For the past few posts, I’ve been writing from the book of Acts. So far, I’ve written about Acts 3 in October, where we learned about the healing of the lame beggar. After healing that lame beggar, Peter and John began speaking in the temple about Jesus and the resurrection. Then in November we began Acts 4 where we talked about the aftermath of Peter and John’s miracle and preaching at the temple. They were thrown in Jail overnight and then questioned by the Sanhedrin assembly, at the temple by the chief priests, who were Sadducees. It is in these verses that Peter explains that Salvation is found in no one else besides Jesus, and there is no name under heaven given to mankind by which we can be saved. The chief priests didn’t like the preaching of Peter and John, but there was nothing they could do about it. They threatened Peter and John to stop preaching, but none of them could deny the fact that a man who had been lame for over 40 years was now walking. Thousands of people were believing based on the preaching of Peter and John, and the demonstration of God’s power in this lame man. So while nothing terribly bad happened to Peter and John as a result of this miracle, when they left the Sadducees, there was a difference in the environment towards Christians at the Temple.
23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
After they were let go by the Jewish council (the Sanhedrin), Peter and John returned to their own people. They went back to their church group to report what was said at the temple. At this point in church history, Peter and John had become leaders in this new Christian church. Obviously, Jesus Christ is the true head of the church, but the disciples who were given the Holy Spirit were the people that God was using to build His church. And of the Disciples, Peter and John were really the main teachers, evangelists, pastors, leaders at this point. To return to a growing church with this message must have been difficult. As a pastor, I know how difficult it can be to start telling people something I am pretty sure they don’t want to hear. And for Peter and John, this might be one of the toughest things to tell everyone. That despite being used by God to make a lame man walk, and despite the success they’d had teaching and preaching in the temple, despite the fact that so many people are praising God and listening to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, despite all these things, Peter and John had abruptly disappeared and actually ended up spending the prior night in Jail. Even though they weren’t punished beyond that night in jail, they were threatened by the temple authority and the entire Jewish council.
Up to now, it might have been possible to be a follower of Jesus and still fit in at the temple or to stay on the sidelines when it was convenient. But the temple council has now put an end to all of that. Peter and John were told to not teach Jesus anymore. The two of them were threatened. They owed it to their friends and fellow Christians to at least warn them about what was said. They couldn’t keep the threats a secret, and endanger the congregation. The people in their church needed to know that there was a danger to being Christian. Followers of Jesus are now threatened by the Sanhedrin, to keep their mouths shut. These people had to pick a side. Either stay at the temple and be a good Jew, or go with Peter and John, but don’t come back, and DEFINITELY don’t say the wrong thing. Peter and John’s group of believers had to make a serious sacrifice. It’s hard to ask people to sacrifice things. But these two had to warn their people that to exercise their faith or to share their beliefs, or to say the wrong thing in the temple is going to be dangerous. This type of persecution isn’t something that we face today. You don’t have to watch what you say here. You aren’t threatened to believe a certain thing over another. To come to church we don’t have to sacrifice anything besides the few hours that we spend there. We aren’t asked to give up our customs, our heritage, our friends. But the people that were in Peter and John’s church were mainly Jews who had converted to the Way. In that temple, they had customs and relationships and history. Many of them could trace their lineage to a certain tribe or to a certain patriarch. And now, they had to give up something of their identity to become identified with Christ. It’s not quite the same sacrifice for us. But there is a sacrifice to make. To become identified with Christ we have to give up something in our identity that we hold dear. When we first hear the call from God, we needed to give up our illusions of self centeredness and our pride. We have to give up on the idea that we are perfect, or even good. We have to admit that we are sinners in need of a savior. To put on Christ, we need to take things off. But fortunately for us, there isn’t a council of Jewish leaders and temple guards who will compel us to do that using force and threats. How does a church that is basically being promised to be persecuted respond to threats? Reread verse 24.
This church did so with maturity and grace. They raised their voices together in prayer to God. The prayers weren’t charging God with negligence or accusing God of being unjust or unfair. Their prayers weren’t asking God to change His plans, for the benefit of His new church (even though that would have made things much easier and safer for them.) They didn’t bargain with God like, “If you reveal yourself to us, we will follow you.” or “If you protect us, we will evangelize the nations.” That’s how our prayers can look sometimes. But they accepted what was to happen. They started their prayer addressing God saying, “Sovereign Lord”. Just those two words explain so much about their thoughts. First the word Sovereign. It means “supreme ruler” it means “possessing supreme or ultimate power.” Sometimes that word is used to describe a country. A sovereign nation acts independently and without any outside interference. A sovereign nation answers to no person or no other governing body. Why is that? Because a sovereign nation has power and control within their jurisdiction, or their boundaries. Like a sovereign nation, God doesn’t answer to anybody or anything. God is in control. And his jurisdiction is infinite. His will is unique and doesn’t need to change for anybody. Since God has supreme power, there is nothing that exists or that could ever exist that would make God change His plans or His will. God is unchanging. If anything could change God, he would no longer be God because the thing that changed Him would be more powerful. When we say we worship God, we need to know what that means. That’s why you must read your Bibles. Study Scripture. Know who it is that you’re worshipping, so you don’t stray or be taken captive by false doctrine. We need to know the character of the God that the Bible teaches. One of the attributes of God’s character is omnipotence. His power is absolute, unlimited, and boundless. So all of that; all of those qualities are kind of contained in the word Sovereign. They started their prayer with the word Sovereign. The second word. Lord. A lord is someone or something having power, authority, or influence over another. It means master or ruler. When we say Jesus is our Lord and Savior, we are saying two things. Savior means we understand that he saves us from our sins. It’s not our behavior or anything we do to save ourselves. Jesus died to save us from our sins. Lord means that he is in control and authority over our lives and over our behavior. When we have no lord, we continue sinning with no regard to His authority. The interesting thing about this is that God IS our Lord, whether we acknowledge and accept the fact or not. When we disobey Him, we disregard and try to usurp his authority, but He still has that authority. He is in control, and as the creator God controls all of us, his Creation. But when we acknowledge that we are subject to his will, we actively submit to his rules and commandments. When we acknowledge his sovereignty and his lordship, we stop fighting against his authority and start accepting what he has in store for our lives. The church prayed “Sovereign Lord. you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.” Not only is God sovereign and omnipotent, and our ruler and master. He is also a creator of everything we see, which means everything belongs to him. Recognizing that makes the idea of potential persecution seem a bit less scary. God is in control. Let’s continue reading their prayer. Verse 25-26
25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord
and against his anointed one.’
The next part of the prayer confirms more of what we preach regarding scripture. Scripture is God’s spoken Word. Verse 25 says God spoke by His Holy Spirit through the mouth of David. If you want to know God, you study his Word. If you want to hear His voice, read Scripture. If you want to know what the Holy Spirit is and what it does, study Scripture. All Scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. Peter and John’s congregation know this, and they are familiar with the Old Testament. They quote Psalm 2:1-2. This Psalm declares God’s sovereignty. What point is there in plotting or raising ourselves against the Lord? The Lord is the Sovereign Creator, in power and control of everything. We are His creatures, we belong to Him. At the same time that we say those things, we understand that while there’s no point in raging against God, it happens. There are people out there who DO plot and rise up against God. There are people who rise up in rebellion against Jesus. Not just ordinary people, but kings of the earth, rulers, people in high positions with a lot of influence over policy. People who like to think they are in control. Remember Pontius Pilate, when he questioned Jesus in John 19:10-12
10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free,
Pilate thought he was in control. He believed that he had the power to free or crucify Jesus. Pilate tried to explain his authority and sovereignty to Jesus. That’s like me trying to explain physics to Einstein. Obviously, Pilate didn’t understand what true sovereignty and true power was. Pilate didn’t understand who he was speaking to. He suspected Jesus was someone special, but didn’t know the character of God. In these brief two and a half verses we learn how little power Pilate has. Two verses after Pilate claims that he has the power to free Jesus, the Bible tells us that from that point on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free. We all know how well Pilate’s attempts to set Jesus free worked. With all the power that Pilate supposedly thought he held, he could not change the opinion of the chief priests. He either didn’t have the power he claimed to, or he didn’t want to use the power that he thought he had. He could not free Jesus, even though at some point he wanted to. The prayer in Acts mentions Pilate, so we will go back to Acts 4:27-28
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
When things don’t turn out the way we expect, sometimes we think God made some sort of mistake. Bad things happen. Sin messes up and ruins the order that God commands. Hatred and violence hurt people who were created in God’s image. Peacemakers that God blesses and the meek that are part of God’s plan seem like they lose more often than they win. Ungodliness is easy to see in this world. When the Holy Spirit is at work in us, we are grieved by all those bad things that we see and hear about. But we assume that ungodliness and rebellion pose some sort of threat to God’s plan. We assume that sin threatens God. The reality is that ungodliness and rebellion are part of God’s plan. Like verse 28 says, God in his power has decided beforehand what should happen. Ungodliness and Rebellion and Sin will be punished. The punishment will either go to the ungodly and rebellious, or the punishment will go to His righteous Son, and we will go free. That’s God’s plan, and that plan demonstrates God’s righteousness, God’s Holiness, and his wrath towards unrepentant sinners. But that plan also demonstrates his great mercy, his amazing grace, and his unconditional love towards his elect. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. These are the words of life. This is the glory of the cross. And we are so fortunate today to be able to say this whenever and wherever we want to. We can share this message without fear of punishment or threats. Let’s continue reading their prayer:
29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
They ask God to consider the threats of His enemies. If I were praying, I think it would have sounded a lot different. I would pray for opportunities to spread God’s word without the chief priests knowing about it. I would pray for a change in leadership of Sanhedrin so we would be free to share God’s word. I would pray, asking God to avoid persecution and physical harm. I would pray for some sort of victory over the people threatening me. But they don’t ask for protection. They pray for God to enable them to speak his word. Not just in secret or in safety, but with great boldness and in the face of potential danger. The wording of the request also shows a humility. “Enable your servants to speak your word”. Enable. Make us able to speak your word. If we need God to Enable us, it means we aren’t able to do this on our own. The prayer is that God Enables us. When you ask God to enable you to do something, you recognize the need for God’s spirit and his power to give you the ability to act. Whether the action is speaking the word of God with Boldness like in verse 29, or healing people or performing signs and wonders in Jesus’s name like verse 30. God is the one that makes his servants able to move forward with boldness and in the face of fears. Again, when I read this verse, I realize how we are so fortunate to not have to worry about serious threats. Our prayers should end the same way that this prayer ends, though. We need to pray that God enables us to speak His word with great boldness. Even though I don’t face threats, I find myself lacking boldness to speak his truth. I am more concerned with people’s opinions of me than I am for speaking God’s truth. I am more concerned with reaching agreement than I am with following my convictions. Even though nobody’s threatened me and warned me not to speak, I still find myself scared to speak out and share my faith sometimes. I need to pray for this boldness that Peter and John’s group prayed for.
In Verse 31 they finish their prayer. And God reveals Himself to his faithful people. They experience an earthquake, or a shaking of the place where they met. And the Holy Spirit filled the entire group. What does it look like when an entire group of people are filled with the Holy Spirit? They didn’t run around in circles or all take turns falling on the floor. They didn’t speak in words nobody understood. When they encountered the Holy Spirit, they Spoke. What did they speak? The Word of God. And how did they speak? Boldly. With boldness and lack of timidity or fear. In this instance, the Holy Spirit acted as a counselor who councils the people of God in truth of Scripture. The Holy Spirit came on them, and filled them so they could speak God’s Word with Boldness. I pray for the same thing for myself every Christian. As we approach the holidays and Christmas, this time of the year is great to share God’s Word. The whole season is a time where nearly everybody is celebrating something that happened in the Bible. This is one of the only times of the year where talking about Jesus is in the context of current events. I pray that God enables all of us to lovingly speak His word, and to do so with boldness.