Thursday, March 20

Praying Together

Thursday, March 20

Acts 12:5

I remember the beginning of Acts 12.

Following events recorded in Acts Chapter 4, during the very early days of the Church after Pentecost (Acts 2 – the fulfilled promise in Joel to pour out the Holy Spirit on God’s people), the crescendo of persecution was reaching forte. Acts 12 is fortissimo.

Peter and the Apostles had already been imprisoned because of people resisting the Holy Spirit, the Gospel, Jesus, and the Kingdom of God. In Acts 4, Peter and John are jailed.  In Acts 5, apparently all of Jesus’ original disciples (sans, of course, Judas) are imprisoned and miraculously released by an angel. The disciples are told to go right back to the temple courts and keep preaching and teaching… which they obediently do. And they are arrested again… and each beaten (most likely whipped 39 times). Finally, the first martyr Stephen is stoned for preaching Christ and doing benevolent miracles in His Name. (Acts 7) Next, we learn of Saul (the future “St. Paul”) being officially sanctioned by his fellow pharisees to imprison entire faithful families… even up into the region of Syria.

But Acts 12 sticks in my mind for two reasons. It begins with the account of James, the brother of John and one of the original 12 disciples who is murdered by King Herod Agrippa (son of the Herod who tried to murder the infant Jesus). James is one of the “big 3.” Peter, James, and John are very often together with Jesus at intimate and potent moments. James and John were “Sons of Thunder,” according to Jesus. (Mark 3) Herod thought he could silence the thunder. The second reason I recall Acts 12 is that it ends in the death of Herod because “he did not give God glory,” and the Word of God ends up being proclaimed in fortissimo.

But the prayer of the church played a key role in this chapter for these things to occur.

The crowds who opposed Jesus’ message of forgiveness, faith, love, service, and the resurrection from the dead were pleased the king silenced the thunder of James. Herod, liking being liked, thought why not kill another of the “big three”?  So, during the very same annual feast (Passover) where another Herod sibling endorsed the death of Jesus, Herod Agrippa placed Peter in prison with 16 guards watching him. Agrippa intended to shatter the rock who was Peter, the following morning. 

This is where Luke writes: So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. (Acts 12:5) Read the account in Acts 12 for the fascinating details of Peter’s deliverance. The trail of his freedom goes straight back to the “fervent” prayer of the church. The church, gathering in divine worship, prays. Yes, the adjective “fervent” is also important. The collective prayers of the saints in worship are powerful, which is one reason God wants us to continually devote ourselves to worship and prayer. (Acts 2:42)

 He wants to hear your voice – in chorus! A fervent, faithful, fortissimo of praise and petitions!