Peter's Miraculous Escape - Acts 12

12 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.

King Herod is now searching for and arresting the leaders of the church so he can persecute them and execute them.  Up until now it has been the religious leaders in Jerusalem, now it is the government.  This King Herod is the grandson of the King Herod that tried to kill Jesus as a child (Agrippa I).  This persecution of the Christians is met with approval by the Jewish leaders which makes Herod more popular. 

Festival of Unleavened Bread – Seven-day festival after Passover.  It involves removing yeast from the home for seven days.  Bread is to made without it.  When the Hebrews were leaving Egypt, they were told by God to take everything and go, don’t even let the bread rise.  Just bake it and go.  Yeast less bread is called Matzo.  Then God told them to commemorate this event by removing the yeast from the home for seven days.  (The yeast represents sin.  Once yeast has entered bread, it is impossible for man to get it out.  Therefore, the yeast has to be removed before it enters the bread.  Like sin in our lives, it is impossible to get sin out of our life by ourselves.  The bread we make has sin in it, but the Bread of Life, Jesus, is perfect and without sin.  The feast reminds Christians that we can’t get the sin out and only God through Jesus can remove sin.)

Paul wrote concerning this: Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. – 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Sixteen soldiers are guarding Peter.  That’s a lot of soldiers for one person.  Especially one that hasn’t killed anyone and isn’t violent.  There are guards at the entrance to his prison and he is personally bound to two guards.  This is a very tight security for this one person.

Verse 5 is the best verse in this passage.  “Peter was kept in prison, BUT the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”  That’s a big sentence.  What does earnest prayer look like?  There are many things that happen to many of our members, BUT do we earnestly pray for them?  What victories do we have as a church?  Where is the victory wall where we share how God answered prayers for the encouragement of one another? 

Why did God miraculously save Peter but allow James to be martyred?  It is God’s sovereign will.  He is in control of life and death, we are not.  If God were to ask me, I am sure I would have different views of who should stay alive and who should be killed; of who should be healed and who should not be healed; of who should be allowed to have children and who should be barren.  But He doesn’t ask me because I would get it wrong.  Only God knows what is best for the world as a whole and what leads to the proper end of His design.  However, we are encouraged to pray for the earnest prayers of His children are a perfume to God and He has changed things over compassion for His own.  

Peter is in prison and will certainly be killed, and as bad as that is it does not compare to this, the church is earnest praying to God for him.  The church praying to God for Peter overcame Peter’s jail sentence because God intervened.  We must become praying people who earnestly pray for one another.

Peter gets to experience an angel and have a miraculous escape.  His hands either pass through the shackles or the shackles just pop open.  It’s a miracle escape and they just walk out right in front of the guards.  No one wakes up.  It is truly a miracle.  Why does the angel tell Peter to get dressed?  Because he thinks it’s a dream.  He would have just walked out with the angel.  He is safely out before he realizes what has happened.  Peter was really blessed with the ability to sleep in any circumstance.  To be able to sleep between two men in a prison fully aware that you’ll be killed tomorrow.  He had a comforting faith that kept his mind at peace.  It’s such a miracle that the people praying for him don’t believe it is actually him at the door.  They are earnestly praying for him and then he shows up and everyone is surprised.  They don’t believe it is him.  In fact, they think it is his spirit (angel) and he is already dead.  Why?  Why do we not pray expecting a miracle?  Why do we not pray trusting God with our prayer?

The term “no small commotion” is a dramatic understatement to say that there was a massive investigation among the guards and search for Peter.  Herod has all the guards executed.  Wow.  That’s a violent response to a miraculous escape.  He does this to show that Peter has escaped because of human error, not because of some divine miracle. 

What are you praying for today?  Are you afraid to expect it to be answered in a miraculous manner by the living God?