When The Church Prays 31st May 2026

This week we concluded our sermon series on Prayer by looking at what happens When the Church prays/ We explored Acts 12 together. 

Transcript

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This morning we're really coming to an end of the series that we've had in the past weeks. Over the past I think six or seven weeks or so, we've been looking at how we can cultivate that relationship between us and God and Roman and prayer life. We've looked at what happens when we answer our prayers just how we can approach God's both and the posture that we should have before going with prayer. We've talked a lot about our relationship between us and God and prayer. And this morning, just as we finished this series, really I want you to look at what happens when the church prays together. What happens when we gather as Christians and before God and pray together? And to do that, I want us to look at Acts chapter 12. If you have your Bible with you, we need to turn to Acts chapter 12 before we go on to follow the text. I think it was our harder to read every weekend. But it's up there anyway. We're really going to work our way through Acts chapter 12 this morning and look at what happened when the early church came together and really see how that can challenge us, hopefully. We're going to read the first five verses of Acts chapter 12 just now. It says this. About that time, King Herod violently attacked some who belonged to the church, and he executed James, John's brother, with the sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too, during the festival of uneven bread. After the arrest, they put him in prison and assigned four squads of four soldiers, each to guard him, intending to bring him up to the people after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him. I will stop there just now. You see, chapel 12 really is like a flashbird, it moves to the early church in Jerusalem. Acts just not to this beforehand. It was really focusing on Paul and the Baptist moving in Antioch. And actually what they were doing just before this, they were trying to get the church in Antioch to raise an offering to give to the church in Jerusalem because they were facing a famine at the time. And then just as we start chapter 12, it's almost a different look at this is what went on in Jerusalem. And as if a famine wasn't bad enough. And we read that they have a lot more than just that to be ended with. This grandfather Herod the Great ordered that all males born were to be put to death. This King Herod's uncle was Herod Antibas, who actually put Jesus on trial and even ordered the execution of John the Baptist. So this King Herod that we would have there came about a lineage really of kings who persecuted Jesus and his father's. It was almost as if that was his families. But he wanted to keep the peace at the time. And so he disliked minorities who threatened to disrupt that. And the church at this time were disruptive to that. Because he also wanted to integrate himself with the Jewish people. People didn't like the early church. This is why Axel starts off today that he executed James. This is James, who was one of Jesus' first disciples. He was in the inner circle of Jesus' disciples. A lot of the stories in the Gospel, you read how Jesus had this inner circle of Peter, James, and John, the people that he relied on, that he would minister with the majority of the time. And that is this James that he executes. He's the first apostle to be martyred here in his story, not the first Christian, but the first apostle to be martyred, killed for his faith. What's interesting is if you read the story of James and the Apostles, Jesus actually warns James that something like this was going to happen to him. James and his brother John asked Jesus, really when they get to heaven and say, Jesus, can we have the best seeds to have this? Can we sit alongside you when we get there? And Jesus says to him that they would drink his cup and share his baptism. And that comes in March. You're going to share my sufferings and to share the gospel across the world. And we see that's exactly what happens to James. He wants to be good because he's a follower of Jesus, because he's going out and sharing the gospel. Headed violently, it tells attacks some people from the church and he executes James with the sword. That's what's going on in the church in Jerusalem at this point. And he sees that doing this pleases the Jewish people. And he's trying to get alongside them. And so he says, Do you know what? If that pleased him, why don't I go after that other one? And he arrests Peter, another apostle, a figurehead of the early truck scene in Jerusalem. They can't execute him yet because it tells us it's a festival of unleaten bread. It comes just after Passover. Jewish law wouldn't permit me to kill during that time, to execute someone. So there's no point in killing Peter to please the Jewish people if they'll be annoyed at him for doing it over that period. And so he locks them up. And he locks them up in what can only be described as maximum security. There's four guards with four soldiers, 16 soldiers in total, just watching one man. There's two in a cell and the rest outside the cell. He's chained, each arm on each leg, they reckon to a soldier each situation seems bleak at best. Seems bleak for the Christians, it seems bleak for Peter. It seems hopeless. There is no real possibility that Peter can escape. He's in maximum security, prison. So what could the church do against this might or against this night? What could they do? Did they pipe back? Did they protest? Verse 5 tells us what they do. It says this in verse 5. Not that, but it tells us this. The church was praying fervently to God for him. The church was praying fervently to God for him. And I think this tells us two things about the early church. First one is that prayer was their response. Prayer was the response. This is how they chose to respond in this situation. James's execution doesn't stop them from going to God in prayer. They still trusted that God would and could answer their prayers. They won't have forgotten Peter's first two imprisoners. Peter's already been imprisoned twice before this. Not at the hand of Rome, but at the hands of the Satan Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders, the first time comes in Acts chapter 4. And Peter at that point is released the first time. And what's interesting when he's released the first time, you think he'd be praying to God, God protect me from that in the future. But what happens is they actually go out when they pray for boldness. God helped him be bolder in proclaiming the good news. And because he's a bit bolder, he gets arrested a second time, comes in Acts chapter 5. And God miraculously frees them in that occasion. So surely this church must have been thinking, we've seen God do it before. We've seen him answer our prayers before. Could he do it? And so prayer was our response. Same thing that we see from that small verse. So prayer was their team. That is what they did as a church. You see, there's no explanation in the passage given to it. Luke, who Isaac, expects us to understand that this didn't just part of what the church did together. They were there in church, and so they prayed to God together. Tells us that they gather together, uses the word together, tells us that they gather to pray for us. The word that is used in that word, the Greek word epenos, and also me continuously or continuously. That's the idea that he's trying to get across that they were praying non-stop for people. It suggests that prayer was going on as the church. So this early church could see that prayer was the response. They faced an impossible situation. They were feeling for the life of one and the others. What was the response? It was to pray. And we see that prayer was a routine. Crisis came our way, but prayer was already a rhythm of our life. It was a routine of what we would do as a church. There's two communities in contrast in this passage. We have the world and we have the church. Building an appropriate weapon, the world has the authority of head, the power of the sword, the security of the prison that they appear in. And the church, they have prayer. The only power that they possess. So this morning, really, what I want us to look at is what happens when the church prays? What happens when this church prays in this sex region? What happens for us today when the church gathers to pray? We're going to read on it. I think it's got even smaller. So if you're Bible in front of you, you can turn to it. We're going to read verse 6. And it says this. When Herod was about to bring him up for trial, that very night Peter, bound to a change, was sleeping between two soldiers, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shot in the cell, striking Peter on the side. He woke him up and said, Quick, get up, and chain colour and rest. Then the angel called him and put on their flaws, and he did. Wrap a cloak around him and called him and followed me. So he went out and followed, and he did not know what the angel did was really happening, but he thought he was seeing a vision. After they passed the first and sent parts, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went outside and passed one street, and suddenly the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from heaven's grasp and from all the Jewish people expected. What happens with the church praise? We see that captives are set free. Captives are set free. What happens next in this story, just after the church praise? It's that Peter is miraculously set free. God has answered this church's prayer and set Peter free. Just as a side note, I find it interesting. The decision Peter was fast asleep. I don't know about you, but I was in maximum security prison about the executed. I think I'd awaited the cell, panicking, worrying, trying to get myself out of there. But Peter was fast asleep. I think it shows that he had complete trust in God in that moment. Sometimes the challenges that we face seemed so impossible that the only option that we have left is to trust God. I think that's where Peter was. All he could do is to trust in God. There was no physical way he could get himself out of that situation. Trust Burton has the famous quote, I thank the wave that throws me on the rock of Aegis. What he's saying is, I thank God for the storms that throw me into hell with the trust in him. Because there's a lot of option in that moment. Peter, in my opinion, had nothing left to do other than trust. And that's what he does, so he is fast asleep. And then we see that the angel appears, strikes Peter on the side and says, Quick, get up. The chains fall off his wrists, and he follows the angel out of the prison. And tells us the iron gate of the carceral and opens more than happy. Again, this can seem like adolescence. But it's not a wee gate that didn't have in the garden path. They reckon that this gate was 16 feet wide and about 30 feet tall. One person could open this gate without multiple people, and yet it tells us that it opened itself. God made a way for them when I've seen to be no way. God had answered by prayer. Peter was held captive, and now he's free. That's what he did then when the church prayed. And today, God is still in the business of setting people free. The famous ignorer Charles Wesley, who's a leader in the early Methodist church in the 18th century, wrote part of the head of the angels sing. I'm sure most of the year sung that at one point in our life. But he describes his own conversion to Christianity as this. He says it was as if coming out of a dark dungeon, the Spirit of God came upon him, his chains fell off, and he stood up and followed after Christ. Sounds familiar. Sounds a lot like Peter's experience. You see, when the church prays, this captive Peter was set free. When the church prays today, captives are set free. The Bible tells us that we're all captive to sin. John 8, Jesus says, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. We're held captive of life. It separates us from God. And there's nothing that people can do for a very long time to get free from that sin. So God sent Jesus to earth to be one, to live the perfect life, and then to die on that cross. Because the Bible tells us that the one for our sin is death. That's what we deserve for the sins in our life. That's what was separate us between us and God. There was a chasm that we could not cross by ourselves. God sent his only son, Jesus, to pay that for us. And he rose again three days later. And so now when we put our baby in Jesus, when we know what he did on that cross was followed, and we repent and turn away from our sin. Jesus finishes John 8 by saying, So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. When we accept Jesus as our Saviour, we're no longer captives to sin, but we're free indeed. We have been set free from the punishment of sin. There will come a day where we all stand before God and have to give a camp for our lives. If we've accepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we will all stand there and judge for the sin of our life. We'll see it as the righteousness, it's the goodness of the Son, Jesus Christ. We no longer have to go on through our lives living this life to sin. But he set us free from that. But we still have family members, friends, colleagues who are captives. So that's it. They do not know the truth of the God, they don't know that Jesus Christ, what he's offered to them. So why are we not responding to that like the other church does? A friend is held captive and they pray for him, and they say, friends, family. People in our lives are held captive to sin. They do not know the goodness of Jesus Christ. And they were slow to put it for them. We've seen that when the church prays captives are set free, Jesus says in John 10, 10, I've come to give you life and give it to the foe. It's not about an eternal life for God, but you mean like that's for a better life than a life free from sin than Jesus Christ. It's the only way to heaven and the only way to God. We were once those captives, and someone prayed for us, and God set us free. When the church is, no one is too far from the grace of God. Peter wasn't too far, but God was able to set into that situation and set us free. When the church prays, captives are set free. And then secondly this morning, when the church prays, joy breaks out. Joy breaks out. It says this. As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many had assembled and were praying. He knocked at the door of the outer gate, and a servant named Laura came to answer. She recognized Peter's voice, and because of her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the outer gate. You're out of your mind, they told her, but she kept insisting that it was true, and they said, It's his angel. Peter, however, kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were amazed. Just for a second, imagine being Peter, you've just been around to race within God and evil to knock the door of the church, and no one believes you. This is an act where we first meet John Mark. John Mark, after this, goes on to a missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas. And he's got a long story that you can read for yourself. But he ends up scarcely apostle or mark. And this was his mother's house that they went to, that Peter went to. They reckoned that this house was where the early church in Jerusalem would have met. It was a big house that tells us that he was at the outer court when he knocked. They reckoned that potentially this is where Jesus had the Last Supper with his disciples. So Peter knocked on his own. And the group who were there, the early church, the ones who were praying, probably we know we can maybe that they didn't assume it was Peter. They probably at first maybe thought maybe this is the secret police come to arrest us as well. And Rhoda, the servant, goes to answer the door, and that's when we see joy break out. She recognizes Peter's voice, and it says, because for joy, she ran to tell others. She was so filled with joy that she forgot to let Peter out in the door, and she let him stand in mock home. Filled Rora with joy. And what is their first reaction? Do you have your mind? It can't be. There's two fuller opposite responses to this miracle. And then they try to rationalise it. They say it can't be him. It must be his angel. At the time he believed everyone had a guardian angel, so they thought that's who it was. It must be his angel, it can't be him. Are we dissimilar than that? Someone comes and tells you God did this in the life. You say, Are you sure? Are you sure it was God? Are you sure it wasn't just a coincidence? Nikki Gumbo, who does the Alpha Course, he does the bidding's for it. He's got a phrase in it that says, The more I pray, the more coincidences happen. There's no coincidences in the kingdom of God. Our God is the God of the impossible. He is the one who can set the captives free. He can change our circumstances in an instant. He can restore relationships, he can heal us, he can give us peace that surpasses all understanding. These people who have been praying so fervently weren't expecting the answer to the prayer to come knocking on the door. This morning I want to encourage us to raise our expectations of what God can do in our lives. Rhoda is so filled with joy that she's too excited to remember to let Peter in the door. She eventually convinces the others to go to the door and open the door. And it says, When they opened the door and saw every other amiss, joy breaks out because they see that God has answered their prayers. It's the only way that could happen. There was no other way that Peter could have ever escaped in that situation that was only thank God. Situation is in your life that you are desperate to see that breakthrough in right now? Is that a relationship? Is that a circumstance? Whatever it is. My prayer for us is that joy will break out. When we gather together as a church and take these situations to God, we'll raise our expectations for Him to answer them. When the church prays, captives are set free, joy breaks out. We will see God through the might not always be the way we want to. But let's not try and rationalise coincidences that happen in our life. Let's have a joyful, expecting faith. Just like Oda. And then last thing, this morning. When the church prays, captives are set free, joy breaks out, and the enemy is just going to weep for this. At the end of the glory, Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyree and Sidon. Together they presented themselves before him. After winning over Blastius, who was in charge of the king's bedroom, they asked for peace because their country was supplied with food from the king's country. On an appointed day, dressed in royal robes and seated on the throne, Herod delivered a speech to them. They assembled people began to shout, It's the voice of a God and not of a man. At once an angel of the Lord forgotten, because he did not give glory to God, and he eaten by worms and died. But the word of God flourished and multiplied. After God answered the prayers of the church, after he had set Peter free from prison, the story shifts and it shifts back to Herod. This king who had imprisoned Peter, this king who had executed James, this king who had opposed God's people every step of the way, now finds himself facing the judgment of God. It tells us then that because Herod accepted the worship of the people instead of glorifying God or giving that glory to God, and the result of the Lord struck him down. This man who seemed so powerful, who seemed so untouchable, who seemed so victorious, was defeated in a moment by the hand of God. This morning, who or what is the head in your life? Might not necessarily be a person. Might be a circumstance or an obstacle that you're facing. The what process God's work in your life? Is it fear? What other people might think? Is it discouragement? You've been praying for something, you've not seen it happen. Is it temptations that you're facing to pull you away from the things of God? Is it division that the devil's trying to sow into your heart? Is it apathy? You no longer feel like the entitlement around God or church anymore? Is it circumstances beyond your control and it seems insurmountable? It can seem overwhelming. I'm sure the early church felt overwhelmed when James was executed, when Peter was taken to be executed. This passage reminds us that the greatest enemies of God's purposes are never stronger than God himself. He had presence, he had authority, he had political influence, but he could not stop the work of God. While this church gathered in a house to pray, God was at work to bring down the enemy and to advance his kingdom. Who or what is the heritage of your life? What's opposing God's work in your life or in the life of the church? When the church prays, what we see is that the enemy is defeated. There's a powerful contrast at the end of this chapter. Herod danced and God's work continues. Verse 24 tells us the word of God flourished and multiplied. See, Herod's story ended in defeat. But God's story continues and victim. The enemy was defeated. God's work published and multiplied. The same God who delivered Peter judged her. What we see in this story is that when the church prays, chains God, doors open, hearts are chained, and the enemy is defeated. God's purposes will prevail, and his kingdom will continue to advance. You see, the truth is the church does not overcome because it's terrible, but it overcomes because it prays to the one who is. When the church prays, we see that captives are said to be. Who is there in your life that you're desperate for to come to no Christ? But still held captive to a life of sin. We need to be gathered together and praying for and contending for them, asking us moving our lives. When the church prays, joy breaks out. Are we expecting that God will answer our prayers? Maybe our prayer one day will come knocking on our door. Are we expecting that God will bring the answer to us? When the church prays the enemy is defeated. Our greatest enemies are never stronger than God Himself. When someone or something comes against our response in that situation, is it to fight? Is it to protest? It should be to pray. Because prayer is our greatest weapon. Because in ourselves we are not strong. But we pray to God who's stronger than our own. This is why we gather as a church to pray. We don't put these prayer meetings on just to get people in the building. But we gather to pray because we're desperate to see the captives set free. We're desperate to see Joy Purchill. We're desperate to see the end of the word at all opportunities. We gather to pray as a church. Every single week. On a Tuesday, quarter past one, on a this Wednesday night we're gathering at 7 o'clock, and on a Sunday, quarter past ten. This morning can my encouragement be we as a church need to gather to pray. If you look throughout history around the Bible, any revival that happens is always preceded by a move of prayer in the church. People crying out for God to move in their lives, their families' lives, their community, their city, their country lives. I believe we want to see it happen. We can't do that in ourselves. But we need to get out of this church and ask God to do that. You'd be more than welcome in any of these prayer gatherings, and we would love to see you then. We're going to finish this morning just by singing that song. This song you might not be aware of, you might need to song a handful of times. It's called A Wave for My Soul. And I really want you to sing this song as a response to God in your life. It says in the song that there's a sound that changes things. The sound of those people on their knees. What they're saying in that is that when we get on our knees to God and pray together, it changes things. Not because we're praying, but because God responds to our prayers. When we contact God in prayer, he makes away for us things to be no way. He sets the captives free. He takes the change off us. And the enemy is defeated. When he moves, make no mistake, the bowels of hell begin to shake. Nothing can stand against him, not even the bowels of hell. We're terrified of what God can do. This morning, as we stand to sing this, may God awake our souls to pray.