"The Prayer That Shook the World" Acts 4:23-31 Sunday Evening Worship Service

It was um the great theologian and renowned ukulele player Robert Hartman that that told me that when he reads a book for the first many many of the books, he starts with the last chapter by reading the last chapter to see if it's a work book that's worth reading.

And he spoils his it's a spoiler alert that he does to himself to see whether this is a book that is worth reading or not.

I don't know if that's true, but I th I remember you saying that many times.

It's true, it's true, I was right.

Um so I want to do that tonight with you guys.

I want to read the last verse and to give you a reason for this sermon, to give you a reason why this prayer that we're about to read about is a prayer worth studying and worth emulating in our own lives.

So turn to Acts chapter 4, verse 31.

Acts 4:31

Acts chapter 4, verse 31.

Acts 4:31

Let's read the conclusion to this prayer and what happens after the disciples in the early church, after they pray, what does God do?

Look at what it says in verse 31.

It says, and when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

When's the last time that you prayed and God shook the world around you?

This is an incredible prayer for God to react in such a way that He not only does He shake the world, but He emboldens the disciples to be willing, they've just been told they could die if they preach the gospel.

This is the first real threat the church has for preaching the gospel.

Not only does he shake the world around them to approve of their prayer, but this prayer and this answer of the Holy Spirit emboldening them starts to spread a fire that will never be able to be put out.

So the question is, why did God react this way?

And so we need to look at this prayer, and we got to start it in verse 23, and we'll get through the context a little bit later, but we want to start in verse 23, and we just want to read the prayer and see why this is a prayer that God is excited about and reacts so powerfully towards.

So let's read together in verse 23.

When they were released, Peter and John, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, Why did the Gentiles rage and the plot peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.

For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

I think the key to this prayer starts in the first word that they say.

And if you look at it, it says sovereign Lord.

Sovereign Lord.

And the word despota, that's the Italian way to say it, despota, uh, here is a key word because what they are saying is, as they're addressing God with this word, they're saying that they believe that God has absolute dominion and uncontrollable power.

Now, think about that.

They've just been threatened for their lives, and their first words are to address God as the one who has what?

He has absolute dominion and incontrollable power.

And Acts Acts 4 is a very important chapter.

Acts X 3 and 4 are very important chapters.

We'll look at uh in detail in a second.

Uh but Peter and John preach a sermon that changes everything, it causes the church to begin to face persecution.

They're about to do it, they do a miracle that causes the the Pharisees to get angry, maybe angrier than they even were against Jesus.

The same guys, Annas and Caiaphas, come and they they threaten John and Peter with persecution.

And and then they go home and they pray this prayer.

They pray this incredible prayer, almost undeterred by the threats.

And I think that there's a major reason why they can go to bed that night and sleep like babies.

It's because of their total trust in the sovereign God of the universe.

Spurgeon famously said that the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon, upon which the child of God rests his head at night, giving perfect peace.

And so we need this prayer.

We want to pray like the disciples, we want to be like the disciples, we want to believe like the disciples.

And I think that if we listen to this prayer and we and we follow it and we understand it, we can also be emboldened to face any trial that this world can face, that can this world can throw at us.

So I want to look at this prayer and I want to see three aspects of the sovereignty of God.

Uh, three aspects of the sovereignty of God that will give us perfect peace under the most difficult circumstances.

Or another way to think about it.

Three aspects of the sovereignty of God that will embolden us to preach the gospel to a dying and desperate world.

And the first point, the first aspect about God's sovereignty that we should learn from the disciples in this prayer is that God is sovereign over all creation.

Look at what it says in verse 23.

God is sovereign over all creation.

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them.

And everything in them.

Now, Luke doesn't tell us who prays.

We know Peter and John were the ones who were under the threat of persecution.

They come home, they tell the disciples and the other, maybe all the believers that are in Jerusalem, who knows?

We don't even know who's in this room, but it's a lot of people.

And they address these people and they tell them what just was told to them, which is that if they keep preaching the gospel, they will die.

And we don't know who prays, if it's Peter, if it's if it's John, if it's a collection of all the prayers, and this is a summary by Luke to teach us how to pray.

But the point is that Luke wants to teach us how to pray.

He wants us to understand how to pray when we face difficulty in our life.

And the way that they start the prayer is, first of all, to attribute total power to God.

And they start with a broad statement that God is the creator of all things.

God is the creator of all things.

God has the power to control the weather, the animals, and every single human being.

Psalm 24, 1 comes to mind here.

It's a verse that talks about God's, uh, that the fact that the earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the earth and all who dwell in it.

God doesn't own just the earth, he owns anybody who's on the earth.

He owns the life of every single human being on earth.

He owns your neighbor's life, he owns your life.

And he owns your worship.

And you should be worshiping this God.

And he can control all things and he can change things however he wants.

He can intervene and make anything happen according to his will.

And there is nothing and no one who God does not have power over, who he does not have dominion over, who he does not have rule over.

He controls all.

As Sprohl famously said, there's no maverick molecule in this entire universe.

And last time I preached here, I preached on John chapter 9, and the blind man, this is a year and a half ago, I don't expect you to remember.

John 9 · chapter mention

But Jesus is able to take a man's eyes who've never developed, he's never seen, and he can give him new eyes where in an instant he can see 20-20 vision better than anybody else.

And here, if you go back to chapter 3 of Acts chapter 3, you see Peter and John in the same temple, just a little while later, after Jesus heals that blind man, and then the blind man worships Jesus, and you have Peter and John going up to the temple.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Look at verse 1 of chapter 3.

At the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, in a man, lame from birth, was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate at the temple that is called the beautiful gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple.

Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms.

And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John and said, Look at us.

And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.

But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Rise up and walk.

And he took him by the right hand, raised him up, and immediately his feet and his ankles were made strong.

And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

You know who did this?

Jesus Christ, whom you crucified and rose from the dead.

He goes into this incredible sermon, and he says, There's no other name by which man can be saved except by the name of Jesus Christ.

And then the persecution comes.

But it's fascinating that Jesus can take a man who's never walked.

Peter can literally pull him by the hand and he's leaping.

He goes from beggar on the street to dancing with the stars in a second.

This guy can dance.

He's the best dancer in the room, and he's never walked before.

It takes years for kids to learn how to walk and run.

This guy goes from never having walked to instantly dancing.

He is it's it's not just a miracle of going from walking to from from uh begging to walking.

This guy's dancing.

He's leaping.

He bypassed years of learning how to walk.

This has major implications for us.

Think about the power of God.

He can create everything from nothing in an instant.

He can cause Adam to be one second old and have the appearance of age to be an adult.

He can cause Adam to see stars from Earth.

The second he's created, and the stars were created only a couple days earlier.

And it takes, it should take, I don't know, I'm not a creation.

Millions of years, maybe billions, I have no idea, to see stars from Earth.

And in an instant, Adam can see the stars.

Bypassing millions of years of time in an instant.

God can create the world in an instant by just a word.

He can cause the seas to be still.

To the point where they're on a the disciples are on a boat with Jesus.

They're so afraid, these are seasoned sailors, they're so afraid of the storm that's happening that they they accuse Jesus of not loving them.

Then Jesus gets up, stops the storm in an instant, and Luke tells us they're more afraid of Jesus than they were minutes earlier when they were about to die in the storm.

They don't want to be in the boat with Jesus because he has the power to talk to the storm and tell it to stop in an instant.

They have this all in mind as they're praying this prayer.

They were on the boat with Jesus.

They saw him instantly stop the storm.

They saw him grow limbs back.

They saw him take Lazarus from the tomb back to life, and they saw himself, Jesus himself, come back to life.

He can make COVID disappear in an instant.

He can't do it right now if he wants.

And this is a comfort to the disciples.

As they consider the sovereignty of God, as they walk away from being threatened of their lives, they go home as cool as a cucumber, because of the God who can create all things in an instant, who can cure all things in an instant.

He can command all things.

Because they trust that God has their best interest at heart.

They trust that God can do this, can remove anything at any instant.

And if he doesn't remove it, then he is using it for what?

For their sanctification, as we heard Jesse mentioned this morning.

It is the very fact that he can remove it that is a comfort to them in a moment of great trial and stress, being threatened with their lives, that they go home, and the first thought is God is creator and he can create all things in an instant.

So the disciples teach us that God is sovereign over creation, over nature, over humans.

But we need to dig a little deeper here.

Because, as we said, if God created all things, he could have put set things into motion, but is he in control over the things that his things do?

Namely humans.

Is he in control over the things that his creation does?

In other words, is God sovereign over even the bad things that his creation does?

And so big spectrum, whoever's praying, I might say Peter because that's what I'm thinking.

Whoever's praying this prayer is starting big spectrum, God's creator of all things.

And so then the question leads to well, is he sovereign over the hard things that happen in life?

They're facing a hardship, they're facing an injustice, they're doing a very wonderful thing, preaching the gospel, they're being threatened to stop.

And so the question is if he's sovereign over creation, he's the Lord of all of it, he set it into motion in six literal days, he set the whole world into motion, he created Adam and Eve with the appearance of age and as instant.

But is he now sovereign over the hard things that happen in life?

And look at what it says in verse 25.

Not only is God sovereign over creation, but he's also sovereign over injustice.

Second point is that God is sovereign over injustice.

Look at what it says in verse 25.

It says, Who, through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, Why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.

For truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pile, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel.

To do whatever, this is the key verse, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Before we answer the question about God being sovereign over injustice, it's important to declare emphatically that God hates injustice, that God will punish and judge injustice.

It's uh Proverbs 11:1.

Proverbs 11:1

This says that a false balance is an abomination to the Lord.

Uh the dad of the two uh of the two girls that we're planning a church with in Rome was a butcher in Rome.

And he defrauded his clients.

And he was reading the Bible to prove it wrong because a brother had become saved, so he's trying to prove it.

He's a Catholic.

He goes to church, he goes to Mass, and he starts reading the Bible.

And he gets to verse uh Proverbs 11:1 and sees the false skill is an abomination to the Lord and gets convicted of his sin because he realized he's defrauding his clients at the butcher shop and he's making them pay more than they should.

Proverbs 11:1

And the rest is history gets saved, and now he's a missionary and pastor.

God hates injustice.

He hates the false skill.

He hates what the butcher does when he defrauds his clients.

Proverbs 12 22, lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

Proverbs 17, 5, whoever mocks the poor insults his maker.

He who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

David says in Psalm 43:1, Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against ungodly people from the deceitful and unjust man.

Psalms 43:1

Deliver me.

David expects God to deal with injustice.

I want you to turn to Revelation 6 real quick.

Revelation 6, keep your finger in Acts 4, because we're coming right back.

But Revelation 6, verse 10.

Revelation 6:10

There's some martyrs here.

There's some martyrs who've been decapitated by their killers.

And look at what they're saying, what they're yelling out to the Lord.

They use the same word, despota.

Look at what it says, verse 10.

They cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth.

The question isn't whether he's going to avenge the blood of those who killed them.

They're just ready for it to happen now.

That's a scary verse to think about.

They can't wait for God to bring his wrath on those who committed this injustice against them.

It's fascinating.

They are appealing to the sovereign God who's able and capable to do what?

Anything he wants whenever he wants, including punishing injustice when it happens and it takes time.

God is very patient.

And God doesn't punish, he's not gonna condemn to hell every person that's committed injustice because I have committed many injustices and I'm not going to hell.

So God is very patient and he's forgiving, but he will judge injustice because he hates injustice.

It's so important for us to understand that God is totally pure, he cannot sin, and yet he's sovereign over injustice.

It doesn't mean he's the perpetrator of the injustice, but he is the ultimate cause of what happens.

He's not the immediate cause.

It's too simple for us to say God allows bad things to happen.

That's too simple.

God takes more credit than just allowing it in the Bible.

The Bible takes more credit than just allowing it, but it's a heresy to say he commits it.

And our minds are probably, I mean, they are limited in our ability to understand this tension.

But we understand this through what the Bible tells us and doesn't tell us.

God directs and controls all things, yet God is not culpable for the things that take place.

Man is limited in his power, and yet he is totally responsible for the sins he commits.

Think about the opposite.

If God is not sovereign over injustice, then he's a God who gets caught by surprise.

He set things into motion, and Cain kills his brother.

He's like, oh my goodness gracious, what do we do about this?

He's always trying to get caught up and fix messes that keep happening.

Or, as the Bible tells us, as Joseph declares in the moment of facing one of the greatest injustices we see in the Bible, other than Jesus Christ.

Joseph says that what you meant for evil, God meant for good, and he gives God the credit for, and he gives God, he says, God is sovereign over what happened to me, and yet you meant it for evil, but God used it for good.

This is such an important truth for us to understand because this prayer says something.

So astounding here.

Go back to Acts chapter 4.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Think about what the person who's praying this prayer, what the disciples are saying.

They're saying that God is sovereign over the greatest injustice that this world has ever seen.

Why do I say that?

What's the most the greatest injustice that's ever been perpetrated on this earth?

Obviously, it's the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

He's the only perfect man.

You know, when an injustice happens against me, what do I deserve ultimately?

I deserve hell.

Maybe I don't deserve that a person mistreats me for preaching the gospel, but what I deserve ultimately is an eternity of burning in hell.

That's what I deserve.

So when an injustice happens against me, I deserve way worse.

But when an injustice happens against a perfect person, God Himself, Jesus Christ, then we are really talking about an injustice here.

And yet the disciples are comforted by the fact that they say God would predestined it to happen.

That comforts them.

Look at what it says in verse 27.

Verse 25, well, let's start in verse 25.

Super important.

He says, Who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.

This is Psalm 2.

And he's he's taking Psalm 2, and it's Psalm 2 is a messianic psalm about the anointed, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

It's a prophetic word for the future.

And the disciples say that what he's talking about in Psalm 2 is Herod and Pontius Pilate.

In fact, they attribute the kings of the earth to Herod and the rulers to Pontius Pilate.

Look at what he says in verse 27.

For truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

So here they are taking Psalm 2, and they're saying, this is about Jesus and about the injustice that has that he faced just a little while ago.

Remember, these disciples are facing persecution.

And they they quote this psalm, and they are facing something very similar because they're facing the rulers and the kings gathering together to stop something that is advancing what?

The kingdom of God.

And they plot against the Lord.

They don't want the Lord to be able to advance his kingdom.

They hate it.

They want their kingdoms to advance.

The world wants its kingdom to advance.

It doesn't want God's kingdom to advance.

And so they come against the Lord and against the anointed.

They want to thwart God's plan, and yet the Psalm 2 tells us that God sits in the heavens and laughs.

And then they had the audacity to kill his anointed one.

And God's laughter turns to fury.

And we'll send all humans, all rulers, all kings.

He's going to send them to hell.

Unless, unless they kiss the sun, Psalm 2 tells us.

Unless they believe in the sun, unless they trust in the sun.

And here in Acts 4, in a prayer, the disciples are saying, look at these kings, look at these rulers.

He's saying that the kings are Herod, the rulers are the Pharisees, Pontius Pilate, and they're saying that they are culpable for what they did, but they give the ultimate, ultimate, the cause of the death of Jesus to the Lord himself.

They say, Yes, Herod is culpable for the crucifixion of Jesus, he will be judged.

Pilate is culpable, and the Pharisees are the ones who crucified Jesus, they will be judged.

They already have been.

If they did not believe in Jesus, they already have been judged.

And they will face the wrath of God for their sinful action.

But as they acted as they did, verse 28 tells us, look at look at what it says, that these people did whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

That's a powerful verse.

That's a powerful verse.

This is doesn't say it's a mystery.

Jesse told us about a mystery that says it's a mystery this morning.

But this is this is a mystery for us.

How this works out.

God is sovereign.

God predestines injustice to take place.

But the people are responsible and will be punished for it.

And yet God is moving along his plan through what they're doing.

He's not culpable for what they're doing, he's not sinning.

They're the ones sinning, they're gonna be judged for it, and yet God is allowing his will to continue.

And though humans have evil intent for what they do, God has perfectly holy and good intent for what he does.

And it's implicit that they're praying this prayer, and they're encouraged by this very thought.

They love this thought that God is sovereign over the crucifixion of Jesus.

They're encouraged by it.

It's gonna make God not only shake the earth, but it's gonna give them the courage to continue to go.

They're pumped up by this.

This is not a theological debate for them.

They're not teaching right now.

They're not sitting in a room teaching one another on theology.

What are they doing?

They're praying.

They're praying to the Lord and they're becoming encouraged through that prayer.

By the thought that God was in control over the greatest injustice this world has ever faced and willed it to happen before the foundation of the earth.

And this thought is incredibly comforting to them, to their hearts.

Why?

The question is then why?

Why would that be a comfort?

And the progression is, I think the answer is simple.

The progression of the prayer teaches us this.

Because, think about it, the disciples saw the resurrection.

They started preaching about sin and judgment, the need to trust in the resurrected Savior.

Some people are getting saved, the vast majority are not, and hate them for it.

In fact, they just tell them that if they keep preaching, they will die.

They go home, they pray to the God who's sovereign over creation and can remove any difficulty in an instant.

A God who's uh can literally create the world in six literal days.

I said literally too many times.

He started this whole world and put it into motion, and then he's actually claiming to be sovereign over even the injustices that the world commits.

As people do terrible things, it's not catching them by surprise.

He's not reacting to his things, things that they do.

He's intimately involved, and he's the one who's willing these things to pass before the foundation of the earth.

He predestines them to take place.

And so think about the progression.

It leads, it leads to the next question, which is okay, God is a big-scale creator, He can He can create all things in an instant.

Okay, He's sovereign over the big things that happen in the earth, the difficult things, the injustices.

So then there's a next question.

Well, does he care about my life?

Does he care about what happens to me today?

Creation, injustice, is he sovereign also over my life?

And the answer is a resounding yes.

He's actively and intimely involved with the big things, and he's actively and intimately involved with the little things in everybody's life.

God is sovereign over creation, he's sovereign over injustice, and he's sovereign over your life.

The apostles are absolutely sure of this because their reaction is their prayer is fascinating.

Look at what they say in verse 29.

And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

The apostles here are modeling for us what blind trust in the sovereignty of God means.

What it looks like to believe that God cares and accomplishes his will in their lives.

They're teaching us to pray when we face trials because we treat it God like Santa Claus.

At Christmas time, we treat God like Santa Claus very often.

God give me good things, God take away bad things.

And God does care.

He does give, he takes away bad things in people's lives.

He's intimately involved and loves to help us.

He cares about the sparrows, Jesus says.

He cares way more about you.

Of course, he doesn't enjoy when we face suffering.

Of course, it's not a joyful thing for the Lord to see his children suffer.

He cares more about your sanctification, though.

And there's a truth that is screaming at us here, and that is that God has already decided the day that we're gonna die.

The disciples know better than anyone that God has already decided when they were gonna die.

And Peter understood this better than anyone because John 21, Jesus literally tells Peter he's going to die on a cross.

He's gonna, his arms are gonna be stretched where he does not want him to be stretched.

So Peter is praying this prayer, he's faced this threat.

How silly would it have been of Peter?

And God cares about the fact that Peter is facing persecution.

Jesus loves him to death, literally.

But how silly would it have been of Peter to say, uh Jesus, I know you promised that I'm gonna die on a cross, but but please don't let it happen.

Take that away, take this thread away.

Every time Peter steps up to the podium to preach, he's thinking this could be my last time because God has Jesus has promised me I'm gonna die on a cross.

He's not gonna take that promise away.

It's going to happen.

I'm going to die as a martyr.

So praying that that doesn't happen is a waste of a prayer, right?

Instead of asking God to remove this promise, he asked God for what?

What do they ask God for?

They asked God for the courage.

You heard the threats.

That means God is listening to all things at all times.

You heard the threats.

And grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.

Lord, we need courage to continue on and do this thing you've called us to do that you promised would happen to us.

Lord, please keep me faithful till the end.

They know God can stop the hearts of bad men.

He can just kill them in an instant.

Take out those hearts.

Stop those those hearts from pumping blood.

Caiaphas, Annas, all these terrible men, they could kill them in an instant.

And he's about to kill some couple people in an instant.

Annas, Nice, and Sapphira, the next chapter.

He can do it.

If he wants.

But he doesn't and he won't.

So what do they ask for?

They asked for the courage to do what God commanded them to do.

It reminds me of Hebrews 10.

And I don't have too much time, but Hebrews 10, when Paul says, I know some of you lost homes, I know some of you were persecuted, and some people have died.

But you need to go to church.

You need to attend a weekly gathering.

And it could result in your death.

But you need to go to church.

It's more important to you than water and bread.

You need to be in church together.

You can't be zooming this thing.

You gotta be in church together.

You gotta be willing to die over the weekly gathering.

That's what he says.

That's what Paul says in Hebrews 10.

It's always been dangerous to be a Christian.

There's always the possibility of death.

There's always been the possibility to lose your liberty.

But the disciples understood this fact.

A very simple fact that God is sovereign and he can snatch Peter out of jail in an instant and he will.

He can grow limbs in an instant, he can do anything he wants.

And if he leaves them in the trial, then they're not gonna fight against it.

They're not gonna get political and say it's not right for the government to do this for to us.

They're not even wasting their breath on that.

What are they gonna do?

They're gonna get evangelistic.

They're gonna ask for boldness.

And we live in a world that hates us.

The devil hates us.

The world will always reject us.

It doesn't want you, it wants to kill you.

Doesn't matter if you're on the same political spectrum.

At the end, even your allies in politics want to kill you at the end of the day.

And the church as the salt of the earth is literally being used by God to prevent what?

The death of the earth.

And then slowing it down.

And the church is the church gathering is delaying the wrath of God from coming on the earth.

And the church is like a few drops of water.

Every time we meet, it's like a couple drops of water into the world who's dying of dehydration.

And we're just keeping this thing going for a few more, who knows how long?

The best thing we can do is gather.

The best thing we can do is share the gospel.

It's not to change society, it's not to make the world a better place.

It is by gathering to worship and scattering to evangelize, which is something I learned early on here at Emanuel.

It's on the wall, literally.

And we need to have bold men and women who face difficulty and gather to pray together to the sovereign God who can remove the difficulty in an instant.

And if he doesn't, that he would give us the courage and boldness to keep gathering and keep preaching despite the trial.

And we see how God reacts to this prayer.

Look at what it says in verse 31 again.

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit and continues to speak the word of God with boldness.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I was still here in Virginia, and I was watching Fox News, and there was a reporter who it was in the background, and she said, There is a student who's studying in Italy right now.

In my eyes, Italy, what?

An American student was in Italy, and she was in lockdown for three weeks because Italy was the first hit, and I'm sure you saw videos and all that.

And they interviewed you, so I was really interested.

And the Fox News reporter at the end said, What did you learn about yourself during this time?

What did you learn about yourself during these three weeks of being stuck in your home?

What did you learn about yourself?

And she said, I learned, she thought about it for a second.

She said, I learned how strong I am.

I learned how strong I am.

And I laughed hysterically.

And I was sad.

And I don't know if I got emotional even.

It was a weird response to, what do you mean you're you're you're so strong?

You're weak.

You're literally in a room by yourself for three weeks.

What are you talking about being strong?

You're the weakest, you we're so weak.

A little microscopial virus has taken over our world, has crippled the economy in Italy.

They're still they will never recover from it.

You can't stop this little tiny thing, and you're you're so strong.

And the reporter is like, yeah, that's so wonderful.

Yeah, we're all so strong, wonderful.

You're dying, you can't stop it.

Anti-aging creams can't stop it, essential oils can't stop it.

I mean, how weak are we?

Let me ask you, what's your great grandparents' name?

Think about it.

Think about it for a second.

Think about it real hard.

And if you can think of their name, tell me what their favorite ice cream flavor was.

We don't know anything about nobody's gonna remember us.

Our great grandkids are gonna forget about us.

We're so stinking weak.

And I see people fighting over, Christians fighting over COVID?

Over, I see churches in Italy getting split over COVID because they want the pastor to do a green pass before coming in, making sure people have been vaccinated.

They're fighting them literally, there's they've split 30 people into 15 and 15.

Go ahead and pray COVID doesn't kill you.

Go ahead and pray God the government doesn't take away your job, doesn't take away your freedom.

But pray that God would give you courage to keep coming to church and preach the gospel.

Pray that God would remove a trial.

That's wonderful.

But if he doesn't, and if he keeps you in it, pray for your sanctification.

Pray for boldness.

Pray that you would continue to preach the gospel.

Go ahead, go to Starbucks, spend an hour arguing over vaccine mandates, yell at each other as believers in Christ, but then spend an hour doing it, it's fine.

But then go down to the Lincoln Memorial and spend 10 hours passing out gospel tracts and sharing the gospel with people.

Because it's far better than spending time talking about politics and social justice.

It's eternally more important.

Because dying 10 years premature, if you die 10 years premature, that's sad.

Losing freedom 10 years early is sad.

But none of that compares to dying eternally and being in a prison of fire for eternity under the wrath of God.

So let me encourage us to be like the disciples.

And in the moment of trial, let's pray that God would hear, listen to the trial, and He that He would even remove the trial.

But then after those five minutes, that five-minute prayer, let's spend an hour, let's spend two hours, let's spend three hours begging the Lord to cause us to be bold enough to face this trial than to go out and to preach the gospel to the dying world.

Let's pray.

I pray for us.

I pray for this wonderful church that is an example.

How they reacted to COVID is an example to the world.

And I thank you for their boldness.

And I pray that they would take this boldness and take it all over the world.

The people in this room would take what they've learned and go and preach the gospel to all nations.

And that you would rise up people from this church, not only to support as they so wonderfully, so generously do, but that they themselves would go.

They would go to across the street, that they would go door to door, that they would go to the Lincoln Memorial, and they would go all over the world to preach the gospel to the dying world.

Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thank you for joining us today.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Church.

Our service times and church information are on our website at ibc.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to tms.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.

May the Lord bless you.