The Power of Prayer - Acts 12 - 5/31/15
Turn with me this morning the the book of Acts, chapter 12. M, M, L, J, Acts - the 5th book of the NT. In the gospels, we find recorded for us the life and ministry of Jesus, who came to live an example for us, die to provide us salvation, and who started the church. We find in the book of Acts the story of how the church grew from a group of disciples to become a worldwide movement. Last week we saw the church at Antioch, where the church grew to be more than just a Jewish movement, and began including Gentiles of all nationalities. But as a result of that inclusivism, trouble came back home in Jerusalem. Follow along as I read chapter 12.
Read chapter 12 - Pray
As I said, the book of acts shows the power of God at work through the apostles to build the church. Here in chapter 12 we see that God works in spite of. . .
• Satanic Attack - From the start, the church of Jesus Christ faced many obstacles. And we still face many of the same type of obstacles today. Think back through the early chapters of Acts, and realize that there were many problems INSIDE the church -
– Judas, The church treasurer had been imbezzling money and had finally committed suicide.
– Peter, The most prominent leader of the church had denied that he had ever known the Lord.
– Ananaias & Sapphira - Hypocrisy and lying had been discovered in the church members
– The deacons: There was racial bias which caused great contention and divided the church
And we will always face internal problems, because the church is made up of imperfect people. We don’t have a perfect church today, but we do have a perfect God. But along with the internal issues we face, we also face external attacks of Satan against the church. Think about where the church started: Jerusalem. We often are tempted to think “that’s great - Jews loved God” - but actually that’s far from the truth. Jerusalem was hardened! They wouldn’t even hear the OT prophets, much less these Christians! That’s why Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He said in Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. And THIS is where the disciples were supposed to start the church?
Along with this hostile setting, Satan used a villainous adversary: Herod Agrippa I. He comes from a long line of oppressive leaders. His grandfather was Herod the Great - the king who killed all the infants under 2 years old when Jesus was born. His uncle was Herod Antipas, who killed John the Baptist and was involved in the crucifixion of Jesus. Herod Agrippa, who we see here, was a people pleasing chameleon - to the Jews, he acted like a Jew - even though he wasn’t Jewish - he was really an Edomite, a descendant of Esau, what we would call today a Palestinian - who is doing all the fighting in Israel today? The Palestinians! - and when Herod was around the Romans, he acted like a Roman, so much so that Rome gave him great control over Jewish realms.
So, to please the Jews - who were already stirred up because the church actually accepted Gentiles - Herod arrested some leaders of the Jews. One of these was Peter’s brother James. We aren’t told the details here, but simply are told that Herod put James to death with the sword. Think what a great blow that would be to the church. Here is a group of believers who proclaim that they follow the one true God - and yet God does nothing to stop the execution of this noted disciple. How easy is it to believe when God doesn’t work the way we expect Him too?
Sometimes we expect that God will do great and mighty things for us - and when He doesn’t, it seems to shake our faith. And I think that is part of the reason that God includes the death of James in the same chapter as the deliverance of Peter. Can God save and deliver and do miraculous deeds? By all means, YES! But WILL He? That is another question. Who can know the mind of God? Even Daniel’s 3 friends - Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael - or you might know them better by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego - when they are bound to be thrown into the fiery furnace, know that God CAN deliver them - they just don’t know whether He WILL deliver them. In Daniel 3 they declare, If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
So here in Acts 12, we see James is not spared, but Peter is. Herod sees that killing James pleased the Jews, so he decides to take Peter as well. This happened during the feast of Unleavened Bread - a Jewish holiday you might know better as Passover - and so Herod keeps Peter in prison for a week until the holiday is over.
Notice verse 4 - After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. We read over that verse quickly without thinking about it. WHY would Herod put 16 soldiers to guard one man in chains? It’s not that Peter is a great warrior - impulsive, yes - but not great enough to defeat 16 soldiers. So why all the soldiers? I believe it’s because herod feared the power of God. He didn’t fear God - if he did, he certainly wouldn’t have done many of the things he did - but he did believe in the power of God. If you do a quick review of Acts 5, you will remember that Peter had already escaped from prison once before. Acts 5:18 - They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. So I believe Herod knew that Peter had God’s power all over him, so he chains one soldier to Peter’s right leg, on soldier on his left leg, on stationed inside the jail cell, and one right outside the door. Herod wasn’t taking any chances. But this Satanic attack against the church did not prevail, because verse 5 tells us, So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
And that brings us to our second point, God works in spite of . . .
• Situational Obstacles - when the situation got bad, God’s people started praying. Notice they didn’t plan an armed insurrection or a secret escape attempt - they didn’t rely on their own ability to rescue Peter - they turned to God! Sometimes we foolishly trust in our own wisdom and our own ability to handle the obstacles we face. We think that if things get REALLY bad, then we’ll pray. But pray should be our first response, not our last resort!
We see here the church goes to prayer. A church member is in trouble, and so the church joins together in faithful, fearless, fervent prayer. Lest we ever forget, there is incredible power in prayer. In the scriptures we see . . .
– Moses prayed and God spared Israel from judgment.
– Joshua prayed and God caused the sun to stand still.
– Hannah prayed and God gave this barren woman a baby boy.
– Solomon prayed and God gave him wisdom.
– Elijah prayed and God sent fire down from Heaven.
– Jonah prayed and God brought him out of the belly of the whale.
– The thief on the cross prayed and God gave him eternal life.
When the church saw the need, they began praying. And God moved in response to those prayers. Verse 6 tells us God worked The night before Herod was to bring him to trial - why not sooner? Remember the old saying - God is never early, He is never late - He is always right on time! It’s sort of like a Rocky movie - Rocky is getting the snot beat out of him until he can barely stand anymore, and THAT’s when he comes back to win the fight. Think about the OT - when does God deliver? The Jews come out of Egypt, stand at the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s army of chariots are approaching, and THAT’s when God says, stand back and see the salvation of the Lord! Again, when they come to the Jordan river - it’s at flood stage, the water is rushing with great force, and God says when the sole of the foot of the high priest sets foot into the water - THAT’s when I’ll stop the river! In the future, when will Jesus return? The antichrist will have the armies of the earth surrounding all the Jews in Jerusalem, defeat will seem certain, and THAT’s when Christ will return in the heavens on a white horse! God LOVES to step in when there seems to be no other hope.
God could have taken Peter out of jail the first night, but He waits until the night before he is to be executed. Those 16 soldiers are not obstacle for God. Verse 6 again, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. So God steps in to do what ONLY HE can do. But notice next what the angel tells Peter - Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. God does what only God can do, but he let’s Peter do what Peter can do. Sometimes we pray for God to do things we can do ourselves. Sometimes instead of praying for God to pay our bills, we need to spend less. Sometimes instead of praying for God to help us lose weight, we need to eat less and exercise more! It doesn’t make sense to look for God to do things that we can do for ourselves.
Verse 9 tells us Peter thought he was having a vision. I don’t believe that is saying that Peter doubted God’s deliverance, as much as it tells us that Peter was used to God giving him visions. But when he is finally out of jail, verse 11 says, Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.” Peter says to himself, Wait a minute - this isn’t a vision - this is real! And his first response it to go tell the church! Verse 12 says, When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. The church had earnest prayer - they were praying round the clock for Peter to be delivered. And here is where we find our third point. God can work in spite of
• Spiritual Atheism - what do I mean by that? Look at verse 13 - Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognised Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!” “You’re out of your mind,” they told her.
Put another way, they are praying for Peter to be released from jail - Peter knocks, Rhoda comes in and tells them “Peter’s out of jail” - and they say “Don’t bother us Rhoda, we’re praying for Peter to get out of jail.” Rhoda replies “He is out of jail - Peter’s at the door” and they say “Your crazy Rhoda, Peter’s in jail, that’s why were praying that God will spare his life!”
Here in this chapter is Herod - who doesn’t follow God - yet he believes in the power of God enough to assign 16 soldiers to Peter - and here is the church - those who claim to believe in the power of God to work - and when God answers their prayers, they don’t even believe!
Herb Miller tells the story of a strip club opening in a small town. Upon hearing the news, the only church in that town organized an all-night prayer meeting. The members asked God to burn down the club. Within a few minutes, lightning struck the club, and it burned to the ground. The club owner sued the church, which denied responsibility for the destruction of the club. After hearing both sides, the judge said, “It seems that wherever the guilt may lie, the nightclub owner believes in prayer, while the church doesn’t.”
And sadly that was the situation of the early church - even though they were praying, they were not expecting God to answer. When you pray, do you expect God to answer your prayers, or do you simply pray to make yourself feel better about your situation?
Peter kept knocking, and Rhoda kept coming back into the prayer meeting - vs 15 - When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. Jewish tradition thought that our guardian angels look like us - so they thought it was just an angel outside. But Peter kept knocking until finally they opened the door and saw Peter. Peter shares with them the miraculous deliverance, and then says in verse 17 - “Tell James and the brothers about this,” he said, and then he left for another place. When God works in your life, TELL SOMEONE! Don’t keep it to yourself - give someone else a chance to rejoice in the good things God is doing. So many times we don’t see God at work among us - and it’s not because He is silent, but it’s because we fail to share with others the wonderful things that God is doing in our lives. When God answers your prayers, tell someone!
It says they were to tell James - but James had just been killed - this is a different James - the James who was killed was Peter’s brother - this James is the half-brother of Jesus, the man who went on to lead the church at Jerusalem. But Peter leaves town.Why? Sometimes God wants us to stay and stand up against the satanic forces - think of Elijah facing the 450 prophets of Baal - but sometimes God leads us to stay safe! God CAN deliver, but sometimes He leads us to make a wiser choice by getting us out of the situation.
Today, we see in this chapter that the power of God is not limited - God can work in spite of Satanic Attack, Situational Obstacles, and Spiritual Atheism - and today I would remind you that whatever the need in your life today, God is able to meet that need.
– We pray for the missionaries in Africa, and we believe God moves in Africa.
– We pray for the soldiers in the Iraq, and believe that God is protecting those soldiers in Iraq.
– We pray for those who are in the hospital and we believe that God will heal those people in the hospital.
– But many times we fail to believe and expect that God will work in our lives, in our situations.
What is the key to seeing the power of God work in our lives? PRAYER!
Herbert Jackson tells a story how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push. After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years. Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, “Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable.” He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson’s astonishment, the engine roared to life. For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.
Today, the power to face any attack of Satan, the power to overcome any situation and obstacle we face, the power to overcome our lack of faith is present with us - it is the power of prayer. Today, WILL YOU pray? Will you make a commitment that when you have a problem, burden, worry, fear, or concern, that you will go to the Lord in prayer and KEEP PRAYING until God works on your behalf.
Remember, God may not choose to answer right away! A famous Christian, George Mueller, began to pray for a group of five personal friends. After five years one of them came to Christ. In ten years, two more of them found salvation. He prayed on for twenty-five years, and the fourth man was saved. For the fifth he prayed until the time of his death, and this friend, too, came to Christ a few months afterwards. For this latter friend, Mr. Mueller had prayed almost fifty-two years!
Today, I would encourage you to pray and not give up praying! And then one more thought in closing. The church was gathered in prayer because Peter was imprisoned. If the police came in and arrested me because I was preaching the Bible and that was not politically correct - and that day could come sooner than we might think - I would hope you would pray for me. But realize that there are brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who are imprisoned for their faith in Christ today. While we still have our freedom to worship in America, there are many Christians who don’t enjoy those freedoms.
Hebrews 13:3 tells us, Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow-prisoners, and those who are ill-treated as if you yourselves were suffering. This week, as you prayer for your needs and those you know and love, don’t forget to pray for your brothers and sisters around the world - as though YOU were in prison with them! IF you were facing death or persecution, how would you pray? Pray the same way when you pray for your brothers and sisters around the world!
Let’s pray together!
As we focus on prayer today, prayer is really our admission of how very much we need God to work in our lives. So in closing, let’s sing the next song as a prayer of our heart, Lord I need you!
