Acts 12 the Prayers of the Saints

Scripture

Acts 12:1–19 ESV

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 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. And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place. Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.

Introduction

Over the last few months we have touched upon the church persecuted, today I want us to examine this passage in three ways; The church as a persecuted people, the church as a praying people, the faith of a child.

I have called our attention to prayer before we begin our studies each Lord’s day, I have intentionally set apart times in our service to pray, and we as a people have our prayer chain.

Prayer is often not the habit of the Christian or the Christian church. Far more people today are asking questions of what is prayer and how to do it?

Today’s passage answers this in terms of head knowledge, but prayer is heart action, of those who are saved.

Let us now look at the first part Peter in prison:

Pt. 1 The prisoner or the victor

Peter would later go on about AD 60 to write a letter to the church during a time severe persecution and that only having experienced this for the majority of his ministry.

Peter’s ministry is probably not one many ministers would desire; Peter spent three years under the ministry of Jesus and even at that it was a challenging time.

To follow Christ is a challenge, and let know one tell you otherwise. It is a call to death and that death has more victory in her blood then any battlefield won.

Christianity is a war and if your experience in the Christian life has not been war, than praise God because he kept from it. Many men who enter the ministry will quickly find out it is war of both friendly fire and hostile fire.

The man that should not enter ministry is the man who can’t fight. Christianity is war with the devil, it is war with sin, it is war with self, yet it is a very war that has victory.

Peter is at war with the governing authorities and would be until he is crucified upside down. So here is Peter early on his ministry and now being thrown into prison; and its not your american three meals, a gym membership, and a cot.

It a place of death and deep depression. Yet here is Peter and he is sleeping. I for one would not be asleep, but would be a man of such anxiety and fear.

What gave Peter the ability to rest between guards and soldiers who despise him and the one He follows? It is the prayer of the Church.

Peter has a faithful church behind him, they are his not enemy. The church behind peter knows of his arrest, knows of John’s brother who was murdered. They know of the hardships of following Jesus, they know of the war.

They are praying together.

The soldiers of the Church

I love this passage of how the church is praying; one of my deepest desires is to be in India, where I know my brother and his church are suffering. Yet there strength is beyond ours in America.

The American Church is filled with empty church buildings Monday - Saturday and only briefly open on Sunday. The people of God are only gathering when it is convenient, and hardly share a meal unless it’s a called for pot luck.

There is a vast difference in a church that is persecuted compared to a church that is prosperous.

The church behind Peter was not a prosperous church in terms on the world’s standards, they don’t have empty buildings, they met in homes or open spaces.

They were a bold people with the gospel, they did not hide behind the walls of Sunday, they spoke against the authorities of the land to tell them Kiss thy Son. They were a church made of soldiers, not soft bellied men.

When war approached their very house, murdered one of their very own, arrested their preacher; and most likely cursed their face; the church did not hide they prayed.

These were real men, real women, real children who picked up their cross to follow Christ.

When they sang hymns, it was a battle cry not an emotional Jesus hold my hand. It was a deceleration of Praise before the Lord. In their prayers it was their battlefield and O did they take the battlefield when their Pastor went to jail.

Theology of prayer

Prayer is many things, but one thing it is through Christ the very foundation of our pure and joyous faith, is prayer and the word of God is the breath of a church that gives life.

Many would say, Pastor I don’t know how to pray like they did for Peter. Church it is beacuse we are without practice. I say this with all due respect and understand there is time to pray for the sick.

But the church we see of in Acts, did not gather on Sunday to repeat news of so and so which has not changed in months. They were not a people that showed up for a prayer meeting, simply because its what the Pastor does and let’s just get on with it.

It was made a people who woke early and went to bed late after their days affair to meet with God in the throne room of Grace. Knowing their will be a day of rest, the only rest of the soul comes from Christ alone.

O but even myself I am guilty of the things I preach and do not fully obey. The alarm at 5:30, I have one more hour to sleep. Or when the soul awakens at 3:00 am and one can’t sleep let me just turn on my cell phone, maybe play a game. Is it not the spirit of God drawing you to awake or to stay awake so that you shall pray.

You see friends, the Christian and the Church who can’t pray all night as they did for Peter; is a church or a Christian that has died or nearly at death’s door.

The evidence is clear, because evangelism lacks, praise is routine, and the fights over where to meet are worth dying over. The evidence of death and souls that neglect Christ is but an aroma to God almighty who spit thee out of His mouth.

The faith of a child (Rhoda the house of Mary)

Now while there is much to be learned from older saints of the faith; there can be overlooking of youth who have watched you in throne room of grace, heard your theology, and expect God to answer.

Here in the house in which the church gathered to pray, the house of Mary is a child (a servant girl) named Rhoda. Rhoda hearing and most likely part of the prayers of the church, has come to expect God to answer.

When Peter is freed from prison, he goes the house of Mary. Little Rhoda knew it was Peter, because not only did it sound like Peter but she had grown a theology to know God answers prayers.

Have you lost your expectation of God answering prayers

Again I don’t say this without respect to praying for the sick; but those are easy prayers to expect God to answer. My grandmother had surgery, I’m not a bit concerned thou I do bring it to the Lord and prayed for my Grandmother the night before her surgery.

I knew God has provided qualified doctors and technology to handle matters that really are trivial today. I truly believe a cure for cancer will happen. Even at death, healing occurs because the one saved is with the Lord.

The hard prayers to expect God to answer are the Kingdom prayers. This where the prayer life of the church is challenged. Because the Kingdom of God is a mustard seed and it’s takes longer. Could God have said the Kingdom of God is like a flower that blooms in Spring, yes; but instead he chose that which is slow to harvest.

I have prayed for decades now for my sister’s salvation in the Lord. Tears upon tears have been shed for them. To this day they are still not with the Lord. Yet I still expect God to save!

Kingdom prayers are not easy prayers, because while we are part of growing the Kingdom, we ourselves do not grow the Kingdom. That is the work of God.

Hard prayers are praying for God to remove sin from your life; because God will kill that sin and it will hurt more than you ever realized.

In life there does come a time in which one epexts of God, but perhaps like the church really doubts God. We loose the faith of Rhoda, the faith of a child.

This too is a reason for why praying all night and into the morning is but a struggle. You have grown old like the church of Ephesus forgotten your first love.

Application

Learn to pray and fast. As your Pastor I challenge us to pray beyond the medical needs of our people; again I am not saying don’t do this, but expand your prayer life as a church, as a Christian.

Ask yourself when was the last time you pleaded for souls to come to Christ? When was the last time you pleased with God to remove sin from your life? When was the last time you cried in praise to God?

Where is your soul that has been saved? Has it falled into the world? Are being drained by the weeds? O Christian I am but calling you awaken again to Christ who is Lord.

Conclusion

Prayer should never be taken lightly, for indeed Christ our foundation, our savior and Lord, invites us to the throne room of grace to meet Him who is King of Kings, the prince of peace.

Peter was freed in this time, but later will die but not because he did not know or follow Christ, but because Christianity is a war of victory and he picked up cross as the church prayed for His strength to follow Christ.

So church we pray for each other to follow Christ.

I want to live with a prayer from Charles Spurgeon.

Boldness at The Throne of Grace

O GOD! we would not speak to Thee as from a distance, nor stand like trembling Israel under the law at a distance from the burning mount, for we have not come unto Mount Sinai, but unto Mount Sion and that is a place for holy joy and thankfulness, and not for terror and bondage. Blessed be Thy name, O Lord! We have learnt to call Thee “Our Father, which art in heaven”; so there is reverence, for Thou art in heaven, but there is sweet familiarity, for Thou art our Father.

We would draw very near to Thee now through Jesus Christ the Mediator and we would make bold to speak to Thee as a man speaketh with his friend, for hast Thou not said by Thy Spirit, “Let us come boldly unto the throne of the heavenly grace.” We might well start away and flee from Thy face if we only remembered our sinfulness. Lord! we do remember it with shame and sorrow. We are grieved to think we should have offended Thee, should have neglected so long Thy sweet love and tender mercy, but we have now returned unto the “shepherd and bishop of our souls.” Led by such grace, we look to Him whom we crucified and we have mourned for Him and then have mourned for our sin.

Now, Lord, we confess our guilt before Thee with tenderness of heart and we pray Thee seal home to every believer here that full and free, that perfect and irreversible charter of forgiveness which Thou gavest to all them that put their trust in Jesus Christ. Lord! Thou hast said it, “If we confess our sins, Thou art merciful and just to forgive us our sins and to save us from all unrighteousness.” There is the sin confessed. There is the ransom accepted. We therefore know we have peace with God and we bless that glorious one who hath come “to finish transgression, to make an end of sin,” to bring in everlasting righteousness, which righteousness by faith we take unto ourselves and Thou dost impute unto us.

Now, Lord, wilt Thou be pleased to cause all Thy children’s hearts to dance within them for joy? Oh! help Thy people to come to Jesus again today. May we be looking unto Him today as we did at the first. May we never take off our eyes from His divine person, from His infinite merit, from His finished work, from His living power, or from the expectancy of His speedy coming to “judge the world in righteousness and the people with His truth.”

Bless all Thy people with some special gift and if we might make a choice of one, it would be this, “Quicken us, O Lord, according to Thy Word.” We have life. Give it to us more abundantly. Oh, that we might have so much life that out of the midst of us there might flow rivers of living water. The Lord make us useful. Do, dear Savior, use the very least among us. Take the one talent and let it be put out to interest for the great Father. May it please Thee to show each one of us what Thou wouldest have us to do. In our families, in our business, in the walks of ordinary life may we be serving the Lord and may we often speak a word for His name, and help in some way to scatter the light amongst the ever-growing darkness, and ere we go hence, may we have sown some seed which we shall bring with us on our shoulders in the form of sheaves of blessing.

O God! bless our Sunday schools and give a greater interest in such work, that there may be no lack of men and women who shall be glad and happy in the work of teaching the young. Do impress this, we pray Thee, upon Thy people just now. Move men who have gifts and ability also to preach the Gospel. There are many that live in villages and there is no Gospel preaching near them. Lord! set them preaching themselves. Wilt Thou move some hearts so powerfully that their tongues cannot be quiet any longer and may they attempt in some way, either personally or by supporting someone, to bring the Gospel into dark benighted hamlets that the people may know the truth.

O Lord! stir up the dwellers in this great, great city. Oh! arouse us to the spiritual destitution of the masses. O God, help us all by some means, by any means, by every means to get at the ears of men for Christ’s sake so that we may reach their hearts. We would send up an exceeding great and bitter cry to Thee on behalf of the millions that enter no place of worship, but rather violate its sanctity and despise its blessed message. Lord! wake up London, we beseech Thee. Send us another Jonah. Send us another John the Baptist. Oh! that the Christ Himself would send forth multitudes of laborers amongst this thick standing corn, for the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. O God! save this city. Save this country. Save all countries and let Thy kingdom come. May every knee bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Our most earnest prayers go up to heaven to Thee now for great sinners, for men and women that are polluted and depraved by the filthiest of sins. With sovereign mercy make a raid amongst them. Come and capture some of these that they may become great lovers of Him that shall forgive them and may they become great champions for the cross.

Lord, look upon the multitudes of rich people in this city that know nothing about the Gospel and do not wish to know. Oh! that somehow the poor rich might be rich with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And then, Lord, look upon the multitude of the poor and the working classes that think religion to be a perfectly unnecessary thing for them. Do, by some means we pray Thee, get them to think and bring them to listen that faith may come by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Above all, O Holy Spirit, descend more mightily. Would, God, Thou wouldest flood the land till there should be streams of righteousness, for is there not a promise, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.” Lord, set Thy people praying. Stir up the Church to greater prayerfulness.

Now, as Thou hast bidden us, we pray for the people among whom we dwell. We pray for those in authority in the land, asking every blessing for the Sovereign and Thy guidance and direction to the Parliament, Thy benediction to all judges and rulers as also upon the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low. Lord, bless the people. Let the people praise Thee, O God! Yea, let all the people praise Thee, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen and Amen.