Congregational-Presbyterian Church

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Congregational-Presbyterian Church

“Boldness”

Acts 4:23-31

November 19, 2017

This morning we are going to consider a prayer in Acts 4. Though this passage was chosen months ago, it is especially timely given the events of November 5. Two weeks ago today, a gunman dressed in all black entered the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas during their 11:00am worship service. He killed 26 people and wounded 20 others. Our passage this morning records Christians asking God for the boldness to minister in a dangerous world. I pray that we will be inspired to follow their example as we consider our response to the world in which we live.

Before we read the text, let me briefly share the context for their prayer. Last Sunday Pastor McLane preached on the passage in Acts 3 where Peter and John healed a man who had been lame all his life. He was a well-known beggar who sat by one of the temple gates. Walking, leaping and praising God, the news of his healing soon spread and many people came to the temple to see the miracle for themselves. This gave Peter and John the opportunity to once again preach the gospel to a large crowd of people, as they had on Pentecost. But, some of the Jewish leaders were angry that they were speaking about the resurrection of Jesus. They were arrested and put in prison until the next morning when they were brought before the Jewish ruling council. Peter spoke boldly before the council, repeating the message that Jesus, whom they had condemned to crucifixion, had been raised from the dead. The council ordered Peter and John to stop speaking of Jesus, but they declared that they were compelled by God to continue proclaiming the gospel message. Unsure what to do about them, and aware that they were popular with the people because of the miracle, the council threatened them further and let them go. This brings us to our text. I invite you to turn with me to Acts 4:23-31

As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said. When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying,‘Why were the nations so angry?Why did they waste their time with futile plans?The kings of the earth prepared for battle;the rulers gathered togetheragainst theLordand against his Messiah.’ In fact, this has happened here in this very city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed.But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will. And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word.Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.

What was Peter and John’s response to the threats of the Jewish council? They didn’t go out to organize a revolutionary movement to overthrow the council. They didn’t appeal to the crowds with whom they were popular in order to stir up anger against those who opposed them. Peter and John went to be with their friends, and together they prayed. It is never wrong for a believer to pray alone about the troubles in his or her life, but when we pray together with others, when we pray together as the church, we are able to carry one another’s burdens. God means for us to live in community and, as a community, to prayerfully address troubles that come our way.

The first thing we notice about their prayer is that they address God as “Sovereign Lord.” God holds the world in the palm of his hand, and is intimately involved in every human event. They found great encouragement in this, but I wonder how often we forget that God is in control. We are aware of the evil that is present in our world, the terror and upheaval it produces, the terrible loss and sorrow experienced by those who are its innocent victims, and we question whether evil will win the day. “No,” said the first Christians. In spite of what their eyes saw - the threats of the authorities – faith was what directed their lives. They walked by faith, not by sight. God is in charge, not evil.

Indeed, long ago, their ancestor King David wrote about the raging of the authorities against God and his Messiah. He, too, experienced threats, as have God’s people throughout history, and he knew by faith that their plans are futile. Evil tries in vain to overthrow God and his people, but its schemes are in vain for they are plotted against God who is the sovereign Lord of all creation. Having expressed their faith in a God who is in control, they went to the Scriptures and used God’s promises to affirm their faith. Whenever we face the problems of the world, or the problems of our personal lives, we need to match them with promises from God’s Word. In prayer we don’t come merely with our own thoughts. Scripture gives us God’s thoughts, God’s promises, God’s assurances, and we are encouraged to pray them back to him.

The Christians in Jerusalem realized that what God had spoken through David was happening then and there in their current situation. For David it was the nations around Israel who were the threat; for these believers it was people like Herod and Pilate and the Romans and many of their own leaders who had conspired against Jesus. For three days it looked like they had won, that evil had prevailed. For three days Jesus was dead and the disciples were in hiding, fearing for their lives. Then, God raised Jesus from the dead. They had plotted in vain; their plans had ended in futility. Jesus was alive, and his followers were boldly proclaiming his resurrection – and many believed.

Having acknowledged that God is in charge, and having remembered together his promises to David which had become promises to them, the believers essentially asked God to do it again. They were in trouble and in danger of their lives, and that meant that God could once again show his power and make futile the plans of their enemies. First they asked God to “hear their threats.” Then they asked God to strike dead those who threatened them, right? No, they didn’t. They asked God to hear the threats of those who opposed them and for great boldness in sharing the gospel with them. While there are times that we might want our enemies dead, or at least somehow taken far away from us, how will they hear about Jesus and be given the opportunity to turn from their evil ways and accept him as Lord and Savior? “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Jesus said. Because they deserve it? No, they don’t. Because that will somehow prove what good Christians we are? No, it really isn’t about us. It’s about them. It’s about overcoming evil with good and trusting God that in the end, regardless of how things seem to us in the present, evil will be judged and forever destroyed.

God answered their prayer, filling them with the Holy Spirit. And they went out and shared God’s message of love and grace with boldness. Let us be a church praying for that same boldness in the context of our world. Let us acknowledge that God is in control, that evil will do all it can to bring us down and to shut us up, that the promises of God assure us that evil will not win, and in his power we will continue to be his people, sharing his love.

Kevin Cornelius, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Karnes City, Texas, located only a few miles from the Sutherland Springs Church where the killing had taken place, was asked about the situation as he and others were there, on site, dealing with the pain. He said, "The church still works. We don't have a plan, but we have a community. We don't have answers, but we have grace and peace. We don't understand, but we're present. Our hearts are breaking, but we have hope and we're giving it away as quick as we can."