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Collierville First Baptist Church
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I trust that you've already turned
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to Acts 12, Acts 12.
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We'll be looking at verses one through 17, the Passion of Prayer.
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Let me ask you, do you have a passion for the Lord?
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You say, "Pastor, what do you mean by the word passion?"
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Well, I like David Jeremiah's description of passion.
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I quote, he said, "Passion is the inner spark
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"provided by God's Spirit that ignites you "to live out your God-given purpose.
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"The more you understand about why you take up space "on this planet, the more you need the inner fire "of passion to live out that purpose.
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"I am absolutely convinced that life is meant to be lived "with powerful emotions and heightened expectations,
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"with joy, fulfillment, excitement, and purpose. "I am convinced that when we live with passion, "we honor God powerfully, for it is then "that we resemble him most in spirit." Now, we've all seen passion in real life. We've seen athletes who have an incredible passion for the game they play, and they rise to the top,
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and you know that there's something special about those athletes. We've also seen singers and musicians
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who perform for a crowd, and you just tell the ones that have that special it factor, and they got passion when they sing and perform. And then we've seen passion in politicians when they offer their stump speeches. But here's my question.
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It's a question for everybody in this room.
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It's a question for everybody watching on live stream.
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Do you, do we as a church,
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demonstrate in a very tangible way, a passion for prayer? Do we?
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Now, in Acts chapter 12 this morning,
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I'm gonna take you inside, we're going to journey.
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We're going inside a first century church that understood what passionate praying was.
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And it's gonna be an exciting trip we're gonna take this morning.
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It had been about 12 years
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since the Lord Jesus had died on the cross,
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since he had been resurrected from the dead,
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since he had ascended back to heaven,
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and since he had sent the Holy Spirit
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to indwell believers on the Day of Pentecost. About 12 years had passed.
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Luke has been recording great kingdom victories. He recorded about 3,000 people who were saved on the Day of Pentecost. He recorded about the Samaritans who, some Samaritans who believed in Jesus, the Ethiopian eunuch who was saved, Saul of Tarsus who was born again, the Gentile Centurion Cornelius, and all those in his house who came to faith in Christ.
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And he also talked about the mixed crowd in Antioch who had come to faith in Christ. Let me tell you, the enemy was being crushed
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by the victories of the gospel of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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But you know what happens, don't you?
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Every time the church really begins to rise to the occasion, old Slough foot shows up. Well, he showed up. And we read in, I think in chapter eight that the Jewish religious leaders took Stephen, a very godly deacon,
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who stood for Christ, who stood for the gospel,
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and they stoned him to death.
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Stephen was the first martyr of the early church.
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And that it unleashed a wave of persecution
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that pushed many believers out of Jerusalem and into Judea and Samaria, where they preached the gospel and they planted churches.
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Now, we're gonna pick up the story. We're gonna get to the prayer meeting in just a moment.
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We'll pick up the story in verse one of chapter 12.
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"About that time, Herod the king laid hands "on some who belonged to the church." So now we have a new wave of persecution who is beginning, and it will culminate in the first missionary journey of the apostle Paul.
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So Herod began to lay hands on some Christians in the church in order to mistreat them,
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to torture them, to persecute them.
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Verse two, "And he had James, the brother of John, "put to death with a sword.
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"And when he saw that it pleased the Jews,
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"he proceeded to arrest Peter also.
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"Now it was during the days of unleavened bread.
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"When he had seized him, he put him in prison, "delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, "intending after the Passover
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"to bring him out before the people."
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Now the king here was King Herod Agrippa I.
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Now King Herod the Great was the king when Jesus was born.
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King Herod Antipas was the king when John the Baptist was beheaded. And this is King Herod I.
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Now he was accountable to Rome,
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and he knew that it was in his best interest, his interest to stay in the good graces of the Jewish religious leaders.
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What better way to do that
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than by arresting some of these hated Christians and persecuting them and then arresting one of their great leaders, Peter, and putting him in jail.
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Now we read here in these early verses that the first apostle to be martyred was James, the brother of John.
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And so James was martyred,
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and I think that King Herod Agrippa I saw that it pleased the Jewish religious leaders, so he said, "Okay, I'm going for Peter next." And so he arrests Peter, puts him in a maximum security prison, you might say, under guard by 16 soldiers who were there for in each watch of the night,
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and he was there, and he wasn't gonna bring him out until after the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted for seven days. Now, I want you to know when you think about James,
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the apostle, the brother of John,
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having his head taken off by the Roman sword, maybe you wonder how could Jesus allow that?
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Now let me tell you, Jesus never promised special protection to those who followed him. You need to understand that, you need to understand that. In fact, Jesus told those followers of his that they would be persecuted.
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He told them that the world would hate them.
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He told them that they would be ostracized by the world around them.
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So Jesus warned them to get them ready.
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Now, the situation for Peter looked extremely bleak.
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I mean, he's guarded around the clock.
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And listen, in just a minute, we're gonna see that this maniacal leader, the only thing he cared about, King Agrippa I, the only thing he cared about
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was pleasing the Jewish leaders.
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He didn't give a wit about Peter, he didn't give a wit about the church.
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He was a pagan.
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He was an enhumillion. He came from the line of Esau, okay?
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So the situation looked bleak. So what could this little community of faith, this little church, what could they possibly do against the armed might of the Roman Empire and the king that Rome had put in charge?
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Well, look at verse five.
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So Peter was kept in the prison,
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but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.
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What an amazing verse of scripture this is. If I had to single out one verse in this text today that really serves as a linchpin, a turning point, it's verse five.
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So Rome is doing its thing.
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And the church, the little church there in Jerusalem,
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they are together and they are praying, look at this, prayer for him would be made fervently by the church to God.
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So on one side of this skirmish, this spiritual skirmish, you've got the wicked ruler Herod,
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and he was out to destroy the fledgling church
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by executing its strongest leaders.
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Now look at this.
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Notice these two words, but prayer.
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Look in your Bible, I don't know about you, but I like to circle very important or underline very important words or phrases in the Bible.
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And if I were you, I would underline or I would circle those two words, but prayer. Now look at me now, you've got Rome, you've got King Herod, a group of the first, he's out to destroy the fledgling church, he's out to end this thing once and for all, and then you've got this little group of believers over here and they are praying fervently in a house church.
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Now, I want you to see the situation looks desperate, but.
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It looks like Peter's gonna be put to death, but.
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It looks like the church will fail and falter, but in the face of overwhelming odds,
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the church called on God.
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Never, listen church, look at me, never underestimate the power of a praying church. Never underestimate that.
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Notice that they prayed fervently or passionately.
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Now we're gonna come back to this prayer meeting here in just a few moments,
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but we're gonna leave it now and finish out the story and we'll come back to it.
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What happened in the rest of this story is flat out amazing.
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Look at verses six through 10.
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On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward,
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Peter was sleeping between two soldiers,
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bound with two chains and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison.
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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, "Get up quickly."
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And a change fell off his hands.
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And the angel said to him, "Gird yourself,
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put on your sandals." And he did so.
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And he said to him, "Rab your cloak around you and follow me."
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And he went out and continued to follow.
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And he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.
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When they had passed the first and second guard,
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they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, look at this, which opened for them by itself.
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And they went out and went along one street and immediately the angel departed from him.
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Can I ask you a question?
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If you were chained to two Roman soldiers
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and you knew that the very next day you were gonna be executed, they were gonna take a sword and they were gonna whack your head off, could you sleep?
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Hey, let me tell you, Peter didn't have any, any valium, he didn't have any somanex or any kind of sleep aid at all.
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But I'll tell you what he did have, he had faith.
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He had faith. In 1 Peter 5, verse six and seven, Peter would later write these words that maybe explains to us how in the world he could sleep in such a situation.
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He says in 1 Peter 5, verses six and seven, therefore humble yourself under the mighty hand of God,
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that he may exalt you at the proper time,
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casting all your anxiety on him, look at this,
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because he cares for you. Wow.
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That's how Peter was able to have this confidence and peace so much so that he was able to sleep.
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Beyond that, I got to thinking about something.
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I believe that Peter knew that Herod could not kill him.
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You say, "Pastor, what in the world are you talking about?"
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I believe he really knew in his heart
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based upon a promise that Jesus made to him before he ascended back to heaven
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that Herod could not kill him the next morning.
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You say, "What promise is it?" Well, in John chapter 21, verses 18 and 19,
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here's what Jesus said to Peter there by the Sea of Galilee after Jesus had been resurrected from the dead.
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You remember that story, don't you?
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Peter was devastated by the fact that he denied the Lord three times and Jesus met with him there by the Sea of Galilee and three times he asked him, "Peter, do you love me?
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"Do you love me?"
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Peter said, "Lord, you know I love you."
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And then the Bible says that Peter and the Lord Jesus began to walk on the shore,
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and John the apostle was following them.
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And listen to what Jesus said to Peter. Here's the promise I'm talking about.
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"Truly, truly I say to you, when you were younger, "you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished,
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"but when you grow old,"
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he was not old here in this story today. "When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands "and someone else will gird you "and bring you where you do not wish to go."
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Now this he said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
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And when he had spoken this, he said to him, here's what Jesus said to Peter, "Follow me." By the way, that's what he says to every believer in this room.
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That's what he's saying to every believer in my live stream.
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Follow Jesus. The Bible says that we're to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Jesus.
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The smartest thing you could ever do in your life,
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it's to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So Peter's faith, based upon the promise that Jesus gave him there by the Sea of Galilee was strong.
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I really believe that he knew
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that Herod could not kill him the next morning.
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Now Luke has already referred to angelic activity about 15 occasions in his gospel, the gospel of Luke, and the early chapters of Acts.
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I hope you don't have any problem believing in angels
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because they are real.
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They are sent to minister to believers.
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Now the Lord allowed Herod to kill James but he did not allow Herod to kill Peter.
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You say it don't seem fair.
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Well, I'll tell you what, when James got to heaven, we just sang about heaven, didn't we? When James got to heaven,
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I don't think he argued with Jesus about why he allowed him to be killed and allow Peter to live. I think James was just overwhelmed and awe and worship in the presence of Jesus, the Nazarene. Amen.
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Now, let me say in this situation, the throne of heaven was in control,
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not the throne on earth. I love what John Piper said.
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He said, Luke put this chapter together
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to make this plain for the early church.
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You may feel small and insignificant in the Roman Empire.
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You may think that you are overpowered when some of your best leaders are killed on a political whim. But the truth is, if you stay with Jesus, you win.
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And if you oppose him, you lose.
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So be encouraged, be bold and courageous to spread the word of truth and leave the outcome to God.
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By the way, can I tell you that as you read the rest of this story in Acts chapter 12,
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here's how it plays out.
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Peter wins.
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King Herod, a grip of the first, loses.
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Peter lives and continues to serve Jesus.
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Herod goes to Caesarea and he's stricken by God with a disease in his bowels and he's eaten by worms, the Bible says.
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So let me tell you who wins and who loses.
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I tell you, friend, if you stay close to Jesus and you follow Jesus, you will come out a winner.
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Always, you will come out a winner.
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Now, I'm not saying everything's gonna go great in your life,
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but I'm telling you this,
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that with Jesus, you win now and you will win for all of eternity.
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Now look, I wanna say this to you. I don't know what tragedy, what darkness or difficulty or hardship you might be facing this morning. I don't know. But I'm sure in a group this size,
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there's a lot of hurt and pain going on in our lives.
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You need to remind yourself of something. You need to remind yourself that the Lord Jesus Christ, our King, is omniscient. He knows everything about you. He knows exactly what you're going through.
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You need to know that he is omnipresent. He's everywhere at one time. He could be here in Guatemala, he can be here in Carville. He's everywhere at one time.
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And he is omnipotent. He has all power and authority. Like Peter, I wanna say to you today, you can trust the Lord. You can trust Him. And you can cast your cares upon Him.
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Now look at verses 11 and 12.
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So Peter has been broken out of prison by an angel.
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Oh, I wish I could have been a fly on the wall of that prison.
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And when Peter came to himself, the Bible says, he said, "Now I know for sure
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"that the Lord had sent forth His angel "and rescued me from the hand of Herod "and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."
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And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John. This is Mark who wrote the gospel of Mark.
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And Mary was his mother who was also called Mark where many were gathered together and were praying.
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Notice that many were gathered together and were praying.
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Now Peter headed for the house of Mary. I mean, he thought he was in a vision,
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but he's discovered it was real.
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This angel had broken him out of prison.
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Now keep in mind that the church had been praying fervently and passionately for Peter's deliverance.
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Now look at verses 13 to 17.
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So he goes, he knocks at the door of the gate. A servant girl named Rhoda came to answer.
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And when she recognized Peter's voice, because of her joy, she did not open the gate.
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But ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate.
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They said to her, "You were out of your mind."
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Now remember, what do they do? They are praying fervently for Peter to be released.
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And Rhoda comes in and says, "He's here."
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And they say, "You are out of your mind, sister." (Congregation Laughing)
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Now notice this, you're out of your mind, but she kept insisting that it was so. And they kept saying it is his angel.
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A guardian angel maybe.
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But Peter continued knocking. Can you imagine Peter?
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I mean, he just sprung out of prison.
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He's outside.
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He's knocking one to go in with his friends who were praying for him.
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And I'm sure he's looking over his,
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the side and making sure that no authorities were after him. And he knocked him. Let me in, let me in.
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Now notice this.
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The Bible says, "When they had opened the door, "they saw him and were amazed."
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"But motioned them with his hand to be silent, "he described to them how the Lord "had led him out of the prison.
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"And he said, report these things to James." Now this James, obviously it's not the James who had his head whacked off. That was the apostle James.
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This James is the half brother of Jesus.
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He's the one who wrote the epistle of James
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that over there near the end of your New Testament.
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"Report these things to James and the brethren, "then he left and went to another place."
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Now here's what amazes me.
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Even though they weren't praying with the faith that we would expect them to pray with,
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God graciously answered their prayer. Isn't that not amazing? Aren't you glad of that?
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Sometimes I'm like the father that Jesus encountered his son was possessed by a demon.
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And this father spoke to Jesus after Jesus came down for the Mount Transfiguration, "Can you do something for my son?"
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And Jesus confronted him about his faith. He said, "Help me to have more faith, Jesus."
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Maybe that's where you are today. That's where I find myself many times.
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I ask the Lord, grow my faith.
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Help me to believe you for big things.
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Things that are beyond anything I can dream, think or imagine. You see, that's what passion does.
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Passion allows you to have your faith grow to the point that you can believe him for things that are supernatural.
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I guess you could say that their faith was about the size of a mustard seed. Jesus talked about mustard seed faith, didn't he? The tiniest seed in Israel.
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But Jesus said that even small faith can accomplish great things. That is evident right here in this story. Small faith can accomplish great things.
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Now, I thought about what the takeaway truth is. I always wanna give you a truth that you can file away in your mind and heart, write it in your Bible, whatever you do with it. And this is the truth I wanna leave with you today.
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Passionate prayer moves God's hand.
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Passionate prayer moves God's hand. Jack London described passion like this.
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And boy, I read this and it just, this is what I desire for myself.
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He said, "I would rather be ashes than dust.
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"I would rather that my spark should burn out "in brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. "I would rather be a superb meteor, "every atom of me in magnificent glow "than a sleepy and permanent planet.
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"The proper function of man is to live, not just to exist."
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Oh, I pray that every born again believer in this room
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will allow the Holy Spirit to generate a passion for the Lord and the kingdom of God in your heart that will never, ever, ever go away.
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We must inject this kind of passion into our pray.
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Now let me say this to you.
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We're at a very interesting stage as a church.
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For the first time, I think it's 42 years, first time in 42 years,
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we're looking for another pastor.
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I've been here 23, brother Gary was here 19.
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And we're looking for a pastor.
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Can I tell you something?
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Jesus knows exactly who he is. He knows exactly where he is. He knows exactly what he wants to do with this pastor and with his wife and his kids. I'm already praying for the pastor, his wife and his kids right now, hope you'll join me in doing that. Do I know their name? Absolutely not.
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But I know somebody that knows their name,
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the omniscient son of the living God. He knows their names.
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Now let me give you some basic keys
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to having the kind of passion and prayer. We're gonna revisit that prayer meeting. Let's go back to that prayer meeting, okay?
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In verses five and verses 11 and 12, the first thing I want you to notice is they prayed corporately.
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They prayed together as a church.
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So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was, verse five, but prayer for him would be made fervently by the church to God. The word fervently, a synonym for that is passionately.
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When Peter came to himself, verse 11, he said, "Now I know for sure that the Lord "has sent forth his angel and rescued me "from the hand of Herod and from all that "the Jewish people were expecting." Verse 12, and when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was also called Mark, look at this, where many, many were gathered together and were praying.
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It didn't say a few were gathered together and praying.
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It didn't say that many were gathered together and were eating.
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It said many born again believers, followers of Christ, had come together as the body of Christ
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and they were fervently and passionately crying out to God.
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Now listen, the situation for them was urgent.
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The situation for us is very important.
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It can affect this church for generations.
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We gotta find God's man to step into this pulpit.
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So praying individually and praying corporately is essential.
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Nobody, no member of this church,
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no born again believer within the sound of my voice can afford to sit in the stands and be an observer and spectator.
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You've got to get into this prayer game
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and you gotta get in it with passion.
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Number two, I want you to notice this about this prayer meeting that we're visiting.
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They prayed specifically.
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They prayed corporately.
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They prayed specifically.
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Look at verse five again. Prayer for him.
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Who?
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The for him is Peter.
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Was being made fervently by the church to God.
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I wish I could tell you that all of our prayers are to God.
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But unfortunately for many, many Christians, prayer has become a lost art.
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And many people direct their prayers
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to the crowd who's listening
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rather than to the Lord on this throne.
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Let me tell you, this group right here,
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they're on their face, they're on their knees, they're crying out to the Lord Jesus Christ for one thing, just one thing. Lord, deliver Peter.
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Set him free.
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I'll tell you, focus prayer
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unites the church and gains the favor of our Lord.
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So they prayed corporately, they prayed specifically. Number three, they prayed passionately.
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Look at that word fervently.
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This word speaks of unceasing activity.
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Now think about this.
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The Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted seven days.
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This was probably a prayer meeting that had been going on for days.
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Not 30 minutes, not one night from six to seven. No, this was a prayer meeting that had been going on for quite a while.
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And this kind of praying normally involves a degree of intensity and or perseverance.
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Let me give you a couple of examples of this kind of praying.
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Remember Elijah, the Old Testament prophet,
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he had prayed that God would stop all rain in Israel as a judgment upon Ahab and his wicked queen Jezebel. And for three, listen, as a result of his prayer, for three and one half years, it didn't rain a drop.
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And then Elijah came back and he had a battle with the priests, the false prophets and the false priest.
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And you know what happened on Mount Carmel?
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God answered by fire for Elijah and the prophets of Baal were destroyed, right?
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Now look at this. You know what Elijah did after that? He went up on top of Mount Carmel and he began to pray for rain.
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And the Bible says that he had his servant up there and he began to pray, he's on his face with his face to the ground, crying out to God passionately for rain.
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And seven different times he sends his servant to go and see if a cloud is forming.
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And finally, the servant came back and he said, "I see a cloud about the size of a man's hand."
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And Elijah kept praying, praying fervently, praying passionately.
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And then he sent word to Ahab, "You better get in your chair and go home, boy, because you're gonna get stuck in the mud if you don't."
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And my friend, let me tell you, it came a rain. It was a middle filler. If you grew up in the country, you know what I just said. It was a big rain. It was a flash flood.
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But Hannah also in 1 Samuel chapter one, remember she would bear and she had no children.
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And you go to 1 Samuel chapter one, she began to pray.
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She cried out to God for a son.
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I love what it says in verse 15 of 1 Samuel one. Here's what she said.
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She said, "I have poured out my soul before the Lord."
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Now that's passionate praying.
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You know you can do that.
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If you're walking with God, if you're following Jesus, you can pray like this. Of course, the greatest example of passionate praying with Jesus in Gethsemane, where he prayed so passionately that his capillaries began to burst and blood began to ooze out of the pores of his skin. Let me tell you what passion does.
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Passion eliminates sluggish, lifeless, casual, half-hearted, apathetic praying. It eliminates it.
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Passionate prayer pours forth from a burdened heart and soul, just like Hannah.
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I'll tell you, passionate prayer moves the hand of God. So if you're a believer in this room today,
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I wanna ask you to do something.
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My challenge to you, it don't settle for ordinary mediocre prayer.
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This is too important where we are as a church.
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I'm calling you to passionate prayer,
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to pouring out your soul before the Lord,
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praying for the pastor search team that will be elected, praying for the pastor that God wants us to have, pouring out our heart and soul to God, for a man who will step in this pulpit and preach the inerrant, inspired, infallible word of the living God, a man who will love you as a church and minister to you and care for you. Listen, that's what God wants us to have, folks.
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And that kind of praying moves the hand of God.
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Will you make that commitment today?
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I'm gonna ask our worship team to come. I'm gonna ask our staff to come. And I wanna invite you in just a moment, if you'll make this commitment.
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You can do it your seat if you want to, but if you wanna come to the altar and bow your knee to Jesus and just tell him today that you will commit yourself to passionate prayer.
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I encourage you to do it. If you're in this room and you're not a believer,
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let me tell you the greatest need in your life is to be saved.
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Are you saved?
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This very minute you were walking a tightrope.
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Think about it, you don't know how long you're gonna live.
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You may not live to see tomorrow, I don't know.
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You can't procrastinate when it comes to your soul.
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So I wanna encourage you today
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to leave your seat in just a moment, come to one of our staff members and just tell them today that you wanna be saved.
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Listen, the Bible says in John 3.18, he who believes in Jesus is not judged.
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Oh, don't you want that?
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Don't you wanna know that when you die,
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you will never have to worry about facing Jesus as your judge, you can face him as your savior,
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your Lord, your master.
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He does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.
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Come to Jesus today in saving faith.
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Let's pray, Father, in the name of Jesus.
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Have your way in our hearts, Lord.
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Lord, I pray for believers
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to make a radical commitment to passionate prayer.
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I pray for those who are not saved
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to repent of their sin and believe in Jesus today.
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Lord, have your way in our heart
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in Jesus' name, amen. Now look at me just a minute. If you're here and you're not saved,
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I guarantee you, you've got people in your life who have been praying passionately for you to be saved.
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A mother, father, a grandfather, grandmother, friend.
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They're praying passionately for you to be saved.
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Listen, come to Christ today.
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Let's stand.
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