The Book of
Acts 12
25 verses≈ 5 min5 peopleBSB
Images are artistic interpretations.
Tap any post to go deeper
In this chapter
James Killed, Peter Imprisoned
About that time, King Herod reached out to harm some who belonged to the church.
Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture
The Rescue of Peter
but the church was fervently praying to God for him
Acts 12:5
On the night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, with sentries standing guard at the entrance to the prison.
Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists. “Get dressed and put on your sandals,” said the angel. Peter did so, and the angel told him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.”
So Peter followed him out, but he was unaware that what the angel was doing was real. He thought he was only seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city, which opened for them by itself. When they had gone outside and walked the length of one block, the angel suddenly left him.
Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”
Acts 12:11
Reflect
Asleep in chains
On the night before his trial, Peter was “sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains.” Across the city, “the church was fervently praying to God for him.” What is keeping you awake right now? Write it down, and then write the name of someone you can ask to pray with you about it.
And when he had realized this, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered together and were praying.
He knocked at the outer gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer it. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that she forgot to open the gate, but ran inside and announced, “Peter is standing at the gate!”
“You are out of your mind,” they told her. But when she kept insisting it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astounded.
0:26
Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain
Peter motioned with his hand for silence, and he described how the Lord had brought him out of the prison.
Peter
“Send word to James and to the brothers,” he said, and he left for another place.
Pray
Still knocking
They were praying for Peter, and when the answer stood at the gate they said, “You are out of your mind.” God is often kinder and quicker than our faith. Pray for the thing you have stopped expecting, and ask Him for the joy Rhoda felt when she heard the voice she knew.
At daybreak there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had searched for him unsuccessfully, he examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent some time there.
The Death of Herod
Now Herod was in a furious dispute with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they convened before him. Having secured the support of Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their region depended on the king’s country for food.
Stylised map · locations approximate
Where it happened
Down to Caesarea
Herod “went down from Judea to Caesarea,” the king’s harbor city on the coast. Up the coast lie Tyre and Sidon, trading cities with little farmland of their own, who came to the king to ask for peace.
But the word of God continued to spread and multiply.
When Barnabas and Saul had fulfilled their mission to Jerusalem, they returned, bringing with them John, also called Mark.
Question
Quick question
The chapter begins with a king who seems to hold all the power. Near its end, that same king sits on his throne in Caesarea.
Why does Luke say Herod was struck down?
You’ve experienced
Acts 12
0 of 28 chapters read
A verse to carry with you
So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was fervently praying to God for him.
Acts 12:5
or swipe left