SERMON: THANKFUL FOR THE FLEAS

 

Naylor CommunityChristian Church

26 November 2023

 

I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

New International Version

 

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

 

-- I have, on occasion, mentioned stories and illustrations from the life of Corrie ten Boom, one of my heroes of the faith -- as you probably remember, Corrie was a courageous Dutch woman who helped harbor Jews from the Nazis in Holland during World War II -- she was eventually arrested, along with all of her family, and Corrie and her sister Betsie were imprisoned together at Ravensbruck, the infamous German concentration camp

-- this morning, I want to share with you another story about Corrie from her book, “The Hiding Place,” that I think really speaks to our call to be thankful people in all circumstances

 

            -- when Corrie and Betsie first arrived at Ravensbruck, they were shown to their barracks -- walking in, huddled together, they saw a series of massive square wooden platforms, stacked three levels high and placed so close together that people had to walk single-file to pass between them -- Rancid straw was scattered over the platforms -- and the platforms were literally filled with bodies lying next to each other and packed in tight -- Corrie and Betsie realized that this was to be where they slept, along with the hundreds of other women held captive in that camp

-- they found their place and climbed up -- the platforms were so low that they could not sit upright on theirs without hitting their heads on the deck above them -- so, they laid back, struggling against the claustrophobia and the nausea that swept over them from the reeking straw and the smell of the other captives

            -- no sooner had they laid down, then Corrie jumped up, hitting her head on the platform above -- something had bitten her -- she cried out, “Betsie, there are fleas! -- this place is swarming with them!”

-- they climbed down and made there way to a spot of light shining in the narrow aisle and examined each other -- there were fleas all over them -- Corrie cried out, “Betsie, how can we live in such a place?”

 

-- although we know Corrie to be a hero of the faith -- a woman of strong Christian character and spiritual maturity -- she portrays her sister in “The Hiding Place” as the more spiritual of the two -- the one closer to God than she -- Betsie immediately responded to Corrie’s cry by saying, “Show us -- show us how we are to live here” -- Corrie realized that Betsie was praying

  -- almost immediately, Betsie exclaimed excitedly. “He’s already given us the answer! Before we asked, as He always does! In the Bible this morning. Where was it? Read that part again!”

            -- the sisters had managed to smuggle a Bible into the concentration camp, and Corrie pulled it out and read the same passage we just shared together -- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

            -- as Corrie read those words, Betsie beamed and exclaimed, “That’s it!  That’s His answer -- ‘Give thanks in all circumstances!’ That’s what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this barracks!”

-- Corrie wrote that she stared at her sister incredulously, then around at the dark, foul-smelling room. “Such as?” she inquired. -- “Such as being assigned here together.” -- Corrie bit her lip, but prayed, “Oh yes, Lord Jesus! Thank You!”

-- “Such as what you’re holding in your hands.” -- Corrie looked down at the Bible. “Yes! Thank You, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank You for all the women, here in this room, who will meet You in these pages.”

-- “Yes,” agreed Betsie. “Thank You for the very crowding here. Since we’re packed so close, that many more will hear!” -- when Corrie didn’t respond, Betsie poked her and Corrie reluctantly prayed, “Oh, all right. Thank You for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed, suffocating crowds.”

            -- and then Betsie continued on -- “And thank You for the fleas and for the…” -- Corrie cut her off -- “Betsie, there is no way I am giving thanks to God for fleas”

            -- “But we must,” Betsie said. “We must, for He tells us to in His word -- it says, ‘Give thanks in all circumstances -- It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’ -- Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.”

-- so, even though Corrie thought Betsie was wrong, she stood beside the stacks of bunks in the German camp of Ravensbruck and thanked God for the fleas

 

II.  Thankful for Fleas

            -- last week, as we were looking forward to our Thanksgiving holiday, we looked at the passage of Jesus healing the ten lepers -- and we talked about the one leper who returned to give thanks and praise to his Healer and the importance of remembering to stop and give thanks in our lives for the blessings that He has given us

            -- this morning, I wanted to carry this thought of thanksgiving a little farther -- to not only thank God for what we see as blessings in our lives, but to also thank God in the midst of the things we may not really want, like beds filled with fleas

            -- I fully understand Corrie’s reluctance to pray and thank God for the fleas -- push come to shove, I could pray like her for the little blessings they enjoyed in the midst of that German camp -- being put there together -- being able to bring a Bible with them -- little things -- little blessings in the midst of the pain and suffering they endured

            -- I believe that sometimes God blesses us in special ways like that with little things that remind us of His care and His goodness in our lives no matter what we’re going through at the time

            -- how many times have you been going through a particularly dark time in your life, and God sent the most perfect sunset to brighten your day -- or you noticed a flower blooming in a place where you didn’t expect -- or the smile of a stranger at the very moment you were losing hope

            -- these little blessings are like diamonds hidden in the dark that God sends to give us hope and to help our hearts in the midst of our pain

            -- but fleas? -- who would ever thank God for sending fleas? -- that would be like thanking God when the diagnosis wasn’t what you wanted -- when all your hopes and dreams crashed around you -- when you lost someone you loved -- how can you thank God in times like that?

            -- blessings? -- yes -- absolutely -- I would hope to be like the leper who turned back and thanked God for His grace -- but fleas? -- especially fleas when I’m living in a German concentration camp? -- just as Corrie expressed, that’s hard -- that’s not normal -- but, as Betsie pointed out, that is exactly what God desires from us

 

            -- let’s continue with our story about Corrie and Betsie ten Boom

            -- as the weeks went by in Ravensbruck, Betsie’s health began to suffer -- it reached the point that the Germans even showed a kindness to her by letting her stay in the barracks to knit socks together there with the other seriously ill prisoners -- and when her work was done, Betsie used her time to go from platform to platform, reading from the Bible and sharing God’s word with her fellow prisoners -- miraculously, the Germans never stopped her because they never came very far into the barracks, but remained right near the door

            -- one day, Corrie came back to the barracks to find Betsie literally gleaming with joy -- almost bouncing up and down in excitement -- “What’s with you?” she asked.

            -- Betsie explained, “This afternoon there was confusion in my knitting group about sock sizes, so we asked the supervisor to come and settle it -- But she wouldn’t [come in] -- She wouldn’t step through the door, and neither would the guards -- And [do] you know why?”

-- Betsie could not keep the triumph from her voice as she exclaimed, “Because of the fleas! That’s what she said: ‘That place is crawling with fleas [and I will not go in there]’”

-- and as Corrie looked on dumbfounded, Betsie once again thanked God for the fleas and the freedom their presence provided

 

            -- look back at verse 16 and let’s read the words that God gave Corrie and Betsie as they begin their time in Ravensbruck

 

1 Thessalonians 5:16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

 

            -- there are three commands for us in this passage: 1.  Be joyful always; 2. Pray continually; and, 3. Give thanks in all circumstances

 

            -- “Be joyful always”

-- joy is not the same thing as happiness -- happiness is external -- it is based on circumstances -- happiness is fleeting because when things are not going good -- when you’re walking in the storm -- when dark clouds have come against you -- when you’re forced into a crowded barrack filled with fleas in a German concentration camp -- you cannot be happy -- you just can’t

            -- but that’s when joy comes in -- joy is internal -- it is the byproduct of a relationship with God -- it is knowing that you are safe with Him, regardless of what might be going on around you -- it is knowing that you are loved, even in situations where you don’t feel love -- it is knowing peace, even as the world swirls chaotically around you -- it is a sense of well-being -- of being safe and secure in the arms of our Creator

            -- it is, as Rick Warren puts it, “…the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life -- the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.”

            -- where happiness can not survive, joy abounds -- and Paul exhorts us here to be joyful always -- always -- in every circumstance -- in every situation -- to look past the external and the temporal and into the eternal promises that we have in Christ

 

            -- “Pray continually” -- “Pray without ceasing”

            -- this is a call for relationship -- this is a call to abide in Christ, as He commands -- to be in Him as He is in us -- to be connected to Him as the branch connects to the vine -- and to receive our sustenance and our survival from the life that flows from Him to us

            -- to pray continually is to become so attuned to Christ and His ways that we are in constant communion with Him -- our praying -- our connection -- our hearts beating as one -- praying as we breathe -- breathing in His life and His love and His goodness and exhaling our doubts and despair and discouragements

            -- to pray without ceasing is to live in prayer with Christ -- to sense Him -- to know Him -- to love Him -- with all our hearts and minds and souls -- to be one with Him as He is one with us

 

            -- and, finally, “give thanks in all circumstances”

            -- this was the phrase that gave Betsie hope in those first few moments in the barracks of Ravensbruck -- this was the phrase that led her to give thanks -- not only for her sister -- not only for the Bible -- but also for the fleas

            -- notice that this command says to “give thanks in all circumstances” -- not “for” all circumstances -- there is a big difference between the words in and for

            -- life is tough -- we live in a fallen world where bad things happen to good people -- we live in a world where sin and death still hold sway -- where disease and sickness are common -- where crime and violence are daily events

            -- and God doesn’t expect us to be grateful for these evil things -- He doesn’t expect us to be thankful for the pain and suffering we experience -- these are not from Him -- they are not part of His plan -- they are part of living in this fallen world

            -- that’s why we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” -- it’s because God’s will is not always done here -- His Kingdom is not fully manifest here -- Satan still has strongholds in this place -- and many choose to follow him or their own evil desires rather than following God -- and the consequences of their actions and sins affect us all

            -- so, this verse doesn’t say, “Give thanks for all circumstances,” for that would be to thank God for the evil that is around us -- Betsie did not lead Corrie to offer thanks for being put in Ravensbruck -- that was not a good situation

            -- this verse tells us to “Give thanks in all circumstances” -- not for them, but in them -- in the midst of what we are going through, we can thank God for His grace and His mercy -- we can thank God for His joy and His abiding peace -- we can thank God for His presence and His salvation -- we can thank God that He is with us and will never leave us or forsake us

            -- we can give thanks in the midst of the storm, because God is there -- and we can give thanks for the fleas, because God will use them for good, just as He did for Corrie and Betsie

 

            -- one of the most quoted verses in the Bible is Romans 8:28, “For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purposes” -- it is also one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible

            -- this verse is not saying that everything that happens was brought about by God for our good -- if that was the case, then we would be commanded to thank God for all circumstances, even those times of evil that come upon us

            -- no, this verse says that “in all things” God works for our good -- in other words, God takes the things that come upon us -- both good and bad -- and works them for His good and our good -- to meet His purposes -- to fulfill His will

            -- He redeems the bad -- He brings beauty from the ashes -- He causes flowers to bloom in the desert

            -- it was not God who brought the storm -- it was not God who sent the Nazis and put Corrie and Betsie in Ravensbruck -- but God allowed it and He turned the evil of that situation into blessings of joy for them and those around them, for in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, so that we can thank God in all circumstances

 

            -- but, if we’re honest with ourselves, we find ourselves more like Corrie than Betsie on

most days

            -- how can we thank God when the doctor has just diagnosed us with a terminal disease?

            -- how can we thank God when someone we love has died?

            -- how can we thank God when the bank takes our home and our car?

            -- how can we thank God when we’re left holding a pink slip at the door to the office?

            -- as Rick Warren asks, “how can you be thankful even when you don’t feel like it?”

 

-- even on our worst days -- even when the storms come and the pain overwhelms and the fleas bite -- there are five things we can still thank God for in the midst of our circumstances¹

 

-- first, God’s grace — Everything that we are -- everything that we have -- is a gift from God -- it is part of His grace -- God giving us what we don’t deserve

-- our salvation -- the forgiveness of our sins -- is only through His grace -- as Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, and this not of yourself -- it is the free gift of God”

-- God’s grace never takes a vacation, even when the storms are around us -- and we can thank Him for His grace and His mercy at all times

 

-- next, God’s plan -- God loves us and He has a plan for our life -- as it says in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

-- God is constantly working in our lives to align our spirits and our will to His -- He takes the circumstances of this life and turns it to good -- working everything for our good and according to the purpose that He has for us

-- even when it feels as if you are out of control, give thanks because you know that God is working His purposes through you

 

-- third, God’s presence—You are never alone -- God is with you all the time, no matter what you’re going through -- Psalm 145:18 says, “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth” -- and Hebrews 13:5-6 says, 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” -- So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.    What can mere mortals do to me?”

-- when Peter was walking on the water towards Jesus, he took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink -- he forgot that Jesus was with him, and the waves gained power over him again -- remembering that God is with us, no matter how high the waves or how many the fleas, is something to be thankful for

 

-- fourth, God’s sanctification -- as we’ve said, God doesn’t send evil into our lives, but He does allow it and He does use it for our good -- as painful as trials are -- as painful as our circumstances may be -- it is in them that we grow in grace and become mature in our faith

-- C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, but shouts to us in our pain -- it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world”

-- God redeems our circumstances and our pain to mold us and make us into the people He wants us to be -- remember, God always works eternally -- God’s will for us is always with eternity in view -- and though we may suffer through the circumstances of this fallen world, we can thank God because He is using those circumstances to sanctify us and make us holy as He is holy

 

-- and, finally, God’s home -- we can always thank God for the promises we have in Christ and for our eternal home with Him -- regardless of what we walk through in this life -- regardless of how bad the pain or how hard the circumstances -- we hold fast to the hope that we have in the empty tomb and the risen Savior

-- Jesus told us in John 14 that He has gone to prepare a place for us and that He will come back and take us to Himself -- so that we can be with Him in eternity

-- no matter how hard it may feel, this is not the end -- the pain and the suffering we experience now are just preparing us for our eternal home with Christ -- and for that, we can always give thanks

 

-- I think Dave Black sums it up quite well -- he wrote on his blog this week,

“Have faith my friend. Find gratitude even when life gets hard, real hard. -- Think about what you love about life, right now. -- Then pause and thank God for that.

-- “Stop thinking that life should be a certain way. -- Do your best to accept the way your life is unfolding for you right now.

-- “Start the day with gratitude and end it with affirmations of all the things that went right.

-- “Remember: We value what we notice. Try to notice the little things every day.”

 

-- or, as Paul would say, “Be joyful always -- pray without ceasing -- and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”

 

III.  Closing

-- let me close by sharing with you some final thoughts from author and blogger Chris Winfield about gratitude² -- Chris writes:

 

“Why did this have to happen to me?” It didn’t matter if it was something big (my dog gets cancer, good friend dies) or something little (flight is delayed, spilled something on my shirt). I was in a constant state of “poor me.” This all started to change once I began writing a gratitude list every single day for the past 34+ months and it has changed my life profoundly. Here are the 4 most important things I’ve learned on my gratitude journey:

 

1. It’s Hard at First: My mentor told me to text him three things that I am grateful for every day. Sounds pretty easy right? Well, it wasn’t. When you’ve lived most of your life not focusing on gratitude, it’s not so simple to change that.

 

2. There Is Always Something to Be Grateful For: No matter what was going on in my life (business problems, I was sick, someone cut me off in traffic) there was always something that I could find to be grateful for (my health, my daughter’s smile, etc.).

 

3. Gratitude Grows the More You Use It: My gratitude lists started off very basic and I struggled to find things to be grateful for (especially on the really tough days). But once I consistently took action, it became easier and easier.

 

4. It Can Help Stop Negative Thought Patterns: According to the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, the average person has about 70,000 thoughts each day! There’s one big problem with this — the vast majority of these thoughts are negative. Gratitude can work to stop these negative thought patterns by replacing it with something positive.”

 

            -- as we close our service today and share together in the sacrament of Holy Communion, let us remember to be joyful always, to pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in all circumstances -- let us replace the negative thoughts by remembering what Christ has done for us

            -- receive the body and blood of Christ -- and thank Him for His grace, His plan, His presence, His sanctification, and His home

            -- thank Him for the cross and the empty tomb -- thank Him for the forgiveness of sins and for the promise of eternal life with Him -- thank Him in all things, even for the fleas

            -- and, with that, let us close in prayer

------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Outline from email devotion by Rick Warren

2 Source: Chris Winfield, “13 Things I’ve Learned Writing 1,024 Gratitude Lists,” Chris Winfield Blog (1-24-15)

SERMON: JUST PRAY

 

Naylor Community Christian Church

I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to Acts 12:1-19a

 

Acts 12:1 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

 

5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

 

6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

 

8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

 

11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

 

12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

 

15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

 

16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

 

18 In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. 19 After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.

 

            -- this is not what I thought we’d be talking about this morning -- with all the momentous events going on in Israel right now, I had planned on sharing with you a message about Ezekial’s prophecy about Israel and the war that God would win on their behalf right before the start of the events of the Book of Revelation

            -- but every time I tried to work on that message, I got led back to this passage -- this passage came up multiple times this week -- in my devotions -- in newsletters I read -- in podcasts -- eventually, even I was able to figure out that this is where God wanted us to be this morning

            -- and, to be honest with you, I don’t know why -- it’s a very straight-forward story -- a very straight-forward message -- but there is something that God wants us to see and to get from this passage today

            -- so, today, our focus will be on the story of Peter’s miraculous deliverance from prison by God in response to the prayers of the church

 

            -- prayer is something that has always been somewhat mysterious and misunderstood -- the Bible clearly tells us to pray -- to make our requests known to God -- Jesus prayed constantly throughout the gospels -- and His disciples longed to know how to pray as He did

            -- but then the Scriptures tell us that God knows our needs before we even mention them -- that He knows every word that we are going to say before they are formed on our tongue -- and He knows what He will do -- so, why pray?

            -- if God is just going to do what He wants regardless of our intercessions and pleas, why bother?

            -- well, we’re going to talk about that a little today and even if we don’t come up with any definitive answers, hopefully, we’ll leave here with at least a little more understanding of the nature of prayer and its relationship in the life of a Christian

 

            -- when it comes to prayer, I have always thought the prayers of our children were the best -- they come from innocent hearts, full of faith -- and their prayers carry truth and honest questions before the throne that we sometimes fail to do as adults

            -- I ran across some prayers offered up by children that I wanted to share with you as we open this message

-- Dear God, Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that, or was it an accident? ­ Norma

            -- Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that OK? ­ Neil

            -- Dear God, Thank you for my baby brother, but what I wanted was a puppy. ­ Joyce

            -- Dear God, It rained for our whole vacation and is my father mad! He said some things about you that people are not supposed to say, but I hope you won’t hurt him anyway. ­ Your Friend (but I’m not going to tell you who I am).

-- Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love all the people in the world. There are only four people in our family and I can never do it. ­ Nan

-- Dear God, I think about you sometimes, even when I’m not praying. ­ Elliot

 

-- you see what I mean? -- I just love these prayers! -- They’re so honest, aren’t they? -- so matter-of-fact -- you can see the hearts of these kids and how they relate to God

-- I’ve been in a lot of prayer meetings in my life -- I’ve sat around tables with others as everyone has taken turns praying -- and, I can tell you, our prayers as adults are usually not as real or as powerful as these prayers from the hearts of kids

-- and it’s common for us to hear about the prayers of the early church -- to hear that God moved and did such miraculous things as we read about hear in Acts in response to their great prayers -- but is that really true?

-- it’s obvious that the early church prayed -- we see that in Scripture -- they gathered to pray a lot -- you can honestly say that the early church was founded and saturated in prayer -- but were they that much better at praying than us? -- did God move only because of the depth of their prayers? -- is that why we don’t see Him moving in similar ways today?

-- or did God do miraculous things in spite of their feeble attempts at prayer? -- in spite of their failures in their prayer life? 

-- let’s look at this passage from Acts 12 at a prayer meeting of the early church and see what we can learn about their prayer life and about our own prayers in the process

 

II.  Scripture Lesson (Acts 12:1-19a)

            -- look with me again at verse 1

 

Acts 12:1 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

 

            -- to give you the context and background of this passage, Acts 12 opens somewhere around 43-44 AD, which we know for a certainty based upon the historical date for the death of King Herod, which was in 44 AD

            -- and, just so you know, this Herod is Herod Agrippa I -- he was the grandson of Herod the Great, who had all the babies killed in Bethlehem during the time of Jesus -- and the nephew of Herod Antipas, who had John the Baptist killed -- and, finally, he was the father of Herod Agrippa II, who we read about later in the Book of Acts as the judge in a court case against the Apostle Paul

 

-- so, the timeframe of this passage is about AD 43-44, about 9 years after the persecution of Stephen by the Jews

            -- after the death of Stephen, the early church had undergone a period of intense persecution led by Saul, Gamaliel’s disciple -- but after Saul’s experience with Christ on the Damascus Road and his subsequent conversion and transformation from Saul to the Apostle Paul, the church had lived in relative peace

            -- yes, there was some opposition to the gospel as it was shared in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria -- but for the most part, the persecution was minimal -- and the disciples were able to go to the temple to pray and preach and were not bothered to any great extent on a regular basis

            -- in this intervening time between Stephen’s martyrdom and the start of Chapter 12, the church had become comfortable -- complacent, even

-- some would even say it was on the verge of turning into another sect of Judaism -- another branch of the Jewish religion -- and, left alone, that is likely what would have happened

-- but that was not God’s plan and that was not what Jesus commanded in the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20 -- Jesus had told His disciples they were to make disciples and to carry the gospel from Jerusalem and Judea and into the whole world -- but as of yet, they hadn’t done so

-- as Chapter 12 opens, we see that the gospel had been carried to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but only to the Jews there -- the church is still operating as a Jewish sect -- it is only at the very beginning of Chapter 12 that we start to see some people sharing the gospel with the Greeks -- with the Gentiles -- but it is incidental -- not intentional

-- the early church was still very Jewish and was only spreading the gospel to the Jews, despite God’s commands

            -- and when the church fails to act as God commands, history shows that God will intervene -- in many cases, God allows persecution to come against the church in accordance with His will to force a change -- and history shows that when persecution comes, the church tends to grow -- sometimes, the church grows larger as it spreads geographically and more people come to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior -- and sometimes it grows deeper, as persecution forces people to truly decide what they believe and the extent their faith and belief is allowed to affect their personal lives

            -- that is where we are at the start of this chapter, as we see persecution once again coming against the church from high places -- it appears that God has allowed this to happen so that the church will begin to share the gospel with the Gentiles and carry it to the whole world, as Jesus commanded

            -- persecution becomes the catalyst for the start of the missionary outreach to the Gentiles that we read about in the rest of the Book of Acts, primarily through Paul’s missionary journeys -- so, Chapter 12 is pivotal in the Book of Acts and marks the start of the missionary movement in the early church

            -- moving on…

 

-- Luke tells us that Herod set out to arrest members of the church, intending to persecute them -- KJV and other translations phrase this as Herod “laid his hands on them” or “stretched forth his hands” -- Herod stretching forth his hands now may indicate that he had been bound in some way up to this point -- restrained by God from fully pouring out his evil intent on the church -- but now God has allowed this to occur, in accordance with His will

-- contrast this with what Scripture tells us about the hands of Jesus -- when He stretched forth His hands or laid them on others, it was to bring healing, restoration, and salvation

-- it reminds us that there are always hands reaching out to us, even today -- some stretch out their hands to bring good in our lives -- while others stretch out their hands like Herod, with designs for evil

 

-- so, as Herod stretched out his hands for evil to arrest the members of the church, one of those he managed to capture just happened to be James, the third highest leader in the church at that time

            -- this is James, the brother of John -- one of the Sons of Thunder, as Jesus called them -- one of the special group of disciples that Jesus continually singled out to be with Him on special occasions -- it was always Peter, James, and John -- this is that James

            -- Herod arrested him and persecuted him -- tortured him, in other words -- eventually, killing him by beheading him with the sword

            -- and, since the Jews applauded his action in killing James, Herod continued his campaign against the Christians -- capturing Peter, the leader of the church, and throwing him into prison with the intent of having him put to death, too

            -- the text says that Peter was going to have a public trial, but the outcome was already determined -- Peter was going to be executed -- Herod was not going to let him go

            -- so, how did the church react to the death of James and the subsequent capture of Peter?

 

            -- verse 5

 

5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

 

            -- the church earnestly prayed to God for him -- certainly, they were praying for his safety -- his release -- for a miracle to happen -- but given what had happened to James, you have to wonder how much hope they truly had for God to hear them and move in response to their prayers

            -- isn’t that true of all of us? -- like I talked about a few minutes ago, in honesty, we don’t pray like we should -- we don’t pray in complete faith that God will hear our prayers and respond accordingly

            -- we tend to resemble those that James talked about in James 1:5-8, who go to God and ask Him for wisdom and other blessings, but we ask with doubt and not in faith -- a condition that he calls double-minded

            -- and I would guess that the church here in Acts 12 was in the same place -- certainly, they had prayed for James with just as much intensity and earnestness as they are praying for Peter -- and then James had died

            -- so, Luke tells us here that they are earnestly praying for Peter, but are they really? -- or are they letting their doubts affect their prayers, as we do so often?

 

            -- very often, we read the Bible and we get the impression that the early church had it all together -- they were the pinnacle of Christianity -- they were united -- they were super faithful -- and their prayers were faith-filled and powerful

            -- but as we’ll see here, the early church really wasn’t that different from us -- they had divisions -- they argued among themselves -- they had doubts and misgivings -- and their prayers were not as faith-filled or powerful as we’ve been led to believe

            -- and that’s not a knock on the early church -- remember, our faith is not in them -- our faith is in Christ

            -- and when we begin to realize that the early church was just like us and when we see what God did through them, it should encourage us in our own faltering walk with Christ

            -- we begin to realize that the church didn’t begin to grow and spread to the whole world because of the strength and faith of its early members -- it grew despite them -- despite their doubts and weaknesses -- and if God can do miraculous things through them -- if God can move in miraculous ways in response to their faltering prayers -- then how much more can He do through ours, even if we think our prayers are less powerful and less effectual than the early church’s?

 

            -- verse 6

 

6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

 

8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

 

11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

 

12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

 

15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

 

            -- the night before Peter’s trial, as the church was earnestly praying for him, an angel of the Lord appeared in Peter’s cell -- now, keep in mind that Peter is guarded by 16 soldiers, with two of them chained to him, one on each side -- he’s in a cell behind locked doors, and the gate to the prison itself is locked

            -- the angel strikes Peter on his side to wake him up, which says a lot about Peter’s faith -- I’m not sure how deep I would sleeping on the night before a trial, knowing it is likely that I would be executed the next day

            -- but Peter is sleeping so soundly, he doesn’t wake up at the appearance of the angel, so the angel has to strike him on the side to wake him up and get his attention

            -- Peter doesn’t have a clue what’s going on -- he thinks it’s a dream -- but he does what the angel says -- he puts on his clothes and follows the angel past the guards and through the locked door and out the gate into the city

            -- when the angel leaves him, Peter finally realizes that this is real -- he is really outside the walls of the prison -- so, he immediately heads to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark -- just as an aside, a lot of people believe that Mary’s home was where Jesus held the last supper with His disciples -- so this was a place where the early church gathered -- and this where Peter knew he would find the church

            -- and we have to admit, despite any doubts the church might have had -- any hesitation or unbelief they might have carried with them -- they were there, praying together, in the middle of the night -- as Peter slept, the church prayed -- at the very least, they were persistent in their prayers -- probably more so than us

            -- and so, Peter knocks on the door and tells Rhoda to open up -- that he is there and has been released from prison -- Rhoda is so excited she runs back to tell the others without even opening the door first

            -- she exclaims, “Peter is at the door!” -- and here’s where we see evidence of the double-mindedness of the church -- even though they had gathered in the middle of the night to pray earnestly for Peter and for God to release him, when Rhoda tells them that Peter is there, they don’t believe her -- they say, “You’re crazy -- you’re out of your mind -- it can’t be Peter -- it must be his ghost” -- or his angel, depending on your translation

 

            -- verse 16

 

16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

 

18 In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. 19 After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.

 

            -- there’s Peter -- patiently knocking on the door as Rhoda has run off and not opened it -- eventually, the church followed Rhoda back to the door and, to their surprise, found Peter himself standing there

            -- he tells how God has rescued him from Herod’s prison, and asks them to tell the others about it -- this James he mentions here might be James the Lesser, who was one of the original Apostles, or it might be James, the brother of Jesus, the author of the Book of James -- who is now a believer and leader in the church

            -- so, after sharing the good news of his release from prison, Peter goes away, probably to a secret location known by the other leaders of the church, who undoubtedly were going to meet him there

            -- Herod discovered Peter had escaped, and then executed the guards for their failure to keep the prisoner in custody

 

III.  Application

-- this story revolves around prayer -- as we discussed, Luke tells us in verse 5 that the church was earnestly praying to God for Peter -- we can surely assume that they did the same for James -- in fact, it’s not a stretch to assume that their earlier prayers were more fervent -- more earnest -- than those they lifted up for Peter

-- if you think about it, they didn’t fully know Herod’s intent with James -- they probably prayed with full faith in God moving on his behalf and assumed that God would somehow deliver James from prison -- so I would guess their earlier prayers were more faith-filled

-- just like we were talking about with kids -- those first prayers for James were more real and more honest because they hadn’t had the experience of praying for something important and seeing God say, “No” -- they hadn’t experienced the disappointment of God not doing what they prayed for

-- and now, after James’ death, the church still gathers to pray, but their faith in prayer has to have been rocked -- I’m certain that their prayers now for Peter were more uncertain -- more doubt-filled -- more hesitant

-- as we saw, they were faithfully praying -- they were gathered together in the middle of the night praying for Peter -- but their response to Rhoda’s announcement that Peter was at the door showed they prayed with less faith and more doubts than before

-- so, make sure you are tracking what happened here -- the church prayed with complete and total faith for James’ release, and he was executed by Herod -- then the church prayed half-heartedly -- double-mindedly -- for Peter’s release, and didn’t believe it when it happened

-- what can we glean from this? -- what is the take-home message for us today in regards to prayers in our own lives and in the life of this church?

 

-- I think the first thing we need to really wrap our heads around and understand is that God is sovereign -- and sometimes God chooses to respond to our prayers in ways that we do not understand and that bring us earthly grief

-- James’ death, although carried out by Herod, was appointed and authorized by God -- and what may seem to us a life cut short was in reality the homecoming of a faithful servant and saint for God

-- we have to understand that for God, death is not the horrific and heart-rending affair it is for us -- it is not the bitter experience that the human mind thinks it is -- for if someone is a Christian, then at the moment of their passing, they are in the presence of God

-- so, while James was not delivered back into the hands of the church in a miraculous way as Peter was, his deliverance was no less miraculous as he was released from the hands of Herod into the awaiting arms of God

-- this is something the early church was starting to learn -- and this is something we have to learn and we have to remember when we earnestly pray for someone’s deliverance or for their healing and God doesn’t do what we ask for or expect -- the death of a loved one is not a failure of God or a failure on our part in praying for them -- but a gift of grace that we need to learn to celebrate and accept -- as the Bible says in Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of God is the death of His saints”

-- this is a hard lesson, but it’s one we must learn and accept as we continue to lift our prayers up earnestly and faithfully before the Father

-- as J.D. Walt shared in a devotional, there are three things we want to avoid when our prayers aren't answered according to our expectations:

 

-- First, we don't blame God -- God is sovereign -- God is in charge, not us -- and whatever happens is what God allows to occur -- we have to keep in mind that we live in a fallen world and that bad things happen to good people in this world -- that’s not God’s fault -- it’s a consequence of our sin

-- sometimes, God will act in miraculous ways to bring healing or deliverance in the face of evil -- but if God chooses not to act, what happens next is not His fault -- it is the direct consequence of living in a fallen world

 

-- Second, we don't blame the effectiveness of our prayers -- if someone dies, as James did in this passage, it’s not because our prayers were not up to snuff -- it’s not because we didn’t pray hard enough -- it’s not because we didn’t pray good enough -- it’s simply because God chose a different answer to what we were praying, and we have to accept that His decision is the best, even if we don’t understand it

-- think about what we’ve seen in this passage concerning the prayer life of the early church -- they were persistent in their prayers -- they gathered together to pray earnestly for James and for Peter -- but they weren’t uber-prayers, like we often think -- they prayed with the same doubts and hesitation that we pray with -- they probably struggled with words -- not knowing what to say or how to say it -- I would wager that their prayers weren’t the eloquently worded prayers that we see written down or that we hear from scholars and esteemed theologians today

-- no, their prayers were like ours -- faltering -- not eloquent or perfect -- just simple prayers lifted up in faith -- and the point is that God still heard them and still did miraculous things, despite their inability to pray like theologians

-- just as a mother hears the jumbled words of a toddler and understands what they need and gets up to meet those needs, so God hears our jumbled words of prayer and knows our needs and does what needs to be done in response to our cries for help

-- it’s not about the prayer itself -- it’s about the God we are praying to

 

-- and, finally, we don't blame the efficacy of the faith of those for whom we are praying or the faith of those who are praying

-- I once had a friend in the hospital who had been seriously hurt in an industrial activity -- his mother-in-law was there, and she tried to get me to agree with her that the reason he was hurt and wasn’t healed was because he didn’t have faith -- that is absolutely not true

-- James didn’t die because he didn’t have faith in God or because the faith of those gathered to pray for him in Mary’s home wasn’t strong enough -- Peter wasn’t released because he had more faith than James or because the faith of those praying for him was greater than that of those praying for James -- the result of prayer is up to God

-- I’ve had people ask me to pray for their situation because they believe God hears my prayers above theirs -- because my faith was stronger than them -- and I’ve told them, it’s not the strength of your faith that matters -- it’s not the eloquence of your prayer -- God hears our prayers, both when our faith is strong and our doubts overwhelm us and when the words just won’t come the way we want

 

-- I like the way J.D. put it:

 

“A lot of times when you are praying into a desperate situation it is going to feel like no one is home and no one cares. That is not true. Your feelings will deceive you. Your faith must lead you. Desperation keeps asking. Determination keeps seeking. Dogged audacity keeps knocking. God has created a realm for divine-human collaboration. It is called, "Prayer and Faith." On the one hand, prayer is so simple a child can grasp it. On the other hand, prayer is so complex and sophisticated a seasoned saint can't fully comprehend it.”

                       

            -- so, why pray? 

-- we pray because Jesus told us to pray -- because pray aligns our hearts and our will with Him -- prayer grows our relationship and teaches us to trust God in all things

-- we pray because prayer calls upon the resources of the Lord God Almighty -- when faced with overwhelming odds -- when faced with the reality of evil that comes from walking in this fallen world -- we can lose heart -- we can feel hopeless -- powerless -- but prayer changes everything -- prayer is the call of our hearts for help from the only One who is able to do something about our situations

-- and, finally, we pray because we love -- to go before God on behalf of another person is to love them, as Jesus commanded -- when we pray for someone’s healing -- for salvation -- for deliverance -- for help in their lives -- we are praying the love of Christ for them -- our prayers are an act of love on behalf of another

 

-- to quote J.D. Walt again:

 

“Could God prevent every unfortunate, hard, bad, and tragic thing from happening? Of course, God could do that. This is not the world we inhabit; nor the time we live in. There are two names for that world and time: Eden and Eschaton. In Eden, before the fall, human beings lived in perfect peace with the living God. In the Eschaton (the end of all things broken and the fulfillment of all things made new), we will live in the new creation with no more tears, no more darkness, and no more evil. For the moment, we live in a fallen and corrupted creation; in the time between Eden and Eschaton. We live on a battlefield.

 

“It is simply unreasonable to expect God to intervene in every single situation and resolve it to our expectations. What we don't realize is the overwhelming number of times God does intervene. The truth—the most significant intervention of God happened on the cross when he crushed sin and defeated death. The other thing we have a scant idea of is how the prayers of God's people figure into the extraordinary interventions of God. Prayer is the offense, the secret weapon, and the movement of divine love on the battlefield of the earth.”

 

-- as God’s church in this place, our call is simply to pray and to trust -- to pray without ceasing -- to pray earnestly -- so that our hearts might align with God’s -- our will might align with God’s -- and our relationship with Him might grow

            -- to pray is to believe -- to pray is to trust -- to pray is to have faith in God, no matter His decision -- the truth is some of our prayers will be answered according to our expectations and others will not -- but the decision is God’s -- and as His people, we have to trust that whatever happens is His will and is to our ultimate good

            -- and so, we pray despite our ability -- we pray even when we feel we don’t know how -- even when we don’t have the words to lift up or our words are not as smooth or eloquent as we would like

            -- we pray even when our faith is small and the mountain looms large and hope is fleeting because we know that it isn’t about the words we say or the prayer we lift up -- it’s about the God we are praying to -- the God we are crying out to for help in our situation

            -- and we trust that God will hear our hearts even if the words of faith don’t come and that He will do good for us and for those we pray for -- even if the good He chooses to do isn’t what we expected and even if we don’t understand or like His response

            -- we pray because God tells us to and because God wants us to call on Him -- to come to Him with our needs -- to share our lives with Him -- to tell Him about our day and our needs and what’s going on -- we pray because we are in a relationship with the Lord God Almighty and He is our Father and He loves us and cares what happens to us

            -- that is why we pray -- and that is the message that we need to take home from this passage today

            -- and with that, let us join together in prayer as we close this message