They Prayed Around the Clock

Acts 12:1-24

INTRO: The last time we were together we saw that in Antioch the followers of Christ were first given the name Christian. We also saw very powerfully, that the name Christian means more than a name. It’s not just a title we wear but it is a way of life.
Our every breath and action should declare to the world that we belong to Christ.

Before we start I want to tell you a story. An evangelist asked all who wanted to go to heaven to raise their hands. Everyone in the audience did so, except one elderly man sitting near the front of the auditorium. The preacher pointed his finger at him and said; 'Sir, do you mean to tell us that you don't want to go to heaven?' 'Sure I want to go” the man old fellow replied, “but the way you put the question, I figured you were getting up a busload for tonight!'

I guess the point of the story is some people are not afraid of dying but most people are afraid of how they are doing to die. Woody Allen put it this way; "It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens."

Remember we’ve already looked at the great persecution which was taking place against the Lord’s church. What Luke is going to share with us today, is a prime example of a person dying for the cause of Christ. Our text is Acts 12:1-24.

Around 44 A.D. we find Herod Agrippa I had succeeded in putting together the whole domain of his grandfather Herod the Great, and had been given the title of king by Claudius. He was a staunch friend of the Jews and was no doubt influenced by them to make a move to destroy Christianity.

I. Read with me Acts 12:1-4 – “1. Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. 2. Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. 4. So when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.” [NKJV]

A. Luke tells us that about the time that Barnabas and Saul were taking the gift from Antioch to Jerusalem, Herod Agrippa decided to inflict pain on certain members of the Lord’s church.

1. Some time back we spoke about how the devil goes about destroying a congregation. We said that the devil always goes for those in leadership roles first because he knows if he can get rid of the leadership, he will eventually destroy the whole assembly.
2. Herod Agrippa is doing just that. He is going for the churches’ leadership, the apostles. He first had James, John's brother, taken captive and killed with the sword.
3. Herod was not just king over the Jews but a very good politician. Because of his good connections in Rome, he was able to put together the whole domain of his grandfather Herod the Great under Rome’s rule and was given the title king by Emperor Claudius.

B. Luke tells us that because Herod saw that the Jews loved him for killing James, and it had some political advantages, he immediately had Peter imprisoned, intending to put him to death as well.

1. Peter’s imprisonment was during the week of Passover. While Herod waited for the conclusion of the Passover, he had sixteen soldiers, divided into four groups of four, guard the apostle in prison. King Herod probably had a plan to publicly execute Peter on the conclusion of the feast.
2. I wonder if Peter had a different kind of Passover on his mind while he waited to be executed. What I’m thinking of is Luke 22:14-20 – “14. And when the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. 15. Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16. "for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.'' 17. Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18. "for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.'' 19. And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.'' 20. Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
3. I suspect Peter was thinking about His Lord and Savior as He awaited to be executed and while we don’t know what Peter was thinking we do know what others were thinking about while they were waiting. And folks, they were not just thinking while they waited, they were actually doing something.

C. Acts 12:5 – “Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.” Luke says while Herod waited for the end of Passover, the church waited in prayer.

1. They asked God to be with Peter, whether they were simply requesting that God help sustain his faith or have him released, we don’t know. I recall Luke 22:61 telling us of Peter’s crisis of faith when he denied the Lord. What we do know is that the Greek words used by Luke suggest there was a prayer being offered up around the clock.
2. I read a story about a man who was preaching a sermon on how the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years and their sandals never wore out. A young skeptic in the audience shouted, ‘How is that possible?’ The preacher stopped, walked up to the young man and said to him, ‘God!’ To which the young man said, ‘Oh, I understand.’ The preacher said to him, ‘No son, nobody understands.’
3. We should never underestimate the power of God, and we should never try and restrict His capabilities.
4. The Greek wording (ektenḗs, ek-ten-ace’) indicates that it was incessant prayer, always going on. It was a kind of perpetual prayer meeting that the church held on behalf of Peter.
5. Thinking of today, we know there is nothing like an eleventh hour crisis to get us praying as we should be praying the rest of the time! If we only could see it, we’re always on the brink of disaster and death, because our adversary, the devil, is prowling about as a roaring lion, seeking to devour us. At all times we should be a praying people! Sometimes the Lord delays the answers to our problems or crises so that we will recognize how much we really do need Him.
6. Scripture does not declare anything except they prayed for Peter.

II. That prayer was answered according to Acts 12:6-10 – “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.”

A. Luke records the night before Herod intended to call for Peter, Peter lay chained to two soldiers with two more outside the door. One of the Lord's angelic messengers woke Peter up and caused the chains to fall off his hands. Then, he told Peter to dress and led him out of the prison.

1. Peter wasn’t sure what has happening, he thought it was a dream, but he followed the angel past the first and second guard posts, through the gate, which seemed to open automatically, and out into the street.
2. This was a supernatural deliverance—this was God answering the prayers of the saints, who spent the night in prayer.
3. I know a lot of people believe in the miracles we have recorded in the Bible, but sadly I also know of some religious people don’t believe in those same miracles.

B. I know there are many commentators who refer to this remarkable episode as an allegory. I understand that because despite the fact that the New Testament does not refer to it as an allegory, there are undeniably elements of an allegory in this event. Yet, we must be quite careful that in making Peter's condition a fitting allegory, or illustration, of the terror, helplessness, and shame of man's condition in sin—we apply it to mankind and not Peter. As an aside then I note the following:

1. Peter was a captive... 2 Timothy 2:24-26 tells us all sinners are captives of Satan.
2. He was guarded... Satan watches over his victims to prevent their escape. Often he will use the pressures of worldly life against them to keep them from obedience to the Lord.
3. He was bound with two chains... Everyone in sin is bound with chains even if just chains of habit.
4. He was asleep... In a spiritual sense, every sinner is asleep. Romans 13:11 and 1 Thessalonians 5:6.
5. He was in darkness... Sin puts a person in spiritual darkness.
6. He was naked... All sin is nakedness, Revelation 3:17-18.
7. He was condemned to death... The state of every unredeemed sinner on earth. John 3:18. Peter's condition in that dungeon of Herod is remarkably suggestive of the sin-condition of every unredeemed person on earth.

III. Now let’s go back to Acts 12 and continue in verse 11. Peter, when he found himself free and on the street, finally understood that this wasn’t some dream, this... was a miracle. Acts 12:11-17 – “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.”

A. Luke says that Peter was awestruck seeing that the Lord had sent His messenger to deliver him out of the murderous hands of Herod. After thinking for a moment, Peter went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, to tell the church of his miraculous release.

1. It seems as though a girl named Rhoda recognized the voice of the apostle at the gate and in her excitement, she did not let him in but went to inform the others in the house that Peter was outside.
2. At first, everybody else thought she was crazy. Then they thought she had heard Peter's angel.
3. Peter kept knocking until he got an answer. When they saw him, they were amazed.

B. We’ve spoken about the power of prayer. The Bible says that they were ‘amazed’. Luke said that they had been praying constantly to God for Peter. They had been praying to God on Peter's behalf around the clock and now it’s almost as if they couldn’t believe their eyes.

1. James reminds us of the value of prayer in James 1:5-8 – “5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8. he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
2. After everyone saw Peter standing at the door, Peter told them the story of his deliverance by the Lord and then he told them to inform James and the brethren before he departed from their company.

C. While everyone was amazed and rejoiced that God answered their prayers so powerfully, back at the prison it was chaos. Acts 12:18-19 – “Then, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. 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.”

1. It should be of no surprise to us that the next morning, the prison was in turmoil because no one knew what had happened to Peter. When Herod could not find him, he had the guards examined... and then executed.
2. I’m sure you recall reading about the Philippian jailer who was going to kill himself when he realized that Paul and Silas were free from their jail cell. Acts 16:27 – “And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself.”
3. Why was he going to kill himself? Under Roman law it was required that guards face the punishment which was intended for any prisoner who escaped under their watch. That’s why Herod had the guards executed when Peter disappeared.

IV. It wasn’t long after this that Herod left Jerusalem and went to Caesarea, his other capital. What happens next is very interesting as we read in Acts 12:20-23 – “20. Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food by the king's country. 21. So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. 22. And the people kept shouting, "The voice of a god and not of a man!'' 23. Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.”

A. When you get a minute later today, read 1 Kings 5:9ff. What you will read is that the cities of Tyre and Sidon depended on Galilee for their food supply, as they had done in the days of Hiram and Solomon.

1. Now these cities realized that they had offended Herod, they set out to make things right. They somehow got close to Herod's personal aide, Blastus, and through him asked for peace.
2. The Jewish historian Josephus says; “When Agrippa had reigned three years over Judaea, he exhibited shows in honor of Caesar; on the second day of which shows he put on a garment made wholly of silver, truly wonderful, and came into the theater early in the morning, the silver of his garment reflecting the sun's rays, spreading a horror over those that looked .... His flatterers cried, from one place, and another, that he was a god, adding, Be merciful to us; for, although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature”

B. Herod was in a powerful place and he was a skilled politician and orator. He martyred James, seized and imprisoned Peter planning to execute him publicly after the Passover. Nowhere in the New Testament does the intervention of Almighty God on behalf of His church appear any more timely and dramatically than in this chapter. With their friend on the throne, the Jewish hierarchy had decided to exterminate Christianity; and there was no reason why they could not have succeeded... except for the intervention of the Father in heaven.

1. With Herod on the throne the plight of the Christians seemed the most precarious, and then events took place with sudden finality lifting the threat. At the precise instant when one apostle was already dead, another imprisoned and condemned, and the entire Twelve proscribed by an all-powerful ruler acting as a Jewish deputy out of a desire to please his subjects—at that very moment God sent an angel to release Peter and shortly thereafter struck Agrippa dead. The same event doomed secular Israel.
2. I find it ironic that the Jews, who had in the elevation of Herod Agrippa I, achieved for themselves tolerance and accommodation, at the same time refused to extend the same to Christians. God's thwarting of their campaign against the body of Christ by the summary execution of Herod, also by that same event removed the one man who could have preserved their own toleration by Rome. The final result of what took place when God sent an angel to destroy Herod Agrippa was realized some 20 years later when Titus and Vespasian destroyed Jerusalem. The hand of God is clearly seen in this chapter.

C. Luke records in verses 22-23: “And the people kept shouting, The voice of a god and not of a man!'' 23. Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. The Lord caused His angel to strike him because he did not give God the glory. Folks, as we have mentioned before... only God is worthy of our praise. He is the only one we should ever bow down to. He is the only one we should bend a knee to.

1. That’s why Peter wouldn’t accept worship from Cornelius. Remember that in Acts 10? Acts 10:25-26 – “As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, "Stand up; I myself am also a man.''”
2. That’s why an angel in John’s vision in the Book of Revelation wouldn’t accept worship from John. Revelation 19:10 – “At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." [para]
3. No man or nation should ever be worshipped because it is only God who is worthy of our worship.
4. When Josephus was describing this event in his writings, he said that Herod suffered severe stomach pains and a horrible, lingering death which took five days. Folks, in whatever way he died, we can be sure it wasn’t nice. Luke’s description is that “he was eaten by worms”.
5. Herod knew enough about God that he should have seen God’s hand in Peter’s deliverance and realized that he was fighting against God. He should have remembered the story of King Nebuchadnezzar, whom God humbled for his pride (Daniel 4). But instead, Herod foolishly accepted the adulation of these people that were under his power. I see two lessons in this:

a. First - To seek glory for ourselves is to declare war against God.
b. God will not give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8). If we seek to exalt ourselves, the Lord will surely humble us. We must all beware of the temptation of pride, of taking credit for ourselves when it is God alone in His mercy who deserves the praise.
c. Second - To declare war against God is to commit eternal suicide, because God always wins. Isaiah 46:11 – “Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.” Herod’s glory was short-lived, and his misery is eternal.

D. Despite the attacks of men and failure to give God the glory which belongs to Him, God's word prospered. Acts 12:24 – “But the word of God grew and multiplied.” Over all human interference, infidelity, unbelief, and opposition, we find this little word "BUT." But the word of God grew and multiplied. The success of God's plans is never in question. All that God intended shall surely come to pass.
E. Finally we end the chapter with verse 25; Acts 12;25 – “ And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark.”

1. This is a reference to the same journey mentioned in Acts 11:30; but here is the additional word that John Mark accompanied them. This means that they accomplished the purpose of their journey, delivering to the elders in Jerusalem the bounty provided by the generosity of other Christians to relieve the victims of that famine in the reign of Claudius.
2. The year 44 A.D. was the time of these events, this being one of the times at which Acts attaches firm dates in the secular history of the first century.
3. Luke closes this chapter by telling how the word of God continued to grow and be multiplied, and then mentions the return of Saul, Barnabas, with John Mark to Antioch. This sets the stage for the world-wide program of evangelism among the Gentiles that comprises the rest of Acts; and Luke at once moves on to the narrative of Paul's first missionary journey. The apostles and the early church suffered much, and many died violent deaths, but the word of God continued to grow. God will reward them abundantly and eternally in heaven.

CONCLUSION:
Folks, I hope that today’s message has been clear. The saints prayed around the clock and Peter was freed and the Word of God spread even more. It has been said that prayer is a mystery. Why do we need to pray when God already knows our needs? I think a major part of the answer is, so that we will recognize that we are totally dependent on Him. Yet, He can work even if my prayers fall short in their form. Certainly, I should believe in Him with a strong faith, but even if my faith is weak, He is able to do far more than I can ask or even think (Ephesians 3:20). His answers do not depend on any merit in my prayers, but only on His sovereign grace and mercy.

May we never underestimate the power of prayer.
May we never underestimate the power of God to answer our prayers.

Finally, no matter what is happening around us, no matter how much the church is being persecuted, you can be sure that God is strong enough and wise enough to keep His word spreading all over this world.

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins... If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

Invitation song:

Reference Sermon: Mike Glover