The Believers Pray for Boldness
Download MP3Acts 423 through 31. When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the 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 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.
Caleb Chancey:For truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, who you anointed. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 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.
Caleb Chancey:And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. The word of the lord.
Joel Brooks:If you would pray with me. Lord, we ask that you would honor the very reading of your word. That you would even now begin opening up our hearts to receive its truth. Lord, that we would realize that when we hear these words, you are speaking to us. These are not just ancient words on ancient pages that have no meaning, but through your spirit, they are presently active and they're speaking to us.
Joel Brooks:So I ask that we would hear from you tonight. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Last week, we talked about how the world loves the church.
Joel Brooks:The world loves a church when the church builds schools, visits the sick in hospitals, takes care of the poor, does all these good things. But the moment you mention the gospel, the moment you mention that Jesus alone saves that he is the risen Lord overall, the moment you say that there there is this deep hatred that so often arises in such an exclusive claim. It's the same hatred that was directed towards Jesus. All those people who go around saying that Jesus was nothing more than merely a a good teacher and a man of love really don't have any idea who Jesus is. Because one does not get spat on, beaten, mocked, and crucified for loving too much.
Joel Brooks:Jesus was not killed because he fed people, because he healed people, or because he even raised some people from the dead. They they didn't look and say, oh, he raised Lazarus from the dead. Now let's let's kill him because he did that. The reason they killed him is because of the claims he made, and being the son of God, and that there that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one will come to the Father except through him. It's a very exclusive claim, and when people heard that they reacted angrily against it, despite his works because that claim cuts to the very heart of every individual.
Joel Brooks:Think about it. Yeah. You have all kinds of people who hated Jesus, And it didn't matter of their status, it didn't matter their power, their their wealth, their religion, their education. It did not matter. Across the board, people hated Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Yet the Pharisees who taught the law, and they believed in miracles, and they believed in the resurrection. They hated Jesus. You have the Sadducees who believe the opposite. They didn't believe in any miracles. They they hated the Pharisees, but the one thing they could unite on and agree on is, hey, we both hate Jesus.
Joel Brooks:You have Pilate and Herod, who hated each other, until they came to put Jesus on trial. And when they they got together then, they became friends, because they could agree on their mutual hatred for Jesus. Now, I mean, even the the sinners on the cross, even the criminals on Jesus's right and left were hurling abuse at him. So whether it was religious leaders, whether it was political leaders, whether you had wealth and no wealth, whether you're morally righteous, whether you were a criminal on the cross, you hated Jesus. And the reason for all of this was because of Jesus's claim.
Joel Brooks:And if you were to take him seriously, like that he is the only way to God, it cuts you down. Cuts down your foundation. This passage in acts 4 shows us what our response should be when this anger arises, when we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because make no mistake, Jesus himself said that if, if we follow him, just like they persecuted him, they will persecute us. If we proclaim the same message, if we get out there and proclaim, hey, good works are way to god, nobody's going to persecute you.
Joel Brooks:If you proclaim all religions are the same, nobody's gonna persecute you. But if you proclaim Jesus is the Son of God, he alone is how we must be saved. Persecution will arise. And so here we find in Acts 4 how we should respond. Last week we saw how Peter and John, they were arrested and not for healing a lame person, but because after they healed the lame person, they said, oh, the reason we did this and we had the power to do this was because of the name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:He has made this person well. And so immediately, after they are arrested or after they are let go, they go on this, like, mini trial, and they they proclaim Jesus, and they're let go with a warning, and they immediately go to their friends. And I love it actually, in Greek it says, they go to their own. They go to their little church, their own people there. And their friends' first response to everything that happens is not, Oh my gosh, panic, or let's, let's come up with a plan.
Joel Brooks:Let's come up with a strategy. It's okay. We need to pray. We need to pray. And what we find here in acts chapter 4 is the longest prayer in the book of acts and Luke records it, I think in this length in order to show it as a model for us as a church.
Joel Brooks:And I want us to look at this prayer in light of 2 things, what is absent from this prayer and what is central to this prayer, what is absent and what is central. One of the things that is nearly absent in this prayer is any reference to their problem. There's only a passing reference to the threats that were made to them. You know, that comes in verse 29. Just this little passing reference but everything else is really about god and his sovereignty.
Joel Brooks:And, this is astounding to me that they would make so little reference to what had just happened to them. I mean, they were just arrested. They were just forbidden to preach the gospel. Persecution now has has the doors have opened. They know it is coming, Yet their prayer doesn't center on that.
Joel Brooks:They don't pray for, honestly, what so occupies much of my prayers, which is, God, deliver me from this situation. God, give me wisdom to get through this situation. God, change this situation. You know, do do something. And not that those prayers are bad, but it's not their focus here.
Joel Brooks:This is incredible. It's incredible to me because so much of my prayers are rooted deeply in the situation that is right before me. You know, I'll say, God, give me wisdom and how to do this job. God, you know, be with my aunt Cindy. She's sick.
Joel Brooks:Will you will you please take care of her? Lord, please be with so and so. They're feeling very depressed. Help them through this. And those are not bad prayers.
Joel Brooks:We're actually gonna see later that the church is going to gather together to pray for Peter to be delivered from prison at one point. Those aren't bad prayers, but it's not central here. Instead, their focus is almost entirely on God and not the situation. God and His sovereignty. Look at verse 24 again.
Joel Brooks:And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God saying Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. Now why declare that? I mean, what's, what, is there a need there for for them to declare this? Do they think god somehow forgot? God doesn't doesn't remember who he is, and so you have to remind god, hey, you're the sovereign God who who took care of all this.
Joel Brooks:As most of you all know, Lauren has gone to Haiti, and she gets back sometime today. I I don't remember, when. I'm sure she told me. I don't even know if I'm supposed to pick her up or not, and I'm sure she also told me that. I have a very vivid conversation of her saying, now, Joel, remember this.
Joel Brooks:And I can even remember the time, the place I was, but I remember nothing about what she had said. And actually, I won't there was another time where she said, Joel, I hid my purse. Remember, this is where I put it. I remember everything except for the location. Which which one?
Joel Brooks:Why does she need to hide her purse? I'm home. But I didn't need to write a check this week or rather large check for our air conditioning, and so I had to find her purse. I tore our house apart. And I learned a couple of things that I'm kind of stupid for not knowing.
Joel Brooks:Maybe just men in general don't know, but wives have more than 1 purse. And I realized that because I I kept thinking, I found it. No. I found no. I looked everywhere.
Joel Brooks:I found old Star Wars figures. I found half of a peanut butter jelly sandwich. I found sunglasses that were missing for months, but I never found the purse that I needed. It is still somewhere in there. And yet, I can still remember saying, remember this.
Joel Brooks:I I need people to remind me of things. I do. God's not like me at all. He doesn't, you know, oh thanks, I forgot I'm the sovereign Lord overall. He doesn't need to be reminded any more of who he is than he needs to be reminded of your problems or your situation.
Joel Brooks:He does not need to be reminded of these things. But focusing on who he is changes your perspective on everything. Changes your perspective on everything that you think is swirling on around you. And it roots you into God's mission instead of your little agenda that you have going on. So when we call God Sovereign Lord, we're recognizing God, you're a creator, You're in control over all of this, even my life.
Joel Brooks:God is the one who they acknowledge has allowed them to be arrested. Everything is happening exactly as God planned it. Nothing is taking them by surprise here. Look at verse 27 and 28. For truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Joel Brooks:Now, I'm not certain if there's any more clear declaration of God's sovereignty in the new Testament than this. I mean, when you read to do whatever your hand and your plan has predestined to take place, take place, your mouth should just kind of drop open at such a declaration and you should either get really mad or you should get on your knees. Those are your two responses that you should have in light of that declaration. Because do you realize what, what he's saying here? He's saying that the people who spat on Jesus, the people who mocked Jesus, the people who stripped Jesus of his clothes, who drove nails into his hands and his feet, all of them were doing this because God had declared that it should happen.
Joel Brooks:All of this hate, all of this abuse, the worst injustice and evil in the history of man happened because God said this must happen. God wasn't up there, and all of a sudden he sees his son being arrested. He's like, oh my gosh. Oh, oh, oh. Woah.
Joel Brooks:They're crucifying my son. How can I how can I turn this mess into into something beautiful? That's that's not what's happening. Everything is happening exactly as God planned. Every spit that hits his cheek and runs off.
Joel Brooks:And let me tell you that when this grips you, like when this really hits you, you have been given a rock on which to build your whole life. Nothing's going to move you. You can read from Martin Luther's, earlier writings when he's, he's talking about what is happening during the reformation. And he says, this isn't so much about indulgences or salvation by grace through faith. He said, this is about the sovereignty of God on which all of that stands.
Joel Brooks:He said the sovereignty of God is the central thing. God, in his sovereignty, saves sinners. Said, if that falls at all else, everything else falls as well. The early Christians believe this. They could not be moved.
Joel Brooks:Who who cares if king so and so, or whatever political person who's in power now? Who cares if they're against me? The king of kings is on my side. Who cares? Who cares if we're arrested?
Joel Brooks:In all of this, God is doing exactly what he wants to do. As a matter of fact, I think that one of the reasons they probably did not pray for deliverance here, is because they saw the model of Christ. And they thought this is how Jesus could be most glorified, is when people do their worst. And somehow he turns it all to his glory. And that's what they do in this early church.
Joel Brooks:One of the things that kind of struck me as I was chewing on this text this week is, I think underneath all of this, you can really hear the echo of the Lord's prayer. I wonder if that hit you while you're reading it. The Lord's prayer really shaped these early Christians, and you know how the prayer goes, Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.
Joel Brooks:And that's what you're seeing here is, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. God, you were great. You are sovereign. You rule over all. Thy kingdom come.
Joel Brooks:Thy will be done. Everything happened according to your plan. You are moving. You're working, and it's happening just as you organized it. And it's only after that do they get to the, give me this day our daily bread.
Joel Brooks:God, now here, here's our need. There's threats. Well, let's get to their request in verse 29. And now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. What they pray for here is so utterly profound.
Joel Brooks:Everything in our life would be different if we believe this and we prayed like this. Everything, there would not be a part of our life that this would not reach. And this prayer, one of the things we see is that they, they anchor themselves to what is eternal and they let go to what is transient and decaying. So so they anchor themselves to what is eternal and they they let go of what is decaying. Irrevocably decaying.
Joel Brooks:You know, once again, so much of what I pray, and I think probably all of us pray, is actually we pray for things that are already irrevocably in decay. For instance, let me explain. My wife, she was sick before she went to Haiti, so I spent a lot of time praying for her health. It's not a bad prayer. It's a good prayer.
Joel Brooks:Don't walk away from here thinking we're not supposed to pray for people to get better. No. It's a good prayer. But you know what? Her body's decaying.
Joel Brooks:We feel it with every passing year. So even if she's fully restored, you're you're only postponing the inevitable, which is someday she will either bury me or I will bury her. We're decaying. You're in a financial pinch and so you you pray, God, give us give me some money. You know, I need some financial help.
Joel Brooks:Once again, that's a pretty good prayer. That's not bad, but you know what? One day your money will be gone. It's inevitable. You will not have it anymore.
Joel Brooks:When we pray for things like, like our government and our nation, which are once again, good things to pray for, but you have to realize that those those things are decaying. The Egyptian empire gone, Greek empire gone, Roman empire gone, the British empire in which the sun will never set, gone. Yesterday was the 20 year anniversary of the, the coup that almost led to the, that started the collapse of the Soviet Union. That was just 20 years ago. The Soviet Union, equal powers with the United States, Nuclear power collapsed.
Joel Brooks:Governments and all of their power are transient and decaying. And so we don't put our hope there. So much of what we pray for is actually things that are already decaying and will certainly decay. And if we build our lives on those things, we're going to be shaken ourselves and we will not last. And I think the early Christians realize this.
Joel Brooks:Verse 29 says that they were threatened. Now, what could they be threatened with? They'd be threatened with, we're going to fine you, we're going to take away some of your money, or we're going to confiscate your property, or we can beat you and we can take away your wealth, or we can lock you up and take you away from your family, or or we could take away your life. The only things that they are threatened with are things that will decay, that are already decaying. So instead of anchoring themselves to those things, they anchor themselves to the Word of God.
Joel Brooks:Listen to these words. Grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. It reminds me of a responsive reading was from Isaiah 40. And if you go back to verse 7 in Isaiah 40, it says, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God doesn't decay or the word of God stands forever. And I think as Peter is praying these things, he is, he is thinking through these things.
Joel Brooks:You get a hint of this in Peter's first letter that he writes to Christians who are being persecuted. Just let me read you a couple of verses from 1st Peter 1. It says, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable. Alright. Since you have been born again, not with something that will decay, but by something that will never decay through the living and abiding word of God.
Joel Brooks:For all flesh is like grass and all its glory, like the flower of grass, the grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is a good news that I preach to you. That's the anchor to boldly proclaim the word of God, which doesn't decay. And I think when these early Christians grab hold of this, they knew that what they were grabbing hold of was unshakable. I prayed, God, you are the sovereign Lord overall.
Joel Brooks:Everything else is going to fade away. We see it. Kingdom, your word, your gospel. We're holding on to that. And they understood clearly the mission of the church, and that is what guided their prayers.
Joel Brooks:We always pray according to what we believe our mission is. Do you realize that we always pray according to what we believe our mission is? If you believe your mission is happiness, prayers for happiness will consume you. If you believe your mission is to rise up the corporate ladder, that is what's going to consume your prayers. But if you believe your mission is to go and make disciples of all men and to proclaim to them the name of Jesus, and to see his glory spread throughout the entire world.
Joel Brooks:If you believe that is your mission, that becomes the aim and the focus of your prayers, above all else. And that's what they prayed. The results of this prayer was, I love it says that the place that they were gathered shook. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. I've I've read this text so many times, and I've shared, whenever I'm reading a text, I'm studying.
Joel Brooks:One of the things I do is I just always write questions. I just write questions until finally it gets ridiculous, and I realize I'm not gonna be able to answer a third of these. And so, but, but it helps me to study. And one of the questions I wrote down when studying this text was why does God shake the place? And then I started looking throughout scripture.
Joel Brooks:I was like, why is it that so often God shakes the place when, when he comes. I mean he could do anything. Why not make people levitate? You know, that's the sign of, you know, God's presence coming. People just start floating, or people glow, or you know, it could be anything, chill bumps, whatever.
Joel Brooks:But God chose shaking. When I come, when I make my presence known, things are going to shake. And he does that for a reason. Exodus 20, Mount Sinai, God comes down to meet with Moses. The mountain shook.
Joel Brooks:People were terrified. People were like, they thought they were going to die. Isaiah 6, Isaiah has a vision of the Lord in the temple. It says, the very foundations of the temple shook. Isaiah thinks he's going to die.
Joel Brooks:It's like, woe is me. I'm a man ruined. I'm a man of unclean lips. And through, throughout the Bible, when God makes his presence known, the earth shakes. And one of the reasons I think this is so, and y'all just bear with me, I think it's because he weighs more than us.
Joel Brooks:Alright? He weighs more than us. If if if I were to weigh more than this stage could hold, it it would it would shake, it would fall. You've heard me say this before, but the word for glory in Hebrew is kabod, which simply means heavy. It means weighty.
Joel Brooks:And when God shows up in glory, what it means is he's throwing his weight around. It means he's coming in his heaviness, and his weightiness. And it's often like why he comes, why people fall to the ground. They literally cannot stand. Often, while they describe his presence as being thick in a room, there's a weightiness or a realness to God when he makes his presence known.
Joel Brooks:And when he comes, we realize in that moment that he is solid, but we have no foundation. We are just dust and the wind. But this is a different kind of shaking here. All the other shakings that you find throughout the Old Testament, people are terrified. When the presence of God is made known to them, they're scared to death.
Joel Brooks:You know, woe is me, Isaiah running around. The people are holding their ears, screaming in Exodus thinking, you know, Moses, you talk to God because if we talk to Him, we're going to die. And everything's shaking. But here, no. Here, the exact opposite happens.
Joel Brooks:Everything shakes, and they're not filled with fear. They're filled with boldness. The exact opposite. They're filled with it, fill this new courage when everything begins falling apart around them. And I think the reason for this is because they realize that when God showed up, he wasn't coming to judge.
Joel Brooks:That their sins had already been dealt with. And I think we know this because of another earthquake in Matthew 27. This earthquake that happened when Jesus was on the cross. He cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Then it says, he gave up his spirit.
Joel Brooks:And then we have these words in Matthew, after he gave up his spirit, behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in 2 from top to bottom and the earth shook and the rocks were split. And once again, we see here the presence of God being made known, but this time it's being made known in wrath. God came down to crush his weight and judgment to crush his son. It's what Isaiah 53 is talking about when he says, he was crushed for our iniquities. The full weight of God's wrath crushed him.
Joel Brooks:And the earth shook. And I know that the, the disciples, those people gathered in the room, they realized this. They knew that they don't have to fear that kind of judgment anymore because their sins were dealt with on the cross. That judgment fell on Jesus. And so now instead of fear of judgment, they are filled with the Spirit of God and they boldly proclaim his word.
Joel Brooks:Because Jesus was shaken to the very core, we can live lives now that are absolutely unshakable. I wasn't gonna share this, but, last or this past Thursday, after our worship planning meeting, I'm driving, I can't remember where I'm driving. And I'm I'm thinking through the message, I'm thinking through this text, And I just begin praying. I was like, God, you're just praying his sovereignty. Thanking him for salvation, and asking God to just I don't want to pray about my circumstances.
Joel Brooks:I just I just want to pray who you are, because I want that to be my rock. And as I'm praying that, I was surprised, started crying. Then I started crying uncontrollably. And God started just shaking me. Saying, here's an idol, let me shake it out of you.
Joel Brooks:Here's a trust that you have on something else besides me, let me shake it out of you. And I'm pulled over on the side of the road, and I'm just weeping. This does not normally happen to me. As god is just he's just showing me, he's like, Let me shake you so you can become unshakable. Let your whole life be on my gospel.
Joel Brooks:There's no reason for you to fear judgement. There's there's no reason for you to do those things because Jesus paid for it all. Build your life on that. And I tell you, it just erupted in praise. I I I wanted to put on some praise music and I turned on my stereo because I thought that new worship CD y'all had given me was in there.
Joel Brooks:My girls had replaced it with Justin Bieber, baby, baby. And so that blasted and I quickly threw that out, found the right CD, put it in there, and just began worshiping. That's what my wife gets to find when she comes back. My my family, my girls now are in love with Justin. But I pray that God grips us like that.
Joel Brooks:That we can pray like that. That I can pray like that. I hope that was just the beginning of things breaking through. Pray with me. Jesus, you were shaken to the core so we wouldn't have to be shaken.
Joel Brooks:You bore the full weight of the wrath of God. So that the presence of God can now bring us joy and boldness. God, I pray for us now that you will place under us such a rock, A rock of your sovereignty so that nothing can move us. I pray that we would be gripped with your mission and not our little agenda. And that would so focus our prayers and our energy.
Joel Brooks:That above all else, we would want your name and your renown to be spread throughout all of this world. God do that in us. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
