Good evening, everyone. Very happy to see you all tonight! Felt like a very long week, especially if you’ve been fasting. But can we greet the people around us? To your left and to your right, greet them with a very good evening!
All right, I’d like to ask before we begin: Who has been here since day one? Please raise your hand. Wow! How about day two? You were here on day two? Okay. Day three? Great! And now, day four? You know, if you didn’t make it to any of those days, you missed a lot.
I think we’ve heard, in the past few days, real stories from men in our church. On day one, I remember Mike. He shared about how a terrible accident happened, and yet the Lord was able to turn it around to make it an instrument for his family to know more about God. On day two, I remember Jerel was here, and he shared the conviction of obeying the Lord, even when it’s hard—because money, you know, is very attractive—but in the workplace, we need to have integrity as we follow the Lord there. On day three, just last night, we heard from Bong as he shared about healing—physical healing and healing in our families. I think you will all remember how he shared from his heart that even if the Lord did not give him what he was praying for, he would still believe and have faith in Him.
These past few days, I am very convinced that our church is made up of men and women who quietly work and go on with their lives. But if you ask them what the Lord has been doing, you will hear amazing stories—stories of men who are praying, women who are faithful. There are many, many in our church.
Also, the second thing I realized is that our church worships a God who is truly undefeated. Amen?
Tonight, we will go through our topic, which is focusing on our church and our nation. We’ll talk about The Power of a Praying Church Impacting the Nation. Why is it important for us, as followers of Christ, to pray for our church as we reach out to this nation and even the nations beyond?
We will learn three things as we look into Acts 12, which is our Bible reading for today. We will learn that it is important to embrace persecution because, as we embrace persecution, we will encounter God’s power. And as we encounter God’s power, it will motivate us to evangelize the nations.
Embracing Persecution
Let’s start with the first point: Embracing Persecution.
Let’s paint the picture first in Acts 12:1-3. Here, we meet an interesting character—Herod Agrippa. Let us read:
"About that time, King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church. He had the apostle James, John’s brother, killed with a sword. When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter."
When you go and research who this Herod Agrippa is, it can sometimes get a little confusing because many people in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, are called Herod by name. But this particular Herod is not the same one who persecuted the Jews when Jesus, as a baby, was about to be born. This is his descendant—it's a different Herod. But just the same, in this particular history of the church, this Herod Agrippa continued to persecute the followers of Christ.
There were many things that happened to the apostles of Jesus after He died, resurrected, and ascended to heaven. Here, we are told that James was killed with a sword, and many of them had to go through persecution, not just James. In this story, it’s Peter’s turn.
I want to bring your attention to this particular phrase: The killing of James with a sword pleased the Jewish people. And you know, King Herod Agrippa was Jewish himself, and he wanted to keep the peace among the Jewish people. To him, Christians—followers of Christ—were disruptive. It was important to get rid of this small sect so that the peace could be kept. That was his motivation. It was successful with James, so he arrested Peter.
Then, he imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. That’s a lot! Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover.
Now, how would you feel if you were Peter in this case? I’m sure you would feel afraid. Maybe you would feel confused. Maybe you would feel angry—Why does this have to happen to me?
Whatever Peter felt during this moment, it was certain death as far as he was concerned. That’s a lot of soldiers guarding him for a public trial, which definitely would end in his death.
So, what happened? While Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.
We see in this passage how much the church community, though small, was earnest in their prayer. They came together physically, much like we are doing now, to pray specifically for Peter.
Now, if I ask myself, Why are they praying for Peter? I think one of the reasons is because there was nothing more they could do. James had just been killed, and now Peter was in prison. What could happen next? Of course, the death of Peter. So they were there, praying with each other, trying to intervene so that God would do something about this.
But I also think that more than their wish for God to intervene, it was their desire to make sense of this whole thing. You see, as followers of Christ, whenever we face challenges, problems, and persecutions, it is always an opportunity for us to do more than just feel sad and afraid, or feel that it’s unfair.
In John Eldridge’s book Wild at Heart, this is his suggestion: at the point in time where you feel you are within a struggle, ask these questions:
- What is God trying to teach me here?
- What issues in my heart is God trying to raise through this problem?
- What is it that God wants me to see?
- What is it that God is asking me to let go of?
To us who follow Christ, struggles and problems allow us to enter into a journey. This journey enables us to know God more, and yes, to learn more about the faith we claim to have.
As the church prayed earnestly for Peter, I am sure Peter himself had these questions in mind. There was nothing else he could do, right?
We continue the passage: "The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep."
Can you imagine sleeping through this? Tomorrow, you will probably die in a very public way, yet Peter slept. As he slept, he was even fastened with two chains between two soldiers, while other soldiers stood guard at the prison gate. Herod Agrippa really wanted him dead—not just dead, but dead dead. He wanted to be sure that Peter wouldn’t escape.
You know, some problems have a solution. This problem didn’t seem to have one. This was one of those problems where you might think, How could I survive this?
Friends, are you facing a problem of your own tonight? Are you going through something? Do you feel like you’re Peter—chained on your left and on your right, not really knowing what to do?
In fact, let me ask the people here: Please raise your hand if you have a problem. Wow, wow—just like me, we all have problems.
Now, I’m going to say something, and I don’t want to be insensitive to what you are going through, but I want to say it anyway because it’s the truth: Praise God you have a problem! This allows us to come to God and ask these important questions about who God is and what our faith is made of, and to journey with God through this specific season of our lives.
In fact, I think we should have a special prayer line for people who don’t have problems. Do you want that? We will pray for you. We will give you one! I’m only kidding, of course, but you get my point, right?
If you are a follower of Christ and you don’t feel like you have to go through something, I pray that you pray that God would reveal to you the things that will strengthen your faith.
So what happens to Peter now?
He embraced his persecution. Sometimes we’re afraid of persecution. We’re afraid of struggles and problems. In fact, in my own d-group, it’s very common for me and my wife to ask our d-group members, “Give us the bad news.” We know there’s good news, and we know there are things to praise God for. But equally important are the bad news—the things you are going through that would strengthen your faith. Now, let’s see what God will do.
Encounter God's Power
Point number two: As we embrace persecution, we encounter God’s power.
Suddenly, as Peter was asleep, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him. I mean, how deep into sleep are you that it would take an angel to strike you to wake you up, right? Peter was really sound asleep! The angel said, "Quick, get up!" And the chains fell off his wrists. Then the angel told him, "Get dressed and put on your sandals," and Peter did. "Now, put on your coat and follow me," the angel ordered.
Notice how Peter obeyed everything the angel told him. He obeyed.
What happens next?
Peter left the cell, following the angel, but all the time, he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening to him.
Do you ever have this experience? You know, I’m a very dense person—you should ask my wife! I don’t understand things right away, and sometimes I don’t realize that I am in the middle of a miracle. What do I mean by that? Sometimes I keep complaining and complaining about setbacks or things that didn’t go the way I wanted, but only at the end of it do I look back and see that it was actually the Lord moving.
Right now, we often don’t realize that. It takes us being really prayerful and understanding the wisdom of God. That’s exactly Peter’s experience. He didn’t realize that the Lord was already delivering him from his chains.
They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and it opened for them all by itself.
They passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him. Peter, as dense as he is—like me—finally came to his senses and said, "It’s really true! The Lord has sent His angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me." Then he knew—the Lord had rescued him.
I want us to think about this scene. One moment you’re chained, with soldiers on your left and right, and more soldiers outside. Then suddenly, you find yourself free. You’ve been praying and praying for this problem, this challenge, this struggle that seems insurmountable, and then suddenly it’s gone. You’re a free man or woman. What would you do then?
Now, I don’t know about you, but I think at this point, I would deserve a party! I would deserve something to treat myself. Or maybe Peter would say, "Let me just stay away for a while, go to another town, and rest." He would have deserved it—he was in jail for a long time!
But notice what Peter does. Are you ready? This is amazing.
The very moment Peter was freed, this is what he does:
When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer. Peter was jailed because he was the leader of a church. The very second he realized he was freed, he went back to the church to serve the men and women whom Jesus loves.
This is the heart of Peter. No matter the persecution, he knew exactly what he needed to do—he needed to serve the God who rescued him.
Because of this, God did something amazing in the life of that church. In the final verses of Acts 12:24:
"But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied."
What happened to King Herod Agrippa?
He died. The Bible tells us this mighty king—Jewish himself—appeared before a crowd on a festival day, beautifully dressed. When everyone in the crowd said to him, "You are like God," he received the praise. That very moment, God struck him down.
Long after this man had died, the church that he persecuted continued to grow and multiply in that land, beyond that land, beyond that year, and beyond that century. Up until now, my friends, you and I are still worshiping the God of Peter. Amen?
This is why you and I need to pray for our church. There is power here—God is among us. And it only takes you and me to be true to our faith as followers of Christ, to be like Peter, doing the thing that we should do.
I have invited a brother of mine to share with us tonight his own journey of faith and why, for all these years, he has been serving in the church. Let’s welcome Paulo Calo.
Evangelize the Nations
Finally, let us be reminded of our CCF Vision. Do you know it? If you don’t know it, we will all recite it tonight. Are you ready?
Our vision is to see a movement of millions of committed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, meeting in small groups and transforming lives, families, communities, and nations for the glory of God.
Friends, if we want to move this nation for the Lord, we start with ourselves. If we are faithful to God’s calling in our own lives, we will transform our families. What happens after that? Communities, and then the nation. It never works the other way around. If you and I want to change this country that we love, we must love Jesus. Amen?
So we will pray tonight and ask the Lord to bring to mind everything we want to give to Him about our church and our nation. And we will be expectant of what He will do among us.
Let’s pray:
Father in heaven, we just thank You, Lord, for allowing us this time and place to be with each other, Lord, and to focus our minds on the things that are important to You. Lord, we bring to You CCF Cebu, this church in the middle of Metropolitan Cebu.
Lord, we fall down on our knees and we pray to You, Lord, that You will look upon this church and do with it what You want to do. Lord, I pray for every one of us here, each one, Lord, to have a heart like Peter’s—to go back to the fight after every struggle we go through, to be expectant of how You will move despite the challenges we see in front of us. Lord, allow us to look to You and see infinitely more purpose and meaning than what we see for ourselves today.
Lord, we pray for this nation that we love. We pray for this nation that You love. Lord, give us the heart to care for our leaders and those that we live with in our community. And allow us, Father, to be faithful with our own families, to truly make an impact in Your name.
Thank You, Father. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
