People are attracted to power. We crave it for ourselves, or we are drawn to those who seem have it like pilot fish to a shark. Just take a quick look at human history (or current events!), and you’ll see people who were willing to sacrifice justice or integrity in order to keep or gain power. Nor are Christians immune to the lust for earthly power—just take a quick look at church history (or current events)!

The New Testament paints a very different picture of the church. The New Testament shows us a God who choses the weak to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27). We see leaders who boast, not in their winning, but in their weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). We read commands to be bold and to fight, yet our armor is truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and the word of God; and the fight takes place on our knees in prayer (Ephesians 6:10-20). Indeed, we read the call to follow in the footsteps of our Savior, who willingly suffered unjust condemnation, torture, and death, refusing to trade insult for insult or threat for threat, but trusting himself to the justice of God (1 Peter 2:21-23). It is precisely because Christ suffered humiliation that he now enjoys exaltation (Philippians 2:8-11), and we are called to suffer with Christ if we are to be glorified with him (Romans 8:17). We must take up our cross of death if we would win the crown of life.

We see the same principle at work in this week’s sermon text. Acts 12 is about a political struggle—not between earthly powers but between the Lord Jesus and King Herod. King Herod is persecuting the church, perverting justice and slaughtering the innocent to please his political base. Herod seeks to build himself up as a god in the eyes of the people, but God intervenes to demonstrate who is really in control. A cosmic battle is raging between the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of Heaven.

And the battle brings the church to its knees—not in defeat, but in prayer. Some suffer death, some are miraculously freed, but in all things they are more than conquerors (Romans 8:36-38). We do not see a church that is desperate to win the culture war or put its own rulers on the throne. We see a church that is desperately
clinging to God in prayer, knowing that the real war is already won and the Ruler to end all rulers is on the only throne that lasts. God struck down Herod, but that wasn’t the victory. The real victory was this: “But the word of God increased and multiplied” (Acts 12:24).

Transformation does not come by force, it comes by God’s power at work through our weakness. Let’s get off our high horses and get on our knees.