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We read in our text the fun and remarkable story of the miracle of Peter's deliverance from prison. Herod had already sought to squash the early apostolic church's revival and growth by taking James, the brother of John, and beheading him for preaching about Jesus. And now in the verses that we have set forth, we find that Herod decides to kill Simon Peter also and so Peter is arrested and placed in custody to await the whims and the timing that Herod thinks best for his death.

There were many things against the odds for Peter's survival and things looked extremely grim, but I must emphasize to you today that the scriptures say that two things were in his favor: first, the church began to pray for his deliverance, and, second, an all-powerful God heard and moved to answer their prayer. And when those two elements -- a praying church and a powerful, hearing God -- came together, it did not matter if all of the forces of evil in the world were against Peter, he was coming out of that dungeon! We must never forget that fellowship is good and needful and productive; people should feel at ease around us and our love one for another must be evident in our relationships. So is obedience to the commandments of praise and worship very important in a church. It is a good thing, to give praise to the Lord, the Bible says! It is good for a man to "lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting." It is good for people to clap their hands and shout to God with a voice of triumph. It is good to dance before the Lord and praise Him on the high-sounding cymbals. There is a power in that because God comes in through the invitation of your praise and worship. And it is also very important for there to be Godly and anointed preaching of the Word in a church because the Word is our sustenance and our daily bread and our strong foundation on which we stand. But never forget that nothing is more needful than a church that prays. There are churches who fellowship, praise, and preach wonderfully but who do not "pray" and those churches are largely ineffective. Because no matter the darkness of the circumstances if two elements -- a praying church and a powerful, hearing God -- come together, then their is hope for the hopeless and light in the darkest of nights! God help us to fellowship and worship and absorb the Word, but God let us also be a praying church! And, God, hear our prayers today!

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We will not "beat around the bush," -- so to speak -- today but will dive right into the point. This miraculous story of Peter's deliverance speaks of more to us than just the power of prayer to get someone out of a literal prison cell. The narrative of our text speaks more to us than just a testimony of what God did for a man in jail a long time ago. It is recorded because it speaks to us of our own salvation, and more importantly, God's method of saving us. When viewed this way, an ancient story almost 2,000 years old becomes very pertinent for everyone of us here today. The impossibilities of Peter's dilemma are every bit just as dreary and bleak as the spiritual condition of the lost soul today. I want you to note the similarities when you realize that:

Peter was in prison.

And worse than Herod's prison is the prison cell of sin that so many people today live within! Sin is a sentence of confinement because just as improbable it was to think of Peter on his own abilities and strengths escaping from Herod's containment, so it is for a man or woman to think that they can escape from the stronghold of sin in their life. Why would people stay trapped in behavior that leads them further and further from God and that only isolates them from the people they love and their true dreams and goals? Why would people return to vices that their parents and grandparents proved led to unhappiness and dismay? Why would the most common way to live in the world be to ignore God and His Word and live for the moment even though the scars and wounds last a lifetime and even an eternity? And the reason is that people are born into this world trapped and imprisoned into what God calls sin. They are walking dead men, free to physically move where they want but not free to act as they want because everyday they move only among the sinfulness into which they are entrapped.

And some would think that they can on their own merit escape and get free from sin's clutches and woeful lifestyle. They convince themselves that AA will set them free and that thinking positive thoughts or self-empowerment or resolutions will do it, and they close their eyes and delude themselves for a while, but after a while the dream is over and they open their eyes only to find themselves still in the dungeon and still behind the bars that they always were! It is foolish to think that you can escape from sin's hold on your own. Because by yourself, you never will! Even Samson, the strongest man that ever lived, could not escape from the clutches of the enemy when he took God out of the equation!

But with God, what is impossible with men, becomes possible! Look at the hopelessness of Peter's position: He was in prison, and not just on the outer fringes, but in the innermost dungeon within three wards of cells. Simon Peter was as locked up and the deepest in Herod's clutches as he possible could be. And yet when God began to move to free him, it was no hard matter to free him completely. When God got involved, the doors swung freely on their hinges as if they were a revolving door! When God got involved, even the one who was the most imprisoned and most hopeless and most hostage was able to be freed!

And so I have good news for you today! Even the most rank and vilest sinner who is locked in the cycles and ebbs of sin can be set free by the power of God! Take heed lest you judge the impossible by human standards only, because when God gets involved, even the person that is deepest into sin has hope! It is no hard matter for God -- if need be -- to do as He did when Paul and Silas were bound within the innermost Roman prison and yet God shook the very foundation so that every cell fell open and every prisoner was loosed! We must never think that someone is too far gone or unreachable. We must never say that "they are too deep into sin to ever come out," because sin cannot make a cell "far enough in" that God cannot reach to and deliver out of! I stand and look around today at living testimonies that God can cure the drug addict and the alcoholic; that God change the deceiver and the immoral; that God can heal broken homes and give hope to the hopeless; that God can take the down and out and lift them up cause them to be "up and in!" Some of you where in the deepest part of the pit when God drug you out, but now you are a living witness that He can reach to the bottom if need be! Like Peter, God can get you out of your prison place through His miraculous power!

And coming back to Peter we find that not only was he in prison, but:

Peter was in the dark.

Bad enough that he would be bound up in the innermost cells, but the light had been extinguished and even if the doors had stood wide open, he would not have been able to see to escape. He had eyes to see, but the darkness rendered him just as blind as if he had been born that way!

So is the bad news of the sinner's predicament today. Not only are they bound by sin, but they are spiritually blinded by darkness. Even if there were an open door out of their situation, they are so spiritually blind to the things of God that they would only grope about in darkness for it in vain!

"Groping around in darkness" is a good metaphor for the condition of men and women with God. They are trying to do what they think is right but they are unable to see the complete picture. Have you ever seen someone blindfolded try to seek for something or identify something that to a person who can see normally is a very basic feat? Once you have come out of darkness and into "his marvelous light," you look back at the things that you used to turn to for happiness and help with astonishment because now you realize how futile trusting in those things were.

But the answer of God's deliverance was to send a messenger to Peter and when the messenger got there, the scriptures say that "a light shone into the prison!" There were no windows and there was no lamp burning oil, but God miraculously illuminated the prison cell where Peter waited in darkness! And so it was with many of you that sit before me: God sent a messenger to you that with his or her words came the light of God's truth shining into your dark place! Your messenger might have come in the form of a church member talking to you about the Lord, or it might have come in a Bible Study, or it might have come from a message or service in the church itself. But somewhere light pierced the darkness of your sin and truth shone brightly illuminating the exactness of your situation! I thank God that not only He is able to reach into the deepest pits of sin, but His light is able to shine even into the darkest corners of men's heart! And so it can be said of some here today:

God is trying, even in this service, to shine the light of truth into someone's life. When the Word of God goes forth, it is light shining into even the darkest corners and revealing us for who we really are. Whatever you do, respond like Peter by looking at the light and opening your eyes. Don't close your eyes and act like it is not there! Don't close your eyes and pretend that you have not seen differently! Because once the light of God's truth and Spirit has shone into your heart, it's time to come out from where you have been! It's time to get out of the darkness and walk in the light!

He was in prison, he was in complete darkness, but it was even bleaker still because:

Peter was asleep.

When the prison door first opened, Peter did not realize it because he was asleep. When the light first shone into the darkness, Peter did not even know it because he was asleep. Deliverance was at work in his life and he could not even discern it. His slumber kept him from realizing that God had been working on his behalf!

But the scriptures say that the messenger from God "struck Peter on the side" to wake him. I do not think that it was a light tap. But I think the angel shook him aggressively to get him out of his slumber. Because until he awakened to the reality of what God was doing in his life, God's deliverance would do him no good!

I have known people to sleep so soundly that you could pour water on their heads and still not get them up. And so it is with many people in sin. I do not know how a man could sleep knowing that he was facing judgment, but is that not what so many people of this world do? They have been hanging in the balance and found wanting by God's standards, but they are so asleep with indifference that they care not for eternity! Many people do not want to awaken to the reality of their situation and of their sin and of their eternal plight. They resist a minister or messenger trying to shake them or rouse them from drowsiness. They would rather stay in their fanciful dreams that they are okay and everything is going to be alright rather than wake up and admit what a mess sin has made in their lives and admit that they are not prepared to face God in eternity!

"Oh preacher, preach about anything but hell and eternity." "Preach something that will tickle my ears and that will be a soft lullaby so that I can stay asleep in my sin." And there are some ministers whose sermons are only soothing words enabling peaceful slumber in the prisons of sin. But I refuse to do such a thing. I'm preaching to shake you out of the slumber! I would that my preaching would be a sharp rap in the side! I would that the uncomfortable ness would be enough to stir you out of lethargy and idleness and to awaken alert enough to realize your plight if you do nothing! Oh, that the Spirit and Word of God would strike so heavily the heart of someone today that they would jump to their feet and realize the seriousness of their spiritual sleep in a time like this! Oh, that someone would rush to this altar today and be so awakened by God's Word that they could not go home and go back to sleep spiritually, but that they would realize their predicament and just how close to judgment that they are! There will be no one in heaven that is angry at a preacher for preaching too hard or too direct so as to get them to that blessed place, but there will be multitudes -- many souls, I tell you -- in hell that will scream and curse the very names of the "men of God" who preached to them lullabies when they needed someone to sound the alarm! I join with Paul in our other text in preaching to you that:

It's time to wake up, Peter! It's time to wake up and don the garment of what God wants you to be and do! It's time for our feet to be shod with the gospel and it's time to wake up and open your eyes! If you would be awakened today, you would realize that God's messenger is here, the light of truth is shining into the darkest places of your life, and the door of deliverance has already swung open. But you must awaken!

He was in the inner-most cell and in darkness. He was asleep, but it was worse still because:

Peter was chained.

And not just chained by himself, but he was linked to a solider on the right and a solider on the left. The door was open and the angel of the Lord was standing before him. He was now awake and the light of God shone around him, but even if he wanted to leave, he could not because of his fetters of companionship.

Is it not the same with those locked in their sins? Beyond the darkness and bars of their lifestyle, they are joined with their old companions. They would walk free in the light of God, but I'm bound to this friend and what would he say? They would heed the word of the messenger from God but they are bound to their mother and their father who believe I should stay in my sin! I would serve God, and I see the truth, but then there's this woman or this man that I am bound to that is keeping me back from walking in the way that I know I should go. It would seem that what the doors of sin and the darkness could not do, often our bondage to old companions does!

But the messenger commanded Peter "arise" and when Peter made the effort to stand up on his own, to his surprise the chains joining him to his companions fell off! His companions were also asleep, but when Peter decided to stand up on the commandment of God, then God broke the bondage to those around him! If you want to be delivered, then we must care less what others think and we must be willing to -- despite what those nearest us do -- to stand in obedience to the Word of God. If you wait until so and so also obeys, then you will die in your sin! If you wait until everyone that is asleep decides to stand with you, it will be too late! You must take the stand for truth irregardless of what those around you are doing. If you will do so, then you will find that God will miraculously deliver you from the bondage of your dungeon companions! But you must be willing to stand up on what God has said!

He is imprisoned, in darkness, asleep, and chained and yet even worse:

Peter was guarded.

In addition to the normal security of the prison, Herod had assigned four squads of soldiers with the specific task of keeping Simon Peter locked up. The Greek word in the text here speaks of sixteen men divided into four men to a group taking the four watches of the night. At all times four men were in the near vicinity of Simon Peter to ensure that the did not escape. It seems a little overdone, doesn't it? But Herod must have had a premonition that if something strange is going to happen, it would happen with this man. The soldiers probably thought it strange that so many would be assigned to keep one simple fisherman bound, but obviously Herod was somewhat worried about Peter getting loose!

There are some people, that it seems that the devil keeps particular eye on. I'm preaching to you that if you even think of coming to church, it's as if something always comes up to provide excuse or distraction. If you even think of turning to God, almost as if on cue, the devil begins to wind up the storm meter in your life. There are some that have even admitted to me "it's almost like that everything that can go wrong to keep me from God happens, and I really don't know if I could live for God."

Can I preach to you that if you feel that way -- that it is almost like the devil has a personal interest in keeping you bound, then it is that way because the devil knows that God has a plan for your life and that God is actively reaching and working within your life!? If the devil is fighting against you over time, then that is a definite sign to you that God has brought you to a place where you are closer to the miraculous and closer to complete deliverance than you ever dreamed possible! And the devil is a liar, so whatever he tells you, you can believe the opposite is true! When he tells you that you have been forgotten and that you could never be mighty or special in the kingdom of God, then the opposite is what is really going on and the devil knows that God is working on your behalf and God does have a special calling and God can remake you into something mighty and good and God is even at that moment shining the light of truth into your life!

You can focus on the guard, or you can focus on what God has commanded you to do. When Peter began to follow the angel out, we never find the guard a problem! The devil is never an issue in your life until you give him attention! If you are focusing on the lies that he is telling you, then like Eve, you are in a precarious situation, but if you will be like Simon Peter and just obey what God has told you to do, you will be delivered and look back and say "what happened to all those guards?" What happened to all of that? God miraculously delivered me from their hands! Like Peter, God can deliver you out of the worst of circumstances no matter what plans the enemy has for your life!

And finally, in addition to all the gloomy details of his predicament, he did not even realize it but it was worse than he thought because unknowingly:

Peter was on the eve of his death.

There had been no trial. There was nothing that would have forewarned Peter of his coming demise, but a decision had been made in Herod's chambers that "tomorrow morning" Peter will die. And so as he slumbered in the night, he did not know that he was quite literally hours away from his complete destruction.

It is very possible that there would be someone in the same plight here today. If there seems to be a sense of urgency about this message, could it be because God knows more about your planned fate of sin than even you do? There are some of you here who have been delivered from such a prison and have been brought out to serve God and one day when we get to heaven and look back with all-understanding eyes, it will shock you just how close to judgment you really were when God grasped you and caused you to be awakened! There are some of you who only eternity will reveal how close you were to eternal damnation and when you find out the timetable that Satan had for your life, your worship around the throne of God will be even more impassioned because you will realize how miraculous it was that God delivered you when He did!

What if, you will not continue to live another year or five or ten? What if the devil has designed that your life would end tomorrow or next week? I'm not trying to scare you into the altar, and certainly such tactics are largely lost on the "Hollywood generation" of today, but I am asking you to consider carefully a simple question: "who has promised you tomorrow?" The scripture says that "today is the day of salvation!" And it could be that God has orchestrated this service and this message to be your moment of deliverance not just from eternal death, but from the plan that the enemy has for your life. It could be that -- like in Simon Peter's case -- the urgency of the messenger has to do with more than you even realize that is going on in your life! It could be that you need God to do a work, and need it urgently, even more than you know!

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The good news, is that despite the bleariness and the seeming hopelessness of his situation, when God got involved, Peter was completely delivered! And he was not freed to return to the cell after being recaptured a week or two later, but he was freed from the hand of Herod for the remainder of his life! The scripture is true that "whom the Son sets free is free indeed!"

And so as I begin to close this message today, I would like to leave Peter's side of the story and return to the events that transpired in the prison the next morning. We read in our first text that:

Shakespeare wrote Much Ado About Nothing but this was "much ado about Peter!" Imagine the surprise as the two guards who had been chained to Peter woke up and realized that he had disappeared! Imagine the shock at the two soldiers standing outside who turned, hearing the cry and realized that they were guarding an empty cell! And imagine Herod's anger and astonishment that the fisherman whom he had assigned sixteen Roman soldiers to guard in the inner dungeon had escaped from the entire complex and had been delivered so completely that nobody had any idea of how it happened! All together, the cry of the morning was "what became of Peter?" "What happened to him?" "What in the world happened?"

I can tell you the will of God for your life and it is that the same questions that were pronounced in astonishment at the deliverance of Peter, be also spoken about you! Hear this preacher:

It is the will of God that your fellow companions wake up tomorrow and say about you, "what happened to him?" or "what happened to her?" Just Saturday, they were here living in sin with us and going to the club with us and getting drunk with us and just as bound as the rest of us but now in one night, something has happened! "What in the world happened?" "In one day, such a deliverance was made that he is a completely different man than the one we knew!" "How could that have happened?" "He was bound and locked up and chained to our influence and just as guilty as we are, how is it that he can talk of forgiveness and suddenly in less than a twenty-four hour period be free of things that we have been unable to shake in our entire lives?" "What happened to him?"

It is the will of God for just as Herod asked "what happened to Peter," that the devil also ask about you, "what happened to them?" "I did my best to bind them and guard them and keep them and I even went overboard to keep them in my snare, but now all of a sudden they are free and nobody seems to be quite sure what happened!" "What became of them?" "What in the world happened -- oh no! Not another one!" "Not another doomed sinner that has been forgiven by the blood of Jesus!" "Not another one who has received the life-changing, sin-overcoming Spirit of God!" "Not another one who will now be praising God and obeying God and excited about what Jesus did for them!" "Not another, one, there have been too many that this has happened to!" "My worse fears have been fulfilled!" "God has done it again!"

And just as the Jews asked "what became of Peter?" it is the will of God that the outsiders and the casual onlookers also ask about you, "what became of them?" Just yesterday they were without hope and sad and bleary and just as desperate and lonely and depressed as we are, but now there is a pep in their step, and a smile on their face and a purpose to their life and a joy in their heart!" "What in the world happened so suddenly?"

And just as the church looked in amazement at Peter standing at the gate knocking to be let in, it is the will of God for the church of God to ask in amazement, "what happened to them?" "Just last night, we were praying for their deliverance, and here they are beating the door down to a prayer meeting!" "You said it's who at the door? Can't be -- do you know how long we've prayed for them? God can't save them in just one service and one day, do you know how bound they are in their sin? Do you know how deep they are in the pit?" "Oh, go check again, it can't be -- wait a minute -- it is!" And here comes the question: "what in the world happened!?"

That is the will of God for your life today! For you to be the talk of the town, so to speak! And for God to deliver you so completely and so greatly from your sin and bondage that even the church would be shocked and amazed! But such a deliverance will not come as long as you choose stay asleep and in the dark! God's messenger is here telling you that it's time to get up and rise up and come forth! God's word has spoken and you must step out upon it and trust it! There is an urgency to His message: "it's high time" to awake out of your slumber in your prison of sin! There is no time to lose! Respond to His call today and let Him deliver you. And then it will be said about you as it was of Simon Peter, "what became of Him!?"