Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Hey, it’s the weekend and I hope you have a great one!
Family heritage is important, isn’t it? So how far back in your family tree can you name your ancestors? How has the family shadow, cast by your parents, grandparents and even great grandparents, affected how you live your life?
In recent days we’ve been looking at what life was like for the followers of Jesus in the years immediately following His return to heaven. By the end of Acts 11, a famine had struck the greater Jerusalem area, and financial help had come with Barnabas and Saul from the Gentile Christ followers in Antioch. Yesterday we saw this Jesus spiritual movement gained a new name in Antioch. “They were called Christians first in Antioch” (Acts 11:26)
Dr. Luke opens Acts 12 with this description of the times: “It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, executed with the sword. When he saw this pleased the Jews, king Herod proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.” You’ll recall in the Gospels and Acts we find four generations of kings in Jerusalem, from the Herod family! Herod the Great was the ‘king Herod’ who ordered the slaughter of the baby boys in Bethlehem when magi from the east visited him looking for a newborn king! (Matthew 2)
Herod Antipas was the ‘king Herod’ who had John the Baptist executed and before whom Jesus stood in trial, and the Herod who agreed to the crucifixion of Jesus. Herod Agrippa I is the ‘king Herod’ mentioned here in Acts 12:1 who orders the execution of the apostle James, and the imprisonment of Peter. And finally his son Herod Agrippa II is the “king Herod” before whom the apostle Paul stood trial in Acts 25:13-26:32.
Jewish leadership in Jerusalem had been struggling to deal with the rapidly growing Jesus movement in which thousands of Jews had turned to Jesus as their Messiah. But recently, as we’ve seen in Acts 10 & 11, Gentiles in large numbers are becoming part of the Jesus movement, and so for the political leaders of Jerusalem and Palestine, this was now a serious movement which had the potential to create civil unrest and bring down the wrath of Roman authority upon Jerusalem. Something needed to be done!
For this reason king Herod took action to stem the tide, slow the growth of this Jesus movement and he struck at its leadership. We only have these few words: “King Herod had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.” (Acts 12:2) No mention of a trial or charges worthy of arrest and execution. In those days, no trial was needed, if the accused was not a Roman citizen. It appears ‘king Herod’ simply took matters into his own hands.
I imagine he did some investigation and found that there were three disciples who seemed most special to Jesus and were thus regarded as key leaders in the rapidly growing movement. Peter, James and John. All three had been fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. John and James were brothers, and friends with Peter and his brother Andrew. For some reason Jesus took a special liking to Peter, James and John and we can well imagine after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension back to heaven, this “Jesus movement” held these three apostles in the highest of esteem.
Notice please the execution of James and arrest of Peter took place during Passover (Feast of Unleavened Bread), thus on the anniversary of the Easter events which birthed the “Jesus movement”. It was Herod’s intention to bring Peter to trial and execute him after Passover. None of the apostles had more influence than Peter and thus Herod assigned him to be guarded by 4 squads of 4 soldiers each. No one was getting close to Peter! Can you imagine the fear and sense of lostness which was sweeping through the “Jesus movement” around Jerusalem, in Samaria, in Caesarea and even up in Antioch as word spread of king Herod’s tactics? Without Peter who would lead this movement?
In those days there was no attempt to find a good attorney, no efforts to get lots of signatures on a petition, no public call for justice, no social media… there was nothing anyone could do but pray. Have you sometimes found yourself in that situation, my friends? All you could do was pray, asking God for a miracle? Luke records: “Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying for him.” (Acts 12:5) Have you ever been involved in such desperate prayer gatherings? Have you ever been the focus of such a prayer gathering?
In the dungeon there was no reason for Peter to have any hope. We assume he knows James was executed, and Peter is smart enough to know he’s next and he has no recourse but to hope and pray it doesn’t hurt too much! In fact, the evidence that Peter has accepted his fate, is that when an angel from God shows up in the dungeon, Peter is sleeping, chained between two guards. I urge you to listen to the dramatic, audio Bible link at the end of today’s “Walking with Jesus”. It will put you right there in the dungeon with Peter!
So, let’s stand in this damp, dark dungeon and witness one of the most amazing moments in history. A bright light suddenly pierces the darkness, and a dazzling man approaches Peter, but Peter’s in a deep sleep, so the angel first nudges him lightly, but nothing. So the angel had to jostle him to wake him up! “Shhh”, the angel has his finger over his mouth motioning to Peter to be quiet. Then the unbelievable happened, iron chain links broke without anyone touching them, and Peter got up on his feet, looking at two sleeping guards and an angel.
Undoubtedly Peter rubbed his eyes, not able to believe what was happening. “Let’s go” the angel said, grabbing Peter’s arm, ‘follow me’! The angel pushed open the big cell door, they walked down the dark corridor to the exterior solid iron gate and this time the gate just swung open by itself! Quickly they walked, almost ran down the street, Peter running a little faster. Peter stopped at the corner, the streets were deserted. He turned to ask the angel some questions, but the angel was gone, disappeared into the night.
For a moment Peter leaned against a building, what should he do, where should he go? Mary’s house… yes, Mary’s house was one of the places Jesus followers often gathered for prayer and the teaching of the apostles, in Jerusalem… so Peter headed there, ducking into alleys occasionally looking around to see if anyone was following him. Quiet… the city was quiet.
Luke writes: “Peter went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice she was so overjoyed she ran back, without opening the door, and exclaimed ‘Peter is at the door’.” (Acts 12:12-14) When suddenly you are faced with a miracle, how do you respond my friends? The people in the prayer meeting didn’t believe Rhoda’s report. Oh they were praying, begging God to do something spectacular, but when God did…they didn’t believe it! If you are a Christian, if you are a praying Christian, are you expecting God to miraculously answer your prayers or are you just going through the motions, with no expectations that anything will change?
Some said to Rhoda, ‘you’re out of your mind’, refusing to believe her declaration that Peter was standing in the dark street, alone and free at the door! But she insisted, so they went to open the door and were shocked to find Peter standing there! Let’s just pause right here… we’ll pick up the story tomorrow right here, but for today, I invite us to consider how big our faith in God really is, and how our prayers reflect our faith, and our relationship with Jesus? In fact, let me ask this… what have your children and grandchildren learned about your relationship with Jesus as they’ve watched or listened to you pray? Who is the prayer warrior who has most influenced your prayer life? Are they still alive? What prayer legacy are you passing to your descendants?
I invite us to go to prayer right now, talking with God about how we pray, asking God to show us what HE sees in us as we pray, and how does God want to change our prayer passion and prayer practice so we experience prayer miracles and they don’t surprise us! Remember what happened when Elijah prayed on Mount Carmel? (1 Kings 18:36) If you have a few moments, I’d urge you to go there and just see how God responded. And then get down on your knees and talk to God about how you pray and how God would like to change that!
Today’s Scripture is Acts 12:1-15.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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