It's Time to Renew Our Hope (2nd Service)
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Last Easter we did not meet. COVID scare had us in lockdown. So much has changed in a year. Some things for the better but it sure seems to me that hopelessness has increased too. I hear from so many people who have let fear grip them. So many people who become chronically depressed, anxious, and hopeless.
I was recently reading a man’s story of how he came to faith in Jesus. He said that he grew up in a home driven by success and achievement. Jesus was an afterthought. College was all about sex and alcohol. Afterwards trying to find the right job, he sought out a fortune teller, but found no real peace.
As God began to deal with his heart, he happened to watch Billy Graham on TV and at that time he asked Jesus to be his savior and repented of His sins. He spoke about how God helps him with feelings of anxiety and depression. One of the things he said that really struck me was from his relationship with God He receives a “renewed hope each day”
As I thought about Resurrection Sunday, 2021, it seemed God kept leading me back to the theme “It’s time to Renew our Hope.”
Of course the greatest single example of renewed hope would be the life-changing realization that the Crucified Savior has been raised from the dead.
That event took a group of holed-up, scared disciples and turned them into a force that changed the World with the news that Jesus had died to save sinners, and was risen from the dead forevermore.
Everywhere those disciples went they turned the world upside down as people renewed their hope by finding salvation in Christ. Those stories of the efforts of the first followers of Jesus is recorded in the Book of Acts.
And so today, I want to do something a little different on Resurrection Sunday. I want to look at one event among the followers of Jesus that took place a DECADE after the Resurrection. It is found in Acts 12. It is a beautiful story of hope renewed.
Let me set the scene.
The Evil King Herod was attacking the followers of Jesus in and around Jerusalem. He had James, one of the first Apostles to follow Jesus, murdered. When Herod saw that the Jewish leaders were elated by that, he had Peter arrested and thrown in prison with at least 16 soldiers split into 4 fours, guarding him. It was about this time of year: the same time of year that Jesus had been crucified, but it was over a decade later. Herod intended to put Peter to death as soon as the impending Passover was complete.
We pick up the story in Acts 12.5
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer was being made earnestly to God for him by the church.
6 On the night before Herod was to bring him out for execution, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison.
7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. Striking Peter on the side, he woke him up and said, “Quick, get up!” Then the chains fell off his wrists.
8 “Get dressed,” the angel told him, “and put on your sandals.” And he did so. “Wrap your cloak around you,” he told him, “and follow me.”
9 So he went out and followed, and he did not know that what took place through the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.
10 After they passed the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went outside and passed one street, and immediately the angel left him.
11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from all that the Jewish people expected.”
12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many had assembled and were praying.
13 He knocked at the door in the gateway, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer.
14 She recognized Peter’s voice, and because of her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gateway.
15 “You’re crazy!” they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true. Then they said, “It’s his angel!”
16 Peter, however, kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astounded.
17 Motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he explained to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. “Report these things to James and the brothers,” he said. Then he departed and went to a different place.
The Firm Faith of Peter
The Firm Faith of Peter
6 On the night before Herod was to bring him out for execution, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison.
How can he sleep?
Perhaps it is because Peter’s Faith has been seasoned. His hope has been renewed so many times it has deeply taken root.
18 “I assure you: When you were young, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.”
Promised that he would die an old man.
Also this is the 3rd time Peter has been arrested for preaching about Jesus and he had been set free the other two times. HIS FAITH WAS BUILT UP and His HOPE WAS regularly RENEWED.
The Faultless Faith of Rhoda
The Faultless Faith of Rhoda
13 He knocked at the door in the gateway, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer.
14 She recognized Peter’s voice, and because of her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gateway.
15 “You’re crazy!” they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true. Then they said, “It’s his angel!”
I can’t help but point out that is was FAITHFUL WOMEN who first discovered and communicated that the tomb was empty and Jesus had escaped death.
It is a Faithful girl who first discovers and communicates that the jail is empty and Peter had escaped.
Think about her faith from these verses.
Childlike- Her name means rosebud- she’s probably not very old at all. But her faith is simple. Its pure. She didn’t even see him, just recognized his voice and knew it was him. (answered prayer)
Joyful- She is pure joy. She can’t contain herself that God has answered the prayer. She’s so giddy, that she forgets to let him in. She goes back to announce that their prayers have been answered.
Forceful- She is a servant girl, but when they tell her she’s crazy, she won’t back down. SHE KEPT INSISTING!
This girl’s hope has been renewed!
The Fickle Faith of the Disciples
The Fickle Faith of the Disciples
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer was being made earnestly to God for him by the church.
14 She recognized Peter’s voice, and because of her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gateway.
15 “You’re crazy!” they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true. Then they said, “It’s his angel!”
I have pondered this many times through the years. How is it possible that they are praying but they don’t believe their prayers have been answered?
In verse 5 its says they were praying earnestly or fervently. The word is akin to a medical word that means to stretch a muscle to its limits. They are giving their prayers for Peter all they’ve got!
So why doubt that God has answered the prayers? I think it comes down to the fact that their hope was stretched thin! They were praying because that was all they felt they could do. And that was enough! But the persecution they were facing had been going on around a decade was only getting worse! Why would God let James die at the hands of Herod? Why did things continue to go south for the church?
Life can test our faith and our hope! These folks all believed that Jesus had risen from the dead. They knew that He had changed their life. They knew that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus showed God’s ultimate love for them.
But a decade later, they found it hard to have hope that God would answer their prayers.
Invitation
It’s time to Renew Your Hope!
Firm faith like Peter because it has been tested and tried.
Faultless faith like Rhoda. You just believe what God has said and you’ve seen him work.
Fickle faith like the disciples. You believe but its just so hard sometimes to keep believing with all that’s going on in the world. in your life....
LACK OF FAITH?