WWUTT 1077 Peter is Rescued?

Peter was thrown in prison, the Lord God broke him out. My friends, we were imprisoned by sin and the

Lord broke us free. And now we are called to join his kingdom work when we understand the text.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We are back in Acts chapter 12, picking up where we left off yesterday.

We just got about three verses in, so I'm gonna go ahead and start in verse one and read through verse 11.

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.

Now, when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and centuries 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 the angel 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. So again, we just got a few verses in yesterday, but we started in chapter 12, verse one, with about that time,

Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belong to the church. But then

I mentioned when we got to verse two, he killed James, the brother of John with the sword. I mentioned that James was the second martyr.

Well, that probably wasn't true. He was the second martyr named in Acts, but may not have been the second

Christian killed. For Saul even sought to persecute Christians. And it says here that Herod in chapter 12, verse one, said that he laid violent hands on some who belong to the church.

So there were probably some others who had been executed as well before James was killed.

It's just that Luke, who is writing the book of Acts, he mentions James in particular as one of those who was killed by Herod.

There were several who did not have a name or did not have any kind of notoriety of any kind that had been put to death, but Herod would not touch the apostles out of fear of the people.

But then when James was killed and the Jews approved of it, that's when Herod got a little more courageous in his efforts against these

Christians. And he proceeded to come after Peter. He arrested him. And it says this was during the days of unleavened bread.

Well, among the Jews, it was considered to be unholy or impure to put anyone to death during the time of Passover.

So they did not put Peter to death. And yeah, they made an exception for Jesus, but that was just to demonstrate the evil that was in their hearts.

So they would come against the son of God in this way and put him to death in the midst of Passover.

And that was of course, by the sovereign ordination of God to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is our

Passover lamb. He fulfilled everything in the law and the prophets and is for us a sacrifice before God, His blood as an atonement.

So all who believe in Jesus as the son of God for the forgiveness of sins will be justified and stand before God as holy.

We are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit who is within us. This was all demonstrated by Jesus death at Passover, but ordinarily the

Jews wouldn't put anybody to death at that time. So Peter is being put in prison until Passover is over.

That's what they're waiting for. So this is during the feast of unleavened bread. And it says verse four, when he had seized him, he put him in prison and look at the extreme measures that Herod goes to to make sure

Peter is secured. He delivers him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him intending after the

Passover to bring him out to the people just like what was done with Jesus. But of course that was going on during the time of Passover.

So Jesus was brought out to the people. They shouted, crucify him. You know, there could be a little bit of guilt on the part of the chief priests and the scribes here that because remember in Peter's sermon that he preached at Pentecost and then he delivered again later when he and John were brought before the

Pharisees, he had mentioned to them that you put Jesus to death. So there probably was some kind of guilt upon some of them

Gamaliel, even at one point, you know, stood up and defended the apostles and said, hey, let's not stop what it is.

Let's not try to stifle what it is that they're doing because if what they're doing is from God, well, then that's gonna come upon us.

But if what they're doing is not from God, well, then nothing will come of it at all.

So because of Gamaliel's testimony and because of some of the things that Peter preached and the obvious influence that the apostles had among the people because they were healing the sick, then there probably was some amount of fear there on Herod's part and even among the priests part on putting

Peter to death at the time of Passover. They had already done this to Jesus. They weren't gonna do this to Peter also.

I'm kind of speculating here, but it could be that they thought it might legitimize Peter's message somehow.

If we put him to death the same way that we put Jesus to death, whom he preaches about and says, you put the son of God to death.

So they're waiting until after Passover to do this. And Peter likely thought that this was his time.

I mean, he knew James had been put to death. Peter told, or Jesus told Peter that he would suffer for his name.

And Peter would later write, as I mentioned yesterday out of 1 Peter 4 .12, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice in so far as you share

Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Maybe Peter thought this was his time. He was going to be put to death just as Jesus, just as his

Lord had been put to death this same way. Now, I also mentioned yesterday that all of this could have been happening just a year after Jesus had been crucified.

But I also said it could have been about three or four years after the crucifixion of Jesus.

Maybe at this point, Peter had done as much ministry as Jesus had done. Jesus started his ministry around the age of 30, and then he was crucified about the age of 33.

So here, Peter has done about three years of Christian ministry in the church. If you want to take the long timeline view of the things that are going on here in Acts 12.

So he thinks now his ministry is at an end and he's going to be put to death.

And it's looking like his death is going to be like that of his savior. But Peter being kept in prison, energized the church to pray for him.

Verse five, earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. I think that one verse right there is very, very important for us.

Acts 12, five, Peter was kept in prison, earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

How much as a church are we doing for our persecuted brothers and sisters in the

Lord? How much are you looking for news and information about missionaries around the world and what they're going through for the cause of Christ?

Here in the United States of America, I mean, speaking for myself as an American, we can get kind of sheltered.

Yeah, I mean, I'm just as guilty of it as anybody else. We can get kind of closed in. We as Americans, American Christians in particular, we have this excuse that we like to make about missions.

Well, there's so much to do here. Like there's plenty of places where the gospel needs to go here.

I've got folks in my own town who have not heard the gospel I need to be reaching out with for the gospel.

There's enough to do here. Why do I need to go overseas or into another part of the world? Well, you're right.

There is a lot to do here. Are you actually doing that? Or are you just making excuses for why you don't need to get your rear end in gear and get out and be sharing the gospel?

There is work that needs to be done stateside, absolutely. But there's also work to be done abroad.

And if we have that opportunity to go into another part of the world and share the gospel, I believe that we should do that.

If somebody in your church does not feel called or led or those opportunities are not there for them to go and preach the gospel, then at the very least, the church should be raising money and supporting missionaries who are doing those things.

But then the church has the responsibility also of knowing what those ministries or what those missionaries are going through and how to pray for them.

We can't be sheltered. We actually have to step outside of our box, outside of our comfort a little bit, our comfort zone a little bit, and read some bad news.

You have to read about the things that Christians are going through, the ways they are being persecuted as they're sharing the gospel.

We have the freedom of religion where we are, and that allows us to be able to worship without fear of persecution of our government coming in and pointing guns in our faces and telling us to be quiet or they're gonna put us to death.

But there are missionaries in other parts of the world where they have given up that kind of security to step into dangerous places in order to spread the gospel.

And we need to know about that so that we can know how to pray for them. We must pray for the saints.

Just as the church felt energized to pray for Peter after he was thrown in prison. So we as a church must also know about those things that our missionaries go through so we might pray for them and lift them up and also weep with them, praying in tears for them because of the struggles and the sufferings that they go through.

We are commanded in Romans 12 to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.

Now we tend to apply that in a very general way and I think it does apply in a general way, but more specifically the context there is when the world is beating us up because we're going out with the gospel, we weep with those who are struggling as they are being persecuted by the world, but then we also rejoice with those who are rejoicing because they've been sharing the gospel and people have been coming to Christ.

So as we look for the ways that or the things that our missionaries are enduring, we can pray for them in those difficult situations, but that also opens us up to realize those successes that are happening that missionaries are accomplishing and we can rejoice with them too.

Mission Network News is a good resource to use. The International Missions Board. I like World Magazine and World often talks about various missions efforts that are going on around the world through there.

Bi -monthly, do you call something that gets printed twice a month bi -monthly or would that be bi -weekly?

Anyway, you get two issues of World Magazine a month. That's one way that you can keep in touch, keep track of some of these things that our missionaries are doing and I'm sure you might know of some other resources as well, but look for those things.

Find out missionary news so that we know how to pray for these missionaries, bring it up before your church, have a time of prayer during the service so that we may suffer with those who are suffering and pray earnestly for them before our

God that we might struggle together in this effort to spread the gospel around the world.

Peter was kept in prison, earnest prayer was made for him by the church.

We go on now to verse six. Now, when Herod was about to bring him out, so Herod's gonna bring him out the next day.

On that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. He is bound with two chains and centuries before the door were guarding the prison.

There's no way that Peter's breakout from prison could have been anything but the power of God 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. That's an interesting detail. I don't know if there's something significant about that or not.

He struck Peter on the side. Luke could have just said that he woke him up, but instead he says that he struck him, didn't just touch him, he struck him on the side.

Is there supposed to be some sort of parallel here between this and Jesus being pierced in his side to show that he was dead?

Rather, this angel is striking Peter on the side to show him that he is alive. You have not been put to death.

You are being set free. You are being released. There's another place where an angel touches someone and wakes him.

This was in first Kings chapter 19 when Elijah was fleeing persecution by Jezebel.

An angel touched Elijah and said, arise and eat. And then the angel comes again and touches him and says, arise and eat for the journey is too great for you.

Here we have a similar sort of a thing where an angel is touching Peter to wake him up and telling him what to do.

Get up quickly. And the chains fell off his hands. I'll come back to that in a moment.

And the angel said to him, dress yourself and put on your sandals. Another way to read this is gird up your loins.

This is really what the angel is telling Peter to do. Dress for action.

That's what gird up your loins means. We are going to battle, but not against flesh and blood.

It's a spiritual battle. The angel is telling Peter to prepare himself.

You've got guards that are standing there and they are armed to the hilt quite literally, but they are ineffective in the fight.

They're out cold. They're asleep at night. They can't do anything against this angel.

But Peter is being told to clothe himself, put on his sandals. As the apostle

Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter six, putting on the full armor of God, he says, put on the shoes of the gospel of peace.

So Peter is going to go out and do more preaching of the gospel. How beautiful are the feet of those who come preaching the good news, amen.

He goes out with the shoes of the gospel of peace. Peter did so.

And the angel said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. Preparing himself for action once again.

And he went out, Peter went out and followed the angel. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real.

He thought he was seeing a vision. He thought he was having a dream of some kind. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city.

So I made a parallel here between Peter and Elijah. I see some similarities also between this story and the story of Samson.

Remember that Samson broke chains. No chain was able to bind him. And when they had even tried to lock him in a city, he had lifted up the city gates and taken them up on a hillside and set them there.

Well here, Peter doesn't have the strength of Samson, but these chains have been broken by God.

And the iron gates are being opened by God because the strength ultimately is

God's. Samson didn't even understand that. He thought that the power was in himself, boasted in himself, thought that he could do it fine on his own.

And he paid dearly for that. He learned his lesson in the end, but it cost him his life.

Peter, on the other hand, knows that all power belongs to Christ. And Christ's power is being demonstrated here as being the one who breaks the chains, as being the one that opens the city gates.

It opened for them of its own accord. And they went out and went along one street and immediately the angel left him.

And when Peter came to himself, when he comes to his senses, it's not like he was out cold.

It's not like he was sleepwalking. It's like when it finally dawns on him what it was that was going on, he comes to himself and he says, 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. So once again, Peter is in this cell believing that he's about to die.

This is going to be his hour that God has appointed for him to suffer for the name of Christ.

But his time has not yet come. There is more work for Peter to do in spreading the gospel.

And this demonstrates Jesus' power over the ministry that Peter has.

This has all been given to him and ordained by God. And he knows that he has been delivered from Herod and from all that the

Jewish people were expecting. Just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were delivered from the fiery furnace and there was the angel of the

Lord that stood among them even there in the fire. So an angel has delivered

Peter from the fire, has delivered him from the mouth of lions, just as Daniel was delivered from the mouth of lions.

Peter recognizes that this is the work of God. And now what he's going to do is he's going to go to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was

Mark. John Mark's mother's house. That's where Peter's going to go next.

And that's where we will pick up this adventure story tomorrow. Psalm 24, eight, who is this

King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord who is mighty in battle.

Psalm 144, one, blessed be the Lord, my rock who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.

The battle is the Lord's, but he has called us to war. And the war that we fight, again, is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of darkness.

The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, beginning in verse three, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey

Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

In Ephesians chapter six, referencing that again, where we read about the full armor of God, the one weapon that we are equipped with is the sword of the spirit.

It is the word of God. It is by this word that we do battle against these spiritual forces of darkness.

It is by the power of the gospel that a person is freed from the chains of sin and enslaved to the passions of their flesh, having been ensnared by the devil to do his will.

They are broken free from that when they come to faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we must be properly equipped with God's word that we may do battle in the day of battle, remembering first and foremost, that the battle is the

Lord's and all glory to Christ our King. Let us pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for calling us by your purpose and grace.

And I pray that we would find us equipped with your word. So indeed we may do battle in these times, making the best use of the time because the days are evil, as Paul said in Ephesians chapter five.

So we share the promises of God and the message of his kingdom with others that they may turn from their sin and put faith in Jesus Christ and so live, being broken away from those strongholds of Satan that attempt to bind people to do his will.

But we have this said for us in the scriptures, Romans 1 16, the gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes.

And there's nothing that Satan can do to overthrow it. Help us to be properly equipped for these things in the day of truth.

We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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