Tuesday, February 3rd

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Tuesday, Feb. 3

Acts 12:1-11

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, "Dress yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."

I lead a men’s ministry called TEAM that meets at 6 AM every Friday morning from September through March. So I   set my alarm for 4:15 AM on Friday mornings. In the 16 years I have been leading the TEAM ministry my alarm has only gone off three times, because I almost always wake up on my own at about 4 AM.

This past week I had to be out late on a Thursday night because my son had a high school basketball game and I got to bed somewhat later than usual. When my alarm went off at 4:15 AM I was in the middle of some kind of dream and was totally disoriented. I fumbled around in a fog trying to figure out where all the noise was coming from; and when I figured out it was my alarm going off I thought it was Saturday and I had just forgotten to turn my alarm off on Friday. Within a few seconds I came to my senses, realized it was Friday morning and I had slept longer than usual and my alarm had gone off for the third time in 16 years.

Have you ever woken up from a vivid dream and been a little unsure as to whether you were actually awake yet or still in the dream?

Most of us have had that experience and Luke tells us that Peter has that kind of experience as he sleeps in a dark prison cell.

Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, "Dress yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

This part of the story is both miraculous and somewhat humorous. Peter is in prison, bound with chains, and sleeping between two armed guards yet he is sleeping so soundly that the angel of the Lord has to smack him to wake him up! Even then Peter thinks he must still be dreaming.

Putting the humor aside the question that occurs to us is, why does God send an angel to rescue Peter yet allow James to be executed by Herod?

That’s a very disturbing and difficult question.

A few years ago my father had a very serious stroke. At first the doctors told us the damage to his brain was so great that there was “zero chance of meaningful recovery.” We were prepared to let him go. Then a second neurosurgeon looked at his MRI and determined that since the bleed was on the exterior of the brain that the damage could be reversed with a particular medical procedure. We authorized that procedure and my father eventually recovered completely. Within a month or so a woman came to me for prayer after one of our worship services. She said her father had a very similar stroke at about the same time as my Dad, but that her father had never recovered consciousness and had passed away.

She wasn’t asking me for an explanation, but, if she had, I wouldn’t have been able to offer anything even close to satisfactory.

The simple answer to the “why” question is, “We don’t know.”

Add yet we do know that God is good.

We know that God is sovereign.

We know that there is evil in the world because Satan is trying to destroy everything that God made.

We know that awful things happen to very good people.

We know that God promises to redeem our suffering into his good.

But from our human perspective we don’t always know why the bad things happen; and we can’t always see the good that God is going to do.

Romans 8:18-28 (selected)

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us...  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans... And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

We suffer because sin, death and evil are in the world.

We hope because we have been saved.

We wait for that hope.

And, sometimes, we pray with wordless groans...

Pastor Brian Coffey