Acts 12 - An Execution and a Miraculous Rescue (2022)

Acts 12 NLT

Pretty sure this would make a great movie with so many highs, lows, action, intrigue, drama, and ultimately victory for the good guys!

"About this time..." (vs 1) To give some context to what was happening now in this chapter, it had actually been about ten years since the death & resurrection of Jesus. So the church was established and growing but was meeting with increased resistance & persecution. 

King Herod had figured out that he could increase his popularity by arresting and killing followers of Jesus so in verse 2 it says that he had James "put to death with the sword".  When he saw the positive reaction he got to that, he went ahead and had Peter arrested too - so he would be the next to lose his head!

It would be easy to just move on in the chapter in order to get to the cool angelic rescue from jail, but I want to pause and reflect on what just happened. 

For James, it all started when he heard the call of Jesus, first to
Peter & his brother, Andrew: "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matt 4:19). Then to James & his brother, John, who were in a boat with their father, Zebedee, preparing their nets when Jesus called them. ".... and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him." (Matt 4:22)

So the four of them spent the next few years together (along with the rest of the twelve) following Jesus until the end. Just before their final trip to Jerusalem, there was an interesting conversation between James, John, and Jesus. 

Their mother had asked Jesus to allow her boys to sit by his side in the future kingdom. Jesus told her, "You don't know what you are asking" (Matt 20:22-23) but then he turned to James & John, looked them in the eyes and asked, "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink? (referring to his death) We can, they answered. Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink from my cup..." 

This ominous statement was fulfilled ten years later when James was beheaded for his faith. I wonder if his mother & father and John were there at the execution? I wonder if just before his death he thought about that first time by the sea when Jesus called him to be a fisher of men. I wonder what was going through Peter's mind as he was sitting in jail, knowing all these things.

"So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him." (vs 5) You can read this great story for yourself. I love how real the Bible is. Even these faith-filled people who were praying for Peter to be released (knowing what had happened to James) didn't believe the servant girl when she told them he was knocking at the door of their prayer meeting. When they saw him, "..they were astonished!" (vs 16) 

I love the image of Peter quieting them all down and telling his amazing story: "Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison." (vs 17) It says then, that he left "for another place" presumably to hide from Herod. Significantly, the Lord struck down Herod a short time later, freeing Peter to continue his ministry in the open. 

"But the word of God continued to increase and spread." (vs 24)

Prayer: Lord, I want to pray more. Help me to be more like those people who were earnestly praying for things that were important to them. And also, Lord, even as we are praying for the coronavirus to STOP spreading, we ask that the Gospel would continue to spread!