Note: This lesson was the first lesson we did virtually because of COVID-19. Therefore, there is a YouTube recording of me doing the video, which you can find here!
Last week we didn’t talk about Acts—we talked about what it means to have faith in a time of fear. We talked about Gideon, Job, and Paul. But today we’re going to get back into Acts, which is what we’re studying this semester in our class: the people of Acts. I’m going to recap a little more than I usually do because there might be some parents on the line. And we don’t want them to be lost do we ;)
We were recently talking about Philip and Peter, two apostles. As a reminder, “apostle” is what we call the remaining eleven disciples after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Why? Well before, they were those silly guys who followed Jesus’s around and only got a fraction of what he said. Now, without Jesus around, they are the leaders of the early church. They are no longer disciples, they are the teachers, teaching others to be disciples. So now when Acts uses the phrase “disciples” it means all the new followers of Jesus, and the original eleven disciples are the Apostles, the leaders.
We did a lesson a few weeks ago about Philip, who was breaking boundaries and reaching people on the fringes of society. He didn’t care who was considered okay or fine by societies standards. He was like “God wants everyone”, so he would talk to anyone who would listen. Philip was busy going all over Israel talking to everyone.
Peter, meanwhile, had this extra pressure. In a lot of ways he was the head apostle. People expected things from him. They were looking to him to help define what it meant to be a Christian, and more importantly who was allowed to be a Christian. Were non Jewish people allowed to be Christians? Or was Christianity just for Jewish people? After all Jesus and the twelve disciples were all Jewish.
But then one day Peter has a vision about all kinds of animals on a blanket, and in the dream God tells him to eat all of them, what God has made clean, Peter cannot declare unclean. Peter doesn’t get the vision. Eating kosher, eating according the law is very important to Jewish people. Why would God change this? Why does God care if Peter eats bacon or not?
At the same time, a Roman Centurion had a vision and sent for Peter to come to his house. Peter does go, and the Roman Centurion wants to know everything about Jesus. This man, who is not Jewish, who is Roman, who is part of the group oppressing the Jewish people, becomes a Christian right then and there. And Peter realizes the vision is not about bacon.
Sure, Christians can eat bacon, whatever, but the vision is about people. It’s about how the old rules don’t apply anymore. Anyone can be a Christian. And it’s not Peter’s right to look at people and declare them unclean.
God cares about people not rules.
We talked about how this can be confusing, it can seem like God changed. But it’s not God who changed. It’s people who changed. Just like how your rules change as you age. It’s not your parents who are changing, it’s you changing, by growing up. A kid needs an earlier bed time than a teen or an adult. You change and therefore the rules must change with you. That’s what’s happening here.
It was never really the rules that mattered. Just like it’s not a bedtime that matters. What matters is getting enough sleep, a bedtime is just a tool to help you get that. In this case, it’s not the rules, it’s about loving God and loving your neighbor. It’s people who mattered.
So what happens after this? What does Peter do after this? Well he keeps on keeping on. Let’s open our Bibles to Acts chapter 12. We’re going to read Acts 12:1-5.
About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. 2 He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. 3 After he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (This was during the festival of Unleavened Bread.) 4 When he had seized him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. 5 While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.
Okay so the Herod mentioned here is Herod Antipas. He is not the same Herod as when Jesus was born. This is that Herod’s son. He is the Jewish ruler of Judea—as opposed to the Roman governor. Remember, Romans tended to be pretty hands off as far as government went. Sure they sent in their own overseeing governors for regions, but they often raised a ruler of the same nationality or ethnicity of the land they were occupying, because they knew that person would understand the people more. And they delegated some authority to them—not all authority, as you’ll remember for them to crucify Jesus that decision had to go to a Roman, Pilate.
All the Romans really cared about was that you didn’t make trouble and you that you paid your taxes. If your people did those two things, they pretty much left you alone. But Herod sees this new group forming, these Christians, and he knows they are trouble. This is exactly what they were trying to stop by killing Jesus—they were trying to stop this group and movement from forming. Christians looked like a threat to Rome, with all their talk of Jesus being the true king, the true ruler, etc etc.
So Herod is trying to stamp out this Christian threat. He has James the brother of John killed. James was one of the twelve disciples, one of the sons of Thunder they were called. He was loud and boisterous for Jesus. And now he’s dead.
Then he has Peter arrested during Passover. Arresting someone during Passover is a bit of low blow, just like they did with Jesus. They knew that all Jewish men who are able returned to Jerusalem for Passover, during this time period. They knew Peter would be there. So they found him and arrested him.
And after the past shenanigans with Peter mysteriously breaking out of prison—aka being freed by God—Herod assigns four squads of soldiers to guard him. That’s a lot of people to guard one dude.
And the church—the other believers—do the only thing they can. They pray.
Next we’ll read Acts 12:6-11
6 The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists. 8 The angel said to him, “Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.” He did so. Then he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. 11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”
Not only does Peter have four squads guarding him, but they also chained him between two soldiers, presumably so that if he even moved they would feel it. But that night, while they’re all watching them an angel appears to Peter and is like “Get up.”
The chains fall off and the angel is basically like “Get dressed, we gotta go!” Peter is like “Whatevs man.”
I don’t know if low pants for boys are still in fashion but if they are, next time they’re too low you can be like “As it says in the Bible, “Fasten your belt!”
Anyway, Peter follows the angel, but basically he thinks the entire thing isn’t real and a dream. He’s like “lol whatever angel. This isn’t real anyway, so I’ll do whatever!”
He follows the angel past a bunch of sleeping guards, and then he follows the angel out the gate and into the city. The gate opens like it’s an automatic door—a completely foreign concept to Peter. And it’s when he’s walking down the city streets and the angel suddenly disappears, that Peter is like, “Wait, maybe this was real? Oh man, I just escaped!” And then if I was Peter, I would probably just straight up run all the way home.
Now we’ll read Acts 12:12-17.
12 As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many had gathered and were praying. 13 When he knocked at the outer gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. 14 On recognizing Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.” 17 He motioned to them with his hand to be silent, and described for them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he added, “Tell this to James and to the believers.” Then he left and went to another place.
So as soon as Peter realizes it’s real, he goes to the nearest house he can think of, which is the house of Mary—not the mother of Jesus, not the mother of James and John, not Mary Magdalene, no a completely different Mary. Mary the mother of John who was also called Mark, because it’s not the New Testament if we’re not using the same name like twelve times.
Actually fun fact: do you guys know why the name Mary is so popular in the New Testament? I’m going to be hones this is something I just learned in the past like two years, and not something I ever knew.
Mary is a shortening of the name “Miriam” sometimes basically spelled “Maryam.” Miriam was Moses’s sister and a prophet in her own right. She is one of the biggest female characters in the Old Testament. That’s why the name is so popular. John meanwhile is just a shortening of the name Jonathan. If you’ll remember Jonathan was also an Old Testament character, he was king David’s BFF forever.
So this Mary is the mother of a guy we often call “John Mark.” John Mark is the writer of the book of Mark, that’s why it’s called Mark. That name was used to distinguish it from the Gospel of John, which was written by the disciple John. Basically if the Bible just says John, it means the disciple. Because he was the first John he gets that right. Whereas John Mark was much younger, so to differentiate him we call him John Mark. Just like all my life I was called Mandy P to avoid confusion with the twelve thousand other Amandas and Mandys in my class.
Anyway, back to the story. Peter runs to her house and knocks on the outer gate. A maid named Rhoda answers this door. I would like us to just pause for a moment at the amazement that a Biblical writer recorded the name of this woman. He could have just called her a maid, or a slave, or a servant. But no, he actually gives her name. I wish I knew more about this Rhoda, that Luke—the writer of Acts—thought she was important enough to record her name. Because that is unusual. Usually the men thought women’s names were not important.
Anyway, Rhoda hears him and instead of opening the gate she runs inside and tells everyone he’s there. Why doesn’t she open the gate? I don’t know. Perhaps that’s not her job. Perhaps as a mere maid she’s not allowed to be opening the gate in the middle of the night. Or perhaps its just an oversight and she’s so excited she forgets to do the obvious thing before her. I don’t know. All I know is she runs in and tells everyone Peter’s at the gate.
And they all respond like, “This woman is insane and hysterical.” Remember, this is the sexism of the ancient world. They often didn’t trust women, and they would often belittle anything they had to say. So they don’t believe her. And they think if it is Peter, well it must mean he’s dead and that’s his ghost like out there talking to them.
While they’re disbelieving this woman and arguing about it, Peter is still knocking like, “Hey guys? Someone gonna let me in?”
Finally the other people come to the gate and see Peter for themselves. They are shocked, and probably about to make a loud racket about it, but Peter is like, “Hush, let me in, and let me tell ou what happened.” So he tells them what happens and then tells them to tell James.
Did he mean the James who just died at the beginning of this chapter? Maybe? Maybe he forgot James, the son of Zebedee was dead. But James was also another really popular name. James it just the English form of the name Jacob, and Jacob was literally the guy the nation of Israel was named after, so everyone in their mother liked to name their child Jacob or James. It’s more likely he means James, Jesus’s brother.
After Peter tells them everything, he then goes on his way. Peter isn’t going to sit and dwell. He’s got work that needs to be done, a gospel that needs to be spread, a growing movement to wrangle.
Now we’ll read Acts 12:18-19
18 When morning came, there was no small commotion among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19 When Herod 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 Caesarea and stayed there.
The next morning the soldiers discover Peter is gone, and well, it doesn’t go well for them. Herod has them search everywhere, but when they can’t be found, he blames the guards. He says they must have failed at their jobs, and he has them all put to death. He can’t believe it’s divine. Remember Herod doesn’t believe in this Christianity business. He thinks it’s all dangerous nonsense.
Herod just wants to keep the peace with Rome, and he does not view Christianity as a good way to do that.
Unfortunately for Herod, none of this works out well for him.
Unrelated to the Christians, Herod was having political troubles with the costal cities of Tyre and Sidon. These are coastal cities. Tyre and Sidon are right on the Meditarrean, pretty far north of Jerusalem, so I’m not certain what Herod’s political pull is up there, they were part of a different region and therefore had a different ruler, as far as I know. However, political squabbling is as old as time and politicians always find ways to try to stretch their power. And in this scenario, it seems that Tyre and Sidon are dependent on Herod’s kingdom for food—probably food like wheats and grains, since Tyre and Sidon would be able to get a ton of seafood but maybe not have a lot of farmland.
So Herod goes there to deal with it, and while he is there he falls down dead.
The Bible says he was struck down by God, and that’s definitely how the Christians of the time viewed it. They viewed it as divine retribution for all the harm that Herod had done to the church.
And so with Herod out of the way, the church continues to advance and grow, and flourish. Barnabas and Saul are spreading the word, and bringing along the young John Mark about them, but we’ll discuss that more next week!