Acts 12 Peter Prison

When we were last in Acts, Peter had just received a vision where the Lord made clear to Peter that the Church, the group of believers who had come to trust in Jesus as the Messiah, the Lord, the Son of God, would not be beholden to the Law in any way, shape, or form. They were to be united not around the Law, but around faith in Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit within them and among them. The Law was not to be despised, but would rather be a guide to wisdom, a map if you will showing the contours of the heart of God. But the Law would not be what would define the Church. That would be faith in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and all that would spring from that.

And as one expects in the Bible, for it is even so in our lives, so then is there an epiphany, and a mountain top experience of people giving their lives to Jesus and the Holy Spirit breaking down the barriers so that Gentiles may be grafted into the salvation plan of God, and then comes loss and pain and difficulty, for this world in not our home.

And Satan, who always and forever only has plans of destruction and death, incited King Herod to persecute the Church, that the Romans and the Sanhedrin had largely decided to leave alone for now, but King Herod, for reasons that are unclear, although whatever they are I am certain they have Satanic origins, decides to kill some Christians. So he kills James, who came to be known in Church history as James the Great, the brother of John, the sons of Zebedee, and Herod kills him with the sword, which likely means he was beheaded. At any rate, he is taken and killed. There is no mention of a trial, although perhaps there was a quick one, who knows, but the sense the text gives is that it was simply a command from King Herod, a sudden decision to attack the Church or send it a warning.

I say send it a warning because Herod could have ordered his soldiers to go out and kill all the Christians, but instead he selects one of the top leaders and has him killed. Probably the Church had simply grown too quickly and become too popular for Herod to risk an all out assault on the Church. The Herodian Dynasty was itself unpopular with most of the Jewish people, so they had to be careful about popular sentiment. But, on the other hand, the Church is still vastly outnumbered by the Jewish non-Christian population, and so when Herod sees that the Jewish people were largely happy about James’ death he then orders to have Peter taken, with a slightly more elaborate plan.

He intends to bring Peter “before the people” probably to create a spectacle where more people, many more people, would be calling for Peter’s death rather than to spare his life, and by so doing he will build his popularity all the more, while protecting himself somewhat from Christian claims of injustice since he is just doing ‘the will of the people’.

However, Herod is familiar with the story of how Peter and John had been arrested, some time before, and yet when the jailers went to retrieve the prisoners from their cell, Peter and John were gone, and they were found that very day preaching at the gates to the City, at the same place they had been arrested before.

Herod undoubtedly was sure that some bribery, some trickery, or some corruption was at play in that miraculous escape. And he wasn’t about to let that happen again. So he assigns 16 soldiers to guard him, chains him, and apparently even when he sleeps there are 2 soldiers on either side of him. Even Houdini couldn’t have escaped from that predicament. It would literally take an angel of the Lord to intervene directly.

Now let’s pause here for a minute, because the temptation when reading the Bible is always to rejoice and remember the moments when the Lord breaks in and frees someone or saves someone from some dire predicament, or provides an unexpected reprieve. We love those stories because that is what we want to see in our lives too- the inbreaking of the Lord into our lives such that we experience amazing miracles of freedom and release. And such stories are important- and they do happen- and we will rejoice here, soon, along with Peter.

But let us not run too hastily past the dead body of James in our rush to celebrate Peter’s freedom.

God can save anyone at any time from anything in this world. James He allowed to die, or even, you might say, He ordained him to die at this time. It was his time to die, in God’s sovereign plan. Peter, it was not. But it is a mistake to read this story and to let there remain some impression, however small, that God saved Peter and not James. Or that God loved Peter but not James. It is not so at all. Both Peter and James are in heaven with the Lord even today. They were BOTH saved. And on the last day they will be resurrected, along with us, into perfect shalom, into perfect love for, and obedience to, our Lord and Savior, and in perfect harmony with one another.

God loves James. He loves Peter. It was James’ time to die at this moment and not Peters. Both James and his brother John were going to be persecuted along with the rest of the Apostles and would suffer- this is the significance that many scholars and theologians ascribe to

Mark 10:35–40 “And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.””

Of course, the older brother John would not be martyred, he was one of the few, possibly the only Apostle who was not killed for his faith in the end. He was only tortured and exiled. Which would you rather be, tortured, as Roman soldiers could torture, and then be taken away from your friends and family, or killed? Hopefully not a decision anyone here will ever have to make.

In this story if you had to pick whom you want to be you would definitely want to be Peter. But Peter, Church History tells us, was crucified whereas it seems James here was beheaded, a far quicker and more humane death.

The fact is that the suffering or lack of suffering or indignities or fame, or any of these things, that we experience here on Earth are poor indicators of God’s love for us, or His protection of us, or of anything really of any eternal significance. The Biblical witness is incredibly clear on this point...not only will everyone suffer in their lives, but that Christians are often called to suffer worse than others, sometimes through persecution and sometimes for reasons that God alone knows.

It is a mistake to read this story and think that God has a special love for Peter and so the Lord is going to save Peter from prison. The Lord does have a special love for Peter, it is true, but He had the same for James and for all the sheep of His hand, for you and me as well. No, the reason Peter is saved in this instance at this time, is because the Lord has more for him to do during this, his Earthly life. Peter was the rock and the Lord would make use of that rock for some time more to establish His Church firmly and soundly upon the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world, and the Church would spread from there.

So now we may take our leave of James the son of thunder. He was a sinner with violent tendencies and with delusions of grandeur, who was humbled, chastised, and then saved by his traveling companion, rabbi, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and his reward in heaven was very great indeed having died for his faith in Jesus.

Back to Peter.

I already answered the deeper question as to why Peter was saved from death in this instance- because the Lord had more for him to do.

But our will, our human will, plays a role as well. And as usual I am going to advise you to not try and solve that equation. Let that be a mystery not only in the Bible but in your life, for it is a tension that you are unable to solve.

But there is a human answer as to why Peter was saved. While he was being kept in prison, earnest prayer and intercession was being made for him by the Church in Jerusalem. Thousands of people were praying for Peter. And Luke uses the Greek word DE to indicate the relationship between the 2 parts of this sentence- Peter was kept in prison BUT earnest prayer for him was made to God by the Church.

I love this story.

Now remember, while it is true that Peter had been literally saved once before from prison by an angel of the Lord, he probably didn’t think it would be likely that the Lord would do that twice. He had now seen not only Stephen be killed, but, for the first time ever, an Apostle was now killed, one of the 12 Apostles, so if there had been any thoughts or hopes that the Lord was not going to allow the 12 to be touched, and I bet there was, especially after the Lord had freed Peter and John from prison already in Jerusalem, well any thoughts like that were now proven to not be true. The 12 were not, in God’s sovereign plan, immune from martyrdom.

Also, Peter had just had an experience in the city of Joppa, of a vision that seemed real to him, of ritually unclean animals descending from the heavens and the Lord telling Peter to eat these animals. So when Peter in the middle of the night, his mind cloudy from being woken up from sleep finds an angel telling him to get up and leave the prison, you can understand that Peter thinks it’s likely a vision that God is giving him, or perhaps a chance to say goodbye in a spiritual fashion to the ones he loves before he’s executed.

So he just does obediently, in a kind of half trance, everything the angel tells him to do. His chains fall off, he gets dressed and puts on his shoes, puts on his cloak and like Ebenezer Scrooge follows this angel, thinking that this is a vision to teach him something or somehow be a blessing, and they pass all the guards, the iron gate opens on its own, they go into a side street, and then, the angel just vanishes, leaves, as it were. And Peter is alone in the street and then and only then does Peter ‘come to himself’ and realize that this is reality. Because there is no one guiding him anymore, no one telling him what to do. No one is showing him anything, he’s just standing alone in a street. Oh, this is real life!

Acts 12:11 “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.””

Why is he sure? Because he’s alone on the street and no one is telling him what to do. And there is a deeper point to be made here on what it means to follow the Lord in this world. God delights in us as free will agents...humans will make decisions that matter, that have real consequences involved. This angel of the Lord gave Peter no information. None. He had one job. Free Peter from prison, and the second that was done he left him. He does not tell Peter WHY he was freed. He does not tell Peter what he should do next or even take him all the way back to his house. He just frees him. And there he is, a free man able to do whatever seems good to him to do at that point.

When the angel of the Lord was telling Peter what to do and divinely appointing things so that everything went perfectly Peter thought it wasn’t even real, that it was a vision. I struggle to articulate this well, but we sometimes think, erroneously, I believe, that we would like God to make things more clear. We want God to tell us what to do, or tell us at least the broad parameters of the decisions that we should make. Where we should go, where we should work, who we should marry, who we should not marry, and we are capable of spending a lot of energy trying to figure out what GOD wants us to do.

And sometimes it’s like Peter’s experience, where you feel for a while like the Lord is just clearly guiding you from point to point, your feet don’t even feel like they’re touching the ground it’s so easy and it’s so apparent that the Lord is with you and it’s like a beautiful dream, and then all of a sudden there you are, alone in a dark street, and you don’t have your cellphone. You don’t have a pamphlet, the Lord did not even leave you with a single word of instruction, you don’t even know why you’re on that street right now, and suddenly you come to yourself, as the text says, you arrive at yourself and you realize, I need to make some decisions. And it’s frightening. What if I make the wrong decisions? What if I disappoint my loved ones, what if I fail God? Why can’t God make it easy, like it was before? Why must I make choices without knowing if they’re the best choices or not? Doesn’t God want me to make the best choices? Why is He silent when I am asking Him to guide me? What if there are soldiers looking for me on the next street over?

And it seems to me that one of the pitfalls that people of faith can fall into without realizing it, is the pitfall of thinking that God is not a clear communicator when He wants to be. The Lord is more than capable of making His will known to you. Ours is not a silent or distant God. And Jesus knows His sheep and you will recognize His voice if He calls to you.

God is not just a clear communicator- He is, like in all other things, the source of all communication, He is the one who gifted you with ears to hear and the power of reason and analysis that allows you to be communicated with.

Isaiah 55:11 “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

His communication is effective, perfectly effective.

2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,”

So He has gifted us, through His Word, and through the wisdom and knowledge He supplies to us invisibly every day through His creation or His people or God Himself, the Holy Spirit, residing within you, speaking holy truths to your soul every day. He has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness, especially, above all else, knowledge of His own being, knowledge of Himself, as I spoke about last Sunday, to know God and for Him to know you, is to be saved, to be redeemed.

So back to Peter, alone on that dark street. It is part of Peter’s glory and the joy of being human, that he does not know what, exactly, is going on. He doesn’t know that thousands of years later in a land he does not know even exists, that people will be discussing this moment, he has no idea what is happening, but he knows His Lord, and He knows it was the Lord’s will to save him from death on that night, and he knows he better get somewhere safe quick. But he is of course perfectly safe, held in his Father’s arms, and he knows, better than anyone else alive in that moment, that the Lord will see His purposes through to the end, and that purpose includes Peter’s eternal salvation.

Now, of course, everyone has to love this next bit of Scripture. Because it is so very joyful, so very human, and would not be out of place in an episode of Frasier.

...relate story...

...mention how the specificity of such events are one of the hallmarks of true history vs. mythology.

So Herod shows no mercy to the soldiers, who were innocent of failing their duties. This is the collateral damage of sin and sinful murderous behavior. When the people of God are being persecuted the nations, driven by Satan, and they rant and rage, then people die just for being near that kind of rage. I think especially of the slaughter of the children by so called Herod the Great, the grandfather of this Herod here in Acts who was called Herod Agrippa, but he, Herod the Great, killed all the boys born in the time of Jesus’ birth around the area of Bethlehem in an attempt to kill Jesus who had been prophesied to be born in that area. Innocent people across the board die when God’s people are targeted. So these soldiers were killed too.

But Herod Agrippa apparently had had enough of tangling with prisoners who refuse to stay in their cells and he leaves the area.

And the chapter ends with the rather dramatic ending of Herod Agrippa, at 54 years of age, having ruled Judea for 4 years.

(Read Passage- then read Josephus)

Juxtaposition of Peter, running in the night from house to house spreading the news that he, Peter, is not only alive but free from prison, and giving all the glory to God for his life.

And Herod, wearing a robe that makes him as bright as the sun, cutting such an impressive figure and with such power and charisma that people spontaneously start to worship him as a god.

One of these men APPEARS to have all the power and all the glory. One APPEARS to be weak and vulnerable. Free, by the grace of God, but with no glory or worldly power to call his own.

Google tells me that while an exact number is impossible, a conservative estimate says there are roughly 100 million men named Peter in the world today. How many Herods do you know? According to the Social Security Administration in United States history there have been 8 Herods.

My point here is that it truly is futile to give glory to anything or anybody other than our God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Church may at times look ineffective or lost or shabby compared to the power of the world. Royalty no longer is what impresses us. Silver robes and statues no longer awe us. In our culture though there are things that impress people and cause them to worship. People love to say it- I don’t believe in God, I believe in Science. And science is impressive. I love science. I love that we can send spacecrafts up into space that send out satellites around the world that link us all together in these advanced telecommunication systems. I love that we can dive deep into the structure of living things and analyze DNA and the structure of a cell and that we can measure light from stars that are billions of light years away and be able to tell what elements they are made of. I love all of that. I read all of those articles that I can. What an amazing time of discovery to be alive!

These are the things that impress today and so our idols today are akin to the tower of Babel story in Genesis 11- we worship the work of our hands and the things that we are able to create when we combine our minds and our labors and cleverly sus out the mysteries of creation and learn ever better how to bend the physical realm to our will and then we make idols out of our own creations, and of our own selves.

Yet for those of us who love the Lord, we will always and forever be, after the Lord has set us free, running from house to house in the night saying, God freed me, I am alive in Him, spread the news, Jesus is Lord.