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Intro
Intro
There is a small break in the story of Paul and Barnabas, and we go back to the church in Jerusalem. In chapter 11 we have Peter explaining his interaction with Cornelius to the church in Jerusalem and then the Jerusalem church sending Barnabas to Antioch to help out the church that was growing there. Paul joins him, and together they come back to Jerusalem with an offering for the church. That brings us to chapter 12. It's about during the time of the famine mentioned in chapter 11:28 that this story takes place.
Content
Content
This story is a neat package presented by the author Luke. It starts with Herod persecuting the church, and it ends with Herod dying because he fails to praise God.
Persecution by King Herod
Persecution by King Herod
About Herod
About Herod
Chapter 12 verse 1-3 says:
About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread.
Acts 12:1
So about this King Herod guy. This Herod should not be confused with King Herod in the Gospels. The King in who tried to kill young Jesus was Herod the Great. The Herod who is king here in is Herod Agrippa I, who was Herod the Great’s grandson. He was born in 10 B.C. and brought to Rome by his mother when he was 6 years old. The “official reason” for going to Rome was for his education, but the main actual reason was to save his life. Herod the Great was dying, and it was fairly common that new kings would kill off any possible rivals who might have a hereditary claim to the throne. That may include any and all relatives who may have a claim to the throne!
In Rome, Agrippa got a great education, and he made some very powerful friends. He became really good friends with another boy named Claudius, who would actually become the Roman emperor years later. He was considered quite smart, and was well educated in Roman education and in Jewish religion. He was actually a faithful practicing Jew, probably one of the only ones in his family. He only moved back to Judea until he was 47. So in 37 A.D., Agrippa went back to Israel as the king of that area, under the Roman Emperor, of course.
One commentator writes that: “Agrippa earned some degree of respect from the Jews because he was loyal to the Jewish faith and was a strong Jewish nationalist,” and another writes: “Agrippa I had a policy of trying to please the Jews (v. 3), because his family was so hated by them.” When we read this, chapter 12:2-3 make sense.
He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread.
As a devout Jew, and as a people pleaser, we can see that he would also persecute Christians, whom many Jews didn’t like. I guess he knew that Peter was a priority target, because there were 16 soldiers guarding him!
William H. Baker, “Acts,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, vol. 3, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 901.
Richard R. Losch, All the People in the Bible: An A–Z Guide to the Saints, Scoundrels, and Other Characters in Scripture (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 152.
Now that we have some background on Herod Agrippa, let’s read verse 5.
The Power of Prayer
The Power of Prayer
Now that we have some background on Herod Agrippa, let’s read verse 5.
So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.
Acts 12:
Evangelical Commentary on the Bible E. Peter’s Miraculous Deliverance (12:1–25)
Luke’s reference to the prayers of the church (vv. 5, 12–17) also shows the role that prayer plays in divine intervention, and Luke apparently regards God’s act as a response to this prayer.
Now this is a pretty serious situation. The Apostle James has been killed. He is the first of the 12 Apostles to die for Christ, only four years after Jesus called him and his brother John from their fishing boats. So not only is one of the leaders of the early church killed, another is put in prison shortly after, and there were other believers arrested at this time as well. Peter is put in prison (luckily enough) until after the Passover, where he will be put on trial and killed.
Now I want to stress one key word in this verse. BUT. The word used for “but” in the Greek text is “δὲ.” One lexicon puts it this way: De is “added to statements opposed to a preceding statement: it opposes persons to persons or things previously mentioned…with strong emphasis.”
William Baker writes: “Luke’s reference to the prayers of the church (vv. 5, 12–17) also shows the role that prayer plays in divine intervention, and Luke apparently regards God’s act as a response to this prayer.” Peter was in prison, BUT the church was praying! The story Luke records here seems to go something like this:
Peter is put in prison - BUT the church is praying - SO God sends an angel to help Peter escape.
I think we can understand that there is power in prayer. That’s why we as a church are praying for guidance in finding someone to fill a pastoral position, and I’m sure that’s why many of you pray on a regular basis. I had someone once suggest something to me. He said what he had started doing was writing all of his prayer requests down and dating them. Then as he prayed, he would go through that list and checkmark the prayers that were answered and put the date down for that as well. He said that after he started doing that, he was surprised at how many of his prayers got answered! Now they aren’t always big things like asking God to bust someone out of prison, but it could be! However, no matter what it is on our hearts, we can bring it to God in prayer. ??????SHOULD I KEEP THIS????????
But I guess one question then is how does prayer work? Does God wait for us to pray before He does certain things? If the believers hadn’t prayed, would Peter have gotten out of jail? Or if he would have escaped anyway, then what was the point of praying? These are good questions to ask, and they are difficult questions to answer. The truth is, there are many different ways of looking at prayer, and different Christians think differently about how exactly prayer works.
When I was in England a year ago, we went to a church in the city of Lincoln to help them in their ministries. The first day we got there we met with the pastor of the church and had lunch together. Before we ate, naturally we prayed. Before he prayed, the pastor said something that rang true for me and I think for the whole team I was with, and this has stuck with me since. He said that it was important to pray, and then I quote, “We don’t know how prayer works, but Jesus knows, and I guess that’s all that matters.” There is a divine mystery in the act and attitude of prayer, and we GET to partake in that mystery.
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon,
William H. Baker, “Acts,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, vol. 3, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 902.
The Power of the Holy Spirit
The Power of the Holy Spirit
The Providence of God
The Providence of God
The Death of Herod
The Death of Herod