Tonight as we continue our study through Acts, we run into a story that appears either really exciting and causes us to long to pray or leads us to doubt, confusion, and questions. I believe both of these are what Luke wants us to see in communicating this story. For in asking our questions and trying to answer our doubts, I believe we will uncover a solid foundation out of which we can have hope as we pray.
Therefore, tonight I want to address the sovereignty of God in relation to the prayers of his children.
In this twelfth chapter, Luke records that Herod kills James, the brother of John, as he decides to target the apostles for persecution. This fulfills what Jesus had told James in Mark 10:39 as he assured him that he would drink of the cup that Jesus would drink. And as Herod does this, it pleases the Jews.
I am not sure what had changed since Luke’s statement in 2:47 that the apostles had “favor with all the people.” The only conclusion that I could see drawing from Luke’s account so far is that possibly the Jews were irate at the news that the apostles were now allowing Gentiles to benefit from the news that the Messiah had come (even if they did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah). For this was surely a line that the apostles could not cross and maintain favor with the Jews.
And when Herod sees that it pleases the people to kill James, he arrests Peter and plans on killing him after the week’s end. The reason he has to wait is because it was the week that the Jews observed the Passover. Therefore, if he were to have Peter executed during this week, it would put a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
However, wanting to make sure that it would be impossible for Peter to escape, he posts four guards around him at all times. Two were chained to Peter on either side and two were standing watch at the door of the cell. Meanwhile, as Peter is in prison, the church is earnestly praying for God to spare him.
Then, on the very night that Herod is about to bring Peter out and execute him, an angel appears to Peter, his chains fall off, and he is led away to freedom. Upon his escape, Peter tells the church he is free, asks them to tell James and the others, and sneaks off quietly so that he is not returned to prison. And the word of God continues to spread.
Now, what I want to make clear tonight is that confusing events do not negate the truth of Scripture. In other words, if Scripture makes something very clear and our experience seems to pose questions upon this truth, it does not mean that the Scripture is incorrect. (Such is why it is so important to study the word instead of trying to formulate your doctrine from life events.) Therefore, what is still true in this passage tonight is that God is absolutely sovereign. Now this is fun to acknowledge when we consider Peter’s rescue from prison, but what about James’ death? I mean, was it that God is in heaven saying, “Sorry, I tried to save both of them, but I was only able to save Peter”? Absolutely not; otherwise he would cease to sit in the heavens and do whatever he pleases—as the Scripture says (Psalm 115:3).
Therefore, because the Scripture teaches that God is sovereign, that he does whatever he pleases, and that his plans cannot be thwarted, we cannot determine that James’ death was something that he could not stop. Rather we should determine that it was a part of God’s greater work of bringing glory to himself and advancing his kingdom.
Death is not a sign that God is not in control. Do you remember Jesus’ words to Peter in John 21? Peter, having heard that he would die with his hands stretched out (most likely referring to crucifixion), asks Jesus what is going to happen to John. Jesus’ reply is “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me” (John 21:22). Now, there are many things we can learn from this statement, but the one I want you to see is that John’s death was in the hands of Christ. Jesus can say that John will remain “if [he] want[s] him to remain.” He does not need to say that John will remain if he wants him to and John doesn’t mess it up, or things happen the way he hopes, or Satan doesn’t interject his schemes. John’s life (and death) is in his hands. And we have no reason to think differently with Peter or James.
Therefore, the truth of God’s absolute sovereignty is only strengthened in this account in Acts. God allows James to die while freeing Peter from death. He kills Herod when men praise him as a God and he does not give glory to God (Acts 12:23). And in spite of persecution and the killing of his children, he ensures that his word continues “to grow and to be multiplied” (12:24).
In fact, I think this is the main idea of the text. Luke wants the reader to see the power of God’s sovereignty as his plan to spread his glory over the whole earth is carried out no matter what earthly ruler would try to come against it. Nothing can cease his hand. I believe strongly that this is what Luke wants us to see.
But, it is also true that God sovereignly works through our prayers.
Now this is where you do not want to exalt your logic above the truth of Scripture. For Luke clearly wants the reader to see the importance prayer by the church played in Peter’s deliverance as well. He sets it up mentioning that James is killed and Peter is arrested. However, in verse 5 he shows the powerful contrast, writing, “So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.” Any clear reading of this text demands that one sees what follows this (Peter’s deliverance from prison) as being directly related to the prayers offered by the church.
When we pray, we are able to move God’s hand, for God has ordained that his hand will be moved through prayer. James assures us in James 5:16 that “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful in its effects.” Our prayers are powerful.
Every saint who has ever lived has no doubt acknowledged this. Paul commanded the Colossians to pray and asked for prayers, writing, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I have also been imprisoned”(Colossians 4:2-3).
Paul had already been told by God that he was being sent to open the eyes of the Gentiles to the gospel. So why ask for prayer? He asks for prayer because God works through our prayers.
Another example where Paul acknowledges this is in Philippians 1. Paul is waiting in prison for a court date. Meanwhile, he is contemplating whether God is going to let him die so that he may go and be with Christ or if he will live and continue on with the saints. Finally, he realizes that God wants him to stay and continue his labor among the believers. Therefore, Paul writes, “For I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:19). Paul believed that he would be delivered “through [their] prayers.”
Therefore, it is clear from Peter’s deliverance in Luke and these other examples that we should be much in prayer. For God has made it clear to us in his word that it is powerful enough to change things. And when you combine the fact that prayer is conversation with and petition to God in which he responds (according to his will) and that God is absolutely sovereign and able to do anything he desires, then do you see this privilege we have to pray?
The believers were praying for Peter’s rescue from prison and God acted so speedily that Peter interrupts their prayers by knocking on the door.
But this leaves us with a question doesn’t it? If God is absolutely sovereign, then does it even matter that we pray? First, let me remind you (again) never to exalt your logic above the plain teaching of Scripture.
And when you let Scripture stand, you will see the answer to that question is clearly, “yes.” For God is able to work in a more complex fashion than we understand. And this passage in Acts 12 where we see clear pictures of God’s absolute sovereignty and the power of our prayers is not the only instance where this combination of God doing something and yet commanding us to do it is seen.
For example, faith is a gift from God. God has to uncover our blinded eyes, pluck out our heart of stone, and give us the ability to love light more than darkness—for no man seeks after God (Romans 3:11). However, we are commanded to believe all over Scripture. In Acts 2:40, Luke says that Peter, “Kept on exhorting them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation.’” So does God save people or does he use us to bring them to salvation. The answer is that God saves people through men proclaiming the gospel.
The list could go on and on. This work of salvation that God begins by giving us faith and repentance, he tells us he will complete until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6). He tells us that he is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). However, Paul can also tell Timothy at the end of his life, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).
That God works our faith from beginning until the end and that we must fight for it can both be true because God’s ways are higher than ours (Is. 55:8-9).
Therefore, even as Paul can command, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13), so is my exhortation to you tonight, “Pray with all your might that God would move in your families, his church, and this land; for God is sovereignly working right now and his plans will not fail.”
Let the foundation that God is absolutely sovereign provide strength and rest as you are battling, striving, and fighting in prayer.
When God took James home, I believe that the church rested in the faith that God was sovereignly working that for his glory. And when they prayed for Peter to be released, their strength to believe it could be done (even when he’s surrounded by four guards, with two of them being chained to him) was that God is sovereign, and his plans cannot be thwarted.
Therefore, I urge you to rest in your struggles for God is sovereign, and yet I beg you to fight in prayer for those things that you do not think can happen because nothing can stop God’s hand as he decides to move through the prayers of his children.
To him be glory and honor forever. Amen.