April 3, 2025
#272 - Acts 12.5-19 - While They Were Still Praying…
In this episode of the AL Pastor Podcast, Pastor Brian is joined by his 14-year-old son Noah to walk through Acts 12:5–19, where Peter is miraculously rescued from prison by an angel. Together, they explore what it means to pray with expectation, how to recognize God’s answers when they come, and why faith sometimes looks like resting in the storm. With humor, clear teaching, and down-to-earth conversation, this episode brings the story to life for listeners of all ages.
Whether you’re a student, a parent, or just someone needing a reminder that God still moves in impossible situations—this episode is for you.
✅ Key Takeaways:
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God can move in impossible situations.
Peter was heavily guarded, chained, and asleep—but God was still in control. -
Faith sometimes looks like rest.
Peter’s peace in prison is a picture of what trusting God truly looks like. -
Prayer works—even when we doubt.
The church prayed fervently, but still struggled to believe when Peter showed up. -
Recognizing God’s answers requires spiritual alertness.
Don’t miss the miracle because it came in an unexpected way. -
God’s mission will not be stopped.
Herod tried to stop the church by killing leaders. God just kept building.
❓ Reflection Questions for Listeners:
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Can you think of a time when you were surprised by an answered prayer? How did you respond?
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Are you currently praying for something that seems “impossible”? What encouragement do you find in this story?
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In what ways can you grow to recognize and welcome God’s answers—even if they come in unexpected forms?
-
What does Peter’s peace in prison teach you about trusting God during uncertainty?
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Is there anything or anyone “knocking at your door” that you might be overlooking spiritually?
🙌 Call to Action:
-
Share this episode with someone who needs a reminder that God still works miracles—even when we’re slow to see them.
-
Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you don’t miss upcoming episodes in the book of Acts.
-
Follow the AL Pastor Podcast on YouTube or Spotify to catch both the audio and video versions.
-
Join the conversation on Instagram or Facebook—how has God surprised you lately? What “door” did He knock on?
0:07
You're listening to Al Pastor, the show that helps you love God, love your neighbor and eat more
tacos.
0:15
I'm your host, Pastor Brian.
Welcome to the show.
0:21
Well, hello, hello.
I want to welcome everybody back to the ALPA Store podcast I've got in studio with me.
0:28
Noah Noah, how you doing today?
I'm.
0:30
Doing fine.
Good.
0:31
Hey, I figured we'd introduce ourselves because I had someone tell me that they had a friend who
listened and they were trying to figure out who we were.
0:39
So I'm Pastor Brian Noah.
Who are you?
0:42
Your son, you.
Are my son.
0:44
How old are you, Noah?
14.
0:47
All right, now, now I have said this before, but if you get this, Noah, everybody can get this.
So that's why I'm really appreciative of you being on the show.
0:59
Now, I did get a text message somebody when we had done a longer podcast.
I've had several of those.
1:05
I said, hey, if you made it this long, let us know.
So I had somebody that had texted and it was Paula.
1:11
So she said she really enjoys it when you're on the podcast.
So what do you think about that?
1:17
Thank you, Paula.
All right.
1:18
Now she also said don't change the intro.
What do you think about that, Noah?
1:24
I don't agree.
I don't I don't agree with for that one.
1:27
Oh, OK.
Well, I'm going to keep it the same.
1:30
You know what I've decided I'm going to evaluate at episode 300.
So I think we're around.
1:37
I don't know what episode this is, maybe 270 something.
And you were from 260 to 275?
1:45
Yeah, somewhere in there.
So when I get to episode 300, I'm going to celebrate and we'll look possibly at maybe same intro,
1:54
but maybe some different music.
Well, we might spice it up a little bit.
1:58
I need some like Cucarachas or something in the background, you know what I mean?
I don't know.
2:03
OK, well this one is going to be quick.
I had told you on the last episode we went through.
2:08
I don't.
I don't trust you.
2:09
OK, well we will.
We're going to go actually Pretty Little bit quicker on here.
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So we're looking at Acts chapter 12.
We're going to start in verse 5.
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Our goal is to walk through the 1st 19 verses.
So Noah, I'm going to ask you read verses 5 and 6 for us out of Acts chapter 12.
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Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church,
and when Harry was about to bring him out that night, Peter was sleeping bound with two chains
2:41
between two soldiers, and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.
All right, so here is the setup.
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Peter's in prison.
James has already been killed.
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I want us to stop and appreciate the seriousness of this moment.
But here's the question I want you to notice.
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What is Peter doing?
In constant prayer.
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Peter, what is this?
What is?
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This in prison.
He's but in verse number six, it says that night Peter was what?
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Sleeping?
Peter is asleep.
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Now let me ask you this now, if you were in Peter's shoes, if you are chained between two guards,
knowing that in the morning you are going to have your head chopped off, you're going to die, do you
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think that you would be sleeping?
Probably not.
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I'm with you.
Probably not, but this tells us something.
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He has his faith.
About Peter's faith, you got it, man, Proud of you for that.
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He had learned to trust Jesus so deeply that even in the darkest moment of his life, he could rest.
Now let me tell you this.
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That is real peace.
Now, Noah, can you think of somebody else who went to sleep and they were in a really, really tense
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situation?
Jesus.
4:09
That's one it I Why are you laughing?
Because on the last pocket I was on, you had to.
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What's the answer?
Every kids church kid says.
4:19
Oh, so you say Jesus Now, do you remember in the middle of that there was a there's a story about
Jesus.
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I wasn't thinking of that one, but I'm glad you were.
I know you weren't thinking of it, but there's a story of Jesus out on a boat with the disciples in
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a storm raged.
And guess what Jesus was doing?
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He was sleeping.
Now.
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Do you remember about this story about Daniel on the lion's den?
They threw him into the lion's den, and when they went and looked, what was Daniel doing?
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Chilling with the Lions.
He was he was sleeping with the lions.
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So this is real biblical piece right here.
It's really a beautiful picture.
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All right, read verses 7 and 8.
OK.
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Now behold, an Angel of the Lord stood by him in the light shown in the prison, and he struck Peter
on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise quickly, and his chains fell off his hands.
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All right, so suddenly God intervenes, an Angel shows up and the whole jail cell lights up, but
Peter is still sleeping.
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Now the the angels got to tap him.
He's got to.
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He's got to say, hey, wake up, wake up.
And then in that moment, the chains fall off.
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There's no chainsaw, There's no, there's no lock breaker.
There's no tools.
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They just fall off.
It is like God is saying, this is my rescue mission.
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Now know what?
I'm going to ask you another question.
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What would be going through your head if you had been sleeping and you woke up and the Angel is
standing there telling you to get up, get dressed and follow him?
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God is good.
Yeah, I mean, not every day that happens, right?
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Because if he was that, if he was that piece to where he was sleeping and then he just wakes up to
that, I think he would like immediately just be like, OK, I, I, I, I was hoping this would happen.
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Exactly.
I want you to notice that Peter, he obeys, he follows instructions, and it seems like he's kind of
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half asleep, half awake.
And here's the thing, God does the rest.
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Now I want you to read verses 9 and 10 for us.
I didn't read 8.
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Oh, go ahead and read 8, sorry.
Eight through 10 or 8:00 and 9:00.
6:38
Yeah, go ahead and go 8 through 10.
Then the Angel said to him, grab yourself and tie on your sandals.
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And so he did, and he said to him, put on your garment and follow me.
So he went out and followed him and did not know that was done by the and he did not know that what
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was done by the Angel is real but thought he was single vision.
When they were passed to the 1st and 2nd guard post, they came to the iron gauge that leads to the
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city which opened to them of the donor court and they went out and went down 1 St. and immediately
the Angel departed from him.
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All right, now this part is really, really cool.
Peter is following the Angel, but he doesn't think it's real.
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He thinks that he's dreaming.
And so they they pass 2 sets of guards and then I want you to picture this in your mind.
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The gate opens up automatically.
This is like a 1st century garage door opener or something like a motion sensor detector.
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Now have you ever had a dream that felt really, really real, but when you woke up you were like,
hold on, was this real or was this a dream?
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I've had plenty of dreams that I thought it was real and was very disappointed when waking up.
OK, well this is exactly how Peter felt, except.
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It was real.
It was real, and when he wakes up, he finds out is real and guess what?
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Those chains are gone and he has been set free.
All right, go ahead and read verse 11.
8:21
And when Peter had come to himself, he said, Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his
Angel, and had delivered me from the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the Jewish
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people.
All right, so this kind of gives us a sense here that like Peter has come to his own senses.
8:39
He realizes the God sent the Angel, God has rescued him and he gets it.
Now.
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This is not a dream.
This is not a drill.
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This is the real deal.
And, and I want to pause on that for a second because when something amazing happens in your life,
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Noah, do you recognize that it's God who is behind it?
Or do you feel like, hey, you know what, that was just a coincidence?
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I would say most of the time God, but sometimes I may not immediately think it's Him.
OK, here's the principle.
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We have to train ourselves to see God's hand, God's fingerprints on sometimes moments that we might
have a tendency to just brush off and be like, ah, that's not a big deal.
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Or ah, that's, that's coincidence.
Now Peter, in this case, he didn't miss it.
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He gives glory to God.
Now verse #12 go ahead and read that.
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So when he had considered this, he came to the House of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was
Mark, where many were gathered together praying.
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Now, just a cool little side note here, do you know who John whose surname was Mark is?
Was he the one who Jesus had him like adopt his his mom?
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Kind of.
Or no, that's the apostle John.
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That's in John 20.
So this, this, this person John, whose surname was Mark, we would call him John Mark.
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And we're going to read about him a little bit later on in Acts.
Now he is actually the writer of the Gospel of Mark.
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And Mark is written.
Do you know from whose perspective?
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I don't, I don't know.
It's from Peter's perspective.
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So John Mark wrote down everything that Peter had said for him.
He was a young man.
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You want to hear a funny story about John Mark too?
He was, he was a young man and he wanted, it's sort of like, you know how sometimes kids want to go
10:57
with the older kids or with the adults and hang out and follow them?
Well, on the night of the crucifixion, it was so serious.
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John Mark had been following them, and when Jesus got arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of
the Roman guards saw him like hiding because he was trying to see what's going on.
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And when he went to run away, the guard grabbed his coat and he ended up running through those olive
trees naked.
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This is in the Gospel kind of crazy.
Huh.
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Very.
Wait, when you in the Bible?
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Yeah.
Wow, I find it because because God chose specifically what he wanted us to see.
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Like if he has a sense of humor.
He does.
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God is funny sometimes.
Now we'll learn a little bit more about John Mark because he's going to have his desires fulfilled.
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What I mean about that is he always wanted to go along.
He always wanted to tag along.
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And so he gets to go with Barnabas and Paul on an adventure.
When I say an adventure, I mean some people might not think it's an adventure, but it was because
12:07
they're going to go hit the road preaching.
And guess who Barnabas brings?
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He brings John Mark.
Why?
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Because they're cousins it.
Was kind of, it's kind of, it's kind of like you brought me to your trip to Mexico.
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Exactly, exactly.
So OK, here's the thing in verse #12 Peter head straight to John, Mark's mother's house.
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Her name is Mary.
And I want us to notice that the believers are praying.
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Now get this, God has already.
They're, they're inside praying.
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Now, we had prayer last night.
So we're all praying.
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So let's say we came together as a church and we're praying for a miracle.
And then there's a knock on the side door and we're still praying.
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And the answer to the prayer is standing right outside.
Now go ahead and read verses 13 through 15.
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And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer.
When she recognized Peter's voice because of her gladness, she did.
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She did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate.
But they said to her, You are beside yourself.
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Yes, she kept insisting that that it was so.
So they said it is his Angel.
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All right, so Rhoda is a, is a servant girl.
She's like a, like a worker, like an employee.
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So she hears Peter's voice and she kind of, she kind of freaks out a little bit with some like Joy.
She doesn't know what to do and she forgets to open the door.
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And so she runs back inside and everybody thinks she's crazy.
They're praying, but when the answer shows up, they don't believe it.
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Now, Noah, why do you think it's sometimes hard for us to believe that God actually answers our
prayers?
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I don't maybe because maybe because with their expectations, they had the expectation that L will
come true.
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However, it wouldn't be as soon as they're like saying it's like boom, it's it's kind of like it's
not like they didn't expect to.
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They did not expect them to like, speak into existence almost.
Yeah, exactly.
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I mean, sometimes we can pray.
And I mean, you've got to think about this.
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They, there's no doubt they had been praying for James, right?
And what happened with James?
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He died.
It didn't work out.
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So this is like they, they know Peter's locked up and, and it's not looking good.
So sometimes we can have some doubt.
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Sometimes we might not expect an immediate result.
We ask God to move, but let's not be surprised when God does.
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And you know what I mean, Rhoda, she she has some faith.
I mean, she comes in like she's excited.
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So I think we all could use a little bit of, of some faith just like Rhoda.
Now go ahead and read verse 16.
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I think we're you think we're going to get through this.
Yeah.
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I think so too.
So verse #16.
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Now, now Peter continue knocking, and when they open the door and saw him, they were astonished.
All right, so Peter is still knocking at the door.
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Now I imagine it's just me.
I think he's thinking, man, you know what?
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Any second now they might.
They're going to they're going to catch on.
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Eventually somebody opens the door and boom, everybody is amazed.
Now know it, if you were Peter, you just escaped prison.
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An Angel like supernaturally had the gates flung open and now you are stuck outside waiting for
people and they're in there and you can hear them praying for you.
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What would you be thinking at that point?
I'm I'm ready for some.
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I'm ready for some food and to and to just decompress.
Exactly.
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I mean, it's like, come on, let's get on with this already.
Open Open the door.
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I was just chained for hours.
Exactly.
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So this is it's, it's kind of, it's kind of funny, but it's also kind of convicting, isn't it?
I mean, sometimes, sometimes we can, we can get so involved.
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Not that prayer is wrong.
Don't misunderstand me, but we can pray or we can get so caught up in in what our expectations of
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what God is trying to do that we can miss the fact that the answer is standing right in front of us.
All right, verse #17.
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But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him
out of the prison.
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And he said, Go tell these things to James, and and to the brethren.
And he departed and went to another place.
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OK, and now Peter finally gets in.
He tells them everything that happens, and here's the here's the interesting part he declared to
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them.
How?
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What?
What does it say?
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The Lord brought him out of.
The prison, exactly.
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He gives God all of the glory.
The Lord brought me out.
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And then he says, go tell James and the brothers.
And then he heads out again.
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Now this James isn't the one who was killed earlier.
Jesus's brother.
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Exactly this.
Jesus's brother who becomes the leader.
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The pastor.
Of the church exactly in Jerusalem.
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Hey man, good job.
Now here's a question.
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Why do you think Peter didn't stay and celebrate with everybody?
Because he had to go on the run because Herod would would probably start looking for him.
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Exactly.
Here's the thing.
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He was using wisdom, wasn't he?
Just because God had had delivered him and rescued him doesn't mean that he should be reckless.
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And so he slips away, and he's going to go continue his mission somewhere else.
No commentary, I don't know if it was one, which one or if one of any of them even said it, but
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didn't want them to talk about how how this was him having like James take over the missionary in
that area.
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And then like you said, he moves on to the to another area and to continue over there while James
does it here.
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It is.
It is.
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So you remember correctly even though you don't remember which one.
That's I think.
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It was the life application I think, no.
I'm actually kind of I'm, I'm impressed.
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I'm not just saying that because that is actually part of the purpose Noah of this chapter is it
might seem like it's, I mean use the word disjointed here, but it serves as a transitionary role.
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And so go ahead now in read verses 18 and 19.
Then as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become a
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Peter.
But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards, the commander that
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they should be put to death, and he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.
All right, so I want you to kind of get into the text here.
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Back at the prison, it's chaos.
The guards, they are freaking out.
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And so Herod demands an investigation and they are looking everywhere for Peter and he cannot be
found.
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And then the guards are executed.
Now, Noah, did you catch why that happened?
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Catch why they were executed?
Mm hmm.
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Because Because the whole point of there being that many guards was to not have Peter escape.
And then it was like a custom to to to where if they let someone escape, they would be, they would
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they would get killed.
Exactly.
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Exactly.
And you read that in a commentary, right?
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One of them.
I don't think so, but I this is something I've like known for a while.
20:29
OK, so Roman law said that if you lost a prisoner you had to pay the price.
And so this whole chapter ends with Herod retreating to Caesarea.
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He is probably a little embarrassed.
He's probably a little confused now.
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So what do we here's, here's how we're going to end this.
What do we take away from this story that we just went over?
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Here's number one.
God hears and he answers prayer even when we don't expect it.
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Here's the next thing.
God can always move in impossible situations.
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Think about it.
Chains, guards, locked doors.
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It's not a problem for God.
Here's the third thing.
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Faith isn't just about asking, it's about recognizing, and it's about receiving.
And sometimes we've got to, we've got to stop praying and there's something we need to do.
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In other words, we got to open the door and finally, God's plan cannot be stopped.
Think about this.
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Herod tried to stop God, the enemy tried, but the church kept on growing.
So now, do you have any final thoughts that you want to share from this story?
21:53
I just have a quick question Sure I forgot if we had went over the last podcast from one through 4
or whatever, but was James would they have just immediately like as soon as they call him just like
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kill him pretty soon after he got caught or or would he have been like chained up or thrown in
prison for a while also like Peter and then killed?
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It that term soon is relevant.
What I mean by that is Herod wouldn't have just said go chop off James head.
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What they would have done is they would have arrested him first.
They probably would have beaten him.
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He would have been thrown into prison and interrogated and and intimidated.
Then he would have been brought before the court and the judge in this case, it would have been
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Herod.
The sentence would be passed and then they would set his execution date.
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That's the normal process.
Now, I can't tell you with certainty, Noah, how.
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Long it would have.
Been exactly could have been two days, three days.
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It could have happened really quick.
It seemed like Herod was moving quick.
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But anything we've learned about the Bible is, is sometimes one verse can be a process, Right?
Yeah.
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So the point is, is that the moment that James had been arrested, the church would have been
alerted.
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In fact, all of all of Jerusalem would have known that these people who follow and preach Jesus have
have had one of them arrested.
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Yeah.
So any other thoughts or takeaways?
23:31
Oh, no, all right, well, I, I really thank you for joining me today and I want to thank you at home
for listening.
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If this episode has encouraged you, please share it with a, with a friend, share it with, with, with
those that you care about.
23:48
And remember when you pray, don't be surprised when God shows up.
We'll see you next time on the ALPA Store Podcast.
24:04
Thank you for listening to Al Pastor with Brian Overturf.
If you found value in this, please subscribe and get updates.
24:12
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24:23
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24:27
Until then, we'll see you later.