Sunday 2nd November 2008

ACTS 12 - "The gates of the prison are shut but the gates of heaven are open"

We’ve missed a few chapters but we don’t want to lose the plot.

So what’s happened?
Crucial story in Acts 10 & 11.
Pivotal. Up and till this time, the church comprised those who had a Jewish background. Peter has a vision whilst praying of a sheet coming down from heaven with food that was ceremonially clean and unclean and he was told to eat both.The message is “don’t call anyone unclean” it perplexes him. But then through a series of God-engineered events Peter finds himself preaching to a Roman centurion and his household - people who the Jews would have called unclean. The Spirit falls on them even before the message has ended and they speak in tongues praising God. As a result the apostles realize for the first time that the gospel is also for the gentiles, the non-Jews. If Acts 10 hadn’t happened Christianity would be confined to those who had been born as Jews.

That’s a brief outline of what’s happened. Now onto Acts 12.

Acts 12 is a continuation of what we’ve been seeing - God doing amazing things, but the church suffering persecution. So here we have the second great martyrdom. Unlike Stephen, James’ death is covered by just a few words.
Different Herod, this is Herod Agrippa I – grandson of Herod at Jesus birthThis one was king, friendly with Jews.We don’t know exactly why he seized James, may have been to curry favour.

So now the church is facing a double whammy - not just religious opposition but political. Stephen was stoned to death which was how the Jews carried out the death penalty. James was beheaded – a Roman death penalty.

In this persecution we find the words of Jesus being fulfilled. He had warned them of persecution. In John 16 he said “anyone who kills you will think he is serving God”Seen that last week in Afghanistan.Worldwide the church is experiencing much blessing and much persecution.

So Herod kills James and then because this pleases the Jews, he seizes Peter, but Herod holds over any further action till after Passover. Peter is guarded by a force of 16 soldiers. Two of them chained to him. No chance of escape.

While he is in prison the church is praying (verse 5)We see as the story develops how God miraculously releases Peter. The gates to the jail were locked but the gates to heaven are open. God specialises in unlocking that which is locked, at releasing that which is bound, at overcoming impossible odds.Joshua at Jericho – “Jericho was tightly shut up” – God says “see I have delivered Jericho into your hands”
So twice Luke tells us that the church was praying (verses 5 & 12)

We can have many difficulties to overcome, but we can have many “but the church was praying” solutions

We may be left with the question - Why did James die but Peter was saved – we need to face it, don’t skirt round the difficult questions. We don’t know. We can guess.
We want an answer when things go wrong for us – “Is God punishing us?”, “Did we lack faith?” “Weren’t we praying hard enough?” God doesn’t owe us an explanation. This is important.

We have situations that we can’t explain. We need to be prepared. We have to be prepared for the James’s as well as the Peters. From heaven, James dying is not failure. 1 Corinthians 15:54 – death is swallowed up in victory.

Prayer – it’s a mystery. God cannot be put in a box. We seek to understand everything we can and when we get to the end of that we worship. God doesn’t need our prayers but he wants our prayers

Come boldly – with confidence. Hebrews 4:16. When Abby comes home she just walks in the door. When visitors come they knock, they don’t just walk in. Coming boldly to God means we just walk in to his presence. We don’t have to knock on the door. Come boldly to the throne of grace to find HELP

God is concerned with our passion, not our attendance. He isn’t worried by numbers. Luke doesn’t say how many were praying, but he does tell us about the fervency. James the effective FERVENT prayer. Earnest prayer – about the heart. Not casual or dutiful. God doesn’t merely answer because we reach a level of earnestness/passion, but he IS interested in our hearts. Our earnestness reflects his

Little faith can be enough. We don’t know exactly what they were praying. But there is not much evidence of faith – they are surprised. Not a high level of expectation. Sometimes we try to hype up our faith. We don’t need to.

Final word… the word of God grew and multiplied. The triumph of the gospel.

The gates to your jail may be locked, but the gates of heaven are open.If you have a situation that seems locked up, get friends, get your housegroup to pray.