May 11, 2003 Acts 4:23-33
On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.
“Sovereign Lord, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 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? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
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. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
We’re All in This Together
I. “This” can be dangerous
II. The Good Shepherd is with us
III. We’re with each other
The flood was the most destructive thing that ever happened to our earth. Imagine thousands of tons of water rocking back and forth - taking the earth below us and tossing it around like a rag doll! I sometimes wonder how beautiful the world was prior to the flood - the wonderful plants and trees that adorned our plant must have been quite the sight to see. But the flood seemed to have lasting consequences on the earth that we know of, making it impossible for many species to survive anymore. Yet this terrible flood may have brought about some of the most majestic sights in the world - from the mountains of Colorado to the Grand Canyon and the Niagara Falls. It also served to consolidate all of the believers into one boat, and help them survive some terribly immoral times.
Like the flood, sometimes you can be running along in life, with everything going smoothly, but then you hit a huge waterfall that turns your life upside down. Your wife has an affair. Your job gets cut. You come down with a tumor on the brain. Your child dies in an accident. You get falsely accused of child abuse. Adversity. Sometimes adversity causes some great destruction and upheavals in peoples’ lives. However, before we look at these things as completely evil, think about what results can happen from them. Sometimes adversity can do more to mend and strengthen a relationship than ten years of smooth living can. It makes us reevaluate what’s really important in our lives and where our priorities are. It’s adversity that brings out our best and strengthens us, or tears us apart and shows us for what we’re really made of. You could say that it separates the men from the boys.
Prior to today’s text, Peter and John had gone through quite a bit of adversity in the past twenty four hours. At first, they were on top of the world, as God granted them the ability to heal a man over 40 years old who had been crippled from birth. People came from all over the place, and they had a great opportunity to share their faith in the resurrected Christ with them. The total number of believers was increased to over 5,000 people. Things were going great! But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw what was going on, they decided they had better take some action and quick. Hurriedly they whisked Peter and John away and placed them into a jail cell for a night. The next day, when they brought them out to trial, Peter and John again testified that it was in the name of Christ - resurrected from the dead, that they performed this miracle. It was an obvious miracle to all. So Luke says, Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. . . .After further threats they let them go. You have to believe these were threats to take seriously. These were not religious pacifists warning the disciples - they were politically savvy murderers. If they wanted someone taken out of the way, they could get the job done.
How did Peter and John and the church respond to the adversity? No longer were they cowering in fear in an upper room. Instead, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. That, my friends, is what I believe fellowship is all about. In the face of trouble, they sought the support and friendship of each other to help them through a difficult time. They didn’t just put the matter on a prayer chain. They got together, talked about it, prayed about it, and supported the apostles and each other.
I wonder to myself, do we have those kinds of relationships here? Could we handle such adversity here? Do you have a relationship with the other members in this congregation, where you would say, “I want to turn to Beautiful Savior in a time of adversity. I want to cry on their shoulders. I want to pray with them for strength and courage. I need their help.” Or are we too busy judging one another, picking apart each other’s personalities, and ridiculing the lifestyles of others that don’t meet up to our seemingly high standards - that we have no desire for relationships? Are we too busy with our own lives that we don’t think to ourselves, “I haven’t seen that member for a while. I know she was on the prayer list for health problems. I wonder how he’s doing. I think I’ll give her a call.” How do we measure up? The truth is, we don’t.
What Peter and John did in adversity - that’s what fellowship is for - having a church is for. It’s not just about 120 individual souls coming together on a Sunday, being fed, and then leaving the other 119 behind to do their own thing. A part of it is for weak and humble sinners, with different strengths, personalities, and abilities - to be able to share their struggles with people of the same faith, who can encourage you with God’s Word and with prayer - where you won’t have to wonder where he or she is coming from and worry about what kind of advice you’ll get. A part of it is trying to serve each other and a community without worrying about being ridiculed about meeting a preconceived standard that someone else thinks you should be meeting up to. It’s about fighting together with the Gospel against a common enemy - and the enemy isn’t supposed to be us - it’s supposed to be the devil.
The prayer of the Christians tells a lot about the attitude that they had. They didn’t say, “well, now you did it you guys! Now we’re all going to be persecuted because of our faith! We better scatter!” Not at all. They drew together. Why were they able to draw together in a time of adversity? Let’s look at what they prayed -
“Sovereign Lord, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 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? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
Notice the confidence which exuded throughout their prayer. They first of all professed together that God was the creator of the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and all that was in them. They knew that God was POWERFUL, that he was the master of all things.
Secondly, they turned back to their knowledge of Scriptures - quoting Psalm 2:2, in which God predicted that the kings of the earth would plot against the Lord and His Anointed On - Jesus Christ. But what the Psalmist said was that the peoples plot in vain - literally it means that they plot “nothings”. It’s really an amusing picture. Here all of the rulers of the earth get together, with scowls on their faces and serious looks - like horses prancing and snorting. They call all of the powers together, discussing what they’re going to do to the Lord and His Christ! And what do they plot to do? They call their meeting to order and declare - “we have decided to do NOTHING!” Why? Because they really have NO POWER to do anything! God is the master. The comfort that the Christians had - along with Peter and John - was that it didn’t matter how many warnings they were given to stop talking about Christ. They had no power.
You see, after seeing Jesus resurrected, all of their fears were vanquished. Herod and Pontius Pilate plotted together with the Gentiles and Jews against Jesus. They plotted to put him to death. And God allowed Him to. But why? So that he could pay for the sins of the world. And after God let their hatred run it’s course to serve HIS purpose of saving the world, He simply raised Jesus from the dead, just as He said. Now, knowing that their sins were forgiven and that God was in charge of the world, they were completely confident that God would take care of them. After seeing Jesus work through them to raise a man who had been crippled from birth, they knew that their powerful Lord was in complete control. Even though the rulers were plotting, they could accomplish NOTHINGS. That’s it.
That’s the confidence that God wants us to have. God wants us to be able to say with Paul in Romans 8, I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That kind of confidence only comes from God’s Word. When we remember God’s Word - how he cared for Daniel in the Lion’s Den, how he protected Hezekiah from the Assyrians, we’ll be filled with a confidence that God is in control. We’ll know that even when we go through the valley of the shadow of death, God’s rod and staff are there to comfort us.
On the basis of that confidence, the congregation then prayed together. What did they say? Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. Instead of being inwardly concerned about their lives and saying, “God protect us from any harm,” they had one focus - reaching more souls. But they knew they would be facing dangerous people - that they may even be persecuted and put to death. So they knew that they needed help to achieve this purpose - a lot of help. In the confidence that God was in charge, they prayed that the Lord would enable them to speak the Word with great boldness, and that would enable them to heal even more people and perform miracles to give them more opportunities to spread the gospel.
How did God respond? 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. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. You might be tempted to focus on how the place was shaken as the great miracle here. But what was the real miracle? In the fact that the Holy Spirit took these timid and weak and sinful human beings, and turned them into bold witnesses for Christ during great adversity. He also turned them from being self centered accumulaters of stuff into selfless givers of love. He changed them from being thousands of individuals focused on themselves to a union of believers - united in what they believed and how they felt. This impossible miracle all occurred because, as Luke says, “much grace was upon them all”.
The wonderful thing is that the Holy Spirit is still alive and active today. The miracle of our lives is that in spite of our lack of unity and generosity, our holy God has not deserted us. Instead, He mercifully and patiently continues to forgive us and work with us. He says to us, “don’t despair - Jesus is still risen from the dead. Your sins are still forgiven. You still have the Holy Spirit given to you at your baptisms. You still have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You still have tongues to use. You have many more possessions to share.” If the Holy Spirit could enable Paul, John, and the Christian Church to come together in persecution and give a bold testimony for Christ, then He can still do so today. If he could make 5,000 naturally selfish sinners into generous saints, He can do the same for us.
Flashlights sometimes come with an adjustable head on it - where you can diffuse the beam into a bland lighting, or focus it into a concentrated beam. If you’re really trying to get anywhere, it works better to have a concentrated beam so that you can focus on one pathway and not worry as much about the peripherals. A key to our future, my friends, is that we come together. Instead of being a congregation of diffused lights each going our own way, we need to come together with a common purpose - a good purpose - that has to do with spreading the gospel of Christ. We need to focus on one main mission - a way of reaching out - where we can all work together to a common purpose. When we come together with a common purpose, we will be better equipped then to handle the setbacks that will come along the way - and they will come. Secondly, we need that God would bless our efforts. Without the Holy Spirit - we will get nowhere. We need to pray that the Lord would give us boldness to speak the truth and spread the gospel. Pray for the soccer camp to bring in unchurched people. Pray for this summers VBS programs. Pray for the teachers of Sunday School. Pray for our building. But ultimately, after all the prayers and giving we do, it all depends on a force that is beyond any of our control - called God’s grace. God’s grace doesn’t come with our asking. It doesn’t come because we are generous. It doesn’t come if we work for it. It comes because of the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. It comes through the Gospel in Word and sacrament. It comes only because God is loving and merciful. But if remember that we’re in this together - pray for each other, love and forgive each other, stay in the Word, keep worshiping, get to know each other - we’ve got to trust that God, being the God of grace that He is, will work through us and do miraculous things, in spite of our sinful weaknesses. Amen.
