JUNE 11th, 2023 PASTOR DON PIEPER
What's the Spirit Up To? Acts 1:1-8a; 4:13-31
“HE EMBOLDENS US”
“What's up?” That's how my friends used to greet each other when I was in school. What's up? And the typical response? “Not much. So, what are you doing?” And the chatty answer? “Nothing.”
What if we were to ask God a similar question: “What's up with the Spirit?” The answer, we'd find, would be totally different. To get at that, we're exploring some of the Holy Spirit happenings...
Over the last couple of weeks, we saw how in the opening chapters of Acts, the Holy Spirit has been cut loose, filling Jesus' disciples. Now, in Acts 4, the religious authorities have arrested two of them who'd healed a lame man in Jesus' name, and threatened them, ordering them not to speak Jesus’ name again. But Peter and John refused to comply: “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard!” (Acts 4:19)
And so, “the council then threatened them further...!” They even threatened to punish them. Their threats were intense, increasingly hostile and intended to intimidate/frighten them. (Acts 4:21)
What follows is the disciples' response to those threats. How would you react? I know how I tend to respond. One way is to run! “Bravely fled Sir Donald, Sir Donald ran away. When fear reared its ugly head, Sir Donald turned and bravely fled....” Another way..., is to threaten back...
Moe: I'm gonna pound you at recess, Twinky.
Calvin: You'd better be nice to me, Moe.
Moe: Haw! Why?
Calvin Because someday my tax dollars will be paying for your prison cell. (*Moe clobbers C.) - POW! - My whole problem is my lips move when I think.
(There's Treasure Everywhere, p. 61)
Yeah, that usually doesn't end well. A third way I might respond is by asserting my superiority:
Moe: You're dead at recess, Twinky.
Calvin: You don't scare me, Moe. This is just your clumsy way of coping with the fact that I'm a
genius and you're still struggling with the concept of walking erect. (*) - POW! -
My brain wishes my ego had call-waiting. (The Days Are Just Packed, p. 151)
In contrast to Calvin, who's perhaps not the best model in how to respond to threats, what can we learn from Peter and John in their response to being threatened? What's the Spirit up to...?
Most of us have probably never been threatened with violence for sharing our faith, but we may well have experienced hostility, sarcasm or passive aggressive indifference at one point or another. The circumstances of the pandemic has only intensified peoples' negative reaction to Christian witnessing.
So how did Peter and John respond to the reality of such adversity & aggression? First, “as soon as they were freed, (that is, as soon as they could), Peter and John returned to the other believers.” (Acts 4:23)
They got reconnected. In a season of danger and uncertainty, Peter and John's first act, is to regroup with their friends in Christ. When one stands up/out for Christ, one can expect all manner of spiritual attack, so partners in the gospel watch each other's back. We need one another!
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The enemy is at work these days sowing seeds of doubt, division and distrust – and not just in the streets, but also in our churches. He wants to see the church divided and disconnected!
It is no small detail that Luke notes that “as soon as they (could), Peter and John returned to the other believers.” (Acts 4:23) They leaned into each other! It's like that scene towards the end of the film, Gladiator, when Maximus, rallies his colleagues together. “Stay close!” he shouts.
“Whatever comes out of those gates, we have a better chance of survival if we work together! If we stay together, we survive!” It was Jesus' vision that we not only survive, but thrive as we walk in the Spirit, protected from the enemy's arrows. The Holy Spirit calls and gathers us, Luther wrote, making of us a force to be reckoned with as we meet together, pray together and worship together!
“Stay close!” Or as the apostle Paul put it: “Stand firm together against the devil's schemes, for we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil spirits active in the world. Stay alert, then, and be persistent in your prayers for God's people.” (Ephesians 6:11-12,18)
We are under attack and we need each other. I urge you to stay connected or to reconnect. Two ways we do that is in corporate worship and through small groups. If you aren't in a small group talk to me and I'll help you join one or start one, either in person or on Zoom. Follow Peter and John's example who, “as soon as they could, they returned to the other believers!” (Acts 4:23)
Second, having shared the nature of the threat they joined together in prayer. Luke writes: “When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God...” (4:24)
Note two things there. First, Luke tells us it wasn't just Peter and John who prayed, we're told ALL the believers prayed; and second, they all lifted their voices! That is, they prayed aloud. They acknowledge the threat and then they each joined in praying aloud so that they could do so together!
The prayer that follows is one of the most amazing prayers in the New Testament, though it's only a glimpse of the heartfelt prayers they prayed that day. The prayer Luke does records for us here, however, has three key elements to it: praise, biblical perspective and petition.
They open with praise: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea and every-thing in them – you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit...!” (Acts 4:24-25a)
It's reminiscent of how Jesus taught his followers to pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name...!” (Matthew 6:9) By starting prayer with praise we're reminded who we're talking to!
When people addressed General Washington they called him, “your excellency”. In doing so, they're reminded of the power he wielded as commander in chief. They acknowledged his authority.
Starting with praise acknowledges God's authority. We're reminded of who we are talking to – the Creator of heaven and earth – who speaks and moves by the power of the Holy Spirit...!
The second element of their prayer is that they sought biblical perspective, quoting Psalm 2: “Why were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gather together against the Lord and against the Messiah.” (Psalm 2:1-2/Acts 4:25-26)
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To know what God might be saying to them now, under threat, they quote scripture relevant to their situation and heard God speaking fresh encouragement thru ancient words... To gain perspective and counter attack the enemy's deception & discouragement they unsheathe “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”, and the Spirit emboldens them. (Ephesians 6:17)
Nicky Gumbel tells of how when his father died, he worried about his father's salvation. While in prayer, God directed him to Peter's words from Acts 2: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!” (Acts 2:21) The following day his wife read the same words in Romans.... Later he saw that quote on a billboard. God's word gave him renewed confidence and boldness...!
The third element of their prayer is their petition. Listen not only for what they ask but what they don't ask: “And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power...thru the name of...Jesus!” (Acts 4:29-30)
Peter and John are under threat yet not a word is uttered in prayer asking for protection from harm, but instead, their request is that they be given boldness and for people to be healed, knowing that when people are healed their hearts are softened to the gospel! It's one of the most amazing prayers recorded in the whole of scripture! And God responds big time!
Luke reports that “the building where they’re meeting shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they preached God’s message with boldness.” (Acts 4:31) And later, “crowds came in from the villages, bringing the sick and those afflicted by evil spirits, and they were all healed.” (Acts 5:16)
Prayer is powerful and it builds faith. Trusting in God to respond, to heal, to deliver from evil, to empower with a boldness of the Spirit rocks our world in the best way possible! It reveals the flimsiness of trusting in human means and the boldness of trusting our powerful, loving God!
The answer to their prayer also reveals the third thing Peter and John and their friends did in response to being threatened – they got busy doing what Jesus commissioned them to do – sharing the good news in a spirit of love and boldness. I like how the notes in my study Bible define boldness...
“To gain boldness you can (1) pray to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, (2) ask & look for opportunities in your family and neighborhood to talk about Jesus and your faith in him, (3) realize that rejection, social discomfort and embarrassment are not necessarily persecution...” That's timely! (NLT Study Bible)
We overcome fear of being rejected or ridiculed by being renewed in worship. “Don't worry about such threats. Instead, worship Christ as Lord of your life, and if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it, but do this in a gentle and respectful way.”) (1 Peter 3:14-15)
What if we prayed as Peter and John's friends did – not for the absence of an adverse reaction but for us to learn a gentle, respectful approach and to be given boldness in our witness?
What is the Spirit up to? If we ask him, he'll remove our reluctance and give us resilience and boldness to engage and encounter those who are not yet following Jesus. So, shall we ask?