Praying for Boldness
Download MP3If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. Well, actually, this is gonna be our last week in acts for the summer, and then we are going to take a break. And we're gonna do a series called great prayers of the Bible. But this last sermon on acts is actually the first in the series on the great, prayers of the Bible.
Joel Brooks:We have bookmarks for you. If you didn't pick up one that tells us each one of the prayers we'll be looking at over the next 9 weeks, and then we'll return back to acts, sometime early fall, probably 1st week of August. Actually, 2nd week of August. I'm looking. I should look at the very thing that's printed up here.
Joel Brooks:Alright. But, pick up one of those on your way out. Acts chapter 4. This is a prayer coming out of the time when Peter and John had just been arrested and reported back to the church what had happened to them. It is their prayer for boldness.
Joel Brooks:When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what to the what the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, sovereign Lord who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. Who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed? For truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with Gentiles and the people of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Joel Brooks:And now, lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. This is the word of the Lord. It is to be now.
Joel Brooks:If you would pray with me. Father God, we pray that you would in this time as we submit to your word, that you would send your spirit to come and to shake us. Shake us to our core and remake us as new people. People who truly believe and depend upon you, Jesus, with every fiber of our being. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Joel Brooks:But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Now before we actually look at the words I just read, I want us to go back and look at something from last week that I simply ran out of time and I didn't get to talk about. I know that as this is the cardinal sin for a pastor to go back and to do that.
Joel Brooks:If I had been my Baptist pastor growing up, I would have just concluded and added that extra point during my prayer last week. I don't know if your pastor did that, but, their prayer was always just they would say the points they missed. But I didn't do that and so now I need to make a point. Points that's actually been building as we've been going through acts. That's really what does a disciple look like and what what does the kingdom of God look like that we've been talking so much about.
Joel Brooks:One of my favorite verse we just had to jump over last week, and it's chapter 4, verse 13, when we read, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. I love that last line. They recognize that they had been with Jesus. And it's here that we actually get a description of what a disciple looks like.
Joel Brooks:A disciple looks like someone who has been with Jesus. Someone who's been with Jesus so much, they begin to take on the characteristics of Jesus, the qualities of Jesus, the character of Jesus. They begin to look like Him. We've been talking a lot as we've gone through acts about sharing the gospel with people and advancing the kingdom of God. You know, Jesus is our king.
Joel Brooks:He is seated on his throne, and his kingdom is breaking through into this world, but what does that kingdom look like? I mean, what should we be looking for? What are the results of his kingdom going forth? And the answer is that more and more people begin to look like Jesus. When you look at all of the different kingdom of God passages we have in scripture, you're gonna notice a certain theme that keeps percolating up.
Joel Brooks:Let me just read you one of those passages. In Galatians 5, we read, now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So this is a kingdom of God passage and he lists all of these characteristics.
Joel Brooks:And he says, those things can't fit in the kingdom. They don't belong in the kingdom. And then he says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control. These are the things that belong in the kingdom of God. So the kingdom of God is not filled with sexual immorality and envy and jealousy and anger or divisions, but instead it's filled with the fruit of the spirit.
Joel Brooks:That's what the kingdom of God looks like. It looks like love, joy, peace, and patience. It looks like people who look like Jesus. That's what the kingdom of God is about. And I think it's important for us to hold up this as I continue to just hammer over and over again the mission of the church.
Joel Brooks:And that we are to be a people on mission and that we are to go forth and we're to proclaim the gospel. I want you to have in your mind, what does that look like? It looks like people growing in the fruit of the spirit. That's what it looks like. It looks like you becoming a more loving person to somebody who really irritates you.
Joel Brooks:It looks like you becoming a more peaceful person when everybody else around you is full of anxiety. It looks like you becoming a more patient person to all the people around you who want things done now. It looks like you becoming a kinder person towards your spouse when they say unkind things to you. Or for you to choose good when no one's watching and it's easier to choose evil. Or for you to become gentle, more gentle with your children even when they're asking for it.
Joel Brooks:And for you to exercise self control instead of sending out that angry email or instead of shopping for things that you don't need. Those little things are not little things. That's what the kingdom of God looks like. You begin to gradually look more and more like Jesus. And I wanna make sure you hear that as I'm pounding away at the mission of the church.
Joel Brooks:Why does God care so much about the mission of the church, his mission? It's because he wants to see the whole world filled with the fruit of the spirit. And he wants to see the whole world look like his son Jesus. So that's what we're about. That's what the kingdom of God going forth looks like.
Joel Brooks:That's what these disciples were recognized as. You look like Jesus. You have all these characteristics of Jesus. Now one of the ways that they also showed that they look like Jesus, that they had been with Jesus is because they prayed like Jesus. That's what this text is about.
Joel Brooks:They could tell by the simple way that they prayed that they had been with him. This is a prayer that's stemming from a time of persecution. The first persecution that had come upon the church, and it's the first and the longest prayer that we have in the book of acts. And it's clear that when Luke wrote this, he wrote this to serve as an example for us. Now when studying this prayer, I go to a number of different commentaries in Acts.
Joel Brooks:And as a general rule, I try to not read any commentary on Acts that came from an American. It's just a kind of general rule that I have. I've I've found that you have to go outside of America to find people who actually can can more readily identify with the type of culture, that was around for the New Testament church to grow out of. And so I read, all these commentaries that were from people outside of America. And and one of my favorite commentators is a man named Ajith Fernando.
Joel Brooks:He's from Sri Lanka. He has worked for Youth For Christ in Sri Lanka for over 35 years. He just recently retired. And his commentary on acts is outstanding. I actually got to hear him speak one time.
Joel Brooks:And and as he is speaking and he's telling about youth for Christ in Sri Lanka, which is a very violent place, especially towards those with faith. He's talking about the different ministries that they would have as youth for Christ. And the one that he was most excited about their the that they spent most of their time and energy investing in was a prison ministry, which I just thought was really odd. How many of you parents would love it if your children were spending most of their times investing in convicts? But but that's what he did.
Joel Brooks:And they would go there and they started educational programs. They were leading Bible studies. Every Christmas, they made over 800 meals for all of the guards and for the inmates in the prisons. And I was just thinking, why of all the ministries for youth, is this the one they focus on? And finally, actually somebody asked a chief that question as he was speaking.
Joel Brooks:And said, a chief, why prison ministry? And I love it. He looked at this person like he was the most stupid person. Like that was the dumbest question anyone could ask. And then it's like, oh, he remembered.
Joel Brooks:He's in America. And he goes, well, we want to have a prison ministry so that we will have friends when we get thrown in prison. It's like, we we wanna have some friends who will be our guards and our inmates when we get cast in there. And a number of people chuckled and he goes, No. I'm I'm being serious about this.
Joel Brooks:That's why you have to read commentaries from Acts from people who were not born in America. Many places in the rest of the world, they get the persecution that comes up in the church. Last week, we saw Peter and John arrested for healing somebody, preaching the gospel. Remember I said, every time a apostle or a disciple does a miracle of healing, it will always get them in trouble. Persecution will always come.
Joel Brooks:And so how are they supposed to respond? We see that the early church, their first impulse was to pray. Their first instinct when running into danger was to pray. And if I could be so bold or maybe blunt, their first instinct wasn't to tweet. It wasn't to go to social media and post it.
Joel Brooks:And the reason I I say this is because social media has in many ways for our generation replaced prayer. Something bad happens and the first thing we do is we gotta post that something bad happened. And we might make a joke about it, you know, you know, rough day at the office or kids had too much coffee, you know, or whatever it is. But, we might make light of it, but we have to put it out there. Or if something good happens to us, we post our thankfulness.
Joel Brooks:I'm so thankful for my hot wife. I'm so thankful for my amazing beach trip. I'm so thankful that I could do 30 burpees in a minute, you know. I we we post this thankfulness out there. We post our problems out there.
Joel Brooks:And here's the harsh reality, the reason we do that is because if we were to be honest with ourself, we would think we actually get more of a response and an encouragement from a post than from prayer. But to pray, we just see that well that just goes up into the avoid and we receive nothing back. I put it out there on Facebook or an Instagram or I tweet it or whatever. Even as shallow of a response as I get, it's better than nothing. But we find that deep within our heart, we we need to express these things but we're expressing them to the wrong place.
Joel Brooks:And here we see that when the church runs into danger and we'll see later when they have things to pray, praise about or give thanks about, they immediately go to God. I gotta confess, I don't do this. My first instinct when trouble comes is not to tweet. You could shoot me if I ever do that. But my first instinct is I'm a problem solver.
Joel Brooks:So if one of you got arrested for your faith, first thing I'm gonna think of is, okay, who do I know in government? What strings can we pull? Do I know any influential people? Where can I get some bail money? This person's gonna need a lawyer.
Joel Brooks:We've got a lot of lawyers at our church. Which one will be the best? I am going into problem solving mode and then at the end of it, I'm thinking, but we seriously need to pray about this. And prayer comes at the end. Here we see prayer is the first impulse of the church when something like this happens.
Joel Brooks:When Peter and John are arrested, they come back and they report to the church all that has happened. And then the verse 24, we read that when the church heard it, they lifted their voices together to God. I love that. They don't each go to their home and say, you know, we really need to pray about it and then just go home. They together, they draw strength from one another in unison as they pray to God.
Joel Brooks:I want us to look at 3 specific things that they prayed for and then I want us to look at how God answered their prayers. First specific thing they prayed for is in verse 24. They prayed, Sovereign Lord, Sovereign Lord. When suffering hit the church, the first thing they recognized was that God was in control. As bad as things were getting, they recognized every one of these bad things is happening according to plan.
Joel Brooks:God is not surprised by Peter and John's arrest. He wasn't caught off guard. God is not surprised when you're miserable at your job or you lose a job. He's not caught off guard by your depression or by your marital conflict or that your mom has some incurable disease. This doesn't catch him off guard.
Joel Brooks:He's not surprised by this. The Lord is sovereign over all of that. These early Christians, they recognize that no matter what happens to them, God's in charge and God has the final word. And so every step that they begin to take after this, no matter how painful it is, they know that they're taking the steps that were preordained for them. So they recognize God in complete control and the first thing they pray is, Sovereign Lord.
Joel Brooks:And then they tell all the things that God has done. You know, God, you made the heavens and the earth and and they begin just telling God all of these wonderful things he's done, which is a little puzzling. It's almost like they're, you know, pepping up God. God, I know my my problem really big, but remember, you made the heavens and the earth. You did this, you did this.
Joel Brooks:Why are they telling these things to God? Did they think God had forgotten that He made the heavens and the earth? That God had delivered people so many years ago? They didn't need to remind God, they needed to be reminded. They needed to be reminded of these things.
Joel Brooks:You know, I'm a forgetful person. This was painfully brought to my attention a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago, a couple's coming up to me and it's after this service, the 4:30 service. Now I get up at 3 in the morning on Sundays, do 3 services. By time the service is over, I'm done.
Joel Brooks:I don't know the names of my kids. Alright? And and this couple's coming. I'm like, okay. I'm I'm trying to think and I'm like, okay.
Joel Brooks:I got I got I got it. I I know their names. Lord, thank you for giving me their names. I know this. And and and they come forward and I say, hey, I'm so excited about doing your wedding in a couple of weeks.
Joel Brooks:Now first off, you need to be crystal clear that you know that you are doing their wedding in a couple weeks when you say that. Oh, it gets so much worse. So so I I said, hey, I'm so excited by doing your wedding in a couple weeks and they go, oh, okay. You did our wedding 3 weeks ago. I I told my wife about that, and I tried to justify it and all this.
Joel Brooks:She goes, Joel, there's no justification. It's like, that was just bad, But I'm a forgetful person. I need to be reminded of these things. God's not forgetful, but we are. And when we pray these things, sovereign Lord, you made the heavens, you made the earth, you've done all these things that we see throughout scripture.
Joel Brooks:You provided for me 40,000 plus meals in a row. We're not reminding God of those things, we're asking the spirit of God to remind us of those things. That He's faithful, He's sovereign, He takes care of us. Peace comes to us in the midst of suffering only when we realize that God is the one who is sovereign over it. And so we read things like from Luke 21, this is curious passage in which Jesus is talking to His disciples and He talks about the persecutions to come and He says, some of you are gonna be killed.
Joel Brooks:And then He says, not a hair is gonna fall from your head. You're like, I mean, what does that mean? Like, we're going to die but our hair is going to look really good? You know what? What are you talking about?
Joel Brooks:And saying, yes, some of you will die, but know that when that comes, I'm in complete control of it, even down to how many hairs fall from your head. I've mentioned this before, but when my father died when I was younger, we had some very well meaning Christians would come up to me. And, in trying to comfort me, they would say, now we know God would never allow something like this to happen. That God wouldn't want something like this to happen. And they kept saying that over and over.
Joel Brooks:And I want you to realize that that is no comfort to somebody who's grieving. Because I'm thinking, you mean this was outside of God's control? And if God can't stop something as simple as that, you were then telling me that I should place my eternal salvation in His hands? There's no way. My comfort is this, He's sovereign and He's good.
Joel Brooks:And I don't have to reconcile or try to figure out how it works in this situation, but I know it's happening according to plan and He is in complete control. And there I find my peace. And that's a peace that surpasses all understanding that's given to these disciples here. So that's the first thing we see that they recognize God is in control. 2nd is this, their prayer is steeped in scripture.
Joel Brooks:From memory, in the midst of prayer, they quote Psalm 2. Scripture was gonna be the lens in which they persecution that was happening around them. So here we see the importance of knowing God's word by heart. It's astonishing when you read through the New Testament and the prayers that come up in the New Testament, how much of those prayers are simply quotations from the Old Testament. The church knew their Bibles.
Joel Brooks:I mean on the cross, when Jesus was dying, He literally bled scripture. Psalm 22, Psalm 31. Those became the scriptures He went to for His lens for understanding what was happening. And once again this is why we pray together. When it says that they prayed in unison or in one voice, don't picture like all of them with one voice saying these things.
Joel Brooks:That'd been kinda creepy and cool. You know, if that happened. But likely what was happening is somebody would stand up and pray. And they would quote from Psalm 2 and everybody else was like, yes, absolutely amen to that. And that's what times of prayer together does.
Joel Brooks:Some of us who are strong, we can help those who are weak, but we find strength together. It's one of the reasons that we do group prayer here at Redeemer. We're gonna do group prayer next week. I'm after the sermon. Once again, I'm warning you.
Joel Brooks:And once again, I know if you don't come next week, it's because you hate prayer and I will judge you. But that's why we gather together with one voice and those who are strong can carry those who are weak. 3rd thing that we see here is that they prayed for boldness. Look at verse 29. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant.
Joel Brooks:Just just stop there and and grant. What if that was the last page or last word at the end of the page and you had to flip it over? What if that was the case? What would you expect to find? Listen to their threats and grants.
Joel Brooks:And grant deliverance, is that what you would expect? Grant grant us to find favor with the authorities. You know, grant us traveling mercies. Grant us, you know, we have a few unspoken. You know, grant grant us these things.
Joel Brooks:What would you ask for in this situation? We read, Grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. They prayed for boldness. Their first response was not to pray for protection but and not to pray for deliverance. Not that those are bad things.
Joel Brooks:They they will later Peter's gonna be rested later and they're gonna pray for his deliverance. We'll see that later in acts. But that's not the first thing they pray for here. Not protection, not deliverance, they pray for boldness. What if your first response to suffering was not to ask God to get you out of it, but to ask for God to show you his purpose in it?
Joel Brooks:What if that was your first response? Not ask God to get you out of that suffering, but for God to show you His purpose in it. To help you to be bold or to show faith in the midst of that trial, so He could accomplish whatever He wants to accomplish. Before asking God to resolve pain, why don't we first ask for him to show his purpose in it? And this shouldn't just be when suffering comes our way.
Joel Brooks:This should also be when blessings come our way. So when you get that unexpected raise at work or you get your tax refund from Trump coming in, Some inheritance? What if the first thing you said when you got that unexpected blessing was, Lord, what is your purpose for this? Why would you bless me so? What is your purpose?
Joel Brooks:What if we did that with both our sufferings and with our blessings? When we do this, what we're doing is we're anchoring ourselves to what will last and we're letting go of things that will never last. We're anchoring ourselves to the eternal, and we're letting go of things that are in the process of decay. Have you ever thought about this that most of the things you pray for will not last? Most of the things that you pray for will not last.
Joel Brooks:If your friend is sick and you pray for her health, that's great, that's good, but you know her health will not last. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus died. If you pray for things like money, you're in a desperate need, for some financial help, that's fine and good, but know that all of your earthly possessions will eventually fade away. It will not last. You can't put your hope there.
Joel Brooks:If you even pray for things like our government or our nation, it's not gonna last. That's a good thing to pray for, but but our nation won't last. You know, Egypt, the empire of Egypt came and went. The Greek empire came and went. The Roman empire came and went.
Joel Brooks:The British empire in which the sun never set came and went. I mean, I still remember the Soviet Union Empire 30 years ago thought there was no way it would ever go away. It came and it went. Nations come and go. What are we anchoring ourselves to?
Joel Brooks:What are we placing our our hope into? So much of what we pray for is in a irreversible process of decay. And if we build our lives on those things, we are gonna be shaken and we will not last. And so the early church realized this, that's why they didn't pray for deliverance. They didn't pray for protection.
Joel Brooks:They didn't pray for health. Those things will ultimately fade fade away. Verse 29 says that they were threatened. Listen to their threats. I'm thinking threatened from what?
Joel Brooks:What possibly when you have this mindset, what possibly could the authorities threaten you with? Take away your money, confiscate your property and your possessions, beat you up, take away your health, maybe take away your life. All of those things are already in the process of decay. So what they do is they anchor themselves to what is eternal, which is the word of God. Give us boldness to declare your word.
Joel Brooks:The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of God endures forever. So the early church here, we see in the way they pray, they're placing themselves on unshakable ground. And so they wanna be just a witness to what will last. And then they go on and they pray, God in addition to us being bold, will you go forth and do miracles, heal people, do miracles. This is both of their prayer requests are attached to evangelism.
Joel Brooks:We wanna be bold in what we say and God you be bold in what you're gonna do. May the gospel go forth in word and empower to do its work. Let's look at what happened after they prayed. Says, after they prayed, the place that they gathered together shook. It shook and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
Joel Brooks:I know some of you, you know, different backgrounds, Presbyterian, Lutheran, something Baptist. Well, woah, we can't be filled with the spirit again. I would just say read it. Yes, these were people filled with the spirit of God and they're filled with the spirit again and again and again. We're gonna see that all throughout Acts that God continually fills his people with his spirit.
Joel Brooks:And it gives them power for what's ahead. So they're filled with the spirit and then everything shakes. I I love the imagery here. They become an unshakable people when God comes and shakes everything around them. They become an unshakable people when God comes and shakes everything around them.
Joel Brooks:Now I am not sure why it it is in scripture that every time God's presence come near comes near, well, not every time, a sign that we see often in scripture. When God comes near is shaking. God comes down to Mount Sinai, the entire mountain shakes. God comes to Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6, the entire temple is shaking. I mean, over and over again, you see this that when God's presence comes, you basically have an earthquake.
Joel Brooks:I think the reason is this, The word for glory we have is the word heavy or weighty. It's a great seventies term, heavy. But what it means is real. This just got real. And when the heaviness and the glory of God comes down, like it is of such weight and substance, everything else around it begins to crumble.
Joel Brooks:I live in a house that's over a 100 years old. If I just walk across the floors, it creaks. But that is nothing compared to when we moved in a piano. When we moved in the piano in, I thought our house was going to implode. The walls, all the the the paintings and pictures in the walls were all shaking.
Joel Brooks:The the floors were bowing down and it's because the piano had so much more substance and weight than I did. And what God is saying here is He comes down and shakes everything and He's saying, saying, I am more real than everything else you see. I'm of such substance you could build your entire life upon. I'm that kind of rock. And so when the room around them began to shake, they became unshakable to the world.
Joel Brooks:I think that's what God is doing here. So let me just ask, do you do you want to be that type of unshakable person? I mean, don't you wanna be filled with the boldness of God? The boldness in God's presence no matter no matter the circumstance, no matter what life throws your way, it's offered to you here. It's offered to you to build your life on the things that will last and let go of the things that are already in the process of decay.
Joel Brooks:If you would pray with me. Lord, we pray that you would become real. That through your spirit, your glory would so invade each one of our lives that we would be shaken to our core, but rebuilt on the solid ground of Jesus. That you would be the most real thing that we know and our prayers would reflect that. We begin to pray more and more for the things that will endure and we'll let go of the things that are already in the process of decay.
Joel Brooks:Jesus may become everything to us. We pray this in your name. Amen. This actually leads us here to this table, because if you really want to understand the presence of of God in your life, you need to understand the cross. There was another time when there was a lot of shaking that happened at a certain event, and that was actually at the cross.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus was crucified, it said that the sky became dark as night, and then it said the ground began to shake. There was an earthquake. And what I think you see there is once again, God's presence coming down, but this time it's not coming in blessing. This is the weight of God's wrath coming down. It's the weight of God's judgment coming down.
Joel Brooks:All on Jesus. That's the punishment that was due us that Jesus took for us. And Jesus took that judgment so that we would never be judged. Jesus had the the presence of God's wrath fall upon him so that we would always have the presence of his blessing upon us. And so we remember that as we come to this table.
Joel Brooks:And we remember Jesus' words. On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus took bread and he broke it. He said, this is my body given for you. In the same way He took the cup and He said, this is my blood poured out for the forgiveness of many. As often as we come together church, and we eat of this bread and we drink of this cup, we proclaim the death of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:That is our only hope. This is how we're gonna take this meal. We'll have the two lines coming down here. We'll have several stations up here. And if you would just break off some of the bread and dip it into the wine, you'll hear the words, this is the body of Christ given for you.
Joel Brooks:Then you'll hear hear the words, this is his blood shed for you. Then after you've taken few, would return to your seats using these outer aisles. And I say this often, but don't you dare come unless you're a sinner because this is a sinner's table. This is a table for sinners who realize that their only hope is that Christ was crushed for us. It's only through the cross that we have any salvation.
Joel Brooks:If that's you, this table is for you and I invite you to come. Let me pray for us. Father, we ask that during this time of communion, we would indeed commune with you. Spirit of god, once again, you would come and you would be real in our midst. Make real to us Jesus to where he's the most real thing we know.
Joel Brooks:We'd walk away with a much greater understanding of his broken body and blood and how that's our only hope. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
