn't help, as I was thinking about this, but think about what happens when...

we have abdominal pain. You bend. You reach for your stomach and you bend. And so I'm imagining this scene where Herod is the king. And he is this great glorious thing, the best thing Tyre and Sidon have ever seen. And he's bowing down because of this intense abdominal pain. Herod is reduced and brought low and dies in a very humiliating way. How did you die? Of abdominal pain. Some kind of disease, actually. But amongst the people, in front of the people, he was brought low. And God shows us that he alone is worthy of glory, that he is greater than Herod. And I want to say something to that about God being greater than Herod, is that God does this throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, if you look at the...

the Israel's exodus out of Egypt, those plagues that God inflicts on Egypt, they are a mockery of Egyptian mythology. Flies and gnats and the Nile and darkness, you know, utter darkness over the sun. They worship the sun god Ra. It is a mockery of their gods. It's a mockery of Pharaoh. This is a mockery of Herod. Thinking that Herod could actually do anything to God's people. Thinking that Herod could actually have any kind of glory or power over God's people. No. God shows us his power and he shows us his greater glory. He rescued Peter from Herod's hand. And in so doing, we see God delivering his people and meeting their needs. And then he ends Herod.

And then what does verse 24 tell us? The word continues to grow and be multiplied. And so that tells us that people continue to be saved. People continue to join the flock of God. That Herod, who was seeking to quench, to strike the church, he doesn't get his way. God's people continue to grow and prosper, and Herod's kingship ends. And so I want to say a few things about... God's glory, and then I want to make some applications. And so there is truth in that God is worthy of glory simply by being God, right? I mean, the greatest being in the universe, the creator of the universe, really, he is worthy of glory simply based on that fact. He's worthy of glory because he created us, because he is the creator, and he's worthy of glory in considering what he's done to deliver us. He delivered the people, and he delivers us.

He delivered us, you know, if we've put our faith and hope in Christ, he's delivered us from judgment. And as we live in faith, he also delivers us from our sins. As he sanctifies us, as he grows us, as we mature and become more like Christ, he is consistently delivering us. And then he delivers us from all the other aspects of life, from wicked rulers and... I mean, you can see it throughout church history. God just consistently delivers and protects and leads his people. And so he alone is worthy of glory, and he alone is worthy of our adoration and praise. And what's really beautiful about that is there's not much that keeps us from being like Herod. We're all born into sin. We all do evil. Just this week, I'm...

I'm using myself a lot as an example, but just this week I'm just thinking about how wicked I actually am. How prideful. How corrupted. My intentions aren't even good. You know, our intentions aren't good. Our desires are often not good. The only thing that keeps us from being like Herod is God. It's God's mercy. It pleased God to have mercy on us. And so we should give him glory. And we should adore him and we should praise him and thank him for the wondrous work he's done in us. And so we ought not be like Herod and seek our own glory and bask in glory attributed to us by others. But we should be quick to point people to God. That we should be quick to tell people that any reason that you have to praise me is actually because of the work the Lord has done in me. We need to give him glory.

We need to give him glory for what he's done. And we need to give him glory because he's God. And we need to forget ourselves. We need to be like Paul and Barnabas and be humble. No, we are not good. We are not perfect. I'm sure if I met John Knox and I just told him how great he was, he would tell me, no, I'm not that great. Let me tell you all the ways that I've sinned and all the ways God has saved me. Let us tell everyone all the ways that God has saved us. Let's give God glory. Let's pray.