Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19980118.htm

ACTS: THE LOCAL CHURCH AS GOD'S AGENCY FOR DISCIPLING MEN
Part XXVI: God's Sanction Of Naturally Validated Evidences To Edify Our Faith
(Acts 12:3-17)
  1. Introduction
    1. We Christians are expected to believe wholesale in the miraculous nature of our faith. The Christian Gospel we are asked to believe to be saved has at its core the miracle of Christ's bodily resurrection from the dead, cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. We are told to believe the Scriptures are God's inspired writings in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Peter 1:20-21, and these Scriptures record many miracles.
    2. Now, when skeptics who do not believe in such miracles question the validity of our faith, we are supposed to give a reason for our faith, literally an "apologetic" in response according to 1 Pet. 2:15.
    3. This creates quite a burden on the believer -- to believe in so many miracles that he himself may find difficult to verify as real historical events before skeptics whom he is supposed to answer.
    4. Well, God values our use of naturally validated evidences to edify our faith in the miracles we are to believe as real as we can illustrate from the account of His workings during Peter's release in Acts 12:3-17:
  2. God's Sanction Of Naturally Validated Evidences To Edify Our Faith, Acts 12:3-17.
    1. In God's deliverance of Peter from Herod's prison, the deliverance itself was so supernatural that twice in the account, different Christian parties involved had trouble believing that what was occurring was real:
      1. When Peter himself was awakened and directed by the angel to follow him to escape, Scripture records that he, though an apostle, felt that what he was witnessing was not real, but a vision, Acts 12:3-9.
      2. When Peter arrived at the residence where an all-night prayer vigil for his release was in progress, the people praying at first failed to believe the girl, Rhoda's report that Peter was at the door, 12:14-15!
      3. Thus, both the man being released and the people who were praying for his release had trouble believing God's work to release Peter was even REAL!
    2. Accordingly, God arranged for the existence of naturally validated evidences in the notable absence of the supernatural to expose the reality of God's miraculous works!
      1. God used naturally validated evidences to convince Peter he had been truly released!
        1. It is noteworthy to see that the angel did not lead Peter all the way to the home where the prayer meeting was occurring, but he abruptly vanished, leaving Peter standing in the street, 12:10.
        2. Though this sudden disappearance of the angel at first seems odd, we find from Acts 12:11 that his vanishing was necessary for Peter to realize that he was not just seeing a vision, but that he was actually outside of Herod's prison and free. There was nothing but non-supernatural evidences around him to show Peter his bearings, so he was able to conclude that he was really released from prison, and had indeed been released by a miracle from God, Acts 12:11.
        3. Upon considering the reality of this miraculous release, Peter headed to the home where he knew a prayer meeting was in progress to testify of God's deliverance to the brethren, Acts 12:12.
      2. God thus used naturally validated evidences to convince the praying brethren that Peter was truly free!
        1. When Rhoda answered the door and ran off to tell other praying believers of Peter's appearance, though he was left out in the dark, Peter nevertheless kept knocking, Acts 12:14-16a. He apparently knew that it would take his continued knocking to make his deliverance believable to the saints as he himself had needed similar natural evidence to believe his own deliverance, 12:16a with 11,12a.
        2. Peter's continued knocking, an evidence that was non-supernatural, was the entity that finally got the people to believe Rhoda so that they would answer the door, Acts 12:16a,b.
        3. Then they saw the actual Peter and were astonished at God's amazing deliverance, Acts 12:16c.
Lesson: Even in the days of the Early Church when miracles were abundantly present, God used NATURALLY-verifiable evidences to corroborate the miraculous to His people with their limited faith.

Application: We should thus feel free to corroborate our Christian faith with naturally-verifiable evidences of the Bible's accuracy found in archaeological findings, or in changed lives of those who have been converted, etc. God knows we often ne ed NATURAL evidences to corroborate the MIRACULOUS realities of our faith as we, like the early believers, are LIMITED in our FAITH!