Believers Prayer

This morning we come to the last in our series on prayer and we are looking at the believers prayer in Acts 4:23-31 which was read for us earlier, so please turn to page 1096 in the pew Bibles so you can follow along with me as we look at that together.

For those of you taking notes, we have 5 headings today:-
• The Context (v23)
• The Response (v24a)
• The Truth (v24b-28)
• The Request (v29-30)
• The Result (v31)

V23 THE CONTEXT

23On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.

We begin our reading as Peter and John (the disciples of Jesus) are giving a report to the Christians in Jerusalem about everything that had happened to them over the last 24 hours or so, since 3pm the previous afternoon. Basically what has happened is this: they had healed a 40 year old man who could not walk. This had caused everyone around to ask how they could do this and Peter then preached that it was because of Jesus. That got them in trouble with the religious leaders, so they were arrested and the next day put on trial.

What we need to see about the context is this: Peter and John were in trouble for one thing, and one thing only: for speaking about Jesus. No one was upset that they had healed someone. The problem was that they had healed in the name of Jesus.

Look back to the beginning of chapter 3 and let us go over the story. I want you to notice how many times it says “in the name of Jesus”. Peter and John had met this crippled man…

6Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."

and he did! He was immediately and completely healed. Continue in verse 11...

11While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. 12When Peter saw this, he said to them: "Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.”

They then preached to those who were there, encouraging them to trust in the name of Jesus before it is too late. So many trusted in Jesus that the church swelled to 5,000 members. However, some were not so happy...
Chapter 4v1...

“The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.”

It's hard to imagine how threatening this whole situation would have been. Verse 13 tells us Peter and John were 'ordinary, unschooled men” and, after a night in jail, here they are up before the highest religious court in the country. Don't forget that they are standing in the very spot that Jesus had stood, not so long ago, and where they had also seen this same court sentence Jesus to death. It must have occurred to them that it may be their turn to face death now. But they act with amazing courage, and continue to speak of the name of Jesus. Verse 7...

7They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?" 8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. ...v12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

Why do they act with such courage? It is because they are men on a mission: Jesus has told them they must speak to others about him. It is also because they know that it is vital that everyone should hear about Jesus. The Sanhedrin tries to use their authority to shut them up...

17But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name." 18Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. 20For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.

What an amazing response! With that they are released and that is what Peter and John reported to the Christians in Jerusalem. That is the context to the passage we are looking at today and it shows us that the main lesson for us to learn this morning is about how we pray in response to opposition to the message of Jesus.

We may not feel their situation is anything like ours, but like them we have been commanded to speak about Jesus. The command of Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20 to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” is given just as much to us now as it was given to the apostles then.

And like them we WILL face persecution if we speak in the name if Jesus. It’s so easy if we just do good things. But, if we do them in the name of Jesus, like the apostles, we will face opposition, we too are in a spiritual battle. Our enemy, the devil, seeks to stop us being people who talk about Jesus because when we stop talking about Jesus the church stops growing. We will face opposition if we speak about Jesus.

What might that look like? On a national level, University Christian Unions in places like Birmingham, Edinburgh and Exeter, among others, have faced fierce opposition because of their uncompromising message that Jesus has come to die to save sinners. Emmanuel College in Gateshead has suffered opposition, again simply because of it's Christian ethos. On a more personal level, many of us face, at times, fierce opposition at work and sometimes even within our family because of our belief in the Lord Jesus and because we speak of him.

We will, no doubt, glean general principles about prayer, but our main lesson this morning is how we can pray in response to opposition to the message of Jesus.

V24A THE RESPONSE

24When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

How do they react then to this persecution, this order to stop speaking of Jesus? They could have packed their bags and run away. They could easily have just hidden. They could even have brought a strong complaint to the occupying Roman's, who had more power then the Jewish authorities.

How did they react? They prayed! They went straight to the highest authority that could possible go to. They prayed.

In the early 1960's in Russia, the Baptist Christians were suffering pretty badly. The story is told of how one day some Baptist ministers went to see Khrushchev, the Russian leader at the time. They wanted to appeal to him for help. So they got together a special group and managed to get a meeting with him! It's an incredible story. So they went to his office and put their complaint to him: why are we being persecuted and so on. After they finished speaking Khrushchev opened his drawer and amazingly brought out a Bible! They were very pleased. He started to read to them from gospels where Jesus promised his followers that if the followed him they would face persecution. He then said, 'isn't what you are suffering what your master promised you?”. They said yes. Then he said these words to them, 'so why are you complaining to me? If you really believe this book, you should never have come to me. You go to Him.”.

And he's right isn't he! That is what the disciples did. Now, that is not to say that we should never do anything other than pray, but surely our FIRST and most important response MUST be to pray directly to God. If we don't then, maybe it is because we don't actually believe that he can do anything about it. Or because we doubt that he cares for us. But he is powerful and he is good.

The disciples responded by prayer. Is that our first response too? Is that our response when we face ridicule in the office or at school when we share our faith? Is that our first response when we hear news that one of our mission partners is facing opposition or persecution? Do we respond by getting down on our knees and speaking about it to the one person who really is in control of everything.

VV24B-28 THE TRUTH

Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25You 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? 26The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. 27Indeed 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. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.”

Now we hear what the believers actually prayed. Their starting point is striking. They remind themselves of the truth of who God is – that he is the Sovereign Lord. Even though the Jewish leaders could threaten them, their authority and power was nothing compared to the power of God. The Sanhedrin was nothing compared to Him. It really helps put things in perspective when you remember that!

They remember too, v24, that he is the creator – he made the heaven, earth, sea and everything in them. This truth is repeated throughout the Bible. But here we see how that particular truth about God bring comfort and confidence as they face opposition for speaking about Jesus.

They then turn to the Bible, in this case the Old Testament, to look for a situation that was like their own. They look and quote from Psalm 2, which was written 1000 years earlier by King David. In it he describes how the people and leader's of the world had joined together to oppose God and his chosen, holy King, in that situation referring to king David. The phrase to notice is in verse 25. It says they “plot in vain”. How can they hope to win, when they oppose “The Lord and his Annointed One”.

And they see in their own situation exactly the same thing. The opposition they face is not just against them: it is against the “Lord and his Anointed One”, who is of course Jesus. And they know that they ‘plot in vain' for who can defeat God? Who can defeat the sovereign Lord? He alone has absolute power and control over the wheels of history.

They of course also have the example of Jesus's death on the cross to show perfectly how foolish it was to try and oppose God. Vv 27-28 say

“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. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.”

Together Herod, and Pontius Pilate, the Jews and the gentiles thought they had won when they killed Jesus on the cross. But God has not taken by surprise. God took their opposition and weaved it into his great plan of salvation. He is indeed a Sovereign God! Verse 28 is a wonderfully comforting truth - “they did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen”.

If he could turn what was apparently a defeat into a victory, then no opposition could possibly stop his purposes from being carried out. Let them put the whole church in prison if they like, but they will only achieve what God “decided beforehand should happen”.

They were confident that God is powerful – even the Sanhedrin ars his subjects. People, who believe in a God like that, are fearless and intimidated by no-one!

The story is told of a man called Chrysostom, an early leader of the church, who was on trial for his life before the Roman Emperor.

The emperor said, 'we will banish you'. He replied, 'You cannot banish me, for the whole world is my Father's home'.

'Well then we will execute you' said the emperor. 'You cannot' he replied, 'my life is hidden with Christ'.

'Well then, we will take away your money and your land”. 'You cannot' he said, 'I have not got any. All my treasure is in heaven'.

'We will put you in solitary confinement', continued the Emperor. 'You cannot, for I have a friend from whom you can never separate me. I defy you, there is nothing you can do to hurt me'.

Such is the confidence of Christians who know what a Sovereign God they serve. And we need to remind ourselves of this truth when we pray when facing opposition to speaking about the name of Jesus. Of course this truth that God is Sovereign also bring help and comfort as we pray in general, when we face situations of suffering, or when we need to make a decision.

We don't always remember this truth. At times like that we need to look again at all he has said and all he has done, so that we realise again the truth of these words.

V29-30 THE REQUEST

29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

Once they had clear in their mind the truth of who God is, they bring their request to him. They did not pray that God would punish or stop their enemies. Instead they bring the situation to God and make 2 requests:-

1. For his help to speak boldly so they could speak about Jesus to all.
2. For him to confirm that message by yet more miraculous signs and wonders.

They know that in order to keep speaking about Jesus, they need supernatural help and so they simply ask for it. It's not complicated. They just ask, confident in who God is and what he has promised to do. They ask him for boldness, because he has promised that he will give it.

When we face opposition to speaking about Jesus this is how we should pray. “Enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness”. It’s a great prayer to memorise. It’s a great prayer to pray for ourselves and for our mission partners this year. You see as we stand at the edge of a new year, we don't know what we will face this year – individually or as a church. But our pray is that we may we be enabled to keep speaking about Jesus. That has been my prayer for us all as I have prepared for this morning.

Having got into trouble through a miracle, it's amazing that they pray for even more! But they do, and the miracles and wonders that they ask for are those that will confirm the message of the apostles. And notice that they don’t just ask for miracles. They ask for miracles in Jesus name. Miracles alone are not enough. Miracles alone will not get us in trouble. They ask for miracles in Jesus name. And those miracles confirmed the message of the apostles, as does of course the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

We are to echo their prayer for boldness. Are we then to also echo this prayer for miracles? How can we apply this to today? At the time, their prayer was for miracles in Jesus’ name to confirm their message. They wanted people to see the power of Jesus. And while I believe God can work in a miraculous ways, today it is unusual. Also, today its effect is not directly to confirm the message of the apostles.

However, God is the same yesterday, today and for ever. He still works miracles. He still radically, permanently and supernaturally changes people's lives, not least when they come to believe in him. And while people seeing the amazing things that God does today doesn’t confirm the message of the apostles, nevertheless, it does provide powerful evidence that God is a powerful God. And we can pray in line with that. We can pray that people will see what God has done and that they would see the power of Jesus in their lives.

V31 THE RESULT

31After 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.

The shaking here is not the shaking we are used to at JPC: the noise of a metro travelling under their church. It probable something like an earthquake and here it is a sign from God that he was with them, that he had heard their prayer and would answer them. And that is exactly what he did. He answered their prayer by filling them with the Holy Spirit and that gave them confidence and the ability to keep speaking about Jesus. We see in the rest of the book of Acts how the church does speak as God has promised – in Jerusalem, then in Samaria and Judea and eventually throughout the world. And we see that he did confirm the message of the apostles by even more miraculous signs and wonders.

And this prayer is a wonderful pattern for us as we face opposition for speaking about Jesus. It's a wonderful example to remind us that God does hear and answer prayer. And how we need to pray as they prayed! How we need to pray for boldness! How we need to pray for such a filling of the Holy Spirit! We need so desperately to be transformed by Him so that we can speak of Jesus, despite opposition.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful this year if we are known for really believing that “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved”. Wouldn’t it be great if we are known as people who “cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard". Let us pray for boldness. Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to enable us to keep speaking about the name of Jesus. Let’s pray.

Father thank you for the wonderful truth in your Word that you are Sovereign and you are the Creator and that nothing is out of your control. Thank you for the wonderful truth that they ‘only did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen’. Father strengthen us as we remember that you are a powerful and sovereign God. We echo their prayer too and ask that you will enable us to speak your word with great boldness too. Father, fill us with your Spirit and enable people to see your power in all that you do. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen