Acts 12 Life is Good… Except When it Isn’t…
Good morning! Happy New Year! Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 12, that’s on page 920 in the pew Bibles.
Let’s pray.
There was a time in my extended family that every time we got together at camp in the summertime everybody was wearing one of those “Life is Good” shirts. There were hats and coffee mugs, even when my mom retired I made her a “Life is Good cake.” There’s whole stores full of this stuff. Is there one still in North Conway?
Simple stuff, a stick figure guy doing something that the wearer likes and it simply says, “Life is Good.” Fishing, skiing, biking, lounging in an Adirondak chair, all experiences summed up with the simple phrase, “Life is Good.”
And life is good… Except when it isn’t…
I wonder how many of us share the experience when it seems like everything in life is just sailing along, everything is working out, everything is clicking and then all of a sudden something happens and life stops dead in its tracks.
Everything that was moving along so smoothly just grinds to a halt and it seems like so much work to get anything to move, like running in mud. It’s like you just can’t seem to get anything to work and nothing is easy anymore. I know I am not the only one that has had that experience, maybe you’re there with me even today.
This is exactly where the church was at in Acts 12.
The timeline is sometimes hard for us to get because we just read it as all one thing but by the time we get to Acts 12 the church was already in its twelfth year.
The last major trial that the church had faced was the martyrdom of Stephen, but it had been several years. That was when all but the apostles were scattered from Jerusalem taking the gospel with them. The word of God had been spreading like wildfire and even one of the gospel’s greatest opponents, Saul, had been converted and was preaching the word.
Things had been moving along really well for the church.
Then all of a sudden it seemed like the wheels came off.
Herod Agrippa, brother of the Herod that sentenced Jesus to be crucified, started persecuting the church. He had James the brother of John beheaded and when he saw how the Jews reacted, he had Peter arrested with the same intent. It was only because of the Passover celebration that he decided to put it off a few days.
We’re going read the account one piece at a time instead of all at once starting at verse 1 of Acts 12.
About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 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. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.
Things were getting out of hand quickly. James, the brother of John, one of the “Sons of Thunder,” had been murdered and now it looked like the same was going to happen to Peter.
How did the church react?
I bet some people left and found some other church that didn’t have any problems, maybe they just got together to complain and commiserate. I bet they formed some committees!
Maybe that’s what we would do but that’s not what they did.
They got together to pray and pray earnestly.
That phrase, pray earnestly, doesn’t mean that when the hour was up they all went home. It means they prayed intensely, fervently, resolutely, without ceasing. This is how the early church responded when the wheels fell off.
They prayed earnestly, they trusted God, and depended on Him to resolve their crisis and look what happened:
6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 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. 8 And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 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. 10 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.
Now let me ask you a question. This is going to take some imagination on your part, at least I hope it will.
Just imagine that it is the night before your own execution, you’re chained up in jail knowing that the next morning will be your last morning… What do you think you would be doing? Sleeping? Not me…
What does this tell us about Peter?
Peter knew what was coming, his long-time friend, former business partner, and fellow apostle had just been murdered by the same king that had him bound to two soldiers and guarded by two more. There was no earthly way to escape and no hope that Herod would relent. This was it for Peter.
How could he sleep!?
I’ll tell you how. Peter trusted God.
He trusted that God would be glorified and the gospel would advance either by his death or by his deliverance. Peter trusted God and God delivered him. Look at verse 11:
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.”
12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” 16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed.
So, Peter escapes, then shows up where the church was gathered praying for his deliverance, and when he does, Rhoda, the girl who answers the door freaks out and doesn’t even let the poor guy in! When she tells everybody that he’s out there, they all think she’s nuts! Meanwhile, Peter’s still out there, banging on the door…
Does that ever happen to you?
You pray and pray about something and when God works it out you don’t believe that He did?
Maybe you don’t say that out loud or even consciously think that, but your attention span is just not long enough to wait for the outcome. And when God works it out and you’re like “Oh, cool.” Like it’s no big deal?
Or maybe you’re just so happy that you don’t bother to give God credit for answering your prayers? Maybe you don’t bother to pray at all.
Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m the only one.
So Peter gets delivered, trusting God with the outcome either way, the church is freaking out, totally not prepared for a miracle… Look at verse 17:
17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place.
18 Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19 And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.
The moral of the story is: When life gets hard, have people pray for you and then everything will be ok… unless you are one of those guards… Even better, look at the end of the chapter, verse 20.
20 Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. 21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. 22 And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
24 But the word of God increased and multiplied.
Herod is flattered by the people of Caesarea after a public speech, they said he was a god and not a man and because he didn’t correct them and give glory to God he was struck down by an angel and eaten by worms… Two days after Peter was freed Herod was dead.
So the hero is rescued, the bad guy gets struck down, the Word of God spreads, and everybody goes home happy… except for those guards…
So what can we learn from this? God worked it out in the end but what about before he worked it out? What are the principles that we can learn from?
We can take a lesson from Peter: Peter trusted God in the face of certain death. He knew that either through his death or his deliverance that God was at work and had a purpose behind what was happening.
A life of peace and safety was not what God had in mind for Peter and it’s probably not what God has in mind for us either. Jesus said he didn’t come to bring peace but a sword, turning father against son and mother against daughter.
The peace that we have is peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Through faith in Jesus our sins are forgiven and we can have peace with God but any peace we have in this world is not going to last long, we are now enemies of this world.
If peace and safety is what you are after, you are in the wrong club.
Peter was willing to trust Jesus even if it meant his death, knowing that if he was faithful God would be glorified.
Are we willing to trust Him like that? Maybe we aren’t facing certain death, but we may be facing hardship and difficulty, darkness and emotional distress.
Jesus is still Lord over those circumstances, and we can still trust Him even when we don’t see Him or feel Him.
We can take a lesson from the exercise of Peter’s trust in Jesus and we can take a lesson from the Church:
The church gathered together to earnestly pray when the wheels fell off, to relentlessly pray for resolution.
This was not your typical “organ recital” where we just pray for the list of physical ailments and sicknesses and move on.
This was desperate crying out to God as a family, knowing that He is the only one who can fix what is broken, and trusting Him to do as He sees fit even if the results are painful, knowing that He has a greater plan than we can imagine.
Are we willing to take time out of our busy schedules to gather together to earnestly seek God and His deliverance?
The final lesson I think we can take from Herod: Glorify God as God, don’t take credit for the things that the Lord works out for you.
Take what happened to Herod as a warning. When we trust in our own cleverness or resourcefulness to get us out of a jam, or do something cool, and then pat ourselves on the back we commit the same sin that Herod did.
Are we willing to give God the credit He deserves?
At the end of the day, Life is good…
And even when it doesn’t feel like it is, when life feels bad, we can trust that God is good and that He is working to accomplish much more than we can imagine.
And if we are faithful to follow His ways and glorify Him, we might just get to see a glimpse of something wonderful.
Amen.
