Daily Archives: March 19, 2019

THE BOOK OF ACTS – FEARLESS CONFIDENCE

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FEARLESS CONFIDENCE

“A wonderful harmony in prayer: ‘Strong God, you made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. By the Holy Spirit you spoke through the mouth of your servant and our father, David.

“Why the big noise, nations?

Why the mean plots, people?

Earth’s leaders push for position,

Potentates meet for summit talks,

The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers!”

For in fact, they did meet — Herod and Pontius Pilate with nations and peoples, even Israel itself — met in this very city to plot against your holy servant Jesus, the one you made Messiah, to carry out the plans you long ago set in motion.

“And now they’re at it again! Take care of their threats and give your servants fearless confidence in preaching you Message as you stretch out your hand to us in healings and miracles and wonders done in the name of your holy servant Jesus.'” Acts 4:24b-30 (The Message).

What a prayer! It doesn’t sound quite like the sort of prayer God’s people would pray today, does it? We would pray something like this: “O God, we are under attack! The devil is attacking us. We bind you, Satan, in the name of Jesus. We take authority over you. You have no power over us so take your hands off us. O God, please get us out of this, in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Prayer is a window into our hearts. When people pray together, they get to know one another pretty well. Compare our kind of praying with the prayer of those early disciples. We pray out of despair. Our focus is more often on the problem than it is on God. We rehearse the problem and beg God to intervene to get us out of it.

Remember Joshua at Ai? He was whining at God because Israel had been defeated and some of their men killed. He thought it was God’s fault for not supporting them. What was God’s response? “Stop praying! Get up! Israel has sinned.”

There is something reciprocal about our prayers and God’s responses. Israel’s defeat was the result of Achan’s disobedience, and prayer was not the solution. The value of Joshua’s prayer lay in God’s response — stop praying and do something about the sin in the camp. Perhaps we need to heed the lesson when we are praying about situations in our own countries.

The believers in this incident got it right. They did not interpret persecution as Satan’s work against them. They viewed it as God’s opportunity to get more glory for Himself by showing His power against the backdrop of puny human opposition. The psalm they quoted contrasted the worst that human power can do with God’s response to the rebellion of men and nations. “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill…” Psalm 2:6 (NIV).

Their plea was not, “God, get them off our backs,” but “God, let’s do it even more.” What a spirit! They were less concerned about their own comfort and safety than they were about getting the job done. They knew that God was supporting them as they supported Him in His intention to make His Son known.

We in the western world need to recapture the attitude of those first followers of Jesus who were so captivated by Him that they disregarded themselves in their partnership with God to establish His rule on earth. They knew that God would take care of their business if they took care of His.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – WHO IS IN CHARGE?

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WHO IS IN CHARGE?

“The religious leaders renewed their threats, but then released them. They couldn’t come up with a charge that would stick, that would keep them in jail. The people wouldn’t have stood for it — they were all praising God over what had happened. The man who had been miraculously healed was over forty years old.

“As soon as Peter and John were let go, they went to their friends and told them what the high priests and religious leaders had said. Hearing the report, they lifted their voices in a wonderful harmony in prayer:” Acts 4:21-24a (The Message)

This was the acid test for the apostles. How would they respond to this new development? They were enjoying the favour of all the citizens of Jerusalem, believers and unbelievers alike. Now the Sanhedrin was taking them on, just as it had taken on their Master.

As followers of Jesus, they had watched and listened to His response to the irrational rage of the Jewish religious hierarchy. Even when they arrested, tortured and killed Him, He neither resisted nor bad-mouthed them. He was representative of another kingdom which overrode the worldly kingdom they represented.

Peter and John politely listened to the ranting of the religious rulers but made it clear that they had no intention of obeying them. They had a higher authority to which they were accountable and He was backing their obedience by replicating through them what He had done through Jesus.

There was a strong bond between the believers that was not only a unity of faith but also a bond strengthened by sharing their resources and doing life together. When they were in trouble, they had one another’s support in love and prayer. Peter and John went straight back to their ‘family’ to report what had happened and, no doubt, to discuss their response.

Their first recourse was to God. This is a reflection not only of how well they had learned their lessons from following Jesus but also how powerfully the Holy Spirit was leading and transforming them. The old Peter would have reacted as he did in the garden when the soldiers grabbed Jesus. He lashed out with his sword and slashed off Malchus’ ear. That was his natural human instinct, but not any more. The old Peter had been replaced by a new model, an imitator of Jesus.

They had learned from their Master that the kingdom of God, not their earthly circumstances, was central in their lives. Whatever was happening to them was serving God’s purposes in bringing “up there down here”. That’s how Jesus viewed life. He was never fazed by the imperfections He encountered. They always served a higher purpose — an opportunity for God to put His glory on display.

As leaders of the infant church, it was their opportunity to show their people how to deal with those who stood against them. Retaliate? No! Avenge? No! Resist? No! Stand? Yes. They had their mandate from Jesus. They were to be His witnesses to the world. As they stood firm in their commitment to obey Him, every obstacle would give way through His power in them.

That is the essence of ‘spiritual warfare’ — obedience to the Master in the confidence that His kingdom overrides the kingdom of darkness which will have to give way because Jesus is Lord.