When Prayers Are Not Answered

Perhaps you remember this, but a few years ago, in 2011, one of the greatest disasters happened to New Zealand in the earthquake in Christchurch. It was, and I think it still is, one of the worst peacetime disasters for New Zealand at that time. And I remember the event. I remember the collapse of that huge shopping centre that trapped hundreds of lives. And in total, I think the death count was something in the vicinity of 180.

But I remember very specifically a moment where I read an article a week or so after the event where they declared that the search for survivors had ended and now was the time for cleanup or recovery of bodies. And in this article, I read a very poignant part where Bob Parker, the mayor of Christchurch at that time, who was visibly upset according to the article, said that the transition to the recovery rather than search for life was a sad day for the community. And he said this: he said, we were perhaps holding out hope against all hope. We were holding out hope against all hope. Now perhaps you remember that event four years ago.

Perhaps you found yourself like me praying for hope against all hope, and that only one person survived and that they were able to dig out. Everyone else had died in the tragedy. Perhaps you have prayed more personally, more individually for God to do a miracle in your life or in the life of a friend of yours, a family member, where you felt anxiety as each day came and went and no sign of change, no sign of life, nothing to boost your hope. Perhaps you've felt and experienced the sad reality when the inevitable decision came that we have to turn the machine off. We have to call off the search for survivors.

It's in these situations that leaves Christians with this question: what do we do when our prayers aren't answered? When children pray for their mum's recovery from cancer but she passes away, when a church meets to pray for peace in their country and a bomb explodes and rips through that building, killing everyone in it. How do we process that? How do we deal with that as Christians?

You may feel like giving up. It's not that our faith in God is diminished in some way or leaves us. It's just that despite our prayers, despite our highest hopes, we still see so many hurting people. We still see people passing away. We see unconverted stay unconverted.

This morning we're going to look at a very real event. It is not glossed over. It is not cotton-wooled or anything like that. It is very real, and yet there's a profound comfort to find in this very real situation of the early church where they experienced some very real pain. If you have your Bibles with you, we're going to look at Acts 12.

And we're gonna read the whole chapter because the whole chapter is important and in play here, so to speak, as we deal with this situation. Acts 12, verse 1: It was about this time that King Herod arrested some of those who belonged to the church intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.

This happened during the feast of the unleavened bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.

Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. Quick, get up, he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists. Then the angel said to him, put on your clothes and your sandals, and Peter did so. Wrap your cloak around you and follow me, the angel told him.

Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea what the angel was doing was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

Then Peter came to himself and said, now I know without doubt the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating. When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to the door. When she recognised Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed, she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, Peter's at the door. You're out of your mind, they told her.

When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, it must be his angel. But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door for him and saw him, they were astonished. Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. Tell James and the brothers about this, he said, and then he left for another place. In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.

After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there a while. He had been quarrelling with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They now joined together and sought an audience with him. Having secured the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace because they were dependent on the king's country for their food supply.

On the appointed day, Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. The people shouted, this is the voice of a god, not of a man. Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God continued to increase and spread. So far the reading.

In this story this morning, we read two very contrasting events. Right at the start of the chapter, we read of the moment where King Herod seized James, the brother of John, James the apostle, put him in prison and then publicly executed him. The Bible says he put him to the sword. The life of the apostle James, in other words, like the martyr Stephen before him and the life of John the Baptist before him, was cut terribly short in the service of God.

Surely the disciples of John the Baptist had been praying for his release. Surely the apostles were praying for Stephen's stoning to end. Surely the church was praying for James the apostle to be released, and yet they were still killed. In Acts 12, we find this morning, however, in light of this execution of James, we find Peter the apostle in the same position having been captured by Herod, the same man, put in prison and waiting in jail for his trial and probable execution.

We see that in verse 4, Herod was intending to bring Peter out. But because of the Passover feast, and it would have made him look really bad to do something as horrendous as execute someone, he said, we'll give it the week. We'll hold on a little bit, and then we'll have this so-called mock trial. In the light of that first verse we read in chapter 12, we see that Peter's situation was very bleak. Four sets of guards taking four turns during the day to guard this one man. There was absolutely no physical or earthly way to get out of that situation.

No possibility of escape. Then in verse 5, we see how the church, so desperate, so desperate, praying for God's intervention. It says in verse 5: So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. These weren't token prayers either. These weren't sort of, oh, God, you know what's going on.

Please, just be with your servant Peter. This was around the clock praying. This was on your knees begging the Lord for mercy praying. The Greek word is a word that describes a never-giving-up sort of attitude. It was relentless praying.

Time was running out. It was the night before the end of the Passover feast. The probable execution of Peter was the following day, and Peter was still chained up with two guards on his left and on his right and two guards at the front door of the prison. Interestingly enough, what was Peter's reaction to all this? He was asleep.

Incredible. I don't know how I would have been in that situation. This man is asleep. He's catching some serious sleepy time. But the miraculous event that would unfold now is one of the most amazing stories in the book of Acts.

And it's actually quite a funny scene. Like, you kind of have to read this with a bit of a smile on your face. An angel of the Lord, verse 7, appears and a bright light shines in Peter's cell. Enough probably to wake up any person, but not Peter. Peter is sawing some serious logs. A thousand watt spotlight is shining in his eyes and Peter doesn't wake up.

You can just imagine the anticlimax as well. The angel standing there and fully expecting perhaps Peter, you know, being in awe of what's happening, but Peter's asleep. And the Bible actually says Acts 12 says that the angel had to nudge him in the side. He had to give him a bit of a boot to wake him up. Poor old Pete was obviously not a morning person because when he was woken up, the angel had to remind him to put on his sandals and his clothes, to get his cloak and, you know, like a mum has to wake up their kids for school, pretty much just get them dressed on the way out.

And Peter still thinks, according to verse 9, that he's dreaming. But he's soon to learn that he was in fact a part of a massive miracle, a huge rescue mission. When Peter finally realised that he wasn't dreaming, Luke reports that Peter went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. This is early in the morning, still, around the clock prayers. Do you remember what they were praying for? They were praying for Peter's release.

And so again, Peter's release surely would have brought about huge celebrations and hallelujahs and rejoicings. And yet when he comes to the door and knocks on the door, Rhoda, the servant girl, amazed, just leaves him there, runs in, has a twenty-minute debate on the theology of how God saves and rescues and can God still do miracles today. And Peter's sort of just like, you know, waiting around, expecting the guards to be running up behind them. Peter is at the door, she says. When they finally opened the door for Peter, Luke summarises their response in this way in verse 16: They saw him and they were amazed.

Can you just imagine the amount of noise and excitement? Probably a little bit muffled, but certainly, you know, it was too much to contain. And Peter had to physically say, gosh, quiet. He had to motion to them, be quiet. They saw an amazing miracle happen. Peter had been saved in response to their prayer.

I want us to see two things this morning in Acts 12. Two things. Firstly, the sovereignty of God, and secondly, our response as human beings. Firstly, God's sovereignty. I've heard a few sermons on this passage, and every time I've heard a sermon on this, it focuses on God's amazing deliverance of Peter in answer to earnest prayer.

We say, wow, God, didn't He act so amazingly powerful? Isn't God so powerful to do this? Praise God for His protection. But we often miss the non-deliverance of James the apostle at the same time. Peter was saved and James wasn't.

Peter was saved and James wasn't. The fact that Luke records the stories of James and Peter side by side is making a point. And Luke is saying that the sovereignty of God can be expressed in these two ways: deliverance and non-deliverance. Peter was rescued, James was not. Sometimes people get healed, sometimes they don't. Sometimes someone's heart will be changed, other times it won't be.

And we know in both situations James and Peter were faithful to Christ. There was no doubt about their earnestness in their following of Jesus Christ. They both were leaders in the church. They were both handpicked disciples of Jesus, agents through which the Lord Himself would use them to expand the kingdom. But we also see God had very different futures in mind for these apostles.

One would lead the early church and guide them through the turbulent stages of a very fragile birth. The other would shed his life, would shed his blood for that church, pure and simple. And friends, we might never on this side of eternity understand why God allows these things to happen. The early church father Tertullian, however, said this very famously: that the blood of the martyr is the seed of the church.

And perhaps the death of James spurred the other disciples on. He was the first disciple, the first apostle to be martyred. But today, we must remember that whilst the Lord invites us to approach in prayer and in faith and in urgency, we also have to remember the sovereignty and the wisdom of God. Just as the disciples earnestly prayed for Peter's release, we too have the freedom to pray earnestly for physical deliverance. But ultimately, we have to leave it to God.

Ultimately, we have to let His sovereign will be expressed in the way that He thinks best. Now some people say, and you can understand why, that this is a cop out. This is just saying that God is completely sovereign and therefore I can have or should have a passive or a dead prayer life. But friends, let me assure you that understanding the sovereignty of God, understanding that He is in complete control of what happens in my life makes our prayer life so powerful. It makes it a defiant act.

Recognising that the purpose of God will win out in the end is powerful and effective. When we pray, in other words, we appeal and we encourage God to act according to His predetermined plan and according to His character. God, You do not change. Your plans have never changed. In my situation, let Your justice be done.

Let Your mercy come. Father, don't forget who You have said Yourself to be. And so we see the believers praying just like they prayed for James. They pray for God's justice to be done despite the disappointment of James' death. They knew God's character.

They knew that He is sovereign, that He is in control, that He can manage all avenues and circumstances. Even when it seemed that God's plans had been overtaken by Herod, the most powerful man of that time, the believers prayed in faith for God's deliverance anyway. In prayer, we appeal to God according to who He is, according to His character. How does this story end? With Peter's escape, obviously. But have a look at this.

Herod, towards the end of chapter 12, is embarrassed at this. And in order to save face, he questions the guards and then has them executed. I mean, they say, I don't know. I really couldn't. We don't know. He was here, and then all of a sudden he was not here.

Not good enough. They get executed, tries to save face with the public that he was so intent on pleasing. But then at the end of chapter 12, Herod is struck down and eaten by worms in front of this very public he was trying to impress. They saw him die a humiliating and very gruesome death. And so the question that the chapter ends with is this: who really is sovereign? Who really is sovereign?

Who is more powerful, Herod or the Lord God Almighty? But then, not only was Herod's life taken from him in exchange for Peter's life. A few verses later, what does Luke say? The word of God continued to increase and spread. Herod tried to clamp it down. Herod tried to eradicate the leaders of this movement.

And despite this, the word of God continued to spread and increase. Herod had set himself up against the Lord. He had tried to win the favour of the people by putting an end to the Christian revolution. But Herod dies and the gospel of Jesus Christ manages to spread like wildfire. Who is sovereign? How does this knowledge of a sovereign God help us when we are caught in the wake of personal disaster or tragedy?

Natalie Grant, a Christian songwriter that some of you may know, sings this lyric in one of her songs. She says, there's no such thing as a perfect people. There's no such thing as a perfect life. So come as you are broken and scarred. Lift your heart and be amazed.

Be changed by a perfect God. Our hope is not in a perfect life. Our hope is not in a perfect people. Our hope is in a perfect God who is just, who is merciful, and who has a plan. Friend, if you are experiencing loss, if you are at a loss for what is happening in your life, if you don't understand what is going on, if you see your child heading in a direction away from God that you could not have prevented, that you can't imagine has resulted in that way, be comforted by the knowledge that God is still in control, that He is still in control, that He still has a plan for you and for those people involved.

In fact, we will come to the end of time, look back at our life, look back at the history of humanity, and see that nothing in that history happened without God's will and that it all aligned perfectly for the end. Nothing that seemed to have gone wrong was outside of God's management. The result will be God's victory, the Bible says, and our good. Remember what His plan is. The plan is to not give us a perfect life, but to give us a renewed hope and a redeemed future where justice will be just, where mercy will be merciful, where love will be unconditional and forever.

So we see the sovereignty of God in this, but then we also see the human side of this, the human requests through prayer. We worship a sovereign God, and yet the Bible invites us to pray. The Bible invites us to come to God as a son comes to their father. God is powerful enough to make His glory His own, to increase the gospel, to increase His work. And yet God has sovereignly determined to save, to heal, to deliver, to protect in response to our prayers. This is what happened after Moses intensely prayed and interceded for Israel.

God was done with them. God was done with them. He was going to wipe them out. He said, this is a sinful bunch. I repent that I have brought them out here.

Moses intercedes and says, Father, please, not for their sake, but for Your sake. But for Your sake, protect them and save them. Turn Your anger away from them.

Exodus 32:14 says, the Lord relented and did not bring on the disaster that He had threatened. We see in Genesis, Abraham pleading with God for 45 righteous people in the city of Sodom to be protected. For 45 righteous people in the city, Lord, protect them. God says, for 45, I would do it. But there's not 45 righteous people. And Abraham pleads and says, God, okay, for 30.

God says, no. Not 30. Can't find them. 20, Lord. 10.

Abraham prayed. The Lord complied and saved the five righteous people that were there. It is a fact of Scripture that we must not overlook. We can never overlook. Even as Calvinists, even as Reformed people, we cannot overlook this part: that God answers prayers and He commands us to pray them.

In response to our prayers, there's a beautiful mystery that God acts. We know God is sovereign, and yet He is sovereignly using our prayers to accomplish His will. We know that the brilliant proverb that puts the two together, Proverbs 16:9: In his heart a man plans his path, but the Lord determines his steps. You see that mystery overlapping. Hebrews 4:16 says that we may approach the throne of grace with confidence in order to receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.

We are invited to His throne to approach this throne of the holy, most holy God to find grace and mercy in our time of need. We don't pray to a God who is far removed from us, a God who is distant from us, a God who has planned it all out and yet doesn't want anything to do with us because what could we offer? What could we bring to the table? In prayer, we may enter the holy of holies, communicate directly to our God. And so we should not be hesitant in prayer because we fear that our answers may go against God's will. Because His will will always be higher than our ways.

Right? His ways are always higher than our ways. His paths are beyond tracing ours. So let's not pretend we will know how God will act. But people have said, well, I'm not gonna pretend God will heal this person then, so I won't pray for them.

Well, you don't know that God may not heal that person. You may be determining that God will not heal that person. Therefore, you will be doing exactly the opposite of what you're intending to do. Pray. Ask God.

Don't assume that He won't do anything. Because by doing that, we actually lower God to fit our model again, our theology again of how God does and should not act. So we can't be under the false theology that our prayers cannot be catalysts for history-changing events. Our church, our elder, praying for this nation to be changed, for our attitude towards domestic violence to be changed. Don't imagine this is an empty prayer.

This is a hopeful, you know, shoot them up sort of arrow to God somehow. Maybe He hears it. Our prayers can be history-changing events. Will God do it? We don't know.

How will God do it? We don't know. Only God knows. But what we do know is that we can and we should go to Him. After praying earnestly for the rescue of at least a few survivors of New Zealand and seeing that practically no one survived, do we stop praying? Do we stop praying for the Christians that are persecuted and killed for their faith?

Our Christian duty is to pray. God looks after the rest. So what do we do then if our prayers aren't answered? How do we deal with that? What do we do when God doesn't save, when God doesn't heal, when God doesn't intervene?

In short, we keep praying. Why? Because we believe that a powerful God is listening to our prayers even in the face of huge disappointment and despair. A small fragile church were on their knees day in, day out, praying for Peter. They were hoping against hope.

And in this story, we can take home three things: that God is still in control despite our pain. Despite the pain of having lost James, their beloved apostle and disciple and colleague and friend, Peter was still rescued, not by luck. There's no chance in that story that there was anything that looked like luck, not by luck, but by a mighty act of deliverance in connection with prayer. Second thing is God's plan does not fail. Peter had a calling.

There was a mission for him to complete. He was to be the leader of the early church. His plan, God's plan for the world, for you, will always come out on top. God is working towards bringing His kingdom into fulfilment. There is nothing that will frustrate that plan.

You are part of that kingdom. You've been called into that kingdom for a purpose. Herod thought that he had ended the Christian revolution. But look how he ended up. God's plan will not fail. And thirdly, God invites us to share in this plan through prayer.

Despite being sovereign and almighty, God the Father wants to hear from His children. He sovereignly wills us to come to Him and pray. And God does respond to these prayers because these prayers matter to Him. As simple as that. God is in control, friend.

God's plan for this world, plan for His kingdom will not fail. But God invites you to partner with one another in praying for that plan to come to fruition. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this reminder again, this amazing, amazing reminder that You are in control, Father. And our frustrations and our burdens and our heavy hearts, Father, can take our attention away from this truth. And we can start looking at answers and solutions to our left and to our right.

Father, we can make plans, but we know, Father, that You direct our steps. Father, I pray that as we wrestle with frustrations and disappointments even today, that we will find rest in knowing that You have it in control, that we have a good Father who loves us, who desires what is best for us, that there may be times of disciplining and pruning, of refining in our lives. Fair enough. But Father, for those who love You, there is good in store, whether this be now or whether that be in the future with You. Father, thank You for the example of the apostle Peter and the apostle James.

We thank You for their lives. We thank You, Lord, that they could be used by You, that they could be a fragrant offering even to You. And Father, we dedicate our lives to You again. We give our hearts to You. We give our lives to You.

We give our petitions and our needs before You as well. And Father, if there's anything in our hearts that needs to be changed, change it, Father. Show us. We bring all these things before You, Jesus, because You are good, because it pleases You, because You have asked us to come before You this morning. In Your name, we pray. Amen.