ACTS 12:5

Here we have two very salient facts – Peter was kept in Prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him (Acts 12:5). Sometimes we fall prey to the thought that coming to Jesus exempts us from severe tests and calamities. However, one can only hold this view if one’s knowledge of the Holy Scripture is severely limited. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, trials and crosses are uniquely interwoven in the believer’s life. Let us never forget that Christianity came about through the cross. This is indeed a cross-bearing religion. Jesus specifically forewarned us “. . . if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). This is not only found in the gospel of Matthew, but it is also found in Mark 8:34, and in Luke 9:23.

As followers of Christ, we too must also take up our cross and follow Him. Certainly, we have already experienced that it is not always sunshine. Like every disciple of Christ, “bonds and afflictions abide us” (Acts 20:23). We must wrestle! We go through hardships, hardness, and pain. It gets tough. The pathway gets difficult and sometimes treacherous. Sometimes we are cursed, persecuted, slandered, ostracized, and vilified. It’s really not always Sunday, and we can honestly testify to the song “Through many dangers, toils and snares I’ve already come . . .” The apostle Peter was careful to point out, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you” (1 Peter 4:12). Peter was not speaking from hearsay but from experience.

We go back to the text- “So Peter was kept in prison . . . “(Acts 12:5). This was his third imprisonment. Here, without a divine intervention, Peter was slated to be executed the next day. James, the apostle and brother of John, was recently put to death by the sword. Severe persecution had again broken out against the church. It certainly was not a popular thing to be a Christian, much less the leader of this sect, as Peter was.

However, the negatives of the passage are counterbalanced by the one powerful, positive fact “. . . But the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (Acts 12:5). While all hell had broken loose and everything seemed so bleak, dark, and pessimistic, the Church of God called a prayer meeting!

You could never get me to believe that prayer is ineffective or an exercise in futility. There is something kinetic and stirring and transformative about prayer. You might be able to stop a lot of things, but there is something unstoppable about a praying church. Even by the next verse, you can see and feel the effects of this seriously praying church. What could be more demonstrative of the powerful effects of prayer than the very night before Peter’s trial he was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains (Acts 12:6). It reminds us of Jesus sleeping through the storm (Mark 4:38). They prayed and God sent an angel to supernaturally deliver Peter from prison (Acts 12:11). They prayed and by the end of the very chapter Herod dressed in royal apparel, was smitten by the angel of the Lord and eaten by worms. A praying church will prevail!