The Answer Is Here- Open the Door

In this episode of the PRESS Movement Podcast, we explore  the powerful events of Acts chapter 12 and what they reveal about prayer, pressure, and God’s response.

The early church is expanding rapidly—even through persecution. What began as chaos through the scattering of believers becomes a catalyst for growth, as the gospel reaches beyond the Jews to the Gentiles. God is proving that His power has no boundaries and that salvation is not limited by culture, background, or expectation.

But with growth comes opposition. King Herod rises against the church, killing James and imprisoning Peter with the intention of executing him next. From a natural standpoint, the situation looks final. Peter is heavily guarded, chained, and awaiting death.

Yet the church responds with relentless prayer.

While Peter sleeps in prison, God moves. An angel appears, chains fall off, and Peter is miraculously led out—past guards and locked doors. The impossible becomes reality because of prayer.

Ironically, when Peter arrives at the house where believers are praying, they struggle to believe their own prayer has been answered. It takes opening the door for them to fully see what God has done.

This episode challenges us to not only pray—but to recognize, receive, and boldly share the answers when God moves.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Greetings, everybody. Welcome back to the Press Movement Podcast to Acts chapter 12.

Here we go. Last week, we were in Acts chapter 9, and we looked at the conversion of a man named Saul, who would later become Paul, and he would write much of the New Testament. But his conversion was a big deal because he was a persecutor of the church.

He was consenting to Stephen's death, who was the first martyr. That was our podcast two weeks ago. And inadvertently, even before he was writing to encourage the church, he built the church, because in the scatter of the church, you see much expansion.

So even before we get to Acts chapter 12, we're looking between the end of Acts chapter 9, and then 10 and 11, and we get to see how the church was expanding. But the emphasis this time is also not just upon the expansion that was a result of the scatter and the chaos that Paul caused, or AKA Saul caused, but rather how God began to pour out his spirit, not just on the Jews, but on the Gentiles as well. Now, the Jews are the people of Israel.

They are God's chosen people. He has always been very clear about that. All of the disciples were Jews.

Jesus was a Jew. The Jews know who they are. They know that they have access to God.

Even to this day, they talk like that. They know they are the children of God. And with that comes a certain kind of confidence, maybe.

Some would say arrogance, depends on how you want to describe it. But either way, they have an identity and they act like it. What they didn't expect was that God would also want to save the Gentiles.

And what you see in Acts 10 and Acts 11 is the beginning of that. You see the Lord coming to Peter in a dream, and Peter is told to go to the house of Cornelius. And Cornelius was a just man, a God-fearing man.

He had been praying. He was of good reputation among the nation of the Jews, but he was not a Jew. And Peter had a little bit of a problem with that.

He had to wrestle with that. Why? Because he's an Italian. He is a Gentile.

Everybody who is not a Jew is classified as a Gentile. They just throw us all together. And so Peter's positioning on this is, Lord, you sure? They're unclean.

I don't want to fool with anything unclean. But God intervenes and Peter goes to the house of Cornelius. At the end of Acts chapter 10, they received the Holy Ghost while Peter is yet speaking.

And they began to speak in tongues. And then Peter commands them to be baptized in the name of the Lord at the end of Acts chapter 10. So they've done everything.

And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And this caused quite a conversation because there were some people started saying, well, they need to be circumcised. And others are like, no, they don't.

Because circumcision is the way the Jewish people went into covenant with God. And so their mindset is to bring over what we've always done into this new covenant that God has. They essentially wanted to add to what God was already doing by saying, you need to do also this.

And it became a huge ordeal, more than once actually in the New Testament. But essentially what you see is Peter and the Holy Ghost putting their foot down saying, no, God is saving Gentiles and we cannot afford to try to make it up or add to them the things that we believed. The disciples are very excited though, to hear that the Holy Ghost has fallen on the Gentiles and that they were granted repentance unto life according to Acts 11.18. So as the story continues in Acts chapter 11, it continues with the scattering and persecution and the side effects of that since Stephen was martyred.

The Bible lets you know that they went as far as Phinehas and Cyprus and Antioch preaching the word to none, but unto the Jews only. Again, from the beginning, they were kind of racist. I don't know if you would say racist or just talking to the people they're used to, the people they're comfortable with, but God is breaking them out of this box because even as they were trying to target the Jews, the Bible records that while they're in Antioch, some of the Greek people heard them preaching Jesus and the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

So they're not trying to convert the Greeks who are not Jews, but they do because this word, when you hear it, it is infectious. It has no limits. It can go to any population, any people.

That is the power of the gospel. And even those who had it at the start had to learn how powerful it really was, how much there really were no bounds, how much if you'll just walk and speak it and let it fall where it may, God can do anything. You don't get to determine who looks like they should be saved is one of the first lessons they learned.

And while there, as I said, a lot of people believed and the tidings came back to the church at Jerusalem that the Lord is moving in Antioch. So they send Barnabas because he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and faith. And he goes to find Saul.

When he finds Saul, he finds him at Antioch. And for a year, they preach with the church there. Now, mind you, when they go to churches, when they go to temples, when they go to synagogues, they're not going to people who just agree with them.

There were no churches built like that yet. There are people coming together of different beliefs and they are hashing this thing out. During that time, you see a man named Agabus stand up and prophesy concerning the great dearth or famine that should come throughout the days of Claudius Caesar.

And as he does that, the disciples, they prepare and they send aid to the brethren that dwell to Jerusalem. They took heed to the prophecy and they sent support and they sent it along with Barnabas and Saul who are now traveling together for ministry purposes. So these are exciting times.

You're seeing the formation of a church. You're seeing the expansion of a church beyond the limits it even thought it had. You're seeing how the church is supporting one another and you're still seeing how the church is being persecuted but growing under pressure.

And so Herod the king says, I'm going to oppose this church. Anytime you see something become powerful, there are people who have power who want to fight it. And so the king is saying, look, this is too much.

He's vexed by it. And he wanted to vex the church. He wanted to hurt it or harm it is what that means.

So he kills James the brother of John. James is the first of the apostles to be martyred and the Jews are happy that James is dead. And so Herod says, okay, well, let me get Peter too.

I'm going to kill Peter too. And when he arrest Peter, he puts him in prison and he has all these guards watching them. It's around the time of the Passover.

That is what the word Easter also means here in Acts chapter 12, verse four. It's around that time. So he's willing to make a great demonstration to appease the people.

I'm going to kill Peter too. I know killing James made y'all happy. So he locks Peter up to kill him.

He keeps him in prison. But the Bible says in Acts 12 and five, prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. They did not stop praying.

The church is now in the house of John Mark's mother we see. And what they don't know is what's happening behind the scenes as we look at verse six and seven and so forth, because Peter is asleep. Again, the church is praying, but Peter is asleep and he's sleeping between two soldiers and he's bound with chains.

And the keepers before the door kept the prison. Visualize this. He's got people on both sides of him.

He's in chains and somebody's guarding the door. They are acting like this man could just break out whenever he wants. And guess what? It may not be whenever he wants, but it is whenever God wants.

Because the Bible says an angel of the Lord came upon him and light shined in the prison. And he smoked Peter on the side and raised him up as saying arise up quickly and his chains fell off from his hands. This is a jailbreak by an angel y'all.

An angel said to him, gird thyself and bind on thy sandals. Get your shoes on, get your clothes right. And so he did.

He said, cast thy garment about thee and follow me. We're just going to walk up out of this prison. Two guards sleeping on each side of you.

You're in chains. There's a guard at the door, but guess what? It could not stop God. The church is praying and praying and they know Peter's in distress.

They understand the plan of King Herod is to kill Peter and make an example and appease the Jews. But God has intervened and he has heard their prayers. The funniest part to me has to be that once Peter makes this great escape and he arrives at the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, so John Mark, the Bible says there were many gathered praying there in Acts 12 and 12.

But as it gets to verse 13, the Bible says, you know, Peter knocked at the door of the gate and a damsel came to hearken named Rhoda. A damsel would be a young girl, a female servant who helps in the house. She runs to the door and she knew Peter's voice.

The Bible says, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in and told how Peter stood before the gates. And they said unto her, thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so.

Then said they, it is his angel. But Peter continued knocking. And when they had opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

So she's so excited because the Lord has answered the prayer that she does not open the door. She just leaves the answer out there knocking because she is rejoicing that the answer has shown up at her door. There's only a question as to whether or not the Lord has answered the prayer.

God brought it to her, but she did not open the door for the answer. If she had just opened the door, they wouldn't have been able to say, it is an angel. They wouldn't have been able to say, no, it's not him or you're crazy.

If she had just opened the door, everybody would see the answer has already come. The Lord has already moved and celebrate with her. I love this imagery because it seems so real in my mind.

I know it's a real account of events, but I'm saying I can visualize this. Somebody's so excited at the answer that they don't engage the answer. But opening the door allowed everybody to see God had answered.

Some things the Lord will do for you and you'll say, yep, God is good. I had a good week. You'll have people praying with you, some of you, or you'll send out requests.

I need prayer. When God does it, you're like, it's been great. Yep.

You're excited because you know He answered. But if you'll share and open the door so everybody can see what God has done, you'll find out how many people are really encouraged and how it strengthens the body when we see the answers coming as a whole. Let somebody see that God has answered you today.

Let somebody know how God made a way. Not just He didn't, not just the vague testimony, but let them know about what God did when He responded. Open the door so they can partake of the joy and the faith that has come through prayer.

For the people were so excited. The Bible records they could not hardly hold their peace. He had to tell them, you know, guys, calm down.

He declared to them how the Lord brought them out of prison. And He said, go show these things unto James. This would not be the James who was murdered.

This is not James, the son of Zebedee. This would be James, the son of Alphaeus, who was also one of the disciples. There were two Jameses that were disciples.

And He tells, go tell the disciples, go tell the apostles. And they departed and went into another place. The Bible lets you know that as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers.

What was become of Peter? Everybody's wondering how this happened. Herod sought for him and found him not. And he had the keepers, the soldiers, everybody put to death.

But Peter went from Judea to Sisera, and there he abode. He made a clean escape, but he never stopped. And you'll see that as we continue in the book of Acts, teaching us how the church is to act.

The church is to open the door so the people can see what God has already said, what God has already done. We're not to keep it to ourselves, this joy and hope that we have. It's not even up for debate.

If we'll just uncover it a little bit, they'll be able to see surely God has done this. So today, open the door. Open the door of your testimony.

Open the door of what God has done in prayer. Open the door so somebody can see He answers and He still moves and that prayer reaches every single situation. Join the movement.

Join the community. Like, share, and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook.

Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and were wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you.

It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com.

Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.