Our scripture reading this morning is Acts chapter 12, Acts chapter 12. Thank you, thank you so much. Giving a cup of cold water, that's in the Bible. And this is very cold. A Diet Coke would have been better, but that's okay. Yeah, you're right. Are you my doctor? Our scripture reading this morning is Acts chapter 12, and this is an exciting episode in the life of the early church. It takes place about 10 years after the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord. So the New Testament church is pretty young, and it's an exciting episode. We're going to unpack it and then see what the Lord has for us. It's got some real applications on how to live our life before the Lord in a fallen world. So let's pray at this time. Father, I pray now that as we read your word, your spirit would take your word. He wrote the book, and that he would give us eyes to see and ears to hear, give us a heart that is open and receptive, a will that is obedient. Help us not to be stiff-necked, Lord, and help us, Lord, to be encouraged. We live in a world that's fallen. We live in a world where bad things happen every day. and bad things happen to us and our loved ones. And so, Lord, it's easy to take our newsfeed from the world and be filled with anxiety, be filled with fear, be filled with just worry, but Lord, that's not what you have for us. So I pray that as we look at this passage, as we unpack it, we would celebrate and rejoice in the miracle of it all, but also, Lord, we'd realize and rejoice that what happened back then is very much for us today. And so we pray this in your name. Amen. So Acts chapter 12. I'm going to read verses 1 to 19 and then also verse 24. 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. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. And now when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and centuries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an 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, and 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 had 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. And 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 and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. And recognizing Peter's voice and her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, you are out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was so. And they kept saying, it is his angel. But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, tell these things to James and to the brothers. And then he departed and went to another place. And now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. And then he went down from Judea to Caesarea. and spend time there. And let's scoot down to verse 24. But the word of God increased and multiplied. May God bless his word to our hearts. So let's unpack this passage and kind of see what's going on, and then we'll see what the Lord has for us. Now, verse one, it says, about that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. Now, this is not the same Herod that tried to kill the baby Jesus. This is not Herod the great. But this is his grandson. And the apple really didn't fall too far from the tree. This Herod was pretty evil too. And he has a persecution against the church. And so in verse two it says, he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. Friends, this was huge. This is James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the apostles. And he kills James, no trial, no recourse, no appeal. He just kills him. And then in verse 3 it says, when he saw that this pleased the Jews, he decided to arrest Peter also. Peter's another apostle. And so James is dead, and Peter's now arrested. Just imagine the local church. Just imagine the church in Jerusalem. These are the apostles. These are the ones that, in a sense, the Lord used to found the church. And now James is dead and Peter's in prison. And imagine if you're a Christian and you're living in Jerusalem and you, you are a witness to what's going on. This is going to be a pretty scary time. This is going to be a pretty upsetting time. Now there is a reprieve. It says that this was during the days of unleavened bread. You know, the feast of unleavened bread ran the same time as the Passover. And you recall, it goes back to God bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt, that they were in such a hurry. In fact, we have matzah, unleavened bread, on the communion table. They couldn't let the bread rise. And so it's the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the Passover, remember, the blood was placed over the door frame. So when the angel of death came, the children of Israel were spared, their firstborn. But the Egyptians were put to death. So this is Passover, this is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it carried on or continued for seven days. And so Peter had a reprieve for seven days. Now, it's kind of ironic. Why wouldn't Herod kill him during the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover? Why wouldn't he do it? Well, it would have been considered unrighteous. And there's an irony to that. He's going to murder the man, but yet he's not going to do it during these high holy days because that just wouldn't have good optics. So Peter has a seven-day reprieve in prison. And so he throws him in prison. There's four squads of soldiers guarding him, four at a time. And it says that after the Passover, he brings plans to bring him out. He's going to murder him. He's going to kill him. And then verse five says that there's a lot of prayer going up for him by the church. So Peter's in prison for seven days, the night before Herod's about to bring him out of verse six. It says Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and centuries before the door regarding the prison. Now I find that remarkable. Peter is sound asleep. He's expecting to die the next day. He's not planning on being delivered. God did not deliver James, so Peter thinks, well, tomorrow I die. Tomorrow I see Jesus. And he's sound asleep. Now, I don't know about you, but I probably would be up all night thinking, you know, like, is this going to hurt? What's it going to be like? How painful will it be? What's going to happen to the church? What's going to happen to my brothers and sisters in Christ? But Peter knew that God was big and God is sovereign, and he is sound asleep between two soldiers. Two soldiers were guarding him, and then two other soldiers were at gates leading out of the prison. And he's bound with two chains. Now, I don't think he was bound to the guards. I think that there probably were some kind of posts or rings in the floor, and that's what he was bound to. with these two chains, one on each wrist. And then something exciting happens. Look at verse 7. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. You know, so the cell lights up. The angel of God shows up. He strikes Peter on the side. Now, Peter is lying down, so he kicks him in the side and he tells him, Get up quickly. And his chains fell off his hands. And then the angel said to him, dress yourself, put on your sandals. And he did so. And he said, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. Now, what about the soldiers? What about the guards? What are they doing? We don't really know. But I'm going to speculate, sanctified speculation. I think that they did not fall asleep. They were not rendered unconscious. I think that in their minds, because when you read at the end of the passage in verse 19, it says that the soldiers could not figure out what happened to Peter. I think in their minds, they thought that Peter was still chained, still in prison, the whole night long. And then in the morning, they come to their senses and they see Peter's not there. The chains are on the floor. But they don't know what happened. In fact, when Herod says, what happened, they tell him, we don't know. I don't think they were put to sleep. I don't think they were rendered unconscious. You know, this is the speculation part. Some of you might have seen the movie The Matrix, and in The Matrix, you know, the person who's in The Matrix moves like super fast, he's in a different dimension, and everyone else is just kind of like frozen, like statues. I almost wonder if that's what was going on with the guards, that in their minds, Peter was still there. They thought they still were guarding him, but God was bringing him loose. And so Peter goes out in verse 9, and this is interesting. He says, he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but he thought he was seeing a vision. Now why would he think that? Well, two chapters before in Acts chapter 10, remember that Peter has this vision. This sheet comes down from out of heaven, and on the sheet are all these animals, and they're They're unclean animals, animals that you're not supposed to eat if you're a good Jew. There were pigs on that sheet. And God says to Peter, go ahead and eat. And he says, oh, no, Lord, I can't eat that which is unclean. And God says, go ahead and eat. And he says, oh, no, Lord, I can't do that. Now, God wasn't just expanding the diet of Jewish people. He was teaching him a lesson that the Gospels were Gentiles. because Peter goes to Cornelius, and he shares the gospel, and Cornelius was a Roman centurion, a soldier, a Gentile. So the purpose of the sheet was not to expand Peter's diet, but it was to teach him a lesson, the gospels for Gentiles, not just for the Jews. But when that sheet comes down, God says to Peter, in essence, go ahead, eat the baby back ribs, it's okay. So Peter had this vision. And he's in prison now and he's thinking, okay, a very short time ago, I had this vision of this big sheet coming down out of heaven. It was a vision. It really wasn't happening in real time and space. He just figured the same thing was happening now. Look at verse 10, when they had passed the first and second guard again, I think they weren't knocked unconscious. They weren't sleeping. They honestly thought that they didn't see Peter. They didn't realize what was happening. So then they come to the iron gate in verse 10, leading into the city, the final gate between the prison and the city. And this is really kind of cool. You ever go to a supermarket, you come to the supermarket, there's the sensor up there. The sensor, the moment it sees you, the door just opens. Now this was a locked gate, but as Peter and the angel of the Lord come to it, the door just opens like a supermarket door, and they go out into the streets of Jerusalem. Now verse 11, it says Peter comes to himself. It was cool. It was cool in the wee hours of the morning. We don't know for sure what time it was. It might've been three, it might've been two, it might've been four, but it was in the wee hours of the morning and the cool Jerusalem air revised Peter. And he comes to himself and he realizes that he really was sprung from prison. It wasn't a vision. that God had rescued him. So in verse 12, he goes to the house of Mary, the mother of John. And this is John Mark. Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark. He went on Paul's first missionary journey. Not the second one, but that's another story. But he goes to the house of Mary and they're having an all-night prayer meeting. As I said back in verse 5, the church prayed. And they were praying continuously for Peter. So he goes to the house because he knows these folks. And it says in verse 13, when he knocked at the door of the gateway, the outer door, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Now, you generally don't open the door at 3 in the morning. And so she says, who's there? Peter, the apostle. And she is so excited. She recognizes his voice, because he, I think, probably was in this house many times for prayer meetings for church. So she recognizes Peter's voice. She runs back in and breaks up the prayer meeting. And she says, Peter is at the gate. He's standing outside. Now what do the folks do? They said to her, you're out of your mind, which is a nicer way of saying you're crazy. You're out of your mind. But she kept on insisting that it was so. And so they're having this debate back and forth. You know, why don't you just go and open the door and see for yourself? They do that eventually. But they're having this debate. And then finally they say, it's his angel. Now what's going on here? You know, there are people in the world, non-Christians, who falsely teach that when a Christian dies, you become an angel, right? You die, you become an angel. That's not biblical. Angels are a separate created order of beings. But there was a superstition in the early church. There was a superstition, I should say, in early and first century Judaism. And just because these were Christians did not mean they totally disabused themselves of superstitions. Even today, there are Christians who say to me, good luck. Better to say good providence. No such thing as luck. But anyway, they said, it's his angel. And so what's going on? Well, there was a belief back then, everybody had a guardian angel, and there's some evidence in the Bible we have guardian angels, but the belief was that if something big happened to you, your guardian angel would put on your features, in other words, would look like you, and would show up and announce to everybody this big thing that happened to you, more than likely death. And so they say it's his angel, so they're thinking, huh, Herod jumped the gun, he killed Peter, Peter's dead, and now his guardian angel's showing up to tell us the bad news. So that's what they mean by it's his angel. Meanwhile, Peter is still at the front door. And so he continues knocking. You know, there is a contract out on him. He's got to get out of town soon. And so finally they come and they open the door and they saw him and they were amazed. Now I do have a question and I'm not judging them because I do the same thing. What were they praying for all night? What were they praying for that Peter dies, dies easily? I don't know, but they're amazed. And so they're all talking, they're all asking questions of Peter, a thousand questions. You know, what in the world happened? And Peter motions them with his hand to be silent. He tells them how God sprung him out of prison. And then he says, tell these things to James and to the brothers. This is not James who died, but this is James, the half brother of Jesus. Go and tell them what happened. And then Peter had to get out of Jerusalem because there was a contract out on his head. to kill him. So he departs and goes to another place. And then sadly, verse 18, the day comes. The soldiers, whatever state they're in, they realize Peter is not there. Herod, he comes and says, what happened to him? And they said, we don't know. And they get put to death. And then Herod, we didn't read these verses, but he gets judged by the Lord in verses 20 and following because he claims to be God and doesn't give God the glory. But look in verse 24, but the word of God increased and multiplied. And then in chapter 13 is the first missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas. So this is an exciting, miraculous, enjoyable episode in the life of the early church. But it's not just to show us that God has power and sprung Peter, but there are some lessons there. here for us. We live in a fallen world. You all know that. We live in a world that's not the way God created it to be. We live in a world in which bad things happen, and bad things happen to God's people. We live in a world in which there is disease and death and destruction. You know, in the Garden of Eden, there would not have been cardio thoracic surgeons that would have had to replace my aortic valve. Never would have happened in the garden of Eden. There wouldn't have been wildfires. They wouldn't have been tornadoes. There wouldn't have been drought. There wouldn't have been famine. None of those things ever would have happened, but Adam and Eve, they sinned. They brought sin into the world. And with sin comes judgment, the judgment of God. And so we live in a fallen world and you and me, we continue to sin and we continue to make this world a fallen world. We don't make it better, we make it worse. So we live in a fallen world and it's easy as you and I live in this fallen world, it's easy for us to just kind of Want to seclude ourselves, want to isolate ourselves, want to be hermits? But God says, no, you're to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations and preach the gospel. You and I are to be salt and light in the midst of this fallen world. And yet it's tough, and it's challenging, and bad things do happen to us. We get sick, and we get dying, and we can be robbed, we can be in a car crash, Bad things can happen to us. Loser jobs, all sorts of stuff. So what does the Lord have for us? What does he want to show us in this passage? Well, there are four takeaways that I wanted to share with you. That even though we live in a fallen world, that when we pray, We should pray with power and with expectation, and prayer should be our first resort, not our last resort. We live in a fallen world, and so often, when bad things happen, we get worried, we look at these bad things, we worry, we fret, we talk about them with others, we have anxiety, we have fear, and the last thing we do is pray. God wants you and myself to make prayer the first thing we do. in this fallen world. Make prayer your first resort, not your last resort. And when we pray, pray with power, pray with expectation. God hears, God cares, and God can make a way when there is no way. You know, I think you've all heard this story. It's hard to believe I was your interim back in 2010. That is a long time ago. But I think I probably told this story back in those days. Our firstborn son, Joshua, When Josh was 15 months old, he fell on Christmas night as Christmas was on a Sunday and he fell and he banged his head and he cried, but he settled down and we put him in the bed. We went into his crib that night and checked on him. He threw up all over. We thought, ah, too many Christmas cookies, but we couldn't wake him up. And we checked his pupils and one pupil was dilated and staring out cockeyed. And so we called the doctor and they, The doctor said he's probably going to have to have brain surgery, get him to the hospital. So we took him to our local hospital in Willingboro, Rancoucas Valley Hospital at the time, and they realized this was way out of their league. They don't do brain surgery there. So an ambulance came and rushed him down to Cooper Hospital in Camden. And at 3 in the morning, December 26, Christmas night in a sense, Josh had emergency brain surgery. The surgeon told us it was the worst kind of brain injury you could have. And he warned and alerted us that there probably were going to be residual effects. And so he had brain surgery at three in the morning. We could only see Josh for 15 minutes a day. He was in the trauma unit. And so we came home, and that Monday night, Monday was the holiday, Christmas was on Sunday, so Monday was the holiday when everybody had off from work. And that's when you visit with your friends, and that's when you have your special dinners, and that's when you have family gatherings. And Marcia and I were home, we saw Josh for our 15 minutes, and we looked out in the parking lot, and it was filled with cars. And here we found out that my church, I was their pastor, they called a prayer meeting that night. And everybody gave up their family gatherings and celebrations to come to church to pray for our son. Well, God miraculously healed Josh. He never had any after effects. He never had any residual effects. In fact, he's a Pennsylvania State Trooper. He has a real nasty scar on his head from where they opened up his skull years ago. He's 38 years old, just had a baby boy just two weeks ago, has a little baby girl. And when Josh was in boot camp for the state police, it's a six-month boot camp, they give you a buzz cut. It's like paramilitary. And the drill instructor said to him, Emberger, what's that thing on your head? This big scar. And you have to answer a certain way when you're at the state police academy. So Josh yelled back. He said, sir, brain surgery, sir. And the drill instructor was speechless. He didn't know what to say. He never expected that to come out of Josh's mouth. And Josh went to Temple University, graduated with his bachelor's, and now he's a state trooper. And my church family came to church that night, and they prayed. And they prayed with power, and they prayed with expectation. So I encourage you that when you go through life, we live in this fallen world, Before you start worrying and fretting, make prayer your first resort, and pray. Pray with power and expectation. There's a second takeaway from this passage, that we live in a fallen world, but remember, God's in charge. We read the paper, we hear stuff, and it seems like things are spiraling out of control. We had tornadoes in our neck of the woods. You and I cannot control a tornado. And so often life seems like it's filled with tornadoes of bad things happening. Philadelphia has this incredibly high murder rate and every day people are shot. And so it seems like things are spiraling out of control. But we need to remember that God is still king, God is still sovereign, God is still on his throne, and God has a plan and purpose, and we are barreling toward the consummation of God's plan and purpose. When Jesus returns, there is a new heaven, there is a new earth, and all the things of this life, death and disease and suffering and pain and sadness are done away with, and all things become new. God is still in charge, he's still sovereign, he's still king. And you and I need to remember that. And he's still building his church. You know, sometimes, you know, we think that, wow, you know, God's not doing much in this world, but he really is. He is doing amazing things. You know, I share this story with you, two stories. In the 1940s, when communist China took over the country of China, the communists took it over and all the missionaries were kicked out of China. in 1948, 1949. And the missionaries were afraid that the church was going to just wither and die because they weren't there anymore. The church was young. And it was a minority religion. And so in the 1970s, when President Nixon was president, the door was opened for people from the U.S. to go to China as tourists. Couldn't go back as a missionary, but you could go as a tourist. And a lot of Christians, a lot of missionaries went to China as a tourist, and their purpose was to see how the church was doing. And they discovered something amazing. The church had actually grown and prospered even after the missionaries left. Another true story. We had a staff member at the mission, Rebecca Logan. And she's from a long line of missionaries, three or four generations going back into Africa. But Rebecca worked for us for six years as our learning program director. And she really felt burdened of the Lord to go to a country that was either closed or hostile to the gospel. And so she decided to go to China. And she went there. She went and got another master's degree in teaching English as a second language. She went there and taught at a Chinese university. And she taught English as a second language to these Chinese students. But she really was there as an undercover missionary. She was there to introduce people to Jesus. And she went to a church every Sunday. It was a church for expatriates, non-Chinese people basically, though there were some Chinese who did go. And there was a woman in the church who one day went to the pastor and said, I have a confession to make. I am a spy. I spy for the Chinese government. Because every church in China has a spy that the government places in that church to make sure there are no anti-government statements being made. And so this woman comes and says to the pastor of this church, I've been hearing about this Jesus week after week. I need Jesus as my savior. And she professed faith in Christ. She became a believer. Now, at first, some people thought she's doing what some thought that Paul was doing, that she was going to go under deep cover. She was going to kind of burrow her way into the life of the church and then eventually rat everybody out. So they thought that she was just going to become a super spy. But she really was saved. She really came to know Jesus. And she was authentic and real. And they saw that over the course of time. And I find that amazing that she was actually paid to go to church on Sunday as a communist spy, but now she worked for Jesus, and she knows him, and she would tell people about him and worship him on Sunday. So remember that God's in charge. He's still building his kingdom. And then the third takeaway, you know, Read the newspaper. I still get a newspaper. It gets thinner and more expensive every day. I listen to KYW news radio. I watch the news. You can watch it at 5, 6, 10, and 11. You can go to the news channels and see it all the time. And so there's this thing called the newsfeed, always feeding you news, always feeding you stuff. And a lot of it is really bad stuff. It's negative. And so we have a tendency to get our newsfeed from all this bad stuff. And then we get filled with anxiety, with worry, with fear. And what God wants us to do is to get our newsfeed from his word and from what he's doing in the life of the church. You know, read the book of Revelation. God wins. A better day is coming. But also listen to the stories of missionaries. Read the missionary letters. Come to the services when your missionaries come home. Tell each other stories of God's blessing and God's deliverance and God's answers to prayer. Go on a God hunt and look and see that God is doing amazing things in the life of your congregation. And so get your news feed from God. and secondarily from the world. And realize that even in the midst of all this bad stuff, God is still building his church, his kingdom. And then a fourth and final application or takeaway. We live in a fallen world and we have big problems. But remember this, no matter how big your problems are, God is always bigger. Peter was in a tough spot. He really was. He fully expected to die like James. But God was bigger than his big problem of being chained between two guards with two more guarding locked gates and then the final gate also being locked. God was bigger than even that. And God brought him out. You know, when you and I go through problems, we have a tendency to block out God. We don't see God for any for who he is. We put our problems right in front of our face and we don't see him anymore. And what God wants us to do is to put those problems over here and get a fresh vision of who he is and realize that no matter how big your problems are, he is always bigger. So we're gonna celebrate the Lord's Supper in a moment. And the Lord's Supper focuses on the cross. It focuses on the cross of Jesus Christ. And the cross of Jesus tells us that God is for us, and he loves us, and he's with us. and that no matter what we face, God will give us everything we need to make it. And in Jesus, we are more than conquerors. The cross tells us all that. And so as we go to the Lord's Supper and celebrate and partake of these elements, let us remember that no matter how big your problems are, God is always bigger. God loves you and his cross declares that to us. Let us pray. Father, I thank you that we can come now to your supper. And I pray that as we partake of these elements, Lord, that each one of us would be reminded anew of your great love for us. We would be reminded anew of our sin, but where sin abounds, your grace abounded much more. And that Jesus, when you went to that cross, that you who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might become your righteousness. So Lord, bless our time. Make this a joyful time. Make this a wonderful time. And we pray this in your name, amen.