Text today is Acts 12 verses 1 through 19. It is on page 1102 of the Bibles in the seats. So the last time that we were in Acts, A couple weeks ago now, we read about the rapid church growth that had started in Antioch. There was a widespread conversion of the Gentiles. And this week we see more persecution against the Christians. It's centered in Jerusalem again. And then we also see another rescue, a dramatic rescue by God from prison. And again, it involves Peter, who is no longer covered in the book of Acts after this incident. So this is sort of our closing chapter on Peter and his ministry. So we're gonna read the first 19 verses of chapter 12, or sorry, chapter, yes, chapter 12, what am I saying? Starting at verse one. Now about that time, Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. And he had James, the brother of John, put to death with a sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of unleavened bread when he seized him, put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with chains, two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the person. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell and he struck Peter's side and woke him saying, get up quickly. And his chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, gird 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 continued to follow. And he did not know what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When he had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself. And they went out and went along one street and immediately the angel departed from him. When Peter came to himself, he said, now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter's voice, because of her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. They said to her, you are out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, it is his angel. But Peter continued knocking. And when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said, report these things to James and the brethren. And he left and went to another place. Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. When Herod had searched for him and not found him, He examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there. Let's pray. Father, we plead with you now for a renewal of our hearts and our minds by the Spirit's power through time spent meditating on your word. Bestow on us now the true eyes of faith to be encouraged into faithfulness, and by your faithfulness, and further bestow on us vigorous faith to serve you in faithfulness. Bless now your preached word. Make us receptive to the truth found in these scriptures. Bless our gathering with your presence. May it be glorifying to you, faithful to the text, and helpful for your people. Please send your spirit to work in us now. We ask this all in Jesus' name, amen. This chapter is a sort of conclusion to the early era of the church that Luke covers in Acts, about the first decade or so. Once we get into chapter 13 in a couple weeks, the narrative entirely focuses on Paul and his missionary work. Time-wise, we are still about a decade out from Pentecost, most likely, we think, give or take a year, most likely. We have some concrete indicators regarding where we are historically, because of the mention of Herod here, that really gives us placement. He was in power elsewhere prior to this, like outside of Jerusalem and Judea, but he wasn't given control of Judea by Rome until the early 40s. So this passage probably took place around 42, 43 AD, most likely. Remember now, there were many Herods, there were seven at least, depending on how you count them. Six of them are mentioned in scripture, five of them are interacted with in some measure more heavily. And I say that just to mention it, because I've told you this story, but I've interacted with some very arrogant atheists and they tried to argue against the accuracy of the Bible because they said Herod died when Jesus was a youth in Egypt, and then how are we reading about Herod again well after Christ's death? I had a really hard time not mocking them for their lack of basic historical knowledge when I corrected their misunderstanding. That's sort of like saying, well, how can Caesar still be there if Caesar died earlier? And how's there another Caesar? Because there's a lot of Caesars, that's how. And there's a lot of Herods. So there was a whole Herodian dynasty. So Herod the Great is the one who sought to have Christ killed in Bethlehem after his birth. And then Herod Antipas was the one involved in the death of John the Baptist and Jesus, both. But the Herod mentioned here is Herod Agrippa I, who was the grandson of Herod the Great. There was also Herod Agrippa II, who we're going to read about in Acts 25 and 26. That's the one that Paul testifies before. But again, the Herod in Acts 12 is Herod Agrippa I. He has an interesting history. He was kind of buddy-buddy with the Roman emperors, even before they were in power. They were raised together in Rome, so he knew them from his youth. And then those friendships that he had in his youth eventually became political connections, which led to him being made king over the Jews. Ethnically, he was both Itamian, that's basically an Edomite, a descendant of Esau, but he was also Jewish, so he was a mix of Itamian and Jewish, and he was pretty popular amongst the Jews. He would pretend to practice the faith when he was in public in Jerusalem. He would attend the temple frequently. He was pro-Pharisee. He was known for those sorts of things, but outside of that, he lived like the reprobate that he was. All the Herods were pretty wicked, and he was no different. Now don't confuse his authority though with the kind of authority that we've seen from the Sanhedrin, that they had. His authority is different. His power was political, it was backed by Rome because of those connections that he had. So it wasn't some just religious ethnic power over the people, like the Sanhedrin. So unlike the Sanhedrin, unlike the temple authorities, he did indeed have the power to kill. You know, we've seen the Sanhedrin arrest and put them in prison and seek to kill people, but they didn't really necessarily have the authority to do that. Herod does. Herod's got the authority to kill, and that's what we see in the introduction to this chapter. He had arrested and he planned to beat or kill some from the church in Jerusalem. And he even went so far as to have the Apostle James, that is the brother of John, put to death by a sword, which probably means, just like John the Baptist, he was beheaded, most likely. This news of James's death is surprisingly brief from Luke. He almost just drops it in. It feels too casual, not criticizing it, just, you know, he doesn't give any additional details about it. It's just like, oh, and James was killed. But this would have been a blow to the church. James was the first apostolic martyr, meaning he was the first of the actual 12 apostles to be killed, probably the most significant death since Jesus. Remember that Peter, James, and John were sort of Christ's inner circle. He was closer with those three than any of the others. And many also see this as a fulfillment of Christ's prophecy that we read in Mark 10.43. James and John, remember, came and they asked to sit at the sides of Christ when he comes in his glory. And Jesus said to them, you do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink of this cup to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized? And they claim, yes, we are able, and then Jesus says, the cup that I drink, you shall drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. And many see that as speaking about his death, his martyrdom. So they claim this prediction was of the persecution and the martyrdom that they were gonna experience as apostles. But the more significant point to Luke bringing this up is to explain the rest of what happens after this. He kind of sets the stage with the persecution, the very deliberate persecution and the murder of James. But what he's setting up is what happens with Peter. Because once Herod saw how much this persecution of the church pleased the Jews, then he thought, well, why not more of the same? They like it when I kill James. They're really going to love it when they see me kill Peter. So he had Peter arrested, and he planned to have him killed after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He's not gonna do that during one of their feasts. That would have been not well-received by the Jews, but he plans, like, after this feast is over, this seven days, he's gonna bring Peter out and have him killed. And we can see that Herod realized Peter is a somewhat high-profile prisoner because he assigns four squads to guard him. A squad was four soldiers, so Peter had 16 soldiers in total that would have done rotations watching him through the four watches of the night. He had two guards chained to him at all times, one on each side. And that does seem a bit excessive, right? A guard chained on each side of him and then the rest of the guards standing outside the doors seems a bit excessive, yet still ultimately futile. But it's likely that Herod had heard how these Christians had a knack for inexplicably escaping prisons. Because this has happened. If you remember back in the incident in Acts 5, an angel released Peter and John, and the temple authorities had no idea how that happened. And they just wake up and he's gone, and they don't know how that happened at all. And well, history's about to repeat itself. The point of these details, though, is that he was heavily guarded. He's setting up the scene of how heavily guarded he was. And given that the Apostle James was just killed, it was looking likely that the church was about to lose the apostle Peter as well. As we might expect, the church was fervent in prayer for him while this is going on, while they awaited his upcoming trial and potential execution, either praying for his release, some turnout, maybe his rescue from prison, his endurance in the face of death, all of these things. Losing both James and Peter in such a short time span would have been heartbreaking for the church, And they were seemingly praying even through the night. And Luke tells us all of this came down, this whole thing, this whole scene, all came down to the very night before Herod was planning to execute his plan. So they were literally just hours away. We don't know what hour of the night that it was, but we know Peter was sound asleep, with two guards at the door, or at least maybe even all of the other 14 guards at the door, and then one on both his right and on his left, chained on each side. But then the cell in which he's being kept lights up, and an angel struck him to wake him up. And this is interesting, because that word strike that is used here, it implies A decent amount of force, actually. You know, it's the kind of strike that you would receive in a fight. If they're talking about a battle, it's striking. In fact, it's the word that's used in the Septuagint, where Moses struck and killed the Egyptian. It's the same word. So, this seems to have not been really a gentle nudge by the angel. The angel didn't, you know, just shake him awake. which tells us that Peter was probably sleeping pretty deeply, sleeping pretty hard. The light in the room didn't even wake him up initially, and even after this angelic strike, he seems pretty groggy, not even knowing if he's dreaming a vision or if this is real life. He's kind of in this state of confusion. He's sleeping oddly peacefully, given his situation. Because he's likely going to die the next day. Unless something happens, he's going to die within a few hours. This arrest was different from the arrest of the Sanhedrin. They had to do this political maneuvering and they had to stir up a mob in order to put someone to death. But Herod, as shown, he can just do it. And that's what he was planning to do. That's what he would do. We know that for a fact, too, because in verse 19, after those guards wake up and he's gone, and they can't figure it out, and they're questioned about Peter's disappearance, and they can't explain it, they're led away to execution. So they're put to death. The Roman practice was that if a guard lost his prisoner, then that guard would be punished with the same sentence that their prisoner would have faced, which means those prisoners were executed because that's what Peter was going to have. He was going to be executed. So they got what Peter was going to get. Yet, here he is sleeping like a baby, really, on the eve of his expected martyrdom. This, I think, shows the blessing of God. This is supernatural peace. This only comes from serving a sovereign God. It is the peace that we read of from David in Psalm 4, where he said, tremble and do not sin. Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord. Then later he says, in peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety. It's the peace and the fearlessness that God encouraged Israel with through his prophet Isaiah. In chapter 41, he said, do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Indefatigable peace is one of the great blessings of knowing Christ. Peter is at peace because he knows Christ. Having our sins atoned for by Christ's blood and his righteousness imputed to us through faith means that we will necessarily be at peace with the creator God of the universe and death doesn't scare us. Yes, we know it's gonna hurt, most likely. However we die, most likely it'll hurt. But we're not scared of the judgment that comes after death. We're not scared of what happens after this. We know the eschatology of the world, what he's doing with the world, who we will face. We know who he is. He's not an unknown God. We know how to be at peace with him. So no hardship that we face, no suffering that we experience is a punishment from him. We're at peace with him. He's not punishing us with these things. And even in the face of great danger from enemies of Jesus, we can sleep soundly knowing that nothing that they do is outside of his control. Now you'll hear this again next week, but Psalm 37, the wicked plot against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him for he sees his day coming. And we hear the same thing in Psalm 2. The wicked gather against the Lord's anointed and he laughs at them. He laughs at their attempts to thwart his plans. Now we don't have wicked kings or false religions trying to kill us, but we can apply these same principles against natural evil, against all hardship and all suffering. The same principle applies. The same peace applies even in the midst of a potential cancer diagnosis. The same peace applies in the face of the death of a loved one or the loss of all our earthly possessions. Peace is not a promise that we won't suffer or die. That's not what this peace is. Peace is a promise that our eternal hope is secure. And God is working all things together for good for those that love him. That's why we're at peace. And that is for all of us who are trusting in Christ for our salvation. Let Peter's peace in the face of death be a reminder to all of us today to enjoy The peace that Christ has won for us, even when our lives do get difficult. I know there's a ton of people in here and watching online that are facing difficulties right now. Some more serious than others. Let Peter's peace be a reminder that you can be at peace. You can sleep soundly. Now, the unwritten part of this rescue from prison is the way that the guards were supernaturally kept from seeing what was happening, right? Peter stands up, his chains fall right off, there's dialogue, there's light, they're speaking, everything's out loud. I don't know how they didn't wake up from the clanking of the chains. Obviously, they're supernaturally, miraculously, you know, put to sleep and kept in a deep sleep so that they're not even aware of what's going on. We know at the end they have no idea whatsoever what happened, so don't miss that part of the miracle. It's not just the angel showing up and things just falling off of Peter and gates opening, right? These guards are kept asleep. And like I said, Peter wasn't even sure if this was real. He's pretty groggy. The angel has to direct him to do pretty much everything. He says, get up quickly. And so Peter does. And he tells him, gird up yourself and put on your sandals. Finally, the angel says, wrap your cloak around you and follow me, it is somewhat of a comedic scene. You kind of imagine Peter like does one and he's just standing there like, all right, and now what's happening? And he's like, well, put on your shoes too, let's go. I sort of have a picture of a parent that's rushing to wake up their child, it's late for school and the kid doesn't, hasn't had time to really wake up and the parent has to tell him like every detail, they're like, put on your pants, put on your socks, put on your shoes, grab your backpack, let's go, get in the car, let's, you know, each detail and the kid's like, okay, okay, okay, like led through it. If Peter's only having a vision, right, there's no need for him to do those physical things. If he thinks he's having a vision, he's like, well, I don't have to put on my sandals for a vision. But this is really happening, right? It was real. And the angel led him right past all those guards that are standing there. He leads him to the gate. The gate just opens by itself. And then he leads him into the city. And then all of a sudden, he's just left there all alone. where he can finally get his bearings and he realizes what just happened. He literally just walked right out of that prison and passed all the guards. And he says to himself in verse 11, now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all the Jewish people were expecting. Because the Jews were expecting, oh, he's got Peter. Herod's got Peter. He's going to put him to death just like he did James. They're expecting it. They're wanting it. And then Peter just walks away from it. And he's standing there in the street by himself. Again, it is somewhat of a funny scene. The rulers of this earth and the mighty Roman Empire that had him locked up, they try to lock up this fisherman with four squadrons, four squads. And he simply stumbles out of the prison, confused himself at what's even happening. And the Lord just sits on his throne and he laughs at their attempts to stop him. He scoffs as the people plot in vain and the kings of the earth take a stand against his anointed. The Lord is laughing at this sort of thing. And I would say too, the humor in this story isn't done either. There's a good amount of humor in it. Peter realizes what happened. He decides to go tell the church, of course. It's not unexpected. He needs somewhere to go anyway, right? He can't just walk around and get himself recaptured. He knew the church met at the house of Mark's mother, so he goes to meet them there where they were fervently praying, which you would expect on the night before a martyrdom like this. He gets to the gate, he knocks on it, and he's answered by this young servant girl named Rhoda. Rhoda recognizes Peter's voice and is so overcome with joy that she, Sort of makes a ditzy move and she runs in and she tells the church without even letting him in. She leaves him at the gate and she runs in and tells the church. This again adds more humor to the story because it is of course sort of silly. Ironically, Peter had a harder time getting into the prayer meeting than he had getting out of the prison. There's irony there. But these are the sort of silly things that happen in real life. This is a real life story. The genuine humanity of this story stands out because of the clumsiness there. Because of a servant girl. that's close enough and familiar enough with Peter that she recognizes just his voice. She probably couldn't even see through the thing at the gate. She just calls out, hears Peter's voice, and just runs away. And he's just like, well, wait. All right. There's beauty in even that, that this servant girl knows the apostle Peter. And then poor Rhoda, she gets immortalized for all time for leaving him. out in the street, which would have been kind of dangerous, right? He risked being recaptured. If it weren't for the fact that God himself was sovereign over this whole situation, he would have risked being recaptured. You have to wonder, too, how Rhoda would have felt about Luke including that detail about her. Did she ever like run into him and jokingly tease him like, hey, Luke, thanks for telling everybody that I forgot to open the gate and making sure that you put my name in there, you know, reminding everyone that it was Rhoda that left the Apostle Peter out in the street. Honestly, I think it's really sweet. It really is. I think inadvertently doing something silly like that because you're so overcome with joy, that's praiseworthy. I think it shows a sincere joy and a deep faith in Rhoda. You know, she didn't even see him. She just heard his voice and knew immediately. She knew who it was. She knew that he had been rescued. She's got to go tell everybody, right? And not even the rest of the church was quick to believe like she was. They weren't that quick to believe that their prayers had been answered so immediately and so undeniably. It was like probably the top tier prayer, like, Lord, this is the best thing, best scenario is you bring him out. You save him. But if he's going to be put to death like James, make him strong. Encourage him through this. But their best prayer, the thing that they wanted to happen the most, happened. And Lorda tells them that. In fact, they push back a little bit, perhaps trying not to get their hopes up. They say, you're crazy, Rhoda. It's got to be his angel. It's just his angel. And that is a bit of an odd comment. It is his angel. Apparently, there is this lingering Jewish superstition that each person sort of has a guardian angel of sorts. Guardian angels were like a modern term that we would say, but something along those lines. And then this angel could assume that person's form. Mary very well may do so when a person dies, like the angel assumes the person, maybe they thought, well, Peter was killed in the prison overnight, and now his angel's there to encourage us. I don't know. I don't know what they're really thinking. But nevertheless. After Peter's repeated knocking, he's still out there just kind of banging on the door. They finally come, they let him in, and there's this scene of chaotic joy and amazement. And you can imagine how this would have went, right? Dozens of people all crowding him, trying to hug him, trying to greet him, asking him what happened, praising God for the answer to their prayers. And remember, this was late at night, very middle of the night, probably possibly even very early morning. So they would have been, Easily heard. There would have been some risk there of like, hey, calm down, calm down. We don't need everybody knowing there's something going on. So calm down. So Peter motions to them all, like, he calms them down, quiets them down, and then he recounts to them the events of the night. The obvious lesson to us again is that of the power of prayer, the power of a praying church. It is the discipline that we all wish that we were better at, I'm sure. I've never met someone that's like, nah, my discipline of prayer is pretty solid. Now that doesn't mean those people don't exist, they're probably just not willing to admit it, but the vast majority of us, the vast majority of us, who does not wish for greater discipline in prayer? You know, it is the discipline that serves as the means to protect and to grow and to heal and to strengthen congregations of Christ. It serves that purpose in this church. We know what prayer can do too, because we have seen our prayers at times be answered in amazing ways, in amazingly specific ways. We've all experienced this throughout life. Saw a great quote from the Puritan Thomas Watson. He said, the angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel. And we can think in these same terms. It will be grace that keeps our families together, but it will be prayer that fetches that grace. It will be God's mercy that gets all these Grace Chapel kids saved, but it will be prayer that fetches that mercy. It'll be God's faithfulness that keeps the lampstand of this church burning bright, but it will be prayer that fetches that faithfulness. And we don't cause God's grace and God's mercy and God's faithfulness by our prayers, of course not, but it comes to us by way of prayer. And we can never, never ever have too high of a regard for prayer. or say too many prayers, or spend too much time in prayer. And even as I say that, and I truly believe it, I say that with true conviction, I know that I will neglect it this week because I'm lazy, and I get distracted, and I get tired, and I get frustrated, and I can't shut off my mind. Lord, forgive us for our failure to pray as we ought. Forgive us for not letting texts like this keep us on our knees more regularly. The humor in this story is joyful indeed. I really do enjoy it, but the inherent call to pray as a church is the other blessing that we need to keep in mind, that is ours to enjoy as well. That first blessing of peace that we see in Peter and this blessing of prayer that we see by the church. Both of those are ours in Christ and we get to enjoy them now. Now lastly, Peter tells the church, report everything that happened to James and to the other brethren. And this is obviously James the brother of Jesus, this is James the just. Not either of the two apostles names James, remember there's James the brother of John and there's James the son of Alphaeus. So there's two apostle James and then there's James the just. There's a lot of James. James the brother of Jesus, James the just. He did not initially believe that his own brother was the Christ. Not too unexpected. But Jesus appeared to him personally after the resurrection. So it tells us Jesus appeared to James and then to Peter and the rest of the apostles. And James was genuinely converted. As we will see later in Acts, James had become a prominent leader in the Jerusalem church. He's the one that authored the epistle to James. Paul called him, along with Peter and John, a pillar of the church in Galatians 2. So James is a significant figure, even though he was not one of the original 12 apostles. So Peter wants this report about this rescue given to the church leadership. And he instructs the church that's there praying for him to go tell them. And then Luke gives us a deliberately ambiguous comment about Peter's future. He just says, he went away to another place. And that's basically almost the last that we hear from Peter. Now sometimes when the New Testament writers are intentionally not specific, it's to protect an individual or a place. When they just say, well, there's this person that did this, they know who it is, but they don't say who it is because that person's probably still alive and probably would have faced consequences from authorities if that information got out. And they'll do this with locations too. So for example, He might have said he just went away to another place because he might not want the king, like Herod, to go find out info about Peter's whereabouts and then go take vengeance on the church for sheltering him there. Right? Remember the barbaric actions of Herod the Great, who had all the young boys of Bethlehem butchered in a futile attempt to kill Jesus. He goes and just butchers everyone to and under. He doesn't need any more detail than that. That's the kind of men that these Herods were. So maybe he's kind of protecting wherever Peter went so that Herod doesn't send squadrons of soldiers out there, legions of soldiers, just to start killing Christians. So it's quite possible that is why he just says, he went away to a different place. Like, okay. It's possible that Peter went up to Antioch, because we know from Galatians 2 that he came there while Paul and Barnabas were there ministering. And we know that Paul and Barnabas were there at this time. So that's possible. But from here on out, we don't really hear any more about Peter in Acts. Outside of this brief appearance in Acts 15 at the Jerusalem council. So he seemed to have traveled back in Jerusalem on occasion, probably covertly. He probably had to do this to lay low to prevent his capture and execution. Perhaps he spent the bulk of his time after this out planting and strengthening churches. That seems to be the case most likely. I think a lot of the apostles did this sort of work and they set up elders in the churches and then they themselves went out testifying about what they had seen firsthand as eyewitnesses and then went to the churches and they wrote and that sort of thing. So that's sort of the role that the apostles go into, they don't just stay put in Jerusalem as church leaders and become a hierarchy, it's not like that. So we're gonna cover the events that immediately followed this story next week, Lord willing, and today we're just gonna close with these final thoughts. Like I mentioned, Peter, James, and John, those were the three disciples closest to Jesus. The chapter starts by telling us of the death of one of those three, James. And then the near death, but the miraculous rescue of another one, Peter. And it is hard not to wonder why one but not the other. Jesus rescues his people sometimes and he allows them to be martyred sometimes. Why one but not the other? Peter was ultimately spared this time and James is not. Why did God allow James to be killed, but then prevent the same fate for Peter? Very deliberately, very miraculously. He could have rescued both, obviously. And we can raise those questions, but of course we do not have answers to questions that specific about the secret sovereign will of God. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. But we do see that everyone, even the apostles, are replaceable. They're replaceable men because they aren't the figure that's doing it. Now they're doing it, but they're not the power behind it. It's the Spirit of God that Christ has sent into the world to do this work through us. And God can do whatever he wants with whoever he wants. He can raise up new men, and we know that he does. James is a great example of that. James the just. The apostles get killed and there's this believer that could have been with Jesus his whole life because he literally knew him his whole life, but he's not because he disbelieves, but he raises him up and he does great things with James. No one's gonna live forever in this age. The timing of the deaths of James and Peter are not in a historical formula that we can really decipher. Well, Jesus is doing this with Peter and doing this with James, and this is why. There's nothing there that we can figure out. We don't know. Was God with one but not the other? Did he love one more than the other? Of course not. We can't let these sorts of questions rattle our understanding of God when we read these stories. We trust him and know what he's doing. We can't let them rattle our understanding. Or, here's where it matters practically, we can't let these sorts of questions rattle our understanding of God when similar things happen to us here and now. These questions of why God? Why me? Why this suffering? Why this hardship? That sort of thing cannot rattle our understanding of who God is. We don't worship God because of the good things that happen and because we're protected from every bad thing that could happen on this earth. Our circumstances, our sufferings and our successes, whichever one that we experience, are not a reflection of how much God loves us or how much he is with us. To the point where you say, well, because a bad thing happened, God loves me less. And a good thing happened to this person, he must love him more. He's with that person and not with me. That's not how we evaluate things. Our peace and our joy, and our access to Him through prayer, those are objective realities because He loves us and because He is with us, and we can know that and experience that. We stay at peace with Him in the midst of suffering because He loves us and because He is with us, and that is an objective reality. Our access in prayer doesn't go away because the work of Christ doesn't go away. He's opened the door and we can do it. Our joy is in the Lord. God is always faithful. God is always love. God is always with his people. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. For however long we are here, however long we are here, in the midst of whatever our lives are like, we worship and we serve. For in prison, for rescued, for put to death, If we die of disease, if our house burns down, if we're fired from our job, we worship and we serve. We proclaim the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we bask in those continuous blessings like unwavering peace and the joy of the Lord and the privilege of prayer. We experience joy like Rhoda. that makes us lose our senses, and the amazement, like the early church when Peter walked through those doors and they're amazed, and we see prayers answered and we're amazed. We dwell on the mercy of the Father, the sacrifice of the Son, and the gift of the Spirit, because we are chosen children of God. He loved us in Christ before the foundations of the world. Let this be our joy this Lord's day, as it will be for eternity. Amen, amen. Let's pray. Lord, we come to you now to exercise the tremendous privilege of prayer like we saw the church do in the text today. It may sound funny, but we pray that we might be more fervent in prayer. We pray for prayer. for greater discipline in it and a greater appreciation of it. Use this church to spread your gospel. Send us like angels to rescue those who are perishing, to care for the dying, to give good news to those who are heading for destruction. Grant us a supernatural peace and unity in our congregation so that we are undeterred from our mission of service by any of the sins that we bring into this assembly. Protect us as a church and maintain our lampstand. It will not be our faithfulness, but your faithfulness that keeps us serving you. In answer to our prayers, we beg you for the salvation of our lost loved ones, for any of the children here that don't believe, Any of our friends and family that do not believe, we beg you for their salvation. Save some of the Muslims that our men interacted with yesterday. Save our unbelieving brothers and sisters and sons and daughters. flood our church with your servants that are eager to love you and love their neighbors, grant us peace in our trials, grant us joy in our blessings, and grant us grace to keep our hand to the plow. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the rescuer of men. Amen.