← Back to sermon library

You can turn back in your Bibles 
to Acts chapter four. Acts four, we're going to read 
verse twenty three to verse thirty seven, which is the end of the 
chapter, and we'll consider that central portion there, the main 
portion versus twenty three to thirty one, the prayerful activity 
of the early church. Let's read Acts four, beginning 
at verse twenty three and being let go, they went to their own 
companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders 
had said to them. So when they heard that, they 
raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you 
are God who made heaven and earth. and the sea and all that is in 
them, who by the mouth of your servant David have said, Why 
did the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The 
kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered 
together against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly 
against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed Both Herod 
and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, 
were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose 
determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats 
and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak 
your word by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and 
wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the 
place where they were assembled together was shaken and they 
were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they spoke the word 
of God with boldness. Now, the multitude of those who 
believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone 
say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they 
had all things in common. And with great power, the apostles 
gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great 
grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them 
who laughed, for all who were possessors of lands or houses 
sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, 
and laid them at the apostles' feet, and they distributed to 
each as anyone had need. And Joses, who was also named 
Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated son of encouragement, 
a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it and brought 
the money and laid it at the apostles feet. Amen. Well, let us again go to God 
in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you 
now for this portion of worship, the preaching of the word. We 
do pray that you would bless this time, that you would own 
this time, Lord God. We pray for preacher that you 
would grant to him what is necessary to preach your word faithfully. We thank you that you do grant 
aid to your ministers. And we do pray for that this 
morning. We pray for those gathered, Lord God, in the pews, that you 
would strengthen your saints, that you would give them what 
they need to hear, what the spirit has to say to them. We do ask, 
Lord God, for those outside of Christ, that you would, by victorious 
grace, with the preaching of your word, call them to believe 
in the Savior, that they would repent and believe and find all 
things in Christ Jesus, our blessed, saving King. We just pray again 
that what we do now would be to the praise of Your glory, 
would be to the praise of Your grace, that Your name might be 
hallowed and that You might receive all Lord God. We pray in Christ's 
name, Amen. Well, the portion that we read 
follows certain occasions and certain events in the early church, 
Peter and John specifically. being involved, the greater context. 
First, remember that we're still in phase one, if you will, of 
the ministry of the early church. The early church has been commissioned 
by the Lord Jesus Christ in Acts chapter one and verse eight. 
You will be my witnesses, Jesus says to his disciples first in 
Jerusalem, then in Judea and Samaria, and then to the uttermost 
parts of the earth. Well, we haven't yet moved. We 
will in Acts chapter eight to Judea and Samaria. So we're still 
in phase one, if you will, stage one of the ministry of the apostles 
and the early church following the commission of the Lord Jesus 
Christ to preach his name and his gospel. And so that is the 
larger context, the more immediate context. Now, remember, in our 
reading, Peter and John heal a man in Acts 3. They heal a 
man. They proclaim the gospel to him. 
The healing and the wonder done in his miraculous physical healing 
is something that signifies, that vindicates, that testifies 
to the legitimacy of this Christ and the proclamation of him by 
his ambassadors. And then we see Peter and John 
arrested. Peter and John are arrested by 
the unbelieving Jewish authorities and are threatened to not preach 
Jesus Christ. That does not do anything for 
their bold proclamation of Christ. They rejoice. in their persecution, 
because they have been persecuted for the cause of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, they are released. And then we see them gathered 
together here with their companions, where they share this victory, 
if you will, of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we're going 
to look at verses 23 to 31 by simply observing three things. 
First, the people. Secondly, the prayer. And thirdly, 
the response. So the people, the prayer and 
the response. Notice, first off, the people, 
they are steadfast. The people, the Christians gathered 
here with Peter and John, are steadfast. That is, they are 
not moved away from the cause that Christ has commissioned 
them to carry out. They have just received news, 
verse 23, And being let go, they went, Peter and John, to their 
own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders 
had said to them. So they would have heard about 
these threatenings that the chief priests and the elders gave to 
Peter and John. They would have heard this ungodly 
command that you can no longer preach Jesus Christ and him crucified 
and raised again. They would have heard of all 
these threats and everything that was visited upon Peter and 
John. But nevertheless, they don't 
scatter. They don't scurry away. They 
don't say, woe is me. They don't lament their misfortune, 
if I can use that word. But rather, verse two says, so 
when they heard that, they raised their voice to God. You see, 
they were steadfast. And as the text will bear out, 
We find them not praying for deliverance from this persecution, 
for deliverance from this threat. We don't see them praying, Lord, 
take us far away from here, that we might live in a utopian society. But rather, they pray for boldness, 
that Lord God, look upon their threats and grant your servants 
boldness, that we may faithfully proclaim Jesus Christ to all 
who were given here. They are steadfast. And so that 
is something that marks the early church. Yes, it is something 
that the apostles of the New Testament need to continually 
exhort the early church unto. Therefore, be steadfast are commonly 
repeated words in the New Testament. Nevertheless, by God's grace, 
by God's spirit, his people are empowered to to show that steadfastness 
before their enemies and among their companions. Turn with me, 
if you will, to first Corinthians 15, first Corinthians 15, because 
we need to understand a couple of things with regards to the 
steadfastness of the people of God. One thing, of course, is 
that this steadfastness is not conjured up by us. It's not something 
native to us. We're not to be those who are 
marked by steadfastness natively and innately. But rather, it 
is something that needs to be prayed for, and it is something 
that God needs to bestow upon His people. In fact, that's one 
of the reasons why they pray this prayer. Also, we need to 
see that our steadfastness is built upon the foundation of 
something. What is that something? First 
Corinthians 15, verse 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, 
be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the 
Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So 
we read the therefore. What is this exhortation to be 
steadfast, immovable? What is it built upon? Verse 
57. But thanks be to God who gives 
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. What victory? Everything 
that the apostle had written before that, that victory of 
Christ's death and resurrection, the victory over the sting and 
curse of the law, which is damnation due to sin and unbelief. The 
Apostle had written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, 
where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and 
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives 
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved 
brethren, be steadfast immovable. Our steadfastness depends on 
God, depends upon His Spirit, And it is built upon the foundation 
of Christ's perfect and finished and victorious work. Therefore, 
be steadfast. Secondly, with regards to the 
people, they are prayerful. They are prayerful. Remember, 
it is an inevitability that God's people are to be a praying people, 
as Pastor Butler has worked through his exposition of the book of 
Matthew. He has noted this on many occasions. 
The command isn't necessarily given, therefore pray. The command 
or the expectation, the inevitability that prayer will be present among 
the people of God is acknowledged. Praying, therefore, is really 
a paraphrase of Christ's words, when you pray. It is assumed 
that God's people will pray. We come to the text of Acts 4, 
following the death, the resurrection, the ascension, the commission 
of our Lord Jesus Christ to his earthly representatives to spread 
the gospel. We see them gather together and 
we see them praying. Now, we might not find that a 
marvelous thing, but we ought to humanly looking at the circumstances. They're threatened with death. 
They're threatened with persecutions. They're threatened with violence 
to be brought upon them, arrest and all these sorts of things. 
But nevertheless, the response is to pray to God. The response 
is not, let's get out of here. The response is not, let's launch 
some sort of counter strike. Let's gather together all the 
weapons that we can and throw down this ungodly government. 
The response isn't to go on some sort of aggressive letter writing 
campaign, you know, just smearing the name of the civil magistrate 
and just running them into the ground with pen and paper. No, 
the response is that the gathered people of God pray. And the content 
of the prayer, which we'll get to, gives us much instruction. The content of the prayer, again, 
isn't, Lord, deliver us from the tyranny of evil men. It is, 
Lord, look upon the threats of these ungodly men and give us 
the boldness to speak your word to them and to all who will give 
an ear before us. And so the people are a prayerful 
people. Again, that ought to be the response. Not again, because I haven't 
said this yet, but we've said it before. That ought to be the 
response of God's people, shouldn't it? When difficulty comes, when 
trial comes, when hardship comes, when whatever madness comes upon 
Christ's people, it seems to be that that never really is 
our first response. If we can just sort of scan the 
landmarks of our memories, The first thing that we do very often 
when hardship comes upon us is either, you know, retaliate to 
the person who has brought that hardship upon us, or it is to 
say, woe is me, to, you know, to cower in our beds, to, you 
know, maybe for whoever it's to hit the bottle or hit a 12 
pack of Tim Hortons donuts, to do whatever other than to pray. You see, it is the natural response 
of the man to go to anything else other than his savior and 
prayer. But the spirit wrought, blood 
bought children of God are to immediately fly to their God 
in prayer because that is the place where we are to go. That is the only place where 
we should go when hardship, trial and affliction come. And we need 
to be constantly reminded, constantly reminded. And that is much of 
the apostolic pen writing is spent upon that topic or a related 
one. Be steadfast, be prayerful, do 
not fall away, do not run away, but rather in unity stand fast 
for the cause of the gospel and be a prayer bringing people. They are prayerful. Lastly, with 
regards to these people, they are united. They are united. They are not of different minds. They are not of different spirits. 
The text says, verse 24, So when they heard that, they raised 
their voice to God with one accord and said, Christ's gathered people, 
wherever they are, are to be a gathered people who are unified. First and foremost, we are to 
be unified because we are all in union with Jesus Christ. Just as He chose us in Him before 
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without 
blame before Him. In love, having predestined us 
unto adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. That whole 
text in Ephesians 1, you can count the times where the Apostle 
Paul writes, in Him, in Christ, in Him, in the Beloved. We are 
in union with our blessed savior. So by virtue of that, we are 
to be united together. We are to be of one accord. We are not to be or our union 
is not to be based on a canon of our own idiosyncrasies. We're 
not to gather together our hobby horses, write them on a blackboard 
and say, we need to be about these things or else let's just 
not be a church. Our Church's unity and the gathering 
together of Christ's people, marked by unity, is to be for 
His cause, because of our union with Him. It is to be, first 
and foremost, for the Gospel. And it is to be out of a desire 
to have God's name vindicated throughout the earth. We are 
to be united around the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't 
that the instruction of the Apostle Paul? Remember that text in Philippians. Philippians 1.27. He says, only conduct yourselves 
in a manner worthy, in a conduct worthy of the Gospel of Christ, 
so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear 
of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit, with one 
mind, striving for the faith of the Gospel. You see, our unity is not based on anything save 
for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't unite because of social 
causes. We don't unite because of a litany 
of dress codes and makeup restrictions and haircut styles and whatever 
else it might be, a canon of mad personal opinions. We gather 
together and we rally around the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our 
marching orders are based upon the doing and the dying and the 
rising again and ascension of the Savior, that complex of first 
advent redemptive truths. We rally around that and we seek 
to proclaim to a godless world the riches and the excellencies 
of Jesus Christ, that God's name and His purpose and His glory 
would be vindicated in all the earth. They are a united people. And no, this is in most certainly 
in obedience to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, one of 
those glorious statements regarding unity. Jesus didn't say it about 
the United States. He didn't say it about, you know, 
some European Union. He said a house divided against 
itself cannot stand. The house must be united. The 
kingdom must be united, not a geopolitical kingdom, but the kingdom of God, 
the people, the gathered people of God, those redeemed by the 
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be unified. A house divided cannot stand. And so these people come together. They gather together in unity. 
They are with one accord. When a church is united, the 
work of the gospel flourishes. You see what's at stake when 
there's disunity in a church, you see what's at stake when 
we don't make the weird proclivities and fancies of our own minds 
the main things and we set the main things below. The gospel 
doesn't advance, the gospel doesn't flourish. The gospel doesn't 
go anywhere because we're all bothered and taken aside by trivialities 
and rabbit trails. We are to have as the pinnacle 
of our focus, as the main monolith of our focus, the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. Again, that's the point of Philippians 
1.27. Do you know that fellowship does 
not mean it's nice to gather up in the church, the fellowship 
luncheon hall and and eat pierogies and chopped sausage from Rempel's 
Meats and sip coffee and eat pie. That's great and we should 
do that, gather together as people and eat and drink and be thankful 
to God that he gives us stuff to eat and drink. Fellowship, 
first and foremost, is rallying around unity around our common 
reality. that we've all been saved, we've 
all been pulled, we've all been dragged from that place whence 
we were found in deadness and trespasses and sins to a place 
of being found in right standing before God based upon the doing 
and dying of Jesus Christ. That is where our fellowship 
is seen in that common reality that we all have. Whatever station we came from, 
whatever our race or creed was before, wherever we came from, 
we have that common reality that God, in His appointed and accepted 
time, by virtue of the perfect work of Christ, by His Spirit, 
has called us to believe in Him unto the saving of our souls. So let our unity be around that. Let our fellowship, though it's 
nice to eat pierogies together, be seen to have its central focus 
around the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Moving on then 
to the prayer. To the prayer. Six points under 
this particular heading. The prayer, because there are 
many things to observe. First off, the prayer addresses 
God as creator. Notice the text reads this way. Lord, you are God who made heaven 
and earth and the sea and all that is in them. The prayer addresses 
God as the creator. Now, you might say, well, you 
know, yeah, that's obvious. God is the creator. You know, 
the gathered Christians, they're just. They're just acknowledging 
a certain attribute of God because that's who God is. And of course, 
that's there. God is the creator. Lord, the God is the creator 
of the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that are in them. 
But there is a specific purpose for these gathered Christians 
to use this language with regards to God. He is addressed this 
way as a recognition of his greatness and majesty. You see, this is 
he's addressed this way. He's recognized as such. Yes, 
because it's true. But because of the request that 
they bring before him, that you might look upon their threats 
and that you might grant us boldness. You see, it's that pattern of 
prayer, that paradigm of prayer that the Savior brings forth 
to us, that Pastor Butler has been preaching on in the book 
of Matthew. God comes first, his glory, his majesty, that 
he should be hallowed and then follows our temporal requests. And that is what they do. They 
highlight God is addressed this way as a recognition of his greatness 
and majesty so that upon the heels of that recognition and 
observation, they can bring forth their request, their petition, 
their plea. When the church gathers Or when 
the church engages in corporate prayer, we are to pray this way. When we gather in corporate prayer, 
we are to address our God, our creator, the only living and 
true God. You see, we don't come in prayer 
as a gathered church and bring our prayers before some sort 
of neighborhood deity. You know, you've got this God 
over here, but you've got this God here that you can pray for, 
for this specific need. That's pagan madness. See, we 
don't come to prayer in our gathered church and bring our supplications 
and our petitions before angels or before dead saints. We don't 
gather together and grip on to some hellish deeds like the Roman 
Catholics and pray to a woman. No, we come and we gather together 
before the only living and true God, the creator of the heavens 
and earth and all and the sea and all that are in them. And 
we make our requests known to him and to him alone. They address God as creator again 
to recognize his greatness and his majesty. And our church gathered 
together 2000 years later, follow in their pattern footsteps. We 
address our God as the sovereign creator, heaven and earth, of 
everything seen and unseen. And we come to that God with 
our specific requests, praises and thanksgivings. Notice they 
address God as revelator. They address God as revelator. That simply means someone who 
reveals. God is someone who reveals. And again, we should always stop 
at this point to marvel in this truth. Again, it is of the highest 
condescending mercy that we have the Bible. God deemed it well 
and wise to reveal to his creation his will for them, his redemptive 
plan for his people. You see, there are notions of 
God out there in other religions and in other philosophical systems 
where God has created and now he's wholly removed from his 
creation and it's up to man in the finite reality of his own 
mind to somehow mount up and find God by his own efforts, 
by his own intelligence and that sort of thing. That's the religion 
of the world. There is a God. But we must find 
him somehow. That is, among those religions 
that actually profess a God. We have in the Christian and 
in the real world a God who has created a God who, yes, is wholly 
other, separate from his creation, but a God who is condescended 
to give us his word in the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. 
Isn't that marvelous? I mean, we should repent right 
now and I'm not repenting for anyone. But if we, you know, 
for not availing of our Bibles as often as we should. Remember 
what we have here, we don't have a dusty tome of collective literature 
that, you know, some people gather together and bound and, you know, 
hey, avail of some of these precepts and see how your life goes. We 
have God in his mercy, in his grace, condescending to by servants 
give us his perfect, inerrant, infallible, inspired word that 
we might be saved by the power of the Holy Spirit working by 
this word and we might proclaim his excellencies before a dying 
world. We have God condescending in 
great mercy to reveal. They acknowledge God as revelator. Notice in verse 25, who by the 
mouth of your servant David have said. See, God is a revelator. He reveals. Not only did He create, 
not only did He, in one sense, in that, generally reveal His 
majesty and His glory. Remember Psalm 19. The heavens 
declare the glory of God. The firmament shows His handiwork. But God has condescended to reveal 
in the Scriptures the will and the way for His redemptive plan 
of salvation. God is revelator. He is addressed 
this way as a recognition of his promise and the certainty 
of its fulfillment. You see what they do here. They 
acknowledge God as creator, recognizing and calling upon, if you will, 
his glory and majesty. And then they recognize and address 
God as revelator because in his revealed scriptures, he has made 
promises and they are calling upon those promises and the certainty 
of their fulfillment as a reason for God to grant them this boldness 
and to look upon those threats and to give them what they require 
to be strong for the cause of God and true. When the church 
engages in corporate prayer, she prays to the one who has 
given us clear and certain promises. You see, this helps us as a church 
to know how we are to pray. We have a God who has given us 
certain promises and truths in the scriptures. We return those 
back to God as items of praise, but also as reasons to hear us 
and to grant, according to his will, things for the advance 
of his gospel, for the advance of his kingdom and for the good 
of his people. And so we gather together and 
we pray to the one who has given us clear and certain promises. And you see, this would serve 
as comfort for them. They read song or as they cite 
song, too, as they apply it to their own time and as they consider 
the threats of their enemies, the promises of God and the fact 
that though the nations rage, though people plot vain things, 
though kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather 
together against the Lord and against his Christ. Though all 
this is happening, what do we have? The promise, I will build 
my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. You see, enemy after enemy will 
mount throughout history, throughout history, coming against the church. 
the living and true God. But time and time again throughout 
history, the church is victorious, not because of the greatness 
of her people, but because of the greatness of her God, not 
because of the greatness of her constituents, but because of 
the greatness of Jesus Christ, who made that promise and who 
made it effectual and who makes it effectual, ruling and reigning, 
subduing the hearts of the elect and reigning victorious over 
his enemies. They address God, as revelator, 
recognizing his promise and the certainty of its fulfillment. Thirdly, under the prayer, notice 
they apply, or this prayer applies, Psalm 2 to Christ. You see, don't 
miss this in the narrative and don't miss things like this in 
the narrative of Acts and elsewhere. The early Christians engaged 
in proper biblical interpretation. They come They cite Psalm 2, 
a psalm written, if we can just throw out a whole number and 
round up, round up, round down. A thousand years before the Lord 
Jesus Christ, Psalm 2 is penned by King David. One thousand years 
later, Christians gather together following the threats, the enemies 
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. can cite that in their prayer 
and say, for truly, this has been fulfilled among us in the 
life and ministry of Jesus Christ. You see, the early Christians 
engaged in good biblical hermeneutics, good biblical interpretation. This prayer is biblical. It cites 
the scriptures. It shows that they were taught. You see, these were taught and 
stable brethren. They were not perfect. They were 
not sinless. No doubt they had their trials, 
their problems, their proclivities and all their idiosyncrasies. 
But nevertheless, they were taught and stable. They could see events. They could cite scripture. They 
could bring those things before God and basically say, based 
on your promises and the certainty of their fulfillment, grant us, 
Lord God, what you will for the advancement of your kingdom. 
They knew the scriptures, they were instructed well in the scriptures, 
and they rightly applied the scriptures. Fourthly, we see 
that this prayer acknowledges God's sovereignty. Just skipping 
past. Well, yeah, we'll read the whole 
section beginning again at verse twenty seven. Notice for truly 
against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed. Both Herod 
and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, 
were gathered together, note verse 28, to do whatever your 
hand and your purpose determined before to be done. You see, there were no, at least 
not that I'm aware of, Arminians in the early church. There were 
no Pelagians or deists here gathered together, listening to Peter 
and John report, and then praying. We have the sovereignty of God 
disclosed quite clearly and owned as a glorious reality and serving 
as a foundation to now therefore, God, look upon their threats 
and grant to your people what they need to proclaim with boldness 
your word. The sovereignty of God, specifically 
at the point of his eternal decree to do whatever your hand and 
your purpose determined before to be done. Comfort of comforts 
in their circumstances, isn't it? The enemies of Christ are 
railing against them. The unbelieving Jews and their 
mad murderous rage and their frothing mouths are coming against 
them. They're not cast into a state 
of woe is me. There is no lamentation. There 
is no hiding. There is no scurrying. There 
is no God if you were only sovereign and could intervene. No, it is 
God. Based on your sovereignty, based 
on your eternal decree and the providential bearing out of it, 
Lord God, look upon their threats and grant. Look upon their threats 
and according to your promises, according to your character, 
according to your perfections, Grant, Lord God, what your servants 
need in order to carry out their commission of proclaiming the 
glorious one. The text acknowledges God's sovereignty, 
and remember, this isn't the only point where in the life 
of the early church that this is brought up. Remember, the 
same author who wrote the book of Acts writes in Luke 22, 22, 
Jesus speaking of Judas. He says that the son of man must 
go as it has been eternally preordained, but woe to that man by whom he 
is betrayed. You see, this theme of sovereignty 
and the providence or the eternal decree, the sovereign and eternal 
decree and providence bearing it out, the providential means 
used to bring about that eternal decree come up very often in 
scripture. all over the place. Acts 223, 
Christ was delivered up according to the determined purpose and 
foreknowledge of God. But you, by lawless hands, have 
taken him, have crucified him and put him to death. The events 
of history, providence is the events of history bearing out 
according to the predetermined purpose of the Lord God. So this prayer, in this prayer, 
Christians acknowledge God's sovereignty, they acknowledge 
God's providence. We just barely or just briefly 
alluded to that. We have the decree determining 
before to be done. And then we have the historical 
bearing out the providential fulfillment of that decree before 
the foundation of the earth for truly against your holy servant, 
Jesus, verse twenty seven, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius 
Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered 
together. You see, there's so much in this 
prayer, brother, creator, Revelator. Sovereign God of eternal decree. 
The One who, according to that eternal decree, brings about 
those decrees in time and in history. These Christians had 
glorious theology. We know that You are Creator. 
We know that You have revealed to us by servants. We know that 
You are Sovereign. That You have an unrivaled and 
unabridged mastery over the entirety of Your universe, time and history. 
and that you have decreed certain things to come to pass. And we 
have witnessed and have heard these things come to pass. All 
those things, all of those perfections and attributes of God, therefore, 
Lord God, most holy, most wise, most gracious, most sovereign, 
the only living and true God, tend to your servants, look upon 
the threats of your enemies, and grant what we need. This prayer then takes the form 
of a request. This prayer then takes the form 
of a request. Notice the language. Now, Lord, 
look on their threats, verse 29, and grant to your servants 
that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching 
out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done 
through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. So everything 
that we've prayed, Lord God, based upon everything that we've 
acknowledged and addressed in our prayer. Therefore, Lord God, 
bring this certain request to bear in our midst and for your 
glory. They pray for boldness. They 
pray for boldness, but again, it's not a boldness so that they 
might go out and engage in guerrilla warfare against their persecutors. It's not, Lord God, grant us 
boldness to engage in military conquest against the oppressors. That's not what the kingdom of 
God is about. The kingdom of God is what they 
pray for, boldness, for the proclamation of God's word. And this is the 
proclamation of God's word, according to the text, is to be facilitated 
by God healing at the hands of the apostles. Notice what the 
text says here in the progression and the language and the connectivity 
here, grant your servants that with all boldness, they may speak 
your word by stretching out your hand to heal. You see, in the 
early church, There were healings that were not healings unto the 
end of healing and just to sort of marvel in supernaturalism, 
but rather the healings served as a testification to the legitimacy 
of the proclaimed word. And so you see the gathered Christians 
here are praying, Lord, grant boldness to your servants that 
they may preach the word of God by by stretching out your hand 
to heal. So do again what you did in Acts 
3. It's what the Christians are saying. Let your servants go 
out. Let them heal the sick and let 
that be an instance or an occasion whereon the gospel of Jesus Christ 
can come in and be proclaimed to all who will hear. Of course, 
that act of that act of healing by the hands of servants ceased. We don't believe that that continues. 
We believe God continues to heal. We believe that God continues 
to heal and to mend as the great physician. But as far as that 
activity being paradigmatic or normative for the modern church, 
it is confined to this point in redemptive history when we 
had not yet had the word inscripturated and the gospel gone to every 
nation under heaven. So we have the gathered church 
praying for boldness, for the proclamation of God's word, this 
to be facilitated by God healing at the hands of the apostles. 
And it's important to note something here, to note something here. 
Now, as Christians, each and every one of us ought to pray 
for boldness. Each and every one of us ought 
to pray for boldness, for strength, for the courage to proclaim Jesus. 
The text, the gathered Christians are specifically praying for 
Peter and John and for those called to proclaim the word of 
God at this particular time. There is a principle here with 
regards to proper goings forth of church and the proper goings 
forth of the proclamation of the word. This doesn't mean I 
just noticed the text again here. Verse twenty nine. Now, Lord, 
look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all 
boldness they may speak your word. You see, don't shy away 
from you saying, Lord, help me in the workplace to, you know, 
if so and so comes up to me again and says, you know, Christianity 
is horrible and there is no God to with courage speak the Bible 
truly to them. But specifically here, Peter 
and John come reporting these threats brought upon them. The 
gathered Christians then pray to God for the ministers of the 
gospel. The principle here, first and 
foremost, is brethren, pray for those who minister the gospel 
because it is a hard task. This isn't this isn't me up here 
self-serving. I don't preach as much as Jim. 
I'm not as much vocationally involved as Pastor Butler in 
the preaching of the word. But please pray for Pastor Butler 
as your pastor here. You know, we need to be reminded 
not only to be a prayerful bunch. but to have certain targets for 
prayer. I don't mean targets, you know, 
make that person be nicer to me. I mean, we should have those 
targets for prayer where, okay, you know what? Yeah, the Bible 
says I should pray for my pastor that he would have the boldness 
to proclaim the Word of God. We need to pray for those who 
minister the Gospel because if there is a first and primary 
target, the devil, it is those who minister the Gospel. He, rather, wants to bring down 
those who faithfully open up the word and proclaim the living 
and reigning Christ to a dying world. And so we need to uphold 
those in prayer, pray against those who would oppose, pray 
for those who minister the gospel, that they would have divine aid 
in proclaiming and in carrying out their job of preaching the 
word and going to God in prayer. Again, undertaking this form 
of a request or under this prayer, taking the form of a request, 
the request is first for boldness, as we've noted, and secondly, 
for signs and wonders to be done in Jesus name. Notice the text 
continues there by stretching out your hand to heal and that 
signs and wonders may be done. through the name of your holy 
servant, Jesus. You see, in this point in redemptive 
history, those signs and wonders, those things done by the Holy 
Spirit by servants, testify to the veracity of Christ's claims 
and the legitimacy of the Christian religion. So, we have the gathered 
Christians praying, Lord God, cause this to continue so that 
Your name might be vindicated in all the earth, that ministry 
continued, that activity of signs and wonders continued, the Lord 
God empowering his church to bear them out until such time 
that the complete or perfect would come. That is the Old and 
New Testament in 66 books given to the church. And thereafter, 
such signs and wonders cease. And we have the living and true 
God working by spirit and word to call men and women, boys and 
girls from deadness and sin to life in Christ. So they build 
this request upon the perfections of God, upon acknowledging and 
addressing God in his various perfections and stations. And 
they pray for boldness to proclaim the word of God to dying nations. And then lastly, notice the response. Notice the response. Verse 31. 
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled 
together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy 
Spirit. And they spoke the word of God 
with boldness. We see here an answer to the 
prayer. This great example of God answering prayer, God blessing 
is gathered Christians with an answer to their request. They pray for boldness and then 
we see they spoke the word of God with boldness. We see in 
here an answer to prayer in three ways. First off, we see the answer 
to prayer in the shaking of the place of gathering. I don't believe 
we're supposed to see this as an earthquake because in other 
places in the book of Acts, we see it actually announced as 
an earthquake. Now, God delivers and brings earthquakes. Earthquakes 
don't happen outside of the sovereign providential rule of God. But 
in this case, I believe what we're seeing here is God's presence 
with his people. Verse 31, And when they had prayed, 
the place where they were assembled together was shaken. We see this 
in the Old Testament when God's law is given and the presence 
of God is known. Mount Sinai, the shaking and 
the thunderings and the lightnings of Mount Sinai. God shook the 
earth. to disclose a measure of his 
presence. We see that in the New Testament, 
mostly in the context of judgment. Get to the book of Revelation 
and we see places shaking. It is the presence of God in 
those cases as a juridical shaking, a rumbling of the thunders of 
God who will come to utterly destroy his enemies. Here we 
see the shaking as a confirmation of God's presence in the answer 
of prayer. The place where they were assembled 
together was shaken. Secondly, we see it in the filling 
of the Holy Spirit. And they were all filled with 
the Holy Spirit. We see this promised on the day 
of Pentecost by Peter. Men and brethren, what must we 
do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized for the 
remission of sins. And you shall what? Receive the 
promise of the Holy Spirit. John Gill comments that that 
was the gift of tongues. That was the gift of prophecy, 
that it was the revelatory gifts given to the apostles and to 
ministers of the gospel in the early church to proclaim Jesus 
Christ to those outside of their own native tongue. They were 
gathered together in Jerusalem, every nation under heaven. And 
so God empowers them by the spirit to proclaim with boldness the 
word of God, specifically the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
And notice, that is what is the end of the filling of the Holy 
Spirit. They spoke the word of God with 
boldness, which again is the third evidence of the answer 
for prayer. God actually gave them what they 
made a request for. Lord grant that your servants 
may proclaim with all boldness the wonders, the riches, the 
excellencies of Christ. God gives them that. The Holy 
Spirit is given for the express purpose of not marveling in the 
supernatural, not babbling back to God, not doing anything save 
for the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not anything 
but to advance with boldness, with a courageous zeal, the doing, 
the dying, the rising again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, brethren, three brief things 
and then we'll close in prayer, sing the doxology, And we'll 
have a time of meditation and you can be dismissed. Three things. 
First, this shows us how to be as a church. This shows us how 
to be as a church. Remember those three things. 
Steadfast. Steadfast and immovable in the 
things of Jesus Christ, we are to be prayerful when trial comes, 
we don't fly to every other means of pacification of our sinful 
hearts. We fly to prayer. We fly to God 
in prayer. We are to be a church that is 
steadfast and immovable and that is prayerful. And we are to be 
united. We are to be united again around 
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, because there's so much 
unity out there rallying around certain programs where the first 
thing you can hear when you walk into a church is, do you believe 
in homeschooling? Homeschooling is great. But should 
that be the first thing you hear when you come into a church? 
Oh, this guy's new. Let's make sure that he's all about homeschooling. 
Let's make sure he's all about, you know, cloth diapers. Let's 
make sure that he's all about, you know, I don't know, denim 
skirts. You can wear denim skirts. That's 
fine. But, you know, it shouldn't be 
a canon that we have on a multitudinous list of reasons why we have fellowship. We are, as they did, to unite 
around the gospel of Jesus Christ. This tells us, secondly, or this 
shows us, secondly, how to pray as a church, how to pray as a 
church. We pray to God, the creator, 
God, the glorious revelator, God, the sovereign, God, the 
one who bears out and governs according to providence, and 
God, the one who blesses his people with boldness, with strength, 
with peace to carry out their tasks. We are to pray as these 
early Christians pray. Now, we can pray about small 
things to our God, can't we? The Bible tells us that if you 
don't have rice and you need rice, pray to God for rice. You 
don't know what you're going to do for the next week for whatever, 
for your house. Some of us have been brought 
to that point where how are we going to get food on the table 
the next week, the next month, whatever it might be. You can 
pray for those small things. God hears. God's gracious. He 
hasn't abandoned us. He won't abandon us. He's promised 
that. But remember to pray for these big things. The proclamation, 
the unhindered proclamation of the gospel of Christ that the 
servants of God would not cower, would not waver, would not fall 
away, would not entertain heresy, but that we would with spirit-wrought 
boldness proclaim the gospel of Jesus And then thirdly, this 
gives us confidence that God is with his church and gives 
her what she needs to advance his gospel. Isn't that what we 
see here? We can have confidence that God 
is with his church. They gather together to pray 
for boldness to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. God is 
there. He answers and he empowers. We 
can have confidence, brethren, that when our prayers are directed 
by the Bible, when the pattern of prayer, the content of prayer, 
and when we approach our God faithfully and biblically, that 
the Lord our God most certainly answers. He is with his people, 
and he gives her what she needs to advance the glorious gospel 
of the blessed God. And before we pray, remember, 
old and young, if you're gathered here this morning, The only way 
to heaven, the only way to salvation, the only way to eternal life 
is through the Lord Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior. You see, 
maybe up until now you've been, you know, looking somewhere else. You've been thinking about what's 
for lunch. You've been worrying about, you 
know, your next mortgage payment and that sort of thing. But right 
now, if you're outside of Christ, hear me. There is a living and 
true God of perfect holiness, perfect justice, perfect wrath, 
perfect anger against sin. All have sinned and have fallen 
short of the glory of God. And sin isn't this, you know, 
mist or this ambiguous sort of idea that floats out there and 
that lurks in the sewers. Sin is a lack of conformity unto. and transgression of the law 
of God. We have all broken his righteous 
and his holy precepts. But you see, that's not where 
it stops. It isn't bad news. It isn't glorious 
news of God or glorious realities of God. And then the bad news 
that all stand condemned in sin. There is good news that God sent 
Jesus Christ to come into this world to save sinners. Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. You shall 
be washed. You shall be sanctified. You 
shall be justified in the name of Jesus Christ and by the Spirit 
of our God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and you will be saved. And you can sing along with us. 
Hallelujah. What a Savior. Let us pray. Heavenly 
Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for what 
it discloses to us concerning, in this case, the early church, 
its characteristics of steadfastness, of prayerfulness, Lord God, of 
unity, of being in one accord, of one heart, of one mind. We 
pray that for our church, Lord God, that we would rally upon 
those high and heavy things of gospel truth. We'd rally around 
those and seek to advance your interest in this world. We do 
pray, Lord God, that You would help us to be prayerful, to pray 
for these things, to pray in this manner as these gathered 
Christians prayed. And Lord God, we know and we 
have confidence and courage in the fact, comfort in the fact 
that you are with your people and that you grant them what 
they need in order to advance the gospel in this lower world. 
And we just pray, Lord, that you would go with us, that you 
would go with each and every one of these, that your people, 
Lord God, would Be well instructed and well filled by a day of worship 
today to go out into this upcoming week to conduct themselves in 
a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Lord God, I pray that 
by your spirit and by your word, sinners in our midst here will 
be saved, young and old, and that they would profess with 
great joy our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We just pray that 
you go with us now. Help us to do all that we do 
for your glory. and for the praise of your glorious 
grace. And it's in Christ's name that 
we pray.