Acts 11-12: Praying with Expectation

We follow the gospel’s unstoppable momentum as Peter defends God’s welcome of the Gentiles and the church grows beyond old boundaries. We also wrestle with a tough question from Acts 12: do we pray like we truly expect God to answer, even faster than we imagined? 

• the Book of Acts as the story of the Holy Spirit building the church through ordinary people 
• Peter’s vision and the shift from “unclean” labels to God’s expanded family 
• the Jerusalem believers’ objections and why Peter refuses to hinder what God is doing 
• Antioch as a turning point for mission, teaching, and the first use of the name Christians 
• generosity in crisis as the church sends relief during a coming famine 
• Herod’s persecution, Peter’s imprisonment, and the church praying earnestly 
• Peter’s rescue by an angel and the comic shock of answered prayer at the door 
• humility before God contrasted with Herod accepting worship and receiving judgment 
• a practical challenge to pray with faith that expects God can act right now 

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Acts Matters

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Welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Podcast. This is Mike. We're reading through the Book of Acts. And I I've read through the Book of Acts before, but I'm just really enjoying this run-through. I don't know what it is. It's just kind of the drama and the ups and the downs and the zoom out to see just this epic picture of the developing of the church sometimes and just exploding. And then the zooming in to just really intimate, uh, really private scenes, even between just two people or or just a small group. And it's just a dynamic book of yes, the acts of the apostles is what it's named for, but we really see the acts of the Holy Spirit working in and through people to build this church. And is and Jesus is not shut down by persecution. Jesus accomplishes everything he wants to accomplish. Even though he's not stepping foot on the earth, his hands and feet are the people that he is called to follow him, and nothing can stop Jesus, no matter what that what the world may do to God's people. They cannot stop God's plan. And the same is true today. I hope you're encouraged by that. I hope that this book of Acts doesn't just stay in the Bible and the book of Acts, but enters your mind and transforms your heart to recognize that wow, you know what, we have been given the same power that raised Christ from the dead to be able to do his good works in the world today. And yeah, there may be people and um organizations and ideologies working against us. That's not against us, it's against Jesus. And we can proudly and boldly act on his behalf in his name to accomplish his purposes, and he strengthens us to do the work that he's given us to do. We see that very clearly here in the book of Acts. Now, last time, as we

God Expands The Family

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read chapter 10, we saw a really interesting turning point, especially for Peter, but the Jews on the whole, and in the life of the church, where Peter was instructed by God that he can forget everything he knew about cleanness and uncleanness, especially when it came to people, because the Jews had so clung to the fact that they are God's chosen people, which, okay, is true and good and and right, but they had kind of clung to it so much that they thought they were clean and that everyone else was unclean because they didn't do the Jewish rituals, they didn't live the Jewish way, they didn't follow God. And so they made this hierarchy between them and everyone else. And God was saying, no, no, we're done with that. Yes, you are my people, you're my chosen people, you'll always be my people. But I'm expanding the family. And I can do that because I'm God. I'm adopting more people into the family and giving them the same Holy Spirit that you have. It's not exclusive anymore, and it's going to start with a Gentile man named Cornelius and his family. And so we saw Peter recognize, oh wow, I all right, God wants you as part of his people too. And here's the Holy Spirit, and now be baptized in the name of Jesus. And I guess you're my brothers and sisters now. Days ago, I wouldn't have even thought I could even step in your home if it weren't for God telling me otherwise. What an amazing surprise for Peter to be a part of. However, the rest of the Jewish believers don't know about this. They didn't have the same vision that Peter got from God. This is all news to them. Let's see how this pans out in Acts chapters 11 and 12 in the New English Translation. Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God. So when

Peter Explains The Gentile Surprise

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Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers took issue with him, saying, You went to uncircumcised men and shared a meal with them? But Peter began and explained it to them point by point, saying, I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, an object, something like a large sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came to me, and as I stared, I looked into it, and I saw four footed animals of the earth, wild animals, reptiles, and wild birds. And I also heard a voice saying to me, Get up, Peter, slaughter and eat. But I said, Certainly not, Lord, for nothing defiled or ritually unclean has ever entered my mouth. But the voice replied a second time from heaven, what God has made clean you must not consider ritually unclean. And this happened three times, and then everything was pulled up to heaven again. And at that very moment, three men from Caesarea approached the house where we were staying, and the Spirit told me to accompany them without hesitation. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house. He informed us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter, who will speak a message to you by which you and your entire household will be saved. And then as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he did on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord as he used to say, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as he also gave us after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder God? When they heard this they they ceased their objections and praised God, saying, So then God has granted the repentance that leads to life

Antioch Grows And Christians Get Named

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even to the Gentiles. Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the message to no one but Jews, but then there were some from Cyprus and Cyrene among them who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks, too, proclaiming the good news of the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. A report about them came to the attention of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with devoted hearts, because he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a significant number of people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught a significant number of people. Now it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. We know Christians means little Christs. That started right here in Antioch. Well, at that time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them, named Agabus, got up and predicted by the Spirit that a severe famine was about to come over the whole inhabited world. And this took place during the reign of Claudius. So the disciples, each in accordance with his financial ability, decided to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. They did so sending their financial aid to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. At about that time King Herod laid hands on some from the church to harm them. He had James, the brother of John, executed

Persecution Hits And Peter Gets Arrested

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with a sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too. This took place during the feast of unleavened bread, and when he had seized him, he put him into prison, handing him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him. Herod planned to bring him out for a public trial after the Passover, so Peter was kept in prison, but those in the church were earnestly praying to God for him. And on that very night before Herod was going to bring him out for trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the prison cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, Get up quickly. And the chains fell off Peter's wrists. Then the angel said to him, Fasten your belt and put on your sandals, and Peter did so, and then the angel said to him, Put on your cloak and follow me. Peter went out and followed him. Yet he didn't realize that what was happening through the angel was real. He thought he was seeing a vision. After they had passed the first and second guards, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went outside and walked down one narrow street when at once the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from everything the Jewish people were expecting to happen. When Peter realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many people had gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the outer gate, a slave girl

An Angel Walks Peter Out

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named Rhoda answered. And when she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she didn't open the gate but ran back in and told them, Hey, Peter's standing at the gate. But but they said to her, You've lost your mind. But she kept insisting that it was Peter, and they kept saying, No, it's his angel. And now Peter continued knocking, and when they had opened the door and saw him, they were greatly astonished, and he motioned to them with his hand to be quiet and then related how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. He said, Tell James and the brothers these things, and then he left and went to another place. At daybreak, there was great consternation among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. When Herod had searched for him and didn't find him, he questioned the guards and commanded that they be led away to execution. And then Herod went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. Now Herod was having an angry quarrel with the people of Tyre and Sidon, so they joined together and presented themselves before him, and after convincing Blastus, the king's personal assistant to help them, they asked for peace because their country's food supply was provided by the king's country. On a day determined in advance, Herod put on his royal robes, sat down on the judgment seat, and made a speech to them. But the crowd began to shout, Oh, the voice of a god, not of a man! And immediately an angel of the Lord struck Herod down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God kept on increasing and multiplying. Interesting

Herod’s Pride Meets God’s Judgment

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little juxtaposition there between Herod and Peter from last episode. When Peter walked into the house of Cornelius, they were like, Oh, I want to hear from you. Oh, oh, and they began to bow down and worship Peter, and Peter said, No, no, no, no, no, no, get up. I'm just a man, I'm just a man, I'm just a messenger here. And here we have Herod in a similar situation where he's pleasing the people, he's bringing some peace, he's bringing about resolution and putting together a pretty good speech, and they're all like, Wow, it's like he's God speaking. He's not even a man, and he doesn't deny it, and he dies. Humility, knowing your place before God, not thinking yourself more highly than you ought, and not letting others think of you more highly than they ought as well. But before we wrap up this episode, I want to bring attention to the little prayer meeting that was going on on behalf of Peter. Now, we can find ourselves in a very similar situation. If one of our brothers or sisters is in jail, especially for being uh persecuted for the cause of Christ, we get together, let's pray for them. We get together and hopefully we pray for those who are sick, maybe in the hospital. And like, oh, would God would you please be with the surgeons? Would you please heal him and help him recover,

Praying Like We Expect An Answer

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give him peace? You pray for these things. What if your brother or sister who is in jail? Or what if that brother or sister who was in the hospital, very ill, maybe near death, shows up to your prayer meeting as you're praying? We say we're praying with faith and expecting God to move and expecting God to answer our prayers, but are we really? What if he answered them faster than we expected? What if he answered them right then? Are we surprised? I feel I would be. And that shows something about our prayers. Let's pray with such belief that if we pray for rain, then we've got our rain boots on and our umbrella handy. If we pray for healing for someone in the hospital, then we're expecting them to come ring our doorbell and say, hey, I'm back. How you doing? I got a story to tell you. If we're praying for reconciliation with a friend or family member, are we doing so expecting the phone to ring before we're even done praying? Now look, I understand God's not always gonna answer prayers before you're done praying them or while you're at your prayer meeting with your friends. He doesn't always answer with that timing, but it's with that heart of faith that we should be praying. Now let's not get disappointed and disillusioned when God doesn't answer that way, but we're gonna leave the timing up to him. Let's do what we can do and have faith with such conviction and certainty that we pray expecting God to answer right now, because he can and he just might. That's a Thinking Out Loud thought for the day. Thank you so much for being here. Join me next time as we continue the book of Acts here on the Out Loud Bible Podcast.