Deliver Us From Evil – August 4, 2024

Old Testament, Acts 12:1-25
August 4, 2024

Yes, the title of this sermon comes from the words of Jesus in “The Lord’s Prayer.”  “Deliver Us From Evil.”  And yes, there was, again, a little thought about “curb appeal.”  I was considering what people might think when they would see it on our sign.  Because there does seem to be a lot of evil in this world!  Doesn’t there?

They were also the words that came to mind when I read this story for today.  Because this a story of just such a deliverance.  And as we think about that, I think we’d have to agree that there was evil in the world in the early days of the Church.

So far, the troubles for the early church started with the religious leadership of Israel.  Those leaders had been persecuting the church ever since the stoning of Stephen, which comes at the end of Acts chapter 7.  They were upset that this business with Jesus, wasn’t over yet.  His ministry – his movement – was continuing, and they were determined to stamp it out!

But then that whole picture changed with the conversion of Saul.  Before that, Saul one of the biggest adversaries of the Church.  He was on the forefront of that persecution.  He was leading the fight to end this new faith.  But now, all of a sudden, he was going all over Jerusalem proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.

Then another big change happened in our story for last week.  That was the story of Cornelius.  He was the roman officer who was told by God to send for Peter.  And that was tough for a good Jewish boy like Peter, because Cornelius was a Gentile.  He started out by saying to him how “unlawful” it was for Jews to associate with people “of other nations” – meaning Gentiles.  But now all of that was changing!  This new faith, which started in Judaism, was now including Gentiles!

That we skipped over chapter 11 for today, but I alluded to it last week.  That’s where Peter reported to the Church leadership in Jerusalem what had happened with that whole “Cornelius thing.”  As I mentioned, there were some who were opposed to the Gentiles coming into the faith.  Peter particularly had opposition from a group known as “The Circumcision Party.”  They were men who believed that for a Gentile to become a Christian, he would first have to become Jewish.  And I’ll leave the rest of that thought to your imagination!

So now we come to chapter 12.  And this is another important turning point in the early Church.  And it was a tough one!  Because now king Herod steps back into the picture.  Do you remember him?  Yeah, that king Herod.  And we know from the Gospels that Herod was a really nasty dude!  And now he brought the Romans into the picture of the persecution of the Church.

In the first verse we’re told that “Herod the king laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the Church.”  We don’t know how that came about.  Luke just puts it out there, to reintroduce us to this nasty guy.  But then he says, “He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.”  We read of that too fast sometimes!  When I hear that, I think, “Wow!  James, of James and John, two of Jesus’ closest disciples, the “sons of thunder” as he called them.  That’s what happened to James!

Luke continues, “And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter, also.”  And then this.  “When he had seized him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to guard him.”  That seems like a lot of soldiers, doesn’t it?  Maybe he was worried that the other believers might stage a rescue!

If you remember, Peter had been in prison before – a couple of times!  It started with healing the disabled man at the Temple gate.  He was arrested by the Jewish leadership, because he had healed the man “in the name of Jesus.”  And remember, the Jewish leadership had the ability to do that.  They could arrest and imprison people.  They had their own guards, and they had the power of Rome behind them in enforcing their law.  Although I think at that point, the Romans were somewhat like passive observers, or at least they were enforcers or overseers.  They didn’t necessarily get involved in the affairs of the country, as long as it didn’t affect Roman sovereignty.  That was always the important thing to them!  They were the conquerors.  They were in charge!  And they could be brutal when it came to that!

Well, now in this story, they became directly involved.  And we know from history that the Romans ended up being the main persecutors of the Church.  They persecuted the Church until the time of (who?) Constantine in 325AD.  That’s 300 years!  That’s a long time to withstand persecution!  And history tells us that there were times the persecution was pretty bad!  In many places, the church had to live in hiding.  Maybe you remember how they met in the catacombs of Rome.

But, history also tells us that during those difficult times, the church grew!  And the Good News spread like wildfire across the ancient world!  I remember hearing that expression one time, and then asking my firefighter friends which they would rather fight, a building fire, or a wildfire.  They both said a building fire!  A wildfire is much more dangerous and hard to contain!  And that gave me a better picture of the spread of the Gospel in those days!

As we think about that, we have to know that through all those difficult times, God has always given his people peace.  But he never said there wouldn’t be difficult times.  In fact, when Jesus was preparing his disciples for the time ahead when he would be gone, he said, “Because you are my disciples you will be persecuted.”  So much for a great life of celebrity, following in the footsteps of this wildly popular man!  On the contrary, it was not an easy life in the early days of the church.

So here we are at the beginning of the difficulties the church had with the Romans, and we have Peter in prison, guarded by four squads of soldiers.  And this story then becomes one of a number of “escape” stories I mentioned last week.  And this is one of the “miraculous escapes.”  An angel comes and leads him out.  They walked right past the guards and right through the gate that opened by itself.  And what stands out for me in this story is that God was in control.  God had a hand in the situation.  God delivered Peter from evil!  (In fact, the paragraph heading in my Bible says, “Peter Delivered from Prison.”)

Now, the funny part of this story is that some people still had a hard time believing that.  Even when Peter stood at the door knocking, he was left standing there by this maid named Rhoda.  She heard him knocking.  She heard his voice.  But she didn’t open the door!  Instead, she ran back and told the others.  And they didn’t believe her.  They thought she must have seen his “angel.”

I’ve always loved that part of the story.  It’s often been used as an example of how we sometimes don’t believe it when God answers our prayers!  And isn’t that true?  Do we sometimes not see that something is an answer to prayer?  Even though we’re glad that whatever it is has happened, do we forget to look for God’s hand in it?  And do we sometimes have a hard time believing in God’s ability to deliver us from evil?

Now – and this is tricky – I don’t mean to imply here that, with enough prayer, God will always do everything we ask.  He won’t always affect such escapes and protect us like this every time!  I don’t mean say that, with the right “formula” in what we say and how we pray, we can be miraculously healed every time.  That’s not always the way it works.  What’s important to me is to know that, while I can’t control God in everything I want, I can know that God is in control!

Do you see that?  We can’t control God in what we want.  But we can know God is in control!  So it’s important that we do pray and ask God for things!  We do tell God what he already knows we need or want.  And we can say, “Deliver us from evil.”  And you do every week!  I’ve heard you.  And I believe he already protects us from more evil than we know!  But it’s more than just protection – in the sense of prevention or intervention.  I like the word “Deliver” here.  It has the sense of “keeping us away from the influence of” evil.  And it comes as the second part of “Lead us not into temptation.”  There’s that sense of “leading,” and in “delivering,” a sense of “leading us away.”  I believe God can and does do that!

Because of that, it is so appropriate that we follow the words “deliver us from evil” with the words, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”  And because his is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, we can have the confidence in him delivering us from evil.  I hope you know that today!  Because, as I began saying, there’s a lot of evil in our world today, just like in Peter’s time.

You may have noticed that I intentionally left the Lord’s Prayer off of the bulletin earlier.  That’s because I wanted to close this sermon with it.  Because I wanted us to say and to hear these words again, together.  So as I close, please join me in prayer.  And when you do, believe what you say!  (Let me start, and then you’ll join me.)

Prayer

Eternal God we are grateful for your hand in our lives – even when we don’t feel it or we don’t remember it.  Help us to know that you do lead us away from temptation and out of the realm and influence of evil, and that you set our minds on your goodness and steadfast love.  And so remembering your hand in our lives, we pray that perfect prayer Jesus taught us…

The Lord’s Prayer