We come together today to remember.  This is a good thing to remember.  We need to be reminded.  I most certainly need to be reminded.  In the middle of a lot of uncertainty and upheaval.  Rupture, even as someone has described it.  We need to be reminded, and we need to be encouraged.

So hear these words and be encouraged this day.  They come from the end of the story Luke tells in Acts 12.  “But the word of God continued to advance and gain adherents.”  The word of God continued to advance.  The plan of God continued to advance, and the plan of God continues to advance.  In the midst of tyranny and state-sponsored violence.  In the midst of tyrants being tyrannical.  Tyrants are going to tyrannize.  It’s what they do.

Tyrants don’t have the last word, though. So we have the opportunity this 1^st day of February 2026 to remember and to answer the question together.  From where does my/your/our help come?  We have the opportunity today to say along with the Psalmist, “My help comes from the Lord.”  We’ve been asking, “What does it mean to confess that Jesus is Lord of all?”  We have the opportunity to pledge allegiance to our King together at his table.  To say “I belong to you.”  To say Jesus is our Lord signifies that a lot of other things aren’t our lord.  To say “Jesus is Lord” is to say that our deliverance, our freedom, our peace, our hope, our surety, our help, is in him.

This truth affects how we see history.  Is it true that history is written by the victors?   How are we, who are in Christ, called to view historic events?  We are living in the middle of historic events right now.  We even had a historic snowfall in Toronto last week.  Being middle-aged, I feel that I can talk about this from the middle in terms of where you all are (either ahead of me or behind me).  Indulge me for a few moments. As followers of Jesus, we have our heads up and our eyes wide open.  Staying awake and alert, as Jesus said.  A generation before my birth in 1970, we had the post-WWII rules-based order.  The creation of the United Nations.  The balance of power held between the Eastern and Western blocs.  In my own lifetime, we saw the collapse of the Soviet Union.  The End of History, as it was described by one political scientist.  Optimism abounded.  The theoretical triumph of liberal democracy.  I’m not saying any of these things is good or bad – this is not my purpose here.  The question I am posing is “From where comes our help?”  Technologically speaking, we saw the rise of the information age in the 90’s.  Not long after came the events of Sept 11, 2001, and all that ensued.  Not long after that, the rise of China and Russia.  Technologically speaking, the rise of social media in the last decade.  Which brings us to today.  The rupture of the international rules-based order, as someone said recently.  The rise of AI.  How do we see all this?  What should we do?

Take heart o follower of Jesus (and if you are not a follower of Jesus hear the invitation to get behind him with us).  We have a language for this kind of situation.  There’s a song that goes “The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter.”  The song goes “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.” (Ps 46)

Though state-sponsored violence is all around us.  Though tyranny seems to be the order of the day.  We are invited to see history through God’s eyes.  Look at what this meant for the church in Jerusalem in Acts 12.  “About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church.  He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword.” (12:1) State-sponsored violence in the name of… national security?  Public order?  A lot of evil can be done in the name of national security or public order.  James wasn’t a threat to anyone.  Apart from the threat which the follower of Jesus represents to any system/form of government/nation state that would demand his or her ultimate allegiance.  We have another allegiance after all.  James hadn’t done anything to deserve being put to the sword.  James, the brother of John.  The sons of thunder, as Jesus called them.  James had learned a lot from Jesus along with his brother John.  Now he was dead.  He didn’t deserve it.  They killed him.

On the order of King Herod.  Herod Antipas, as he was known.  The grandson of Herod the Great, whom we know from the story of Jesus’ birth.  Herod Antipas had been sent to Rome as a child.  He grew up close to the imperial family.  He knew Caligula and went to school with Claudiu,s who made him ruler over Judea and Samaria.  A client-king, as we call one who rules by the power of a foreign empire or nation.  He was well thought of locally for restoring the practice of sacrifice at the Jerusalem temple.  He was cruel and oppressive.  A tyrant who thought little of killing in the name of… 

He’s killed James.  Take out the leaders, and you’ll put an end to the movement, right? We remember that an earlier persecution made the disciples scatter.  The apostles – those who had spent all that time with Jesus – remained.  This small group and those still with them hear the news.  Seeing how popular the James move was, Herod had Peter arrested during the festival of unleavened bread.  We need to pause here and note what is going on.  This is all happening during the Passover, which celebrates the deliverance of a people by God from a tyrannical Egyptian king!  The original “the tyrant doesn’t win in the end” story.  The original deliverance/salvation/help story!  Keep this in mind.

   From where does our help come, dear church?  They’ve taken Peter now, and they plan to bring him out after the Passover.  They want to kill him, too?  What does the church do in response to this heartbreaking news?  What don’t they do first of all?  They don’t arm up and mount a rescue mission.  Jesus had already told them that the way of the sword wasn’t for them after all.  “No more of this!” Jesus said when one of them lashed out with a sword at Jesus’ arrest.  This isn’t the way of the kingdom.  “While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.”  They prayed.  How am I doing with that?  How are we doing with that?  Prayer is not all we’re called to when it comes to deliverance/freedom from oppression, and we’ll get to the other thing in a little while.  We are called to pray fervently.  Alone.  Together in worship.  Together in smaller groups.  Pray.  For what?  Pray that the ways of God would be made known.  Pray that tyrants would be brought down.  Pray for release for those who are oppressed (literally and figuratively).  Pray that rulers would lead in justice and righteousness.  Pray that the hearts of all would look to God for their help.  Pray, “Even so, Lord Jesus come.”  Just.  Pray.  The church was in the habit of praying in the evening, according to our story.  Pray with me this Wednesday evening on Zoom from 7-8 pm!  Drop in and out if time is short.  Let’s pray for justice together and talk about how we can do more of that. The church prayed fervently to God for Peter.  Release comes literally for Peter.  Literal release doesn’t always come on this side of the renewal of all things.  Literal release didn’t come for James, and we can’t claim to know why.  Literal release comes for Peter, but he’ll be killed for his faith later in life, according to church history.  Our God is a God of deliveranc, and release comes for Peter in the form of an angel.  Peter is bound with chains between two soldiers:

7 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, ‘Get up quickly.’ And the chains fell off his wrists. 8 The angel said to him, ‘Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.’ He did so. Then he said to him, ‘Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.’ 9 Peter[a] went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. 11 Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.’

Even Peter wasn’t expecting this!  He thought it was a vision at first.  He did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real.  Can “My help comes from the Lord?” really be real?  Deliverance, saving, security, peace.  Can this be real?  There’s this image of iron running through this passage.  The iron of oppression.  The sword with which James was killed.  The iron chains by which Peter was trapped.  The iron gate that opens on its own.  Here’s the thing about the iron of oppression.  Whether it’s in the form of swords, guns, chains, handcuffs, prison bars, warplanes, missiles, tanks, bombs:  THE IRON OF OPRESSION WILL NOT STAND AGAINST THE WOOD OF THE CROSS.

Are we out of our minds?  Out of our minds like a fox.  A peaceful fox.  Peter goes to the house of Mary, mother of John Mark, where many had gathered and were praying:

13 When he knocked at the outer gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. 14 On recognizing Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, ‘You are out of your mind!’ But she insisted that it was so. They said, ‘It is his angel.’ 16 Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed. 17 He motioned to them with his hand to be silent, and described for them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he added, ‘Tell this to James and to the believers.’[b] Then he left and went to another place.

They didn’t believe Rhoda.  “You are out of your mind!” they said. This group of people who believed in deliverance in Jesus did not recognize deliverance when it was at their door.  Let’s not be too hard on them, though.  All of us need to be coming to a deeper understanding of what it means to say “My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.”  It’s easy to be swayed when the messaging is all around us in terms of where our help comes from.  The power and strength of the state.  National security.  Trade agreements. The market.  Tech.  The algorithm. 

My help comes from the Lord.  Rhoda recognized him immediately, and she was so excited she forgot to let Peter in!  In the face of historic events, we are called like Rhoda to announce that deliverance is at hand – help is at hand – in the person of the living/dying/risen/ascended/returning Christ Jesus.  To let this truth be known in our words and in our deeds.  To let this truth be known, even when we’re told “You must be out of your mind!”  I’ve never been more in my right mind, and the Spirit’s making it righter all the time.  To let it be known in what we say, do, buy, sell, give away, and keep.  Deliverance is at the door!

We gather together to remember and hear the truth.  The tyrant does not have the last word.  Peter goes to an undisclosed location for his own safety, presumably.  Herod has a meeting with the people of Tyre and Sidon, cities on the coast in modern-day Lebanon.  They depended on the king’s country for food, Luke tells us.  Jewish historian Josephus tells this story.  It happened in Caesarea in the stadium there.  Herod puts on his royal robes.  Jospehus says they were silver, gleaming in the sun.  “He’s like a god,” they said.  He spoke so well that the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a mortal!”  It’s easy to believe your own hype I suppose when you start to think people are depending on you.  They depended on the king for food after all.  Not hard to conclude something like “You live because of me.”  I live in and by the grace of God, and I will die in the grace of God.  It’s easy to get deluded, I suppose, when, as a ruler or authority, you start to think that you hold the power of life and death in your hands.  “He’s like a god, and not a mortal, “they said.  Herod doesn’t try to convince them otherwise (and we remember good old Peter last week telling Cornelius, “Stand up, I’m only a mortal.”)  It will not go well for any ruler who takes the place of God.  “Tell them God Almighty’s gonna cut you down,” as one song goes.  “And immediately, because he had not given glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.”  A severe pain arose in his stomach, and he died five days later in his 54^th year.

But the word of God continued to advance and gain adherents.  The plan of God to make all things right goes on.  From where does our help come?  Our help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth, to whom we pledge trust and allegiance as we gather at his table.  Thanks be to God for his truth.