SPIRITED PRAYER

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “You made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against His anointed one.’”

“Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed. They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness. Stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Acts 4:23-31

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How do you handle adversity when it comes your way, especially when it serves to challenge your faith?

There are plenty of options but as we see in today’s passage, there is only one right one.

For fresh off of their encounter with the Sanhedrin, who had taken Peter and John captive after they healed a lame man in the temple courts and ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, the two apostles could have done many different things.

They could have allowed themselves to be intimidated and frightened by the Jewish religious leaders, giving into their orders to stop evangelizing as Jesus had commanded them to do.

They could have decided to still speak in the name of Jesus but do so secretly, discretely doing as Jesus told them to in order to avoid any further confrontation.

Or they could have done what they did do, turn to God in prayer, placing their faith and trust in Him.

For the scriptures tell us that Peter and John went back to their people after being set free by the Sanhedrin. I’m sure everyone was eager to hear what had taken place and how the apostles managed to gain their pardon. The two apostles didn’t leave them wondering for we read where they “reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.”

How did the people respond?

The scriptures tell us that they “raised their voices together in prayer to God.”

Friends, this is always the right answer when we face difficulty and uncertainty. We need to go to the Lord who cares for our every need and places His protection upon us always, especially when we are involved in the work He calls us to do. He is the One who shows us the way when we can’t see one for ourselves and we have no more trustworthy source of wisdom and direction than Him.

And so the people joined together and lifted their voices in the following prayer:

“Sovereign Lord, You made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against His anointed one.’”

“Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed. They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness. Stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”

Note the key elements of this prayer because in it we find a framework we can follow ourselves.

First, the people acknowledged God for who He was.

Sovereign Lord, You made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Your servant, our father David.”

Here we see God elevated to His proper place of authority as the great Creator of all things. There wasn’t anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea that God hadn’t formed with His almighty hands. He made all things to include the people who were giving Him their praise and He possessed the power to help them with whatever they were going through. All they needed to do was place their hope in Him.

Second, the people acknowledged that God had designed and was executing a perfect plan.

Yes, there was a vast conspiracy that worked against Jesus, a plot that resulted in His wrongful conviction and execution, but it wasn’t as if God was just idle, standing by helplessly as the Jews and Gentiles murdered His one and only Son.

Rather, God knew well in advance how things would play out. What happened to His Son was necessary, a short term loss to achieve a longer term glorious gain. In Jeremiah 29:11, we’re reminded that God knows the plans He has for us, plans to give us hope and to help prosper our future. We see a perfect fulfillment of His promise in the life of Jesus, the Messiah God sent from heaven to earth to save all mankind. And if we maintain our faith and trust in God, no matter what life brings, we’ll see His promises come to life in our own lives as well.

Finally, we find the people asking God to keep them in His care and defend them against their adversaries. The Sanhedrin rained threats down upon Peter and John with the intent of intimidating them and shutting down any further proselytizing in Jesus’ name. But the believers knew where their strength came from. They knew God was their refuge and a very present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1) so there was no need to be afraid. They believed with all their heart that God could enable them to speak with the very boldness that Jesus did when He ministered. And they asked for God to work in and through them so they could heal, as well as perform other signs and wonders, in the name of His Son.

So how did God respond to the spirited prayer of His people?

We read where He first showed them a sign, indicating that He had heard them loud and clear. For after the people had finished praying, the scriptures tell us that their meeting place was shaken. Imagine a mini-earthquake right after a prayer meeting and you would have a decent idea of what happened but as we see, God had much more in mind than just shaking things up a little. For after their meeting place had been shaken, all the people were filled with the Holy Spirit which empowered them to speak God’s word boldly.

The people’s spirited prayer led to the Holy Spirit being imparted, a Holy Spirit that empowers and protects, a Holy Spirit who is just as much with us today as he was well over 2,000 years ago.

Friends, when adversity and difficult circumstances come knocking at the door of our life, we need to pray and follow the blueprint of the New Testament believers in the fourth chapter of Acts.

First, we need to acknowledge God for who He is, in power and authority over all things.

Second, we need to confess that God’s plan is always at work and that plan is perfect, even if it might not seem that way on the surface. We need to need to trust His promise to prosper us and grant us hope for a future.

Finally, we need to seek the Lord’s power to help us boldly speak in His name and carry out His will. We also then need to be prepared to receive the Holy Spirit to help us do just that.

In the end translation, spirited prayer results in the power of the Holy Spirit being imparted to help us carry out God’s perfect plan. We’re going to see this on full display as we continue our study of this book and follow the development of the Christian church.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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NO SILENCE

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together.

“What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”

Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to Him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.

Acts 4:13-22

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

“You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” Mark 13:9-11

These words of Jesus had to still be fresh on the minds of His two apostles as they stood before the Jewish religious leaders who were taking them to task for healing a once lame man and then preaching and teaching the Gospel in the name of Jesus inside the temple courts. Their Master fully knew what was going to happen after He was taken up into the heavens to sit at His Father’s right hand and so He sought to provide His followers guidance as to what they should do when being challenged for doing work in His name, a name that we were reminded is above all other names in yesterday’s message.

And so Peter and John did as Jesus told them to do and allowed the Holy Spirit to give them the words to say.

What was the result?

Well, as we see in today’s passage, the Jewish religious leaders were left a bit flummoxed as to how they should handle the situation. They could have left well enough alone and not seized Jesus’ two apostles but they were unable to help themselves and thought they could use the same page out of the persecution playbook that they had used on Jesus.  

Although Peter and John were uneducated and unspectacular in general, they spoke with a confidence and courage that showed their words were coming from a much higher source than themselves. Their bold and assured presence in the face of the court’s adversity left the Sanhedrin members astonished and more than a little confused as to what they should do next.

And so we find them dismiss Peter and John temporarily so they could huddle up and confer with other. The scriptures show us their obvious state of distress:

“What are we going to do with these men? Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”

Not even the members of the Sanhedrin could deny that Peter and John’s healing of the lame man was a noble act and notable sign that they possessed powers eerily similar to the Man they followed, the Man the Sanhedrin thought was gone for good. They didn’t want to punish the men for what had been done out of fear for how the thousands of people who had witnessed the act would respond. The Jewish religious leaders realized they could end up with a full-fledged riot on their hands if they didn’t exercise caution.

And so they decided to take a course of action that to them seemed more reasonable and safe. We read where they called Peter and John back in and “commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.”

Obviously, this was a non starter for Jesus two apostles because Jesus had given them this order which was in direct opposition to what the Sanhedrin was telling them to do:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

You can see where the Sanhedrin was putting the two apostles in a place where they had to choose between Jesus or them, and in a case like that, they really had only one right choice, one that they made.

For we see Peter and John challenging the order of the Jewish religious leaders by posing a question to them, a strategy Jesus would have been proud of since He used it Himself many times over during His three years of ministry. The apostles asked the Sanhedrin members:

“Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to Him?”

I love the power within this question because it put the Jewish religious authorities back in a place of discomfort. Every man who sat on the Sanhedrin council was there because of their devout belief in God, a status recognized among the people. And so Peter and John challenged the Jewish leaders to see whether their command was born out of God’s will or their own desires. There was no question where the two apostles’ loyalty resided because they made it clear that what they were doing was fully endorsed by God and to go quiet all of a sudden, unable to invoke the name of Jesus, would be akin to being disobedient to what God had called them to do.

And so Peter and John ask the members of the Sanhedrin to be the judges themselves. They had formed this special religious court and so the apostles asked them to render a decision as to what was more proper, to obey them and disobey God or to do what God required above what any mere person or group of persons commanded.

There was only one right answer and the Sanhedrin knew it. In Peter and John’s position as apostles of Jesus, they couldn’t possible keep from speaking about Jesus and sharing what they had seen and heard while with Him. There could be no silence when it came to proclaiming the name of Jesus and it would be the same for the Jewish religious leaders if the Roman leaders demanded they not speak about God publicly.   

So the Sanhedrin couldn’t do anything. The words to speak, given to the apostles by the Holy Spirit, disempowered the court which decided to let Peter and John go after a few more idle threats. No punishment was doled out because the people had given God the glory for the miraculous healing that Jesus’ apostles had performed. They were allowed to go free, at least for the moment.

Friends, this matter of trying to silence Christians who openly profess and preach in the name of Jesus is nothing has continued since the earliest days as Jesus’ hand selected followers began their apostolic ministry. The devil is always working through the hearts of wicked, sinful people to try and muzzle those who are striving to be obedient to Jesus’ commands and it happens all over the world, even in places where religious freedom is supposed to be a hallmark of democracy like in the United States. This was most evident in liberal, anti-Christian leaders trying to shut down places of worship using the COVID pandemic as a convenient cover for their evil work. Such leadership behavior obviously fails to consider how the Lord can do all things, to include protecting a gathering of His people from being infected by sickness.

So what are we to do in a cultural environment that seeks to more and more try and cancel the right of people to speak boldly and freely in the name of Jesus?

We take our cue from Peter and John, allowing the Holy Spirit to drive the words we speak, and let the world know that when it comes to Jesus, there will be no silence. Not now, not ever.   

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

THE NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.

The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:1-3, 5-12

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Through the ages, people have been known by a multitude of different names, names that serve as an identifier to know one person apart from another.

Names are important because they create an immediate reference point. Say the name “Elvis” for example in regard to music and you typically don’t need to even say his last name, Presley, because everyone knows who you’re talking about by way of the first name only. The same could apply to any other category of social interest whether we’re talking about movies or sports or politics.

We see this translate to the Bible as well. All we need to do is say Abraham or Moses or Isaiah or Paul and most people with even just a base knowledge of the scriptures would know who you’re referring to.

Yes, whether we’re talking about the Bible or the world in general, we often find names always coming to the forefront but despite the seemingly endless array of people we have to talk about, there’s only one that matters the most and that is the name of God’s one and only Son, the Savior of the world. By way of God’s perfect plan, it’s been true since the dawn of creation and it always will be. Life now and then hinges on the name of Jesus, the name above all names.

As we look at the events that directly happened after the promised Holy Spirit fell on Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem, we found the name of Jesus front and center.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Peter preaches to a crowd of people and invokes the name of Jesus, leading nearly three thousand people believe in Him as Savior.

A crippled man, resigned to be carried daily to the temple gate to beg, suddenly finds healing through placing his faith in the name of Jesus.

And as we see in today’s passage, the name of Jesus can be lifted up and presented to others even in the most challenging of times as Peter and John are taken into custody by the Jewish religious authorities.

Both of Jesus’ faithful apostles had been speaking to the people, teaching and proclaiming salvation through the name of Jesus. This disturbed the priests, Sadducees, and the captain of the temple guard who had to think they had eliminated such behavior when they crucified the apostle’s Master. Unwilling to allow any more influencing, especially since the Sadducees refused to believe that there was such a thing as resurrection from the dead, we read where they seized Peter and John and put them into jail until the next day because it was evening. Both men were wrongfully arrested and then brought to trial the following day.

Sound familiar?

The same thing happened to a man named Jesus.

Back to the scriptures because when the next day came, we read where “the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem” and just to show you how my earlier words about names and reference points are true, here we find specific people mentioned who comprised the court that questioned the two apprehended apostles. They included the high priest Annas, Caiaphas, John, Alexander and other members of the high priest’s family. They had one main inquiry in mind, asking:

“By what power or what name did you do this?”

And with that, we see Peter invoke the name above all names, the name of Jesus while fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit. Look at his words again here:

“Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

The Jewish religious authorities knew full well about the name and power of Jesus. They had been exposed to it over and over during His three years of public ministry as He miraculously healed others and spoke of the salvation people could find in Him and Him alone. And they knew Him at the end in a very personal way as they schemed to frame Him and then hand Him over to be killed by the Romans. They murdered the perfectly innocent man who was sent by God as the promised Messiah, breaking the very commandment given by the God they claimed to be so devoted to.

The Jewish religious leaders thought they had torn down the house that Jesus had built but they were now realizing that they had not destroyed anything. Now Peter, John, and the other apostles were simply building the church from the ground up on the cornerstone Jesus, the only name under heaven through which anyone can be saved.

Today, the Christian church is alive and well. It has grown and grown since those early pupil stages in Jerusalem as the apostles began to execute Jesus’ Great Commission and make new disciples. And it will continue to grow until that appointed day when Jesus returns to judge all creation.

Indeed, past and present, all that really matters in life, here and eternally, hinges on one name and one name only, the name above all names, the name of Jesus.

I pray His name is the one that matters most in your life.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com