Praying And Freedom Under The Shadow
Bible Study
Forrest E. Chaffee
Following the Footsteps of Simon Peter
Object:
About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. After he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (This was during the festival of Unleavened Bread.) When he had seized him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.
-- Acts 12:1-5
The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his wrists. The angel said to him, "Fasten your belt and put on your sandals." He did so. Then he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel's help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."
-- Acts 12:6-11
As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many had gathered and were praying. When he knocked at the outer gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. On recognizing Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, "You are out of your mind!" But she insisted that it was so. They said, "It is his angel." Meanwhile Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed.
He motioned to them with his hand to be silent, and described for them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he added, "Tell this to James and to the believers." Then he left and went to another place. When morning came, there was no small commotion among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. When Herod had searched for him and could not find him, he examined the guards and ordered them to be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.
-- Acts 12:12-19
For freedom Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
-- Galatians 5:1
Believe it or not, there are such things as colored shadows. If white light is produced by separate colored light sources, the shadows are colored. Then we are told that in the absence of white light, colored lights blocked by an opaque surface, cast shadows in the colors complimentary to the lights blocked. For green light, red shadows and vice versa; for blue light, orange shadows and vice versa; for yellow light, purple shadows and vice versa. Wow! If you haven't seen this phenomenon it is hard to believe.
Peter's shadow is colored and dramatic in its influence on the development of the early church. We have seen how Peter's denial and then his experience of the risen Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Galilee assured him of his forgiveness and energized his spirit. After being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, he proclaimed such a powerful sermon that 3,000 people were baptized and the early church began. Peter continued his great leadership by healing the sick and proclaiming the good news of Jesus with great boldness even in the face of opposition and the threat of imprisonment. Under his ongoing leadership, the church became united and strong. Any threats of disloyalty and deceit were weeded out as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. And yes, we have seen Peter through visions and much wrestling of mind and spirit become enabled to make the decision to accept the Roman centurion, Cornelius, and his family and friends into the fellowship and membership of the early church through their baptism and profession of faith.
The shadow of Simon Peter as it continued its influence upon the church was colored by great leadership, faithfulness, and conviction. Such qualities are further colored by Peter's ability to change his course of direction so that the bringing of the gospel of Jesus Christ begins to go out to all the people -- both Jews and Gentiles.
Persecution Under King Herod
We return to our story and discover that the early Christian church now endures a time of persecution under King Herod Agrippa who was a grandson of Herod the Great and a nephew of Herod Antipas who had murdered John the Baptist. His opportunistic approach to leadership began during his training at Rome with the influence of Caligula, the selfish and egotistic son of the emperor. Finally he was appointed to rule in Palestine and was given power in stages, until he ruled over the largest realm of any man since his grandfather.1 When you look at the history of Herod you discover he was a direct descendant of the Maccabees through his mother, Mariamne, and had learned to skillfully cultivate the favor of the Jewish people by meticulously keeping the law and all Jewish observances. In order to gain even further popularity with the Orthodox Jews, he begins a persecution of the Christians by having the apostle James beheaded.2 For this act he received such praise from the leaders of the Jews he decided to go after the principal leader of the Christians, namely, Simon Peter. The city of Jerusalem was crowded with pilgrims from around the known world because of the Passover feast and what better time in the mind of Herod to imprison Peter and then to make a public spectacle of his execution.
The Imprisonment Of Peter
Now we are face-to-face with a story that is not only full of drama and excitement, but also the unexpected. It is a story full of twists and turns as well as surprises and humor, and it is a story involving Christians gathered together in persistent prayer. In the dry and tough periods of life we, too, can pray expectantly, even impatiently, almost with a sense of resignation, only to discover that like those early Christians, we can be surprised at how God answers our prayers in remarkable ways, giving us a freedom and release we never envisioned.
As Herod carried out his plans to imprison Peter and then have him publicly executed, he wanted to make sure that there was no possible way that Peter could escape. So when Peter was imprisoned, he was placed in jail and bound not with one chain, but two. He was chained not to one soldier, but two. He had to sleep being chained between two soldiers! Furthermore, he was guarded by four squads of soldiers during the four watches of three hours each during the night. These soldiers would have been very zealous and careful in their guarding, because the law stated quite clearly that if a prisoner was allowed to escape, those who permitted it would suffer the same punishment as the prisoner. We are told that while Peter was kept in prison, the Christians gathered together and "prayed fervently to God for him" (Acts 12:5).
The Praying Fellowship
Surely those who prayed felt that it would almost be impossible for Peter to escape. In a sense, there was nothing those people could do but pray. Their own lives were in danger, also! I am sure they prayed that somehow Peter could be released and not killed, and yet the prayers would have been with a sense of resignation, almost despair. After all, the great apostle James had already been beheaded, and they had prayed for him. Even so, they could at least pray that Peter be sustained and strengthened in this ordeal. At the same time, I am sure that the Christians who gathered to pray were quite aware of many answered prayers and that given the circumstances they and Peter were facing -- there was no more powerful weapon than prayer.
One of the problems that we all face is not how to pray, but what we should pray in the face of suffering, sickness, and great ordeals including dying and death. In my calling on the sick and the dying through the years, whenever the doctors let it be known that a person's illness was final and that death was near, it never seemed appropriate to pray for a miraculous cure. Rather, there was a committal of the person into the hands of a merciful and loving God and the conviction that nothing, not even death, could separate us from the love and presence of our God.
Lloyd Ogilvie who served many years as senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California, and then went on to become the Chaplain of the United States Senate, knows something about praying daily for others and especially the leaders of our country. It is helpful to me when he comments on the Christians praying for Peter with these words:
When a person we love is troubled, we wonder what is best. We are reluctant to be specific in our intercession because we fear telling God what we think is best. We get into the muddle of what's our will versus what is God's will, as if the two could not be the same. Years of trying to learn how and what to pray for others have taught me to spend more time listening to what the Lord wants me to ask than in asking. Then the asking can be what He is more ready to give than I may have the courage to ask.3
How well I remember a woman in one of my parishes who was in her eighties and yet in the best of condition, in fact, she even went jogging several times a week. One day she developed a severe infection in one of her legs and it became worse and worse until finally there was no solution but to amputate the leg. After the leg had been amputated, and great healing had taken place, she was fitted with a prosthetic and was finally able to be quite active. After another period of time, her other leg became infected and had to be amputated as well. When I visited her after the surgery I asked her how she felt and if she had any severe pain, she replied, "You know ... what little is left of me is pretty good!" As a pastor praying for healing it was uplifting to see her radiant faith and spirit even though her legs were not spared. I believe that when it comes to praying for others we need to listen carefully and then to ask boldly, knowing that whatever the answer, it is part of God's plan and purpose.
An Escape From Prison
As we return to Peter's imprisonment, we come face-to-face with an exciting account of an escape into freedom. An angel appears in Peter's cell and a light surrounds them. We can't help noticing that Peter is sound asleep, in fact, so deep in sleep that he has to be jarred awake! Even though he is between two soldiers and knows that his execution is near, he sleeps with a great trust in our God. The angel treats him as if caring for a child telling him to get up quickly, at which time the chains fell off his wrists. Then he is told to fasten his belt and to put on his sandals and then to wrap his cloak around him in order to be prepared for the cold night air. They simply walked by the first and second stations of guards and then outside. When they approached the gate into the city, it opened of its own accord. Not until Peter found himself walking down a street in Jerusalem did he come fully to his senses and realized an angel of the Lord had helped him and he had been set free! Peter, with the miraculous help of God, had gone from the chains of imprisonment to freedom and from certain death to life, and it produced within him an exuberant kind of joy and thanksgiving.
Peter now sought out his brothers and sisters in Christ for he wanted to share with them his newfound joy and freedom. That's the way Peter was! Since the day of Pentecost when he had been filled with the power of the Spirit, he was always eager to share with others not only his joys but his failures and mistakes, as well. When the realization came to him that he really was free, he made his way to the home of the mother of John Mark, the site of the upper room, and the place where the Christians were gathered together in prayer for Peter.
What follows is filled with joy and humor. There was an outer court that surrounded the home with a great fence and a heavy wooden gate that was the only way to get into the home and of course, it was tightly locked. Every precaution for safety had been taken to make certain that those gathered within would be protected from Herod and his soldiers. In the middle of the night we find Peter knocking and knocking at the gate and looking around the empty street expecting the soldiers to come after him at any moment.
We are told that a young woman by the name of Rhoda was sent by the Christians gathered to see who could possibly be at the gate. She is startled to hear the voice of Peter from the other side of the gate and she becomes so excited that instead of unlocking the gate she runs back to tell them that Peter is there! Although they have been praying for Peter, they look at Rhoda incredulously. They believe that in the danger of the moment, she has completely lost her senses and so they say to her, "You are out of your mind!" Really, the original Greek word here has them saying, "You are out of touch with reality." But when she insists that Peter is really there they reply that it must be his angel. It was believed in those days that everyone had a guardian angel and so the people either believed that the angel was doing his job of protecting and strengthening Peter, or worse yet, that Peter had already been beheaded and that it was his spirit at the gate.
Peter kept knocking persistently and I'm sure continued to look anxiously around. When they finally let Peter inside they were astonished beyond measure and were filled with praise and thanksgiving and unbelievable joy as they listened to their beloved Peter tell of his miraculous escape from imprisonment and certain death.
Before Peter left to find a safe hiding place for a time he gave the group an interesting command, "Tell this to James and to the believers." This James was the brother of Jesus who had become the president of the church. We remind ourselves that Jesus had four brothers whose names were: James, Joses, Judas, and Simon, along with at least two sisters. During the public ministry of Jesus, these brothers did not support him and they actually thought that he was mad and often took offense at him (Mark 6:3; John 7:5). But something happened when Jesus was killed. Perhaps James as the next oldest brother watched Jesus die and was strongly influenced by how he died and what happened afterward. The apostle Paul speaks of the resurrection appearances of Jesus saying that first of all he appeared to Peter, then to the twelve, and then to more than 500 brothers and sisters at one time, most of them still alive -- indicating that they could have been 500 youth. Then Paul said Jesus appeared to his brother James, and then to all the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:3-7). It strikes me that this appearance of the resurrected Jesus to his brother must have been very emotional and meaningful and certainly affected James the rest of his life. I am sure that Jesus, after his death, singling out his brother, James, freed him from the chains of misunderstanding and gave him a whole new abundant life. Peter, now freed from his prison, wants this James to know of his escape from prison and death and that it happened miraculously by the power of God. And such a power is available to you and to me.
The Power To Escape From That Which Imprisons Us
My friends, from the time that we are young we can be chained down by our fears, even small ones. I want to affirm that God's help can come to us even through the very young. Come with me to a third-grade classroom. There is an eight-year-old boy sitting at his desk and all of a sudden there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It has never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.
The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, "Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat."
He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered. As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, "Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!"
Now, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else -- Susie. She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. "You've done enough, you klutz!"
Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Susie whispers back, "I wet my pants once, too."
I believe from the time we are very young, we can be imprisoned by fears that can be relieved by the Lord our God working through someone else. You and I can be instruments of the Lord God freeing someone else from their fears and in the process we all become more alive than ever.
No matter how old we are, there are many things that can enslave and imprison us. There are many things that can keep us from the abundant overflowing life that Jesus wants for you and me. We can be enslaved by drugs and addictions of all kinds. Every twelve-step program that I have seen reminds us that we can't overcome the enslavement by ourselves. We need a higher power and for many of you dear readers -- it is to have a new and restored relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior. We can be enslaved by fears of all kinds and by physical, mental, and emotional handicaps. The Lord our God can help us as he helped Peter of old to break our chains and scale the heights of endurance we have never known before.
From the time he was 25 years old, Tom Whitaker, who resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, has focused his life on being a climber. At first he experimented with climbing higher and higher rocks, then the steep hills, and finally the mountains. But his career as a climber of high places appeared to hit rock bottom when he was involved in a collision with a drunken driver on Thanksgiving Day in 1974. After the crash, he was hospitalized with two shattered legs and a severed foot and wound up with severely damaged knees, which caused him to have his right kneecap removed and his right foot amputated.
"I was a bag of broken bones in a hospital, and people would sit beside me and weep," said Whitaker. "They had written me off. They figured I'd never climb again." However, inside of Tom Whitaker was God's great gift of endurance and with the aid of a special prosthetic device he learned to walk and climb higher and higher each day. Within his goal of two years, he climbed the Outer Limits in Yosemite (Valley, California) and then set his sights on the ultimate challenge for a mountain climber: Mount Everest. His first two attempts to reach the top of the world's tallest peak were unsuccessful. But on May 27, 1998, he completed the ascent, becoming the first disabled person in history to reach the top, where he deposited a rock that had been given to him by a teammate who said to him, "I want you to take this rock to the very top of the mountain where it belongs!"
On November 4, 2006, he received an award from Queen Elizabeth II of his native England during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace. She honored Whitaker for his service to disabled people and for inspiring them to break some of the chains of their restrictions and also for his ongoing service to mountain climbers. He recalls the special decorations of the palace and most vividly he remembers almost tripping before the queen!
"I knew the protocol about not putting your back to her, so I had to walk backward when we were done," he said. "I was worried that with the prosthesis I might trip. Here I am getting an award for mountain climbing and I had visions of falling flat on my face in front of the Queen."4 Yes, fears and disabilities could have imprisoned him for life, but God's great gifts of endurance and desire gave him and can give us a whole new life of freedom.
Simon Peter knew all about imprisonments and the threats of death. His miraculous escape from prison gave him a new sense of freedom within. Certainly he had the freedom to act on his convictions for he knew the risen Lord was with him, no matter what, and now nothing could prevent him from preaching the gospel not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles and to the world. Under the mighty colored and colorful shadow of Simon Peter we can be freed up to go and tell the story of God's love and mercy to our children and our children's children.
Believe it or not there are such things as colored shadows.
____________
1. Lloyd J. Ogilvie, The Communicator's Commentary -- Acts (Waco: Word Books, 1983), p. 197.
2. William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1955), pp. 98-102.
3. Op cit, Ogilvie, pp. 198-199.
4. This story is from the East Valley Tribune, Mesa, Arizona, December 11, 2006.
Reflection And Discussion
Thought Questions
1. What was the reaction of the early church to Peter's imprisonment?
2. What are the things that imprison us and keep us from the abundant life?
3. How do we break away from those things that imprison us?
4. How do you feel about the fact that God saved Peter and not the apostle James?
Agree Or Disagree
* We should always end a prayer for healing with the words, "If it be your will."
* Oftentimes we pray for something not really expecting an answer.
* God always hears and answers prayer.
* The more persistent we are in prayer the more answers we receive.
* Group prayer is more powerful than praying alone.
-- Acts 12:1-5
The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his wrists. The angel said to him, "Fasten your belt and put on your sandals." He did so. Then he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel's help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."
-- Acts 12:6-11
As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many had gathered and were praying. When he knocked at the outer gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. On recognizing Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, "You are out of your mind!" But she insisted that it was so. They said, "It is his angel." Meanwhile Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed.
He motioned to them with his hand to be silent, and described for them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he added, "Tell this to James and to the believers." Then he left and went to another place. When morning came, there was no small commotion among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. When Herod had searched for him and could not find him, he examined the guards and ordered them to be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.
-- Acts 12:12-19
For freedom Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
-- Galatians 5:1
Believe it or not, there are such things as colored shadows. If white light is produced by separate colored light sources, the shadows are colored. Then we are told that in the absence of white light, colored lights blocked by an opaque surface, cast shadows in the colors complimentary to the lights blocked. For green light, red shadows and vice versa; for blue light, orange shadows and vice versa; for yellow light, purple shadows and vice versa. Wow! If you haven't seen this phenomenon it is hard to believe.
Peter's shadow is colored and dramatic in its influence on the development of the early church. We have seen how Peter's denial and then his experience of the risen Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Galilee assured him of his forgiveness and energized his spirit. After being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, he proclaimed such a powerful sermon that 3,000 people were baptized and the early church began. Peter continued his great leadership by healing the sick and proclaiming the good news of Jesus with great boldness even in the face of opposition and the threat of imprisonment. Under his ongoing leadership, the church became united and strong. Any threats of disloyalty and deceit were weeded out as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. And yes, we have seen Peter through visions and much wrestling of mind and spirit become enabled to make the decision to accept the Roman centurion, Cornelius, and his family and friends into the fellowship and membership of the early church through their baptism and profession of faith.
The shadow of Simon Peter as it continued its influence upon the church was colored by great leadership, faithfulness, and conviction. Such qualities are further colored by Peter's ability to change his course of direction so that the bringing of the gospel of Jesus Christ begins to go out to all the people -- both Jews and Gentiles.
Persecution Under King Herod
We return to our story and discover that the early Christian church now endures a time of persecution under King Herod Agrippa who was a grandson of Herod the Great and a nephew of Herod Antipas who had murdered John the Baptist. His opportunistic approach to leadership began during his training at Rome with the influence of Caligula, the selfish and egotistic son of the emperor. Finally he was appointed to rule in Palestine and was given power in stages, until he ruled over the largest realm of any man since his grandfather.1 When you look at the history of Herod you discover he was a direct descendant of the Maccabees through his mother, Mariamne, and had learned to skillfully cultivate the favor of the Jewish people by meticulously keeping the law and all Jewish observances. In order to gain even further popularity with the Orthodox Jews, he begins a persecution of the Christians by having the apostle James beheaded.2 For this act he received such praise from the leaders of the Jews he decided to go after the principal leader of the Christians, namely, Simon Peter. The city of Jerusalem was crowded with pilgrims from around the known world because of the Passover feast and what better time in the mind of Herod to imprison Peter and then to make a public spectacle of his execution.
The Imprisonment Of Peter
Now we are face-to-face with a story that is not only full of drama and excitement, but also the unexpected. It is a story full of twists and turns as well as surprises and humor, and it is a story involving Christians gathered together in persistent prayer. In the dry and tough periods of life we, too, can pray expectantly, even impatiently, almost with a sense of resignation, only to discover that like those early Christians, we can be surprised at how God answers our prayers in remarkable ways, giving us a freedom and release we never envisioned.
As Herod carried out his plans to imprison Peter and then have him publicly executed, he wanted to make sure that there was no possible way that Peter could escape. So when Peter was imprisoned, he was placed in jail and bound not with one chain, but two. He was chained not to one soldier, but two. He had to sleep being chained between two soldiers! Furthermore, he was guarded by four squads of soldiers during the four watches of three hours each during the night. These soldiers would have been very zealous and careful in their guarding, because the law stated quite clearly that if a prisoner was allowed to escape, those who permitted it would suffer the same punishment as the prisoner. We are told that while Peter was kept in prison, the Christians gathered together and "prayed fervently to God for him" (Acts 12:5).
The Praying Fellowship
Surely those who prayed felt that it would almost be impossible for Peter to escape. In a sense, there was nothing those people could do but pray. Their own lives were in danger, also! I am sure they prayed that somehow Peter could be released and not killed, and yet the prayers would have been with a sense of resignation, almost despair. After all, the great apostle James had already been beheaded, and they had prayed for him. Even so, they could at least pray that Peter be sustained and strengthened in this ordeal. At the same time, I am sure that the Christians who gathered to pray were quite aware of many answered prayers and that given the circumstances they and Peter were facing -- there was no more powerful weapon than prayer.
One of the problems that we all face is not how to pray, but what we should pray in the face of suffering, sickness, and great ordeals including dying and death. In my calling on the sick and the dying through the years, whenever the doctors let it be known that a person's illness was final and that death was near, it never seemed appropriate to pray for a miraculous cure. Rather, there was a committal of the person into the hands of a merciful and loving God and the conviction that nothing, not even death, could separate us from the love and presence of our God.
Lloyd Ogilvie who served many years as senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California, and then went on to become the Chaplain of the United States Senate, knows something about praying daily for others and especially the leaders of our country. It is helpful to me when he comments on the Christians praying for Peter with these words:
When a person we love is troubled, we wonder what is best. We are reluctant to be specific in our intercession because we fear telling God what we think is best. We get into the muddle of what's our will versus what is God's will, as if the two could not be the same. Years of trying to learn how and what to pray for others have taught me to spend more time listening to what the Lord wants me to ask than in asking. Then the asking can be what He is more ready to give than I may have the courage to ask.3
How well I remember a woman in one of my parishes who was in her eighties and yet in the best of condition, in fact, she even went jogging several times a week. One day she developed a severe infection in one of her legs and it became worse and worse until finally there was no solution but to amputate the leg. After the leg had been amputated, and great healing had taken place, she was fitted with a prosthetic and was finally able to be quite active. After another period of time, her other leg became infected and had to be amputated as well. When I visited her after the surgery I asked her how she felt and if she had any severe pain, she replied, "You know ... what little is left of me is pretty good!" As a pastor praying for healing it was uplifting to see her radiant faith and spirit even though her legs were not spared. I believe that when it comes to praying for others we need to listen carefully and then to ask boldly, knowing that whatever the answer, it is part of God's plan and purpose.
An Escape From Prison
As we return to Peter's imprisonment, we come face-to-face with an exciting account of an escape into freedom. An angel appears in Peter's cell and a light surrounds them. We can't help noticing that Peter is sound asleep, in fact, so deep in sleep that he has to be jarred awake! Even though he is between two soldiers and knows that his execution is near, he sleeps with a great trust in our God. The angel treats him as if caring for a child telling him to get up quickly, at which time the chains fell off his wrists. Then he is told to fasten his belt and to put on his sandals and then to wrap his cloak around him in order to be prepared for the cold night air. They simply walked by the first and second stations of guards and then outside. When they approached the gate into the city, it opened of its own accord. Not until Peter found himself walking down a street in Jerusalem did he come fully to his senses and realized an angel of the Lord had helped him and he had been set free! Peter, with the miraculous help of God, had gone from the chains of imprisonment to freedom and from certain death to life, and it produced within him an exuberant kind of joy and thanksgiving.
Peter now sought out his brothers and sisters in Christ for he wanted to share with them his newfound joy and freedom. That's the way Peter was! Since the day of Pentecost when he had been filled with the power of the Spirit, he was always eager to share with others not only his joys but his failures and mistakes, as well. When the realization came to him that he really was free, he made his way to the home of the mother of John Mark, the site of the upper room, and the place where the Christians were gathered together in prayer for Peter.
What follows is filled with joy and humor. There was an outer court that surrounded the home with a great fence and a heavy wooden gate that was the only way to get into the home and of course, it was tightly locked. Every precaution for safety had been taken to make certain that those gathered within would be protected from Herod and his soldiers. In the middle of the night we find Peter knocking and knocking at the gate and looking around the empty street expecting the soldiers to come after him at any moment.
We are told that a young woman by the name of Rhoda was sent by the Christians gathered to see who could possibly be at the gate. She is startled to hear the voice of Peter from the other side of the gate and she becomes so excited that instead of unlocking the gate she runs back to tell them that Peter is there! Although they have been praying for Peter, they look at Rhoda incredulously. They believe that in the danger of the moment, she has completely lost her senses and so they say to her, "You are out of your mind!" Really, the original Greek word here has them saying, "You are out of touch with reality." But when she insists that Peter is really there they reply that it must be his angel. It was believed in those days that everyone had a guardian angel and so the people either believed that the angel was doing his job of protecting and strengthening Peter, or worse yet, that Peter had already been beheaded and that it was his spirit at the gate.
Peter kept knocking persistently and I'm sure continued to look anxiously around. When they finally let Peter inside they were astonished beyond measure and were filled with praise and thanksgiving and unbelievable joy as they listened to their beloved Peter tell of his miraculous escape from imprisonment and certain death.
Before Peter left to find a safe hiding place for a time he gave the group an interesting command, "Tell this to James and to the believers." This James was the brother of Jesus who had become the president of the church. We remind ourselves that Jesus had four brothers whose names were: James, Joses, Judas, and Simon, along with at least two sisters. During the public ministry of Jesus, these brothers did not support him and they actually thought that he was mad and often took offense at him (Mark 6:3; John 7:5). But something happened when Jesus was killed. Perhaps James as the next oldest brother watched Jesus die and was strongly influenced by how he died and what happened afterward. The apostle Paul speaks of the resurrection appearances of Jesus saying that first of all he appeared to Peter, then to the twelve, and then to more than 500 brothers and sisters at one time, most of them still alive -- indicating that they could have been 500 youth. Then Paul said Jesus appeared to his brother James, and then to all the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:3-7). It strikes me that this appearance of the resurrected Jesus to his brother must have been very emotional and meaningful and certainly affected James the rest of his life. I am sure that Jesus, after his death, singling out his brother, James, freed him from the chains of misunderstanding and gave him a whole new abundant life. Peter, now freed from his prison, wants this James to know of his escape from prison and death and that it happened miraculously by the power of God. And such a power is available to you and to me.
The Power To Escape From That Which Imprisons Us
My friends, from the time that we are young we can be chained down by our fears, even small ones. I want to affirm that God's help can come to us even through the very young. Come with me to a third-grade classroom. There is an eight-year-old boy sitting at his desk and all of a sudden there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It has never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.
The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, "Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat."
He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered. As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, "Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!"
Now, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else -- Susie. She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. "You've done enough, you klutz!"
Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Susie whispers back, "I wet my pants once, too."
I believe from the time we are very young, we can be imprisoned by fears that can be relieved by the Lord our God working through someone else. You and I can be instruments of the Lord God freeing someone else from their fears and in the process we all become more alive than ever.
No matter how old we are, there are many things that can enslave and imprison us. There are many things that can keep us from the abundant overflowing life that Jesus wants for you and me. We can be enslaved by drugs and addictions of all kinds. Every twelve-step program that I have seen reminds us that we can't overcome the enslavement by ourselves. We need a higher power and for many of you dear readers -- it is to have a new and restored relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior. We can be enslaved by fears of all kinds and by physical, mental, and emotional handicaps. The Lord our God can help us as he helped Peter of old to break our chains and scale the heights of endurance we have never known before.
From the time he was 25 years old, Tom Whitaker, who resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, has focused his life on being a climber. At first he experimented with climbing higher and higher rocks, then the steep hills, and finally the mountains. But his career as a climber of high places appeared to hit rock bottom when he was involved in a collision with a drunken driver on Thanksgiving Day in 1974. After the crash, he was hospitalized with two shattered legs and a severed foot and wound up with severely damaged knees, which caused him to have his right kneecap removed and his right foot amputated.
"I was a bag of broken bones in a hospital, and people would sit beside me and weep," said Whitaker. "They had written me off. They figured I'd never climb again." However, inside of Tom Whitaker was God's great gift of endurance and with the aid of a special prosthetic device he learned to walk and climb higher and higher each day. Within his goal of two years, he climbed the Outer Limits in Yosemite (Valley, California) and then set his sights on the ultimate challenge for a mountain climber: Mount Everest. His first two attempts to reach the top of the world's tallest peak were unsuccessful. But on May 27, 1998, he completed the ascent, becoming the first disabled person in history to reach the top, where he deposited a rock that had been given to him by a teammate who said to him, "I want you to take this rock to the very top of the mountain where it belongs!"
On November 4, 2006, he received an award from Queen Elizabeth II of his native England during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace. She honored Whitaker for his service to disabled people and for inspiring them to break some of the chains of their restrictions and also for his ongoing service to mountain climbers. He recalls the special decorations of the palace and most vividly he remembers almost tripping before the queen!
"I knew the protocol about not putting your back to her, so I had to walk backward when we were done," he said. "I was worried that with the prosthesis I might trip. Here I am getting an award for mountain climbing and I had visions of falling flat on my face in front of the Queen."4 Yes, fears and disabilities could have imprisoned him for life, but God's great gifts of endurance and desire gave him and can give us a whole new life of freedom.
Simon Peter knew all about imprisonments and the threats of death. His miraculous escape from prison gave him a new sense of freedom within. Certainly he had the freedom to act on his convictions for he knew the risen Lord was with him, no matter what, and now nothing could prevent him from preaching the gospel not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles and to the world. Under the mighty colored and colorful shadow of Simon Peter we can be freed up to go and tell the story of God's love and mercy to our children and our children's children.
Believe it or not there are such things as colored shadows.
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1. Lloyd J. Ogilvie, The Communicator's Commentary -- Acts (Waco: Word Books, 1983), p. 197.
2. William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1955), pp. 98-102.
3. Op cit, Ogilvie, pp. 198-199.
4. This story is from the East Valley Tribune, Mesa, Arizona, December 11, 2006.
Reflection And Discussion
Thought Questions
1. What was the reaction of the early church to Peter's imprisonment?
2. What are the things that imprison us and keep us from the abundant life?
3. How do we break away from those things that imprison us?
4. How do you feel about the fact that God saved Peter and not the apostle James?
Agree Or Disagree
* We should always end a prayer for healing with the words, "If it be your will."
* Oftentimes we pray for something not really expecting an answer.
* God always hears and answers prayer.
* The more persistent we are in prayer the more answers we receive.
* Group prayer is more powerful than praying alone.
