Books of the Book: Acts

Jail Break

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jim & Mark Howard

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Series Code: ABOTB

Program Code: ABOTB00014B


00:01 Welcome back to Books Of The Book.
00:02 Before the break, Mark, we were looking at Acts chapter 12 where
00:07 it said that Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass
00:09 some from the church, even going so far as killing James the
00:14 brother of John with the sword.
00:16 This was the first one of the apostles now who has met with
00:18 death in the new church. That's right. And in verse 3
00:22 something very interesting is brought out. It says, Because he
00:25 saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to cease Peter
00:30 also. So clearly the reason for this was not because of Peter
00:34 doing something wrong but for political reasons. He saw that
00:38 there was favor he was gaining with the Jews and wow if they
00:41 were happy about that well what will they do when we get the
00:44 great apostle Peter. So you continue and it says, Now it
00:47 was during the days of unleavened bread so there would
00:51 be many people around and it said in verse 4, So when he had
00:55 arrested him he put him in prison and delivered him to
00:58 four squads of soldiers to keep him intending to bring him
01:02 before the people after Passover Now four squads of soldiers
01:08 sounds like a lot of soldiers and so I believe that first of
01:12 God allowed it and secondly the Bible points it out because it's
01:16 going to show just how miraculous what is
01:19 about to happen is really going
01:20 to be. Now we get to verse 5 it says, Peter...
01:24 Why would they put four squads of soldiers on Peter anyway?
01:28 That's a very good question. You know we recognize that first of
01:32 all, remember when they put squads of soldiers around Jesus'
01:36 tomb that that didn't work out all that well for them, right?
01:40 We recognize that there are always supernatural experiences
01:44 that are going on in the book of Acts and I believe that they
01:47 knew that they needed to be especially careful and make sure
01:50 that Peter was kept bound. Well his last imprisonment...
01:53 It doesn't tell us what happened to the guards there. It's going
01:57 tell what happens to them here. But he had guards. It doesn't
02:00 tell us how many, but evidently they felt they needed to beef up
02:03 security. Because he showed up in the
02:05 temple that time. Yeah, and the guards had no idea
02:08 They opened the door and he was gone.
02:09 That's exactly right. So as we read verse 5 it says, Peter was
02:13 therefore kept in prison but constant prayer was offered to
02:17 God for him by the church. Now this is a valid and important
02:21 point that we need to stop and pause at. You know, oftentimes
02:25 we hear about things going on that are important and we know
02:29 they're important, but we fail to pray. We fail to take them
02:34 before the Lord. I believe that there are times when we fail
02:38 to bring something before the Lord and as a result the Lord
02:42 does not respond. If we don't have in our hearts the desire
02:46 for the will of the Lord and the outcome that would be glorifying
02:51 to God, then he may not bring it about. He's looking for us to
02:56 show a deep and abiding interest. I think about when we
02:59 do outreach projects for the church and yet we don't stop and
03:02 take time to pray. You know, if we're not going to plead with
03:06 the Lord, if we're not interested enough then he's not
03:10 going to be able to open the door of blessing to us and we're
03:13 not going to be able to recognize it. So this is a
03:17 pattern for us. These early believers were in constant
03:20 prayer and they were offering it to God for Peter because of
03:25 his imprisonment. That's right and you know, Jim,
03:27 it reminds me of a statement in a book you had made reference
03:30 to before called the Great Controversy that talks about the
03:33 history of the church and the author of that book makes a
03:37 statement that says, and I believe it's on page 525 of that
03:41 book, that says that it is part of God's plan to grant us in
03:45 answer to the prayer of faith, that which he would not bestow
03:49 if we did not thus ask. And we see that in different places in
03:55 scripture where when the church prays we find a response. It's
04:00 Jesus who said, Ask and it shall be given unto you. It's James
04:04 who tells us later on, you have not because you ask not. So we
04:09 go on here. The church is praying and the Bible tells us
04:13 in verse 6, When Herod was about to bring him out that night
04:16 Peter was sleeping bound with two chains between two soldiers
04:20 and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. Now I'm
04:24 just blown away by this for a couple reasons. First of all,
04:28 James was just killed, so that tells Peter that there are no
04:32 idle threats here. This is a real and genuine threat. He is
04:37 in the prison very likely to be killed in his own mind and what
04:41 is he doing? He's sleeping and he's not just sleeping lightly
04:46 as we're going to see in a moment. Furthermore he's got
04:49 four squads of soldiers. A squad it says in my marginal reading
04:53 says tetraz, there's four, so there are 16 soldiers. I don't
04:56 know if that includes the guards he's chained between. So before
05:00 there were guards at the door but now he's got a guard and
05:04 he's chained on either side so he can't move without somebody
05:07 knowing it. He's asleep. I have a hard time sleeping when
05:10 I'm away from home in a hotel bed let alone chained to a
05:14 couple of guys. Exactly. Here we have, it says
05:19 in verse 7, Now behold an angel of the Lord stood by him and a
05:24 light shown in the prison and he struck Peter on the side and
05:28 raised him up saying, Arise quickly. And his chains fell off
05:31 his hands. Then the angle said to him, Gird yourself and tie on
05:35 your sandals and so he did. And he said to him put on your
05:38 garment and follow me. Now he struck Peter so it wasn't like
05:41 tap, tap, tap like Peter was lightly sleeping, he couldn't
05:44 sleep well. He was sound asleep. That's how much trust he had in
05:48 the Lord. Hey, if death is where I've got to go now I'm trusting
05:51 everything in the hand of my Savior. Now it's just powerful.
05:55 But the angel strikes him on the side and tells him to get
06:00 dressed and then the Bible says, verse 9, Peter went out and
06:06 followed him and did not know that what was done by the angel
06:11 was real but thought he was seeing a vision. It says, When
06:17 they were past the first and the second guard posts, they
06:23 came to the iron gate that leads to the city which opened to them
06:27 of its own accord and they went out and went down one street,
06:31 and immediately the angel departed from him. Now the whole
06:35 account, I don't know if it happened noiselessly for Peter,
06:38 if he heard clanging or whatever but the bottom line is nobody
06:42 woke up. The squads of soldiers didn't wake up, they went by the
06:45 guard posts and nobody's at attention and the angel escorts
06:47 him out and the Bible says in verse 11, now when Peter had
06:50 come to himself he said, Now I know for certain that the Lord
06:53 has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of
06:56 Herod and from all the expectations of the Jewish
06:58 people. Oh what a powerful deliverance. A jail break, a
07:01 divine jail break. Right? That's exactly what it was.
07:04 You know, you look back at verse 11, it says, When Peter had come
07:08 to himself. I mean, this was so miraculous that he was having
07:12 a hard time believing it himself. I mean it says he
07:15 thought he was seeing a vision, this can't be happening and
07:17 finally he comes to himself and he's like no this is happening.
07:20 This is real. His surprise is shared by those that he now
07:27 comes to see. Because if you keep reading it says in verse
07:33 12, So when he had considered this he came to the house of
07:38 Mary the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many
07:42 were gathered together praying. There they are gathered together
07:46 praying. Which had a lot to do with his
07:48 deliverance. That's exactly right. And as
07:50 Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to
07:54 answer. When she recognized Peter's voice because of her
07:57 gladness she did not open the gate but ran in and announced
08:01 that Peter stood before the gate. This is a pretty funny
08:06 story. Rhoda comes to the gate and you know she hears Peter,
08:09 and hah it's Peter. Instead of opening to him, he's waiting
08:13 she flies back to talk and tell everybody else about it. But
08:15 he doesn't know what's going on. He's knocking, knocking, no
08:18 response. Makes me think of the woman at the well who left her
08:23 water pot and what grabs me here, Jim, is the joy that comes
08:28 through to God's blessings. God blessed them with this
08:31 deliverance of Peter and I don't think we do enough rejoicing
08:35 for the blessings of God. The woman at Jacob's well in John 4
08:38 left her water pot. She came there to draw water. She forgot
08:41 all about it and she went her way rejoicing and so we see here
08:44 with Rhoda. It reminds me of that song, Turn
08:46 your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face and the
08:50 things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of
08:52 his glory and grace. The things of earth, whatever it is,
08:55 whatever common things they are when a revelation from God comes
08:59 everything else pales in significance. So we see here in
09:03 verse 14 it says that she recognized Peter's voice and she
09:07 ran in to announce that Peter stood before the gate and then
09:10 in verse 15, But they said to her, you are beside yourself
09:14 because they don't believe it either.
09:15 You're crazy. That's what they told the women who went to
09:19 find the body of Jesus and came back, He's risen? You guys are
09:22 crazy. No he isn't. That's right.
09:23 Exactly. We won't comment on what that
09:27 says about men and their faith sometimes.
09:31 Please don't. No, let's move on. It says, but they said to her,
09:35 You are beside yourself. Yet she kept insisting that it was so,
09:38 so they said, Well, it is his angel. So they're thinking well
09:42 it must be his angel. In verse 16, Now Peter continued knocking
09:46 like when are they going to open up? And when they opened the
09:50 door and saw him they were astonished, but motioning to
09:53 them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how
09:56 the Lord had brought him out of prison. So they're astonished
09:59 and they're all excited and he's like shh quiet because of course
10:03 there's still persecution going on here so he doesn't want to
10:07 broadcast the fact that he has been set free. So he gets
10:11 brought in and he begins to share with them the account of
10:15 what happened. Yeah, powerful. And then
10:18 apparently he gives them word to go on and tell the apostles
10:21 who aren't there, the leaders of the church, and he moves on
10:25 to another place. I mean, he doesn't to recoup somewhere
10:27 he doesn't say look I'm going to take a vacation after that.
10:30 My life was threatened, I don't know what to do. He's back out
10:33 preaching the word. That's exactly right.
10:35 It's powerful. He's moving from place to place, Lydia, Joppa and
10:39 just moving right along. Wherever God tells him to go.
10:42 Now we come to verse 19. It says When Herod had searched for him
10:46 and had not found him, he examined the guards and
10:48 commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down
10:52 from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. Now Herod had been
10:56 very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon but they came to
11:00 him with one accord and having made Blastus the king's personal
11:04 aide their friend the asked for peace because their country was
11:08 supplied with food by the King's country. So on a set day, Herod,
11:12 arrayed in royal apparel sat on his throne and gave an oration
11:16 to them and the people kept shouting the voice of a god and
11:20 not of a man. Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him
11:24 because he did not give glory to God and he was eaten by worms
11:28 and died. I don't know if this means that was a progressive
11:32 disease or what but here's the thing that really grabs me.
11:36 An angel of the Lord struck him. Well it was just earlier in the
11:40 chapter that an angel of the Lord struck Peter. But when he
11:44 struck Peter, Peter was awakened and delivered. When Herod is
11:47 struck by the angel he dies. It goes to show us if an angel
11:52 of the Lord, the angels of God, carry out God's will and God's
11:55 will is ultimately that all men would be saved, but men respond
11:59 to God in different ways. Herod has his day of opportunity but
12:03 Herod had turned his heart against God and he finally met
12:06 with judgment. That's right, that's right. Well
12:09 you keep reading. There's a couple more verses here but one
12:12 more specifically that we'd like to look at today and that's
12:17 verse 24. It says, but the word of God grew and multiplied.
12:21 You know, we've heard that before haven't we?
12:23 That's right. It seems to be a keynote here in Acts.
12:26 It's incredible as you read the book of Acts that you have so
12:30 much activity; it is hard to keep up with the book of Acts.
12:35 The thing is they trying to squelch this faith, to put it
12:40 out and they're multiplying. Yeah. They can't stop them.
12:44 You know, in the beginning it talked about how there were 3000
12:48 added in a day, then the number grew to 5000 and continually
12:52 the Lord multiplied them and the word was multiplied, etc.
12:56 Sometimes I look at what happens in our own experiences and I
13:01 think, you know what, we're too satisfied with small successes
13:05 when God wants to do so much more. We need to attempt bigger
13:09 things for God. How about you viewer. We're so thankful that
13:13 you've joined us today but we ask that you would consider
13:16 attempting better things for God. We'll see you next time.


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Revised 2014-12-17