Written ~ 06-18-2024
Read Acts Chapter Twelve
Acts 12
In chapter twelve we have a different king – King Herod Agrippa… he was the nephew to Herod Antipas and grandson to Herod the Great.
Herod the Great was ruling during the time of Christ’s birth. In Matthew chapter two it’s this Herod that the Wise Men went to in search of the new King – the King of the Jews – Jesus. This is the Herod that commanded all baby boys age two and under be killed, this brutal command is what caused Joseph and Mary to leave Bethlehem and escape to Egypt.
Herod Antipas was the ruler in Galilee, he was the king who arrested, imprisoned and later beheaded John the Baptist. That account can be found in Matthew 14:1-12.
Now we have King Herod Agrippa – he is just as evil and brutal as those who came before him.
Acts 12:1…
“About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church.”
Herod Agrippa’s reign was 41-44 A.D., it’s hard to know if he knew who Jesus was personally. But he seemed to enjoy persecuting Jesus’ followers, as did his predecessors .
We see in Acts 12:2 that James (the brother of John) was killed by a sword. Then in verse 12:3, Peter is arrested. Herod did this because he saw that it pleased the Jewish people. Herod decided to arrest Peter during the Passover celebration so his public trial would have to wait until after Passover.
Acts 12:5…
“But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.”
The next event to happen had to be astonishing for everyone involved!
Acts 12:6-8…
6The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. 7Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. 8Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.
In verse 12:5 we read that the church prayed earnestly for Peter. The result of their prayers was a miraculous release from prison. Do you see from this one example how the power of prayer from a group of believers can have a supernatural outcome? Typically – it’s sometimes our nature – not to share with other believers the difficulties we are facing. But when we have a few believers standing firm in the power of prayer over our situations – things can change. Trying to handle things all on our own is not God’s plan! Handling things on our own may not bring the same results – we weren’t meant to “do our Christian walk” all by ourselves.
Peter was part of a thriving church, filled with believers who believed in the power of God. They trusted the power of prayer. Is that why, while Peter was in prison, he was able to sleep? Did he know God’s plans were much grander than his own? Peter was so at peace, he thought he was just having a vision! He didn’t realize that he was actually being led out of prison!
Acts 12:9-11…
9So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening. 10They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.
11Peter finally came to his senses. “It’s really true!” he said. “The Lord has sent His angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me!”
When Peter realized he was standing in the middle of the street outside of the prison gates – what did he do? He acknowledged it was the Lord who came to his rescue.
Can you imagine how overjoyed he would have been as he made his way to Mary’s house? I’m sure he was praising the Lord all the way there.
At the home of Mary we find many people gathered – praying.
Acts 12:12-15…
12When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer. 13He knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it. 14When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!”
15“You’re out of your mind!” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.”
For some reason the scene at Mary’s front door makes me chuckle. Rhoda goes to answer he door and in her shock and complete surprise there stands Peter! Instead of opening the door, she runs back to tell everyone that Peter was at the door. Everyone was in denial. It couldn’t possibly be Peter!
I wonder if Peter got a little more of a sense of how Jesus must have felt when nobody believed He was alive.
Acts 12:16-17…
16Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed. 17He motioned for them to quiet down and told them how the Lord had led him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers what happened,” he said. And then he went to another place.
When they finally did open the door to find Peter standing there, everyone was amazed and I’m sure they were quite overjoyed.
Can you imagine the looks on everyone’s faces as Peter told them what happened and how he was led out of prison by an angel?! I bet there was a lot of praising and worshipping the Lord that night!
Peter eventually moved on, it doesn’t say in this passage where he was going, but I think he had other believers to meet and tell them the unbelievable answer to their prayers.
It wasn’t until dawn that the prison soldiers realized Peter was gone. They had no explanation to how he escaped.
Acts 12:18-19…
18At dawn there was a great commotion among the soldiers about what had happened to Peter. 19Herod Agrippa ordered a thorough search for him. When he couldn’t be found, Herod interrogated the guards and sentenced them to death. Afterward Herod left Judea to stay in Caesarea for a while.
Knowing the brutality of Herod Agrippa, I’m sure every soldier responsible for Peter’s imprisonment feared for their lives. When Peter couldn’t be found, we see Herod’s punishment – death to them all.
The last we see of Herod Agrippa is while he is visiting Caesarea, it tells us in verse 12:20 that he is angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. The people of Tyre and Sidon wanted to remain in favor with the King since their food supply came from him.
Acts 12:20-22…
20Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. So they sent a delegation to make peace with him because their cities were dependent upon Herod’s country for food. The delegates won the support of Blastus, Herod’s personal assistant, 21and an appointment with Herod was granted. When the day arrived, Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne, and made a speech to them. 22The people gave him a great ovation, shouting, “It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!”
In verse 12:22 we see the admiration poured out on King Herod – and we can also see that it went straight to his head as he welcomed the praising and worshipping – as if he were God himself. Since Herod did not give any of the glory to God, sickness fell upon him, he was painfully consumed by intestinal worms and died (Acts 12:22-23). For an evil man – death by worms seems appropriate, right?
Whew… anyway…
I love the way Acts Chapter Twelve ends…
Acts 12:24…
24Meanwhile, the word of God continued to spread, and there were many new believers.
The spreading of the Gospel continued and many more came to Christ. Even through persecution and imprisonment the Word of God would not be stopped!
In this chapter we see an evil ruler hell bent on destroying the church. We see the brutal acts of murder and imprisonment as a means to stunt the growth of the church.
But… what we also see is a group of believers coming together in prayer and trusting in the Lord above all. We see answer to prayer. And we see the Gospel Message continuing stronger than ever.
So, no matter what we face in our day to day – prayer and trust in the Lord is what will get us through! Giving the Lord all the praise, honor and worship will bring joy to our hearts like nothing else can!
My prayer is that each of us would have a core group of believers to share our trials and troubles with and bring them to the Lord in prayer – together in agreement – then… we can watch as the Almighty God moves.
~AMEN~