Redeemer Lutheran Church
1084 W. Bullard Ave.
Fresno, CA   93711
Phone: (559) 439-8500
Fax: (559) 439-8585
office@redeemerfresno.com

The Reverend Clarence Eisberg
Phone: (209) 725-9082
Cell:  (209) 631-3108
pastor@redeemerfresno.com

Worship ~ 8:30 a.m. & 10:00 a.m.
Family Ministries ~ 10:00 a.m.
Holy Communion ~ 2nd & 4th Sundays
and to One Another!
www.lcms.org








The Reverend
Clarence Eisberg

October 16, 2009
“God answered Prayer! Surprise!”

A large percentage of Americans believe in the power of prayer.  In a Newsweek cover
story entitled “Talking to God”  (January 6, 1992) the Gallup Poll reported that 78 percent
of American prayed once a week, 57% prayed at least once a day.

Christianity Today, January 1997 carried an article titled: “Doctors Who Pray”, in which
several medical doctors expounded upon the medical benefits of prayer for their patients.  
Dr. Matthews of Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. has been
scientifically studying the effects of prayer on illnesses and injuries.  

We are ten years past those studies and our culture has been changing.  We are aware
of Muslims who pray towards Mecca three times a day….public prayer is still practiced
when our congress begins it’s daily sessions, and the Supreme Court opens with prayer…
yet prayer is banned at high school football games and other events.

\I am not foolish enough to believe that everyone who prays, prays to the Living God, the
omnipotent, omnipresent, Father of Jesus Christ.  For some prayer is only an inch away
from superstition.  Yet we know that thousands of people pray in times of distress, danger
or uncertainty.  I have told you of the little girl in class in the Soviet Union in the 1950’s.  It
was Atheist instruction time.  Irena was looking out the window and thinking to herself …”
how foolish do they think we are… everyday the tell us there is no God…. If there was no
God why do they have to tell us every day?   Therefore there must be a God.

So Irena prayed.  God if you are real make it snow so I don’t have to go to school.  That
night it began to snow and it snowed for three days. School was canceled.  That prayer to
God…began her search to know more about God.  

James Dobson in his book “When God Doesn’t Make Sense” writes: “My wife Shirley, did
not grow up in a Christian home, and her experiences were very different from mine.  Her
father was an alcoholic who abused his family and spoke of God only when cursing.  
Shirley’s mother, while not a Christian, was a wonderful woman who loved her two
children.  She recognized her need for assistance in raising her kids and began sending
them to a neighborhood evangelical church when they were very young.  There Shirley
learned about Jesus, and she learned to pray.

This little girl, trapped in poverty and the heartache of alcoholism, began talking to the
Lord about her family.  After her parents were divorced she asked Him for two requests.  
First, she prayed for a Christian stepfather who would loved and provide for them.  
Second, Shirley knew she wanted to have a godly home and a family.  She began asking
God for a Christian husband.

From one end of the bible to the other is the record of those whose prayers have been
answered….they turned the tide of history.  Abraham prayed to save the city of Sodom
and Gomorrah where his nephew Lot lived.  God did not answer that prayer…but God did
rescue Lot and his family.

David prayed for days, asking God to save the live of the first son he had with
Bathsheba.  The child died.

Hezekiah, prayed when the city of Jerusalem was under siege by the invading armies of
the Assyrians under the leadership of Sennacherib, and the entire army of Sennacherib
was destroyed.  

Jesus prayed at the door of the tomb of Lazarus, and the one who had been dead for four
days came forth.  (John 11)  The thief on the cross prayed and Jesus assured him that he
would be with him in Paradise. (Luke 23:39)  The Apostle Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 5:
17 “Pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ
Jesus.”  Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourself to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

Prayer.  You know as well as I that there are entire books written on prayer.  Our faith is
anchored not in signs and wonders but in the sovereign God of the universe.  He will not
perform on cue to impress, as Herod requested of Jesus during his trial in Jerusalem.  
Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  

In Acts 12 we find many Christians who prayed fervently for Simon Peter, but when God
answered their prayer they couldn’t believe that He really acted on their behalf.

Acts 12 begins with James the brother of John being arrested.  Now you and I both know
this caused worry and fear among those early Christians left in Jerusalem.  I am sure they
prayed for the release of James.  James was killed by Herod.  This story tells of great
tension between the Jewish Christians who had accepted Jesus and the Jewish authorities
who did not.  

The Herod in our text is the grandson of Herod the Great.  Herod Agrippa I reigned from
37 A.D. to 44 A.D. and he followed in the footsteps of his grandfather who had murdered
his own son, Herod Agrippa’s father.  Herod Agrippa was a friend of Caligula who was
named Roman Emperor in 41 A.D. and Herod Agrippa was given the authority to rule all of
Samaria and Judea.  Herod Agrippa was never fully trusted by the Romans nor the Jews…
so he tried to gain the favor of the ruling Jewish authorities.  One way to get in their good
graces was to persecute the Christian community. So James was killed in about 40 or 41
A.D.

There is little doubt that Herod was planning on having Peter executed as soon as the
celebration of the Passover over ended.  Herod wanted to make sure that Peter did not
escape as he had once before. (Acts 5:18)  so he had Peter guarded by four squads of
soldiers.  The four squads of soldiers would rotate their watch every four hours around
the clock.  Herod had to rest well at night knowing that there was no possible way that
Peter was going to escape.  At any given time Peter was chained between two guards
inside a locked cell, within the Antonia Fortress.  

Put yourself in Peter’s shoes.  His fellow disciple, James had just been put to death a few
weeks earlier.  Stephen and others had been put to death.  I’m sure Peter was also
praying… would God rescue him… or let him suffer death?

Let’s switch venues and move from the locked tight cell holding Peter to the little house of
John Mark’s mother where there are followers of Jesus praying for Peter.  These folks
were not just remembering Peter at bedtime prayers…they were praying fervently for
him…. Just as they had for James.  

When was the last time you prayed fervently when you found yourself in a tight situation?  
When was the last time you gave yourself to passionate prayer?

From this story of the great escape of Peter from Herod’s prison I have come to the
conclusion that those who were praying for Peter’s release were not sure if he would be
released or suffer the same fate of James.  You have a situation of two disciples… one
prayer for release was not answered and the other was…. They point?   They prayed and
waited for God’s will to be accomplished.

The rest of the story.  An angel wakes Peter and leads him out of the locked jail cell.  
What a great story.  It was the power of God that sent the angel….at first Peter thought it
was another vision like the one he had telling him to go to the home of Cornelius.  But the
night air was cool… and the stone pavement under his feet was real.  The angel
disappears…  “Peter comes to himself and says…now I know without a doubt that the
Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish
people were anticipating.”  He arrives at the door of the house of Mary the mother of
John, also called Mark.   When Rhoda heard Peter’s voice…she was so overjoyed she
forgot to open the door and ran back to tell the others that Peter is at the door!  They did
not believe her.  

Now it is true we do not know the words of the prayers this group of Christians were
praying.  I haven’t a clue.  They could have been praying for Peter’s comfort, or strength
for Peter to face the sword, or for Peter’s release.  

Alexander Solzhenitzyn’s book “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” Ivan endures all the
horrors of a Soviet prison camp.  One day he is praying with his eyes closed when a fellow
prisoner notices him and says with ridicule, “Prayers won’t help you get out of here any
faster.”  Opening his eyes, Ivan answers, “I do not pray to get out of prison but to do the
will of God.”  (Our daily Bread December 29, 1993)

Paul Billheimer in his book “Destined for the Throne”
Writes: “God has decided to operate in this world through the prayers and faith of His
people.  His promises were secured when Jesus gave his life on the cross, opening the
kingdom of Heaven to all believers.  The promise of God are waiting. It’s like a safe
deposit box.  God has a key and you have a key, called prayer…. And faith.  God is the
keeper of the box.  At the bank you give your key to the teller and she takes her key.  
Neither key alone will open the safe deposit box, but together both keys open the door
making available all the treasures stored in the box.

Prayer is not persuading God to do something he does not want to do.”  It is prayer that
calls God’s will into action against the forces of Satan so that God’s will is accomplished.  
No angel has ever been invited to pray.  Noarch angel was ever invited to pray.  Only you
and I have been invited to bring our cares and concerns to God in prayer.  

I like the line in the movie “O God” starring George Burns and John Denver.  Each time I
see the movie I am stuck by the casual yet profound theology.  At a one point in the movie
God says that he will not put in appearances accompanied by miracles. He will not do any
more command performances to convince John Denver’s love for God to increase.    The
anguished young man asks,  “But won’t I be able to talk to you anymore?”   God answers:  
“You talk, I’ll listen.”  

I know that words are frequently inadequate.  Yet words are all we have.  And we have the
assurance that when we “approach the Throne of Grace”  God will hear.  Through prayer,
we unite ourselves with God in the same way we unite ourselves to other people, by
talking, by sharing our feelings, our concerns, our doubts, our crisis, our needs, our joys.

You talk, I’ll listen… that is God’s promise.