Acts 12:1-19

All right, wonderful. Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. It's so good to have you here this morning. 2022, we're going to make it all the way from the book of Acts to Philemon, and we are at Acts chapter 12, the first 19 verses. Let's go ahead and have some coffee.
We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Oh, frog in my throat. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word, and we thank you that you are a powerful God, working in both people and in the world. Lord, we pray that we would follow after you and believe in you. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, so we're at Acts chapter 12. We're working right through the book of Acts. Acts chapter 12 beginning at verse 1 and we'll work through verse 19 together. Here we go. Sorry, just need to fix one thing on the computer here. There we go.
Now about that time, Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the days of unleavened bread. So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover."
What's going on? Well, two things are going on in this small section. What's going on is Herod, this is Herod Agrippa I, this is not Herod the Great of Jesus' birth, but Herod Agrippa I, he's one of the kings up in the north area, and he arrests James, the brother of John, one of the sons of Zebedee.
And he kills him. He kills him by the sword. This is most likely because he's considering him a political threat. But he kills him. And he sees that the Jewish people who also hate the Christians, well, makes them happy. So what does he do? He arrests Peter as well. But he's got a plan for Peter. He knows a little bit about Peter's history in Acts chapter 5, and so he's got to guard him extra close. What does it say?
He arrested him during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He was getting ready to bring him out during Passover. Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between the two soldiers, and guards before the door were keeping the prison.
So Peter is sitting there. There's four squads of soldiers around him. He's double chained, so not just single chained on his wrist, but double chained. And more than that, he's got guys sitting to his right and to his left as well. Harrod's not taking any chances here.
Now behold, verse 7, now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison. And he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Arise quickly. And his chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, Gird yourself and tie on your sandals. So he did. And he said to him, Put on your garment and follow me.
So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they were past the first and second guard post, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord. And they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. And when Peter had come to himself, he said, now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people. So this angel comes to Peter as he's double chained with guys on either side of him and it says he gives him a blow in the side.
Wake up! Arise, get up dude. Put on your sandals. Gird your loins. Put on your garment. Follow me, we're getting out of here. So he takes him out of there. He walks him out of the prison. He goes past the first guards. Nothing. Goes past the second guards. Nothing. Goes to the gate and the gate itself just opens up. Nobody opens it. Nobody touches it. It just opens.
God is the God of both animate and inanimate objects. And so Peter's walking down and he goes down one street but he's not sure what's happening. Is this a dream? Is it a trance? What's going on? I don't know. Is this real? And he starts walking down the street and the angel's gone. And he comes to his senses and he goes, oh this is real. This is happened a second time. He just got out of prison again. And so when he had considered this. verse 12.
So when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came and answered. When she recognized Peter's voice because of her gladness, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate.
But they said to her, you are beside yourself. Yet she kept insisting it was so. So they said, it is an angel. I love this part of the story. Peter goes, he goes to the house of Mary and in the house is John, who's also called Mark. There's John Mark, the guy who wrote the book of Mark. And he goes, and they've been praying. They've been praying for Peter, and praying for Peter, and praying for Peter. And he goes and he knocks at the door.
And this slave girl, and it is Pelecki here, it's a slave girl. Her name is Rhoda. She comes up to the door, and she knows his voice. And she's rejoicing, she's filled with joy. She tells all the people praying, Peter's here, Peter's here, Peter's here. And they think, you're outside, you're mine, you're nuts. And they say, maybe he's just seen an angel. They've been praying for Peter. They've been praying for him. And now he's at the door and they don't believe the little girl who's telling them this.
Isn't that amazing? We'll just kind of jump into some reflection here for a second. Can that be true of our lives? That we can be given over to faithless praying? that we can pray and not actually be convinced that the Lord is going to hear us. I know I've been guilty of that. That's what's going on in this story.
But Peter, he keeps on knocking. Then Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. But motioning to them with his hands to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. And he said, go and tell these things to James and to the brethren. And he departed and went to another place. So Peter's like, you can imagine the whole gang coming up to the door. It's in the middle of the night. Be quiet. He doesn't want to get caught. He's just gotten out of prison. So he tells them these things and he tells them, go tell, go tell Jesus, his brother, James, and go tell the rest of the brethren. And then Peter goes and he tells the other brethren too.
But in the morning time, there's some problems. Verse 18, then as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become to Peter. Man, you can imagine the trouble that would happen back at the prison with the guards and with Herod. Tempers flaring, fingers pointing, evidence seeking. They're trying to find Peter, but they can't find him. But when Peter had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards. All right, Herod is furious. What in the world happened to this dude? He was double-chained. In between you are you all a bunch of idiots. What's going on here? How could this happen?
And the reality of what happens here is and he commanded that they should be put to death. For a prison guard to lose a prisoner was a capital offense. And so these Gentiles are put to death so the church can continue to grow. They wanted to kill Peter. They wanted to get popularity with the Jewish people. And we're going to find out tomorrow what happens to Herod. It's not good for him either. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. So Peter leaves. Peter doesn't stay there, but he goes down to Caesarea. He goes down to the sea and he gets away from King Herod Agrippa. Well, there's a whole bunch in that passage. What's the best verse to summarize all that?
Let me know. Send me a message or put it down in the comments, type it up, let me know. What are you called to do? Do you believe in these? This is true history. Luke isn't writing fables. But do you believe that God actually took Peter out of a prison and brought him into the streets? Do you actually believe that the Lord can send an angel and do these things? Do you actually believe that God can open an iron gate? Do you actually believe that God can raise Jesus up from the dead? This is what we're called to. This is what I pray that you'll believe. I pray that it's what I believe that as we pray, we pray as people of faith who actually trust in the one true living God.
Let's go ahead and pray now. Father, we do pray. Lord, we pray at this very hour as we know that there are brothers and sisters in foreign countries who are being persecuted even right now. God, we pray knowing that you are powerful and you are able to open the gates and drop the shackles. So God, we pray that if it's your will, you would do it. Lord, we pray that you would work powerfully in our day and age. Lord, we pray that you would continue your work today. We pray that your gospel would continue to spread. We pray that the fame of Jesus Christ would grow like wildfire.
Lord, we pray that you would thwart the plans of our enemy and that you might receive the glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today as you walk by faith. May your heart be comforted knowing that you are loved by the God of the universe. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.