Church Stories
Acts 12:1–17 (ESV)
1 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. 6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” 12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” 16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. 17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place.
Have you ever had the very thing that you were praying for come knocking at your door?
That is exactly what happened here - and it was so unexpected that they couldn't believe it!
This story is a hopeless story
It's a really bad situation!
Peter is in prison and being guarded by FOUR squads of soldiers!
Herod was "about to bring him out"
That means he was up against the clock and about to be executed!
It's easy to look past the difficulty of the position that he is in because we know the end of the story
Don't dismiss the beginning just because you know the ending!
We cannot celebrate the victory of the ending without embracing the hopelessness of the beginning
That's why we so easily dismiss each other - you can't appreciate where I'm at, if you don't know where I've been
Therein lies the value of living this faith journey out together:
We both learn the value of the struggle
God has always done his best work in the worst situations:
Gideon's army
Woman with the issue (Mark 5)
Woman at the well (John 4)
Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10)
Feeding the multitudes with 5 loaves and 2 fish (Matthew 14)
This story is hopeless... But not for long
God is about to get involved in the worst situation Peter has ever been in!
Peter never saw it coming!
God may be about to do his best work in the worst areas in your life!
You may not even see it coming!
This story is a God-sized
It is a story that cannot be told without God getting the credit
There's no way that "This just happened to work out"
There should be some things happening in your life, that are just unexplainable without God getting the credit.
Verse 5 is so powerful for us to understand:
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.
It was prayer that brought him out of prison
"Prayer is such a powerful tool, and so often we use it as merely a crutch." - Krista Shay
2 Corinthians 10:3–6 (ESV)
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
Peter’s freedom is a result of God working through the power of prayer
Prayer is the open invitation for the supernatural to take place
It isn't a reciting or chant of theological words
It is an invitation!
“The power of prayer doesn't rest in the ability of the one who prays, but in the ability of the one who hears!”
This story is a Micro-Church story
When Peter left the prison, he didn’t go to a church building - He went to a christian home where the church was gathered!
It is an unmistakable, undeniable fact, that the Biblical New Testament church of Acts looked more like a Micro-Church model than a Sunday Service model.
We have a vision and heart to shift our thinking back to the model of the early church.
That shift turns everything upside down!
When we shift the focus away from macro-church to micro-church
The couch becomes the new pew
The coffee table is the new pulpit
The living room becomes an altar and a place of worship!
When we make that shift, the entry point to Hub City Church is not the foyer of our building at 625 Main, it becomes your front door!
What we see in this story:
A church
gathered in a home
making fervent prayer
A person
Who was in a bad situation
Had a need
A God
Who hears the prayers
Shows up in bad situations
God-sized things happen when these three intersect.
If I have a need I don't want to have to wait for Sunday for the Church to be effective
A micro-church is the New Testament solution for shackles to fall and prisons open!
