The Father’s Goodness (Acts 12:1-17)
by Pastor Cesar Crisostomo | June 17, 2018
Acts 12:1-17In the account of the Apostle Peter’s miraculous escape from prison I believe that we can conclude that he was thankful for the goodness of the Heavenly Father not simply on this one occasion but over his whole life. Today, I myself and I’m sure many other people have many things we are thankful for because the Lord has been so good in our lives. There are certain things we are called to do and are responsible for and that the Lord requires of us as His disciples. In all the things that we are to do we can find ourselves overwhelmed and in very difficult situations. But amidst these times there is something comforting that we can have in our heart that even though we are trying to do things and keep things level that we know that we can rest assure that our Heavenly Father is still in control. He is in control always and I believe that He is making sure that we end up doing what we need to be doing and end up where we need to be.
The Father’s Goodness (Acts 12:1-17).
1. God sees all my troubles. - He sees all my life and knows everything about me.
- 1 Peter 3:12 “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer.” I believe Peter knew this promise during this time of hardship which gave rest and assurance in his heart and soul. We too can have this conviction that no matter what happens in our life there is a sense of great rest and assurance that we know God sees and knows what we are going through.
2. God hears our prayers.
- When Peter got arrested, put in prison and his life is in danger, the early church earnestly, constantly prayed for him and believed that God was hearing their prayers. But how in the world can Peter be sleeping when he knows he is going to die the next morning? One reason we can see in scripture is that people were praying. Remember Peter was not just dosing here but he was sleeping. He was able to sleep because he believed and rested in the promises of God. He trusted on what God is going to do. When we do this, there will come a sense of confidence that enables us to sleep and rest during times of turmoil.
- Genesis 4:25-26 is the account of the first-time people began to call on the Name of the Lord. Today we put more time, money and energy in things that we think is going to make a difference in our life instead of calling on the Lord.
- Certainly, an ungodly person does not call on the Lord (Psalm 14:4). There are a lot of people who really think that it does not matter to call on God. Satan’s purpose is to get us not to call on God. He deceives us to thinking that we can figure things out and do things on our own. He gets us to buy into a false confidence that things will be well because we can fix and take care of things on our own instead of calling on the Name of the Lord our God.
3. God places value on you and me.
- We need to realize that everything happening in Acts 12 is all about Peter. Why? It is because God thinks Peter has value. God priced him highly.
- In Luke 12:6-7 and Matthew 10:29-31 it says that you are worth more than any sparrows. Understand that the people who sold the sparrows did not put any value on them, they meant nothing to them. But to the Lord the sparrows are a big deal, they are meaningful to Him. And then He says, “how much more valuable are you and me to Him?” Why do you think the Lord does things, miracles in our own lives? It is because He values us. Miracles happens because people are important to the Lord.
4. God is faithful.
- In Acts 12:17 the Lord had brought Peter out of prison. The Lord delivers him from prison and from death.
- Psalm 115 talks about the gods of this world who have mouths, but they can’t speak, ears but the can’t hear, eyes but they can’t see, hands but cannot do anything. They cannot help. There are times that we think our God can’t help and times when it seems that God is not faithful, we need to stop believing this lie because He is able and faithful.
- Do you have a child or family in prison, who maybe has run away or disconnected or living in rebellion? Remember God is faithful, and if we would just call on His Name. He will hear us, and He is able.
