PRAYING FOR COURAGE!
Acts
4:23-31
Introduction:
A week after the Easter Sunday suicide bombings killed over 250 people in three
churches and three luxury hotels, Catholics from their homes followed a live
broadcast of a Mass on television and the radio celebrated by Cardinal Malcolm
Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo. Fears of suicide bomb attacks kept
Christians away from Masses and celebrations on Sunday in Sri Lanka. The
Catholic Church has suspended Masses and Sunday schools until security improves
the terror attacks on Easter Sunday.
"This
is a time our hearts are tested by the great destruction that took place last
Sunday. Ranjith said in his homily delivered before members of the clergy and
the country's leaders in a small chapel in the capital. "During this time questions
such as, 'does God truly love us, does he have compassion toward us,' can arise
in human hearts," he said.
We
cannot blame our fellow brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka for going through
such an emotional rollercoaster over the past couple of weeks. Let’s lift them
in our prayers. During such times of
calamities, one would go through feelings of fear, sadness, a sense of
hopelessness, and they are reasonable.
One would wonder where to turn to when faced with such opposition to
their faith, and cruelty of men who carry out such atrocities on humanity.
In
the passage, we read we will meet a group of early church believers who met with
fierce opposition for the practice of faith and strict warnings not to preach
in the name of Jesus. How did they respond to those threats? What can we learn
from their response?
The
context of the text: These were the days after the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit upon a group of fearful disciples of Christ. God was showing up in
Jerusalem through mighty miracles performed by his disciples. One afternoon Peter
and John went to the temple to take part in the three o’clock prayer service.
On the way, Peter heals a forty-year-old paralyzed beggar.
After
that incident, Peter and John were speaking to the people saying that through
Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. That teaching disturbed Sadducees
who did not believe in the resurrection or in a personal Messiah. So,
the temple
guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John, arrested them and put them
in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, and the
number of men grew to about five thousand.
Threatened
by this sudden increase of the followers of Christ, the Sadducees and the
council summoned John and Peter and strictly commanded them never again to
speak or teach in the name of Jesus. Did the disciples comply with that
command? No, they disobeyed it. “But
Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him?
We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”
I see a form of civil disobedience here.
According to Romans 13:1-7, Christians should obey governmental authority, but
when the government decrees are contrary to God’s word, God must be followed.
After further threatening, the council finally let John and Peter go because
they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. As soon as they
were released, they went to the other believers and told them everything. “When they heard the report, all the believers
lifted their voices together in prayer to God.” We will pick our story from
here.
I. RECOGNIZING GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY.
When
we are afraid and threatened by enemies, our natural response is to flee or
fight back. There certainly are times
where that is the best thing to do. However
here we see a third response, which is probably the most effective one that is
PRAYER. In spite of the strict warnings from the council, instead of fleeing or
fighting back the early church responded by praying. Skeptics might ridicule us
saying why prayer, isn’t that such a weak response? On the contrary, prayer is
the most appropriate and robust response amid threats and opposition.
from the Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster on The discipline of prayer. “Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual
life. Of all the Spiritual Disciplines prayer is the most central because it
ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father” I believe Prayer is one of
the most lethal weapons in the hands of a believer against the enemy.
As
the threats grew and the opposition increased the early disciples turned to the
one who could save them. They began their prayer meeting by acknowledging God’s
sovereignty. “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and
everything in them—you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor
David, your servant, saying,
‘Why
were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time with futile plans? The
kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gathered together against
the Lord and against his Messiah.” They began their prayer quoting from Psalm
2:1-2.
It
was a church-wide prayer meeting out of desperation. It was not one or two
people praying quietly, but all the believers lifted their voices together in
prayer to God. Some times when we come to prayer, we are too dignified or feel
shy to pray out loud or fervently. It was not the case here in the early
Church. Can you imagine what would happen when all the people at Hope Church together
lift our voices in prayer to God? What
do you think might change?
The primary focus of the prayer was not the problem, but the sovereignty of God.
They recognized God as the creator of heaven, and earth, and the sea and
everything in them. In other words, God
knows what happens in the world, and he Has absolute control over everything.
They reminded God of how the nations and the people fought against the Lord’s
Messiah Jesus.
Our
recent clergy meeting started reminiscing on the recent bombings in Sri Lanka
and the shooting in the synagogue in California. The discussion kept going on
safety and security in Churches. I sensed the mood among the clergy was one of
fear and insecurity.
I
felt I needed to shift the focus from fear to faith, from problem to God, so I
said, let’s read from Psalm 66 where it says, “For by his great power he rules
forever, He watches every movement of the nations; let no rebel rise in
defiance.” After that, we prayed. By the end of it, we were encouraged because
we shifted our focus from our problem to the sovereignty of God.
When
you encounter all kinds of problems, I encourage you to read and pray the
prayers from the book of Psalms. For example, when you are in need, Pray, “the
Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need” (Psalm 23). When you are scared or
overwhelmed by a particular situation, I pray to God quoting Psalms such as:
“You are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with
songs of victory.” Psalm 32:7.
In
prayer, the disciples recounted their distant history and saw how God was
involved, which opened their eyes to see the involvement of God in the events
of persecution, crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. After recognizing
the sovereignty of God, they went on to ask God for courage. This part of the
prayer of the disciples tells me that God is not only involved in our history
but actively present in our day to day social and political affairs.
II
PRAYING FOR COURAGE (Vs29-30)
Vs. 29-30, “And now, O Lord, hear
their threats and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your
word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and
wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
It
looks like the teachings of Jesus on how to face the adversity and pray for
their enemies, were beginning to bear fruit.
In contrast to some OT prayers for vengeance of the prophets (2Ch
24:21-22,
Jer
15:15), the disciples were praying for courage. They needed
courage not only to withstand the challenges but also to preach the gospel with
boldness. They were asking God to manifest His power through healings, and
miraculous signs and wonders.
What was the result of that desperate
prayer of the disciples? Vs. 31, “After
this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.” I see three things
happening in this verse. A physical manifestation of God’s power. An infilling
of the Holy Spirit. An encouraged group of believers, who went out and preached
God’s word with boldness. As a result, the Church grew in numbers.
Oh, how I long for that kind of
manifestation of God’s power among us these days. All the Christians around the
world and even more so here in our country need to see the power of God at work
in a new way. Far too long we have been afraid, become timid and retreating
into our comfort zones instead of advancing the Kingdom of God.
Our situation is no different than
what the early Church faced. We see the
opposition to the gospel all around us. We hear and read about the burning of
churches and the persecution of Christians. We recognize, all over even more so
in the western churches the first love of the believers is getting cold because
of the uptick of evil. What do we need
to see a change?
We need to become desperate as the
early Church was. We need to come together as one body of believers and raise
our voices together in prayer asking God for courage. We need the continual
infilling of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the good news of the Gospel boldly. We
need God to revive our prayer life. There is power in prayer. Prayer still works!
Prayer changes.
In closing, what are you afraid of
this morning? What is overwhelming for you? Is there a situation that is too
big that you cannot handle? Are you anxious about something? God is inviting us
into His throne room. Let us come into his presence boldly and present our
needs to Him recognizing he is sovereign, not only that He is our loving father.
God will not ignore our prayers. When we ask God for courage, he will fill us
with courage so that we can share the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ with
boldness. Amen!
