Acts 12_01-17 The Mystery of God's Ways

Read Acts 12:1-17 – The first time I ever flew, it was LA to Seattle on a 747. My seat looked right down the wing. Surprise! We no sooner got up and I saw the wing flex significantly – almost like flapping. I later learned those aluminum wings can flex 13 feet, and on the new carbon-composite 787, they can flex up to 25 feet. Incredible. But that’s what keeps the wing from intact.

Similar flexibility is needed for the turbulence of normal Xn living. We need faith that flexes. See, God always wins -- but not always the way we’d do it. The mystery of His ways that keeps us dependent always requires flex faith.

So, here, Peter gets rescued from prison. But what about poor James? No rescue for him; he gets executed just for obeying God. Did God fall asleep for a minute? No. He’s just as much the winner in James’ case as in Peter’s. If He could rescue Peter, He could rescue Jas. So why didn’t He? That’s part of the mystery of God’s ways that drives us to Him – keeps us living by faith – but a flex faith that absorbs the bumps without breaking. This is the mystery of God’s ways. From a human perspective, it takes a lot of flexibility to stay aligned with Him through thick and thin. But it’s worth it in the end!

I. The Pernicious Plot

“About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.” There are enough Herod’s in the Bible to confuse anyone. This one is Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great who executed his father, Aristobulus, in 7 B.C. when he was 4. His mother sent him to Rome where he grew up with two future emperors – Caligula and Claudius. Years later, those relationships led to the ouster of his Uncle Herod Antipas and his gaining virtually all Palestine. He worked hard to please Jews. And eventually, as the Xn church grew, he found a new way to do that – kill the Xns!

So Herod 2 “He killed James the brother of John with the sword.” Beheaded. The first of the apostles to die for his faith. His brother John will be the last to die and the only apostle not martyred, tho he was heavily persecuted. Clement of Alexandria (150-215) claimed the soldier who led Jas from the courtroom, after witnessing Jas’ joyful confession of Christ, asked his pardon for serving as a tool of Agrippa. When Jas pardoned him, he too confessed Christ and was executed along with Jas.

Meantime, Herod, having gotten a favorable reaction from the Jews, decided to get Peter, too. He was clever. He arrested Peter during the feast knowing he couldn’t execute him until it was over. But he knew the Jews would love it.

Peter was likely imprisoned in the Fortress of Antonia in the NW corner of the temple. To prevent escape, 4 squads of 4 soldiers each were assigned. Last time Peter’d been in prison with others, they had escaped. Acts 5:19: “But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out.” 16 of Rome’s finest were assigned to insure no repeat of that debacle. Peter was in the maximum-security wing of Herod’s prison. It’s a pernicious plot. The only problem is – it’s against a greater power!

II. The Peaceful Prisoner

So, how would you sleep knowing you die tomo – like Jas a few weeks ago? 6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers.” The hard floor alone would have kept me awake, but the angel had to kick Peter to wake him up. That’s faith on display!

Why was Peter so calm? Couldn’t wait to get to heaven? But then excitement would have kept him awake! I think he recalled: Jn 21:18: “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” The promises of God were like a tranquilizer to Peter, as they should be to us! He had nothing to fear. Even if they killed him, his eternal destiny was settled, but it wouldn’t be tomorrow. He wasn’t old yet. He was living his own later advice: I Pet 5:7, “Casting all your anxieties on him, bc he cares for you.”

An old hymn: “Standing on the promises that cannot fail / When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail / By the living Word of God I shall prevail / Standing on the promises of God.” Peter wasn’t exactly standing on them, but he was sleeping on them.

Dr. Frank Boreham stayed once with 2 elderly sisters, one of whom gave him her bedroom. Next morning, carved in the window glass, he found, “This is the day.” When asked how they got there, she told him she’d had a lot of trouble and often feared tomorrow. Then she found Psa 118:24: “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” She said, “It hit me, why should I be afraid of days He makes?” So, those scratched words were the first thing she saw every morning. Isa 26:3: “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” Peter was living a life with mind stayed on God, not circumstances!

III. The Powerful Prayer

5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. There’s a contrast here. Agrippa “kept [Peter] in prison.” BUT – the people of God made “earnest prayer.” Guess which is going to win. Luke’s giving us a message – no prison can hold those whom God wants out.

So, as God’s people pray fervently, God acts. Peter is chained between 2 guards, asleep. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands.” Surprise #1. An angel in prison. But Peter’s so out of it, the angel had to kick him to get him moving. Then the 2nd surprise. The chains fell off. No keys. “Look mom, no hands.”

Angels are all over the Bible – God’s spiritual messengers and implementers. Psa 34:7: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.” Psa 91:11: “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Guardian angels. My mom with 11 kids believed in them. Mt 18:10: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” We have all had close calls where it is reasonable to suppose angels intervened. Sometimes, they’re seen. Heb 13:2: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” They do a lot of things for God, including testing us.

Peter’d have never made it without the angel who has to tell him every move to make. It’s a comedy. “Wake up, Get up. Get dressed. Put on your shoes. Put on your coat. Follow me.” Peter obeyed while still stupefied.

Now the fun really begins. Fully dressed, Peter follows the angel past the 1st and 2nd guards who are disabled or asleep. Then comes the large iron exit gate, and voila! It opens – αὐτόματος -- automatically. Just like your garage door opener – 2,000 years early. And no clicker! Just think it, and it opens. Is God great or what? He’s always miles ahead of human wisdom. Peter is deposited on the street, and immediately the angel is gone. Peter finally gets it: “Hey, I’ve been rescued – from Herod and the Jews who wanted me dead.” No prison can hold those that God wants out. The power of prayer is amazing.

Clearly this prayer is powerful, but here’s a secret. Every heartfelt prayer is powerful. It is. It may not look that way from a human standpoint, but it always is. That’s where our faith becomes tried and true. Examples like this remind us, He’s always in charge, even when it doesn’t look like it.

Spurgeon once said, “A first-rate diamond will undergo more cutting than an inferior one. You had hoped for a miracle. Sometimes God works a greater wonder when He sustains people in trouble than by delivering them. To let the bush burn with fire and not be consumed is a greater thing than quenching the flame and saving the bush.” Every earnest prayer of a genuine believer gets a powerful answer. Prov 17:3: “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests the hearts.” Faith will pass the test.

IV. The Pessimistic Presumption

After release, Peter goes to the home of John Mark’s mother. She seems to be a wealthy woman, hosting a house church in Jerusalem. Peter went straight there anticipating that they’d be praying for him – probably as he had prayed for James. A servant girl, Rhoda, answers his knock at the outer gate. She recognized Peter’s voice, but, in her joy and excitement to tell the others, forgot to let him in! She just ran to tell everyone, “Peter’s here!”

Then to show they’re just like us -- tho they’d been praying for him all night: “Rhoda, you’re crazy. It can’t be Peter.” She insisted; they said, “You really are nuts. It’s just his angel.” These folks likely believed in guardian angels, tho it’s not clear why they thought Peter’s would have been hanging around if he’d died! But -- they found it easier to believe that than that their prayers had been answered! But, of course, their prayers had been answered. Peter’s persistent knocking soon revealed that fact and they were amazed.

Such a lesson in faith, isn’t it? It doesn’t take much to move the hand of God where He wants to go. What caused such doubt? Don’t you imagine this same group had prayed for James? Yet he’d been executed. It’s not hard to see how their faith might anticipate the worst. But this time, the response was positive.

They’re just like us, aren’t they? “No” answers increase the difficulty of praying with radical faith, don’t they? But we must take heart from this example. We must always keep praying in the rock solid assurance that God will answer with what is best for Him and for us. Never give up.

The disciples once brought Jesus a demon-possessed boy they couldn’t help. The father told Jesus, Mark 9:22b: “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” That’s a really good prayer, isn’t it? None of us have perfect faith. Let’s admit it, ask Him to fill the gap, and trust Him to respond. When the disciples later asked Jesus why they hadn’t been able to help that boy, Mt 17:20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” Let’s learn to pray big, then let God be God!

V. The Preemptive Parting

Now, Peter, having explained his rescue, “And he said, ‘Tell these things to James and to the brothers. Then he departed and went to another place.” Having been delivered, he appointed James, Jesus’ brother, to lead the church in his place and hightailed it out of town. He was not going to presume on God’s grace. He helped himself where he could.

Conc – So, why was Peter delivered and James killed? Did God like Peter better? Was He napping while Jas was in prison? Did He try and fail in Jas’ case? No, no and no, right? So what? Here’s what? It is the mystery of God’s ways. But what we now know is, He could just as easily have released James as Peter, but for His own glorious purposes, He took Jas home and left Peter to continue his ministry. Each was a powerful answer to prayer for an almighty God who can do anything He determines to do.

We are left to fall back on this: Rom 11:33: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” We are not intended to know all His ways. We are intended to believe He is right. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God” (Deut 29:29). In the great faith chapter, Heb 11, we are reminded in 11:“32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. [BUT] Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.” The point is, they all acted in faith. Faith doesn’t guarantee the outcome; faith guarantees God did the right thing.

There was a woman whose huz died of cancer despite her persistent prayers. When a 2nd husband became ill, she panicked, paralyzed to pray anything, feeling the “failure” of her first prayers were about to be repeated. Her pastor asked, “What would you pray if you put no limits on God?” She replied, “I’d ask God not allow my huz to die before he came to faith in Christ. He is not a believer.” The pastor said, “If you’ve been thinking it, God’s already heard the prayer. Keep it up and see what He will do.” Faith renewed, she did just that and God not only saved her huz but restored his health as well.

So was one prayer answered and the other not? Oh, no. It was just the beautiful mystery of God’s ways. Faith doesn’t guarantee the outcome; faith guarantees God did the right thing. That’s flex faith – faith that believes in God, not the outcome! So, keep praying, keep believing, and keep watching God work. Let’s pray.

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