Date Written: October 1, 2010
Date Preached: October 3, 2010
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: Reaching our Community
Sermon Title: God Hears & Answers Earnest Prayer
Sermon Text: Acts 12:5-17
MPT:
God heard and answered the earnest prayers of the church for the miracle of Peter¡¦s deliverance from prison.
MPS:
God hears and answers the earnest prayers of His children to bring about miraculous events in the life of our fellowship
Introduction:
Have you ever heard the phrase, ¡¥going to hell in a handbasket¡¦¡K in my sermon preparation I wanted to find out the origin and reason for this phrase, but I found that facts about the origins of this phrase seem to be a scarce as ¡¥hen¡¦s teeth¡¦¡K ƒº
But I believe we all have had the overwhelming feeling that our world is headed in the wrong direction¡K spiraling downward and out of control headed for destruction! There are times when I feel so down about the world around me that I get really depressed¡K really sad¡K and just want to give up!
The believers in our passage this morning more than likely saw things deteriorating fast for them¡K they saw things spinning out of control!
Setting Up the Story: Peter¡¦s Incarceration ¡V v.1-5:
King Herod violent against the church
v.1 ¡V we find the Greek word ¡§kakOsai¡¨ used to describe Herod¡¦s treatment of those in the church. This word is a word for oppression or doing evil to¡K this is the same fervor and passion the Germans showed against the Jews during WWII¡K
We need to understand that this was NOT a general religious persecution by Herod, but it was directed at one particular group¡K v. 1 calls them the ¡§ekklEsias¡¨ which literally means the called out ones¡K
James is martyred (v.2)
Peter arrested and sentenced to die (v3)
Herod wanted to keep peace in the region to stay in favor with the Roman gov¡¦t. They demanded peace and quietness at ANY cost¡K So Herod saw what a commotion was going on with the church and saw that the religious leaders were raising a rukus¡K
So he determines that if he was to keep the peace, that the Christians must be dealt with¡K so he arrests and kills James and it pleased the religious leaders so much that he arrests Peter.
Now when these believers saw what Herod and the authorities had done to James, and now to Peter¡K there was a feeling of dread and hopelessness that was overwhelming and they were at their wits end, this is where we pick up the story in v.5¡K
In the world they lived in, they did NOT know what to do¡K they did NOT know where to turn¡Kso they did the only thing they knew to do and that was drop to their knees¡K not in their personal prayer closets, but in a gathering of the church¡K a gathering of those who have been called out by God¡K
These people came together in a group and rallied around each other by dropping to their knees in prayer! They saw the hopelessness of the situation and knew they could not do anything to change it¡K
1 of their leaders had been executed, and now another had been arrested and after the holiday weekend he was going to be put to death as well¡K I believe they were looking at the termination and extinction of what they called the church!
At this time, many of these people had followed their leaders faithfully, but they had NOT had to act on their own, and now that their leaders were either dead or in jail¡Kthey had to act, and they acted as they had seen their actors act¡K they went to their knees!
Now I want to tell you that the book of James is very clear on the matter of prayer. James tells us in James 5:16 [ESV] tells us:
16 ¡KThe prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
The word used to describe great power is a word that means strength to get the job done¡K A righteous man¡¦s prayers are strong! And with God on our side, things get done! Now, what and how God answers that prayer may not be what we expect BUT¡K God answers the prayer of the righteous!
These people gathered together and dropped to their knees for their leader¡K their pastor¡K Peter! They entreated the throne for his sake!
Like Peter¡¦s situation, I believe we can see that our world, our country, our state, our city, our neighborhood¡K our community is NOT where it should be with God, and if things don¡¦t change, they are headed down a path of destruction!
Do you ever feel helpless about your neighbor? Your co-worker? That person you are in school with? That check out lady at Rouses or Walmart? Do you ache at the feeling that they are in prison? That they are bound and in bondage to the enemy? I know I do¡K I hurt daily as I look around me, but what can I do? Where can I turn?
Well like these people in our passage this morning who I believe thought about the psalmist when he wrote, ¡§Where can I turn?¡¨ and then answered himself by saying ¡§My hope is in the Lord!¡¨
So where can WE turn to make a difference in our community for Christ¡K we can do what these people did¡K we can hit our knees!
When they hit their knees, they had expectations, but I don¡¦t think they knew exactly what those expectation were¡K let¡¦s move onto the next part of the story to see how God answered their prayer!
Revealing the Story: Peter¡¦s Liberation ¡V v:6-11:
The situation could NOT be more against these people and their leader Peter who is in jail¡K
Peter is guarded by 4 squads of soldiers,
And he has 2 soldiers who are chained TO him at all times¡K now I can imagine how hopeless the looked to Peter AND to the church! It seems as if the enemy had won¡K and it was just a matter of time!
But something funny happened on the way to Peter¡¦s execution¡KPRAYER happened! Godly people banded together in prayer and entreated the throne of God for an answer¡K They wanted Peter to be delivered¡K and so they prayed for him!
Angel appears and delivers Peter
Now the church is having an all night prayer meeting down the road, and in prison things begin to happen. Peter is sleeping between 2 soldiers who were sleeping as well.
But there were sentries guarding the doors to the prison cell AND to the gate of the prison. In the midst of all that security, God came¡K God sent an angel to speak to Peter!
Now a sidenote here¡K Peter was NOT worried! Scripture never mentions the angst of Peter in this situation, in fact the implication here is NOT that Peter was worried, but that Peter was at peace! He was ASLEEP! The next day he was to be executed and he was sleeping!
How many of us when we are faced with oppression and hurt by the enemy can sleep peacefully at night? Believers¡K I can tell you that when you are in the middle of God¡¦s will with your life and how you serve Him¡K it matters NOT what the world throws at you¡K you will be at peace! This is what Paul was speaking about in Phil 4:7 [ESV]
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Peter was at total peace with the situation¡K in fact another thing I find kind of interesting here is that the angel had to wake Peter up¡K Look at what it says¡K He struck him in his side¡K GET UP!
And then Peter still seems out of it¡K still seems as if he is walking in a fog¡K the angel has to give him step by step instructions!
Get Up
Get dressed
Put on your shoes
Put on your jacket
FOLLOW ME!
And after all this Peter is STILL not sure what is happening to him. He still thought he was dreaming¡K or seeing a vision. Many times when God come into our lives and answers our prayer, we hesitate in following Him¡K and he has to ¡¥encourage us¡¦ to GET UP, GET DRESSED¡K FOLLOW ME!
Peter followed the angel out of the cell where his 2 personal soldiers were still asleep¡K past the 1st gate and then past the 2nd set of guards where there was a LARGE IRON GATE¡K an imposing barrier to the outside world! But as they approached¡K it opened up!
Scripture tells us that it opened on its own accord¡K in other words without the help of any of the guards or without the help of anyone on the outside¡K
This is a great picture of salvation¡K God comes to get us in our prison of sinful bondage, God instructs us and guides us to follow Him and as we are being delivered¡K the barrier of sin falls¡K it has NO power over God!
We know that Satan won¡¦t open that door for God¡K and we know that we cannot open that door either¡K but with God the door opens! With God we are delivered miraculously from sin!
Peter realizes God has saved him
This is where peter was¡K walking out of the prison following an angel! And when he gets a couple of streets away from the prison, the angel simply disappears!
Peter comes to the realization of what has happened! He has been miraculously delivered from prison and from Herod and religious leaders who had sought to do him harm.
Today we can relate to this on many levels, but usually it is NOT until we are delivered by God that we fully understand how miraculous our delivery was¡K
So often after we are saved we look back at our life before Christ and see the markers of God leading us out of sin and saving us, but when it was happening, they may not have been that clear to us!
Peter knew that God has miraculously delivered him! But the story does not end there! Peter wanted to tell others about his deliverance, so he goes to where he knows his fellow believers will be!
Completing the Story ¡V Peter¡¦s Revelation ¡V v.12-17:
Prayer is the most mighty weapon that the believer has in our battle against the prince of this world. This is because prayer entreats the protection and movement of the God we serve!
Prayer does not make God aware of the situation, but prayer brings us to our knees before God in an acute awareness that this is BEYOND what we can bear¡K beyond what we can handle and it expresses our deep longing for God to meet that need!
These people had seen the situation and they had went to God in prayer! But then a funny thing happened to them¡K God answered their prayer!
Peter arrives at friendly house (v.12-14)
Now Peter and the disciples had been under persecution since Jesus had been crucified and I am sure that they had a plan for when things like this happened¡K and what I mean is when trouble happens, they were to gather at a pre-arranged location!!
These believers had come together at Mary¡¦s house to pray and it is evident that Peter knew that is where they would gather. He immediately heads to this house and begins knocking at the door¡Kthe servant answering the door is so surprise that she does not open the door, but runs back to the believers to tell them who is at the door!
Friends refuse to believe its Peter (v.15)
Here is where we begin to wonder what is going on in the minds of those in the house¡K They refuse to believe the servant and in fact they call her crazy¡K ¡§You must be seeing a ghost¡K Peter is in prison and scheduled to die¡K don¡¦t you know why we are here praying?¡¨
They refuse to believe¡K God had already answered their prayer but they refused to believe¡K they refused to ACT on the answer God had provided¡K they did not want to accept God¡¦s answer!
Now I want us to all here this¡K These people WANTED God to answer their prayer! The issue here was that they did NOT expect God to answer their prayer!
Now how does this apply to us today! Our community is lost and going straight to hell¡K we see so much crime, drugs and brokenness around us that we hurt inside. We know that we cannot do anything about it¡K we know that we are helpless¡K we know that all we can do really is fall to our knees and pray!
But when we pray¡K are we willing to listen for the answer God is sending? Are we willing to accept and believe that our God is able? That our God can and does move and change lives? That our God can deliver? Or will we send the servant back out of the room¡K
I see a parallel with our church today. So many of us are in prayer for our church, for it to grow again, for it to make a difference in our community again. And God is listening to those prayers! God is moving and God is at work!
But how many times have you looked at the servant of God¡K the preacher¡K the pastor¡K and said to him or thought in your mind, ¡§That just won¡¦t happen in our church! Preacher you are crazy if you think that is going to work!¡¨
People are amazed (v.16)
Peter continued to knock¡K he would not quit! He wanted them to know that God had delivered him. I can imagine the servant girl begging and pleading with them about what she saw¡K until I believe at least one person was sent with her to prove to her that it was NOT real¡K but it WAS real and Peter WAS there and the people were amazed!
How often are we dragged into believing and seeing where God is working and changing lives!
No, preacher that can¡¦t work¡K but then 10 people are saved!
Preacher you don¡¦t understand, our church doesn¡¦t do things that way¡K but then revival breaks out!
I want us to know that God is able! I want us to understand that God is more powerful than any power this world has to offer! Do you believe that today? DO YOU?
I believe that this passage of Scripture is a template to how we as a church can win our community for Christ¡K how we can make a difference in this world of sin and broken lives!
But I want us to understand it begins with PRAYER! Nothing of any worth happens in the kingdom without it first being laid at the foot of the Throne in prayer! We can get busy¡K we can look like we are doing a lot¡K but it will all be glorified busy work and totally worthless if it is not first lifted in prayer!
You see prayer helps us to focus¡K prayer helps us to know from WHOM our successes and victories come! Prayer keeps us humble in that we know God is in control!
Conclusion:
Today I am calling our church to a season of prayer and fasting! I know many of you say, ¡§I pray preacher!¡¨ but I want you to understand that I want our focus to be right¡K I want our intentions to be right¡K I want our actions to be right¡Kand this cannot happen if we refuse to pray!
I am calling us to pray! As your pastor I know I am a sinner who is used of God! I am a sinner who is saved by Grace! I am not perfect, but I want God to know that I am available and that I am listening for His voice!
I am entering into a personal time of prayer, fasting and meditation! I am asking you to join me! Join me in dedicating time to the Lord¡K dedicating meals to the Lord¡K dedicating personal entertainment time to the Lord¡K
Jesus said, ¡§Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me!¡¨ Much of the time we have no problem of taking up what God lays before us¡K or at least we SAY we don¡¦t¡K but I believe that where we fail God and I would dare say we fail Him miserably is in the area of self-denial!
We don¡¦t deny ourselves for our Savior! We don¡¦t take things away from ourselves so that we can focus on Him more and more! I know I am chief of all sinners when it comes to this area and I want to change! I want to be a TRUE servant of God and when I refuse to deny myself¡K I cannot be a true servant of God!
But preacher, God has blessed me with all my material things¡K I am thankful to Him, I tithe, I go to church, I live a Christian life¡K surely He would not ask me to deny myself of the blessings He has bestowed upon me?
If God¡¦s blessings on your life have become so important to you that you will NOT set them aside for a season to focus on Him¡K to dwell on Him¡K to worship Him¡K then you are worshiping the wrong god¡K you are worshipping the things He has blessed you with and NOT Him!
I pledge you to you as pastor¡K that I will pray for you as a body¡K as a fellowship, that God would speak through our church to this community! I pledge that I am going to fast over a period of time, that is between me and God¡K for this fellowship!
As we close our service today I am going to do something that is going to make you feel uncomfortable¡K but this is not about YOUR comfort! This is about your service to Him! I am calling ALL believers¡K Every believer in this building to step out¡K come to this altar and make a commitment to God:
To pray and focus on Him daily
To remove all obstacles in your life that take you away from Him
To pray for the lost of our community
To pray for the fellowship of our church
To pray for our witness in the community
To pray that God will move in a mighty and miraculous way in our church
To pray that when God moves, we will recognize it as God¡¦s movement and follow Him!
Today, Steven will NOT come and lead us in a song of commitment, but Jason will be playing¡K I am calling ALL people to come and pray! Would you stand and step out and come forward as Jason begins to play!
