The Lord be pleased to bless
us together this evening as we consider his word and turn to
the Acts of the Apostles chapter 12 and we'll consider the first
five verses this evening. Just to read them quickly. Now
about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to
vex certain of the church and he killed James the brother of
John with the sword, and because he saw it pleased the Jews, he
proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were the days of unleavened
bread. And when he had apprehended him,
he put him in prison and delivered him to four quarternions of soldiers
to keep him in tending after Easter, to bring him forth to
the people. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was
made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. One thing is very clear as we
go through the Acts of the Apostles is that the true Christian church
and the Christians in that church suffered and had much opposition
and we know that that was spoken about by the Lord himself and
indeed how we know it is so and we can see it in the history
in the Word of God and through our history as a a nation indeed
in the world, how the Christian church is a persecuted church. And we see it here in these verses
we read this evening. And we read now about that time,
Herod. Now that time of course was after
Paul had gone to preach the gospel and He'd been blessed in that
preaching and time had gone on and he'd been away for over a
year with Barnabas. And so we don't know exactly
how long after that this was written, or at least recorded,
but we do read now about that time, Herod, and of course this
is a later Herod than in the earlier chapters in the gospel,
the king, he stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the
church. Well it would appear that up
to this time perhaps he'd had his hands tied and he hadn't
been able to do that which was in his heart and now the situation
had developed so that he stretched forth his hands to vex certain
of the church. Clearly he was totally against
the Christian church and we know that they were called Christians
Antioch only in the previous chapter. So there was now this
real band of Christians and quite clearly Herod was against them
and he desires to vex certain of the church. And so we read
he kills James the brother of John with a sword. We might think
well why did he kill James? Well we're not of course actually
told. But what we do know is that James was also referred
to as by Agnes, the son of thunder. And we can perhaps assume from
that, that he was a preacher who thundered out the truth of
God. And if that was so, clearly Herod
would have been totally against him. And perhaps that may have
been the reason or one of the reasons why Herod decided to
kill James. He was the first disciple to
be martyred, And it would have been at least a couple of years
after the time when the Lord was crucified. But the exact
time, I don't think we really know. But nonetheless, here we
see that James was killed, and he was killed with a sword. And
again, the way of the sword was really usually kept for causing
death to those who perhaps they felt greatly needed it. Usually
they had their heads cut off with an axe, but here it was
with a sword, a more difficult execution and a more painful
execution. And we see here then that God's
servant James was the first martyr to have to pass this way. And we're not told what he'd
done, we're not told how he'd been accused, all we're told
is that Herod killed James with a sword. And so we look around
today, of course, in the world and we see people being killed
today. And some of them are true Christians.
And we may think, well, this is terrible. Well, of course
it is. We should remember that it's nothing new. The devil is
very angry at any Christian witness. He's very angry if the gospel
should be preached and the gospel should go forth. so we should
not be surprised still today if we see this tremendous opposition
against Christianity. And therefore we have James here,
the brother of John who was killed with a sword. And then we read
that because Herod saw it pleased the Jews, And of course, the
Jews were very much against the Christians. As we know, it went
right against their Judeo-religion, which they'd been brought up
with, and they were not believers, and they would not accept that
which had occurred, the great and glorious death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, to atone for the sins of his people. They would
not accept that situation, so they were very angry about any
preaching, anything that touched the Lord Jesus Christ or mentioned
his name. And therefore, We can see the
reason for this. And because he saw it please
the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. And again,
there's no evidence of any particular thing that Peter had done wrong
apart from preach the gospel. And of course we know he was
a faithful preacher. He didn't hold back anything.
He declared the whole counsel of God. He spoke very faithfully
and against the Jews. And it was not surprising that
the Jews wanted him to be apprehended. And so we see here that Herod
proceeded to take Peter and put him in prison. And then were
the days of unleavened bread. The days of unleavened bread
were the days of the Passover. And of course that was the time
when the Lord Jesus was crucified. So perhaps after this period
of time, as I say, would seem at least two years, that Herod
may have remembered that the Lord was crucified at that time
and therefore took the opportunity to apprehend Peter on that occasion. Because it's not without significance,
I'm sure, that this was the case. And the devil was looking for
every opportunity to cause havoc, every opportunity to distress
the church of God. And so here he was in this situation,
moving Herod to apprehend God's servant Peter. And when he had
apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four
quaternions of soldiers. Well, a quaternion is four, so
there were 16 soldiers who were put in charge of him. And we
would think perhaps they took turns to actually be on the watch,
as it were. They may have had four watches.
but at least it would have been four soldiers at a time. No doubt,
Herod therefore thought that where he'd got Peter imprisoned
and that there was no way he could escape. Well, isn't it
wonderful as we'll read on, as we have read on tonight, how
the Lord brought about that miraculous escape for his servant Peter. And we should realize today that
those things which are impossible with men are possible with God. God can do great things. Again,
as we spoke on last Sunday morning with regard to Hezekiah, the
wonderful victory that the Lord brought about there. And we worship
today, bless God, the same God who is able to do far more and
exceeding abundantly above that which we can ask or even think.
So although the enemy may rise up, and the enemy definitely
rose up here in the form of Herod, to take God's servant Peter and
put him in prison No doubt thinking now he won't be able to preach
the gospel anymore. Now I've got him safe. But you
see, God knew what he would do. And so we read, and when he apprehended
him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions
of soldiers to keep him alive, intending after Easter. Again
it's very strange that they use the word Easter here because
it's the same word which is translated as Passover. So in fact we can
recollect and realise it was the Passover, intending after
the Passover to bring him forth to the people and no doubt if
he brought him forth to the people there would have been a very
similar result to that which the Lord Jesus faced when he
was before Caesar and the people they demanded he should be crucified
but Peter's time to die was not yet and we should remember in
all our lives there is a certain time a time which cannot be brought
forward and a time which cannot be put back it's God's appointed
time we have an allotted span to live on this on this earth
and what a good thing it is if we are able to live our life
as unto the Lord and not unto ourself. And so here was Herod
intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Of course
that never occurred, and sometimes we can see people's intentions
do not come to pass. They may be very adamant, they
may have done everything to make sure that those things come to
pass, but if the Lord is not in it, if the Lord is determined
to say or deliver, then that will occur. And so here we have
Peter then apprehended, put into prison, and what's the result?
Peter was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing
of the church unto God for him. And this is surely a very good
example for all of us to remember that in these situations, and
we can think of it not only perhaps in a natural way, although it
is true, but sometimes in a spiritual way, there are those people who
appear to be imprisoned. And perhaps Satan's brought them
there and they're imprisoned. And it's a good thing, isn't
it, if the church is able to pray without ceasing for deliverance,
that such a one may be brought out of prison. And of course,
as we read together, it was a remarkable deliverance that Peter was blessed
with. Now, we worship the same God
today who is able And may the Lord be willing still to do great
things. And may we understand and appreciate
the necessity of prayer. How often perhaps we just pray
occasionally for a situation. And perhaps just methodically,
because we feel it's something we should do. But here we can
see there was an urgency about it. That they prayed, they prayed
without ceasing. You remember that later on in
the Epistle to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul, when he wrote
to them, encouraged them to pray without ceasing. Well, of course,
physically, that can't actually happen. But as you and I go about
our daily calling, or perhaps in our own rooms or our own homes,
to just be praying as it were, in our hearts, that prayer may
be constantly with us, that it may not just be something which
is attended to perhaps in the morning, perhaps in the evening,
perhaps we come together to worship, but may prayer be our vital breath,
not only for ourselves, salvation, but for the encouragement and
the deliverance perhaps of many who may be chained down in the
devil's snares. Well, may we be encouraged tonight
to thank God there was this true concern, this prayer given by
God, it is a prayer indicted by God and what a favour when
we are blessed with true indicted prayer and you know when we do
receive that and we know we received it what a blessing it is and
how we rejoice that we're blessed with prevailing prayer and so
may we pray for it and be found in this way like these people
and that they prayed, they were made without prayer was made
without ceasing of the church of God for him. Amen.