Prison Break!
Acts 12:1-24
November 4, 2007
Front page of the AJC every day has a headline like this: “Water Wars Land in Washington’s Lap”, and the editorial page contains two or three pieces on our need for water. Meanwhile, church signs plead, “pray for rain”. Can we just be gut-level honest here? Are there not times when each of us wrestle with doubts and questions, wondering why it is that God chooses to act as He does? Take this drought, for instance. If I were the PR guy for God—and it’s a good thing I’m not, of course—I’d be real tempted to have a conversation that went something like this: “Lord, there are many people praying for the drought to end, for You to open up the skies and dump a good bit of rain on Georgia, and the fact that You’ve not done it yet doesn’t look real good. Your poll numbers are on a downward trend, Lord, and so if you could just do the “Perfect Storm” thing, and dump a whole bunch of rain on Atlanta metro, it’d sure be a good thing. If you could pull off like a localized Lake Lanier thing, that’d be even better.” Or take my house in PA. We’ve been praying for over a year now for that thing to sell—and it hasn’t. And it’s frustrating, and for the life of me, I don’t know what kind of lesson, other than maybe patience, I’m supposed to learn from this. Maybe there’s something I’m missing that’ll be obvious one day, but right now, I’m not really jumping up and down with the circumstances. Why doesn’t God do something, we ask.
Table Talk
What are some things that most make you wonder, “why does God act as He does”?
Each of us could point to things in our lives, if we’re honest, that fall into a file folder something like I’ve described. Why did the little boy die in the freak accident on a four-wheeler a couple years back? Why doesn’t God seem to answer prayers we pray for prodigal kids? Why is Roe v. Wade still the law of the land? And so on. And sometimes we doubt God, wonder what He’s up to, even if He’s really got things under control after all. Got news for you: we’re not alone in that, I guarantee. Some of the stuff that happens in today’s narrative is confounding, and some of the followers of Jesus we read of today didn’t have great faith, didn’t get it, couldn’t understand what God was doing. And this is when it comes down to our faith in God, in His Word, in His promises, that despite appearances and circumstances and events that shake us or scare us or frustrate us or cause us to have crises of faith, God is in control. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God, for those who come to Him must believe that He exists and that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” With those thoughts in mind, let’s read today’s text, Acts 12:1-24.
Gentile Christianity has begun to grow, and in the book of Acts the rest of the way, it’ll take center stage. But here in Acts 12, we see that God is still at work in the Jerusalem church as well, through a variety of circumstances, some seemingly good and some seemingly bad, to accomplish His purpose.
Let’s not make the mistake of getting caught up in the details of Acts and miss the forest for the trees. The “trees” are the characters and the plot line, the events and the personalities, the good and the seeming bad, but the “forest” is the hand of God moving to accomplish His purpose in the forward movement of the gospel of Christ for the purpose of the building of His Kingdom. That remains His purpose today.
If we looked at the “trees” today, we’d see a nice mix of the good and the bad, and a story that combines tragedy, intrigue, humor, and what might strike us as a fitting “moral” to the story. We read about a pompous king named Herod, a martyr named James, a prisoner named Peter, a praying church (that forgot that God actually…answers prayer!), an excited little servant girl named Rhoda who forgot her manners, and some misguided folks who decided to worship a man. And we’ll look at that story some, to be sure…but let’s not lose sight of the hand of God as we look at the plot line of the story, because we must be clear about this: through everything that happens, the sovereign hand of God is at work—and He is at work in your life and your circumstances as well. And He is at work in your life and your circumstances, not primarily so you can “Become a Better You” or live “Your Best Life Now”, but rather so that He can bring glory to Himself, because while we are the actors on the stage, if you will, He is the Writer, Director, Producer, and Audience of it all.
I. Herod, Ruthless & Relentless
:1-5
In Acts 2, the Bible says that Christ’s followers enjoyed the favor of all the people, but by this time, a few years later, the situation had deteriorated severely, so much so that when King Herod Agrippa I, who worked hard to maintain his standing among the Jewish people, had James, John’s brother, killed (the first apostle to be martyred), the people were happy to see it happen, and he decided to go it one better, putting Peter in prison. Herod Agrippa sounds like a bad guy, and it’s certainly true that he persecuted the church, but in reality, he was pretty well-liked by his Jewish constituents, and he did many things that benefited the people of Judaea. He was the consummate politician, not all that concerned with principle, but hip-deep in finger-to-the-wind pragmatism, willing to become whatever he needed to be in order to maintain his comfortable hold on power. His desire, as the ruling representative of Rome, was to maintain the Pax Romana, by keeping the status quo and cracking down on anyone or any movement that threatened to rock that boat.
Christianity he viewed as just such a movement. And thus he imprisons Peter in maximum security, with the idea that, after the Feast of Unleavened Bread ends, a kangaroo court will be convened, Herod will stage a show trial, and then execute the leader of this movement as a warning to others who might follow this Jesus fellow. To make sure his plan isn’t foiled, he assigns double the guard to Peter, in order to make certain that his plan wasn’t foiled by zealous Christians smuggling Peter out of the situation. Peter’s very hours were numbered, as the “trial” would surely end in a guilty verdict, and Peter would meet his end via beheading. Things look kind of bleak when we get to verse 6.
II. Peter, Snoozing & Sleepwalking
:6-11
Peter responds to this urgent, life-threatening situation by settling into a deep snooze (:7). There’s both courage and humor there, of course; courage in that the prospect of his own martyrdom didn’t seem to faze him; humor in that while others are praying, Pete is sawing logs. We can imagine the angel smacking Pete upside the head to get his attention, then having to patiently instruct him in putting on his clothes; we’re left to wonder if he got each sandal on the correct foot the first time. He’s got heavy stubble on his face, morning breath, and Bed Head. He hasn’t had his morning coffee, and he’s so out of it that, even when he is delivered by the angel of the Lord, he thinks it’s just a big dream; takes him a while to come to his senses, perhaps the cold night air finally jarring the groggy disciple back to reality.
Though it takes him awhile to realize it, a miracle has occurred; God has sent his messenger as His deliverer, releasing Peter from the chains that bound him, leading him out to resume the work to which God had called him.
III. The Church, Faithful & Faithless
:5b, 12-17
Did I skip something? Sure! I skipped the end of verse 5. The situation seemed hopeless; there was nothing that the church could do. Well, OK, there was one thing, but what difference would that make? All that the church could do was to respond with fervent, continuous prayer; that’s the implication of the text. This is wholehearted and urgent; the church recognizes that, having lost James, it could next lose Peter. Their first resort was to pray, and thus they were faithful to discharge the duty to which they, and all of us, were and are called, that we pray for one another. And it’s not like there wasn’t precedent for a release—it happened earlier, as is recorded in Acts 5:19, and it could happen again, they reasoned, by the power of God.
As John Stott says, “Here then were two communities, the world and the church, arrayed against one another, each wielding an appropriate weapon. On the one side was the authority of Herod, the power of the sword and the security of the prison. On the other side, the church turned to prayer, which is the only power which the powerless possess.” People speaking words, not to one another, but to a God Whom they could not see: this would strike many a contemporary man as the height of foolishness, but it was all that the church had…and as it turned out, it was all that the church needed. God responded to the prayers of His people and released Peter. So we get the point clearly, class, was Peter released because of the faithful prayers of God’s people, or because of the power of God? Yes!
Peter, needing to inform the praying church that all was well, and then to go into hiding immediately out of concern for being recaptured, made his way to the home of John Mark’s mother, John Mark being a key figure in the early church and the writer of the second gospel. There is speculation, with reasonable cause, that the room in which the assembled church was meeting, in this large home, was one and the same as the setting for Christ’s Last Supper, but we cannot know for sure.
The faithful who were praying for his release, of course, thought Rhoda was actually nuts when God answered the prayers they’d been praying. The common belief of the day was that each person had a guardian angel—some believe that today, though it’s difficult to prove conclusively from Scripture. And when she reported his presence—leaving him standing at the door instead of just letting him in—they suggested to her that his angel was the one knocking on the door, probably more of a lighthearted attempt at humor than a serious answer to her. “You’re hearing things” is likely what they were saying. Notice that the faithful were…faithless! Let’s not criticize them too harshly though; most of us can identify with faithless praying even as we are being faithful to do the praying!
But then during a pause in their banter, someone else said, “you know, I think I hear something, be quiet!” And they were, and then another said the same thing. And when they went to the door, the answer to their prayers was standing there. After a slobbery greeting, punctuated by such noise that he had to quiet them, Peter said he wanted James, the Lord’s brother and leader of the Jerusalem church (a different James than the one martyred) to be apprised of the situation, so he makes his report and then goes underground, “so successfully that no one to this day has discovered for certain where he went”, says FF Bruce.
You know, every group has its stories, and we can only imagine that this entire episode was the fodder for a good many tales told around the potluck table when the church gathered to fellowship!
IV. Herod, Vengeful & Vain
:18-23
In Roman law, when a prisoner escaped, the guards responsible were subject to the same penalty that would have befallen the escapee, and so, frustrated and humiliated by this incident, Herod exercised his prerogative. He undoubtedly suspected some “inside job”, and furious at a lack of answers upon interrogation, had the guards executed. Whether this made him feel better or not, we don’t know, but sometimes finding and punishing a scapegoat provides a solace to the prideful when they are humiliated, as was the king.
But if his ego was bruised by this episode, he got a boost of confidence from the people of Tyre and Sidon, who in their attempts to win him to their cause, resort to flattery and even worship. Herod’s robes were made of silver, which gave a brilliant glow when in the sun, such that the flatterers attributed godhood status to him. Josephus, the historian, records that his flatterers began calling out words that ended in his demise, invoking him with the cry, “Be gracious unto us! Hitherto we have reverenced thee as a man, but henceforth we acknowledge thee to be of more than mortal nature.” The prideful Herod basked in this adoration, and instead of setting the record straight, he proceeded to allow them to praise him as though he were indeed a god. Josephus records what happened next: Herod immediately began to experience severe abdominal pain, and died five days later, eaten up by worms, according to Luke’s account. We should, I guess, neither judge a book by its cover nor a king by his splendor, because Herod, though regal on the outside, was rotting on the inside all the while.
I’m going to spare you the ghastly details of what suffering with intestinal roundworms could produce in a person, but suffice it to say that it was a good bit more nightmarish than a minor case of hiccups, OK? If you must know, I can put you in touch with the info, but if you’ll leave such things unsaid, so will I. Regardless, the Bible attributes Herod’s death to the angel of the Lord, God’s servant assigned to carry out this gruesome task.
V. God, Sovereign & Saving
:1-24
Remember my words earlier about missing the forest for the trees? Here’s the forest, friends. The chapter opens with Herod persecuting the church, James dead, and Peter in prison awaiting execution; it ends with the Word of God flourishing and going forward in accomplishing the purpose of regenerating sinners. Why? Because God’s in charge of everything that transpires. God is acting in every circumstance to accomplish His plan—whether it seems like it or not!
A. In Persecution & Prayer
The focus of this passage, in the minds of so many, is that “the church prayed, and Peter was delivered miraculously!” Do a search on “Sermon Central” of all the sermons that have been preached on this passage, and you’ll find all kinds of messages extolling the power of prayer as seen in the deliverance of Peter. And yes, we should “pray without ceasing”, and yes, we should pray in faith, and yes, we should bring our requests before the throne of God, and yes, sometimes God does do wonderful and miraculous things in response to the prayers of His people; all of those things are Scriptural and thus true.
But here’s my question: did no one pray for James? One preacher, in explaining this, said that James was executed so quickly that the church didn’t have time to pray, and certainly the text is silent on this, but James himself, one of the “Inner Three” with his brother John and Peter, the closest of the disciples to Jesus; did he not pray? Isn’t it likely that at least a few others witnessed what was going on and prayed as well? Do we know from the text that the same scenario as happened with Peter didn’t happen with James, that there was a time lapse prior to the execution? And can we say with certainty that nobody prayed? In fact, just the opposite is true, I believe; while we don’t know the circumstances, it seems unreasonable to me that James was executed in such a fashion that nobody, himself included, prayed for his deliverance.
And yet, for James, no deliverance was forthcoming; in fact, his death fulfilled Christ’s prediction in Mark 10:39. There’s no “fairy-tale ending”; things don’t get neatly wrapped; James doesn’t win, or even go home with lovely parting gifts. He gets his head chopped off for his trouble. And then, faced with similar circumstances, Peter gets a shocking miracle that freaks out even those who are in the middle of praying for that miracle. What gives? The answer is that God is in control, not us, that He’s not obligated to give us a wonderful life here on this earth devoid of harsh circumstances and difficult situations. “That James should die while Peter should escape is a mystery of divine providence which has been repeated countless times in the course of Christian history, down to our own day” (FF Bruce). The point is that God is sovereign in all circumstances, in both hearing and answering prayer in miraculous ways, and in allowing His people sometimes to undergo difficulties and trials for the sake of the name of Jesus.
B. In Deliverance & Destruction
It was God’s sovereign purpose to deliver Peter, for Peter had yet a significant role to play in the outworking of God’s plan. God also destroyed an evil, pompous king who dared to raise himself up in his own eyes, accept worship due only to the Almighty, and bask in the adoration of flatterers. God has the final word. With Herod, it was easy to see; sometimes, it isn’t. Justice doesn’t always seem to prevail on this earth. And yet we can be sure that, based on the promises of the Word of God, the God of all the earth will do right. God will not be mocked; whatever a man sows, he’s going to reap, Paul says in Galatians 6. God saves and God punishes, both a part of His sovereign prerogative.
C. In Purpose & Performance
It is God’s sovereign plan, His purpose, for the gospel of Jesus Christ to spread throughout the world. He is accomplishing that purpose in Acts 12, and He is accomplishing that purpose today.
But notice the last verse we look at today, verse 24: amid the devastation of persecution and powerful answers to prayer, circumstances both unbelievable and unexplainable, things that looked miraculous and things that were deeply depressing, the onward march of the gospel of Christ continued. God is performing that work, even today, as the gospel of Christ moves to different people groups, and performs its saving work. He is sovereign in both His purpose and the performance of that purpose!
Points to Ponder
• Trust God
If He is sovereignly in control, can we not trust that He knows what He’s doing, even if we don’t?
• Pray in faith, and with a resolute desire that His will be done, above all.
Sometimes we pray in unfaith, we “hedge our bets” if you will. Do we believe God still can do miraculous and wonderful things? Then let’s pray that way. At the same time, the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane is instructive: “not My will, but Yours be done.”
• Obey God, irrespective of circumstances
Ajith Fernando writes of the events that have surrounded fierce persecution of Christians in the nation of Sri Lanka over the past few years. He notes five different reactions he noticed:
1. God miraculously delivered some believers from death and destruction of property.
2. Others suffered great earthly loss, but determined to praise God through it.
3. Others suffered great loss and became bitter, ultimately turning from God.
4. Still others compromised their testimonies in order to avoid persecution.
5. Finally, some who were worldly-minded, yet professing followers of Christ, were jolted into realizing their sin, and turned to Christ fully during the ordeal.
Funny how in many cases the same set of circumstances will have very opposite effects on different people. Put clay in a kiln, and it hardens; put wax in there, and it melts. The difference isn’t in the circumstance, but in the quality and character of the substance. Jesus said some hard things to hear as recorded in John 6, contrary to everything we might learn from contemporary church growth strategy, and thus many of those who’d followed Him turned away in disgust. But others continued following and eventually gave their lives for Him. God doesn’t promise that every prayer we make will be answered in the way we’d like it to; the question is “what do we do when He doesn’t?” And the answer is, we trust Him, and obey Him—anyhow. Are you doing that today?
Table Talk
• How has God answered prayer for you in an “over-the-top” way?
• Have you ever seen God work in a situation where He did NOT answer prayer in the way you prayed it?
• How does verse 24 give you confidence as you live as a follower of Christ?
