Acts 12 Round Two: The Gospel Reaches New Places

A sword, a cell, and a shout that sounds like worship—Acts 12 moves from tragedy to triumph with a pace that steals your breath. We walk through James’s martyrdom, Peter’s late-night rescue, Rhoda’s unforgettable joy, and Herod’s public collapse, drawing out what these scenes say about suffering, prayer, pride, and God’s steady rule. The contrast is stark and instructive: one apostle dies with honor, another wakes to an angel nudging him out of chains, and a king discovers that borrowed glory comes with a bill.

We open by naming the tension many of us feel: growth invites resistance. As the church expands from Jerusalem to Antioch, persecution escalates and political power joins the pressure. Pastor Brandon unpacks how Peter’s sleep in chains signals deep trust, why the church’s earnest prayer changes the texture of the night, and how ordinary obedience—put on your sandals, follow me—meets extraordinary grace—iron gates swing open on their own. Rhoda brings the human heartbeat to the miracle: she hears Peter, forgets to open the door, and proves that joy can outrun protocol. Their disbelief at answered prayer becomes a mirror for our own second-guessing and an invitation to receive the miracle at the threshold.

Herod’s finale underscores a sober truth: authority without humility corrodes the soul. When applause declares him a god, judgment lands and the curtain drops. Yet the story refuses to end in fear. The word of God keeps spreading, Barnabas and Saul complete their relief mission, and the movement pushes forward with fresh courage. Expect honest encouragement, clear takeaways, and a centered reminder that if God isn’t finished with you, no prison—of fear, circumstance, or opposition—gets the last word. Listen, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a quick review to help others find the message. What door is God asking you to open today?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage For Acts 12
• 3:18 Rising Persecution And Saul’s Turn
• 6:10 Antioch Grows And Opposition Builds
• 8:54 James Martyred And Peter Arrested
• 11:40 Angelic Rescue And Peter’s Escape

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Acts chapter 12. And I just I get tickled by this. This is not a this is not a fun one necessarily, but I love it. I love it at the same time. I would call this jailbreak because there it's just it's just gonna be really funny. And there's a lady in this that I identify with so much, like her actions, it's just amazing. I love it so much. I can't wait for you to see it. Before we do that, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe our YouTube videos. Make sure if you're listening to this as a podcast, leave us a five-star review. Also, go to the Bible breakdown discussion. And I just want to hear how you process the middle part of this chapter because there's it's sad at the at the beginning, there's judgment at the end, but right in the middle, it's just amazing. So we're gonna dive into this together. But to bring you up to speed, it this is the doctor-turned investigative journalist Luke, who is inspired by the Holy Spirit to write and chronicle what has been going on with the early church. The first time we heard of him was in the Gospel of Luke, and he was writing an orderly account of the life of Jesus. Now he's writing an orderly account of the goings on of the early church. And he chronicles the first 30, 35 years, but he's also a fellow participant and he tells them about, tells this guy Theopolis about what all is going on. Acts two, the Holy Spirit comes and infills all the believers, and he still infills all of us today. He fills us with power to do the work of ministry. And then you have in three, four, and five, you have persecution that is starting to grow and starting to grow. And then you finally have eventually the first martyr, Stephen, a guy named Saul, decides he's gonna make his personal mission to completely eradicate Christianity. But then eventually Jesus just slaps him to the ground with this great light and he says, Stop that, you know, and he ends up becoming a Christian. And they don't know what to do with him because he's causing so much of a ruckus now as a Christian that people are trying to kill this joker left and right. So they finally just send him home to Tarshish. Well, while he is going, while he is home, man, Peter gets a vision from God and the gospel spreads now to the Gentiles. So I mean, the gospel is just going global as they're just taking next steps of faithfulness, and God is doing amazing things. Well, one of the things that had happened is in this city called Antioch, you've now got these Jewish believers, you've got just a slew of Gentiles, man, that they don't hardly know anything. They don't know much about Yahweh, the God of God of Israel, but they've heard about this man, Jesus, and they realize now he's God and they receive the Holy Spirit. They they need some training. And so what Barnabas does is he goes and finds Saul, who's still back at home in Tarsus, Tarsus, and he brings him because Saul was a Pharisee. So he knows all about uh the Israel, Israeli covenant and all these things. And so he takes him back, and so just things are spreading. But now, because the gospel is spreading even more, now what's going to start to happen is persecution is gonna ramp up even more. Have you ever heard this phrase before? New levels, new devils. You know, so so the the more you grow in God, opposition is going to grow as well. Well, that is definitely true. I've seen it in my life, and you see it in chapter 12. Because now it's not just local, you know, religious leaders who are giving you a hard time, but now authorities, now governmental authorities get in on the act to try to stamp out this thing called Christianity. So we see something horrible happen at the beginning, but then we see God do something amazing. So let's read this together. Acts chapter 12, New Living Translation. Let's read and see what happens. Verse 1. About that time, King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some of the believers in the church. He had the apostle John, or excuse me, the apostle James, John's brother, killed with a sword. When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter. This took place during the Passover celebration. So that means at least about one year has passed at this point. But maybe more so, but at least one year, because Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection had happened around the time of Passover. Well, Pentecost would have been about 40 or so days later. Now, maybe it's just been around one calendar year, so we're back at Passover again. It might have been longer, but at least one year. Verse 4. Then he imprisoned him, Paul, placing him under guard with four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover. But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him. Now watch what happens. That night, before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened in two chains between two soldiers. Now pause for a moment. Think about the level of faith in God you got to have. When you find out that not only have you been arrested, but they're about to kill you. They're gonna kill you to please the mob, and you're like, man, that sounds horrible. Well, we'll see you guys in the morning. I'm gonna get some sleep. That just impresses me so much that he just had such faith in God that whatever God wants to do, I'm down. So I'm gonna go ahead and go to sleep. So I'm gonna be ready for it. So here we go. Other guards at the uh he wait a minute. Let me just read that verse again. Verse 6, that night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. There we go. Others stood guard at the prison gate. Suddenly 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 wake him up, said, and saying, Quick, get up. And the chains fell off his wrist. That's the other thing. Peter must have been a pretty heavy sleeper. That an angel shows up, this light shines, and Peter's still sleeping, to the point that the angel has to kick him in the side and say, Peter, get up, man. I'm breaking you out of here. Here we go. Verse 8. Then the angel told him, Get dressed and put on your sandals. And he did. Now put on your coat and follow me. So the angel ordered. So it makes me think again. I just I just love seeing this in my head that Peter's out of it, man. He's been sleeping. He's in a deep sleep. He's like, okay, what are we doing? All right, look, Peter, put on your shoes. Okay, put them on the right feet. Okay, get your coat. No, no, no, no. Your coat. All right, put it on, Peter, because he's still waking up, right? Verse 9. So Peter left the cell following the angel. But all the time he thought it was just a vision. He's so asleep. He's still waking up. He didn't realize this was actually happening. Verse 10. They passed the first and the second guard post and came to the iron gate leading to the city. This opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street. Then the angel suddenly left him. Peter finally came to a senses. Other words, he finally woke up fully and said, It's really true. The Lord sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from the Jewish leaders and what they had planned to do to me. When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where they were gathered for prayer. This is what I love this so much. This I identify with this lady so much. Verse 13, he knocked at the door of the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it. When she recognized it was Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed that instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everybody, Peter is standing at the door. You must be out of your mind, they said. When she insisted, they decided, ah, it must just be his angel, whatever that even means. Verse 16. Meanwhile, Peter was still knocking. Hey, idiots, let me in. Finally, they went and opened the door and saw him, and they were amazed. And in my mind, it's like, Rhoda, you left him out here the whole time? But I love this so much. She was so excited that she left him at the door. I'm not even going to tell you how many times I've done something like that. All right, verse 17. He motioned for them to quiet down and told them that the Lord had led him out of prison. Tell James and the other brothers what happened, he said, and then he went to another place. Verse 18. At dawn there was great commotion among the soldiers for what had happened to Peter. Herod agrippa Grippa ordered a thorough search of him. And when he couldn't they couldn't be found, Herod interrogated the guards and then sentenced them to death. Afterward, Herod left Judea and stayed in Caesarea for a while. So I love this idea that God's not finished with Peter yet. So it doesn't matter what they wanted to do to him, if God's not done with you yet, it's not going to succeed. Now watch the judgment of God fall right here at the end. Verse 20. Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They sent delegations to make peace with him, because their cities were dependent upon Herod's county, a country, for food. The delegates won the support of Blastus, Herod's personal ascendant assistant, and he appointed them, Herod, or appointment with Herod was granted. When the day arrived, Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne, and made a speech to them. When the people gave him a great ovation, they shouted, It's the voice of a God, not a man. Instantly the Lord struck Herod with a sickness because he accepted the people's worship instead of giving glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died. That's disgusting and a horrible way to go. Verse 24. Meanwhile, the word of God continued to spread, and there were many new believers. When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission to Jerusalem, they returned, taking John Mark with them. Remember, the reason why Barnabas and Saul were there was to bring relief to Jerusalem. Now, what can we get out of this scripture? A whole lot of things. First of all, at the very beginning, just because you serve God doesn't mean bad things aren't going to happen. John had a brother named James. James didn't do anything wrong. James was serving the Lord. James was doing the very best that he could, but the persecution came and James was killed. Just because you serve God doesn't mean bad times aren't going to come. But as we see in the middle section, if God's not finished with you yet, then it doesn't matter what they do, it's not going to succeed. James was able to go to heaven. He was able to see his Savior and His Lord Jesus face to face. He's okay. We don't have to worry about him anymore. We don't see that as a loss in our eyes. We see that as a victory. But God was not finished with Peter yet. So it didn't matter. It wasn't going to stop God from rescuing him. And then poor Rhoda got so excited. And then we see at the bottom, God is still faithful and he's still just. And he brings justice upon all in his due season. So how can that encourage you today? If God's not finished with you, whatever you're going through will not defeat you. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's huge, maybe it's horrible, maybe it seems life-threatening, and I don't downplay it at all. It may be the worst thing in the world. But here's the thing the worse the trouble, the bigger the enemy, the greater the testimony of God's faithfulness. That He's not done with you yet, and nothing is going to be able to overcome you or overwhelm you. But if God's even got to rescue you out of a dark prison, you're going to overcome in Jesus' name. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you so much that you're for us and not against us, that you're with us more than we can understand. My prayer today, God, is that you will encourage everybody who is listening or watching this, that they will remember that because you are with us and because Holy Spirit, you walk with us and you live with us, that no matter what we go through, it will not overwhelm us. But even if you've got to rescue us from a dark, cold place, Lord, you are the God of miracles. And we celebrate that today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Don't forget, Jesus said in Acts 1, verse 8. Say it with me. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. My prayer today is that you'll receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and you will be his witness in your world today. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Acts chapter 13.