24 But the word of God grew and multiplied. 25 And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry, and took with them John, whose surname was Mark. (Acts 12:24-25 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Observe, Herod the tyrant and persecutor being dead, the gospel prospered, and was preached up and down with great success. Persecutors, by their weak endeavours to pull down the church, do build it up the stronger. The church in Egypt never grew so high as when Pharaoh laboured most to keep it low; the more he molested them, the more he multiplied them.
Thus here, after Herod’s death, and Peter’s deliverance, the word of God grew and multiplied: that is, the number of believers increased through the preaching of the word, as seed is multiplied by the scattering of the hand; the word preached is the seen sown in the furrows of the field; The ground was now harrowed by the hand of the persecutors, and the seed grew the better, and the fruits of faith and obedience did by every shower of persecution more and more abound.
The truth of God may for a time be oppressed, but it shall never be fully and finally suppressed: still “the word of God grew and multiplied.”