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God Answers Prayer (Acts 12: 12-19)

September 30, 2018 Speaker: Bob DeWaay Series: Acts of the Apostles

Scripture: Acts 12:12-19

Peter was miraculously delivered from very secure imprisonment by the supernatural intervention of God. The church was praying for him as this happened. The enemies of the church were “expecting” that Peter would have been brought out and executed in connection with Passover. But God had a different purpose at work and “rescued” Peter. The terminology used by Luke is an echo of Exodus 3:8. The servant girl who went to answer the knock at the gate where the prayer meeting was taking place heard Peter’s voice and recognized it. Rather than open the gate she ran in and announced that Peter was there. Ironically the people praying would not believe her. This leads us to a class discussion about prayer. Many believe that if we are more pious, sincere, or believe that whatever we say will happen, then our prayers will bring the desired result. But this case shows the opposite. They were praying for Peter, he was rescued, and they would not believe it was him. Many books, theories and popular teachings on prayer are wrong. God answers prayer because of His desire to use His people and gives us the privilege of going before Him. God’s work on our behalf is not constrained by what we think will happen or how personally pious we think we are compared to others. God is “able to do more than we ask or think.” Peter and those praying for him found that out in an amazing way.

Class handout and slides are available under the Downloads tab.