It was near the turn of the twentieth century when the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche made his celebrated and dire pronouncement: "God is dead." He was speaking for many intellectuals who believed the progress of science would cause a decline in religious faith - with Christianity being the chief loser. As the year 1900 approached, many leading secular thinkers thought along the same lines. Men like George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells argued that the dawning twentieth century would mark the close of history's "religious phase."

But here we are, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, at the threshold of a new millennium, and Christianity is alive and well, still thriving in the minds and hearts of countless believers. For the last two thousand years we have written the date with the letters AD following. That stands, of course, for "Anno Domini," the Year of our Lord. Today we join churches all over the world in giving thanks that the last two thousand years have belonged to our Lord (at least those churches who, ah, know that the new millenium does start tomorrow: according to no less an authority than the U.S. Naval Observatory, the third millenium begins January 1, 2001; it did not begin January 1, 2000). For another thousand years, the exalted Jesus has been our Lord and Savior. It is still Anno Domini, the Year of our Lord, after all these years. And, barring the return of our Lord, all the evidence suggests that Christianity will still be flourishing another thousand years from now, for it continues to regain lost territories and strike new roots. For two quick examples among countless thousands: Do you know that in Russia, the former church building that housed the Museum of Religion and Atheism for 67 years, is again a church of the Orthodox Christian faith, crowded with worshipers each Sunday? And that Christianity is growing again in China, despite fifty years of strenuous efforts by the Communist government to subvert it?

This start of a new millennium A.D. underscores what must be a mystery to the hypothetical uninformed observer, who is unaware of the divine dimension. That mystery is this: Two thousand years ago, a child was born in an obscure village in a backward part of the Roman Empire. The child grew up to be something of a religious reformer who preached for three short years and then was put to death as a nuisance by the Roman colonial authorities. It is, in short, a story of ignoble failure ending in a horrific and shameful death ... apart from the divine factor. Yet today, the world of six billion people counts its years and conducts its annual cycle of events in memory of this crucified failure. The Catholic Church, for the first time, has more than one billion ... one billion! ... members, and as best as can be determined, other Christian churches collectively have almost as many followers. It is impossible to travel anywhere in the world without finding a church or a chapel, a symbol or a piece of art commemorating some aspect of this "crucified failure's" life and work.

Our text from Acts today begins by informing us that King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. This Herod was the grandson of Herod the Great, who commanded the killing of the children of Bethlehem. He was the nephew of Herod Antipas, who tried Jesus. Like all the Herods before him, he was ruthless in his determination to hang onto power, and ruthless in his attempts to crush the hopes and spirit of this new "king of the Jews." When Herod realized that the Jewish religious leaders were also anxious about the tremendous growth of the following of this "crucified failure," Herod arrested and then killed one of the foremost apostles: James, the brother of John. Seeing that this made his "popularity poll" rise with the Jews, he arrested Peter also.

We read that on the night Peter was arrested and thrown into jail (verse 5), "the church was earnestly praying to God for him." Now, this was not Peter's first trip to prison. It was at least his third. Maybe that is why Peter doesn't seem too worried; he's sleeping soundly even though he is bound with two chains to two soldiers. There are two more soldiers posted outside his cell. Now, Peter knows that Herod killed James, and all indications seem to say that Herod intends to do the same thing to Peter. And yet, when an angel of God appeared in the cell, even though the cell burst with bright and dazzling light, it seems the angel can't get the peacefully slumbering Peter to wake up. The angel has to literally bop him one on the side (v. 7) and say, "Get up!" This doesn't seem to be a man who is worried about dying. He seems at peace; he seems to have the calm inner demeanor of a man who trusts the will of his wise and loving Lord, no matter what the outward circumstances might seem to be.

We read that Peter then followed the angel past the guards through the prison gates, not knowing if this was real or if he was seeing a vision. When he got outside, and after the angel departed (verse 11), "he came to himself" and realized he had been rescued. That is quite often how the deliverance of God is perceived. We often cannot see it while it is happening. It is later that we "come to ourselves" and realize the hand of God has indeed been at work delivering, saving, protecting, intervening in our lives. Along the way it seemed like just one more trip to the hospital ... or just one more hard conversation with the spouse ... or just one more power struggle with the kids ... or just one more lonely drive home after a hard day at the office. But God was at work all along. If we remain faithful, in time we, like Peter, will come to ourselves with the great "Aha!" and recognize God's deliverance ... and we will give thanks for what we did not see all along, because we just weren't looking for the angels.

As soon as Peter figured out what God was doing, the first thing he does is run over to the house where the church is praying fervently for him. He gets to the front gate, and starts knocking. A servant girl comes to the door to quiet down this guy who is disturbing the prayer meeting. She is astonished to see Peter there; so astonished, in fact, that she forgets to let him in! She leaves him outside the door and runs inside to tell everyone, "Hey, everybody! Peter, the one you are praying for, is at the door!" The text tells us that they say in reply, "You're out of your mind." I love this account. Here Rhoda, the servant girl, interrupts their prayers to say, "Peter's outside!" And all they tell her is, "Are you nuts? Now, be quiet, so we can get back to praying for Peter's release." They are so busy knocking on God's door, they cannot hear the deliverance of God knocking on their door. They cannot "see" the hand of God at work in the here and now. How like too many of us! All too often we still don't recognize the deliverance of God in the midst of our distracted lives. God is still working! God is still moving! God is still delivering! It is still AD after all these years!

Let's take a quick look at the first arrest and subsequent deliverance of Peter (Acts 5). This was a great time in the early church: the Apostles were doing signs and wonders; more than ever people were added to the church's number; people gathered from all the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and were cured. But the high priest was jealous of it all. This movement threatened everything he believed in. So he took action, and had Peter and the apostles arrested and put into prison. That would stop this mounting revolution. So he thought. But later that night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and told the disciples to "Go to the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life." This world understands all too well the partial "message" of life, the parts about despair, limitations, loss, and sickness. What the world needed then (and what the world needs now!) was to hear the full message of life, the message that this life that we see and touch is not all there is; they need to hear the full message of life which includes the divine intervention and involvement of a loving, gracious and powerful God Who extends a gracious and sure hope. Unstoppable hope. Hope as unstoppable as these men who cannot stay in prison; a hope that breaks out of the dungeon of heartache and despair. That's what the gospel offers - the full, complete, whole message of life.

Well, the next morning, the High Priest began his day planning a trial for these Apostles. He sent the temple guards to the prison to get the apostles, but they came back saying, "We don't get it. Everything was locked up tight down there, and the guards were still at the door, but the prisoners are gone." While everyone was wondering what was going on, someone ran into their midst and exclaimed, "Hey, the guys you put in prison for teaching in the temple are, well, teaching in the temple." So the temple guards go back and arrest them again, and bring the apostles before the assembly. When the apostles are set in front of all these religious leaders, Peter can't help but start preaching about this unstoppable Hope of the Gospel. The High Priest and his entourage became so enraged that they wanted to kill the Apostles. At this point a Pharisee named Gamaliel stood up to speak, and said (v. 38) "I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; because if their purpose or activity is of human origin it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God."

Gamaliel's prediction came true. This was of God. Like Herod and the high priest, a lot of people and movements have tried to stop it, but none have been able. The full message of hope, the Gospel, keeps bursting its restraints, it keeps being delivered from (and to!) its oppressors. For two thousand years, Jesus has led the church through persecution and heresy, the assaults of barbaric tribes and intellectual attacks. He has led His church through communism, nazism, and a host of other "-isms" that have all sought to lock up and imprison and shut up His gospel. Today, at the threshold of the 2001^st Year of our Lord, the towering walls of the church continue to stand, continue to rise up, continue to grow. That's not because of us who work in the church, by the way. Sometimes we in the church have been more dangerous to the church's future than any of our outside assailants. No, the church survived two thousand years because Jesus is Lord and Savior. He has been leading and saving and delivering, not only within the church but also outside of it. He has been at work in the halls of governments and schools, hospitals and laboratories, in homes where parents take care of the huge needs of small children. He has been and continues to be busily engaged in saving, delivering, protecting and nurturing. It is still A.D. after all these years.

We'll pick this up again next week, but I'd like to close by asking somewhat rhetorically: If Jesus can lead and save His kingdom through two thousand perilous years, don't you think He can lead and save your life as well? Of course He can. And as He did with Peter, He may begin his deliverance in the midst of darkness and confusion and chains in your life with an angelic nudge in your side and a whisper, "The Lord is with you." Happy New Year. The Lord is with us. It is still the Year of our Lord ... after all these years.