Acts 12 Chapel Message

MI: When you feel powerless, pray to the all powerful God.

Intro

The Power of Man

Let’s look at the first 5 verses of our passage. [Read Acts 12:1-5]

Acts 12:1–5 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.

At the very beginning of our passage we get introduced to a new character in the book of Acts, Herod the king. This is a different Herod than the one that tried to kill Jesus as a baby, this is that Herod’s grandson, known to history as Herod Agrippa I. Herod is what we would call today a rising star, an extremely powerful and well-connected man who seems to just be getting more and more powerful and wealthy. Herod spent much of his life in his younger years as a resident of Rome, becoming good friends with senators and generals, and overall becoming a very influential person. He became so influential that he was able to convince the Roman Senate to appoint his friend the emperor of Rome, after his other friend had already been named emperor. This is a man who schemed his way into the good graces of the most powerful people on earth, and as a result these emperors who were his friends made him king over all of Judea and Samaria. He had a kingdom that was even bigger than his grandfather’s and he loved the power it gave him. And what did he do with that power? Well in verse 2 we see that he decided to kill one of the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem, James. This is the same James that saw Jesus transfigured on the mountaintop, the same James that along with Peter and his brother John formed the closest group of friends that Jesus had during his ministry. This was surely a major blow to the church in Jerusalem. Everyone would have known James. They would have listened to him tell about the time he spent with Jesus and all the things Jesus taught him and the other disciples. He would have been standing with the other Christians, arm in arm as they tried to tell others about the good news of Jesus. He would have been regularly eating and talking and laughing with the rest of the church, enjoying their fellowship with one another. Then, one day James was arrested, maybe tried, and put to death at the order of King Herod. I can’t imagine how devastating that would have been to all of those church members in Jerusalem. And not only that, but Peter, the leader of the entire church from the very beginning of the book, has been imprisoned as well, only saved from execution because Jewish Law said you could not execute someone during the holiday known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was a dark time, and the church was apparently powerless against this great king who put to death anyone he wished with a mere word.

I have to warn you guys of something the Bible makes very clear, this pattern of wordly leaders oppressing and persecuting God’s people has been happening since the book of Acts and even continues to this very day. In the last hundred years we have seen leaders like Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, and countless others behave in the exact same way we see Herod behaving in our passage. We live in an age where God allows wicked men to harm Christians simply because they have the desire to do so. When we hear about the present day suffering of Christians in places like Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, or North Korea, we can be tempted to wonder why God is allowing people like Herod to beat up on God’s people. We can wonder why God doesn’t do something about it. We can even wonder if God is wrong or evil for allowing his people to suffer. I bet you have suffered sometime in your life, maybe when a family member died or you had to go through a really hard time. I wonder, did it make you wonder if God really cared about you?

These doubts are somewhat natural and good questions for us to answer, and praise God we see in this passage that God cares so much for his people that he gives them a weapon more powerful than the weapons of the most powerful men that are living and have ever lived. That powerful weapon, is prayer.

The Power of Prayer

Lets read verses 5-19 together. [read Acts 12:5-19

Acts 12:5–19 ESV

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.

At the beginning of this section we find out that Peter hasn’t just been thrown in prison, hes been put in the ancient equivalent of a maximum security prison. To give you some perspective, if you were to go to an average prison in the US you would find that for every guard working there are about 3-4 prisoners. if you go to high security prisons, that number falls to around 2 prisoners per guard. In Peter’s case, he is being guarded by 16 soldiers. Not only that, but he has been chained to two of them, one on either side, at all times, with the rest presumably keeping watch over the doors. This appears to be a hopeless situation. Can you imagine being Peter here? How scared would you be, knowing Herod is going to keep you here until he executes you, maybe even the next morning? I know how I would feel, scared out of my mind!

But Peter doesn’t seem scared, in fact he is sleeping like a baby. How can this be? Well Peter knows that the most powerful weapon in the world is being wielded on his behalf. Verse 5 tells us what weapon is being used. Did you miss it? it says earnest prayer is being made for him by the church. Does that seem underwhelming to you? I can see why you might not think that's all that big of a deal. What is a few people praying compared to the power and might of King Herod Agrippa I? Well apparently it isn’t a fair fight, but its not Peter who is the underdog here, its Herod. All it took for Peter to overcome the shackles on his hands, the guards at his hips, the prison all around him, and the gate that separated him from the world, was to listen to the voice of one of God’s angels when he told him, “hey, wake up, follow me.” Herod did absolutely everything in his power to keep Peter locked up, and in the course of a few minutes Peter was a free man, no struggle needed. All it took for Peter to walk out of that jail was the prayers of God’s people and a powerful God to hear them.

What’s really funny is that the people who were praying so fervently for Peter to be released don’t even believe it when their prayers are answered. When Peter shows up to the house where they are all meeting and knocks on the door, apparently there was a little girl named Rhoda who heard him and was so excited that she ran to tell everyone else the good news. But as she tells them what she heard, they tell her she must be wrong, there is no way it could be Peter, he’s in jail, must be his ghost! It would be like if the whole school, all of us spent the rest of the morning praying for God to send us pizza for lunch, and at 11:30 Mrs. Hoyt comes in and tells us that Papa John’s is at the front door with 30 pizzas! But then we all scoff and say, “Mrs. Hoyt you must be mistaken, we didn’t order any pizza. They must just have the wrong address.” What should we do in that situation? Start praising God that he answered our prayers! And the church eventually gets there, but this shows us that they didn’t even really understand the amazing power of prayer. Proverbs 15:29 says,

Proverbs 15:29 ESV

The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

If you have been made righteous by the blood of Christ, if you have been cleansed of your sin by turning away from your sin and turning towards Jesus, you have a God who hears your prayers. When we say that God hears prayer, don’t think that means he hears them one minute and ignores them the next. He is not like a cat that hears when you call but doesn’t care to answer. He is a loving Father who is right by your side the second you tell him you need him. The next time you feel alone and powerless, pray to your God. Know that your heavenly Father is eager to hear the prayers of his children. When you feel powerless, pray to the all powerful God.

The Power of God

The final thing we will look at this morning is the power of God. Read Acts 12:20-24 with me.

Acts 12:20–24 ESV

Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied.

Herod spent his entire life thinking he was someone. He loved the power and influence he wielded and the praise that people gave him because of it. Its telling in our passage that the people who are praising Herod are only doing so because he is the one who decides whether or not they get any food. And when they cried out that they thought he was more than a man, he was a god, I bet in his heart he believed them. And the next moment, he was dead. His armies couldn’t save him, his money did him no good, his power and reputation could not save him from the least of God’s creatures; worms. Herod went from King to worm food, Peter went from prison to freedom. Who made these things happen? The God who, as the Psalmist says, sits in heaven and laughs at worldly rulers who plot against him. The God who simply told a raging storm to stop, and it stopped. The God who conquered sin and death. That is the God whom Herod tried to ignore. That is the God Peter trusted in while he slept in jail. That is the God who answered the prayer to free a captive. That is the God who looks at you today and everyday and asks you to trust him, to look to him whether you feel powerful or powerless. So look to him today. You may be powerless, but you can pray to your powerful God. Let’s do that now.