Pete, the Angel, and the Amazing Escape

Wanna hear a good story? I’ve got one for you. It’s one of my favorites and at least one other person’s faves because she wrote a song about it.

Once upon a time there was this king who was getting very tired of hearing about this new religious group (Christ-followers) so he decided to do something about it. He had John, the Apostle’s brother killed…..by a sword. Gruesome and sad. (Kinda like what’s happening in the Middle East today.) Why? Because he was telling people the good news about Jesus, the Redeemer of sinners.

The creepy king also placed another man named Pete into prison for sharing the same good news. The Jews thought these guys were stirring up a lot of trouble and kept badgering the king about them, wanting them to do something about it.

Pete must have been a pretty important instigator because he was actually guarded by 4 squads of soldiers. A squad=4. 4×4=16. 16 soldiers kept this man in prison. Hmmm.

And all the time a group of Christ-followers was praying. (Don’t miss this part.)

Pete, sleeping between 2 soldiers, was also bound by chains. Good grief! And….sentries stood guard at the entrance. (Ok, I get it! They did not want this “wanted” man to escape!!!)

1. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared. (Very cool!) Do you believe in angels?? I do. I’ve never seen one, though, that I know of  (Hebrews 13:2).  Yes, God’s messengers, and no, we do not turn into angels when we die.
2. Light shown in the prison cell.
3. The angel struck Pete on the side, woke him up and said, “Quick, get up!”
4. The chains fell off Pete’s wrists. (Totally awesome!)
5. The angel said, “Put your clothes on..and sandals.”
6. Pete obeyed. (If I were encountering an angel I would obey, too. :))
7. “Wrap your coat around you and follow me.” Again, Pete obeyed. Yep, Pete followed the angel right on out the prison. (Pete had no clue what was happening. He just obeyed. Thought he was seeing a vision.)
8. They walked right passed guards leading out to the city.
9. The gate——-OPENED BY ITSELF!! AND THEY WALKED RIGHT THROUGH.

And all the time a group of Christ-followers was praying.

Ok, let’s stop. Has there been a movie made about this? If not, there should be. This is a pretty cool story! Yeah……………Where were we?

10. Pete and Angel walked down the street…….and suddenly……the Angel was gone.

Peter came to his senses……….realized what just happened and started glorifying the Lord, knowing He had just been rescued him from King Herod’s clutches and the religious leader’s tactics to SILENCE HIM.  People, don’t ever be SILENCED. THE TRUTH OF GOD’S WORD NEEDS TO BE HEARD. IT IS GOOD NEWS!

RESCUED!!                          And the plot thickens………………………:)

So….Pete runs over to Mary’s house (John Mark’s mom).

Where many were there praying for Pete!

And he knocks on the door. The maid named Rhoda answers, hears Pete’s voice, and OVERJOYED she takes off running to tell the prayers who is at the door, forgetting to let him in!!!

“PETE IS HERE!!!!” And they reply…………….”You’re crazy!” (Be careful when you pray earnestly….you just may get what you ask for!) When she kept insisting, they said, “It must be an angel!”

(Little did they know what they were about to hear. 🙂 Then they all took off for the door, and low and behold, there was Pete…..with sore knuckles from knocking so long. He shushed them and told them the whole amazing, angelic story of his great prison escape. Right before he took off, he ask his faithful prayer warriors to convey the message to his Christian brothers.

Wellllllllllllllllllllllllllll……………………King Herod did not like this “escape from prison” report one bit!!

1. He ordered a thorough search for this “stirrer-up-er Christian guy”………………but to no avail. (Ha Ha!!)
2. He cross-examined the guards………….do you suppose he heard from all 16 of them?
3. And then he ordered each guard to be executed. He tried really hard to stamp out Christianity at the outset, didn’t he?

Well, it’s 2,000 years later————–guess God had other plans.

THE END

not quite

P. S. Mr. King continued to throw his weight around in his kingdom. The people there knew he would help them with their food supply if they said “nice things” to him.

As the king was delivering one of his ridiculous messages to the crowd, in his “foncy” royal robes, the people shouted, “This is the voice of a god—-not a man.” Immediately because King Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck King Herod down. He was eaten by worms and died. WHOA!! (Do you suppose it was the very same angel who helped Pete escape?)

I wonder.

“And the word of God continued to increase and spread.” Acts 12:24

Yahooooooo!

Now that WAS a good ending!

And the moral to this story is: Keep praying. God is still on the move. And, yes, God’s messengers are at His beckoning call, even though we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.

P.S. S. I don’t know if a movie has been made about this story, but a song has been written and sung. Wanna hear it? It’s a good one!

“Take this man to prison,” the man heard Herod say

[Chorus:]
Angels watching over me every move I make
Angels watching over me
Angels watching over me every step I take
Angels watching over me

God only knows the times my life was threatened just today
A reckless car ran out of gas before it ran my way
Near misses all around me, accidents unknown
Though I never see with human eyes the hands that lead me home
But I know they’re all around me all day and through the night
When the enemy is closing in I know sometimes they fight
To keep my feet from falling I’ll never turn away
If you’re asking what’s protecting me then you’re gonna hear me say

[Chorus 2x]

Angels watching over me
Angels watching over me
Angels watching over me
Angels watching over me
Though I never see with human eyes the hands that lead me home