To do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place
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Introduction
Introduction
We continue on, this week in our journey through the book of Acts. We’ve been in this study for a little while now so let’s do a quick recap of what we’ve seen thus far. We began in chapter 1 with the ascension of Jesus and his mission to the church to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth,” and we talked about what each of those places Jesus mentioned mean for us as Christians today. Where are we called to be witnesses of Jesus? Then we talked about the choosing of a new apostle and why it was important that they fill out the full number of 12. After Matthias was chosen to replace Judas in the ministry we talked about the day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the believers. It was on that day that Peter preached his first sermon and laid out from the scriptures the proofs that showed that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. That sermon would see the church grow from about 120 believers to around 3000. Next we saw Peter and John going up to the temple to witness to the crowds that they knew would be gathered there to pray and to observe the sacrifice. They were stopped by a man in his 40s who had been lame his entire life. He spent his days outside the gates of the temple begging for money in order to survive since he was unable to work. Through the power of Christ the beggar was healed and went into the temple with Peter and John. This drew a large crowd and Peter used the opportunity to once again lay out the scriptural proofs showing that Jesus was the Messiah. After hearing Peter that day many more people believed and the church grew once again, this time to around 5000. But the religious leaders weren’t happy. We talked last week about the fact that this new faith, this belief that Jesus had paid the sacrifice for all our sins was bad for their business model. It was cutting into their bottom line so they decided to put a stop to it. They had Peter and John arrested, but they ended up not being able to do anything to them other than threaten them because they couldn’t deny . They issued a cease and desist order. They released them, but warned them never to preach or teach about Jesus again.
And that brings us up to where we left off last week. So let’s pick up reading with the beginning of our passage for today in verse 23.
After they were released, they went to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them. You said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David your servant:
Why do the Gentiles rage
and the peoples plot futile things?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers assemble together
against the Lord and against his Messiah.
“For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.
So what do we have here? Peter and John are told to stop preaching and they’re threatened. But the authorities can’t do anything else to them so they release them. And Peter and John go straight back to the other believers and tell them about everything that has happened.
Now let’s imagine for a minute that this same situation were to play out today. Imagine that a couple of pastors were arrested and brought in front of Congress and then ordered not to preach in Jesus name any longer. Those pastors are then released and they go back to their church and report what just happened. What do you think would be the reaction today? Well to start off, it would be all over social media within hours, if not minutes. It would be on Facebook and it would be live Tweeted and there would be Instagram stories and Snapchats and blogs and video and various media outlets would be reporting on either the loss of religious liberty or the defense of religious diversity depending on their particular political or theological perspectives. And religious leaders from various organizations within education and politics would issue statements and would call for either revival or greater diversity of belief again based on their particular theological and political perspectives. And there would likely be libraries full of books written on either side of the issue. And we, as believers would be up in arms, ready to fight for our rights to share the gospel. And all of that is just fine. There’s nothing inherently wrong about any of it. But what did the believers do in our passage? When Peter and John came back and said, “We were arrested and we’ve been ordered not to preach in Jesus name any more,” what did the church do? According to what we just read, they prayed. The immediately joined together in prayer.
And that’s what we should be doing today. Oh sure the religious leaders in our scenario that we just went through would be calling for people to pray as they should. But most people today would be too preoccupied with reading all the articles and commenting on or liking all the social media posts to actually take the time to pray.
So real quickly this morning I want to look at this example from the early church of what we should be doing when we run into opposition to the gospel. What did they actually pray about? What did they say in their prayer?
There are 2 parts to this prayer. Let’s look back at the first part of it now.
Acts 4:24-
When they heard this, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them. You said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David your servant:
Why do the Gentiles rage
and the peoples plot futile things?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers assemble together
against the Lord and against his Messiah.
“For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place.
In this first part of their prayer they acknowledge God as the creator. “Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.” But more than that, they acknowledge that what has just happened is not news to God. This is not a surprise to him. In the midst of this prayer is a quote, with a few minor wording changes, from . Let’s look at that passage really quick and compare what was said.
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand,
and the rulers conspire together
against the Lord and his Anointed One:
You can see, they changed a few words, but this is obviously the scripture that was referenced in the prayer in Acts. But the thing is, this was written by King David, hundreds of years before Christ came to earth. This is yet another of the prophecies of the Messiah that we see fulfilled in Jesus.
And then they go on in their prayer to talk about that fulfillment. They talk about Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel all conspiring together to kill Jesus. And I love the wording that is used here. It says all these people assembled together, “to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place.” In other words, as we’ve already said, this was not a surprise to God. He knew everything that would take place. God knew that when Jesus came to earth he would be betrayed and beaten and killed. In fact, that was the whole plan. But further, God knew that there would be opposition to the gospel after Jesus completed his mission and returned to heaven. He knew that Peter and John would be arrested. He knew that they would be ordered to stop preaching. And again, it’s all part of the plan.
“To do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place.” That’s something we need to remember in our day. God still isn’t surprised. When governments try to silence the gospel, God isn’t surprised. When terrorists attack churches and kill Christians, God isn’t surprised. Even when Christians twist the words of the Bible to justify all manner of sin, God isn’t surprised. It’s all part of his plan. We may not understand it. We may even question why God would allow some of these things to happen, but it’s all part of his plan. We have to remember that God doesn’t reveal all of his plan to us. Those of us in the military are pretty familiar with the term, “Need to know.” With classified information, even though you may have a security clearance at the correct level, if you don’t have a need to know that information you don’t have access to it. God works on a similar principal with his plans for us. He gives us only as much as we need to know. We want to know the whole thing, to have our questions answered, but God holds back most of the plan because he knows that revealing too much of the plan would overwhelm us and would probably just raise even more questions. So we need to remember, in the chaos and confusion of our modern world, that God has a plan, and his plans will always come to fulfillment. Even when it looks like Satan is winning, God has everything under control.
And then there’s a second part to this prayer that the believers prayed. We find it in verses 29-30 of our passage.
And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
This is the heart of their prayer. They are saying, “Lord, we know this isn’t going to be easy. We’re being threatened. The government and our religious leaders don’t like what we’re saying but give us the strength to say it anyway.” They pray for boldness, for courage to continue preaching even though they know that their preaching will bring persecution.
That’s often where we fail in our prayers in modern times. Looking back at our scenario from earlier we talked about the fact that religious leaders are often calling for prayer. But what form do those calls most often take? We see calls for prayer for our leaders to make wise decisions. We see calls for prayers for religious freedom to be upheld. We see see calls for all kinds of different things, but rarely do we see something like what we see in this passage. These people knew for a fact that they were going to be persecuted if they kept preaching. They knew that many of them might die if they continued preaching. And they don’t ask for deliverance or protection, but for courage and boldness in the face of their trials. Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t ask for God’s protection, but we need to realize that sometimes protection isn’t part of his plan. But the spread of the gospel always is. The salvation of mankind IS the plan, so the sharing of the gospel will always be a vital part of whatever is going on. Our focus as a church should be on the sharing of that gospel with those who have not yet heard it, and with those who may have heard but have not yet accepted.
So that’s the believer’s prayer here in . But there’s one more piece to this passage. Let’s look at that final verse again.
When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.
God answered their prayer. Right then and right there. When the people of God got on board with his plan and prayed for the boldness to continue sharing the gospel in the face of opposition, God answered immediately. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and they went out and continued preaching. And because of their boldness, because of their commitment to the spread of the gospel even in the face of certain persecution, we have received the gospel today. And it’s our duty to continue in that same boldness and continue sharing with those around us.
Last week we talked about Richard Wurmbrand and the persecution that he endured in communist Romania in order to continue preaching the gospel. Most people would have said that the former Soviet bloc countries were a lost cause for the gospel. There was just too much persecution and too much opposition for the gospel to flourish. But remember, none of this is a surprise to God. When the communist government of Romania finally fell in 1989 Pastor Wurmbrand was invited back. He helped to open a printing facility and a bookstore in Bucharest and city officials offered to store the bibles and Christian books in a room below the palace of Nicolai Ceausescu, the very leader who had imprisoned Richard. Not only that, the rooms that were offered were in the very same place where Richard had been imprisoned. God used what happened to Richard to further the spread of the gospel. The communists thought they were extinguishing the gospel, but in reality, they were only fanning the flames.
God isn’t surprised. “To do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place.”
Would you pray with me?