Willey, Robert: Studies In The Acts 14 ~ The Iron Gate Opened

Now, shall we turn then to the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles? Acts chapter twelve. Acts chapter twelve. Now about that time, Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church, and he killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were the days of unleavened bread. That says about the time of the Passover. Me talks about Easter a little further down. Now, there was no such a thing as Easter yet. That was in- introduced by the church later, later long, long in history, the word Easter as such, but the Greek word there is Pascha, which is the word they use for the Passover. So it's about the Passover time. A- and when he had apprehended him, that is, he apprehended Peter, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, I should say the next day he's going to bring him forth to execute him. When Herod would have brought him forth, the same night, Peter was sleeping between sol- two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the keepers, uh, before the door, and the keepers before the door kept the prison. And behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison, and he smote Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Rise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself and bind down thy sandals, and so he did. And he said unto him, Cast thy garment about thee and ca- and follow me. And he went out and followed him, and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision. And when they were past the first and second ward, they came to the iron gate that leadeth unto the city, which opened to them of his own accord. And they went out and passed on through one street, and forthwith the angel departed from him. And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose name was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. That means rose. And when she knew Peter's voice, she ran in and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, it is his angel. But Peter continued knocking, and when they'd opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. But he, beckoning unto them with a hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison, and he said, go show these things unto James and to the brethren, and he departed a- and went into another place. Now, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers what had become of Peter. And when Herod had, uh, brought, sought for him and found him not, he examined the, the keepers and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and their abode. And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon. But they came with one accord to him, and having made Blastus the king's chamberlain, their friend, desired peace because their country was nourished by the king's country. And upon a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory, and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost. But the word of God grew and multiplied, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry and took with them John, whose surname was Mark. May God bless that reading from his word. Shall we pray again? Blessed God, we come to thee now, and we thank thee for this Bible which we have in our hands, in our own mother tongue, and we pray thee that the Holy Spirit of God might interpret this word to us this morning, that as we listen, we might hear the voice of God speaking to our hearts. And we pray, Lord, thou do something in our hearts for thy glory today. We thank thee, thou the God that answers prayer, and we ask, Lord, thou write this upon our hearts. As we contemplate our conference season about to start, we pray, Lord, thou give us a great faith to trust thee for the meetings that lie ahead. Bless everyone here. Thou knowest every heart. We don't, but we pray, Lord, that thou would speak to every heart. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. This thing is still worrying me. If it's worrying you, let me know, and I'll turn it down or do something with it. It's all right. It seems to me all up in the air. I'm afraid to get near it. Just a little bit. Just a second. I'm hoping someday the Lord will send somebody here that can be a controller in there, to keep that thing in the right place. I think it's better now, anyhow. Now, we have been studying for some long time now, when I've been speaking here, in the Acts of the Apostles, and we last time arrived at the end of the eleventh chapter. The twelfth chapter, which we have read this morning, marks a kind of a milestone in the Acts of the Apostles. In fact, the first part, the first section of the Acts of the Apostles ends with the twelfth chapter. Up till now, we've had kind of two divisions. Uh, we first, the Lord said to them in the eighth verse of the first chapter that they had to tarry at Jerusalem till they were endued with power, and then he says, uh, then he says, you should be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. I remember when I was a boy, I heard a man, a man came to our meeting one night and preached, and, and uh, I probably said this when we were talking on the first chapter. Uh, he said, now tonight I'm going to talk about the cup, saucer, and plate doctrine. And I thought, what in the world is this man going to talk about? The cup, saucer, and plate. But he said, I mean this. He said, sometimes you take a plate and you put the saucer in the plate, then you put the cup in the saucer. And he said the cup is a small circle, and the saucer is a bigger circle, and the plate's the biggest circle. Now he said, that's very simple. I'm talking about three circles: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. And that's what the Acts of the Apostles is. It's the story of the founding of the church and the story of the proclamation of the gospel in the very early days, the first century of the church's history, the first years of the church's history, and that's how God planned it, and that's how it worked out. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. And the first seven chapters of the Acts deals with Jerusalem. Remember? Uh, they were there, one hundred and twenty people waiting for the promise that the Holy Spirit should come upon them, and then when the day of Pentecost was fully come, that was all in Jerusalem, then the Holy Spirit came, and they were endued with power, and Peter stood up and preached in Jerusalem to the Jews. He said, men and brethren, that was to the Jews, and the message went to the Jews, and it mightily grew. By the time you get to the end of the fifth chapter, it says they were, the number of the brethren were five thousand. That's how God blessed it. But when you get down... when you get to the first verse of the eighth chapter, it says there was a great persecution. Now, God used persecutions to scatter his people, and in this case, I believe, to send them out to do what he told them to do, Judea and Samaria. And so you'll find that it says in the fourth verse of that eighth chapter, now they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. But where did they go everywhere? They went to Judea and Samaria. Philip went down to Samaria, and then they spread out. And when we get where we were last week, down to the eleventh chapter, we found that they'd got right up, right up through Syria, Syria, to the northern parts of Syria, and they founded it, uh, God had founded a church in Syria in the city of Antioch, the large city of Antioch on the river Orontes in the northern part of Syria. And God was going to use this church as his base for future operation, but we don't know that yet. We'll get to that in the thirteenth chapter. But from chapter eight then, right down to through chapter eleven, uh, we're still in this early part, the message to the Jews, preaching to the Jews, and the work really coming out of Jerusalem, out of Jerusalem. Now, there was one man particularly associated with this part of the spread of the gospel. That was Simon Peter. God chose Peter as the man, as we said last time we were speaking, who had to open the keys of the kingdom. I give unto thee the keys to the kingdom, Matthew sixteen. and he opened the door to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, and he opened the door to the Gentiles, uh, when he went to Cornelius in the tenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Then we don't hear much about Peter until we get to this chapter, the twelfth chapter, and this is where Peter fades out. Wonderful chapter, this fifth, uh, twelfth chapter, but then Peter fades out in the Acts of the Apostles. He's mentioned later on, but God picks up another man to do the work of sending the gospel out to the uttermost ends of the earth, and that other man was Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the Apostle. So that's just a background, a kind of a survey of where we come in this book of the Acts of the Apostles. Now, Peter comes then on the scene for practically the last time in the Acts, and here he is in prison. Herod, there were four Herods, this was the third of them, and this man, um, he spent much time, I understand, in Rome, within much favor with the emperor, and he gave him certain districts over which he had to rule and reign there in that Palestine area, but, eh, he did all, he did all he could to keep in favor with the Jews. And in order to please the Jews, he took James and beheaded him. It says, about that time, Herod the King stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church, and he killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. We read about this man this morning, James. He was the brother of John. It was his mother who came to the Lord and said, I want you to grant me that my two sons can be one on your right hand and one on the left in the kingdom. And the Lord had just told them, we were talking about this morning, the Lord had just told them that, uh, the way they were treading was a way to the cross, not to a crown. The way they were going was not to a throne, but to a cross. But they, it didn't enter in. Why, when the Lord first speaks about going to Jerusalem in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, uh, when he speaks about being despised and scourged and crucified, Peter immediately says, no, no, that's not for you, Lord, that's not for you. My Lord, for you is a, a kingdom. And the Lord said, oh, Peter, get behind me, you're like Satan, he said. I didn't come here for a kingdom, I came for a cross. And they couldn't understand that. But how they learned, how they learned. The Lord said, if you're going to follow me, take up the cross. We mentioned it this morning. Take up the cross and follow me. And here's James, one of the three favorite disciples, Peter, James, and John. It's they who were present at the raising of Jairus, Jairus' daughter. It's they who went up into the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord. It's they who went down into the Garden of Gethsemane alone with the Lord, Peter, James, and John. And, and God takes James, and he becomes the first martyr. The first, of course, I know Stephen was the first martyr, but I mean the first of the apostles. All the apostles, not probably not John, but all the apostles were martyred. They all suffered death for Christ's sake. But this was the first one, James, the brother of John, killed with a sword. He was beheaded like John the Baptist. And this pleased the Jews. And in order to further please the Jews, he now arrested Peter. The church had been growing, the gospel had been spreading, the work was going on. The Lord Jesus told them, in the world you shall have tribulation. He told them, they're going to kill some of you. And I, I, I'd just like to... try and think of what it meant to that early church. James was one of the leaders. He was one of the twelve apostles, and he's beheaded, and Peter's put in prison. I think dismay and sadness must have spread through all the ranks of the church. What would it be now if one of us here were taken and beheaded, and the next day another one of us was put in prison? Um, what would it mean to all the rest of us? What would you all do? Suppose, what would we all do if two of our number, one was beheaded and the other one put in prison? What would we all do? I know what we'd do. We'd get to the Lord in prayer. All pride would go, all pomp would grow, all our ambitions would go, and we'd be down at our feet in lowly, humble prayer, asking God to come in in this great situation. What consternation must have gone through the church. So what they did, Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. They had all night prayer meeting. Prayer was made unceasing of the church unto God for him, and they prayed for Peter. All got together. It seemed to be one large home. It was the house of, uh, of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, and there were many gathered praying. I always think that probably when they met in that large upper room at Jerusalem, uh, when they were waiting for the day of Pentecost, it's probably in that house they met. I think so, I don't know. But I picture this home, uh, of Mary, of of Mary, um, the mother of John, as as a, she was probably a rich lady. And I picture it something like a home I once visited in the city of Damascus. Damascus is the oldest city in the world. And once we were there, and eh, in the back in the war time, war- World War II days, and eh, we were invited by a Christian man to come to his home. It was a huge, outside it looked nothing, just one long wall, just a wall right around a great big compound and a small door through which you went. But when you went in, it's what the Bible describes as a garden enclosed, a great, a beautiful, uh, paved place laid out very large, and beautiful flower beds and fountains, and all around were wonderful buildings built around the wall. They all, all the home, the houses, the part of the house looked down on the central garden, and they were beautiful, ornate buildings and lovely wrought iron gateways, and and there were fountains and flowers, a beautiful, beautiful thing. Uh, that was in Damascus, Syria. We spent a Sunday afternoon there, and I I kind of picture this home like that. Mary had this, have you noticed she was knocking at the door outside? Everything closed up. You couldn't see outside, it looks nothing, but when you get inside, a beautiful home, a beautiful garden. And they were praying there. That's where they were in the home. But where was Peter? Peter's in prison. So you think he'd be trembling and, and, and worried, and Peter's gone asleep. You know, he even took his shoes off, uh, and fell asleep as if he's going to bed any other way. He took his garment off. I don't suppose he had any pajamas or anything like that, but Peter took his top coat off anyhow. He took his sandals off, and although he was chained to two soldiers, he quietly went to sleep a- and trusted in the Lord. What a wonderful picture. What tribulation, but what peace and quiet. How would we react? We have to go through trials and troubles and tribulations, and we have problems, but how wonderful it is to relax in God's love and in God's word and take your shoes off. You know what I mean? Just go to sleep and rest and trust the Lord. That's what Peter did. He was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the keepers before the door kept the prison. Special guard to keep this awful man Peter in prison. And this was the day before his, what was to be his execution. On the morrow, he was going to bring him out before the people, and he'd have him put to death like he did James. And behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, a light shined in the prison, and he smote Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Rise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, bind on thy sandals. And so he did. He said unto him, he said unto him, cast thy garment about thee and follow me. Peter didn't know what was happening. He was quite amazed, but he did what he was told. Put on his clothing, put on his outer garment, uh, put on his sandals, and he went out and followed him. And he wist not, he was just in amazement, didn't know. You know when God works sometimes, you just wonder, how could it be? I, I, I, I don't think as long as we live, we'll ever forget a week ago, Friday, when we were in that car crash down there, and, and at fifty five miles an hour, we went into this other car, and, and, and when we'd swung around, we looked at one another, and we just like if we just sitting in an armchair at home, we weren't scratched at all or hurt, and you, you, like Peter, he, he wondered where in the world he was and what in the world had happened, but, but God had protected him and God had cared for him, and that's how God looks after us. If I've learned one lesson in these days, it's this: the Lord's got his hand on us, and the Lord's caring for us and protecting us and keeping us, and nothing can happen to us, nothing can happen to us unless he allows it. Whatever the circumstances are, whatever the difficulties, whatever the problems, whether it's health problems or home problems or financial problems or family problems, whatever, whatever they are, all things work together for good to them that love God. And the Lord's got his hand on us. I, I love to feel that. I love to feel that the Lord's got his hand on us. Ever since I've been at Park of the Palms, there's been one verse which has been ringing in my heart from the early, early days here, and it's the wor- verse that applies to Joseph, wherever he was, he says, now God was with you. God was with you. And I've always felt that. I- I- I'm talking a little personal now, and we- it's nice to rejoice in the Lord sometimes. I've always felt that. God was with Joseph. Nothing happens. This one comes and that one comes, but God's going straight on, and our work's going straight on at Park of the Palms, and God's with us. And God was with Peter, and he wished not what had happened. He- he wished not that it was true which was done by the angel. He thought he saw a vision. And when they were past the first and second ward, they came to the iron gate. I suppose if we want to put a title on my talk this morning, I'd call it The Iron Gate That Opened. The Iron Gate That Opened. They came to the iron gate. What a thing that was. A great big iron prison gate. All right, to get through the first ward and the second ward. I just wonder where all the warders were and where all the other prisoners were that they could come out so quietly. Uh, and then they come to that great iron gate. What do you think Peter thought then? And to his amazement, the iron gate opened all on itself. How often there are times in our life when we come to the iron gate? Things when you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, and you wonder how in the world you'll ever get through. And when you get there, the gate opens. And God hasn't changed. God's the same today as he was in those. We've had situations and positions here at Park of the Palms when there was the iron gate, but when the time came, God opened the iron gate, and it all disappeared. And God is just the same. And the g- the iron gate opened of his own accord. And in the Greek it says automatically, after made it says after ma- automatically, it opened to his own automatically, the gate opened. And, and Peter went out, passed on through one street, and forthwith the angel departed from him. And when Peter was come to himself, he said, now I know of a surety the Lord has sent his angel. Isn't it wonderful? After we go through the experiences of life, and we get through, and the gate opens, and we come out, and then you sit down in amazement, you say, now I know. Now I know of a surety God sent his angel. I love, in the life of Abraham, you notice in the life of Abraham, every now and again, as you meet the various, go through the various stages in the life of Abraham, uh, it says, the little word now comes in for about four or five times, now. And finally, the Lord says to, after he'd offered up Isaac, in effect, the Lord said, now I know. The Lord is saying, now I know. Abram, I know that you mean what you say. I know you're my servant. Now I know, he says. But how off- how wonderful when we can say, now I know. Now I know, he says, I will assure to you the Lord has sent his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people, the Jews. And when he considered the thing, he came to this wonderful house of Mary, and then he knocked the door. He didn't knock the great iron gate. The great iron gate opened on its own. But when he got to the Christians, the door was shut. He had to knock the door, and the door wouldn't open. They had to open it, and they wouldn't open it. The, the Lord opened the door to let him out, but they wouldn't open the door to let him in, because why? Why didn't they open the door? Because they were praying, but they had no faith. All that, I don't know how many people, it says there were many of them. Uh, there were many of them praying. It says there were many gathered together praying. How many is many, I don't know. And as Peter knocked at the door, the damsel came, named Rhoda came, and she knew Peter's voice, and she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in and told how Peter stood before the gate, and they said to her, thou art mad. In the Greek it says mania. She's a maniac, that's what they said to her, you're a maniac. But she constantly affirmed it was even so. And what do you think they said? It says it was his angel, but that isn't the right interpretation. They said it's his spirit. What they meant was, well, already, he's already beheaded. Peter's dead, and that's the spirit come knock at the door. That's why they believe it's his spirit. That's the kind of faith they had. They was asking, they were asking God to release him, and when they heard his voice, said, well, he's already dead. God doesn't answer our prayer at all. It's just his spirit. But Peter continued knocking, and when he'd opened the door and saw him, he was, they were astonished. But he beckoning unto them with his hand to hold their peace, declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. And he said, go show these things unto James and to the brethren. You know, you could preach the gospel from this, couldn't you? How many are people in, how many people are in prison, bound? Iron gates. No hope. Nothing but the wages of sin is death in front of them. And then the angel of God, the Spirit of God comes, and a light shines in on them. And he touches them. And he raises them up. The gospel, they listen to the gospel, and the iron gate opens, and they come right out, and they're free. They get out into the street, and he says, go and tell. What a picture of salvation. But what a wonderful picture for you and me. When God brings us through the varied circumstances of life, he gets us free, and our job is to go and tell. Go and show these things, he says. And so that's the wonderful story of how God delivered Peter. I believe God delivered Peter because the Christians prayed. I don't know what I can say about the prayers we pray like that sometimes, but we got to pray believing. The Lord said, if you've only got faith, you shall ask what you will, and I will do it. Some people say, yeah, but you've got to have the Lord's will. I know that. If you're in this, if you, it says, if you, if you abide in me and I abide in you, then you'll ask the Lord's will. But I like John fifteen, verse, what is it, fourteen? it says, if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will. You say, oh, the Lord's will. No, what ye will. Ye shall ask what ye will, and I'll do it unto you. Of course, if we're living close to the Lord, we'll only ask what he wills, of course, but they were asking for the, for Peter to come out, and they didn't believe it when God answered their prayer. And how like them we are until we kind of shake our heads and, and, and out of all the mist and wonder of it all, we realize that God is still God, and God is still on the throne, and God is still working, and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So we're going forward into a conference. I want to talk to them about this tonight. We're going into another conference. Let's go forward, trusting God, believing God, that his work and his word and his work here in Park of the Palms is going to go straight on. Now, these poor soldiers, of course, were put to death, and Herod, how God can deal with his people, his with his enemies. Herod went out, they made a great fuss of him. He was always trying to please all the people over whom he had to rule. And there was some problem down there, uh, in Tyre. He evidently, they were not al- he was not always pleased with them, but they were trying to make friends with him. And then they had this great day, and he had his, uh, set upon a day, Herod, Herod was on the throne in his royal apparel. He made a great oration unto them. People gave a great shout, saying, it's the voice of God, and God struck him, and he died. I often think that we, we're old enough here to, we, we've lived through a, a wonderful period in this world's history, and when you think back, think back some of those days, you think of those, there's many here that can remember World War I, how it seemed it would never end, and you think of the... those awful days, now they're all past, and and the men, the great rulers of that day, they're all gone, passed off the scene. You think of World War II, and you think of men like Hitler and Mussolini, you think of Stalin, you think of all these great men. They're gone. This takes a little while, and God can handle all the questions, and these people pass off the scene, but the word of God goes on and on. And whatever the problems are, God can deal with these men. He dealt with Herod, he dealt with the, he dealt with Hitler, he dealt with Mussolini, he dealt with all these proud men. God deals with proud men, but his word goes on and his work goes on. And so it says in verse twenty four, the word of God grew and multiplied. And that's the end of the scene in Jerusalem. True, yes, we go back to Jerusalem in the fifteenth chapter for the first council of Jerusalem. We go back there then, but here we leave it. The word of God grew and multiplied. That was in Jerusalem. And then when you get to the last verse of this chapter, Barnabas and Saul returned from Jeru- re- uh, returned from Jerusalem when they fulfilled their ministry. Where did they go? They went back to Antioch, and now Antioch is going to be the base from which God is going to work. When we get to the thirteenth chapter, I don't know when that'll be, if the Lord tarry, after the conference sometime, you'll find that the new base is Antioch, and God is now going to do what he told them to do in the beginning, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth, and God is going to spread the gospel out now using Saul of Tarsus, working from Antioch in Syria. So that's just a few thoughts about that wonderful twelfth chapter, and let's keep on reading in the Acts, and sometime we get back to them. In the meantime, we're looking forward to a wonderful season of conference. Shall we pray? Blessed God our Father, we thank thee now for thy word. We thank thee that despise, despite the, the lack of faith of thy people, the iron gates were opened, and uh, Peter came out of prison. And whatever our problems are, Lord, whether they be personal problems, whether they be home problems or financial problems or family problems, Lord, thou art able to open iron gates and bring us out so that in amazement we wonder at what thou hast done. We thank thee, thou art God, the same Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. We seek thy parting blessing now. Be with us this day, come up with us again tonight, we pray thee, and lead us on for thy glory. We pray for our beloved brother Harold McKay, that thou restore him and his dear wife and grant that they be become to us. Bless our brother Van Ryan, bring him in the power of the Holy Spirit, and so overrule in all these details that thy name might be glorified here at Park of the Palms. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.