I'd like you to turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 12. We're looking at a very, another powerful section. There's a lot of exciting things that are going on in the history of the church as the church is being planted and the church is being founded. The promise that Jesus gave to his disciples that he would in fact build his church and he's doing so. And that doesn't necessarily point to church buildings, of course. That points to his people in whose hearts that he is actually transforming. The ones who have received that vision of who the Christ is, not in physical form, but the veil having been lifted from their hearts. Their hearts haven't been made, as the Bible says, regenerate or made alive so that they're able to see the Christ and answer that Most important question of all that Jesus asked of His disciples, who do you say that I am? And it takes a vision of Him. It takes God Almighty. It takes God's ability to take away the deadness of our spiritual condition, our selfishness, our inward focus, to turn our gaze outward, as it was for the Apostle Paul when we went through his conversion on the road to Damascus. And he had that vision in real form. on the road, a great light shone, you'll recall. And so we're seeing him work. We're seeing the proliferation of the gospel. We're seeing the gospel go out now, which is precisely what Jesus said would happen in the first chapter in verse eight, that you will be my witnesses. You will go out from Jerusalem into the greater Judean area, up into Samaria, and to all the ends of the earth. And that's what we're seeing here. We've seen it go up into Samaria with Philip, and he had a very successful gospel ministry there. And then we see him carried away in chapter eight down to Gaza to speak to the Ethiopian eunuch. The Ethiopian eunuch taking that conversion all the way over to Ethiopia in Africa. And so it's spreading. We have men from Cyprus and Cyrene. Cyrene is where Libya is. That's the area who have witnessed and established the church out of converted believers in Antioch, which is up to the northeastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. So this is spreading, and we're amazed by its spread. But there is a very evil man now that is the king there, and even beyond the Judean area, Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great, is gaining more ground. He's gaining the original ground that his grandfather held sway over, who was king over. Herod Agrippa's there, and of course he's the grandson of Mariamne I, who married Harry the Great, so that's his grandmother. And because she's of Hasmonean descent, which is the Jewish dynasty that was in rulership, was in power in the early from about 140 BC to about 66 BC, and that the Romans allowed the rulership through that Hasmonean dynasty, but that's one they venerate, they think highly of. So this is a king that finds the pleasure of the Jews, which is rare. They hate most all other kings that are coming from the subjugation by the Romans, but in this case they're pleased. And so when he had killed James in verse 2, the brother of John with the sword, When the Jews saw it, it pleased them. So he's on a roll, we would say. So what does he do? Well, who else can I lock up and behead? He was beheaded, of course. You know the story. If you look at Foxe's Book of Martyrs, one of his Roman captors confessed himself as a Christian and laid down his head with James to be removed from his body. And so he's, how about this troublemaker, Peter? And so he takes and grabs Peter and locks him up. And we've started with that in verse one through four of chapter 12. And so Peter is now in prison. So we're gonna pick it up this morning in verse five in a moment, but I wanna finish just reminding you this. I also want to point out that the imprisonment is a place, we actually, the structure still exists to this day. When we were in Jerusalem, Barbara and I stayed at the Gloria Hotel, which is just inside the Jaffa Gate, and we, from the rooftop where we would have our meals, you could look over and see the Antonia Fortress. That's where Pontius Pilate ruled from and others after him. And there's a tower there. And that tower is the Tower of Antonia. And that's most likely where Peter is held. I thought you might appreciate getting a look at that, especially since it still stands today. So that's where Peter was. He's locked up. Four squads, that's 16 Roman soldiers, cycling. in the different uh hours they are rotating doing during the night hours but overall over through the night he'll have been chained to 16. There's one on each arm that he's chained to and then the gate or the bars are closed and there's two more roman soldiers outside of his cell and then beyond that there are other gates that we'll see in a moment as the Angel of the Lord shows up and takes him through so he he's he's going to be set free and you all know the story But what we're talking about when we talk about the proliferation of the gospel just to remind you it's when I mentioned last week that the persecution the wind and fire of the gospel proliferation so it's persecution it's every time when you look at the Holy Spirit as he's depicted in Scripture symbolically as wind and fire one way or the other he's pneuma he's also fire when he showed up and landed on them and they spoke in foreign languages and so every time I drew your attention last week to the wildfires that are going on in the West. They try to stomp out the fire. The embers are picked up the fire of the Holy Spirit. They catch His wind and they move out. And that's what we're seeing. The church is spread. The church is built on the blood of the martyrs. Persecution, as it turns out, turns out to be the worst thing that they could do strategically if they want to stamp it out. So. We had in our text to remind us of that, and this is just still by way of reminder, 2 Timothy 3 and verse 12. Indeed all, and that includes us, folks, right? All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be, not might be, not could be, will be persecuted. And so some of us have experienced types of persecution, and we understand what that can feel like, and it's difficult. It is very difficult to experience persecution, not on the level that they're experiencing it in any measure. There was a succession over the first 300 years of the church of 10 different emperors that came and went that were particularly wicked and evil in trying to squelch the church of Jesus Christ. But in our day, we know certain forms of persecution. We know them individually when we're persecuted. And we also know them sort of as a whole, we see what's happening with the persecution of Christians, even in our own land. We've watched those things kind of blow up. So God in his wisdom and in his sovereign providence overseeing the speaking to his people and preparing them for things wants us to be prepared for persecution. Because you will be. You won't be. We could reverse this negatively, this verse from 2 Timothy 3.12 and say, if you don't want to be persecuted, if you don't want to be challenged, just don't try to live a godly life. Blend in with the rest of the people. You'll do fine. But as soon as you make choices for Christ, as soon as you say, I want to actually take my faith seriously and follow Him, you'll see how few Christians there really are. Because you'll suffer. you will suffer, not might, not could, you will. Speak the truth, you'll suffer, right? So that's the point. I took these three sections that we're looking at and breaking this down so that we can be prepared for persecution, which is happening now in full force here in chapter 12. Obviously, James, the brother of John, has been beheaded, as I mentioned, and so It's happening. Peter, it's very near the time when he's about to be put to death. Either that very same day or the next day, he's about to have his head severed from his body. We'll use his gospel to break this down into the three parts of this chapter the first part we looked at last time Were the eyes of the Lord 1st Peter 3 12's our anchor text there for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous That should be comforting for us Right in the middle of the furnace right in the middle of the fire. He's right there. He's right with you What do you suppose he wants from us? Well, to know that and to know that his gaze is fixed on you. You remember last week we looked at the text that was reminding us his eyes are fixed on both the evil and the good. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. He sees everything. So that was a comfort to us. The three crucial points to remember as we break this down when you're persecuted last week was God sees the persecution of the righteous. He sees. That's Peter's first statement. God sees the persecution of the righteous. His eyes, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. So take that comfort. Let this be accumulative as we go through chapter 12 and we look at this persecution of Peter and we look at how God takes care of His own in times of persecution. So, secondly, and that's this morning, we're gonna look at God hears, as Peter says, His ears are open to their prayers, and that's exactly what takes place, and we'll read that in a moment. His ears are open to their prayers. So God hears the prayers of the righteous. We need to remember that, because sometimes we're talking about in the first hour how practically speaking, from sensory perception, there are times where we don't sense the presence of the Lord. We find ourselves saying together with the King on the cross, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And so we find ourselves together with the lament of the psalmist. Where are you, Lord? Have you forsaken me? How long, oh Lord, how long? We need to know that he hears us. And the assurance is there in scripture. So secondly, God hears the prayer of the righteous. Let's look at verse five. We'll read through verse, and actually that should be 11 because we're not going to make it to 17. Unless you want to stay a little longer than you usually do today, probably not. So let's stop at 11 for today. Verse 5, now that we have this set up, so Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, look at this, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, the angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, Get up quickly. When the chains fell off his hands, And the angel said to him, dress yourself and put on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord. And they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod, from all that the Jewish people we're expecting. Father, we long for these assurances. Asked this question off to the side, we would have agreed that these assurances are in the Scripture and they're there for us, but we are, as always, Lord, faithless and hard-pressed to apply these, to know them so well. in our study in the quieter, peaceful times, that we are actually prepared by You for when the fire comes. The fires of persecution, O Lord. Threaten to undo us, to doubt our faith, to doubt our God, to turn away from what You've given us to fulfill. We need You in these times, O Lord. We need You. And so we thank you that these are reminders that you not only see us, but you hear us. You hear our prayers, even when they're only a whisper coming from weakened, distraught people of God. Help us now, Lord. Be with us. Be glorified in these things. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The ears are open to their prayers. This morning Psalm 34 was read. I'll remind you, in case you missed it, verse 15 through 17 from that psalm pretty much echo. most probably had influenced Peter's verse in 1 Peter 3, 12 that you were using just in one verse. Here it is more elaborately in Psalm 34, 15 to 17. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil. to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles." Well, Peter experienced this, didn't he? And so he could write about it later on. And indeed, he did. He did in short form, but there it is. So in this section, we look at the Lord hearing our cries. This goes all the way back to the Old Testament. You remember the cries of the Israelites in Egypt when they were subjugated and they were under the lash of their taskmasters as they were building great buildings for Pharaoh. 400 years 430 I believe exactly to be precise before they were delivered, but Exodus of course marks that story tells that narrative and in chapter 3 verse 7 then the Lord said Sure, I have surely seen the affliction of my people The Lord's eyes are on the righteous all the time and Have heard their cry because of their taskmasters I know their sufferings. Now, when the Bible uses the word know, either gnosis or epignosis, which is a more intense form, it has the idea, especially epignosis, of a very intimate knowledge. When Adam knew his wife, it's a pedestrian, bland word for us, but they had a baby. Just get the idea. We have that close and that intimate a relationship with the living God, those of us who know Him personally. So when he says, I know their sufferings, he's not only talking about the lash, the whip, he's not only talking about their tally of bricks. He's not even talking about the mean spirited things they would do to them. He's not over talking about their living conditions. He's talking about how this is affecting their hearts. He's talking about how difficult this is for them internally. I know I've seen, I've heard, and I know He knows every moment of every day. And these are, we're talking about the sovereignty of God in persecution, these are His divine appointments, aren't they? He's allowed them for His purposes and are good. Jonathan Edwards writes there's no way that Christians in in a private capacity can do so much to promote the work of God and Advance the kingdom of Christ as by prayer end quote That's our weapon that's as We will we'll see in a moment verse 5 says so Peter was kept in prison but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church and So when you and I are reduced to just a whisper, all the strength in our bodies ebbed out from us and we collapse. The terrors of persecutions and their full onslaught come forward and slay us and we're simply reduced to a whisper. It's good to know. that your brothers and sisters are praying for you. Isn't it? Yes. I can tell you it is. I know you can too. So these, I've mentioned, verse 4, these four squads of soldiers, these 16 soldiers, he's chained to do, as I mentioned, two outside of his jail cell there. They're outside the gates. Also, the king's wicked intentions, seemingly inescapable. And if that isn't enough, he has the good pleasure and the green light, if you will, from the Jewish people. They're taking pleasure in the annihilation of The Christians, they want them gone. The malicious expectation of the Jewish people, the wicked intent of this King Agrippa, all of these Roman soldiers. How in the world? What do the Christians have? Pitchforks? I mean, I don't know. Clubs? You have the ear of the living God, the omnipotent creator of the universe at your disposal. Prayer. This is not just prayer. The text says earnest prayer. We are going to pray for our brother who's being persecuted. We're going to pray for him. That's what we do. Oh, and by the way, they had Jesus Christ. Have you ever had someone say when you asked them if they'd pray for such and so? Oh, yeah, well, I did that. Yeah, I prayed. Do you see how reduced that becomes? Do you see how diminished the power of prayer comes? Do you see they must surely not find themselves quite literally at the throne room of God's own grace, understanding that their God is a king, a mighty king, a king above all kings and Lord of over all lords who has the capability to wipe out the entire earth, should he so choose, to save your life, to save you from this persecution. And we do, we pray fervently, Lord, release me from this persecution. Separate me from this trial. From my perspective, Lord, I can't bear it anymore. And yet he says, remain. For I see, I hear, and I know, I know. This is an earnest prayer. This is clearly a turning point, isn't it? This makes all the difference. It's a turning point in the whole story. We should never underestimate the power of a praying church. This, I like to think, is a praying church right here. We have a high view of prayer, and not just on Wednesday nights. We're praying throughout the week, aren't we? There's times where the thoughts of somebody who's going through something is so present on your mind, it's like all prayer. It's like pray without what? That's what it looks like. We've prayed for those who have been hurting this past week, haven't we? There's different ones that have hurt, and we pray for them. We pray for those who are suffering. This is a turning point. You remember what Thomas Watson said. The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but prayer fetched the angel. Do you remember that? Prayer fetched the angel. earnest prayer, ektenos, in the Greek. This is, for your own notes, intently, fervently, without ceasing. That's what ektenos means. We pray earnestly. Our prayers should be like Jesus in Luke 22, verse 44, in the garden, remember? And being in, and what? Agony. He prayed more earnestly. If and when you are in agony, you probably will pray earnestly. Yes? You've been there. You know what I'm talking about. It's times like that. He wants to hear from us. Maybe he hasn't in quite a while. And so he has an appointment for us, it's coming, we have no idea, but here it comes. Here it comes, like a semi. It's rolling down the road, we have no idea, and wham! We fall down and we cry out. We cry out to the living God. But not just us, the church does. Isn't this amazing? The church does this. And his sweat became like great drops of blood. That's pretty fervent prayer, wouldn't you say? That's some agony going on. That's some agonizomai right there. Yeah. Blood falling down to the ground. So our prayers, here's your first salient point for the morning. Our prayers should be made earnestly and in agony. when we are being persecuted because God hears our cries. Watson again said this, many when they pray are rather in lethargy than agony. God have mercy on me when I drift off when I'm praying for a beloved saint who's struggling. God have mercy on us when we get sleepy Gee whiz, have a cup of coffee. I mean, what do you need? Right? Wake me up, Lord. Wake me up. Lest I feel guilty for how I just now prayed for my brother or sister. Wake me up. Wake me up. Wake me up. Like a ton of bricks, bring down on my mind and my heart the full weight of this brother, what this brother or sister is going through. Bring it down on me. Why? Well, Galatians 6 and verse 2, what might be one verse comes to mind. Share one another's what? Burdens. And thus do what? Fulfill the law of Christ. What's that? Verse 6, now when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night, Peter was Oh, this has to be a typo. Peter was sleeping? Two Roman soldiers. You're chained up. You're locked up. This is it. And Agrippa is somewhere in town wetting his sword. Right? I think I'll stretch out. Can you guys move over a little bit? I need to... See, that's what gets my attention. Things like that. How can a person in this position stretch out and go to sleep? Oh, wait a minute. Wasn't he one of the three that slept when Jesus was in agony in the garden? Ooh. So I guess we can summarize at this point that Peter has no problem going to sleep at a poignant moment. Yes? Good night. I'm out. That night when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. This is the third time he's in prison. Maybe that's why he was so chill, right? Locked up. Here we go again. All right. But this time, this time he's alone. Oh, you're ratcheting things up, Lord. No, no, no, don't leave me alone on this. Not on this. Where's the support? Where's the help? This is unfair. This is wrong. Alone, locked up. He's able to sleep. I want to know his secret, do you? Yes, brother. Amen. Trust. But don't jump to the end. That's certainly it though, isn't it? How? Chained to two guards and all that we looked at just before his execution, how could he sleep? How could he sleep? That's what we're gonna look at. For one thing, and this is your next salient point, because he knew that while he sleeps, obviously we pointed out, the brethren are doing what? I can rest tonight because I know you care enough to pray for me, and I care enough to pray for you. So you can sleep, brother. You can rest. Stand down. Take a break. We got this. That's how the church functions, yes? While he sleeps, remember, there's one who stays awake, yes? Who is it? Never sleeps. Never. So sleep. Not now. When we're through, OK? His ever steady fixed gaze is locked on us all the time. His fixed gaze. is set on us without removing because he loves us. His love is that great, so great, in fact, he can't take his eyes off of you. If his love is so great that he would come and go through the things that he did, would you ever expect him to take his eyes off you? Never, not for a moment. Even before I was running around in New York City, before he introduced himself to me, hey, hello, it's me. And suddenly I'm with Paul or Saul and the light's on and it's like, you, You, I persecuted you. I'm ashamed. I've taken that shame. I've taken that shame, and it's been nailed to the cross, paid in full. Now come, follow me. What a moment. Some of you remember that moment. He's preparing us. He's preparing something, isn't He? See, that's another key. Peter knew that something was going to happen, because it happened before. Remember, I've tried to remind you as we've gone through this, remember the old Peter, right? And you can really appreciate this. Oh no, Lord, I'll take care of this. Here they come. Well, I got a sword, pulls it out, cuts off Malchus's ear when they came to arrest Jesus. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. He puts the ear back on and repairs Malchus's ear. He says, that's how we get it done. Not by might, not by power, but what? But my spirit. And he comes and goes like the wind. And like a great fire, he shows up with power. I love Psalm 4 and verse 8. In peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Savor that in your mind like a piece of heart candy. Lock in on it. Believe it. Memorize it. Know it. Own it. Oh, and the Word of God is filled with these things. Surely we can assume that Peter's faith grew by leaps and bounds out of this. Do we look for that when these things happen to us is our point today for us, right? If you were able to ask Peter, I thought about this in my study, I was thinking if I could ask Peter, if he would have preferred that the Lord come just a little bit sooner? Like, this is getting kind of close to that sword and me losing my head. If you could ask him that, what do you think he'd say? Be honest, Peter. Would you like it if the Lord had...you probably would have loved it if the Lord would have come a little sooner, right? He'd say, no way. And here's the point, because he had finally learned through all that he went through, and we've got to go through a lot to learn things, don't we, sometimes. The Lord's timing is always best. We want to run our universe. We want to control the timing of things. We want to control outcomes. Do you like pain? If you do, you need to make a counseling appointment, and we'll talk about that. I don't. But his timing is always best, that release, that freedom from the furnace. Or as Samuel Rutherford said, and I mentioned in the first hour, he's come to love and appreciate the Lord's hammer, file, and furnace. Because it all comes in different forms. Sometimes it's a long, steady filing going on, right? Providentially in what's going on in your life. Sometimes it's a full-on blast furnace. Something just completely blows you away and tears you apart and tears you down. Sometimes you're hit over the head with a sledgehammer. So his timing to resolve these things, it belonged to him. And we should learn, if we really could embrace this, this is really the point I was thinking about, we'd sleep too. We'd sleep too. I've known a few sleepless nights. Have you? Yeah. That's when we turn to the Lord in our bed as we stir, and we cry out to Him. And we cry out. I've done that recently. And isn't it amazing that in that moment where you're in a full-on heart cry, you might even be in a veil of tears, you don't know how it comes, from whence it comes or where it goes, but here it comes. Suddenly, He brings rest to His child. He brings peace. They're there now. When did you stop trusting me? When did you stop listening? When did you stop believing? And this peace comes over you, and you fall asleep. Ever have that happen? I depend on that, yes? Right. I depend on that. We toss and turn. We torture ourselves in our thought lives. As soon as the thoughts start going, not too easy to get back to sleep, is it? Peter was sleeping like a baby. Gee, it's almost like this message was timely. Hmm. There's that timing thing again. Submitting to his last-minute timing is what really... You know, they say, I guess weightlifters and athletes will say, when does most of the muscle strengthening and building take place? When you're doing reps. Like the last one, right? It's the last one when you're saying to yourself, I can't bear to lift this thing again. I'll collapse. And you got that buddy, some friend, come on, come on, suck it up. You can do it. And you're like, ah, and that's when it comes. It's like having a baby, almost. I can say that because Ashley's not here. Yeah, right. So it's that last moment of severe pain where you think you're about to die, and it's you come out what? Stronger. Stronger. And you do. You do. That was Peter. His faith was strengthened and deepened. He grew an appreciation of this vigilant prayer that was going on, didn't he? And he learned trust in the Lord. That's how he's able to sleep. Did Jesus rush over? He's in the Transjordan area when Lazarus dies, right? That's like 30 miles away to the east. Okay, did Jesus rush over when Martha and Mary called for him? Come, our brother's dying, he's dead here. What'd he do? How long, do you remember? Well, he was there for four days. After the news, another two days. After hearing the news, What would we be tempted to think about him at that point? He doesn't what? Care. He did it intentionally. He did it intentionally to make a point with the overall glory of God. After four days, this man is certainly dead. And God raises him. You know the story. It's amazing. He tested the confidence of Martha and Mary, didn't he? Just like he does us. He does it over and over again. Eleventh hour. Any day now, Lord, you could lift this weight off of me. You could deliver me from this. That would be fine with me. As one writer said, so delay tests faith and makes the deliverance. When it comes, It makes the deliverance, rather, when it comes, not only the sweeter, but the more conspicuously divine." It's when you gave up, thinking there's going to be no way out of this, that He goes, okay, now here I come. As soon as you're like this, and then you finally weary, and then in your resolve, you let go. He's not coming. That's when he shows up. So that you know of a certainty it had to be him. It had to be him. How about when he raised Jairus' daughter? He does this miraculous raising of this young human being and then tells her parents to go get her something to eat. That's him. That's what he does. Trust in God's sovereign timing for deliverance from persecution. He knows exactly what he's doing. Use the time well to develop confident patience. Your faith grows in those times in the Lord's promise to deliver. Verse 7, and behold, an angel of the Lord, there he is, stood next to him and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side, woke him saying, get up. And the chains fell off his hands. This is amazing. Because we've read this so many times, while never having actually seen the movie, it can sometimes lose its potency, can it? Find yourself there with me right now. He's asleep, chained to two guards, and an angel of the Lord shows up. Now it says later on that he didn't really know if he was seeing a vision or if this was real. So did you remember, did you relate that to when he was back on the rooftop and he had a trance? The sheets coming down? That wasn't real. He was in a trance. So he thought, oh, this must be one of those deals again in chapter 10. So get up quickly. Every step of the Lord building his church, if you've marked this while we've gone through verse by verse, the historical record of Jesus building his church, every step of the way is marked by divine intervention. Everyone. Do you remember? An angel released the apostles once back in chapter 5, verse 19. You remember that? An angel came to redirect Philip when he was in Samaria, sending him down to Gaza, to the Ethiopian eunuch. That's in chapter 8, verse 26. And an angel came to instruct Cornelius to go get a man named Peter from Joppa and come and tell him the gospel. Every step of the way by divine intervention. Why doesn't he do that anymore? Because the church is established, the canon is closed, and true believers are sealed in the Holy Spirit. He doesn't need to send an angel. He doesn't need to for you. You have the living Holy Spirit of God in you for those of you that are truly saved. And now an angel comes to set Peter free. God's sovereign power, nothing left to chance or the whims of man. Sometimes we tend to think, even though we embrace theologically, well, oh, I believe God is sovereign. Yet the way we function in life is as though it's left up to the whims of man. Why? Because God works through means, doesn't He? So we only know from our perspective the decisions we've made, whether I jammed myself up by a series of decisions and made this a problem, or if God just brought one out of left field, this is unjust, it hurts, it's painful. We don't know which one this is. But it definitely is His sovereign appointment. I like verse seven of the psalm that was read this morning from Psalm 34. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Have we ever thought about that? That wasn't just for them. That's for us. We don't see any of this. Hebrews tells us that some of us have maybe entertained angels unawares when a visitor shows up. We don't know. So like some great unseen army, there they are. They're encamping around us, those of us who belong to God, and their eyes never close, just like Jesus. They're spirit beings. They're powerful, and their eyes are always locked on. These are watchful warriors who are always looking, always waiting from a directive from the commander of the hosts. Go now. If we reflected on that, we'd know that after fervent, agonizing prayer, and waiting and waiting, and no angel shows up, you wouldn't see him, but I'm not delivered here. These things are still happening to me. Then we can be comforted to the point of being able to sleep knowing that God is doing something. He's at work. In this case, he's got his lab coat on. That doesn't feel good. I don't particularly like it, and I'll confess that publicly, when God has his lab coat on. He's got it on. It's tough, right? It hurts. It's painful. But he's at work. He's at work in many different ways. We're so myopic. We're so egocentric. We think, oh, that's right. He's working on me. All of what he just did is all about what he's doing with me. That's how self-centered and egocentric we are. No, He's working a billion different purposes in any given event that happens or takes place. It's about Him. It's about His glory in these things that happen. They're there for us. If we believe what the Bible says, they're there for us. They're encamped around. A whole host of angels ready to move at the commander's word, if he so chooses, to defend and to deliver God's chosen ones. So in our prayer, we should sometimes acknowledge that. I'm thinking that's a good idea. Saying, Lord, I know you have a host. You could wipe out every problem I might, that is giving me a challenge or conflict or causing this fire. There's a reason why you haven't. So help me to see that reason. Help me to trust in your timing. Help me to believe in the things that you say. Help me to believe the fact that you are incomprehensibly wise. I can't possibly comprehend why you would let things turn out this way. Why would you drop a bomb on this church? Why would you do that? He has his purposes, doesn't he? The fervent heart cries to your next point that arise from persecution reach the ears of the commander of the Lord's army. He hears. He knows. He sees. He understands. I like Philippians 4, 6, and 7 at this point. Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. and the peace of God. That's what I mentioned earlier in those night places, those night hours when you're stirring. Things seem to be amplified then. They do for me. It's like this is world ending. This is inescapable and my life is over. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus. Well, Peter could have wrote that, couldn't he? He could have. He's sleeping. He's sleeping. Either that or they had some pretty powerful meds back then. Can I get another bottle of those volumes? If I've got to go to the executioner, I deserve some meds. No. No, this is what it's all about. He's trusting in the Lord. He knows these things now. How? By this hardscrabble journey the Lord's put him on. He's had growing faith. He's had trust burnished in him the hard way. I can identify with that. Can you? Sure. The Lord loves me enough to do these things. Verse 8, and the angel said to him, dress yourself And put on your sandals, and so he did. And he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. Now, here's another thing that strikes me. Different things that maybe you wouldn't think would stand out to someone really stand out to me. And I'm thinking, this is a magnificent, spectacular miracle. There's an angel in the house. There's an angel next to me kicking me and saying, wake up. Wake up. Get up quickly. This amazing thing. He's about to deliver them. And Peter still has to put his clothes on? It's more like his mom showed up than an angel. Get up. That was back in high school, right? That was my dad. Get up. Get up. It wasn't a Christian home, folks, so I'll spare you the rest, but you can probably imagine. Get up. What's next? Okay, okay, I'm up. How long did this take? Why not in just a whisk sweep him away by the quote-unquote, the spirit of the Lord, like he did with Philip when Philip is whisked from Gaza over to Azotus, just south of Joppa, remember that? He's done baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch in chapter eight, and all of a sudden he finds himself in Azotus. If I'm Peter, I'm going, hey, can we work it out that way? Why can't you just whisk me away? And what's up with this angel? He's pretty demanding. He does sound like my dad or my mom. Get up. If we're in such a hurry, you gotta tell him to get dressed? I mean, I'm asking all kinds of questions here. Why? Because a sovereign, powerful God who has the means to deliver you, even from a prison, is not in a hurry. Get up. You've got to lace up your sandals. Otherwise, how might we respond and run out of there without our sandals on? They took a while. You can look at that Roman soldier that my wife painted there on the wall on the banner. You can see they had leather sandals that took some time to lace up. The Roman soldier, when he's in a tent out ready for a battle the next morning, he left those on while he slept. It's a point in Ephesians 6 with the pieces of armor. Those were on all the time. So he's taking them off. It's chill Peter, right? He's got his sandals off. Making yourself at home? Oh, yeah, because this is the third time he gets locked up. God's never in a hurry. He works slowly sometimes. Why? Because he knows we dither. He's saying, you're going to go at my speed. I'm going to deliver you. You must trust in that, because that's my promise. Yeah, but I saw how you delivered James. You dispatched him to heaven right away. Can we not go that way? Can I not go that way? Why did he do that? Why didn't he deliver? Why did he save Peter from the sword? Well, these questions always come up, right, in our minds. It's like this, and we say, well, this doesn't really make sense to me, but that's because we're not God. You know, and it's funny, because after this, you know, the rest of chapter 12, and at the end, he goes, and he's released, and he goes back, and he says, tell this to James and the brothers, and then he departs, and we don't hear from him. A guy named Saul, now Paul, takes over for the rest of the book of Acts. The next time that Peter even shows up is just for a little brief blurb at the Jerusalem council in chapter 15. It's God's, it's Jesus' church to build. He'll build it His way in His time. He'll deliver us, the promise is to deliver us, but in His time and in His way. And for some, that means death. Because we're not God, we can't choose which way He's gonna deliver us. But we try, don't we? It's in our prayers, isn't it? It's how we pray. Here's what I'd like you to do. Well, we should pray for things that we'd rather be removed from because He's our Father. And He has the means, obviously, to do that. But when He chooses not to, we need to let that go, don't we? We need to let it go. This is the way God is pleased to work. Jesus is performing a jaw-dropping, eye-popping miracle of the loaves and fishes. But then He tells the disciples to clean up. Go get the leftovers. You want us to get a doggie bag? Why? That's how he works. Jairus' daughter, an amazing, powerful miracle raising her. And he, right after that says to the parents, go get her something to eat. It's just so amazingly pedestrian. It's so ordinary. You can't help but believe this. This isn't how, if we were faking and writing the Bible, this isn't how we'd fake the story, is it? The angel's in there. It's like, Philip, Peter's out of there, right? And then other great, powerful things happen. We know how to write, don't we? To save ourselves. No, he's got to put his sandals on. He's got to put his cloak on. And so we're waiting to do that. Absolutely remarkable. As one writer said, God alone can do the extraordinary, but he calls us to do the ordinary. We're not released from our responsibilities, are we? And so that comes to my next point for you as we're bringing this in for a landing this morning. Dependence on divine power to deliver you should never become insecure or impatient, nor should it ever cause us to neglect our responsibilities. What happens when the hammer strikes? When you're thrust into the furnace? I'll tell you what. Do the next thing. You know, I'm in agony over things that are happening. And I'm like on the floor, as I mentioned earlier, and crying out to God. And sometimes it's like you don't know that He's really hearing you. You're sobbing, and this hurts, and it's painful, and it's terrible, and it's wrong. Oh, yeah, I got to go take the garbage out. That's what I'm talking about here. Get up and do the next thing. But sometimes we want to sort of kind of sit on the couch of our life because I'm just, God won't set me free. God, I'm not being delivered here. I keep praying and praying. Go to work. Go to work. Make yourself a sandwich. Put your sandals on. And go to work. Wow, that doesn't seem like the powerful things that are going on in the Bible. No, that's why you need to look at the juxtaposition of both the miraculous and the ordinary right after it. God's trying to show us, folks, do the next thing. I work through means. the means of you fulfilling your responsibilities, not just to go to work and get dressed, but also follow Me according to My Word. What does My Word say you should do next? To bring about resolution, or whatever the issue is. Are we following Him? McLaren said God never does anything for us that we could not do for ourselves. He desires us to take the share that belongs to us in completing the deliverance. What should you be doing to deliver yourself? What's the next thing? What according to God's Word? That's what we should be asking, and we should put one foot in front of the other and do it. By the way, that's an excellent example of Philippians 2 verse 12 that we quote a lot, right? Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, following the word of God, that's what obedience means, so now work out your own salvation. That's what that word means. Take the next step in your spirit-filled life in a way that comports with His Word as He's speaking with you, and do the next thing. But sometimes we get caught up in self-pity, and we want to just say, well, this just didn't work out, or this person didn't come to me quick enough, or this and that. Do the next thing. Trust, that's what it takes. Faith, that's what it takes. Love. Love him enough to do what he's telling you to do. Yes? That's what I have to shout at my own heart. You say that you love him, he says, keep my commandments. If you love me, you will keep my commandments because that's how I bid you to follow me. How else would you follow me? That's why they call it his rule for living, his rule of life. Bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ, the principle of Christ, the principle of following Christ. That's how you follow him. If you don't abide by His Word, you're not following Him. Don't expect things to go well, right? Why do I have to learn this over and over again? Nine, first nine, and when He went out and followed Him. He's following the angel. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision where it says, He says, follow me, and now it says, followed him. I went deep on this akalutheo, this is the word for followed him, because I noticed that these were the words every time he went to, when he picked the disciples, remember? Follow me. And they just dropped everything, and they akalutheo, they followed him. And now he's saying it again. So this has gotta be reminiscent for Peter. That's exactly what Jesus said to him, and he did. He followed him. He's doing it again. It's the same word that Jesus used. It's a cleaving to Him. It's an obedience to Him. Letting Him lead by example, but following so close. There's a transformational efficacy of my closeness to Him. How do I stay close to Him? There's only one way. This is it. And through prayer, God works through means. If I'm not in this word, how close am I to Him? If I'm not willing to abide what the first—you know, when we do counseling with one another, right, in the body of Christ, the first thing we want to know when somebody's struggling, we grieve over that, and we're trying to help them is, have you done the next thing? I don't have an example in mind, but just in general, that's what it looks like. Have you done this? Here's what Jesus said. You didn't do that. How did you expect this to go well? I mean, let's go back to that, and when you do that, then let's see what God does, and let's do the next thing. He's guiding us through His Word. That's why this is a Bible church, yes? That's why it's Grace Bible Fellowship, because by His divine favor, He's saying, follow what I'm telling you to do. Follow me. And we need to follow Him, as Peter's doing here. Zodiatis said, following Jesus thus denotes a fellowship of faith as well as a fellowship of life, sharing in his sufferings, not only inwardly, but outwardly if necessary, end quote. The angel's command required swift action. First of all, get dressed. Don't run away without your clothes on or without your shoes. Peter didn't hesitate, nor did he ask questions. He immediately did as he was instructed by the angel. Do it. He learned the hard way that's what you do when Jesus speaks. Why do we lose that, that great and all-important principle when we're trying to navigate a difficult situation in our lives? Peter didn't hesitate. He's not gonna hesitate anymore. He did before, and boy did it sting. You're not doing things my way, Peter. In chapter 16 of Matthew, you are actually taking up the agenda of Satan. Now get behind me. Why do we take up the agenda? I don't want to take up the agenda of Satan, do you? Doesn't sound like anything he'd be pleased with. How do I do that? It's when I follow my own ways, when it's in conflict with the Word, when I'm unwilling to do things his way. That's exactly what the enemy wants to do. Oh, this is the way you should handle this. Look, this is what they do in the world. This is how they handle it. We're different people. Saved by the blood of Christ, we should hear His voice and we should follow Him in any and every case. When God brings the filling of the Spirit to us, to show us the way of escape. That's 1 Corinthians 10, 13. God who is faithful, who will with the trial, also may provide for you a way of escape. We look to Him for what that escape is. Sometimes, well, the escape isn't to go around. The escape in this case is gonna be to go through. But I am low, I am with you always. I will comfort you. You can trust me. We have to respond immediately without question or without hesitation. You remember the old phrase, he who hesitates is what? Lost. You've lost your way. Here's your charter. Here's your compass. Whatever fun terms do we have for the Bible. This is my direction. I knew how to live my own way. I made it a shipwreck, ended in a suicide attempt, but he showed up and he said, now listen to me. How can you forgive me the things I did? That's taken care of now. You've reconciled with me. That's under the blood of my son. Now listen to me. Oh, why? Why do we look everywhere else? Why do we choose to do anything else other than simply following him? 10 and 11. When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord. Amazing. And they went out and went along the street, and immediately the angel left him. Verse 11, when Peter came to himself, he said, in these words, this revelation, that he receives his gold. Now I am sure the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me. from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. Deliverance took place during, just after Passover. So this Feast of Unleavened Bread happens after Passover. So this is what's going on at that time. And it's interesting because, so this is the time of year that the Jews were celebrating the Exodus. And it's interesting that this word rescued here that Peter uses is the same word that Stephen used when he gave the great sermon and mentioned that the people of God were delivered. Same word. So from Exodus to Peter to us, he is our rescue. He's the way of escape. I'm going to close with Psalm 91, verse 12, 14, and 15. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all of your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Verse 14, because He holds fast to me in love, I will deliver Him. Am I holding fast to Him in love? I want to look at these qualifiers. I will protect Him because He knows my name. He knows me personally. He knows me as not just God, but Abba Father. When He calls me, I will answer Him. I will be with Him in trouble. I will rescue Him. I will honor Him. The Lord of hosts hears the cries of those who truly know Him and love Him, and He responds with great power to His glory. Father, thank You for these rich truths. Thank You for this journey You've taken us through. in the establishing of your church. Thank you for our salvation experience. We pray, Lord, if anybody here today isn't familiar with these concepts, don't know, maybe they've called themselves yours, going by the name Christian, but these are foreign concepts. Give them a vision of yourself now. Bring their hearts to life, as you did the rest of us, and show them, O Lord, you are our rescue, you are our deliverer, and we are called to trust you and obey you. Lord, strengthen and deepen our faith that we can bring you glory, especially in the difficult times. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen.