INTRODUCTION:
When I became a Christian, I quickly began to realize that my life was never going to be the same. And one of the ways that my life changed, is now my life is lived on two-time schedules: my time schedule and God’s time schedule.
My time schedule is that I want things to happen and I want them to happen now. I want to have control over how time moves in my life. When I was a child, I did not want to wait to Christmas to open my gifts, I wanted to open my gifts on Christmas Eve. When I was in school, I wanted school to end for me so that I could get on with “real” life and making money. And now that I am nearing retirement, I want the days to go quickly so “Anne and I can start enjoying our old age.” Those of you who just retired or about to retire, didn’t you count the days?
And then there is God and His time schedule. And to be honest with you, God and I are not in sync. It is like God operates in a completely different time zone then me. I want to ask Him, “Why do you have to wait to the last minute to do something in my life?” God, I want You to hurry up and fix my problems, and You want to wait to the last minute. Is there something you are trying to teach me?
And so, I began to study some last-minute miracles God performed that were recorded in the Bible to see what He wants to teach me. And the things that I have learned, I want to share with you in a series I am starting today that I am calling “Right on Time God”.
SCRIPTURE:
Acts 12:1-16 (NKJV)
1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church.
2 Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
3 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread.
4 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.
5 Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.
6 And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.
7 Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, "Arise quickly!" And his chains fell off his hands.
8 Then the angel said to him, "Gird yourself and tie on your sandals"; and so he did. And he said to him, "Put on your garment and follow me."
9 So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.
10 When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.
11 And when Peter had come to himself, he said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people."
12 So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.
13 And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer.
14 When she recognized Peter's voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate.
15 But they said to her, "You are beside yourself!" Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So, they said, "It is his angel."
16 Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.
LESSON FROM THE FIRST MIRACLE
WE SHOULD NEVER GIVE UP HOPE EVEN IF TIME IS TICKING AND WE ARE DOWN TO THE LAST FEW MINUTES WITHOUT ANY WAY OUT OF OUR MESS IN SIGHT BECAUSE OUR GOD CAN NOT BE STOP.
This passage of Scripture, we just read, shows me four reasons why I need to hang on to hope when I am going through something in my life, and I see no way out of it, and what makes it worse, time is running out.
In our passage, time is running out for Peter. Peter has been captured by Herod, thrown into prison under heavy guard and tomorrow morning, he is to be executed. And it is at that point that God choses to act to show us that He cannot be stopped. And He shows us that in four different ways.
1. Our God cannot be stopped despite what evil is thrown against Him.
1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church.
2 Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
3 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread.
The Herod of Acts 12 was Agrippa I. He was the grandson of Herod the Great. You might remember him as the one who slaughtered the infants in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. This Herod of Acts 12 had already killed James, the apostle, who was part of that inner circle of Jesus’ disciples- Peter, James and John. And now, he was certain he was going to carry out the execution of the second one of that inner circle- Peter, the very next morning.
Not only was this family evil; they were evil with power. It is bad enough to be evil but to be evil with power is a difficult force to reckon with. This family ruled the Land of Israel for the Roman government. There was no one more powerful in Jerusalem than Herod Agrippa. And in Acts 12, Herod Agrippa chooses to exercise his muscle but unfortunately for Agrippa, he became up against someone more powerful than him- God. And God was not going to be stopped. No matter what evil comes against you- God can stop it. All the forces of hell can be thrown all the evil it can muster against God, and that will not stop my God!
2. Our God cannot be stopped despite how humanly impossible the situation may seem.
4 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.
It was no big deal to God to get Peter out of the most severe prison setting that Herod could devise. Herod used 16 guards; four squads of 4. Two guards were chained to Peter, two guards stood at Peter’s cell and two guards stood at the second guard post and then the iron gate that lead to the city had two more guards. Herod put up 16 men to keep Peter in prison; God only sent one angel to set Peter free.
God was saying it doesn’t take me that much effort to do MY work in the most impossible situation.
3. Our God cannot be stopped despite the faithless prayers we offer up.
Peter is in jail. The natural thing for the church to do is to call a special pray meeting for him. After all, that is the right spiritual thing to do. They go around in a circle praying that God deliver Peter from the hands of Herod.
Suddenly there is a knock at the door, the servant Rhoda looks, and it is Peter. She doesn’t open the door but runs back and tells the Prayer Warriors that Peter is at the door. And their response is: “You are besides yourself.” Or, that a nice way to say you are crazy.
I got to give them credit that they were praying, but they were not expecting God to work. Let’s be honest, sometimes we have prayer meetings, but we don’t expect God to work. If they expected God to work, they would not have been so surprised when Peter showed up at the front door. But the Scripture says that they were astonished.
What that tells me is that God can not be stopped despite the faithless prayers we offer up.
4. Our God cannot be stopped by what we are doing about the situation or what we are not doing about the situation.
6 And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.
Think with me. You are about to be executed in the morning. You probably would not be sleeping; I wouldn’t be. I would be up praying all night for God to do something to get me out of this mess. And if does not seem like that is working, I would go to Plan B, start witnessing hard to those Roman soldiers in the hope that they would get saved and then we all flee before Herod finds out. But Peter is sleeping.
And then it hit me: whether Peter is sleeping or whether Peter is doing everything he can do about his situation; our God cannot be stopped.
CONCLUSION
Do you believe that our God can not be stopped? Then put your hope in that!
