King Herod Agrippa was well known for doing everything he could to please the Jews in his territory. This may have come from the his being part Jewish. With his efforts to please the Jewish population and perhaps his heritage, he was popular with the Jewish people. As we see today, having political favor with the people can cause many things to happen, right or wrong. So it was with Herod Agrippa, who, given his desire to have favor with the Jews, may have deemed it "politically correct" to persecute the believers.
The growing church of Christians angered the Jews greatly and the more it grew, the more angry they became. This was a great opportunity for Agrippa to gain public favor, so he had James, the brother of John (James and John who were the sons of Zebedee, originally called by Jesus along with Peter) killed by the sword. As anticipated, the Jews loved it and during Passover, he arrested Peter. Peter was a big dog in the church and Agrippa knew the people would be Agrippa lovers for doing such a thing. Peter was placed in prison to await a public trial before the people once Passover was over. It sounds eerily similar to Jesus' trial in which liars and Jesus haters were able to make their voices heard. A similar scenario for Peter and perhaps many expected the same outcome - Peter crucified. Peter was chained between two guards at all times and watched over by a total of four teams of two. Aware of Peter's situation and the potential of his death, the church prayed "very earnestly" for him.
The night before his trial, Peter was sleeping and chained as usual between two guards. There were also other guards at the prison gate. Suddenly, a bright light appeared in his cell and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck Peter in the side to wake him and instructed him to get up. As he did, the chains fell off his wrists and he was instructed to get dressed and follow the angel.
The angel led him from his cell, passed the first and second guard posts to the iron prison gate. The gate opened all by itself and the angel led Peter down the street a bit, then disappeared. All this time, Peter thought he was dreaming but finally came to his senses and said, "It's really true! The Lord has sent His angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me."
Peter immediately went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark. He knocked at the door and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it. (It is suggested Rhoda was a family servant there to participate in a prayer meeting, perhaps for Peter.) Rhoda recognized Peter's voice and ran to tell the others he was there, forgetting to let him in. She ran to the others shouting, "Peter is standing at the door!" They responded by saying, "You're out of your mind!" She insisted and they decided it must be his angel. (Perhaps their thinking it might be his angel would support my thought that they figured Peter's imprisonment would end in his death.)
A thought crossed my mind while studying this section of scripture. Here they were, "earnestly" praying for Peter, yet when God moved on Peter's behalf they didn't believe he could be there. It seems like an example of a lack of faith in their prayers and maybe even a lack of believing in God's ability or willingness to do anything.
Peter continued knocking and they finally opened the door and were amazed. (Again, if we believe prayers are answered, should we be amazed once they are?)
Peter motioned for them to quiet down and told them how the Lord led him out of prison. He told them to go tell James and the other brothers what happened. This, of course, was not James the brother of John but James the half brother of Jesus who clearly held an important place with the believers there. Then Peter went to another place.
At dawn, Peter was discovered as missing, causing a great commotion. Herod Agrippa ordered a thorough search for Peter. Of course, Peter was not found which resulted in a thorough interrogation of the guards concluding with them being sentenced to death. Herod then left Judea to stay in Caesarea for a while.
Herod Agrippa had some reason for being very angry with the people in Tyre and Sidon. Tyre and Sidon were under his rule and these two cities depended on Herod and Galilee for their grain. Aware of his anger toward them, they wanted to make peace with him and sent delegates to work things out.
The delegates met with Herod's trusted, personal servant/assistant, Blastus. Blastus had no real reason to help them, so we might think they bribed him. Whatever they did, it worked and Blastus managed to get Herod to grant them an appointment. Herod dressed in his kingly attire and sat on his throne before the group. Herod's speech must have thrilled the delegates and they praised him saying, "It's the voice of a God, not of a man!" Herod accepted their praise instead of giving glory to God, so an angel sent by God struck Agrippa dead by having his insides consumed by worms.
The word of God continued to spread and many new believers came to be. When Saul and Barnabas finished their mission to Jerusalem, they went back to where they had come from.
Regardless of the players, situations or circumstances, God continued to be faithful to the new and growing following of believers in Jesus Christ. As we can see, it continued to spread wherever God wanted it to spread and this was just the beginning.