[1] Now about that time Herod the king stretched out [his] hand to harass some from the church. [2] Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. [3] And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was [during] the Days of Unleavened Bread. [4] So when he had arrested him, he put [him] in prison, and delivered [him] to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. [5] Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. [6] And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. [7] Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by [him], and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off [his] hands. [8] Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.” [9] So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. [10] When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. [11] And when Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and [from] all the expectation of the Jewish people.”1
Endnotes:
1. | NKJV, Acts 12:1-11 |
2. | Ref-1307, 345 |
3. | Ref-1307, 342 |
4. | Ref-1307, 343 |
5. | Ref-0100, Tape 12:A |
6. | Was Peter able to sleep because he knew he was not yet “old”?“Peter may have been able to sleep in Acts 12:6 without worry because he was not yet old enough to fulfill John 21:18.”5 Or was it a matter of perspective: he was able to rest in God’s sovereignty over his life? |
7. | “The purpose then of 1 Peter was to encourage Christians to face persecution so that the true grace of Jesus Christ would be evidenced in them (5:12).” Ref-0038, 2:838 |
8. | “The story of his death in the apocryphal Acts of Peter cannot be credited: we are told that he was martyred under Nero, but asked to be crucified upside down because he was not worthy of suffering death on the cross in an upright position as his Master had done.” Ref-0062, 18 |
9. | “Peter is supposed to have suffered martyrdom at Rome, during the reign of the emperor Nero, being crucified with his head downward, at his own request. [It is, however, very uncertain, whether Peter ever visited Rome at all. The evidence rather favouring the supposition that he ended his days in some other country.—Ed.]” Ref-1306, para. 290 |
Sources:
NKJV | Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture references are from the New King James Version, copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. |
Ref-0038 | John Walvoord and Roy. B. Zuck. The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Wheaton, IL: SP Publications, 1983). |
Ref-0062 | John D. Woodbridge, ed., Great Leaders of the Christian Church (Chicago: Moody Press, 1988). |
Ref-0100 | Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Book of Acts (GB-325) (Fort Worth, TX: Tyndale Theological Seminary, n.d.). [www.tyndale.edu]. |
Ref-1306 | John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1563). |
Ref-1307 | Andrew E. Steinmann, From Abraham to Paul (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing, 2011). ISBN:978-0-7586-2799-5d. |