You might think I’m exaggerating but the story I am about to tell you is absolutely true. When Kathie worked for the British Consulate in Paris, she once had to calm down a man who had left his briefcase on a train. Thankfully the man’s details were marked on a label attached to the briefcase and it turned up, unopened, several hours later. Only then did Kathie see why the man had been so distressed about losing his luggage. He opened it up in front of the Consulate staff and it was chock full of banknotes! It’s one thing for a Civil Servant to lose a computer disk with sensitive or confidential files. But just absently leaving a briefcase full of cash on a train beggars belief doesn’t it? It was a surreal moment and people would be forgiven for thinking I’ve just made it up. I haven’t.
Today’s reading from Acts 12 might also leave you scratching your head. It has a similar “did that really happen?” feel to it. Just compare the situation at the beginning of the chapter to the one where we left off and you’re left with a major incident demanding a public inquiry. Either it’s incompetence on a Keystone Cops scale or it’s a fluke with incredible odds - an extraordinary escape from a heavily guarded jail which occurs at the very moment Christians are praying. If it’s neither clumsiness nor coincidence it’s a miracle.
The Background (v1-3)
Let’s look a little closer. Verses 1-3 give you some background. “It was about this time” we’re told “that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 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.”
It is the year 44 A.D. King Herod Agrippa - this is not the Herod you hear about at Christmas but actually his grandson - Herod had already had James beheaded which went down well with the Jews. Why? Because, at that time, they were feeling threatened. Synagogues were emptying and churches were growing. The successful spread of the Gospel was putting the future of Judaism in peril.
Herod was a puppet king, backed by Rome. If there was civil unrest on his watch the Romans would just get rid of him and impose direct rule. So Herod had to keep the Jews on his side. He could have just put taxes down. Always popular… but that would have meant cutbacks on his own extravagant lifestyle.
A much cheaper way to keep the Jews happy was to execute a public enemy. That’s why he ordered the trophy arrest of Simon Peter and he chose the week following the Passover to do it because the place was packed with Jewish people at that time. It was a golden opportunity to seize a leading Christian and behead him, thus bumping up his popularity rating and consolidating his power base. It seems Herod knew about Peter’s previous escape in Acts 5.19, so just to make sure lightning didn’t strike twice security was stepped up.
Impossible Odds (v4-6)
The list of security measures in v4-6 is to help us understand this; that escape was against overwhelming odds. It was Mission: Impossible. For a start, Peter wasn’t even awake so any credit for the breakout was nothing to do with him. Secondly, he was situated between two guards, so any movement he made he was an arm’s length from being pulled back. Thirdly, he was shackled to each of them by a length of iron chain. Fourthly, his cell was locked shut. Fifthly, there were additional sentries stationed outside the cell, just in case. And sixthly, there was the small matter of the outer prison wall.
Verse 4 says that Herod had Peter secured by four squads of soldiers. The four sets of guards would have each consisted of four men each, making 16, and they would have rotated their watch every few hours around the clock. Herod made sure that there was no possible way that Peter would get away this time.
I think we can conclude that it was a hopeless outlook for Peter. Death by decapitation was a few days away and even Houdini and the cast of Prison Break would be hard pushed to get out of this one.
The Escape (v7-11)
But v7-11 explain, step by step, how the power of God breaks into the realm of the impossible and unlocks every door. We know that nothing is impossible for God. The love he proved by enduring the cross can melt the heart of the most hardened criminal. His voice stills the most violent storm. His power heals the deadliest disease. His authority brings down the most evil regimes. “His blood can make the foulest clean.”
Jeremiah 32.17 says “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you… Great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord Almighty, great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds… You performed signs and wonders in Egypt and have continued them to this day.”
Yes, he has! A couple of years ago, I read Brother Yun’s book, “The Heavenly Man.” Yun is a Christian from China who spent years hunted down, beaten and locked up for his faith. After serving many years of a long custodial sentence, he broke out of Zhengzhou Maximum Security prison, from which nobody had previously escaped. He describes in the book how he heard the voice of the Holy Spirit telling him to simply walk out of the heavily guarded series of prison gates. Risking being shot on the spot, he walked, heart pounding, straight past many prison guards, through several iron gates that were inexplicably standing open. He walked across the prison yard and finally out of the main gate.
Yun says that it was as if he had become invisible to the guards who stared straight through him. Many have naturally expressed doubts that any such a thing could have occured, but records show that some prison guards did lose their jobs for an ‘embarrassing mishap’ at that time. The book says that an official investigation by the Chinese Government concluded that “Yun received no human help in his escape.” Yun’s testimony has been also confirmed by numerous inmates who were detained at that time. To this day, Brother Yun is the only person to ever have escaped from this notorious maximum security jail.
It’s a remarkable account and, like this one in Acts 12, it bears the hallmarks of a factual report. In Acts, there is no attempt to build Peter up as a kind of mythical hero which a propaganda story might do. The way Peter is unceremoniously woken up in v7 with a thump in the ribs is rather unflattering. The account of what the angel said to do in v8 is incidental. In other words it appears that is only there because someone remembered things happening that way. In v9 Peter is again portrayed as a dithering antihero – clueless and half asleep, not a superman who singlehandedly overcame the mighty Roman Empire. Verse 10 looks very similar to what Brother Yun experienced in China, walking through doors that open in front of him one by one. It isn’t until v11 that Peter realizes he isn’t dreaming. Again, a detail that has a ring of authenticity about it.
I think it’s worth saying too that the New Testament is honest about other men who weren’t released and who died in prison. Both John the Baptist and James were executed and it says so here. If every imprisonment resulted in a miraculous release it might look artificial, but there is no attempt to hide the fact that some believers died in prison and were not miraculously released.
For all those reasons I take this as a factual, trustworthy and true account of what happened that night. Nothing is impossible with God.
Whatever pain you carry, whatever hardship you bear, whatever despair you face, whatever suffering you endure, know this; God is able.
And I want to say this, at the beginning of our four year vision that every household in our parish will know that we are a vibrant Christian community ready to
. pray for them
. serve them practically and
. invite them to encounter Jesus Christ…
…that God is able… especially when Christians pray - which is what I want to turn to now.
When Christians Pray (v12)
It is our goal that every household in our parish will know that we are a vibrant Christian community ready to pray for them.
While an angel was escorting a half-asleep prisoner out of jail, Christians, we’re told, were praying “fervently.” What do you think praying fervently looks like?
The Greek adverb translated “fervently” is in fact a medical term which was used to describe the stretching of a muscle to its extreme limits. This was prayer stretched as far as it could go. The same word is used in Luke 22:44 for the way Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke writes, “Being in anguish, [Jesus] prayed more earnestly, (there’s the word again - fervently) and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
The believers in Acts 12 were praying like Jesus prayed; fervently, passionately, wholeheartedly, energetically. When they prayed the answer was “yes” and that’s why Peter was released. When Jesus prayed the answer was “no” and that’s why we’re here today, because Jesus drank the cup of suffering that God did not take away, he went to the cross, he died so that sin can be taken away, and then he rose again. In both cases that stretched praying led to great release; release from jail and release from sin.
Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray - I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
Fervent prayer... Do you want to pray like Jesus prayed? It doesn’t even mean you need great faith. Did these Christians have super strong faith? No! When Peter actually turned up they didn’t believe it was him and kept on praying!
Clearly, they were not expecting their prayer to be answered – at least any time soon. But even with a little faith, God is a great God, and when there is fervent prayer he moves.
Ending
I feel that God spoke to me when I was on holiday over the summer. I was reading a book called “Just Walk Across the Room” about which you’ll be hearing more next year. Near the end of the book the author Bill Hybels says this, and it’s such a salutary word for extraverts like me who work long hours and find it hard to slow down or switch off. Here’s what it said: “When I work, I work. When I pray, God works.” Slide 6
Pray for your neighbours. Pray at work. Pray with your children. If you live outside the parish pray for the streets as you drive through it. Pray in home groups. Pray when you can’t get to sleep at night. Pray in triplets. Pray at prayer breakfast. Pray as couples. Pray with friends. There’s no short cut to seeing God move in power – you’ve got to pray fervently or he just won’t.
Do you remember in Acts 18 when God spoke to Paul in a vision? “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”
I feel the Lord would say to us this morning, “Don’t be afraid; keep praying, do not be silent. I am with you because I have many people in this parish.” Do you feel God is stirring you to pray?
This month all our evening services are going to be a space for fervent prayer for our parish as we prepare to invite every household to come to Alpha. Next month in our morning services we’re going to try and get a grip on prayer, looking at how Abraham, Moses, Isaiah and other biblical heroes prayed. If we’re going to be a powerhouse of prayer we’ve got to start by being a school of prayer.
This area is where the Lord has placed you and he has placed you here for a purpose. It is no accident that you are here at this time. God said to the exiles through Jeremiah, “Increase in number there; do not decrease. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you... Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29.7).
Let’s pray…
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 4th September 2010
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