SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: This morning's message is titled When Gates Obey, and this is a super exciting passage.
SPEAKER_00: When Jason assigned this passage to me, I'm going, Yes! Been waiting for it.
SPEAKER_00: God is sovereign.
SPEAKER_00: I just love this passage because it's got so much irony in.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much dramatic uh effect in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Luke uses just language in a wonderful way.
SPEAKER_00: And it reminded me something about Bobby Fisher.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows Bobby Fisher here?
SPEAKER_00: Wow, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are smart.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Bobby Fisher was this child protege and an unconventional chess player.
SPEAKER_00: He was a world champion at some point, and by the age of 13, he could compete, get this, in Cuba against Russia's best.
SPEAKER_00: Who sends their 13-year-old to Cuba?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he might take up cigar smoking, who knows?
SPEAKER_00: But to come against the Russians and then giving them a spanking?
SPEAKER_00: That was just so outlandish to think about it.
SPEAKER_00: He achieved at the age of 17 the title U.S.
SPEAKER_00: Grandmaster.
SPEAKER_00: And then shortly after that, he came up against Danish Grandmaster Bent Larsen.
SPEAKER_00: And Bent Larsen was a little irritated about this youth competing on the international field.
SPEAKER_00: And at the lunch break at this very important tournament, he made this arrogant remark, and he says, he said, it is time for me to go back into that room and give that baby a spanking.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, he's referring to the 19-year-old Bobby Fisher.
SPEAKER_00: Someone wisely in the audience remarked, Watch out, Larson, the baby doesn't give you a spanking.
SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, Fisher spanked Larson.
SPEAKER_00: Larson left the tournament and returned to his country of Lefsa and Ludovisk.
SPEAKER_00: Tail between the legs.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Fisher played a very unconventional game strategy.
SPEAKER_00: He took routes that were unconventional and unexpected.
SPEAKER_00: People said Fisher never played chess by the book because he wrote the book.
SPEAKER_00: And as we look at the story of Acts, it is God's story.
SPEAKER_00: It's about God establishing his church on earth.
SPEAKER_00: He does that through the preaching of his word, through the persistent prayers of the saint, and in the face of painful persecution.
SPEAKER_00: All these things contributed to the church multiplying and prospering.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as we look at the book of Acts, and especially as we come here to Acts 12, we might have at this point had the picture that God is a passive spectator watching the chess game of life.
SPEAKER_00: His people against Satan's people.
SPEAKER_00: But God will prove that he's no passive spectator.
SPEAKER_00: He is actively involved in the chessboard of life.
SPEAKER_00: But God's game strategy is unconventional.
SPEAKER_00: God's opponents scheme and plan and plot against God's people.
SPEAKER_00: But they forget God doesn't play by the book simply because God wrote the book.
SPEAKER_00: And the end of the book has one answer for us: God wins.
SPEAKER_00: God wins, and his church will be victorious and glorious on earth.
SPEAKER_00: The reason for Acts chapter 12, and maybe Jason will agree that the reason for the entire book of Acts is Matthew 16, 18.
SPEAKER_00: Jason is staring at me, so I'm not getting it on, but I will go forward with this.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 16, 18.
SPEAKER_00: Click, click, click.
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, click in the right direction.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 16, 18.
SPEAKER_00: And I tell you, you are Peter.
SPEAKER_00: On this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
SPEAKER_00: Here is a prophetical promise that God will have his church on earth.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
SPEAKER_00: Here's three observations in this prophetical statement by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus firstly assures Peter's primacy as the preacher, leader, and official mouthpiece of the early church.
SPEAKER_00: He's foundational there.
SPEAKER_00: He's preaching, his leadership, and he is also the mouthpiece of the church up to Acts 12.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, God reveals something, Jesus reveals something here about God's plan to establish a church on earth, but that plan will be vehemently opposed by Satan.
SPEAKER_00: The gates of hell will be unleashed, but it will not prevail.
SPEAKER_00: Satan's continual attacks will aim at the preachers in the pulpit and sometimes the people in the pew, but God's church will be established.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that church will be established in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and even to the far ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: That is the purpose for the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: God has an unconventional game strategy, if we could call it that, to establish his church on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Firstly, he allows for bad people to pursue God's people, preachers like Peter and James.
SPEAKER_00: But then he mobilizes the church to pray and to partake in God's plan to establish his church.
SPEAKER_00: And one fact will remain no matter who seems to win for the moment, the end of the book has been written.
SPEAKER_00: God wins and his church will be victorious.
SPEAKER_00: As we look here in Acts 12, and I say to you, the title is When Gates Obey, and I will summarize it simply by these themes.
SPEAKER_00: There's five themes that I can encapsulate here for you: persecution, preaching, prayer, payback, and prospering.
SPEAKER_00: These themes, I think, will help us as a church navigating the pains of transition, the pains of growth, and maybe even the pains of persecution, trials, and tribulations.
SPEAKER_00: We will learn some of the things that are part and parcel of God's plan to establish his church here in Grand Forks.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, persecution.
SPEAKER_00: Persecution.
SPEAKER_00: God allows for persecution of people in the pulpit and people in the pew.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 12, 1.
SPEAKER_00: Read there with me, please.
SPEAKER_00: Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them.
SPEAKER_00: In the ESV, it says he laid violent hands on the church.
SPEAKER_00: The purpose and plans in Herod's heart was to persecute the church.
SPEAKER_00: Period.
SPEAKER_00: Beginning with the apostles and preachers like James, the brother of John, and then he will move towards Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is the grand prize.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: And he had James, the brother of John, put to death with a sword.
SPEAKER_00: King Herod, let me give you a little background of this guy.
SPEAKER_00: King Herod was a member of a ruling family in the Levant.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews and Herod had a long history.
SPEAKER_00: They were both opponents of God's plan to build a church on earth.
SPEAKER_00: One thing, the Herods began with a guy like Herod the Great.
SPEAKER_00: We learn of Herod the Great, who massacred tens of thousands of babies at the time of Jesus' birth.
SPEAKER_00: And then we learn about Herod Antipas.
SPEAKER_00: And he was also known as the Old Fox.
SPEAKER_00: And that old fox served John the Baptist's head on a platter.
SPEAKER_00: Herod Agrippa I, which is the Herod in the story in Acts 12, now sets his sights on the primary preacher and teacher in the church of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Acts 12, 3.
SPEAKER_00: When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.
SPEAKER_00: Now it was during the days of the unleavened bread.
SPEAKER_00: Luke does something here for us.
SPEAKER_00: He sets a religious setting here in which Herod and the Jews participate.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Herod claimed to be a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: He had Jewish ancestry.
SPEAKER_00: Herod and the Jews scrupulously observed Jewish laws and feasts, and they all claimed to worship who?
SPEAKER_00: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: But there was another thing that Herod and the Jews had in common is that they hated Christians.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Herod and the Jews claimed to be on God's side, the God of the Bible, but in fact they were ensnared by the devil, being held captive by him to do his will.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Timothy 2.26 says to us that there are people who are religious.
SPEAKER_00: They go through all the motions, like Herod and the Jews, but they are actually held captive by Satan to do his will.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at verse 4 there.
SPEAKER_00: When he had seized him, that is Peter, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover, another religious marker there for us, a ceremonial marker, to bring him out before the people.
SPEAKER_00: So the sitting here is the feast of unleavened bread, which culminates in the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: It was a weeklong feast whereby the homes were cleansed of what?
SPEAKER_00: Leaven.
SPEAKER_00: And that symbolizes the purification of the heart from evil and wickedness.
SPEAKER_00: So it's the Passover, or the feast of the unleavened bread.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's scrupulously cleaning out their homes from leaven, and that the true symbolism just goes pew over their heads.
SPEAKER_00: You see, they were to be purging their hearts and purifying their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, they are planning and plotting to persecute God's people.
SPEAKER_00: You see, religious people often go through the motions.
SPEAKER_00: They participate in all the sanctimonious ceremonies and celebrations, but seldom it affects their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: They know nothing about a pure and simple devotion to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Herods and the Jews knew nothing about purifying the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It was all about the externalities.
SPEAKER_00: The deeper meaning of the ceremonies and the celebration and the feast were actually beyond them.
SPEAKER_00: And it's no different in our own time.
SPEAKER_00: We have people coming to churches all over the world, participating in church and communion, and they have guile and bitterness in their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: They partake of the communion without purging their hearts of evil and wickedness.
SPEAKER_00: And yet they think they are within God's plan and purpose.
SPEAKER_00: But God's plans and purposes for the world involves preachers of good news and people who pray fervently.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, preachers.
SPEAKER_00: What we see here next is a preacher, not preaching, but he is preaching, though his lips aren't moving.
SPEAKER_00: He is sleeping, in fact, but he's preaching.
SPEAKER_00: Up to now, the church was built to this point by the powerful proclamation of Peter, who preached the sermon at Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And 4,000 came to faith.
SPEAKER_00: Up to this point, Peter was the most prominent preacher of the good news.
SPEAKER_00: But him, like many other prophets and preachers, will become the object of persecution.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at verse 4 again.
SPEAKER_00: When he had seized him, that's Herod, seizing Peter, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: And that is said to be sixteen soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: Sixteen guys to guard one dude, one preacher.
SPEAKER_00: And look, once again, the religious connection, the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: The Passover is coming up, and yet he is planning to kill somebody, one of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter was kept in the prison.
SPEAKER_00: But what was happening?
SPEAKER_00: But prayer for him was being made fervently by the Church of God.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is now in the custody of four squads, 16 soldiers, and he's detained in a dark prison, and it seems that God's opponents will finally be able to silence the most prolific preacher of God's word at that point.
SPEAKER_00: We must know two things about the devil's strategy and his hate for God's people.
SPEAKER_00: The devil hates preaching pastors who preach the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, the devil hates praying people in the pews.
SPEAKER_00: As we go back to Acts 7.52, Stephen, who was persecuted for preaching God's work faithfully, says there, which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
SPEAKER_00: They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one.
SPEAKER_00: You open your mouth about God's word, you will see opposition against you rising.
SPEAKER_00: Those Christians praying and those preachers proclaiming God's worth faithfully will regularly suffer persecution.
SPEAKER_00: Preacher Peter, whom Jesus called the rock, now found himself between a rock and a hard place.
SPEAKER_00: He is incarcerated, he is silenced, soon to be executed, silenced once for all.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 12, 6.
SPEAKER_00: Now when Herod was about to bring him out that very night, Peter was what?
SPEAKER_00: Sleeping.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can't sleep if I got a parking ticket.
SPEAKER_00: This guy is sleeping between two soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: I could just imagine this.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he's leaning over and the soldier is like elbowing him.
SPEAKER_00: Don't drool on me.
SPEAKER_00: You're snoring, Peter.
SPEAKER_00: His lights out.
SPEAKER_00: And Slumberland, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's surrounded.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say they had two shifts.
SPEAKER_00: There are a minimum of eight guys, eyes on Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Because they knew if Peter escapes and he had a bit of a reputation as an escape artist, they would pay with their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Well, painful persecution awaits Peter as soon as the sun rises.
SPEAKER_00: He's preaching, but not with his mouth, but with his actions.
SPEAKER_00: He is sleeping.
SPEAKER_00: He is sound asleep, yet he's boldly proclaiming that God is still on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's preaching here.
SPEAKER_00: You see, he is sound asleep because God is not sleeping on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: You see, often we say, I hear people say, and it's good that people say, well, God is on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, the way that you're acting is saying to me that God is sleeping on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: God is just taking a nap.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God is awake, he's actively ordaining and working, and therefore we can sleep.
SPEAKER_00: We can sleep because he's not sleeping at the throne.
SPEAKER_00: You see, my friends, we often fret and fuss about our circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Things bother us to no end.
SPEAKER_00: We lose sleep.
SPEAKER_00: We're mumbling and grumbling, but we must ask ourselves, what is the message we are sending to other people?
SPEAKER_00: What are we preaching with our lives?
SPEAKER_00: Are we saying to people on the one hand, God is on his throne, and the other hand, but I think God is taking a nap.
SPEAKER_00: We got to be careful in our actions and persecution and tribulations and even trials, that we do not send a message that might give the impression that God is sleeping on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: God is on our side.
SPEAKER_00: God is on Peter's side.
SPEAKER_00: He is on the side of the church, not the opposition's side.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 2.14 says, do all things without grumbling and complaining.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why should we do all things without grumbling and complaining?
SPEAKER_00: Friends, Philippians 2.13, for it is God who is work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: God is at work in you to do and work according to his pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: God is working out his plans and purposes through believers of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Peter is peacefully in dreamland, because he knows God is at work.
SPEAKER_00: God never takes a nap.
SPEAKER_00: God is at work in him both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: The dissonance comes when When we pursue life for our purpose and our pleasure, there's a dissonance there.
SPEAKER_00: And when there's a dissonance when I can't have my good pleasures and my good purpose, we tend to grumble and complain.
SPEAKER_00: And here Peter is preaching a very practical sermon from a prison cell.
SPEAKER_00: Fast asleep.
SPEAKER_00: I think the title of his message there in the prison cell should be Cast all your anxieties on Christ because he knows he cares.
SPEAKER_00: Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: Who wrote that?
SPEAKER_00: Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He experienced it and then later on wrote it.
SPEAKER_00: While he's casting or have casted his anxieties on Jesus because he knows that Jesus does care for him.
SPEAKER_00: Suddenly God intervenes.
SPEAKER_00: God intervenes.
SPEAKER_00: See, I told you that God is not this passive spectator.
SPEAKER_00: He intervenes, he intervenes supernaturally, miraculously, and he works through Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is not a puppet on a string when God intervenes, as you will see soon.
SPEAKER_00: But somehow the guards do seem like puppets on a string.
SPEAKER_00: They do what they would normally not do, and that is guard prisoners.
SPEAKER_00: Things go against their will.
SPEAKER_00: They have a great motivation to take care of Peter.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, you're dead.
SPEAKER_00: That's how it worked.
SPEAKER_00: And so here God intervenes into this drama of life, and it doesn't mean that anybody is a puppet on the string, but sometimes it does seem like it.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone here in the story acts in accordance with their heart's desire, but we must also remember that God wrote the script.
SPEAKER_00: God wrote the script.
SPEAKER_00: And no matter what we will, God will his will.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 46, 10.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this carefully.
SPEAKER_00: God's saying here, my purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: God's purpose is to establish a church on earth, beginning in Jerusalem, then going to where?
SPEAKER_00: Judea, and then to Samaria, and then to the far ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: God is working at that plan.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody has to get on board.
SPEAKER_00: And they will.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared, and a light shone in the cell, and he struck Peter on the side, just like your wife does when you doze off in church.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, oh, okay, what's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: Where are we?
SPEAKER_00: Honey, we at church.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: He struck Peter's side and woke him up, saying, Get up quickly.
SPEAKER_00: And the chains fell off.
SPEAKER_00: Bada bing.
SPEAKER_00: One thing is he woke up.
SPEAKER_00: That's maybe miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: But number two, the chains just fell off.
SPEAKER_00: Probably chains on his hands and feet, they just fell off.
SPEAKER_00: Peter doesn't understand what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: He thinks he's seeing a vision or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But one thing, probably in the back of his mind, no matter what's happening here, God is fulfilling his plans and purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 12, 8.
SPEAKER_00: And the angels said to him, Gird yourself and put on your sandals.
SPEAKER_00: And what happened?
SPEAKER_00: He argued, he debated.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: He did so.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a leader willing to submit.
SPEAKER_00: He said to him, Wrap up your cloak, wrap your cloak around you and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Follow me, says the angel.
SPEAKER_00: And he went out and continued to follow.
SPEAKER_00: There's something to be said here about Peter's willingness to follow.
SPEAKER_00: He is willing to lead, but he's also willing to follow, even when things are not clear.
SPEAKER_00: Because it says he did not know what he was seeing, what was happening here.
SPEAKER_00: Peter willingly follows an angel through a labyrinth of doors and hallways, no questions asked, because the angel of the Lord, he clearly identified that this is an angel from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He simply followed him, no questions asked.
SPEAKER_00: And here's here's your silence on what seems very out of the ordinary.
SPEAKER_00: He passes through at least at this point three guard stations.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, let's say there's two at each.
SPEAKER_00: There's six guys.
SPEAKER_00: Two sleeping next to or sitting next to him, two at the door, two at the next, two at the next.
SPEAKER_00: And these guys are paid to stay awake.
SPEAKER_00: And somehow we don't get an indication of whether they were napping or sleeping or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But one thing I can tell you, they had no problem with what's happening there.
SPEAKER_00: Somehow the desires of their heart were overridden.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted to guard because they know they would die if they don't guard Peter, and yet they submit themselves to God's plans and purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Not willingly.
SPEAKER_00: God changes their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: God changed their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll get to that.
SPEAKER_00: Up to this point, God completely guides and directs and orchestrates the events here.
SPEAKER_00: One author, Patrick Schraner, says, Peter is divinely guided.
SPEAKER_00: This historical escape demonstrates Peter's utter dependence on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He, on the other hand, Peter, is entirely passive.
SPEAKER_00: The guards are entirely passive.
SPEAKER_00: He is released, instructed, and led to freedom by God.
SPEAKER_00: God is the great actor here.
SPEAKER_00: Everything here falls into the realm of blowing our minds.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you got chains falling off, you got guards who don't have the desire to guard, even though they might die.
SPEAKER_00: And yet there's a one of the greatest miracles, I think, to come yet.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: And Jason thankfully showed me how dramatic this is.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 12, 10.
SPEAKER_00: When they had passed the first and second guard, four gods, with swords and spears and a helmet, they came to the iron gate.
SPEAKER_00: The iron gate.
SPEAKER_00: I tried to find a picture of the iron gate, but that's the best I could do.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the picture of the cell.
SPEAKER_00: They came to the main iron gate that leads into the city.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I've been at Buckingham Palace.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even know if the Queen's there, but that thing is guarded heavily.
SPEAKER_00: The horse will bite you, and the guy will take his sword and take off your head if you want to try and go in there.
SPEAKER_00: So prisons is not only safeguarded from the outside to get bad people from coming in to help people escape, it's guarded on both sides with an iron gate.
SPEAKER_00: But here Luke makes every word count, and we must too.
SPEAKER_00: Peter and the angel proceeds, but what they see is not an open gate.
SPEAKER_00: They see an iron gate.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't hear Peter go, oh, not again.
SPEAKER_00: All right, like the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: This story has so much to do with the Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: So many comparisons here.
SPEAKER_00: But remember the Israelites, when they go to it got to the Red Sea, they go, oh, now God is on the God's taking an app.
SPEAKER_00: He's led us here and he's not gonna complete his job.
SPEAKER_00: The gate is still closed.
SPEAKER_00: It is a heavily guarded iron gate, the last and final obstacle.
SPEAKER_00: How will things turn out?
SPEAKER_00: That is the pace at which Luke wants us to read it, at least in the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where it gets like almost humorous.
SPEAKER_00: It gets humorous.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word there for the gate opening on its own accord, or the gate opened by itself, we get the Greek word automatos.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, you get right, we get the English.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, people, the first automatic gate in history.
SPEAKER_00: But it's even more, it's it's even more intriguing to know that the gate surrendered its own will to be locked to God's will.
SPEAKER_00: A gate wanting to open.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we had kids, as kids, when we got to our driveway, we had two big gates.
SPEAKER_00: And we would come back from church.
SPEAKER_00: You know what breaks out?
SPEAKER_00: A fist fight in the back of the car.
SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna open the gates?
SPEAKER_00: And I remember as kids, we'd like, Dad, can we not have automatic gates like the rich people?
SPEAKER_00: You know, like people in America just click it and this thing didn't have a clicker, it didn't have to be pushed, it did not have to be forced open.
SPEAKER_00: The gate opened itself.
SPEAKER_00: Its desire was to open itself.
SPEAKER_00: I can't explain this, but it seems like the gate had a volition of itself.
SPEAKER_00: It had a quote-unquote free will that is now surrendered to God's plans and desires.
SPEAKER_00: The gate's will was to remain closed, and then God said, You've got to open, and it opened.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it goes to show that even an iron gate can surrender to God's will, to God's purposes, to God's eternal purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Even the ironclad wills of people can surrender to God's will.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 21.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever I see people get a little difficult, or people stand in the way of God's work here on earth, I remind myself of Proverbs 21:1.
SPEAKER_00: The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He turns it wherever he will.
SPEAKER_00: God can turn anybody's heart, no matter how hardened that heart is.
SPEAKER_00: For you who are married to an unbelieving spouse with an ironclad heart, for you who have siblings or family members who are unsaved, God can turn that heart wherever he wishes.
SPEAKER_00: If he can do it with a gate, he can certainly do it with the king.
SPEAKER_00: He could certainly do it with you and me, friends.
SPEAKER_00: God turns the will of a gate on its own hinges.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: God wrote the script, and the script says, God always wins.
SPEAKER_00: God's intervention and God's providence, we will also learn here, is seldom early, never late, but always on time.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it.
SPEAKER_00: They get to the gate, the gate is closed, the gate is not open before they get there.
SPEAKER_00: The gate did not open early, it didn't open late, but it opened at just the right time.
SPEAKER_00: And this is something we can learn about God, I think, in this narrative of Scripture that God is seldom early, never late, but always on time.
SPEAKER_00: You would think, God, could you not have chosen a simpler plan?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is complex, a lot of things going on here.
SPEAKER_00: You know, why don't you do what you did with Peter?
SPEAKER_00: Not Peter, uh Philip.
SPEAKER_00: Philip beamed him up like Star Trek.
SPEAKER_00: And then pew.
SPEAKER_00: He could have just kind of raptured him and put him somewhere where he could have done that.
SPEAKER_00: But God chooses an unconventional plan.
SPEAKER_00: You see, if he just took Peter and he kind of transferred him to a safe house, he would have only accomplished one miracle.
SPEAKER_00: But now we've got so many miracles and so much theology.
SPEAKER_00: And so God plays an unconventional game strategy.
SPEAKER_00: But we must not forget God uses the desires and the wills of persecutors, preachers, and praying saints to accomplish his purposes to establish a church for him on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: And this is, my friends, something that just was a knife in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many, where many were gathered together and were praying.
SPEAKER_00: They were praying.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask you to raise your hands, but how often are you gathered with the saints in prayer?
SPEAKER_00: How often?
SPEAKER_00: How many times?
SPEAKER_00: Not here, but in another church.
SPEAKER_00: I there was a drought in California, a huge drought, and uh people were starting to drill wells going deep 600 feet deep to just get water.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's nuts.
SPEAKER_00: Next thing is like lava coming out if they go any further.
SPEAKER_00: But in any case, and I said I said, let's organize a prayer meeting here.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get together and pray that God could turn the drought.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, man, the farmers will come, the people will come.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
SPEAKER_00: This has been going on for a long time in California.
SPEAKER_00: Guess how many people came?
SPEAKER_00: One, the associate pastor.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Christians have a hard time praying, but God uses the persistent prayers of a praying church.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what people often say, and I think it's in the back of our minds, and that's why we don't pray.
SPEAKER_00: People often say, Well, if God is sovereign, why bother praying?
SPEAKER_00: If God's gonna do what he's gonna do, why should I bother to pray?
SPEAKER_00: And people would even make snarky comments like, well, we can't change God's will, so quit bugging him to do so.
SPEAKER_00: And I go, my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Let me respond by saying, God commands prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He tells you to pray.
SPEAKER_00: You must pray.
SPEAKER_00: Period.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 6, Matthew 7.
SPEAKER_00: What we will learn is that prayer is powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 12, 5.
SPEAKER_00: Why Peter, while Peter is still in prison, look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: It says, so Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church of God.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's not that.
SPEAKER_00: It's the church to God.
SPEAKER_00: They're praying to God.
SPEAKER_00: And what are they praying?
SPEAKER_00: Are they trying to change God's mind?
SPEAKER_00: Or are they changing their minds?
SPEAKER_00: Is prayer not, my friends, about aligning our plans with God's plans?
SPEAKER_00: You think prayer, we think prayer is aligning God's plans with our plans when Jesus says, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is about praying God's plan to succeed on earth, not our plans.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the problem why prayer is so sparse in the modern church is simply because we think God is unwilling to answer our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Why would God bother to answer my prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you here, I'm gonna read it for you.
SPEAKER_00: You can go home and read it.
SPEAKER_00: But when Peter gets out of prison, he goes to the house where the saints were praying, knocks on the door, it goes, opens up, she goes, Whoa, Peter! Woo! I gotta tell people.
SPEAKER_00: And then she goes in and she chills, she's like, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry to disrupt your prayer meeting here.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter's out there, and they go, nah.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, hey, we were praying for Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's out there.
SPEAKER_00: Nah, you you hallucinating, you nuts.
SPEAKER_00: Go go drink some water.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is powerful, and God is eager to answer our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: His will is to answer prayers according to his will.
SPEAKER_00: Queen Mary Tudor.
SPEAKER_00: She was also known as what who?
SPEAKER_00: Bloody Mary.
SPEAKER_00: If you and my church history class, it's steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: Tim and I am teaching the English Reformation at this point.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the England's fiercest persecutors of God's people was Bloy.
SPEAKER_00: But she purportedly she said the following: I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assemblies of the armies of Europe.
SPEAKER_00: I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.
SPEAKER_00: Here's somebody who hated true believers.
SPEAKER_00: And she feared the prayers of one man.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 12, 5, I think it's a powerful example for us to pray.
SPEAKER_00: We are praying and God's doing his thing.
SPEAKER_00: God is sitting on the throne, accomplishing his purposes and plans, and our prayers are perfectly compatible with that plan and purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Ask and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_00: Seek and you will find.
SPEAKER_00: Knock and it will be opened to you.
SPEAKER_00: And here a gate opens up.
SPEAKER_00: A prison gate, an iron gate opens up.
SPEAKER_00: But now Peter is knocking at the door of the church, and the door ain't opening up.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter had to learn something here about the persistence of knocking, especially when the church doesn't always believe that God does answer prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 12, 16.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter continued knocking, and they were open, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, Peter, yeah, wow, we didn't expect you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, you were praying for me, yeah, but we didn't expect you.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3 12.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 3 12.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous.
SPEAKER_00: God's eyes and favor were toward the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God listens to the prayer of the righteous.
SPEAKER_00: But, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
SPEAKER_00: And so here God has a divine orientation towards the righteous who pray.
SPEAKER_00: But he also has a disposition towards those who plot evil against his people.
SPEAKER_00: One thing we can learn this far at the story is that Herod wielded the sword of persecution while the church wielded the power of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is safe.
SPEAKER_00: Herod is unsafe.
SPEAKER_00: It's payback time for the persecutor of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where I'm just like, wow, this is cool.
SPEAKER_00: Payback time for the persecutor of Christ's church.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God's purpose, don't not forget, is to establish a church for him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the far ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And that will involve persecution.
SPEAKER_00: He will hear the prayers of the righteous, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
SPEAKER_00: And see how this plan, uh, this whole drama works out.
SPEAKER_00: On an appointed day, Herod put, that's verse 21, on that appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.
SPEAKER_00: And the people were shouting, the voice of a God and not a man.
SPEAKER_00: And Herod liked that.
SPEAKER_00: He's sitting on the throne and splendid regalia, an earthly throne at best, and he's taking the praises that should be lauded at the God in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And here's a strange irony in the events of the unfolding drama.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not surprising because God always wins.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 12, 23.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give God the glory and was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't say he breathed his last, and then the worms a damn.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what this guy ate for breakfast.
SPEAKER_00: Webb's awake.
SPEAKER_00: He's not sleeping.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him.
SPEAKER_00: This is so ironic.
SPEAKER_00: The angel struck Peter, and now he struck.
SPEAKER_00: The one is to deliver a man from Herod's wrath.
SPEAKER_00: Now the angel struck Herod, delivering him to God's wrath.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is just like flip-flop.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what Colonel Hannibal Smith said in that TV series, The A-Team?
SPEAKER_00: Tell me you were around when the A-T, the Abarack is Hannibal Smith.
SPEAKER_00: And what did Hannibal Smith always say at the end of the show?
SPEAKER_00: I love who said that?
SPEAKER_00: What did he say?
unknown: I love it when a plan comes together.
SPEAKER_00: I love it when a plan comes together.
SPEAKER_00: And you hear him like, I love it when the plans come together.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that sounds like King Julian and no.
SPEAKER_00: I love it when a plan comes together.
SPEAKER_00: God's plans always come together despite persecution and opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Persecution actually has the opposite effect, it often delivers a fresh harvest of souls.
SPEAKER_00: What did Tertullian say?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And here's a fresh harvest of souls.
SPEAKER_00: And I will tell you quickly here about the prospering of the church.
SPEAKER_00: The prospering of the church through the proclamation of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Peter, this passionate preacher at Pentecost, the mouthpiece and the preacher in Jerusalem, suddenly has to get out of town.
SPEAKER_00: He's got to get out of Dodge here.
SPEAKER_00: And he's redeployed where?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Then he departed and went to another place.
SPEAKER_00: An undisclosed location.
SPEAKER_00: But look, jump over to verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: And you would think, oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: The church is toast.
SPEAKER_00: It will start crumbling.
SPEAKER_00: The main guy is gone now.
SPEAKER_00: We don't even know where he is, and we're not willing to tell anybody where he is.
SPEAKER_00: Top secret.
SPEAKER_00: But the word of God increased and multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: God always wins.
SPEAKER_00: But the word of God increased and multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: As the word spread, the gospel of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins on a cross and rose on the third day to give us the righteousness of Christ so that we can spend eternity with them.
SPEAKER_00: That message just spread like wildfire.
SPEAKER_00: And if the message spreads, the church grows.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: But the word of the Lord continue to grow and to be multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: Patrick Shriner says something to this effect.
SPEAKER_00: He says the word of God is a traveling divine agent.
SPEAKER_00: People will either welcome it or deny it.
SPEAKER_00: As the word enters people's hearts, it spreads.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the word of God sometimes has an effect, and sometimes it doesn't have an effect.
SPEAKER_00: But when it does, it keeps on spreading.
SPEAKER_00: All you need is one spark to set a forest on fire.
SPEAKER_00: But here's something that I want to bring into the equation, and I'm going to steal from Jason's passage next week, verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even know if I need to include verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: But Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.
SPEAKER_00: And here's a here's a transition at this point.
SPEAKER_00: Peter up to this point was the main guy.
SPEAKER_00: He was the rock of the church in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, we see a transition.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how that transition took place, but there was a transition.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: We don't hear of Peter except for one more time in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: He just disappears.
SPEAKER_00: But he's not in Orlando.
SPEAKER_00: He's not on the beach.
SPEAKER_00: He's obviously somewhere proclaiming God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one thing.
SPEAKER_00: Now Peter Paul comes to the sea, and the rest of the book of Acts is pull, pull, pull, pull, pull.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one thing we got to remember.
SPEAKER_00: Churches change, people.
SPEAKER_00: Churches change, but God never changes.
SPEAKER_00: But God has a plan to change the world, to multiply and grow the church.
SPEAKER_00: And often we get very sentimental about life.
SPEAKER_00: We get comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: This is how church should be.
SPEAKER_00: And yet God sits on the throne and we think, well, God is nodding, he's taking a nap.
SPEAKER_00: God is actively ordaining and organizing and orchestrating his plans and purposes.
SPEAKER_00: And often sentimentality, I do believe, can stand in the way of multiplying and growing church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's something to be said that our church is precious.
SPEAKER_00: We love the people, but we don't love change.
SPEAKER_00: We don't love change.
SPEAKER_00: But what if God changes things?
SPEAKER_00: What if God does that?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I went back to South Africa four years after I left there.
SPEAKER_00: We had a precious church.
SPEAKER_00: We were about 50 believers in Grace Fellowship Praetoria.
SPEAKER_00: 50 believers was the only church for like at least what, Mariki, 40 miles?
SPEAKER_00: 40 kilometers?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And it was just great.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go back to visit.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, where's so-and-so?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they live.
SPEAKER_00: Where's so-and- oh, they're not here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, where's so-and-so?
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, they're not walking with the Lord and say, oh, who are you?
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, I got saved.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, got saved.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
SPEAKER_00: Got saved.
SPEAKER_00: We go back now.
SPEAKER_00: That church has planted at least four other churches within a 40-mile radius.
SPEAKER_00: If those believers just like, yo, we just want to stick together here because we want to keep things the same for three generations.
SPEAKER_00: Those church plants would not have happened.
SPEAKER_00: Four preaching pastors.
SPEAKER_00: One of the guys I met with, he used to be a vet.
SPEAKER_00: He planted a church two years ago.
SPEAKER_00: They had 300 people.
SPEAKER_00: 300.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly.
SPEAKER_00: Churches often experiencing persecution, either from the inside or the outside, will often motivate people to be praying.
SPEAKER_00: And when people are praying and God's word is being preached, what happens?
SPEAKER_00: The word of God multiplies and the church grows.
SPEAKER_00: And so, my friends, let me wrap it up here.
SPEAKER_00: Can't even see.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's the clock.
SPEAKER_00: I'm running over time.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: As we look at this chessboard of life here and God's game strategy of establishing his church on earth, it might affect church life as we know it.
SPEAKER_00: And at times we might look and say, has God looked away?
SPEAKER_00: Has God stopped building?
SPEAKER_00: Has God stopped building his church?
SPEAKER_00: And is Satan succeeding in his plans?
SPEAKER_00: As if Satan can override God's plans.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to remember one thing, Isaiah 46, 10, declaring the end from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: God says the script is written.
SPEAKER_00: And from ancient times, things which have not been done.
SPEAKER_00: The story still unfolds.
SPEAKER_00: People do what they do, but in the end, the story tells us that God wins and his church is victorious.
SPEAKER_00: Just read the last chapters of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: God does not come to us and say what pleases you.
SPEAKER_00: God wants us to say, God, what will please you.
SPEAKER_00: And so your four take homes, friends.
SPEAKER_00: I had more slides that I didn't even look at.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at that verse again.
SPEAKER_00: That needs to really be part of declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things which have not been done, saying, My purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: Here's four take homes.
SPEAKER_00: Four take homes.
SPEAKER_00: God is on the throne, but he is not sleeping on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: God is eager to use faithful people, and he does hear their faithful prayers.
SPEAKER_00: God hears prayers and he loves answering prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And God uses churches, God uses people, and God uses preachers for his purposes and to establish a church to the far ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, God and his church will be victorious, no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: Because the script says so.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray and surrender ourselves to God's great plan for the church.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, what a sweet and wonderful passage, full of excitement, full of intrigue, full of irony.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, this is something we need to revisit and look through it and see what you how you work.
SPEAKER_00: And you work truly in mysterious and amazing ways.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray, God, that we will just take a step back and look at your great plan to establish a church on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And really, this is a story of how you took Peter, the Peter at Pentecost, the Peter who's the preacher in Jerusalem, and you take him somewhere else and you do things there with them and through him, and then you bring Paul in and you do things with them and through him.
SPEAKER_00: God, you're you your your game strategy is very unconventional, but we are willing to surrender to it.
SPEAKER_00: We love your Lord and I pray that you will give us willing hearts that surrender ourselves to your will, just like Peter surrendered himself to the commands of the angel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.