HELL TRIES TO PUT-OUT AN ON-FIRE CHURCH
Acts 4:18-31
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: A Baptist Dog
1. A Baptist preacher and his wife decided they needed a dog. Ever mindful of their congregation, they knew wanted the dog to be Baptist. They visited an expensive kennel and explained their needs to the manager, who assured them he had just the dog for them.
2. When the dog was produced, the manager began giving it commands. "Fetch the Bible," he commanded. The dog bounced to the bookshelf, scrutinized the books, located the Bible, and brought it to the manager.
3. The manager then said, "Find Psalms 23". The dog, showing marvelous dexterity flipped thru the Bible, found the correct passage, and pointed to it with his paw.
4. Duly impressed, the preacher and his wife purchased the dog. That evening some church members came to visit and the pastor had the dog do his Bible tricks. The visitors were amazed.
5. Finally, one man asked "Can the dog do normal dog tricks too?" "Let's see" said the preacher. Pointing his finger at the dog, he commanded, "Heel!"
6. The dog immediately jumped up on a chair, placed one paw on the preacher's forehead and began to howl. The preacher turned to his wife and exclaimed, "Good Heavens! We've bought a Pentecostal dog!"
B. TEXT: Acts 4:23-31
18 Then [the Sanhedrin] called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 21 After further threats they let them go. 23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed One.’ 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your Word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly.” Acts 4:18-31
C. THESIS
The back-story is, a lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple had been healed by Peter and John. They were arrested for doing this good deed!
I. HELL DOES IT' S BEST TO PUT OUT AN ON-FIRE CHURCH
A. A CHURCH DOING SOMETHING RIGHT
1. When the church gets to the place where God begins to move there supernaturally, and its members began to move outside of church to bring healing and deliverance, ungodly society is threatened.
2. This kind of thing is happening in China, where the Communist government is forcing churches to take down crosses, closing house churches, arresting leaders, and replacing pictures of Jesus with pictures of Xi Jinping!
3. These persecutions have occurred because of the explosive growth of Christianity in China where Christians now number 116 million. The Communist party feels threatened by this success.
4. Even the USA is not immune to Gov’t interference. Some states have unfairly kept churches closed during Covid-19. The Enemy knows he can’t allow revolutionized Christians to go unchallenged. It would be disastrous for the kingdom of darkness!
B. SATAN’S RESPONSE
1. So they arrested the apostles, jailed them, and forbid them to continue speaking about Jesus. But Jesus had said, “I will build My church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it!” (Mt. 16:18). No persecution from outside the church can stop it! Only from inside.
2. That’s why Christians need to get pumped up. The danger isn’t from outside, but from inside!
3. Satan has brought down many an "On-Fire Church" by: division, lethargy, lack of prayer or faulty preaching, depending upon the flesh instead of the Spirit, or allowing sin to go unrebuked.
4. Charles Spurgeon once said, “To put new converts into most churches is like putting live chicks under a dead hen.” The key to our success is to be transfigured by the power of God and to let Jesus live through us!
5. These early disciples went to prayer! They prayed a…
II. A PRAYER THAT DISTURBED HELL
A. THEY WENT TO GOD
1. Charles Finney, great revivalist of the 1700s, told about a church where the fire had totally gone out…no one saved, and even worse, no one cared!
2. It was a dead church…except for one man, and that wasn’t the pastor. He was a blacksmith. He wasn’t much of a talker…he stuttered so badly it was painful to hear him speak.
3. But he had a heart for God, and wanted revival fire again. He was so burdened for the fire, that one day, he closed the doors of his shop, and went home and prayed the rest of the day.
4. The next day he approached the pastor. “I’ve been praying for revival, for God to rekindle the flames around here. Can we schedule some kind of a meeting, some kind of a revival.” The pastor grudgingly agreed, with a warning that no one would come.
5. On the day of the meeting, to the pastor’s surprise, the building was full! He stood up to preach as always, but he felt very different. The power of God was so strong in that place that everyone could feel it.
6. Dozens of people were saved that week…the fire was reignited. Why? It wasn’t the result of advertising, organizing, or networking; it was because somebody prayed!
B. THEIR PRAYER: UNIFIED, LIFTED UP VOICES
1. When you listen to the disciple’s prayer in the upper room, they were earnest and unashamed. They didn't care what anybody thought. There was desperation in their approaching God.
2. NOTHING IS BORN WITHOUT TRAVAIL. This’s true in the natural world [childbirth], and also in the spiritual. When God is working and decisions are being made, you can mark it down and take it to the bank: somebody paid the price by travailing in prayer!
3. HUMOR: Something better than nothing.
a. After service one Sunday morning, a young boy suddenly announced to his mother, "Mom, I've decided to become a minister when I grow up."
b. "Okay, but what made you decide that?"
c. "Well, I'm going to be in church anyway, so I figure it’ll be more fun to stand up and yell, than to sit down and listen." TRUE! As long as you’re in the will of God!
C. NOTICE THEIR 3 REQUESTS
1. “CONSIDER THEIR THREATS.” It is interesting that they did not request protection for themselves! Most of us would have been asking God to put angels around us, to call the Romans to intervene, or be polishing our guns. But amazingly, the only thing they requested was strength to bear the persecution!
2. "GRANT [US] BOLDNESS." (KJV). "Boldness" means "the absence of fear in speaking.” Instead of cowering, they asked God to make them even more bold than before. I remember one guy who was so bold to his family that some of them got saved in self-defense!
3. "PERFORM MIRACULOUS SIGNS & WONDERS." The largest part of Jesus' ministry had been healing the sick and casting out devils.
4. Some have taught that miracles only occur when God first goes into a culture. This is false. The proof is that God did miracles in Israel for centuries! Miracles are God’s normal working. “You are the God who performs miracles!” Ps. 77:14.
5. “Jesus Christ: the same, yesterday, today, and forever!” Jesus had not changed; He was still working miracles after his ascension just like He had been doing before. It’s God's will for the miraculous to occur 1) To meet human need, 2) To glorify God, and 3) To confirm God’s Word to unbelievers.
III. GOD’S ANSWER
A. "THE PLACE... WAS SHAKEN"
1. Maybe the "shaking" was an earthquake or maybe a spiritual shockwave of the Spirit’s breakthrough into the natural realm. This same shockwave reverberated throughout the prison where Paul and Silas were held in Acts 16:26 at Philippi, causing the prison doors to open and their chains to fall off.
2. HUMOR. We could stand some shaking! One usher asked some kids, "Can you tell me why its necessary to be quiet in church?"A little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping!"
3. When God's people cry out to Him, He rises to answer, and everything shakes; 2 Samuel 22:7-8. God’s shaking isn’t finished. Aren’t you glad God’s still shaking things to bring about transformation?!
B. "ALL FILLED WITH... HOLY SPIRIT"
1. The disciples had already been filled with the Holy Spirit a few days before, so why this refilling? Because one filling isn't enough; we leak! The Holy Spirit flows from us out to others, thus, we need many fillings, and should seek to be filled regularly (Eph. 5:18).
2. Jesus told the apostles, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit is the answer for our need of power, for courage and inspiration to lay hands on the sick.
3. That’s why it’s so essential we be filled with the Holy Spirit; we need this same power today!
C. "SPOKE THE WORD... BOLDLY"
1. You can always tell when people get filled with the Spirit! The outward signs are obvious. They were no longer afraid of people or their opinions. A new joy pervaded them.
2. We need to have this same confidence to be unafraid to cross cultural taboos, to offend people if we must, or even to violate some ordinance to pass out Bibles. The best remedy for a sick church is to put it on a soul-winning diet!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: UNUSED POWER
1. Two men were visiting the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in Washington state. They got to visit its huge generators which generate 21 billion kilowatt-hours of power each year.
2. They noticed a lot of water going over the spillway, not being used. They asked the tour guide, “What percentage of the water is used to produce electricity and how much goes over the dam and is lost?”
3. The guide shook his head and said, “We don’t use even 1/100 part of it!” The men were stunned and thought of how little we use the Holy Spirit’s power for usefulness & how much is unused and lost! [adapted, Knights New, p. 478]
B. ALTAR CALL
1. God shake this place! Fill us up! Give us boldness!
2. Salvation call.
