So today we will be studying from the book of Acts chapter 12 verses 1 through 17. And with this passage, we are closing this mini-series that we were doing on the topic of prayer. I hope with these three sermons on prayers, and as we continue on the following two weeks, still hearing from the scripture reading about prayer, is that we will grow in our understanding of how we pray and what we pray for and that will grow our way to pray for those that are serving in God's kingdom as well. So let us read together from the book of Acts, chapter 12, verses one through 17, which you can find printed in your bulletins. This is the word of God. About that time, Herod, the king, laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. And when he saw that he pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the Days of the Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him and put him in prison, deliver 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. 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 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. When Peter came to himself, he said, now I'm sure that the Lord has sent his angel to rescue 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. Recognizing Peter's voice in 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, he's angel. But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hands 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. Then he departed and went to another place. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that in your word you give us examples of how you are at work in your church and through the members of your church and how we are as members of your church. participants on this grace. We thank you, Lord, that you have given us the Holy Spirit, that as we come to this passage, we are coming knowing our own strength and understanding, but with the understanding that you are the one who give us faith to trust in your word. We pray, Lord, that what we have read today and as we consider these verses will help us, Lord, to magnify your glory, to see how wonderful you are. And also we pray, Lord, that you will help us as we see how the church pray for Peter, how we should also pray for those that labor in your kingdom. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen. One of the characteristics of the evangelical church of our time, or the things that you have learned and we have learned through the church of our time, is that prayer is something that is very individualistic. That prayer is something about us coming to God and bringing to him our personal and individual needs. And this is truly welcoming God's word. God encouraged us to bring to him our needs, our petitions, to pray for our daily bread, to pray for those who are sick, to praise for those who are mourning, to pray for those who are going through difficult times, to pray for our loved ones. All this is true. God welcomes our prayers. But also, it is true that prayer has a bigger role in the buildup of God's kingdom. And sometimes, what is missed is that part. I mean, it is easier for us to pray for something that we need. We just go through difficulties, we go through trials, and our hearts are moved to prayer. Every time we go through difficulties, we pray more, and we pray that God will rescue us from those challenges or difficult times that we have. And when we see some people that we love and we care about going through difficult times as well, we are moved to pray, that's natural of the Christian. But not so much to pray for people that we are not in contact with, people that we don't probably know. And that's what we saw last week. We saw that Paul was encouraging us and exhorting us to pray for all people. and particularly to pray that all people will be saved and all people will come. to the knowledge of the truth. Maybe you review your prayer life and you might realize that that's not in your prayer list, that's not something that you are constantly praying, that you pray for the people of your neighborhood, the people of your city, the people of your country, and the people of the nations, that they will come to faith in Christ and understand the truth of the gospel. Maybe that's not what we often pray, but we are exhorted and encouraged by God's word. We studied together last week on 1 Timothy chapter 2 that we should pray that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. But there is also another important prayer that takes, is an important part of our mission as the church is that we pray for those that are laboring, for those that are serving God in his kingdom. those that serve God in His kingdom here in Philadelphia, and those that serve God in His kingdom around the world. And that's what we see here in this test. We might say that, well, these were brothers and sisters of Peter. that they knew Peter very well, they love him, that's true. But this also sets for us an example that we should pray for those that are serving, again, here, and we should try to get to know more about those that are serving overseas, especially those that are part of our global partners, that we will be able to pray effectively for them because they also go through challenging times, as we see in this test. So there are four agents that we see that play a role in what we see in this passage. These are the enemies of the kingdom of God, the laborers of the kingdom of God, the members of the kingdom of God, and the law of the kingdom. These are four characters that play an important role in this dynamic of prayer. And maybe you have studied this test before, maybe you have gone through a Bible study and you may have focused in the wonderful part that we see God rescuing Peter. But we miss that God is using something very important here in this rescue mission. So let us first of all then look at the enemies of the kingdom of God. Luke tell us about this Herod, the king who laid violent hands on some who belong to the church. This is Herod Agrippa. He was the grandson of Herod the Great. And as we know, Herod the Great was the one who wanted to kill all these little ones in order to find Jesus. But he also was the nephew of Herod Antipas, who was the one who tried our Lord Jesus Christ. You can see that you might think that probably Herod Agrippa, Herod the Great, and Herod Antipas got together and planned an attack against the kingdom of God. But it happens that each one of them individually came up with their own plan against God's kingdom. then we will say that is not a chance that just happened. It was that the one who was behind always against the kingdom of God was Satan, who was using people like them with different motive, different intentions in order to attack the kingdom of God. Now what do we know, what can we learn about Harold Agrippa from these verses? I think that he was the perfect corrupt politician. You see that from the fact that his desire was to please the Jews in order to keep the peace in the city. Think about what he says here. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword, and when he saw that he pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter. His desire was not moved by his principles, like he wanted to preserve a doctrinal understanding that he has that these Christians were bad, but his desire was to please the Jews. And why did he want to please the Jews? Because he didn't want to have problems in the city. He wanted to keep what was understood as the Roman peace in the city. That's why Carrot was motivated by preserving his own position. He was motivated by his own self-interest. Now what we see about him is also that he arrested Peter and he delivered him into, we could say, a maximum security prison. He had four soldiers, one to his right hand, chain to his right hand, and another one to the left hand, and two soldiers outside the prison, just making sure that Peter would not escape. Think about the kind of prisoner you will put in that circumstance. You will think it's somebody who is a killer, or a serial killer, or somebody who have done very terrible crimes. But the only thing that Peter was doing was preaching and sharing the gospel. The challenge is that the message of Christ was turning the world upside down and that was becoming a real problem for authorities. But at the same time what we see here is that the enemy saw the real enemy of the kingdom of God so that Peter represented a real challenge for his kingdom. He was motivated to stop his kingdom God's kingdom at all cost. Therefore, we could say that maybe Herod thought that somebody might come and help Peter to get out. After all, Peter has been rescued in two occasions before this. But we might say that it's actually the enemy of the kingdom of God who was after God's kingdom in order to stop God's kingdom, who was planting these ideas in Herod's mind so he would make sure that Peter would not escape. On the other hand, I believe that God will allow this to happen as well. So this miracle will be a magnificent miracle. It was not just that Peter escaped from a little prison with one soldier. It was that all these circumstances would demonstrate that there was no way that somebody could say, Well, Peter was just a good planning an escape of this prison. It was a real intervention from God and that is described by the circumstances in which Peter was. Now these are the enemies of the kingdom of God. The enemies of the kingdom of God are always against the kingdom of God. And it happened at that time in the early church. It happened when Christ came with the message of the gospel to the nations, but it continued to happen throughout the history of the church until today. The enemy, the real enemy of the kingdom of God will use people against God's people and against the kingdom of God because the kingdom of God is taking over. Now we have the laborers of the kingdom of God. Herod the king had laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church, and one of them happened to be James, the brother of John. James, John, and Peter were the head of the church in Jerusalem. Think about how terrible this was for the brothers and sisters in the church of Jerusalem. They saw that one of their pastors One of the pastors that preached the gospel to them, that loved them, that cared for them, was arrested and was killed. Luke tell us that very quickly, like in passing just says that James was killed, but I think it's important that we picture this situation. Think about that. You are in Jerusalem, and one of your three pastors is arrested, and is killed. How was the church feeling about what just happened? Think about that you were one of the members, how would you be feeling about that one of those who is preaching the gospel to you, who is encouraging you, who is discipling you, and who is exhorting you to go out and continue to proclaim this gospel is just arrested and being killed. Now, who is the second one that we see here? The second one is Peter. Peter is also arrested. Peter is also arrested. Now, what do we know about, or what did Peter know about what would be his future? Peter knew that James was killed, right? Peter knew that James was killed. And he knows that the only reason why he have not been executed is because of what Luke tell us at the end of verse three. This was during the days of the unleavened bread. Herod did not kill Peter right away because it was not a good time to do that execution if he wanted to also be in line with what the Jews thought. That this is not something to do during the unleavened bread days. He also was looking at the reaction of the Jews when he killed James. But Peter for sure knew that his time was coming. His time was coming. Now, what would you do in a situation like that? Think about this. I don't know you, but I have difficulty sometimes sleeping when I'm thinking about something that I have to do during the week, or when I'm concerned or worry about something. I tend to lose my sleep very easily. But what was Peter doing? was sleeping. Peter was sleeping. And Peter is not just sleeping in a bed, but Peter is sleeping between two soldiers, knowing that the following day he will be executed. Would you do that? Will you be able to fall asleep knowing that the following day you will be executed? I think that that says a lot about what Peter was, or in whom Peter was trusting. Not necessarily he knew that he will be released from prison, but he knew that even if he was executed, if James was executed, God was in control. and his eternity, his eternal life was in God's hands. So we are hearing here, or we are seeing here that Luke is presenting to us on the one hand we have the enemies of the kingdom. A man, Herod, who is afraid and concerned what the Jews are thinking about him. And he's just making his political move to please and appease people because he's afraid that he can lose his own kingdom. But on the other hand, we have this man, Peter, who has no power to escape from this prison, who knew that James, his co-worker and partner in the gospel, was executed, being able to sleep. Maybe Harold wasn't sleeping well, Because he was concerned what would happen if the Jews are not happy. But Peter was able to sleep well because he knew that he was doing God's work. And that his kingdom was greater than any kingdom of this world. Now we have the third group in this story. You look verse five. So Peter was kept in prison. And there is a but after that. I think that but creates a contrast. The contrast is like if Peter is kept in prison, if James was killed, what do you think the church will be or will have been doing or would naturally do? They will go and hide. They will go and try to preserve their own lives. They will go and be concerned. Now what is going to happen with that? If James, who was with our Lord Jesus, and if also Peter, who was empowered by Jesus, are in this situation, what is going to happen to me, a regular believer? But what were they doing? They were, it says, but earnest prayer, for him, for Peter, was made to God by the church. Instead of going and hiding, we know that they didn't do that because if we go down to verse 12, says that where many, at the end of verse 12 says, okay, so we read the whole verse, says, when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many gathered together and wear prey. So we're not talking about two, three people that were fearless about the circumstance that was happening, but many believers, rather than going and hiding and trying to preserve their identity and maybe like Peter did at some point, I am no one of them, I am no one of them, I am no one of them, they went to this place, which I think that it would be a place that would be already a target for the enemies of the kingdom because the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was the Mark, was probably the place where they used to gather together to pray and to worship God. And what did they do? They went and they were offering to God earnest prayer for him, for Peter. The church was praying for Peter. Now think about for a moment, what could they be praying about? Would they just come once and say, okay, let's offer a prayer for Peter. God, please, We bring before you the life of our pastor Peter, deliver him. Amen. Well, it says that they were praying through the night. They were praying, they were gathered together. He's coming at nighttime. It means that they spend a long time there interceding for Peter. But it means that when they were coming together, they were using God's word, as we saw when we look at 1 Timothy, that they were using God's word to talk about God's goodness, God's greatness, God's power. They were praying also for the authorities. I believe that they were praying for Herod as well. They were praying for the soldiers. They were praying for anyone involved in this attack, but they were also pleading to God that God would deliver Peter from this situation. I think that that sets for us an example in terms of we praying for those that served in God's kingdom. Last week again, we were praying for those who need to hear the gospel. We say we pray for the lost. Why are they lost? Because if they don't know Jesus, they will be lost. We pray that they will come to faith and understand the gospel and be saved. But we are also praying that the Lord of the harbors will send the workers, right? That's part of our prayer. But we know that when the workers and the laborers are sent to the harbors, they will face the enemies of God's kingdom. Therefore we are called to pray that God will empower, protect, help, and encourage those who are proclaiming the word of God. Because the enemies of God's kingdom will not come necessarily saying we are here coming after you. The enemies of God's kingdom or the enemy of God's kingdom will use anything at his hands to stop the progress of the kingdom of God. It is important that we understand that this war or this challenging situation that the early church brothers and sisters were facing is not so different to what a lot of brothers and sisters face around the world, and even us here, because the enemy of the kingdom of God is at work against us. Our war is not against powers and principles, it's against the devil. The church offer earnest prayer for Jesus, for Peter. And what did happen? The Lord of the kingdom, that's the last part. They were praying to God, we see in verse five. And behold, verse seven, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, said, get up quickly, get your clothes, Follow me. He opened the doors. What did happen with the soldiers? We don't know, but we know for sure that God used his angel to get Peter out with his power. Now, I don't know you, but you could ask a question. Did the church pray for James? I believe so. Because somebody might say, well, he was apprehended, captured, and killed right away. The church didn't have time to pray. I believe the church had the time to pray. But in his will, James' death was for God's glory. Peter's deliverance was for God's glory. And eventually, Peter also lost his life serving the kingdom of God. But what is the role of the church? What is our role as the Church of Christ is to pray and trust that God's will is perfect. Is to pray because, again, God has given us these ordinary means of grace, which is opening our mouths and interceding. Interceding for those that don't know Jesus, but interceding also for those that bring the gospel out to those that don't know Jesus. And to trust that in God's will, in his will, he will execute his perfect plan. He will do his will. Again, we are encouraged We are, our prayers are welcome for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our personal prayers are also welcome before God. We are encouraged to pray for our daily bread. But brothers and sisters, our prayers played an important role in the kingdom of God. What are we called to do? Seek the kingdom of God first and his righteousness. May your kingdom come. We just say that word and that's it. May your kingdom come is praying that all people in all places will come to the understanding of the gospel. May your kingdom come is that you get one of those prayer calendars that we have here in the church where we have lifted the names of those who are serving overseas and that you get to know what's happening with them and that you pray for them. Because yes, God is interested in our individual relationship with him, but he has also made us part of his kingdom. And the role that we play as members of his kingdom for those that still don't know God and don't know Jesus, is that we are the aroma of Christ to them, that we spread out the good news, but also that we pray that God will do his will. That God will bring people to himself, and that God will use his laborers, that God will use his servants, the missionaries, to bring the gospel. So my hope brothers and sisters, my hope for myself as well and for you is that we made this an important part of our prayers. That we pray that people will be saved and that we pray that God empower, help and encourage those who are bringing the gospel out. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you established with us the opportunity that we, people like us, sinners, could come to you and pray. And that you use those prayers, Lord, in ways that we don't sometimes even realize. Sometimes we are as surprised as those who saw Peter back, that they thought that Rhoda was crazy. We are surprised that you answer our prayers. Sometimes we don't even Get to know how you answer our prayers as we pray for those that are serving you overseas. And sometimes we have the blessing of hearing about their testimonies, about what you are doing. Help us, Lord, to understand and to trust in you who call us to pray. Help us, Lord, to remember in our prayers Those that still don't know you and those that are serving you, making your name known to the nations. Help us not just to look at this today and turn the page, but be able to incorporate prayers for your kingdom into our daily prayer life. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen.