History repeats itself
Notes
Transcript
Pray
Introduction.
It is said that history repeats itself…that themes in history tend to occur and then reoccur later on in time.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
For example, We had the great depression in the 1930s and then, in a similar vein we had the great recession in 2007.
For example,
We had the pandemic of the black plague in the 14th century and then the AIDS pandemic in the 20th century.
And I could go on.
History does tend to repeat itself.
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But there’s another quote, by George Santyana that says this...
Or another quote, by George Santyana says this...
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Now, take a look at this quote - this quote is true in a sense…or it CAN be true. But it is written in a negative outlook...
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it - all those mistakes you made in the past can be made again if you forget that you made them.
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I’d like to rewrite this quote in a positive outlook, based on what we’ve just read in our passage in Acts.
I’d like to rewrite the quote as this...
George said, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
I want to say...
Those who CAN remember the past, have confidence that it CAN BE repeated.
Now, that’s the inverse of what George said, but it gives us a much more positive outlook on life.
And that’s what Luke wants us to see here.
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Let’s have a quick look at what happens in our passage, before we go deeper into what Luke is getting at...
In our passage, we have a tragic death - the death of James the brother of John, who was killed by the sword of Herod Agrippa I. And the way this is written - the fact that the sword is used, suggests that Herod is scared that the church is going to threaten his political regime.
Herod seems to be freaking out that this church of Jesus Christ - these ‘Christ ones’ as Paul mentioned last week, are going to wreck his political world and so he captures some people and he kills James.
And this seems to make the Jews REALLY happy…now don’t forget the Jews are now separate to the church of Jesus Christ - the Christians, or at least they are becoming more distinct at this time...
And the fact that this execution of one of the leaders of the Christian church pleases the Jews bodes well for Herod, because he is a Jewish sympathiser.
So you can see his mind working… ‘this is great. Let’s capture their head, Peter, and kill him too. Then I’ll REALLY be loved by the Jews.’
So Peter is captured, but his past precedes him.
Herod would have known that Peter was imprisoned before, along with his friends. And he would have known that they all escaped miraculously from that prison - we saw that earlier on in Acts.
So news Peter’s nocturnal prison breaks would have preceded him.
And Herod, who could remember the past and wasn’t going to let it repeat, has Peter bound and chained by 2 prison guards as part of a four-squad security detail.
There’s no way peter is going to escape prison. Sorry, let me rephrase that…there’s no humanly possible way that Peter can escape prison.
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But those who CAN remember the past have confidence that it can be repeated…as we will soon see.
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But notice what the church do. They don’t revolt, they don’t riot, they don’t take up arms and fight…no, what do they do?
They pray!
In time of crisis like this, the church pray, and they pray earnestly! Fervently…they pray like Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane - Luke uses the same word to desrcibe his prayer and the prayer of the church at this time.
And mark my words....when the church get together as a group and pray fervently…the miraculous can happen.
Because what was humanly impossible is divinely possible.
And Peter is freed from prison.
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And get this...
God even honoured the prayers of the church even when they lacked the faith to believe that God would actually do something miraculous.
Now, James was captured and killed. And while it’s not mentioned, the church may have prayed at that time too. And Luke doesn’t gloss over this fact. In fact, Luke tells it like it is to make what happened to Peter even more impossible.
But when Peter arrives at the house of Mary, and Rhoda tells the church gathered that Peter is at the door, they don’t believe her.
Come on guys…have a little faith! What have you been praying for?
Peter and the rest of the apostles have already escaped prison previously…don’t you think God can do it again? Don’t you think history can be repeated?
Because those who CAN remember the past have confidence that it CAN BE repeated. Or in this case, thankfully, even though their faith was less than perfect, God proved to the church that history CAN repeat itself.
Because what God has done in the past he can still do today.
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Now, that was the abridged version of what happened in , and we didn’t look at what happened to Herod - that can be for next week.
But this whole thing about history repeating itself isn’t over. We’ve only scratched the surface.
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If you can remember from the reading - and here’s why I’d love it if we brought bibles to church, cos you can check this out for yourself - when did this event happen?
It happened at passover. Which was held on the 14th of Nisan (which is the name of a month, not the car).
Now, can you remember someone else who was arrested around passover?
That’s right - Jesus Christ was arrested at passover, and like Peter, he wasn’t going to face execution until AFTER passover was finished.
And both Jesus and Peter had a run-in with Herod - and we don’t need to into the parallels with Jesus and the apostles anymore. We’ve covered that enough.
Suffice to say that Luke is at his old tricks again, showing us that the life of the follower of Jesus will look very much like the life of Jesus. Yes, there can be miracles and amazing stuff happen, but at the same time it can be hard…it can be scary... and it can be life-threatening.
But, like I’ve said, we’ve covered that.
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But history is repeating itself in another way here.
Because Luke uses language from the story of the Exodus in this chapter…and it shows us that what happened thousands of years earlier can also happen again.
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Now, a quick recap of Exodus...
In Exodus, the Israelites are in bondage to the Egyptians. God chooses Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
He sends 10 plagues on the land to show his awesome power and presence in Egypt, but Pharaoh won’t let the people go.
Except for the last plague, where the first born son of everyone in Egypt will die. Because God is going to send the angel of death over the land. And the angel of death would come to every house and the firstborn in that house would die.
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And the Israelites are told that if they want to escape this death, they must kill a lamb or a goat, and paint the doorframes with the blood of the lamb.
The lamb they were to kill was to be the best lamb they had. It was to be a sacrifice - not something that was on its way out, but a lamb that you couldn’t do without - that’s the lamb you had to kill.
And they were to eat that lamb with unleavened bread that night, dressed in their outdoor wear - ready to leave at a minute’s notice.
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And so they did this, and that night the angel of death came to each house. And if the house had the blood painted on the doorposts or the lintel of the door, the angel of death would PASS OVER that house - hence the name passover.
But those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
And so, in remembrance of this event, the Israelites are to REMEMBER the past by repeating the passover meal every year. The festival was called passover or the festival of unleavened bread.
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But those who CAN remember the past have confidence that it CAN BE repeated.
And as we saw, Jesus, like Peter, had a run-in with Herod at the time of passover. And Jesus when he went to his execution, became the sacrificial lamb who was slain so that we - you and me - would escape death. And his blood was painted on the wooden cross symbolising our redemption, symbolising our freedom from bondage.
Because, like the Egyptians, we too, were in bondage…bondage to sin. We were under its control. We were slaves, like the Egyptians. And Jesus’ death and resurrection freed us from that bondage to sin and those chains dropped off.
And we are free from sin’s slavery and it’s oppressive force on us. We are free to follow Jesus and live for him.
...
like Peter did.
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Peter, who was also in bondage. He was in physical chains.
But those who can remember the past have confidence that it CAN be repeated.
And Luke uses the same language of Exodus to describe Peter’s release from prison.
The angel woke him at night, at passover. And he was to get up and go quickly - like the Israelites in Egypt.
And the point of this is to show everyone that what happened thousands of years ago can still happen today.
And Peter experienced a miraculous deliverance from his situation. In fact, what happened is so miraculous, some people try to explain what happened by physical means, and I think that misses the point.
Like I said earlier, about the church praying for Peter - have a little faith, guys.
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But we so often forget, don’t we? We so often forget that God can do for US today what he did for others years ago - even thousands of years ago.
We forget that the miraculous can still happen.
And so often we forget what Jesus did for us.
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And here’s another parallel for you.
Because, as a commentator wrote, what happened to Peter was only through God’s gracious initiative. In other words, what happened to Peter was because of God’s doing...
God took the initiative. God did the work. God sent the angel. God made the chains drop off. God made the gate open.
Peter kinda just watched this stuff happening. In fact, he was SO MUCH a bystander in all of this that he thought it was a vision at first.
But it’s the same with what Jesus did for us when he became that sacrificial lamb - the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Jesus took the initiative. Jesus did the work. Jesus died on the cross. Jesus took our sin and our punishment. Jesus took God’s wrath on himself...
And so we are very much bystanders in our salvation - in fact, we have NOTHING to bring to our salvation…cos if we had something to contribute to our salvation, like going to church or being nice, or giving money…then we wouldn’t be saved by grace.
And it’s only grace that saves us, which means we wouldn’t be saved at all.
We, like Peter, have had our chains removed, we have been set free and we are free to follow Jesus without the shame and guilt of our sin, all because God is gracious and did it for us.
And that’s why we worship him.
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But at the same time, there are people here this morning who are still in bondage.
There are people here this morning who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour, who have not accepted God’s grace, but instead want to save themselves by being nice and coming to church.
But those chains of sin are still around you.
Those who can remember the past have confidence that it CAN BE repeated.
Why don’t you stop fighting those chains like an escape artist who is about to drown in the tank of water because they can’t get free…and why don’t you cry out to Jesus to save you miraculously?
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And there may also be people here who are in bondage to something else. Maybe they’ve come to faith in Jesus, but they are still in bondage to a certain specific sin…like pornography, like lust, like gossip, like lying or twisting the truth.
Or maybe there are people here who are in bondage to a job that is wearing you down. Or a situation in your life that is wearing you down, and you are a slave to it, and you can’t get out.
And maybe you can’t physically get out of it, but do you believe that things can change?
Do you have the confidence that history CAN be repeated? That God, who set the Egyptians free from bondage, and a few thousand years later, God who set Peter free from bondage…do you believe that this same God can set you free from bondage a few thousand years after Peter?
Those who CAN remember the past have the confidence that it CAN BE repeated.
And it can…for you…today.
But guys, have a little faith.
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So if anyone here is in bondage to something in their life, whether its a sin or a struggle or a situation that has you enslaved, here’s the word of the Lord from today’s passage...
Pray earnestly. Pray fervently…pray like Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane…pray like the church prayed in the home of Mary.
Pray that God will repeat history for you and free you from this bondage…but have a little faith that he will.
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And as a church, whatever the future brings with Brexit and the struggles that it might bring…or who knows what lies ahead.
If we want to see the miraculous happen, we also need to come together AS A CHURCH and pray with the same fervency as the church in did…but have a little faith that God will move in mighty ways.
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Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
No...
Those who CAN remember the past CAN have the confidence that it CAN BE repeated, when we remember that God is in control of the past, the present and the future…and what God did thousands of years ago, he can still do today...but have a little faith that he will.
Let’s pray