The setting of Acts 12 is pretty bleak. Peter was in prison, chained to two Roman soldiers. King Herod had already executed James, Peter’s fellow apostle, for his Christian ministry. It was the night before Peter’s trial, where, in all likelihood, he, too, would be found “guilty” and executed. And what was Peter doing in what may have been the last few hours of his life? He was sleeping.
He was probably the only Christian in Jerusalem asleep that night. Everyone else was praying fervently for his release. So why was Peter asleep? Because he trusted in the Lord.
This isn’t the only instance of Peter sleeping in the Bible. In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night of Jesus’ arrest, Jesus said to Peter, James, and John, “Stay here and keep watch with me” (Matthew 26:38). Jesus went off to pray, came back, and found them sleeping. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak,” Jesus said (verse 41).
Jesus went off again, came back, and found them sleeping again. And then it happened a third time.
In Luke 9, Jesus took the same three men to a mountain to pray. While they were there, Jesus was transfigured. Moses appeared on one side of Him; Elijah appeared on the other. And Peter? Peter and the others had fallen asleep (verse 32).
Peter woke up and blurted out, “Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias,” (verse 33). Makes you wonder whether Elijah turned to Jesus and asked, “Who is that? Is he with You?” Or whether Jesus rolled His eyes and said, “Yes, he’s with Me.”
But in Acts 12, Peter slept a good sleep. He was at rest with the peace of God in his heart. And nothing, not even the threat of death, could rob him of that peace. But the time for rest was over. The time for action had come. With the help of an angel, Peter walked out of prison and resumed his ministry.
Paul touched on this theme of a time for rest and a time for action in Romans 13 when he said, “knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” (verse 11).
His warning is addressed to all Christians. We need to be wide awake because time is short. We’ve never been closer to the return of Jesus than we are right now.
In our society that’s dependent on sleeping pills and tranquilizers, we can take a lesson from Peter on how to trust God. There’s a time to rest and be at peace with Him. But there’s also a time to wake up, to be bold in our faith. To allow our faith to lead us out of our comfort zone—our sleeping zone.
