When the Church Prays Look Out!

Exodus 39; Exodus 40; Psalm 15; Acts 12

Scripture

Acts 12:5 “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”

Peter's Miraculous Escape From Prison

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 pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast 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. 7Suddenly 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 sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating."
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 girl 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 brothers about this," he said, and then he left for another place.
18In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. 19After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.

Observation

God does have a sense of humor and we see it revealed a lot in scripture. This is one of those passages where it shows! The church is praying for Peter’s release and God sends an angel to save him. Peter goes and knocks on the door where the church is praying and when told by the servant girl that Peter was at the door knocking they told the girl that she was crazy. Finally, Peter keeps on knocking and they finally let him in! We pray sometimes and when God answers we don’t believe it. Some things don’t change do they!


Application

This past week one of the ladies in our church was scheduled for surgery to remove a lump in a breast. Just before the surgery the doctor decided to do an MRI and to everyone’s amazement the lump was gone! They went ahead and did an exploratory surgery only to find out that there was no lump and no cancer! God is so good. He answers the prayers of his saints!


Prayer

Heavenly Father, when I pray for the sick help me to realize that prayer is powerful and you love for us to pray for you. Father, remind me to pray to you about everything no matter how small. Thank you for answering my prayer to let Coach Tony Dungy win the Super Bowl. I realize that prayers were going up to you for both teams and both coaches, but thanks for letting Tony win.



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