CONTEXT
• Peter and John healed a crippled beggar in Chapter 3. It drawn the attention of the crowd.
• Peter took the opportunity to preach Jesus and forgiveness of sin in Jesus’ Name. At least 5000 men were saved (4:4).
• The priests and religious leaders were not happy that they were preaching Jesus and His resurrection. They locked them up for one night.
• The next morning, they convened the Sanhedrin court and threatened Peter and John not to speak in the name of Jesus any more.
On their release, they went back to the church and reported what had happened.
• It was almost spontaneous. “They raised their voices together in prayer to God.” (v.24)
• This is what we want to learn to do, each time we gather to worship and pray – raising our voice together in prayer.
• There is power in prayer. There is great power in unified prayer.
• There is nothing special about raising voices in prayer, even silent prayer works. But it inspires and shows our common determination to see that God’s will be done.
They prayed to the “sovereign Lord” and said in verse 28 all these people “did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.”
• It’s amazing. They trusted fully in God’s sovereignty!
• The crisis did not dampen their spirit. They believe that the God who “made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them” (v.24) is still running the show.
It wasn’t a tense moment. There was little clue of any anxiety or fear.
• Instead, it was a time of worship and prayer.
• They went on to pray for COURAGE to preach on. Help us “speak Your Word with great boldness.” (v.29)
• I expected them to pray for a change to the environment, or to remove the problem.
• ‘Make it easier for us to preach, Lord.’ But instead, they pray for courage to preach on in the difficult circumstance.
That’s a mark of the servants of God, right? If we are servants, then we here to serve His purpose and fulfil His will.
• This prayer reminds me of a written prayer I heard, called ‘A Prayer of God’s Servants’.
• It was read to us in a sermon by James Hudson Taylor III (great-grandson of Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China) when he visited TTC sometime around 1990.
A PRAYER OF GOD’S SERVANTS
We are God’s servants. We put God’s love for all people first. No race is superior to another. No government is more loved than another. No nation is dearer than another.
We do not put our nation’s economy before God’s economy. He tells us to seek first His Kingdom, He will then meet our needs.
We are driven to action daily, with the knowledge that billions do not know our Saviour. Our passion in life, our unquenchable desire, is to take God’s love to them.
No task is too small for us. All that limit us is our unwillingness to believe God can enable us to do it. We are sold-out to Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord, nothing less. We understand following Him means absolute death to ourselves. It costs everything to be His disciples.
Don’t give us blessings. Give us grace to be unquestionably obedient to Your every last command & desire.
Don’t give us status. Give us a place to serve.
Don’t give us things for our use. Use us.
Don’t give us a mansion to live in. Give us a springboard to take Christ love to the whole world.
Don’t give us good jobs. Put us to work.
Don’t give us comfort. Command us.
Don’t give us pleasure. Give us perspective.
Don’t give us satisfaction. Teach us sacrifice.
Don’t give us entertainment. Enable us.
Don’t give us good salary. Give us strength to do Your will.
Our great joy in life is in pleasing our God, and there is no other joy comparable.
We’re tired of playing religion, tired of seminaries and bible schools that pump out thinkers who have no action.
Tired of a church life that consist of a few regular function and sermons that sound good, as if they were being rated as speeches, but have no consequential value except complacency.
Life is not some seventy years stretch we endure until Christ returns to take us home. Nor is it a time to seek personal fulfilment.
We don’t seek self-actualization... rather we pursue the actualization of God’s love in all hearts.
We don’t seek our personal rights... we seek to see all people set free.
We make no plans... we take orders.
We have no complaints... except our thankless hearts.
We have not excuses... they limit God.
We don’t ask for reasons... we ask for responsibility.
We don’t give 10% of our income to God... we give it all.
We don’t work for Him from 8 to 5... we are His 24 hours of each day.
No, we are not stolid... we hurt and cry when loved one leave us. But we hurt all the more for people who pass into eternity without making Jesus Christ their Lord.
We are not drop-outs because we don’t hold respectable, secured jobs... we are sold-outs.
We are not cynics although there are unanswered questions... we know Christ has all the answers.
We are not bitter although we have been hurt... Christ is our healer.
We are not disillusioned although we sin... Christ forgive us and make us strong in our weakness.
We don’t spend endless hours squabbling over sideline issues such as pre-, mid-, post-tribulation or charismatic gifts.
We don’t take pride in acquiring things. No, hoarding shames us.
We say it is senseless to talk about availability or willingness. We would rather obey and do the job, not talk about it.
We are God’s servants!
These servants of God in Acts 4 DID NOT ask God to remove the problem and change their environment - they did not complain to God, grumble about the persecution they are facing, or even to ask for protection so they won’t be imprisoned again.
Beside the courage to preach, they prayed for God to “stretch out Your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” (v.30)
• Pray for God to heal. Pray for God to perform more miracles, in the Name of Jesus.
• That’s what we want to learn today. If we know God is Almighty and can do wonders, then we must pray with faith for God’s will be done.
• We don’t have to second-guess what God will do. We just pray as led by the Holy Spirit.
You see, these Christians believe in the Sovereignty of God and at the same time, praying for signs and wonders. The two goes together.
• We won’t offend God if we pray for healing, for miracles and wonders. Neither are we offended or disillusioned if He did not do them, because we acknowledge His sovereignty.
• But we must learn to exercise more faith, in praying for the sick and those in need.
God heard their prayer. And He showed them unmistakeably that He heard them.
• “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” (v.31)
• You see, the place was first filled with PRAISE, and then PRAYER, and then the HOLY SPIRIT.
• In prayer and praise we experience the presence of the Holy Spirit.
• The Spirit came upon them in a big way in Acts 2 and now again in Acts 4. God will visit His people when we worship and pray. The Spirit comes in response to prayer.
We want to treasure every moment we have in coming together. When we pray, we are experiencing His presence. It’s not just another gathering, we are inviting His presence each time we worship and pray.
Let’s gather more and pray. And invite Him into our lives.
God does wonder when we pray. So keep on praying
• Lord, use us! Give us boldness to do Your will!
• If God can use fishermen like Peter and John to do wonders like this and preach with such passion, then we know it has little to do with our ability and more to do with our availability. So we want to remind ourselves that.
• Dr A. C. Dixon: “When we rely on organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely on education, we get what education can do; when we rely on eloquence, we get what eloquence can do. But when we rely on prayer, we get what God can do!”
These believers wanted desperately for God’s purpose to be fulfilled and God’s will be done.
• We want to share the same heart today. Keep praying in such a way, that God will continue to show forth His wonders through us.
• The Holy Spirit will work in miraculous ways when we pray!
• Dwight L. Moody once said, “The world has yet to see what God can do in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.”
In closing, I want to share with you what I read from CHASING THE DRAGON.
• It’s the true life story of Jackie Pullinger (England), a missionary who went to Hong Kong and minister to the Walled City in the early 1970s. It was a place filled with drug dens, brothels, and triad gangs. This walled city has since been destroyed in 1989.
• Why ‘chasing the dragon’? It’s a description of how the addicts take their drugs. They put the heroin (‘white powder’) on a silver tinfoil, heat the foil, melting the powder into a dark brown droplet, and use a funnel to inhale the fumes (with his mouth). He keeps it moving from one end of the silver foil to the other, following it with his mouth. This is ‘chasing the dragon’.
The addicts were asked to trust Jesus and pray. They prayed through the withdrawal.
• Some were healed instantly and recovered. Others took a longer time.
• But they all experience a relief of the pain when they pray, and they are healed.
Let me read you this portion in the book, about the triad head Ah Kei, who was considered the emperor among gang leaders – page 143 and 144.
Those who are healed in turn minister to others who are in need. They become ‘dragon slayers’.
• I read to you this portion about Chi Ho – page 249.
