An egg, a piece of bacon, a couple of sausages, a bit of cheese, a slab of butter, a pork chop, some liver, and a scoop of pudding. No, it’s not what I had for breakfast this morning. It was the weekly allotment of food per person in Britain during World War II. Can you believe that? Most of us can eat that much food in one sitting and yet it was all the food one was allowed to buy per week during the war! Clothes and gasoline were rationed too. Luxury liners were turned into troop carriers. All available resources were poured into the war effort. No, it was not a comfortable way to live but people knew what was at stake and were willing to put up with the discomfort to keep their troops supplied so that victory could be achieved.
Our sermon text reminds us that we are at war. There is a lot more at stake in this war than any other war fought in the history of mankind. In this war Satan seeks to steal faith and destroy eternal futures in heaven. And this war is not just being waged on the other side of the world; it’s being fought in our homes, at our workplace, and in our congregations. How has the knowledge that we are at war with Satan affected the way we live? Do we “ration” our time, talents, and treasures so that the war effort can be fought aggressively? Do we willingly make do with less at home so that the work of spreading the gospel abroad can continue full force? What about the way in which we use God’s gift of prayer? How has war with Satan influenced the way we pray and for what we pray? Our text demonstrates how warring Christians are to pray. We are to pray with courage, and for courage.
Although it’s sometimes easy for us to forget that we’re at war, that was not the case for the apostles. The Jewish leaders who had worked together with Pilate to have Jesus crucified, kept a close eye on the apostles’ activities and hauled them in for questioning on a regular basis. On one such occasion, Peter and John were arrested after they healed a crippled man and told the crowds that they had done this through the power of Jesus. The Jewish leaders commanded Peter and John never to even speak the name of Jesus again and threatened them with harm if they did.
Intimidation has always been an effective weapon in war. If the opposition can be intimidated, then victory can be declared without having to fire a single shot. Working through the Jewish leaders, Satan was doing his best to intimidate Jesus’ disciples. Did it work? Hardly. When Peter and John told the other disciples what had happened they prayed together with courage saying: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’ 27 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. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen” (Acts 4:25b-28).
The disciples were not intimidated because they knew well God’s promises. They knew how God had said through King David that the leaders of this world will conspire and rage against Jesus and his followers but their raging is in vain. Why? Because God remains in control. He lets happen only that which will benefit his people. This was evident in the way God allowed the Jewish leaders and Pilate to crucify Jesus. What they did was sinful, but God used it to save the world. Later on God used the persecution of Christians for his purposes too. The persecution, like a stone thrown into a calm pond, caused the Christians to scatter, but as they fled they shared their faith wherever they went expanding the gospel’s reach.
The challenges our synod has faced in the last few years should remind us that we too are at war with Satan. Our mission resources are shrinking. Our ability to train enough future pastors and teachers is being challenged. On top of all this Satan keeps up his relentless attacks on our families, our congregations, and our own faith through governments that don’t appreciate the value of marriage, and a world that celebrates selfishness. Is it time to panic? No. It’s time to pray, and with courage.
While it seems that things are out of control, Psalm 2, which the disciples quoted in their prayer, reminds us that God is still in charge. He laughs at the powers of this world that conspire against his anointed one, Jesus. He promises to work everything for our good. How will God use our current synodical difficulties for our good? It may be in making each one of us aware that the synod needs Jesus more than Jesus needs the synod. It may be in helping us see that the synod is not an entity that’s out there, it’s here. We are the synod. We are to finance and encourage its work with our firstfruits and not leave this to a few wealthy individuals to look after.
But don’t just pray with courage knowing that God remains in charge; pray for courage. That’s what the apostles did in our text. “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 miraculous 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 4:29-31).
Although they had just been arrested and their lives threatened, the apostles did not pray that God would keep them safe from their enemies. Nor did they pray that God would judge the Jewish leaders for the threats they had uttered. They prayed that God would give them the courage to keep speaking his Word without hesitation!
How does that compare with the things we prayed for today? Did we ask God to give us the opportunity to witness boldly to someone? Or did we just pray that God would grant good weather for the drive here? Did we pray that God would give us a short conference so we could head home early? Did we pray for our health and the health of our family? While it’s not wrong to pray for these things, if it’s all we pray for, then we’ve forgotten that we’re at war and we’ve turned prayer into nothing more than a domestic intercom we use to order drinks and snacks for the T.V. room. Because we are at war, think of prayer more like a walky-talky God gave to us, his soldiers, to connect us to headquarters. We are to use this walky-talky to call for help when engaging the enemy and to order air strikes as we move in on Satan’s territory.
Why haven’t we always looked at prayer this way? I think it’s because our enemy has succeeded in getting us to forget that we are at war. Because of this we often use God’s resources - our time, talents, and treasures first for our good and not the Kingdom’s good. We get around to God’s work only when we have time, instead of making time for it. What excuses can we offer for these sins? None. We are guilty. Thankfully we don’t have to offer God any excuses for these sins. Instead we offer his Son. Jesus died to silence God’s wrath against our sins of mixed up priorities.
Because Jesus died to take away our sins, we now pray with courage knowing that God hears our prayers. We will also pray for courage so that we, like the apostles, may speak God’s word boldly, or as the Greek word means, “to say everything that needs to be said without fear or hesitation”. That means speaking the Law in its full force and applying the gospel just as freely without attaching any strings to God’s forgiveness. We’ll do this not just with people with whom we are comfortable but we’ll speak to all people, even those who are of a different social status or race than we. We’ll do this because we’re at war against Satan who seeks to destroy souls. We’ll do this because the Holy Spirit lives in us and works through us, as he did the early apostles. Amen.
