This week Pastor Andy threw away his notes so he could preach the inspired word of God, titled ‘Get Ready’. This rip-roaring message was to stir our hearts as we gently come out of lockdown. Pastor Andy spoke about the church corporately and each of us individually coming out of our various lockdowns as Peter did in Acts 12 – story of his miraculous escape from prison. Andy likened Peter’s situation to that many of us find ourselves in (lockdown can be financial, emotional, relational, physical etc.) and then looked at how the bible spoke of Peters situation and how this is relevant to us.

In Acts 12, the Angel of the Lord told peter to get up, get dressed and come, then the Iron Gate opened by itself and Peter was able to walk back into Jerusalem (the prison was outside the city) as God had more in store for him. But Peter knew how Jesus had spoken to him earlier – Matthew 16; 17-19 (NIV) - Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

The “gates of Hades” was in fact a cave entrance leading to underworld of false worship at that time in Caesarea Philippi, so Jesus revealed to Peter that His church would be built on the rock of the revelation that the Holy Spirit had enlightened Peter with and that this was not able to be overcome even by the worst of falsehood….this applies today as well. So as Peter slept in prison (Acts 12), the church prayed for him and he knew in his heart that although chained and guarded, he would not be overcome by Herod and his schemes.  Peter knew he had Christ in his heart. Out of chaos, God brings glory, turns graves into gardens. Individually we also must look to Christ as our Messiah, be ready to get dressed, stand up and walk away from our lockdown with faith and authority that our God is unstoppable.