Friday, April 6, 2018
As soon as
they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them
what the leading priests and elders had said.
When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices
together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign
Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—you spoke
long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying,
‘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 gathered together against
the Lord and against his Messiah.’
“In fact,
this has happened here in this very city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the
governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus,
your holy servant, whom you anointed. But
everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will. 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; may
miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant
Jesus.” After this prayer, the meeting
place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with
boldness. Acts 4:23-31(NLT)
The one thing that
drives this preacher about preaching is the desire to proclaim God’s holy word
in the power of God’s Holy Spirit. This
was the example of the early church. Peter
and John kept telling the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection, and how that proves
beyond doubt that he was the Messiah. The
number of believers in Jerusalem grew to over 5,000. This new move of God’s Spirit proved a thorn
in the side for the ruling Jewish elders, and they wanted to imprison Peter and
John. But they couldn’t lock them up without
starting a riot. This was business
as usual turned on its ear; the powerful Sanhedrin was stymied and
powerless before two uneducated fishermen.
They just had to let them go, and that’s not something you see every
day.
When Peter and
John got back to the church meeting they told what had happened, and a
spontaneous season of prayer broke out, with all the believers imploring Heaven
to give them boldness against the coming persecution. They knew evil doesn’t give up its’ place
without bloodshed; this was warfare on bended knee – prayers of desperation!
The church prayed
for power to do God’s bidding – they wanted a voice to use in glorifying
God. The fact that God
answered is seen in God’s Spirit giving all the believers great
boldness to proclaim His word.
That is much
different than “church” done in the 21st century. After all, when you look at the early church’s
prayer it was boldness in proclaiming the Kingdom of God for which they’d asked
– not success, wealth, or to heal Aunt Susie’s bunions. We maintain that we are God’s Gospel
Lighthouse, but more than not we are a powerless, flickering, used-up match of
cultural compromise. We hold the mantel
of proclamation of the fire of God, but the message hardly calls for the
righteousness of holiness; instead we preach the lukewarm pabulum of tolerance
and inoffensive niceness.
I believe Jesus
had something to say about that to the church at Ephesus:
“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water,
neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
Revelation 3:15-17(NLT)
For You Today
The call of God to
the people of God hasn’t changed. If you
think you’re too old to change, and allow the fire of God to light your path,
let’s listen to God speaking to old Abraham:
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him
and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’
Serve me faithfully and
live a blameless life.
Genesis 17:1(NLT)
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 
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