You’re gonna be
glad you came back for this Daily Bread, because has Luke got a
story for us from the book of Acts of the Apostles! Before we get started though, let’s refresh a little about
what happened last in our story.
Peter, was in
Joppa and praying on the roof, when a sheet descended from heaven, full of
different animals and a voice said, Kill and eat. Peter said he had never
eaten anything common or unclean before. The voice said, Don’t call what God
has cleansed, common. This happened three times, then the sheet ascended
back up to heaven. Just then three men arrive to take him to Cornelius the
centurion, who had an open vision of an angel that said to send for Peter,
and that Peter would tell him how to find salvation. Things click in Peter’s
mind and he realizes that with the sheet vision, God was telling him that
the Gentiles (Other nations besides the Israelites) were now accepted by Him, and that they should receive the
Word
of God and His Grace just as the Jewish people, and with that, the church began to grow even
more.
At that time,
Herod, the king, was determined to bring anguish to the church. He killed
James the Apostle, the brother of John with the sword, and because he saw that it
pleased the Jewish people that he did so, he wanted to capture Peter also.
It was the days of
the feast of unleavened bread, (During the Passover week) and Herod and his
men apprehended Peter and put him into
prison, and sent sixteen soldiers to guard him, with plans of handing him
over to the Jewish people after Easter (The Day our Lord Resurrected) ... So Peter was kept in prison, but the
church prayed without ceasing to God for him.
Now, picture this
in your mind. The night before Herod would have delivered Peter to the
Jewish people, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, locked up with two
chains, and the guards were standing at the door of the prison. An Angel of
the Lord appears and a light shined in the prison. He wakes Peter up by
striking him on the side, and says, C’mon, hurry and get up, and the
chains fall off of Peter’s hands. The Angel says, Get ready, and put on your
sandals, so Peter did, and then he said follow me.
Ya gotta know in your
heart that if this was anything but the Lord’s doing, the soldiers sleeping
on either side of Peter would certainly have heard someone waking Peter up
by hitting him on his side, or talking out loud to him, or chains falling
off, or strapping on his sandals and putting on his coat. It was
God’s plan to thwart Herod’s wickedness, Peter went out and followed the Angel without being noticed. Peter didn’t believe that what the
Angel did
was really happening, he thought he was dreaming it. You can almost see
Peter’s face as they tiptoe past 16 soldiers, who have no clue that he’s
escaping!
When they were
past the first and second ward, they came to the iron gate that leads to the
city, which opened to them all by itself, and they went out and passed on
through one street, and then the Angel left him. When Peter was standing
there in the middle of the street outside of the prison, all alone, he knew
it was not a dream and said to himself, Now I know for sure, that the Lord sent His angel, and
has freed me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the hopes of the Jewish
people.
He went to the
house of Mary, the mother of John, who was known as Mark, where many
Christians were gathered together praying, and as Peter knocked at the door
of the gate, a girl came to answer, named Rhoda. When she recognized Peter’s
voice, she was so happy that she forgot to open the gate, and ran in to tell
the others that Peter was there. They told her she was crazy, but she repeated
over and over that it was true. They said, It’s his angel, but Peter kept
knocking at the gate and when they opened the door and saw him, they were
astonished. Peter, motioning to them with his hand to keep them quiet in all
the excitement, explained to them how the Lord brought him out of the
prison. He told them to go and tell the others, and went to
another place.
When morning
dawned, there was quite a stir among the soldiers about what had happened to
Peter. And when Herod looked for him and couldn’t find him, he questioned
the guards and commanded that they be put to death.
Herod was very
upset with the people in Tyre and Sidon (Lebanon), but the people befriended
Herod's chamberlain and all of the people of Tyre and Sidon gathered in an
assembly as they wanted to make peace with Herod because their country was
financially supported by Herod’s country. (Don’t forget, there is a famine
in the land at this time.)
Herod showed up to
this assembly dressed in his royal clothes, sat on his throne and made a
speech to the people. And the people shouted, It’s the voice of a god, and not of
a man.
