GOD ANSWERS PRAYER THOUGH THE CHURCH DIDN’T BELIEVE GOD WOULD!
Acts 12:1-25
Audio Link to hear this sermon: http://chirb.it/pnrewg
INTRODUCTION:
1.) Today, I want us to look at a scene when there was a great turnabout in the climate of the church.
A.) One of the things I have always said is when everything is going well within the church watch out.
B.) When the church is growing, people are coming to Jesus Christ, and it seems like everything is going perfectly watch out.
C.) Whenever the cause and work of Jesus Christ is progressing, you can be sure that Satan will soon attack the church.
2.) This seems to be the scene in Acts 11 and 12.
A.) The church was growing powerfully.
B.) Even the Gentiles were being reached with the message of salvation.
C.) Antioch had just become an important new center of worship.
D.) Even the Old Testament prophecies that God’s people would receive a new name were being fulfilled.
da.) In Acts 11:26, Scripture proclaims that the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.
db.) From this point on, “Christian” seems to have become the new official name for Those of the redeemed.
E.) All and all, it just seemed that Things could not get any better for the Church of Jesus Christ.
F.) Whenever that happens it is time for the church to put up a billboard and proclaim: a warning to be on your guard.
fa.) When the church is experiencing times of such triumphant blessedness in the power and presence of God that is the time when the need is perhaps the greatest for the church to get on her knees and to pray that God would continue to give spiritual victory, and to deliver that Church from the power of Satan.
faa.) For that is the time when the church has the greatest confidence, and the time Satan will most likely attack.
fab.) Acts chapter 12 is exactly that scene.
I. THE CHURCH EXPERIENCED PERSECUTION.
1.) Herod began persecuting the church.
A.) Acts 12:1
B.) This man who led the persecution would have been the grandson of Herod the Great who had tried to kill the baby Jesus around 47-48 years before this.
C.) To understand the situation, or the motivation, of Herod, we need to see that he was a very staunch supporter of the Jews.
ca.) Up until the time of the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem, the Church was often under attack from the Jewish people and in particular the Jewish religious leaders.
cb.) Basically, this persecution was a means of Herod making himself popular with the Jews by trying to destroy the Church.
D.) Herod had arrested some of the church.
da.) His persecution became more intense than merely to arrest some of the church.
2.) James was put to death.
A.) Acts 12:2
B.) He was put to death with the sword.
ba.) You see in order to become popular with the Jews Herod had James beheaded.
baa.) This would have been in A.D. 44.
bab.) We can confirm this date through secular historical documents because the death of Herod is also recorded in this chapter of Scripture.
bb.) Both James and Peter were key leaders in the church, so the death of James and imprisonment of Peter would certainly have given the Jewish leaders great joy.
bba.) From verse 3, we see this killing of James and arrest of Peter would have been during the Passover feast, and so Herod had carefully calculated a time when the greatest number of Jewish people would be available to see and hear of his actions against the church.
3.) Peter went to prison.
A.) Acts 12:3-4
B.) From what we find in the Scriptures it seems this was a knee-jerk reaction to the excitement and joy it caused among the Jews when he had killed James.
4.) The future of Christ’s Church looked pretty bad.
A.) Certainly if we had been in the church at this time, it would have appeared to be a very dark and depressing time for the Church of Jesus Christ, and it might even have seemed as though the church might not survive what was upon it.
B.) A number of Christians were in prison.
C.) One of the church’s key leaders, the Apostle James had been killed.
D.) Another key leader, the Apostle Peter was in prison, and it appeared that he too would soon lose his life.
E.) To some in the church, I am sure this was beginning to look as though the church would not survive this persecution.
F.) The question is, what can the church do when this kind of persecution is coming upon it? The best thing the church can do is to take the problem to God.
fa.) That brings me to my second point:
II. THE CHURCH WENT TO THEIR KNEES IN PRAYER.
1.) The Church was earnestly praying for Peter.
A.) Acts 12:5-7
B.) I want you to picture two scenes in your mind that were happening simultaneously.
ba.) The first picture I want you to see is that of a group of Christians gathered in someone’s home praying for God to deliver the Apostle Peter from the clutches of Herod.
bb.) The second picture for you is that of the Apostle Peter asleep in prison, chained between two guards.
bba.) Certainly the prison was nothing fancy, in fact it would have not even resembled the modern prisons we think of today.
bbb.) The Bible gives us the picture that Peter is there and unrobed (probably because of heat).
bbb-1) He is likely wearing some underwear, but little else.
bbc.) As we look in the prison, we see Peter chained between two guards, and then outside the cell there are two more guards who are watching him as well.
bbc-1.) In all there are four men guarding this prisoner, and perhaps these four men are working shifts, as it appears that in all there are sixteen in charge of Peter, though only the four are present at this time.
2.) The church was probably praying also for peace from persecution.
A.) I have to state that this is just my speculation, as the Bible does not tell us they were praying for anything more than deliverance for the Apostle Peter.
B.) Yet with the persecution that was going on, Peter was only one of the many experiencing the wrath of Herod because of his faith in Christ.
ba.) When we consider this, it is quite possible they were also praying for the entire church to be delivered from the persecution of Herod.
III. THE CHURCH EXPERIENCED THE POWER OF GOD.
1.) God used an angel to deliver Peter from Prison.
A.) Acts12:7-10
B.) I want you to see the timing of God and his power in this account of Scripture.
C.) The church had been praying for Peter. At this time, He may have already been in prison for a few days.
D.) From the indication of the text it would have been the next day when Herod had planned on bringing him from the prison to have him tried, and then executed.
E.) As we look at this account, everything about it was miraculous, and displayed the power of God.
ea.) It was nighttime in the prison, and the room was in darkness.
eaa.) Yet in the darkness an angel of the Lord came filling that room with the light of the Glory of God.
eaa-1.) Even with such an event these four soldiers remained asleep.
eb.) The angel pokes Peter in the side and woke him up.
eba.) The angel then tells Peter to get up and get dressed and suddenly the shackles on Peter’s wrists clang and bang as the metal falls to the floor as Peter gets up on his feet.
ebb.) Still these soldiers only a couple of feet from Peter remain asleep.
ec.) Peter and the angel pass through the gates.
eca.) Scripture tells us that the heavy iron gate opened without anyone touching or moving it.
eca-1.) We can imagine the creaking of the iron hinges, and all the other noises that were present, and yet God miraculously keeps these soldiers in a state of slumber.
ecb.) This entire account is a record of the Working of God, and of his answering the prayers of God’s people.
ecc.) During this entire miraculous event, Peter does not realize it is real. Peter thought this was all a dream he was having. He had no idea this was actually the hand of God at work in his life.
ecd.) The Word of God tells us that Peter and the angel walk together the length of one street, and then the angel disappeared.
ecd-1.) Peter comes to his senses, and realizes that this was not a dream but an actual event in which God had performed the miraculous, and that he was again a free man with the mission of preaching the Good news of Jesus Christ.
2.) Peter came to realize that God was in this.
A.) Acts 12:11-13
B.) Peter knew the church was worried about him, and that they were praying for him, so he went first thing to meet the church.
ba.) You have to remember this was the middle of the night, but the church was still up, and praying for Peter at Mary’s house.
baa.) There are many women named Mary in New Testament Scriptures, but this particular Mary does not come on the scene very often in Scripture.
bab.) This Mary was the mother of John Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark that is in our New Testament.
bac.) We do not know a great deal of this woman but she was a woman of faith, and the church often would meet in her home to worship God.
bac-1.) It was only natural that Peter would go to her home to inform the church he was free and fine.
3.) The church came to realize that God answers prayer.
A.) This portion of the account is rather comical.
B.) Acts 12:13-17
C.) Picture the scene. Peter is delivered from prison and comes to speak with the church.
D.) He knocks on the door and a servant girl named Rhoda goes to answer the door.
da.) Rhoda in her excitement doesn’t even open the door but when she hears Peter’s voice she runs back to tell the church that Peter is there.
db.) Meanwhile Peter stays outside the door, and is knocking to come in.
dba.) They leave Peter outside, and are discussing among themselves if this is really Peter or if he has been killed and this is either his angel, or his ghost.
dba-1.) Meanwhile Peter is still standing there knocking to get in.
dbb.) The church was earnestly praying for God to answer their prayers, yet when God answered their prayers, their faith was not great enough to rejoice, but rather left them to doubt and think the worst.
dbc.) Sadly many times today the church will display this same lack of faith that God will actually answer our prayers.
dbc-1.) There’s an old story about a small town that had always opted to be “dry” under state law that allowed local option regarding the sale of alcoholic beverages. But times changed as new people moved in, newcomers who eventually changed the local ordinance.
Soon thereafter, an entrepreneur began to build a bar for the sale of alcohol. A local church held an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to prevent the opening of the bar as its construction neared completion.
As the church prayed that night, a thunderstorm moved through the area, lighting struck the bar, and the building was destroyed by fire. The entrepreneur sued the church, alleging that the church’s prayers had caused the fire.The church’s attorney, wanting to absolve his client from liability, argued in court that the church’s prayers had nothing to do with the event.
After the judge had heard the preliminary statements, he said, “Regardless of how I decide this case, I can see one thing clearly: the bar owner believes in prayer, and the Christians do not.”
(2013-2014 NIV Standard Lesson commentary, pages 171-172 for Sunday School lesson of January 12, 2014)
dbd.) It took some persuasion, but eventually Peter had convinced the church that God had heard their faithful prayers, and had delivered him.
dbd-1.) May we be a church that not only goes to God in prayer, but has the faith to believe God not only hears but answers prayer.
dc.) The final thing I want us to see today is the result that came to be when God had answered their prayers.
IV. THE CHURCH EXPERIENCED A TIME OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY.
1.) The message of Peter’s deliverance spread through the city.
A.) Certainly as word of this great deliverance and of the testimonies of the soldiers who had guarded Peter spread through the city, people were encouraged to have faith in Christ.
2.) God removed the chief persecutors from their attacks on the church.
A.) Herod had gone with the Jews in persecuting the Church of Jesus Christ.
B.) God had broken a bit of this persecution with Peter’s deliverance from prison.
C.) Even more powerfully God for a time stopped the power of persecution upon the church.
ca.) Acts 12:21-24
D.) I want to give us some background to the passage I just read.
da.) When it speaks of the appointed day in verse 21 we find from the historian that this particular day was a day of games in celebration of Emperor Claudius.
db.) Claudius had gone off to Britain for a time, and had just come back.
dc.) To celebrate his arrival back there were games and festivities all through the land.
dd.) Here in Caesarea, Herod was serving as the Emcee, or the leader of the event.
dda.) Herod was there in his royal splendor.
ddb.) This was not just the regular royal robes that he would wear, according to Josephus this was a specially prepared garment adorned with a great deal of silver in it.
ddc.) The sun was hitting the garment that Herod was wearing, and it glistened in the sun to the point of almost blinding the spectators.
ddd.) Because of this radiant splendor some of the crowd called out that Herod was not a man but was a god.
dde.) Apparently at first Herod accepted the praise, and gloried in it.
ddf.) Because he did not glorify God, God struck him down.
ddg.) Herod was overcome with an intense unbearable pain in his stomach and bowels, and after a number of days of severe pain died.
E.) In this judgment of God, on Herod, the prayers of the church were answered, and the church was delivered for a time from the severeness of persecution.
CONCLUSION:
1.) Bring this message to a close; I want to read verse 24: “But the Word of God continued to increase and spread.”
2.) As we leave here today, may we be encouraged by the workings of God in the Church. May we rejoice that God answers prayer, even when the church does not always have the level of faith we should have.
