Sermon Tone Analysis
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Last week we spoke about Faith.
This week is pretty much a continuation of that, it is to trust God.
Recap - But we are going to be in the Book of Acts
What has happened in Acts so far
The Helper, the Holy spirit that was promised descended at Pentecost
We see people were getting healed
The apostles are preaching in public, this is after Jesus was crucified for doing the same thing.
The Pharisees were getting upset and trying to stop the apostles, including arrests and acts of intimidation.
Paul persecutes the church and Jesus appears to him and he becomes a believer.
The gentiles are hearing the gospel.
There are a lot of great things happening really fast which is amazing right after the death and resurrection.
Now more serious persecution is about to take place.
1. Praying Fervently in a Time of Fear
Q: What do we observer about Herod from this passage?
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
No trial, no justice, just took a persons life because he wanted.
And when he saw that he was praised for it, he want to keep going and arrested Peter.
James was one of the closest disciples to Jesus, and so was Peter.
They both saw Jesus being transfigured and yet James is easily killed and Peter is imprisoned.
Q: Why did God allow James, one of His most loyal followers to die to soon?
Did he need to die that quickly?
Before Jesus ascended to heaven he gave the great commission.
I will come back to this
Q: What can we learn from the early church in their response to Peter’s arrest?
“but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.”
That word earnestly is also used when Jesus was praying in the garden of Getsemane, right before being arrested.
Before in the garden, when Jesus was being arrested, their response to the soldiers was to physically attack them, to wage a physical war.
Peter cut off one off the eat of one of the soldiers.
Their response here modeled Jesus, they are fighting a spiritual war.
Lets keep going.
Someone read verses 6-11
2. Recognizing God’s Work in a Time of Rescue
Q: What just happened here?
Peter is in prison, chained to two guards, 1 on either side.
Herod did this to make sure that Peter couldn't escape so the security level was very high.
Herod arrested Peter but he didnt kill him immediately.
He kept him in prison so that he could have Peter executed for the Jews to see.
We find Peter asleep.
Q: If you were in prison and were about to be killed the next morning how well would you be able to go to sleep?
I have trouble going to sleep when I have something big or important the next day.
The fact that he was sleeping so soundly I think is a testament to his trust in God
This isnt the same Peter that abandoned Jesus as he was about to be arrested or cut off the soliders ear.
This is a Peter that has been strengthened by God Himself, to trust Him fully.
He was in such deep sleep that the angel had to hit him to wake Peter up.
Chains fall off, doors unlocked, all the guards still asleep and they walk out.
While Peter thinks he is having a vision.
Have you guys seen the show Prison Break?
These guys spend countless hours drawing maps of the prison,
Learning the guards schedules and making precise plans how to get out.
They count own until that day even if it take years.
This isnt that story, not even close.
In a way this is almost funny.
You are in prison, the thing you want most is to escape yet the angel had to instruct Peter in everything.
“get up”; “put your coat on”; “tie your sandals”; “follow me.”
Obviously, this was not Peter’s great prison escape plan.
When they got out of the city the angel left and Peter finally realized that everything he just saw was real.
Lets keep reading the account.
Someone read 12-20
3. Disbelieving in a Time of Deliverance
Q: What do we see here?
Another weird and kinda funny interaction.
The believers were there praying, Peter knocks at the door.
The servant girl answers, recognizes Peters voice and runs to tell everyone without letting him in.
Then they dont believe her.
Rhoda comes, in “Guys you cannot believe it, Peter is at the door.”
They pretty much respond, “ Don’t bother us, we are praying for Peter to be rescued.”
She kept telling them and they thought it was his angel.
Even as they prayed with strong faith they couldn't at first actually believe that it was true.
They finally opened the door, everyone was amazed, probably celebrating and they now realize that their prayers were heard and God delivered Peter from death.
Isnt it weird that God can answer prayers and when it happens we still dont believe that its real.
Why does this happen?
I dont think that its because they didnt believe that it can happen.
No one would be spending countless hours praying for something they think is impossible.
I think its because often when we pray we have an expectation of how God will answer that prayer.
Maybe they expected for Herod to find Peter innocent and let him go possibly change his mind last minute.
This is what we get wrong about trusting God, we will only consider to trust when things happen our way.
Q: What about back in the prison.
What happened?
Everyone was amazed that this one guy was able to escape from the hand of the best trained soldiers and from the strongest prison known to man at that time.
The soldiers who were guarding Peter were put to death.
Lets take a step back.
In this account we have two very different events.
1 - James is killed.
A horrible and sad story where a believer’s life is taken away
2- Peter is imprisoned and an angel miraculously rescues him.
Why do we have two very different endings?
Both men were believers, yet one made it and the other didnt.
Why?
And what does this teach us about trust?
I'm going to give you an example of what people usually mean when we say trust.
Car Tow
My sisters car recently broke down a few days ago in the Walmart parking lot.
She told me about it and I went with her and took a look to see if there was something that we can do to fix it.
Now it was already 6:00PM so all the Auto Repair shops were closed and she needed to go to work in the morning.
So what can we do, the car wont move and its stuck in this parking lot.
I then remembered that there is a auto repair shop across the street.
How could I get it there?
Well I cant start it and getting a tow truck to move such a short distance would cost a bunch of money.
I thought, I can get some tow rope, tie her car to another one and pull it across the street to the repair shop.
I told Cosmina and she agreed and gave me the keys.
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