Weak Kneed in Acts 12
At that time King Herod caused terrible suffering for some members of the church. He ordered soldiers to cut off the head of James, the brother of John. When Herod saw that this pleased the Jewish people, he had Peter arrested during the Festival of Thin Bread. He put Peter in jail and ordered four squads of soldiers to guard him. Herod planned to put him on trial in public after the festival.
While Peter was being kept in jail, the church kept up their regular activities and pot-lucks and even printed his name on the prayer list that would be printed each week. “. . . and God, please be with Peter . . .” someone prayed during the blessing for the food.
The night before Peter was to be put on trial, he was asleep and bound by two chains. A soldier was guarding him on each side, and two other soldiers were guarding the entrance to the jail. Suddenly another guard came in, flashing his torch around in the cell. He poked Peter in the side and woke him up. "Quick! Get up!" he impatiently barked. But Peter could not get up quickly because of the chains on his hands. The other guards woke and joined the chiding, "Get dressed and put on your sandals." Peter tried to do what he was told, but the chains made dressing difficult. As the guards laughed at his efforts, the torch-bearing guard said, "Now put on your coat and follow me” and he unlocked the chains.
Peter left the jail surrounded by guards, but being half asleep he tried to discern if he was only dreaming, or if this was real. They marched past two groups of soldiers who then fell in behind forming a bleak late-night, black parade. When they came to the iron gate to the city, they opened it and went out along the street. All at once, Peter realized he was not dreaming.
“Someone, please help me,” he cried to himself! “Please someone to help me!” Peter, now realizing what was going to happen said to himself, "I am certain that someone will come to rescue me from Herod and from everything the Jewish leaders planned to do to me."
They continued on down the street, toward the house of Mary the mother of John (whose other name was Mark). Many of the Lord's followers had come together there and were having a pot-luck supper. Peter could not help but look up to the lighted window, praying that someone there was praying fervently for him. They came to the house-gate where the torch-bearer banged with the butt of his dagger. A servant named Rhoda came to answer and when she saw Peter with the soldiers, she was too fearful to open the gate. She ran back into the house and told everyone that Peter was standing there, surrounded by guards.
"You are crazy!" everyone told her. But she kept saying that it was Peter. Then they said, "It must be his angel." But the guard kept on knocking, until finally they opened the gate. They saw him and were completely amazed as they saw the soldiers standing around Peter.
With pleading eyes, Peter motioned for them to keep quiet.
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“We are weak in the pulpit because we are weak in the closet.”
--Horatio Bonar “Words to Winners of Souls.”
“The character as well as the fortunes of the gospel is committed to the preacher. He makes or mars the message from God to man. The preacher is the golden pipe through which the divine oil flows. The pipe must not only be golden, but open and flawless, that the oil may have a full, unhindered, unwasted flow. The man makes the preacher. God must make the man . . . . Under the Jewish dispensation the high priest had inscribed in jeweled letters on a golden frontlet: 'Holiness to the Lord.' So every preacher in Christ’s ministry must be molded into and mastered by this same holy motto. It is a crying shame for the Christian ministry to fall lower in holiness of character and holiness of aim than the Jewish priesthood . . . . The real sermon is made in the closet. The man-God’s man-is made in the closet. His life and his profoundest convictions were born in his secret communion with God. The burdened and tearful agony of his spirit, his weightiest and sweetest messages were got when alone with God. Prayer makes the man; prayer makes the preacher; prayer makes the pastor. . . . Every preacher who does not make prayer a mighty factor in his own life and ministry is weak as a factor in God’s work and is powerless to project God’s cause in this world.” (--Oswald Chambers. “Men of Prayer Needed.”)
“Bibles read without prayer; sermons heard without prayer; marriages contracted without prayer; journeys undertaken without prayer, residences chosen without prayer; friendships formed without prayer; the daily act of prayer itself hurried over, or gone through without heart; these are the kind of downward steps by which many a Christian descends to a condition of spiritual palsy, or reaches the point where God allows them to have a tremendous fall.” (J.C. Ryle)
