Acts - Week 5 (4:23-31)

This is ERC Sundays, the messages at Emmaus Rd.

Church in DeWitt, Iowa. ERC is a Church of people

striving to grow in Jesus and make him known to others through

our faith, words and actions. Find out more about our church

at emmausrdonline.org. Here's this week's message.

We are continuing in Acts. Pastor Chris left us last week

with with some thoughts from Peter on how the church was

together, what they were engaging in and what they were

doing. Since then, Peter and John in

chapter 3 have continued to preach.

They, they healed a man who, who had been afflicted since birth

and they were persecuted for that.

The, the teachers of the law and the religious leaders wanted

them to stop. They, they, they did not support

what they were doing, especially that they were doing it in the

name of, in the name of Jesus and by his power to the point of

where they were actually, they were arrested for healing people

and, and doing miracles and continuing to proclaim the name

of Jesus. And in the beginning of, of

chapter 4, even they're, they're captured, they're in, they're

imprisoned, they're taken upon their release because they, they

couldn't really charge them this, that they couldn't debate

that this man had been healed. He was, he was thought to be

about in his 40s and he was well known to have had this

affliction since birth. And now all of a sudden he

didn't. And there were plenty of people

who knew that he didn't. They could, they couldn't really

for fear of public outcry, they could, they couldn't continue to

hold Peter and John and, and that they couldn't really

justify it in that way. But upon their release at the

end of chapter 4, there's a really critical moment here.

And some of the of course, not all these titles in our in our

Bibles were there in the, in the original editing.

We've, we've added those in, in our modern languages and in

translations, but in, in some Bibles, this passage we're going

to look at at the end of chapter 4 is called a prayer for

boldness. And that's going to be where we

are today. Acts chapter 4.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

We are picking up at verse 23. This is again after Peter and

John had been imprisoned and and now released by the leaders

because they just didn't have good enough reasons to continue

to hold them at this time. Reading in Jesus name Acts

Acts 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 starting at verse 23. When they were released they

went to their friends and reported what the chief priests

and elders had said to them. When they heard it, they lifted

their voices together 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 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 the 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. 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. They were all filled with the

Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with

boldness. How many of you remember TV

show? I think it's still going on.

I'm not sure that it is. Who wants to be a millionaire,

right? This is, this is this like man

redefined game shows, right? You, you could, you could win

$1,000,000. There's this new standard of

prize on a game show, right? And if you kind of remember

there, there were 15 questions and, and the money kind of

multiplied. The first five questions were

were really pretty easy. If you've seen any old, old

videos of this show, anyone, anyone who got out in the first

five questions was like, well, that's, that's a joke.

Yikes that this person hasn't paid attention to anything in

their life. But there were these OK, maybe

that was just me. There were these safe, safe

points along the way after the, after the first five questions,

there was now a new you were, you were going home with at

least $5000. And, and after, after 10

questions, you were, you were going home with with $32,000.

Like those, Those were safe points there.

And, and it took them a few years to get someone who

actually went all the way and won and won the $1,000,000.

But there were these safe points all the way and there were there

were many who tried. There were many who just like

reckless. But no, I'm you know what came

to win a million. I'm going to try to answer this

question. If you got the question wrong,

you were out and you went back to whatever safe point you were

at. But there were some who ventured

into boldness and many, many failed until it was finally

done. And of course, there have been

winners since then and that has happened.

But I was thinking about this show this week because it kind

of, it kind of redefined game shows for a bit.

But it was also the idea of what was, of what was achievable.

There was there was this new standard of money that that

talks. Money talks in our, in our

society and in the world, there's a way to simply answer

15 questions and get $1,000,000. And that signified some modicum

of freedom of power, of wealth, of, of time that you now had to

make. And, and it took to some degree,

a manner of boldness to actually to get to that point, to know

the answers, to know the strategy of how to use the, the

life lines and the helpers and, and what you could do along the

way to get there. Some people ducked out.

Some people, you know, what made it to that second checkpoint got

to a question they didn't know the answer to.

And they're like, Nope, I'm, I'm good, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stay

safe. And I'm going home with what I

know. I'm going home with, with what

I've got to this point. I'm not, I'm not going to reach

for the ultimate goal of what's happening.

I talk about that because it relates to this passage in the

sense at the early church at this point, I think at any point

there were a couple of checkpoints for the people

involved in the early church. The safe spot there was, there

was a safe spot for them and, and really for us, knowing what

Jesus did, calling on the name of the Lord to be saved,

acknowledging that he came and died and even raised from the

dead, is that enough to be saved?

The Bible tells us it is that those who confess and believe

and call in the name of the Lord will be saved.

Now there's also the second part, Jesus's command in the

Great Commission to go and make disciples to spread this word to

tell more about him who would be saved.

So we have this first, this first checkpoint of, of

yourself, you acknowledging this Savior Jesus, and that's you

could stop there. You're good, you're saved.

You, you know Jesus this second checkpoint of of going and

making disciples, spreading the word, telling others, maybe

maybe mentoring someone else in in the faith that you've come to

know and, and bringing them along.

You're you're a step or two ahead and, and bringing them all

along in in the footsteps of of Jesus that you've walked in and

bringing them along with you. The early church is past both of

those things. After Peter's sermon there the

the numbers of those who believed was believed to be

about 3000. In this passage we have we have

an accounting that even after Peter and John were preaching

and healing at the point that they were imprisoned.

Luke writes in the in the early part of chapter 4 that there are

the the men, the number of men who believed was about 5000,

which again, if you if they have households, if they have wives

and children. I mean the, the early church is

growing into into the the 10's and 20 thousands at this point

of, of believers, the church is reaching a critical point.

Those first two checkpoints are safe, but there's a goal that

isn't out of reach, not for the power of the Holy Spirit, but

there's a temptation for them to stay just where they are in

their own faith, in the faith of of their family or those close

to them. There's still a goal to go out

and reach the ends of the earth. We talked about a couple weeks

ago the the city and the state and the country and then and

then at the end of it, Luke just wraps in Jesus wraps in the

command. Well, what I'll just the ends of

the earth. It's all it's everywhere.

That's going to require a manner of boldness because complacency

and contentedment or even satisfaction in where we've

gotten to to this point. This is this is maybe a year,

maybe a couple years. There's 20,000 people from

nothing. That's pretty good.

That's feels like we accomplished something here

right? If this Church of of group of

200 believers escalated to 20,000 this time next year, we

would feel like we're doing this Christianity thing right.

I would, but what would happen? Would I hang it up?

Say mission accomplished, the job is done, 35 years old and I

brought God's church to do it. My life is accomplished.

I hope not this. Prayer of boldness was so

critical for the early church then and it still is now for us.

And we're going to start at the end for why it matters most

because in praying for anything, we do believe that God responds.

It's not always, it's not always the way that we would design or

the plan or the answer that we had in mind.

But in this instance, God responded by answering their

prayer for what they were asking.

The first part of why this prayer matters so much for us

today is God's response, and we see it in verse 31.

When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered was

shaken. They were all filled with the

Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with

boldness. Wish granted God gifted them and

that word there that we talked about the last time I was here

and we talked about Pentecost. They were filled with the Holy

Spirit. This wasn't this wasn't just a

little dosing. They were completely filled

topped off supernatural Holy Spirit power for these moments.

So it's important, and I know I'm not, I'm not saying that God

always grants exactly what we're asking for.

If it's in his design, if it's in his plan, if it's in

alignment with what he has laid out, yes, he's going to ask.

He's going to give what is asked for.

And in this case, we see it was given.

But it's important. What's more important is how

they got there and why this boldness was given.

This church so needed the boldness of the Holy Spirit to

continue to to endure persecution, to continue to

testify and glorify the work that God had done.

And he responded by filling them with the Holy Spirit in the same

way, working through this power. It's what they so desperately

needed, and it's what we still desperately need today.

But notice it wasn't just randomly, flippantly given.

Peter and John to this point had been speaking, testifying,

quoting Scripture, speaking truth, healing people, working

in the power that was given. They were not sitting on their

hands waiting for God to move. They were moving in the power

given. They were faithful and obedient

to this outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

They were spectacularly obedient to the gift that God had given,

and they were willing to move to execute His.

Plan spectacularly obedient. And this is how God responds.

We cannot passively, complacently be praying this

prayer for boldness when we don't want to be bold.

They weren't. Peter and John earnestly wanted

their boldness to be sustained, and their actions backed that

up. And the gift was continued to

be. Given the second.

Part of why this prayer is important for us today is

because of who was praying. We have a little narrative about

Peter and John in these couple of chapters in, in chapters 3

and chapter 4. But what's interesting is when

they come back, when they're released from prison, when

they're released from their captivity in this moment, they

come back to their friends, to their neighbors.

It's not just the group of the 12 apostles.

They come back to their church family with these words.

When they were in captivity, the priests and the teachers of the

law saw this verse 13. When they saw the boldness of

Peter and John, they perceived that they were uneducated,

common men. They were astonished, but they

recognized that they had been with Jesus.

This is the response of the teachers in the law who wanted

this all to be untrue. They couldn't even deny it when

they saw the boldness with which Peter and John were preaching

and healing and filled with the Holy Spirit.

They themselves couldn't deny it, though they wanted to keep

it quiet. They didn't want that getting

out. They didn't want them or the

early church to know what they knew and just wanted to deny.

So beyond this, we see that even Peter and John called out by

Luke as uneducated common men. And they're supposed to be the

rock stars of this thing, right? They're they're leading, they're

leading this thing. And then they even come back.

They even come back to the people who make up the church,

the unqualified. And I use quotes pretty

intentionally there because there's there's nothing

exceptionally remarkable about Chris or I even in this context.

There's nothing in the word of God that is more powerfully

preached by us than it could be by you.

There's nothing, there's no prayer that we could pray that

is more readily heard by God than it would be by you.

This prayer is prayed by the people, all the people on equal

ground who make up the church. It's not some big proclamation

that only the apostles prayed and that only God would hear,

because only the apostles prayed it.

It was done by those who maybe we're still doubting, who maybe

we're still wrestling, who maybe felt like they shouldn't be the

ones praying, but they did it. But they prayed and they asked.

For boldness, so this. Is relevant for us today because

it wasn't prayed by anyone with special rights or privileges

then it's it's not done by anyone who has special rights or

privileges. Now this prayer is for all of us

to be praying. It's the church, the people

gathered, not just the leaders, not just the pastor's, not just

the apostles, it's the people who make up the church praying

this prayer. The third part of why this

prayer matters for us today is is when it was prayed, they had

just been released from prison. There was persecution and

opposition to their message happening constantly.

Peter and John told the church, the people who made it up about

their experience being being persecuted, even being

threatened while they were in prison.

Verse 13 or verse 18 and chapter 4 here they called them the

leaders and the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they called

them Peter and John and charge them to not speak or teach at

all in the name of Jesus. Sat them down, said stop doing

this. But Peter and John answered

them, Whether it is right in the side of God to listen to you

rather than to God, you must judge, For we cannot but speak

of what we have seen and heard. And when they had further

threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish

them. Peter and John are at a point in

their boldness where they can't even turn it off.

They don't want to turn it off. They don't want to acquiesce to

their request to stop. But this response that we see is

we we couldn't if we wanted to, we couldn't stop if we tried.

That's the point that they are filled by the Holy Spirit.

It's it's overflowing, it's over the top, it's out of control.

They can't even keep it in, even in the face of persecution of

threat. We don't often experience

physical persecution, life threatening persecution for our

Christianity in this country. But there's there's places in

the world that certainly do we face, I think a different type

of persecution of opposition. We face an appeal of the worldly

nature. We face distraction by by social

media and entertainment industries looking to flood our

thoughts and our consciousness and our and our actions with

ultimately meaningless things. Satan's favorite kind of

Christian is a distracted Christian, I promise you.

One who maybe seems like they're with it, they're chasing the

$1,000,000 prize, but there's maybe content with with the

$5000 prize found, found something good enough to

distract me for now. I can I can walk along with

this. Even short of those social

pressures, there's certainly things that hold us back from

acting in boldness. We even see it at the beginning

of this passage here in Acts 4 when they were speaking to the

people, the priests and the captains of the temple and the

Sadducees came upon them. This is back in verse 1 of

chapter 4. They came upon them greatly

annoyed because they were teaching the people and

proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

Are there people in your life, friends, Co workers, family,

peers, teachers, students, customers who might be greatly

annoyed at your proclamation of Jesus, either lived out in your

life, in your actions or by your blatant spoken word?

I think that faces a lot of us. We don't want to be a

pesterance. We don't want to be an

annoyance. Maybe some of you do.

Not in a malicious way though. You don't I in a good way.

Yeah, I want to be annoying for Jesus, but I think that's what

scares us some of the time. Are they going to want to hear

this? Are they going to accept this?

Are they going to dismiss me because of how I act or what I

say? It didn't stop Peter and John in

the early church. The 4th part of this prayer and

why it matters for us today to whom it was prayed and that

might it seemed weird to say it that way because who else were

they praying to other than God? But it's important that they

prayed to God first and about themselves 2nd.

And this is how Jesus taught us to pray too in the our Father

who art in heaven, holy be your name, your Kingdom come, your

will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

All of that before a word spoken about me then give us this day,

Our Daily Bread. Forgive us our trespasses,

right? We see that same model here.

They acknowledge, they even quote, they even quote Scripture

in their prayer. They say sovereign Lord, who

made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in

them acknowledgement of His Holiness of his of his

sovereignty, of his goodness, who through the mouth of our

Father David, your servant said by the Holy Spirit.

Then they then they quote Holy Spirit inspired Scripture from

King David 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 people of

Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan and predestined to

take place. They acknowledge all of these

things. They talk about the threat that

face Jesus, the threat that is facing them now.

They acknowledge the greatness of God and his sovereignty over

it all. And then verse 29.

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, heal and signs and wonders are

performed. They start with the greatness of

God, and they finish the prayer with how they see Him moving,

with how they want to move in His name, to do whatever your

hand in Your plan had predestined to take.

Place. So all these things in form, why

God's response with boldness, with what they asked for.

Look at how they got there. They believed it.

It was just them. There wasn't anything special.

They prayed it even under threat, not just because the

grass was green. They weren't dissuaded by the

annoyance that might come by the punishment that might come by

the oppression or negative things that that might enter

their lives. And they also, amidst it all,

still acknowledge God. You're in control.

You are great and sovereign over all this and we need your help

and we need you to move in power to see this thing.

Through I know we. Say sometimes that praying to

God, it doesn't matter the words you say and to some to some

degree it doesn't. You can say anything to God.

You can. But I think we also see

something in this passage that the words we say are important.

Are we just going God? I don't know.

I haven't been the best lately, but like if you show me this

thing or work this thing out for me in my life, I'll be totally

bought in for you. I'll do it.

I'll be ready. You, you move first and I'll be

ready to go. That radical, faithful obedience

that we talked about at the beginning with Peter and John, I

think that's what leads us into this posture that that's what

naturally flowed out of them was with God.

You're great and you've been in control and you've faced this

opposition already, and you brought Jesus back from the

dead. So of course you could move in

power and continue to sustain us in boldness.

Do you see that shift? God, you're great.

I've acknowledged that. I've saturated in that.

I believe it. Keep going, keep moving.

The final part of this prayer that I think is really

encouraging and good and relevant for us today is what

they asked for and what they focused on.

It wasn't a if then God. If you do this, I'll be happy to

do your work for the rest of my life.

We'll be happy to follow your leading if you.

Do this they. Appealed to God, acknowledged

the threat and the persecution and the opposition that was

facing them. Look upon their threats, both

the threats that had happened to Jesus, Pilate and Herod bringing

those up, but they also acknowledge the threats that

were happening against them now. Peter and John were just out of

prison and they appealed to God and said this stuff's happening.

We know we can't beat it back on our own.

So God in the name of Jesus, protecting your son's name and

your son's message and your son's works, stretch out your

hand to heel perform signs and wonders in the name of Jesus.

They were not building the Kingdom of Peter or the Peter of

the Kingdom of John. They were building the Kingdom

of God, and that is how they appealed to God in prayer.

We are concerned, God, about your Kingdom.

Is that how we pray? Is that how we go to God now?

Sometimes? Maybe, but I think we're more

often concerned with our Kingdom.

God, the Kingdom of me is crumbling, and I need you to fix

it. The apostles were concerned with

God's Kingdom, and that's how they approached him.

That's how they went to him in prayer.

God, this, your Kingdom, your son is under attack and we want

to defend it. But we need your boldness.

We need your strength and your power.

This is how we should seek the Holy Spirit.

We should be praying for it like the early church was.

We can pray in general ways, but we can pray in specific ways.

God, this is happening right now and it's an affront.

It's an attack on your Kingdom. And I want to stand with you

against it, but I need your boldness.

And these three things were poured out by God in the name of

Jesus. He did answer.

We see that they were filled with boldness.

He answered with healing and He answered with signs and wonders.

These are the things that they ask God to act out in for His

glory, for the name of Jesus. They didn't just want this

Pentecostal spiritual high. Hey, that was really cool when

the flames came down and we were all speaking in different

tongues and languages and like let's see if we can get some of

that Holy Spirit power again. That's not what was happening.

They knew that that was the magnification of God's glory and

the proclamation of Jesus name that they saw was resulting in

the multiplication of His church.

They knew it wasn't just their mortal word.

They knew it was a supernatural power, that the Spirit of God

was moving and changing lives. The Kingdom was being built and

it wasn't theirs. It was God's Kingdom for his

glory. So Church, the $1,000,000

question. Today is this what you want?

Is this? What you want to see in the

church where you live, and I use that word church as the people.

Is this what you want to see in the people of God where you

live? The answer should be a

resounding yes. The answer should not be one

that is content to stay at one of those safe checkpoints down

here. And this is good.

Enough. There's many things.

That can hold us back, our own selfishness, our own

complacency, our own fear of the annoyance that we might bring to

someone else's life. I mean it.

If I'm going to be annoying about one thing, it better be.

Jesus. So how does?

This come about. How do we get to this point

where it's not the Kingdom of me or the Kingdom of we, but the

Kingdom of God? I'm going to sound like a broken

record, but I'm going to try to bring a little practicality into

it here. And those of you with medical

minds in the room, you're going to have to forgive me for my

amateurism in this area, but I'm going to use, I'm going to use a

word, a word because it is a biological function that we have

neuroplasticity. It's not, I'm not going to put

the Greek word up there or anything like Christian.

I don't even know how to say that in Greek.

It's a function in which the brain is reshaped and reformed

both physically and and neurologically and in different

cases, but it's how we learn. It's an adaptation to

experiences and habits and disciplines that we have.

And as much as we talk about the supernatural power of the Holy

Spirit, and that is true, you want to see how this boldness

manifests in your life. How regular is your habit of

being in the Word? How regular is your habit of

praying to God, not just about your things, but about the

things that He is, about the greatness that He is?

How's your time in fellowship with the people of God, both

here but outside of here too? Who's in your circle?

Who are you encouraged and uplifted by?

What are the things you're feeding your body and your mind?

Are they pointing you to Christ or are they annoying you about

Jesus? I think that's how we get to

this. Point that might sound.

Like a lot to to plan out and I'm just going to hang out with

church people all the time. Sounds good to me.

I don't know. That's not the whole picture.

We got to can't make disciples if we just hang out with church

people all the time. We got to bring in the non

church people too. But you know what, we can do

that together too. They were doing that together.

If these are the things we want, and I think to truly be the

church they must be the things that we want, then that is how

we must live our lives. We must be regular in those

habits, in those ways of Jesus, and recalibrate our thinking,

recalibrate our physical wants and needs and expectations so

that we cannot but help speak in the name of Jesus.

Yeah, let's pray. So Holy Spirit, great God, our

Creator, Lord Jesus, our Savior, who from the beginning of time

was ordained to die, How great you.

Are our words. Don't seem magnificent enough to

measure your greatness, but we ask that in the areas that we

fall short, in the areas that we are under threat or fear, that

your boldness would prevail. That you would bring healing

physically, psychologically, emotionally to the people in our

lives, to the relationships in our lives.

That you would move with signs and wonders and in ways that we

can't ask or imagine, that are immeasurable to our mortal

minds. Stir our affections for you in

your word, in prayer and fellowship with your people.

And it's for boldness we pray. Build your Kingdom here in Jesus

name, Amen. Thanks for listening to ERC

Sundays. To support the work God is doing

an Emmaus Rd. church, visit emmausrdonline.org/giving.