Sermon Tone Analysis

The Mystery of God’s Ways

(Acts 12:1-17)

June 12, 2022

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.