“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 NIV
This was war… on three fronts!
There was a war within, the flesh warring against the spirit and the spirit warring against the flesh.
“For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”
Galatians 5:17 NIV
These newly baptised in-the-Holy-Spirit believers had to learn to overcome responses to threats that aroused fleshly reactions against unjust treatment.
There was the war against the world. The world…the culture, the practices, the structures and standards…were in-the-face enemies that lured, even tried to coerce God’s people into co-operation and compromise with the world and its ways.
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”
1 John 2:15-17 NIV
Then there was the war against God’s arch enemy and his minions. This was a battle for truth.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Ephesians 6:12 NIV
All hell was ranged against them to cut loose from the truth. Truth was their fortress, their shelter, and their infallible weapon. The enemy’s weapon, used with effect from the beginning, is deception…lies…subtle, disguised, and leading to delusion. Their victory lay in their determined adherence to truth…revealed in God’s Word and centred in Jesus.
For the leaders in the early church, the opposition was tough, relentless…determined to crush them. Their enemies could not dislodge them from their conviction that Jesus was alive and with them. Their recourse was to destroy them, silence them by whatever means they had. They tried intimidation, warning, leaning on their authority to muzzle them.
“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.”
Acts 4:17-18 NIV
Peter and John did not fall for their threats. They stood squarely on truth.
“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.”
Acts 4:19-20 NIV
The battle lines were drawn.
The believers in the infant church needed all the divine help they could get. Peter and John, after their first skirmish with hostile authorities, returned to their backup because they were all in this together…and, together, they reported to “headquarters”. They prayed!
How different from many of the prayers today! Bold! Aggressive! Bunker-busting!
First, they established their authority…
“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.’”
Then they made their request…not to save them from the struggle. They were not cowards or deserters…opting out of the battle when the fighting was fierce. They were bold, courageous, and committed to victory whatever the cost. They needed strength, perseverance, and the courage to stand, protected by the armour of God.
“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.”
Their prayer, in simple language, was…”God, we don’t care what they do to us. We are here for you. Support us. Strengthen us. Show them the power of Jesus, that Jesus is Lord, through us.”
They were not interested in doing a deal with the enemy…for the sake of peace. They wanted heaven’s reinforcements, heaven’s intervention…to blow the enemy’s defences apart from within…the bunker-busting, eternal, declared and proven truth that Jesus is the Son of God and Lord.
…And God shook the place to let them know that He had heard…and approved the request…
To be continued.