The Bible is filled with warnings about the pride of man. "A man's pride will bring him low" (Prov. 29:23). "When pride comes, then comes dishonor" (Prov. 11:2). "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling" (Prov. 16:18). "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6).
While the Bible warns of the destructiveness of pride, our society promotes it as a virtue. Rarely do you hear anyone speak of walking in humility or casting aside self-confidence. As Thomas Watson expressed it, "Pride runs in the blood" [The Mischief of Sin, 24]. John Calvin adds, "For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy--this pride is innate in all of us..." [Institutes, vol. I, 37].
The essence of pride is found in all our unbelief. John Piper has written, "Unbelief is turning away from God and his Son in order to seek satisfaction in other things. Pride is turning away from God specifically to take satisfaction in self" [Future Grace, 87]. Pride looks away from God in His majesty and offers instead a gaze of majesty upon oneself or one's abilities or one's position in life. It exalts self, while simultaneously attempting to somehow deflate God and His glory.
At the heart of so much of our sin is found this essence of pride. We ignore the commands of God because we have an inflated view of our opinions. We steal or commit immoralities because we value ourselves and our desires above others. We neglect the Sabbath to keep it holy because we consider our pleasures to be above the worship of God. We covet our neighbor's possessions because we think we deserve more than anyone else. Pride lurks in the darkness of our hearts and strikes through a thousand snakish sins.
King Herod, also known as Agrippa I, demonstrates the truth that pride goes before destruction. We find him arrogantly opposing the work of God for his own selfish gain. We see in his words, actions, and even outward appearance, a man satiated with pride. When the ultimate test of his pride confronts him, that of being called a god, Herod smugly accepts the feigned worship of the Phoenician countrymen. Immediately, the judgment of God strikes this prideful man and brings him to an ignominious death.
We must learn some truth about our own hearts as we take a look at this biblical narrative. We must see the snare of pride and humble ourselves under the sovereign hand of God.
I want us to see how pride is exposed in its various dimensions in our text, then understand its roots as we examine it, then finally, let us see how God brings pride to an end, recognizing that there is a wondrous hope for pride-filled sinners in the cross of Jesus Christ.
I. Pride exposed
Herod Agrippa was a man raised with the proverbial 'silver-spoon' in his mouth. His grandfather was Herod the Great who ruled the regions of Palestine during the time of the birth of Christ. Herod was raised with future emperors, Claudius and the wicked Caligula. He became a man given to extravagance, who satisfied himself on the luxuries of life. His lifestyle eventually put him in the 'poorhouse', so that he borrowed money from whoever he could to keep up his lifestyle and avoid working for a living. After Caligula became emperor, he restored Herod to his former state of wealth. Caligula, who was a legitimate madman, was murdered because of his intolerable reign and the new emperor, Claudius, gave Herod the throne of his once revered grandfather, king over Palestine.
Herod's grandmother was Jewish, so he decided to exploit his ties to Judaism to improve his position with the Jews. He offered sacrifices in the Temple, read the law publicly as kings were commanded to do, and expressed his delight in living in Jerusalem rather than Caesarea. The Jews accepted him as their king and for this reason, we see his attacks upon the Christians beginning to take place.
1. By a disdain for others
We notice his pride being displayed by his disdain for others. Herod was out for himself, period. He did not care who he hurt or over whom he trampled as long as attention and honor was given to him. Luke comments in verses 1-2, "Now about that time, Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church, in order to mistreat them. And he had James the brother of John put to death." The whole purpose of Herod was not to find justice or to comply with the law, rather "to mistreat them" [an infinitive of purpose]. His design was harm and affliction. He carried it out ruthlessly.
Why did he suddenly begin punishing Christians when there had been relative quiet from the Roman authorities toward Christianity since the death of Christ? Herod had an exalted view of his own intelligence and power. He thought that he could further his popularity with the Jews by assaulting the one group the Jews most despised. Rather than giving consideration to the righteousness of God, Herod could only think of himself. Such is the nature of pride.
Pride gives no thought to the will of God because it is too consumed with its own pleasure. Pride cares not for the welfare of others because it is saturated with a craving for selfish attention.
The careless words that we speak which paint others in a bad light in order to make us look better is pride. Cutting others down, making fun of problems or handicaps in others has its roots in pride. It shows up in the business world when one person tramples on another to climb to the top of the ladder. It is so apparent in school when one young person spreads rumors of another or exposes some secret or ridicules some perceived flaw. Prejudice and a nose-in-the-air attitude display this wretched condition of pride as it shows itself in disdaining others.
2. By a man-pleasing spirit
After Herod had imprisoned a number of the brethren (Luke does not tell how many, only that the two chief leaders in the church were among their number) and had James beheaded, he swelled with pride because it pleased the Jews. "And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also....And when he had seized him, he put him in four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people" (vv. 3-4). The idea of bringing Peter out before the people implied a public execution.
Here an innocent, holy, righteous man was executed and Herod was feeling good about himself. That may seem strange, yet that is the evil nature of pride. Because the Jews so hated the disciples and so desired to eradicate Christianity, Herod used his power to please the Jews and gain favor for himself. Peter was his next target for execution; and for one reason: that Herod might gain favor of the Jews.
Perhaps one of the worst aspects of pride in our own lives is found in this man-pleasing spirit. By this I mean that you may act in a certain way or make particular decisions, all in an effort to impress others. Do you find yourself doing that sort of thing? All of us, from time to time, have fallen prey to this selfish, man-pleasing spirit.
It begins with longing to have attention centered upon ourselves. Even little children act badly, knowing they will be punished, just so that they can have attention centered upon themselves. My brethren, what we punish in a little child is the same spirit that shows up in youth and adults: pride. It is a craving to be noticed and admired, so that we will violate the law of God, cast aside godly convictions, and ruin others lives if need be, just so that we can have attention.
This can go to extremes as in the cases of men and women committing violent, criminal acts just to gain attention. John Hinckley, Jr., tried to assassinate President Reagan so that he could get the attention of actress Jodie Foster. At the root of his insane behavior was a river of pride that craved attention.
Attention is followed by approval. The man-pleasing spirit of pride desires to be approved by others. This is why so many young people wreck their lives with drugs, alcohol, and sex so that they might feel approved by the 'in-crowd'. They will go against the warning and instruction of their parents, their pastor, and their teachers in order to have a perceived sense of approval by their peers. When you look at the matter of drugs, for instance, common sense will tell you that using drugs is a dead-end street, that it is a fool's proposition. Yet common sense is useless when pride takes over. The future is cast aside for the satisfaction of the present and wrong choices often forfeit future happiness.
This can be readily witnessed in the so-called 'locker room talk'. Young men get together in the locker room and want the approval of others, so they must have something to boast about. They will talk about their latest high on drugs or their getting away with driving while drunk or their violating the virtue of a young lady. It is pride! It is a foolish grabbing for approval by peers who they won't even see in a few years. Pride sacrifices purity, holiness, and godliness for a sly grin and smug laugh.
Attention is followed by approval which is followed by applause. That's what Herod craved; the applause of his Jewish constituents. He may have had the applause of the Jews, but he did not have the applause of heaven. My friend, pride may gain earthly applause, but it receives the frown of heaven and the displeasure of the Almighty. Do you crave attention, approval, and applause from others? Then you are heading for destruction: pride goes before destruction. You are chasing after the wind, for a man-pleasing spirit can never satisfy the human soul.
3. By a god-ambition
I use the rather awkward phrase, god-ambition, because that is precisely the ultimate manifestation of pride. When Herod delivered his regal oration before his back-slapping Phoenician subjects [Tyre and Sidon were parts of old Phoenicia], they began to chant loudly, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" Could he accept such vain praise? Would he? Of course he would, because his heart was full of pride. He longed to think of himself as a god. He sought to exercise control of his destiny. His extravagance in life so filled him that he could smugly accept divine accolades for himself. In Herod's own eyes, he was a god.
He had grown up with the Roman emperors who had themselves claimed deity. His close friend, Caligula, heralded emperor worship as much as any of his predecessors. Many lost their lives for not worshiping him as a god. The emperor Claudius claimed this same honor, though not to the same extent as Caligula. Claudius even sought to put a statue of himself in the Temple in Jerusalem in an effort to put himself in the place of Jehovah, but Herod knew it would cause a riot, so he deftly suggested to Claudius that he should find another location. But secretly, Herod nursed that same god-ambition.
That is the pride-filled action of the Garden of Eden. The serpent's shrewd temptation concerning the forbidden fruit was that by eating it, Adam and Eve would "be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:5). Then follows the act of sin, "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate" (3:6). The desire to be wise was not for godly wisdom, but a longing to be in the same position as God Himself. It was a god-ambition. Calvin says of this, "To have been made in the likeness of God seemed no small matter to a son of earth unless he also attained equality with God--a monstrous wickedness!" [Institutes, vol. I, 245].
Adam's sin continues in his posterity. The desire to control your own life rather than submit to the Word of God is nothing more than god-ambition. The spirit of self-indulgence in which you live your life the way you want to live it regardless of what God says is this god-ambition. Are you guilty before God today of trying to usurp His rule over your life? Do you try to kick aside the law of God and throw off the restraints of the Almighty to follow your own pleasures?
Pride was exposed in Herod Agrippa and pride will be exposed in us as well. We cannot look into the mirror of God's Word or gaze upon the revelation of God's Son without being arrested by our own sin of pride. May the Lord expose us, so that we might flee to Him for mercy and forgiveness of our pride!
II. Pride examined
I was digging a weed from a small garden plot one day, when I discovered that the roots went deeper than I ever imagined. I dug a rather large hole to finally remove the weed and end its terror over my garden plot.
Let us do this spiritually in these next few moments as we dig to expose the roots of pride in our own lives.
1. Arrogance toward the revelation of God
God had spoken clearly through the Law, Prophets, and the Psalms concerning the Messiah and His redemptive work. Herod was no stranger to the Word of God. He had read it publicly during the Jewish festivals, even weeping over portions of it according to Josephus. He was familiar with the teaching of the prophets. But the problem was that Herod displayed His own arrogance toward the revelation of God. God had spoken. But Herod did not care. He was going to act according to his desires anyway. We see him following through on this by killing the apostle James and then arresting Peter in preparation for his execution (vv. 1-4).
Do you find yourself acting in this same vein with Herod? Are there areas of your life which you know that God has clearly spoken in His Word, yet you are choosing to ignore His commands or warnings? Are you indulging in certain sins with the clear knowledge that God had spoken against them? If so, then your heart is rotten with pride! For pride manifests itself when we dare to act with arrogance toward the revelation of God.
Jesus warned about this prideful arrogance toward the Word of God. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7:24-27), we have the parable of the house built upon the rock and the house built upon the sand. Arrogance toward the Word of God is comparable to building your house on the sand. "And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall."
Anyone who has spent much time on the sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast understands that you cannot trust the shifting sand. Houses built on the coast are constructed upon pilings that are driven far below the sand into firm ground. To put a house on the sand without these pilings is to invite destruction. To hear the Word of God and not act upon it is to invite this same, sure destruction. The shifting foundations of the world, personal opinion, selfish feelings cannot carry your life through to eternity. Are you allowing your own pride to set you up for destruction by arrogance toward the Word of God?
2. Ignoring the reality about oneself
Pride ignores the reality about oneself. It is interesting that both Luke and the Jewish historian, Josephus, have many of the same details in this story of Herod's speech in the amphitheater of Caesarea. Luke mentions the royal apparel that Herod had put on. Josephus adds a note that this robe was woven with threads of silver so that in the early morning sun on the second day of this Olympic-style celebration, the sun caused him to glisten. With the radiance of his outfit, the power of his oration, Herod began to believe what the crowd was saying about him, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" He ignored the reality about himself as a helpless sinner before God.
Herod was finding great pleasure in himself, when instead he should have been finding pleasure in God alone. His pride was making his own life an idol of self-worship. Perhaps some of you have fallen prey to this same vanity of "thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think" and failing to ignore the reality about yourself (Rom. 12:3).
John Piper stated, "It is radically humbling to confess that the source of all our joy resides outside ourselves" [Future Grace, 88]. That is precisely what we must do if we are going to deal with our own pride. We must see the truth about ourselves that our own hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked; that apart from God's goodness and grace, we do not even begin to desire God or to honor Him. All of our own righteousness, all of the goodness which we think we possess, if we could put it together and offer it to God as eternal satisfaction, it would amount to a pile of filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). In our flesh dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18). Any good that comes out of our lives flows from the gracious hand of God! Pride denies this; humility confesses it.
3. Claiming God's glory for oneself
The act of divine justice upon Herod took place because of his attempt to claim the glory of God for himself. "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." Here was the problem. the audience was praising Herod, calling him the voice of a god. Rather than rebuking their claims or denying such foolishness, he accepted it.
You can contrast this with a similar situation in the missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas. Paul had commanded a lame man at Lystra to stand upright on his feet. The man jumped up, healed by the power of God. Immediately, the multitudes began to cry out, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us." They began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, his messenger, Hermes. The priest of Zeus brought oxen to sacrifice before them. When they recognized what the multitudes were doing, Barnabas and Paul tore their robes to show their disagreement with the claims, and cried out, "Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you in order that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them." They continued to restrain the people from daring to offer glory to them. In the end, Paul ended up being stoned and left for dead! (Acts 14)
Paul and Barnabas would not dare to accept the glory that belongs only to God, while Herod gladly "allowed divine honors to be rendered to himself" [Acts, J.A. Alexander, 460-461]. The two missionaries found their great satisfaction in giving glory to God; Herod found his satisfaction in having honor heaped on himself.
The great Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, walked on the roof of his palace and reflected on his greatness, power, and his perceived glory. A voice from heaven called out to him divine judgment and this illustrious king spent the next seven years living like an animal. Finally, God re-established his throne and Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the majesty of God alone: "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, foe all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride" (Dan. 4:37).
For you to arrogantly spurn the Word of God or to ignore the reality about yourself as a sinner at enmity with God or to claim the glory that belongs only to God is to be imprisoned in pride. I remind you, "God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble." He will break the pride of men.
III. Pride extinguished
Pride will ultimately be extinguished. Pride must be judged and punished because it dares to claim the glory for self that should belong only to God. There are only two possibilities for addressing this problem.
1. Divine judgment
In the case of Herod, he faced divine judgment for his pride. The angel of the Lord struck him right in the middle of his oration. Josephus tells us that five days after being struck in the middle of his speech, Herod died a miserable death.
The text states that "he was eaten by worms and died." Various ideas have been proposed about this, but interestingly, there is medical evidence that Luke, the physician, was giving a very detailed description of Herod's death. The word he uses means quite literally, "eaten of worms." Intestinal worms of a severe nature were not unusual during that era. One authority states that he quite likely had tapeworms that had formed a cyst, then burst, suddenly releasing hundreds of thousands of the parasitic worms that attack the internal organs [MacArthur's NT Commentary, quoting Dr. Jean Sloat Morton, p. 327].
Herod's physical death was gruesome and painful, but it was mild compared to the awfulness of his eternal death in hell, "Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48). His pride kept him from bending his heart in submission to the living Lord, so he reaped the eternal consequence of rejecting Christ and disobeying the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Divine judgment awaits all who reject the gospel of Christ. All of the wrath and justice of a righteous God against pride-filled, idolatrous sinners looms before those who dare to spurn the goodness of God and cling to self-love. Does that include you? Does your pride keep you from the only One who can set you free, Jesus Christ? I plead with you to humble yourself by repenting of your sin and trusting wholly in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Sovereign.
2. By the cross of Jesus Christ
The narrative concerning Herod ends in a seemingly strange way: But [note the conjunction] the word of the Lord continued to grow and be multiplied." Herod faced divine judgment, but the word of the Lord, which is another way of stating the gospel message, grew in its proclamation and multiplied in those who responded to it. Herod clung to his pride and faced eternal judgment. Others humbled themselves at the cross of Jesus Christ and accepted the judgment of God in His Son on their behalf.
The cross of Jesus Christ crushes our pride. As we look at that empty cross we are confronted by the fact that we are helpless to do anything to save ourselves. Christ went to the cross because He alone could atone for our sins and deliver us from the wrath of God. You and I have no saving power. We have no righteousness to commend ourselves to God. We have no goodness deserving God's favor. We are empty, helpless, hopeless. "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling."
As we humble ourselves in repentance, acknowledging our sin, turning from our sinfulness, and casting ourselves in trust upon the Lord Jesus Christ, we become new creatures in Christ. We look to this gracious Christ and see how He is full of mercy, even for those full of pride. We are filled with the realization of our nothingness; that any good thing in us flows from His grace. Have you met this Christ in His saving power? Has He brought you low by showing you your sin, only to lift you to heights beyond measure by the assurance that you are His and He is yours?
The only true deliverance from our pride is the cross of Jesus Christ. As we look to Christ and His atoning death, He sets us free from the bondage of pride and into the liberty of walking with Him in humility and obedience. Let's turn from our pride by humbling ourselves before the Lord Jesus Christ.
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