Last week we took a few moments to study the first opposition the early church experienced. The big take away from our time together was that there is a spiritual dimension to life whereby Satan, the enemy of God, wages war against Him and all the good that He has given the world. The war that takes place in the spiritual realm, which we cannot see, manifests itself in the physical world, which we can see. When we come to terms with the nature of the battle, as it exists, we will be quick to understand why it is that Paul said in Ephesians 5 that we need to take up the spiritual armor and weaponry of God because we who have been saved out of and from this world do not fight as the world fights.
It is clear that the early church understood that they were not to respond as the world would to their enemies because rather than planning and plotting their vengeance they begin to pray. The Church is at her best when she is praying rather than plotting.
ACTS 4:23-31
The Church At Its Best. As followers of Jesus Christ gathered knit together by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, whereby we are now sons and daughters of God and brothers and sisters with one another, we should all understand that we will be opposed and attacked because of Jesus. There is a war raging between Jesus and His people and Satan and his demons. If we believe all that Jesus said we should know and expect this. When we experience the opposition and attacks in the physical realm that flows from the war that is raging in the spiritual realm we
One Voice! We get this picture in our minds that all these believers are gathered together experiencing the unity of the Holy Spirit and as they pray they do so with one voice because they are praying for the same thing. How can that be? How can it be that hundreds, if not thousands, of people are on the same page as they live and pray?
Ultimately the answer is the indwelling presence, power and work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had united the hearts of these believers so that there was great unity among them regarding not only what they believed, but why they believed what they believed and, as reflected in their prayer, their purpose as this new thing called the Church given to the world for its good. They do not pray in accordance to their personal preferences or their “felt” needs but pray for boldness to continue proclaiming the Good News of Jesus in and to the world because they understood that the Church was not so much about what they could get out of it but about bringing glory to God through the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that those who had robbed God of the glory and praise that He is rightfully due may be saved and turned into those who praise and glorify God. THE CHURCH IS AT ITS BEST WHEN WE ARE UNITED AROUND THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH WE EXIST!
One Response to Opposition. Secondly notice that the Church responds to their opposition with prayer. Not protest. Not boycotts. Not screaming, arguing and debating with their opposition. Not reasoning or compromising with their enemies. Simply but powerfully the Church entered into a prayer service when news of the opposition came to them. Notice their prayer:
1. Their prayer was motivated by the Sovereignty of God 4:24. What could be more obvious with that, and why were they saying it? They were acknowledging that although they had just been before the highest authority in the land, the Lord is God, the One worthy of adoration and highest submission. The ruling had been handed down from the authorities on the earth and the Church was strengthened as they prayed because not only was this a confession of the Sovereignty of God but a reminder of the Sovereignty of God. Their confession of God’s Sovereignty was not for the purpose of reminding God who He was but to remind them who He is. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of who God is. If we do not then the situation surrounding us will impact us in such a way that we either forget who God is or begin to think erroneously about Him. Because God is Sovereign they knew that their obedience to Him was their highest priority even if that meant disobedience to human authority. This is what Jesus was saying when He said, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”—MATTHEW 10:28.
2. Their prayer was rooted in the Word of God 4:25-26. Their prayer, being focused on the Sovereignty of God, led to their prayer being based upon the Word of God. They pray PSALM 2 where David prophesies about a coming day when the kings of the nations of the world join together in opposition to God and His Anointed One—Jesus. While it is that they only quote a portion of the Psalm it is most likely the case that they had in their hearts and mind the entire psalm. In this psalm we find that the Lord laughs at those who join forces in opposing Him. He looks at the assembly of all the power and might of the kings of the world as they gather together and aim their arrows at Christ and laughs. Not only does God laugh at them but He ridicules them because of they have declared a ‘SEPERATION BETWEEN GOD AND STATE’ as if they are self-made, self-sustained people ignoring the fact that they are as they are, who they are and where they are only because He has ordained it to be so. His amusement with His adversaries does not last long because it soon turns to wrath as He crushes them like cheap pottery thrown against the ground. So what we see in the early Church is that they were not taken by surprise by the opposition that was rising up around them because they KNEW THEIR BIBLES! There is a lot of stress, worry and anxiety that can be avoided by those who love God if we just get in to His Word!
3. Their prayer was through the lens of the Faithfulness of God 4:27-28. Because they knew what God had said they were able to look at the situations around them through a different lens. All the questions that could have flowed from the situation at hand were answered because the early Church knew what God had said. Therefore, even in the most unlikely of circumstances they see God’s faithfulness shining forth because what God not only said what would happen but also ordered the events of life in such a way that they did happen. When God states the truth about what will happen in the future (prophecy) He does not do so simply because He knows what man will choose to do in free will, He does so because He has ordained and predestined what will be done by man in accordance to His good, perfect and immutable will. There is great comfort in the fact that God is faithful to accomplish what He said He would accomplish even if it does not make sense to us at the time. Consider what God said to Habakkuk in HABAKKUK 1:5-6. Sometimes God allows us to make sense of what He is doing and sometimes His thoughts are so far above ours that if He cued us in on what He is doing it would simply blow our minds because His ways are not our ways and at the same time He is always for His people and does nothing but good for them.
4. Their prayer was in line with the Will of God 4:29-30. Finally, notice that their prayer was in line with the will of God. They did not pray for the destruction of their enemies. They did not pray that there would be a change in leadership. They did not pray for protection. They did not pray for comfort. They simply, yet profoundly prayed for boldness to continue proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ even amidst the pressure and threats of their enemies. Here we find the Church at her best because she is unified in her understanding of why they exist and pray for boldness to be who they have been called to be amidst the opposition and turmoil around them. They are not willing to get caught up in the game of political mudslinging in verbally assaulting their opposition. They are not throwing for themselves a pity party where they gather together to whine and complain about the opposition surrounding them. They do not “throw in the towel” and become content simply retracting into their little holy huddle while the world around them dies in their sins and spends eternity in hell.
When God Approves of a Prayer… When they finished their prayer the Bible says that the place where they were gathering was shaken. I believe that this was a physical manifestation of the fact that God heard and approved their prayer. Furthermore, we know that God approved their prayer because He filled them afresh with the Holy Spirit so that they may have the boldness about them to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus amidst opposition that they desired.
The Power of Prayer. It is clear that the early church believed in the power of prayer. Almost every week we send out a letter to people we prayed for on Wednesday evening and it says that “We believe in the power of prayer…” It is one thing to say we believe in the power of prayer it is actually another thing to actually believe in the power of prayer. Prayer is one of those words that we use with great frequency. We talk about prayer a lot. We speak about prayer requests a lot. We even pray a lot. If anything can be said about us it is that we are familiar and comfortable with the concept of prayer.
• CONFETTI CANON ILLUSTRATION. Like the cardboard wrapping paper tube, we are pretty familiar with prayer. However, many of us have never experienced the power of prayer because we pray more for what we want for our lives rather than what God wants for our lives. The power of the prayer of the early Church was the direct result of their faith that believed God for the impossible and their commitment to His will more so than their own.
As we look at the prayer of the early Church we learn some lessons regarding powerful prayer:
1. Know who you are praying to and stand in awe of Him. God is a lot bigger than we tend to think that He is.
2. Know what He has said. THIS IS CRUCIAL! The key to praying in accordance to God’s will is to know what He has said because His will is revealed in what He has said. If are prayer life is not shaped by what He has said we will find ourselves getting frustrated because we will begin to pray in accordance to our will rather than His and He has not promised that our will will be done but He has promised that His will will be done. There is great confidence to be had in prayer when we appeal to what God has said that He would do.
3. Pray with faith. They knew that boldness was necessary for them to continue to be the witnesses that Jesus said that they would be when the Holy Spirit came. Therefore, when they prayed for boldness they did so with the faith that God would answer accordingly because His plan was for them to be witnesses and the provision necessary to accomplish the plan was boldness.
Lacking Boldness? Do you find that any passion and boldness that you once had in your walk with Christ has disappeared? Do you find it more comforting to simply gather with other Christians who enjoy complaining about the condition of the world than to be used by God to change it? Do you find it more comforting to gather up in a holy huddle to hear somebody tell you about Jesus than to tell those who do not know Him about Him? Do you find the implied threats from those who oppose what you believe and who you are paralyzing to the point that you have given up on being the salt and light that you have been saved to be? The remedy to Christian cowardice is not found in simply conjuring up some passion and boldness from within. The remedy to Christian cowardice is not found in Christian pep rallies. The remedy to Christian cowardice is found in the fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit we will find the passion and boldness that the Scriptures call us to.
