BREAKTHROUGH (Acts Pt. 27)
Acts 12:1-17 // About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.
6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”
12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” 16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. 17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place.
Revival and Violence
The Early Church: “The gospel’s spread was fueled by believers’ zeal, miracles, and the witness of martyrdom.”
Christians were imprisoned, tortured, and executed publicly.
The more the church was persecuted, the faster it grew - summarized by Tertullian’s famous phrase: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
Correlation: The purity, unity, and courage of persecuted Christians sparked curiosity and conversion among pagans. Revival and persecution rose together — each feeding the other.
The Reformation in the 16th Century
Sparked by Martin Luther’s 1517 theses, the Reformation revived biblical literacy, personal faith, and the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith.
Reformers were excommunicated, burned at the stake, or executed.
The Counter-Reformation saw Catholic and Protestant powers clash violently — e.g., the Thirty Years’ War. Entire villages and regions were caught in religious conflict.
Correlation: Revival of gospel truth and Scripture access often provoked governments and church authorities who feared loss of control. Despite bloodshed, revival reshaped Europe and birthed Protestantism.
The Great Awakenings
In the 18th–19th centuries, there was a sweeping renewal of Christian faith in America and Britain through preachers like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley. This led to mass conversions, social reform (abolitionism, education, missions), and the rise of evangelicalism.
The backlash? In America, revival preachers were often attacked or ostracized by traditional clergy and civic leaders. The social upheaval caused by these awakenings unsettled existing power structures and moral norms, which produced both societal transformation and resistance.
REVIVAL AND RESISTANCE GO HAND AND HAND THROUGHOUT HISTORY!
So here’s the important question - what will we focus on? The Move of God or the conflicts that necessarily accompany them. This church has faced incredible challenges and resistance over the past 10 years, and by the grace of God, HERE WE STAND!
How did we make it?
GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
The faithfulness of those who have endured the resistance
Turning 10 marks the beginning of a passage out of boyhood and into greater maturity. Boyhood is a wonderful, beautiful and sometimes messy stage! And it is part of life. But we are urged to press on to maturity.
Paul says it like this…
1 Corinthians 13:11-13 // When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Ephesians 4:13-15 // … until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.
Prayer and Breakthrough
I don’t think it is an accident that the Lord planned Acts 12 for our 10th Birthday Celebration. This is a passage proclaiming BREAKTHROUGH. It is a story that reminds us of the supernatural power of God to DELIVER HIS PEOPLE from strongholds, jail cells, and imminent destruction. One moment, Paul was preparing to be the next martyr. The next moment, he was walking freely through the gates of the city. I believe that today is a day of breakthrough for our family!
Breakthrough from what?
Well, Peter was arrested by Herod because it pleased the Jews. He wasn’t acting in the fear of the Lord, he was acting to please man. Herod was the governing authority over Judea, and I believe he represents the governing principalities over a region that seek to imprison believers and keep them from their destiny in God. Well, the church prayed, and God said, “NO WAY. I’m not done with this guy Peter, who represents the church by the way, so I’m sending out one of my angels to rescue him.”
He could have done the same thing with Jesus, we know that from what Jesus said on the cross. But Scripture tells us that “it was the will of the Lord to crush Him.” Meaning, it was part of God’s sovereign plan for Jesus to die, so the angels stayed put. But in this case, what Herod was scheming wasn’t in God’s agenda. Herod was acting to please man, not God. And the Lord frustrated his plans. In partnership with earnest prayers from the church, God put a stop to the schemes of this corrupt, people-pleasing politician.
Matthew 16:15-18 // He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Did you notice the gates in this story?
Acts 12:10-11 // When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord (automatos), and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”
There are some wicked spiritual forces in our region that have imprisoned the church, and it’s time for a jail break. The gates of hell shall not PREVAIL - that word means to overpower or overcome. How many of you are sick and tired of being overpowered by “gates” that Jesus said shouldn’t be prevailing over you?
I’ve been pastoring in Utah for 4 years, and compared to all my brothers that came here tonight from other churches to support us, I’m still earning my stripes. But 4 years is long enough to understand a few of the gates that have kept Utah believers imprisoned for far too long.
The first one is right here in this story. It’s the prison of people-pleasing. In Galatians 1:10, Paul says, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
You simply cannot live for the approval of man and be faithful to God at the same time. The moment you shift your focus from what God wants to what people want, you cease being a servant of the Lord.
People pleasing elevates the approval of man above the approval of God. The result is that we end up honoring people more than the Lord. In Herod’s case, his people-pleasing actually honored God’s enemies and imprisoned God’s friends.
The second one is found in Judges 6 and this is where we are going to land the plane tonight. I was led to this story about Gideon because he is famous for the night that he pulled down an altar of Baal, who interestingly is the Canaanite “lord of the harvest”.
Baal’s mistress was the goddess of fertility and sexuality known as Asherah.
Gideon tore down the altar, cut down Asherah’s pole, and “[built] an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order.”
WHEREVER THERE IS A STRONGHOLD, AN ALTAR IS WAITING TO BE BUILT.
Judges 6:1-6 // The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.
Midian = strife, contention, judgment; Midian represents spiritual opposition and conflict
I have been absolutely shocked by the stories of strife that I have heard from pastors in this city. Every single one of these men has a heart-breaking story of contention, division and strife that devoured unity, resources, and peace for a season. Notice that Midian was devouring their produce year after year. Strife devours the harvest. But God heard their cries and raised up a GIDEON!
Gideon derives from the Hebrew verb "gada," meaning "to cut down" or "to fell".
HE CUT DOWN WHAT WAS FALSE TO MAKE ROOM FOR WHAT WAS TRUE!
Have you struggled with people-pleasing?
Have you experienced strife in the Utah church?
What strongholds need to be cut down today?
What breakthrough are you asking for today?