Acts 12:1-19

May 21, 2017

Have you ever had a prayer answered? Did God ever answer a prayer but not in the way you expected? Have you felt like God didn’t answer your prayers?

In this week’s study, we’ll take a look at the death of James and the deliverance of Peter from prison and learn to see God’s plan beyond our current circumstances.

Key Take-Aways

  1. We need to count the cost of following Jesus. James and Peter did and accepted that it would cost them their lives.
  2. God is true to His Word even when it doesn’t appear that way to us. We can’t see all that God has planned and need to rest in His grace.
  3. God is faithful to His Church and to us even if things don’t go our way. God’s faithfulness isn’t just to us as individuals, it’s to everything and everyone. We get to participate God’s plan of redemption.
  4. The Gospel will not be stopped. Death, persecution, famine, & government can’t stop God’s plan of redemption.
  5. Peter’s deliverance was temporary and physical. James’ deliverance spiritual and eternal. Eventually both men suffered the same fate. In the grand scheme of things, because of their suffering, you and I get to experience that same deliverance from the suffering in this world that Peter and James are experiencing to this day.