Chapter 12

Verse 1 – Herod Arippa admired the Jews and loved Judaism. He liked to worship with the Jews, and while he gave outer obeisance to the religion of the Roman empire—“Caesar is Lord”—he, on the other hand, was very interested in doing everything he could to help the Jews. At this time, in order to please the Jews, Herod Agrippa began to persecute the church. He “stretched forth his hand to vex,” which means to persecute or to afflict. It is an aorist active infinitive which indicates his purpose at this time. “Certain of the church” means any believers that he could see, and at this point one of the apostles was taken into custody and killed.

Verse 2 – the martyrdom of James the brother of John. James was the first apostle to die and John his brother was the last apostle to die. Decapitation was the means of Roman punishment and was used in the case of James—“with the sword.” There is a paradox at this point. In this context we see James dying, but Peter is delivered. God did not deliver James but shortly thereafter he delivered Peter from the exact same circumstances. God could have delivered James just as easily as he did Peter. So we have to ask, why the martyrdom of James? The death of James was the means of waking up the church as to the importance of God’s grace. Prayer is a principle of grace. All of the merit in prayer is in the answer, in the one who responds. We will see the church finally going to prayer and when they do and get an answer they don’t even believe it. The death of James was also a means of witnessing for Christ. From the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius we learn something which possibly is true, i.e. that James witnessed to the people who came to seize him. During the course of his very brief trial he made it very clear that he was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he had no fear of death, he would simply go from phase two to phase three into the presence of the Lord. There was nothing that SPQR or Herod’s power could do to him, he was very confident in his faith in the Lord. As a result the betrayers were all led to the Lord and Eusebius reports that they were all executed with James. If this is true we also learn that his death was a means of witnessing for Christ and his death glorified the Lord.

Verse 3 – the new crisis. The church has now been alerted and has been stimulated to use the grace weapon of prayer. “ … he [Herod Agrippa] proceeded further to take Peter also.” Peter being the outstanding leader. “Then were the days of unleavened bread.” The Jews had a law that there should be no executions during a feast day. This is the timetable for the future. The Passover depicts the work of Christ on the cross. The seven days that follow, unleavened bread, depicts fellowship with God in time. On the first Sunday of the feast of unleavened bread was the feast of the firstfruits which depicts the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. After firstfruits, 50 days later, was the feast of Pentecost which depicts the fifth cycle of discipline to the Jews and the concept of the Church Age not revealed in the Old Testament. Then came three more authorised feasts from the standpoint of the Levitical code, the first being the feast of the trumpets which depicts the Second Advent of Christ, and the end of the fifth cycle of discipline by the regathering of Israel. Then the feast of atonement which depicts the work of the baptism of fire—the believing Jews go into the Millennium and the unbelieving Jews cast off the earth. Finally the feast of the tabernacles which depicts the Millennium itself. So we have the feasts which were used to teach principles of doctrine. The feasts skipped over the Church Age because the Church was not revealed in the Old Testament times.

Here we have these feasts continued by the Jews. But they are meaningless. These Jews have not accepted Christ as saviour, they are religious and are following the principle of legalism in religion. In religion man is doing something—human good. They were observing the feast of unleavened bread but ritual without reality is meaningless. They expected God to bless them because of what they were doing. They are now hindered from executing Peter because this is the seven-day feast of unleavened bread. We are now down to the last night and Peter is in prison.

Verse 4 – Peter’s apprehension. “ … and delivered him to four quarternians of soldiers.” From a system of “column of fours.” A quaternian is simply four soldiers, the smallest organised unit in the Roman Army. So there were sixteen Roman soldiers. They were divided into two groups. The first four guarded for eight hours and then the next squad would go on for eight hours; they would shift every eight hours. There are two Roman soldiers in the cell with Peter and they are chained to him. There are two just outside the cell, and there is another station where there are two more, and a further station, followed by an iron gate.

“intending after Easter” – Easter is a Norse term. It was a pagan rite and a part of the phallic cult in practically all nations at Spring time to worship the goddess of fertility. They did this in all of the countries in the ancient world, and Easter is a carry-over from this. It just so happened that the Lord Jesus Christ also rose again in the Spring, and so when church and state were united under Romanism, Romanism saw the worship of the goddess of fertility and tried to convert it into a resurrection thing. It was really a system of sublimation. But our worship as believers is a daily thing—Romans 14, a believer with Bible doctrine regards every day alike. But actually, the word “Easter” doesn’t occur here at all. The Greek word is “Passover”—pasxa. So this was after the Passover, the Passover being the first day of unleavened bread and the days which followed being all holy days.

“to bring him forth to the people” – that is, to finish railroading him to death. The situation was hopeless and Peter was as good as dead.

Verse 5 – the challenge to Peter. “Peter therefore was kept,” i.e. he was guarded, imperfect linear aktionsart. He was guarded with great zeal and with alertness.

“but prayer was made without ceasing from the church unto God on his behalf” – this means not just that night, but the church prayed about this during the entire feast of unleavened bread. The church is awake and offering prevailing prayer on behalf of Peter. They are utilising a weapon of grace, something that cannot bring glory to themselves but only to the Lord.

Verse 6 – “the same night Peter kept on sleeping.” This is an imperfect periphrastic. We can conclude from this very simply that Peter was asleep because the problem was in the Lord’s hands. His life was in the Lord’s hands and how long he lived in phase two was strictly up to the Lord. He is oriented to the plan of God by now. The church is awake and praying and Peter is sound asleep.

Verse 7 – “And behold the angel of the Lord came upon him.” Literally it says, “And behold the angel from the Lord stood beside him.”

“and a light shined in the prison” – we know from other references to angels and their appearance that angels actually have light as a part of their composition.

“and he smote Peter on the side” – he whacked him on the ribs.

“Arise up quickly” should be “Get up,” an aorist active imperative. And when Peter stood up his chains all dropped to the floor.

Verse 8 – “Gird thyself” is the Greek for put on your clothes. It is an aorist middle imperative. The aorist tense means right now, and the imperative mood is the command. But the middle voice, while it is reflexive has the principle of the benefiting of one’s self. The subject is benefited by the action of the verb. In this case we notice something. God takes care of the things beyond our power but He does not interfere with natural function. The angel knocked the chains off Peter but Peter had to get dressed.

Verse 9 – “And he went out, and kept on following him” – imperfect linear aktionsart; “and wist not”—he did not know; “that it was true which was done by the angel; “but kept on thinking that this was a vision he was seeing.” We as believers have been delivered hundreds of times and we didn’t even know what was going on.

Verse 10 – the mechanics of Peter’s deliverance. As far as human activity is concerned this is teamwork. In verse 5 we have prevailing prayer, and in verse 12 we have the interruption of the prayer meeting as it should be.

Verse 12 – “And when he had considered the thing.” He had to think about it a while; “he came to the house of Mary” – he decided to go where members of the church in Jerusalem met. The prayer meeting is continuing.

Verse 13 – the dramatic knock. The Greek says that the “damsel” [teenage girl] stands there and listens a while.

Verse 14 – “And when she knew Peter’s voice.” She hears him through the door. Then she panics and runs into the prayer meeting. The words “for gladness” should be “for excitement.”

Verse 15 – the threefold reaction of the church. Remember they have been praying for a week! “Thou art mad.” So their first conclusion when they get an announcement that their prayer has been answered is that the one who brought it is mad.

“But she constantly affirmed.” In other words, Peter is knocking on the door and she is saying that it is Peter out there.

“Then they said, It is his angel” – is it easier to believe Peter is out there, or that it is an angel banging on the door? Why would an angel bang on the door? This is a gimmick. In other words, if there is something that cannot be explained it is an angel. They’ve had an answer to prayer and they don’t believe it! They prefer to think it is something fantastic than that it is true.

Verse 16 – “But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.”

Verse 17 – “But he [Peter is now inside the door], beckoning to them with his hand to hold their peace.” In other words, they started chattering, they all broke out in conversation at once, and now Peter finally gets some quiet.

“declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison.” This is the first answer to this week of prayer meetings: the deliverance of Peter. Many of the believers were not there and so he said, “God show these things unto James.” James is the Lord’s step brother who is now the leader of the Jerusalem church.

“and to the brethren” – this would indicate the leaders; “And he [Peter] departed and went to another place.” He went to Antioch which is the new headquarters, the place where the great missionary movement of the early church will be launched. Jerusalem has lost its power and its impact as a church because it is no longer under the grace concept. Grace = God does the work (divine good) and man simply receives what God has accomplished, and God gets the credit. The Jerusalem church is going from grace to legalism. Legalism/religion = man doing the work (human good) and God simply is supposed to bless what man does, and man gets the credit. The Jerusalem church loses its leadership simply because of the principle of legalism.

Verse 18 – “Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers, what was become of Peter.” For one week they had successfully guarded Peter.

Verse 19 – Herod had to judge someone. By now he is angry and frustrated. It was his policy to appease the Jews in every way possible and he realised that the killing of Peter would be just the thing. He has been observing the feast of unleavened bread with the Jews, he has ritual without reality.

“he examined the keepers” – he was angry and had to have a judgment. He cross-examined them; “and commanded that they should be put to death” – this was the custom in the Roman empire. If a Roman jailer lost his prisoner he had to forfeit his own life. At that point he became very frightened because the miraculous deliverance from jail by Peter was very close to his own miraculous deliverance some ten years before, and he now remembered something. He remembered that when he was delivered he was elevated from prisoner to king and he was now concerned that Peter will be a great man. With these things running around in his mind he decides to get out of Jerusalem. This man has had every opportunity to be saved and who has rejected them.

“And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and there kept on abiding” – imperfect linear aktionsart to indicate that he not only went down there but he was willing to stay there. He was afraid to go back to Jerusalem. He had rejected Christ as saviour, something was happening at Jerusalem he didn’t understand, and this was an answer to prayer. He wanted to persecute the Christians but his persecution of the Christians was suddenly frustrated, and now, even though he has all of this great power, he remains at Roman headquarters at this time.

Verse 20 – “And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon [the Phoenicians]” – ‘highly displeased’ is imperfect linear aktionsart, this has been going on for at least twenty years; “but they came with one accord to him, and having made Blastus the king’s chamberlain their friend” – the bribed him to get to see Herod Agrippa; “and they desired peace because their country was nourished by the king’s country.”

Verse 21 – “And upon a set day.” This was the birthday of the emperor Claudius and the time at which his victory over Britain would be celebrated. “Herod arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.” Filling in from history, just before he got up to make his oration the owl was sitting about him which a German prince had once prophesied about, i.e. the next time an owl was sitting above him he had five days left to live. So he gave this speech. It is recorded as being one of the most eloquent speeches of the ancient world. There are two historical accounts of this speech. It was a very blasphemous speech as far as the Lord Jesus Christ was concerned. The Bible sees fit to give us only the public reaction to the speech.

“And the people gave a shout” – imperfect linear aktionsart, they kept shouting. After he finished speaking he had a standing ovation. They kept saying, “It is the voice of God.” And while this was going on the man who gave the speech, Herod Agrippa I, collapsed.

Verse 23 – “And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him” – literally, “an angel from the Lord,” genitive of source. Once the incarnation occurred Jesus Christ never appeared again as the angel of the Lord. Until the incarnation He appeared throughout the Old Testament as the angel of the Lord. In the Greek it is always “the angel from the Lord.”

“because he gave not God the glory” – he had persistently rejected Jesus Christ as his saviour. He had rejected Christ on numerous occasions even thought the gospel had been clearly presented to him. Josephus tells us that Herod Agrippa was smitten right after his speech and that he lingered for five days, and that during those five days his flesh rotted with worms.

Verse 24 – “But the word of God grew and multiplied.” In other another result of that prayer was the dissemination of the Word of God, i.e. the gospel to unbelievers, and doctrine to those who were born again. “Grew” is imperfect linear aktionsart, it kept on growing. There is no missionary activity until believers have Bible doctrine. Missions are based on doctrine, not on emotion.

Verse 25 – the launching of the first missionary movement. These three men will form the first missionary team to go out from the Antioch.

So we have four results of the prevailing prayer: the deliverance of Peter, the death of the persecutor, the dissemination of the Word of God, the basis of the world-wide missionary movement. This chapter emphasises the grace of God. James is slain; Peter is spared. Prison doors that cannot be opened are opened without hands. A door of a house that could be opened is not opened. A prayer is answered in a remarkable way but those who prayed the prayer doubt it. It is demonstrated that prevailing prayer is the resource, the power of the local church and the individual.

1. The importance of the will of God. God took James but He spared Peter in accordance with His will. It is linked up to prayer to show that it is God’s grace but the actual deliverance was God’s. In the plan of God there is only room for the will of God.

2. Catastrophe awakens the church to the need of prevailing prayer. The death of James was a shock, and it was the shock that launched the great prayer meeting. The principle that applies today: It takes catastrophe to awaken believers to their need of doctrine. Sooner or later some believers have to be clobbered because they have no concept of their need of Bible doctrine and they therefore make no effort to learn it.

3. The sleep of Peter in time of pressure denotes the importance of the faith-rest technique. Humanly speaking there was no hope of deliverance. He put the matter in the Lord’s hands.

4. The believer’s dual operation as far as nature is concerned, as far as the spiritual realm is concerned. The believer operates in a natural and a spiritual realm. The angel knocked the shackles off of Peter but he still had to dress himself.

5. Prevailing prayer was answered in spite of the doubts which the praying church had. Peter was delivered.

6. God changes national leadership and governments to protect the believer.

7. Prayer opens the door for the dissemination of God’s Word which forms the basis for true missionary activity.

Cf. Psalm 116:1-8.