STIRRED & SHAKEN!
Notes
Transcript
The Church Stirred:
What the Church needs sometimes is a good stirring; and I believe that has happened. When we become too comfortable with the way we do things, we become complacent. Comfortable sounds good, but comfort usually turns into laziness. As I said last week, it’s not if but when we are going to be persecuted. It’s not the fact that it’s going to happen, but in how we respond. I want us to notice the Church’s response and God’s response.
Acts 4: 23 And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
Notice how…
1. The Church responded!
Acts 4:24-30 24 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, 25 who by the mouth of Your servant David have said:
‘Why did the nations rage,
And the people plot vain things?
26 The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against His Christ.’
27 “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 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. 29 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, 30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”
The Church responded by…Praying & Praising!
Listen to their prayer. They acknowledged that God is in control. They acknowledged that God created everything. They acknowledged that God knows all.
The Church responded by…Recalling & Applying Scripture!
They recalled how God spoke through David about how people would treat the Messiah. They also told about the fulfilling of this prophecy.
The Church responded by…Boldly Speaking & Living Out the Word!
We need to notice what they asked God to do in verse 29. “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” They didn’t ask God to keep them from persecution. They didn’t ask God to hide them. They asked God for boldness in speaking His Word.
2. Notice ALSO how God responded.
Acts 4:31-37 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.
32 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. 33 And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. 34 Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, 35 and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.
36 And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, 37 having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
God responded by…Filling them with the Holy Spirit.
The place where they were meeting, shook. They were filled, (overflowing) with the Holy Spirit. I have had people ask me if this was a physical shaking or a spiritual shaking- Both. This is part of our problem- We want to limit what God can do. When God’s people are filled with the Holy Spirit, there is no limit to what can happen.
God responded by…Giving them boldness.
They didn’t just have boldness against the government and religious leaders; they had a boldness in speaking the Word of God. I want each of us to think about this. In our state, some have been standing against our Governor’s decisions and standing against some stores being able to be open and others not. But, have you heard about an increase in people boldly speaking the Word of God? It’s one thing to criticize and complain about things; but when you allow the Word of God to do the talking, God gets the glory and honor for the victories.
God responded by…Making them one.
This can be the product of a shaking- Unity. This unity wasn’t just in encouraging words- It was financial. They gave of what they had in order to help others. When God says that He will supply all of our needs according to His glorious riches; sometimes He does that through other believers. Our passage says that there were no needy people among them.
Conclusion:
I believe that the Church has been shaken. Have we responded in a way that pleases God? A Church that is focused on prayer, Scripture, and telling others about Jesus will always be strong.
Luke has used this repeated description of the church to round off the two chapters which describe the healing of the crippled man, the hearing of Peter and John before the authorities, and the powerful prayer which followed. This has given him a chance to introduce several themes which will be important as the book progresses. Now he emphasizes the way in which the early church was living as the true people of God—not least, we may suspect, in order to highlight an emerging paradox. The Temple authorities thought they were the guardians of the official traditions of Israel; but, in the very same city, there was a community which was practising the life of the true covenant people of God, and thereby quietly upstaging all that went on in the Temple. What you do with money and possessions declares loudly what sort of a community you are, and the statement made by the early church’s practice was clear and definite. No wonder they were able to give such powerful testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. They were demonstrating that it was a reality in ways that many Christians today, who often sadly balk at even giving a tithe of their income to the church, can only dream of.
In particular, this paragraph shows us what is meant when, in various early Christian writings (e.g. Philippians 2:1–4; Ephesians 4:1–4), people talk about being of one heart and mind. No doubt there is always a call to try to think alike with one another, to reach a deep, heart-level agreement on all key matters. But the early Christians, being Jewish, did not make as sharp a distinction as we do between heart and mind on the one hand and practical life on the other. ‘Being of one heart and soul’ in this passage seems to mean not just ‘agreeing on all disputed matters’ but also ‘ready to regard each other’s needs as one’s own’. Here again there is an important Old Testament echo, and again in a covenantal context: ‘I will give them’, promises God to Jeremiah, ‘one heart and one way’ (Jeremiah 32:39; similarly, Ezekiel 11:19). Yes, says Luke; and it’s happened through Jesus. This is the ‘new covenant’ community, right here, where all this is going on. And this establishes the claim of Jesus’ people to be the true assembly of God’s people, while those who run the Temple are just a sham. This in turn increases the tension that is starting to build between Jesus’ followers and the Temple authorities, a tension which comes to the boil in just a few chapters’ time.
Meanwhile, Luke uses this note about property-sharing in the community to introduce us to a character who will be important as the book progresses. A man named Joseph was given the nickname, by the apostles, of ‘Barnabas’, which means ‘son of encouragement’. He was a ‘Levite’, that is, a member of the Israelite tribe of Levi, which provided the minor officials who worked in the Temple. (The priests themselves were the descendants of Aaron, one family within the tribe of Levi.) Barnabas provides a concrete example for Luke of someone who sold property and brought the proceeds to the apostles.
It may be that the property in question was on the island of Cyprus, where he came from, and where, with Paul, he would go as part of the first overseas missionary journey (Acts 13). But Barnabas, as we shall see, lived up to his nickname, not only in the matter of his own property but also when it came to taking risks to help people in a difficult spot (9:27; 11:22–26). As in his gospel, so here in Acts, Luke keeps popping people like this into his story, not only making it more vivid but helping us to get a sense of what following Jesus looks like in practice.
Key Themes
■ God turns the evil intrigues of humans to serve his purposes.
■ Boldness to proclaim the gospel in the face of persecution is a divine gift to be prayed for and does not derive from personal courage.
■ The early church witnesses through both deeds and words.