Bible Study 03/05/25

Acts 12

Acts 12:1 Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them.

Where we begin here in chapter 12 with the persecution of the church continuing, and it had been continuing for quite some time at this point. With the death of Herod at the end of this chapter, we start to see a rough timeline of events that points us to where we are in history. Everything happening here is around the death of Herod which took place in early AD 44. Jesus’ ascension took place around AD 32-33 and the church was formed shortly after, so here at this stage the church is now over a decade old, yet still experiencing persecution. It is an interesting note that Luke makes when he says that Herod was looking to “mistreat” the Church. Clearly the Church was not deserving of the persecution, and it almost looks as if Herod was just after petty revenge. He didn’t like the church, so he wanted to take any opportunity he could to abuse them. It seems that his interests were aligned with the Jews and he wanted to win the favor of the Pharisees.

Acts 12:2 And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword.

Part of the persecution that Herod was inflicting on the church at this time was going after it’s leaders, in this case James. It’s a fair guess that he was probably working closely with the Sanhedrin to take some more severe measures against the church and identify it’s leaders in hopes of delivering some devastating blows. James is the first of the apostles to fall at the hands of the church’s persecutors, but he wouldn’t be the last as everyone but his brother would follow him soon enough. James’ death fulfills the prophecy spoken by Jesus in the gospel according to Mark:

Mark 10:39 They said to Him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized.”

I wonder what it was like for John when he was writing his gospel account. At the earliest, he wrote it sometime in the 60s, 15-25 years after his brother’s death, or as late as the 90s. It is likely that John was the last apostle alive when he wrote his gospel account, which I can imagine made it quite difficult for him to write about all the memories of time spent with his friends and family that he worked the ministry alongside.

Acts 12:3–4 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people.

Apparently it was working well in Herod’s favor that he put James to death. He saw that it made the Jews happy, so he decided to roll with it and arrested Peter. Luke notes the two festivals taking place, so nothing could be done about Peter just yet and he had to sit in prison. Because of the festivals, the Jews couldn’t do anything, much like how they waited for the right time to arrest and kill Jesus. So they arrest Peter, they put him into prison, and they station guards with him. A “squad” of soldiers was a group of four soldiers, so all-in-all they guarded Peter with 16 soldiers - seems to be a bit of overkill. Maybe Peter felt special with all the attention he seemed to be getting. 16 soldiers for one man - maybe they still thought he was the same guy that took a young man’s ear off in the past. Regardless, Herod definitely wanted to make sure that Peter wasn’t going to go anywhere, whether by escape or by an army of church members showing up to free him.

Acts 12:5 So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.

From day one at the church the members had devoted themselves to many things together, one of which was prayer. Here the man most identified as the leader of the church was imprisoned and was likely on his way to be put to death much like James, so the church was praying fervently for his release.

Howard Marshall The prayer was manifestly for his release. It was fervent prayer which was offered, like that offered by Jesus in Gethsemane, expressive of the church’s concern for Peter rather than of a feeling that, if God is to answer prayer, he must be pressed and persuaded by spectacular feats of devotion. At the same time, if the church knew how its Lord himself had prayer, it would have had to pray: ‘Nevertheless, not our will, but your’s, be done’.

It is another way that we can look at our own praying today. When we see someone in need, we plead with God for healing, for help and for hope, and hopefully we pray fervently in that. But at the same time, we should also pray fervently as Jesus did, praying for the will of God to be done in our life and the lives of those around us, and that he would fill us with hope in his will.

Acts 12:6–8 On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.”

So here’s Peter having the worst sleepover anyone could have. While he sleeps, he has a soldier on either side of him, to which he is chained to make sure he can’t wander off. Then we remember that there are 14 other guards on duty, and it seems like the rest of them may have been standing guard at the door. Peter wasn’t going to escape on his own, and no mob of church members was going to come and take him by force. There was only one way he was going to get out of there.

On the night where Herod was going to bring Peter forward, almost certainly to be killed, an angel shows up. The angel enters and a great light shines throughout his cell, yet no one, not even Peter, wakes up or is aware of what’s going on. Even though Peter knew that he would awake the next day to go to his death, he seems here to have had no trouble sleeping since the angel had to purposely wake Peter up. Finally Peter gets up and the chains that were holding him to these guards fell off, likely making a noise that would’ve woken up the guards next to him, but apparently it didn’t. The angel commands Peter to get dressed and follow him.

Acts 12:9–11 And he went out and continued to follow, and 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 second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

Now Peter continues to follow the angel out, but he thought he was dreaming. Given his recent visions, you really can’t blame him for thinking he was having another one. The angel led him through three different gates. We don’t know if the first two were opened or closed when he passed through, but what we can see is that he and the angel walked right passed the guards with no issue. Once they came to the final gate that would lead him out into the city, the gate appeared to open on it’s own. Now standing on the street, the angel left Peter and his eyes were opened to see that it wasn’t a vision but had actually happened. Now imagine if you were seeing this - you’d probably think you were hallucinating. A bright angelic body appears out of nowhere (which doesn’t even wake you up), but nobody around you notices. You stand up and your chains fall off, but the guards don’t move. You walk past guards stationed at gates and none of them notice you or the angel you’re following, and then suddenly you’re outside and free. I’d think it was a vision too. Kinda like we talked about on Sunday, just imagine seeing this miracle take place. There’s nothing to explain the guards ignorance to what was happening other than God making it happen. Luke records this story as if it is a miracle, too.

Howard Marshall The story is plainly regarded by the narrator as miraculous at every point. It can be argued that it is a legend, especially since several of the motifs in the story can be paralleled from other ancient stories, some of which would have been current knowledge in the first century, and it can be claimed that in a world of such superstitions it would be only natural for Christians to believe that their God could do the same kind of things as other deities. On this view a story of a release from prison by human agencies may have acquired legendary features in the course of telling. It is impossible to prove the point either way. The person who believes in the reality of the supernatural will not find it difficult to accept this story as it stands, along with other, similar stories in the Bible and Christian history. In this particular instance there is no element in the story which forbids such a view of it.

Acts 12:12–14 And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate.

Once Peter finally came to, and realized that he needed to move or get caught and go back into prison, he headed toward Mary’s house. This wasn’t Mary the mother of Jesus, but Mary the mother of John Mark, author of the gospel according to Mark and close companion of Paul during his ministry. This house is thought to be the one where the first church gathered at pentecost, though there is nothing to prove it, but either way was currently a house where many members of the church had gathered to pray for Peter’s release from prison. As they are praying, a knock at the door interrupts them, so a servant goes to see what was happening. Since the church was under heavy persecution, she didn’t open the door, but rather called through the door to ask who it was, hearing Peter’s voice respond. Some of us might have opened the door to welcome him in, but in her excitement she ran back inside to tell the people what was happening - problem is, they didn’t believe her.

Acts 12:15–17 They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, “It is his angel.” But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said, “Report these things to James and the brethren.” Then he left and went to another place.

Not sure why, but they just didn’t believe her. The people praying for a miracle to happen apparently didn’t believe that a miracle actually could’ve happened. The people that were praying all night long for his release were quicker to believe that he was already dead than to believe that he was free. Apparently it was a common belief among Jews in this day that people actually had their own personal guardian angels, and that those angels could bear the image of the people they were guarding. So either the people thought that Peter was dead and that this was Peter’s literal angel, or that this was Peter’s guardian angel and perhaps had come with a message. Either way, you’d think they would want to answer the door when the girl came to tell them who was there. Even if it wasn’t Peter, why not answer the door for an angel?

Peter continued to knock at the door, so the people finally answered to see him and were shocked by their prayers being answered. There must’ve been quite the commotion as Peter motioned to them to quiet down so that they wouldn’t draw any attention, and then he told them the story of all that had happened. Then he told them to send word to James. No, this is not the James that was killed earlier in this chapter, and it is not as if Peter was unaware of what happened to James.

Howard Marshall The James mentioned here is the brother of Jesus who later figured as the leader of the church in Jerusalem; Paul regarded him, along with Peter and John, as one of the three ‘pillars’ of the church. He had been a witness of a resurrection appearance of Jesus, and hence Paul recognized him as an apostle.

Quite the change for James given that during Jesus’ life even his own family didn’t believe in who he was. But after Jesus’ death and resurrection, not only did at least this brother believe, but he also became a close companion, like a second in command, to Peter and was regarded later as a pillar of the church. Since James was this close to Peter, Peter thought it was important that James and other church members know. After this, Peter left, likely to go into hiding while things died down. It was probably a fair assumption that Herod would check the homes of Peter’s associates, so he had to go elsewhere for a time.

Acts 12:18–19 Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. When Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.

The entire night went by without the guards realizing that anything had happened. They wake up (or maybe their eyes were opened to what happened) and go into a full panic. Just a few hours ago Peter was shackled to two guards and kept behind three gates, yet while everything else was the same as it was the night before, Peter was gone. They knew they were in trouble. Then Herod shows up. Herod was coming down to take Peter up and out of the prison and was likely going to put him to death the same way he did James. When he found that Peter was not there, he still put someone to death - the 14 guards that had been tasked with making sure Peter stayed there until morning. He examined the guards, likely meaning that he was looking for an explanation or perhaps looking for any sign that they had been overwhelmed. At the end of his investigation, it seemed more like the guards had just let him walk out, so now they wouldn’t get to. Then he left Jerusalem and went down to Caesarea.

Acts 12:20–23 Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; and with one accord they came to him, and having won over Blastus the king’s chamberlain, they were asking for peace, because their country was fed by the king’s country. On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. The people kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.

The people here had perhaps too high of a view of king Herod. Here is what Josephus recorded of Herod:

Herod celebrated games in Caesarea in honour of the Emperor, which were attended by the leading men of the kingdom. When Herod entered the theatre, clad in a glittering silver garment, his flatterers addressed him as a god: ‘May you be propitious to us, and if we have hitherto feared you as a man, yet henceforth we agree that you are more than mortal in your being.’

Clearly Herod enjoyed this flattery, or else he might have put it to an end. It was Herod’s country that fed these people, so why shouldn’t he get some praise coming back his way? Luke records here that Herod was angry with the people here for a reason that isn’t recorded, so perhaps they thought a little extra flattery was necessary. The people went so far as to say that Herod was not a man, but a God, and it doesn’t seem that Herod had an interest in silencing them and giving glory to the One true God. So that one true God struck him down and killed him. Why? Not certain. I would guess two-fold; judgment upon Herod for allowing himself to be made a God, and an example before the people that, as God said, there is no other god before him.

Acts 12:24 But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.

Luke now sidesteps briefly to remind his reader Theophilus that, in spite of everything that he was recording, the gospel was still going forward, growing and multiplying. Much like when persecution first came against the church, all the persecution did was work FOR the gospel rather than against it. And I know we’ve talked about this a bit before, but what about today? I know we hate persecution, and it feels like the world we live in wants less and less to do with the gospel everyday. Yet, it is the days where the church has it hardest that the gospel message goes the furthest. In the course of a week an apostle was killed and another arrested and about to be killed, yet the gospel continued to grow and to be multiplied.

Acts 12:25 And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.

The chapter closes with really more of a beginning for the next chapter. Saul, Barnabas and John Mark were off on a mission when all this had taken place and had returned after it was all done. Perhaps Luke was still in the house of Mary, John Mark’s mother, when they returned and they returned to that same house.

NEXT WEEK: Chapter 13:1-25