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Acts 12.5-19
October 2nd 2016
Milk
Okay we left off at verse 4 where we read:
4 And when he (Herod) had apprehended him (Peter) he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
We ended talking about the word Easter (in scripture) and freedom in Christ.
So let’s read from verse 5:
Acts 12:5 Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.
6 And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.
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.
8 Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.”
9 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.
10 When they were past the first and the second guard posts, 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.
11 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.”
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.
13 And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer.
14 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.
15 But they said to her, “You are beside yourself!” Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, “It is his angel.”
16 Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.
17 But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Go, tell these things to James and to the brethren.” And he departed and went to another place.
18 Then, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter.
19 But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea, and stayed there.
Alright back to verse 5
Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
The believers in that day had zero influence over matters politically as they were considered scofflaws.
The only recourse they really had was . . . prayer.
It’s really a tremendous “type” or model for us today because I believe the message is the same – the recourse of believers is faith and prayer.
There is a litany of theories on why we pray. What it accomplishes. Some believe they can get their desires granted through prayer. I would suggest that this is only as long as God’s desires are in harmony with the requests.
If they’re not I’m not so sure we can twist His arm to give us or grant us what is against his will in the end.
Therefore, key to all prayer is the admittance that “His will be done,” and having said this understand and accept the outcome.
I’m really sorry to reject the idea that if we pray with enough faith God will grant our every wish. This is proven time and time again to be untrue.
It is also a teaching that tends to do a LOT of harm when someone fasts, and prays, and cries out to God, and their child still dies, or their loved one remains in a coma, or the blind remain blind.
Jesus words about “moving mountains by faith,” were contextually to his chosen twelve relative to the work they would do.
But we can’t help but notice that all of them were brutally martyred.
I would counsel all that our prayers are to engage God in the conversation of our hearts, to go to Him as our counselor, and certainly, if we desire something to ask – but always, always, always remembering, in faith, that we seek to praise Him in the blessing and in the storm as His will is done.
In the case of Peter, he was imprisoned and the saints prayed for his release.
The odds seemed pretty bleak – “Lord, release Peter from the grip of Herod, from the hands of sixteen guards, from the confinement behind prison bars.
But in this case it seems that the prayer of faith was prevalent with God.
The description of the prayers offered on Peter’s behalf, in the King James, is “without ceasing” but the Greek word better means, intensely or earnestly.
6 And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.
And the night before Herod would have brought him forth to put him to death,
“Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.”
Did you catch it? Peter was SLEEPING! Now, this is quite remarkable but not original to Peter.
Do you remember in the Gospels when Jesus was out on a boat on the sea and the waves got really rough and what He was doing? That’s right, He was sleeping amidst the storm, and the apostles came to him and woke him and said,
“Lord, save us – we perish.”
And Jesus remarked at their lack of faith and then rose and commanded the sea and wind and waves to cease – and they did.
Afterward the apostles said to each other:
“What manner of man is this that even the wind and waves obey Him?”
I’m sure Peter was among those who was both fearful during the storm and then asking what manner of Man Jesus was? But here and now, Peter has become a person who truly follows him – a man so full of faith that while life is storming around his head, he snores on peacefully.
What would your night be like if you believed you could be executed in the morning – and had every reason to believe this could occur?
Could you sleep – chained between two guards? This Petros had become a man of tremendous faith, trusting and accepting that his fate and life was in the hands of the Almighty.
And so the lesson to us – right here in the life of Peter. Surrounded, outnumbered, facing certain death – we rest in peace, doubting nothing.
According to the next verse God was not willing to have Peter die (just yet).
7 And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, “Arise up quickly.” And his chains fell off from his hands.
The Greek translated, “Came upon him,” means “to stand near him,” “and a light shined in the prison.”
While many translators have suggested that this was lightning the Greek lends to the idea that it was light or splendor and even shining apparel, which are often associated with visits from heavenly beings.
I want to make a couple points here brought forth from these passages. First, I believe that only Peter was able to observe or see this light – maybe similar to Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus.
Lately I have come to the conclusion that there is something important to developing or refining or obtaining an ability to see and hear and understand spiritual things while we are here in this life.
Let me ask you a question? What dies when we die here on earth?
Do our physical eyes with cones and rods die? They do. Do our eardrums die? Yes. Are we able to taste things, smell things, touch things? No, no and no. In other words the senses tied to our physical mortal bodies go to the grave and stop functioning by nerve endings and passing messages to our brains.
Now I want you to image two people – Joe and John.
Joe has learned and lived by his fleshly senses – he was extremely sensual over the course of his life and lived solely by the sensors in his flesh.
But he was never interested in developing any senses outside of his flesh – senses that discern the things of the spirit.
Boy, he was keen in his fleshly senses though.
On the other hand we have Jon who spent a great deal of his life developing spiritual sensitivities. These occurred first as he was born of the spirit (or born from above) and then instead of focusing on physical sensory development sought to know the True and Living God and His Son whom He had sent.
Jon learned God’s will by and through considering His word, prayer, exercising faith, and trusting in the Lord.
Jon and Joe are killed – one has developed his fleshly senses and one his spiritual.
I can’t help but wonder if when Jesus says that unless a person is born-again they can’t even see the Kingdom of God if this is what it means? That Joe will die but will lack any of the spiritual senses to discern God thereafter?
Just a thought.
Secondly, listen again to what the angel says to Peter:
7 And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, “Arise up quickly.” And his chains fell off from his hands.
In this interaction we note that having physical sensitivities here in the flesh is important – I mean if Peter lacked them he wouldn’t have felt the angel punch him in the side. So we aren’t denying the gifts of physical senses here.
But more to the point, notice the interaction and inter-dependence between Peter (an earthly being) and the Angel (a heavenly being).
The angel of light woke Peter and gave him a command to execute quickly. It was a command in time and space and was dependent on swift execution.
From this we can see that heavenly beings cannot simply override the events and circumstances of this world. They must work in and around it, with it, not upon it.
I firmly maintain that because of this God, being good and just, will not simply impose his will upon Man but will reach out, will warn, will seek to intervene but humans must be engaged with Him in a team effort.
At the foundation of this principle lies the conviction that all men are free agents and while God is calling to try and wake everyone to rise and act, He does not force this upon anyone.
There is no such thing as irresistible grace – it is entirely resistible, just as Peter could have resisted the angels command to “arise up quickly.”
This being said, the angel DID have the ability to strike Peter on the side and break his chains. I personally think the angel could take such action because the imprisonment and the chains were unjustly applied.
Just a thought.
So he smites Peter on the side, loosens the chains and said, “get up quickly.” (verse 8)
8 And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.
Traditionally, when men slept back in the day the outer garment was thrown off, and the belt with which they bound their inner garment, or tunic, was loosed.
So the angels says, tighten up your belt, put on your shoes, and Peter did, then waited and then the angel said, Put on your outer robe and follow me.
9 And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision.
In all of this Luke says that Peter was not certain that what was happening was real or actual but wondered if he was seeing a vision or was possibly having a dream.
I love the details of this story – they always affirm to me some authenticity –
10 When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.
In the Greek the word for ward (Fu-lak-ahn) best means “guarding” but it is commonly used to describe the prison itself.
Here it seems that Luke is saying that as the Angel and Peter passed the posted guards who apparently were asleep or unable to see them through some supernatural blindness and they came to an iron gate which apparently served as the exit door from the prison “that leadeth unto the city.”
From what I’ve read Jerusalem was surrounded by three walls and the prison was situated between two of these walls.
Therefore the door opened right out into the city itself. Luke tells us that this iron gate opened of its own accord, a similar miracle to the chains being loosed.
Listen to this little detail too:
“and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.”
Fascinating. The angel didn’t just disappear the moment they existed the prison but walked with him to another street and then departed from him.
Waited until Peter was entirely safe from any danger of pursuit, and then the angel left him.
From this I take that heavenly beings abide while danger is present – and they leave when the danger has passed.
And from this I also take it that God does things right. He doesn’t partially heal. He doesn’t partially save. He does His part completely – which is why I am so skeptical of faith healers claims because I’ve never seen or heard of them heal an amputee, or the completely blind or dead. It’s usually people with a gimp knee, lumbago, or a case of the dropsy (I have no idea what these last two ailments are, to tell you the truth).
11 And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.
In other words when he had overcome his amazement of what was happening and was capable of clear reflection he obtained a personal witness and
Knew “of a surety,” with “certainty” that the situation was in the hands of God and that God wanted (and did) deliver him out of the hand of Herod and from what Luke says was, “the expectation of the people of the Jews,” meaning those who wanted Peter dead.
You know, when we choose to walk by faith, we believe that what happens and what doesn’t is somehow connected to the will of God.
Peter had to stand up, he had to dress himself, he had to walk with and follow the angel, but it was God who delivered him.
In the top ten questions I get from being in ministry one is:
“How do we know what we are supposed to do, and what actions to take when we are trying to really rely on God?”
In this example of Peter we receive some direction. First, he was trusting in the Lord, right? Sleeping in the face of danger.
He was not trying to break out of jail, was he. He wasn’t trying to bribe the jailers. He was at peace trusting God was at work.
So there is point one.
Point two – he moved as he was lead – and acted in accordance to the directions given.
What are our instructions? Pretty basic, folks – have faith in God and love Him and our fellow man.
What is of faith and love, that do. What isn’t, that avoid.
Already we are setting ourselves up for being lead of Him.
Finally, in all things giving Him the credit. Acknowledging His hand – ready – in the victories and in the storm.
Upon exiting and finding himself alone Peter acknowledged God saying,
“now I know of a surety that God has delivered me out of the hand of Herod and those who expected me to die.”
When we lay all of everything at His feet we are walking in faith – something that pleases Him greatly.
All the rest of what we “do” is up to us. It’s sort of like we pour a foundation of faith and love (his commands) we trust and rest in this through Jesus, and we frame all that goes on as coming from His hand, and we then move on to sheetrock and walls and decorate as desired.
Get it? (verse 12)
12 And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying.
As he was pondering on what occurred he appears to have walked to the house of Mary the mother of John whose surname was Mark.
It is believed that this was probably “John Mark” who wrote the gospel (or Mark) but we cannot be certain.
And where Luke says his surname was Mark it doesn’t mean he had two names conferred on him, like we do, but more like he had two names used at the same time with the Hebrews probably calling him John and the Greeks Mark.
We’re going to read more about him in the near future.
And what was going on there? “Many were gathered together praying.”
It was night and these devoted to God and his well-being were gathered to pray as the morning was going to bring his demise.
The Christian faith is a sacrificial religion. But as with all things sacrifices are wholly individual.
We individually decide how to live our lives, where to focus our time and attentions, and what to support through our actions.
Pray is a personal sacrifice as it takes time (the stuff that life is made of) to petition God on behalf of others. We could spend the time we spend playing pinball, or watching tv – but some choose to give part of their day (or life) to petitioning God on behalf of others.
That’s an act of Christian love. I am certain that we have been able to survive life in ministry because of the prayers of others. How they work or affect God I really don’t know. But we are commanded to pray and shown to pray by Jesus – and so we do.
I have always said – and I maintain this position today, that if a person has a choice between praying for the ministry or donating money I’ll take the prayers any day of the week.
God could plop money in my lap any day of the week but He can’t force prayers out of the mouths of Man – such sacrifices are golden.
Since I’m on the topic, other Christian sacrifices include:
Our worship or what scripture calls “the fruit of our lips,” our lives and time (as in dying to the fleshly will and living by the Spirit and will of God), and then supplying others with things (that we could use for ourselves) because they are in need. (verse 13)
13 And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda.
The door of the gate would be a vestibule or entry to foyer or hall leading to the house.
Who came to this entryway? A damsel or girl named Rhoda – Greek for a rose. “Whose there?” she may have said (verse 14)
14 And when she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate.
Now, I smile – even laugh every time I read this. Why? I am not only someone who was introduced to girls at a very young age and became a student of female behaviors but God saw fit to bless me with three lovely daughters to raise.
And I’ve watched them as they’ve matured and witnessed first-hand this very type of response to unexpected events.
I mean, Rhoda recognized Peter’s voice and could have believed it was okay to let him in but amidst all the praying for his release and the fact that she could hear that it was him simply overloaded her system, and instead of responding, she ran in sheer excitement to tell the others.
We might believe that she was exercising discretion, thinking that maybe it was a trap and she had better get permission to open the door. But I choose to believe that this girl simply short-circuited and balistically ran in some form of hysteria to the others leaving Peter outside with a face that looked like this.
(show face of disbelief)
I can’t resist this story. Years ago when I worked at a state park collecting parking fees I was taken into what we called the back-country with a female ranger and another parking attendant so we could describe the area to visitors.
The female Ranger had been arduously trained in handling firearms and in self- defense and was carrying two loaded guns on her person as we toured the area.
For some reason the subject of mountain lions came up and several stories were shared about their viciousness and ability to expertly take human life.
After a number of stories we arrived at a campsite that was recessed down in a cove and the two females wanted to walk down into it and having zero interest in seeing the place from another view chose to remain behind in the vehicle.
So the women left to walk down into the small tight cove. As I sat there Satan himself entered my person and suggested that I sneak over to a ridge overlooking the women and make what was perhaps one of the best wild cat impressions in the west.
Quietly I snuck out of the Jeep and walked through the dense trees to the ledge. From there I had a perfect view of my colleagues 30 yards down and away from me.
And as loud as I could I let the mountain lion screech fly –
I could not have ever anticipated the response these two women had.
I’m not kidding – the one parking attendant literally became Lord of the Dance and not going anywhere ran in place like Fred Flintstone trying to escape a Brontosaurus.
And the Ranger? Three times she ran right into Michael Flatly, bounced off like a rubber ball, all the while trying and failing to retrieve her loaded pistol.
It was one of the funniest scenes I have EVER witnessed.
Right about the time the Ranger got her firearm free I belted out a laugh and let me tell you, hell has no fury as a woman scorned.
So back to Rhoda. What lets me believe that she was acting is what is said next –
“she opened not the gate for gladness (otherwise known as Lord of Dance syndrome), but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate.”
15 And they said unto her, “Thou art mad.”
We know hysterical girls – and you are one of them . . .
. . . But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel.
Now, there is something intriguing here in this. They were praying and asking God to release Peter and here he comes, freed and they do not believe it was possible!
Isn’t that funny? I would suggest that had they truly believed then it would not have been difficult to accept Rhoda’s story.
To me this shows that it wasn’t the faith of those praying that released Peter but the will and protection of God.
And even though they called Rhoda insane she constantly affirmed it was true. She insisted on it.
Peter is outside knocking – let me in – his very life in jeopardy – and inside the disciples are arguing with a teenager over whether it could possibly be him WHOM they have been praying for. Pure comedy.
Adding to the humor was how they explained away what poor Rhoda was affirming. They said it was “Peter’s angel.”
In other words they were MORE willing to believe that an angel was outside knocking on the door than Peter himself! What they heck was motivating them in their prayers we might wonder.
Now, an interesting point as we wrap up. Reading this passage in English its possible to understand it in a couple ways.
First, we might believe it means, it is the spirit of Peter knocking. Secondly, we might believe that it was an angel sent to watch over Peter coming to give an update on his condition.
It’s the latter. How do we know? The Greek for the Spirit of Peter would be Petros pneuma. But that is not what’s written here. Its his messenger, clearly meaning that it they thought it could be the heavenly angellos or messenger sent to watch over Peter.
The disturbing thing is some translations of this passage actually write that the disciples said to Rhoda:
“It’s the Spirit of Peter!” That’s just not so. They suggested to Rhoda (albeit wrongly) that the being knocking on the door was a heavenly messenger assigned to Peter.
This idea cam from the common belief of the Jews that every individual had assigned to him, at birth, a celestial spirit, whose office it was to guard and defend him through life.
This believe is actually endorsed by Jesus when He said in Matthew 18:10:
“Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”
No matter, these disciples were wrong and Rhoda was right. (Verse 16)
16 But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.
17 But he (Peter) beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, (hold up the hand) declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Go shew these things unto James” (which would be James the Lesser and James the Greater was now dead) “Go and show these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place.”
No time to celebrate – in fact, be quiet – and “go and shew these things to James and to the brethren and he departed and went elsewhere.”
Why would Peter tell them to go to James? Because he was the lead of the Church at Jerusalem is why, which was the closest thing to the head of the Church in that day.
I make this point that Peter was not the Pope nor in charge as tradition might suggest.
Finally, we will read Peter’s name one more time in the book of Acts – chapter 15.
After that Paul will speak of Peter in his letter to the Galatians and then we will read his name applied in I and II Peter twice. But nothing more.
Peter, as verse 12 says, was about to “depart and go elsewhere.”
Question / Comments?
