Herod Agrippa was a persecutor of the ancient church. He even put Jesus’ disciple James to death and imprisoned Peter. In this sermon, R.C. Sproul draws us into the scene when Herod basked in his own glory before a crowd seeking to worship him. Dr. Sproul contrasts God’s judgment upon Herod’s idolatry with the flourishing growth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let us look now at Acts 12:20–13:3:

Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus the king’s personal aide their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food by the king’s country.

So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.

But the word of God grew and multiplied.

And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark.

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let him hear. Let us pray.

Father, as we continue to listen to the record of Your providential hand by which Your church was established in the first century, Your defense of those commissioned to that ministry, and Your judgment upon those who resisted it, we pray that we may be instructed and encouraged by Your providential care of Your people. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Conflict with the Phoenicians

In recent weeks, we heard about the persecution Herod Agrippa carried out against the saints in Jerusalem, harassing them, putting the Apostle James to death, and shutting up Peter in prison before his miraculous and supernatural rescue by the angel of the Lord.

Now, the attention comes to a brief interlude concerning what was going on with Herod Agrippa. After Agrippa had finished his persecution in Jerusalem, he returned to Caesarea. Caesarea was the city where the Roman representative always kept a residence.

Let us look at the text, as it reads in verse 20: “Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon.” We do not know what precipitated Agrippa’s fury against the people of Tyre and Sidon, but we know they were the two chief cities of the ancient Phoenician people.

When students study world history in school, some include a history of the Phoenicians because their civilization goes so far back in history. They developed a profitable sea trade and were known for their commercial prowess. They had been involved in trading with the nation of Israel for over one thousand years by the time of the New Testament period. In the Old Testament when Solomon built the temple, he went to Hiram, the king of Tyre, who provided certain materials and provisions for the Jewish king to build the temple. There had been international trade going back and forth for over a millennium, but something disturbed that relationship.

Herod Agrippa, the ruling king of the Jews at this point in history, was enraged against the Phoenicians and cut them off from the supplies of the Israelites. The principal crop that the Phoenicians relied upon from the Jews was the importing of grain. You can imagine what would happen to our nation if we lost all the grain that was produced or coming here from another nation.

I will add parenthetically a brief axiom regarding world history and economics. The phrase goes like this: when goods and services freely cross borders, soldiers rarely do. But when borders are stopped for the transport of goods and services, that will often produce the kind of rage we read about in our text, and that can escalate into full-blown war.

The people of Phoenicia were hurting at this point, and they sent a delegation because they had a friend in the court. The representatives of the Phoenicians knew the chamberlain of King Agrippa, so they came to him, sued for peace, and begged for an opportunity to meet with Agrippa to resolve these difficulties and restore the transportation of foodstuffs.

Arrogant Agrippa’s Death

Let us listen to Luke’s description of what happened: “So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, ‘The voice of a god and not of a man!’ Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.”

This terse account of the death of King Agrippa is interesting as far as it goes, but this is one of those New Testament texts that is elucidated much further in an expanded description by the first-century historian of the Jews, Josephus. I always encourage my students in seminary that in addition to their studies of the New Testament, they ought to have a copy of Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities because he gives such a gripping account of the history of the first century and happened up to the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem in AD 70.

I believe it is in the nineteenth chapter of Josephus’ Antiquities that he gives a description of the death of Herod Agrippa. At every point, he agrees with Luke’s account, but he adds some fascinating details. He tells us that this all started on the first of August, which was the annual date that celebrated the building of the city of Caesarea in honor of Tiberius, who was then the ruling emperor of Rome. There would be a time of celebration, and the reigning king of Israel would put on a magnificent show.

Agrippa had organized games and productions that took place in Caesarea. The ruins of Agrippa’s throne were located and the theater in which he gave this oration remain to this day. You can see them if you visit the Holy Land. I have been there and stood in the very place where Agrippa gave this oration, and it was interesting to see it with my own eyes.

For this occasion, Agrippa changed his normal royal garments and had a specially made robe fabricated for the occasion, which was made by sewing fine threads of pure silver. The royal garment that he wore on this day was pure silver. He orchestrated his appearance and public oration to take place early in the morning when the sun rose so that it glistened, glittered, and shined off his pure silver garment.

It was so spectacular, so much more majestic than Agrippa’s normal garments, that the people saw him in the radiant sunlight and thought they were in the presence of deity. They cried out as they listened to this message from Agrippa, “It’s the voice of a god and not merely a man.”

On several occasions in the book of Acts, we find people who are mistaken for gods. It happened to Peter. It happened to Paul. Any time that takes place in Scripture, even if it was an angel from heaven who came to make an announcement and was mistaken for God, in every one of those occasions, those human or angelic personages admonished and rebuked people from offering worship to them because they understood that God and God alone is worthy of worship.

But instead of rebuking the people and admonishing them for this acclamation, Agrippa basked in it. He was loving every second of this adulation from the people until, as Josephus tells us later, in the very midst of this moment, he doubled over in excruciating pain and was physically carried out of the amphitheater, where he was taken into someone’s quarters. There, he laid in ongoing pain for five days and died.

Kings Die, the Word Grows

We do not know what it was that killed Agrippa. Even though Luke was a physician, he does not give us the name of the disease. There has been speculation over the years that perhaps it was peritonitis from a burst appendix, which would account for the sudden pain. Others have thought that he died from arsenic poisoning because there was always that sort of intrigue going on in the royal courts of the day.

In any case, those would be the secondary reason for his malady and subsequent death. The primary cause of his death, as Luke tells us, was the judgment of God. God will not be mocked. This king of the Jews had killed the Apostle James, harassed the body of Christ, thrown Peter into prison, and was arrogating to himself a claim to deity. At that point, God said, “This far and no further.” There is no more perilous condition for any human being than to have no fear of God in your heart.

Remember Belshazzar’s feast in Daniel 5. In his anger, Belshazzar brought out the holy vessels of God to celebrate with his underlings. During that joyous celebration, in the very midst of his arrogance, Belshazzar looked, and he alone could see the back wall of the auditorium. He saw the handwriting on the wall—a disembodied hand, writing the words, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin—you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.”

We are told that Belshazzar’s knees began to knock, and his lips trembled. Almost as an insignificant postscript, it is added to the text that on that night, Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. It was the same judgment that now came upon Herod Agrippa who died and was eaten by worms. But in stark contrast to the fate of Agrippa, Luke adds the fate of the gospel, where he says that the Word of God grew. The Word of God multiplied. The worms did not eat the gospel; they ate the king—and the gospel flourished.

Out of the House of Antipas

We read that Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they fulfilled their ministry and took John Mark with them. We get a brief introduction to the leaders in the church of Antioch at this time: “There were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,” who may have been Simon of Cyrene, the man who carried part of the cross of Jesus, “Lucius of Cyrene,” who could have been Luke or the Lucius that Paul mentions in Romans, we do not know for sure. But the one I want you to notice in passing is the next one: “Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch.” Manaen was the foster son of Herod the Tetrarch, who was Herod Antipas, the youngest son of Herod the Great. Manaen was born and raised in the same household as Herod Antipas.

Do you remember Herod Antipas and his famous festivity, with the dancing of Salome and Herodias? They brought him the head of John the Baptist on the platter. It was that Herod Antipas who had John the Baptist murdered. It was that Herod Antipas who was involved in the trial of Jesus when they kept passing Jesus back and forth between the Jewish and Roman authorities. It was Herod Antipas.

Imagine Manaen, raised in the same house, in the same family, being taught the same values as Herod Antipas. Does that not remind you of an Old Testament person who was adopted into the house of Pharaoh, trained in the arts, medicine, and science of the Egyptians, who then was exiled into the Midianite wilderness until God called to him out of a burning bush and set him as the head of His people in the Old Testament? God took Moses from the household of Pharaoh and exalted him in His sight. God took from the very house of Herod Antipas his foster brother Manaen and made him a leader of the Apostolic church in Antioch.

That is how God works, beloved. Jacob has He loved; Esau has He hated. One is taken; one is left. If you are a Christian, you are a Christian by the same grace that called Manaen out of the household of Herod Antipas. I pray to God that none of you would be the real children of Antipas.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.