Summary
I'm rescued from certain death Now what and he didn't have a lot of time to consider or to think and It doesn't even give us the idea that he was pondering his options and his choices He knew he needed to see some people He needed to tell people what had happened and so this is where we're picking up Peter has just been rescued from certain death He's out in the streets of Jerusalem Meeting to go somewhere needing to find safety but also letting people know that he's okay Verse 12 as soon as he realized this as soon as he realized he was Actually free he went to the house of Mary the mother of John whose other name was Mark Where many had gathered and were praying so clearly It's not safe For Peter to be out in the opening open wandering around Jerusalem seeing what's going on He knew that he would have to leave town Because there's no way that Herid would just let it go There was no way that Herid soldiers wouldn't Start searching for him but he absolutely could not leave without first Sharing this miraculous story of Deliverance with this way that it's worded as as soon as he realized this Those words as soon as it it really leads us to know that Peter didn't have to link think long and hard about Where to go or who to see as soon as he realized that he had been saved he had a directly to Mary's house This must have been a very regular meeting place for believers if that's where Peter headed to first Mary's husband isn't mentioned her servants are so it's safe to assume that Mary is a very wealthy widow with a home large enough for people to gather in as that early church We see that this is an example of acts for playing out where it says everything They owned was held in common. She's gonna tell her her mom and she's slam the door And it's face and turns around and realizes She just slam the door in this man's face, but she was so excited and that's Roda Roda is so excited so overjoyed That she becomes absent minded in the excitement and he's standing out there Continuing to knock I love this moment of comedy for us It's funny to read about Roda in her absent mindedness in her excitement But think of Peter Stranded out there the only thing standing between him and safety is a door that needs to be opened He's left out on the wrong side Roda is so overjoyed She completely forgets to open the gate she wants to rush in and tell the others and what is the response she gets Verse 15 they said to her you are out of your mind But she insisted that it was so they said it is his angel They don't believe her they don't believe her there's no way in their mind that Peter can be outside the gate Though this is exactly what they've been praying for they've been praying for Peter to be delivered They don't believe it has come true God has done something Beyond their expectation They refuse to accept the possibility that Peter had escaped They are rejecting that God would miraculously rescue Peter And it begs the question if they didn't expect Peter to be rescued Why were they even praying? The believers had gathered together to pray for James He was executed but that doesn't mean that their prayers had not been answered Sometimes the answer to a prayer is no But God is still glorified In the answer no God was still glorified in James martyrdom Roda was a servant But she was very familiar with these believers It it appears that she was also a believer And that she would have been praying with these other believers And she knows that these prayers have been answered And she has proof that these prayers have been answered but they don't want to hear it Thank God that she kept insisting she would not back down from the truth That Peter was just outside and I wonder how long this went on With Roda saying Peter's out there and then saying no no no no no no there's no way he can't be Seeing his angel no I'm telling you Peter is out there will surely he can't be out there That's just crazy talk no really this back and forth and back and forth and then verse 16 meanwhile Peter continued knocking This entire time he's just standing out there poor Peter Completely Vulnerable Knowing that his captors will be searching for him soon if not already and he's just knocking He's just knocking and when they open the gate they saw him and Were amazed Peter's rescue was a complete shock for the believers They were amazed that God had actually delivered him from certain death Was I was studying this text one author who wrote on this passage Said the believers response of amazement reminded him of the song Amazing grace He wrote every time I sing amazing grace. I think of two things First we should never be amazed by grace because God is so gracious that when he pours his grace upon us It should not come as a surprise Second conversely there is a certain sense in which we ought always to be amazed by grace So that we never presume upon God the astonishment here was born not a faith but of unbelief They could not believe God had provided the very thing that they had asked for Sounds kind of harsh to say that they were praying in unbelief They were praying They were praying in earnest But they couldn't believe the grace that God had showed to Peter Think about this again Peter was chained He was captive there was no way he was getting himself out of this situation There was absolutely nothing he could do for himself When Peter was rescued he didn't believe it at first when he was set free from the Lord No one else believed that he had been saved either Open up for a moment to the first page in your bulletin where we have the confession In that corporate confession What is the very first thing we say We confess We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves We are we are in bondage. We are captive to sin in our thoughts words and deeds by things we have done by things we have left undone just as Peter was captive Chained and awaiting a death sentence In sin we await a death sentence We cannot do anything Anything to free ourselves from this sin But Peter was not left He was not abandoned by God and neither are you Look at the words in the bulletin that follow the confession You hear your pastors say this every single week to you all mighty God in his mercy has given his son to die for us and for his sake forgive us all our sins In John chapter eight it says if the sun sets you free you will be free indeed In Galatians chapter five for freedom Christ has set us free in Romans chapter eight There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus he has set you free from the law of sin and death You are free from the chains of sin You are no longer facing a sentence of death But a promise of eternal life just as Peter had those Captors chained literally to his legs We are chained to our sin until Christ comes and Dies on the cross and we are washed in that promise in our baptism and those chains are loosed and we're set free You have been washed in That baptism you are made new in Christ Jesus you have been filled with his holy spirit Peter didn't believe that he was free at first But when he realized it wasn't a dream He immediately went to tell the others So often we want to cling to those chains trying to put them back on We are set free Just like Peter came to himself in the realization that he is set free I pray I encourage I hope that each one of us every day will wake up remembering those chains are not Binding us any longer They do not hold us down. He relayed his story of deliverance Telling them exactly what the Lord has done and he needed that word to be passed along to James And the other believers and of course this is not the James that had just been martyred It is James the brother of Jesus and then Peter needed to find some safety So he left he got out of there Verse 18 when morning came There was no small commotion among the soldiers over what had become a Peter when her it had searched for him and could not find him He examined the guards and ordered them to be put to death Then he went down from Judea to Cessaria and stayed there Can you imagine the scene of chaos when those guards woke up and Peter wasn't there their prisoner wasn't there The common practice at that time if a prisoner escaped was to give the escaped prisoners punishment To the guards who had failed A lot of times guards would actually kill themselves rather than endure the torture and execution That would surely before them So much commotion they couldn't believe it they didn't know the Lord had delivered Peter We know the believers know But the commotion is just intense There's a common theme Throughout this miraculous miraculous rescue of Peter There's this unexpected surprise At every single turn Peter Didn't believe he was being rescued at first it was an unexpected surprise that He was free the faithful who gathered to pray were surprised To see Peter alive and free the guards a woke in the morning without their prisoner and they were surprised to find him gone In this narrative in this text God Did something beyond everyone's expectation But he's always done Something for all of us that is beyond all of our own Expectation and that is he forgive our sins He forgave our sins It's amazing how we forget that Like I said before we're always trying to attach those sins back to ourselves Or is trying to find some way to be better do better Worship better We act as if when we die will be surprised that we actually made it into heaven You will make it Because Jesus has opened the door It's not incumbent upon you heaven Getting to heaven being with the Lord is not supposed to be an unexpected surprise It is a clearly marked promise throughout all of scripture Don't spend your days Living in fear That you're not good enough you're not faithful enough you're not loyal enough Because heaven is not dependent on you The gate to heaven has been opened by Christ the chains of sin have been released by Christ You are set free to live your life in the freedom of Jesus Christ To love one another with the spirit of the Lord The expected or the unexpected surprise of deliverance from our sin really isn't the surprise That's not the surprise that we should be looking toward when we pass from this life into the next the wonder and the beauty and the glory of being in the full presence of the Lord That is the surprise that we should all look forward to That is the surprise that is promised to each one of you So it should not be unexpected It should just be a wonderful and beautiful and glorious surprise that surpasses all Expectation That is the good news we have today and that is the good news we have always
Video citations
- "Unexpected Surprise" June 2, 2019 — We are smack dab in the middle of a really exciting story of rescue and deliverance out of a miracle of God And as I was studying this text and I was trying to think of a great way to open this…