Fervent

You know, family stories are always really interesting. How often do we look back at things that happened in our families and laugh about how stupid we all were. Being the youngest child in my family, it seems that there’s all kinds of not so flattering stories about me in our family archives.

I mentioned last time how my dad talked about how bold I was about asking for things. One thing he’d always bring up is that after opening up my presents, I’d often say, “Is that all?” Even after I’d get a bike for Christmas or went to Disneyland for my birthday, I’d say, “Is that all?” Yep. Young and stupid. Maybe a little spoiled? But hey, I was the youngest child in the family! That’s my excuse, anyway.

Anyway, today we’re continuing our Miracle 2024 series. And today we’re going to look at one of those humorous family stories from the Bible. This is one of those stories that I’m sure our spiritual ancestors, the early Christians, probably loved to retell. And every time they did, I’m sure they laughed uproariously about it. I can easily imagine Luke, the author of Acts, chuckling and smiling as he wrote out the events. It’s not a story, though, that starts out so funny. Let’s take a look at Acts chapter 12.

Just to give some background on today’s passage, we’re in the early days of the church some years after Jesus had returned to heaven. And the church in those days faced a lot of ups and downs. On one hand, they saw God really blessing with many people becoming Christians. But on the other hand, they often faced strong persecution as well. And that’s what we see in today’s story. Take a look at chapter 12 verse 1.

About that time King Herod violently attacked some who belonged to the church, and he executed James, John’s brother, with the sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too, during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. (1-3)

I’ve mentioned this before, but the problem we often face in the Bible is a lot of people with the same names. We see a lot of Simons and Marys and Josephs for example. And in this story we see the names Herod and James, two more very common names in the Bible. Which ones were they? Well this James had been one of Jesus’ three closest disciples during his earthly ministry. And it was probably because James was such a prominent leader in the church, that Herod targeted him and made him the first martyr among Jesus’ twelve apostles.

This Herod, by the way, is not the same man as the two Herods we see in the gospels. This Herod was the grandson of Herod the Great who we read about in the Christmas story. And he was the nephew of Herod Antipas who had killed John the Baptist and questioned Jesus before his crucifixion.

Now this Herod was a very politically savvy guy. With the Romans, he acted very Roman, so they granted him a lot of power and authority. But when he was in Jerusalem, he acted like the perfect Jew. And to win the favor of the Jewish leaders, he started to attack the church. First, he killed James. Now he arrested Peter, intending to put him on trial and kill him once the feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread were over.

Ironically, these two feasts were celebrations of God miraculously delivering the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt. And now the church was praying that God would deliver Peter in an equally miraculous way. Look at verse 4.

After the arrest, he put him in prison and assigned four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him. (4-5)

Think for a moment about how the people in the church felt. This was supposed to be a time of celebration. But they had just lost James, and now this terrible thing had happened. So there was no celebrating now, only fervent prayer. That word “fervent” is very interesting. It’s the same word that Luke used to describe Jesus when he was praying in the garden of Gethsemane just before he was crucified. And Luke tells us that as Jesus prayed, his sweat became like drops of blood. (Luke 22:44)

I don’t think the church was sweating drops of blood like Jesus did, but I think you get the idea just how fervently they were praying. But as the days of the feast were passing, Peter was still in prison. And now it was the night before he was to be put on trial and executed.

I wonder how they were feeling that final night. They may have been praying fervently, but were their prayers that last night as fervent as the first? Or had their fervency started to wane, even a little? I guarantee you they had prayed for James just as fervently. And yet James had been executed. How much faith did they have that God would deliver Peter now? How much hope?

Tell me, what are you like when you pray and it seems God isn’t answering? Do you keep praying just as fervently? Or do you start resigning yourself to the fact that God is going to say no? Honestly speaking, a lot of times, I start to lose my fervency. It’s hard to continue praying fervently when it seems God isn’t answering. I can’t say for certain, but I kind of get the impression that’s how the church was feeling that final night. They were praying, but without a lot of hope. They were praying, but deep down they were thinking, "I guess God’s going to say no again. Oh well. His will be done.”

Even so, look at God’s response. Verse 6.

When Herod was about to bring him out for trial, that very night Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. Striking Peter on the side, he woke him up and said, “Quick, get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. “Get dressed,” the angel told him, “and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Wrap your cloak around you,” he told him, “and follow me.” So he went out and followed, and he did not know that what the angel did was really happening, but he thought he was seeing a vision. After they passed the first and second guards, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went outside and passed one street, and suddenly the angel left him.

When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from all that the Jewish people expected.” (6-11)

Question: If you had been Peter, knowing that you were going to die the next day, how much sleep do you think you’d be getting that night? I don’t know about you, but I probably wouldn’t be getting a whole lot. But Peter was sound asleep. He hadn’t always been so calm. One time, Peter and the other disciples were panicking on their boat during a storm, thinking they were going to die. And when they looked at Jesus, they were stunned to find him fast asleep (Mark 4:35-41). But now, here was Peter doing the exact same thing. Peter truly was starting to become like his Lord.

Anyway, he’s so sound asleep, the angel has to give him a gentle nudge and say, “Hey, get up! Let’s go!” The chains fall off of Peter’s arms, but he’s in such a sleepy daze that the angel has to instruct him like a child. “Now, get dressed. Put on your sandals. That’s a good boy. Put on your cloak. Okay, let’s go.”

Finally, they get outside, the angel disappears, and suddenly Peter realizes, “Hey this is real. This is no dream. God’s really delivered me!” And so he runs to the place where he knows his friends will be. Let’s look at what happens at this bastion of faith where all the Christians are gathered and are still praying.

He knocked at the door of the outer gate, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer. She recognized Peter’s voice, and because of her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the outer gate.

“You’re out of your mind!” they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true, and they said, “It’s his angel.” Peter, however, kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were amazed. (13-16)

Picture this for a moment. Peter knocks on the gate, and the servant Rhoda goes to see who it is. And when she hears Peter’s voice, she gets so excited she forgets to open the door. Instead she runs back to the others screaming, “Peter’s alive! He’s here!” And these Christians had so much faith that God would deliver Peter that when she told them the news, they said, “Hallelujah! It’s just as we expected! God has answered our prayers!” Is that what happened?

No! They told Rhoda she was out of her mind. “The girl is raving mad. Poor thing. All this has been too much for her.” But when she kept insisting Peter was there, they said, “It must be his angel.” Apparently, the Jews of that time had the idea that a person’s guardian angel would take on the appearance of the person they protected. Meanwhile, Peter’s still knocking on the door. “Um guys. Could you maybe let me in?” Finally, they hear the knocking, open the door, and they are utterly amazed. “Whoa! Wait! God answered our prayer? No way!”

And now everyone’s laughing and crying and shouting, and Peter has to say, "Hey guys, quiet down. It’s still not safe for me here. He then told them what happened, and then asked them to pass on the news to Jesus’ brother James and the other apostles who were probably in hiding. (17)

So what do we get from this? I think one major thing is that God is not limited by our lack of faith. Sometimes you’ll hear Christians say, “If you pray and you don’t get what you pray for, it’s your fault. You simply didn’t have enough faith.” But here we see God’s people having next to no faith that God would deliver Peter. You see Peter himself, who though he was fully trusting in God, thought the whole thing was a dream until he got outside and the angel left. He didn’t seem to have much faith that God was going to deliver him from Herod. And yet God in his grace did. God is not limited by how much or how little faith you have. When our hearts and prayers are aligned with his will, all you need is the faith of a mustard seed, and God will move mountains. (Matthew 17:20, 1 John 5:14-15)

Second, pray fervently, even when it seems like God isn’t answering. Tell me something, how fervent are you in your prayers? Are you fervent like Jesus was? Like these Christians were, at least at first? How often, instead, do we lack passion in our prayers? We pray, “Your will be done,” but what we really mean is, “But I know you’re probably going to say no.”

Why does that happen? Maybe because we’ve been disappointed in the past. Because God said no to other things we prayed for. And so right from the start, when we pray, we don’t pray with a lot of hope or passion. We might pray once. We might pray twice. But if we don’t see a quick answer, we just give up. Remember what we talked about a few weeks ago? Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. If you truly have a need, pray fervently. Don’t just pray and let it go. Keep praying until you get an answer, yes or no. And even if you receive a hard no, like the church did when they were praying for James, don’t let it stop you from praying the next time you have a need.

I mentioned a few weeks ago, the struggles I had when the company I worked for went bankrupt. And after a couple of years of bouncing around between jobs, I thought God was finally opening up something for me. A friend at church had told me that the school he worked for was looking for a new teacher. And I thought it was perfect because it was more stable and offered higher pay and better benefits than anything I had been doing. So I prayed, and went to the interview with great faith that God would give me this job. I didn’t get it.

So I kept praying and slogging through different jobs. In the meantime, I felt God telling me, “Get more experience working in public schools. So I specifically started targeting those kinds of jobs through temp agencies since those were the only kinds that were available. The pay and benefits were terrible, but they did give me experience.

Then several years later, my friend told me he was moving back to his country, so his school was conducting interviews again to replace him. So I started praying again, and prepping for the interview. From the last time, I knew I would have to give a demo lesson, but I had a big problem. It was a high school job, but I was working at a junior high school. So I had no idea what textbooks they were using. I did ask my friend and he told me, but since they were school textbooks, they weren’t sold at any local bookstores. I tried looking on the internet and found a couple of the textbooks, but they had only a few sample pages. So I just did what I could, prepping a couple of demo lessons from those pages.

The interview day came, and after a few minutes of chatting, the panel of interviewers pulled out a bunch of their high school textbooks. One of the interviewers then randomly chose one, and it just so happened to be one of the textbooks I had seen online. So I was thinking, “Well, that’s good. At least I have some idea what that textbook is like.” Then he randomly opened the book, pointed to a page, and said, “Here, take a few minutes and make a lesson plan from this. We’ll give you five minutes.” I looked at the page…and it was one of the few sample pages I had seen on the internet. I thought, “God, you have got to be kidding.” Needless to say, I got the job and have been there ever since.

But as I’ve mentioned, despite that victory, I still struggle with this. I still struggle to pray fervently when the answers don’t come as quickly as I’d like. Through this series, God’s been convicting me to pray a lot more and with more fervency. And here’s what I want you to remember, a large part of this struggle is a spiritual one. Satan does not want us praying. And so he’ll do everything he can to shatter our faith and keep us from praying. That’s why the apostle Paul tells us this in Ephesians 6:16-18.

In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.

What problems are you facing now? Satan would have you believe that there’s no use praying about it. Don’t believe him. Take up that shield of faith. Faith that says, “My Father is good. He truly wants my best. And he hears me. My prayers are not a waste of time.” How do we know all this? Because God says so in his Word (Matthew 7:7-11; Luke 18:1-8; James 1:17; 1 Peter 3:12). The question is, do you know where he says these things. Are scriptures quickly springing to mind as I say all this? We’re weaponless against Satan’s lies unless we know his Word. So take up the sword of the Spirit every day, take up your Bible every day and read it. Memorize his promises to you. And make not only his promises, but all his words a part of you. Because it’s one thing to pray, “Your will be done.” It’s another to actually pray God’s will because you know what he has said in his Word. So read it.

And with his word in mind, pray at all times with every prayer and request. Again, just lay out your requests before him. Lay out your needs before him. Persevere in your prayers. Be fervent in them. And all the while, be alert. Be alert to what God’s doing around you, to what he’s saying to you. And be just as alert to our enemy who wants to discourage you from praying.

I wonder, how often has Satan kept God’s people from praying by his attacks on their faith? How often has he kept you from praying? Satan will attack us using physical harm like he did with James. But he also attacks our faith. And those attacks are spiritually deadly because they can keep us from praying and truly seeking God in our lives. Don’t let him do that to you.

Instead, in the midst of your problems, seek God. And as you bring your requests to God, don’t just fervently seek the miracle. Fervently seek him. Say, “Father, I want to know you. Reveal yourself to me. Speak to me. Jesus, more than anything else I need you in my life. Give me yourself always.”

Last week, Pastor Fumi said God was asking him, “Is my grace enough for you?” As I was reflecting on that question this week Jesus asked me another question. “Am I enough for you? If I said no to everything else you asked for, would I be enough for you? If all you ever got from your prayers was me, is that enough? Am I enough?”

That can be a tough question, can’t it? Some of you are desperately praying for that miracle. That one breakthrough in your life. You have dreams. You have hopes. And God is asking you, “Am I enough? If I give you myself, is that enough?” Can you say yes?

I think for James, the answer as he was on trial for his life was yes. This is not in the Bible, but according to Christian tradition, his testimony at that trial was so powerful, that the man who had betrayed him to Herod became a Christian and was executed right beside James.

I want to be like James. I want to be fervent not only in seeking miracles in my life, but in seeking Jesus. The miracles God performs in our lives are not meant to merely make us happy. They’re meant to draw us into a closer relationship with him. Yes, there is joy in seeing miracles. The Christians experienced that when Peter was delivered. I’ve experienced it when I’ve seen the incredible “coincidences” God has orchestrated in my life, and all the times he said yes to me. But the deeper joy, the joy that lasts, comes from knowing him. In hearing from him. In having that close relationship with him moment to moment, day to day. And in learning, Jesus is truly enough. Is that the relationship you have? Is that the relationship you fervently seek?