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Category: Acts for a 21st c. Church
Acts of the Apostles 1-28
Acts of the Apostles:
+ The first century Church SHARED Christ while suffering severe persecution.
+ Luke records a historic account of the Church which gives 21c Christians a context to SHARE the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others.
Read more about the Early Church & add your COMMENT on Scripture.
ACT now.
+ SHARE the Gospel history witnessed in the CURRENT chronological SERIES from ACTS of the APOSTLES.
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What happened to Peter?
Jerusalem must have been all abuzz with the questions of yet another unfolding mystery involving the Apostles. What happened to this Apostle of Jesus?
What happened to Simon Peter?
How did this leading Disciple of Jesus escape? Peter could not possibly have come to our gate since Herod has him under the guard of sixteen men?
As we witnessed previously in a scene from Acts of the Apostles 12:13-14 in His Angel at the Gate:
A servant-girl named Rhoda.. ran in and reported that Peter was standing in front of the gate.
Impossible, would be their first thought.
“You are out of your mind!”
But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door, they saw him and were astounded.
Acts of the Apostles 12:16 LSBWhat happened to Jesus’ mission?
It is the year of our Lord [A.D.] 44.
It has been fourteen years since the Holy Spirit first anointed the saints in Jerusalem to Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel.
Peter is not going to remain in Jerusalem.
Peter commands a continued mission
.. they saw him and were astounded.
ἐξίστημι – amazed – out of their wits (in the wonder of seeing Peter)
Luke once again on this day uses this same description as Pentecost when the Church sees Peter alive and in person, even though they had fully expected Herod to execute the Apostle as he had James.
So they were astounded and marveling, saying, “Behold, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? .. And they all continued in astonishment and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
Acts of the Apostles 2:7,12 – Pentecost [~A.D.30] when Peter proclaimed Christ crucified and risen from death.
Astonishing that a girl is raised from the dead by Peter in Joppa! Amazing that the Holy Spirit had also filled Samaritans and Roman soldiers in Caesarea as Peter and other disciples of Jesus had reported to the Church in Jerusalem.
And all the circumcised believers who came with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.
Acts of the Apostles 10:45 LSBToday amazingly, Peter has a command for the Church as the Apostle will address them once more in Jerusalem:
But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he recounted to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison.
Meanwhile, back at Herod’s palace..
Herod Agrippa I had seized Peter during the time of the Passover when great crowds always gathered in Jerusalem as they had years before when the Jews crucified Jesus on a Roman cross.
The king’s recent execution of James had so pleased the Jews that now Herod would kill Peter. (It would be great political theatre for this friend of Rome now gaining some cooperation from the religious parties of Jerusalem.) Herod had a high-security guard of sixteen men watch over Peter during every watch of the night. BUT..
Acts 12:18
Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.
A report of amazement from these sixteen elite guards, two who were chained to Peter while two others were on guard at the Herod’s prison door.
And when Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards..
Remember back fourteen years ago, before Herod manipulated his way back into power?
Luke 23:
8 Now when Herod saw Jesus, he rejoiced greatly; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. And he questioned Jesus in many words, but He answered him nothing..
11 And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a bright robe and sent Him back to Pilate. Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other.
Leaving Jerusalem
King Herod Agrippa I
.. he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.
Caesarea Palaestinae has been the capitol of Roman Judaea since AD 6 & is the residence of Herod Agrippa (and soon Agrippa II),
not Hierosolyma (as the Roman’s call Jerusalem).
And on an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel and sitting on the judgment seat, began delivering an address to them [an audience of representatives from Tyre and Sidon]. And the assembly kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!”
And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
Marcus Julius Agrippa I - b. 10 B.C. d. A.D. 44
P.S. Soon, Manaen, who had grown up with Marcus Agrippa in the court of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, will join the Apostle Paul and many disciples of the Way in Antioch, from where they will lead the Church on missions into the all the world, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Simon Peter
.. he recounted to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said,
“Report these things to James and the brothers.”
Then he left and went to another place.
Of course the James to whom Peter refers is NOT the first martyred Apostle James, but the biological half-brother of Jesus who is now a disciple of the Way after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.
Even though Saul no longer persecutes the Church, King Herod and the Jews of Jerusalem still pursue the Apostles.
We will not see Peter for some time until after A.D. 44
Peter certainly could have returned to Capernaum to be with his wife and family. But the Apostle will return to Jerusalem at times as we will see later in Acts of the Apostles.
And when Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution.
But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.
Acts of the Apostles 12:24, after Peter escaped from Jerusalem
in ~AD 44 after proclaiming the Gospel of the risen Christ Jesus for fourteen years.25 And Barnabas and Saul [Paul] returned to Jerusalem, fulfilling their ministry, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.
Then what happened to Peter?
For Your Information (Peter’s witness and leadership continues after this astounding event in Jerusalem):
All dates approximate. Source for most is Rose Guide to the Book of Acts.
- AD 44-48 – The predicted famine [Acts 11] during the reign of Claudius takes place; Barnabas and Saul of Tarsus will bring a collection from the churches to Jerusalem for distribution.
- AD 49 – A council of Church leaders, including Peter, meet in Jerusalem [Acts 15].
- This, of course, is five years after Peter has left Jerusalem after being freed by an angel.
- AD 49 – Luke, who has recorded Peter’s Gospel and the acts of the Apostles (so far) departs Jerusalem with Paul on his second missionary journey.
- AD 50 – John Mark, who had accompanied Paul for part of his first missionary journey, writes his Gospel.
- AD 64-65 [twenty years after Peter escapes Herod]- Peter writes two letters to the Church
- Sometime after a Jewish revolt in AD 66, Nero will execute Peter and many others in Rome.
Jesus said to them, ” “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. – Gospel of Mark 16:15 ACTS of the Apostles will continue on mission, God-willing, for your comments and witness of the 21st c. Church. - RH
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His Angel at the gate
A messenger after an angel
Today we’ll move around between scenes and times hoping for a glance at an angel.
(Have you ever seen one?)
Acts of the Apostles 12:
So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.
Acts of the Apostles 12:5 ESV~ A.D. 42
Scene: Likely the same upper room where Peter and the Apostles have proclaimed the Gospel to the Church with great power. It is above a palatial home of Mary mother of Mark, who will record his Gospel during these next several years.
Like James, this time the Apostle has been seized in Jerusalem and led to prison.
Here in Mary’s house, the church prays continually for their pastor Peter, who Herod will soon execute to please the Jews.
A servant girl, Ῥόδη [Rhoda] comes up to them as claimed she saw Peter.
..and they kept saying, “It is his angel!”
Acts 12:15c ESVThese believers in the resurrected Christ seem pretty insistent that Peter wasn’t knocking at Mary’s gate as her servant girl insisted, but that Rhoda just saw an angel at the gate.
Just what is it that this flock of Peter’s believes about angels?
ἄγγελος – angelos
KJV Translation Count — Total: 186x
- a messenger,
- envoy,
- one who is sent,
- an angel,
- a messenger from God
..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!”
Perhaps some in the room had witnessed the risen Christ! (Jesus, though, IS more than just an angel). He demonstrated both spirit-like and human traits during those forty days after the resurrection a dozen years ago.
Perhaps Peter has sent a messenger from Herod’s prison, even a messenger sent from God.
Philip the Evangelist or Cornelius the Centurion
Luke does not account for who is present among those praying for Peter. Maybe John is mourning in a family home for his slain brother James. But Philip might be present, traveling from Caesarea even as Agrippa frequently does. Or maybe Cornelius, now a Roman brother in the Lord and follower of Peter, could have been there (or some of his family).
These men and others had seen angels and delivered the Lord’s message.
But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying,
“Get ready and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.)
Acts of Philip, disciple of the Apostles, 8:26 NASB20A.D. 2022
Scene: In a neighborhood near my own home
I saw an angel. I understood her message, a graceful and timely gesture sent to me.
Want to know more? Comment on this post about angels, especially sharing any contemporary experience of your own, and I will privately share the rest of my brief recent encounter - RH
Having experienced the mysterious and powerful work of the Holy Spirit personally on a Good Friday more than twenty years ago (even as many witnessed its mysteries on that first Pentecost more than a decade prior to our account from Acts of the Apostles 12), I do not marvel that those praying for Peter suggested that Rhonda, servant of the household of John Mark, had seen angel.
Peter’s witness of Angels
It happens here in Acts 12, that this servant girl had not seen an angel at their gate.
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.
Peter, however, has seen an angel – even as Luke records in Acts of the Apostles that he has before.
“The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!” Were some of those won to Christ by Peter’s preaching and powerful signs in the Temple (even before the stoning of Stephen) now present in this upper room where a servant girl has announced that Peter is at the gate?
Also, of course, there was the Voice Peter heard from the housetop when the angel of the Lord brought Cornelius to him: “Rise up, Peter, slaughter and eat!” .. “What God has cleansed, no longer consider defiled.”
So Peter was kept in prison..
It’s ten years beyond A.D. 30, when Jesus appeared to the Apostles and an angel released Peter from prison to preach in the Temple. And it’s a few months beyond A.D. 40, when an angel of the Lord appeared separately to Peter and Cornelius.
Scene:
A.D. 42 – a high-security prison of King Herod in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover
Agrippa’s timing is not unlike that of twelve years earlier, when Jerusalem’s former Prefect, Pontius Pilate, had crucified the Lord Jesus.
But now is the night before Herod Agrippa is about to make an example of Peter in front of the Passover crowds of Jerusalem, just as he had pleased the Jews so much (remember: *Herod really isn’t a Jew) by killing James with the sword of an executioner.
*source: Herod the Great's father was half Edomite. Agrippa grew up around Rome. For more READ: Herod Vexing Opposition of the Church from our introduction to ACTS 12
Acts 12:
τετράδιον – When he [Herod] had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four [sixteen men] squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people.
[During every watch of the night..]
Peter was sleeping..
- between two soldiers,
- bound with two chains,
- and [two] guards in front of the door were watching over the prison.
No one is going to escape these Roman guards of Herod’s standing watch over Peter all night.
And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared
and a light shone in the cell;
and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying,
“Rise up quickly.”
And his chains fell off his hands.
And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and [bind] your sandals.” And he did so.
And he said to him, “[Bind] your [cloak] around yourself and follow me.”
[So Peter] went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but was thinking he was seeing a vision.
Acts 12:9 of an angel leading Peter from prisonWhen Peter came to himself, he said, “Now truly I know that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.”
FREE from prison & certain death
Peter, standing in the early morning hours alone in the streets of Jerusalem.
And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer…
ACTS of the Apostles – To be continued…
