Acts 12:4-14

⁴Herod thought, “I will wait until the end of that ceremony, then I will judge Peter and kill him.” So they put Peter in jail, and Herod told 16 soldiers to guard him there. Those soldiers were in 4 little mobs, with 4 soldiers in each little mob.

⁵Peter stayed there in jail, and the other Christians prayed for him a lot.

⁶That Jewish ceremony was almost finished, and Herod was going to judge Peter the next day, but that night he was still in jail there. There was one soldier on each side of Peter, and they tied each of his hands with chains to those soldiers. Peter was asleep in between them. Other soldiers stood at the gate of the jail.

⁷Suddenly, there was a bright light in that jail cell, and one of God’s angel messengers came and stood in front of Peter. That angel hit him on the side to wake him up, and said, “Quick. Get up.” And the chains fell off Peter’s hands.

⁸Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your shoes.” So Peter did that, then the angel said, “Now put on your coat and follow me.”

⁹So Peter followed the angel, and they just walked out of that jail cell. Peter was not sure that all these things were true. He thought, “Maybe I’m dreaming. Maybe this is not really happening to me.”

¹⁰Peter and the angel walked past the 1st mob of soldiers in that jail, then they walked past the 2nd mob of soldiers. After that they came to the big iron gate in the outside wall of the jail. That gate just opened by itself in front of them, and they walked out of the jail into the city street. They walked together along that street, and then suddenly the angel left Peter and went away.

¹¹Then Peter woke up properly. He said to himself, “Now I know that this is true. I’m not dreaming. God did send one of his angels to save me. That big boss Herod and the Jewish leaders wanted to hurt me, but God saved me from them.”

¹²Peter thought about this, then he went to Mary’s house. She was the mother of a man called John Mark. A lot of Christians were praying for Peter there in her house.

¹³Peter knocked on the door of that house. A working girl called Rhoda came to the door,

¹⁴but she didn’t open it. She heard his voice and knew it was Peter, and she was so happy she just ran back into the house and told all the people, “Peter is here, standing outside the door.”