Welcome to this podcast from Harvest Community Church of Huntersville, North Carolina, where our vision is to make disciples who make disciples. I'm your host, Liz Stefanini. In Itasca, Texas, just before World War Two, there was a great tragedy, a school fire broke out and killed 263 children. After the war, Tasca built a sprinkler system, which at that time was believed to be the kind of the finest that you could get. They were proud of it. They told everybody about it. They wanted to make sure that a tragedy like that would never happen again. In fact, the honor students in the school would go around and show people about the system and tell them about it. They were all so proud about it. Well, seven years later, the school had grown and it was time to build an expansion on the school, so they went into the construction of the new phase, and when they got there, they made an incredible and scary discovery. That great sprinkler system which was supposedly the best that money could buy, was not connected. For seven years, they had thought they had this great protection. Fortunately, they didn't need it with another fire, but it was not connected. Today's sermon, as we continue through the book of Acts, we come to Acts chapter 12, And today we're gonna talk about how the church stays connected. Specifically connected with God. How we stay connected with God through the power that he has offered for the church. And it is as the church gathers to pray. That's how God reveals himself to the church. That's where and how he does it. And that's the key point in Acts chapter 12. When we are powerless against Satan's opposition, God is powerful. And he often chooses to unleash his power as the church gathers for corporate earnest prayer. So let me set the context for you first before we read Acts chapter 12. After many spiritual victories, the church faced opposition and a serious setback. So far in Acts, we've seen a lot of victories. We've seen thousands of people become believers in Christ, and we've seen them baptized, and we've seen new things happening and all kind of wonderful things. But now there's a serious setback. James, one of the leaders of the early church, had been executed. Herod had him executed. And Peter was in jail. Peter was next in line. And Acts 12 tells us how the church responded to that and how God responded. So let's start in Acts chapter 12, verse one. It was about that time, or this time, that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. Now, this Herod that's spoken, there are a lot of Herods in the New Testament. This Herod is Herod Agrippa I. He was the grandson of King Herod who was alive at the time of Jesus' birth. You probably remember the Herod that was a murderer in fact was upset when he heard about this new king of the Jews that had been born since he wasn't Jewish and he ordered all of the baby boys two years and under to be put to death. This was this Herod's grandfather. In fact, he was such an evil man that he had his own son, Aristobulus murdered, who was the father of this Herod. So murder and treachery is a part of this line. And this Herod was imprisoned and one of his friends came to power and released him from prison and another one of his childhood friends came to power, Claudius, and Claudius made him the ruler over Judea and Samaria. And this was four years after he got the title king. So he really wasn't Jewish, but he was given authority over Judea and Samaria by the Roman ruler. This is the Herod that's talked about in this passage. Now, unlike his grandfather, the Jewish people actually liked him, and he tried to do things to be in their favor, and this is one of them. He thought, well, this church Situation that is saying Jesus is the Jewish Messiah that you know, the Jewish people weren't happy with that So so Herod's like maybe trying to gain favor. All right, he puts James to death. He puts Peter in jail verse 3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews he proceeded to seize Peter Also, this happened during the festival of unleavened bread now He had intentions. He wasn't just putting him in jail for, so he would let him sit there. He was going to kill Peter also. He was going to put Peter to death, but there was a slight snag because during this festival, there could be no trials and no sentencing. And the feast or festival unleavened bread was a seven day festival that began with the Passover meal. That was the time when this happened. So there's a, there's a temporary breather. for Peter, he's in jail, he's waiting till the feast ends and then no doubt Herod is planning to bring him out for some kind of trial and put him to death. Well, that's what happens in verse four. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. Now, the normal procedure for a prisoner would be maybe one guard would be handcuffed. But Herod puts four squads of four soldiers guarding Peter. So they seemingly had six hour shifts. So for six hours, there's four soldiers guarding one man. So Peter was chained, probably both arms or both legs to a soldier. So he was chained to two soldiers and then there were two on the outside. Why in the world would Herod take such extra precaution against a former fisherman? It's not like this is a military leader or anything. Well, do you remember earlier that Peter's already been in jail and an angel has already gotten him out once? So, you know, I don't know if Herod believed in angels or not, but he's like, okay, I'm gonna put four soldiers. Let's see who can get this guy. Verse six. Or verse five. Five comes before six. And this is an incredibly important verse that lets us know what is happening. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. This may be the key verse. in this passage. In fact, would you just, let's all read this out loud. I'd love to read this verse out loud together. Let's go. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. Now we aren't told what they prayed. We aren't told that they specifically prayed that he would be released. I imagine that was part of it. I'm sure many, if not all of them were praying, Lord, would you release Peter? I'm sure many of them were praying, God, would you strengthen Peter to be a bold witness during this time? God, would you give him help? Based on what we know about the church and the way they prayed, they were probably praying, Lord, will you further your causes somehow? We know that you're sovereign. We don't know the exact content of the prayer, but we know that they were earnestly praying for him. They were passionate about this. There was zeal there in their prayer for Peter. And look what happens in verse six. The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains and sentries guarded at the entrance. Or sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly, An angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. Quick, get up, he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists. Then the angel said to him, put on your clothes and sandals, and Peter did so. Wrap your cloak around you and follow me, the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision. Have you ever had that happen at night? You don't know if you're like really dreaming or if it's really happening. Do any of you talk in your sleep? Just admit it, go ahead. I'm raising my hand. Only a few of us. How about, have you ever walked in your sleep? Anybody ever? Okay. All right. Some of us. Yeah. I don't think I've done that in a long, long time, but as a teenager, I did it sometimes my parents would tell me about it. And it's like, you're kind of there and you can kind of tell, but you don't really know. Well, this Peter's like having this experience and an angel is rescuing him, but he, he doesn't, he thinks maybe he's just seeing a vision. Well, verse 10, they passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. And then Peter came to himself and said, now I know without a doubt, The Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen. Peter knew what was going to happen to him. He knew what they wanted to do to him. He knew they were going to try to execute him. And the angel rescues him. The angel leaves him out on the street. We don't know what time it is, but I mean, Peter was sound asleep. So it was at some point in the night, Peter's asleep. He gets rescued, taken out into the street, past all the guards, and then the angel leaves, and then Peter, like, oh, he realizes this is really happening. Now here's where the story continues to be interesting, and also, to me, a little bit funny. Watch what happens next in verse 12. When this had dawned on him, He went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance. and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed, she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, Peter's at the door. So think about it, you're in jail, an angel lets you out, you're on the street, okay, you go, all the people are praying and they have these big gates and doors and here's, you're knocking on the door and Rhoda comes to the door and sees you and is excited and rather than letting you in, she goes back inside and you're just standing out there. Well, it keeps on going. Peter is at the door. Peter is at the door. She's telling them, but what did they say? Praise God, he's answered our prayers. You're out of your mind. You're out of your mind, they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, oh, it must be his angel. Poor Peter can't catch a break. He's been in prison. He's been released. He goes back to all the Christians that are praying for him and the one who believes it's him tells the others and they're like, no, no, it's, it's not him. But Peter kept on knocking and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. Tell James, And the other brothers and sisters about this, he said, and then he left for another place. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, at the jail in the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he crossed examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Now this is a story that talks about God's power. It's fundamentally about God's power. It's about what God can do to rescue his servant. It's about what God can do to advance his causes. But it's also about how God uses prayer in those causes. In fact, that's the way I want us to organize our thoughts, how God uses united prayer. Now let's, let's watch it. And these are on your outline. Number one, God wants prayer to be our first response to difficult or impossible situations. God wants prayer to be our first response. Can you think of any other responses we typically have when we come across a difficulty, maybe worry, or trying to figure something out, or questioning God, or talking to others? God wants prayer to be the very first thing. Notice what happens here. We see this in all through the first five verses, but verse four, after arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after passing. This was a terrible situation. This was going to end badly. They, they, there was nothing they could do. Notice what they didn't do to try to get Peter released. They, they didn't organize a mob to try to storm the jail. They didn't create a petition signed by all the leading Christians of Jerusalem to go to Herod to ask for Peter to be released. They didn't take an offering to try to bribe Herod. to let him out, they prayed. They prayed. Verse five, Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying for him. Listen to other New Testament writers who ring the prayer bell. Paul said in Ephesians chapter six, verse 18, pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying. for all the Lord's people. And Peter says in 1 Peter 4, 7, the end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. God wants prayer to be our first response. Secondly, God designed for the church to pray together and earnestly. When we say the word prayer, I'm convinced that maybe the majority of Americans, if you just say prayer, what comes to your mind, I'm convinced that the majority of Americans will probably think about personal private prayer. That's probably the first thing that would come to our minds. I think that's because we who live in the West are so individualistic, right? It's all about me and God, right? Private prayer is certainly important there. There's no question about it. It's a it's a fundamental and a foundational Basis for our Christian walk with the Lord. So there has to be private individual prayer. I'm not discounting that in any way but unlike the biblical pattern We focus so much on individual prayer that we we don't focus very much on corporate prayer We don't focus on praying together. And this is true in America. This is not true in much of the rest of the world. In much of the rest of the world, the church gathers and prays. The church prays together. And they view that when they think about prayer, they think about prayer as what we do together. And this is God's design, it's to pray together and earnestly. Verse five, we read it. The church was earnestly praying to God for him. Let's look at that, just those phrases. Let's look at the words in those phrases. Who was praying? The church. The church was earnestly praying. This was not just the leaders of the church. This wasn't the elders or the apostles. This was the church gathering to pray. And that's what we mean when we say corporate prayer. Corporate has nothing to do with business in this context. Corporate prayer is when the body of believers come together to pray. And how were they praying? They were praying earnestly. Earnestly is an interesting word. It comes, the original word comes from a word that means to stretch out. It's like used of stretching out your hands. In fact, 15 of 16 times in the New Testament, it's stretching out your hands. And the word picture here is that they're praying to God and they're earnest, they're stretching. stretching out their hands to God earnestly. It's the same word that was used when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he was betrayed and he was about to go to the cross. Luke 22, 44, speaking of Jesus being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. God values intensity in our search for him. Jeremiah 29, 12 and 13 says, then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. God wants us to be intense. God is so important. There's nothing like Him. There's nothing that can compare to Him. There's nothing that a church can do like praying together and calling on God and seeking His face and His favor. And they were doing it earnestly. They were doing it for Peter. Now, to whom were they praying? Notice it says the church. was earnestly praying to God. Now, those are just two little simple words and you might think, well, who else would we pray to? But I'll admit this. Will you admit that sometimes we're praying and we might pray our whole prayer and not really have a strong sense that God is there? or maybe halfway through your prayer, you realize, man, I've just started and I've just been saying some things. It's easy for prayer to become just ritualistic. You've heard other people pray, you use certain phrases, you use certain expressions and you say them and you're praying, but they were praying to God. Praying to God, R.A. Torrey, in a book, The Power of Prayer, says this, is it not often the case when men stand up to pray in public or kneel down to pray in private that they are thinking far more of what they're asking for than they are of the great God who made heaven and earth, who has all power of whom they are asking it? We take the name of God upon our lips, but there's no real conscious approach to God in our heart. We should never utter one syllable in prayer, either in public or in private, until we are definitely conscious that we have come into the presence of God and are actually praying to him. Does that make sense? They were praying to God. Let's. Yes, let's tell God our request. But let's acknowledge God first. Whether you're praying alone, whether you're praying with a small group, whether you're praying with the whole church, let's remember that we are praying to God. Well, we see in verse 5 that God indeed was designing that the church would pray earnestly. We see that in verse 5. We also see it later in the passage in verse 12. There it is in verse five, they were earnestly praying. But when Peter got out of jail and he went to them, notice again what happens. When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. I love that. How late is it? We don't know. We know it's late enough for Peter to be sound asleep. Jail, right? Peter's not wringing his hands and worry. He's asleep. He's in seemingly a deep sleep So this this this is a late-night prayer meeting And what are they doing? Many people are gathered and many people are praying. Now, some of you might be thinking, okay, Pastor Jerry, I agree with you. I would love to capture that kind of earnestness in my prayer, but how do I do it? Sometimes prayer feels perfunctory to me. Sometimes prayer, I want to have passion. I want to have earnestness, but how can I do it? Let me give you a couple of suggestions. Number one, just keep praying. Just keep praying whether you feel earnest or not. Number two, ask God for it. Tell God that. Tell God, I want to pray earnestly like I see these people did. Will you help me with that? And then number three, pray whether you feel like it or not. Remember these great words from the apostle Paul in Romans chapter eight in verse 26 and 27. In the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot be expressed. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ and you're praying, you have the Holy Spirit interceding, going between you and God the Father in that prayer. So that's, that's the second principle about prayer here. This is how God uses united prayer. He designed for the church to pray together and to pray earnestly. Number three, God uses prayer to solve problems and to further his sovereign purposes. We see this in verses six to 12. Now, before I read any of that, In fact, I don't think I'm gonna reread those verses. We read how he let Peter out of jail. He sent him out to continue preaching the gospel. Let me reiterate some truths. God uses prayer. We don't understand it, but he does. God urges, and I believe generally uses fervent, earnest prayer in greater ways. But God does not guarantee that prayer, no matter how earnest it is, will be answered in the way we want it to be or in the time in which we would hope it to be. So for example, in this very passage, James is beheaded and Peter is released and continues his ministry. How do you explain that? Only by the sovereignty of God. God uses prayer to solve problems and to further his sovereign purposes. Obviously, the ministry that God had for Peter was not done yet. So he used the church's praying to serve as a model for us and to be a part of his sovereign purposes. Now, some people might think, well, okay, yeah, that's a story way back in the Bible. What about now? Well, let me tell you about something that happened in 1964 in the nation of Zaire, which has gone back and forth with it. It's now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. There were some Simba communist rebels that came in and captured a town called Bunia, and they began arresting anyone that they considered to be enemies of the revolution. One of those people that was arrested was a pastor named Zebediah Edu. The day after his arrest was supposed to be, it was a political holiday. And all the people were going to gather and they were going to come before this, this, uh, uh, the, the spiritual leader of the revolution. And they were going to bring the prisoners out and they were going to execute the prisoners. I mean, this was, this is sorted. This is strange. It's horrible, but that's, this is just, this is what happened. And this is what they were going to do. They're going to do it right in front of this monument. So the time came. for them to carry out this terrible deed, and they get the prisoners out of prison, including the pastor. They put them in the back of a truck, and guess what? The truck will not start. So they try and try and try to get the truck started. They finally can't get the truck started, so they get the prisoners out of the truck and have them all push the truck to the place where the ceremony is. So they're pushing the truck. I don't know why they didn't walk them, but they were pushing the truck to the ceremony. They finally get there and they're late and the police chief is upset. And so he just says, line the prisoners up and he just starts numbering them off. One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two. Everybody who's a two, they sent them back to jail. They put all the ones there and they shot the ones. Pastor Adu was a two. And while they go back into the prison, he tells them, they're thinking, they're hearing this, but they're thinking, well, it's just a matter of time before we get shot as well. And he tells them his testimony and his story. And he presents the gospel and eight of the prisoners profess faith in Jesus Christ. How do you explain that? How do you explain the truck not starting? How do you explain the 1-2-1-2? And soon after that, a messenger just comes to the jail and says, oh, I've got news. Pastor Adu was arrested improperly and they let him go. He goes back. to his house, which is right beside the church. And guess what's happening at the church? The church is gathered and are praying for him to be protected and to be released. It's like Acts chapter 12. It's almost the same thing. Paul said in Ephesians, Chapter six, as he put that all the spiritual weapons out. The spiritual armor, he wrapped it up with prayer and he told them to pray and he said, Pray also for me that whenever I speak, words may be given me so I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. This is a good. Part of the message to ask the question. Where's jesus in this story? Where's the gospel in this story? how does this point to jesus and point to the good news and I would say even though those words don't appear and In big bold letters the gospel is all over this story It's for the sake of the gospel that Jesus or that Peter is in jail to begin with. He was preaching the good news that Jesus Christ lived, he died, he was buried, he was raised again, and he did it all to forgive our sins. And everyone who opens their hearts and lives to him through repentance and faith can be saved, can enter into God's family. That's the gospel. That's what Peter was preaching. That's why he went to jail. That's why God sprung him from the jail so he could keep preaching that message. And today, I ask you, have you understood that good news about Jesus, the good news that he loves you so much that he's willing to forgive you of your sins and invite you into a relationship with him, make you a part of his family. If you have never opened your heart to him, our message today is not be a good person, not pray hard enough and you'll get to heaven or turn over a new leaf. Our message to you is admit that you're sinful, admit that Jesus has died for you and receive him into your life and follow him as your savior. Well, there's one more way that we see in this passage that God uses United Prayer, and that's this. God uses the prayers of imperfect people. I really like this part of the passage. I like this part of the message. How many of you are imperfect? Can I see your hands? Let's see. Who can raise them the highest? All right. That would be all of us. And we would all be imperfect prayers too. We all have ways to grow, right? Let me remind you again, this part of the passage. Here's Rhoda at the door and she recognizes Peter's voice. She was so overjoyed, she ran back without opening and said, Peter's at the door. You're out of your mind. I mean, this may have been the very thing that they were praying for. And here's the person coming and saying, hey, God's answered our prayers. You're out of your mind What You know, you know, there's some insidious theology that teaches that it all depends on you and me And that like if you only have enough faith, then you know, if your prayers aren't answered because you don't have enough faith I don't know how much faith they had They might've had a lot of faith. They might've had a little bit of faith. All I know is when, when their prayers were answered at first, they said, no, no, it's, it's must be his angel. And Peter keeps on knocking. You could also call this message. God has a good sense of humor. They're all praying. Oh, no, no. This is an elite road to leave us alone. We've got to pray some more. Well, they didn't say that, but Peter's fumbling around in the jail wondering, is this really a vision? He comes to the door. Rhoda's trying to convince it. You know, these were ordinary people, people like you and me. I love that about this. Sometimes we take people in the Bible and we put them up on a pedestal as if they were, you know, supernatural. Let me tell you who the only supernatural person in this story is. That's Jesus. The rest of these are just ordinary people. They love God. They want to follow God's ways and they pray together. And that is encouraging to me and hopefully encouraging to you that, you know, God can use the prayers of imperfect people. When you're praying, don't think about yourself. Don't think about how unworthy you are, how you're not as good a prayer as so-and-so, how you haven't been as faithful. No, let's focus on God and on who he is and know that God uses the prayers of imperfect people. So here's God's word for us this morning. God's building his church, right? We see it in Acts. God keeps building his church. When God builds his church, what does he do? What does the church do? It prays together corporately and earnestly. A harvest. I want to invite you to be a part of this. I want to invite you to be a part of this corporate and earnest prayers. There are many ways we do it. The most regular, the most tangible expression of our doing it as a body is right now, it's every Sunday morning at 9.30. So we have this service at 10.30. It's a worship service with worship and prayer and preaching of the word, teaching our kids. But church doesn't start at 1030 here. It starts at 930. I want to invite you to make it a part of your commitment to the Lord and commitment to the church. Some of you do this all the time. Some of you do it occasionally. Some of you may have not been a part of it. And I just want to challenge you this morning. I want the word of God to challenge you. that this is the kind of church we want to be. We don't want to wait till our pastor's in jail before we pray like this. I don't want to wait till our pastor's in jail before we pray like this. I'm not planning to go to jail. But in our crazy world, with the religious freedoms being taken away from us, who knows what's going to happen, right? Let's be a church of prayer. And I invite you to make it a part. Come and pray. We pray together also on Thursday mornings, 7.30 to 8. It's online. We do it virtually through Microsoft Teams. It's a great way to start your day off if you're not already committed at work or in the home or wherever you are, to join in and pray. Another great place to pray is with groups. We have a lot of groups that meet at Harvest, men's groups, women's groups, co-ed groups, student groups. We want our groups to be groups of prayer and it's a place you can pray. There are special times that we pray. We do things like the 40 days of prayer and we have special prayer vigils and weeks of prayer and things like that. But again, I just want to ask you to examine your heart today and be open to being a part of a church that prays earnestly. We're all imperfect. We all have room to grow here. but let's do it together. Wilbur Chapman was the pastor of a famous church in Philadelphia, and he went there, and when he got there, this older gentleman walks up to him, and he said, well, you're pretty young to be the pastor of a church like this, but I'm gonna pray for you. I'm gonna pray that God will help you. We've always had older pastors than you, but I'm going to pray that you will succeed." And Chapman thinks, he's probably not too impressed with this first meeting with this guy, but he says, and I also have got a couple others that are going to join me. So Chapman thinks, well, it's good. A couple people are going to be praying. Listen to how he describes it from there. He says, The three prayers became 10 and the 10 became 20 and the 20 became 50 and the 50 became 200 who knelt before every service to pray that the Holy Spirit might come on me. In another room, the 18 elders knelt so close around me to pray that I could put out my hand and touch them on all sides. I always went into my pulpit feeling that I would have the anointing in answer to the prayers of the 219 men. It was easy to preach a real joy. Anybody could preach with such conditions. And what was the result? We received 1,100 people into our church by conversion in three years. It was the fruit of the Holy Spirit and answer to the prayers of those men. Church members have much more to do than to go to church as curious idle spectators to be amused and entertained. It is their business to pray mightily that the Holy Ghost will clothe the preacher with power and make his words like dynamite. Let's see what God can do, church. Because when God builds his church, it prays together corporately, and earnestly. We buy your heads with me, please. That's the one application. Pray together earnestly. Pray together earnestly. That's how God builds his church. And that's our desire that he would build this church in that way. Thanks again for joining us today from Harvest Community Church. This podcast is also available on our website HarvestCharlotte.com. Please go there if you want to send a question or comment, learn more about our ministries, or find out how you can donate to support the podcast.