Prayer Series Sermon Five - "The Power of Prayer" (Acts 12:1-19)

1. What are some of the benefits of prayer?

· Getting to know God and better appreciating God’s mission in the world
· Getting to know ourselves better by opening ourselves to God and sharing what’s happening for us
· Expressing our love for God and commitment to God’s purposes in life
· To confess our wrongdoing, receive forgiveness, and to have the forum through which we can come to forgive others
· Allowing God to shape our character and change us where needed
· Being able to cope better with our circumstances and various challenges
· Seeking the necessary resources to grow and progress in life
· Being able to express our concern for others
· Gaining a deeper understanding of God’s Word – the Bible
· Gaining a vision of the Kingdom of God and our part in its ‘coming’ on earth
· Gaining guidance in our decision-making
· To claim God’s protection for ourself and our family, and God’s undertaking for us in all the issues of life, work and church
· To help us focus on the most important things in life.

If prayer truly can bring all these benefits, and I am here to argue that prayer indeed can, then already prayer is powerful, and we haven’t even talked yet about those results which might be termed remarkable or even miraculous!

Through prayer, where it aligns with God’s will, physical healings and amazing ‘turn-arounds’ in life situations can take place. We see these occurrences in the pages of the Bible, and especially in the ministry of Jesus. The Gospels give us a wonderful vision of the change God can make in the lives of people.

In this day and age, God chooses to use us, as we give ourselves over to the leading of the Holy Spirit, to participate in such remarkable change. Prayer for others combined with a positive witness to Jesus, in such cases where the people themselves are willing, can lead to complete spiritual transformations.

Many of us have prayed for certain people for a long long time, seemingly without an answer. Yet, having given all people to be born freewill to decide for themselves, God cannot undermine or counteract that freewill. It remains everybody’s individual responsibility to open their lives to God.

Having said this, we should not underestimate the effectiveness of our prayers, and therefore never stop praying – as the compassion and understanding and witness that builds as we pray (both privately and publicly) adds to the light that shines in that other person’s direction. Any small sense of a positive openness should be gratefully celebrated. Any sense of growing reticence or negativity in that other person should be compassionately endured in the encouraging company of God.

2. The example of the early church

I have already said that God chooses to have us participate with him in bringing the Kingdom of God to earth. We can see many examples of this in the book of the ‘Acts of the Apostles’ – the record of the expansion of the Jesus-following church in its first generation. This is the book in which we read of how the formerly defeated disciples like Peter receive the Holy Spirit and begin to speak and act with positive power and effectiveness, and where a former opponent named Saul becomes Paul the greatest missionary in history.

In one generation the Gospel of Jesus spreads from Palestine all the way to Rome. How important was prayer in all of this? I would say vital, as prayer was the vehicle through which the early believers gained their insight and confidence and guidance and purpose, grew their faith, and sensed that partnership they had with God to bring forward God’s kingdom on earth. It was prayer that opened previously closed doors, and even though many of these disciples tragically died because of concerted opposition to their mission, they were able to face such possible trials confident in God’s presence going with them.

We have read of one such example today from Acts chapter 12.

(a) The Need

The disciple James, the son of Zebedee, brother of John had already been beheaded. Now Peter had been arrested by King Herod and faced likely execution. Herod thought that if he could get rid of such an important figure, this might bring an end to this annoying Jesus movement. Herod could have been planning to make a ‘big show’ of Peter’s trial and execution to serve as a warning and threat to others. Peter himself had really just hit his straps as far as his mission was concerned, having just come to the understanding that God’s intentions was to bring salvation, not just to the Jews but, to all the peoples of the world. As well as losing a friend, the church felt that they would be losing their leader. The situation was grim … Peter was in chains and being closely secured by double the normal number of guards, escape would be impossible!

(b) The Response

The church met together in prayer for Peter. It is reported in verse 5 that the church prayed to God “fervently” for Peter. This would be earnest, committed, faithful, intense, heartfelt, united, ongoing prayer. It is then reported in verse 12 that “many had gathered” in a particular home (the home of Mary … the mother of John Mark - the author of the Gospel of Mark) and were praying there. The fact that this is where Peter headed after his escape would suggest that this was Peter’s own house church community. It is interesting to note that when Peter remarkably came a-knocking at this home, the people within were still in prayer for him, indicating that God had acted while the people were fervently in prayer.

(c) The Outcome

The chains securing Peter to the guards fell off his wrists, and he was able to slip by the other guards, walking through a previously locked gate (that opened of “its own accord”) to freedom. This turn of events was so remarkable that Peter initially thought that he must be in the midst of a dream. When Peter realised that he was wide awake, he understood that only God could have brought this escape about. How confidence-building and encouraging would this be! When they heard about this escape, those who had been praying and the leaders of the wider church would also find this to be faith-enriching.

[It’s worth noting that Herod, in his state of spiritual blindness, could find no other explanation for Peter’s escape than the slackness of his guards! Those who have their eyes closed to the light will always seek other explanations (rather than the possibility of God being active). Again, from our position of advantage, we should not judge or condemn them, but rather pray that they might open their eyes. Herod’s blindness cost his guards their lives.]

What is the central dynamic of this incident?

Was it the Church at Prayer or God in Action?

Both actually, for these things go hand in hand.

3. What were the people praying for?

Have you wondered what these gathered people were actually praying for … how there prayers were shaped, what words they used? All we are told is that they were simply praying for Peter.

It would seem that the people were not necessarily praying for such an outcome as this, given their amazement when Peter turned up so unannounced. It is reported that they questioned the sanity of Rhoda, the maid who had answered the knocking at the door, and that they were “amazed” when they realised that it was actually Peter. One might argue that, despite their diligence in prayer, they still harboured doubts about whether God could or would respond. But probably the amazement could be more as a result of how quickly and decisively God acted … that there was no warning, no protracted need to picket the prison with placards claiming injustice, no long process of Herod having to change his mind – all indicating to the reader that God had acted way above and beyond their prayerful expectations.

These were faithful people engaging in continuing fervent prayer. Perhaps there were some with lingering doubts, yet they courageously gathered to pray anyway. There may have been those who had no idea how to actually pray in this situation, but they came as well. These uncertain ones came and joined with the more mature believers, and together they raised a united chorus of concern.

They might have prayed that Peter would sense God’s presence and peace in his difficult situation. Some might have prayed that common sense would prevail, and that Herod would release Peter in due course. They might have simply prayed that Peter would be sparred execution. Some might have even prayed that they themselves would be able to cope in Peter’s absence. It seems to me that what they prayed for was less important in this case, it was the fact that they had committed to pray that counted (and that they were open to God’s answer whatever that was)!!

Such a commitment to pray, together with the positive and remarkable outcome, would suggest to me that they were actually seeking God’s will in this matter (even if they were not wholly ready for how this would specifically pan out). The pray-ers focus was on God much more so than on the mountain that stood before them.

When faced with preaching to a crowd of over 20,000 people in India with the use of a translator, Bill Hybels, in the face of all his doubts, fears and anxiety concerning the size of the crowd and the cultural and linguistic differences, prayed the following prayer:

"I’m praying to the Creator of the world, the King of the universe, the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-faithful God. I’m praying to the God who made the mountains and who can move them if necessary. I’m praying to the God who has always been faithful to me, who has never let me down no matter how frightened I was or how difficult the situation looked. I’m praying to a God who wants to bear fruit through me, and I am going to trust that [God] is going to use me tonight. Not because of who I am, but because of who [God] is. [God] is faithful."

This was how this preacher changed his focus off the mountain (that in this case was all of his insecurities) and on to God. Many of our problems seem to be the size of a mountain, whether these problems are relational, vocational, financial, spiritual or physical, or whether they involve habits or addictions of various kinds. And sometimes we allow the size of the problem to block our view of the magnitude of God. But we can learn to pray as the early church did, and as Bill Hybels did here, focussed wholly on God and God’s purposes in the world (over and above the mountains that seem to stand in the way of us personally and collectively).

4. Faithfulness is the key

We often don’t know what to pray in difficult circumstances – the words won’t easily come and how this situation might resolve is far from clear. If we were responsible for dictating or directing the outcome this would be a problem. But because we can enter prayer expressing our dependence upon God, stating our willingness to partner with God’s own concern about the state of affairs – this is the very act of faithfulness that facilitates miraculous change. Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision, famously prayed, “Lord, may my heart be broken by what breaks your heart”. We don’t have to have ideas before we come to pray; indeed it is our lack of ideas that should draw us to prayer. God will then speak, lead and act. When we pray, God often does more than we could imagine.

The prayer “hero” in this particular story from Acts 12 is actually … Rhoda – the maid who went to the gate when Peter was knocking! Whatever they were faithfully praying together for, Rhoda was the one who was highly expectant for what God might do. Just a few words from Peter outside the door were enough for Rhoda to recognise that their prayers had been answered in a remarkable way … probably beyond all their petitions. And when her sanity was called into question, Rhoda didn’t buckle in the slightest, but continued to insist that “it was so” (v.15). No one was going to dent her enthusiasm! Rhoda may have been considered a lowly hired servant, but here exhibited wonderful characteristics of leadership.

Yet all the other members of this Jesus-following community had exhibited faithfulness too in the face of a really difficult situation. They were praying, partnering with God toward a solution … thus truly experiencing the unleashing of God’s power to bring about God’s own Kingdom purposes. Here a normal everyday group of faithful people cooperated in foiling a plot to destroy the future of the Gospel. We read just a few verses later (12:24) ... “But the word of God continued to advance and gain adherents”.

In these matters we may ask why some prayers seem so thoroughly answered and others don’t. For instance, Peter survived at this time of persecution, whereas James did not. Well, part of our faithfulness in prayer will involve continuing to trust God through our confusion and even our disappointment. Sometimes it will be the resolute refusal of other parties to cooperate that blocks God’s answer. At other times, unbeknown to us, the timing is just not right. We don’t see the big picture of God’s plans, so we just have to trust that God knows best – for this is the only path we can tread if we want to grow.

Sometimes there is just the plain reality that we are part of planet Earth which is so subject to instability and where tragedy is never far away, and that we live in a world that is marred by violence and the spread of disease.

Sometimes we may miss God’s answer because we are already locked into what we want the result to be before we pray. Also, while we focus on the lack of results in regard to our prayers for someone else, we might miss what God wants to teach us about ourself. Is it that we need to learn patience, compassion, gentleness or trust? Even while we wait for a satisfying answer in someone else’s situation, God is seeking our roots to grow deeper and deeper into him. At the same time, we may be really surprised one day to see how our prayers were answered in ways we have not yet recognised.

As I just said, even while we wait for a satisfying answer in someone else’s situation, God is seeking our roots to grow deeper and deeper into him. Philip Yancey shares the story of someone who lived through the long civil war in Lebanon in the 1980s. There were many prayers for peace that seemed to go by unanswered and the constant danger in which they lived remained. Yet they persisted and were able to say, “We were pressed to God every day”.