The Pastor's Letter (April 1977)
Dear Friends,
With “Easter-time” approaching, it is, perhaps, good to remember that the actual term “Easter” is found in the Bible – at least in the older translations of it, - in Acts chapter 12 and verse 4: “And when (Herod) had apprehended (Peter) he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quarternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.” the justification of that translation, of course, is open to question in many people's minds, but the marginal notes of our Authorised Version make it clear to us that it was simply “Passover time” in the city of Jerusalem; in fact, as verse 3 states, “Then were the days of unleavened bread.”
The setting of the verses, then, in Acts chapter 12, whether we call it Easter or not, is most certainly that same period of time when Christ was crucified some years before, and when He rose again from the dead three days after His death on the cross. The fact throws much light on the behaviour of king Herod and the people of the Jews in Jerusalem, for there wasn't a greater blot on Jewish history than the remembrance of how that “Jesus of Nazareth” had (to their way of thinking) “supposedly” risen from the grave and laid the foundation for this “sect of the Nazarenes” that was everywhere spoken against in the nation.
At that precise time of year, then, Herod began to “stretch forth his hand to vex certain of the church.” He killed “James the brother of John with the sword,” and when he saw how that “pleased the Jews”, he had Peter cast into prison, “intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.” What Herod obviously intended, then, was to “wipe away” something of the blot of that earlier Passover time, when the “death” of that Jesus the Nazarene had so badly misfired in the claimed resurrection, and the church of Jesus Christ had gone on from strength to strength. So, Herod would slay Peter, one of the recognised heads of that church, and he would slay him at that very time – Passover time; the church would suffer a fatal blow, and Herod's standing in the eyes of his subjects would rise by leaps and bounds.
But it would not be so! And if Herod and the Jews reckoned to eradicate their old shame in this new act of death, God would vindicate his ever-abiding glory in a new act of “resurrection” power!
And is that not what the release of Peter from prison at that time is all about? Read the details – the soldier-guards etc. It is God's answer to man's malice. How dear old Peter himself realises that in the 11th verse of the chapter: “Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.” They had “Great Expectations” indeed; but they were brought to nothing – as surely as those expectations of an earlier Passover time had been brought to nothing – as surely as every expectation of fallen man and angel will be brought to nothing when Christ's voice shall sound at the last resurrection and all the purposes and perfect will of God will be vindicated for evermore.
We may briefly note one other thing with regards to that time of year in the city of Jerusalem which Acts chapter 12 refers to as “Easter”. It is this – and may the Lord lay it well to our hearts in our day:- What was the church of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem doing during that “Easter-time” so long ago? We desist from drawing a nauseating picture of what she was not doing. But, verse 5 tells us what she was occupied with: “Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him”.
It is to that “prayer-meeting”, of course, or, at least, to one like it in Jerusalem – that Peter eventually turns in the wee small hours of the morning after God has completed his release from the dungeon. It is that prayer meeting also – the one in Mary's house – that has come under so much fire in a certain kind of preaching and thinking in our day, because of the so-called “lack of faith” exercised in it. But would to God we could pray like those dear ones of that day, and would to God the professing church of God employed its “Easters” as that church in Jerusalem employed the one of Acts chapter 12.
No doubt, but there are elements of “nerves” and confused behaviour abroad that night – the middle of the night, in fact! But let's not overlook the circumstances; Herod is on the prowl; the Jews have received a new confidence against the church; James is dead, and Peter is locked away in the bowels of the earth. Things are black; days are hard. Note the closed and locked door at Mary's house; note the sending of the wee girl, Rhoda, to open the door; note how Peter “beckons with the hand” to subdue their excitement when he is admitted. And once we have weighed up their circumstance aright, then it is admiration that is due from us to them, not criticism.
Listen again to how they were employed that “Easter:” “but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” Those two words “without ceasing” might well have been rendered “fervent;” “fervent prayer” was made for Peter by the church. They might also be read, “stretched out;” “stretched out prayer” was made for Peter by the church. It's the same expression that Peter uses in his First Epistle – chapter 4 verse 8, “And above all things have fervent (stretched out) charity among yourselves ...” Does he remember with gladness how that church in Jerusalem behaved herself as the “pillar and ground of truth” during that “Easter” so long ago? “Stretched out prayer;” stretched out in desire, with fervency, in duration itself – for they prayed when Peter was first put in prison, were praying while he was in prison, and would have been praying when the assassin's sword would have swung through that morning's air had not God intended the release of Peter rather than the death of Peter to be to the glory of His name.
May we end with that thought? Was that church faithless in being surprised when Peter stepped into its presence that morning? Was it not able to receive “the answer” to its prayer, as we are usually told? But, where do we ever read that the church was praying for Peter's release in the first place? It would be praying for Peter in the way that the church of old ever prayed for any of its members – that God might be glorified in them, whether by life or by death, according to the good pleasure of His will. Those “Jerusalem-sinners-saved” have little to receive from us by way of censure with regards to what occupied their church life that “Easter-time;” we have much to receive from them in our day – the Lord teach us from His Word.